Page 162 - Modern Robotics Building Versatile Macines

142 Modern Robotics

by rote. Moravec foresees a second generation of universal robots
with a processing power of 30,000 MIPS (roughly equivalent to a
mouse brain). These second-generation robots would be equipped
with learning or “conditioning” modules that would reinforce those
approaches to a task that work best. (“Best” might be defined as
a combination of efficiency, low energy use, and lack of damage
through mishaps.)
Moravec’s third generation of robots (10 million MIPS or a mon-
key equivalent) would have a big boost of cognitive power. They
would have a database that includes physics and physical properties
of objects, “knowing” how humans use and refer to objects, and
some grasp of human psychology and behavior.
The fourth generation would reach humanlike processing levels
(300 million MIPS), would be comfortable with abstractions, and
could apply its reasoning to any domain in which it finds itself.

Meanwhile, Back at the Warehouse

By 2003, Moravec had a reputation as a way-out futurist. Together
with inventor and artificial intelligence pioneer Ray Kurzweil,
Moravec was associated with ideas such as robots that could
produce anything desired or perform any service required, not to
mention the possibility that humans could download their minds
into humanoid robots and achieve virtual immortality. Such talk
made for popular lectures and media interest, but Moravec then
surprised a number of observers by taking on a more practical
challenge.
Robots, after all, do not need to be as smart as people to be use-
ful to people. In a Scientific American article, Moravec said that he
expects that self-navigating mobile robots, for example, will become
increasingly prevalent during the next decade. Pursuing this vision,
Moravec cofounded SEEGRID Corporation in 2003. (As he told
Scientific American writer Chip Walter, “It was time. The comput-
ing power is here.”)
The roots for the new technology were in Moravec’s proposal
for an advanced mobile robot vision system, which was funded in