Festo’s Industrial Automation Robots: Design Inspired by Nature

It’s amazing how much of todays technology is inspired from the world around us, yet still can not design anything nearly as effective. Yet we are happy to believe that our inspiration happened by chance with no intelligent designer.

Hi LoneRiver,As far as our technological inspiration goes, while it was undoubtedly inspired by nature, it is equally certain that it is us who have been “the intelligent designer.” Thus, for example, the plane has been inspired by the bird but is not a bird but a totally new flying creature with a design and working principles rather different from those of birds. Finally, while one cannot completely exclude the possibility of an “intelligent designer” with respect to nature, the universe and everything else, one certainly does not need HIM to explain any of the above. Just like people saw Zeus as the explanation behind thunder and lightning but now we know that we can explain the said phenomenon without Zeus but with “chance” reactions based on the friction between the difference in electrical charges of clouds.

I agree! Very beautiful!

Socrates, I find this fascinating and very beautiful indeed! The videos raise several intriguing questions. There is a great emphasis on the safety of these large robots. “Light, freely moving and yielding – the Bionic Handling Assistant poses no risk even in the event of direct human-machine contact.” And yet they very much bring to mind our conversation with Canada’s iconic poet songwriter Leonard Cohen http://www.leonardcohenfiles.com/solez2005.html (bottom of page) in which he predicted that robots would find a way to get big and then would need morality and Asimov’s Three Laws. Even as beautiful as they are to watch, these robots are large and powerful enough that as they become more autonomous they will need rules and a sense of right and wrong to avoid doing harm to humans. But, as we say in the interview “For now they are from a pure world of silicon and electrons where mischief and evil do not exist.”

Another very striking thing about these videos is that there are no women in them at all. It is like there is no human females in the world the videos depict. Somehow the very beautiful and graceful robots have replaced them. I cannot imagine a corporate reason for creating such all male videos. It seems contrary to all common sense, in a company that seems to have much more common sense about the mechanical future of our species than perhaps any other. Very ironic! Even the narrator is male! There is a brief glimpse of a woman spectator at 6:49-6:54 in the first video but otherwise there are no women anywhere!

You raise important issues Kim! I like your Leonard Cohen robot article and your prescient observation that there are no women in the videos…

Back to your first point Kim - I just watched a short 12 min science fiction film called Blinky, which is right along your argument from above. You can watch it here.

It is a very thought-provoking film, Socrates! The progress in AI and robots seems exponential but discontinuous, not smooth, with many surprises to come. It is inevitable that not everything will stay in sync as progress proceeds, some products will come to market before they are ready, others will be delayed by regulation and precaution when they could be released earlier. So we can expect the unexpected, both positive and negative in this field.

A recent Forbes article “Where Are Our Robot Overlords” http://blogs.forbes.com/alexknapp/2011/03/21/where-are-our-robot-overlords/ makes fun of all those expectations about robotics from science fiction that have not come to pass. On the other hand the Festo videos argue in the other direction that robots are making amazing strides.

It makes one reflect long and hard on the human condition to realize that what began the dark action in Blinky was human frailty playing out. Other big misadventures in robotics in the future may similarly turn out to have an entirely biological and very human origin!

Yes, I also do not completely exclude the possibility of Asherah being the creator of the universe. I also do not exclude the possibility of leprechauns at the end of every rainbow. Just because I can’t see them or detect them in any way doesn’t mean they’re not there. But back to Asherah. What created HER? Has SHE always existed? Perhaps Asherah has always existed. Then again, perhaps the universe has always existed. If the universe has always existed, it wouldn’t have needed Asherah as a creator.

Here’s a video of quadrocopters playing ball: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CR5y8qZf0Y

Yes but as you can see from this parody video the quadrocoptors do not always play ball. Their threat to continued existence of the civilized world cannot be underestimated! Lol! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJbtgKB3nok&NR=1

I, for one, welcome our very aggressive Quadrotor Overlords.

Just watched “Blinky.” Puts “the greatest good” in a new light.

Hi Kim.
I would like to reply to your second paragraph about the lack of female presence in the “Design Inspired by Nature” videos. The marketers behind these commercials understand that the female form would be distracting to the delivery of their message. The viral appeal of these commercials is the grace and beauty of the product, but the reality is that these designs are no competition when it comes to the grace and beauty of the human form, the pinnacle of which is the female form.

Interesting point Simple1248,
I agree that the pinnacle of grace and beauty is the female form and thus it can, and often is, quite distracting

So the female form is inherently and universally more graceful and beautiful- and therefore more distracting- than the male form?

Hahah, I don’t know what to reply… Clearly, that is not the case if you are a robot or an AI…I feel I’m being set up and sent into a mine-field…

Most humans subjectively perceive women as being more beautiful than men, consciously or otherwise. Subjectively, men fit into the function over form category for most people. Psychology is fascinating.

Hi Simple 1248, CMStewart, and Socrates.
This is an area where we will eventually learn from sentient robots. We humans answer this question about grace, beauty and gender with our biological bias. Initially robots will have whatever opinion about it we program into them but then as they evolve and self-improve they will come to their own conclusions on the subject and that may be very informative indeed!

Perhaps one of the signs of robotic sentience will be their newly-found appreciation and exaltation of Beauty in a very non-anthropomorphic way: “Your circuits are beautiful” or “The shape of your robotic exoskeleton is irresistible” kind of thing

lol I wouldn’t want to delay the Singularity.

It goes both ways though - women can indeed delay or inspire it!

@Kim Solez “Initially robots will have whatever opinion about it we program into them” That’s a rather disconcerting thought. “The bigger the better”- Horrors! lol