Servo - 201306

www.servomagazine.com/index.php?/magazine/article/june2013_ThenNow

of photographs and cartoons that have poked fun at that critical scene in the movie when the onboard computer (HAL) malfunctioned and would not allow the remaining live crewmember (Dave) back into the spacecraft.

Could HAL have been taken to court and be convicted of killing four people and trying to kill a fifth? The way the movie ended, who knows. However, it makes one wonder about the many legal consequences of the use of robots.

“Humans are tool builders,” wrote Green. “We’re seemingly hard-wired to fashion objects that do jobs for us or make life better or easier, or both. Some of these tools — the ones we call machines — have been absolutely necessary in building and maintaining our civilizations, our modern way of life, and the ability to plan for our future.” “Our relationship with our machines — however beneficial and salubrious — is many times an uneasy and often contentious one, especially so since the Industrial Revolution. Railroads are wonderful until a locomotive slips its track. After the wreckage is hauled away — the injured and dead, as well — another of humankind’s great inventions takes over: Law.” “The rules we all use to interact with each other and the system by which we can seek to be made whole when we are wronged, intervene to try to understand what took place and to assess liability, arrive at a judgment, and then determine punishment and reward, if any.” In my opinion, Tom and Emmet stated the legal side of new technology extremely well in these opening sentences of their article.

FIGURE 1. “Open the pod bay door,” from 2001: a Space Odyssey.

FIGURE 2. Sonny (from the film, I, Robot) being interrogated in a police station.

their products. Private citizens are angry at local, regional, and our national government about the dangers (as well as the potential personal rights and privacy invasions) that may be created by drones.

Autonomous, self-driving robots are welcomed by some and feared by others as being potentially lethal on our country’s highways. Of course, lawyers are waiting in the wings for the many suits that they assume (hope!) will be filed against robot manufacturers. I will address these legal implications a bit later.

detractors. When horseless carriages first appeared, people were appalled at the noisy things that smelled of gas, scared everyone’s horses, and put many animal feed suppliers out of business. Even today’s movies play up mistrust in robots, such as with Sonny in I, Robot. Figure 2 is a scene from the film when Sonny was being interrogated as a murder suspect and kept insisting he was innocent (even though, in actuality, he wasn’t).

There are independent groups that enjoy stirring up malcontent about any new technology, and robots seem to be in their crosshairs now. Military versions are viewed as autonomous killers preying upon unsuspecting citizens, whereas the civilian drones are considered airborne government spies.

I’ve heard people say things like “It’s bad enough these things are above us, spying on our every activity, but now they can carry missiles so the government can take out any person they choose — whether guilty or innocent.” I feel comments such as these serve no useful purpose other than to stir up discontent. However, I believe we need more trustworthy people in today’s media, not just to report the truth about the robotics field, but for all aspects of life.

Robots Above Us Robotics Industries that Could be at Risk

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

I wrote a bit about UAVs in last month’s column, and showed an image of (supposedly) anti-drone/ stealth wear that can hide us from those ever-seeing evil robots above us. I’ve heard people moan, “These new fangled flying killer spies will bring us down to the police state level of North Korea.” It seems that new technology always has its Drones have been around and in the news for years now. It seems that very few of the positive features and uses of these UAVs have been praised. Police departments — large and small — have begun to use smaller quadcopters with a video camera to perform surveillance on crime, accident, and fire scenes.