The potential of robots for humankind
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I
have been interested in robots and robotics since I was very young. The term robot is attributed to the author Karel Čapek through his play R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots), which includes a factory that makes artificial people called roboti (robots) from synthetic organic matter.1 Most of us think of robots as mechanical contraptions, but the robots in R.U.R. were artificial humanoids grown from a process that produced living, thinking beings. My interest in robots was stimulated sometime in the 1960s by reading the novel I, Robot by Isaac Asimov.2 Since then, our imaginations have been sparked by other robots, including Gort, the menacing protector in The Day the Earth Stood Still;3 the robot in the television series and movie Lost in Space (“Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!”);4 HAL in 2001, A Space Odyssey;5 the freakishly violent and malevolent robot Hector in the movie Saturn 3;6 R2-D2 and C-3PO from Star Wars;7,8 and the android Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation, and his brothers.9 Some of the robots have been humaniform (e.g., Gort, Hector, C-3PO, and Data) and others have not (e.g., HAL and R2-D2). I also remember as a teenager reading the comic books about Magnus, Robot Fighter, a human trained by a robot to battle rogue robots in the year 4000.10 The robotics imagined by Isaac Asimov followed (for the most part) four laws of robotics that he formulated: “(0) A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm. (1) A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. (2) A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. (3) A robot must protect its own existence, as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.” The latter three laws were established in a short story published in 1942, while the zeroth law was added later.11 Although those laws were far from logically consistent, they provided a basis for limiting people’s fears of robots, particularly sentient robots. My interest in robotics was peaked again recently while reading a short article in American Way (the in-flight magazine of American Airlines) that discussed recent applications of robots in hotels.12 The article discussed Ausca used at M Social
in Singapore; Botlr used at Aloft in Cupertino, Calif.; Tug used at the Sheraton, Los Angeles; and Pepper used at the Mandarin Oriental in Las Vegas. Botir and Tug are used for delivery services. Ausca prepares food, specializing in egg dishes. Pepper works in the lobby, greets guests, and gives directions. Of these, Pepper is roughly humaniform, while the others are not. Advances in robots and robotics have required significant developments in many areas of materials science. They have been facilitated by advancements in microelectronics; optoelectronics; microwave and millimeter-wave devices; structural materials, including compliant (i.e., flexible) materials (for soft robotics);13 haptics (the perception of or sense of touch14);
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