Category: Robots

Abstract

Although robots are more effective, human service is still preferred in hotel service. They can work under dangerous conditions, provide standardized services and work more than human beings. The inability of robots to interact, show and understand emotions effectively makes consumers prefer human service. Humans ability to provide personalized service and influence consumer emotions creates trust in consumers and increases the chances of winning their loyalty. The current studies show consumers improved preference for robotic service in hotels. The shift is attributed to the recent global pandemic, which required people to avoid social contact to stay safe. However, the hotel service is expected to resume its operations after the pandemic.

Introduction

Robots are eliminating the need for human labor in industries. They are preferred for their standardized output quality and quantity and improved competency. The robots are practical for use, especially where the tasks place human life in danger. They are known to be free of errors in their operations. There is a similar rapid shift of operations and management dependence on human interventions to artificial intelligence in the tourism and hotel industry. There is fear that the perfection portrayed by robots may render human labor useless.

Robots might set the bar too high for skilled human beings to reach and limit their entry into the job market. The technology combines face recognition technology, robots, voice, and wearable technology to deliver hotel services (Kim et al., 2021). During the global pandemic COVID-19, between 2019 and 2020, the hotel and tourism industry went dormant due to the nature of the illness. The industry relies more on human contact than machine use, thus making it a primary sector to focus on to mitigate the virus spread. After reopening operations in the industry, outlets opted for alternatives that included implementing artificial intelligence in hotel operations. Although robots have enhanced continuous operations and helped reduce infection rates, there exist limits to the full acceptance of the technology in hotels.

There have been several studies regarding customer satisfaction, hotel performance, and trends in the shift from fully human-operated hotels to partially or fully robot-operated hotels. The counter-argumentative researchers focus mainly on customer preference, management and employees views, and hotel benefits. Customers still need humans in the industry, while some management thinks the technologys effectiveness over human operations is overrated. These arguments create a dilemma as owners must decide whether to embrace the use of robots or not in hotels. This research paper will explore past studies relating to the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of robots used in hotel operations, discuss why robots are effective or ineffective compared to human operations, and conclude with a personal view of the research.

Literature Review

In 1961, the first robot, the Ultimate robot, was tasked to pick hot metallic objects from a paint pool and place them in a stack. However, the word robot was first mentioned in 1921 in Karel Capeks play Rossums Universal Robots . Robots are used in hotels limitedly. In 1983, Collier predicted the automation of services such as hotel services. The first hotel to use robots, Henn na Hotel in Nagasaki, Japan, was opened in 2015 and dismissed half of the robots in 2019 due to increased workload for employees and guest complaints (Ivanov et al., 2020). Despite the latter move, companies used knowledge gained from the hotel use of robots to develop more effective robot use in the industry.

Another study found that consumers were satisfied with using robots in hotels if they had human traits and habits and were sure that the robots would do the right thing and not endanger them (Belias & Varelas, 2019). The effectiveness of the robots is achieved when operating costs are reduced while output is increased. Artificial intelligence use is both preferred and not preferred for not entirely having human traits. Robots are convenient as they can work for a long time without having limits such as fatigue and errors as portrayed by humans and inconvenient as they show less or no emotions than humans.

Today, robots can perform dangerous tasks alongside other manageable human roles. In hotels, they are used alongside other artificial intelligence technologies to perform tasks such as welcoming and checking in guests, supervising rooms, making presentations, discussing menus, and making and receiving automated calls. According to research, a hotels use of robots is mainly necessitated by two factors; the level of technological advancements acceptance among consumers and the internal capacity of the hotel to afford and maintain the innovation (Stylos et al., 2021). In a study conducted in Russia, consumers who view robot use in hotels positively mainly included young men living in towns who generally perceived using new technologies positively.

As far as the global context is perceived, many consumers associate human-like robots with high levels of discomfort. Thus, in a study conducted by Yu (2019), the author concluded that many people reviewing their hotel experiences on YouTube mentioned the discomfort, intimidation, and lack of connection related to anthropomorphic robots functioning on the hotels premises. Another study by Rosete et al. (2020) demonstrates that the hospitality industry is therefore considered closely related to empathic intelligence, as the integration of service robots has not yet reached the desired stage of service delivery (p. 174). This statement implies that the shift is inevitable despite many obstacles associated with robots integrated into the hospitality industry. Hence, while consumers give preference to human employees, the external context of rapid digitalization and the ongoing pandemic requires a higher level of customer tolerance to the change. In order to realize the robots efficiency in the hotel industry, it is crucial to consider both positive and negative aspects of hospitality automatization.

Discussion

Robot Service Preference in Hotel Operations (Main Statement)

The rapid shift toward digitalization expects employers and industry leaders to adapt and embrace technology to remain relevant in the market and seem more professional. Meanwhile, after the recent global pandemic, consumers have changed their attitude toward robot service in hotels. Efficiency, functionality, convenience, and ease of use are the driving factors for the change. Several consumers consider robotic services since they involve no human contact (Grewal et at., 2020). Consumers willingly accept robot concierges as they are easy to use and effective while preserving Covid-19 protective social distance measures. However, it is estimated that the negative attitude towards robot service will resume after the pandemic fear is over.

Advancement in robot anthropomorphism has also influenced consumers attitudes toward robot service. Although past studies have shown improved acceptance of robot anthropomorphism, there is a shift to prefer non-human-like robots (Thomsen, 2020). According to research, consumers are more comfortable knowing that robots are not humans than robots that behave more like humans. The awareness of robots creates psychological questioning of reality among people services because, at times, they are better at providing quality services (Lu et ai., 2020). It is hard for people to develop a mutual relationship with non-humans. It is hard for customers to develop trust with robots that only act like humans.

They are fast, free of errors, and ensure efficiency in service delivery. In addition, the robots provide low operation costs by eliminating the need for many workers and cutting down losses associated with the perishability of food items in the hotel. These benefits provide the hotel with a competitive advantage that helps it perform better through substantial profit margins and increased sales. The robots can provide quality standardized hotel service; thus, guests will have the same experience repeatedly.

Human Preference in Hotel Operations (Counter-Arguments)

Many studies whose results termed robots as ineffective in hotel operations focused on social skills and low emotion quotient traits of robots. According to research, guests need personalization alongside the hotel service quality (Kim et al., 2021). A client will feel more satisfied if an attendant calls them by name and maybe smiles at them, compared to a robot is dictated to repeat a set of words after a client does or says a word or set of words. Some of the hotel managers argue that robots would not personally contact with the customers, thus reducing the quality of services. Well-trained and experienced employees are less likely to have errors while performing their roles.

Quality service includes a good experience. Although there are efforts to incorporate customer satisfaction in robotic services, the effectiveness may never match the human service due to the inability to sufficiently show and influence emotions. According to Chan and Tung (2019), human staff services were better than robotic services as humans created an emotional connection and enriched experience compared to robots.

Human service will win return guests and referrals for the business future, while robots will serve to increase sales at the current moment. Interaction of staff with their guests creates trust between guests to the hotel and they will feel comfortable coming back to it in the future (Gupta et al., 2019). In addition, employees can further reinforce guests loyalty by influencing guest emotions with a smile, kind gestures, and personalized services. These acts make guests feel valued and may feel the urge to keep coming to the hotel.

Human preference is acquainted with several flaws. Human employees can negatively influence the guest experience, as their mood and attitude may tamper with the experience. In addition, human service quality standard is bound to change as often as each time a certain guest visit. The outcome may vary from excellent customer experience to poor. Humans are fallible. Their mistakes can cause significant financial losses to the hotel or damage its reputation.

Personal Argument

Whether a hotel should adopt robotic service or stick with human operations is still a dilemma due to limited research on consumer preferences and recent events due to COVID-19. Customer needs are always on the lead when making any business decision. Hospitality is a human character trait. Although humans have already tapped into artificial intelligence, they cannot assume the need for human contact, especially in industries where the human effect is vital, like hotel industries (Grundner & Neuhofer, 2021). The rapid change to accept anthropomorphism in robot service and prefer non-anthropomorphism is a sign that humans can only relate to themselves. The emotional touch is unique to humans. Though humans can read the robots facial expressions, robots are unable to read to process human emotions as they are unable to capture human facial expressions (Chuah & Yu, 2021). The incapability leaves incomplete conversations as consumers may not get a personalized experience.

Robots are fast, efficient, cost-friendly, and convenient as they are not affected by human nature limits such as fatigue. However, primary services such as meals and shelter should be provided in a positive environment founded on human interaction and emotions. It is hard to maintain loyalty between customers and a hotel when robots provide the services. Clients want to feel valued through personalized service and clear communication via facial interactions and understanding. Robots are likely to serve more clients who might never return to the hotel, while human service is likely to capture customer trust, which will make them return.

Robots are likely to attract guests to a hotel establishment but not retain them. The guests will be looking forward to experimenting with the service feel. In addition, human employees, unlike robots, can judge a situation and implement viable alternative solutions (Jimenez-Ramirez et al., 2019). In case of an unusual occurrence, robots are likely to give negative reactions or no reactions, as the program did not create room for the exceptional occurrence. In case of a breakdown of systems, it may need to keep the business running as there are no experienced employees for the task. In the case of human employees, one employee is replaced by another if they get an emergency. Employees can comfortably shift to operating manually if any system breaks down.

Conclusion

Robots have increased efficiency in the hotel industry. They are quick, cost-saving, and efficient, with improved output quantity and quality. The robots can work under adverse conditions and exhibit no limitations, such as fatigue, compared to human nature. There is an increased use of robots in hotel services, and it is estimated to increase with improved customer attitudes and advancements. The current robotic services cannot provide social interaction during service delivery. Over the years, customers have preferred human service, including emotional interaction and genuine feelings. Although scientists are putting efforts into improving robotic appearance and service to match human service, consumers still feel indifferent to the robotic service.

There has been a change in consumer perception of robotic services in hotels after the Covid-19 pandemic hit. The laid down protective measures caused close of hotel and entertainment outlets leaving consumer needs unattended. As the pandemic spread, robot service increased as it became the least risky way of accessing goods and products. However, it is estimated that after the pandemic, consumer preference for hotel service will resume with human service as they chose robots under pressure and fear of getting infected through human contact.

