Page 21 - Sensing, Intelligence, Motion : How Robots and Humans Move in an Unstructured World

xx PREFACE

As a Program for Continued Research and Development. To repeat the
statement above, today the Sensing–Intelligence–Motion (SIM) approach seems
to be the only paradigm that holds promise to bring about robot automation of
unstructured tasks. This is not because of some special sophistication of SIM
techniques, but simply because only SIM techniques take care of the necessary
whole body awareness of the robot and do it “on the fly,” in real time, making it
possible to handle a high level of uncertainty. And only this approach guarantees
results in this area when human intuition breaks down.
And yet, as one will see later, only a limited number of SIM algorithms and
sensing schemes for real-world robot systems have been explored so far. Much
of the theory and of algorithmic and hardware machinery that is necessary to
bring the SIM approach to full fruition lies ahead of us. The book starts on the
misty route that lies ahead and that has to be traversed if we are serious about
bringing automation into unstructured tasks. With the risk of being seen less than
balanced, I suggest that not many areas of computer science and engineering
can compete with the excitement, the required breadth of knowledge, and the
potential impact on society of the topics covered in this book.

Professional and commercial importance of robotics aside, robots have been
always of immense interest to the general public. Isaac Asimov’s robot heros are
household names. Crowds invariably surround fake robots (controlled by humans
from nearby buildings) on the Disneyland streets. Robot exploits on Mars or on
the Space Shuttle or in a minefield disarming operation make front pages of
newspapers. What excites laymen is a human-like behavior potential of a robot.
This book takes the reader further in this same direction by providing a solid
foundation behind one human-like ability of robots that was so far assumed to
be an inherent monopoly of humans—namely, the ability to think of and plan
one’s motion in an unstructured world.
Robots are often referred to derisively: “He moves like a robot,” “Yours is
a robot reaction,” “Hey, don’t behave like a robot.” What is meant is crude,
unintelligent, and mechanical; even the word “mechanical” signifies here crude
and unintelligent. Many mimes entertain the crowd on the street corners by
moving “like a robot”—that is, switching sharply from one movement to the
other and being oblivious to the surroundings.
That is not what robots should be and even are today. Examples in Chapter 8
will show that when equipped with means for self-awareness and with strategies
to use it, robots become sensitive to their surroundings, “pensive,” and even
1
gentle in how they “mind” their movement. A nonprofessional reader curious
about the possibilities of intelligent robots will find long layman-level passages in

1 Sharp “robot-like” movements have been a persistent science fiction-maintained myth. Many robot
applications—car painting is a good example—require smooth motion and simply cannot tolerate
sharp turns. Today’s industrial robots can generate a motion that is so smooth and delicate that it
may be the envy of “Swan Lake” ballerinas. For those who know calculus, what dancer can promise,
for example, a motion so smooth that both its derivatives have guaranteed continuity!