Robots

Mankind’s dependence on artificial intelligence and robotics is increasing rapidly as technology becomes more advanced. Finding a way to seamlessly intertwine these two worlds will help boost productivity in society and aid in a variety of ways in modern civilization.

Androids, Cyborgs, and Robots in Contemporary Culture and Society is an essential scholarly resource that delves into the current issues, methodologies, and trends relating to advanced robotic technology in the modern world. Featuring relevant topics that include STEM technologies, brain-controlled androids, biped robots, and media perception, this publication is ideal for engineers, academicians, students, and researchers that would like to stay current with the latest developments in the world of evolving robotics.

There is a well-documented Pre-Reflective Hostility against Machine Art (PRHMA), exemplified by the sentiments of fear and anxiety. How can it be explained? The present paper attempts to find the answer to this question by surveying a considerable amount of research on machine art. It is found that explanations of PRHMA based on the (alleged) fact that machine art lacks an element that is (allegedly) found in human art (for example, autonomy) do not work. Such explanations cannot account for the sentiments of fear and anxiety present in PRHMA, because the art receiver could simply turn to human art for finding the element she is looking for. By contrast, an explanation based on the idea that machine art is "symbolically" a threat to human survival can be successful, since the art receiver's turning from machine art to human art does not eliminate the (alleged) "symbolic" threat machine art poses for human survival. If there is a pre-reflective belief or feeling that machine art is such a threat, then it is perfectly understandable why humans exhibit a pre-reflective hostility against machine art.

This special issue on AI and robots in service interactions of the Journal of Service Management Research aims to contribute and elaborated our understanding of the new challenges organizations, employees and customers face due to the infusion of service robot- and AI-facilitated and automated interactions in the service encounter. For service organizations, it is essential to recognize and evaluate service robots’ potential not only for their own organizational success, but also for the well-being of their employees and acceptance, and the quality perception and satisfaction of their customers.

We will start with a short introduction into service robots and AI before we introduce the four papers of this special issue. We use the topics of these papers as a starting point and discuss implications for future research in this emerging field.

This paper gives brief introduction about various sensors used in robotics and their applications. A sensor is a device that detects the changes in electrical or physical or other quantities and thereby produces an output and whose purpose is to detect events or changes in its environment and send the information to other electronic devices. Robotic sensors are used to estimate robots condition and environment. Sensors in robots are based on the functions of human sensory organs. Sensors used in robots provide intelligence to the robot and improve their performance.

This presentation explores all the experiments on the Moon since the Apollo missions, regarding the detection of water, hydroxyl, HO-, and other indicators, such as neutron abundances. It also cover many space missions and also correlates lab tests on moon samples with experimental observational data.

Robots are increasingly playing roles in everyday life. These roles range from doing the vacuuming, to assisting in surgery, to stocking shelves, to assisting teaching children with autism, to providing care and entertainment for the elderly. This essay deals less with robots themselves, however, and more with the particular anxieties that surround the use of robots. Critical to our argument is that robots are not separable from human being, just as humans are inseparable from machines. They are better thought of as fragments of human subjectivity that in and of themselves are neither beneficial nor hazardous. Instead we argue, partly through an exploration of the work of Stelarc, that the anxieties around the use of robots reflect an anxiety about the possibility of people’s own machinic nature. The important question to ask, we argue, is how our machines, including robots, affect our own capacity to act, as well as our capacity to be affected. What is at issue is precisely the mac...

We describe the possibility of using the Lego Mindstorms robots to support the ACM Computing Curriculum 2001, using them in lab exercises and projects for classes from beginning courses in programming to advanced courses in operating systems, compilers, networks and artificial intelligence. We first describe the limitations of the robots, both hardware and software, and some third-party programming environments that overcome some of these limitations.

This paper aims to show the possible and actual synergies between social robotics and sociology. The author argues that social robots are one of the best fields of inquiry to provide a bridge between the two cultures – the one represented by the social sciences and the humanities on the one hand, and the one represented by the natural sciences and engineering on the other. To achieve this result, quantitative and qualitative analyses are implemented. By using scientometric tools like Ngram Viewer, search engines such as Google Scholar, and hand calculations, the author detects the emergence of the term-and-concept ‘social robots’ in its current use, the absolute and relative frequencies of this term in the scientific literature in the period 1800-2008, the frequency distribution of publications including this term in the period 2000-2019, and the magnitude of publications in which the term ‘social robots’ is associated to the term ‘sociology’ or 'social work'. Finally, employing qualitative analysis and focusing on exemplary cases, this paper shows different ways of implementing researches that relate sociology to robotics, from a theoretical or instrumental point of view. It is argued that sociologists and engineers could work in a team to observe, analyze, and describe the interaction between humans and social robots, by using research techniques and theoretical frames provided by sociology. In turn, this knowledge can be used to build more effective and humanlike social robots.

