Review of Literature Edgar Lopez

The Rise of Robotic Technology: A Review of Literature

Edgar Lopez

University of Texas at El Paso

Robotic technology is a new field of technology and it mostly includes the creation of robots, specifically for the use of production in factories. It also includes the creation of artificial intelligence which its main purpose is to mimic the intelligence of a human. Computer scientists and engineers are trying to create a robot with self-awareness and its own consciousness, but as of now this seems impossible since it will require the building of an artificial brain, and before scientists can build one, the understanding of the human brain should be fully understood. Robots only perform those tasks that are on their programming code. They cannot perform actions beyond their set of instructions. Economically there’s no actual evidence to prove that robots would be beneficial. However, studies have shown that automated machines are taking away jobs but at the same time new, and improved jobs are being created. Many of the organizations that support the use of robotics include Apple, Microsoft, factories, schools, the government and other institutes. The main mission of all these organizations is to create a better world and find the answers to many of the current problems, with the use and help of robotic technology.

Are robots replacing humans in the work industry? According to Thomas Frey (2013) workers today are not being replace by other competitive humans, or low-cost labor from other countries, but instead humans “are being replaced by machines” (p. 46). It’s obvious that there has been a rise in robotics technology and many companies and factories today are using automated machines to do the job that humans used to do. The main use of robots in today’s world is to work in factories, “ninety percent of robots work in factories, and more than half are at work making automobiles” (2005). Automated machines (robots) are programmed to do easy and repetitive tasks that humans can do at a slower rate. Robots are also used to do tasks that can be dangerous and harmful to humans. Robots are very expensive for factories and companies to buy, but at the long run this seems to create a better profit.

Stated by the Idaho Public Television many may think that robots are a modern invention but “in reality evidence suggests that automations were created for everything, from toys to parts for religious ceremonies in ancient Greece and Rome” (“Robotics: Facts”, 2014). Robotic technology really had an evolutionary era in 1956 when “George Devol and Joseph Engelberger formed the world’s first robot company” (“Robotics: Facts”, 2014). Robots were then introduced to the automobile field in the 1960’s and General Motors in New Jersey, started the use of automated machines, to move parts around. Today robots are in almost every field of our world we have robots in “industry, medicine, science, space exploration, construction, food packaging and are even used to perform surgery” (“Robotics: Facts”, 2014). Many push for the growth of robotic technology while other criticize the use and uprising of robotics technology. In order to analyze the issue in a more profound way the following questions need to be considered:

1. 
   What defines Robotic Technology?
   
2. 
   How is the rise of robotics affecting economically?
   
3. 
   How is it possible for robots to become conscious and surpass human intelligence?
   
4. 
   What is the mission of the National Robotics Initiative (NRI) and what agencies are participating?
   

According to Rouse, robotic technology is “a branch of engineering that involves the conception, design, manufacture, and operations of robots” (2006). Indeed, robotic technology deals with anything dealing with robots. In basic words, robotic technology is the science and study of robots. It starts with the design and ends with the manufacture of robots. The word robots “comes from the Czech word ‘robota’ which means ‘forced word or labor’ (“Robotics: Facts”, 2014). Robots are machines, made my humans, that perform actions that otherwise are done by humans. Robots do tasks either automatically or via a controller that controls every movement in high precision.

There are three general parts to a robots. There is the controller with is also known as the “brain” of the robot, there are the mechanical parts which are the parts that actually move, and lastly the sensors which provide the robot with the sensations of its surroundings. The “brain” of the robot includes the computer program with the lines of code that tell the robots what to do (“Robotics: Facts”, 2014). Usually a robot is programmed with a single computer-programming language, which include Java, C++, C#, Python and others. Without these sets of instructions a robot my not act. Mechanicals parts include “motors, pistons, grippers, wheels, and gears that make the robot move, grab, turn and lift” (“Robotics: Facts”, 2014). These parts provide the actual movement of automated machines. These parts are like the feet, hands, legs, and arms of the robot. Usually the robot needs a source of energy that will provide the movement to these parts. The sensors give the robot the sensations of surroundings. According to the website “Robotics: Facts”, “sensors allow the robot to determine sizes, shapes, space between objects, direction, and other relations and properties of substances” (2014). All these parts in conjunction, and without one, the robot will not work properly.

