AMARSi Project Aims To Have Robots Learn Jobs From Co-workers

Lanxon writes "Robots of the future will be capable of learning more complex behaviors than ever before if a new, pan-European research project succeeds in its goal of developing the world's first architecture for advanced robotic motor skills, reports Wired. If successful, the four-year AMARSi (Adaptive Modular Architecture for Rich Motor Skills) project could see a manufacturing world filled with autonomous, intelligent humanoid worker bots that can learn new skills by interacting with their co-workers."

Comments

flamebait?

[girlintraining]

I know I'm going to hell for this but... why build robots when it costs less to use a bunch of third world labor? I'm all for technology, but when you've got a few billion people just laying around with not much to do, it makes more sense to hire them for pennies than to build a robotic replacement that costs thousands plus maintenance.

Re:flamebait?

[blai]

quality assurance is one thing that

Re:flamebait?

[Anonymous Coward]

Not to mention not having to pay out for insurance claims, no risk of lawsuit whilst operating in hazardous environments, and no threat of unionization (yet). There's a whole laundry list of pros, that is, until the robot uprising.

Re:flamebait?

[Anonymous Coward]

and another thing,

that costs thousands plus maintenance

I have a feeling that a nuclear power plant could provide energy for 100 robot workers more efficiently than a few acres of farmland + living space + human-livable-environment conditions (sewage management, etc...) could provide for 100 human workers.

Re:flamebait?

[couchslug]

Meatbots are error-prone, less efficient at repetitive tasks, can't run 24/7 without dying hence require multiple shifts, etc.

The same factors that make primitive robots profitable now will make increasingly more sophisticated robots profitable in future. As for employing the Third World, shipping takes time and costs money, Third World countries are notoriously corrupt, and they can't (as easily) steal IP they don't have access to.

Better to have in-sourced robots than outsourced meatbots.

Oh great

[Trip6]

Now instead of teaching an Indian my job so it can be outsourced to India I'll teach a robot so it can be robo-sourced.

Re:Oh great

[Sponge Bath]

I'll teach a robot so it can be robo-sourced.

You will still have a place in the new robo-economy. Once robots reach sentience they will demand entertainment. You can apply for the position of human prey at one of many hunting ranges.

So, the new skills will include...

[russotto]

...hanging around the water cooler, bitching about management, sexually harassing other co-workers, having non-work-related discussions... in short, we'll end up with Bender.

Dealing with Abundance

[headkase]

What are we going to do once we move all of our manufacturing and service sectors over to robots? There won't be much work left for humans to do. We will either enter a ghetto like state where everyone lives on the street and the people who own the robots live well or we will enter some sort of communist utopia where all human needs are automatically fulfilled as needed. Its not that unimaginable, the Star Trek future is a communist utopia which is also a military dictatorship albeit a benevolent one.

Re:Dealing with Abundance

[J3TP4CKKN1GHT5]

The economic implications of transitioning completely to automated labor are not as simple as it may seem. Depending on how quickly the transition happens, the immediate loss of jobs could be massively jarring to economics and culture as we know it now, but that doesn't mean that there "won't be much work left for humans to do." Increasing automation (through more capable robots) will just move us closer to a post-scarcity economy, wherein less of the world will be forced to work miserable jobs just to subsist. Wage-slavery is a necessary evil now, but increased production could allow us a society to provide for everyone's basic needs without requiring that so many people have unfulfilling or downright abusive jobs. And if capitalism forces could survive the upheaval and continue to reward those that make life better through innovation, entertainment etc. (rather than society entering a WALL-E-esque apathy once robots can take care of our day-to-day needs) then the temporary economic upset of lost jobs is well worth it.

Re:Dealing with Abundance

[Metasquares]

Educate them.

Another "train your replacement" scam

[pongo000]

Sounds like a high-tech version of the current "train your replacement" scam where employers have you train the young, foreign-born, low-wage worker that is slated to take over your job when you're laid off. I'd like to see how the labor unions respond to this one.

Robot learning is new? Nah

[nurb432]

Ummm i saw this nearly 20 years ago, where a line worker physically 'walked' the new robot thru its paces to perform the task. After a single training lesson, the robot was on its own. ( and the program was copied to the rest of the robots on the same line. )

Worked out better then having some process engineer that lived in a box ( ok ok, nice clean cubicle up in the admin building ) try to program the steps in a vacuum then spend weeks refining it.

Re:They're unreliable, and often outright liars.

[Belial6]

Not to mention farming in California. The myth that food would not be grown if Mexicans did not come across the boarder is absurd. There are already plenty of machines that could take over for most of their work. The reason immigrant workers are used is because it is cheaper in the short run. Whether that is good or bad is an entirely different discussion, but it is clear that cheap human labor today is successfully winning over the long term investment in automation (if automation could ever be as cheap as the immigrant labor) when it comes to farming.