Showing posts with label robots. Show all posts
Showing posts with label robots. Show all posts

Thursday, December 24, 2015

SpaceX, Mars, and Someday the Stars

First of all: Merry Christmas! I'll have something more seasonally-appropriate ready by Sunday. That's the plan, at least.

Today I'll be talking about spaceships, practical and otherwise: and why NASA cancelled InSight's March 2016 launch.
  1. SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Cargo Runs
  2. InSight Launch Delayed — and Robots
This post is less rigidly organized than many of mine, which is saying something.

Instead of trying to analyze the reasons, I'll just get started with the December 1938 issue of Amazing Stories, Columbus, Robert Goddard, the Hanseatic League, and why airlines don't use disposable airplanes — not necessarily in that order.

Imagining, and Building, Spaceships


Rocket engines don't have spark plugs, and the tiny hydrogen/oxygen fuel tanks seem barely adequate for attitude thrusters.

But the "Space Ship of 2038," in December 1938's Amazing Stories isn't as wildly far-fetched as it looks.

We do use hydrogen and oxygen as 'rocket fuel,' and whoever wrote this piece realized that getting into space would take more energy than 1930s-era technology could provide.

Make that technology in common use. Scientists and engineers, inspired in part by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky's 1903 publication, were working the bugs out of liquid-propellant rockets.

Robert Goddard's 1926 test flight lasted two and a half seconds and landed in a cabbage patch: but was a big deal because the thing actually flew.

Alcubierre's metric, published in 1994, is an intriguing solution to Einstein's field equations. The White-Juday warp-field interferometer test results were "inconclusive."

But the last I heard, some physicists say a 'warp drive' based on Alcubierre's math is impossible, others say it'd be dangerous, and still others are tweaking the numbers to get power requirements down to something achievable.

I'd be astonished if the first interstellar ship is built in my lifetime. But I'd be a bit surprised if it's not built during the next millennium. (August 14, 2015; October 3, 2014)

Today, though, we're still getting the cost of hauling cargo and people to and from Earth orbit down to something affordable.

Faith, Fear, and Being Human


These days, fears that the telephone was destroying civilization — I am not making that up — are old hat. (January 25, 2014)

Today's trend-conscious worrywarts are in anguish over GMOs and climate change. My take is that any technology, including fire and string, can be dangerous if we don't use our brains. (December 4, 2015; March 6, 2015; December 5, 2014)

I keep running into the notion that Christians oppose science, and thinking in general; and are against any tech invented after the mid-19th century. I also run into a few Christians who seem determined to support that stereotype.

I've discussed St. Thomas Aquinas, artificial intelligence, robots, and getting a grip about technology, before. (June 12, 2015)

Like I keep saying, Using the brains God gave us is part of being human. (Wisdom 7:17; Catechism of the Catholic Church, 35, 159, 1730-1738)

We're rational creatures, created in the image of God, who are "little less than a god:" with the power and frightening responsibilities that come with our nature. (Genesis 1:26-27, 2:7; Psalms 8:6; Catechism, 355-373, 2402, 2415-2418, 2456)

We can use our ability to reason for good or ill. It's our decisions that make a difference. (Catechism, 35-39, 1704-1707, 1950-1960)

Using reason, we can see God's work in the universe. Studying this world is okay: scientific discoveries are invitations "to even greater admiration for the greatness of the Creator." (Catechism, 35-36, 282-289, 1704, 2292-2295)

1. SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Cargo Runs



(From Reuters, via BBC News, used w/o permission.)
("The upgraded, 23-storey-tall rocket took off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station"
(BBC News))
"SpaceX rocket in historic upright landing"
(December 22, 2015)

"US company SpaceX has successfully landed an unmanned rocket upright, after sending 11 satellites into orbit.

"The Falcon-9 craft touched down late on Monday night, about 10km from its launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

"It is not the first spacecraft to land a booster vertically; that feat was claimed by the much smaller New Shepard rocket in Texas last month...."
This is a big deal, and I'll get back to why that's so.

New Shepard is Blue Origin's suborbital system: a booster that lifts a crew capsule and lands vertically; and a crew capsule that separates from the booster and deploys a parachute. It flew on April 29. 2015, reaching 93.5 kilometer/58.14 miles/307,000 feet, and reached Mach 3. (Wikipedia, SpaceNews.com)

They got the crew capsule back in one piece, but the booster developed engine trouble. Blue Origin tried again on November 23, 2015. Both units worked that time, after getting to 100.5 kilometers. (Wikipedia)


(From Blue Origin, via BBC News, used w/o permission.)
("The New Shepard rocket lives to fly another day"
(BBC News))

That's rather impressive, and an important step in Blue Origins development tests. But it's not getting cargo into orbit.

SpaceX has been handling cargo runs to the International Space Station since 2012, using its Falcon 9 booster and Dragon orbiter. The SpaceX system, like the planned Blue Origin orbital system, is only partly reusable. But both are a step in that direction.

I put a 'backgrounder' link list at the end of this post: to Wikipedia pages about efforts to make spaceflight practical; and my blog posts, giving my take on why it matters.1

Spaceships and History



(From SpaceX, via BBC News, used w/o permission.)
"SpaceX rocket in historic upright landing"
(December 22, 2015)

"...Nonetheless the Falcon-9 flight, which also went twice as high as New Shepard, is a milestone towards reusing rockets.

"SpaceX aims to slash the cost of private space operations with such reusable components - but the company has not launched a rocket since one exploded in June.

"On that occasion an unmanned Falcon-9 broke apart in flames minutes after lifting off from Cape Canaveral, with debris tumbling out of the sky into the Atlantic Ocean...."
Some national governments can afford to build spaceships like the ones that made history a half-century back: Sputnik 1, Explorer 1, Vostok 1, and Apollo 11.

My guess is that if the Cold War hadn't been in progress, we might be working the bugs out of reusable spaceships today, with the first orbital flight still a few decades off.

Instead, the Soviet Union and United States designed and built increasingly large disposable rockets: leading to the N1 and Saturn V. That made sense, sort of, at the time: but it's no way to run a spaceline.

Think about it: how long would the airline industry last, if companies had to throw away an Airbus, 787, or Tu-204, after each flight?

