Robot Revolution

Intro to Robotics

We have come a long way since “Shakey”

Robots will soon be a regular part of our society

ROBOLUTIONIn the last few decades, robot research and development has peeled off in a number of different directions. The goal, however, is the same:

“To create autonomous artificial life forms that can perform useful work”

BUT, the paths to getting to this point are a diverse as the eccentric cast of characters forging them.

So let’s look at:•The evolutionary paths to the future•The Heroes of this Robolution

Path # 1 : Humanoid RobotsWe have always been

fascinated by robots crafted in our own image. This path is a challenge due to the walking technology that is needed. Overall, the goal is to create an autonomous walking robot that can perform tasks such as care for the elderly

Hero #1: Masato HiroseMasato is the chief engineer for

Honda’s Humanoid Project and the inventor of ASIMO.

ASIMO is the most technical humanoid to date. The idea behind humanoid robotics is the “bottom up” technique where you focus on the getting the legs/balance to work first then build on top of that.

ASIMO

Hero #2: Hirochika Inoue “The Old man of Japanese Robotics”Hirochika is the director of the Japanese

Humanoid Initiative. He specializes in robotic vision and learning by seeing. He believes that the “Humanoid” path is the way to go because environments are already designed for human manipulation. Inoue calls this idea “softness”, the ability for robots to fit in without big changes to the environment

Path #2: Robotic PresenceThe idea behind ROBOT

presence is to have a robot in a place where YOU cannot be. An example of this would be iRobot-LE

From iRobot Corporation comes the first multi-purpose domestic robot that can be controlled through a web browser from anywhere in the world. This revolutionary product, called the iRobot-LE, gives its owners on-demand remote eyes and ears into their homes. With this roving telepresence capability, owners can drive around their home making sure it is secure, say goodnight to kids when away on business, check up on pets, and visit with elderly or house-bound relatives and friends.

Path #2: Robotic PresenceiRobot-LE never made it into the commercial

market, however, 2 products from iRobot Corp. did. The first is ConnectR and the second is the Roomba.

Hero #3: Rodney BrooksFounder of the iRobot Corporation

and leader in robotic swarm theory. The idea is that it is better to have many small bots learning and sharing to achieve a series of successes. The successes are then compiled layer by layer to build a growing humanoid type robot that can respond and interact with humans. His current project is called the COG Project.

His approach is still work from the “bottom up” but NOT in the same sense as the humanoid path. Work with the learning from bottom up to focus on the TOP down which is interaction with human based on facial recognition.

Pacman + Roomba

Path #3- BiomimicryThis path is painfully obvious.

Painful in that you must “reverse engineer” natural design intelligence into human made devices and systems. Humans, however, have been doing this for years. Airplanes were inspired by birds and the telephone by the workings of the human ear. So researchers now study how the brain and the body evolve so that they can build a machine that will learn over time

Hero #4 – Hans MoravecHans works with Carnegie

Mellon University and believes our technology will replace biological evolution. His theory, the robotic bush, is a fractal robot tree, with molecule size end effectors that can take the shape of any shape required to perform a task.

Hero #5 – Marvin Minsky “The Grandpappy of AI”Founder of MIT’s AI lab. Helped

Stanely Kubrik Create HAL9000 AI for the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. He believes intelligence comes from the “society of the mind” – small network of biological thought agents. These agents concern themselves with such things as gathering food, reproduction, security. The goal is to combine these agents into one robotic intelligence.

HAL 9000 – 2001: A Space Odyssey

Path #4: Behavior Based Robotics(BBR)Up until this point most robots

followed a scheme of Sense-Plan-Act. Shakey was a perfect example of this. Remember the LONG time for planning? BBR is a more direct approach in that the robots just SENSE then ACT. Insects were used as inspiration. Ants, for example, immediately begin to rebuild the ant mound when destroyed.

BBR = Subsumption ArchitectureSubsumption Architecture is

an idea where smaller individual software agents called AFSM’s (augmented finite-state machines) control the functions of the robot. AFSMs talk with other AFSMs are networked together and form layers where some layers rank higher than others.

BBR Recipe•Do simple things first•Learn to do the flawlessly•Add new layers over the results of simple tasks•Don’t change the simple things•Make new layers work flawlessly as the previous ones•Repeat.

Hero #6 – Cynthia BreazealResearcher at MIT and

creator of KISMET. KISMET is BBR at its finest where AFSMs define the movements and as the robot learns higher layers translate actions that interact with human emotions.

KISMET

Path # 5 – B.E.A.M.

B.E.A.M. stands for Biological Electronic Aesthetics Mechanics. It is the brain child of Mark Tilden who tries to build robots with minimal use of computer control. The Beam Philosophy is a follows:

Use minimal materials Make is aesthetically pleasing Compete against other robots Be safe for the environment Use Techno - Junk

Hero #7 – Mark Tilden “Big God of B.E.A.M.”Founder of

Beam and HASBRO robotic toys.

Tilden uses analog circuits, autonomous modes, and solar power.

Path #6 – Robot Sports

Tilden’s love for competition sparked a whole new branch where robots compete for glory. Most of these robots are R/C controlled by users who are more interested in MATERIALS than sensors. Battlebots, Robot Wars, and Robot Sumo has evolved from this path.

Hero #8 – Mark Thorpe “Father of Robot Combat”Special effects guru for

LucasFilms and creator of the show, “Robot Wars”. Helped bring robotics into the commercial sector.

Path #7 – Robot performance artThis path is similar to robot sports with the

exception that the robots are created with an artistic focus.

Hero #9 – Mark Pauline – The Godfather of Robot Combat”

Founder of SRI ( Survival Research Labs) and extreme robot sports. Focuses attention on robot on robot violence.

Created bizarre underground events where robots performed in a cross between a demolition derby, battlefield, and three ring circus.

Robot Wars Battle