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From: merrill@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Seeing-Eye robots
Message-ID: <12400001@iuvax>
Date: Fri, 17-Jul-87 15:31:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: iuvax.12400001
Posted: Fri Jul 17 15:31:00 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 18-Jul-87 17:50:03 EDT
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Organization: Indiana University CSCI, Bloomington
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Nf-From: iuvax.cs.indiana.edu!merrill    Jul 17 14:31:00 1987


In comp.ai, marty1@houdi (M.B. Brilliant) writes:
>  Suppose one wanted to build a robot that does what a Seeing-Eye dog
>  does (that is, helping a blind person to get around), but communicates
>  in the blind person's own language instead of by pushing and pulling.

>  [Commentary on some of the essential properties of the robot.]
  
>  What problems will have to be solved to build such a robot?  Will its
>  hypothetical designers have to deal with the problem of mere
>  recognition, or the deeper problem of grounding symbols in meaning? 
>  Could it be built by hardwiring sensors to a top-down symbolic
>  processor, or would it require a hybrid processor?

I seriously doubt that recognition itself would be adequate. As
Brilliant observes, one of the functions that the robot must perform
is the detection of "danger to its master."  Consider the problem of
crossing a street.  Is it enough to recognize cars (and trucks, and
motorcycles, and other already--known objects?)  No.

The robodog has to generalize beyond simply cars and trucks and
busses, since their shapes change, to "things travelling along this
stretch of road {and what's a stretch of road?} which are a) moving
{and what does it mean to move?} b) fast {and what is fast?  Why,
fast enough to be dangerous...which begs the question} c) in this
direction."  At this point, I think that we have exceeded the bounds
of recognition and entered a realm where "judgement" is required, but,
if not, I imagine that I can probably extend this situation to meet most
specific objections.  (I assume that the blind woman needs to cross roads
without undue delay.  Traffic lights don't eliminate these problems,
since the robodog must "recognize" drivers who are turning, some of
whow would be safe, since they're either stopped or slow--moving, but some
of whom (at least, here in Bloomington) would run *any* pedestrian
down. !-))

BTW:  I like this example very much.  It raises quite nicely the
underlying issue in the symbol grounding problem discussion without
using the terminology that many of the readers of comp.ai seem to have
objected to.  Congratulations, Mr. Brilliant!

John Merrill
merrill@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu  UUCP:seismo!iuvax!merrill

Dept. of Comp. Sci.
Lindley Hall 101
Indiana University
Bloomington, Ind. 47405