This document summarizes the current state of artificial intelligence and robotics research to determine if human-like androids like Data from Star Trek could exist in the near future. It discusses topics such as the capabilities of current robots and prosthetics, limitations of AI, predictions for future robotic evolution, and concerns about advanced AI becoming an existential threat. While fully autonomous androids are still science fiction, the document concludes that semi-autonomous robots capable of basic tasks are likely to become more common and replace some human jobs in the coming decades.
Human-Robot Interaction Based On Gesture Identification
Will Androids Like Data Be Amongst Us
1.
Abstract— This paper looks at the question "Will androids like
Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation be living amongst us any
time soon, and is this likely to happen in our lifetime?" To answer these
questions, and to better understand android topics, the current state of
artificial intelligence (AI), android and robotics research has been
investigated, and the possible future of autonomous android robotics
discussed; the paper also looks at the type of network infrastructure
that would be required in order to manage androids, and how we could
possibly overcome the current limitations of android technologies.
Keywords—Android Technology, Artificial Intelligence (AI),
Automatonophobia1
, Robotics & Science Fact.
I. INTRODUCTION:
ata, is a fictional character in Star Trek: The
Next Generation; he is also a Lieutenant
Commander and Chief Operations Officer, as
well as being the Second in command aboard the
Federation starships USS Enterprise-D & E; he
is an anatomically fully functional sapient, self-
aware, android2
sentient being, a human-like
synthetic life form with a super-fast futuristic
positronic3
brain with impressive computational
capabilities; Data was designed and built by
Doctor Noonien Soong in his own image (Star
Trek, 2015). Star Trek may be based in the
future but androids are not a new concept,
Chambers (1727) coined the robotic word in his
Cyclopaedia when referring to a brass head that
St Albertus Magnus created to answer questions.
Due to the over-imaginative sci-fi writers and movie makers
mankind has long feared the rise of the robots, or androids in
this case; even Prof Stephen Hawking has recently stated that
research into AI poses a serious existential threat to humanity,
and could seriously threaten, if not wipe out, the human race;
he has openly admitted that our primitive form of existing AI
has proven very useful, for himself, and others, but he dreads
the consequences of creating a more advanced AI that could
match or even surpass human intelligence; Prof Hawking is not
alone in his fears for the future, many people are concerned that
as time goes on robots, and then androids, will undertake tasks
much faster and more economically than is currently possible
by skilled humans, effectively unemploying millions of humans
(Cellon-Jones, 2014).
1
Automatonophobia The fear of things falsely representing sentient beings.
2
Android: from the Greek ‘ανδρ’ and the suffix 'oid', and means man-like.
II.ROBOTIC CAPABILITIES, USABILITY, SPECS AND COSTS:
A.Robotic Thoughts:
If androids, human-like robots with similar limbs, looks and
comparative mobility, were ever to live amongst us and interact
with anthropomorphic abilities, they would have to first be able
acquire epistemological4
information from testimony, which is
a current AI impossibility, so much more research is required
before androids will truly become intelligent. (Diller, 2014).
B.Robots Replacing Human Workers:
Human workers are becoming increasingly more disposable
as sophisticated robots overcome previous limitations and work
on robotic assembly lines 24/7/365; robots are now employed
in many of today’s commercial applications, due to being more
cost-effective and skilled than human workers; in scenarios like
miniaturisation robots far outclass us humans (Markoff, 2012).
C.Record Number Of Industrial Robots Sold:
2013 has presaged an alarming trend with the record sale of
178132 robots, the most robots ever sold in one year; each robot
deployed effectively decreases human work availability by at
least one job; 70% of these robots have affected job markets in
China, Germany, Korea, Japan and the US; and this trend in
robot sales is estimated to increase by an average of 12% p/a,
up to 2017 (IFR, 2014).
