Generation Robot

Generation Robot covers a century of science fiction, fact and, speculation—from the 1950 publication of Isaac Asimov’s seminal robot masterpiece, I, Robot, to the 2050 Singularity when artificial and human intelligence are predicted to merge. Beginning with a childhood informed by pop-culture robots in movies, in comic books, and on TV in the 1960s to adulthood where the possibilities of self-driving cars and virtual reality are daily conversation, Terri Favro offers a unique perspective on how our relationship with robotics and futuristic technologies has shifted over time. Peppered with pop-culture fun-facts about Superman’s kryptonite, the human-machine relationships in the cult TV show Firefly, and the sexual and moral implications of the film Ex Machina, Generation Robot explores how the techno-triumphs and resulting anxieties of reality bleed into the fantasies of our collective culture. Clever and accessible, Generation Robot isn’t just for the serious, scientific reader—it’s for everyone interested in robotics and technology since their science-fiction origins. By looking back at the future she once imagined, analyzing the plugged-in present, and speculating on what is on the horizon, Terri Favro allows readers the chance to consider what was, what is, and what could be. This is a captivating book that looks at the pop-culture of our society to explain how the world works—now and tomorrow.

How do humans perceive communicative gesture behavior in robots? Although gesture is a crucial feature of social interaction, this research question is still largely unexplored in the field of social robotics. The present work thus sets out to investigate how robot gesture can be used to design and realize more natural and human-like communication capabilities for social robots. The adopted approach is twofold. Firstly, the technical challenges encountered when implementing a speech-gesture generation model on a robotic platform are addressed. The realized framework enables a humanoid robot to produce finely synchronized speech and co-verbal hand and arm gestures. In contrast to many existing systems, these gestures are not limited to a predefined repertoire of motor actions but are flexibly generated at run-time. Secondly, the achieved expressiveness is exploited in controlled experiments to gain a deeper understanding of how robot gesture might impact human experience and evaluation of human-robot interaction. The findings reveal that participants evaluate the robot more positively when non-verbal behaviors such as hand and arm gestures are displayed along with speech. Surprisingly, this effect was particularly pronounced when the robot's gesturing behavior was partly incongruent with speech. These findings contribute new insights into human perception of communicative robot gesture and ultimately support the presented approach of endowing social robots with such non-verbal behaviors.

By the dawn of the new millennium, robotics has undergone a major tra- formation in scope and dimensions. This expansion has been brought about bythematurityofthe?eldandtheadvancesinitsrelatedtechnologies.From a largely dominant industrial focus, robotics has been rapidly expanding into the challenges of the human world. The new generation of robots is expected to safely and dependably co-habitat with humans in homes, workplaces, and communities,providingsupportinservices,entertainment,education,heal- care, manufacturing, and assistance. Beyond its impact on physical robots, the body of knowledge robotics has produced is revealing a much wider range of applications reaching across - verse research areas and scienti?c disciplines, such as: biomechanics, haptics, neurosciences, virtual simulation, animation, surgery, and sensor networks among others. In return, the challenges of the new emerging areas are pr- ing an abundant source of stimulation and insights for the ?eld of robotics. It is indeed at the intersection of disciplines that the most striking advances happen. The goal of the series of Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics (STAR) is to bring, in a timely fashion, the latest advances and developments in robotics on the basis of their signi?cance and quality. It is our hope that the wider dissemination of research developments will stimulate more exchanges and collaborations among the research community and contribute to further advancement of this rapidly growing ?eld.

In this compelling book, Hans Moravec predicts that machines will attain human levels of intelligence by the year 2040, and that by 2050, they will surpass us. But even though Moravec predicts the end of the domination by human beings, his is not a bleak vision. Far from railing against a future in which machines rule the world, Moravec embraces it, taking the startling view that intelligent robots will actually be our evolutionary heirs. "Intelligent machines, which will grow from us, learn our skills, and share our goals and values, can be viewed as children of our minds." And since they are our children, we will want them to outdistance us. In fact, in a bid for immortality, many of our descendants will choose to transform into "ex humans," as they upload themselves into advanced computers. This provocative new book, the highly anticipated follow-up to his bestselling volume Mind Children, charts the trajectory of robotics in breathtaking detail. A must read for artificial intelligence, technology, and computer enthusiasts, Moravec's freewheeling but informed speculations present a future far different than we ever dared imagine.

