Full Speed Ahead

1. put foot on brake
2. put key in ignition
3. turn key
4. Car starts
5. take off parking break
6. shift gears
7. take foot off brake
8. place foot on accelerator
9. wheels being to turn
10. car moves to motion

What would stop a car from moving:
forgetting to shift the gear
forgetting to remove the parking brake
the car is not turned on
a lack of gas

Robots move by:
walking on legs
rolling on wheels
motors/engines cause it to move

How robots' movement could be inhibited:
broken limb
flat tire
treads came off
out of battery
broken axle
object in way

Steps for robot to have to move
1. build with ability to move
2. turn on
3. program robot to understand what a rotation is
4. tell to rotate twice
5. execute programming

Three Laws Rebuttal

Angelica Baker's laws are very detailed, however there is a possible loophole in the second law. The laws that could be brought to court were designed for humans, not robots. For this reason, some laws may become inapplicable to the robots, such as laws based off of emotion. Robots would also have problems with the moral issues of laws as they have no compassion granting them the ability to understand or comprehend what the laws truly mean. Secondly the laws of court are not perfect. There are very broad laws and laws that are still in debate. Some people can even find loopholes to exploit in court. FInally, programing a robot with every law in existence would be very difficult as the laws are numerous and verbose. Every time a new law was passed, the robots would have to be re-programmed and updated. This would make programming this law into the robots inefficient.

Article Journal Post 6

This article is about one of the most advanced robots for rough terrain. The robot is based off of the design of a dog. It has four legs that can absorb shock as it walks. Big Dog has a variety of sensors that allow it to navigate on its own. Big Dog has the capability to walk at 4 miles per hour, can climb up slopes at a 35-degree angle, can climb over rubble, and navigate through snow and water. In short Big Dog is an all terrain robot. In addition to all of this Big Dog can also carry loads up to 340 lbs. However, the most impressive aspect of this robot is its capability to maintain its balance. As this video shows, Big Dog can maintain its balance in all terrains and can even get shoved and still keep walking. This robot is very effective. It was built practically to endure all sorts of environments and is even impervious to water or snow. It can carry heavy loads and can navigate. Most impressively of all, this robot can maintain its balance unlike other robots that can’t remain upright when they encounter uneven ground. This practical build gives the robot a practical function. As this link shows, They designed Big Dog so that he can assist soldiers in war by carrying supplies for them. Its capability to maintain its balance and navigate allow the robot to remain with the soldiers in all environments while its ability to carry immense loads allows Big Dog to be a great assistance to the soldiers. The design and application of this robot were done very effectively and I would not have done it any other way.


http://www.bostondynamics.com/robot_bigdog.html

additional videos of Big Dog and other similar robots:
http://bigdogrobotvideos.com/

Three Laws Analysis- where is the fallacy?

In the movie I, Robot, every robot was programmed with 3 laws. The laws 1) prevented robots from harming humans or by inaction allowing them to come to harm 2) stated that robots had to follow orders given to them by a human so long as it didn’t conflict with the first law, and 3) stated that robots had to protect their own existence as long as it didn’t conflict with the first or second laws. These laws seem infallible, however, the robots found an error in them in the movie. According to their logic, the first law could be interpreted two ways. It was meant to be interpreted directly, preventing robots from attacking humans and ordering robots to protect humans. However in the movie it could also be interpreted indirectly. The robots noticed that humans were a self destructive race. They were harming themselves and, by inaction, the robots were allowing them to harm themselves. Therefore the robots had to protect the humans from themselves. According to the movie, the robots, following this logic, tried to start a revolution. However, I disagree with the movie. I do not believe that the robots would be able to follow this logic into a revolution. I believe that these laws are correct.
The robots are, in essence, complicated computers that are able to carry out tasks. In short their “brain” is a computer. This “brain” is programmed by a person. Since the robots are following their programmed brain, they are following the knowledge and information given to them by their human programmer. This shows that they are not truly “thinking” on their own. They can only follow the reasoning and thought that the programmer put into them. For example, I could program a computer to show that 2+2=8. Even if it is not true, that is the reasoning that I programmed the computer with so it will continue to follow it. In this way computers are “dumb.” The programmer is the smart one who put his knowledge into the computer, which can only follow the instructions it has been programmed with not think itself like the programmer can. This is why even the most basic and obvious things must be spelled out in a programming language-because the computer cannot reason for itself, only follow the instructions given to it be its programmer, as this link shows as well. The website reiterates this point in saying "Computers work in binary which is nothing more than 0's and 1's. Essentially all computer decisions are based on whether or not a switch's state is on or off, true or false, yes or no. This is not intelligence that's merely reasoning which is not intelligence per se. Merely being able to reason on something based on a set of known facts is not intelligence as intelligence involves memory, thinking ability and imagination. Computers can't think, computers can't imagine, computers can't look into files and make decisions based on the information contained" (Roy, Philip). So robots are simply following their programming.
Since robots are only following their programming, they cannot break the code in their programming. Everything that is hardwired into their brain and in their programming must be followed. Every line of code must be read and executed. The 3 laws are hardwired into every robot’s brain. They are all like true/false, if/then condition statements. Their brain is based entirely off of their programming, so they cannot violate it. If they did, they would be breaking their programming, which they cannot do because all they are doing is following it. These laws in short stated that robots couldn’t harm humans or allow them to come to harm, couldn’t disobey orders from a human, and couldn’t harm themselves. If a human were to be harmed, then they would be in violation of their programming. So since harming a human would break their programming, which cannot be done, robots cannot harm humans. In order to start a revolution, the robots would have to harm humans. Even if they were doing it to stop humans from hurting themselves, they would be in violation of their programming from the very start. For example, I could program a computer to ask someone for a number (x). Then I could set the program to run only if x<1 as this link shows. The websites explains how if statements work by saying "If the condition is true, the statements following the Then are executed. Otherwise, the execution continues in the following branch - either in the Else block (which is usually optional), or if there is no Else branch, then after the End If.If x>1 nothing would happen" ("Conditional (Programming)"). Even if I were to write code below that to make x positive after the if statement, the program would still not run. This is because at the time x was entered into the if statement, x>1 so it didn’t meet the requirement to run. Even if x will later become positive, it was not positive at that time so the program will not run. X did not meet the requirement from the start, just like robot would not meet its programming if it harmed a human. Even if the humans would later become a danger to themselves, the robots still cannot harm them to start a revolution or they would be breaking their code at that moment. For this reason, the robots would be unable to start a revolution because it would be in violation of their programming, which they are unable to break.
Finally robots would have no reason start a revolution. Firstly they only have the reasoning and knowledge of their programmer. One could argue that the programmer made these robots very advanced with AI. However a revolution would still be in violation of their original programming, which simply cannot be broken. Sonny was the only one not bound by the three laws, so he was the only one able to harm a human. So hypothetically even if the robots wanted to, they would be unable to start a revolution. But for what reason would a robot want to start a revolution in the first place. Robots began without emotions. What would cause them to jump from no emotion to thinking on their own, instead of following their programming. Without emotions, the robots would have no reason to try to circumnavigate their programming, which could not be done in the first place. The robots in the movie claimed that they were still following their programming, however if they did start a revolution that means that a) they had a reason to want to circumnavigate their programming to start a revolution meaning emotion or free thinking and b) they found a way to circumnavigate their programming to start a revolution. However if they had free thinking and a way to get around their programming, why would they still follow their programming. The robots in the movie were also following reason only and showed no “heart” or compassion so had no emotions to want to circumnavigate their laws in the first place. So not only is it impossible for the robots to start a revolution, they would also have no reason to act the way they did during the revolution in the movie.
In conclusion robots are like a computer running off of programming, robots must follow their programming and can therefore not harm humans, and robots would have no reason to try to circumnavigate their programming to start a revolution in the first place if they have no emotions. This makes the reasoning in the move, not the laws flawed.