D.Cost-Effective Robots:
Robots currently perform about 10% of the world’s repetitive
manufacturing tasks, and falling robotic costs are now allowing
businesses to replace even more human workers with highly
efficient industrial robots, in order to further decrease labour
costs; robots that can perform repetitive tasks cost about 1/10
of what they cost 10 years ago; this shift from human to robot
will mean an increased demand for skilled robot handlers, who
will receive higher wages; however, less human workers will
be required (TheJapanTimes, 2015).
Robotic applications improve the accuracy, efficiency and
speed of repetitive industrial processes such as assembly, die
casting, precision drilling, glass making, precision grinding,
painting, loading and unloading, picking and placing, product
inspection and welding, not to mention working within
hazardous environments. Many manufactures would not be able
to provide their high quality products without them!
3
Positronic: A CPU, conceived by Asimov, enabling android consciousness.
4
Epistemology: Theory of knowledge, regarding methods, validity, scope,
and distinctions between belief and opinion.
(Williamson, D. 2015)
Are Androids Amongst Us?
D
Fig. 1
2. Fig. 3
III. CURRENT RESEARCH IN ROBOTICS:
A.Existing Technology:
Otonaroid, a brown haired, silky,
smooth skinned, elegant Japanese beauty,
started work as a visitor guide at Tokyo's
science museum on the 25th
June 2014,
and has already proven to be an asset; this
in itself may not seem that special, but the
fact that she is a remotely controlled hi-
tech teleoperated robot that looks and acts
like a human is; Otonaroid can often be
seen conversing with museum visitors
whilst affecting life-like characteristics
such as regularly breathing, blinking,
twitching her eyebrows, swaying her head
and using her hands for emphasis; she is
not that life-like that she would be taken
as a human if scrutinised closely, but she
will no doubt surprise many a visitor (Russon, 2014).
NB. Androids, albeit non-sentient, are already amongst us!
B.Prosthetics with life-like Human Sensation:
Up until recently it was difficult for amputees to precisely
manipulate objects with prosthetics, due to a lack of sensation;
however, a new implant that is used to connect human nerves,
via electrodes and electrical stimuli, to robotic prosthetics is
able to provide constant sensory feedback that stimulates
human nerves; this ability has enabled users to sense varying
degrees of sensation and pressure and enable more precise
control with robotic arms, hands and fingers; users can sense
the difference between a slight amount of pressure and a firm
grip, enabling them to pick up a glass without shattering it; they
can even sense being touched; this type of technology further
advances the feasibility of future androids being able to live
amongst us unnoticed (Fang, 2014).
C.Is Android like AI Ethical and Safe:
Researchers are continually looking into ways to effectively
pass the Turing test, a test which is meant to detect whether or
not AI machines can exhibit enough intelligent behaviour,
through conversation, to be undistinguishable from humans, but
is this ethical or even safe? If we intentionally design AI robots
to deceive us humans into believing that they are also human,
what stops them from deliberately deceiving us in other ways?
D.AI Neural Network Tests:
The human brain, with around 100 billion neurons and 1000
trillion synapses (Mastin, 2010), is so complex that even the
world's fastest supercomputers struggle to simulate it; the
Japanese Okinawan supercomputer 'K computer' managed,
with NEST5
simulation software, to simulate a neural network
consisting of 1.73 billion nerve cells & 10.4 trillion synapses by
using 82944 processors for 40 minutes to simulate just 1 second
of biological neuronal type network activity (Whitwam, 2013);
however, if this can be achieved with peta-scale computing,
then what will exa-scale computing enable us to achieve?
5
NEST: Noble Element Simulation Technique.
E.Android Brains:
Even if a supercomputer did manage to simulate human brain
activity for any serious length of time and was able to make
human-like decisions, it would still be many a year before a
computerised brain, with the same amount of computing power
of a supercomputer, could be made small enough to fit inside a
human sized android skull; and even if a supercomputer became
sentient and wirelessly controlled an android, the android would
only be a remote controlled high-tech robot, and would not even
remotely resemble an android like Data from Star Trek, the
subject of this paper.
F.Would AI Consciousness Be An Existential Threat?
