Cybernetics and automation

Citation

Rudall, B.H. (2000), "Cybernetics and automation", Kybernetes, Vol. 29 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/k.2000.06729aaa.004

Cybernetics and automation

Cybernetics and automation

Keywords: Automation, Cybernetics, Research

1. Cybernetic challenge

A report in the UK's Daily Telegraph (14/9/99) tells us that:

VOLLEYBORG could be the university sport of the twenty-first century, say some of Britains brightest robot designers. The cybernetic challenge is expected to become a mainstay of the robot olympics. Yesterday it saw five university teams of 12-inch-high intelligent robots battling to gain control of and hurl a large, soft ball around table tennis-size volleyball courts. The automatons play in teams of two, operating autonomously to locate the ball and cooperating to throw it into their opposition's court within 40 seconds. Like bats, the robots bounce ultrasound beams around the court to work out their positions and find the ball. Made of Lego bricks and a microprocessor chip at their centres, they play on a two-yard square court.

It was Professor Kevin Warwick and the Cybernetics Department at the University of Reading (UK) who issued the challenge. He is quoted as saying that:

The challenge is to get the attacker and defender robots to cooperate with one another and to physically locate the soft ball without bumping into the sides of the pitch. It makes them faster <$>\ldots<$> I am an ardent Reading football fan and believe me this is much more exciting. Occasionally the robots score, and that is certainly rare for Reading.

2. Cye-automated slave

Progress in producing and marketing domestic robots has hardly been encouraging. Whilst the media is always ready to publicise researcher developments in this area and present pictures to us of a world where humans will be cared for by robots, the truth is that there are few robots that can be purchased off the shelf and that can be guaranteed to provide reasonably efficient service in the domestic environment. If there were, not only would they be much sought after by people for use in their homes but a new and extensive commercial market would have developed. Of course, such robots exist and some are marketed, but they have a long way to go before they reach the levels of the automated washing machine and other such devices that are regarded by householders as essential in the modern home.

A report, therefore, in the New Scientist about a new robot called Cye may well cause us to think that there must be some progress being made after the many decades when domestic type robots were regarded as figures of fun. The robot is produced by a US company called Probotics, which, we are told, is only a small company from Pittsburgh, USA. The company tells us that to produce its system it has "gone back to basics" and has taken some ten years to solve the problems of how to produce a robot that is small and yet mobile and able to perform the many tasks expected of a domestic robotic device. Cye, it says is an "automated slave" which is described as looking like a "dustpan with two cogged wheels". For communication and control it is designed with a wireless link to a PC.

It was apparently necessary, the designers say, to give Cye a "friendly feel" and to provide it with some sort of warning of its presence. The result is that it has been equipped with a number of whistles and "chirps", which have been described by one researcher as being like R2-D2 from Star Wars. The inventor of Cye, Henry Thorne, tells us that:

We wanted to make Cye more like a servant where it does its work while staying out of your way.

The developing company says that Cye has no sensors and is able to "learn" the positions of obstacles, doorways and walls, etc. around the home from software developed for the system and stored in the linked PC. The designers claim that once it has been informed of the limits of its designated area, Cye checks it out and builds a map of it in its computer memory. It does this by counting the number of turns of each of its inbuilt wheels. The wheels themselves are "patented" and resemble bicycle sprockets and are designed to reduce any slip.

When Cye has stored this information about its domain it can carry out its duties. These, it is claimed, include such chores as: pulling a trolley loaded with drinks and food; dragging a vacuum cleaner across a room; carrying dishes back to the kitchen. When it has completed its task it quietly returns to its base pod for its batteries to be put on charge.

The company has therefore marketed a domestic robot that it is claimed in its US debut "can serve drinks"; "carry TV dinners"; "escort guests around a home or office"; "vacuum a carpet"; and is available for purchase. It will be interesting to learn how well it sells in the market, for the consumer test is the most telling of all in our consumer society.

Cyberneticians will realise that much of what it does depends on the software stored in the PC and the success of the artificial intelligence experts who will have perfected the inbuilt programs.