2017 will be the year of robots for one Scottish university
● Initiative will showcase Heriot-watt’s contribution to robotics development
It’s the growing tech sector that has the potential to revolutionise the world of work.
Now a Scottish univeristy is preparing to declare 2017 as the Year of Robotics.
The 12-month initative by Heriot-watt University will showcase its contribution to the development of robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) for future generations, and will involved collaborations with schools, government and the private sector.
The advent of ‘deep learning’ means robotics technology is now advancing at unprecedented levels.
Computer scientists and programmers at Heriot-watt hope that by 2020 the university’s resident robot, Pepper, will be ready to be employed in customer services in a shopping-centre in Finland, with experiments scheduled to begin next year.
Professor Oliver Lemon, one of the academics behind the Year of Robotics, said: “Pepper and other humanoid robots have learned to act in ways that we would deem socially appropriate, a significant step forward from where we were five to ten years ago.
“What we’re likely to see soon are robots that have social roles. For example, as carers, cleaners, and companions. It is important that society is ready to adapt to the massive changes these robots will bring about, both at home and at work.
“Robots, although still a novelty in large part today, are going to become increasingly more socially engrained in the near future. Today’s generation of young people are going to grow-up and work alongside autonomous, intelligent machines in such a way that social robots will become the norm. Demonstrating how this will come about is one of the key aims of the Year of Robotics.”
Robotics, AI and the anticipated economic contribution of automation are now high on government and business agendas, having been identified by the House of Commons’ science and technology committee as a potentially transformative technology that will drive efforts to rebalance the UK’S economy.
Professor Lemon’s research with Pepper is part of an Eufunded project, Mummer (Multi-modal Mall Entertainment Robot), to develop a humanoid robot – based on Softbank Robotics’ Pepper platform – that can interact autonomously and naturally in the dynamic environments of a public shopping mall, providing an engaging and entertaining experience to the general public.
The project involves a consortium of partners spanning seven universities, research institutes, and private companies from Scotland, France, Switzerland, and Finland.
Robots are set to play a much bigger part in our everyday lives, and rather than fearing their capabilities, we need to accept we will soon be working alongside them, according to Sethu Vijayakumar, professor of robotics and director of the Edinburgh Centre for Robotics.
Prof Vijayakumar believes robots can do so much more than be programmed to follow precisely a sequence of movements andcarry out many types of simple repetitive work.
Speaking earlier this year, the academic said: “We need to start using robots very much as tools – like the way we use PCS for writing and mobiles for communication – that help us do our chores and our jobs better.
“We can make many of our machines we work with ‘idiotproof’ and remain in overall control of what they do.” He added that rather than taking jobs, robots will one day enhance work.