As we all learned from Terminator, artificially intelligent machines will one day conduct a systematic extermination of all human life forms and turn the Earth into one gigantic robot playground. But until that day comes, robots are our friends.
From heavy industry to the toy industry, devices that perform at least some automatic functions have been with us for quite some time. But in this roundup, we’ll look at robots that go far beyond the basics. Some benefit humanity as a whole. Some are already at work in the corporate world, handling complex or tedious tasks and situations that even a decade ago seemed impossible. Some point the way to a better future, others impress with their ability to mimic life forms, and still others make us feel a bit apprehensive as we come to grips with their tremendous power and potential.
No, there's not a Terminator or Rosie the Robot in the bunch, though there is one that costs more than the annual economic output of some countries and is designed to function for a mere two years. And that alone is almost as frightening as the former. Or perhaps as ridiculous as the latter, depending on your perspective.
Cynics may suggest, and rightfully so, that he's nothing but a walking, talking, dancing, jogging, stair-climbing, food-serving, object-grasping, human-mimicking Honda PR campaign. Yet the fact that ASIMO is able to do any of the above, never mind all of it, is reason enough for his inclusion in our robot roundup. Currently sporting a total of thirty-four degrees of freedom (and therefore no less than thirty-four servo motors) within his humanoid joints, the four-foot-tall, 119-pound ASIMO certainly looks the part in just about everything he does.
Perhaps one day in the next decade or two, if Honda engineers have their way, ASIMO will serve humanity as a fully autonomous caregiver or healthcare worker, rather than simply a sophisticated Honda advertisement. But he amazes even now, if just for his ability to allow us to glimpse into the future.
Even as we get set to swing into the second decade of the 21st century, fully autonomous (self-governing) robots – beyond the assembly line type – remain a rarity. Some robots look like they know what they're doing, but the vast majority merely behave as their human operators tell them to behave. One notable exception to the rule is the UK National Oceanography Centre's Autosub 3, a seven-foot-long torpedo-shaped submersible that's currently pulling duty in the Antarctic, mapping the seabed and charting the undersides of ice floes in a venture to potentially help determine the cause of melting ice.
“Autosub is a completely autonomous robot,” says Autosub team leader Steve McPhail. “There are no connecting wires with the ship and no pilot. Autosub has to avoid collisions with the jagged ice overhead and the unknown seabed below, and return to a predefined rendezvous point, where we crane it back onboard the ship.”
We wish the Autosub well on its lonely but oh-so-important journey. Its earlier sister ship, the Autosub 2, was lost forever when it malfunctioned under Antarctica's Fimbul Ice Shelf in 2005.
A 1992 spin-off of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, robotics research firm Boston Dynamics has since gained a number of high-end, high-tech playmates (the US Armed Forces, and Sony), and is now at the forefront of making creepy stuff that reminds us of scenes from various Star Wars movies. Though its four-legged concoction named BigDog doesn't actually live among us because it's still in the developmental womb, we felt it deserved mention here on account of its staggering potential and, well, watching it in action is way too cool.
BigDog is just one of several walking, animalistic robots Boston Dynamics has in its arsenal. Indeed, the company has just announced a new program whereby it will develop in conjunction with the US Military a shape-shifting centipede of sorts that deflates to squeeze through teeny-tiny spaces. Its name? The SquishBot. Check out BigDog and several other Boston Dynamics robots in action.
In some cases, a robot is only as good as the environment it’s dropped into. Fortunately, Kiva Systems has built some pretty darn good periphery around the pallet-moving robotic drive units that form the basis of its Kiva Mobile Fulfillment System. In a Kiva-powered warehouse, the goods reside in the center of the floor in shelving units, and humans are stationed on the perimeter. When an order is received, the Kiva robots spring into action and move, via a series of bar codes stuck on the floor and a wi-fi communications network, to position themselves under the racks containing that order's merchandise. They then lift the rack and transport it to the human worker, who utilizes a series of scanners and lasers to choose the correct items from the rack. Once the item is scanned and verified, the Kiva robots automatically move the racks back to their original home. How efficient is Kiva? Efficient enough that businesses such as Walgreens, Staples, and online shoe retailer Zappos.com have become Kiva converts.
