Some fear that robots could do half our jobs and even wipe us out. But is that likely? Hallo Robot shows how clever machines could chauffeur us, rescue survivors from collapsed buildings, and boost the global fight against hunger and pollution. Welcome to a realistic, vibrant view of our robot future. With 60 colour photos.

1 A short history of robots, from dolls to androids Machines as man throughout historyMechanical dolls: forerunners of the robotEnter the working humanoid robotsThe next step: android robots that look like youUncanny valley: the problem with creepy robots  2. How do robots see their surroundings? Getting to grips with a new environmentSeeing through the eyes of a robotTraining robots to recognise objectsRobots can see what a person cannot seeFeeling with whiskers: sensing the way forwardRobots use electronic ears to listen  3. How does a robot brain work? A robot must learn to think like a humanKeeping it simple with an insect brainMachine learning is trial and errorRobots can learn without supervisionThe football world cup for robotsDeveloping robot emotional intelligence  4. Giving humans a helping hand Robots suck: doing the dirty jobs at homeA robotic arm reaches deep into the supply chainJoseph Engelberger, father of car factory robotsCo-bots will work alongside peopleCoping with variation is Amazon’s challengeBuilding a robot car  5. Learning to speak to people The problem with machine talkSHRDLU! The first experiment in robot conversationToilets are hidden: translation problemsA robotic teacher never runs out of patience  6. Robots get emotional Emotional robots encourage humans to interact with themA robot can work out how you are feelingWhy am I afraid? Understanding human emotions Help! My robot looks angryEstablishing a bond with a robot  7. Humans need robots and robots need humans Meet the robot psychologistsUnder-promise and over-deliver performanceSilicon Valley utopias vs calm technologyWhat is the best ratio of robots to humans?In the rubble: the search and rescue robotThe paradox of robotization  8. Humans need robots and robots need humans Meet the robot psychologistsUnder-promise and over-deliver performance • Silicon Valley utopias vs calm technologyWhat is the best ratio of robots to humans?In the rubble: the search and rescue robotThe paradox of robotization  9. Evolution designs the best robots How robots travel in a bumpy worldRobothand has nature’s gripA two-legged walking robotThe first robot babyWorking out the best path through evolution  10. Swarming robots show the wisdom of crowds The power of robots working togetherA robot swarm without a bossGoal is mapping a building about to collapsePredicting how a robot will behaveRobot swarms in the real worldA robotic swarm looks for a queen 11.  The importance of building ethical robots Isaac Asimov’s three rules about rogue robotsWhen robots go wrongResponsible roboticists are planning for the futureRobots and the UN’s development goalsHow will robots change the human race?Killing machines: robots in the military  12. 2100 — A Robot Odyssey The future of work in a robotic worldFusing mind and body with soft roboticsAnd then the smart robot became creativeWas that move really creative?Will robots really take over the world?  Timeline of real and fictional robots  Sources and reading material

Robots could take half of our jobs and even wipe us out, some fear. But is that really likely? Hallo Robot reveals how robots see, feel, and act — and what they can and can’t do. Instead of harming humans, artificial intelligence could vastly improve our lives. Robots already make our cars and clean our homes and could soon chauffeur us, teach our children, and keep our parents company. While tackling ethical concerns, Bennie Mols and Nieske Vergunst show how robots could help the lame walk again and rescue survivors from ruins — and boost the global fight against hunger and pollution. Welcome to a realistic, colourful view of our intelligent future.

