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Many robot engineers/find dependence on humans to be a defect. They want to make weak robots stronger,/which is to say,/more independent of people.
However,/the little episode above suggests/that weak robots might help create a positive relationship/between robots and humans. In fact,/Okada Michio,/a professor at Toyohashi University of Technology,/sees weakness as a virtue. He is working on robots/which are designed not to work without human interaction.
Take a wastebasket called Sociable Trash Box (STB),/for example. Its job is to see that trash gets picked up. This weak robot approaches the trash/and circles around it helplessly,/waiting for someone’s assistance. When people come along/and see the robot moving its body/as if asking for help,/they usually pick up the trash/and place it in the basket. STB bows,/as if to say,/“Thanks!”
In the conventional way of thinking,/a room cleaner that gets tangled up in a cord,/or a machine that cannot pick up the trash by itself,/is weak or maybe defective. But from Okada’s point of view,/this weakness draws out our cooperative spirit. Far from being dehumanizing,/working with a robot like STB/can make us more human.
Many robot engineers/find dependence on humans to be a defect. They want to make weak robots stronger,/which is to say,/more independent of people.
However,/the little episode above suggests/that weak robots might help create a positive relationship/between robots and humans. In fact,/Okada Michio,/a professor at Toyohashi University of Technology,/sees weakness as a virtue. He is working on robots/which are designed not to work without human interaction.
Take a wastebasket called Sociable Trash Box (STB),/for example. Its job is to see that trash gets picked up. This weak robot approaches the trash/and circles around it helplessly,/waiting for someone’s assistance. When people come along/and see the robot moving its body/as if asking for help,/they usually pick up the trash/and place it in the basket. STB bows,/as if to say,/“Thanks!”
In the conventional way of thinking,/a room cleaner that gets tangled up in a cord,/or a machine that cannot pick up the trash by itself,/is weak or maybe defective. But from Okada’s point of view,/this weakness draws out our cooperative spirit. Far from being dehumanizing,/working with a robot like STB/can make us more human.