The Robot Revolution I don’t know how many people out their notice that we are heading headlong into using robots in war. Right now, most are on the offensive side. We have small ones that are like small tractors and are armed. These are sent into buildings to clear out enemy soldiers without having to risk our military. One can’t help but notice all the drones in use lately. A drone is really a killer robot. They come in several different flavors. There are flying ones which are like Kamikazes which dive down on an enemy and explode. There are some which are like small ships and they ram and explode. I hear there may be a couple of submarine drones. I have to wonder how long it will be before we have robot soldiers. We have started on that path already with a sort of suit a soldier can wear which allows him to lift heavy loads, and do heavy marching without getting tired. One example of this is the Raytheon XOS 2 Exoskeleton. Another type of exoskeleton is made by Sarcos and was created to be used in manufacturing. It was said not only would it enhance the employee’s capabilities, but make it safer for them. When it comes to creating robots, can you guess what country leads the world? If you said China, you would be correct. They lead the world in industrial automation and installed more industrial robots than all the rest of the world’s countries combined. I guess this is one of the main reasons they can create so much stuff so cheaply. First, they were paying low wages to do that, now they figured out how to pay no wages and still get the product made. When it comes to human type robots it is said the Ameca robot, which also is made in China, claims to be the world’s most advanced human type robot. Even though this claim was made, the robot is not yet able to walk. It does have some natural facial expressions and movements however. When the company representative was asked about the cost of Ameca, he said north of $100,000. One of the things some scientists have on their want list is robots which are intelligent enough to become astronauts on long space journeys. It is even thought they might replace humans since we are so fragile and need spacecraft with many features to support their life. A space craft used to transport robots would be made a lot simpler. You wouldn’t need food, water, bathrooms, kitchens and such. It would basically be just an empty shell with a propulsion unit. Robots wouldn’t get bored on a long trip and there might even be a need for a one-way trip which they could perform. When we use devices like Echo or even Google’s search engine, we are seeing the beginning of robot teachers. When I write an article I routinely turn to my Echo for spelling, when I hit a tough word. With Google the search engine already contains all the information we would need for teaching if it could be put into a teaching format. For years there has been talk of loading a chip with all this info, implanting it in a human and doing away with school all together. This seems to me to be a step in combining robots and humanity. We already have robot cars and planes. The cars are not perfect but can do a pretty good job of driving themselves around town. Planes have had autopilot for years and now military planes are being developed which are robotic and it is said one piloted plane will be able to control a fleet of robotic ones. Can you imagine a dog fight in the air with one plane controlling many others. It almost seems impossible, doesn’t it? Yet, we are well on the way. Things are really getting weird. I wonder if robots which look human will get so perfect, we might think they were people. Lonely people might like to have a human type robot for company and they might be very useful in the medical profession. I think a lot of jobs would be lost as these machines work for free and some will perform tasks that humans don’t like. Of course, in most cases the robot doesn’t have to look human. Take the new line of robot cooks for example. They are said to be able to cook a perfect meal, but even more than that they can watch a cook on television and learn a new recipe and then replicate it perfectly. If I was a chef, I wouldn’t like this idea very much. Think about this, after a while the robot would be just as good as the chef and become his competition, which means he or she would be competing against themselves. Some industries are being changed because of the robot revolution and one of them is said to be mining. Mining is known as very dangerous for humans as been proven by the many deaths and injuries over the years. Even breathing in a mine can cause problems like black lung disease. There are control robots for mines that can track people and machines and also monitor environmental conditions. Various robot types are being perfected which can go into flooded mines and create maps of the area. That is only the start of robotics for mining. Mining robots are replacing humans. This is also increasing productivity and the robots can be used twenty-four hours a day, and seven days a week. Robots could be quite a gift to a disabled person as it helps them get around. I am thinking more about assisting them getting out of a chair, going to bed and helping them around the house. Perhaps the robot will some day be able to do the cooking and cleaning. This might even allow a disabled person who is house bound to get out with the robot’s help. Japan has an old population and the country seems to love their robots. As a matter of fact, they displayed a huge robot that was 3 meters tall. A person actually gets inside it and drives it. Yamaha built a motorcycle with a neural based system that allows control over every part of the machine. Amazon is using robots in some of its warehouses. They started with human form ones and are moving to simpler ones that do the job even better. Finally, research has come to the conclusion artificial intelligence will not replace all humans, but it will replace about 1/3rd of them in the workforce.
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