Nano-robots are a kind of robotics, and are also known as nanobots. Nanobots “are robots scaled down to microscopic size in order to put them into very small spaces to perform a functions” (“Robotics: Facts”, 2014). Nanobots are still a new field of robotics and still need to be perfected. The main purpose of nanobots is to be used in the medical field. Scientists and technological engineers have a target and a goal that one day nanobots will be able to be put inside the human body and be able to perform specific tasks. One of those tasks is to be inserted into a human blood stream and fight bacteria such as cancer and other deadly diseases. Another task will be to repair a certain organ of the human body by using nanobots and without the need of using surgery (“Robotics: Facts”, 2014). According to a small observational survey conducted by the author, ‘The Robotics Technology Survey’, from 50 people around El Paso and Chaparral area, only about “22 percent of the participants would strongly agree on letting themselves be injected a Nanobot”. The use of Nanobots is something new, therefore according to the survey not many people would trust it.

Something that is included in robotic technology is artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence is giving robots intelligence similar to that of a human. The main purpose and target of artificial intelligence is to create a robot that will act just like a human. Some forms of artificial intelligence that are being used today are face recognition software, complicated scheduling software, or computers games (“Robotics: Facts”, 2014). Any software or robot that gives a response based on the actions of people are consider of artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence is of a controversy throughout the world. Many experts have this idea that if robotic technology keeps on increasing there will be a time in which robots will become smarter than humans and as result they will replace humans in every aspect.

How is it possible for robots to become conscious and surpass human intelligence?

One of the main concerns with the rise of robotics is the fear that one day robots will become conscious and become more intelligent than human beings. But first of all, what is consciousness? According to the universal dictionary consciousness is the state of being awake and aware of one’s surroundings. There are still many debates whether or not this is the correct definition of consciousness since it opens many other questions dealing with, who has consciousness? Do animal have consciousness? Do people with mental disabilities have consciousness? And the important question, do robots have consciousness?

As of now the answer for the last question will be no. According to Chang “without even a rudimentary understanding of what consciousness is, the idea of instilling it into a machine – or understanding how a machine might evolve consciousness – becomes almost unfathomable” (2003). Without understanding the basic idea of word ‘consciousness’, it’s almost impossible to implement this on robots. After interviewing computer expert and teacher at Chaparral High School, Sara Duran Campbell came to the conclusion that robots will most likely will never become conscious and if computer scientists find a way to make robots self-aware this will not occur any time soon. As stated by her, “The idea of a self-aware robot still requires a lot of research, experiments, and studies but as of now it’s an extremely complicated task. The era of human-acting robots is very far from now”.

According to other robotics experts, what is meant to say that a robot will become conscious or self-aware, is that it will think by itself and learn new things without being reprogrammed manually by humans. In the year 1950, “Alan Turing, a pioneer in computer science, imagined that a computer could be considered intelligent when its responses were indistinguishable from those of a person” (Chang, 2003). In order for a robot to be self-aware, it needs to act, behave, think, learn, and even have and show feelings just like a human being. As of today “no one has yet produced a computer program that can pass the Turing test” (Chang, 2003).

The main reason why no one has been able to produce a self-aware robot is because robots only do what they are programmed to do. They don’t do anything beyond their set of instructions. In order for a robot to learn new things, to have feelings just like a human does, and to think like a human they need an actual brain. Computer scientists and engineers have tried to create a technological human brain but this still seems not possible. The real human brain has billions of neurons. In order to create an artificial brain there has to be all these billions of connections from one response to another and today there’s no computer chip with billions and billions of connections. Even if there was such computer chip, how all these connections would be connected in order to produce one response to another, when scientists don’t exactly know how the human brain works.

There have been some progress in creating a machine with a high level of artificial intelligence. Today there are “some robots and computers that have been given the ability to learn and to use information from previous activities to make future decisions” (“Robotics: Facts, 2014). One example according to reporter Steve Kroft is the IBM computer, “The Watson” which computer in Jeopardy against two of the most intelligent people in the whole world, and the computer won the contest. But in reality this doesn’t mean that “The Watson” is more intelligent than humans since it was only programmed to answer those questions. It couldn’t do anything but only give the specific responses. In order for a computer, robot, and any other automated machine to work, there has to be work done by humans. Computers don’t think, they only follow a set of instructions. For a robot to become conscious and surpass human intelligence it needs a consciousness of its own (Chang, 2003).

