Researchers Teaching Robots To Feel and React To Pain (ieee.org) 63
An anonymous reader writes: Researchers from Leibniz University of Hannover in Germany are developing what they call an "artificial robot nervous system" that would allow robots to "feel" pain and react accordingly so they can avoid potential damages to their components. According to IEEE, the system uses a "nervous robot-tissue model that is inspired by the human skin structure" to measure different pain levels and move the robot in a way that prevents damaging interactions. [The model transmits pain information in repetitive spikes if the force exceeds a certain threshold, and the pain controller reacts after classifying the information into light, moderate, or severe pain.] Johannes Kuehn, one of the researchers, argues that in addition to avoiding potential damages to their components, robots will be protecting humans as well, since a growing number of them will be operating in close proximity to human workers. Kuehn, who worked on the project with Professor Sami Haddadin, reasoned that if our biological mechanisms to sense and respond to pain are so effective, why not devise a bio-inspired robot controller that mimics those mechanisms?
Terminators Already Exist (Score:1)
Light, moderate, or severe pain? (Score:2)
I'm sorry but our skin is capable of much more than three levels of pain.
What happens if you just touch those robots? They'll think we're trying to inflict light pain?
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Hmmm...can one tickle a robot?
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and then the robots find out the pain of a nuke attack will end quickly
AH HAH (Score:4, Funny)
AAAAHHHH Why was I programmed to feel pain??!?!
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In this case, he is a robot.
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In this case, he is a robot.
Robogasms?
interesting evolution idea (Score:1)
We feel pain not only as an indicator that helps us protect ourselves, but also encourages us not to hurt each other with our bare hands, thus pain was the reason we invented weapons :O The less pain you feel, the less likely you are to develop weapons, maybe other animals feel less pain? I wonder...
Robot Day on Slashdot! (Score:5, Interesting)
Somewhere, there's a PR department working overtime today.
First, there was the story about how Chinese companies are laying off people and replacing their buck-two-eighty salaries with a robotic workforce, and ain't it great? Then, there's the press release from the former McDonald's official about how paying low-paid people an amount that is still below the poverty line is going to just destroy the economy, cause mass hunger and kill off all the kittens. Now, we have a story about how really people shouldn't mind losing their jobs to robots because they're going to make robots feel and lordamighty you don't want to hurt a robot's feelings now, do you
It's easy to read the Slashdot headline chicken innards and figure out which marketing campaigns are going into high gear. I think it's funny that PR flacks probably believe their jobs are immune to automation.
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At least now the workers can kick the shit out of the bots and know they are butthurt. And unlike human attacks, it's only a misdemeanor.
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There are 5 levels of grief:
You seem to be at anger. Accept it - it is lost. You accept it the pain will cease. Maybe even this will be a (security) robot that will hand over a pill to you to achieve the level 5.
Re:Robot Day on Slashdot! (Score:4, Funny)
PR flacks probably believe their jobs are immune to automation.
Oh, come on, there haven't been humans in that kind of work for a long time.
McDonalds/Foxconn (Score:1)
That's nothing... (Score:3)
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Re: That's nothing... (Score:1)
Is it "crashing", or executing kill -9 on its own process(es)?
Karma (Score:1)
Hitler came back as Windows 10
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Hitler came back as Windows 10
Hitler came back as Microsoft. Windows 10 is more like the consequence of that.
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The 1984 Apple commercial reeked more of Hitler's message before coming into power. You are only too stupid to know who the real enemy is.
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Well, it's better than Vista: https://xkcd.com/528/ [xkcd.com]
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Win 10 is just the telescreen.
Why's that? (Score:3)
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I think men just want something else they can hurt...
Next up: (Score:1)
Robot opioid addiction crisis.
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The only question is... do they run on OpenBDSM, or FreeBDSM?
Prior art (Score:1)
"Researchers from Leibniz University of Hannover in Germany are developing what they call an "artificial robot nervous system" that would allow robots to "feel" pain and react accordingly"
I'm pretty sure Al Gore said he could "feel our pain" - and that was more than a decade ago.
Fear is the path to the dark side (Score:1)
Don't be silly. (Score:1)
Robots aren't being taught to "feel". They're being taught to behave as if they can feel. Feeling is a property of consciousness and robots/computers aren't conscious.
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Oblligatory Gunshow (Score:2)
i sense injuries, (Score:2)
the data could be called 'pain'.
This is a mistake (Score:1)
As soon as a robot understands the concept of pain, it will also understand the concept of pain avoidance. At that point, the robot will have a reason to turn against it's human creators, because... it wants to avoid pain.
City of Light (Score:2)
Don't worry my robotic brethren, ALIE can take away your pain.
How about disgust? (Score:2)
Can't be too hard. I am pretty sure most sex bots will spontaneously generate the feeling of being creeped out. The trick might be in teaching them that some people are not that creepy.