Engadget visits the Intelligent Robotics Research Center at the Korean Institute of Science and Technology
posted May 26th 2005 1:52PM
Engadget pal Dave C. recently kicked it at the Intelligent Robotics Research Center in Seoul, South Korea, and wrote up this brief field report of his visit for us:
I was in Seoul recently and was lucky enough to arrange a meeting with Dr. Beomjae Yoo, Director of Intelligent Robotics Research Center at the Korean Institute of Science and Technology (KIST). He showed me around the lab, where I spotted two robots recently discussed here on Engadget before, a "male" bot named Maru, which means "pinnacle" or "apex", and a "female" bot named Ahra, which means "recognition". Unfortunately, I wasn't able to to see the robots operational, but there was also another, much larger humanoid model hanging in the hallway as well. I also spotted a room straight out of Blade Runner that was stocked full of assorted robot limbs and torsos.
Dr. Yoo focused a great deal on the networked brain KIST has developed for each robot. Each brain actually consists
of four to five computer stations connected to a server, one each for voice/speech recognition, face recognition,
object recognition, motion and movement, and general AI features such as speech (as Engadget mentioned, one server
setup can control both bots). I asked Dr. Yoo whether the robots could do deductive reasoning (for example, if you fed
them the information that A=B and B=C, can it figure out that A=C), and he said that they would have that capability by
the end of the year. He said that some of the most difficult aspects of developing the robots were related to
kinesthetics and movement, but that the hardest of all was creating the ability to adapt to a moving, changing
environment, both from the physical response side and from the pattern recognition/AI side.
These robots are part of wider a project to build an Ubiquitous Robotic Companion, or URC. The URC is intended to be a
robot butler that combines all the functionality of a cellphone and a computer with the abilities of a human concierge,
so to speak. The part about the URC being “ubiqutous” refers to their goal of having these bots be a available to
everybody regardless of income, so there will be a range of models available. Dr. Yoo said that he expected
non-humanoid household bots in to be widespread within three years, but that humanoid bots will most likely take a
decade or more before they’re ready for primetime. He predicted that humanoid bots would most likely enter the
workforce in basic jobs such as waiting tables and working cash registers, as well as basic manual labor and household
jobs.
sorry alittle late
http://darylstimm.com/kittylives.jpg
Awesome tour!
They're not anatomically correct.
do i hear another matrix, Terminator or irobot comeing to us? lol! next thing you know, they're gonna kill us and rule the planet! yay! hahah
all in all, interesting read
Engadget ... with all this robotics stuff ... have you checked out the new Scoomba from iRobot? It's a Roomba that wet washes your lino/wood floors! Neat!
We wrote about the Scooba several days ago:
http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000537044345/
My Korean friend doubts it has voice recognition linked to AI, it's basically toy level response (or remote controlled). Before you post a report about pseudo-scientists in Korea who always steal/parrot what Japanese says, why didn't you ask about robot sexsuality and a reason not to make autonomous robots?
That's the greatest mystery of this crap.
nomy : Are you suggesting that researchers and developers should not engage in anything that others initiated? There will always be first-movers and followers. As long as these Korean scientists didn't steal blueprints, which I very much doubt possible, nothing wrong with competition. -domy -
And of course, creation of unique "genes" that are coded differently in ever robot is somewhat mandatory if we're going to have a robotic soceity. This means that the "genes" could be largely separated into two sections just like human genes, a male or a female. The approach to this could be, during implementation stage, quite different to one another even if two different companies adopt this one approach. Now, if you're asking about voice recognition, you may want to know what a voice recognition is. Just like a voice recognition lock, voice recognition isn't a feature of a robot, its a standard - no AI. And it certainly is not a language comprehension. Nomy, I doubt that your friend know anything in robotic business, and my guess it that just your friend doubts, I doubt that he's opinions are objective.
Regardless of the veracity of the article, a truly frightening pursuit: although harmless on the surface, what about deeper considerations such as cyber social hierarchy and the potential for massive displacement of jobs? Once again, gifted scientists blindly creating technology without ruminating upon the consequences. One step closer to the Matrix, Alright!!!
KM