Introduction
Robotics is the science or branch of technology that studies the design and construction of machines that are able of doing tasks, done by the human being or that require the use of some level of intelligence. In most cases robots are design in order to do some level of automation of a process or in other cases they are built in order to simulate human behavior; this last one situation is been one of the most longed achievement of modern science.
Robotics is one of the fields where the human most have put effort on during the past decade; inversions have been made in order to create the technology needed to develop better robots that for field the needs to what they are intended. Most of the proposes of robots are to do tasks that demand from the human a great amount of effort and time in order to do them correctly without mistakes, and still with the same quality as the human which is the most difficult part. Also robots are employed in task that the human just can’t do as steel bending with precision or just develop a job in a hazardous area where one can result injure or ill.
There is not a consensus about what machines can be considered as robots, but is known that in general the experts and people that a robot tend to do the following: move, make function a mechanic arm, feel and handle their environment and show a intelligent behavior, more especially if that behavior imitates the human or other animals. Now on days it could be thought that a robot is a computer whit the ability and propose of movement that in general are capable of develop several tasks in a flexible programmatic way.
Robotics evolution takes place from every day place market stores, food industries, automotive, to space exploration. It is an undeniable trend that artificial intelligence is replacing humans in many fields where the process are being atomized, which in many occasions cause the loss of people jobs. Nevertheless, I and most people agree that realm essential to human beings that robots will never be able to reach. In the following pages a discussion about this topic will be presented considering different points of view from a research made. In the following pages some areas where robots are replacing humans, or might do it in the future, are presented.
Main Claim
As the years come by further improvement of robotics will be made and the areas where they can replace human being in work environments will increase, this been said, some kind of regulations shall be done so people don’t lose their jobs; if the task that a human is doing is to be done by a robot government shall require that the employee is trained in a different work position so he is still useful for the organization and don’t lose his job. One of the strategies that can be used is train the person so he or she is certified to make maintenance and reparations to the robot that will now be doing their jobs and be responsible of the quality of the robots job, making sure that the result is the same of better than the job the used to deliver.
Main Body
Since the early years of technology way back to the first computer develop human been have always dreamed about robots that have human quality’s and that could be our companions, assistants and sometimes they’ve being thought as friends. Movies and science fiction have had a well fair on the develop of the robotics engineering most of inventions that are presented born from and a idea conceded in a futuristic movie. Some of the robotic technology that responds to this premise is android pets, digital assistants in computing, movement copy robots and others.
Since the industrial area began to make upgrades in their technology more and more robots have been incorporated in the process replacing the human labor. This is a subject on which we have to be very care full because with the increase of automation by robotics people will lose their jobs and the population won´t have anything to do; it is really a cultural, social and economic subject that should be always taking into consideration. Also have to be noticed that robotics could replace the human hand in a lot of aspects but not in all of them there would be always the lack of logic and the ability of rationing which is a given quality of the human that can’t be replace by anything and in most cases in a task or job description this is a key topic to be considered.
As it is been establish there are several areas of improvement where robotics apply some of them now will be presented with a critical point of view. In first place I would like to talk about the program called “Robot Companions for Citizens” which is a research that is intended to create a new class of technology in order to maintain and increase our quality of life in the future, well future in a figurative speech because the time of application for this program is been thought to be before this decade ends, and with the big jumps that technology makes every year this time would be less. This research program establishes a bridge between science and sustainable welfare.
The study and research will validate our understanding of the general design principles underlying biological bodies and brains establishing a positive feedback between science and engineering (Robot Companions for Citizens, 2013). There are actually some companies trying to produce robots as humans’ companions, and it is means robots are partially replacing humans in specific areas.
At this point I have one say that in one way the concept human companion sound a little to an emotional relationship between the robot and the human, and there is no doubt that there is people that might replace all kind of human contact for a robot. But in normal behavior speaking the idea of a robot as a human companion is focus to a machine that will assist us in every day work, it might be at the office, for example the robot could be use to do all the routine tasks that are made by people that do not demand a big amount of decision making but that it takes time to do. The robot in this way would do tasks as filling, organizing, taking stuff from point A to B, and the time that the human would spend on this not important task would be better used for productive matters.
Other application where the term human companion could by attached to a robot is found in the house application of robots, this has been one of the most desire human applications to robot for humans, since the early year people have wanted a robot that is the second hand in home that will help in the domestic tasks that are so bored and part of the routine that everybody hates.
The dream covers robots that clean the house to perfection, that prepare and serve simple food as breakfast which the preparation is most of time standard, robots that watch our houses or offices and inclusive that go with us to different places and solve questions (Top 10 Modern Robots, 2013). This kind of robots are considered robots of free motion, they are not connected to an external control and as so they have their own control system, generally using a microprocessor and controller and periphery circuits to handle sensors and servo-motors.
In Asia this concept of robots that could be used to behave as housekeepers is one of the most wanted by society to be used by the older people how find trouble given their age to do this task (Top 10 Modern Robots, 2013). Looking at this point of view it is a good thing and it should be really helpful but there will always be young, lassie people that will use them in order to do nothing and this might end in an increase of obesity for lack of activity. A little example of this point can be seen in the movie “wall-e”, 2011. Where people where obese given that robots did everything for them and they won’t ever stand up from their chairs, which were intended to old people.