There’s a great debate on the effect that the rise of automation will have on the economy, specifically dealing with the unemployment issue. Many argue that many workers are “being replaced by machines” (Frey, 2013, p. 46). In the counterargument there are people saying that jobs “are created and destroyed by technology” (Lee, p. 5). There’s no doubt on the fact that some human workers are being replaced by automated machines but this is not necessarily bad, if new jobs are being created. There’s no evidence that gives the definite answer to the question since the use of automated machines and robots is something new.

According to Lee, “even if computers and communications lead to the elimination of some workers, other jobs will be created, particularly for computer professionals, and that growth in output will increase overall employment” (p. 4). With the increase of robotics there also an increase in the need of people that will program, build, and give maintenance these machines. One example is that “teacher less schools still need course designers, on-site coaches, software teams in the background and much more” (Frey, 2013, p. 46). The same happens with businesses and factories that are replacing assemble workers with automated machinery. These factories are getting rid of labor workers but are requiring programmers, computer engineers and scientists, software developers, and other new fields of work. Robots will not replace humans since, “the reality is that machines don’t work without humans” (Frey, 2013, p. 46).

Those that criticize the increase of automating are saying that “with today’s automations, jobs are disappearing faster than ever before in history” (Frey, 2013, p. 47). Critics are aware that robots are creating new jobs but the rate in the loss of jobs is actually way bigger than the rate of new jobs being created. According to Walker the “height of unemployment during the great recession of 2008-2009 was about 9.9% by 2010” (2014, p. 10). There has been studies that have concluded that the rate of unemployment is actually increasing. Many experts think that is due to the increase of automation. To Walker, the increase of unemployment is occurring “because of huge increases in automation” (2014, p. 10). There’s a correlation with the increase of unemployment and increase of use of automated machines.

The correlation between unemployment and rise of robotics doesn’t necessarily mean that unemployment is being strictly cause by automation. Some experts argue that “it is more likely that computers and communications will lead to changes in the types of workers needed for different occupations rather than to changes in total employment” (Lee, p. 4). Jobs will change but the amount may not decrease. Experts think that instead jobs will increase with automation, helping the economy and decreasing unemployment. There have been some studies that have shown that the new jobs that will be created with the increase of automation will have a greater positive effect on the economy than those that we have today that are not technological related. According to Atkinson and Stewart between the years “2001 and 2011, over 565,000 IT-related jobs (in all industries) were created in the United States, an increase of 22.2 percent. IT jobs grew more than 95 times faster than employment as a whole, which grew by only 0.2 percent” (Atkinson & Stewart, 2013). According to the data, it’s obvious that the main generator of jobs is automation, since it’s a new work field in industries. For automation to work, there’s no doubt that new jobs will emerge (Atkinson & Stewart, 2013). The real question is whether or not this will help the economy.

What agencies are participating in the National Robotics Initiative (NRI) and what’s their mission?

Basically all the companies that have an economical dependency on information technology are participating in the National Robotics Initiative (NRI). The NRI is an initiative launched in order for the United States to become dependent on robots, and include more robots in our daily life. All those companies and industries that support the rise of robotic technology include the government, hospitals, Apple, Microsoft, some universities, those factories that are becoming robotic dependable, and many other industries that seem to have the need for the use of robots.

The main mission of the initiative and generally on the rise of technology is to create a better place for everyone. One of the objectives of next-generations robots is to assist scientists with the findings of cures to deadly diseases. Today there are robots that have been created to operate surgical procedures, and reduce deaths not only in the United States but across the whole world. Another objective of the use of robotics is to stop natural disasters from occurring, or at least have more protection from them. Colonizing other planets is another thing that robotics technology is seeking to do. With the increase of population throughout the world human resources are running out, and robots one day may found the solution to this problem. Many experts think that robotics technology may extend human abilities and capabilities creating a more and better opportunities for everyone, and one day end extreme world poverty. Time will only tell if robotic technology will find the solution to all these and other problems that are occurring around the world.

As of right now it’s obvious that there is a rise of robotic technology but what’s not obvious is what will the future look like with all these new advancements in robotics. There are those fears that one day robots will become self-aware and that an automated world will affect the economy. There’s that fear of unemployment due to the replacements of human workers with automated machines. But there’s also those optimistic views that one day robots will find the cure to deadly diseases, find better ways to create resources, and instead of affecting the economy in a bad way they will create new and better jobs and decrease the rate of unemployment. Just like robotic technology can be good for humanity it could also be bad, but only time would tell what it has to offer.

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