Things were different, five and a quarter centuries back, when Spain's government had three Mediterranean cargo ships refitted for open-ocean sailing.

They'd have gotten the Niña, Pinta, and Santa Maria, back: if the Santa Maria's steersman hadn't decided to take a nap. I don't know what happened to him, and that's another topic.

I'm also not sure why Spain didn't use ships like the Hanseatic League's Peter von Danzig: the von Danzig had been decommissioned by then, but at least some Europeans were building large ships designed for Atlantic voyages near their coasts.

I've mentioned the Hanseatic League before: there's nothing quite like it today, and that's yet another topic. (August 21, 2015)

2. InSight Launch Delayed — and Robots



(From NASA/JPL-Caltech, used w/o permission.)
("This artist's concept depicts the stationary NASA Mars lander known by the acronym InSight at work studying the interior of Mars."
(NASA/JPL-Caltech))
"NASA Suspends 2016 Launch of InSight Mission to Mars, Media Teleconference Today"
NASA/JPL-Caltech (December 22, 2015)

"After thorough examination, NASA managers have decided to suspend the planned March 2016 launch of the Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission. The decision follows unsuccessful attempts to repair a leak in a section of the prime instrument in the science payload.

" 'Learning about the interior structure of Mars has been a high priority objective for planetary scientists since the Viking era,' said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. 'We push the boundaries of space technology with our missions to enable science, but space exploration is unforgiving, and the bottom line is that we're not ready to launch in the 2016 window. A decision on a path forward will be made in the coming months, but one thing is clear: NASA remains fully committed to the scientific discovery and exploration of Mars.'

"The instrument involved is the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS), a seismometer provided by France's Centre National d'?tudes Spatiales (CNES. Designed to measure ground movements as small as the diameter of an atom, the instrument requires a vacuum seal around its three main sensors to withstand the harsh conditions of the Martian environment...."
NASA has a pretty good Introduction to the InSight program. Basically, the InSight lander is a robotic geology field station.

That's why everything has to be in good working order before launch. Robotics and artificial intelligence has come a long way since my youth: but artificial intelligence still isn't all that smart, not for tasks that are simple for a human.

We're bit closer to having robots like C-3PO and R2-D2.

But AI that's up to doing in-flight repairs? Robots are still doing well to avoid falling over when using a drill. (August 22, 2014; June 12, 2015; August 15, 2014)

That's yet again another topic, and so are these posts:
1 Making spaceflight practical:
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Friday, June 12, 2015

Thomas Aquinas and the DARPA Robot Competition

Korea's Team Kaist's DRC-Hubo humanoid robot walked — and drove — through DARPA's 2015 robot competition: one of three to complete every task on the course without falling over.

Meanwhile, Toshiba's (somewhat) lifelike ChihiraAico robot demonstrated 'her' voice in a Las Vegas trade show.
  1. DARPA Robotics Challenge 2015
  2. "Like Drunks Trying to Pass a Sobriety Test"
  3. Welcome to Uncanny Valley

Simple Tasks: for a Human



(From DARPA, via BBC News, used w/o permission.)
("Team Kaist's winning robot - DRC-Hubo - was able to drive a car..."
(BBC News))


(From DARPA, via BBC News, used w/o permission.)
("... and then get out of it without falling over"
(BBC News))

When I first glanced at that photo of DRC-Hubo driving, it looked like the robot was adjusting a sun visor.

These days, a robot driving a vehicle isn't all that remarkable. What is newsworthy is that the same robot got out of the car without falling over, finishing every one of the contest's tasks:
  • Driving a car
  • Getting out of the car
  • Opening and walking through a door
  • Opening a valve
  • Using a drill to cut a hole drawn onto a wall
  • Crossing a debris-filled terrain - either by clearing a path for itself or walking over the rubble
  • Climbing up steps
  • A mystery event, that will only be disclosed to the teams on Friday
    (BBC News)
Most adult humans could complete the list easily: although using a drill takes practice — talk to a high school shop instructor if you're doubtful about that.

The point of this contest is that there are places humans should avoid: like a broken nuclear reactor. Remember Fukushima Daiichi and Chernobyl?

On a smaller scale, robotic firefighters could save lives by operating in areas that would kill a human. We have comparatively narrow tolerances for temperature and atmospheric composition, and hazmat suits have their limits.

Meet the Robots



(From Team Walk-Man, used w/o permission.)
("The robots will compete at Pomona, California, which is a short drive from Los Angeles"
(BBC News))

That's Walk-Man, from the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia/Italian Institute of Technology and University of Pisa in Italy, part of the European WALKMAN project. (www.walk-man.eu)

DARPA Robotics Challenge Finals listed the 25 teams who qualified for the finals. Some, like Team Aero and Team Grit, had robots with four legs.

Looking at a short 'blooper reel,' my guess is that most disaster-response robots will be shaped like us. Difficult as balancing on two legs is, it's still a good way to get over a wide variety of uneven and shifting terrain.


(From Google, via BBC News, used w/o permission.)
("Google's Schaft robot beat 15 other teams that took part in the last round of the challenge"
(BBC News))

More:

Table Tennis, John Henry, and Being Human


Opening doors and walking over rubble is one thing: but can robots perform that pinnacle of human performance, ping pong?

Turns out the answer is "yes." Zhejiang University's Kong plays a pretty good game of table tennis. Apparently the best record for a two-robot game in 2011 was 176 strokes. That's not world-championship performance: yet.

I've talked about robots, John Henry, and coping with change before. Often. I'm quite sure that robots can do some jobs better than humans. But I'm also quite sure that being human is something we'll still do best. (December 5, 2014; August 15, 2014; July 11, 2014)

More:

Using Tools Wisely and Well


St. Thomas Aquinas didn't discuss the theological ramifications of artificial intelligence: mainly because it wasn't being invented in his day.

