Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!srhqla!quad1!ttidca!hollombe From: hollombe@ttidca.TTI.COM (The Polymath) Newsgroups: comp.robotics Subject: Re: Robots in our Future? Message-ID: <19496@ttidca.TTI.COM> Date: 29 Aug 90 19:33:57 GMT References: Organization: The Cat Factory Lines: 41 In article pkenny@ADS.COM (Patrick Kenny) writes: }Where do you see the next breakthrough in robotics coming from }and how will the acceptance of robots affect our culture. The technology is advancing so fast it's hard to decide what's a breakthrough. Six degree of freedom arms are now common. A year ago they were like hen's teeth and outrageously expensive if you could find one. Force sensing is now commonplace. Machine vision and pattern recognition have made enormous strides and some truly amazing technology is available off the shelf. That's the place I'd look for major advances. }Since robots could well be 'better' than people, will we ever }live in peace with them, will we give them rights, and will we let }them control or rule over us. Will they someday be the world police }force designed to keep us in order and at peace. Anything on this order is so far in the future it's really outside the scope of this group. (The charter calls for discussion of real world robots and state of the art technology. Positronic brains and R2D2 fall well outside those restrictions). I'll note that robot security guards do exist, but no reasonable person would compare them to human intelligence. They mostly carry cameras with some pattern recognition capability and enough smarts to sound an alarm if they find something unexpected. i.e.: They're glorified burglar alarms. For now, I think building a robot that can make up a bed (any arbitrary bed in any room of a house, starting with a bare mattress and folded sheets in the linen closet) should at least get a Nobel prize nomination. (Think about it. It's an extremely complex task). On the other hand, practical robot vacuum cleaners are starting to appear, at least for commercial applications. Building one cheap, smart, simple and reliable enough to use in an average private home would be a breakthrough on the order of the introduction of the personal computer. -- The Polymath (aka: Jerry Hollombe, M.A., CDP, aka: hollombe@ttidca.tti.com) Head Robot Wrangler at Citicorp(+)TTI Illegitimis non 3100 Ocean Park Blvd. (213) 450-9111, x2483 Carborundum Santa Monica, CA 90405 {csun | philabs | psivax}!ttidca!hollombe