Are you ready to Roomba? If you're a fan of nondescript, purpose-built robots -- this one vacuums your floors -- you probably are. But perhaps you're intrigued, as I am, by the unusually anthropomorphic automatons coming out of Japan.
The differences raise a question: Should robots look more like people or like machines? That's what we asked participants in our Systems & Product Design Engineering and Automation & Control Engineering groups on LinkedIn.
Many of the answers revolved around the form-versus-function issue. "This question is deeper than it seems at first glance," says Rick Rice, an applications engineer in Illinois. "It really comes down to philosophy. Robots are designed to do things that humans can't do, or robots can do better. This doesn't necessarily mean they have to emulate humans. However, the people that program robots will tend to duplicate human actions because, after all, we are humans programming machines."
Click on the image below to start the Design News slideshow: Humanoid Robots Get Real:
Heather Knight, a roboticist and founder of Marilyn Monrobots, is trying to bridge the uncanny valley by adding humor to the robotic repertoire. Her robot, Data, can do imitations of Darth Vader, R2D2, and Buzz Lightyear. (Source: Freescale Semiconductor)
"Popular movies like I, Robot, portray robots as virtually human in appearance, and they even possess human characteristics like a conscience and a sense of right and wrong. The bottom line is, do we want robots to be assimilated into our culture so much that we don't recognize them at first glance?," Rice asks.
Alan Curley, an automation and control engineer in Ireland, says, "I think the consensus is that function should dictate form, which should not directly lead to a humanoid robot."
That's a good question, Ivan -- especially now that Google had commandeered the term Droid. What I found is that an android is an automated system that resembles humans or has human characteristics. A robot is simply an automated system. Though I also found definitions for robot that said robots have human characteristics.
Two points I think not yet made, regarding how 'human-like' DOES follow function:
1) In (almost) all examples of human form provided here so far, it DOES follow function: the response by the user (e.g. acceptance by an elderly patient being aided) is a critical part of the function. Gratuitous effort to provide human traits is unwarranted, but if guiding what the user imbues to the robot better serves the function, it is not only warranted but required for the better product.
2) the ability to operate products and tools designed for humans is absolutely necessary, to leverage AVAILABLE manually operated equipment. While automated folk lifts and paint sprayers can be procured when available and affordable and lead time permits, a single robotic system capable of operating any/all of the human-use tools already in hand -- without re-design or re-capitalization of ALL of them -- can be VERY valuable. Of course humans do this already, but robotics to augment or replace humans (with the benefits of greater strength and no fatigue and repeatability [6 sigma] and instant/perfect training and perfect data logging and no panic and ...) is appropriate for dull tasks and for dirty/dangerous environments (such as Fukushima or in a burning house). Note also that mobility in environments designed for humans, but made unsuitable for humans (radiation, temperature, atmosphere, etc), requires the ability to operate common mechanical devices that humans use without notice that wouldn't already be automated (such as stairs, door knobs, doors, drawers/cabinets/access panels, keyboards, etc, etc, etc). I offer that this may be greatest unserved market, but the issue here is the FORM of the system and not the autonomy (as most cases I immediately envision could be well served by remote operation).
Note that as we move toward biomimetics to mimic natural functionality, there a good examples where nature has few or no matching examples of man-made devices, such as the wheel bearing allowing unlimited rotation. While eons of iteration has resulted in systems that are well-suited to the tasks necessary for survival (what ARE all those little mini- fins on a shark?), many tasks we have invented (spraying paint) do not match any that have shaped human evolution and so should result in a different form.
An android would be designed to function in "Human space" with interfaces to the environement using similar algorithms as a human body. some might be augmented for example such as the aability to see better or in the dark or hear better and possibly communicate using radio in addition to human like speech. A robot would be more likely to be designed wtih little or no functionality in human space but be capableof interacting with its environment such as welding robots and military drones.
"Form follows human functions with specialization and or augmentation" might be a better way to describe androids.
Good points, rotrhed. A robot that is rejected because of its appearance is hardly functional. In that sense, some of the robots we're seeing in Japan ARE a case of form following function. Same for Heather Knight's robot, called Data. I've said this previously, but when Data spoke at the Freescale Technology Forum last year, the 2,000 engineers in that room fell silent. That speaks volumes about robotic acceptance and, therefore, about form following function.
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