Where Do We Fit In: Robots and Humans

Robots have been inspiring both negative and positive impressions ever since they were first conceptualized. On one hand, you have a fear of the unknown. People may see a humanoid device with powerful abilities and give in to the fear perpetuated by decades of movies and language that love to show robots as villains. Classic examples of this include I, Robot and The Terminator, both famous movies that perpetuate the idea of dangerous robots. In a more practical sense, there may be concerns about people losing their jobs to robots. An example of this would be self-driving cars uprooting the traditional trucking industry. Despite these ideas that can circulate in efforts to impede change, many people are excited to have robots in their lives. A 2008 study (C. Ray, et al) showed that many people in their survey group were happy about the prospect of domestic robots. Participants were especially excited about robots capable of verbal communication. Over ten years later, with devices like the Amazon Alexa in our homes, it’s easy to see how these early desires led to the creation of what is now a common interactive piece of technology.

These personal assistants are hardly the kind of complex robots we may imagine helping us in a futuristic world. Robots developed in the future to suit our needs could include healthcare assistants for the elderly, search and rescue robots, or robots that perform the repetitive, laborious tasks that humans would rather not do. The technology for these projects is certainly in the works from a variety of places. However, we as humans need to make sure we’re ready for them. A study from the University of Canterbury (C. Bartneck, et al) has shown that people can make racist judgements against robots, as proven using the shooter bias experiment. Participants were much faster at shooting an armed black robot than a white one. Their decision to not shoot an unarmed black robot often took longer than their decision to not shoot an unarmed white robot. Shooter bias toward robots displayed similar patterns to human-based shooter bias experiments. This effect can be seen in the way that many commercial robots are made. Simply put, many robots are white, both in real life and in media. Movies showing the robotic battle of good versus evil often have a white robot fighting against a black one. This is seen is movies like Real Steel and even somewhat in children’s movies like Big Hero 6. Creating these color-based distinctions even in something as neutral as a robot only reinforces the negative biases that some users of these devices are already demonstrating as seen in the study. The study recommends that an increase in robot diversity could help eliminate the problem.

Things like fear of robotic capabilities or distasteful human biases carrying over to robots should not be allowed to limit our forward progress. In some situations, especially those that are dangerous for humans, we should welcome the assistance of robots that allow people to keep out of harm’s way. Anyone who has read my bio knows my goal is to design robots that will contribute to space exploration. This includes unknown and extreme environments where we are not ready to send humans. Recently, I have been able to gain experience in the design and assembly of 3D printed robotic parts. Being able to finally see the inner workings of robotics from the research side of the table was an eye-opening experience. There is so much care and hard work that goes into the design of a robot long before it is ever given to the public. As an engineer, it is immensely satisfying to make something work and consider its future potential. This experience also contributed so much to my understanding of how robots work and how they could work given more time and research.

Robots are the future. They may not be appearing in all the ways we hope or places we expect, but they will be making a difference in the way we live. Not everyone is going to rush out and become a roboticist to keep up with this new wave of technology, but it may be beneficial for everyone to gain at least a basic understanding of how they work. I have found this to be true while watching Giant’s new robot, Marty. Marty is a tall, autonomous robot that roams the grocery store scanning for spills and even checking inventory. It has enough cameras and sensors to avoid unwanted customer contact, something I witness every time I encounter it at the grocery store. Even with my limited coding knowledge, I can imagine the basic form of the loops that allow a robot to do certain functions, and I trust it to do them well. If everyone was able to take the time to at least understand the logic and processes of common robots, it would help improve the integration of humans and robots in complex environments. Gaining knowledge is a powerful way to prepare for the future, especially one where robots and humans can work side by side to make all our lives better.

Works Cited

C. Ray, F. Mondada and R. Siegwart, "What do people expect from robots?," 2008 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Nice, France, 2008, pp. 3816-3821.

doi: 10.1109/IROS.2008.4650714. http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=4650714&isnumber=4650570

C. Bartneck, K. Yogeeswaran, Q. Ser, G. Woodward, R. Sparrow, S. Wang, and F. Eyssel, “Robots and Racism,” 2018 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, Chicago, Il, USA, March 5-8, 2018. Pp 196-204. doi: 10.1145/3171221.317260.

https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=3171260