Open systems for robotics

 Robotics in the past was organized with a closed system paradigm. A robot was described as a machine which consists of hardware, software and algorithms and the task for the programmer was to improve the internal mechanism of the robot. It was ignored that robots are communicating with the outside world. For example a robot might receives commmands by teleoperation and submits a status code to the operator. Such kind of interaction was mostly described as wrong path towards robotics because such a machine isn't autonomous anymore. There decision making isn't determined by the internal algorithm but from the outside which was seen as anti pattern in Artificial intelligence.

It takes decades until computer science has questioned the self created bias. Modern robotics is working as open system which means, that the robot gets information from sensors and from remote control. Also the robot interacts with human operators and is able to answer questions like "What object is visible in the camera?".

The transition from closed to open systems in robotics can be seen as an important innovation. In contrast to invent yet another path planning algorithm or program a robot control software in C/C++ the open system paradigm reformulates the goals of a robot system. It puts a higher importance on the robot's environment and allows the enviornment to take influence on the robot. There are many examples available in the history of robotics with this background, e.g. Braitenberg vehicle, kismet social robot and SHRDLU. These projects have demonstrated interactive robotics. There is always a robot and a human operator who interacts with the robot.

From a technical perspectives, interactive robotics is equal to teleoperation. Teleoperation was recognized by computer science as opposite to artificial intelligence, because the machine doesn't decide by itself but is guided by external human wisdom. So the maschine can't be called a robot anymore but has more in common with a RC Car.

The rejection of teleoperation makes sense on the first look. If a human operator is in charge to control the RC car, then no artificial intelligence is needed. Therefor it has nothing to do with thinking machines and is located outside of robotics. Only autonomous robots are intelligent robots.

With a modern perspective, Artificial intelligence isn't located inside of a robot but its the interface between a robot and its environment. Such an interface can become smart in the sense that the interface understands natural language.