Robots are one step closer to being able to experience an
essential human feeling: pain.
Researchers in Germany are currently creating a "nervous system" that
would mimic a pain response in robots, allowing them to quickly react and
avoid harmful situations.
"Pain is a system that protects us,” researcher Johannes Kuehntold a conference of engineers last week. “When we evade from
the source of pain, it helps us not get hurt.”
The researchers programmed their robot to experience a
"hierarchy" of pain through a variety of different stimuli, such as
blunt force or heat. Depending on the threat, such as a harsh
movement or intense heat, the robot is programmed to
retract from the danger. The more dangerous it registers the threat
to be, the faster the robot will retract and the longer it will
avoid the hazardous force.
"A robot needs to be able to detect and classify unforeseen
physical states and disturbances, rate the potential damage they may
cause to it, and initiate appropriate countermeasures, i.e.,
reflexes," the research paper states.
Kuehn said a built-in pain response could protect robots
potentially operating heavy machinery or other tools in
factories from potential harm, thus saving companies from the
fallout of damages. It also means a better safety
environment for human workers, who often work side-by-side with
robots on the factory floor.
It's the synthesis of a pain sensation that
encourages robots to experience a sense of
self-preservation. Robots built to automatically detect human
collisions have been around for a while: Researchers from
Stanford and University of Rome-La Sapeinza created a reflexive robot arm that detects and avoids collision with humans in 2011. But
to equip these robots with a nervous system forces them
to prioritize avoidance of their own pain, thus programming them
to avoid destroying themselves as well as avoiding collision
with humans, according to Keuhn. This will
trigger different reactions in the robot than just crash
avoidance.
0 Comments