Human service is perceived to be slow and erroneous, with varying standards but the ability to interact and create trust for the company. The ability of humans to judge and act as per events creates confidence in clients and confirms their loyalty to the hotel. Humans will bring repeated guests compared to robots, who do not create a long-lasting impression. In addition, well-trained and experienced human employees do not commit mistakes and may match the robotic service output quality.

References

Belias, D., & Varelas, S. (2019). To be or not to be? Which is the case with robots in the hotel industry? Strategic Innovative Marketing and Tourism, 935-941.

Chan, A. P., & Tung, V. W. (2019). Examining the effects of robotic service on brand experience: The moderating role of hotel segment. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 36(4), 458-468.

Chuah, S. H., & Yu, J. (2021). The future of service: The power of emotion in human-robot interaction. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 61.

Grewal, D., Kroschke, M., Mende, M., Roggeveen, A. L., & Scott, M. L. (2020). Frontline cyborgs at your service: How human enhancement technologies affect customer experiences in retail, sales, and service settings. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 51, 9-25.

Grundner, L., & Neuhofer, B. (2021). The bright and dark sides of artificial intelligence: A futures perspective on tourist destination experiences. Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, 19.

Gupta, A., Dash, S., & Mishra, A. (2019). All that glitters is not green: Creating trustworthy ecofriendly services at green hotels. Tourism Management, 70, 155-169.

Jimenez-Ramirez, A., Reijers, H. A., Barba, I., & Valle, C. D. (2019). A method to improve the early stages of the robotic process automation lifecycle. In International Conference on Advanced Information Systems Engineering (pp. 446-461). Springer, Cham.

Kim, S. (., Kim, J., Badu-Baiden, F., Giroux, M., & Choi, Y. (2021). Preference for robot service or human service in hotels? Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 93, 102795.

Lu, V. N., Wirtz, J., Kunz, W. H., Paluch, S., Gruber, T., Martins, A., & Patterson, P. G. (2020). Service robots, customers and service employees: what can we learn from the academic literature and where are the gaps? Journal of Service Theory and Practice, 30(3), 361-391.

Rosete, A., Soares, B., Salvadorinho, J., Reis, J., & Amorim, M. (2020). Service robots in the hospitality industry: An exploratory literature review. In International conference on exploring services science (pp. 174-186). Springer, Cham.

Stylos, N., Fotiadis, A. K., Shin, D. D., & Huan, T. C. T. (2021). Beyond smart systems adoption: Enabling diffusion and assimilation of smartness in hospitality. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 98.

Thomsen, C. (2020). The Impact of Hotel Service Robot Appearance and Service Attributes on Customer Experience [Doctoral dissertation].

Yu, C. E. (2020). Humanlike robots as employees in the hotel industry: Thematic content analysis of online reviews. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 29(1), 22-38.

Using robots in surgery may become a reality. Years ago, no one could imagine that using robots would become a reality and be sufficient so the patient can trust it. Many types of research have been published, and experiments have been conducted to test the robots and know the advantages and disadvantages of using them. However, there are some arguments about the efficiency of using robots or not, as using robots is a must or perfect choice in cases like the Covid-19 pandemic, as it prevents direct communication with patients, reducing the infection spread and protecting the frontline worker. Alternatively, the other opinion on the efficiency of using robots as using robots may be just as surgical tools, but not to do surgery as the reasons for that is. Robots are insufficient due to expensive costs and lengthy-time duration, and lack of technology and experiments that make patients confident in robots. Additionally, if there is a human error, there is also a mechanical failure. From research and analysis, three fundamental questions arise. First, is the use of robots in surgery a good technique in the medical field? Second, are there limitations to the use of robots in surgery? Finally, is using robots accurate or not?

The first argument is about whether using robots is a good technique in the medical field or not. The supporters believe that using robots is a must or perfect solution in a crisis like the epidemic like Covid-19 as the world seeks to prevent direct communication between people. The frontline workers face many challenges to introduce medical care besides protecting themselves and their families, so using robots will reduce the direct connection and the spread of infection. According to the rising number of patients, like in an epidemic of Covid-19, this puts medical staff under stress, affecting their performance. So, using robots will be helpful. Interacting with robots reduces direct communication between the patient and the surgeon. During the period of Covid-19, it was found that many doctors and patients contracted the infection despite the procedures and precautions due to their admission to the hospital and dealing with its staff. “The integration of a robot as a shielding layer, physically separating the healthcare workers and the patient is a powerful tool to combat the omnipresent fear of pathogen contamination and maintain surgical volumes” (Zemmar et al., 2020).

The other group opposes using robots. The reasons for that are that it will be expensive and impractical. “The main disadvantages of robots are the higher costs, increased surgical time and the total loss of tactile sensation” (Elkak, 2017). They also show that it lacks knowledge and experience, so it cannot deal with different cases. They claim that the use of robots today exposes them to many risks, and it requires a lot of knowledge and training to become a powerful tool in surgery (‘Robotic Surgery: Risks vs. Rewards’, 2017). During a surgical operation, doctors discuss taking the appropriate action and what is safer for the patient’s life, and God cannot achieve this. God only carries out orders, cannot make decisions. “To further complicate matters, every robotic surgical tool must comply with the safety requirements that may include anticipating sensor and actuator redundancy, implementing a safe operational speed cap, complying with testing protocols such as ISO 9000, etc.” (Surgical Robotic Tools, 2016).

The second argument is about if there is a limitation on using robots in surgery or not. The critical points of this argument include instrument, cost, and surgical flow. The supportive team argues that in terms of cost, robotic surgery, like any technology in its infancy, is expensive until, after a certain amount of time, it becomes affordable and provides the desired benefit. We will find that competitive companies are seeking and provide that service with good quality and reasonable prices. Over time, the cost will not be an issue at all. “New robotic technologies may produce cheaper systems, and new developments such as haptic and tactile sensing and force feedback technology could potentially solve one of the real drawbacks of robotic surgery. The emergence of competitive companies may indeed contribute to tackling the high-cost issue. Future developments aim to decrease variability of performance” (Elkak, 2017). Concerning surgical tools, they fall under the principle of need. When starting to use robots, it opened thinking about designing accurate and appropriate surgical tools to make robotic surgery successful. Concerning the operation of the surgery, the doctor cannot be dispensed. However, if the robotic surgery voluntarily complies with the usual surgery, it will make a big difference, especially since it reaches micro-places that conventional surgery cannot. Therefore, robotic surgery remains attractive. “If current barriers can be addressed and systems are specifically designed for microsurgery, surgical robots may have the potential of meaningful impact on clinical outcomes within this surgical subspecialty” (Tan et al., 2018).

The other team argues that the absence of microsurgery tools is a limitation for the robotic surgery system where microsurgery still needs many instruments that make dealing with micro-tissue hard and takes a long time. This entails limits and restrictions also in dealing with micro-sutures and surgical operations such as vascular surgery. Therefore, traditional surgery becomes better in this case. According to cost, the costs of buying his wills robotic systems are high. Studies have shown that the cost of one robot exceeds one million dollars, in addition to the indirect costs, as this system will require employees to check it constantly to ensure its use (Tan et al., 2018). Regarding surgical flow, when comparing traditional surgery with robotic surgery, we will find that robotic microsurgery takes longer. Besides, it is impossible to set a straight line and step for a single operation, as each patient has his condition. Therefore, it will always remain a point of uncertainty to determine the appropriate treatment plan for him. “Absence of bespoke microsurgical instruments, increases in operating time, and high costs associated with robotic-assisted provide a barrier to using such systems effectively for reconstructive microsurgery. Consequently, surgical robots provide currently little overall advantage over conventional microsurgery” (Tan et al., 2018).

The third argument is about whether using a robot in surgery is accurate or not. The supporter of using robots believes that surgical robots are very accurate and mechatronic devices can make a big difference for surgeons and the patient, as they help carry out tasks accurately, especially the CIS technique ‘contact imaging sensor’, which has breast implants improving the quality and accuracy of robotic surgery. In addition, there are many robotic systems under development, and their effectiveness has been proven recently, such as laparoscopic surgery. They hope that innovation in robotics will solve many medical problems, such as handling a delicate level of tissue accurately and smoothly. They claim that robotic surgery with the help of technology will facilitate the surgery and make it highly accurate, ensuring that the surgical tools are inserted at the correct depth and angle. This level of accuracy is difficult to achieve in conventional surgery due to involuntary tremors in humans. Robotic surgery has already proven its effectiveness in surgeries such as neurosurgery and tumor removal and also n general surgery such as thoracic, abdominal, urologic, gynecological, and colorectal (Ahmad et al., 2016).

On the contrary, opponents believe that robotic surgery does not constitute the great accuracy that some images, or not in all cases, considering the error of the machine. “Multiple risk factors can increase the possibility of complications and errors, including patient factors (e.g., obesity or underlying comorbidities), surgeon factors (e.g., training and experience), and robotic factors (e.g., mechanical malfunction). The reported complication rate related directly to robotic malfunction is very low (approximately 0.1% to 0.5%)” (‘Robotic Surgery: Risks vs. Rewards’, 2017). They suppose that this makes it unreliable and suspicious of many patients. It is necessary to consider the patient’s psychology and acceptance of the surgery, which constitutes a large part of the treatment.

Health care is necessary for survival and comfortable living. All worlds seek to improve healthcare life either by improving medication or put therapeutic protocols or improving surgical techniques. Using robots in surgery or the surgical tool is a good technique in the medical field as robotics can be used in microsurgeries as robotics will be excellent and accurate. The human element is undeniably important, and I support the claim that robotic surgeries must be under the supervision and control of doctors due to different cases and situations. Making patients trust these robots is not easy; because of lack of knowledge and experience, perhaps all hopes aspire that robotic surgery in the future. Technology makes life easier, but the expensive cost became an obstacle. This will not remain for a long time because, like any technology, it starts expensive and then become affordable to anyone.

Introduction

Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) is an application involving the utilization of synergistic technologies and systems engineering ideas in developing and improving different transportation systems. The ITS group takes part in advancing the abstract, experimental, and operational aspects of Information Technologies. It also incorporates experimental and operational aspects in Electrical Engineering. The key role of ITS society is to improve different transportation systems.

