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Robots … in the image of Man. Art, Technolgy and the Body H.J. Sommer III Professor of Mechanical Engineering The Pennsylvania State University www.me.psu.edu/sommer. in the image of Man. Robot – the word. robota – Czech for forced labor “Rossum’s Universal Robots” play, Karel Kapek, 1921.
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Robots …in the image of Man Art, Technolgy and the Body H.J. Sommer III Professor of Mechanical Engineering The Pennsylvania State University www.me.psu.edu/sommer
Robot – the word • robota – Czech for forced labor • “Rossum’s Universal Robots”play, Karel Kapek, 1921
Robot – a definition • Robotic Industries Association • reprogrammable manipulator
The first real robot, 1961 • Machine tool + Computer • Unimate 2000 • Engelberger and Devol • Handle hot castings
Robot motion • Cartesian • Cylindrical • Spherical • Anthropomorphic
Robot power • Pneumatic • Hydraulic • Electrical
Early robot applications • Machine loading • Welding • Painting • Assembly
New robot applications • Semiconductor • Surgery • Mobility • Remote sensing
Shortfalls – robots versus human • Sentience • Sensors • Dexterity • Power • Mobility
Advantages – robots versus human • Precision • Reparability • Hazardous environments • Stasis
Perception versus measurement • Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle • Our organo-receptors contaminateperception • Art • Emotions • Drugs
For a breath I tarry … Therefore, Solcom’s strangest creation was given dominion over half the Earth, and they called him Frost. For ten thousand years Frost sat at the North Pole of the Earth, aware of every snowflake that fell. Frost knew temperature but he did not know cold. novelette, Roger Zelazny, 1967 in "The Last Defender of Camelot", 1995
The players • Frost – controller of the Northern Hemisphere, first and greatest of Solcom’s creations • Beta – controller of the Southern Hemisphere • Solcom – machine placed by Man in permanent orbit and invested with the power to rebuild the world • Divcom – alternate rebuilder activated when Solcom sustained minor damage from a stray atomic missile • Mordel – a minion of Divcom • Ore-Crusher – an excavator that killed the last Man in His bomb shelter, doomed to wander the Earth telling the tale of woe while carrying the bones • Man – extinct
The dilemma • Frost is so efficient that he takes up a hobby – to know the nature of Man • Frost only knows measurement - not perception • Solcom and Divcom wager if Frost can learn the nature of Man • Mordel tempts Frost with knowledge about Man in defiance of Solcom and Beta • Frost constructs mechanical analogs of human sensory equipment but he still only knows measurement
The question • Frost clones the body of a Man and transfers his matrix of awareness into the body for five minutes. • Has Frost become a man? • Frost declares that he has failed. • Which machine can answer this question?
The answer • Perhaps our machines may help us better know ourselves
