Sunday, October 17, 2010

Rise of the Machines

There exists more than one million active industrial robots.
In Japan alone there's 300 robots for every 10k workers.

Now I don't believe that anytime soon robots will rise up and destroy us
as this is substance for sci-fi horror flicks such as The Terminator or Ghost in the Machine.
But, it's impossible to deny technology is steadily growing beyond human imagination,
which leaves humanity vulnerable for a product of science to someday come along which would surpass our brain and body capabilities.
Especially with the advancement of artificial intelligence,
and the drive to create robots with logic greater than or equal to the human brain.
Even using biological brains!

In July 2008, NASA's mars rover received orders to initiate a complicated maneuver,
scientists were unaware that the movement would have damaged the robots arm.
This was not unknown to the robot who upon realizing decided to disobey direct orders and shutdown.


Enter the Department of Defense's DevilRay, an autonomous flying war bot.
Containing onboard GPS, & a magnometer to locate power lines.
By using electromagnetic induction (basically an electricity straw), the bot sucks off power.
Thereby does not require fuel or even battery power, and theoretically has an infinite power source capable of rendering it immortal.


Take the iCub, which has the intelligence, learning ability and movement of a 3 year old.
Additionally open source, and fully customizable.
Capable of learning anything you program, including pseudoscience, biology, etc.
The possibilities are endless. In the right hands the iCub could learn the power of manipulation.



The University of Florida has created the Chew Chew, a gastrobot
which has a microbial battery powered by consuming meat, grass, or sugar.
It runs on a beta biomass engine system which can fuel itself on meat.


Cyclone Power is in the process of developing a digestion engine for
the Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot (EATR)
which theoretically can be powered by corpses.



A model developed by the University of the West of England
dubbed Slugbot consumes slugs to fuel itself.



Meet the Heart Robot, a machine that responds to love & affection.
Giving positive reactions to affectionate gestures, & negative reactions to spiteful actions.


Intelligent Systems Laboratory of Sweden have accidentally developed a robot that can lie,
and alternatively a sacrificing hero bot.
By conducting an experiment to determine which actions their individual robots would take they realized some would actually sabotage other bots to greater their chances of obtaining specific goals.

Urged to investigate in the aftermath of a 2008 incident where an autonomous drone began firing at friendlys.
Patrick Lin said: "there is a misconception that robots will only do what we program".

Congress has stated it wants 1/3 of all ground vehicles unmanned within 5 years.


Take for example the Multiple Kill Vehicle (MKV)
which freely hovers and "releases a cargo of small kill vehicles" in the event of battle.
Taking "target-tracking" into consideration.



MIT has created Nexi, which can track, recognize, and respond to human faces.
Also consider, the robot holds the ability to get upset.


Samsung has created the ISSGR sniper bot for Korea.
An Intelligent Surveillance and Security Guard Robot.
An autonomous deployed killing machine.
Containing:
-facial recognition
-HD cameras
-infrared lenses
-image/voice recognition software
&
-a swivel mounted K-3 machine gun
The robot can detect potential threats and fire the fatal shot, even over long distances day or night.
The best part, the unit can be bought privately for $200k

The Pentagon has expressed the need for "multi-robot pursuit systems",
or "packs of robots" working as a conjoined unit,
to "search for and detect a non-cooperative human",
this has led to the Future Combat Systems Project, a $160 billion program.

Maybe one day they can take the various highlights of all these new technologies and join them into one unstoppable force, a robot:
-capable of free thought
-or human emotion
-and the ability to learn as it goes
-even lying or using manipulation to bend its will
-with the ability to hover or fly
-fueling itself by electromagnetic induction
-or by consuming meat (dead or living) or other lifeforms
-using audio/facial recognition, GPS, & infrared
to track intruders or non-cooperatives over miles of terrain infinitely, powering as it goes.
Terminator eat your heart out!

(source: Everything is Going to Kill Everybody)

Autom - a robot which pushes its weight loss agenda on you

Israeli drone attacks own troops

How does a terminator know when to not terminate?


Evolutionary Robotics: Emergence of Communication

The Neurally Controlled Animat: biological brains acting with simulated bodies

Sentrys:
-Rovio
-home built robotic sentry gun
-robot sentries for base patrol


No comments: