Robo Lex Tech - robotics blog of business & technology attorney Anthony Cerminaro

Robots and Rights

2006-01-15T17:54:00.000-05:00

From BusinessPundit:

"This article from Wired is interesting because it highlights some of the issues we are going to face in the future with artificial intelligence. For instance, are most of you aware that some software programs have already out-designed humans?

Evolutionary software has already designed simple circuits, as well as physical mechanisms like the ratchet and cantilever. As these automatic design systems improve and progress from simple geometric forms to novel integrated systems, intellectual property laws must change. If a robot invents, does the patent go to its owner or the patent holder of its artificial intelligence?

I am firm believer that someday Americans will go to the polls to vote about whether or not robots have rights. I believe that consciousness is a function of system complexity, and once we can build systems that are complex enough, they will become conscious. We don't like to think about that because it jars humans out of our sacred place as special creatures here on Earth, but the day is coming when it will happen. Business schools struggle now to teach ethics and make it relevant. I hate to think of the ethical dilemmas that the next generation will have to face when the average person is finally faced with the fact that humans aren't so special. I hope our educational systems can keep up."

Artificial Intelligence Resources

2005-12-23T15:04:00.000-05:00

"The
January 2006 Zillman Columnis now available and is titled Artificial Intelligence Resources. This January 2006 column is a comprehensive list of artificial intelligence resources and sites on the Internet. The subject area of Artificial Intelligence has always intrigued both individuals and corporations and today with the advent of high speed computing and processing the field is ripe for major happenings and events. Download this excellent 15 page free .pdf (493KB) column today and discover the amazing field of artificial intelligence!"

Project Management for Entrepreneurs

2005-09-13T10:37:00.000-04:00

'One of the greatest benefits of projects in an organisational context is their ability and effectiveness in the achievement of goals. The success or failure of projects is largely related to the way that managers develop tactics or plans for the projects and how these plans can be effectively monitored and controlled through the various stages of the project lifecycle. It is a basic premise that the successful implementation of a project requires the development of a set of action plans together with subsequent tactics by the project manager.

The planning stage of the project will define issues such as the project goal, targets and other milestones, as well as the establishment of a relationship with the clients or stakeholders of the project. The tactical aspects of the projects will include activities such as verifying the projects technical abilities, resources needed such as personnel and equipment and putting systems in place for the monitoring and control of the project. Although these planning and tactical activities are carried out through the duration of the project careful attention should also be given to the human issues and its influence on the project. "

Read more in Intro To Project Management for Entrepreneurs
By: Ben Botes.

U.S. Losing Robotics Edge

2005-09-12T12:42:00.000-04:00

"The U.S. leads the way in areas such as robot-assisted surgery and mobile space robots, but is losing ground in other fields. The U.S. once dominated in the development of robots designed for service and industry, but now other countries are catching up and even passing the old golden standard."

Read more in this livescience.com article.

LEMUR: League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots

2005-09-10T21:24:00.000-04:00

LEMUR: League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots is a Brooklyn-based group of artists and technologists developing robotic musical instruments. Founded in 2000 by musician and engineer Eric Singer, LEMUR's philosophy is to build robotic instruments that "play themselves." In LEMUR designs, the robots are the instruments.

LEMUR is supported in part by generous grants from the Rockefeller Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), the Greenwall Foundation, the Jerome Foundation (in celebration of the Jerome Hill Centennial and in recogntion of the valuable cultural contributions of artists to society) and Arts International. LEMUR is also sponsored by Harvestwork Digital Media Arts Center.

Robotic arm can improve motor control after stroke

2005-08-31T11:33:00.000-04:00

From upcome.com:

"A computerized robotic arm trainer appears to be more effective than electrical stimulation in improving motor control and strength in stroke patients who are left with severe arm paralysis, German investigators report. "

Measuring the IQ of AI

2005-08-11T13:45:00.000-04:00

"New Scientist reports that a pair of scientists have devised a universal IQ test for artificial intelligences:

'Traditional measures of human intelligence often won't be appropriate for systems that have senses, environments and cognitive capacities very different from our own. So Shane Legg and Marcus Hutter at the Swiss Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Manno-Lugano have drafted an alternative test that will allow the intelligence of vision systems, robots, natural language processing programs or trading agents to be compared and contrasted despite their broad and disparate functions.'"

