CyberSightings

In the Spotlight

Today, robotics represents one of the most advanced frontiers of technology. The term “robot” was first introduced by science fiction writer Karel Čapek in his play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) in 1920. The word robot comes from the word robota, meaning literally “self labor” in modern Czech (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karel_%C4%8Capek/). Nine decades after, robots have become a common feature of everyday life. There are robots for cooking, helping with household activities, disarming bombs in cities, and assisting the manufacturing of any kind of industrial product, from cars to drugs. However, among the several directions of robotics, the field of humanoid robotics is historically the one that has received the greatest attention from the general public. When we think of robots, the first image that pops in our mind is a sort of human-like “metal puppet,” making clumsy movements and speaking with a metallic voice. Popularized for decades in science fiction movies and books, these collective representations of robots are today challenged by a new generation of automata, which have dramatically improved their ability to operate in the physical world and interact with human beings. Using speech synthesis software, today's humanoid robots can not only speak fluently and learn different languages, but even sing (www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfxkhzGqZIs/). The ability of robots to recognize and express emotions in interaction with humans has also made significant progress, as well as their ability to understand natural language commands. But perhaps the most impressive advancement in robotics technology concerns their motor abilities. Today's robots are capable not only of walking on any kind of terrain, but also going upstairs and downstairs, avoiding obstacles, and even dancing. Moreover, robotic hands can almost match human performance in dexterous activities, from grasping or picking up objects to more complex motor tasks like preparing a good cocktail. New techniques are also being uncovered to allow robots to acquire intelligent behaviour. These methods go beyond traditional planning or supervised learning approaches, in which knowledge from human beings is represented in the robot's knowledge base, to include strategies—such as reinforcement learning—which allow a robot to learn autonomously even without an a priori knowledge of the environment. Thanks to these innovative features, robots are being increasingly used to support high level human activities, from providing home assistance to elderly and disabled individuals (www.scientificamerican.com/article/robot-elder-care/), to helping the rehabilitation of autistic children (www.robotherapy.ro/). Obviously, the increasing use of robots in activities that require a complex interaction with human beings presents researchers with new questions and challenges. The growing interest toward these issues has lead to the development of a new discipline within human–computer interaction, called “human–robot interaction” (HRI). The field of HRI has been developing rapidly in the last year, with dedicated conferences, scientific journals, and specific funding programs (to learn more about the HRI community and its initiatives, visit the HRI portal at http://humanrobotinteraction.org/). I believe that the growing interest toward HRI provides an interesting opportunity for cyberpsychology. Traditionally, cyberpsychology has focused on topics such as online treatment, virtual reality therapy, and, more generally, on human mind and behavior in the context of human–technology interaction. Although robotics has received very little attention in cyberpsychology, the increasing importance played by this technology in our lives may encourage future research in this area and create novel spaces of interdisciplinary collaboration.

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