Moved to Slant Robotics

Hey Everyone,

Thanks for stopping by. I have joined a project at Slant Robotics. I won't have time to work on this blog anymore, but similar content will be posted on the Slant Robotics blog.

See you there. And be sure to check out Jerry.

Gabe

Jerry: The robot being built at Slant Robotics

Introduction to Robots: Telepresence

So what makes a robot has been established. But certain variations exist which may not be perfectly clear. I'm going to speak about many of them in this book so I think I should define them.

Telepresence

Telepresence robots are basically mobile platforms. Someone in Hong Kong can take control of a telepresence robot in LA and use it to interact in a more physical manner than simply video conferencing.

Telepresence allows for a physical presence in a location that allows movement and interaction with the physical world. Normally these robots are essentially an iPad on wheels, but they are growing to be complete body replacements.

But, if a human is controlling the robot how can it be a robot. To answer that with a question, consider this. When a robot is given a verbal command is it still robot? Of course it is. Nearly all telepresence systems are usable because the human controlling them does not have to manage every little detail. A human can tell the robot to move forward, but the robot will detect and avoid obstacles along the way. It is much more a situation where the robot carries the human and the human just directs it. Much like riding a horse. You can command the horse to move forward but it will not walk off a cliff.

While telepresence is generally based on commands there is a form where a human uses telepresence to "jack into" a robot body. In this case the human will where a motion capture suit that tracks every movement the person makes and sends that to the robot. In addition to the motion capture the human may utilize virtual reality devices like the Oculus Rift to see what the robot sees as if they are there.

In this situation the human controls almost every little detail of the robots actions. It is not a rider-horse relationship. It is a man-inside a machine. This is technically not a robot.

Now I am going to break a rule. I have said that this book is about how robotics will affect the world and just spent a great deal of time explaining what a robot is. But, I am going to discuss the immersive telepresence, even though it may not be true robotics.

Here is the reason to discuss immersive telepresence. Humans are relying on machines more and more. There may come a time where we literally upload ourselves to those devices. But those devices must have the mechanical and software capability to accept such uploads. I am going to consider a machine with a human mind at it center to be a robot also. Not to become too philosophical but there is little difference between how an artificially intelligent machine is supposed to act as compared to a human intelligent machine.

As a side note, immersive telepresence will be a hugely vital robotics technology for the military and labor jobs in the future as well. And since telepresence is really a robotics sub-category machines within it are going to be discussed in this book.

Introduction: What is a Robot

So what can be considered a real robot? Clearly it can't be a mechanism that simple repeats a task over and over again without knowing what it is doing. If that was what a robot is then a can opener is robot.

A robot must have some kind of intelligence. Intelligence is very broad and controversial term so I'll reduce that a little.

It is generally accepted that a machine is a robot when it is able to sense its environment, make a decision based on what it senses, and then take physical action within the environment. Basically, monkey see, monkey like, monkey do.

But this is really very broad and non specific. That definition creates all kinds of gray areas. A human does the same thing but then so does your thermostat. A thermostat senses the temperature, decides if it is too cold, and then turns on a fan to warm it up. Is the thermostat a robot?

In our modern world of "smart" devices robotics is literally everywhere already. Yes, your thermostat is a robot. A simple robot, but a robot none the less. The thermostat is in fact smarter than the Unimate. And when I say "thermostat" I don't mean something like the Nest, I mean the old mercury switch thermostat you had in grade school.

So how could a device that is literally a switch be smarter than a hydraulic behemoth with a computer on board. The difference is this. The thermostat can react to changing conditions Unimate could not.

Unimate had on-board encoders and sensors that told the robot were it's arm was. But it had no idea where the world was. It did not know if a car was in front of it to weld on, or if it just punched a guy. Like the historical automatons it would just keep writing whether there was paper or not.

The thermostat does have a connection with the environment and can change its actions based on those changing conditions. A dumb thermostat, which would not be a robot, would be one on a timer. A thermostat that would turn on the AC even though it is 45 degrees in the house because the timer went off.

Now hopefully it is clear what really makes a robot or even an AI. It is based on the machine's adaptability to its environment. It has to first be able to sense the world around it and then make a decision, and act on it.

Introduction to Robots: Unimate

Up until the twentieth century most robots were simply moving wax figures. Wheels and gears within the machines made them move and perform complex operations but they were just a wind-up doll which were not useful for practical applications.

The first truly useful robot was the Unimate. This robotic arm was designed in the 1950's by George Devol. It was implemented in GM auto assembly plants to act as a welder in 1961.

While Unimate is what many consider to be a modern robot, it had electronic memory, it was articulated, it had sensor feedback, it was still basically a clockwork mechanism. What made it different from any previous clockwork machines was that it could be programmed. The clockwork could be changed by simply by loading some new 0's and 1's. This is what made the Unimate valuable because instead of having to retool an entire factory for a new product the robots just had to be reprogrammed. Retrain the robot as one would retrain people.

But within the context of this book, Unimate, really isn't full robot. It couldn't make decisions it simply executed actions. The fuel injection system in your car is equally intelligent.

Introduction to Robots: History and Literature

Robots are actually a very old idea. The name comes from the Czech word "robota" which refers
to drudgery or servitude. The word "robot" was first used in the play Rossum's Universal Robots (R.U.R.). In the play the robots eventually rebelled against their human masters.

Another book known to influence the field of robotics and Artificial intelligence is Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. In this book Frankenstein's creation turns against him and leads to great devastation within the Frankenstein family. It is an insight into the creation of intelligences outside of natural means.

Leaving the literary introduction automata of some kind have existed for hundreds of years. Leonardo Da Vinci even worked on robots. He created automatons for entertainment, he even pursued the idea of a robotic knight. Though not until the last century have any real robots been created. Prior to this every machine was simply a highly complex clockwork. These machines could not perceive anything (though it is argued that they still do not). And their actions, though as complex as writing a sentence, were hardwired and could not be changed. These machines could write a sentence but they couldn't tell whether there was any paper. Surprisingly we will see that this is not far off from what robots do today.

This is a Book

Hey Everyone,

I gave you a basic introduction to Imagine Robots a few days ago but I left something out. This is a book not a blog. As I write these posts they will be edited and eventually compiled into a full manuscript. I would truly appreciate any help or comments you may have about any topic that I discuss on this blog draft of the book.

Thanks, 

Gabe Bentz

Imagine Robots

Whenever robotics is discussed, it is done with an air of hesitation. This hesitation is spawned from the universal fears that everyone feels when they talk about robots or AI. The primary of these are a robot uprising and losing one’s job to a robot.

The world is at a point where robotics and AI are just about to “get over the hump” technologically where they can begin to replace humans in some aspects of life and have the capability to fulfil those fears. But what many people do not understand or focus on, are the indescribable good changes that these machines will have on our society, planet, solar system, and future. The applications for this technology is so limitless that it is mind boggling.

Many writers and authorities have tried to portray robots from the perspective of jobs, or their menacing capabilities. But few to none have discussed the potential good these capabilities can offer as robots develop. That is the purpose of this book.