Carroll County Times Articles
A Robot in Every Home . . . or Not
by Jeannine Morber – May 20, 2007
Science fiction of the 1950's and 60's depicted 21st century homes equipped with robots to cook our food, clean our homes and even care for our children. Television human beings entrusted 'Rosie' (The Jetsons), 'Hymie' (Get Smart) and 'Robot' (Lost in Space) with their lives and livelihood and often, it was the robots that saved the day.
Fifty years later, some of us actually do have robots in our homes. But unlike R2D2, the most difficult tasks these robots can handle are vacuuming the rugs, cleaning the pool or barking at the neighbors. The iRobot Corporation based in Burlington Massachusetts manufactures and distributes the Rhoomba, the Scooba and the Verro which will clean your rugs, floors and pool respectively. From 1999 to 2006, the Sony Corporation manufactured Aibo, the $2000 canine robot, which barks, wags its tail and with some tweaking plays dead.
These products are very innovative and fairly useful, but are these and similar products the only functional robots available for home use? Apparently yes.
When asked why this is so, most people would guess that there hasn't been enough advancement in the field of artificial intelligence to make robots for home use possible or even practical. This isn't entirely true; there have been incredible advances in AI over the last ten or twenty years, largely due to the research and development at academic institutions such as Stanford and MIT. In fact, according to the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence , in the 1990's there were major advances in the AI fields of "machine learning, intelligent tutoring, natural language understanding and translation, vision, virtual reality, gaming" and a long list of other topics.
Then why can't I buy a robot to cook my breakfast and fold my laundry? I received one possible answer to this question at a recent Robotics lecture on a college campus in Frederick. The lecturer, a college professor with advanced degrees in both computer science and psychology, discussed the latest creation by Honda Motor Company; ASIMO, the 4'3" humanoid robot. ASIMO, which stands for "Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility", can walk, run, climb stairs, understand and carry out simple voice commands, and even recognize people. The professor mimicked the robot's hunched posture and asked us why we thought he was designed to be so short in stature and walk so stooped over. Of course, the first answer that came to our minds was that a more compact design could make robotic walking, running and climbing easier to accomplish.
Not so, according to the lecturer. The real intention behind ASIMO's design is to appear as nonthreatening as possible in hope of warming the masses to the idea of robots in the home. It seems that the absence of home robots in the marketplace is not because of a lack of technology or a lack of research, but for a lack of interest on the part of consumers possibly due to fear.
It seems that our perception of robots has changed from the helpful Rosie and the stoic Hymie to the fearsome Terminator and the evil Borg. Or maybe, it's that our fascination with robots ends and our panic begins as soon as they walk out of the film screen and into our living rooms.
The Honda Motor Company has a Frequently Asked Questions document on their ASIMO website which includes some statements that seems to indicate their desire to dispel any fear of robots. For instance, the FAQ document states:
"ASIMO was created to be a helper of people in need."
"ASIMO's size also allows it to look directly at an adult sitting in a chair…"
"ASIMO will not be employed for any military purpose."
It's difficult to say whether this type of marketing will work and in ten or twenty years, there'll be a robot for every household. One thing I am quite sure of though, ASIMO will most likely never be programmed to say "I'll be back".
About the Author
Jeannine Morber has a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and is the Director of the Carroll Technology Council. Questions are welcome and may be addressed in future articles. Email mail@carrolltechcouncil.org or go to www.carrolltechcouncil.org to learn more.
The viewpoints expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Carroll Technology Council.