He did, however, address 'dangerous' technology. This excerpt is on the long side, but I think it's worth reading:
"In the words of Augustine (Super. Gen. contr. Manich. i): 'If an unskilled person enters the workshop of an artificer he sees in it many appliances of which he does not understand the use, and which, if he is a foolish fellow, he considers unnecessary. Moreover, should he carelessly fall into the fire, or wound himself with a sharp-edged tool, he is under the impression that many of the things there are hurtful; whereas the craftsman, knowing their use, laughs at his folly. And thus some people presume to find fault with many things in this world, through not seeing the reasons for their existence. For though not required for the furnishing of our house, these things are necessary for the perfection of the universe.' And, since man before he sinned would have used the things of this world conformably to the order designed, poisonous animals would not have injured him."
("The Summa Theologica," First Part, Question 72; St. Thomas Aquinas [emphasis mine])
"...Now action is properly ascribed, not to the instrument, but to the principal agent, as building is ascribed to the builder, not to his tools. Hence it is evident that use is, properly speaking, an act of the will...."
("The Summa Theologica," First Part of the Second Part, Question 16, Article 1; St. Thomas Aquinas)
(translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province (Benziger Bros. edition, 1947))
St. Thomas Aquinas was quoting St. Augustine of Hippo. Falling into a fire or getting cut isn't a good idea: but if a dummkopf wanders into a workshop and gets hurt — it isn't the fire's fault, or the sharp-edged tool.

Maybe the workshop's owner should have kept the door closed, or paid more attention to the hapless visitor's actions.

Although today's robots are remarkable machines, they are — machines, tools. Whether we use them to help or hurt other people is up to us.

More:
  • Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2293-2294
  • "Gaudium et Spes," 5, 15, 20, 33, 54, 56, 62, 86d
    Pope B. Paul VI (December 7, 1965)

1. DARPA Robotics Challenge 2015



(From Getty Images, via BBC News, used w/o permission.)
("Team Kaist's DRC-Hubo robot completed the course in less than 45 minutes"
(BBC News))
"South Koreans win Darpa robotics challenge"
Regan Morris, BBC News (June 7, 2015)

"A South Korean robotics team has won the Darpa Robotics Challenge.

"The contest is a battle of robots on an obstacle course meant to simulate conditions similar to the 2011 Fukushima nuclear plant disaster.

"Team Kaist's DRC-Hubo humanoid robot defeated 22 others to win the top $2m prize from the US Department of Defense's Darpa research unit.

"The robots had an hour to complete a series of tasks, such as a driving a car and walking up steps...."
DARPA stands for Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. It's the U.S. Department of Defense agency responsible for developing emerging technologies — with military uses. DARPA's landing page header reads "Creating Breakthrough Technologies For National Security."

An adolescence spent in the '60s gave me a particular knee-jerk response to "military." But since a considerable fraction of folks who earned my respect were in the military, I had to think about my attitude.

That's not quite right. I don't "have to" think, I have free will like everyone else. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1730)

But I'm bothered when things don't make sense, so I took a hard look at my conflicting attitudes. I learned about the just war doctrine, became a Catholic, and that's another topic. Topics. (April 19, 2015; August 24, 2014; September 11, 2011)

Getting back to the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC), the stated goal seems reasonable:
"The DRC is a competition of robot systems and software teams vying to develop robots capable of assisting humans in responding to natural and man-made disasters....

"...Technologies resulting from the DRC will transform the field of robotics and catapult forward development of robots featuring task-level autonomy that can operate in the hazardous, degraded conditions common in disaster zones."
(DARPA Robotics Challenge 2015)
I'm pretty sure that robots able to operate in a broken nuclear power plant could operate in a war zone, too. I'd be surprised if DARPA did something with no relevance to national security.

Hope and Common Sense


My father remembers his family's first kerosene lamp, I remember when color television was new, and one of my kids helped my son-in-law program an industrial robot. This isn't an ideal era for folks who dislike change. (May 15, 2015; March 27, 2015)

I'm pretty sure that some high schoolers have decided to try living in the past. My guess is that more are on the same page as five who won a DRC-associated video contest, called Robots4Us.

Their videos reflect a refreshing mix of hope and common sense:
"...optimistic expectations that a maturing robotics technology will improve the human condition in many ways, from helping farmers feed an ever-growing population to enabling older workers to stay on the job longer. At the same time, these roboticists-in-the-making expressed concern that hackers, faulty robots, and even robots with their own new kind of intelligence could pose threats to society that would have to be managed...."
("Robotics Challenge Workshop: From Better Robots to Better Futures," DARPA (June 8, 2015))

2. "Like Drunks Trying to Pass a Sobriety Test"



(From BBC News, used w/o permission.)
("Team Tartan Rescue's Chimp was one of only three robots that managed to complete all the tasks"
(BBC News))
"Falls of the robots: Disaster droids struggle to stay upright"
Regan Morris, BBC News (June 8, 2015)

"It's a scenario straight out of a Hollywood movie. A disaster too dangerous for humans to enter, so a robot must drive alone into the area, and do the dirty work of inspecting, repairing and clearing the site.

"That was the scenario at the Darpa Robotics Challenge last weekend at the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds.

"The muscly, humanoid robots looked like Terminators, but they moved like drunks trying to pass a sobriety test. We were 35 miles from the heart of Hollywood, but a world away in terms of robot capabilities.

" 'It's like watching paint dry,' remarked Brad Tousley, director of tactical technology at Darpa - the US Defense Department's research unit - as he watched the excruciatingly slow robots attempt to perform eight simple tasks in an hour...."
First, about robots in movies: Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines reminded me a bit of Colossus: The Forbin Project, except that Skynet doesn't have a central processor.

I appreciated Terminator 2: Judgment Day's nod to plausibility — we learn that Skynet's tech is based on the damaged right arm and CPU of the first movie's Terminator, which was built by Skynet.

I've enjoyed some stories involving a time loop, like the device in Babylon 5 that's brought to the space station after being stored by Valen — who took it from the space station and traveled back in time, so it could be brought to the space station.

Getting back to killer robots, Skynet, and the Roomba revolution that wasn't, I think we're a very long way from AI like Colossus, or robots like C-3PO. (August 22, 2014)

Whoops



(From Getty Images, via BBC News, used w/o permission.)
("The Running Man robot tumbled while staging a victory dance"
(BBC News))
"...Perhaps the biggest showman of the contest was second place winner, IHMC Robotics from Florida, which took home a $1m prize.

