Robots And People

The truth about robots: two experts look beyond the hype, offering a lively and accessible guide to what robots can (and can't) do. There’s a lot of hype about robots; some of it is scary and some of it utopian. In this accessible book, two robotics experts reveal the truth about what robots can and can’t do, how they work, and what we can reasonably expect their future capabilities to be. It will not only make you think differently about the capabilities of robots; it will make you think differently about the capabilities of humans. Ruth Aylett and Patricia Vargas discuss the history of our fascination with robots—from chatbots and prosthetics to autonomous cars and robot swarms. They show us the ways in which robots outperform humans and the ways they fall woefully short of our superior talents. They explain how robots see, feel, hear, think, and learn; describe how robots can cooperate; and consider robots as pets, butlers, and companions. Finally, they look at robots that raise ethical and social issues: killer robots, sexbots, and robots that might be gunning for your job. Living with Robots equips readers to look at robots concretely—as human-made artifacts rather than placeholders for our anxieties. Find out: •Why robots can swim and fly but find it difficult to walk •Which robot features are inspired by animals and insects •Why we develop feelings for robots •Which human abilities are hard for robots to emulate

The only book of its kind to look at how our legal system needs to change to accommodate a world in which machines, in addition to people, make decisions. For years, robots were solely a matter of science fiction. Today, artificial intelligence technologies serve to accelerate our already fast-paced lives even further. From Apple's Siri to the Google Car to GPS, machines and technologies that make decisions and take action without direct human supervision have become commonplace in our daily lives. As a result, laws must be amended to protect companies that produce robots and the people that buy and use them. This book provides an extensive examination of how numerous legal areas—including liability, traffic, zoning, and international and constitutional law—must adapt to the widespread use of artificial intelligence in nearly every area of our society. The author scrutinizes the laws governing such fields as transportation, medicine, law enforcement, childcare, and real estate development.

Whilst most research concentrates on the imagined future of robotics, this book brings together a group of international researchers to explore the different ways that robots and humans engage with one another at this point in history. Robotic design is advancing at an incredible pace, and consequently the role of robots has expanded beyond mechanical work in the industrial sector to the social and domestic environment. From kitchen table pets in the shape of dinosaurs or baby seals, to robot arms that assist with eating, to self-driving cars, this book explores the psychological impact of robotic engagement, especially in domestic settings. Each chapter explores a different aspect of humanoid robotics, for example, the relationship between robotics and gender, citizenship, moral agency, ethics, inequality, and psychological development, as well as exploring the growing role of robots in education, care work, and intimate relationships. Drawing on research from across the fields of psychology, anthropology, and philosophy, this ground-breaking volume discusses the emerging social side of robotics. By examining our relationship with robots now, this book offers a new and innovative opportunity for understanding our future with robots and robotic culture. Designing Robots, Designing Humans will be interest to researchers of artificial intelligence and humanoid robotics, as well as researchers from cognitive and social psychology, philosophy, computer science, anthropology, linguistics, and engineering backgrounds.

This book will help marketers, brand managers, and advertising executives who may have less experience in the research industry create great questionnaires and collect high quality data. It will also help academic and experienced researchers write questionnaires that are better suited for the general population, particularly when using research panels and customer lists. This book was conceived by experienced researcher with more than fifteen years of practical experience who realized that many questionnaire guides continue to treat the people who answer questionnaires as robots rather than as fallible, imperfect people. Topics include general considerations related to the process, how to write screener questions, how to write data quality questions, and how to tackle specific types of questions from single-selects, grids, scales, and more.

Living with Robots: Emerging Issues on the Psychological and Social Implications of Robotics focuses on the issues that come to bear when humans interact and collaborate with robots. The book dives deeply into critical factors that impact how individuals interact with robots at home, work and play. It includes topics ranging from robot anthropomorphic design, degree of autonomy, trust, individual differences and machine learning. While other books focus on engineering capabilities or the highly conceptual, philosophical issues of human-robot interaction, this resource tackles the human elements at play in these interactions, which are essential if humans and robots are to coexist and collaborate effectively. Authored by key psychology robotics researchers, the book limits its focus to specifically those robots who are intended to interact with people, including technology such as drones, self-driving cars, and humanoid robots. Forward-looking, the book examines robots not as the novelty they used to be, but rather the practical idea of robots participating in our everyday lives. Explores how individual differences in cognitive abilities and personality influence human-robot interaction Examines the human response to robot autonomy Includes tools and methods for the measurement of social emotion with robots Delves into a broad range of domains - military, caregiving, toys, surgery, and more Anticipates the issues we will encountering with robots in the next ten years Foreword by Maggie Jackson, author of Distracted

Social robots not only work with humans in collaborative workspaces – we meet them in shopping malls and even more personal settings like health and care. Does this imply they should become more human, able to interpret and adequately respond to human emotions? Do we want them to help elderly people? Do we want them to support us when we are old ourselves? Do we want them to just clean and keep things orderly – or would we accept them helping us to go to the toilet, or even feed us if we suffer from Parkinson’s disease? The answers to these questions differ from person to person. They depend on cultural background, personal experiences – but probably most of all on the robot in question. This book covers the phenomenon of social robots from the historic roots to today’s best practices and future perspectives. To achieve this, we used a hands-on, interdisciplinary approach, incorporating findings from computer scientists, engineers, designers, psychologists, doctors, nurses, historians and many more. The book also covers a vast spectrum of applications, from collaborative industrial work over education to sales. Especially for developments with a high societal impact like robots in health and care settings, the authors discuss not only technology, design and usage but also ethical aspects. Thus this book creates both a compendium and a guideline, helping to navigate the design space for future developments in social robotics.

The future is now. Here come the hubots! Using increasingly sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) and embodied intelligence (EI), a new generation of robots is being designed to look, act and even think just like humans! Hubots, or human-inspired robots, are expanding the boundaries of what robots can do. For example, they can fight fires on the high seas, set up colonies on other planets and provide humans with companionship. This book introduces readers to ten different robots, the challenges they were each designed to meet and the superpowers that enable them to take on tasks humans canêt. Human-like robots live among us!

Can robots perform actions, make decisions, collaborate with humans, be our friends, perhaps fall in love, or potentially harm us? Even before these things truly happen, ethical and philosophical questions already arise. The reason is that we humans have a tendency to spontaneously attribute minds and “agency” to anything even remotely humanlike. Moreover, some people already say that robots should be our companions and have rights. Others say that robots should be slaves. This book tackles emerging ethical issues about human beings, robots, and agency head on. It explores the ethics of creating robots that are, or appear to be, decision-making agents. From military robots to self-driving cars to care robots or even sex robots equipped with artificial intelligence: how should we interpret the apparent agency of such robots? This book argues that we need to explore how human beings can best coordinate and collaborate with robots in responsible ways. It investigates ethically important differences between human agency and robot agency to work towards an ethics of responsible human-robot interaction.