Rescue Robots. While that may sound like a cliché name for a kid’s TV show, rescue robots are one of the most important uses that we have found for artificial intelligence. A rescue robot can be simply defined as a robot that can save someone in an emergency. In many cases, this involves robots that are used for search and rescue missions. Japan has been quick to introduce rescue robots to save lives. They are particularly useful for finding people after disasters like earthquakes since the robots can equip infrared and ultrasonic technology.
What does a rescue robot look like? RoboCue, a robot used by the Tokyo Fire Department, helps to locate injured people in piles of rubble and can load those people onto a platform from which they can be transported to nearby hospitals. Another rescue robot is the snakebot. This robot is much more compact than the RoboCue so it can navigate small spaces and map out disasters. Then, humans can search those places more efficiently. Drones are another popular option to help with search and rescue missions.
Both of these robots and many more rescue robots need a lot of work. If it is difficult for humans to navigate disaster debris, then it is even harder for robots that are fragile and lack creativity to produce new navigation paths. These robots are like search dogs that still need some guidance and we do not care if they get hurt because they are not living.
While some of the robots that I have analyzed in past weeks are being created under dubious ethical circumstances, rescue robots are a group of robots that are not surrounded by controversy because they save lives not only by rescuing victims but also by protecting emergency service personnel. In this sense, it seems that the most “ethical” robots are ones whose sole purpose is to help humans and not be fully autonomous like rescue robots.
As robots become more independent (like self-producing robots I talked about in a previous blog), then people get more concerned. Ultimately, humans fear the unknown. If we cannot predict exactly what a robot will do, then we become concerned that it will live up to our sci-fi movie expectations and partake in some kind of dystopian world take over. If rescue robots continue to become more autonomous, I wonder: will they be met with the same ethical concerns, or will they continue to be celebrated because they save human lives?
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