Robots, becoming part of our lives, are here to stay

A student assembles a robot at the annual robotics competition of the University of Wollongong Dubai held at The Meydan, and (right) a robot. — KT photos by Amanda Fisher

Currently, according to robot manufacturer Dr Claus Risager, robots are as smart as mice — or, more precisely, the computer processors driving robots are.

In 10 years’ time, they will be on a par with humans.

“So where is this taking us, all this technology?,” Risager asks of the audience at this week’s Robot Technology Exhibition (RTEX) in Dubai, before answering the question himself.

“If you just go eight to 10 years ahead from now, the computer chip will have a power comparable to the human brain, so this means robotics and other artificial systems will have a much more advanced ability to understand and interact with us and the environment as such. If you go just 14 years ahead, it’s like 10,000 people in a computer chip and if you go (approximately 40 years), it will be something like the entire human race in one computer chip.”

It sounds like the plot for a dystopian science fiction film, but the experts speaking at RTEX are busily reassuring the public that advances in robotics should be a cause for celebration, not consternation.

In large part, this is because we already rely on robots and the associated technology that drives them in our day-to-day lives, they say.

“Machines are becoming much more a part of our lives and therefore we’re starting to relate to them,” says Dr Nikolaos Mavridis, Director of the Interactive Robots and Media Lab which he founded at the United Arab Emirates University.

“In the last week, how much of your time have you spent in direct interaction with humans versus how much time have you spent indirectly interacting with humans through machines, be they computers, or phones? And now how much time have you spent interacting just with machines?”

Mavridis cites research conducted here to gauge the cultural acceptance of robots and machines in daily life. While there were varying results relating to how far people felt comfortable relying on robots, the results showed Gulf countries were more comfortable with robots than the Levant region, and Africa.

But there is good reason for acceptance, as, he explains, the idea of robots has been around for centuries — if not longer.

“In all mythologies of the world, there is something similar to a robot, right? You might call it a jinn, you might call it whatever you like.”

In Ancient Greek myths, robot-like machines called “automatons” made frequent appearances.

The robot generation

Such things are no longer just myth.

Bill Gates has predicted in the near future every family will have at least one robot in their homes, while others have speculated robots will become a more important industry this century than the automobile industry was last century.

The list of areas where significant advances have been made thanks to robotics is almost inexhaustible, though the major ones include in cleaning, the military, the police, for search and rescue and in the service industry. There are also amphibious robots, robots capable of delivering textbooks and tacos, and even a full-fledged robot tournament called Robocup, in which different countries pit teams of autonomous robots against each other in a football competition.

“We have a lot of different sectors and there are projections for huge economic growth in the field,” says Mavridis.

One of the biggest robotics growth areas is in the health sector.

Robots are not only being used to clean and care for patients unable to do it themselves, but it is giving many back movement lost through accidents and strokes. These robotics suits sense either slight movements in limbs or detect brainwaves that are instructing movement in paralysed limbs, which then translates into movement in the suits. In some cases, this actually helps patients recover movement.

“It’s just a matter of finding the right robot for your purpose,” Risager says.

“Just three or four years ago, this was science fiction…but now it’s actually commercially available, you can buy these off the shelf…it shows everything about how the robot industry is moving very, very fast…into a commercially mature industry right now.”

Robots for teachers

Another fast developing area of robotics is education, with various tools being developed by companies such as Risager’s Denmark-based Blue Ocean Robotics that help give children real examples of the theories expounded in mathematics and science textbooks.

But it is the area where health and education meet where something very interesting is taking place. Blue Ocean Robotics has developed five robots intended to help children along the autism spectrum, which are being distributed by Dubai-based education technology company The Knowledge Hub.

Risager says the robots are invaluable in helping convey ideas of social interaction, communication and the intentions of other people for children along the autistic spectrum, who typically cannot comprehend such ideas.

“Children with disabilities, for example autism, we’ve been using robots for some time where the teacher has a new role, the teacher is controlling the robots and the robots are running the session,” he explains.

But why a robot over a smiling teacher? Robots are much more simplified versions of the complex human face.

“The real strength to this is the children are much more connected to the robot, they train much more intensively so the children can learn faster to compensate for the social disabilities they have.”

Teachers are able to control the robots through a tablet and computer applications, during which they use the robots to get the children to perform physical exercises, listen to instructions, and carry out a sequence of activities.

One of the robots, the “QueBall”, can move around the floor by itself, plays music, lights up in many different colours, and is touch-sensitive. Various different games and training sessions can be conducted through the robot, and when children perform tasks in an incorrect sequence, the ball may roll away — or even cry.

Another robot with advanced facial expressions is used “to train (children) and (help them) understand about being angry, being happy and so on”.

Blue Ocean Robotics Middle East and Asia vice-president Asim Ikram says the products are being used to aid children with special needs throughout the US and Europe, but it is a trend just catching on in this region.

“We are going to be pioneers in (using robotics this way) for this region.”

A set of four robots, which come with a tablet and 50 different apps, costs about $5000.

The robots, he says, have a special rapport with kids with autism.

“The relationship a kid develops with a robot is completely different to that it develops with a teacher.

“It’s very difficult for such a kid to communicate with a person…now you have a new relationship that the kid is developing with a robot…we have seen (the children) are very inquisitive, they are comfortable with simple expressions which they can understand (and can see) again and again.”

This is a robotics use that Dr Mavridis also thinks could have big benefits.

“We have shown that having a robot start communicating with kids is actually a very good therapeutic avenue.”

From these initial stages, children may begin to later communicate with real (human) adults.

Will robots replace humans?

You may be relieved to learn that, while we can no longer play chess better than a computer, there are still many things that robots cannot outdo humans in — physical, fluid movement, and working together in groups, to name a few.

And despite hysteria that robots will steal human jobs, the experts say this is not likely to happen — as long as we keep progressing.

“We have been doing surveys on this and…introducing robots actually creates more jobs, that’s the bottom line,” Risager says.

But there is a but — “it’s not so simple like that”.

“When you introduce robots, you also transform the type of work you have from a low-skilled level to a higher-skilled level, so that means that it’s very important to have education to go hand-in-hand with introducing technologies.”

Ergo, if humans are to keep apace with robots and their rapid tide of advancement, it is important society is educated to do the work that robots are not suited to — education that may be enhanced through the use of the very same robots.

Robot, be thy friend?

amanda@khaleejtimes.com