The Case of the Killer Robot

Transcription

1 1 Topi 3 The Case of the Killer Robot Contents 3.1 Bakground to the ase study Issues raised in the ase study Robots and artifiial intelligene Usability and safety ritial systems Software negligene End of topi test Assigned task Referenes Learning Objetives Appreiation of the importane of the ase study to this unit Familiarity with the bakground to the ase study Awareness of the differenes between the printed and eletroni versions Appreiation of the need to undertake further reading in support of studies

2 3.1. BACKGROUND TO THE CASE STUDY 2 A robot may not injure a human being, or through ination allow a human being to ome to harm. The first of Isaa Asimov s Three Laws of Robotis. See Asimov (1968) for example. 3.1 Bakground to the ase study You should have read the Bakground materials and Artile 1 of The Case of the Killer Robot before starting on this topi. The list of topis whih are being investigated for Assignment 1 all relate to the ase study. The Case of the Killer Robot (heneforth to be abbreviated to CKR) was originally oneived by Rihard Epstein in 1989 as a teahing aid. He subsequently made the materials freely available on the WWW for use by other aademis and there are opies in a number of plaes. See for instane Gehringer (undated), Melamed (1998) and Taylor (2002). In 1997 an expanded version was published by John Wiley & Son. You are advised to refer to either the book (Epstein 1997) or the website maintained by the author of the Praxis unit (Taylor 2002). The book differs from the web-based materials not only in being muh longer but also in other, important, details. There are more artiles in the book and they are not presented in the same order as the web-based materials. If you are working from the book, use the web-based materials to identify the relevant artiles. Referenes to artile numbers in this unit refer to the web-based materials. Some of the haraters have been given different names in the book. hanges (from book to WWW) are as follows - The name Book CyberWidgets In. George Cuzzins Hiram Milton Pam Pulitzer Silion Tehhronis WWW Cybernetis In. Sam Reynolds Sharon Skinner Mabel Mukraker Silion Tehtronis Names in this unit will be taken from the web-based materials. 3.2 Issues raised in the ase study The reason CKR has been hosen as a unifying theme to run through this unit is that it raises many pertinent, but potentially dull, issues in a very entertaining form. Hopefully, by the time you omplete this unit, you will agree that Epstein is to be applauded for this ahievement. The issues raised by CKR are many and various so we shall attempt to impose some order onto them by lassifying them into four broad ategories, as follows -

3 3.3. ROBOTS AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE 3 1. Requirements Analysis and Speifiation Was the solution proposed the orret one for the ustomer? Did the system speified atually produe that solution? 2. System Design and Development Was the design method employed appropriate for the speified system? Did the development methods and team suit the design? 3. System Testing and Usability Was the system thoroughly tested? Were the users of the system onsidered/involved? 4. Ethis and Culpability Did everybody onerned at with the best of motives? Who should be held responsible for the fatality? In subsequent topis we shall be looking into these general ategories in more detail and you will be researhing speifi ideas and methodologies in even more detail. Eventually we shall amass suffiient information to attempt an answer to the question of ulpability in this ase. For now we shall onfine ourselves to a few explanatory remarks relating to the topis whih you and your fellow tutees are investigating for Assignment Robots and artifiial intelligene The Robbie CX30 robot is an industrial manipulator. It is not a human-looking android suh as one might find in a siene fition film. Industrial robots ome in a number of forms ranging from wheeled vehiles to various types of mehanial arms equipped with assorted ontrollers and end effetors to do the atual work. The CX30 isn t mobile; it is a mehanial arm bolted seurely to the floor within a age to redue the potential hazard to human operators. It has a programmable ontroller whih inreases its versatility and thus makes it appliable to a variety of different tasks. Nor should you expet too muh of the robot s artifiial intelligene. The Robbie CX30 annot think. Its intelligene manifests itself as an ability to reat to a variety of sensor inputs thus providing it with a more adaptive ontrol system than its predeessors. Asimov s Three Laws of Robotis (Asimov 1968) hardly apply to suh a primitive devie. The field of Artifiial Intelligene is vast but those areas most relevant to the Robbie CX30 are sensor proessing and deision making based on the information gleaned from that proessing.

