Why are people trying to make humanoid robots?

[brokenergy]

Because we feel attached to things that look more like us. It's a physological thing.

[Wyrdfire]

Well the LHC is trying to find new particles that can change the entire way we view the world.

I don't know if the LHC is going to change the way the view the world, but one thing I'm sure of is, it took 16 years and a consortium of 20 nations spending 10 billions to complete plus a yearly operating cost of 1 billion... and it doesn't work. The accelerator will shut down for 15 months for repairs and is scheduled to start up again in a couple of years.

 

So what if the Higgs boson doesn't exist at all? In my opinion, we're just throwing money out of the window in a time of deepening global crisis... and the same goes for robot soldiers.

 

/end rant

[hoofhearted4]

i do agree that there are better things we could spend out money on. if its not within budget or its not privately funded, then we shouldnt be sinking money into it....by budget i mean, hey if the US plans on 1 billion on things like the LHC, then so be it. but dont be spending 2 billion on something you only planned on spending 1 billion on....but such is the way of the crappy US government

[DrakeTheDragon]

You really need to take a read about the RoboCup international championships.

 

All over the world universities, colleges and institutes are working on creating intelligent robots and let them compete against each other to determine the best. The technical details and source code of the best will then be published to all contestors to improve on for the next season.

The measure of choice for their abilities is "games", the game of choice for computers was "chess", the game of choice for robots seems to be "soccer".

 

I don't know how much you're into robot development, but the RoboCup community claims to in 2050 have a team of soccer playing robots which can easily beat the human world champion team (just like Deep Blue beat Kasparov in Chess in 1997), and up to now they're not expecting to fail in this.

 

I was teaching the Sony Aibo robots to play soccer in a cooperating team of 4 for my university in the 4-legged league, until they got substituted by the new 2-legged "humanoids". I never understood how they could just let the famous Aibos, loved by all audiences for their dog-like appearance and cuteness, drop in favour of those... ugly humanoids, which back then couldn't even stand straight for more than a second, then fell over, but I guess they didn't have a choice as Sony was dropping the Aibos' development and the competitors were running out of spare parts.

 

It was always funny in the first times to watch such a "beast" walk up to the ball in what felt like half an hour, loosing balance, regaining it, stumbling over its own feet, just not yet falling already, positioning at the perfect point for a high-precision shot to the goal, always correcting to the left or right for another millimeter or less, then raise one of its feet for a felt eternity, always looking like it'd just fall over any second, then launching down the foot towards the ball with full power of the servos... only to miss it entirely about several inches and falling straight down on its back, unable to get back up again. One of our Aibos could have easily out-maneuvered that thing a 100 times while it was still trying to position for the perfect shot!... oh well, but the Aibos are gone now, sadly, and the humanoids are on the go. And from what I've last seen they're going pretty strong already!

 

I haven't yet seen any real "military" application in the RoboCup, but there's a multitude of different leagues other than soccer, and it was always mind-blowing to watch the creations of other teams from all over the world do their job in the presentations and seeing with your own eyes "how far" robot and a.i. development has really got already.

 

It's definitely worth a look! :thumbsup:

[RubikNight]

The first thing that comes to mind is so all the lonely people in world haves something to *ahem* you-know-what.

[everybodysop]

Because humans aren't very interesting :biggrin:

[Beriallord]

The intention of robots and machines is efficiency, to give a machine emotion defies all logic. Example, suppose you could make a cyborg, one with emotion might question an order given to it, but one without emotion would do exactly as commanded no matter the task without ever complaining.

[Maharg67]

The Japanese are the ones really big into making humanoid robots. Many robots designed around the world are far from humanoid. At most you have the factory ones that are just a robotic arm or you have something to explore Luna or Mars that has a limb. There are those robot vacuum cleaners, those ones used to deal with bombs and a whole lot of others being developed, upgraded, that are not 'cute' or 'amazing' enough looking to get much of a look at in the mass media for very long. The real robotic revolution is going on around us.

 

Humanoid robots would be good as companions, as special exhibitions for display such as primitive humans for a museum, as animated figures in a amusement theme park, as naughty companions, as extras on game shows etc. There will be niche markets for them. The vast majority of robots will not be humanoid because they will be designed for functionality, efficiency and to fulfill many tasks humans are not capable of doing or that are overly dangerous. Such could be vermin hunting robots going through the sewers, surveillance robots going through emptied oil pipelines, special amphibious robots patrolling the north or south polar regions on tracks, search and rescue helicopter drones seeking out missing people, fire fighting robots like big armoured beetles going into blazing houses to try to save people and so on.

 

Other possibilities are cyborgs and people in power armour suits of various kinds or even special forms of exoskeletal mechs.

[Dan3345]

So we can play table tennis with them.

 

Really, there are lots of ways humanoid robots can be useful. Maybe not as soldiers because that would be a horrible idea, but maybe as automated janitors. You wouldn't want a simple robot that just wheels around cleaning the floor or a 3 meter tall stick looking thingy, you would want something that can sweep the floor AND clean cobwebs out from the ceiling, so a human-like robot would come in handy for that.

 

You could also use them as security guards, custodians, tour guides, and even as doctors.

 

At least until they gain sentience and decide that humans are mean and burn us all in atomic fire :(

 

As for using robots as soldiers, I think simple 4 foot tall treaded robots would be useful as sentries or for reconnaissance and surveillance would be useful. Then you could use that extra manpower to put more firepower on the frontline.

I have to ask, does anyone actually believe this?

 

In the case of terminator style robot uprising, I believe it is completely impossible. All forms of robots, are just mobile computers. Computers run on software, and software runs on programming. You can't to my knowledge write a code that can write itself. And without the ability to write it's own code the only chance a machine would have of uprising would be if someone takes control of it or reprograms it themselves. Sure you could argue the machine could have a defect or a glitch but then most likely all we would have is an isolated machine (lets say a fighting war robot) shooting people because it is wrongly designating them a threat. To my knowledge this could happen today with Predator drones. Most of the time they are piloted by people, but some can and do fly on scouting missions with autopilot. However in this case the military is smart enough to disarm them, so again this is impossible. And I suppose another argument for the glitch would be that if they are all running on the same code and one has a horrible defect they all would. But in any military tech the code is very solid and devoid of bloating (so less bugs), and also if one has a glitch it doesn't necessarily mean they all would. Case and point:Skyrim. Most people can play it fine, but others do not.

 

I am no programmer though, but from what I do know this is what I think. :P

[zegh8578]

Is there any real reason for this? Seems like a massive waste of money to me.

 

there is a psychological reason behind it, as commented on in many sci-fis as well. whenever the time comes to work alongside robots (physically, such as robots helping the elderly, administering medication, etc) it is much easyer to relax and "relate" to a humanoid robot, than a big machine on tracks