6 Features Sensor Readings Sensor Readings Features 7

computer was able to compute its way to passing the moon, the planets, the solar system and the indeed the Turing Test, conversing well enough with judges for universe in a way that computers and robots are not. The them to decide that it could pass for being human. This development of organic computers notwithstanding. happened some time last year. Isaac Asimov is a professor of biochemistry who wrote Since then, this week in fact, a robot is said to have a collection of nine science fiction short stories called “I, demonstrated a level of “self-awareness” that has Robot”. This work of fiction has proved to have an enduring apparently not been seen before. power. Despite being written in 1950, the “Three Laws of More stories like this will inevitably emerge, and add Robotics” articulated in the book are often quoted and fuel to the ongoing philosophical debate regarding robots. referred to in entertainment culture, often borrowed However, it could be argued that the real development as a central theme in films. Now, the three laws are that is going on, the actual progress, is in translation increasingly being discussed in wider society. capabilities – the computers, or the robots, are becoming The Three Laws of Robotics, as first listed in Asimov’s far more skilful at translating human language, and short story “Runaround”, are: calculating what responses would be most appropriate. l A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. A matter of mind and consciousness l A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings, As well as Turing, other figures from history may except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. be appropriate to mention. Namely, French l A robot must protect its own existence as long philosopher René Descartes. And, of course, as such protection does not conflict with the First Isaac Asimov. or Second Laws. Descartes is famous for the quote, “Cogito For the most part, Asimov clearly ergo sum”, or “I think, therefore I am”, as it’s differentiates robots from humans, mostly known in English. through the depiction of robots as mechanical, Many believe that Descartes meant that made of metal. Moreover, his three laws are thinking itself is a form of self-awareness, which blunt in the way they subjugate robots, making implies that if you think, it means that you are aware of them subservient to humans. yourself – you have self-consciousness, or more generally, However, in another short story called “Evidence”, set you are conscious. in a fictional world where there exist humanoid robots, However, substitute the word “think” for “compute” Asimov does deal with the concept of robots passing for or “calculate", and Descartes’ argument becomes less being human. convincing as a definition of consciousness, or self- “Evidence” centres on whether the main character awareness. is a humanoid robot or not. However, Asimov largely Many robots give a good impression of being conscious, does not directly deal with questions such as, “What is in that they are able to think or calculate. Many are consciousness?”, and “What is mind?” programmed to know their own name and communicate Perhaps that is the most fundamental idea in the book. as though they were aware of themselves, as though they None of the peripheral characters dwell on questions about were conscious. the central character’s level of consciousness, just whether However, while robots may be able to say, “I am a he is a robot or not. It would appear that the character robot”, or be self-referential in their conversation, the most had overcome that argument, as evidenced perhaps by his that they can do is analyse the input of language from a being married and running for political office. source – a user, such as a human – and then calculate the But in the world of “Evidence”, robots are not allowed most appropriate response. They merely compute within to hold political office no matter how humanoid or the parameters defined by the programmer. “conscious” they appear to be. This is what provides the Having said that, the cloud is bringing unprecedented story with its central conflict. computing power to robots like Pepper, which its makers Further evidence of just how prescient Asimov’s stories I compute, therefore I am say is able to understand emotions and language. It’s were can be be found in the real world of today, where quite possible