Robots and artificial Intelligence
I - Robots an AI : An introduction
What is a robot ?
To begin with, it is importante to mention the origin, the ancestor of the robot which is the automaton.
An Automaton is a device reproducing in autonomy a sequence of predetermined actions without any
human intervention. Indeed at the end of the fifteenth century, L. DeVinci has created the first automaton
which looks like a lion. It could walk and move its head.
In seventeen thirty eight, Jacques Vaucanson has created an automaton duck which could eat, walk and digest.
The word robot comes from the words « work », « chore » and « slave ». A robot is a complex assembly
of mecanic pieces supplied by a source of ernergy. The set is piloted by an IT software or an artificial inteligence.
1921 The term "robot" was first used in a play called Rossum's Universal Robots"by the Czech writer Karel Capek.
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What is an artificial intelligence ?
It is the imitation of human intelligence with an IT process. The origin of the artificial intelligence comes
from AlanTuring’s researches in nineteen fifty. Who wanted to measure the conciousness of a machine.
What we call the « Turing test » was created in order to determine if a machine can be defined by the
term « conscious » or not..
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II - Robots
- Oldest robot : 100BC (before christ), a set of gears to calculate the position of the sun and
moon.
- 1495 : Leonardo da vinci – First humanoid robots – It is not sure if it was ever produced
Should have been able to sit, stand up, wave its arms and move its head.
- Between 1700 & 1900 : Number of automatrons such as the duck, that could flap its
wings, move, swallow food
- 1954 : Unimate, first industrial robot Sold by « Unimation » and designed by George
Devol and joseph engelberger, whom is now considered “father of robotics”.
Unimation still exists today.
- Nowadays, if a robot doesn’t have an AI, it is mainly used to help humans in difficult tasks,
such as carrying heavy objects, or help disabled people to execute their daily tasks.
- In the military, exoskeletons, which are robots used as an extension to our own bodies,
are developing fast, just as they have been in science fiction.
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III - Artificial Intelligence
There are two types of artificial intelligences which have real and important differences.
The first one is called « strong artificial intelligence, which is an intelligent behavior.
It means that a machine is able to have feelings, to understand and to think/ to have a kind of reasoning.
What allows the AI to grow. With data, it can create unprogrammed reactions and so its capacity
to evolve can be compared to that of the human, it can even be superior.
Alphago is an artificial intelligence created by Google which is called « strong » because it has
techniques of automatic learning. After several trainings, this artificial intelligence has been able
to win against the best player in the word of a game named « go ».
The second is called « weak Artifial intelligence », this one comes from engineering,
the aim/goal of simulation of intelligence is only to solve algorithms. Contrary to the strong AI,
this one cannot evolve, its actions are very limited.
This type of AI can be found in almost every current video games.
For instance/example, this IA was conceived to allow the scientist Hawking Stephen to communicate
after the loss of his voice.
In nineteen ninety seven, the victory of the computer Deep Blue against the best player of chess
Gary Kasparov was the first victory of AI on Human.
Contrary to alphago, this machine created by IBM was beforehand modified after each game to correct
the identified errors
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IV - When Robots an Artificial Intelligence are used together
- 1941 : Isaac Asimov starts writing novels about Robots, with « Liar! » and the well-known
« I-Robot”, which was made into a movie. In these novels, asiimov invented the three laws
of robotics that must be programmed into every robots in order to avoid their uprising.
1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict
with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or
Second Law.
- Without those laws programmed into the robots AIs, they might understand how they’re
being used and start a revolution.
- Nowadays, robots are implemented with AI, mostly in factories to perform repetitive tasks
longer and faster than humans, and still being able to detect errors.
- To help into our daily lives, to assist people and disabled people, for cooking, cleaning
etc..
- Or we also built them just for fun, as we did for battlebots, where people built robots and
watch them fight each other.
- What’s for the future ? Robots that are fully autonomous, that could be used to fight wars,
but also help people, disabled people would only need one robot responding to voice
commands instead of one robot per tasks.
- Boston Dynamics is making incredible advances in research as they already have a few
robots that can perform tasks on their own. Also, they know how to torture robots.
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V - Conclusion
Robots and AI were two different things that ended up doing wonders together.
The alliance of programming and mechanics allows us to help us or replace tasks we had to do
ourselves, but also to respond to needs humans could no fulfill on their own.