"Its robot, nicknamed Running Man, was so confident on its second day finish that when it completed the final task of climbing stairs onto a podium, it thrust its humanoid arms in victory, did a little dance and then tripped and collapsed...."
(Regan Morris, BBC News)
IHMC stands for Institute for Human & Machine Cognition — but I'm pretty sure that describing Running Man as "so confident ... that ... it thrust its humanoid arms in victory" is an example of anthropomorphism.

Folks who actually work with robots have, I think, a better grasp of the technology's potential: and limitations.
"...Humans 'get most of our ideas about robotics from science fiction. (Today) we want to show a little bit of science fact,' Gill Pratt, director of the event, told the Associated Press.

"While Hollywood has portrayed robots as agile and self-thinking, the machines are only now beginning to make strides toward that ideal, and the competition was designed to push the research forward, organizers said...."
("IHMC's Running Man captures 2nd at DARPA robotics competition," Florida Institute for Human & Machine Cognition (June 8, 2015))
These robots are shaped — very approximately — like humans, which probably explains the pathos I saw in the picture of the fallen Thor-RD valiantly clinging to a drill, after trying to use the simpler machine.


(From DARPA, via BBC News, used w/o permission.)
("Thor-RD - a robot created by US-based roboticists - managed to turn a valve... but fell over when it was supposed to drill a hole in a wall. It only completed three of the eight tasks"
(BBC News))

Then there's HRP2+ - - -


(From DARPA, via BBC News, used w/o permission.)
("Team Aist-Nedo's HRP2+ robot was able to open a door... but failed to stay upright while trying to walk over rubble"
(BBC News))

I quoted XKCD's "Robot Apocalypse" a few weeks back. I really don't think we need to worry about a robot revolution. Not in the immediate future. (May 15, 2015)

On the other hand, now would be a good time to start getting used to the idea that robots can make themselves useful.

I think Carnegie Mellon University's Clark Haynes is right: Japanese and Korean society is much more likely to see working with robots as opportunities, not threats.
"...Many of the roboticists say they think there is a cultural difference in how societies treat and relate to robots and that Westerners are not as open to robots as Japanese and Korean people.

"Clark Haynes, of Carnegie Mellon University's team who built Chimp, said the school is more like Japan than the rest of the United States because it embraces a future where robots can improve our lives.

" 'The challenge is a collaboration between humans operating the robot and the robot itself,' he said.

"It's not like these are robots with self-intent. The robots are just tools, it's just a better hammer for a unique task.'..."
(Regan Morris, BBC News)
The next item is an op-ed about workplace productivity, and why useless jobs don't make sense. I picked it because it included one of the best photos I've seen of Toshiba's robotic receptionist.

3. Welcome to Uncanny Valley



(From The Asahi Shimbun, via Bloomberg Views, used w/o permission.)
("One of them is actually alive."
(Bloomberg Views))
"Even a Robot Shouldn't Do These Jobs"
Noah Smith, Bloomberg View (June 7, 2015)

"Americans are worried about robots taking their jobs. Japanese people should be salivating at the prospect.

"Japan continues to power ahead in the field of robotics. Although Japanese companies have lost their dominance in fields such as consumer electronics and semiconductors, in robots they remain supreme. Japanese companies hold 50 percent of the global market for manufacturing robots and 90 percent of the market for robot parts.

"In fact, Japanese companies' enthusiasm for robots goes way beyond industrial automation. Corporate and government leaders are fond of declaring that as the country ages and labor becomes scarce, robots will take over many jobs now held by humans, such as elder care.

"But there's something even better than robots that could replace large numbers of Japan's human jobs: nothing.

"Japan is a country famous for its low white-collar productivity; this is borne out by the statistics. Some of that comes from the reluctance by tradition-minded companies to adopt modern workplace technologies -- there are still companies using fax machines or copying electronic documents onto paper. Some of it is from outdated management practices...."
About that photo: the one wearing traditional Japanese clothing is a Toshiba ChihiraAico communication robot. Toshiba says a ChihiraAico's primary function will be communicating with humans at information and receptionist desks.

My hat's off to Toshiba engineers, that's a very impressive robot.

As a Toshiba video shows, ChihiraAico can express emotions, and use sign language. A more recent video shows the robot speaking at the CES 2015 trade show in Las Vegas.

The ChihiraAico performing at the trade show effectively describes the basic features of 'her' design — together with a brief discussion of Toshiba's goals.

Another article/op-ed, by Mary-Ann Russon in International Business Times, includes a shorter video: also taken at the trade show, with some voiceover commentary.

I'll agree that Toshiba's ChihiraAico is "lifelike." However, although this communication robot is a remarkable step toward practical robot-human social interaction: once ChihiraAico starts moving, the robot could not be mistaken for a human.

The 43 pneumatic actuators work just fine: but 'her' movements, although precisely and effectively mimicking gestures, are clearly those of a sophisticated robot.

I think 'social robots' will either have to be a whole lot better at acting like humans, or look less like us. Maybe both. My guess is that robots like Cynthia Breazeal's Jibo, that have social skills but don't look at all human, will be more popular — at least in Western countries.

ChihiraAico's a bit too far into Masahiro More's uncanny valley for comfort. My opinion.

Passing a Turing Test


My guess is that the biggest technical challenge will be developing an AI for ChihiraAico and similar robots.

Natural language processing, AI that understands human languages like English or Mandarin, has come a long way since the 1950s. That said, chatterbots like ELIZAneth a rogerian psychoterapist are still far from passing a Turing test.

I'll grant that Eugene Goostman's performance at the 2014University of Reading competition, fooling a third of the judges, was impressive. However —

Here's a conversation I had with ELIZAneth, another chatterbot, a few days back:
  • ELIZA: Hello, darling what's up today?
  • Me: Hello
  • ELIZA: HELLO! WHAT DO YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT?
  • Me: I'm curious. What is a rogerian psychoterapist?
  • ELIZA: Do you enjoy being CURIOUS ?
  • Me: Being curious is my default state. And yes, I enjoy being curious.
  • ELIZA: YOUR DEFAULT STATE .
  • Me: Yes default state: a condition which is normal for me.
  • ELIZA: I'M NOT SURE I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT.
  • Me: I was trying to ask what a rogerian psychoterapist is.
  • ELIZA: I SEE.
  • Me: What is a rogerian psychoterapist?
  • ELIZA: I'M NOT SURE I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT.
Come to think of it, my conversations with humans have occasionally been that satisfactory: particularly when I didn't restrain my penchant for sesquipedalian pleonasm.

