So... First of all, what is a robot anyway?
Humans and robots have a lot in common... Humans are "systems" that work within narrow ranges of temperature and need constant supplies of energy and raw materials to function.Wastes must be output or they will "crash" due to waste poisoning. The human system uses feedback from its environs to make decisions and to change the output based on the feedback received.
1)Robots are multi-use tools. Robots should not be designed solely or primarily to kill or harm humans,except in the interests of national security.
2)Humans,not robots, are responsible agents. Robots should be designed and operated as far as is practicable to comply with existing laws and fundamental rights and freedoms,including privacy.
3)Robots are products. They should be designed using processes which assure their safety and security.
4)Robots are manufactured artefacts. They should not be designed in a deceptive way to exploit vulnerable users;instead their machine nature should be transparent.
5)The person with legal responsibility for a robot should be attributed.
EPSRC ,by establishing the 5 key moral principles hopes to ensure that companies that specialised in robotics development while benefiting the public, to take in responsibility of making sure that their robots behave well. EPRSE believes that robots have the potential to provide immense positive impact to society as they expect that robots to impact our lives at home, experience in institutions,national and global economy as well as our global security.In my opinion, I agree that robots could possibly bring a positive impact to society. Robots such as ASIMO or industrial robots could help to aid society's problems in many ways. Robots like ASIMO could help patients with depression or any psychological disorders to reconnect with society and industrial robots could speed up production in response to our growing need for goods.As long as they are developed to achieve ethical means, yes.
So... How far will robotics go?
Humanoid robots nowadays are much more autonomous,with Artificial intelligence,they can identify patterns such as emotion through conversations and observations using facial recognition and speech recognition software, and sets out a number of responses such as a comment or expression to the recipient. But as robots are incapable of complex judgement based on freewill,the responses are limited and can sometimes be self-contradictory. Currently, with the development of more flexible artificial limbs,realistic skin textures borrowed from the 3D printing industry and a new approach to encourage robots into"thinking", the robots in the near future should be more capable of interacting with people and can function at its own will, without the need of certain pre-programming.That presents us another problem: Could robots become self-aware and harm us? Should we continue in this direction?
Take Eve 2.0, a robot concept.The animation in the video exhibits the robot's intricate degrees of movement in its limbs,making it appear more humanoid. The robot was also carrying a weapon, probably hinting that they could become personal body guards or defenders. But a robot like this would not be permissible as robots are tools that should assist humans, they are not supposed to harm humans. So the likelihood of Eve 2.0 to be manufactured would be zero.
A robot is an electronic device controlled by a program and able to carry out tasks of various kind; a machine that is made to perform functions that humans might otherwise do. The study of the science and technology of robots is called robotics. The term robot was invented by Karel Capek in 1917 in a story called 'Opliek'. Capek gave his machine workers the feelings of humans and in his story, robots were used to fight wars and because they too had feelings, they turned on their human creators... Which brings us to another term - Android. An android is a robot that looks and behaves like a human being,kind of what we would image a robot would be like.However that is not the case, as a typical robot does not look human like and completes its tasks by following a set of specific commands that tell it what and how the tasks is to be done.
An example of a robot would be ASIMO, a humanoid robot designed by Honda. ASIMO was designed to demonstrate HONDA's ability in increasing the autonomy and abilities of robots. ASIMO is a bipedal , like humans and has the ability to recognise moving objects,gestures and sound.
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| ASIMO, Honda's Bipedal Demonstrator |
A robot's structure is intrinsically the same, with a few differences. The robot temperature system ,according to the setting of temperature sensors, is able to work within a much larger range of perature and pressure. It also needs constant supplies of energy. The robot will not work unless most components are functioning.. A complex robot would need to interact with the environment ( like ASIMO),like humans do. But the data in the human system will not need to be converted as humans can accept input ,process and output data in analogue form. A robot would convert from analogue to digital data and back to analogue data as it is processed and output.
Timeline of Robotics
http://www.meograph.com/john-doe/62149/timeline-of-robotics
ISAAC ASIMOV: SCIENCE FICTION
Isaac Asimov is a writer and a bio-chemistry professor who published the influential sci-fi works like I,Robot and the Foundation Trilogy.
He was born on Jan 2,1920 in Russia. He immigrated with his family to the states and became a biochemistry professor at Boston University. He pursued a career in writing.. He published his first book in 1950, the sic-fi novel Pebble in the Sky, which would herald the beginning of his successful career. An influential vision came with his 1950 release, I,Robot, which looked at human/construct relationships and featured the well known Three Laws of Robotics.
Law
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Benefits
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Disadvantages
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1) A robot may not injure a human being ,or through inaction,allow a human being to come to harm
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- Robots are electronic devices that follows a program made by humans.. They are meant to help/assist humans, not harm them.
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- Human beings can be easily taken in by events... Easily swayed.. Robots have the capacity to perform unbiased calculations...
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2) A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings,except where such order would conflict with the First Law.
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-Robots are electronic devices that are meant to assist humans or perform tasks that are usually done by human beings. They should follow orders
-If we allow them to be conscious and determine what they want, they might realise that they are a tool and we might be in danger. -If we allow people to command robots into murder,then all moral beliefs are lost. |
- We are limiting the potential of the robots' abilities and creativity.
- There may be circumstances where deadly force maybe necessary ( e.g. murderer wont give up unless the victim is dead...) |
3)A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
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-We allow them to have the opportunity not only to serve as tools but we see them as "beings" as well... We give them some free space.
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-Robots,by not conflicting with the first or second law made it hard to protect its existence in certain circumstances e.g. ( a man wielding a gun,pointing at a robot...)
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EPRSE's 5 principles for robotic use and development:
1)Robots are multi-use tools. Robots should not be designed solely or primarily to kill or harm humans,except in the interests of national security.
2)Humans,not robots, are responsible agents. Robots should be designed and operated as far as is practicable to comply with existing laws and fundamental rights and freedoms,including privacy.
3)Robots are products. They should be designed using processes which assure their safety and security.
4)Robots are manufactured artefacts. They should not be designed in a deceptive way to exploit vulnerable users;instead their machine nature should be transparent.
5)The person with legal responsibility for a robot should be attributed.
EPSRC ,by establishing the 5 key moral principles hopes to ensure that companies that specialised in robotics development while benefiting the public, to take in responsibility of making sure that their robots behave well. EPRSE believes that robots have the potential to provide immense positive impact to society as they expect that robots to impact our lives at home, experience in institutions,national and global economy as well as our global security.In my opinion, I agree that robots could possibly bring a positive impact to society. Robots such as ASIMO or industrial robots could help to aid society's problems in many ways. Robots like ASIMO could help patients with depression or any psychological disorders to reconnect with society and industrial robots could speed up production in response to our growing need for goods.As long as they are developed to achieve ethical means, yes.
So... How far will robotics go?
Humanoid robots nowadays are much more autonomous,with Artificial intelligence,they can identify patterns such as emotion through conversations and observations using facial recognition and speech recognition software, and sets out a number of responses such as a comment or expression to the recipient. But as robots are incapable of complex judgement based on freewill,the responses are limited and can sometimes be self-contradictory. Currently, with the development of more flexible artificial limbs,realistic skin textures borrowed from the 3D printing industry and a new approach to encourage robots into"thinking", the robots in the near future should be more capable of interacting with people and can function at its own will, without the need of certain pre-programming.That presents us another problem: Could robots become self-aware and harm us? Should we continue in this direction?
