Limits of automation

 

Telerobotis is a well known technique in which human operators are asked to control a robot. A typical example is a crane. Teleoperation is equal to let a human play the game. He has to provide input signals which affects the robot's behavior.

Most robotics engineers are ignoring teleoperation because their goal is to go beyond this capabilities. Robots in the core sense is about replacing teleoperated machines with fully autonomous ones. Let us try first to describe the situation technically.

Suppose there is a video game which is played by a human. The idea is to replace the human with an AI Software. If the software is able to play the game then the human operator was replaced by a machine. But is this assumption correct? Chess engines which are able to play the game are available since the 1980s and they weren't able to replace human chess players. The reason is, that human are playing chess different from a computer. The only thing what is widespread used in the reality are teleoperated chess games which are played over the internet. But on the other side a human is needed to provide the signals.

This sounds surprisingly because from a technical point of view it is possible to replace the humans with a chess engine. But his is not wanted by the chess community. This example questions if it is possible in general to replace human operators with software.

Many programs were written to control robot arms and robot cranes with software. None of them is used in reality. The only piece of software which is relevant is software which supports teleoperation mode, especially algorithm for determine the inverse kinematics of a robot arm. Software which goes beyond this capabilities is available but it is not used in the reality.

The interesting situation is, that more advanced robot projects have the same interaction pattern. Creating a biped robot is possible since some years. But again, these robots are mostly used in teleoepration mode because otherwise it doesn't make much sense.

From a history of automation there are two possible insights available. Simple mechanical machines can be used autonomously but more complex robots are used always in teleoperation mode. The reason has to do with economic goals.

From a technical perspective it is possible to run a robot arm in a fully autonomous mode. The gripper picks up a ball and places it at the goal position. So it makes sense to explain to the audience that this robot doesn't need a human operator. But, if the machine is used for economic purposes, for example in a factory it will be run be a human operator and never in the autonomous mode. In the past it was argued, that the software is not highly enough developed. But the underlying problem has to do with man machine interaction .