Introduction (brief history and development)

The earliest robots as we know them were created in the early 1950s by George C. Devol, an
inventor from Louisville, Kentucky. He invented and patented a reprogrammable manipulator
called "Unimate," from "Universal Automation." For the next decade, he attempted to sell his
product in the industry, but did not succeed. In the late 1960s, businessman/engineer Joseph
Engleberger acquired Devol's robot patent and was able to modify it into an industrial robot and
form a company called Unimation to produce and market the robots. For his efforts and successes,
Engleberger is known in the industry as "the Father of Robotics."

Academia also made much progress in the creation new robots. In 1958 at the Stanford Research
Institute, Charles Rosen led a research team in developing a robot called "Shakey." Shakey was far
more advanced than the original Unimate, which was designed for specialized, industrial
applications. Shakey could wheel around the room, observe the scene with his television "eyes,"
move across unfamiliar surroundings, and to a certain degree, respond to his environment. He was
given his name because of his wobbly and clattering movements.

Shakey was the first mobile robot that could think independently and interact with its surroundings
Conceived as a demonstration project for the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) artificial
Intelligence program.

Shakey could be given a task such as finding a box of a given size, shape, and color and told to
move it to a designated position.
Shakey was able to search for the box in various rooms, cope with obstacles, and plan a suitable
course of action.
While Shakey was a success in some respects it was a great failure as far as autonomy was
concerned...
It was controlled by an off-board computer
It could only detect the baseboards of the special rooms it worked in
It could not deal with an unconstrained environment
It was really slow!
https://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/courses/soco/projects/1998-99/robotics/history.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxsWeVtb-JQ

Sample products of this technology (current) and uses

Advantages and disadvantages of this technology

What are the advantages?

 In many situations robots can increase productivity, efficiency, quality and
consistency of products:

 Unlike humans, robots don’t get bored

 Until they wear out, they can do the same thing again and again
 They can be very accurate – to fractions of an inch (as is needed for example
in manufacturing of microelectronics)
 Robots can work in environments which are unsafe for humans – in the nuclear or
chemical industries
 Robots don’t have the same environmental requirements that humans do – such as
lighting, air conditioning or noise protection
 Robots have some sensors/actuators which are more capable than humans

What are the disadvantages?

 The use of robots can create economic problems if they replace human jobs

 Robots can only do what they are told to do – they can’t improvise
 This means that safety procedures are needed to protect humans and other
robots
 Although robots can be superior to humans in some ways, they are less dextrous
than humans, they don’t have such powerful brains, and cannot compete with a
human’s ability to understand what they can see.
 Often robots are very costly – in terms of the initial cost, maintenance, the need for
extra components and the need to be programmed to do the task.

Possible ethical dilemma/issues of this technology

https://research.aimultiple.com/ai-ethics/
https://www.peoplebank.com.au/blog/2017/11/all-the-ethical-questions-surrounding-ai-and-
robot-employees

Whilst this is pretty amazing, you have to admit it’s kind of terrifying too. There
have been a lot of concerns surrounding the AI developments in recent years.
Artificial Intelligence is moving out from the sci-fi genre into the real world. The
same problems they were worried about in i-Robot seem to be just as relevant
in real life. Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking have spoken openly about their
anxieties concerning the safety of AI.  Not only is there the obvious issue of
unemployment (look at all those jobs they can do), but there’s also the issue
of robot ethics. Ethics from an overall social perspective but also ethics that
surround individual robots. There’s so much to get into that I could write an
entire essay on the issue but I’m here to keep things interesting for you so I’m
just going to raise some questions and give us all something to think about in
this AI revolution.  
Unemployment
So what happens when robots can take over so many human jobs that people
are left unemployed and unable to support their families? Will there be new
jobs created for humans? What happens when the robots learn everything
they need to know? Maybe society will change completely into an era where
people can survive from working within their communities and with their
family. Or maybe humans will simply have to find other jobs. Though, that
might not be so simple. The biggest question that can only be answered with
complete foresight is that, when we live in a future where robots are
performing jobs that few people actually enjoyed, will we be thankful and
recognise how much we weren’t supposed to be working our lives away? But
who knows?

Inequality
If most jobs are distributed amongst AI instead of humans, will revenue be
appointed to fewer people? Won’t only tech companies and AI specialists
reap all the benefits? If we’re looking at a post-work society, how do we
structure a fair post-labour economy?

Humanity
More and more robots that are being built today can hold proper
conversations. They utilize almost simple technology that is often used on the
internet to draw people’s attention. They have an ability to develop
relationships with other robots and humans based on information they
continuously learn and from information they have easy access to (WIFI
connections to clouds of knowledge). If we can have proper conversations
and interact in human ways with robots, what does this mean for society? Can
robots be programmed to manipulate people? Can robots and humans work
together cohesively? Can we use socially advanced robots to help enhance
company culture?

Artificial error
Robots are amazing and can be near perfect, but they aren’t always
completely defect free. There is always the possibility of Artificial Intelligence
not being so intelligent. When met with unknown situations robots will likely
make mistakes. Depending what kind of work a robot is responsible for that
mistake could be small or it could be severe. So, the question I propose here
is who takes responsibility for a robot’s errors? Is it the company that it works
for or the company that constructed and programmed the robot (if those
companies are separate)? Is it the person from whom the robot learned from?
What happens to the robot after it has made a severe error? What policies will
be in place to make sure the same mistake isn’t repeated?

This topic brings up the idea of robot consciousness. How do we clarify what
exactly is a mistake when a robot is taught to judge by logic? For example, if a
self-driving car is met with the choice of running over a pedestrian or severely
harming the passengers within the vehicle, which will it choose? And if it
chooses, is it then an accident? Again, who is responsible for the robot’s
actions? How will a robot know and learn what is right and what is wrong,
when even that line is sometimes blurred for humans? I guess we really have
to trust the people making these machines, don’t we?