Read more in this seattlepi.com post.

Kurzweil Essays Available as a PDF

2005-07-05T11:00:00.000-04:00

From this Slashdot post:

"prostoalex writes 'The Ray Kurzweil Reader is a collection of essays by Ray Kurzweil on virtual reality, artificial intelligence, radical life extension, conscious machines, the promise and peril of technology, and other aspects of our future world. These essays, all published on KurzweilAI.net from 2001 to 2003, are now available as a PDF document for convenient downloading and offline reading. The 30 essays, organized in seven memes (such as 'How to Build a Brain'), cover subjects ranging from a review of Matrix Reloaded to 'The Coming Merging of Mind and Machine' and 'Human Body Version 2.0.'' "

Robotic Life

2005-07-01T12:53:00.000-04:00

Taking inspiration and guidance from the science of animal and human behavior, the goal of Robotic Life is to build cooperative robots that can work and learn in partnership with people.

"Not only an engineering endeavour, we hope to gain scientific insight into the mechanisms that underlie this human and animal competence, and to develop a science of human-robot collaboration. Given the multi-disciplinary nature of this endeavor, our research explores a wide variety of topics including:

Novel mechanical designs
New sensing and actuator technologies
Active multi-modal perceptual systems
Natural language and gesture interfaces
Expressive movement and skillful motor control
Social learning
Psychological modeling
Human-robot interaction and collaboration"

New Roles For Robots

2005-06-29T15:26:00.000-04:00

"Once viewed largely as a way to save on labor costs, robots today have taken on more significant roles in manufacturing. They're part of global competitiveness plans and are seeing, moving and servicing better than ever.

Get ready for new robot relevance. When General Motors Corp. deployed the first industrial robots in 1961, their roles at a Ternstedt, N.J., plant were justified in terms of handling the 3-D tasks -- dangerous, dirty and difficult. In contrast, today's smarter, more capable robots have also become significant tools affecting global competition. For tomorrow's manufacturing winners, the competitive determinant will be how robots fit into a total manufacturing/automation strategy -- not just labor cost.

Start with a new definition. 'Think of industrial robots as a business strategy tool, one that helps build manufacturing competitiveness in a global economy,' "

Read more in this IndustryWeek article.

Introduction to Nanotechnology

2005-06-19T17:38:00.000-04:00

From nanoword.net:

"Nanotechnology is defined as fabrication of devices with atomic or molecular scale precision. Devices with minimum feature sizes less than 100 nanometers (nm) are considered to be products of nanotechnology. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter (10-9 m) and is the unit of length that is generally most appropriate for describing the size of single molecules. The nanoscale marks the nebulous boundary between the classical and quantum mechanical worlds; thus, realization of nanotechnology promises to bring revolutionary capabilities. Fabrication of nanomachines, nanoelectronics and other nanodevices will undoubtedly solve an enormous amount of the problems faced by mankind today.

Nanotechnology is currently in a very infantile stage. However, we now have the ability to organize matter on the atomic scale and there are already numerous products available as a direct result of our rapidly increasing ability to fabricate and characterize feature sizes less than 100 nm. Mirrors that don't fog, biomimetic paint with a contact angle near 180�, gene chips and fat soluble vitamins in aqueous beverages are some of the first manifestations of nanotechnology. However, immenant breakthroughs in computer science and medicine will be where the real potential of nanotechnology will first be achieved.

Nanoscience is an interdisciplinary field that seeks to bring about mature nanotechnology. Focusing on the nanoscale intersection of fields such as physics, biology, engineering, chemistry, computer science and more, nanoscience is rapidly expanding. Nanotechnology centers are popping up around the world as more funding is provided and nanotechnology market share increases. The rapid progress is apparent by the increasing appearance of the prefix 'nano' in scientific journals and the news. Thus, as we increase our ability to fabricate com"

Creating Friendly Artificial Intelligence

2005-06-19T17:36:00.000-04:00

"The goal of the field of Artificial Intelligence is to understand intelligence and create a human-equivalent or transhuman mind. Beyond this lies another question - whether the creation of this mind will benefit the world; whether the AI will take actions that are benevolent or malevolent, safe or uncaring, helpful or hostile.

