Newsgroups: comp.robotics
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From: rstevew@armory.com (Richard Steven Walz)
Subject: Re: consumer robotics
Organization: The Armory
Date: Fri, 9 Dec 1994 11:53:25 GMT
Message-ID: <D0JL13.7Mv@armory.com>
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In article <3c4ai9$cd5@ixnews1.ix.netcom.com>,
Kent Gibbs <kmgibbs@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>In <D0FBI4.7vG@armory.com> rstevew@armory.com (Richard Steven Walz) 
>writes: 
>
>>
>>In article <3c1l3l$jpl@ixnews2.ix.netcom.com>,
>>Kent Gibbs <kmgibbs@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>>>In <3c0chj$mq2@handler.Eng.Sun.COM> cmcmanis@Sun.COM (Chuck McManis) 
>>>writes: 
>>>
>>>>
>>>>Kent Gibbs (kmgibbs@ix.netcom.com) wrote:
>>>>: 	1. How soon do you expect robots other than toys to penetrate 
>>>>: 	   into the consumers home?
>>>>
>>>>They already have, I've got a dishwashing robot, a clothes washing 
>>>robot,
>>>>a clothes drying robot, and a couple of television monitoring and 
>>>recording
>>>>robots. My mother has a robot that makes bread for her. Our neighbor 
>>>has
>>>>a robot that embroiders patterns on fabric and joins fabric with 
>>>thread.
>>>>
>>>>: 	2. What form do you expect them to take?
>>>>: 	Please reply in this newsgroup as I monitor it regularly.
>>>>
>>>>Ever more sophisticated appliances. While I suspect you don't 
>consider
>>>>a dishwasher a robot, they do in fact meet most if not all 
>definitions
>>>>of a robot, they monitor their environment, they have end effectors
>>>>designed to accomplish their mission, they adjust their action based
>>>>on external stimuli and they can be programmed. (My dishwasher is 
>>>pretty
>>>>dumb however and can only be programmed on when to start and how
>>>>aggressively it should attempt to clean what is inside it.)
>>>>
>>>>So what was your definition of a robot?
>>>>
>>>>--
>>>>--Chuck McManis			     All opinions in this 
>>>message/article are
>>>>Sun Microsystems Inc.                those of the author, who may or 
>>>may not
>>>>Internet: cmcmanis@Eng.sun.COM       be who you think it is.
>>>>Crypto-puzzle: *0U0JPFPrWRN9PkWRKeP5WRmIR9wP5QAWuIQP9Pu9tnIZ7AD1SIS
>>>>
>>>
>>>	But it can't be programmed to do the laundry or vacumn the 
>>>floor. So by my definition it is simply automated machinery, not a 
>>>robot!
>>----------------------------
>>You will be very disappointed then, as most robots counted as such 
>cannot
>>be programmed to do what you suggest, such as manipulator arms, etc. If 
>you
>>are waiting for an android to do your bidding, you are off in la-la 
>land
>>for now. But we still have robots in the home and have for quite some 
>time!
>>There are probably some appliances with a fixed activity sequence which 
>are
>>not true robots, as they lack inputs about conditions, but one can call 
>the
>>on switch of a celing light its sensor and be entirely correct. Most
>>sensors ARE simply switches, if only to start the process. But we can
>>discuss that quandry.
>>-Steve Walz   rstevew@armory.com
>>
>>
>
>	I'm well aware of the limitations that reprogrammable devices 
>(robots) have. I guess my definition of a 'robot' is a little stricter 
>than yours. If I understand what you are saying, then a potted plant 
>could be loosely termed a robot.  It has sensors to detect the position 
>of light and is capable of moving itself into a position where it 
>recieves the maximum amount of light available, and it performs useful 
>work (converting CO2 into O2).
>	In the orginal post, I was referring to 'higher' level robots 
>capable of performing more than one task. Your dishwashing 'robot' may 
>wash the dishes in a variety of different ways, but it still just washes 
>dishes.
--------------
Gee, sounds SEXIST to ME, now how about the rest of us girls!!!!???;->
("...still just washes dishes" indeed!!!;) .)

But at least you will apparently concede that even a trigger release trap
is a robot, or that a washing machine is a robot. (I wouldn't call a ON
switch a sensor, so a light circuit is OUT! It takes a human input action.)
"A robot is any device which can sense, decide, and act, all in the absence
of human assistance." And of course I would include higher robots. This
thread, I believe, was questioning how far back we can go looking for
non-electrical or pre-electronic robots. There were a large number of robot
books written when we were using relays, remember!! My washing machine uses
a latching relay and several conditional switches!
-Steve Walz   rstevew@armory.com

