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Summary
Summary
From AI to Robotics: Mobile, Social, and Sentient Robots is a journey into the world of agent-based robotics and it covers a number of interesting topics, both in the theory and practice of the discipline. The book traces the earliest ideas for autonomous machines to the mythical lore of ancient Greece and ends the last chapter with a debate on a prophecy set in the apparent future, where human beings and robots/technology may merge to create superior beings - the era of transhumanism. Throughout the text, the work of leading researchers is presented in depth, which helps to paint the socio-economic picture of how robots are transforming our world and will continue to do so. This work is presented along with the influences and ideas from futurists, such as Asimov, Moravec, Lem, Vinge, and of course Kurzweil.
The book furthers the discussion with concepts of Artificial Intelligence and how it manifests in robotic agents. Discussions across various topics are presented in the book, including control paradigm, navigation, software, multi-robot systems, swarm robotics, robots in social roles, and artificial consciousness in robots. These discussions help to provide an overall picture of current day agent- based robotics and its prospects for the future. Examples of software and implementation in hardware are covered in Chapter 5 to encourage the imagination and creativity of budding robot enthusiasts.
The book addresses several broad themes, such as AI in theory versus applied AI for robots, concepts of anthropomorphism, embodiment and situatedness, extending theory of psychology and animal behavior to robots, and the proposal that in the future, AI may be the new definition of science. Behavior-based robotics is covered in Chapter 2 and retells the debate between deliberative and reactive approaches. The text reiterates that the effort of modern day robotics is to replicate human-like intelligence and behavior, and the tools that a roboticist has at his or her disposal are open source software, which is often powered by crowd-sourcing. Open source meta-projects, such as Robot Operating System (ROS), etc. are briefly discussed in Chapter 5.
The ideas and themes presented in the book are supplemented with cartoons, images, schematics and a number of special sections to make the material engaging for the reader. Designed for robot enthusiasts - researchers, students, or the hobbyist, this comprehensive book will entertain and inspire anyone interested in the exciting world of robots.
Author Notes
Arkapravo Bhaumik is from New Delhi, India and has an advanced degree in Mechatronics from King's College, London. His research interests are mobile robotics, robot swarms and human-robot interaction. He is also enthusiastic about the open source philosophy and Linux. He prefers to spend time designing or writing about AI and robotics. His recent robots and simulations have employed ROS, and his research on machine learning has been with SVM to detect emotions from human faces. His excursions into natural language processing has been with Python NLTK. He is currently posted at the Birla Institute of Technology, Ranchi, India.
Table of Contents
| Preface | p. xiii |
| Acknowledgements | p. xxiii |
| About the Author | p. xxv |
| Section 1 Theory | |
| Chapter 1 ... and then there were mobile robots | p. 3 |
| 1.1 Early Pioneers and the Story Till Shakey | p. 3 |
| 1.1.1 Walter's turtles | p. 9 |
| 1.1.2 Shakey and the Stanford Cart | p. 12 |