Creating Friendly AI describes the design features and cognitive architecture required to produce a benevolent - 'Friendly' - Artificial Intelligence. Creating Friendly AI also analyzes the ways in which AI and human psychology are likely to differ, and the ways in which those differences are subject to our design decisions. "

Robots Dance and Play at World Robot Expo

2005-06-10T13:59:00.000-04:00

"They could hit fastballs, draw portraits and be seen breathing. Not bad for robots. Even so, these droids of all shapes and sizes -- more than 60 on display at the World Expo on Thursday -- still need some work.

Their developers say it will be several years before robots that are designed to be part of everyday lives -- rather than serve as simple novelties -- take their place helping the sick, rescuing disaster victims and entertaining families. "

Read more in this livescience.com article.

Electronic assistant would adapt to its boss

2005-06-06T13:19:00.000-04:00

From the Star-Telegram:

"With a strong push from the Pentagon, computer scientists are trying to create an artificial 'personal office assistant' that's smart enough to handle routine tasks for a human boss, military or civilian.

The researchers aim to build an electronic system that understands human language, takes and remembers instructions, learns from its experiences and copes with unexpected situations.
It won't make coffee, but it also won't grumble or demand a raise.

The automated aide-de-camp is supposed to be able to sort e-mail, schedule meetings, make plane reservations, collect information for reports and perform other humdrum, time-consuming chores for busy human managers."

Robotic Surgery Links

2005-05-22T15:27:00.000-04:00

Surgical robots, now used in operating rooms worldwide, are not performing surgical tasks on their own, but "lend a helping hand to surgeons," as discussed in this article from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)(1). How Stuff Works (2) provides a nice overview of some of the robotics systems currently in use and how they are used. This next website from the USC Robotic Surgery Institute (3), which was founded by the cardiothoracic surgeon who was one of the first "to see the potential for robotic surgery," discusses the medical procedures benefiting from this technology and includes a few videos of the surgeries (not for the faint of heart). This next article from Science Daily (4) reports on two studies from UPenn "that demonstrate the effective use of the daVinci Surgical Robotic System to perform Trans-Oral Robotic Surgery (TORS) which greatly reduces surgical trauma for patients." Another way that robotic technology is used in surgery is to allow doctors to perform surgery remotely. The history of this development known as telesurgery is described on this next website (5). This article from The Engineer Online (6) describes a project by researchers in the United Kingdom that aims to develop an image guidance system that uses 3-D images to improve the range of medical procedures for which robotics can be used. Brown University's website (7) also provides a nice overview of the history of Robotic Surgery as well as some basics on costs and demographics, and interviews with doctors and patients. Finally, PBS (8) offers this lesson idea, pro viding students a "journey to the operating room of the future."

For links to the referenced articles, see this post from Marcus P. Zillman

The Approach of Robot Swarms

2005-05-20T11:10:00.000-04:00

t sounds like classic sci-fi: Robots, linked by a common network, roam the land. When one unit discovers something, they all know it instantly. They use artificial intelligence to carry out their mission.

Soon, such marching orders will be real, carried out by robot groups known as "swarms" or "hives."...

Robotmakers find inspiration for their programs in nature: the behavior of bee, ant, and wasp colonies, as well as of flocks of birds and schools of fish. Ants, for example, communicate by leaving pheromone trails that other ants can follow to food. Ants also work as teams to distribute their workload, such as finding the most efficient paths for foraging or deciding who will haul bits of leaves back to the nest, without needing any directions from a leader...

The development of "true swarms," thousands or tens of thousands of mobile robots working together, is many years off and "depends on some things that haven't been invented yet," Greiner says, including miniaturization of components and better power sources and sensors...

Read more in this article from csmonitor.com.

Robots Go to Work at London Hospital

2005-05-18T14:12:00.000-04:00

"Science-fiction moved a step closer to reality on Wednesday when robots nicknamed 'Sister Mary' and 'Doctor Robbie' started work at a London hospital.

The pair allow doctors to visually examine and communicate with patients, whether they are in another part of the hospital or even another part of the world.

'This is a revolutionary concept which opens new avenues in telemedicine research and integrates technology with healthcare,' said Professor Sir Ara Darzi in a statement."

From this Reuters article.

