Definitions
Humanoid robot- a robot with its body shape built to resemble the human body (1)
Biped Robot- a robot that has two legs (2)
Bipedal Humanoid Robots
One recent story to come out of the robotics community is that of Atlas, the bipedal humanoid robot from the company Boston Dynamics. While bipedal humanoid robots are definitely not new, the achievement that Boston Dynamics has recently made with Atlas is actually quite a big deal. Simply put, Atlas the humanoid robot is capable of doing a backflips (4).
While this may seem a bit anticlimactic being that performing a backflip is certainly a common thing among humans, I would argue to first consider past attempts of bipedal humanoid robot in performing the everyday actions of humans. Just observe these robots trying to perform very simple tasks.
As you can see, Atlas’ ability to perform a backflip is quite amazing. However, one reasonable question regarding such robots could arise: If proper functioning humanoid robots are so difficult to design, why use them? The answer is that we live in a world designed for humans. Thus having a robots that is designed to act like a human is quite valuable. Consider an event such as a nuclear disaster. At the moment, we have non-humanoid robots that are capable of easily maneuvering on flat surfaces. However, in a situation where stairs need to be climbed or doors need to be open, a non-humanoid robot may not be capable of performing that task (6).
With this, we return to our two clumsy robots from above. Both of those robots were contestants in a 2015 robotics competition hosted by Darpa. The purpose of this competition was to promote the development of robots that can assist in catastrophes. Thus, contestants were given tasks such “as opening a door, walking through rubble and driving an ATV” (6). While the falls from above may suggest that we are nowhere close to a stable humanoid robots, the accomplishments of the contestants, along with the most recent accomplishment of Atlas, shows that there is hope that one day we will have fully functioning humanoid robots.
Conclusion
At this point, you may be wondering what this topic has to do with Computer Science. One thing I noticed while reading these stories is that it would appear that audiences are much more interested in the robots and their abilities rather that the algorithms and programming necessary for them to function. However, while none of the stories above mention anything about Computer Science, I would argue that Computer Science does in fact play a huge role in bipedal humanoid robots. With this, I would like to conclude by looking at Jacky Baltes’ 2017 blog post titled “Humanoid Multi-Event Athletes”. In this post, Baltes gives details on the FIRA HuroCup decathlon, an event where humanoid robots are asked to take part in events such as “sprint, marathon, basketball, weight lifting, spartan race, obstacle run, long jump, united soccer, mini-drc, and .. archery” (7).
While Baltes spends a good amount of time praising the accomplishments of the contestants, she also praises the work of the computer scientist behind the actions of the robots. Specifically, Baltes takes time to mention published papers such as ‘Stability margin for robust walking gaits constructed by center of pressure’ by Tu et al, ‘Parameterized gait pattern generator based on LIPM with natural ZMP references’ by Ho et al, ‘Active Balancing and Turning for Alpine Skiing Robots’ by Iverach-Brereton et al, that detail the work that would allow the robots to be capable of performing such tasks (7). With this, it is clear that Computer Science plays a huge role in the success of humanoid robots and without the algorithms of Computer Science, humanoid robots would not be able to function properly.
Sources
I think you have a really good point about the importance of these robots. In a natural disaster, they would be more effective in saving lives since they (most likely) would not be damaged as easily or could be slowed down from fatigue, heat, etc. The question of how strong a role robots will play in everyday life in the future is still interesting to me and I don't know how accepted they will be for everyday uses, but I think it is always a plus to have this ability accessible for purposes we cannot predict.
ReplyDeleteTo be fair, if I tried to do a backflip I would break, so it is a minor miracle that a robot can do it and not break itself. It does concern me a tad that robots have developed some human-lied motor functions recently, especially as AI technology has progressed rapidly as of late. There are some Matrix- and Terminator-esque vibes flowing from these developments, but it is impossible to deny that they are, if nothing else, cool to see.
ReplyDeleteIt will be interesting to see how these competitions progress as the technology behind them improves but in the mean time, watching robots grossly fail gives me hope that humans can continue to play a role in every aspect of robotics and AI (although I must agree with Jack about their Terminator-esque vibes). I will probably google this later on, but do you know if the robot makers are manually entering every task for the robots to do (essentially controlling them) or is there an AI program that commands their actions? Also, as you mentioned in the blog, the world was made for humans so a humanoid robot would be very valuable but couldn't one argue that having a flying robot with extremities (arms to grab things) could be just as valuable and easier to perfect given that you get rid of the problem concerning uneven surfaces. Of course, flying robots would have their own respective problems to deal with, but from what the blog post highlighted, uneven surfaces seems to be the biggest obstacle to overcome.
ReplyDelete