INTRODUCTION Welcome to our robot future As technology writers, so many people have asked us what, exactly, a robot is. Is a talking computer a robot? A self-driving car? What about an intelligent washing machine? And is Robo- Cop a human or a robot? Or a bit of both? The simplest definition is that a robot is a machine that can observe, think, and act. Robots observe their surroundings using sensors; usually sensors that can perceive images, sound and touch, but sometimes sensors that can smell and taste too. A vacuum cleaner robot, for example, knows when it hits a wall, and a companion robot can hear when you are talking to it. Some sensors can also observe signals that humans are unable to sense, such as infrared light or ultrasound. Robots ‘think’ by means of a computer. We should take a moment here to define ‘thinking’. It is ‘the processing of digital information that a robot receives via its sensors, combined with planning the actions it will take in the future’. Since computers can be programmed, a robot is also a programmable machine. Artificial intelligence is the field of study that tries to make computers ‘smart’, and is therefore a foundation for the creation of smart robots. Robots can act in a variety of ways: they can grasp objects with their arms, or move around by walking, driving, flying, sailing or swimming. The robot’s actions are usually physical, at least in part. The term ‘robotisation’ is sometimes used to refer to tasks performed by a computer, but a more accurate term for such tasks would be ‘automation’. In this book, we use the term ‘robot’ to refer to a physical machine that operates in the material world. A smart computer can act as a robot’s brain, but it needs a body in order to become a real robot. Although robots can act on their own, they don’t always need to be fully autonomous. Robots can have different degrees of autonomy, varying from fully autonomous, in which humans have no control over their actions, to non-autonomous, which means they are entirely controlled by humans. The most interesting types of robots are those where humans are entirely absent from the decision-making process (‘out of the loop’), such as vacuum cleaner robots or humanoid robots with whom you can have a conversation. Some robots can act semi-autonomously: they collect all of the information on their own and pass it along to the human, but the human makes the most important decisions, which the robot then carries out. One example is a military drone flying above enemy territory, controlled from a base in the homeland. The drone pilot is entirely dependent on the information he or she receives from the drone, because the pilot has never actually seen the location where the drone is operating. In this case, the human is involved in the decision-making process, or ‘on the loop’. Finally, there are robots that cannot make their own decisions, but are fully controlled by a human. These robots are also known as ‘telerobots’. A surgical robot is one familiar example of a telerobot. The surgeon controls the surgical robot as if it were an intelligent instrument, and in contrast to the drone pilot, the surgeon is not entirely dependent on information provided by the robot. He or she has the knowledge and experience with patients, while the machine is programmable and can perform physical tasks. With these types of robots, humans are fully ‘in the loop’. Hopes for robots rise and fall Since the invention of the robot in the mid-20th century, our interest in them has waxed and waned. Sometimes, we experience episodes of ‘peak robot’, and the promises about their potential are sky-high. But then we are inevitably disappointed when these promises don’t come true, and robots fade into the background. At the moment, we’re once again riding the crest of a robot wave. Recent developments in the field of artificial intelligence have been spectacular, and since artificial intelligence largely determines the robot’s ‘brain power’, robots’ abilities have increased dramatically. On the one hand, this has led to a utopian vision of robots giving humans a life of leisure: robots can take over all of our work, achieve unprecedented rates of economic production, and contribute to solving our most pressing social problems involving energy, the climate, the environment, aging, health care, and mobility. But the rise of robots has also led to a dystopian vision nurtured by fear; fear that robots will take our jobs, remove the human element from healthcare, start wars, and eventually make humans their slaves or wipe us out entirely. We have been studying robots and artificial intelligence for years, and we are often amused by both the utopian and the dystopian visions of our future together with robots. For those who don’t work with robotics and artificial intelligence on a daily basis, it must be difficult to tell the difference between the truth and the fiction of what people say about them. So we decided to go looking for the truth. To that end, we interviewed the scientists and engineers who design and build robots, but also the psychologists who study the interactions between humans and robots, and the economists who work on the impact of automation on the labour market. We asked for input from professionals who use robots on a daily basis, and we spoke with people outside the field of professional robotics: from an amateur robotics enthusiast to a comedian who is fascinated by robots. Through their stories, we hope to find out how the robot works, what it can do well, what it can’t yet do, what we can expect in the near future, and how humans can use robots to make their lives better. Welcome robots, honorary human beings Robots and their primitive ancestors have fascinated humans for thousands of years, so we can find them represented in all sorts of ways throughout our culture. Even before the first true robots - machines that can observe, think, and act - were built, craftsmen were creating automatons and mechanical dolls that primarily served to entertain. Robots are also represented in the visual arts, as well as in games and as protagonists or comic relief in science fiction books and films. Since we all grew up with these cultural expressions, they are largely responsible for the image that we have of robots, so this book also includes stories about fictional robots. Part of the reason we’ve chosen to write this book is simply because we like robots. We collect them, we meet them, we talk about them, and we think about them. They combine our passions for technology, science, and philosophy. On one hand, robots are wonders of technology, crafted by human hands, that you can put together, hold, and take apart yourself. On the other hand, robots also function as scientific models for real life. Scientists can use robots to study how to replicate human intelligence, and how to build machines that can reproduce and evolve, so in that sense robots function as imitations of life. And since robots’ behaviour so closely resembles that of humans and animals, they raise some fundamental questions about our existence: what is life? What is consciousness? How does creativity work? What does it mean to act independently? In addition to being expressions of science and technology, robots also present us with a philosophical mirror of our own humanity. How many robots are there in the world today? We share the Earth with between 10 and 15 million working robots, and their numbers are growing fast. The world’s robot population is currently equal to that of countries like Belgium, Portugal or Greece, and will quickly exceed that of the Netherlands as well. Several robots have left the confines of the Earth, and are exploring the surface of our neighbouring planet Mars on behalf of humanity. No humans have ever set foot on the planet, but robotic rovers have been working there as planetary geologists for decades, and they have even found evidence of water. Sooner or later, everyone will have to deal with robots, so it is good to know what robots can do, what they can’t do, and what it is we want from them exactly. That’s why it’s time for an accessible book that allows the reader become better acquainted with the mechanical beings that have been doing our dull, dirty, and dangerous jobs for decades, and with whom we will soon be able to share a joke. Robots as friends and colleagues, instead of just instruments. We aren’t afraid of robots, so in Hallo Robot! we welcome them as if they were people, just like us. Bennie Mols and Nieske Vergunst