Post by gretl on Oct 16, 2010 13:13:06 GMT -5
Perhaps defining the laws is the easy part. How do you implement them?
Can you say "undergraduate volunteers"?!
www.newscientist.com/article/mg20827826.700-robot-arm-punches-human-to-obey-asimovs-rules.html
ISAAC ASIMOV would probably have been horrified at the experiments under way in a robotics lab in Slovenia. There, a powerful robot has been hitting people over and over again in a bid to induce anything from mild to unbearable pain - in apparent defiance of the late sci-fi sage's famed first law of robotics, which states that "a robot may not injure a human being".
...
"Even robots designed to Asimov's laws can collide with people. We are trying to make sure that when they do, the collision is not too powerful," Povše says. "We are taking the first steps to defining the limits of the speed and acceleration of robots, and the ideal size and shape of the tools they use, so they can safely interact with humans."
...
Each volunteer was struck 18 times at different impact energies, with the robot arm fitted with one of two tools - one blunt and round, and one sharper.
...
Ultimately, the idea is to cap the speed a robot should move at when it senses a nearby human, to avoid hurting them.
...
"Even robots designed to Asimov's laws can collide with people. We are trying to make sure that when they do, the collision is not too powerful," Povše says. "We are taking the first steps to defining the limits of the speed and acceleration of robots, and the ideal size and shape of the tools they use, so they can safely interact with humans."
...
Each volunteer was struck 18 times at different impact energies, with the robot arm fitted with one of two tools - one blunt and round, and one sharper.
...
Ultimately, the idea is to cap the speed a robot should move at when it senses a nearby human, to avoid hurting them.
Can you say "undergraduate volunteers"?!
www.newscientist.com/article/mg20827826.700-robot-arm-punches-human-to-obey-asimovs-rules.html