ITS address the problems associated with road safety, environmental pollution, and traffic congestion. They do these by enabling components within the transportation system such as vehicles, traffic lights, and message signs to become smart. These technologies further achieve their goals by implanting sensors and microchips in constructed objects that conversed through wireless technologies. The technologies behind Intelligent Transport Systems include satellite location used in routing systems. (Ezell 2)

These systems use wireless communication systems for safety applications. ITS technology provides people with dependable and actual-time traffic information for appropriate route planning hence, helping them avoid holdups caused by traffic jams. The systems also sense changes in road status and send impulse messages that provide progressive indication warnings to road users. (Ezell 10).

Current initiatives of intelligent transportation systems

Clarus initiative established in 2004 by the U.S. transportation department in conjunction with the ITS technology aided in reducing the impacts of unfavorable weather conditions on road users. This initiative aimed to create a strong data incorporation, quality checking, and data spreading system. With these, ITS technology aided in taking exact-time atmospheric and street observations from mobile surveillance automated trucks and environmental sensor stations. (RITA: Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office).

In 2011, Mazda Company in Japan associated with ITS incorporated ample measures for protection of its automotive society from traffic congestion, and reduction of accident cases. Japan expounded this by building ITS system throughout its highway. The system currently provides an extensive range of information, including images and traffic information with large vehicles moving at a high speed. The signals produced convey a message between the car steering system and the ITS specks on the road infrastructure. (RITA: Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office). Europe also in 2008, deployed ITS in-road transport to reduce the rates of accidents. It also took it as a concrete measure towards reducing congestion on roads.

Relation of robot project to ITS technology

The construction of the robot involved the use of sensors and microchips, accessories also used in ITS technology. The role of the sensors in the robot was to detect obstacles and red light on the road. ITS technology incorporates sensors in objects and highways to detect ground vibrations. The microchips in the robot enhanced communication from the computer control system. In ITS technology, the microchips sanctioned in the constructed objects enact communication. The constructed robot had wireless networks for efficacy in movement in the streets and easy management from the control center. ITS technology on the other side used also wireless technology for communication and passage of applications safely.

The designing of the robot for the project incorporated technologies imposed by ITS technology, and it carried out almost same roles carried by ITS technology. For instance, the robot had the ability of detecting danger from a distance, the role plaid by the ITS technology in detecting harmful vibrations. Just as ITS technology, the robot construction, involved a technology that recorded places. During its movement, the robot recorded distance covered, an act like an activity carried out by the ITS technology in calculating the distance from land vibrations. The constructed robot detected difference in colors and stopped when it came across red color an act incorporated in highways by the ITS.

Works cited

Ezell, Stephen 2010, Intelligent Transportation Systems. PDF file. 2012.

RITA: Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office. Web. 2012.

Business Case

The case project was instigated by the development of a new artificial intelligence application that was very powerful in 2013. Even though most international manufacturing is carried out in India and China, there has been a need to rebuild high value-added manufacture in all countries with increased use of industrial robotics. With improved CSIRO technology, the case project hopes to create new robots that have the capacity of being re-programmed about verbal instructions that are based on various tasks. The objectives, key performance indicators and major, major deliverables and any major milestones of the project are highlighted below.

Project Objective

To develop and manufacture a new family of highly flexible, “intelligent” robots physically robust enough to handle heavy industry tasks but small enough to work alongside humans performing high precision, detailed technical assembly.

Key Performance Indicators (Measure of success)

The performance of this project will be assessed through the examination of whether or not the objectives of the project were met. As such, the measure of success will focus on ascertaining whether or not the project develops a new family of highly flexible, “intelligent” robots that can be used in handling heavy industry tasks.

Major Deliverables and Major Milestones

Major Deliverables

The major deliverables for this project include:

• Expanding the new plant.
• Production of an initial model of the Bionic Digger.
• Design “intelligent” robots that are physically strong.
• Launch a very small product that could work in the warehouses and loading docks.

Major Milestones

The major milestones for the project include:

• Survey the mine site to confirm accessibility and potential risks- May 5
• Install a central computer control overall operations of the robots on site- May 7
• Provide an initial database to the robots showing the site layout- May 8
• Conduct a trial run over two shifts under the supervision of the OHS sub-contractor and ARI to confirm safety and conduct benchmarks – May 10
• Progressively roll-out the robots across the site through all shifts with the support of the technical sub-contractor – May 11-15
• Collect operational performance data per robot and per shift- May 11-15
• Analyze data to confirm technical feasibility – May 18
• Review the OHS report with the sub-contractor to identify compliance and outstanding issues – May 19
• Develop standard operating procedures to cover use with human workers and as a standalone device for use where humans could be at risk- May 20
• Recommend and document any required changes to product or manufacturing- May 21
• Phase 2: May 21-28: Setting the test production volumes, identifying suitable clients for test purposes, contract negotiations for the test period and obtaining product feedback from customers.

Stakeholder management

Effective management of any project is critical for the achievement of any set goals and objectives. Having a clear definition of the roles and responsibilities of each of the key players in any given project is very important in the project’s scope management. As pointed out by Atkinson, Crawford and Ward (698), defining the role of the key stakeholders avoids duplicating work and is effective in the promotion of teamwork. For example, in the case, Australian Robotics Inc. (ARI), the stakeholders involved in the project include:

1. The government
2. Mega Bank
3. Engineers and technicians: Provides and inspects the technical components of the project, ensures that the operations are within the required time limits and inspects the materials being used. This is through the management of the deliverables and checklist for the requirements and monitors the progress of the construction works and undertakes process evaluations.
4. Project manager: The project manager is tasked with the coordination of the project processes, makes sure that there is a project charter and develops the work plan to be used in the execution of the project, liaises with the government to ensure that there are funds to buy the required materials and fund the services (Ponnappa 3). Secondly, the manager delegates work to the people in the various operations units and ensure that the documents required for the project are secured. Also, the project manager carries regular inspections to determine the progress of the project.
5. Sub-contractors
6. International manufacturers of conventional mining equipment
7. Computer technical support.

Given the objectives of the project, of developing robots that can be used in the mining areas, the government will have a lot of concerns as far as the reduction of employment in the country is concerned. Besides, the international manufacturers of conventional mining equipment will also be concerned by the negative effect likely to be brought about by the development of the proposed project as far as the sale of mining equipment is concerned. For this reason, the government and the international manufacturers of conventional mining equipment may try to oppose the project.

Secondly, the Mega Bank Mega Bank is another key shareholder of ARI, which will have a significant impact on the success of the project. The bank will be concerned by the payback period of the project since the company is heavily geared to quick returns. However, to manage the concerns of each of the stakeholders, adequate knowledge about the activities and the requirements for each stakeholder will be provided to ensure that there is effective teamwork during the implementation of the project.

This will play a critical role in ensuring that the project runs as planned in its lifecycle (Fageha and Aibinu 6). The development of the project will be beneficial to the government as a source of revenue through taxes. Although the project might have some negative impact on the mining sector as far as employment is concerned, the project will also create employment for the designers and developers of the robots, as well as technical support staff in the mining sites. As such, the project will be beneficial to the government and the community; a factor that will help in reducing the resistance from various stakeholders to develop the project.

As far as the Mega Bank is concerned and its interests of a fast return on investment, the company will be provided with the necessary information such as projected cash flow to have clear information on the expected payback period of any invested cash.

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

The table below shows the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) for this project. The entries are based on the major areas of work and deliverables or milestones.

Project Schedule

The table below lists the major areas of work from the project’s WBS and offers a description of the methods to be used to obtain time and effort estimates for each area of work, as well as the person who would be responsible for providing that information or estimate.

Project Budget

The table below shows major activities from the WBS and the resources required to do a particular activity.

Risks

The development of any project can be affected by several risks that adversely affect the successful completion of the concerned project (Lai 94). In the case of this project, some of the most probable impact risks are listed below. The risk table below describes the priority of the risks as well as how such risks might be mitigated if they occurred.

Quality Controls

The use of items of high quality is important in any project as the quality of the materials determines the quality of the end product. In this case, the project will require making use of quality materials such as the plastics, wood and, soldering tools and any metal used in the making the robots. What are the major items in this case study that require some quality standards and quality control? (You may list them in a table). What methods would you recommend?

Procurement

The success of this project will be determined by the availability of the necessary resources as outlined above. As far as the personal resources are concerned, the project will sub-contractors in some of the workers, and suppliers in the case of materials and equipment. Some of the areas that will require a sub-contractor in this project include observing all the site work and providing an OHS report for both the mine and ARI. Secondly, a separate contract will be needed to provide computer technical support on-site. Also, the company will require sub-contracting individuals to carry out the feasibility study. Suppliers for different materials will also be contracted, such as in the case of providing robots and control systems on the site.

There are four types of contracts including period contracts, standard form contracts, verbal contracts and written contracts (Meredith and Bjorg 41). The written type of contact will be used for all the suppliers of various materials. The rationale for the choice of this type of contract is based on the fact that written contracts are very effective in minimizing risks since they offer proof in writing regarding any agreement between the supplier and the recipient. Besides, written contracts are best in preventing misunderstanding between the involved parties as well as minimizing cases of disputes (Miller 705). As such, in the case of the current project, the suppliers will ensure that they adhere to the contract and supply the required materials as stipulated in the contract. As well, the written contract has an option for highlighting means of solving any dispute in payment, as well as solving performance-related issues.

Works Cited

Atkinson, Roger, Lynn Crawford, and Stephen Ward. “Fundamental Uncertainties in Projects and the Scope Of Project Management”. International Journal of Project Management 24.8 (2006): 687-698. Print.

Fageha, Mohammed and Ajibade Aibinu. “Identifying Stakeholders’ Involvement That Enhances Project Scope Definition Completeness In Saudi Arabian Public Building Projects”. Built Environment Project and Asset Management 6.1 (2016): 6-29. Print.

Lai, Sen-Tarng. “A WBS-Based Plan Changeability Measurement Model for Reducing Software Project Change Risk”. LNSE (2014): 94-99. Print.

Meredith, Liz and Steve Bjorg. “Contracts And Types”. Communications of the ACM 46.10 (2003): 41. Print.

