Thursday, June 25, 2009

Robot Surgeon Finds Tiny Shrapnel: Discovery Channel

Robot Surgeon Finds Tiny Shrapnel: Discovery Channel: "A robotic surgeon at Duke University has successfully found and guided a needle to a sliver of steel shrapnel, completely without human help. The technology could reduce the cost and time necessary to complete a biopsy and other surgical operations."

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Living Safely with Robots, Beyond Asimov's Laws

Living Safely with Robots, Beyond Asimov's Laws: "(PhysOrg.com) -- 'In 1981, a 37-year-old factory worker named Kenji Urada entered a restricted safety zone at a Kawasaki manufacturing plant to perform some maintenance on a robot. In his haste, he failed to completely turn it off. The robot’s powerful hydraulic arm pushed the engineer into some adjacent machinery, thus making Urada the first recorded victim to die at the hands of a robot.'"

"In situations like this one, as described in a recent study published in the International Journal of Social Robotics, most people would not consider the accident to be the fault of the robot. But as robots are beginning to spread from industrial environments to the real world, human safety in the presence of robots has become an important social and technological issue. Currently, countries like Japan and South Korea are preparing for the “human-robot coexistence society,” which is predicted to emerge before 2030; South Korea predicts that every home in its country will include a robot by 2020. "

Monday, June 22, 2009

Plan to teach military robots the rules of war - tech - 18 June 2009 - New Scientist

Plan to teach military robots the rules of war - tech - 18 June 2009 - New Scientist: "Technology has always distanced the soldiers who use weapons from the people who get hit. But robotics engineer Ron Arkin at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, is working to imagine wars in which weapons make their own decisions about wielding lethal force.

He is particularly interested in how such machines might be programmed to act ethically, obeying the rules of engagement.

Arkin has developed an 'ethical governor', which aims to ensure that robot attack aircraft behave ethically in combat, and is demonstrating the system in simulations based on recent campaigns by US troops, using real maps from the Middle East."