Robotics

The first article I read is from Scientific American, entitled “Rise of the Robots – The Future of Artificial Intelligence".  The article is written by adjunct professor Hans Moravec at Carnegie Mellon University.  The main focus of the article is to detail how robots will advance in the next few decades.  The first main point of the article is why robots are not as advanced now as they were predicted to be in the 1950’s.  The article goes in to very good detail about what advancements have been made in the past 50 years to computers, robots and most importantly computing power.  When the article was written in 2008 some of the most advanced personal computers could only perform about 10,000 million instructions per second (MIPS).  The article concludes with the author’s prediction for how general use robots will evolve once the capabilities are available.  The final statement made by the author is that the evolution of robots is almost identical to that of humans, however 10 million times more rapidly.  The article contains much information about the evolution of robots over the past 15 years and is very informative about the current technologies.  The only problem with this article is that it is 4 years old already, and while that may not seem like much time, the rate at which robots are evolving is remarkably fast.  In the article the advance the author talks about from 4 years before writing were remarkable.  The speed of evolution has only increased since then.  I think it would be interesting to read a follow up article by the same professor to see if things are following how he predicted 4 years ago.

            The second article that I read is “The Realization of Intelligent Buildings”.  The article explains how the idea of an intelligent building is no longer just an idea, but has been done in multiple locations across the country.  It also states that one main problem with the intelligent building discussion is that there is no specific definition but more an agreement that certain things need to be involved, very similarly to what we discussed in class.  One reason for this is that technologies are advancing so rapidly that stating something must be involved may be outdated in only a few years.  The main concept is that all systems in the building should work together and relay the information gathered by the sensors to a central location for monitoring.  One point that article brought up was that many new buildings already have some intelligence in them, however it is varying for every building.  One system that is intelligent in almost every building is the fire system, which when a fire is sensed the other building systems begin to react.  In many buildings “exhaust dampers open, the IP paging and intercom systems issues instructions to occupants, the access-control system unlocks doors for evacuation, and CCTV cameras provide emergency responders with a view of the fire”.  The article contained lots of information about how intelligent buildings are beneficial to both the tenants and the owners.  It also attempted to address some of the main reasons against them such as cost, stating that the long term payoffs are worth the potential additional costs.  I would have liked if the article detailed more of the negative points to intelligent buildings, however the article is written as a persuasive piece for the development of more intelligent buildings, so some of the information needs to be taken with a grain of salt.

            The required article was a very good base for general information about robotics.  The article contained all necessary generic information about the current state of technology involved with robots.  I found the second half of the article more interesting because it detailed all of the various improvements that have been made recently and how different sensors are being implemented into robots to fulfill different tasks.  The section on Intelligent Systems was one I found to be very informative and neat, especially the Holonic systems.  This section detailed how multiple independent parts can be worked together to create a very effective and efficient machine for a specific task.  I liked knowing about the ability of the machines that currently exist and what can be done with more refining.  The section at the very end about how robotics can be used for prosthetic devices and aids for people with disabilities was also an interesting section.  The exoskeleton walking mechanism seems like a great device for people with a disability to their legs, as it allows them to walk around with only the support of crutches.  This can allow that person to be much more independent and perform many more tasks that were difficult or impossible from a wheelchair.  The article was very informative about all aspects of what currently exists.  I would have like to see the article go more into detail about how some of these current technologies are being used now or expected to be used in the near future.