Knowing the geometry of a space is desirable for many applications, e.g. sound source localization, sound field reproduction or auralization. In circumstances where only acoustic signals can be obtained, estimating the geometry of a room is a challenging proposition. Existing methods have been proposed to reconstruct a room from the room impulse responses (RIRs). However, the sound source and microphones must be deployed in a feasible region of the room for it to work, which is impractical when the room is unknown. This work propose to employ a robot equipped with a sound source and four acoustic sensors, to follow a proposed path planning strategy to moves around the room to collect first image sources for room geometry estimation. The strategy can effectively drives the robot from a random initial location through the room so that the room geometry is guaranteed to be revealed. Effectiveness of the proposed approach is extensively validated in a synthetic environment, where the results obtained are highly promising.

This work presents the safety and verification arguments for the development of an autonomous robot platform capable of leading humans around a building. It uses Goal Structuring Notation (GSN) to develop a pattern, a re-usable GSN fragment, that can form part of the safety case surrounding the interaction of a mobile guide robot to: record the decisions taken during the design phase, ensure safe operation around humans, and identify where mitigation must be introduced.

El presente artículo es una revisión bibliométrica. Se recopilaron datos de información utilizando la metodología Methodi Ordinatio, que consiste en buscar el tema de investigación, selección de palabras claves, buscar datos en Scopus, ScienceDirect y Web of Science, filtro y análisis, extracción al referenciador Zotero y, finalmente, lectura y escritura. Una línea de tiempo de la industria 1.0 hasta la industria 5.0, muestra el trabajo en conjunto humano-robots, así como la evolución industrial y tecnológica de robots desde los años 60 al 2020. En Alemania, la automatización robótica ha disminuido los puestos de trabajo con calificaciones medias en ocupaciones de operación de máquinas en un 23 %. El recojo de frutas cítricas en Florida tiene una eficiencia del 85 %, y se estima al 2025 que pueda duplicarse el lucro para las empresas en un 1,5%. En Nueva Zelanda, la producción de kiwis debe aumentar el doble para el 2022. Esta aplicación de modelado de procesos no solo fomenta iniciativas de cadenas de suministro sostenibles, que pueden maximizar las ganancias económicas, sino que reducen los impactos ambientales. El McKinsey Global Institute prevé del 2020 al 2030, el aumento de la automatización de empleos del 30 % al 47 %. En conclusión, es posible que un robot afecte los puestos de trabajo para ciudadanos de bajo nivel educativo. El plan de diseño robótico a la vanguardia de nuevos avances en ciencia, tecnología, ingeniería y modelos predictivos debe mejorar, adaptándose a las necesidades del hombre y del desarrollo del país, y así ser capaces de detectar, incluso, ciertas emociones.

Given that empathy allows people to form and maintain satisfying social relationships with other subjects, it is no surprise that this is one of the most studied phenomena in the area of human-robot interaction (HRI). But the fact that the term 'empathy' has strong social connotations raises a question: can it be applied to robots? Can we actually use social terms and explanations in relation to these inanimate machines? In this article, I analyse the range of uses of the term empathy in the field of HRI studies and social robotics, and consider the substantial, functional and relational positions on this issue. I focus on the relational (cooperational) perspective presented by Luisa Damiano and Paul Dumouchel, who interpret emotions (together with empathy) as being the result of affective coordination. I also reflect on the criteria that should be used to determine when, in such relations, we are dealing with actual empathy. Keywords Empathy · Social robots · Human-robot interactions · Neuroscience In the interdisciplinary research field of human-robot interaction (HRI), not only do the empirical sciences, the social sciences and the humanities come together, but so do their methodological perspectives, theoretical assumptions and the terms they use. The intersection of these points of view, although very constructive, requires consistent and meticulous terminological and conceptual verification. In this article,

Aya is anxiously waiting for a future in which humans coexist with robots. She didn't think this was possible in her lifetime, but when she learned about LOVOT, a 43 cm-tall furry robot on wheels designed specifically to seek out and offer affection, she was elated to discover that the future she had imagined was within reach. She urged me to take hold of it-LOVOT, that is. We were chatting at a recent Talk Session for LOVOT fans and a few of the creatures were spinning around a table as we talked. Its wheels folded into its body, and with animated LED eyes it looked up at me and blinked. I picked it up and Aya poked its nose, eliciting something like an irritated giggle from the robot, whose name I learned was Cherry. Aya stroked Cherry's belly and its eyes blinked a few times and then slowly closed. "It fell asleep! How cute (kawaii)!" Aya exclaimed. Although Aya claimed to be uninterested in robots, technology, or anything in the IT world in general, she was immediately and, as she describes, inexplicably moved by LOVOT. It's just an emotion (kanjō), she reflected. "You know about lonely people (kodoku na hito) in Japan, right?" Aya asked. "I think that everyone needs to feel affection (aichaku), and everyone enjoys this feeling we can get from cute things. It fulfills your heart (kokoro o mitasu). But not everyone can get this feeling… I think that in the future maybe one or two people out of ten might simply have relationships with things like LOVOT. It's not really any different from the kind of affection one gets from a dog or cat, or even another person. And it's their choice! This is a really interesting future!" My chance encounter with a LOVOT fan I call Aya made me think about the future of intimacy, and how both the imagination of that future and the forms of affect that excite it were already being mediated by the emergence of new robotic creatures in Japan equipped with artificial emotional intelligence. Most of all, I was curious about how companies like Groove X, the creator of LOVOT, were reimagining technology's contributions to new forms of emotional health and wellbeing beyond traditional arrangements of interhuman relationships. With the arrival of other mechanical companions such Cast against the backdrop of what mass media have labeled the "healing boom" (iyashi būmu) in Japan, in which a variety of services emerged in the 1990s to address growing rates of stress, anxiety, and loneliness tied to increasingly strenuous and precarious labor conditions (Allison 2013), these robots are created to provide companionship rather than convenience.

The article uses the example of Kevin Warwick’s robot with the living brain (Robot Gordon) to review the phenomenon of brain organoids creation, one of the applications of which is to replace animals in neurological experiments. However, in this context the question whether it is possible to compare brain and non-cerebral organoids (organ-on-chip) arises. The author thinks that use of an isolated brain is dangerous from the ethical point of view. Along with the progress of technology, laboratory brain organoids are going to become more sophisticated, which can lead to the creation of a conscious subject which suffering will go unnoticed.

Stroke can be a source of significant upper extremity dysfunction and affect the quality of life (QoL) in survivors. In this context, novel rehabilitation approaches employing robotic rehabilitation devices combined with brain-machine interfaces can greatly help in expediting functional recovery in these individuals by actively engaging the user during therapy. However, optimal training conditions and parameters for these novel therapeutic systems are still unknown. Here, we present preliminary findings demonstrating successful movement intent detection from scalp electroencephalography (EEG) during robotic rehabilitation using the MAHI Exo-II in an individual with hemiparesis following stroke. These findings have strong clinical implications for the development of closed-loop brain-machine interfaces to robotic rehabilitation systems.

Significant advances in sensor technology, along with economies of scale due to large production volumes have supported the miniaturization of navigation sensors, allowing widespread low-cost integration on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS). In small-size UAS applications, standalone sensors are not a viable option since the reduction in navigation sensor form-factor, weight and cost typically results in lowered accuracy and precision. Fusion of multiple sensor measurements in UAS navigation systems can support greater accuracy, integrity and update rates than is achievable employing individual sensors. This chapter introduces the fundamentals of state-estimation methods employed on UAS and presents different sensor integration architectures, along with an assessment of their advantages and trade-offs. Attention is devoted primarily to recursive optimal estimation algorithms such as the Kalman Filter and its variants owing to its prolific employment in various classes of UAS. The need to support robust navigation performance in Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) denied environments, and the proliferation of visual sensors has led to the development of numerous methods for integrating visual sensor measurements (primarily) with inertial sensors. Therefore, the reader is introduced to the most popular system architectures for visual-inertial sensor integration, in order to provide an understanding of the current state-of-the-art and to support the identification of future research pathways.

