Robotics Through Science Fiction by Robin R. Murphy

Author:Robin R. Murphy [Murphy, Robin R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: science fiction; artificial intelligence; programming; robots; telepresence; human-robot interaction; algorithm; autonomy
ISBN: 9780262536264
Publisher: MIT Press
Published: 2018-12-27T00:00:00+00:00

After You Have Read the Story …

“Catch That Rabbit” reflects the challenge of debugging a robot that has sophisticated hardware and software. The problem with the DV-5 robot in the story is determined to be hardware associated with the switching mechanisms needed to control multiple robots. It is interesting that in the story, the positronic brain (software) is presumed to work correctly and thus it must be the hardware malfunctioning. This is generally the opposite of real life, as the software is immediately suspected as the cause of any problems. Hardware is easier to test than software.

The story is a springboard for discussing testing and autonomy in more detail. It ignores that user trust in a robot actually working as expected is a major factor in whether a robot is adopted by users; the robot passes the V&V tests but the users quickly stop using it because they don’t trust it. There are two aspects to trusting a robot: what level of initiative is delegated to the robot and whether the rationale of the robot for its actions is visible. The need to produce trustworthy systems is changing the landscape of robotics testing from verification and validation to verification, validation, and visibility. The odd part of the story is the division of responsibilities between DV-5 and the rest of the robots, but this fortunately leads to an exploration of how autonomy is related to the initiative that an agent is allowed to exercise. For more in-depth reading, levels of initiative are covered in chapter 4, trust and visibility in chapter 18, and testing in chapter 19 of Introduction to AI Robotics;2 see chapter 17 for readings in multirobot systems or the classic book Robot Teams: From Diversity to Polymorphism.3

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