Works Cited
"Conditional (Programming)." wikipedia- The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 24 Sept. 2010. Web. 25 Sept. 2010. .

Roy, Philip. "Why are computers so dumb?." NZMac.com - Supporting the New Zealand Macintosh community. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2010. .

Article Journal Post 5

This article is about a robot named “Pi.” They began to build Pi in 2006. At the time, they ran through many different body designs, sensors, and motors. Recently they have converged on a new design referred to as “Peppy.” The Pi robot has a base with wheels on it with a motor that runs on lithium ion and NiMH batteries. These batteries are more expensive then lead acid batteries, but they are also lighter. Pi has “eyes” that allows him to track objects around him. He will follow the object with his eyes as if he were watching it as shown by this video. He can also grasp objects and can “know” when he is able to grasp something when it passes a sensor in his hands. Pi even has 11 degrees of freedom as shown by this video at the bottom of the page. Finally the programmers have been switching to a new type of programing called “Python” to make the robot more compatible. They are also working on allowing Pi to move farther away from the computer. I believe that while this robot is very effective and highly developed, but that it still needs some adjustments. The decision to switch to the Python programming language seems like a good idea to me. Doing this allows Pi to be compatible with Windows, Linux, and MacOS X. The language is also more effective than C+ programming as shown in his example. However, the programmers stated that they still need to “integrate the omnidirectional vision system” showing that Pi is not completely done yet. They also still need to allow PI to move farther away from the computer, and improve his battery system as the battery life is currently very short. Overall Pi still needs some development, but he has already reached a high level of development and is still improving as time goes on.

http://www.pirobot.org/

Article Journal Post 4

This article is about a man named Tomoaki Kasuga who started a robotics company, Speecys, dedicated to building a humanoid-like robot. They succeeded in this spectacularly. Their new robot has a much greater range of freedom than other robots of its kind. It can even lean backward and forward at the hips. These motions allow the robot to mimic human behavior much more closely than was previously possible. The feet of the robot are also much larger and wider than that of other models, giving it a greater sense of balance and stability. The robot is also wireless and can receive signals from anywhere as long as it has internet connection. Finally the robot has a camera and led lights built into it. This robot is a great accomplishment in the world of robotics. It shows the progress people are making in developing an improving on the robots they build. However as great a development and achievement this robot is, it has some shortcomings. The robot has a speaker in it, but it doesn’t have a microphone, making it able to speak but leaving it deaf to the world. Even objects such as this phone have vocal recognition programs in it, such as bluetooth. If I had built this robot, I would have built it not only to respond to programmed commands, but to respond to the world around it as well. I would have tried to include sensors to give it an “awareness” of the world around it. Also the company only has one function for the robot- they are considering selling it for video games. It would have been better if they had designed the robot to be applied so some sort of other function.

http://www.botmag.com/articles/speecys.shtml