The Coming Robot Revolution (eBook)

Dr. Yoseph Bar-Cohen is a Senior Scientist and Group Supervisor at the Jet Propulsion Lab [http://ndeaa.jpl.nasa.gov/], NASA/Caltech, specializing in electroactive materials and devices as well as biomimetic mechanisms. Famous for his pivotal role in artificial muscles, many news articles describe him as the "artificial muscle" man and per Business week he is one of five technology gurus who are "Pushing Tech's Boundaries". Dr. Bar-Cohen received his Ph. D. in physics (1979) from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel. Some of his notable discoveries include the leaky Lamb waves (LLW) and polar backscattering (PBS) phenomena in composite materials. He (co)authored over 300 publications, made numerous presentations at national and international conferences, (co)chaired 37 conferences, has 19-registered patents and he is the (co)editor of 4 books with the topics that include artificial muscles, biologically inspired robots and biomimetics. He is the initiator of the SPIE Conf. on electroactive polymers (EAP), chairing it since 1999. He challenged wrestling match between an arm driven by EAP and human and held contents in 2005 and 2006. Dr. Bar-Cohen’s research and accomplishments with his teams received extensive media coverage including journals, magazines, radio and TV interviews as well as internet coverage in many thousands of websites [http://ndeaa.jpl.nasa.gov/nasa-nde/nde-aa-l/newsclipping.htm]. His scientific, engineering and technology accomplishments have earned him Fellow of the American Society for Nondestructive Testing (ASNT), since 1996, and The International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE), since 2002. Also, he is the recipient of two NASA Honor Award Medals - NASA Exceptional Engineering Achievement Medal (2001), and NASA Exceptional Technology Achievement (2006), two SPIE’s Lifetime Achievement Awards – NDE (2001) and Smart Materials and Structures (2005), the 2006 ASNT Sustained Excellence award the 2007 SPIE President’s Award as well as many other honors and awards. Further information is available at http://ndeaa.jpl.nasa.gov/nasa-nde/yosi/yosi.htm Dr. David Hanson is the founder and Chairman/CEO of Hanson Robotics. He is an Artist/scientist who creates realistic humanoid robots (a.k.a. androids), which are noted for being conversationally intelligent, energy efficient, and designed as novel works of character art/animation. In 2005, the low-power mobility of Hanson's robots was demonstrated within the world's first expressive walking humanoid, an Einstein portrait called "Albert Hubo," appearing on the cover of WIRED magazine, Jan. 2006. Hanson’s patented Frubber (Flesh-rubber) material makes this low-power mobility possible. In addition to hardware innovations, Hanson and his company (Hanson Robotics Inc., http://www.hansonrobotics.com/) are known for developing increasingly intelligent conversational personas, integrating many forms of artificial intelligence (AI) including speech recognition software, natural language processing, computer vision, and Hanson's own AI systems to hold naturalistic conversations. In 2005 Hanson and his team received an AAAI award for the intelligent conversational portrait of Philip K Dick [AI Magazine, fall 2005]. By simulating the integrated conversational human, such robots enable design studies of general intelligence in machines, paving a continuum toward true machine sentience over coming years. Hanson's robots have been extensively covered in the news media, including in the NY Times, Ubiquity, WIRED, Popular Mechanics, the Science Channel, Popular Science, the Discovery Channel, and many other media venues. Hanson has received awards in both art and engineering, including Cooper Hewwit Triennial award, National Science Foundation STTR award, and a TX Emerging Technologies Award. Hanson received a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design in 1996, and his PhD from the University of Texas at Dallas in 2007. GRAPHIC ARTIST BIO Ms. Adi Marom is a designer/artist with a Masters of Design Engineering from The University of Tokyo, Japan (2005) and a BA Design from Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem, Israel (1999). Her work experience includes working at the New York based Hoberman Associates - Transformable Design studio; the Tokyo based studio Landscape Products; as well as the Tel-Aviv based Studio de Lange. Ms. Marom’s multidisciplinary practice includes graphic and product design. In this creative framework, she specialized in the design of innovative kinetic products based on folding mechanisms. Ms. Marom’s Masters studies focused on the field of Biomimetics and addressed the challenge of applying natural deployable structures into man made objects. For instance, she applied the mechanical properties of carnivorous plants’ traps in the design of artificial autonomous pets - sustainable by trapping organic substrates. Ms. Marom’s designs have been featured in tradeshows and exhibitions around the world, garnering her international awards and media publications. Her designs have been exhibited at Milan's international furniture show "Salone International Del Mobile" (Italy 2001); the traveling exhibition "Domains - Contemporary Israeli Design Exhibition" (Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan and Australia 2002-2004), and "The Tokyo International Gift Show" (Japan 2005). Her works have been featured in international magazines such as Casa Brutus (Japan 2002); Binyan Ve Diyur (Israel 2004); Joong Ang Daily (Korea 2003). In addition, her illustrations were featured in the book "Biomimetics: Biologically-Inspired Technologies" by Dr. Yoseph Bar-Cohen (Ed.), CRC Press, November 2005.