4 3.4. USABILITY AND SAFETY CRITICAL SYSTEMS Usability and safety ritial systems User interfaes are often the last thing on the minds of system developers who are muh more interested in the tehnial details of their produts than the end users of them. However Human Computer Interation (HCI) or Man Mahine Interation (MMI) should not be onsidered as an after-thought. Poor interfaes an be unfriendly, ineffiient and downright dangerous. The evaluation of what onstitutes a good or a bad interfae is learly dependent on who the users are and what they are used to. Involving users in the evaluation is learly sensible. Involving users earlier on, at the speifiation, design and development stages, an save time and effort in the long run. Usability engineers have devoted onsiderable study to understanding how people interat with mahinery and omputers and there is muh guidane available to the designer who is prepared to seek it out. This is nowhere more true than in the sphere of safety ritial systems. Systems whih have the potential to ause great damage if they go wrong are designed and developed to minimise the likelihood of a atastrophi failure. The one element of these systems whih is always an imponderable is the atual human beings who interat with them. Interfaes to safety ritial systems must be designed to eliminate the possibility of inappropriate user ations. This an be ahieved in a number of ways ranging from disabling partiular user options in ertain states of the system to providing hardware interloks that power the system down in the event of a user physially entering somewhere that would be dangerous to them. 3.5 Software negligene Injuries and fatalities involving industrial robots have, in fat, been very rare. Unfortunately inidents in whih poorly designed or developed software have led to loss of human life are beoming more ommon. A ursory searh on the WWW will turn up all too many suh inidents. In many ountries nowadays, if the personnel or the ompany responsible for suh software an be shown to have been negligent, riminal santions an be applied. Unfortunately the level of proof required by the ourts is often unattainable but the law is athing up. 3.6 End of topi test Q1: Comparing it with the WWW material, Epstein s book isa) Easier b) Longer ) Simpler d) Shorter Q2: Sharon Skinner in the WWW materials beame who in Epstein s book - a) George Cuzzins b) Robbie CX30

5 3.6. END OF TOPIC TEST 5 ) Hiram Milton d) Sam Reynolds Q3: Whih of the following general ategories will NOT be looked at in detail - a) Budgeting and finanial ontrol b) Ethis and ulpability ) Requirements analysis and speifiation d) System testing and usability Q4: Who will be researhing speifi ideas in the greatest detail in this unit - a) Author of these materials b) Turina Babbage ) Robbie CX30 development team d) You Q5: The Robbie CX30 robot is - a) An android b) An industrial manipulator ) A program whih seeks material on the WWW for a searh engine d) A walking mahine Q6: The part of a robot whih does the atual work is alled - a) An end effetor b) A gripper ) A tool d) The tool entre point Q7: The Three Laws of Robotis are due to - a) Isaa Asimov b) Arthur C. Clarke ) Mary Shelly d) Star Wars Q8: Whih of the following is NOT an alternative name for the field of interfae designa) HCI b) MMI ) Usability engineering d) User friendliness Q9: Safety ritial systems are systems whih - a) Are ompliated b) Can ause great damage ) Are expensive d) Mustn t stop Q10: Software negligene is beoming - a) Less ommon

6 3.7. ASSIGNED TASK 6 b) Less expensive ) More ommon d) More dangerous 3.7 Assigned task Assigned task Read The Case of the Killer Robot Artile 5 (Epstein 1997 or Taylor 2002) before embarking on Topi 4. You should now turn the notes you made on the topi assigned to you in Topi 2 into a 1000 word submission for Assignment 1. This assignment should be submitted at your next tutorial. It will be assessed and the mark will aount for 33% of your final mark in the Praxis Unit. Time taken?time taken? min Reminder of Assigned Topis Industrial Robots - Types 1st Tutee Artifiial Intelligene - Controllers 2nd Tutee - Sensing 3rd Tutee User Interfaes - Control 4th Tutee - Design 5th Tutee Safety Critial Systems - Evaluation 6th Tutee - Examples 7th Tutee Software Negligene - Interloks 8th Tutee - Examples 9th Tutee 3.8 Referenes Asimov, I., 1968, I, Robot. Granada. Epstein, R.G., 1997, The Case of the Killer Robot. John Wiley & Son. Gehringer, E., undated, Risks: Software Safety: Killer Robot [online]. North Carolina State University [ited 7th July 2003]. HTML. Available from: ethis/risks/safety/killer robot/ Melamed, M., 1998, Online Ethis Center: The Story of the Killer Robot [online]. Case Western Reserve University [ited 7th July 2003]. HTML. Available from:

7 3.8. REFERENCES 7 Taylor, N.K., 2002, The Killer Robot [online]. Heriot-Watt University (MACS), 16th Deember 2002 [ited 7th July 2003]. SHTML. Available from: nkt/praxis/epstein/index.sht

8 ANSWERS: TOPIC 3 8 Answers to questions and ativities 3 The Case of the Killer Robot Answers from page 4. Q1: b) Longer Q2: ) Hiram Milton Q3: a) Budgeting and finanial ontrol Q4: d) You Q5: b) An industrial manipulator Q6: a) An end effetor Q7: a) Isaa Asimov Q8: d) User friendliness Q9: b) Can ause great damage Q10: ) More ommon