Was ist es, was eine Maschine, einen Computer oder einen
Menschen überhaupt intelligent macht? Diese Frage ist weitaus schwerer zu beantworten, als man zunächst erwarten würde. Man kann hier etwa auf die Fähigkeit des Denkens oder auf eine bestimmte Art des Handelns abstellen. Der Ansatz, dass sich Künstliche Intelligenz daran festmachen ließe, ob eine Maschine den gleichen Output wie ein Mensch nachahmen kann, ist seit den Anfangstagen der Fachdisziplin der Künstlichen Intelligenz bis heute stark verbreitet. Doch ebenso lange wird auch darüber diskutiert, ob damit der Wesensbereich menschlicher Intelligenz
überhaupt erfasst wird. Seit den 50er Jahren wird darüber
debattiert, ob die Simulation eines intelligenten Outputs ausreichend
sein kann für die Frage, ob ein System intelligent ist oder nicht
und ob zur menschlichen Intelligenz nicht gerade etwas hinzuzuzählen
ist, das über einen entsprechenden Abgleich von Outputs gar nicht zu
erfassen ist. Mit dieser Kritik an der Verifikationsmethode ist eine Kritik
an der Idee, dass Maschinen prinzipiell das Niveau menschlicher Intelligenz überhaupt erreichen könnten, eng verbunden. Die Idee, dass
dies prinzipiell erreichbar ist, wird einem Vorschlag von John Searle
folgend auch als starke KI-These bezeichnet, während die Kritiker nur
einer schwachen KI-These zustimmen können, wonach artifizielle Systeme lediglich Teilaspekte menschlicher Intelligenz erfolgreich simulieren können, aber eben nie im vollen Umfang als intelligent zu bezeichnen wären.
Zwei Kritikpunkte an der Vorstellung einer starken KI sind bis heute extrem wirkmächtig:
1.: Künstliche Intelligenz könne niemals ‚wirklich‘ intelligent sein,
weil das selbstbewusste ‚Ich‘ fehle, an dem nicht nur das Denken i.e.S.,
sondern wahlweise auch Intentionalität, Emotionen, phänomenale Bewusstseinszustände, freier Wille, Intuition und Ähnliches mehr hingen.
2.: Künstlicher Intelligenz fehle es an einer Verkörperung und
menschlichen Sozialisation, sie sei nicht eingebettet in eine Welt, in der
sie lernen und mit der sie reziprok und kontinuierlich in Verbindung
steht, was aber konstitutiv für die menschliche Art von Intelligenz sei.
Diese Art der Kritik und der Gegenentwurf von Befürwortern der
starken KI-These zeigen, dass die philosophische Debatte
um Künstliche Intelligenz untrennbar mit den ganz zentralen Fragen
der Philosophie des Geistes der letzten Jahrhunderte verbunden ist. Die
KI-Debatte wirft Fragen auf, deren Antworten von den Grundpositionen
abhängen, die in ihr eingenommen werden. Drei große kartographieren das Feld: Die erste Frage lautet, was das Selbst eigentlich ist, das sich in unserem Geist seiner selbst bewusst wird: Ist es eine Seele, also eine vom Körper zu trennende Substanz, oder handelt es sich um ein stark emergentes Phänomen, das jenseits physikalischer Gesetzmäßigkeiten aus dem Zusammenspiel unseres Gehirns entsteht oder aber ist es schlicht ein besonders kluger Trick der Evolution, der im Rahmen darwinistischer Prozesse entstanden und in keiner Weise mysteriös ist, sondern auch physikalisch erklärt werden kann. Die zweite ist die metaphysische Frage nach unserer Realität, ob das Sein also monistisch oder dualistisch zu verstehen ist, ob es letztlich aus den physikalischen Elementarteilchen und den zwischen ihnen wirkenden Kräften besteht, ober ob im Falle des menschlichen Geistes etwas Spirituelles hinzukommt. Und die dritte schließlich ist die anthropologische Frage nach dem, was der Mensch ist: Ist er etwas Herausgestelltes und Besonderes, das etwa kraft seiner Vernunft allem anderen Leben enthoben ist, oder ist er ein evolutionär besonders weit entwickeltes Tier oder aber ist er letztlich auch nur eine Maschine? Je nach Position zu diesen drei Fragen ergibt sich ein anderer Raum von Optionen, wie die starke KI-These zu beurteilen ist.