20 Questions Neural Network

2005-05-11T10:39:00.000-04:00

"Want to see an example of what artificial intelligence could do for search? Take a look at 20Q.net, which is an online version of the child's game 'twenty questions.' The premise behind the site is simple: Think of a common object, and then answer a series of questions. 20Q will then 'guess' what you're thinking about. Just about every time I've used it, 20Q has correctly identified the object I've imagined using fewer than 20 questions.

If 20Q.net can't guess what you're thinking, you 'win' the game. The system then presents you with a list of other possible objects that you might have been thinking about. If the object is in the list, click on it, and 20Q will explain its logic to you, indicating contradictions between your answers and its own knowledge base. These aren't necessarily 'wrong,' but rather are an indicator of the learning 20Q.net has gained by interacting with other people.

20Q is a neural network that works much like a human brain. The software has been 'trained' by thousands of users playing the game over the past decade. By interacting with users, the neural net has learned about objects in the real world, and continues to learn as it analyzes each game."

From this searchenginewatch.com post.

U.S. Open Soccer .... for Robots

2005-05-10T13:48:00.000-04:00

"It looked like a scene from a sci-fi flick.

Hugging the sideline, the robot dog waddled down the field and hit a ball with its nose. The ball bounced off the goal post.

It was one of the University of Texas' last chances to get back in the game, which it eventually lost 2-0 to the reigning European champs from Dortmund University in Germany.

Robot dog soccer is one of five games that teams of scholars competed in during the 2005 RoboCup U.S. Open, held Monday at the Georgia Institute of Technology. The aim of the three-day competition, which ends Tuesday, is to develop software for better robots with the long-term goal of fielding a robot soccer team good enough to play a human team by 2050. "

Read more here.

Interest in Artificial Intelligence Rekindled

2005-05-08T18:41:00.000-04:00

"After a speculative boom in the '80s, attempts to encode humanlike intelligence into systems that could categorize concepts and relate them to each other didn't really pan out, and "expert systems" packed with rules derived from human authorities couldn't translate their expertise into areas beyond the subject matter for which they were programmed...

Now a new generation of researchers hopes to rekindle interest in AI. Faster and cheaper computer processing power, memory, and storage, and the rise of statistical techniques for analyzing speech, handwriting, and the structure of written texts, are helping spur new developments, as is the willingness of today's practitioners to trade perfection for practical solutions to everyday problems. Researchers are building AI-inspired user interfaces, systems that can perform calculations or suggest passages of text in anticipation of what users will need, and software that tries to mirror people's memories to help them find information amid digital clutter...

Several industry trends also are helping move AI up on labs' agendas. The emerging field of wireless sensor networks, which have the potential to collect vast amounts of data about industrial operations, the ecosystem, or conditions in a building or home, could benefit from the use of AI techniques to interpret their data. The Pentagon continues to fund AI research, partly to lay the groundwork for intelligent vehicles and robots..."

Read more in this InformationWeek article.

Robot Nurses in the Roadmap

2005-05-06T12:04:00.000-04:00

Japan in 2025 will have household robot nurses that can help lift elderly people into wheelchairs from their beds. So predicts Strategic Technology Roadmap released recently by the Japan Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

"The ministry's crystal ball offers mostly down-to-earth predictions, the officials said. The road map is aimed at helping to focus limited research and development budgets on priority projects in fields that are more feasible.

The 200-page road map, distributed to research institutes and businesses, gives predictions for the next two to three decades in 20 fields, including telecommunications, space exploration and the environment.

The report says one of the biggest changes in the home will be widespread use of robots to do chores.

In 2025, a cleaning robot will vacuum and mop floors without human supervision. A separate robot will move furniture out of the way.

Robot nurses will make life easier for elderly people or people with disabilities by helping them to the bathroom or performing other jobs.

Still, these won't be androids. They will be unable to walk, think or talk like humans because neither artificial intelligence nor smooth bipedal movement for robots is likely to be achieved by that time."

Read more in this asahi.com article.

The Robotization of Retail

2005-05-05T12:05:00.000-04:00

"The article Robots in 2015, by Marshall Brain argues that the robotic Wal-Mart is just not that far away. From the article:

In 2015, at about the same time that the airlines are laying off all of their pilots, Wal-Mart or Target or some other large retailer will be introducing a totally automated inventory management system. Every shelf will be fitted with RFID tags, allowing a mobile pick-and-place robot to find the exact shelf location of every product in the store. Every individual product in the warehouse will also be fitted with an RFID tag, so the robot will be able to pick up and identify every product that it needs to shelve. A relatively simple computer vision system will allow the robot to stack items on the shelves. These inventory management robots will operate 24-hours-a-day shuttling merchandise from the back of the store onto the shelves as items are sold. The robots will also constantly straighten the shelves and re-shelve merchandise. All of the technology needed to do this is nearly in place today.

