US Navy Funds 'MacGyver' Robot

another random user writes "A US team aims to build a robot that can work out how to use nearby objects to solve problems or escape threats. The machine has been dubbed a 'MacGyver Bot,' after the TV character who cobbled together devices to escape life-threatening situations. The challenge is to develop software that 'understands' what objects are in order to deduce how they can be used. The US Navy is funding the project and says the machines might ultimately be deployed alongside humans. It is providing $900,000 to robotics researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology to carry out the work."

Rip off arm from nearby human

[Anonymous Coward]

and use it as a club.

Re:Rip off arm from nearby human

[simula]

No kidding. Let this be a lesson to human kind.

In the beginning a robot and it's creator are the best of friends. I mean literally nestling you in sweet embrace [gatech.edu].

The second that you think it will make a good dance partner and decide to hold onto it's jagged pincers, it will go berserk, breaking cinder brick walls and threatening to throw [gatech.edu] you from a five story building.

Re:

[TCQuad]

That's why I got Old Glory Insurance [hulu.com].

Re:

[The Grim Reefer]

and use it as a club.

Fortunately it's a "MacGyver bot". After vanquishing the enemy, it will be able to perform field surgery to re-attach the arm using duck-tape, a pine cone and some mints.

Skynet

[ruinevil]

This is the kind of research that creates Skynet. I don't want adaptive problem solving robots. I don't want to live in post-nuclear wasteland.

Re:

[fragtag]

Especially when it decides that humans are the root of all problems in some way. Then it will make a gun from a gum wrapper, an office pen, and an air compressor.

God help us.

Re:

[slick7]

Then it will make a gun from a gum wrapper, an office pen, and an air compressor. God help us.

Don't forget the dental floss and six feet of Prima-Cord. It is for the military after all.

Re:Skynet

[bartoku]

I don't want to live in post-nuclear wasteland.

Do not worry, you will die in the first wave.

and WOPR just don't hook it the missiles systems

[Joe_Dragon]

and WOPR just don't hook it the missiles systems

Re:

[Qwade79]

I was thinking more along the lines of Dr Who - 2x04 The Girl in the Fireplace.
Doctor: "What's happened to the crew? Where are they?"
Ship: "We did not have the parts,"
Doctor: "There should have been over fifty people on your ship! Where did they go?"
Ship: "We did not have the parts."
Doctor: "Fifty people don't just disappear! Where... oh... You didn't have the parts, so you used the crew..."

Pfft.

[multiben]

MacGyver never had $900,000. He just had household products and a heart full of courage.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

And great hair!

Three laws of robotics

[Cute and Cuddly]

If it is for the navy, will it follow the three laws of robotics? A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws. Enemies are humans too....

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[lister king of smeg]

sure it will but its definition of human will be much more solarian (see robots and earth, where on the planet solara the definition of human was solarian) than the standard calvinian robots in the rest of foundation universe

Re:

[Cute and Cuddly]

The navy, by definition sails. Leave interplanetary dreams to others.

Re:

[lister king of smeg]

my point was they will have a first law it will just be modified in such a way that only a subset of people count as humans.

Re:

[Cute and Cuddly]

Subset? - That sounds dangerously close to a fourth Reich

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[Anonymous Coward]

s/human/American human/g

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[Genda]

s/human/American human/CEO or Political Leader/g

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[Hillgiant]

Keep in mind that this will not be built by the government, it will be built by government contractors. The laws will be much more like: A robot may not decrease corporate profits or, through inaction, allow corporate profits to decline. Well, I say "laws" but there is really just the one.

Correction

[wonkey_monkey]

The hypothetical machine has been dubbed a 'MacGyver Bot,'

Re:

[helix2301]

Does it come supplied with a swiss army knife, duck tape and mach book. Cause then it will work.

perfect.

[retchdog]

a pie-in-the-sky but science fiction-sounding objective, vague enough to mean almost anything but providing many opportunities for defining convenient "subgoals" and spinoff projects along the way, and pitched to the military.

yup! this grant and its extensions may well keep a lab swimming in $$$ until the Singularity.

Re:

[Genda]

That would be "pie-in-the-Skynet".

Funding?

[pkinetics]

Why isn't the Phoenix Foundation funding this?

That funding moved to the SGC

[Joe_Dragon]

That funding moved to the SGC.

Will it cover all possible uses?

[Chris Burke]

The challenge is to develop software that 'understands' what objects are in order to deduce how they can be used. The US Navy is funding the project and says the machines might ultimately be deployed alongside humans.

Seems like it would get pretty annoying having one of these around...

"That is a wool sock. It can be used to cover your feet, carry small objects, hold small heavy objects to be used as a bludgeon, or to masturbate."

