When robotisation incorporates artificial intelligence

From personal assistants like Siri to self-driving cars, it has been said that artificial intelligence is making rapid progress. However, as this concept has become known and expanded, its meaning has been distorted. Although it’s true to say that the term artificial intelligence is usually associated with the word robotisation, and although they can be inter-related, the two are very different advanced scientific techniques that can also coexist separately.

Artificial intelligence is a regeneration of the human thought process, a machine made by humans that has our intellectual capacities.

This would include the capacity to learn almost anything: the capacity to reason, to use language and to formulate original ideas.

Bots that incorporate artificial intelligence

The inclusion of artificial intelligence in robots has given rise to bots, which solve problems in limited situations. The idea consists of the machine gathering facts about a situation through sensors to then compare them with stored data and decide what the information means.

Using this process, it chooses various possible actions and predicts which action will be the most successful based on the information gathered.

Of course, the robot can only solve the problems that it has been programmed to solve, in other words, it has no analytical capacity. One example of this would be the machines, such as the ITRI robot, in which a series of orders to play chess has been installed.

In addition, some modern robots also have the capacity to learn, albeit in a limited way. Robots intended for learning recognise whether a specific action might achieve the desired result.

The robot saves this information and tries to repeat the same action the next time it finds itself in the same situation.

The motor industry, the tip of the iceberg

One of the industries that has been able to take advantage of this capacity has been the motor industry, which has ceased to think about producing cars with a great look and moved on to designing intelligent cars.

In the early days, the car recognised if moving the wheels a certain way, for example, would let it overcome an obstacle in the road. Now, we can find cars that park on their own or that help when driving, to others that are completely autonomous.

The Tesla Motors company is the main brand that is innovating in this field and it has already promised that within a few years it will put on sale 100% autonomous cars, which means that they won’t need a driver.

Among their many features are the ability to maintain a constant speed on the road or correct course if the car swerves.

Another example of machines learning can be seen in Japan, where they have taught a robot to dance through demonstrating movements and actions.

Capturing body signals

Another capacity that emerges from the combination of robotisation and artificial intelligence is social interaction.

Kismet, a robot in the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the M.I.T., recognises human body language and voice inflection, to which it responds appropriately.

The creators of Kismet are interested in how humans interact, specifically babies. They use just tone of voice and visual signals as the basis for the principal foundation for a robot to have a learning system similar to that of a human.

Robotisation is becoming increasingly more present in our everyday lives, in our world devoted to digitalisation, be it in the home, in work environments or in means of transport. This way, robotisation contributes to improved user experience, making our lives easier.