Page 28 - Sensing, Intelligence, Motion : How Robots and Humans Move in an Unstructured World

INTRODUCTION 3

dishwasher-shaped robot—may sound somewhat slim; nevertheless, the work on
anthropomorphic robots still goes on, especially in Japan and from time to time
in the United States and Europe.
The reasons behind the strong interest in robotics technology have little to do
with Hollywood dreams. Producing a machine that can operate in a reasonably
arbitrary environment will allow us to automate a wide span of tasks.
If some of us feel that we have more than enough automation already, this
feeling is not necessarily due to our ambivalence about machines. It is hard to feel
a need for something that does not exist. Think, for example, of such modern-day
necessities as paper towels and paper napkins. Who would think of “needing”
them back in the nineteenth century, before they became available?
To have a sense of what is the “right” amount of automation, consider the
extent of automation in today’s industrialized world, and then consider the kind
of automation we may have if the right technology becomes available. Wouldn’t
we welcome it if our dishwashers knew how to collect dirty dishes from the
table, drop the solid waste into the waste basket, slightly rinse the dishes under
the faucet, put them into the dishwashing basin—and only then proceed to what
today’s dishwashers do—and later of course put the clean dishes and silverware
where they belong? More seriously, wouldn’t we embrace a machine capable of
helping an old person prolong her independent living by assisting with simple
household chores such as answering the doorbell, serving food, and bringing
from the closet clothing to wear? How about a driverless security car patrolling
the streets and passing along information to the police control room; automatic
waste collection and mail delivery trucks; driverless tractors and crops picking
machines in farms? There is no end to this list.
Then there are tasks in which human presence is not feasible or highly unde-
sired, and for which no expense would be too big: demining of minefields in
countries after war (there is no shortage of these in recent years); deep-sea oil
exploration; automatic “repairmen” of satellites and planet exploration vehicles;
and so on. For example, unlike the spectacular repairs of the Hubble Space Tele-
scope by astronauts, no human help will be feasible to its one-million-miles-away
replacement, the James Webb Space Telescope—only because the right robots
do not exist today. Continuing our list in this fashion and safely assuming the
related automation will be feasible at some point, observe that only a small
fraction, perhaps 5% or so, of tasks that could and should be automated have
been automated today. Robotics is the field we turn to when thinking about such
missing automation. So, why don’t we have it? What has been preventing this
automation from becoming a reality?
It may sound surprising, but by and large the technology of today is already
functionally ready for many of the applications mentioned above. After all, many
factory automation machines have more complex actuators—which translates into
an ability to generate complex motion—than some applications above require.
They boast complex digital control schemes and complex software that guides
their operation, among other things. There is no reason why the same or similar
schemes could not be successful in designing, say, a robot helper for the homes of