首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Trust Me, I’m a Robot [A] With robots now emerging from their industrial cages and moving into homes and workplaces, roboticists
Trust Me, I’m a Robot [A] With robots now emerging from their industrial cages and moving into homes and workplaces, roboticists
admin
2017-12-07
92
问题
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 600,000 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. Christensen. 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 this guarantees nothing, he says. "One hundred per cent safety is impossible through technology," says Dr. Inoue. This is because ultimately no matter how thorough you are, you cannot anticipate the unpredictable nature of human behaviour, he says. Or to put it another way, no matter how sophisticated your robot is at avoiding people, people might 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 most modern appliances, both domestic and industrial. Every toaster, lawn mower and mobile phone is designed to minimize the risk of causing injury—yet people still 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 they should say.
[H] "Making sure robots are safe will be critical," says Colin Angle of iRobot, which has sold over 2m "Roomba" household-vacuuming robots. But he argues that his firm’s robots are, in fact, much safer than some 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] Robot safety is likely to surface in the civil courts as a matter of product liability. "When the first robot carpet-sweeper sucks up a baby, who will be to blame?" asks John Hallam, a professor at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense. 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 as robots grow in complexity it will become a lot less clear cut, he says.
[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’s Ministry of Trade and Industry announced a set of safety guidelines for home and office robots. They will be required to have sensors to help them avoid collisions with humans; to be made from soft and light materials to minimize harm if a collision does occur; and to have an emergency shut-off button. This was largely prompted by a big robot exhibition held last summer, which made 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, the 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.
According to a survey, the number of domestic and service robots was three times over that of industrial robots in 2002.
选项
答案
C
解析
根据题目中的survey和in 2002定位至C段。该段通过列举数字说明家用和服务用机器人数量的增长。本题句子信息出现在该段中,three times与原文中tripled对应。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/ddU7777K
0
大学英语六级
相关试题推荐
JasonBraddockknewhehadtopayforhiscollegeeducation,sohewenttowork.Hisfirstjobwaswithhismotherandauntwhen
Webuybooks,andthentheywaitforustoreadthemDays,months,evenyears.Booksare【C1】______That’sOKforbooks,butnotf
TradingModernistforMcmansion[A]In1949W.ClintonBackusandhiswifehireda43-year-olddesignernamedGretaMagnusson
Movingfarmorequicklythanmanyhadthoughtlikelyorpossible,lawmakersinthe10-memberHouse-Senatecommitteeannouncedth
Peoplecannowavoidhavingtosortthroughalbumsfromseveraldifferentfriendswhentryingtoreliveparties,weddingsandot
Itishardlynecessaryformetocitealltheevidenceofthedepressingstateofliteracy.ThesefiguresfromtheDepartmentof
Oncetheydecidedtohavechildren,MiShelandCarlMeissnertackledthenextbigissue:Shouldtheytrytohaveagirl?Itwas
A、Inadepartmentstore.B、Atatravelagency.C、Atanairportticketcounter.D、Atahotel.B从选项可以预测,本题考查对话发生的地点。男士说这个冬天他想和妻子去些
A、Becauseitprotectsyoufromgettingsunburnt.B、Becauseithelpsyougetaperfectlytannedskin.C、Becauseit’sinchargeof
A、Theyareverydangeroustothenearbycommunity.B、Theycanbringrarematerialstothesurface.C、Theyproducemoreheattot
随机试题
Itisgenerallythoughttobeofimportancetoamanthathe______himself.
气态和蒸气态化学物质经呼吸道吸收,最主要的影响因素是
下列各项中,不符合腹痛之中虚脏寒证表现的是
钢材疲劳极限的含义是下列的()。
八佰伴曾是日本最为成功的超级市场,在20世纪90年代全盛时期,八佰伴在全球16个国家拥有400多家百货公司,以雄霸世界零售业第一把交椅而扬名。1997年9月,八佰伴宣布破产,向法院申请“公司更生法”保护,当时八佰伴的负债额达到1613亿日元,是日本战后最大
华谊公司2015年有关的财务数据如下:该年营业收入为40000万元,营业净利率为5%,股利支付率为60%,不存在金融资产。要求回答下列问题:若预计2016年公司的总资产周转率降低到1,保持其他财务比率不变,并且不增发新股和回购股票,计算2016年
阅读下面材料,回答问题。王老师是一位青年教师,工作热情非常高,他对学生的要求十分严格,他经常要求学生不要讲脏话,不要乱扔废纸……而这位教师讲课情急时,常常“笨猪”“死脑子”不绝于耳,吸烟后,随手将烟蒂抛在课桌下面……教育后的班级会怎样呢?虽然王老
明清以来演唱南曲为主的长篇戏曲作品叫()。
Nexttimeyoufeeltheflucomingon,thinktwicebeforereachingforpainkillers—theycoulddomore【C1】______thangood.Withth
入侵检测通过对计算机网络或计算机系统中的若干关键点收集信息进行分析,发现网络或系统中是否有违反安全策略的行为和被攻击的迹象。进行入侵检测的软件和硬件的组合就构成了入侵检测系统。(3)是入侵检测系统的核心。
最新回复
(
0
)