• Question: What would be your idea of an intelligent robotic device?

    Asked by jamesygamesy to Siobhan, Katie, Iulia, Mateusz, Ollie on 9 Mar 2017. This question was also asked by NonOfYourBuisness, 476rbth39.
    • Photo: Iulia Motoc

      Iulia Motoc answered on 9 Mar 2017:

      I think it would be really great to have a robotic personal assistant that can help you with different stuff, like reading emails, scheduling meetings, answering phone calls, or monitor the house while you are away.

    • Photo: Siobhan Duncan

      Siobhan Duncan answered on 10 Mar 2017:

      For me, something is robotic if it is autonomous. Autonomous is a long word that just means that it can run by itself without needing human interaction.

      This doesn’t mean that humans can’t interact with it, but it just doesn’t rely on it.

      For example, a toy car. It’s not a robot if you are using a remote to control it, however if it can drive around by itself and avoid obstacles it’s a robot.

      Now the word intelligent is less easy to define. Is a robot that makes you a cup of tea because you wrote the instructions to how to make tea in it’s programming intelligent? Or is a robot that doesn’t know how to make tea, but can learn by watching you make a cup of tea intelligent?

      I work with a branch of artificial intelligence called swarm intelligence, which is basically lots and lots of stupid robots, working together and the collective, or swarm, is intelligent because of how all the robots work together.

      This is like when ants stick together to avoid a flood https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bdry7_5qck

      Or when termites work together to build huge nests https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHNrRtlBu6M

      Or when bees attack a large predator

      A single ant, termite or bee is not very intelligent, but as a group they can be.

      Hope this helps, 🙂
      Siobhan

    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 14 Mar 2017:

      A robotic housemate or companion is a natural choice for me 🙂

      I’d like intelligent robots to be able to both learn and teach – I think this would be considered highly intelligent. If it could adapt its teaching style and content specifically to your needs – that would be extremely useful as well.

      I guess, a closely related idea to intelligence is that of autonomy – the ability to perform on your own, without anyone telling you what to do. This is something some of the people I work with really want out of any robot designed for home.

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