Editorial

Citation

Loughlin, C. (2003), "Editorial", Industrial Robot, Vol. 30 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/ir.2003.04930baa.001

Editorial

AI has evolved

The themes of this issue are “Artificial intelligence (AI) + Localization + Mobile robots”. To be honest I have until recently been a bit sceptical about AI. After all, my PC and the software that runs on it seems to go out of its way not to do what I want it to. Machines that can really think? This seems most unlikely. They seem to operate more like trains stuck to their rails with a limited number of different journeys that they can travel. The 8:30 from Euston to Glasgow can no more end up discovering a short-cut in a stroke of inspiration than it can learn to fly.

I have decided that the problem is not so much with AI as with my understanding and expectations.

I have recently come to realise that the really interesting stuff happening in AI is not about making machines that think like humans, but making machines that behave like lower life forms.

Anyone who thinks that an ant has more processing power than a desktop PC needs to have their head examined. What the ant does have going for it, however, is a highly evolved linkage between simple sensor inputs and muscle movements. Nothing too fancy or sophisticated, but it works for them. And considering they outnumber us on the planet by several thousand to one it must have something going for it.

So if you can get away from the present Disney Land expectations of AI humanoids, and instead think in terms of tackling real world mobility and navigation problems using the same tricks that various life forms employ, you will see that some really useful progress has been made.

Bomb disposal

On the 4th December, last year, Ikea (the international furniture retailer) received bomb threats, and two explosive devices were discovered at their stores in Amsterdam and Rotterdam.

The stores were clear of all personnel but then two policemen were injured at police stations where the bombs had been taken to be defused. One received very slight injuries and the other was injured in the eye.

Of course, I was not there at the time, but this does strike me as being highly irresponsible.

Full marks to Ikea for closing all ten of their stores in Holland and for telling all their 4,000 staff to take the day off after they received the threat. And full marks to Ikea again for their official statement “We don’t want to take any risks. We are taking this very seriously” – said IKEA spokeswoman Helen van Trearum.

What a shame, therefore, that people were injured unnecessarily after all risk to human life had been eliminated.

We already have teleoperated robots that are dextrous enough, with the skill of a human operator behind them, to apply sutures to the internal organs of a living, moving person. Surely, therefore, we should be using this technology elsewhere and particularly when people’s lives are in danger. I fully appreciate that these systems are unlikely to be as skilled as a bomb disposal expert working directly on the explosive device, but at least when things do go wrong, as they inevitably sometimes will, it is only metal, plastic and silicon that gets damaged.

No amount of flat-packed furniture is worth the risk of a human life.

Clive Loughlin

Call for papers

IR 30:4 – Robot Grippers(Copy deadline: 17 February 2003; Despatch: 4 July 2003)Techniques for gripping objects. Flexible and reconfigurable grippers. Interchangeable end effectors.

IR 30:5 – Food Industry + Farming + Construction Industry (Copy deadline: 19 April 2003; Despatch: 5 September 2003)Robots systems and applications within the food industry including meat processing. Robotic techniques applied to agriculture and forestry. Update on robotic applications in the construction industry.

IR 30:6 – Teleoperation + Haptics(Copy deadline: 27 June 2003; Despatch: 31 October 2003)Applications for teleoperated robotic systems in nuclear, industrial and service sectors. Including force and tactile feedback.