What happened to the Robot Age?

BBC News Magazine ^ | Friday, 27 January 2006, | Jonathan Duffy

[Willie Green]

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.

Sony's decision to ditch its Aibo robotic dog, along with its entire robot development team, is a reminder that we are still a long way from the age of automated domestic servants. Architects of the Robot Age have been busy rethinking the future.

In the 1980s you could hardly move for suggestions that the Robot Age was upon us.

From Metal Mickey, the wisecracking, head-spinning star of his eponymous sitcom, to the stylishly choreographed Fiat advert in which the Italian carmaker smugly revealed how it had apparently dispensed with humans altogether in the production of one model. The tagline was an advertising classic: Handbuilt by Robots.

Every other week, in those days, it seemed the Tomorrow's World team would unveil an exciting breakthrough in the world of robotics. Cool people in nightclubs even took to dancing like the things.

We seemed to be teetering on a new era in which humans would play second-fiddle to computer-guided pneumatic creatures, which could doubtless play first fiddle better than the lead violinist of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra.

Then what?

While computer technology advanced in leaps and bounds during the Nineties and Noughties, it remained firmly rooted in stationary beige boxes under desks.

Desperate housewives, who'd been banking on robot servants to take the weight off their feet, have largely been disappointed.

Self-guiding vacuum cleaners and lawn mowers can now be bought off-the-peg. But, by most accounts, their efficacy when compared to human effort, is limited.

Honda's Asimo robot, which looks like a scaled-down Star Wars storm trooper, can walk, run, greet people and go up stairs. But it remains, for the time being at least, a research project.

In terms of a real walking, talking everyday robot for the home, Sony's Aibo robot dog, which retails at about £1,200, is perhaps the closest it gets.

Back to basics

But on Thursday the Japanese electronics firm announced that, after six years and sales of 150,000 units, it is putting Aibo to sleep as part of a belt-tightening exercise that sees the closure of Sony's entire robotics unit.

It might seem as though the robot revolution we were promised 20 years ago has hit an almighty malfunction.

On the outskirts of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, in a ground-floor flat in which two customised robots are the only full-time residents, a team of researchers have been grappling with just this issue.

The University of Hertfordshire's human-robot interaction research group has, along with most other robot development programmes, gone back to basics.

"For a long time people thought the summit of human intelligence was our capacity for problem solving, IQ tests and the like. So in developing robots they designed them to do these complex tasks, like playing chess," says Prof Kerstin Dautenhahn, the group's leader and professor of artificial intelligence.

"But now people are saying that its humans' ability to deal with complex social relationships that's made us intelligent. Primatologists suggest this is what has made us smarter."

Feigning sensitivity

So while the world gasped at the sight of a robot defeating a chess Grandmaster, no one had thought to equip these mobile lumps of metal with the fundamental social skills that humans take for granted in each other.

These days, the watchword in robotics is "multi-disciplinary" - bringing together people from sociology and psychology backgrounds, as well as the technical folk, to build a robot that could be a true domestic goddess.

Hence the research team decamping from the laboratory to a humble flat, where it has let its robots loose on 700 volunteer subjects.

The team has been studying issues such as personal space, how people expect a robot to approach them, or even get their attention.

"What's the best way for a robot to interrupt you if you are reading a newspaper - by gesturing with its arms, blinking its lights or making a sound," says Prof Dautenhahn.

"We've this notion of the personalised robot companion and we are seriously looking into people's likes and dislikes and how they can be useful to people."

Prof Chris Melhuish, who is overseeing similar works at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory, agrees.

"The dynamics of interactions are incredibly important. It doesn't have feelings of course, but must have the techniques and wherewithal to appear to have feelings that are sensitive to humans," says Prof Melhuish.

Evil-natured robots

"Suppose a robot is giving directions. If I was to do that, and you became confused, I'd be able to see that in your face and adjust my directions accordingly. So a robot also needs to be able to see your face and determine your befuddlement."

