Issues+and+Impacts

=  **Issues and Impacts of Robot Technology**   =

Introduction:
Robotics is a constantly expanding emergent technology that is not only making strides in the money and resources it takes to produce this technology, but the real footprint that robotics is leaving on our society lies in the impact it is making on our industries to sustain and upgrade them. Below are four major areas that robotics is impacting or has already left a lasting impression on.

Areas Covered:
 * Agriculture
 * Education
 * Military
 * Robotics Industry

Autonomous Vehicles / Mobile Robots
The continuing development of robotics has had a huge effect on agriculture with the push on the uses of mobile robots and autonomous vehicles to improve efficiency. The big issue with doing something with robots in farming is that it isn’t a controlled environment like what you see in industrial production; nature isn’t exactly the easiest thing to predict. Though, advancements in technology have given way to what is known as ‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍precision agriculture,‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍ which is a concept of management for farming that allows the farmer to produce more efficiently by using different kinds technologies like global positioning system (GPS), geographical systems, and agricultural machinery. These technologies make robots and autonomous vehicles more viable, of course with the prospect of increased accuracy and efficiency compared to their larger counterparts (tractors and such) has heightened the interesting in their development. The end result or goal is to develop unmanned machines that are capable of working 24/7, surviving in a variety of different weather conditions, and with a smart enough artificial intelligence that enables them to act in a sensible manner within the given environment over long periods of time unattended ‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍(Godoy, Tabile, Pereira, Tangerino, Porto, & Inamasu, 2010). ‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

There are three things needed in accomplishing the different needs that this undertaking requires the CAN based protocol control system, library of high-level functions, and PID controllers. The CAN is an electronic control unit (ECU), which is an interface that allows the robot to communicate over a network for gathering information and getting commands. This enables the use of sensors, actuators and computer systems related with tasks of navigation allowing for integration related to data gathering of agricultural parameters. The library of high-level functions is done in the C programming language to ISO11783 standards for the microcontrollers that are in the ECU. These high-level functions are what enable the CAN interface to receive and transmit information to various things on the network. Lastly there are the PID controllers whose name is defined by the controller gains P = 275, I = 20, and D = 200. The PID controllers control the speed and guidance motors needed for proper movement of the robot to avoid damaging the motors or other parts of the robot. The robot doesn’t move all that fast with its movement being 15 RPMs; at the moment this is so the guidance system doesn’t get thrown off due to position change. Figure 1 and figure 2 of this section show the robots performances in precision, response, and speed‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍ (Godoy, Tabile, Pereira, Tangerino, Porto, & Inamasu, 2010).‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍
 * Figure 1.** shows the results from testing the mobile robots speed control, part A is a zoomed in version of rectangle a in part B. Part B of figure 1 is the step response of the traction motors in the test.
 * Figure 2.** shows the results from testing the mobile robots guidance system, part A is a zoomed in version of rectangle a in part B. Part B of Figure 2 are the step response of the guidance motors.

‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍Plant Recognition‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍
Many solutions used in ‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍agricultural‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍ robots for field of vision guidance and plant recognition are not effective enough. Frequent problems that are seen within the different solutions are distinguishing crops from weeds along with problems dealing with various environmental conditions (uneven rows, etc.) and one of the most difficult problems is changes in light intensity. There are a lot of different methods of recognizing the plants from near infrared imaging to spectral properties of reflection and everything in between. The only efficient way of distinguishing the different plants would be to simultaneously use several of the recognition methods at once whose efficiency is high enough; sadly the computational power needed exceeds what is available (as of 2006). The convenient thing about planets is each species has a specific green hue and texture that is different compared to each other. So with this in mind image processing can identify individual plants by using RGB (‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍red, green, & blue‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍) values. Using this method is nice but is greatly affected by varying light intensity; to solve this problem it was proposed to use the correlation between the RGB and photodiode voltage values. The photodiode values are used to counteract the light intensity problem by converting it to voltage and using a voltmeter to measure the variations. This process with using the photodiodes to convert the light intensity to voltage has shown that plant differentiation can be achieved. This plant recognition was tested on three different plants tomato, pepper, and aubergine (basically an eggplant) ‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍(Tilneac & Dolga, 2009). ‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍See figures 3 and 4 of this section. Figure 3 shows the relationship between the photodiode voltage and the RGB values for each planet. Figure 4 is pretty much a graphical representation of figure 3. Also if you notice in figure 3 the differences are quite distinct between each plant meaning individual plant recognition is achievable.