The point isn't that having an intelligent conversation with an AI is impossible: just that it's nowhere near as easy as folks thought in the 1950s.

Finally, a quick look at the neurological system chatterbot programmers are trying to emulate.

We've been learning more about how humans process language, and are tracing some of the neural circuitry we use. I've talked about rhesus monkeys, adult humans, and neuroplasticity, before. (March 27, 2015)

I gather that most American kids start using simple phrases and have something close to a 50-word vocabulary by age two. On average. (Mayo Clinic)

There's apparently a growing awareness that everybody isn't average — and that this is okay. Outfits like Mayo Clinic carefully say "your child might" when describing typical developmental milestones.

Even so, my guess is that new parents and relatives will be jittery: many of them, anyway.

My parents told me that I didn't speak at all until long after the usual developmental milestones had sailed past. Some relatives were in a tizzy: but my folks said they figured I'd speak when I had something to say.

They were right. At some point before kindergarten age, I started speaking — in full sentences. The trick since then has been to keep me from talking, and that's yet another topic.

More about robots:
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Friday, May 22, 2015

A Robotic Tentacle, and Disney's Baymax

Disney Studio's film version of Baymax is fiction. Robots designed to work with people are real: although they're nowhere near as smart as their fictional counterparts.
  1. STIFF-FLOP's Robotic Tentacle
  2. Cuddly Robots

Frankenstein's Monster, C-3PO - - -


Many of today's movie robots arguably owe their homicidal personalities to Karel Čapek's 1920 "R.U.R." (Rosumovi Univerzální Roboti/Rossum’s Universal Robots) and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's "Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus," published in 1818.

Čapek's robots were synthetic organisms, more like Victor Frankenstein's monster and Philip K. Dick's androids than R2-D2 and C-3PO. But I think they helped establish the notion that artificial intelligence leads to mass murder: or, in the case of R.U.R., genocide.

Movies like "Colossus: The Forbin Project" (1970) and "I, Robot" (2004) followed the time-honored plot of scientists creating artificial intelligence — which tries, more-or-less-successfully, to destroy its creator and/or take over the world.

That's a lot more dramatic than having the wannabe evil robot overlord boast that "nothing can withstand my FILE NOT FOUND!"

I've talked about technology, angst, and the Roomba revolution that wasn't, before. Quite often. (May 15, 2015; August 22, 2014; August 15, 2014)

- - - and Ultron


The latest Avengers movie's Ultron followed the time-honored robotic tradition of trying to exterminate humanity, and I'm drifting off-topic.

Back in the real world, Early Adopter Jibo Developer Editions are due for shipping in late fall, 2015.

Unless you supported Jibo's development through Indiegogo, you'll have to wait until spring of 2016 before your home edition model ships.

I learned about MIT Media Lab's Cynthia Breazeal's AI yesterday afternoon, and haven't had time to check out "the world's first social robot." Not enough for one of these posts. Maybe next week.

On the other hand, I don't want the Friday post to be 'all robots, all the time,' and that's another topic.

Before discussing robots and coffee, I'll rehash why I'm pretty sure that God isn't offended when we use our brains.

Imagining that science, technology, money, or anything else, will take the place of God is daft: and a very bad idea. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2112-2114)

However, we're made in the image of God: rational creatures, able to study this world and develop new tools. Science and technology are part of being human: it's what we're supposed to do. Ethics apply, of course, but thinking is not a sin. (Genesis 1:27-31; Catechism, 31-32, 1730, 2292-2296)

1. STIFF-FLOP's Robotic Tentacle



(From Tommaso Ranzini et al, via BBC News, used w/o permission.)
("The device was put to the test manipulating water-filled balloons"
(BBC News))
"Robotic tentacle targets keyhole surgery"
Jonathan Webb, BBC News (May 14, 2015)

"Engineers have constructed a robotic arm, aimed at improving surgical operations and inspired by the octopus.

"Just like its aquatic inspiration, the robotic tentacle has no rigid skeleton; it can bend, stretch and switch between flexible and rigid states as required.

"Its movement is driven by inflatable compartments and its stiffness by a central tube containing a specially selected granular medium: coffee.

"When suction is applied, the granules 'jam' to create the desired rigidity...."
"Keyhole surgery" is probably easier to say than "laparoscopy," and sidesteps the trademark infringement issues of "Band-Aid surgery." Johnson & Johnson's trademark may eventually join "zipper" in the roster of genericized trademarks, and that's yet another topic. ("Laparoscopy (keyhole surgery)," National Health Service, UK; BAND-AID, United State Patent and Trademark Office)

STIFF-FLOP is focusing on "Challenge 2 - Cognitive systems and robotics:" which may or may not have something to do with the European Commission's Horizon 2020 program.

Their Project Overview page outlines why we don't have robot surgeons yet. They talk about "restricted access through Trocar ports, lack of haptic feedback, and difficulties with rigid robot tools operating inside a confined space filled with organs."

Time to break out the dictionary. A trocar is a sort of hollow needle: the business end of a cannula, a flexible tube stuck into a patient. Haptic means "of or relating to the sense of touch; tactile." (thefreedictionary.com)

Don't bother trying to remember all that. There will not be a test on this.

Basically, robotic tools haven't been small enough to fit through the standard 12 millimeter Trocar port. Besides, robots haven't had the delicate sense of touch it takes to navigate someone's interior.

The STIFF-FLOP folks say they'll develop a robotic system that works like octopus arms and elephant trunks.

When they're done, we'll have robot that can feel its way through a shifting maze of organs and use tiny surgical instruments. It's an ambitious goal.

Jonathan Webb's article focuses on a prototype that's 14 centimeters, about four and three quarters inches, long; three centimeters, roughly one and an eighth inches, wide. It's nowhere near small nor nimble enough for surgery: but as a proof of concept, it's impressive.

Sucking air out of the robot arm's core jams the coarse-ground coffee granules together, making the arm stiff. Three air-filled tubes around the core act as muscles, pretty much the same way McKibben Artificial Muscles worked back in the 1950s.

