The Changing Face of Robotics 49
An anonymous reader writes "Using sensors to interface socially, the next generation of robots may not fit the classic idea of what a robot should be. Glen Martin writes: 'Equipped with two articulated arms, it can perform a multitude of tasks. It requires no application code to start up, and no expensive software to function. No specialists are required to program it; workers with minimal technical background can "teach" the robot right on the production line through a graphical user interface and arm manipulation.'"
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It's a shit summary of a shit story which is old news to start with. Basically they're just saying that they will deliver you a "generic" robot which has no specifically pre-programmed tasks. Instead of paying someone to write a custom program to (for example) weld a joint, the worker uses a GUI and manual manipulation of the actuators to "teach" the software the task you want it to perform.
This idiot also makes a bunch of really off-base assumptions about what a robot is "supposed to be", and ignores most
Heinlein (Score:2)
Heinlein's "Door into summer" describes Flexible Frank robot with exactly those capabilities.
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I think it is more of a puff piece written in an attempt to cash-in on a reference to the movie "her".
An AI program is NOT the same thing as a robot. And an expert system is not the same as an AI program.
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Explain.
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You can only cyber with an AI, but you can stick your dick in a robot. And an expert system just asks you how it would feel to stick your dick in your mother.
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Last production robot i dealt with you 'programmed it' by walking it thru the paces in a 'learn mode'. While the back end there was software of course, the person 'showing' it how to do the job didn't need to know this.
I guess times have changed, for the worse.
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Or, more likely, they completely haven't, which is what I was objecting to - I believe this is one of those threads that attempts to claim that somebody is doing something earthshatteringly new, when, in fact, it's the same thing everyone's been doing for years or possibly decades already.
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How the hell do you have a graphical user interface without anyone having ever written any software for it?
More importantly, how the hell are you going to have the workers themselves automate their job away, willingly?
Totally off-topic. (Score:5, Interesting)
Cool. I love the idea of virtually zero employment thanks to ubiquitous robots.
Wonder how that's going to work out...no workers means no one collects a paycheck. Only a few people will own all the resources. So what...the government gives the people a stipend? And we spend it on whatever the robots make? Or do we just cut out the middle man, hand the robots over to the people through government proxies, and make whatever we want?
Man, I would say in the long run, capitalism doesn't have much of a future.
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until you put the batteries in backwards and the economy is going and going and going, right down the crapper.
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time to cut full time down maybe 20-32 hours (Score:3)
time to cut full time down maybe 20-32 hours.
Let's start with 32 hours / 4 days a week with an end to the salary no OT pay or maybe a high mini level of pay to have the no OT pay say 100K+ COL
Also an high H-1B min wage say 125k+
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time to cut full time down maybe 20-32 hours.
Let's start with 32 hours / 4 days a week with an end to the salary no OT pay or maybe a high mini level of pay to have the no OT pay say 100K+ COL
Also an high H-1B min wage say 125k+
Obamacare defines full time as 30+ hours: http://news.investors.com/poli... [investors.com]
So naturally all the places that would rather the government pay for healthcare cut their employees hours down to 29/week. Now they're complaining about not having enough qualified employees.....
When was the last time you saw a Walmart with most of the shelves stocked and the registers open?
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virtually zero employment
Well, yes, but this has been going on for centuries: We have been automating areas in the work force that means less people employed doing brain numbingly boring tasks over and over and over again. Even Baxter will need human supervisors and teachers, so he it will automate away a few more jobs, but we still haven't gotten to the point where robots run the factories autonomously. The recent economic slumps have not been from technological progress either.
As a geek, wanna-be maker, I've been trying to think
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Well, what do you think the humans do in The Matrix [wikipedia.org]?
There either partying, warring, or jacking in (aka the blue pill [wikipedia.org] or what Futurama calls it: surfing the Internet). Work? Don't see it.
"Now robot..." (Score:3)
Now Mr Robot, this is what I want you to do. When the boss comes by, I want you to lift up both arms like this, now extend your middle actuators and shout, "Blow it out your tailpipe!"
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Re:why the recent interest in robotics? (Score:4, Informative)
It ain't nothin. (Score:2)
We know what next generation robot looks like. (Score:2)
Same press release as last year (Score:4, Informative)
The 2012 interview [hizook.com] was more informative:
" Indeed. We don't mean "common sense" from a Marvin Minsky-like strong AI perspective. Baxter's "execution" application consists of a series of behavior-based systems. During "training," the robot detects task-relevant features and uses it to build up the behavior based system.
For example, let's say a user is training the robot for a pick and place task. During the "pick" phase, a user places the gripper above an object and closes the gripper. The force on the gripper is detected by the robot. Our "training" application detects this sequence as "the robot is grasping an object"... so during "execution", Baxter won't proceed unless it actually detects an object in the robots gripper. Thus, if the object fell out, it would stop (or do something else). This is different from how existing industrial robots work -- they'd just merrily continue the pick-and-place without the object.
Collectively, these "behavior primitives" are assigned and composed, ie. "learned", during "training" by having non-technical users directly manipulate the robot rather than programming it (which is also possible for those inclined). This gives the robot an air of common sense."
This is useful, but not that intelligent. Take a look at these PR videos [rethinkrobotics.com] to see what it can do. Basically, it can pack and unpack things, and move them from one place to another. It's not good enough to assemble much of anything. Plugging in connectors to assemble a phone? Not with this machine and software.
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While he is definitely a controversial theorist in AI/Robotics circles, no one denies his ability to get things done. His (and his student's) research has been used in a lot of the ad
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It is clear the interviewed person has never programmed existing industrial robots.
Thus, if the object fell out, it would stop (or do something else). This is different from how existing industrial robots work -- they'd just merrily continue the pick-and-place without the object.
I have programmed industrial robots of different kinds for the last eight years, and I have not worked with - or even seen - a robot which does not detect when it drops something and reacts to it. Many existing robots can differentiate between different products by grasping them, and there are sensors which can identify products on sight or by size.
Directly manipulating the robot to teach it has been attempted by ABB and othe
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Mod up. The voice of experience.
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Finally, a device to punch someone in the face (Score:2)