In Search of a Robot More Like Us

[Gerald]

MENLO PARK, Calif. — The robotics pioneer Rodney Brooks often begins speeches by reaching into his pocket, fiddling with some loose change, finding a quarter, pulling it out and twirling it in his fingers.

The task requires hardly any thought. But as Dr. Brooks points out, training a robot to do it is a vastly harder problem for artificial intelligence researchers than I.B.M.’s celebrated victory on “Jeopardy!” this year with a robot named Watson.

AT YOUR SERVICE A robot programmed at the University of California, Berkeley, folds laundry — very slowly.

Although robots have made great strides in manufacturing, where tasks are repetitive, they are still no match for humans, who can grasp things and move about effortlessly in the physical world.

Designing a robot to mimic the basic capabilities of motion and perception would be revolutionary, researchers say, with applications stretching from care for the elderly to returning overseas manufacturing operations to the United States (albeit with fewer workers).

Yet the challenges remain immense, far higher than artificial intelligence hurdles like speaking and hearing.

“All these problems where you want to duplicate something biology does, such as perception, touch, planning or grasping, turn out to be hard in fundamental ways,” said Gary Bradski, a vision specialist at Willow Garage, a robot development company based here in Silicon Valley.

“It’s always surprising, because humans can do so much effortlessly.”

Now the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or Darpa, the Pentagon office that helped jump-start the first generation of artificial intelligence research in the 1960s, is underwriting three competing efforts to develop robotic arms and hands one-tenth as expensive as today’s systems, which often cost $100,000 or more.

Last month President Obama traveled to Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh to unveil a $500 million effort to create advanced robotic technologies needed to help bring manufacturing back to the United States. But lower-cost computer-controlled mechanical arms and hands are only the first step.

There is still significant debate about how even to begin to design a machine that might be flexible enough to do many of the things humans do: fold laundry, cook or wash dishes. That will require a breakthrough in software that mimics perception.

Today’s robots can often do one of these tasks in limited circumstances, but researchers describe their skills as “brittle.” They fail if the tiniest change is introduced. Moreover, they must be reprogrammed in a cumbersome fashion to do something else.

Many robotics researchers are pursuing a bottom-up approach, hoping that by training robots on one task at a time, they can build a library of tasks that will ultimately make it possible for robots to begin to mimic humans.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/12/sc...ref=technology

Note: July 11, 2011

[nikimcbee]

I....am...Vendor....the....posting.....robot

[Gerald]

Nice one,

[frau kaleun]

I don't see what could possibly go wro---

[nikimcbee]

Frau, if that robot is you.....

[nikimcbee]

The McBee30011.....



I...think....I'll...start...another....Steed...thr ead

[Gerald]

Good, Steed .. will be grateful for your sponsor for a long time

[nikimcbee]

The Reece:model 2001

[Gerald]

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by nikimcbee

I....am...Vendor....the....posting.....robot

Originally Posted by nikimcbee

The Reece:model 2001

Your very cruel Jason...truthful but cruel

[Gerald]

Originally Posted by jimbuna

Your very cruel Jason...truthful but cruel

Behave yourself now .... think of all the beautiful "robot bartenders" to serve your ale........otherwise it will be, NCL eventually anyway

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by nikimcbee

Frau, if that robot is you.....

Well, of course it is... my apparently human form is just a disguise for what lies beneath: a capricious, evil, soulless creature bent on world destruction.




Thought that was common knowledge.

[Jimbuna]

Them robot bartenders better have no oil leaks then!

[Gerald]

Yes, you will not have to come home, well-oiled

[Jimbuna]

Quite