The Limitations of AI Robots in Dangerous Jobs
We often hear about robots coming to the rescue in dangerous situations, like fires or gas leaks. These robots are built to do tasks that would be too risky for humans.
But what happens when the robot gets stuck or makes a mistake? Until now, people have tried to fix this by making smarter robots or adding more of them to the team. But the robots still face problems they can’t solve on their own.
A New Solution: Let’s Work Together
Yong Zhao, a researcher from China, has a simple idea: why not have humans and robots work together?
In a new study published in the Journal of Social Computing, Zhao and his team suggest that teaming up humans and robots can solve problems that neither could tackle alone.
Here’s how it works. When a robot comes across a problem it can’t solve, it sends a message to a human team. The message explains what the robot is stuck on.
The human team then decides if they can help. If they can, they step in and guide the robot past the obstacle. Once the problem is solved, the robot takes back control and continues with its mission.
To test this out, researchers sorted different types of problems that a robot might encounter. They figured out which ones could be solved with human help.
They also ran tests where people had two options for helping the robot. In one option, the human completely takes over the job.
In the other, the human helps the robot figure out the problem, and then lets the robot get back to work. People found the second option less mentally tiring.
The Next Steps: Making It Easier for Everyone to Help
The research team found that not everyone understands robot ‘language.’ To fix this, they plan to make the robot’s messages easier to understand, depending on who’s receiving them.
This way, more people could step in to help when a robot faces a problem.
In the future, the researchers want to take this idea further.
They hope to create systems where humans and robots can help each other in many different ways, from understanding natural language to analyzing pictures.
By focusing on teamwork between humans and robots, this research opens new doors. It shows us that the best solutions often come when we join forces, each bringing our own skills to the table.
So, the next time you hear about robots coming to the rescue, remember that there might be a human team working in the background, making sure everything goes smoothly.
The research findings can be found in the Journal of Social Computing.
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Source: Tsinghua University.