The Terminator

The movie, The Terminator, was released in 1984. The movie introduced a robot with the same name, The Terminator. The Terminator comes from a future where robots are in a war with humans. In The Terminator, the future contains armies of such robots as The Terminator. One of these robots is sent back in time to kill Sarah Conner who is pregnant with the future leader of the humans.
The Terminator robot is literally a killing machine. Its purpose is to kill. Once The Terminator is programmed to kill something, it does not stop until it completes the task or is destroyed. The artificial intelligence of this robot allows it to recognize its target’s face and distinguish it from others. The AI can also recognize threats that may prevent it from completing its task and eliminates the threats quickly.
As for the physical structure of The Terminator, its body is similar to that of a human’s with arms, legs, and a head, with everything made of metal of course. Because of the robot’s body similarity to humans, it is able to put on makeup to look like a human in addition to its ability to talk like a human. Differences in The Terminator from a human are that it is much stronger than a person and has infrared vision.
My personal opinion of the robot is that it is perfect for what it does. If you want something that kills people, this robot will work toward that goal until it cannot function anymore. To improve upon it, if I were using this robot I would put many measures in to prevent it from betraying me. Along with that, I would improve upon its communication with people because in the movie, people who talked to The Terminator could tell it was not an ordinary person.

The Terminator’s body without human disguise:
http://www.imdb.com/gallery/ss/0088247/Ss/0088247/Terminator_PUB10.jpg?path=gallery&path_key=0088247

The Terminator’s body with human disguise:
http://www.imdb.com/gallery/ss/0088247/Ss/0088247/Terminator_PUB01.jpg.html?hint=group

Robocop

Robocop is an example of blurring the line between human and robot. In the movie Robocop a police officer named Murphy is mortally wounded by criminals. After dieing in the hospital, it is decided that his limbs and organs should be replaced with machines and his corpse be turned into a cyborg. This cyborg is given the name Robocop because it is a robot that is programmed to be a police officer. When the cyborg first wakes up, it does not have Murphy’s memories but as time goes by, Murphy’s memories return. The return of these memories lead to the question of at what point is a person no longer a person but a machine. It is argued that Murphy died and that he is now merely a robot while others argue that since he has memories from before being a cyborg, he is still human and does not belong to the company that modified him.
Robocop has four prime directives, three of which are similar to Isaac Asimov’s three commandments for robots. The first three directives are: 1.Serve the public trust. 2. Protect the innocent. 3. Uphold the law. The fourth directive prevents him from taking action against his creator whom ends up being the bad guy in the movie.
Robocop’s body is made of titanium, metal, and has Kevlar making it difficult to destroy. Robocop has a visor that has a zoom in scope, thermal vision, a grid for aiming, and also contains a voice recorder that can detect voice fluctuations that allows Robocop to detect lies.
To improve upon Robocop, I would suggest making him more agile because in the movie he is slow and does not maneuver well to chase after criminals or get away from dangerous areas. I would also see if there was a way to make a Robocop while avoiding the use of a corpse to help avoid the question of if it’s a machine or person.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robocop

http://www.imdb.com/gallery/ss/0093870/Ss/0093870/Robocop_PUB01.jpg.html?path=gallery&path_key=0093870

I, Robot’s NS-5 and VIKI Robots

The NS-5 robot from the movie I, Robot is a pretty basic in the sense that it does not do anything special. It is built to be about the same size as an adult. The robot looks similar to a human in that is has the same facial features of a person minus hair and skin but it has arms, legs, and a body of similar size and proportion to the average person. The purpose of the NS-5 is to be a companion for its owner weather that involves doing chores, helping the owner in their daily activities, or playing with the owner’s kids. The robot is able to identify people, interact with them, identify risks, and help protect/save their owner from these risks. The NS-5 follows Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics to help guide the robot in its daily routines and interactions.
The only way to improve upon the NS-5 that I can think of is to have it look more human. I think it would be better to cover up the robot’s wires and joints better; this would make the robot look more lifelike while at the same time help prevent important parts from being damaged.
VIKI, which stands for Virtual Interactive Kinetic Intelligence, is a central brain for all of the NS-5s. This robot sends updated software to each of the NS-5 units whenever it is developed. Because of its ability to use logic and reason, VIKI develops its own interpretation of Asimov’s three laws that commands the NS-5s to put its owners under house arrest in order to prevent them from harm such as crime and pollution.
Obviously to improve upon this robot’s design I would put in safety measures that would prevent VIKI from having all the NS-5s put owners under house arrest.

