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Development Toward Autonomous Systems
Published in Ulrich Rembold, Robot Technology and Applications, 2020
To support the development of autonomous mobile robot systems, many industrial countries have started national programs to develop basic technology for these devices. In the United States, DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, has the goal of building an autonomous land vehicle, which will go on missions over rugged terrain and attempt to accomplish different assignments [1]. In Europe the programs ESPRIT, RACE, BRITE, and EUREKA are sponsoring the development of robots and autonomous vehicles [2]. Japan has a national project known as Robots for Critical Work (RCW), which is designed to guide Japanese robotics research and development well into the 1990s. RCW was started in 1983, and the overall theme of the project is to develop robotic systems capable of operating in hazardous environments.
Cognition and emotions in Japanese humanoid robotics
Published in History and Technology, 2018
Gakutensoku represents the first attempt to design a robot guided by an explicit understanding of the factors that influence human emotional reactions toward humanoid robots, yet it has been far from the only one. Throughout the years we have seen Japanese roboticists express concerns that echo Nishimura’s sentiments: fearful associations with ‘working robots’, the idea of robot ‘evolution,’ and the revulsion provoked by humanoids that ‘don’t look quite right.’ Yet the events that informed the interpretation of robotic design have been constantly changing. Mori’s discovery of and formulation of the ‘uncanny valley’ grew out of his work on prosthetics, which were meant not only to restore functionality to bodies altered by World War II, but more significantly, to erase the physical signs of wartime experiences that rendered people ‘damaged’ in the eyes of their contemporaries. Mori’s turn to Zen spirituality as a way to redeem robots’ image as forbearers of true humanity, too, had a cultural significance in the growing industrial and economic might of 1970s Japan. Mori’s concern with the ‘uncanny valley’ characteristics of robots was picked up in the mid 1990s – when technological developments in the field of Japanese robotics made roboticists confident that the ‘valley’ of uneasiness could be overcome. Responding to the rise of social and cognitive sciences, they began seeking the help of psychologists and anthropologists to crack the secret of ‘uncanniness’ and create a humanoid robot indistinguishable from a natural human.