Miller, Daniel. “Subcontracting And Competitive Bidding On Incomplete Procurement Contracts”. The Rand Journal of Economics 45.4 (2014): 705-746. Print.

Ponnappa, Gitanjali. “Project Stakeholder Management”. Project Management Journal 45.2 (2014): 3. Print.

Introduction

The creation of the autonomous mobile robot (AMB) project is the most important branch of the unit, HES 1305 ROBOTICS AND MECHATRONICS PROJECT 2. The plan, design, building, programming, testing, as well as debugging the different components of the project, would involve teams which consist of three members.

The purpose of the autonomous mobile robot would be to travel through a maze while avoiding going over the wall of the maze. In addition, the AMB would also be required to look for certain types of “pucks or meteorites” that would be identified by their colours, in a mission, which is simulated, in Antarctica.

As a result of the intricacies of the predicted settings, the AMB would be required to carry and place the meteorites or pucks in their respective base camps; they should not be thrown or rolled on the ground. In addition, the robots would not be allowed to get rid of unwanted pucks from the camps, or destroy other robots.

The project is in fact a competition pitting different teams against one another. Each team would provide one robot in the competition area to collect as many meteorites and place them in the specified camps. The teachers and staff of Swinburne University provided all the sensors, LEGO parts, software, and actuators.

The Method Of Design

Design Philosophy

One vital building block of artificial intelligence involves creation of a robot that has the ability to function under diverse and indeterminate environments, while under partial supervision.

The Development of the Design

Being the first time that we are taking part in this type of competition, we decide to work out a plan that would help us develop the autonomous mobile robot in the given surroundings.

The most important part of the design involved coming up with a solution that would help the robot grab and flip over the meteorite or puck. After that, we had to go backwards with the intention of building a structure that could support all the equipment, actuators, and sensors, in order to produce a practical robot in the contest atmosphere.

Design Process

Hardware Part – (Name of Team member who handled this part)

Handy board

Autonomous robot control is usually attained by means of a Handy Board [Martin 2001]. The Handy Board was found to be a battery-powered and hand-held microcontroller board. It was perfect for both educational and personal robotics projects. It was based on the structure and functions of the Motorola 68HC11 microprocessor.

Figure I

The Handy Board contained the following parts:

• Processor: Motorola 68HC11 8-bit microcontroller with 2MHz speed
• RAM: 32KB battery-backed fixed RAM
• Screen: 16×2 character LCD display unit
• Four 1A motors support
• 6 Servo motor controllers
• 9 Analog and 7 Digital inputs
• 16 Analog and 8 Digital outputs
• Infrared I/O capabilities
• Serial interface capacities
• Sound output
• 11cm x 8.5cm x 5.25 cm (L x W x H – with LCD screen, expansion board, and battery)

Figure II

The Handy Board manages Interactive C (IC). The Interactive C is a custom-made version of ANSI C programming language. Interactive C is the most widely held compiler software that is made use of with the Handy Board.

In addition, the Interactive C software is a multi-tasking compiler; it has a user command line that is used for dynamic expression evaluation and compilation (Martin, 2001). The IC is sustained by the Kiss Institute for Practical Robotics (KIPR). The figure above (figure II), demonstrates the running of the IC compiler on Windows XP.

Procedure followed for programming the Handy Board using Interactive C

Step 1: The Handy Board was connected to the computer using either the Serial Interface or the USB.

Step 2: The wall adapter was then used to supply power to the Handy Board.

Step 3: Afterwards, the Interactive C compiler software was launched on the computer.

Step 4: The board was then initialized with firmware. This was achieved by holding Handy board in a unique bootstrap download mode and then clicking on the download firmware found on the tools menu of the IC compiler software.

Step 5: After completion of downloading the firmware, the Handy Board beeped, and the Interactive C welcome message appeared on the LCD screen of the Handy Board. This means that the Interactive C is now ready for use.

After finishing configuring the system, we are now ready to write the necessary programs using Interactive C IDE software. Then later, we would compile it, and after that download it on to the Handy Board that will run that program.

Sensors

Each LEGO kit was supplied with the following sensors:

Table I

Out of all these sensors, our interest and use will be limited to Combined Lego Motor & Gearbox, Micro switch, Shaft Encoder, Phototransistor, LEDs, as well as IR Emitter/Detector.

LED is the short form of a light-emitting diode. Just like the name suggests, an LED is basically a diode that gives off light.

The difference between LEDs and other incandescent bulbs:

LEDs are different from ordinary incandescent bulbs in the sense that they are short of a filament, which burns out. As a result, they do not get especially hot. They are solely lighted up by the motion of electrons in a semiconducting material. In addition, they could last as long as a typical transistor.

Advantages:

The use of LEDs endows the user with a number of advantages in comparison to the use of regular incandescent sources of light. Some of these advantages include enhanced robustness, lower consumption of energy, longer lifetime, greater durability, smaller size, improved reliability and faster switching (Jones, Flynn & Seiger. 1999; Papert & Harel, 1991).

How LEDs work?

Figure III

When an LED is switched on, i.e. forward biased, electrons in the PN Junction are capable of recombining with the holes found within the device. As a result, energy is released in the form of photons.

Consequently, the energy gap of the semiconductor has some bearing on the colour of the light, or the wavelength of the radiation. This is to mean that doping has some bearing on the wavelength of the Electromagnetic radiation which will be given off.

In general, light-emitting diodes are usually made from substrates of Aluminium-gallium-arsenide (AlGaAs). From Electromagnetic spectrum, the wavelength for red is normally between 620 and 750 nm, while that for blue is between 450 and 475 nm. In other words, Red LED and Blue LED means that their doping components are such that the emitted wavelengths range between 620 and 750 nm, and between 450 and 475 nm in that order.

Figure IV

LEDs have two major uses; visual indicators and light emitters. As visual indicators, they detect the presence of things. When used as light emitters, they are usually detected by other detectors, such as phototransistors and photodiodes. Interestingly, they can be used as narrow band light sensors. Here, they operate in the reverse-bias mode. They act in response to incident light as opposed to emitting light.

Phototransistor:

Figure V

A phototransistor can be described as a transistor that operates differently from common transistors. Unlike common transistors, whose operation modes are under the control of the applied input voltage, the operation mode of the phototransistor is can be directed by light, or the wavelength of the light.

The structure of a phototransistor varies from that of a common transistor, at least in two distinct ways;

1. While the phototransistor has a transparent window that allows light to shine on the junctions, ordinary transistors do not have such windows.
2. An ordinary transistor has more surface area than a phototransistor, hence is able to maximize the area of light capture.

When the junction is struck by light photons, there is formation of a base current. As a result, the received power is converted into a collector current by the phototransistor.

The phototransistor that comes with the LEGO kit has its peak response at 850 nm and its spectral sensitivity is higher than 30 per cent for light radiation that ranges between 6oo nm and 900 nm.

The achievement of different gain and frequency of operation (bandwidth) is dependent on the amplifiers, or circuits, formed with these phototransistors. The positive thing that is exhibited is that the frequency and gain response is reliant on the light and its wavelength.

Infra Red (IR) Emitter/Detector:

The infrared emitter or detector is a circuit that is created using LEDs and phototransistors (Martin, 1994). The purpose of the IR emitter/detector is either to give off or to detect infrared radiation. An extremely fundamental infra red emitter/detector circuit is shown and described below.

Figure VI

This custom made circuit has one disadvantage; the use of this custom made circuit means that the ambient infra red light would constrain its detecting devices (Martin, 1994).

The IR emitter/Detector that came with the LEGO kit had its peak response at 940 nm, with peak sensitivity for about 880 nm wavelengths. The IR Emitter/Detector has found many uses in robotics; it can be used for colour detection, transmitters, motion detection, obstacle detection, and encoders.

Shaft Encoder:

Shaft encoders can also be referred to as rotary encoders. In essence, it is an electro-mechanical piece of equipment that translates the total amount of mechanical rotation, or angle, into a corresponding amount of current (Sutton & Barto, 1998).

As a result, knowledge in relation to the amount of current offers information regarding the amount of rotation of the shaft, or the wheel connected to the shaft.

In general, there exists, two kinds of shaft or rotary encoders;

1. Absolute shaft encoders
   1. These types of encoders are the ones that provide us with information regarding the complete angle of rotation of the shaft.
   2. The digital type of absolute shaft encoders generates distinctive digital code for each different angle of the shaft.
   3. There exist two fundamental kinds of absolute digital rotary encoders. These are optical encoders and mechanical encoders.
2. Incremental shaft encoders
   1. These types of rotary encoders are the ones that provide us with information regarding the angles or rotations with regard to their previous states.

The angles of rotation that are provided by the shaft encoders are in coded form. The two available and most popular methods used for encoding are Gray encoding and standard binary encoding.

It is worth noting that for all advanced jobs, which involve the rotation of the wheel, there must be a feedback mechanism that comes from the wheels.

As a result, it is vital that the control program is aware of the extent to which the wheel would rotate to with the intention of either altering the speed of rotation of the different wheels, or simply making sure that the vehicle is motionless and no unknown force is acting on it. This is basically the reason why shaft encoders are employed.

Micro switch:

Figure VII

A micro switch can also be referred to by its technical name, miniature snap-action switch. As implied by its name, the micro switch is a switch that calls for a comparatively miniature movement of the actuator button, with the intention of producing a relatively large amount of high velocity motion of the electrical contacts in spite of the speed of actuation.

Micro switches are popular and their use is widespread. This is attributed to their relatively low cost, as well as high durability. They undergo more than one million cycles; for heavy duty models, this may go up to ten million cycles. There are many places and gadgets that require micro switches for proper functioning. Some of these areas include machinery, vehicles, industrial controls, appliances, and numerous other areas for control of electrical circuits. Some common but particular areas where micro switches are employed include the door interlock systems on microwave ovens, safety and levelling switches in elevators, detection of faults in photocopiers, such as paper jams, and vending machines. Miniature snap-action switches are frequently made use of in tamper switches on gate valves of fire sprinkler systems, in addition to other water piping systems. In this application, it is vital to be conscious of whether valve has been shut, or it is open.

Combined Lego Motor & Gearbox:

Figure VIII

There are DC motors that were provided in Lego kit. These motors are great for building robots in view of the fact that they are powerful and compact. They normally rotate at thousands of rotations per minute.