| 1.2 Current-Day Mobile Robotics | p. 14 |
| 1.3 Cultural and Social Impact | p. 19 |
| 1.3.1 Science fiction, entertainment industry, medical surgery and military | p. 20 |
| 1.3.2 Do robots pose a threat for human beings? | p. 26 |
| Chapter 2 Embodied AI, or the tale of taming the fungus eater | p. 31 |
| 2.1 From AI to Robots | p. 31 |
| 2.2 Artificial Intelligence For Robots | p. 31 |
| 2.2.1 What is an 'Agent'? | p. 34 |
| 2.3 Embodied AI - Making Of Autonomous Agents | p. 36 |
| 2.3.1 Toda's model for fungus eaters | p. 36 |
| 2.3.2 Design principles for autonomous AI agents | p. 37 |
| 2.4 Anthropomorphism - A Treasure Trove From Mother Nature | p. 41 |
| 2.4.1 Concepts from semiotics - 'UMWELT' | p. 41 |
| 2.4.2 Concepts from ecology - Uniqueness of vision | p. 43 |
| 2.4.3 Concepts from psychology - Behaviourism | p. 46 |
| 2.4.4 Artificial animals - Animat | p. 49 |
| 2.5 Evaluating Performance - AI Vs. Engineering | p. 65 |
| 2.6 Three Forks In The Road | p. 71 |
| 2.6.1 The problem of completeness - Planning is NP-hard | p. 73 |
| 2.6.2 The problem of meaning - The symbol grounding problem | p. 74 |
| 2.6.2.1 Solving the symbol grounding problem | p. 75 |
| 2.6.3 The problem of relevance - The frame problem | p. 77 |
| 2.6.3.1 Representations - The root of all evil | p. 79 |
| Chapter 3 Control paradigms for mobile robots | p. 87 |
| 3.1 Control Paradigms | p. 87 |
| 3.2 Braitenberg's Vehicles 1 TO 4 - Engineering Behaviour | p. 90 |
| 3.3 Deliberative Approach | p. 99 |
| 3.3.1 Shortcomings of the deliberative approach | p. 99 |
| 3.3.2 From animals to robots | p. 101 |
| 3.3.3 Robots and computers are fundamentally different | p. 101 |
| 3.4 Reactive Approach | p. 103 |
| 3.4.1 Subsumption architecture and the nouvelle AI | p. 105 |
| 3.4.2 Motor schema | p. 108 |
| 3.4.3 Action selection & bidding mechanisms | p. 111 |
| 3.5 A Critique of the Nouvelle AI | p. 114 |
| 3.5.1 Issues with the nouvelle AI | p. 116 |
| 3.5.1.1 Implementation issues in subsumption architecture | p. 116 |
| 3.5.1.2 Issues with motor schema | p. 118 |
| 3.5.2 Extending reactive approach to higher functions | p. 119 |
| 3.6 Hybrid Architectures | p. 122 |
| Section 2 Implementation, or How to Make Robots | |
| Chapter 4 Tools for a roboticist | p. 131 |
| 4.1 The Tools: Navigation and Adaptivity | p. 131 |
| 4.2 Navigation, Path Planning and Mapping | p. 134 |
| 4.2.1 A * and bug algorithms | p. 134 |
| 4.2.2 Considerations for navigation | p. 135 |
| 4.2.3 Artificial potential fields | p. 137 |
| 4.2.4 Nearness Diagram (ND) | p. 146 |
| 4.2.5 Navigation in three dimensions | p. 148 |
| 4.3 Adaptibility and Learning | p. 149 |
| Chapter 5 Software, simulation & control | p. 155 |
| 5.1 Software For Robotics | p. 155 |
| 5.2 A Very Short Introduction to ROS | p. 160 |
| Section 3 Robot-Robot & Human-Robot Interactions | |
| Chapter 6 Robot-robot interaction, groups and swarms | p. 177 |
| 6.1 Many Robot Systems | p. 177 |
| 6.2 Networked Robotics | p. 178 |
| 6.3 Swarm Robotics | p. 181 |
| 6.3.1 Relating agent behaviour to the collective behaviour | p. 185 |
| 6.3.2 Signatures of swarm robotics | p. 186 |
| 6.3.2.1 Minimalism: Non-intelligent robot, intelligent swarm | p. 187 |
| 6.3.2.2 Stigmergy: Indirect interactions | p. 187 |
| 6.3.2.3 Emergence: Swarm behaviour is difficult to model | p. 188 |
| 6.3.2.4 Phase change: Disorder to order | p. 189 |
| 6.3.2.5 Self organisation: A dynamically stable swarm | p. 189 |
| 6.3.3 Metrics for swarm robotics | p. 189 |
| 6.3.4 Swarm Engineering - Visions for a new technology | p. 191 |