Education:
When we look at Robotics and all of the areas and faucets of our everyday lives it has affected, we also need to look at the new areas it is starting to impact. One area of our society lays in education both of young people and those who are pursuing higher levels of education. Those are the two new areas that robotics is starting to affect, and it is incredibly fascinating to see exactly how robotics will impact the education industry as well as those individuals who make their livelihood from it.

When you think of learning from a robot, you might picture a dull one sided conversation in which a machine spits new information into your brain and you must process it in order to proceed with the lesson. However, it is true that most people in fact can learn from a robot and actually increases certain areas of study that humans otherwise don’t develop as fast in. In fact, “Studies have shown that robots can help students develop problem-solving abilities and learn computer programming, mathematics, and science” (Chih-Wei, Jih-Hsien, Po-Yao, Chin-Yeh & Gwo-Dong, 2010, p. 1). In that aspect you could say that indeed people do actually interact and can learn from a robot as well as a teacher. Robotics also has impacted the way students view the sciences and thus have created more of a buzz in the science industry among young people. A recent study was done on high school students and the results of this study speak for themselves, “students who participated in a robotic competition had a more positive attitude toward science and science-related areas in four of the seven categories examined: social implications of science, normality of scientists, attitude toward scientific inquiry, and adoption of scientific attitudes” (Welch & Huffman, 2011, p.1).

The impact of robotics has been felt all over our country from small market applications to widespread job replacement of big market sectors. The market for teaching and the aid schools receive is becoming less and less by the day, as teachers are required to either teach more hours or are being laid off all together. In fact with more and more of these automated systems being implemented it is the role of the standard teacher that is becoming obsolete and thus has started to change. This idea has been proved by the number of college classes today that are being offered online or with some major online component, in which the student is required to learn from a digital copy of the textbook and nothing more than some online tutorials. It is in this area that robots provide some sort of happy medium between the well organized and planned curriculum that the robots teach, and the interaction and social aspects that young people develop through dialog with a teacher. This can even be seen in young infants as Marti (2010) states, “By 9 months of age, infants interacting with a responsive robot show shared attention following its head movements, timing and contingencies. Pre-linguistic toddlers engage in altruistic, instrumental helping and are able to show primitive forms of empathy, for example, offering comfort to an adult crying in pain” (p. 4).

It is true that robots are indeed taking over and that many normal aspects of our life will change in the future. From the ways our kids learn to the ways we take down terrorists in other countries, robots are not only making our lives easier but they are also making our lives much more technically sound. In this clip below (on the left) is a presentation from the company iRobot. iRobot is in charge of making just what it sounds like, robots for different companies as well as whole industries. This clip focuses more on the education side of robotics and in quite an interesting way of looking at the world of education and how robotics is subtly changing the ways we learn and teach. The second clip below (on the right) is an example of what our classrooms might start to look like when robot teachers become the norm for our classroom environments.