Nevertheless, most electric motors are in actual fact lacking in torque. In other words, this can be attributed to the fact that they cannot push incredibly hard. If hooked directly up to the motor’s shaft, we can note that it can hardly rotate the wheel, let alone nudge a whole robot.

Despite the fact that they have inadequate torque, what they do have in plenty, is speed. In reality, if the shaft is running freely, it can rotate at a rate of numerous thousands revolutions per minute. As a result, this speed is much faster than what one wants for a robot to drive in any case. Therefore, we could do with gearboxes with the intention of trading some of this unnecessary speed for additional torque.

Figure IX

The LEGO system is composed of a wide range of gears with varying functions (Brooks, 1986). On the other hand, for universal purposes, 8, 24, and 40-tooth gears can be employed. These are the easiest and most efficient to utilize of the group for the reason that their diameters are selected, such that they can be interlocked with one another at standard LEGO distances.

Through gear reductions, one is able to translate speed into torque (or the other way round by application of this technique in reverse). Suppose an 8-tooth gear is employed in turning a 24-tooth gear. Given that the smaller gear is required to rotate three times in order to turn the large gear once, the axle with the 8-tooth gear spins faster than the other.

As a result of this exchange for this reduction in speed, the axle is now able to apply three times as much torque. Consequently, this generates a gear reduction ratio of 3:1. This implies that we are relinquishing a factor of three of speed and swapping it over for production of three times the torque.

Lego parts

Figure X

Each component of the LEGO has its work cut out for it (Overmars. 2000). A number of those components are available and are simply used to join two parts that are not able to be stick together with one another.

A number of other parts, for instance rollers, are supposed to hook up the wheels with a few other parts of the robot with the intention of making the wheels move with mush ease. What is more, a number of parts are large in size, which could be utilized as the base of the robot; therefore, we could place many parts on.

In addition, they could be used to connect parts that are relatively far away in distance from each other. A good number of the components that we employed in the creation of our robot were the thick red bars and long red bars that assisted us in connection between the wheels.

Into the bargain, we used the big bars that have a large area to make use of it as the base of our robot. Furthermore, we could include on those big bars with the broad areas handy board, the battery, and a number of small components that could furnish a better look to our robot. In addition, we made use of the linking parts to a large extent that is on grey to join the parts which we experienced a few difficulties in connecting them together.

Assembly Part – (Name of team member who did this part)

Grabbing Mechanism

The hardest part of the whole project was finding a solution to the problem of grabbing flip over the puck. So as to come across a superior and realistic arm, we stumbled upon a possible like way out on the internet (Williamson, 1998).

The ultimate form of the grabbing piece of equipment has two motors; the work of one of the motors was to spin the arm, while the other motor had to push the meteorite aside.

Chassis

The chassis had to have enough strong in order to give support to handy board, batteries, and all the other sensors that the robot needed.

Figure XI

Sensors (Name of team member who did this part)

It is worth noting that sensors are the most significant components of the robot (“How to Make a Robot – Lesson 7: Using Sensors”, 2011). When robots have them, they are able to feel, look at and make out the disparity in their surroundings.

To enable the robot to verify whether there existed a puck or meteorite in the vicinity of the loading area, we employed one blue led as well as one phototransistor. The purpose of the blue LED was to give off a light beam that would be used by the phototransistor.

There are cases when the beam light would be broken; this means that a puck or meteorite is in the loading region. After verifying this and finding a puck in the region, the function of the second phototransistor was to verify the colour of the puck.

Readings ranged from 50 to 185 for the red puck. On the other hand, readings were larger than 200 for blue puck. The function of the third phototransistor was to rummage around for the base light with the intention of finding a way back to the base. In case the indicated value was less than 10, this showed the correct direction to the base.

An infra red (IR) emitter/detector was made use of with the purpose of determining the exact location of the base. In case the indicated value was higher than 236, then the location of the black line and subsequently, the location of the goal area was illustrated.

In addition, the Infra red (IR) range finder was employed in the verification of the ultimate position of the goal area. Lastly, the 4 micro switches were used to “feel” the obstacles as the robot moved around.

Motors and the Motor drive mechanism

As a result of restriction on the available materials and constituent parts of LEGO, the drive mechanism was made to order for two motors.

Figure XII

The steering mechanism of the robot was very heavy. The robot used big wheels at the front, and small ones at the rear.

The option of making use of rear small wheels was attributed to minimising friction, as well as having a good manoeuvrability. The robot created had major strength; it was very robust. The robustness of the robot ensured that it continued to manoeuvre in every environment it was subjected to.

Conclusion

This project report has covered all the things the team worked on in the hope of producing a successful robot. In addition, the report also looked at the constituent parts that were used to create the robot, and how the team employed them with the aim of building a physically powerful and innovative robot that could not be easily damaged or broken.

In addition to that, the project report offers a number of concise ideas in relation to the Interactive C (IC) program and the Handy board. The IC program was used to program the robot so that it could be able to perform the mission as the team wanted it to do.

I believe that this activity was an extremely interesting experience. The fact that were could be responsible for creation of a robot that could do a fine job by holding a verifying, collecting and putting a puck in its rightful place as the required by the task.

The only initial challenge we faced was the manner in which we could thrust the arms of the robot into the exact place, and how the team could make them turn. This was soon overcome and the team successfully completed the task.

References

Brooks. R.A. (1986) A robust layered control system for a mobile robot. IEEE Journal of Robotics and Automation, RA-2:14–23.

“How to Make a Robot – Lesson 7: Using Sensors.” (2011) Go Robotics. Web.

Jones, J.L., Flynn, A. M. and Seiger, B.A., 1999. Mobile Robots: Inspiration to Implementation. Massachusetts: A K Peters, Ltd.

Martin, F.G., 2001. Robotic Explorations: a Hands-on Introduction to Engineering. Massachusetts: Prentice Hall.

Martin, F.G.,1994. Circuits to Control: Learning Engineering by Designing LEGO Robots, doctoral dissertation, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, Massachusetts Inst. of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.

McKerrow, P.J., 1993. Introduction to Robotics. Boston: Addison-Wesley.

Overmars, M., 2000. Lego robots tips and tricks. Web.

Papert S. and Harel, I. eds.,1991. Constructionism. Westport, Conn.: Ablex.

Sutton, R.S. and Barto, A.G.,1998. Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press.

Williamson, B., 1998. The Lego: FetchBot. Freelug. Web.

Project ‘Cyborg’ is perhaps one of the most interesting projects in the science and technology of robotics. However, experiments involved in the project equally attract some ethical concerns due to its use of human beings as laboratory animals.

Pioneered by Ken Warwick, a renowned British professor of robotics at the University of Reading, project Cyborg aims at developing robots that can mimic humans through a connection between the control center of the robot and human nervous system (Warwick, 2004a).

Moreover, it aims at controlling robots from a remote location. In addition, it aims at connecting the nervous systems of two people in order to observe the possible control a person can have over a robot. Although the experiment has been developed in the modern world, there is a lot to be compared between Project Cyborg and project ‘New Electrical Apparatus’ by Nicholson and Carlisle in late 18^th century.

Specifically, it is arguable that the two experiments raise relatively similar and equal concerns over the use of human nervous system in self-experimentation. This is especially because the two experiments involve interfering with the physiological integrity of the nerves and flow of stimuli by introducing an external electric current.

The purpose of this discussion is to address the question ‘ethically speaking, is the self-experimentation done by Nicholson and Carlisle significantly different from the self-experimentation Ken Warwick is doing on himself for Project Cyborg?’

In this project, which started in 1998, a number of arrays were developed into an electrode and implanted as a chip into the median fibers of Professor Warwick’s left arm (Warwick, 2004a). The array was passed through a surgical incision below the professor’s elbow joint, which allowed the surgeons to insert a microelectrode array into the body and enabling it fire some electric stimulus into the professor’s nerve fibers.

The neural interface developed between the microarray chip and the nerve endings of the professor’s arm successfully enabled the human subject (Professor Warwick) to control an intelligent (artificial) hand as well as an electric wheelchair. This proved that humans could control robots using a neural interface, which makes the robots ‘think’ and act as humans (Warwick, 2004a).

Secondly, the project went ahead to assume a remote functionality, where a connection between the microchip in the professor’s hand (then Columbia University, USA) and a robotic arm in the university of Reading through the internet. In this way, Professor Warwick was able to control the remote arm through this online connection, adding to the proof that robots can mimic humans in remote locations.

Finally, the project assumed a bidirectional functioning, where another chip implanted in the left arm of Warwick’s wife allowed a purely electronic communication between the nervous systems of the two subjects (Warwick, 2004b).

Ethically and scientifically speaking, the experiments in project Cyborg have a number of similarities with the ‘self-experiments’ by William Nicholson and Anthony Carlisle in late 18^th century.

First, Nicholson (1800) report that they used their own bodies to feel the effect of an electric current generated electrochemically by inserting piles of zinc rods in a bath of salty water and connecting them through a wire to silver leads of similar sizes inserted in the same bath (Nicholson, 1800).

As the two scientists attempted to investigate the discoveries by Volta, they extensively exposed their bodies to electric currents of differing magnitudes.

This is quite similar to the connection between Professor Warwick’s nerves and the electronic array in the implanted chip. In fact, the electronic connection between the nerves and the external electric current in both experiments was felt as an ‘interference’ with the physiological flow of synaptic stimuli through human nerves.

Secondly, it raises a question of ethics when considering the fact that the need to determine the intensity and extent of the connection between the biological and synthetic stimulus was an area of interest, and that exposing the internal surfaces of the body was done through inserting the external stimulus by an incision on the skin.

Although the case of project Cyborg involved a purely clinical process that ensured a safe insertion of the chip under the professor’s skin, it is quite similar to the case of the project by Nicholson and Carlisle, where a wound was used to convey electric currents to the nerve endings below the human skin (Nicholson, 1800).

Finally, an ethical concern emerges in the practices involved in both experiments because in both cases, the purpose is to prove a chemical/electrical question rather than solving a medical problem. In fact, although Project Cyborg included some medical expertise, the purpose is significantly similar to the project by Nicholson and Carlisle largely because a medical achievement is not one of their aims.

