Are robots becoming humans?

Robots are becoming more and more like us! They can feel pain and anticipate the actions of the robot next to them.

At Columbia University, a scientific team has created a robot that senses empathy and can predict the actions of another robot.

Most people do this all the time. When we know a person better, we can anticipate his actions and reactions, which often makes life easier for us.

Therefore, the researchers prepared an experiment in which they placed a green dot in different places, to which a robot had to move towards. They were also able to put an obstacle in his way so that he could not see the dot.

From a bird’s eye view, the events were observed via a camera by an intelligent robot who did not communicate with him [the other robot].

He [the intelligent robot] didn’t know what the green dot meant and what the obstacles in the robot’s path were. Nevertheless, he eventually began to infer where the robot wanted to go and what his goal was.

The observation robot could even predict that the robot would not move toward the green dot if it could not see it due to an obstacle.

»Robots are unlikely to be devices that just follow instructions for much longer,« said study leader Professor Hod Lipson.

Researchers at a university in Japan came to a similar conclusion as Lipson. They made a pain-sensitive robot that can show its emotions on its face.

The robot with a child’s face was covered with artificial skin and a sensory system for pain was added to it.

The expressions on his face changed with different kinds of touch. When he felt pain in his skin, he even cringed.

Such breakthroughs in robot development will one day help to create realistic robots that will understand our emotions, anticipate our actions, and also be able to take better care of us.

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The original version of this article was published on January 28th.

English translation courtesy of JL Flanner, Total Slovenia News, an English language website with news from and about Slovenia.