by OLIVER KLEMPERT and THOMAS JUNGLING
Hook me up with some love. PHOTO/Arenamontanus
From Tokyo, Japan to Esslingen, Germany, researchers are coming up with ways to make robots more intelligent, autonomous and even sensitive. One test bot knows how to make popcorn – without burning the kernels. Another is being designed to keep senior citizens company.
A group of small robots – each about the size of a hand and weighing 50 grams – lift off and fly across the room before settling down to play the title song from a James Bond movie. Four of the machines play specific synthesizer keys, while the others play a drum, cymbals, a kind of xylophone and an e-guitar. All of the machines are controlled by camera and laser scanner.
The flying musical robots, developed at the University of Pennsylvania, typify what technicians the world over are presently working on: machines with human characteristics. The goal isn’t just to make them look and move like people, but to also make them as intelligent and capable of learning as their human creators.
It may sounds like science fiction, but some startling advancements have already been made. Robots, for example, have a better sense of sight and smell than they used to. Movement is still a little jerky, but new technologies for making artificial arms and legs are in the works. A successful example is the “Exohand” made by Festo in Esslingen, Germany. It’s a glove worn by a human that transmits gestures to a robot.
“By remotely controlling a robot’s hand in industrial contexts, complex tasks – like in risky or health-endangering environments – can be carried out,” says Elias Knubben, head of Festo’s Bionic Learning Network.
Researchers have found, however, that unless a robot’s behavior and capabilities match a humanoid appearance, it is better if they do not resemble humans too much. People get very turned off by the phenomenon experts have dubbed “Uncanny Valley” – when robots look human but do not have developed human characteristics.
No robot has ever passed the Turing test, in which humans have to guess if they are talking to a human being or a robot. Artificial conversational partners are overwhelmingly identified as such; so far robot intelligence isn’t high enough to fool real people.
Real-life transformers
But robots can already act independently. There are mobile, autonomous robots in many a factory setting. Robots also monitor gas pipelines for leaks. The University of Pennsylvania’s “Foam Bot” can change its form as the situation requires, running on four legs on level ground and then morphing into a snake to squeeze through crevices.
At Munich’s Technical University (TU), several robots live together under one roof. Each robot can roll through the rooms, has two arms, and is independent. And they’re all quick learners. “Rosie,” for example, toasts bread in the toaster, butters the toast, and tops the spread off with cheese.
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