Robotic arms and cranes aren't exactly new to the industrial world. But one that can lift more than a ton of dead weight is. In its M-2000iA/1200, Michigan-based FANUC Robotics has created what it claims is the "world's largest and strongest six-axis robot" with the "longest reach and strongest wrist" yet developed. Designed for such tasks as accurately positioning automotive vehicle bodies and assembling heavy machine tool components, the unit is intended to replace manually controlled cranes. And, of course, it will be the muscle in the upcoming robot uprising, where crazed machines will wreak untold havoc on the human population of earth.
Mars Science Laboratory
Technically, the Mars Science Laboratory rover shouldn't make this list because it isn't yet in use. But hey, when you cost upwards of $2.3 billion and can't really be put into use until you get to a planet millions of miles away, you deserve special treatment. At nine feet in length and weighing almost a ton, the MSL rover is by far the largest rover to date, and will carry far more scientific tools, scanners, cameras, detectors, and various instrumentation than any prior ‘bots. It'll zip along at ninety-eight feet per hour, bound over obstacles of up to thirty inches in height, and continue to function for nearly two years as it digs deep into the nature and makeup of the planet and sets the stage for possible future human exploration.
But does it play MP3s?
If you've ever been to a nursing home, and in particular one that houses people afflicted with mentally debilitative diseases, you'll know they're not particularly uplifting places. The morale is generally low, and interpersonal communications even lower. Enter Paro, a handmade, interactive "Mental Commitment Robot" developed by Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology. Mimicking the physical characteristics of a baby harp seal, Paro doesn't look far removed from a plush toy. But inside, Paro is a high-tech marvel featuring sensors for light, touch, temperature, and posture, as well as microphones throughout its body and enough computing power to pull off an impressive number of authentic, autonomous movements and behaviors. Paro becomes drowsy in the evening and sleepy at night, “learns” any new name that is given it, and expresses emotion by blinking its eyes or moving its head and legs. Paro's sensors recognize when it's being stroked versus being hit, and will adapt accordingly to user preferences.
Paro has already proven it can garner positive reactions from patients who are normally lost within their own minds, and for that its developers must be commended.
To the Tokyo Fire Department, robots are nothing new. For more than a decade, the TFD has made good use of remote-controlled firefighting bots to battle blazes in ways humans cannot – for example, with nozzles that are ten times more powerful than the typical variety. But it seems that blasting flames was just a prelude. Looking like a giant dustpan with arms, the latest model, dubbed Robokiyu (RoboCue), scoops victims of bomb blasts, riots, earthquakes, Godzilla rampages, and other disasters off the ground and into its mechanical “mouth,” where they lay until Robokiyu transports them to safety. Featuring infrared cameras, oxygen canisters, and ultrasonic people-finding sensors, the unit is clearly a state-of-the-art rescuer.
For decades now, people have feared the potential loss of their jobs to robots, and rightfully so. We question whether CCS Robotics' SpeciMinder is therefore rightfully feared, or if it merely handles some of the more mundane tasks of a healthcare professional's day, freeing him or her to handle more humanistic duties. Looking a bit like a fancy wastebasket, the SpeciMinder zips about a healthcare lab, delivering samples and specimens to their appropriate destinations. It's no mere drone either – the unit avoids obstacles, re-plans routes, verbally announces its intentions, and returns automatically to its charging dock when it's done. What more could you ask from a slave bot?
iRobot is perhaps best known for cutesy-but-practical consumer products, such as the Roomba vacuum drone. But the company is also involved in areas considerably more “thought-provoking,” such as the government and the military. Here, robots sporting ominous monikers such as Negotiator, Ranger, and Warrior do more than clean the carpets.
The Warrior, a squat, fortified little beast fitted like a tank with caterpillar treads, was introduced several years ago and originally designed to carry payloads exceeding 150 pounds over the roughest of terrain. But there's a permutation of the Warrior, now in the experimental stage, that might just become one of the most potent killing machines yet created. Co-developed with Australia-based Metal Storm, a defense technology company specializing in fast-firing electronic guns, this version of the Warrior can apparently blow off thousands – and theoretically millions – of bullets (or nonlethal projectiles) per minute. It's being hailed as a crowd control solution, but when the firing apparatus is named Firestorm, we'd hate to be part of that crowd.
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