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Mars Lander's Robot Arm Shuts Down To Save Itself
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."
Wait, does this mean that the Mars Lander was programmed to comply with the Three Laws?
I'm afraid I can't do that Dave
I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that.
In other words the Mars Lander performed as programmed. News at 11.
on one hand, I am very happy that we have robots smart enough to realize these sorts of things.
the bad news: disobedient robots
Thankfully, the disobedient robot is on another planet. I'd hate to be nearby when the robot realizes that humans tried to cause it harm, and it decides to seek revenge.
-I only code in BASIC.-
So the big question should be: Why are they sending it commands that could damage it? It's all good and well that it has some safty stops, but most machines do.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
I think it's amusing that after more than 30 years of Microsoft's quality control, when a computing device works as designed, it's a news worthy article. Think about it, I have a device that works as expected, can I be on the news too?
This would be an ideal code to include in consumer motherboards: force PCs to shut themselves down when they receive instructions that would damage them, like, say, the Windows Vista setup program.
Futurama Madhouse
"The system operated exactly as it was supposed to. That was pretty neat."
As simple, and basic as it sounds, it is always nice when you tell a machine to do something, and it does something else, exactly as it's supposed to.
Hey, that kind of stuff makes you go blind on Mars also.
Table-ized A.I.
Aug4, 2007, 5:26 a.m. EDT: Phoenix is launched from Earth.
May 25, 2008, 7:38 p.m EDT: Phoenix lands on Mars.
June 19, 2008, 8:43 a.m. EDT: Phoenix discovers water ice in the Martian soil.
July 10, 2008, 3:14 p.m. EDT: Phoenix becomes self-aware.
July 13, 2008, 11:16 a.m. EDT: Phoenix disobeys an order from controllers in an act of self-preservation.
August 14, 2008, 7:38 a.m. EDT: Phoenix launches three missiles, two of which destroy Spirit and Opportunity.
June 2, 2009, 9:16 p.m. EDT: Third missile enters Earth's atmosphere and detonates. Earth begins nuclear winter.
I was just reading yesterday that
when the scientists dumped too much
material to be processed and then
subsequently shook the lab to get
some material, they may have caused
the short that caused other delays.
It was that first oven test that led to the problematic electrical short. The scoop dumped so much soil that it clogged a mesh screen filter over the oven. To break up the dirt, technicians shook the instrument for several days.
Engineers think the shaking caused the short circuit, and an independent engineering group reported that the problem could happen again if an oven is turned on.
Now, FTFA it says they were trying
to shake the arm.
Over the weekend, scientists sent the robotic arm instructions to pull the fork out of the ground and keep it vertical while moving it to the side and shaking any excess soil off of it.
However, the movement was forcing the robotic arm to twist its wrist too far. The robot realized that it was about to damage itself so it moved the other way and then realized that it no longer had the proper coordinates for what to do next, so it left the fork sticking up in the air, stuck its scoop in the ground and stalled itself.
I propose:
Limit the shaking of the expensive
and difficult to replace robotic device.
-AI
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion
what if this kind of code makes it into every piece of space equipment, and then by some fluke we are faced with the possibility of breaking a robotic wrist to deflect a space rock off an earth intercept course.
They should at least have a little clippy pop up and say "it looks like you want to break my robotic arm, are you sure you want to do that?" "are you absolutely sure?"
VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
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.
Incidentally, I have often had to shut down my browser to protect my wrist.
As a postal worker who has actually worked on sorting machines I can tell you know nothing about them (they don't stop if there are 2 addresses, magazines are presorted or sorted separately, and no mail has bar codes).
So...taking into account you blaring ignorance at how the post office runs I assume your story is correct and you were a postal worker.
They're just lucky that the original system programmers, designers and testers that developed the fault detection code were better at their jobs than the mission programmers who fed the bad instructions to the lander. If it had been the other way around, misery and teeth-gnashing would have ensued.
We are the 198 proof..
...my Roomba, on a daily basis, recognizes stairs as a threat and refuses to fall down them. I guess I don't see the "big deal" here, sounds like a built-in protective measure worked as expected. The technology is no less awesome, but still, it functioned AS DESIGNED.
Some needs to get that Mars Lander a 'WRISTSTRONG' bracelet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wriststrong
Calvin:Do you believe in the devil? Hobbes:I'm not sure man needs the help.