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Mars Lander's Robot Arm Shuts Down To Save Itself

Posted by kdawson on from the doctor-it-hurts-when-i-do-dat dept.

Cowards Anonymous passes along a PCWorld article that begins, "The robotic arm on the Mars Lander found itself in a tough position over the weekend. After receiving instructions for a movement that would have damaged its wrist, the robotic arm recognized the problem, tried to rectify it and then shut down before it could damage itself, according to Ray Arvidson, a co-investigator for the Mars Lander's robotic arm team and a professor at Washington University in St. Louis."

2 of 214 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Shut down before it could damage itself? by Red+Jesus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Wait, does this mean that the Mars Lander was programmed to comply with the Three Laws?

    No. The second law translates to "Follow orders." The third law is "Don't get hurt (unless it conflicts with the second law)." If the lander had followed Asimov's laws, it would have followed the order and hurt its wrist.

  2. Re:Does anyone else think... by Jellybob · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This sort of thing can be done autonomously in all the Japanese car factories that I know. And much faster.

    The difference between the Mars lander and a car building robot is one of function.

    The car building robot is programmed to do one task. It spends all day, every day, welding specific spots, on a car which is in a specific location.

    The Mars landers have to content with an unknown environment, where they could be asked to do a wide variety of things, with any number of possible consequences.