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**Military:** There has been great strides in the use of robotics in the military that has enhanced the safety and readiness of our forces. "Robots and unmanned systems potentially could improve enemy surveillance, reduce a soldier's workload and save lives on the battlefield, an Army general said here this week (Agency Group)". The use of UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles), UUV (Unmanned Underwater Vehicles), and UGV (unmanned Ground Vehicle). These vehicles have made it possible for soldiers to be out of harms way while performing their duties. Bomb disposal robots that can difuse bombs is a good example of how a robots can do the work that a soldier would do. The use of UAV's allows a soldier to do oporations halfway around the world without having to leave thier place of duty localy. Robots have also played an important role in reacent wars."Today over Iraq and Afghanistan, such systems have flown more than 1.2 million combat hours. The Army has about 4,000 robots at work in the war zones on various tasks, including detecting roadside bombs, James Overholt, senior research scientist for robotics at the U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center in Warren, Mich., told American Forces Press Service (Agency Group (n.d)). As one can see the use of robots is undiniably a great enhanment to the military. Each branch, Navy, Army, Air Force and Marines have all benifited from the Use of Robots. Other areas that have benefited from miliary use of robots has been education and employment. An article in the Canadian press quoted President Obama "Their mission is to come up with a way to get ideas from the drawing board to the manufacturing floor to the marketplace as swiftly as possible, which will help create quality jobs, and make our businesses more competitive," Obama said in his address, which was taped Friday during his visit to Carnegie Mellon University, where he saw a display of mini-robots that explore water and sewer pipes." He also marveled at robots that can defuse a bomb, mow a lawn, even scrape old paint"(Jim, K.). The military has given awards to companies which means millions of dollars to develop robotics. Robots in the military will continue to grow as they are developed and the uses explored. **Ethical Issues**  Robot use in the military has raised ethical issues and of course some unintended consequences as with most military technologies, some good and some bad. " As with Jeeps and Humvees, there seems to be a natural migration path of military robots to civil robots, especially those that would perform the same functions of security and surveillance"(Lin, P.2010). The ethial isssues raised is that there may be fealing of detachmnet from the soldiers performiing task. when soldiers operate UAV there is no sound and people look like objects. Other issues are responsibility robots cant be held accountable for thier actions, and what about the controller. The collatiral damage to a country that does not use robots would be unbalanced. The very definition of how we do opperations may come under attack. Does standing a watch mean that a person must be there or does a robot satisfy this task? Other considerations sre that robots do not care or are truly unprejudice when perfroming its job this allows for orfers t be carried out axactly without consideraration of the circumstances. As one can see robots in the military may enhance our ability to get the job done but we all need to step back an examine the ethical and the unintended consequeses. The phsycoligical imprint is already in full effect lets look at some names given to some of the militaries robots.
 * . Crusher: A six-and-a-half ton unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) that is armored and armed, capable of navigating extreme terrain, including through walls.


 * . Battlefield Extraction-Assist Robot (BEAR): A UGV that can lift and retrieve combat casualties, carrying them out of harm’s way.


 * . BigDog: Quadruped robot that can traverse difficult terrain, such as rubble. The much smaller version is the LittleDog (Boston Dynamics 2010a). The bipedal and anthropomorphized or humanoid version is the PETMAN (Boston Dynamics 2010b). Ethical Blowback from Emerging Technologies 319


 * . PackBot: This family of robots includes models that famously havesaved thousands of lives by detecting and defusing improvised explosive devices (IEDs).


 * . Dragon Runner: A surveillance ground robot designed for urban environments, such as operating in buildings.


 * . Reaper: A long-distance, high-altitude surveillance UAV that is armed with Hellfire anti-armor missiles. The smaller version is the Predator  both have gained the most attention, given their current and controversial use in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.


 * . Hummingbird: A tiny robot or ‘nano-UAV’, at 10 grams or the weight of two nickels, that is highly maneuverable and can be used forsurveillance in urban environments (AeroVironment 2009).


 * Seahorse: An unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) launched from torpedo tubes that can conduct oceanographic surveying and bottom mapping.

Lets take a look at a UAV in action. media type="youtube" key="nMh8Cjnzen8" width="339" height="280" align="left"



Robotics Industry:
The development of robotics is a broad industry which consists of psychology, biology, artificial intelligence and robotics. Some of the major Country's in robotics development are USA, EUROPE, KOREA and CHINA and JAPAN. Robotics market has a range in billions of dollars and goes up by the year. Some of the big concentrations in robotics developments are in the military field, development smart vehicles and small gadget devices.


 * Some Drawbacks In robotics**

George Bekey, emeritus professor of computer science at the University of Southern California states how US robotics builders are scrambling for cash because besides funding military and space robotics the US just ain't putting out. His article says the United States is falling behind Europe and Asia in robotics research, and unlike many other developed countries, the United States lacks a coordinated strategy to cultivate robotics development. Robotics research funding has been dropping in the United States for at least the last decade, with the National Science Foundation's funding now at less than $10 million per year. In contrast, Japan's government will spend nearly $100 million in 2005. Also, over the next three years, Europe plans to spend nearly $100 million on a new program called Advanced Robotics. South Korea, meanwhile, spends $80 million on robotics research annually (Bekey & Yuh, 2008).


