Subject:
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Robot Articles from Today's LangaList
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics
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Date:
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Thu, 27 Jul 2000 12:16:43 GMT
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Original-From:
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Wilcox, Doug <doug.wilcox@mediAVOIDSPAMvation.com>
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Viewed:
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1030 times
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Thought you might be interested in this item and links from today's
LangaList.
Doug Wilcox
Senior Web Developer
MediVation, Inc.
160 Gould Street, Suite 130
Needham, MA 02494-2308
Phone: 781.453.2900 x 237
Fax: 781.455.7990
e-mail: dwilcox@medivation.com
http://www.medivation.com
"You see, I had this space suit. How it happened was like this ..."
(Opening lines from Robert A. Heinlein's _Have Space Suit--Will Travel_)
*******************
I, Robot (Not!)
You may not know it, but robots are already among us--- and I'm not
referring to any particular US presidential candidates, either. <g>
On the mundane side, for example, there are dedicated industrial robots---
welders, spray painters, parts transporters, chip-inserters and the like.
But that kind of robot isn't at all personal, and they have essentially
zero intelligence: They're meant to perform a set task in exactly the same
way again and again. Any tiny change in the environment or operating
conditions (say, a part out of place) and the robot almost surely will
fail.
And sometimes dangerously: The first-ever human death at the "hands" of a
robot was caused by an automotive welding robot that pivoted unexpectedly
and pinned a hapless autoworker against what was supposed to be a safety
barrier. That's a far cry from what fiction predicted would be happening
around now--- such as a psychotic HAL 9000 using an EVA pod fatally to ram
an astronaut in cis-Jovian space--- but it more accurately reflects the
true and not-very-advanced state of the art in commercial, off-the-shelf
robotics.
But in R&D labs, it's a different story. Take, for example, an offshoot of
the MIT AI Labs: "The Ants" project. This is a community of self-mobile,
sensor-equipped microrobots, each about a cubic inch, or about 16 cubic
centimeters, in size; they roll around on tiny tractor treads! The robo-
ants can communicate among themselves and collectively even exhibit a kind
of social behavior. Eventually, a swarm of robo-ants could be released to
clean up a biohazardous spill, eliminate unexploded ordinance, or explore
hostile terrain---on earth, or even on Mars. (
http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/ants/ )
This and many, many more for-real robotic surprises are detailed in my
current column at Byte.Com. Click on over to http://www.byte.com or the
"Monitor" column's front door at http://www.byte.com/index/monitor . Check
it out today!
************************
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