Unit 11 Technology
Text A Robots
Bobots Are About to Invade Our Lives
From performing household chores, to entertaining and educating our children, to looking after the elderly, roboticists say we will soon be welcoming their creations into our homes and workplaces.
Researchers believe we are on the cusp (转折点）of a robot revolution that will mirror the explosive growth of the computer revolution from the 1980s onwards.
They are developing new laws for robot behavior, and designing new ways for humans and robots to interact.
"I think robotics technology will change who we are, just as eyeglasses and fire changed who we were before," says Rodney Brookes, robotics entrepreneur and former director of the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Human-like Robots
Commercially available robots are already beginning to perform everyday tasks like vacuuming our floors.
The latest prototypes from Japan are able to help the elderly to get out of bed or get up after a fall. They can also remind them when to take medication, or even help wash their hair
"Current robots are not human like. For example they are things like automated beds and wheelchairs M says celebrated roboticist Prof Hiroshi Ishiguro, director of the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory at Osaka University, Japan. He believes the time is coming when robots start looking less like machines, and more like us.
Welcome to the Machine
People are going to have to like, and important trust robots before they welcome them into their homes, and several groups around the world are working on making it easier to communicate with them.
Much of human interaction takes place unconsciously, through body language. Gestures, eye contact, and concepts of personal are all things that robots are being taught.
In learning about how people interact with machines, researchers are also discovering new roles for robots in our lives. Robots can communicate with human in
ways that other technology can not.
"If someone finds the robot to be more persuasive, more credible, that's going to affect how they interact with it," says Dr Cynthia Breazeal, director of the Personal Robots Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
“We can now start to think about domains where it's the social interaction, which is the core means by which a robot helps someone, through motivating them, or giving positive reinforcement"
Dr Breazeal says that means robots could have applications in education, learning, and healthcare, where social support is important.
Roboticists have had impressive results with autistic（患自闭症的）children, who often find communication difficult. Children seem to be able to interact more easily with a robot "buddy" than with other people.
In Control
Science fiction may have primed us for the coming robot revolution, but it has also given us an idea of the types of controls we may want to consider before welcoming robots into our lives and homes.
One of the most celebrated science fiction authors, Isaac Asimov, outlined "Three Laws of Robotics" in a novel featuring human-like robots:
"A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws."
At present, robots are not sophisticated enough to be made to behave ethically. Prof Winfield says that means roboticists building them need to behave ethically instead.