| Chapter 7 Human-robot interaction and robots for human society | p. 201 |
| 7.1 Human-Robot Interaction | p. 201 |
| 7.1.1 Distributed cognition | p. 204 |
| 7.2 Social Robotics | p. 204 |
| 7.2.1 Design for social robots | p. 207 |
| 7.2.1.1 Aesthetics | p. 208 |
| 7.2.1.2 Facial traits | p. 210 |
| 7.2.1.3 Natural language processing (NLP) | p. 212 |
| 7.3 Applications | p. 214 |
| 7.3.1 Service robots, with a social face | p. 214 |
| 7.3.1.1 CERO - Cooperative embodied robot operator | p. 214 |
| 7.3.2 Robots in elderly care | p. 217 |
| 7.3.2.1 Care-O-bot 3 - The smart butler | p. 217 |
| 7.3.2.2 Hobbit - Returning a robot's favour | p. 217 |
| 7.3.3 Companion robot and robot therapy | p. 218 |
| 7.3.3.1 Paro - The cute robotic seal | p. 220 |
| 7.3.3.2 KASPAR - Kinesics and synchronization in personal assistant robotics | p. 222 |
| 7.3.4 Museum guide and receptionist robots | p. 225 |
| 7.3.5 Functional robots, more than just smart machines | p. 230 |
| 7.3.5.1 Explorer robots - new age fungus eaters | p. 230 |
| 7.3.5.2 Search and rescue robots | p. 231 |
| 7.4 Japan, Robot History in the Making | p. 233 |
| Chapter 8 Robots with moral agency, in the footsteps of Asimov | p. 239 |
| 8.1 The Need for the Good Robot | p. 239 |
| 8.2 Morality and Ethics | p. 242 |
| 8.3 Asimov's 3 Laws and Their Limitations | p. 250 |
| 8.4 Ethical Theory for Robots | p. 257 |
| 8.4.1 Deontology | p. 257 |
| 8.4.2 Consequentialism | p. 259 |
| 8.4.3 Deontology vs. Consequentialism - The trolley problem | p. 261 |
| 8.4.4 Implementing ethics as an architecture | p. 265 |
| 8.4.4.1 The ethical architecture - action logic, in military robots | p. 265 |
| 8.4.4.2 Consequence engine - using fast simulations for internal models | p. 270 |
| 8.4.4.3 First implementation, development of a carer robot with deontic ethics | p. 272 |
| 8.4.5 Virtue ethics | p. 272 |
| 8.5 Social Changes and the Near Future | p. 273 |
| Section IV ... the Future | |
| Chapter 9 Quest for the sentient robot | p. 283 |
| 9.1 Can Robots be Conscious? | p. 283 |
| 9.2 Self Awareness, Consciousness and Free Will | p. 285 |
| 9.2.1 Self awareness | p. 285 |
| 9.2.2 Consciousness | p. 286 |
| 9.2.3 Free will | p. 291 |
| 9.3 From Machines to (Near) Human Beings | p. 292 |
| 9.4 Semi-Sentient Paradigm and It's Limitations | p. 297 |
| 9.5 Memories, Meditation and the Inner World | p. 302 |
| 9.6 Experiments - COG, Mirror Cognition and the 3 Wise Robots | p. 304 |
| 9.6.1 From reactive architecture | p. 304 |
| 9.6.1.1 Cog | p. 305 |
| 9.6.1.2 Consciousness based architecture | p. 306 |
| 9.6.2 From cross-modal bindings | p. 309 |
| 9.6.2.1 Cog's tambourine experiment | p. 310 |
| 9.6.2.2 Nico's drumming | p. 310 |
| 9.6.3 Mirror cognition | p. 312 |
| 9.6.3.1 A very simple implementation of the mirror test in robots | p. 312 |
| 9.6.3.2 Haikonen's somatosensory model | p. 313 |
| 9.6.3.3 Designing the mirror test with MoNADs | p. 314 |
| 9.6.4 Psychometric AI - the knowledge game | p. 321 |
| Chapter 10 Super inteiligent robots and other predictions | p. 331 |
| 10.1 Peering Into the Crystal Ball | p. 331 |
| 10.2 Twilight Or Rebirth of our Civilisation? | p. 336 |
| 10.3 Superintelligence, Future Technology | p. 342 |
| 10.3.1 Super intelligence | p. 347 |
| 10.3.2 "To singularity and beyond" | p. 350 |
| 10.3.3 Alternate Opinions & Containment of AI | p. 356 |
| Appendix A Running the Examples | p. 361 |
| A.1 Braitenberg Simulator | p. 361 |
| A.2 Walle Eva Chat | p. 361 |
| References | p. 363 |
| Index | p. 389 |