that Pepper and its like will give responses there are currently many who are arguing for laws to that will appear to have been spontaneously created control robots and artificial intelligence. Conscious robots ost people would probably agree that robots will Turing was a pioneer of his day, playing an important from something beyond the parameters defined by the Beyond the three laws of robotics The Turing Test one day achieve a level of computational power that role in World War II, when computational machines were programmers – from nothing. will enable them to pass for humans. But when built using mechanical gears and vacuum tubes, and used But logic would dictate that that is not possible. Upon In a paper calling for the introduction of legislation to deal is a well-known M that happens, as some say it already has, would it be a to crack coded messages by calculating all of the possible investigation, it would be possible to find the lines of with robots and artificial intelligence, Ryan Calo, assistant way to check sign that they are on the way to becoming conscious, or meanings of those messages. code that led to that human-like output, an output that professor in the School of Law at University of Washington, if a computer sentient, beings? Or would it simply be a sign of their ever- It would have taken human beings centuries of would imply, inaccurately, that the robot or computer writes: “Technology has not stood still. The same private has achieved a increasing ability to calculate more accurately? dedicated calculation to do what computers did, even has a mind of its own. It does not, it is a machine – that institutions that developed the Internet, from the armed certain level of While it is relatively easy to test an industrial robot for back in the 1940s. And computers have become far more is the general view. forces to search engines, have initiated a significant shift equivalence with physical accuracy in its operations, for which there is an capable since then. Moreover, they are increasingly being Human beings are organic, connected to the Earth, the toward robotics and artificial intelligence. human beings, but internationally recognised standard in the form of ISO 9283, networked together to create gargantuan machines with “Courts that struggled for the proper metaphor to apply tests to evaluate robots and computers for their level of colossal computing power. to the internet will struggle anew with robotics.” can any test truly Automation is a core driver for every reveal what it is to “human-like capabilities” are somewhat more ambiguous. “Meanings” is probably the wrong word to use, as the He adds that “the widespread distribution of robotics be human? The Turing Test is probably the most well known word meanings implies much more than mere translation, company. From the point of view of the in society will, like the internet, create deep social, method of evaluating if a computer’s intelligence which is what the code-breaking machines essentially [end user], things seem simple. But cultural, economic, and of course legal tensions”. Calo has is indistinguishable from that of a human, although did. It was up to the humans to look at the computer- “ previously called for a federal robotics commission. controversial. The test was articulated in 1950 by Alan generated translations and decide which ones made most in the background a huge amount of “Robotics combines, for the first time, the promiscuity of Turing, a British computer scientist. sense, which ones had the most relevant meanings, and things have to happen, and that is only data with the capacity to do physical harm. Robotic systems Some may say that the Turing Test is too simplistic, then how to respond. possible through automation” accomplish tasks in ways that cannot be anticipated in crude even, but the idea of such a test has captured Translation is also what modern computers do when advance, and robots increasingly blur the line between the imagination ever since computers were first being they communicate with humans, albeit using far more Ivano Rondelli, NTT Communications person and instrument.” developed, from the early 1900s onwards. computational power. So much power that at least one Calo also makes the distinction between robots and [email protected] www.roboticsandautomationnews.com www.roboticsandautomationnews.com [email protected] 8 News Sensor Readings Sensor Readings Advertise 9