The Coming Robot Revolution 2
Preface 5
Acknowledgements 7
Contents 9
About the Authors 10
Introduction 12
Humanoids 13
Humanlike Robots 15
Brief Historical Perspective 18
The State-of-the-art: Fiction and Reality 23
Why Make Humanlike Robots? 26
Humanlike Form Allows Us to Better Understand Robots 27
Humanlike Robots Help Us Understand and Improve Ourselves 27
Should we Fear Humanlike Robots? 28
Summary 28
Bibliography 29
Emerging Humanoids and Humanlike Robots 32
Humanoids 33
Humanoids with Legged Locomotion 33
Reborg-Q Security Robots 33
Enon 35
Wakamaru 35
Robonaut 36
PaPeRo 37
Humanoids with Legged Locomotion 37
HOAP-2 40
Asimo 40
J4 Humanoid 40
HRP-3P 40
KIST’s Legged Robots 41
Mahru and Ahra 41
Centaur 41
Pino 41
FT and Chroino 42
QRIO 42
VisiON NEXTA 43
Kiyomori 43
Partner Robots 43
Kotaro 45
Robosapien 45
Today’S Humanlike Robots 45
EveR-2 Muse 46
Zeno 47
Chinese Humanlike Robots 48
Japanese Humanlike Robots 49
Humanlike Robot Combos 51
Robots with Humanlike Head 52
Other Humanoids around the World 52
Australia 53
Austria 53
Bulgaria 53
England 53
European Consortium 56
Germany 56
Italy 58
Russia 59
Singapore 59
Spain 59
United States 59
Robots in Health Care 61
Development Through Competition 63
Summary 63
Bibliography 64
How to Make a Humanlike Robot 67
Head 68
Artificial Skin 69
Expressive Face 70
Torso and Power Sources 72
Arms and Legs 73
Bipedal Ambulation 73
Hands and Manipulation 74
Actuators and Artificial Muscles 74
Sensors as Artificial Senses 77
Artificial Nose 78
Artificial Tongue 78
Artificial Vision 78
Artificial Intelligence 79
Summary 81
Bibliography 82
Prosthetics, Exoskeletons, and Bipedal Ambulators 85
Smart Prosthetics, Exoskeletons, and Assistive Devices 86
Artificial Organs and Neural Interfacing 88
Restoring Vision 89
Restoring Hearing 90
Smart Prosthetics 91
Prosthetics that Give Humans Superior Abilities 95
More About Exoskeletons 100
Legged Chairs 103
Future Developments 104
Cyber Love 104
Cyborgs 104
SUMMARY 106
Bibliography 107
Mirroring Humans 109
Sociable Robots 111
The art of Making Humanlike Robots 113
Aesthetics of Humanlike Robots 113
Introduction into Our Lives 114
Virtual and Actual Mimicking of Humans in Robots 115
Craftsmanship and Virtuosity 117
Bio-Inspired Versus Biomimetic 118
Aesthetic Biomimesis and Entertainment 119
Uncanny (Unheimlich) and Un-Kosher Humanlike Robots 120
Neuroscience and our Evolutionary Heritage 122
Twenty-First Century Art 122
Summary 124
Bibliography 124
Trends in Robotics 127
Robots as Servants of Humankind 130
Providing Artificial Eternal Life 138
Robots and Health Care 139
Legal Issues 142
The Potential Global Impact of Robots On Future Economies 143
The Far Future - How Much is Feasible? 144
Summary 145
Bibliography 146
Ethical Issues and Concerns-Are they going to continue to be with us or will they turn against us? 148
Should We Fear Humanlike Robots? 151
Phobias and Concerns 152
Religious Issues 155
Master-Slave Relations 156
Concerns of Right and Wrong 157
Humanlike Robots Versus Humans 160
How to Make Ethical Robots 162
Summary 162
Bibliography 164
A Whole New World 167
Concerns About the Development of Humanlike Robots 172
Challenges to Developing Humanlike Robots 173
Summary 174
Bibliography 176