In conclusion, counterarguments against this thesis may arise. For instance, it is possible to argue that the two experiments are ethically different because Project Cyborg involved a clinical approach, while Nicholson and Carlisle’s experiment was largely unhygienic because a wound was used as an incision to reach the nerve endings.

In addition, it can be argued that although the two projects involved some steps that could interfere with human nerves, Project Cyborg is much ethical than the accidental experiment of the 18^th century. This is because Warwick and his colleagues had the modern information and necessary resources to measure the potential impact of interfering with the nerves, and thereby providing an effective solution.

References

Nicholson, W. (1800). Account of the New Electrical Apparatus of Sig. Alex. Volta. Nicholson’s Journal of Natural Philosophy, 4, 179–187.

Warwick, K. (2004a). I, Cyborg. Chicago, IL: University of Illinois Press.

Warwick, K. (2004b). The next step towards true Cyborgs? Web.

Introduction

In the year 1988, the Abu Dhabi Women College opened its doors as one of the higher colleges of technology. The college was started with the aim of attending to the educational needs of the female students in a country where education was predominated by male student. This college has realized increased growth in the number of student since its inception. It is rated as the largest college among the existing 14 campuses.

The current enrollment of students exceeds 2500 per year. In the year 2009, the college opened a second banch in the city of khalifa to cater for the students who encounter problems relocating to the capital city. The college has several faculties namely business, communication and information technology, education, and health sciences. The instruction language of the college is English.

The college offers its study programs as diplomas, higher diplomas, bachelor degree, masters and doctorate degrees. The main administration personnel and building are found at the main campus in Abu Dhabi. The senior management includes chancellor, vice chancellor, deputy vice chancellor and deans. This report targets at implementing a robot that can make tours for visitors to the Abu Dhabi women college.

Current system

The college provides third level education that is conducted in universities. ADWC, also, hosts pupils who are in the 10 to 12 grade from both government and private institutions. The purpose of this hosting is to enlighten the upcoming student on what they should expect in the higher education institutions.

Furthermore, the students are advised on methods that they can apply to reach their academic goals. The occasion is steered by school faculty staff and volunteer students who take the junior student through the experience of high school education and introduce them to tertiary education experience.

The lectures and teachers play another role of providing technical information. The lecturers are responsible for informing the visiting student on the various programs that the university offers within their area of expertise. In addition, lectures explain how each of the degree programs is subdivided to facilitate specialization.

This means that, the lectures take the student through combination of subjects that a student needs to take at the 12^th grade and the required points that are needed for one to be enrolled in a certain program. Also, lectures take the student through the careers opportunities that are associated with a certain line of specialization.

Faculty members play a role in the tours. The staffs are responsible for taking the young women through the operation of the university. In this regard, staff members take up position at their station of duty. For instance, the student will be guided through the operation procedural of the library by the librarians while laboratory procedures will be handled by the laboratory technicians.

Student volunteers take up the bulk part of the work that goes on during these tours. First, these volunteer students are responsible on preparing the operations for those students who will visit to the university. This means that they will design tour places and tour schedule for the visiting students. Secondly, they identify the number of student that could be handled effectively.

The university allows 120 students from each school. The student will, therefore, identify which schools to invite and how to balance the schools in order to expose as many students as possible from different school to expectations of university education.

The assembly hall serves as the convergence point. This is where the students are subdivided into smaller groups of 30 students. At the assembly hall, the lectures step in to explain on various issues as mentioned earlier. This role is carried out by a minimum of six lecturers. After the talk, the students are taken through various school facilities where they are guided by the people in charge.

The role of the students is to guide the visiting students in finding directions and controlling their movement. After the tour, another bunch of volunteer student will be waiting at block B to help the student fill in the survey forms. This survey helps the university to evaluate whether these students benefited from the tour.

The current system is manual and slows the operation of the university. Although the program has a good intent, it should not be at the expense of the efficient learning process of the current students. As such, the following are the challenges, advantages and disadvantages of this system.

Challenges of the current system

Adherence to the number limit is not always observed. This means that the student send invitation to school requesting them to send 120 students per school. Some school has violated that requirement concessionary. This will result to confusion among the volunteer who are compelled to guide a large number of student.

In several occasions, the student service has been forced to seek additional staff from other departments since they are overwhelmed by the number of visiting pupils. This happens especially when the student are filling in the survey form.

When invitation is sent, the invited institution is required to confirm its attendance. In many occasions, some institutions have cancelled their attendance during the last minutes. This is disadvantageous to the university since it will amount to wastage of resources. Other invited schools confirm their attendance but fail to show on the event.

This causes a lot of mix up and time wastage since the organizers have planned for a specific number of visitor but they experience a short fall in that number. This, further, means that the volunteering students will have wasted their time preparing for that day.

The university ensures balances on invitation to ensure that each school within their reach has a fair chance for invitation. This means that not all available schools are invited. As a result, the university invites specific schools each year. However, some schools do not get in touch with the university to confirm or cancel their attendance. This, therefore, causes the difficulties in the planning process.

The process lowers the functioning rate of school operation. This is because of some personnel taking part in the event organization and actualization not being available to conduct their routine duties. This means that some services will not be available. If the services are available, they will be at a slow pace.

Advantages of the current system

1. The tour offers exposure to young students which will help them to psychological prepare for higher education.
2. The students interact with other students from other institutions. This helps them to share ideas and establish useful peer networks.
3. The students gain information on career paths and career opportunities that are associated with certain degree specialties.
4. The students get insights on how to match their talent and career choices.
5. The tour helps the university in fulfilling its social obligation of nurturing young talents.
6. The volunteer students develop role of civic and professional responsibility to taking part in shaping of the society.
7. The tour provides an interactive platform between university student and pupils.

Disadvantages of the current system

1. The students miss crucial classes especially those taking practical classes.
2. The teachers waste a lot of student’s class time when the pupils go on this tour.
3. The lecturers miss lectures since they are involved in guiding the students on degree programs.
4. The tour slows university operations due to involvement of student, lecturers and faculty staff in this tour.

The main disadvantage of this system is loss of time. This has led to a thought of development of robotic system that will take over from the manual system. The system is meant to improve on the advantages that are associated with current system and eliminate disadvantages of the current system.

Robot system

The robot set for development focuses on doing real human tasks. The success of the robot will be facilitated by coupling with specificities that are developed through feasibility study.

The application space that is meant to influence the development of this robot involves manipulation of tasks in human scale. The study case relies on the event where the college hosts pupils in 10^th to 12^th grade which are the most complex. The robot should fulfill the following essentials.

Safety

A robot is meant to function in a human capacity scale. This means that it will interact with human beings especially in taking instruction.

The robot will, therefore, have measures to secure and guarantee safety during execution of activities. This safety is emphasized through robotic structure and design. At this point, structure of the robot must be rigid enough to handle breakage, obstacle, weather fluctuation and movement (Baer, 2008).

Machine learning

Adopting a robot will translate into making the tour an occasion of machine learning. In this mode of learning, the robot will take the responsibility of explaining and taking pupils through the required curriculum coverage of the tour. This means that the tour will be generalized in order to facilitate uniformity of content coverage.

Information management systems

The flow of information in an organization is facilitated by an established information management system (Hunt, 1983). The system should be well structured to meet the dynamic and organizational structure. It should, therefore, convey accurate information.

Communication breakdown is caused by failure of information management system which leads to confusion and inappropriate decision making. The following are systems that should be installed to enable effective operation of the robotic system.

Artificial intelligence system

Artificial intelligence system is a wide range of research that facilities development of computer based systems capable of simulating human behavior. The robot is required to have this system for its semi-autonomous nature.

This will be vital in saving time to execute routine instruction as well reprogramming non-routine actions. The robots will not only be used in the tours, but also in other functions that the university undertakes that involves visitors.

Expert system

This is an advanced artificial intelligence system technology. The system will ask users a series of questions in order to determine the required answer. Under this system, it attempts to codify and manipulate knowledge other than information.

The installation of the system is important in handling the explanations of technical issues such as explaining the career opportunities and explaining degree programs offered by the university. In addition, this system will help the robots to assist the controlling staff on the event progress. This is due to its capacity on addressing certain issues at a particular time.

Executive information system

This is the highest level of information system that will be installed in the robot. The system will be accessed by the senior management staff. It will help in collecting data from the visiting pupils and presenting it to the senior management staff. This will enhance policy makers to get the data without any human error or manipulation.

Data categorization

Various departments in an organization require different information in order to function effectively (Kang, 2011). The information management should, therefore, establish a criterion to categorize, differentiate and move data to a step further in establishing the most effective means of relaying information to the relevant audience.

There will be relatively large amount of data that is supposed to be collected and disseminated during that event. This means that the robot must have a system that will categorize data at a given period. In addition, the categorization criterion will be needed in storing acquired information in the right section of storage devices of the computer.

Data Collection Confidentiality

Organizations are sometimes caught up in wrangles that require information gathering through investigations. In such cases, there should be a well established system and strict rules regarding confidentiality (Harres, 2013). The organization should prioritize the safety of information sources first. Such systems should, also, be applied in handling of complains, recommendations and complements.

In cases where there are more than professional relations and personal relationships, there should be a clear directions to uphold professionalism. The robot will serve as a good method to enhance confidentiality of the data. This is because a pupil who may experience some unpleasant behavior from a student or staff can file a complaint with the robot without fears.

Information control

There are two methods used in information controls. These are decentralized information control system and centralized control system. The technicalities of these two systems arise with relative sizes of events. Decentralized control strategy involves controlling information from various automated centers. However, they must follow the guidelines provided by the head office.

On the other hand, centralized strategy control involves coordination of information from one central point. These two aspects of information management will be applied by the robotic system.

This means that the robots will be programmed to disseminate certain level of information relating to the university. This will be regulated by the university head office. In addition, the level of information disseminated by the various faculties and departments will be determined from the people in charge.

Relevance of the Information

Information management should incorporate a system of filtering out unnecessary information from reaching the target audience. Relevance of data saves time in the decision making process and improves the quality of decisions made. The pupils who attend the tour are in 10^th to 12^th grade. This means that the robot has to manage the information so that it covers on the universal needs of each of the three grades.

