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The passage discusses the launch of Sony's robotic dog Aibo and the inspiration of biology in robotics design. Aibo is advertised as having autonomous behavior patterns and simulated emotions, but is merely an example of a robot inspired by biology rather than technology. Understanding how fish swim efficiently with little energy consumed will help produce propulsion for submarines, which is why Mitsubishi built a robotic sea bream and MIT produced robotic tuna and pike. A satellite navigation system using analogue rather than digital circuitry like animals' nervous systems is now being tested on an experimental Swedish satellite to keep its solar panels facing the sun. While robots may not look like animals, applying knowledge of how animals' nervous systems work can make robots

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Huynh Minh Duc FPTCT
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The passage discusses the launch of Sony's robotic dog Aibo and the inspiration of biology in robotics design. Aibo is advertised as having autonomous behavior patterns and simulated emotions, but is merely an example of a robot inspired by biology rather than technology. Understanding how fish swim efficiently with little energy consumed will help produce propulsion for submarines, which is why Mitsubishi built a robotic sea bream and MIT produced robotic tuna and pike. A satellite navigation system using analogue rather than digital circuitry like animals' nervous systems is now being tested on an experimental Swedish satellite to keep its solar panels facing the sun. While robots may not look like animals, applying knowledge of how animals' nervous systems work can make robots

Uploaded by

Huynh Minh Duc FPTCT
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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One of the most popular characters in Dr.

Who, a British television science-fiction series,


was a robotic dog called K9. On June 1st, science fiction became science fact when Sony
launched its latest product, Aibo. Described as "a one-of-a-kind artificially intelligent pal",
Aibo is a dog that never needs to be walked, fed or washed. Nor does it make a mess or get
into fight with other dogs. It has stereo microphones for ears, can recognize colors and
shapes, emits a variety of bleeps and chirps. A sensor in its head can distinguish between
an amiable pat and a reproachful slap. And the pause button on its chest means it can be
switched off and left in a cupboard when you go out on holiday.

A good joke, and a profitable one (the first batch of 3,000 machines, priced at just over
$2,000 each, sold out within 20 minutes). But behind the marketing spiel about Albo's
autonomous behavior patterns I, simulated emotions and instincts, "loveable shape" and
"four highly expressive legs", lurks a serious point. Aibo is merely the latest example of a
robot inspired by biology.

This makes sense. Millions of years of evolution have already solved difficult design
problems in locomotion, manipulation, sensing and navigation in almost every environment
in which a robot might conceivably need to operate. Accordingly, a menagerie of
"biomorphic" robots can now be found scuttling, squirming and swimming in laboratories all
round the world.

For instance, several separate efforts are now under way to build robotic fish that could be
used to locate mines or take environmental readings. Understanding how fish manage to
swim so quickly but expend so little energy could also lead to new propulsion systems for
ships and submarines. This may explain whyMitsubishi Heavy Industries, a Japanese
company whose activities include shipbuilding, has spent four years and $1m building an
incredibly lifelike robotic sea bream. (The company now plans to move on to recreating
extinct fish for display in museums.) Similarly inspired robotic pike and tuna have been built
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

But a robot does not have to look like an animal to borrow useful ideas from the animal
kingdom. Mark Tilden and his colleagues at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico,
who have been building animal-like robots for years, have now applied their knowledge to
create a system that will operate in one of the environments that natural selection has not
yet managed to penetrate - outer space. Their latest robot is designed to keep satellites on
station.

Dr. Tilden is concerned not so much with what animals look like as with how their nervous
systems work. As every schoolboy discovers, pulling some of the legs off a spider does not
stop it walking. Its nervous circuitry can adjust to such injuries. That is because, unlike most
modern computers (including those that control Aibo), much of that circuitry is analogue
rather than digital.

In a digital computer, information is sent around as discrete bits and bytes. If a critical bit
goes missing, and program has not been prepared in advance for the possibility of such a
loss, it breaks down. With analogue circuitry, however, there is no such thing as an
independent, critical piece of data - everything is coupled together as one continuous flow of
current. If some information goes missing, (for example, because a schoolboy has
amputated a leg), the output will change - but it could still be meaningful. Dr. Tilden robots
use cheap and basic electronic components such as transistors, resistors, and capacitors,
rather than fancy microelectronic silicon chips. Yet their behavior is so lifelike that they can
sometimes "spook" those afraid of real spiders.

These robots, like Aibo, are toys. But a satellite-navigation system is a serious practical
application. Dr. Tilden's design for such a system is being tested in an experimental Swedish
satellite called Hugin. Its task is to keep Hugin's electricity-generating solar panels pointed at
the sun. It has a dozen light-sensors, each connected to a circuit whose natural oscillation is
modulated by the strength of the incoming illumination. Those circuits, in turn, control the
satellite's attitude jets. If the satellite moves off station, the amount of light falling on the
sensors will change, and its analogue circuitry will tell the jets how much to fire to bring it
round to face the correct way. It may not be a photogenic as a robotic dog, but it is certainly
a lot more useful.Complete the summary.
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.

The Japanese company Sony has launched its latest product, a robotic dog, on the market.
The robotic dog is advertised to have

behavior patterns and simulated feelings. In fact, the robotic dog was designed under the
inspiration of

rather than technology. For example, finding out why fish moves so quickly with

consumed will help produce for submarines. That is why Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has
been building a

and MIT has already produced

has also been

used in creating a system operating in

is not what animals look like, but how

Knowledge of

In designing such a system, what scientists are most

work, because if computers have

rather than digital one, computers will not A satellite-navigation system is now if a critical
piece of information in a Swedish satellite. It may not be as pleasant-

looking but it will be more useful than

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