“Do you have a minute to talk about robots?” is probably not a question one is accustomed to hearing. But when you’re looking into the future of technology, robots are certainly an area of interest.
At SXSWi the concepts of the future are quickly becoming reality. One panel, Cloud Robotics: Instant Scalability & Capability will deal with the quickly emerging robotics advances. The concept of cloud robotics is simultaneously simple and complex. With a network connection to the Internet, robots will no longer be solitary machines; rather they will be more aware and social.
Ken Goldberg, a professor at UC Berkeley, will bring his expertise in robotics to the panel. He starts with the question, “What if robots and automation systems were not limited by onboard computation, memory, or software?” Utilizing open-source, open-access, and crowdsourcing will allow for a network connection among robots, which will give robots a massive new level of comprehension and communication. “A lot of processing of sensory data, statistical data can’t be done on the robot, and that’s why we’re using the cloud.”
One of the big prospects for cloud robots is in the surgical field. Surgical robotics would allow for repetitive tasks to be completed by a robot instead of further taxing a surgeon who has been on his or her feet for hours.
Goldberg recognizes the largest public interest in cloud robotics isn’t surgery, however. “The big one is the car, the self driving car.” Utilizing real-time sharing data, the self-driving car may not be that far off. “The Google autonomous driving project exemplifies this approach: the system indexes maps and images that are collected and updated by satellite, Streetview, and crowdsourcing from the network to facilitate accurate localization.”
There are also less technical applications for the cloud robotics. “Personal robots, to help you in the house, a robot that tidies up your house can access the cloud to figure out where things go.”
The panel will bring together various robotics experts. Besides Goldberg, the panel will have two engineering managers from Google, Anthony Levandowski and James Kuffner, as well as Ayorkor Korsah, an assistant professor from Ashesi University in Ghana.
Ken Goldberg’s TED Talk on what lessons robots can teach humans about humanity.