Page 35 - Introduction to AI Robotics

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1 From Teleoperation To Autonomy
partment of Mechanical and Material Engineering at the University of West-
ern Australia developed a robot called Shear Majic capable of shearing a live
sheep. People available for sheep shearing has declined, along with profit
margins, increasing the pressure on the sheep industry to develop economic
alternatives. Possibly the most creative use of robots for agriculture is a mo-
bile automatic milker developed in the Netherlands and in Italy. 68;32 Rather
than have a person attach the milker to a dairy cow, the roboticized milker
arm identifies the teats as the cow walks into her stall, targets them, moves
about to position itself, and finally reaches up and attaches itself.
Finally, one of the most compelling uses of robots is for humanitarian pur-
poses. Recently, robots have been proposed to help with detecting unex-
ploded ordinance (land mines) and with urban search and rescue (finding
survivors after a terrorist bombing of a building or an earthquake). Human-
itarian land demining is a challenging task. It is relatively easy to demine an
area with bulldozer, but that destroys the fields and improvements made by
the civilians and hurts the economy. Various types of robots are being tested
in the field, including aerial and ground vehicles. 73

1.3.1 Social implications of robotics
While many applications for artificially intelligent robots will actively reduce
risk to a human life, many applications appear to compete with a human’s
livelihood. Don’t robots put people out of work? One of the pervasive
themes in society has been the impact of science and technology on the dig-
nity of people. Charlie Chaplin’s silent movie, Modern Times,presented the
world with visual images of how manufacturing-oriented styles of manage-
ment reduces humans to machines, just “cogs in the wheel.”
Robots appear to amplify the tension between productivity and the role of
the individual. Indeed, the scientist in Metropolis points out to the corporate
ruler of the city that now that they have robots, they don’t need workers
anymore. People who object to robots, or technology in general, are of-
LUDDITES ten called Luddites, after Ned Ludd, who is often credited with leading a
short-lived revolution of workers against mills in Britain. Prior to the indus-
trial revolution in Britain, wool was woven by individuals in their homes
or collectives as a cottage industry. Mechanization of the weaving process
changed the jobs associated with weaving, the status of being a weaver (it
was a skill), and required people to work in a centralized location (like hav-
ing your telecommuting job terminated). Weavers attempted to organize and
destroyed looms and mill owners’ properties in reaction. After escalating vi-