What Is Self Reconfiguring Modular Robot Self-reconfigurable modular robots are autonomous kinematic machines that may take on a variety of shapes and configurations. They are also known as modular self-reconfiguring robotic systems. In addition to the conventional actuation, sensing, and control that are typically found in fixed-morphology robots, self-reconfiguring robots have the ability to deliberately change their own shape by rearranging the connectivity of their parts. This enables them to adapt to new circumstances, perform new tasks, or recover from damage more quickly than fixed-morphology robots. How You Will Benefit (I) Insights, and validations about the following topics: Chapter 1: Self-reconfiguring modular robot Chapter 2: Robot Chapter 3: Reconfigurable computing Chapter 4: Utility fog Chapter 5: Ant colony optimization algorithms Chapter 6: Swarm intelligence Chapter 7: Claytronics Chapter 8: Reconfigurable manufacturing system Chapter 9: Control reconfiguration Chapter 10: Programmable matter Chapter 11: Physicomimetics Chapter 12: Webots Chapter 13: Daniela L. Rus Chapter 14: Robotics Chapter 15: MIBE architecture Chapter 16: Morphogenetic robotics Chapter 17: Torch (machine learning) Chapter 18: Kilobot Chapter 19: Molecubes Chapter 20: Soft robotics Chapter 21: Continuum robot (II) Answering the public top questions about self reconfiguring modular robot. (III) Real world examples for the usage of self reconfiguring modular robot in many fields. (IV) 17 appendices to explain, briefly, 266 emerging technologies in each industry to have 360-degree full understanding of self reconfiguring modular robot' technologies. Who This Book Is For Professionals, undergraduate and graduate students, enthusiasts, hobbyists, and those who want to go beyond basic knowledge or information for any kind of self reconfiguring modular robot.

The Cambridge Handbooks on Construction Robotics series focuses on the implementation of automation and robot technology to renew the construction industry and to arrest its declining productivity. The series is intended to give professionals, researchers, lecturers, and students basic conceptual and technical skills and implementation strategies to manage, research, or teach the implementation of advanced automation and robot-technology-based processes and technologies in construction. Currently, the implementation of modern developments in product structures (modularity and design for manufacturing), organizational strategies (just in time, just in sequence, and pulling production), and informational aspects (computer-aided design/manufacturing or computer-integrated manufacturing) are lagging because of the lack of modern integrated machine technology in construction. The Cambridge Handbooks on Construction Robotics books discuss progress in robot systems theory and demonstrate their integration using real systematic applications and projections for off-site as well as on-site building production. Robot-Oriented Design and Management introduces the design, innovation, and management methodologies that are key to the realization and implementation of the advanced concepts and technologies presented in the subsequent volumes. This book describes the efficient deployment of advanced construction and building technology. It is concerned with the coadaptation of construction products, processes, organization, and management, and with automated/robotic technology, so that the implementation of modern technology becomes easier and more efficient. It is also concerned with technology and innovation management methodologies and the generation of life cycle-oriented views related to the use of advanced technologies in construction.

Over the past five years robot vision has emerged as a subject area with its own identity. A text based on the proceedings of the Symposium on Computer Vision and Sensor-based Robots held at the General Motors Research Laboratories, Warren, Michigan in 1978, was published by Plenum Press in 1979. This book, edited by George G. Dodd and Lothar Rosso!, probably represented the first identifiable book covering some aspects of robot vision. The subject of robot vision and sensory controls (RoViSeC) occupied an entire international conference held in the Hilton Hotel in Stratford, England in May 1981. This was followed by a second RoViSeC held in Stuttgart, Germany in November 1982. The large attendance at the Stratford conference and the obvious interest in the subject of robot vision at international robot meetings, provides the stimulus for this current collection of papers. Users and researchers entering the field of robot vision for the first time will encounter a bewildering array of publications on all aspects of computer vision of which robot vision forms a part. It is the grey area dividing the different aspects of computer vision which is not easy to identify. Even those involved in research sometimes find difficulty in separating the essential differences between vision for automated inspection and vision for robot applications. Both of these are to some extent applications of pattern recognition with the underlying philosophy of each defining the techniques used.

The idea of humans falling in love with artificial beings is not a modern conception. Our relationship with artificial partners has come a long way since Pygmalion and his ivory lover. In recent years, there has been a strong upsurge of interest and discussions in the various aspects of intimate relationships between humans and artificial partners. This interest is evidenced by the increase in media coverage, TV documentaries and films on this topic, as well as the active research efforts within the academic community. This book provides a comprehensive collection and overview of the latest development in the field of intimate relationships between humans and artificial partners, in particular robots and virtual agents. It includes relevant research work undertaken by the authors, the latest advancements in technology and commercial products, and future predictions and insights from leading experts in the area. This book contains an in-depth discussion of the engineering, philosophical, psychological, ethical, and sociological implications of relationships with artificial companions. It also gives a glimpse of some future directions of artificial intelligence, human-computer love and sexual interaction, robotics engineering etc. It is a great resource for researchers and professionals working in these areas. The narrative style of the book also makes it an enjoyable and educational read for everyone.