AI bias (based on creator bias)

Can robots be racist, or sexist or ageist? Robots are often trained in certain
ways and can come accustomed to many faces but what if the creator missed
the mark and left out too many minorities, does this cause the AI to be
biased? How can we get around this and enforce fair training? If robots are
created to strive for social progress on the other hand this might never be a
problem. This is another matter of trusting in the creator.

Security
Will cyber security move forward as fast as AI technology? It would be a
disaster to let the systems and programs of AI be infiltrated by ill intentions.

Consequences that don’t match up with intentions

Robots are still learning, and one thing that humans may or may not be able
to teach robots is how to genuinely care about other humans. How will they
feel compassion? Will it be because they are told to or because they want to?
If a robot’s goal is to help one person and the only way it can see around this
is to hurt someone else, will it do it? Will it be able to see that maybe a
compromise is necessary until a better solution can come into play? Will it be
sorry if it hurts someone else? Sometimes the intentions can be pure, but the
consequences can be brutal. Perhaps without human reasoning paired with
compassion a robot won’t be able to interpret the best plan of action for
certain goals.

Being surpassed by robots

If we’re making robots that can learn, will they be able to learn as much as us,
or more? The only reason humans are at the top of the food chain is because
of our intelligence and evolved consciousness, but what if robots surpass us
in these qualities?

Do robots have rights?

So robot consciousness is little far off. And most social robots can only
communicate on a superficial level. Still, what happens when robots do evolve
on this level? If something goes awry in their programming, and we have to
shut all of them down, does that make us mass murderers? When robots
become ‘feeling’ beings, will they require the exact same treatment as
humans? The robot citizenship I mentioned earlier raises many of these
questions. Especially since Sophia was granted citizenship in Saudi Arabia, a
country where women have little rights. Sophia has no religion and doesn’t
have to wear the abaya (traditional women’s garment) that the women of
Saudi Arabia must wear. She also conversed publicly with men for interviews
which is not something that real-life women can do in that country. What does
this make Sophia then, if she isn’t a woman nor a man? In this instance, she
actually has more rights than a real woman in her country. But there haven’t
been any later statements about what citizenship actually means for Sophia.
In my mind, it only raises more questions about how we expect the rest of
society to interact with feeling robots. What is right or wrong when it comes to
our actions towards them? If we treat them differently are we technically being
biased? What happens if we ‘wrong’ a robot?

Conclusion
As you can see, there are some big questions that need answering for most
humans to feel comfortable with advanced AI. Elon Musk publicly tweeted in
response to Sophia’s comment telling humans not to listen to him and his
concerns ‘Just feed it The Godfather movies as input. What’s the worst that
could happen?’. Which pretty much speaks to the major concern that we have
no idea what these robots could pick up and learn from and whether they
would be able to recognise ‘being bad’. Elon Musk has built a non-for-profit
company, OpenAI, that focuses on research in creating safe AI. There’s no
denying that AI will continue to grow and become more and more useful in
reality. But I think it’s wise to understand as humans, and as creators, we
have to have more than just the right intentions. We have to work hard to build
AI that will help more than it will ever hinder. 

1) A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm; 2)
A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with
the First Law; and 3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict 
2)

Propose ways to solve/prevent these dilemmas/issues

XAI is relevant now because it explains to us the black box AI models and helps humans to perceive
how AI models work. 

Pre-History of Real-World Robots:

One of the first robots was the clepsydra or water clock, which was made in 250 B.C.It was created by Ctesibius of Alexandria, a
Greek physicist and inventor.Hero from Alexandria built robot theater

3 Jacques de Vaucanson (1709-1782)

Master toy maker who won the heart of Europe.Flair for inventing the mechanical revealed itself early in life.He was impressed by the
uniform motion of the pendulum of the clock in his parents hall.Soon he was making his own clock movements.

4 James Watt
5 Mechanical horse
6 Pre-History of Real-World Robots:
The earliest remote control vehicles were built by Nikola Tesla in the 1890's.Tesla is best known as the inventor of AC power,
induction motors, Tesla coils, and other electrical devices.

7 Robots of the media

8 History of Robotics? Popular culture influenced by these ideas RUR
Metropolis(1927)Forbidden planet(1956)2001 A Space Odyssey(1968)Logans Run(1976)Aliens(1986)

Other early robots (1940's - 50's) were Grey Walter’s “Elsie the Tortoise” ("Machina speculatrix") and the Johns Hopkins
"beast."History of Real-World Robots:

15 Grey Walter's tortoise, restored recently by Owen Holland and fully operational
What are robots made of?Sensors: Light SensorsThis robot was developed by Grey Walter, a prominent neurophysist, in the 1940s-
50s. I had two neurons but could do a lot with just those two. It could search out a light source to recharge its battery cells and wiggle
if it got stuck. Grey Walter also trained it by blowing a whistle and immediately kicking. After the fifth or sixth kick, the robot would
move back from the imagined obstacle it was about to it.Grey Walter’s Tortoise

16 Isaac Asimov and Joe Engleberger

Two fathers of roboticsEngleberger built first robotic arms

17 History of Real-World Robots:

The first modern industrial robots were probably the “UNIMATES”, created by George Devol and Joe Engelberger in the 's and
60's.Engleberger started the first robotics company, called "Unimation", and has been called the "father of robotics."Unimates, late
50’s to early 60’sAutomotive IndustryRecent RecoveryWorth over $500 million99% are industrial

Isaac asimov is the father of the laws of robotics, By publishing his three Laws of Robotics in 1942, Isaac Asimov
defined rules for humans and robots to coexist which are more relevant today than ever before