Trust Me,I'm a Robot
[A]With robots now emerging from their industrial cages and moving into homes and workplaces,roboticists are concerned about the safety implications beyond the factory floor. To address these concerns,leading robot experts have come together to try to find ways to prevent robots from harming people. Inspired by the Pugwash Conferences-an international group of scientists, academics and activists founded in 1957 to campaign for the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons-the new group of roboethicists met earlier this year in Genoa,Italy,and announced their initial findings in March at the European Robotics Symposium in Palermo,Sicily.
[B]"Security and safety are the big concerns," says Henrik Christensen, chairman of the European Robotics Network at the Swedish Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm,Should robots that are strong enough or heavy enough to crush people be allowed into homes? Is "system malfunction" a justifiable defence for a robotic fighter plane that contravenes（违反）the Geneva Convention and mistakenly fires on innocent civilians?
[C] "These questions may seem hard to understand but in the next few years they will become increasingly relevant, " says Dr,Christensen.According to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe's World Robotics Survey, in 2002 the number of domestic and service robots more than tripled,nearly surpassing their industrial counterparts.By the end of 2003 there were more than 600000 robot vacuum cleaners and lawn mowers-a figure predicted to rise to more than 4m by the end of next year. Japanese industrial firms are racing to build humanoid robots to act as domestic helpers for the elderly,and South Korea has set a goal that 100% of households should have domestic robots by 2020.In light of all this,it is crucial that we start to think about safety guidelines now,says Dr. Chrigtensen.
Stop right there
[D]So what exactly is being done to protect us from these mechanical menaces?"Not enough," says Blay whitby.This is hardly surprising given that the field of "safety-critical computing" is barely a decade old,he says.But things are changing,and researchers are increasingly taking an interest in trying to make robots safer.One approach,which sounds simple enough,is try to program them to avoid contact with people altogether．But this is much harder than it sounds.Getting a robot to navigate across a cluttered room is difficult enough without having to take into account what its various limbs or appendages might bump into along the way.
[E] "Regulating the behaviour of robots is going to become more difficult in the future,since they will increasingly have self-learning mechanisms built into them,"says Gianmarco Veruggio,"As a result,their behaviour will become impossible to predict fully," he says,"since they will not be behaving in predefined ways but will learn new behaviour as they go."
[F]Then there is the question of unpredictable failures.What happens if a robot's motors stop working,or it suffers a system failure just as it is performing heart surgery or handing you a cup of hot coffee? You can,of course,build in redundancy by adding backup systems,says Hirochika Inoue,But thisguarantees nothing,he gays,One hundred per centsafety in impossible through technology,"says Dr. Inoue. This is because ultimately no matter how thoroughyou are.you cannot anticipate theunpredictable nature of human behaviour, he says,Or to put it another way,no matter how sophisticated your robot is at avoiding people,peoplemight not always manage to avoid it.and could end up tripping over it and falling down the stairs.
Legal problems
[G]In any case,says Dr. Inoue,the laws really just summarize commonsense principles that are already applied to the design of moat modern appliances. both domestic and industria1.Every toaster,lawn mower and mobile phone is designed tominimize the risk of causing injury-yet people atil1 manage to electrocute（电死）themselves，lose fingers or fall out of windows in an effort to get a better signal. At the very least,robots must meet the rigorous safety standards that cover existing products.The question is whether new, robot-specific rules are needed-and,if so,what theyshouldnew.
[H]"Making sure robots aresafe will be critical,"says Colin Angle of iRobot,which has sold over 2m "Roomba" hougehold-vacuuming robots.But he argues that his firm's robots are,in fact,much after thansome popular toys."A radio-controlled car controlled by a six-year old is far more dangerous than a Roomba," he says. If you tread on a Roomba,it will not cause you to slip over; instead,a rubber pad on its base grips the floor and prevents it from moving."Existing regulations will address much of the challenge," says Mr,Angle,"I'm not yet convinced that robots are sufficiently different that they deserve special treatment."
[I] Robotsafetyis likely to surface in the civil coups as amatter of product liability. "when the first robot carpet-sweepersuck up a baby,who will be to blame?asks John Hallam.a professor at the University of Southern Denmark inOdenge.if a robot is autonomous and capable of learning,can its designer be held responsible for all its actions? Today the answer to these questions is generally “yes”. But an robot grow in complexity it will1 become a lot less clear cut,hesays.
[J] "Right now,no insurance company is prepared to insure robots," says Dr.Inoue，But that will have to change,he says.Last month，Japan'sMinistry of Trade and Industry announced a get of safety guidelines for home and office robots,Theywill be required to havesensors to help them Avoid collision with humans; to be made fromsoft and light materials to minimize harm if a collision does occur; and to have an emergencyshut-off button,This was largely prompted by a big robot exhibition held last summer,whichmade the authorities realize that there are safety implications when thousands of people are not just looking at robots,but mingling with them,says Dr.Inoue.
[k] However,tho idea that general-purpose robots,capable of learning, will become widespread is wrong,suggests Mr.Angle.It is more likely,he believes,that robots will be relatively dumb machines designed for particular tasks.Rather than a humanoid robot maid,"it's going to be a heterogeneous（不同种类的）swarm of robots that will take care of the house，" he says.
36.It is pointed out there is no absolute safety through technology due to the unpredictable nature of human behavior.
37.It sounds easier said than done to program robots to avoid contact with people.
38.According to a survey,the number of domestic and service robots was three times over that of industrial robots in 2002.
39.To deal with the rising safety concern about domestic robots, robo-ethicists held meetings in Genoa.
40.To a great extent,a robot exhibition contributed to the issue of safety guidelines for home and office robots in Japan.
41.a crew member from iRobot believes the existing regulations can cope with much challenges so robots are not go different a to be treated specially.
42.A university professor points out that the complexity of robots’ may result in the ambiguous product liability.
43.It will be more difficult to regulate robots' behavior. due to their self-learning mechanisms.
44.Right now,the laws can only summarize commonsense principles so as to reduce the chance of injury caused by robots.
45.Japanese firms are competing in the production of robots specifically helping the old people.
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