For instance, if a student attends the tour in her 10^th, 11th and 12^th grades, she will only learn about the same thing for the three visits. A robotic system will ensure that the pupils in the three grades cover different material such that the pupils are assured of different topic coverage if they visit thrice to the university. This helps the system to deliver relevant information for each grade.

Challenges to the Robotic System

The main challenge is controlling information. There is no standard measure of determining the needs of every pupil. Each student will have unique expectation from visiting to the university. The robotic system is generalized and sidelines cases that are unique. The system will, therefore, face challenges in answering questions.

The student may be reluctant to interact with the robot. Considering the state of technological advancement in the United Arab Emirates, few pupils have ever seen a robot. This will create excitement among students or disseminate others into induction of fear. The system fails to deliver due to limited interaction with the system.

Advantages

1. The robotic system saves student time. This is because the students will not be required to aid in visiting students through the institution. This will be done by the robots.
2. The system will save preparation time. Student, staff and lecturers spend a lot of time preparing materials that to be used for the educational tour in the university. This will be eliminated since only one copy will be required to update all the robots.
3. Pupils will be interested in understanding how the robots work. This may influence students into taking a lot of interest in science and technology.
4. The robotic system enables automated collection of data and data categorization during the end of tour survey.
5. The robotic system enables the university to study on methods of improving machine learning.
6. The robotic system will not be affected by the number of pupils who turn up for the event.
7. The robot can be taken to the individual schools instead of arranging journeys to transport students to the college.
8. The robotic system eliminates time wastage since it is effective in implementing its tasks without delays.
9. The system eliminates the chance of slowing down university operations

Disadvantages

1. The robotics system eliminates the platform where university and pupils can interact.
2. The method may not determine the optimal information to disseminate especially when responding to non-structured questions.
3. The robot will still require supervision since the pupil may tamper with it
4. The system is disadvantageous to people with disabilities such as sight and hearing.

Conclusion

Technology has revolutionized the way human beings have been carrying out their activities. In this regard, robots have become knowledgeable friends to man. This is because they have the ability to carry out human simulations.

Although there is no university that is known to have a robotic system responsible for taking visitors around the school, there are reasons to believe that such a system will come to be in the future. It will be an honor if our university was the first to generate such a system.

References

Baer, P. A. (2008). Platform-Independent Development of Robot Communication Software. Kassel: Kassel Univ. Press.

Harres, D. (2013). MSP430-based Robot Applications A Guide to Developing Embedded Systems. Burlington: Elsevier Science.

Hunt, V. D. (1983). Industrial robotics handbook. New York, N.Y: Industrial Press.

Kang, S. (2011). Robot development using Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.

Robotic Welding

Modern technologies are transforming the way manufacturing companies and suppliers of raw materials pursue their objectives. Such innovations improve the levels of efficiency and productivity, thereby making it possible for companies to achieve their business goals. This discussion gives a detailed analysis of robotic welding and its benefits.

Definition

The emergence of robots is a modern development associated with human technological breakthroughs. Epping and Zhang (2018) define robotic welding as the utilization of programmable systems and tools that mechanize and automate the way welding is done. The developed robots are capable of handling the targeted parts and completing the welding process successfully (“The benefits of robotic,” 2020). The attributes associated with this invention explain why it has become common in different sectors.

Advantages and Disadvantages

This form of welding has unique advantages that make it favorable for many manufacturing companies. First, the process minimizes the overall costs of production in different industries (“Top ten advantages,” n.d.). Second, robotic welding is precise and capable of handling large metal parts. Third, the technology can operate in unforgiving conditions or environments, such as increased temperatures (Epping & Zhang, 2018). Fourth, robot welding is accurate and minimizes potential errors.

Several disadvantages make robotic welding inappropriate or ineffective for many organizations. The first one is that huge startup costs are needed to implement this form of technology (“What are the advantages,” n.d.). The second one is that different professionals and programmers are needed to monitor the operational effectiveness of the welding process (Epping & Zhang, 2018). The third bottleneck is that the system might not detect defections and will weld continuously depending on the installed software. Finally, many companies relying on robotic welding have increased chances of recording poor production when such technologies collapse.

Helping Industries and Manufacturers

The unique benefits of this technology influence its adoption and implementation in different industries and manufacturing companies. While the initial cost for setting up the system might be quite high, many organizations would consider the technology since it can streamline operations and deliver positive results within a short period (“What are the advantages,” n.d). Epping and Zhang (2018) indicate that the process enables companies to acquire the required parts just in time (JIT) and place them on the assembly line. The technology will become part of the lean manufacturing process and maximize production.

In the recent past, many businesses and industries have been focusing on some of the best ways to minimize wastes. The JIT and lean models have been found reliable for delivering this outcome (“Robotic welding advantages”, 2015). Robotic welding makes it possible for such organizations to complete numerous tasks depending on the targeted outcomes while at the same time monitoring defects (Kah et al., 2015). This approach becomes an evidence-based model for minimizing wastes.

Robotic welding technology has been observed to reduce costs of production, deliver high-quality joints, and increase the number of parts welded within a short period. This development is making it possible for many industries to maximize productivity and meet the demands of the increasing number of customers (Epping & Zhang, 2018). The handling of intricate joints explains why this technology will continue to play a positive role in many manufacturing industries.

Conclusion

The above discussion has identified robotic welding as a modern invention that makes it easier for many corporations to achieve their business objectives. The method is fast and capable of decreasing the costs of production and wastes. Manufacturing industries should, therefore, rely on robotic technologies to maximize the satisfaction levels of their clients. Consequently, more organizations will achieve their goals and remain profitable in their respective sectors.

References

1. The benefits of robotic welding in small businesses. (2020). Web.
2. Epping, K., & Zhang, H. (2018). A sustainable decision-making framework for transitioning to robotic welding for small and medium manufacturers. Sustainability, 10(10), 3651-3668. Web.
3. Kah, P., Shrestha, M., Hiltunen, E., & Martikainen, J. (2015). Robotic arc welding sensors and programming in industrial applications. International Journal of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, 10(13). Web.
4. Robotic welding advantages. (2015). Web.
5. Top ten advantages of robotic welding. (n.d.). Web.
6. What are the advantages of robot welding over manual welding? (n.d.). Web.

Introduction

Double Robotics is the creator of Double, a telepresence robot. The robot is based on lateral stability control, self-balancing, and dual kickstands technologies, which allow its simply controlled motion and parking without deteriorating the quality of image transmission (Double Robotics, n.d.). The communication is performed through an iPad, a camera kit, and an audio kit. Doublerobotics.com is the company’s website that provides information about Double, customer stories, and purchasing service.

Online Goals

The goals of the Doublerobotics.com website are to familiarize audiences with the telepresence industry and to convince both corporate and individual potential customers to purchase a robot. There is a wide range of areas and activities where telepresence robots can be used, including attending business meetings and production sites, inspections, medical care, and education (Tsui, Desai, Yanco, & Uhlik, 2011).

The Double Robotics Company claims to be the creator of “the world’s leading telepresence robot” (Double Robotics, n.d., para. 1). For three years, the company has been distributing its products, which currently include Double 2 Full Set and 360 Camera Dolly, as well as separate components of these two sets. The website is concise and straightforward. It features short explanations of the products’ use, frequently asked questions, and customers’ stories. The target audiences identified on the website are businesses, learners, and filmmakers (Double Robotics, n.d.). The pricing section is divided into three parts according to these categories of potential customers.

Actions Available to Users

Besides browsing through the content, Doublerobotics.com users can create accounts, write comments for blog posts, share content in social networking services, and order products. One of the contact options is sending an email to the support service. Another contact option is available when a user returns to the Doublerobotics.com tab after leaving it inactive for some time. A window appears that offers a multiple-choice question, “Why are you leaving the website?” and an open-ended question, “How could we improve the website?” (Double Robotics, n.d.).

It is repeatedly suggested on the website that in case a user does not find the needed information, he or she can call the company’s support service. The telephone number in California is provided with the indication of the appropriate time for a call.

Conversion Events

Conversion events are users’ actions that are associated with achieving the goals of a website. There are many ways to evaluate how much users are interested in a website’s product and how likely they are to purchase it based on their behavior on the website. First of all, deep navigation, i.e., visiting a large number of the website’s pages, is a sign of interest. Users who visit the FAQ page and the Contact Us page also demonstrate their potential interest in buying the product. Other conversion events that can be defined for Doublerobotics.com are contacting the support service, either by filling in a form or making a phone call, searching for information on the website, sharing the content, clicking the link to the Driver App available on the App Store, and browsing through the pricing information.

Applicable Data Filters

The website’s content is sorted according to the categorization of potential customers. The major categories are business and education. Another possible categorization of visitors is recognizing two groups: one is potential users of the technology, and the other one is technicians and developers. Potential users are only interested in general information about the structure, composition, and operation of Doubles. Such visitors pay more attention to the use of the technology, i.e., they spend more time on the website’s sections with customer’s stories. Technicians and developers browse for more details about the way Doubles work, including the data on the lateral stability control, self-balancing, and developer resources.

KPIs and Metrics

For most websites that offer to purchase certain products, KPIs include the time spent on the website, the number of visited segments, and the number of clicks. The higher these indicators are, the closer a website is to its goals. Based on specific characteristics of Doublerobotics.com identified above (goals, available actions, conversion events, and categorization of users), specific KPIs can be identified to include the number of registered users, comments to blog posts, messages to the support service, and likes and shares in social networking services. All these data should be compared to the company’s sales to calculate such metrics indices as conversion rate and revenue per visit, per click, per share, and per contact.

User Stories

As a marketing manager, I would like to know the ratio of repeat visitors to new visitors and the conversion rate for each of these categories. As a social media marketing specialist, I would like to know what content from the website is most shared in social networking services. As a developer, I would like to receive the users’ feedback from technology-related posts on the website’s blog. As a website administrator, I would like to know which pages were viewed the most by users who ultimately ordered the product. As a company’s decision-maker, I would like to know which products are most viewed and most ordered on the website.

References

Double Robotics. (n.d.). Work from everywhere. Web.

Tsui, K. M., Desai, M., Yanco, H. A., & Uhlik, C. (2011). Exploring use cases for telepresence robots. In 2011 6th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) (pp. 11-18). Lausanne, Switzerland: EPFL.