"That is a bottle of ranch dressing. It can be used to top a salad, as a bludgeon, or to masturbate."

"That is a cheese grater. It can be used..."

Re:

[wierd_w]

"This is a cordless electric rotary tool. It can be used to dismantle annoying robots."

Re:Will it cover all possible uses?

[bennomatic]

BRB. Gotta check something with my cheese grater.

Re:

[DarwinSurvivor]

Something tells me he won't "BRB"...

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[Genda]

Wasn't this a "Robot Chicken" episode???

What?

[Daetrin]

"after the TV character who cobbled together devices to escape life-threatening situations"

We've reached the point where we now have to explain who MacGyver is when he's referenced? Damn i feel old =P

Re:

[codegen]

Want to feel old? Read the Beloit Collge Mindset List [mindmeister.com]. Most of the incomming freshman for the class of 2016 were born in 1994. The last episode of MacGyver was originally broadcast in 1992. Not sure how long reruns went (or if there are still some on one of the cable channels), but it is a safe bet that most of them have never seen an episode of MacGyver. Gems on the list: never have seen an airplane ticket, a significant percentage of them will enter college already displaying some hearing loss, theTwili

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[Genda]

As long as there is a SciFi Channel with Twilight Zone marathons... the children of man will remain enlightened...

SyFy != SciFi

[oneiros27]

Too late. SciFi's gone.

Now we're left with 'paranormal', reality crap and wrestling.

Now admittedly, wrestling is fiction, but even if they explained the physics behind hitting someone with a folding chair, I don't think it counts as 'science fiction'.

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[multiben]

It makes me wonder how many people have completely missed the point of the MacGruber movie.

why the Navy and not the air force?

[Joe_Dragon]

why the Navy and not the air force?

Re:

[some old guy]

Probably because the Georgia Institute doesn't have an Officer's Club or a golf course.

Turf battle, same reason as SPAWAR

[girlinatrainingbra]

just like NOSC became SPAWAR (the Navy's center for SPAce WARfare, or officially the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command [wikipedia.org]), this is about a turf battle, in the same way that each branch of the military also is sprouting a cyber-warfare division.

.

First one in can try to take over a certain portion of the operational budget and can claim to have been in the domain longer and thus worthy of more money. It's kind of like (to use an example from mom the doctor) the turf war for the carotid artery that gets

Knowing our Navy ...

[PPH]

... they'll get a MacGruber [wikipedia.org] robot.

It would be interesting...

[OhSoLaMeow]

... to see if the robot came up with the same solution as jury-rigged by the Apollo 13 engineers for the carbon dioxide removal problem.

Re:

[Genda]

Sadly no, the Robot decided to use the Astronauts' GI tracts as filters so it disemboweled them to solve the problem.

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[CoderJoe]

And then, when the ship's computer is damaged, they open several time windows into 18th century France for a replacement?

We'll know they did it right...

[davidwr]

... when it makes it's first accepted "Ask Slashdot" submission.

I think I saw the...

[Genda]

The project demo video [youtu.be] for this...

Thrilled scientists

[ksandom]

"The scientists who invented the robot say they are thrilled that it worked out how to use two tampons to escape a flooding room, but disappointed that it did not foresee Johhny 5's jealousy that ultimately lead to its destruction."

$900,000

[gijoel]

is not going to make a mullet anywhere near awesome enough

Employee robot

[tchdab1]

Sounds like they're building autonomous worker bees; next they'll fund "manager bots" that instruct them to do things that are not logical.

MacGyver Reboot?

[Parker Lewis]

I need to sleep before read Slashdot news.

No military contracts

[bsercombe72]

Don't put macgyverbot in a room full of guns.

New Cycle of Life. FAIL

[fonitrus]

What happened to working hard for a living? People want to DELEGATE EVRYTGHING these days.
Everyons i fat and lazy these days. We optimiseeverything to levels that allows us to have ample spare time.
We then KILL that spare time with endless hours of LoL, WoW, SC2, COD etc etc (insert your game poisoin here).
Then we spend some more money on gym to offset the obesity gained at work and gaming.

So if we spent more time working, less time at home we would be overall happier. Less time spent arguing with the wife

Ob. vague Stargate reference

[Tastecicles]

"MacGyver! I'm stuck in an iceberg with MacGadget!"

Hey, I never said it'd be an *accurate* quote.

Daleks!

[confusedwiseman]

Exterminate!

If too obscure, here's a reference to the souce: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Daleks [wikiquote.org]

I don't get it...

[HPHatecraft]

what good is building a robot with a mullet? You'd think they would want to give the robot good hair, like George Clooney.