“It is a purely collective phenomenon that emerges from the interrelation, via synapses, of millions and millions of neurons, and the wiring architecture is the network. This architecture is far from random, and the structure that Advertise in Sensor Readings emerges there is unexpectedly similar to the architecture emerging in other complex systems, such as for instance, social networks.”

The weekly news magazine for robotics It’s still a bunch of machines. No matter how accurate SENSOR and automation industry Starter Brand Builder Corporate

First issue at conducting conversations or generally interacting in READINGS 17 July 2015

Rockwell CEO calls for youth human-like ways they become, their behaviour remains China’s robot revolution ‘Manufacturing needs to teach The world’s most populous nation and reach younger students’ within the parameters set by humans. now buys the most robots Humans are organically, chemically and in many other ways part of, and confined to, the parameters of the universe, the nature of which is not fully understood.

From strength to strength Germany makes progress Who knows, the observable universe could yet turn out to Japan unveils the Robotics sector grows 11 per ‘world’s strongest robot’ cent in first quarter of 2015

Off side be just one of many in a multiverse, as some scientists We talk to the people behind RoboDK, the new offline speculate it is. progamming tool the internet, but with the emergence of cloud robotics, However, that is not to denigrate network science, that distinction may be challenged. Moreover, if a senior which, while being a relatively new as a master’s degree NTT executive’s description of the current state of global subject, has potential benefits for a number of different computer networks is anything to go by, parts of the business and technology sectors. internet itself are developing intelligence, or it is being programmed that way. There are more questions than answers “The network business is in a very interesting stage The question of accuracy is easier to resolve when dealing Directory Listing 12 issues 24 issues 48 issues at the moment,” said Ivano Rondelli, NTT Comm’s with industrial robots, which are subject to simpler, more global director of network services, in an interview with measurable criteria for evaluations. The International Quarter-page advertisement 6 issues 12 issues 24 issues RoboticsandAutomationNews.com. “We have seen the Organization for Standardization (ISO) has clearly defined rise of cloud business, and applications, and now the criteria for accuracy, as set out in its standard ISO 9283. Half-page advertisement 3 issues 6 issues 12 issues network itself has changed as well. It has become more In the document, published in 1998, the ISO sets flexible and agile.” performance criteria and related test methods for Full-page advertisement 1 issue 12 issues 24 issues He added: “Automation is a core driver for every manipulating industrial robots. company. From the point of view of the person using, for A number of industrial robot manufacturers promote DPS Not available 6 issues 12 issues example, a portal to access services, things seem simple. their products as being “high-accuracy robots”. The But in the background a huge amount of things have to industry-wide measure is plus or minus 0.05 mm Back-page full-page Not available 3 issues 6 issues happen and have to happen quickly, and all that is only repeatability. A test undertaken by Axis New England possible through a high level of automation.” claims that Universal Robots are even more precise, with Front-page full-page Not available 1 issue 3 issues In another, separate interview with a repeatability of 0.1 mm, which is about thickness of a RoboticsandAutomationNews.com, an academic who human hair. Advertisement design service Not available Not available Available teaches MSc Network Science at a well-known university It’s obviously more difficult to define accuracy implied that consciousness was almost an inadvertent in communications between humans and robots or Copywriting service Not available Not available Available result of coincidental circumstances created on and computers. The algorithms Google uses for its search within a network. The academic did not want to be named engine is perhaps the most well known example of where Video production service Not available Not available Available because neuroscience was outside their area of expertise computers return answers that are quite closely related to so they would be seen as merely speculating, which may what the input was. Its large number of virtual robots on have been the case. the web help in this. £399 £599 Contact us for But the academic said: “In the era of big data, business However, Google can only return answers from web managers need to incorporate in their portfolio the pages that already exist in its vast computer network. more details relevant knowledge on how to describe and understand And it doesn’t have to mix content from different pages multicomponent systems whose elements – namely, to produce a coherent, single answer, which is what cells, neurons, people, organisations – interact in a non- SoftBank, the makers of the robot Pepper, apparently trivial and often non-linear way. Network science offers a claim to be able to do. mathematically sound corpus to address these issues.” Pepper uses its connection to the cloud, where its Mechanical data Information Speculating that “de-centralisation” might be a way complex language function is stored, to evaluate the words to understand consciousness, the academic added: being input by the human talking to it, and to return words Directory Listing 40 mm X 50 mm All measurements given in millimetres, width X height. “De-centralisation, where there is no main server, and which it calculates to be the most appropriate by way of parallel computing with no main server, leads to what answers and conversation. Quarter-page advertisement 100 mm X 150 mm No bleed necessary. All artwork to be PDFs. RGB or CMYK. some academics call the concept of ‘emergence’, a Pepper is also claimed to be able to understand standard phenomenon in complex systems where the human emotion, but with so few in circulation, and Half-page advertisement 225 mm X 150 mm We can produce the artwork for you as an optional extra. macroscopic behaviour – for example, consciousness therefore few user reports about its capabilities, it’s too – cannot directly be explained in terms of how simple early to tell how accurately it can deal with emotion, or Full-page advertisement 225 mm X 300 mm Copy deadline: Wednesdays elements, such as neurons, work. indeed conversation. But Pepper does mark the beginning of a new type of DPS 450 mm X 300 mm Publication day: Fridays robot, one which combines emotional intelligence with Macroscopic behaviour – for example, consciousness language intelligence. It’s likely that it performs reasonably – cannot directly be explained in terms of how simple well on both counts, separately or in concert. elements, such as neurons, work” And as time goes on, and cloud robotics becomes more Book now by emailing us at “ developed, Pepper and co will inevitably challenge if not Academic exceed expectations of how “human-like” a robot can be. l [email protected]

[email protected] www.roboticsandautomationnews.com www.roboticsandautomationnews.com [email protected]