Robots, in the past, were limited to performing some assigned prototype jobs by machines. These machines worked on preloaded instructions, and many were open-loop systems wherein, corrective measures were not included in the coded instructions. As the generations of robots are evolving, feedback systems with artificial intelligence (AI) have become an integral part for the robots. This new trend has resulted in a revolution in robotics which includes machine learning as a part of AI and robotics.
Robotics is now not just limited to factories, industries and corporates to perform pre-assigned jobs, but have entered every aspect of life, including social life. Bots are being employed in digital marketing, banking, insurance, commercial applications, and so on. They are software applications that perform repetitive tasks on the Internet. These have already proved highly successful in gaming industry. Multibillion transactions are being conducted in developing and selling gaming software. The concept of virtual reality (VR) is being applied in robotics, and therefore, it is successful in building unimaginable concepts in gaming.
Analytics
The unilateral exponential growth of accumulation of data has led to new branch of special studies in the name of Big data. Robotics, without the capacity of handling and analysing big data, is like horse without legs. Hadoop is a technology that uses the network of computers to manage massive data for computation. The data is usually highly random and chaotic in nature. Thus, big data analytics makes an effort to process this massive amount of data to draw useful conclusions on queries raised. This technique is being adopted in all commercial applications over the Internet. The possibility of sending suggestions to customers based on the search made by them for some other products is an example of use of AI with big data analytics.
Autonomous cars, smart houses with computers and sensors are serving humans by understanding their moods, needs and interface. Industries are being loaded with several such robots which perform the tasks on their own. Bots have already entered every corner of the Internet, leading to supremacy of their own. Decisions in some emergency situations are being taken by the AI-supported robotics, which are backed by big data analytics.
Robotics, with a combination of AI, that is capable of taking decisions based on self-learning, made through big data analytics, is on high use in handling critical situations. The auto-piloting, autonomous road vehicle, industrial robots, military drones with high-level intelligence to avoid approaching destructive weapons, are just few examples of high profile jobs that are successfully being managed with this technology, which has now entered almost every industry including agriculture, food processing, medicine, hospitals, diagnosis of cancer and other deceases, constructions, and so on.
Nevertheless, they have sneaked into our daily life through several electronic gadgets such as mobile phones and smart TVs. Social scientists are warning mankind about the danger of losing privacy and human innovation opportunities in the future against the indiscriminate use of AI in robotics. The scope for robotics with AI and machine learning capability in society is beyond anybody’s imagination.
The writer is Vice Chancellor, Amity University, Gurugram.