By 2015, every big box retailer will be using automated checkout lines. Robotic help systems will guide shoppers in the stores. The automated inventory management robots will allow the first retailer to lay off a huge percentage of its employees. Competitive pressure will force Wal-mart, K-Mart, Target, Home Depot, Lowes, BJ's, Sam's Club, Toys R Us, Sears, J.C. Penny's, Barnes and Noble, Borders, Best Buy, Circuit City, Office Max, Staples, Office Depot, Kroger's, Winn-Dixie, Pet Depot and so on to adopt the same robotic inventory systems in their stores. The entire transition will happen in just five years or so. Any company that does not automate will be at such a pricing disadvantage that it will go out of business. Ten million unemployed workers dumped onto the job market over the course of five years will have a profound effect on the unemployment statistics in the United States.

Read more in this post from Marshall Brain.

National Robotics Engineering Consortium

2005-04-25T15:08:00.000-04:00

National Robotics Engineering Consortium
Originally uploaded by TigerTigerTiger.

"The National Robotics Engineering Consortium (NREC) develops and applies advanced automation technologies to create new opportunities for American businesses. The NREC has a growing number of development projects in a wide variety of industries, and is always eager to work with new industrial partners with new ideas. Whether you're an established Fortune 500 company looking to leap frog the competition or a Start-up creating a new way of doing business, the NREC brings innovation, solid engineering practice and favorable business arrangements to every client partnership."

3-D Simulations Links from Marcus P. Zillman

2005-04-24T13:36:00.000-04:00

Reprinted from this post by Marcus P. Zillman, M.S., A.M.H.A. Author/Speaker/Consultant:

"3-D Simulations

1) Stanford University: Folding@home
http://folding.stanford.edu/
2) Center for Automation in Nanobiotech: Nanorobotics
http://www.nanorobotdesign.com/
3) University of Texas Austin: Robotics Research Group
http://www.robotics.utexas.edu/simulations/
4) EdCenter: Interactive 3D Modelling
http://www.edcenter.sdsu.edu/geowall/
5) EuclideanSpace: Building a 3D World
http://www.euclideanspace.com/
6) The Breve Simulation Environment
http://www.spiderland.org/breve/
7) Cyberbotics, Ltd.: Webots™
http://www.cyberbotics.com/publications/ars.pdf

Three-dimensional (3-D) rendering and animation technology is not only used for entertainment, but also for research and educational purposes. The technology can be used for purposes of scientific simulation in fields such as physics, biology, or chemistry. For example, Stanford University's Folding@home project (1) uses 3-D simulations and distributed computing to study protein folding, misfolding, aggregation, and related diseases. Three-D simulations can also be used to observe phenomena that would normally be impossible to scrutinize in detail, as is demonstrated on this website on Nanorobotics (2). This next website describes work by the Robotics Research Group (3) in using 3-D simulations to enhance undergraduate and graduate engineering education. The EdCenter (4) makes available several compressed files of 3-D simulations that model earthquake data, Mars, a San Diego Fly Through, and more. On this website (5 ), Martin Baker provides "all you need to know about 3D theory" and this website (6) provides access to a free open-source software package which "makes it easy to build 3-D simulations of decentralized systems and artificial life." This last article from Cyberbotics, Ltd. (7) discusses how mobile robotics simulation programs can be used to design robots. [From The NSDL Scout Report for Math, Engineering, and Technology, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2005. http://scout.wisc.edu/]"

MIT OpenCourseWare on Cognitive Robotics

2005-04-24T13:33:00.000-04:00

chp_roverspirit
Originally uploaded by TigerTigerTiger.

This MIT OpenCourseWare course addresses the emerging field of autonomous systems possessing artificial reasoning skills. Successfully-applied algorithms and autonomy models form the basis for study, and provide students an opportunity to design such a system as part of their class project. Theory and application are linked through discussion of real systems such as the Mars Exploration Rover, pictured in this image.