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Article

Title: 'Bots as Peers: It's All a Matter of Teamwork

Author: Biever, Celeste Article Type: Product Analysis
Source: San Francisco Chronicle, pF1(2) Publication Date: May 6, 2007
URL of Publication: http://www.sfgate.com

Researchers have recognized that robots can engage humans on an emotional level. Therefore, they are beginning to alter their perceptions of robots in general. According to Terry Fong at the Ames Research Center of NASA, the real question is whether robots should be designed as better tools or as better teammates, since they imply very different types of relationships. NASA has launched a project designed to improve teamwork and task coordination between robots and humans. In the project, robots will be treated as peers. Fong hopes that in the future robots will have the ability to anticipate the moves of humans, view things like humans do, and correct humans when they make bad decisions. Robots of the future will understand the meaning of ambiguous questions and will not interrupt humans who are doing work. These capabilities will increase the efficiency of robots, and this could be critical in a rapidly changing environment like space or on search-and-rescue missions. According to Jeff Bradshaw at the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, if researchers remain at the level of creating robots as tools, they will miss out on chances to find synergy between humans and technology. Cynthia Breazeal and Guy Hoffmann at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have found that if a simulated robot fetches objects in anticipation of a person's next move, the person perceives it to be a greater contributor to the success of the task at hand.

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