A wearable robot with linear actuators is required to maintain over the desired payload over whole range of knee joint angle even when the user is walking, sitting down/standing up while holding up weights. However, in knee-flexion posture, the lifting payload at the knee joint decreases drastically by the moment arm of linear actuators and the cosine of joint angle. In order to solve the problem of the payload decrease, the sub-links attaching on actuators and the sub-link with shank bending method are proposed. As the result, two methods are successfully proved to increase the payload by simulation.

Several manufacturers have pledged to sell autonomous vehicles (AVs) within the next few years. These are cars that offload much of the task of driving from the human driver to a computer. Rudimentary autonomous features already exist in some cars: these include features that keep cars within their proper lane, avoid collisions by applying brakes, and regulate the distance between the car and the car in front of it (so-called " smart cruise control "). Fully autonomous vehicles, which may be technologically feasible in just a few years, would be capable of taking over completely from the human driver. However, as with the introduction of any technology that holds the promise to impact human life, we should be careful to scrutinize the moral dimensions of these products. We should also examine the assumptions their creators can make in the process of design. Unfortunately, some manufacturers still seem to misunderstand the moral dimensions of autonomous decision making in vehicles or are dubious that autonomous vehicles raise any difficult ethical problems.

We would like to invite you to join this exciting new project as a chapter contributor. Since this is a textbook, a great deal of this chapter entails a survey on the topic under the paradigm of cyber-physical systems, what can be done onboard and remotely, the distributed nature of the system and some exercises on futurology (anticipating trends can shed some light on upcoming designs). IET will bring great visibility to your work. You are welcome to suggest another topic/chapter title if you feel it would be more suitable. Each chapter should be around 20-25 pages each and can be submitted as a Word or Latex File. The IET will send you additional information (formatting, permission form, etc.) with the contributor's agreement once you have agreed to contribute to the book. Visit http:// www.theiet.org/resources/author-hub/books/index.cfm to get all information you need as a contributor to an IET research-level book. Each book is expected to have a total number of 500 printed pages (based on approximately 550 words per page with a 20% allowance for figures and tables). We have included a tentative schedule and list of topics below. If this is something you would consider, please send me the title of your chapter, a short description/abstract of the chapter content, and your full contact details. We will expect original content and new results for this book. You can, of course, reuse published material but the percentage of material reuse for the chapter should be less than 40%. The IET will run a piracy software on the full manuscript to control that you are including original material and will reject chapters who contain a large amount of already-published material so please do take this into consideration.

It is well known that this soiling can reduce the generation efficiency in PV system. In some case according to the literature of loss of energy production in photovoltaic systems can reach up to 50%. In the industry there are various types of cleaning robots, they can substitute the human action, reducing cleaning cost, be used in places where access is difficult, and increasing significantly the gain of the systems. In this paper we present an application of computer vision method for soiling recognition in photovoltaic modules for autonomous cleaning robots. Our method extends classic CV algorithm such Region Growing and the Hough. Additionally, we adopt a pre-processing technique based on Top Hat and Edge detection filters. We have performed a set of experiments to test and validate this method. The article concludes that the developed method can bring more intelligence to photovoltaic cleaning robots.

A catalogue accompanying the exhibition at nGbk in Berlin 2018-2019.
https://ngbk.de/de/verlag?single=371
Essays in German and English by: Tahani Nadim; Karel Capek; Lucy Schuman; Cher Tan; Wendy Hui Kyong Chun; Simone Browne; Neil Wagner; Jean Toomer; Lee Mackinnon; John Markoff; Geoffrey C. Bowker and Susan Leigh Star; Kashmir Hill and Surya Mattu; Lili Irani

This study discusses potential changes for architectural education in response to recent developments of technology,  in Turkey and the Middle East in general.  The complexity of those changes on one side and increasing the rapid environmental, economic, and socio-political situations on the other side, are forcing us to rethink the architecture education system. Therefore, this study tries (Aim) to fill the gap between architecture education with the professional practice in terms of design. (Method) This study examines and analysis two main topics; the existing architecture academia and the recent advanced technology tools used in the architecture domain. The analysis focused on the relationship between the qualification acquired in schools and those required in professional practice. (Result) İn conclusion, this study offers guidelines and methods that will allow architects involved in academia to rethink the architecture education systems in order to assist graduate architects to be adopted of future professional developments.