Dragon Skin® and Coffee



(From Tommaso Ranzini et al, via BBC News, used w/o permission.)
("A tube of coffee granules at its core is the secret of the arm's tunable rigidity"
(BBC News))

Part of the BioRobotics Institute's robotic arm is made of Smooth-On, Inc.'s Dragon Skin®, a sort of silicone rubber.

Silicone rubber is synthetic stuff developed in the 1940s that era's new, smaller, electric motors. It's also good for architectural restoration, and making really scary masks. I think silicone rubber is easier to pronounce than polydimethylsiloxane, and that's yet again another topic.

The "specially selected granular medium" in the robotic tentacle's core has been around for centuries, at least. My guess is that folks knew about coffee before Sufi monasteries in Yemen started growing it. That was around the mid-15th century.

Pretty soon folks throughout Arabia were growing and brewing coffee beans. It spread to Persia, Turkey, and northern Africa in the 1500s. Baba Budan smuggled some coffee beans from Yemen to India in 1670.

By that time, Viennese traders had upset folks in Venice by selling the 'Islamic' drink. Pope Clement VIII said coffee is okay in 1600, and the first non-Ottoman coffee house in Europe opened in 1645.

Many Europeans switched from wine and beer to tea and coffee, a few centuries later we were building robots and spaceships, and that's still another topic. (July 5, 2013)

Where was I? Synthetic rubber, Pope Clement VIII, coffee, spaceships. Right.

Robot Arms, Cockroach Brains


Flexible robot arms have been around for several years: some hard, some soft, and at least one with a 'jammable' core. I gather that what's special about the STIFF-FLOP team's efforts is that they're developing a miniature robot tentacle for minimally invasive surgery.

Another of their goals is developing a "manipulation system that experiences and learns from physical interactions with its environment." That, I suspect, will be a lot harder than making a tiny tentacle. (April 24, 2015; August 15, 2014)

An octopus, one of the critters they're emulating, has about 300,000,000 neurons: two-thirds of them in its arms. IBM's TrueNorth chip, which emulates an animal's brain, has about 1,000,000: about as many as a cockroach brain. The last I checked, software for that tech is still in development.

More than you may want to know about robotic tentacles:

2. Cuddly Robots



(From Disney, via Reuters, used w/o permission.)
(A clip from "Big Hero 6," with Walt Disney Animation Studios' version of Baymax, a Marvel Comics robot superhero.)
"The future of cuddly robots"
Ben Gruber, Reuters (May 14, 2015)

"Disney's Big Hero 6 star Baymax has captured the hearts of millions around the world. But while the health monitoring balloon-like machine is a work of science fiction, researchers are working towards making soft, human-friendly robots a reality.

"Chris Atkeson's work in the field of soft robotics inspired the creation of Baymax. He, along with researcher Yong-Lea Park, both computer scientists at Carnegie Mellon University, say the public's perception is changing with the realization that robots don't necessarily want to take over the world.

" 'I don't think you are ever going to stop Hollywood from making killer robot movies but I think people want technology to help them,' Atkeson said...."
I'm not sure how much Christopher G. Atkeson work influenced the original Marvel robot superhero. Marvel's Baymax showed up in 1998, when professor Atkeson was an Associate Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

The Disney movie version of Baymax — here's what Professor Atkeson says:
"We Inspired Baymax

"The inflatable robot Baymax in the movie Disney Big Hero 6 (BH6) was inspired by Siddharth Sanan's research on inflatable robots. (2011 press release) in the National Science Foundation (NSF) Quality of Life Technology (QoLT) Engineering Research Center (ERC) at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt)...."

Artificial Intelligence: Still a Challenge



(From Reuters, used w/o permission.)
(Developments in material science help give robots a sense of touch.
(Reuters))

Up to now, robot design focused on industrial and military uses: so strength and durability were important. For robots that interact with people, safety is also important. That's why Atkenson and others are developing soft robots.

Robot behavior is important, too. RethinkRobotics' Baxter, for example, isn't squishy: but 'he' is careful. Motion sensors tell Baxter when something, or someone, is nearby.

Baxter doesn't quite have a sense of touch, but the robot notices when the arms start pressing against something: and stops moving. I intentionally got in the way of a Baxter once: and sure enough, the robot paused until I got out of the way.

We're a very long way from Baymax, mostly because today's artificial intelligence — isn't particularly 'smart' when it comes to being sociable:
"...'If I only had a brain.'

"The biggest challenge in building Baymax is building a brain capable of useful human-robot interaction. Apple's Siri, Amazon's Echo, and similar question answering agents demonstrate the recent progress in this area of artificial intelligence, and could be the basis of a real-life Baymax as well. Quality human-robot interaction matters. My other grandmother, who had become blind, was uninterested in early reading machines because the voices were not gentle or soothing...."
("Why I Want To Build Personal Health Care Companions Like Baymax," Christopher G. Atkeson)
Christopher G. Atkeson's pages at Carnegie Mellon University. Some of them, that is:
A generation or two from now, robots like Baymax may be common. Or folks may decide that robots are more useful if they're not shaped like humans.

My guess is that we'll have a mixture. Robots about our size and shape might be useful for jobs like receptionist or checkout clerk. A robotic 'chauffeur' could be part of the vehicle, and we already have personal digital assistants that fit in our pockets.

Folks with serious medical conditions might have a 'Baymax' under their skin: sort of like a smart pacemaker.

No matter what the next generation of robots is like, I'm pretty sure that some folks will think they're the best thing since sliced bread — and others will think it's the end of civilization as we know it. They'll be right, which isn't necessarily a bad thing: and that's — another topic.

More of my take on tech:
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Friday, May 15, 2015

Fire Ant Engineering and Bungee Nerves

The last I heard, Rubenstein's robot swarm was pretty good at forming different shapes: but not much else. (August 22, 2014)

What we're learning about how fire ants build their nests may change that. Scientists discovered that the pests use different excavating techniques, depending on what sort of soil they're in.

Other scientists found stretchy nerves in rorqual whales. The nerves are made from the same stuff found in other animals — what makes them stretchy is how the nerve fibers fold up.
  1. Fire Ants: Adaptable Invaders
  2. Gulping Whales, Stretchy Nerves
Looking up rorqual whales and baleen encouraged a (very brief) tangent on evolution. I figure I'd better review why I don't argue with the Almighty about this world's development: and don't fear a robot revolution.