Half-way through its four-year research project, the Hertfordshire team, which feeds into a larger European project on robotic research, has made a number of important discoveries.

For example while most people are happy enough for a robot to pad around the house rather as a human would, a substantial minority are uncomfortable with it lingering in close proximity.

Inevitably, everyone has their own expectations. And the bad press robots tend to get, particularly through Hollywood films, meant that for some folk at least, robots need a softly-softly approach.

Movies like I Robot, Terminator and Blade Runner have helped instil the idea in some people, at least, that robots are a malign, even murderous, force.

By comparison, the two robots used by Prof Dautenhahn's team are almost entirely functional and benign. They don't even have names - that would threaten the dispassionate nature of the team's research.

In fact, they look no more advanced than the prototype robots that were wheeled out on Tomorrow's World all those years ago. But in this case, that's missing the point.

While the technical challenges to perfecting servile domestic robots are still vast, history shows that what humans expect of them are every bit as important.

[Willie Green]

"There will never be a system invented which will do away with the necessity for work."

-- Henry Ford

[Mikey_1962]

I though I'd be wearing silver lemay, high boots and have my own jetpack by now.

[vikingd00d]

>>I though I'd be wearing silver lemay, high boots and have my own jetpack by now.

Thankfully, the future isn't what it used to be...

[109ACS]

We almost had a robot for President, the AlGore model.

[dhs12345]

Don't know about that. Some of those babes in the old Star Trek looked pretty hot in their miniskirts. Ahem. :)

[siunevada]

Jan 26, 11:39 AM (ET)

TOKYO (Reuters) - Need temporary help on your company's reception desk? One Japanese employment agency is suggesting you try recruiting a robot.

For just under 50,000 yen ($430) a month, a fraction of the cost of a human temp, the PeopleStaff agency will dispatch Hello Kitty Robo, a robotic receptionist capable of sensing a visitor's presence, greeting him or her and holding simple conversations.

The Nagoya-based agency is also offering the services of Ifbot, an elderly-care robot that chats and poses riddles and arithmetical problems to train the brain and help avoid dementia. Spaceman-like Ifbot, which also quizzes people about their health, is aimed at hospitals and old peoples' homes.

A spokeswoman for PeopleStaff said it would cost more than 300,000 yen a month to employ a person for this type of work, but warned that the robots were not capable of doing everything human employees can do. (No kidding? Thanks for the warning.)

[50sDad]

It's 2006 now! Where the heck is my hovercar?

[sheana]

No need for robots when you have millions of illegal aliens and more pouring in everyday.

[Spruce]

http://www.robotcombat.com/video/old_glory_hi.mov

[meowmeow]

What the hell are you looking at? Get me another beer!

[Little Ray]

Somebody ain't payin' attention. Robots, from UAVs to "throwable" recon bots are helpin' fight the war.
Maybe they ain't cleanin' and cookin' but they're working and busy.

[Willie Green]

No need for robots when you have millions of illegal aliens and more pouring in everyday.

Sadly true.
Lower wages/benefits of manual labor undermines the necessity for capital investment in automation technology.
Global corporatists are luddites.

[Terpfen]

And, of course, which industry relies heavily upon robots? You guessed it, the auto industry!

As far as robots go, I'm waiting for the huge ones. Give me an E.S. Asher any day.

[Red Badger]

Who was it that said:

The factory of the future will have just two workers. A Man and a dog.

The dog will be there to make sure the man doesn't touch the machinery.

The man will be there to feed the dog.......

[Red Badger]

GET IT YOURSELF!!!!!!!

[Phantom Lord]

[Kirkwood]

In the future there will be robots and gay men in hotpants to fight them:

[RadioAstronomer]

My only pet is a robot dog. In fact it is the only pet I have ever had.

[bolobaby]

It's 2006 now! Where the heck is my hovercar?

Only $3.5 million at Neiman Marcus! Get yours today!

Skycar at Neiman Marcus

[PogySailor]

My Roomba just finished vacuuming the front room. At least it a start.