What are robots?
A robot is a
mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or
with guidance, typically by remote control. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or remotely
controlled.
History of Robots
The history
of robots has its roots as far back as
ancient myths and legends. Modern concepts were begun to be developed when the
Industrial Revolution allowed the use of more complex mechanics and the
subsequent introduction of electricity made it possible to power machines with
small compact motors. After the 1920s the modern formulation of a humanoid
machine was developed to the stage where it was possible to envisage human
sized robots with the capacity for near human thoughts and movements, first
envisaged millennia before. The first uses of modern robots were in factories as
industrial robots - simple fixed machines capable of manufacturing tasks which
allowed production without the need for human assistance. Digitally controlled industrial robots and robots making use of artificial
intelligence have been built since the 1960s.
Challenges faced in designing Robotic Interfaces
HCI offers
a rich resource for research and design in human-robot interaction. Much has
been learned in the last three decades about how people perceive and think
about computer-based technologies, about human constraints on interaction with
machines, about the factors that improve usability, and about the primary and
secondary effects of technology on people and organizations. So after much research, we feel that
the following are some of the difficulties that designers may face while trying
to improve human robot interactions.
- Firstly, people seem to perceive autonomous robots differently than they do most other computer technologies. Most people would think of machine as a form of tool to accomplish certain tasks. However, robots are unique in the field of HCI in that, it makes machines appear more humanized to people. Now the challenge is to design robot to make it more human-like.
- Secondly, another challenge faced is that robots are expected to be fully mobile, bringing them into physical proximity with other robots, people, and objects.
- Lastly, robots need to make decisions which are to learn about themselves and their world, and they exert some control over the information they process and actions they emit. This can be a very common problem in programming these robots. Programming of robots is a complex activity because user has to accomplish different steps. If we could utilize a graphical representation of these steps, we should use a diagram organized as a graph, in which every node has a function and in which the user can make specific activities, linked to the same function. So the user has different view of the programming activity and can utilize multiple view of the process, to organize better the robot’s behavior.
Evaluating Robotic Interfaces
Nielson heuristics is a popular approach to evaluating
designs. But, we feel that this cannot be applied when evaluating the
interactivity between humans and robots because the range of heuristics is not
broad enough to cover all the unique aspects of robotics. One such aspect, like
we mentioned above, is the fact that one of the goals of designing robotic
interfaces is giving it a human like experience but there is no heuristic in
the Nielson heuristic that covers this point.
Future of Robots
TED