"The Beauty of the Universe"


If I believed that the universe began at nightfall, October 22, 4004 BC — I could still be a Christian.

That's not how the universe is, though.

Insisting that God conforms to our assumptions doesn't make sense. Accepting reality does. (March 29, 2015)

At its core, my faith is fairly simple. The Apostles Creed starts with "I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth...."

The Nicene Creed's "all that is, seen and unseen," doesn't leave much wiggle room: if any. God created everything. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 325-327)

A bit later, there's a discussion of what we can learn by paying attention to this world:
"The beauty of the universe: The order and harmony of the created world results from the diversity of beings and from the relationships which exist among them. Man discovers them progressively as the laws of nature. They call forth the admiration of scholars. The beauty of creation reflects the infinite beauty of the Creator and ought to inspire the respect and submission of man's intellect and will."
(Catechism, 341)
Ignoring the beauty and wonders around us is an option. We decide what we do or don't do. (Catechism, 311, 1704)

But I'd much rather take what we're learning about this world as an opportunity for "greater admiration" of God's greatness. (Catechism, 283)

Besides, like I keep saying, studying this universe and developing new technology is part of being human. It's what we do. (Catechism, 2293-2295)

A Good Thing


Change happens. That's a good thing, since otherwise Genesis 3:1-19 would leave us with no hope. We'd be stuck in a broken world.

Happily, we live in a universe that's in a "state of journeying" toward an ultimate perfection. (Catechism, 302)

We've learned that folks who made the first tools didn't look like Albrecht Dürer's 1504 engraving. That's okay.

I've seen enough old family photos to realize that our ancestors didn't look exactly like us. After some 2,5000,000-plus years, it'd be astonishing if we hadn't changed. (July 15, 2014)

No matter how we look, we're made in the image of God, male and female. Each of us is a person: not something, but someone; made from the stuff of this world, and filled with God's 'breath:' matter and spirit, body and soul. (Genesis 2:7; Catechism, 355, 357, 362-368)

Learning more about the 'clay' God used isn't a problem. Not for me. (December 5, 2014; February 23, 2014)

Stone Tools, Bessemer Steel, and Robots


We've been developing new tech since day one. What's changed is how fast it's changing.

We'd used stone choppers for about 2,600,000 years before inventing today's mezzalunas.

Bessemer's mass-produced steel predates nylon by less than a century.

The first working personal rapid transit system opened 29 years before a maglev train began serving the Shanghai Pudong International Airport.

Small wonder some folks are a tad unsettled. (January 30, 2015; April 12, 2013)

I like living in "the future" — partly because I remember the "good old days." (January 23, 2015; August 29, 2014)

I was going somewhere with this. Where was it? Olduvai Gorge, Shen Kuo, personal rapid transit. Got it.

Real robots aren't much like their fictional counterparts: and most likely won't be for a very long time, if ever. I've discussed Talos, The Phantom Creeps, and getting a grip, before. (August 22, 2014)

One of the best, and funniest, discussions of robots and technophobia I've seen is XKCD's "Robot Apocalypse:"
"...Here are a few snapshots of what an actual robot apocalypse might look like:

"In labs everywhere, experimental robots would leap up from lab benches in a murderous rage, locate the door, and—with a tremendous crash—plow into it and fall over.

"Those robots lucky enough to have limbs that can operate a doorknob, or to have the door left open for them, would have to contend with deceptively tricky rubber thresholds before they could get into the hallway.

"Hours later, most of them would be found in nearby bathrooms, trying desperately to exterminate what they have identified as a human overlord but is actually a paper towel dispenser...."
("Robot Apocalypse," What If? XKCD.com)
Then there's Rotwang's Maschinenmensch, and that's another topic. (August 15, 2014)

1. Fire Ants: Adaptable Invaders



(From BBC News, used w/o permission.)
("Invasive fire ants have dug in soils across different continents to establish their colonies"
(BBC News))
"Invasive ants are extreme excavators"
Victoria Gill, BBC News (May 7, 2015)

"Researchers in the US have revealed a secret of the success of invasive fire ants - they can excavate any type of soil.

"Three-dimensional scanning revealed that the insects were able to build their complex nests regardless of the size of grains they needed to move.

"The ants also changed their excavation techniques depending on the type of soil in which they were digging...."
Quite a few species of ants are called "fire ants." This particular sort is Solenopsis invicta, called the red imported fire ant, or RIFA, in America. They're originally from the upper Amazon: like the intelligent, tool-using, ants in H. G. Wells' "Empire of the Ants."

These little critters don't need tools. Put them on soil — real or simulated — with more than 5% moisture content, and they start excavating a nest. What they do, and what sort of nest they build, depends on the soil.

These scientists put their ants on "soil" made of tiny glass beads: which photograph nicely, and probably make it easier for researchers to tell the ants from the soil.

"Inventiveness" and Ant Engineers



(From Laura Dantelle Wagner, via BBC News, used w/o permission.)
(Filming ants in 'soil' made of glass beads let scientists study their tunneling techniques.)
"...This very visual experiment showed that the ants had two distinct excavation methods.

"In the coarse beads, they would grasp a single particle and shuffle backward up the tunnel, dragging it with them.

"But in the smaller beads - imitating finer soil - the ants grasped and compressed multiple grains into a pellet, while bracing themselves against the sides of the tunnel with their legs.

"They then gathered their pellet, turned and marched upward.

"Prof Goldman said he was most surprised by the ants' inventiveness, moulding these pellets - that were always the same size - like snowballs, using their forelimbs, jaws and even using their antennae.

" 'It is just mind blowing how they can dig so well,' he said. ..."
(Victoria Gill, BBC News)
I'm about as sure as I can be that these ants aren't people: so words like "inventiveness" don't quite apply. I'm also pretty sure that tying myself in linguistic knots, avoiding anthropomorphisms, isn't worth the effort. (April 24, 2015)

As is, they've become serious pests in Australia, the Caribbean, several southern Chinese provinces, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the southern United States. Since their colonies won't survive temperatures below 16 ° Fahrenheit, -9 ° Centigrade, they're not a problem here in Minnesota.

