Robotics research on display at the house of commons

Citation

(2008), "Robotics research on display at the house of commons", Industrial Robot, Vol. 35 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/ir.2008.04935eab.003

Robotics research on display at the house of commons

Article Type: News From: Industrial Robot: An International Journal, Volume 35, Issue 5

As a special demonstration of UK robotics research, an “Intelligent Robots in Science and Society” reception took place at the House of Commons on 22 April 2008. The initial idea came from the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST), to allow parliamentarians and policy-makers to meet the scientists and the robots at the cutting edge of UK research, and to highlight the ethical questions that arise. The Institute of Physics and the Walking With Robots (WWR) network helped to organise the event, with sponsorship from Science magazine (published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science).

Lord Sutherland of Houndwood, a board member of POST, made the opening speech. This was followed by three 5 min presentations by speakers from universities. Lord Sutherland closed the talks by musing on whether the Chief Whip would prefer to work with robots or intelligent robots! The audience was then free to visit the eight exhibition stands mounted by universities and their commercial collaborators, and to enjoy the food and drink kindly provided by Science magazine. About a dozen members of the Lords and Commons attended the exhibition, but the event also provided a platform for communications between the exhibitors, and with the press, and there were representatives from the French and Chinese embassies.

Robot ethics

Prof. Noel Sharkey from the University of Sheffield drew attention to the need for ethical rules and guidelines for robots, in the context of service robots that care for children and the elderly, and military robots with the ability to kill. Japan is developing robots to feed and bathe its ageing population and to entertain children, and service robots worldwide now outnumber industrial robots by three to one. Whilst the robotic services are helpful, Sharkey expressed concern about the effect on the user of reduced social interaction. South Korea has expressed its intention to develop a complete robot police force in the next 5 years. A blog by the Daily Telegraph Foreign Correspondent Richard Spencer on http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/foreign/richardspencer/nov07/southkorea.htm describes a South Korean robot built by Samsung that automatically fires machine guns at border-intruders who respond inappropriately to the “who goes there?” challenge. Another news item on www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/jun/30/news.usnews announces the decision to equip American bomb disposal robots with taser stun-guns. Sharkey stated that there are now more US military robots in Iraq than UK soldiers. Robots are unconstrained by any human empathy when deploying weapons under purely software control.

Health care and space robots

The second brief talk, by Professor Kerstin Dautenhahn from the University of Hertfordshire, concentrated on the growing market for health care robotics and the work being done to equip these robots for social interaction, for example by developing appropriate facial expressions and arm gestures. The Kaspar robot on the university’s display stand vividly demonstrates this capability, and it is used in studies with autistic children. Dautenhahn mentioned that the Japanese are using the RI-MAN robot to lift elderly people.

In the final verbal presentation, Dr Dave Barnes from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, concentrated on UK space robotics, and the expertise cultivated by the development of Beagle 2, the first planetary robotic spacecraft in Europe. He appealed for continued funding to ensure that this investment is not wasted, and highlighted the role of space robotics in inspiring school students. A display by the university, along with EADS Astrium and SciSys highlighted the ExoMars Rover, a robot to be launched in 2013 by the European Space Agency to bring back samples to investigate whether there has ever been life on Mars. The Rover will navigate for several kilometres using optical sensors, and will make sample drillings.

Robots in education

The WWR stand continued the theme of robots in education. The EPSRC-funded WWR network fosters close interaction between researchers and science communicators to inform the public on contemporary issues. The Open University is involved in initiatives for school children such as the RoboCupJunior UK. This uses themes of dance, soccer and rescue missions to encourage children to work in teams to build effective robots.

Autonomous robots

The University of Essex and Swarm Systems Ltd (SSL) displayed an autonomous flying vehicle, and presented their ideas for the UK Grand Challenge (Figure 1). This is a competition run by the Ministry of Defence to develop autonomous means to “detect, identify, monitor and report a comprehensive range of military threats in an urban environment”. SSL has built a product called the Owl, which is a small helicopter with four rotors, sufficiently powerful to manoeuvre and hover in the funnelling wind between tall buildings. Stephen Crampton, CEO of SSL, told me that the vehicle carries a payload of 100 g. This is sufficient for a visible-spectrum camera, but infrared imagers are currently too heavy. The vehicles fly about 30 m above the ground, and carry GPS instrumentation to correlate pictures with location. A swarm consists of about eight Owls. Crampton said that for a long time, the principal obstacle to such robots was autonomous flight. That is now solved, and the current challenges are obstacle avoidance and co-ordinated behaviour. SSL is aiming for full autonomy, which contrasts with the human operator requirement of current commercial micro air vehicles.

Figure 1 Professor Noel Sharkey, robot ethics champion (on left), exchanges views with Owen Holland of the University of Essex

According to http://cswww.essex.ac.uk/staff/owen/research.htm, Owen Holland of the University of Essex is investigating how a robot swarm can mimic a flock of birds whilst performing distributed computation across a wireless network. He experiments with swarms indoors, and has developed “the smallest flying web server in the world”. A swarm provides multiple simultaneous viewpoints of the target, and gives robustness through redundancy.

In addition to its work on space robotics, the University of Wales at Aberystwyth is developing an autonomous sailing boat for oceanographic monitoring. On-board wind sensors and GPS enable the boat to sail itself to a specified location. Dr Mark Neal and PhD student Colin Sauzé (Figure 2) explained the advantages: unlike battery powered vehicles, the craft does not run out of energy. It generates 6 W of power from solar panels, which is enough to control the boat and its software. I asked about how it interacts with other shipping, since the craft is about 2 m long, and I was informed that since it carries no passengers or cargo, it is classed under maritime regulations as a “drifting buoy” rather than a vessel, and needs no navigation lights. However, it does carry a radar reflector.

Figure 2 Dr Mark Neal (standing closest to the posters) and PhD student Colin Sauzé consider questions about their sailing robots displayed by The University of Wales, Aberystwyth

Surgery and prosthetics

The Bristol Robotics Laboratory (formed by a recent merger of work at the Universities of Bristol and the West of England) and Elumotion Ltd are exploring robot gesturing, “artificial empathy” and haptic sensing to facilitate and enrich interaction between robots and people. Elumation has been involved in the development of prosthetic hands and arms, and robotic walking and jumping mechanisms. The Shadow Robot Company showed a robot that modelled all the joints of the human hand, which can be used in place of a human in dangerous environments, and is so sensitive that it can handle fruit and eggs. Its movements are soft and compliant, and it is useful in physiotherapy and rehabilitation applications. The Shadow Hand has integrated sensing and position control, and is driven by a bank of 40 air muscles. The company is London based and employs over 100 people. It was established in 1998, but its roots go back to a project which began in 1987 to develop a domestic robot.

Acrobot is a spin-off from Imperial College, and makes precision systems to assist surgeons. A robot-drilled hole in a bone gives a perfect fit for the prosthetic. A graphically defined zone on a computer screen controls the robot so that it resists manual attempts to move its end-effector outside the appropriate surgical area. The human surgeon works synergistically with the robot, and Senior Development Manager Dr Matjaž Jakopec told me that this same robot was used on a patient earlier in the day by Professor Cobb at Charing Cross Hospital.

Conclusions

It is clear that the UK has achieved great depth and diversity in its robotics research. Professor Dautenhahn stressed the importance of putting this to use rather than allowing it to gather dust. Robots are now becoming so capable that I believe it is time to give consideration to ethical regulation.

The photographs below were taken by the author, with the permission of the organisers.

Christine Connolly