{"id":24807,"date":"2018-11-03T15:42:52","date_gmt":"2018-11-03T15:42:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevoiceoflondon.co.uk\/?p=24807"},"modified":"2018-11-03T15:42:52","modified_gmt":"2018-11-03T15:42:52","slug":"robots-can-now-think-for-themselves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/robots-can-now-think-for-themselves\/","title":{"rendered":"Robots: they\u2019re just (almost) like you and me"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Researchers at Cornell designed a robot capable of making its own decisions.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>[youtube https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=eJsnG9DZjgM]<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\nIf you need to grab a beer off the shelf from Tesco, what do you do?<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Maybe you reach your arm up and grab the lager, or perhaps you need a bit of a booster, so you adjust your height by standing on your tip toes. Without thinking, you make a decision on how to solve the problem facing you, even if it requires some adjustment on your behalf. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now, for the first time, robots can do the same. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Scientists at Cornell University have developed a self-configuring modular robot \u2014 a robot capable of reassembling itself from its different parts and\u00a0 making its own <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/news.cornell.edu\/stories\/2018\/10\/shape-shifting-modular-robot-more-sum-its-parts\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">decisions when faced with tasks<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in different environments. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Researchers built a library into the robot, giving it 57 different types of way it could rearrange itself and 97 functions it could choose from. Such functions included picking items up and adjusting its arms to reach high places.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">When placed into an unknown environment, with a complex task, the shape-shifting robots were able to assess the environments and from its library, to decide how to respond. Such tasks included arranging colour-coded items into designated spots and placing a postage stamp on top of a high up box.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cI want to tell the robot what it should be doing, what its goals are, but not how it should be doing it,\u201d principal researcher and associate professor in mechanical and aerospace engineering, Hadas Kress-Gazit, told the <a href=\"http:\/\/news.cornell.edu\/stories\/2018\/10\/shape-shifting-modular-robot-more-sum-its-parts\">Cornwall Chronicle<\/a>. \u201cI don\u2019t actually prescribe, \u2018move to the left, change your shape.\u2019 All these decisions are made autonomously by the robot.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Most robots are only able to complete one task, like <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.irobot.co.uk\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">vacuuming our rubbish off<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> the floor or assisting warehouse workers with moving boxes. \u00a0Even then, these robotic systems require users to command the machine for when and how to function.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet tw-align-center\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The latest Boston Dynamics robot suddenly comes in black and I think I have a right to find this troubling. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Metalhead?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Metalhead<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/BlackMirror?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#BlackMirror<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Ag5qNbvEwd\">pic.twitter.com\/Ag5qNbvEwd<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 DAVID A SLADE (@DAVID_A_SLADE) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DAVID_A_SLADE\/status\/1051231919545995268?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 13, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">But now that scientists have successfully created a robot machine that is capable of perceiving its environments and autonomously deciding how to respond, we may not be so far off from a world that is looking increasingly <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/thevoiceoflondon.co.uk\/could-a-black-mirror-dystopian-world-actually-become-our-future\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">similar to Black Mirror.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Let\u2019s just hope that no one tells the researchers behind the Boston Dynamics dog.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>[youtube https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=fUyU3lKzoio]<\/p>\n<p><strong>Words: Taylor Paatalo | Subbing: Shruti Tangirala<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Researchers at Cornell designed a robot capable of making its own decisions. [youtube https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=eJsnG9DZjgM] If you need to grab a beer off the shelf from Tesco, what do you do? Maybe you reach your arm&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":476,"featured_media":24808,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,65,82,121,123,144],"tags":[360,573,3681,6113],"class_list":["post-24807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-design","category-have-you-heard","category-lifestyle","category-tech","category-technology","category-world","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-lifestyle","tag-technology"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/476"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}