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‘"‘Hollywood has misled us," said Tom King, a systems engineer for the Institute of Computer Research. King is a consultant to faculty members at UW and he‘s involved in work on a more sophisticated robot that will be able to "see‘" objects and operate on its own as long as it has a purpose and a flat floor beneath it. You might expect the machine in question to have a nickname but neither King nor anyone else mentions one. The machine also looks different from what you might expect because it‘s not created in the image of Hollywood â€"â€" it‘s a motorised table that will carry batteries, computer software, video cameras and many sonar (ultrasound) units. _ ""It has the ability to look at its surroundings and create an internal model of its surroundings," said THE AGE OF ROROTICLS Richard O‘Brien Chronicle Staff ake your average robot. It‘s seen and not heard and it can be very useful although it does less than you might think. At least, that‘s the case these days at University of Waterloo where people in the engineering faculty are working in the field of robotics and artificial inâ€" telligence. They keep the robots "brains‘‘ in a closet or perhaps on a floppy disc but nobody seems to have bothered to give any robots a voice so they can talk in a staccato monotone. The robots they work on don‘t look much like what people might expect. We‘ve seen those featherless, furless bipeds in the movies and they‘re mechanical monsters created in the image of man. 2e WHREG,K&RH&'E'(}“;S;@;MS aépartment seem very simple. The tonearm on an automatic turntable, for example, may not be a robot but it engineering undergradu photographer‘s lens. / behaves like a simple, lightweight version of one. Hollywood has misled us in the field of artificial intelligence King. "If it‘s given a task and an unknown object is placed in its path it can manoeuver around it. _ We don‘t know of (another) true roving robot. We know of some in constrained environments." ”Bry May, it should make its first solo voyage through hallways and identify objects. But it will remain a research tool, not a product. _ But most robots have no ‘"eyes." They are stationary and perform what seem like relatively simple programmable functions (although the mathâ€" ematics behind them may be very complicated) and researchers would be happy to make small improveâ€" ments in them. An industrial size robot from Germany, for example, operates on six axes and is useful in the welding or die cast industry. Researchers would like to give it ‘"more adaptive control" and "the ability to adjust its own path." _ _ .If such a robot were used in industry, King expects it would be in a work place not used by people because it‘s heavy and accidents couldn‘t be entirely eliminated. It could function well, for example, as a goâ€"fer in awarehouse where it could locate objects and count them. This robot is the combination of mechanical research and machine intelligence. Electrical engiâ€" neering professor Dr. Andrew Wong explains that machines that can "see" are capable of analysing textures and synthesising threeâ€"dimensional obâ€" jects. In another room, graduates David Wang and Bob Turner work with another problem. They have a robot that can only pick up objects that weigh 8â€"9 lb although it weighs in at 400 lb. _ Such machines would cost less if they could be made lighter, but their weight helps keep up efficiency by keeping vibration down. Wang and Turner, therefore, are working on ways to make robots lighter and more vibration free. Cost is a big consideration for a Canadian company wishing to increase its automation but according to UW Dean of Engineering Dr. William Lennox companies have to spend money not just to make money but also to compete with other counâ€" Canada, Lennox says, ranks second or third in the world in terms of high unit cost in productivity and the object of automation is to reduce the unit costs. "If we don‘t solve the problem we‘ll all be out of work,"" Lennox said matterâ€"ofâ€"factly. ‘"What we‘re doing here is putting a lot of research into it and then graduating engineers who are familiar with it." Robots can work in poor or dangerous conditions. mdu’tuulhut c:l:fi'h many cases and they be useful in the industry, mines, nolsy environments or in the chemical industry. u-oxhnuhthuu.pluthlaflmh fully automated and maybe the closest to this that most of us have seen is an automated car â€" In duality control, for example, a machine could inspect a contoured part such as an automobile fender in just six seconds. This industrial size robot from Germany operates on six axes and can be programmed to write as shown. o s n Staike.) WATERLOO CHRONICLE, All this, however, is unlikely to impress people put out of work by automation. While the number of people finding work servicing machines could increase, unskilled laborers could be in difficulty. "It will displace workers," said Lennox. "There are examples of plants going from 200 to 20 people. One company lost 25 percent of its workers but saved 75 per cent instead of losing 100 per cent â€"â€" but automation can (end up creating) jobs if it creates demands for a product." _ Research into robotics has been mostly in the engineering department but Lennox sees future involvement with other faculties. Industrial psycholâ€" ogists, for example, could be called upon to help people cope with automation. ‘‘There are people who unload crates at one end and pick them up at the other," said Lennox. _ _ Computer science could contribute to the field of artificial intelligence and mathematics could conâ€" tribute to the field of quality control statistics. Kelvin Brundrett stands beside the AY, MARCH 4, 1987