I, Robot Website:
http://www.irobotmovie.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%2C_Robot_%28film%29

Picture of the NS-5:http://www.imdb.com/gallery/ss/0343818/Ss/0343818/FX-5.jpg?path=gallery&path_key=0343818

Automower Robot

Unveiled in 2000, Automower Robot goes around a lawn and cuts the grass without needing help from humans. In order to keep the robot within a certain area all a person needs to do is put down an electric wire that prevents the Automower from going beyond it. In order for the robot to avoid objects on the lawn it has ground level impact sensors that help the robot sense and move around obstacles. The instant that the robot senses pressure against its sensors, it pulls in its blades. After the Automower Robot has finished cutting the lawn there is no need to rake up what is left because the robot cuts the grass into such small pieces that it quickly decomposes and fertilizes the lawn. The owner of the Automower can set the robot to either cut all the time or can set specific times for it to cut such as only at night.
Special features of the robot includes the ability for it to recharge itself at a recharging terminal, the ability for it to safely cut grass in the rain, a secret code that is known only by the owner that makes the Automower theft proof, it does not pollute the air, and its three-bladed disk that cuts the grass smoothly and evenly. The inspiration behind the Automower Robot came from animals grazing because the grass is only cut a little bit but it is cut often keeping the grass short.
The improvements I would make to this robot would be to make it able to cut grass that is taller. Since the robot is always so close to the ground while cutting grass it seems like it would be unable to do lawns that had tall grass. Another improvement would be to make it possible to adjust the robots height off the ground, that way the grass can be a little longer if that is how you like it and so it would be able to go up steep hills rather than only flat ground.

Picture of the Automower:
http://www.automower.us/node158.aspx

Information about the Automower:
http://www.automower.us/node159.aspx

R2-D2

R2-D2 is possibly the most famous robot ever created. He was first used for the movie “Star Wars: A New Hope” in 1977. In using the robot during filming for the first movie, they used two different versions. One version of the RD-D2 robot was remote controlled. This version was used just for scenes in which the robot moved around. The other version of the R2-D2 robot was just a standing unit. Inside this standing version, actor Kenny Baker had controls so that he was able to manipulate lights and appendages on the outside of the robot and could also control very limited movement. The purpose of the standing version was to allow Kenny Baker to be able to imbue a sense of personality into the robot.
The height of this robot was 3 feet 2 inches. Rather than using words, this robot used beeps and whistles to communicate. Its “voice” was created by Ben Burtt using an ARP 2600 analog music synthesizer. For movement the robot had 2 standard legs that rolled and also had a 3rd retractable one if needed.
Over the years the technology used for making R2-D2 improved. By “Return of the Jedi”, improvements in the remote control version of the robot lead to it receiving more time on screen than the version controlled by Kenny Baker. In episodes 1-2 of the Star Wars saga, computer graphics were used to make R2-D2 appear on screen in addition to the remote controlled and actor controlled versions. By episode 3, actor Kenny Baker was no longer used in controlling the robot.
For possible improvements on the robot, I would think the only possibilities would be to have it actually speak rather than just beep and have it do things like jet around in the air in real life rather than just digitally. I think this robot contributed to giving robots in future movies personality. The fact that so many people like the robot even though it only moves and beeps while it does not actually talk is very impressive. Because of its impact on people, the R2-D2 robot was inducted into the Robot Hall of Fame in 2003.


Sources:
http://www.starwars.com/databank/droid/r2d2/?id=bts
http://www.answers.com/topic/r2-d2
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/R2-D2
http://www.robothalloffame.org/r2d2.html

Jacques de Vaucanson's "The Duck"

In 1739, Jacques de Vaucanson built a mechanical duck which ended up being called, “The Duck”. The Duck could do many things: flap its wings, muddle in the water with its beak, quack, eat, drink, digest its food, and excrete the food. Each wing of the duck supposedly had over 400 moving parts. Over all, The Duck had over 1,000 moving parts located within its body and inside the base on which it stood. The moving parts were powered by a weight system. In order to build The Duck, Jacques de Vaucanson needed to be very precise which led him to create a precision lathe which was used to cut threads. In addition to the precision lathe, Vaucanson was the first person to use a rubber hose. Rubber hoses were used for The Duck’s digestive canal. Inside The Duck’s digestive system, there were chemicals that would “digest” the food before it was excreted.
If it is true that this duck contained the first rubber hoses inside of it, I would say that the rubber hoses were the biggest contribution to robots in general. The concept having hoses inside of robots that can transport liquids around inside of it is still used today. Robots that use hydraulics today use the same idea of having liquids run through tubing although in today’s cases the liquids running through the tubes help the robot move as opposed to The Duck, whose tubing only transported the food through the “digestive system”.
A suggestion I would have for improving The Duck would be to eliminate the platform that it stood on. By removing the platform, it would be possible to make the duck be able to roam around on its own. Maybe if the duck was able to roam around on its own, it could also be made so that if it walked into a body of water it would be able to swim in it until it reached land again and then be able to continue roaming around on foot.

Sources:
http://www.swarthmore.edu/Humanities/pschmid1/essays/pynchon/vaucanson.html
http://music.calarts.edu/~sroberts/articles/DeVaucanson.duck.html
http://books.guardian.co.uk/extracts/story/0,,650977,00.html