Introduction/Brief overview

Introduces readers to what will be discussed in the paper and to the would-be reviewed articles by Bolonkin and Clocksin

One of the main aspects of today’s living is the fact that, as time goes on, more and more people grow increasingly concerned about the possibility for robots (endowed with artificial intelligence) to eventually replace humans, as the next step of evolution.

There is, however, much of a controversy to the issue in question – whereas, some social scientists consider the mentioned prospect thoroughly plausible, others believe that there are no objective preconditions to expect that the exponential progress in the field of IT will eventually deem the representatives of Homo Sapiens species ‘outdated’. The validity of this suggestion can be illustrated with the help of two recent studies.

Published in 2004, the article titled Twenty-First Century – The Beginning of Human Immortality and written by Alexander Bolonkin represents a peculiar perspective on the subject of immortality in general and the DNA research aimed at locating and influencing the gene responsible for aging in particular. The article first appeared in the journal named Kibernetes and made a breakthrough at the time. According to Bolonkin,

William Clocksin, in his turn, wrote his article in 2004 and titled it Artificial Intelligence and the Future. The article was published in the 361^st volume of the journal Philosophical Transactions: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences and explored the possibility of creating artificial intelligence (AI). To be more specific, Clocksin questions the very possibility of creating AI, as, by definition, intelligence can only be attributed to life forms and not technology, which is merely a tool and, therefore, cannot produce original ideas.

The reason for this is that these articles provide the conceptually incompatible outlooks on what artificial intelligence (AI) really is, and on what account for the qualitative aspects of its functioning. This, of course, implies that the reading of both articles is a must for just about anyone, who strives to form its own logically substantiated opinion, regarding the hypothetical prospect at stake.

Summary

Summarizes the main ideas of each of the mentioned articles.

The main idea, promoted throughout the entirety of Bolonkin’s article, is that the very laws of evolution presuppose the process of people growing increasingly less ‘biological’, which in turn suggests that one day; it will indeed become possible saving one’s consciousness (soul) onto the computer’s hard-drive – hence, allowing humans to attain immortality. Moreover, it will also result in the creation of the so-called ‘e-creatures’, who will have very little to do with the former ways of humanity.

As the author pointed out: “E-creatures will be made of super strong steels and alloys, their brain will be working on radioactive batteries, and power will be supplied by compact nuclear reactors, they will not need air, warmth, water, food, clothes, shelter…” (Bolonkin 1540). In the specified excerpt, the author appeals to the reader’s sense of awe for the grandeur of future science.

It is obvious that Bolonkin exaggerates, yet the picture that he creates by mentioning the scale of future discoveries fuels the reader’s imagination, therefore, making the argument in favor of AI all the more impressive.

The pathos of the article, therefore, comes out in full blue in the specified text. It is quite peculiar that Bolonkin uses negation in order to stir the audience’s delight; more impressively, the specified approach works – the pathos is concealed not in the description of the possibilities, but the compliment that the researcher makes to the power of the human mind.

This idea, however, appears utterly inconsistent with the line of argumentation (as to the prospects of AI), contained in Clocksin’s article. According to the author, one’s intelligence is not being solely concerned with the processing of data in the algorithmic manner, as it happened to be the case with AI – it reflects the varying ability of the concerned individual to properly react to the externally induced stimuli.

As Clocksin noted: “The architecture of animal brains… (is) quite different from the digital computer: a densely interconnected network having comparatively low transmission rate exhibiting alarmingly high levels of stochasticity” (1726). What it means is that, in order for a particular neurological system to be considered intelligent, it must be thoroughly interconnected with the surrounding natural environment.

In other words, people’s intelligence cannot be discussed outside of their endowment with physical bodies, which implies that the creation of ‘non-physical’ but intelligent robots will prove impossible. Thus, there is indeed a good reason to refer to the mentioned articles as being discursively incompatible. Clocksin, unlike Bolonkin discussed above, attempts at appealing to the logics of the audience and puts a stake on the coherency and clarity of his argument.

The researcher, therefore, talks to the reader directly and makes it possible for the dialogue to be established between the author and the audience. This creates the atmosphere that contributes to the development of a unique atmosphere, in which the reader may explore the possibilities of science together with the researcher; as a result, an illusion of a dialogue is created.

This stands in a sharp contrast to what Bolonkin offers; the latter tricks the reader into viewing the future, yet these visions do not involve the presence of the narrator. Herein the key difference between Pathos and Logos lies –while the latter appeals to logics, the former attacks the reader’s imagination, and the two articles in question demonstrate the potential of each concept quite well.

Rhetorical analysis

Identifies the most prominently defined rhetorical devices, deployed in each article.

Both of the reviewed articles also differ, in regards to what appear to be the main rhetorical devices, deployed by the authors. For example, while presenting readers with his line of argumentation, Bolonkin mainly relies on the so-called ‘appeal to pathos’ – hence, the sheer emotional intensity of how he describes the ways of the ‘robotized’ future: “E-creatures will be able to travel freely in the desert, the Arctic and the Antarctic regions, sub-atmosphere, mountain summits, the bottom of the ocean” (1541).

Clocksin, on the other hand, strives to appeal to the readers’ sense of ‘logos’, while arguing that there can be no ‘revolution of robots’, by definition, since there will be no need for them to compete with humans, in the first place. In its turn, this implies that Clocksin’s article is primarily meant to appeal to the analytically minded individuals, who do not allow their emotions to define the ways of how they perceive the surrounding reality.

Despite the fact that both articles handle seemingly similar issues, the way, in which the information is represented to the reader, differs greatly in each source. As it has been stressed above, Clocksin invites the audience for a dialogue, which seems a touch more welcoming than the approach that Bolonkin uses in his article. The latter, in his turn, attempts at creating the impression of a solid study.

Both approaches have their positive and negative aspects; for example, Bolonkin’s article seems a touch more credible because of the use of well thought out arguments that appeal to the reader’s common sense. However, this approach does not allow for creating a link between the author and the audience.

Clocksin, on the contrary, can be viewed as less convincing, yet his manner of talking to the reader leaves the latter willing to explore the issue further.

Comparison

Compares what can be considered the discursive significance of Bolonkin’s article against that of Clocksin.

It appears that the main reason why Bolonkin decided to proceed with writing his article, is that he happened to be fascinated with the very idea of ‘trans-humanism’, according to which, it will be thoroughly natural for humans to be eventually turned into robots.

This explains why there is the strongly defined propagandistic spirit to Twenty-First Century – The Beginning of Human Immortality – as if the author was the least concerned with ensuring the scientific validity of his line of argumentation.

The article’s main purpose is to popularize the notion of ‘robotic immortality’ among as many people, as possible. The same cannot be said about Clocksin’s article – it is there to enlighten readers on a wide array of conceptual approaches to AI, regardless of whether they correlate with that of the author’s own or not.

Discussion

Expounds upon what appear to be the main benefits of one’s exposure to the articles in question.

There can be indeed only a few doubts that the reading of both articles did increase my understanding of the topic. In the aftermath of having read them, I learned that:

1. In the future, the ongoing technological progress will allow people to take full advantage of their existential potential.
2. As time goes on, the robotics-technologies will be helping more and more individuals to enhance their lives to the extent that their ancestors could only dream of.
3. There is no much rationale in expecting the ‘uprising of robots’, simply because there are no objective prerequisites for AI to begin functioning in the same manner, as it happened to be the case with human brain.
4. As of today, there are no even any theoretical ideas, as to how AI could adopt the subtleties of ‘humanness’, as it is often being portrayed in the sci-fi movies.

Analysis

Explains how both articles could be used, within the context of how one may go about participating in the discursively relevant discussions.

It is understood, of course, that both of the reviewed articles can be well used, when it comes down to either promoting the concept of ‘trans-humanism’, as such that has been predetermined to emerge by the very laws of history, or exposing this suggestion, as such that does not hold much water. For example, the reading of Bolonkin’s article would do well for those who, due to being utterly religious, prefer to live in the state of a perceptual arrogance – especially when the technology-related issues are being concerned.

Alternatively, the exposure to Clocksin’s article should prove beneficial to those individuals who seriously believe that it will be eventually possible to for one’s consciousness to be ‘freed’ of its biological carrier (body), without ceasing to remain thoroughly conscious, in the conventional sense of this word.

Conclusion

Concludes the paper and mentions the identified unresolved question.

The main conclusion, in respect to what has been said earlier, can be formulated as follows: Even though human societies will indeed continue becoming increasingly ‘robotized’ in the future, the idea that AI can ever surpass human brain, in the sense of how it defines the interrelationship between causes and effects, does not stand any ground.

Apparently, those who promote the ideas of ‘trans-humanism’, are not being aware of the simple fact that the notion of ‘intelligence’ is much more related to the notion of ‘interactivity’ than to the notion of ‘calculation’.

The most easily notable unresolved question, in this regard, can be well identified the fact that, even though there is no any immediate danger for humanity to be taken over by robots, this possibility cannot be referred to as being 100% implausible – especially if one was to assess it through the lenses of the concept of cyborgization.

Memo

Provides answers to the questions, contained in the assignment.

1. The most difficult aspect of doing research for this essay had to do with the fact that, due to the discussed subject matter having been popularized by the sci-fi films, it proved somewhat difficult for me reflecting upon it from the culturally unbiased perspective.
2. I am very confident in my sources, because they clearly belong to the category of the scholarly ones.
3. Before I began to work on this paper, I identified what can be considered the researched topic’s qualitative aspects.
4. I did not need to redirect my efforts at any point, because throughout the course of the research-process, I remained well focused on probing the discussed issue’s conceptual essence.
5. I think that it is specifically subjecting the concerned topic to an analytical inquiry, which will require the most work.
6. My biggest takeaway from this assignment can be well deemed the fact that, in the aftermath of having completed it, I gained a number of in-depth insights into what may account for the ways of humanity in the future.

Works Cited

Bolonkin, Alexander. “Twenty-First Century – The Beginning of Human Immortality.” Kybernetes 33.9/10 (2004): 1535-1542. Print.

Clocksin, William. “Artificial Intelligence and the Future.” Philosophical Transactions: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 361.1809 (2003): 1721-1748. Print.