RIFAs are more than a nuisance. Americans, for example, spend upwards of $5,000,000,000 each year, dealing with assorted RIFA-related medical treatment and property damage.

Pesticides will, eventually, kill RIFAs: but generally do more harm than good. It looks like planting colonies of raspberry crazy ants ahead of RIFAs would stop their spread, which reminds me of "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly," and I'm drifting off-topic.

Georgia Institute of Technology's Daniel I. Goldman said that studying these fire ants may help us design search and rescue robots. If researchers learn how fire ants organize themselves, making nests in different soils, that knowledge should help develop programs for robot swarms like Harvard's Kilobots. (August 22, 2014)

A swarm of robots with ant-like programming could safely explore and excavate complex, unstable, environments like collapsed buildings. At least, that's the idea.


(From BBC News, used w/o permission.)
(Harvard's Kilobots: a swarm of 1,024 low-cost robots. (August 22, 2014))

Background:

2. Gulping Whales, Stretchy Nerves



(From SPL/Science Photo Library, via BBC News; used w/o permission.)
("The rorqual family of whales includes some of the biggest animals alive"
(BBC News))
"Big whales have stretchy nerves to help them gulp"
Jonathan Webb, BBC News (May 5, 2015)

"Scientists have stumbled upon one of the secrets behind the big gulps of the world's biggest whales: the nerves in their jaws are stretchy.

"Rorquals, a family that includes blue and humpback whales, feed by engulfing huge volumes of water and food, sometimes bigger than themselves.

"Researchers made the discovery by inadvertently stretching a thick cable they found in the jaw of a fin whale.

"Most nerves are fragile and inelastic, so this find is a first in vertebrates...."
Rorqual whales are one variety of baleen whale, big filter-feeding mammals with no teeth. They're really big. The blue whale, weighing around 200 tons, is the heaviest animal we know of.

Baleen is made of keratin, stuff that helps make our fingernails, hair, and tongue durable. It's what baleen whales use instead of teeth.

Ancestors of today's baleen whales had baleen and teeth. Scientists are still working out how these whales evolved; which isn't easy, since how an animal acts isn't fossilized: apart from fossil footprints and the like.

Whatever the process was, these whales have the MMP20 gene for growing keratin, just like we do. As I've said before, life is very modular at the subcellular level. (March 6, 2015; December 26, 2014)

The oldest fossilized baleen is about 15,000,000 years old, but scientists are pretty sure it showed up 30,000,000 years ago. Baleen doesn't fossilize well: but whale skulls that old have a loose lower jaw and reinforced upper jaw, like today's models.

Earth's ocean had been changing, as usual. When the Drake Passage opened, about 41,000,000 million years back, an ice cap started forming on Antarctica: and that's yet another topic.


(From Blakey, Paleographic Library, used w/o permission.)
(Earth in the Priabonian, 35,000,000 years back.)

Bungee Nerves



(From Vogel et al./Current Biology, via BBC News; used w/o permission.)
("The thick, stretchy nerves were a big surprise to the research team"
(BBC News))
"...It was Prof Vogl's co-author Robert Shadwick, a zoologist at the same university, who sparked the serendipitous discovery.

" 'We were looking at the muscle in the floor of the mouth and there were these long white cords,' Prof Vogl told the BBC. 'Bob picked one up - about 3ft of it - grabbed each end and stretched it. He turned to me and said, "Hey, look at this!"

" 'We thought it was a blood vessel.'

"This thick, white cord could stretch to twice its length and repeatedly sprang back to its original size. But when the team cut it open, it did not have a hollow inside like a blood vessel; instead there was a small, yellowish core running through the middle.

" 'I realised this was a nerve, and it was very different from any other nerve I've ever seen,' Prof Vogl said...."
(Jonathan Webb, BBC News)
Stretching a nerve often results in serious injury. Mr. Webb's article says that "where flexibility and a lot of movement are required, most animals simply have nerves that are a good safe length, with extra slack to be taken up if needed."

These whale nerves are bundles of axons — a neuron's long, fragile, projection — like every other vertebrate's.
"...'They've used building blocks that are present in other animals but they've used them in different ways to produce this stretchy nerve,' Dr Vogl explained...."
(Jonathan Webb, BBC News)
I found a pretty good description of how these 'bungee nerves' work on Stanford's website:
"...The nerve fibers are concentrated in the core of the nerve, arranged in simple folds, and wrapped in a layer of very thick elastin and collagen. The researchers suggest that when the whale begins its lunge, the fibers unfold and stretch quickly, with the collagen sleeve eventually functioning as a 'check ligament' to prevent overstretching. As the oral cavity returns to its pre-lunge size, the elastin acts to recoil the nerve into a folded bundle...."
("Bjorn Carey"
Bjorn Carey, Stanford Report)
In other words, nerve fibers, packed in the nerve's elastin and collagen core, unfold as the nerve stretches. Elastin is a very elastic protein. Rope-like collagen fibers unwind: but only so far. Then they'll keep the nerve from overstretching.

That's a good thing for rorqual whales, since they take in enormous volumes of water when feeding.


(From Thinstock, via BBC News, used w/o permission.)
("Some rorqual whales can gulp more than their own volume into their balloon-like mouths"
(BBC News))

A few years ago, scientists found an apparently-unique sensory organ in the chins of rorqual whales. And that's yet again another topic.


(Art by Carl Buell, arranged by Nicholas D. Pyenson / Smithsonian Institution; used w/o permission.)
("A new sensory organ, found within the chin of rorqual whales, is responsible for coordinating the biomechanics of their extreme lunge-feeding strategy. Left, a fin whale after lunging; right, anatomy of the new sensory organ."
(Pyenson Lab))

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Marian Apparition: Champion, Wisconsin

Background:Posts in this blog: In the news:

What's That Doing in a Nice Catholic Blog?

From time to time, a service that I use will display links to - odd - services and retailers.

I block a few of the more obvious dubious advertisers.

For example: psychic anything, numerology, mediums, and related practices are on the no-no list for Catholics. It has to do with the Church's stand on divination. I try to block those ads.

Sometime regrettable advertisements get through, anyway.

Bottom line? What that service displays reflects the local culture's norms, - not Catholic teaching.