• Question: IF a robot (with no stop button) went on a rampage E.g breaking into peoples house and throwing them around. How would you design a stop button for it? Were would you put it? How big would it be?

    Asked by Annie to Siobhan, Katie, Iulia on 14 Mar 2017. This question was also asked by axsana.
    • Photo: Iulia Motoc

      Iulia Motoc answered on 14 Mar 2017:

      Firstly, for the moment, we will always build robots with a shut down button. This is because we need a sort of safety, not because they can starts thinking on their own and attack us, but because they might get hacked and someone might use them against humans.

      But assuming that a robot did go on a rampage and it has no shut down button, designing a button will not help. It is not possible to design a button and attach it so fast. The robot will still have time to cause some sort of damage.

    • Photo: Katie Pavey

      Katie Pavey answered on 14 Mar 2017:

      With the robots we use in our car factories, we can talk to them remotely – usually to download data if the robot has stopped unexpectedly and we want to find out why. It is possible to do the opposite though, and tell the robot to stop from a laptop the other side of the factory.

      So back to your question, I think I’d design in the same type of system, so if my robot suddenly decided to break into people’s houses I could tell it to stop without having to get up off the sofa 🙂

    • Photo: Siobhan Duncan

      Siobhan Duncan answered on 15 Mar 2017:

      I would put a big button like this one on it’s back

      I have one like it with a light on the end that I’m going to build into my new robot, just for fun 🙂

      The button would cut the power to the robot and I would put it somewhere it couldn’t see it haha.

      But do you know a robot’s weak spot? Water! Robots are made from the same materials as you phone or you computer and how well does your phone do when it falls down the toilet or into a swimming pool? Not so well.

      So I would fight the naughty robots with a water gun 🙂

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