Discovery Channel, in the documental by Lamb, Robert “10 ways Robots Could Replace Humans.” Lists ten ways that robot could eventually replace humans in the social environment. They are: mental musicians, surgeons of steel, artificial artists, robot lovers, Antony Bourdan bot, toy soldier, rise of artificially intelligent novelist, ambassadors of earth, bot for teaching and the positron god (Lamb, Robert. 2013). In the documental, Discovery makes the statement that there are some areas that robots can possibly replace human beings. However, there are some of the above mention areas that are very limited, given that robots do not have the capability to reproduce emotions on their own.
As I see it, robots will always be related to the programmer, a person who establish what would be behavior of the robot for different situations, at the day I still robots don’t have the quality of make their own decisions out of nothing as human does, for better or worse we are capable of free willing and decision making, been that said when it refers to musicians, artificial artists, robots as intelligent novelist. I considered that would always be a co-depending situation with the person that have designed the robot, robots just don’t have imagination, well that is in this era it can’t be put as an impossible situation; it has to be remembered that today exist inventions that are regular to us and in the past where thought as only science fiction and that ever would be a reality.
The term toy soldier refers to toys but it also brings up the used of robotics in the military field. The countries that have more inversions in the field robotics and technology frequently have a very well develop military arsenal and war potential given their economic power.
History has thought us that always any upcoming technology is used in some way to military ends even if the idea that made it happened wasn’t even remotely related to that end, nuclear fusion, dynamite, microbes manipulation and others are inventions that at the time the people who created it were thinking in a benefit to humanity and now on days have being applied to negative proposed. As it is for robotics some of the applications in the military field are “UAV – UNMANNED AIRCRAFT” which as the name states are aircraft that don’t have any human on board, they are use to surveillance missions and sometimes to drop bombs in areas were contra-aircraft weapons air manage by the enemy (www.theuav.com, 2013), with this kind of robots missions can be accomplished without putting in risk a soldier, bomb disarmer robots and others are the applications of robots for this field.
Considering one of the subjects name in the prime article, robot lover; for most people this results an unthinkable premise but it is a fact that now on days is lot of people that have personality issues and for sure if they have the opportunity available will select a robot as a lover or a parent in life, given fears or psychological troubles that one might have.
Dautenhan,K, IROS 2005, present a paper on which he presents the results of the studied made about the people´s perceptions towards the idea of future robot companion. “Results indicated that large portion of people were in favor of a robot companion and saw the potential role as being an assistant, machine or servant” (Dautenhahn, 2005). Author after the research was made, concluded that few people wanted the robot companion to be a friend. Humanlike communication is hard for robots companions, and the main reason was that robots just mimic humans and their behavior but not actually thinking.
Lot of people, as it’s been said before during this paper, would really like to have a robot as an assistant that would help them to develop the activities that present to them every day and in some cases, when the tasks is physically hard for a person require the robot to do it for them. It is clear at the end of the research made, that average population consulted doesn’t consider robots as a possible intellectual companion, friend or in some cases lover, given the limitations that they have in the area of communication skills and proper thinking and analyzing real live situations, robot behavior will always attached to, program and design computing done by the manufacture; this situations it´s to remind as it is until some kind of real robot independency is invented, which is one of the still remaining dreams of scientist.
Conclusion
During this paper several discussions and points of view where presented in relation what it robotics, new technologies, how people conceive a robot. The main subject discuss was how can a robot in replace the human in different areas in everyday life, the office, industries, space adventures, war affairs and the polemic subject of human companion. It has been established that robots now on days are use to replace humans in the industries where tasks need to be done with precision, repetitively and avoiding fatigue which is an undeniable fact for humans; in this way with the advance of automation humans will be losing jobs to the “hand” of robots, this a topic that have to be considered socially, culturally and economically.
As for the human companion part, it´s been concluded that most people see robots in the future as an assistant but never as a friend or companion, a robot can be very helpful helping us solve problems but they don’t have the quality to thing and have feelings to establish some level of communication feed back in order to represent a companion to us in different areas in live; a robot will always be co-dependent of its programmer until time comes where fully artificial intelligence is rich at a human level.
Robotics have become a tool for human that has helped us to develop and upgrade our life conditions making it easier and living us time to share with our love ones, but it must be always remember that this kind of technology have to be used with responsibility because the excess of it could harm us in different ways as much as It has benefit us so far.
Reference
"Intelligent Robots and Systems, 2005. (IROS 2005). 2005 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on." IEEE Xplore. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 June 2013.
Lamb, Robert. "10 Ways Robots Could Replace Humans." Discovery Channel. Discovery, n.d. Web. 10 June 2013.
"RoboCom Flagship: More than Future." RoboCom Flagship: More than Future. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 June 2013
Andrew Stanton, Dir. “Wall-E”. Disney Pixar. 2008. Film
The UAV – Unmanned Air Vehicle. www.theuav.com. 2013. Fri. 14 June 2013.
Top 10 Modern Robots. www.realitypod.com/2010/06/top-10-modern-robots. Mon. 17 June 2013.