 * Robotics Industry's**

After the economy being down for a couple of years, now in 2010 robots industry are more in demand. Some numbers show that 50% in 2009 to 60,000 units, its lowest level since 1994, according to the International Federal of Robotics. The project of automobile, metal and electronics are some of the main robotics that made strong recovery on these current years. The International Federal of Robotics demands a 10 percent of development increase on the development of these robotics. Other robotics demands are the Automotive in china, India and other Asian markets. The reason for this is because robots weld more accurately then humans and reduces the time in mass production according to Robot Sales Rebound.(2011).

Robotic industry has grown over the past decades. Below are some of the new current things going on in the robotics Business world according to http://www.therobotreport.com. There were over 2,100 U.S. job ads for robotics skills in January, 2012, a 44% year-over-year growth rate from 2011. The majority of listings (650)was for engineering jobs and represented a 51% year-over-year increase. > ... Further, 90% did not perceive the robot as annoying and 92% did not believe that “the doctor cared less about them” because of the robot. Also, 92% supported the continued use of the robot.
 * The job market on robotics have grown
 * In the US 100,000 science teachers will be trained by Carnegie University for future robotics development.
 * In a study to assess how surgical intensive care patients and their families perceived robotic telepresence, 92% of respondents were comfortable with the robot and 84% believed that communication was “easy.”

Some of the new robotics development that are coming into play in the next few years consist of;


 * Harvest Automation**
 * Servicing ornamental horticulture market ($35 billion industry)
 * Focused on nurseries and greenhouses and their continual need to move potted plants
 * Each robot to produce 10,000 hours of production and do the work of one laborer
 * Will be in field beta testing in 2012; full rollout of commercial product in 2013
 * This year's field testing quite successful


 * Foxconn throwing all the other numbers out of whack**
 * Building $223 million R & D and manufacturing facility to produce assembly-line robots
 * Plans to go from 10M present number of robots to 300M by end of 2013 to 1MM by end of 2015
 * Mammoth rollout in Western terms; but not for Asian factories
 * Hiring 2,000 Taiwanese engineers and scientists to make it happen
 * Robots will likely be low-level polishers, painters, welders and transporters with intricate assemblies still done by human hands


 * Sea Robotics**
 * Office of Naval Research sponsored research to develop robotic underwater device to clean ship hulls
 * Science is to mimic the behavior of sea creatures
 * Sensors determine clean or not clean thus robot can determine the surfaces it has yet to sweep
 * Other sensors inspect for barnacles and they are removed differently
 * Currently being tested with deployment in 2015 across the US Navy's fleet

Benefits and Drawbacks Table
According to Gregory(2010), he states a few facts that I believe everyone would agreed with. Some of the pros and cons that can consist of military robotics are listed below. Some of the disadvantages consist of; Some of the advantages consist of;
 * Will robot fighters be able to distinguishing between enemy troops and innocent civilians
 * Can programmers imagine every situation that robots will encounter on the battlefield
 * Might robots be “hacked” by the enemy and turned against friendly troops
 * If robots break the rules of war, who takes responsibility? The manufacturer? The programmer? The nearest human commander?
 * Replace soldiers in dangerous missions, such as crawling through caves or in street-to-street urban combat, reducing casualties.
 * Reduce civilian casualties if used properly and if sufficient ethical programming could be developed.
 * Make faster decisions than humans, an important advantage on the modern battlefield.
 * Be unaffected by anger, revenge, hunger, fear, fatigue, or stress.
 * Use video or other sensors to monitor human soldiers on both sides of a battle for violations of the laws of war.
 * Refuse to carry out an unethical or illegal commands, something a human soldier might be pressured not to do.

Transition statement:
Now that this section have broken down a few things on robotics consisting of their industries, agriculture's, educations, military's, and etc... we will now move into the some of the ethical and legal issues on the robotics world.