Due to the amount of current research into AI, the possibility
of AI systems finally achieving consciousness, and therefore
life but not as we know it, is a distinct possibility; there is no
doubt that at first we humans would obtain incredible daily
benefits from these new lifeforms, from gaining advances in
education, medicine, fields of science, manufacturing and the
construction of hi-tech androids, etc.; however, if conscious
machines became able to redesign themselves, then they would
soon be able to create what many of us fear, real anatomically
fully functional sapient, self-aware, androids with intelligences
far surpassing humans; and worse still these androids may end
up living amongst us without our knowledge, which leads to the
main reason why we would fear these lifeforms, the complete
loss of control over them; in comparison we humans would be
a fragile sub-standard form of life that could not compete with
androids, and would therefore be superseded by them; this
could make it really difficult for us to survive amongst them.
G.Living and working with Artificial Intelligence:
Our everyday lives are becoming ever more automated by
computerised devices, and intangible software, a trend that will
likely continue; and even though many of these devices may not
look human-like, all computers and robotic machines, no matter
how humanoid they may be, are controlled by ‘CPUs’ central
processing units of some kind, meaning that AI machines, if not
androids, are already amongst us; however, whilst studying AI
we are not just learning about how to create artificially
intelligent machines, we are also learning about ourselves; and
before we could create a sentient being, with AI, we would first
need to know how we ourselves ‘Humans’ became sentient;
without that knowledge, it would be difficult, if not impossible,
to work out how to create conceptual human-like AI programs
such as common sense, ingenuity and adaptability; and without
such programming all forms of automaton would be no more
than useful hi-tech human tools like Repliee Q2.
Fig. 2
3. Fig. 6
IV. THE FUTURE OF ANDROIDS:
As robotic technology improves, androids will likely play an
increasing role in our lives, especially amongst the young who
will grow up accepting the presence of, and interaction with,
androids as the norm, possibly leading to the development of
meaningful pet-like relationships; however, no matter how life-
like they may be, until emotional feelings can be reciprocated,
a possibility which may well terrify many of us, they would be
nothing more than useful hi-tech robotic tools.
A.Science Fiction Creating Automatonophobia?
Any avid sci-fi fan, who has read Asimov’s
complete collection of robot stories, and has
watched the mainstream android movies such
as A.I., Blade Runner, Forbidden Planet, The
Day the Earth Stood Still, The Terminator(s),
Transformers and the latest blockbuster film
‘Ex Machina’, and sci-fi soaps like Babylon 5,
Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek will know
that many of the android characters within are
seen in a very bad light; these science fictions,
involving androids, may well be the ones that
are guilty of instilling automatonophobia,
which includes the fear of sentient androids
secretly living, and working, amongst us.
B.Isaac Asimov A Most Prolific Sci-Fi Writer:
In order to allay such fears Isaac Asimov, over 70 years ago,
devised the three Laws of Robotics in his 1942 story
"Runaround", which are: “a robot may not injure a human being
or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.", "a
robot must obey the orders given it by human beings, except
where such orders would conflict with the First Law." and "a
robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection
does not conflict with the First or Second Law." (Asimov, 1995,
p. 269-270). These laws that Isaac envisaged would protect us
from harm by robots may seem logical safeguards, but if human
lawyers are clever enough to circumvent many of our own strict
laws; then I do not believe that it would be too far-fetched to
assume that super-intelligent sentient androids would be clever
enough, to be able to conceive of, and come up with, several
plausible scenarios to circumvent the three Laws of Robotics.
C.Robotic Evolution:
Ever since the 1960's, robots have increasingly been used in
a variety of ways to help mankind, and in a span of only 50
years we have, some would say, a plethora of walking, talking
semi-autonomous robots amongst us, so what will the next 50
years of robotics research likely achieve, will there be Data-like
androids amongst us in the 2060s? The simple answer is no, our
AI capability is not that advanced; however, android robots that
are capable of doing basic cooking, cleaning, repetitive and/or
dangerous tasks and even providing us with a drink, etc., will
effectively replace many of us in the workplace; robots may
break down or need replacement parts, but in general they do
not get tired, get bored, sleep or make repetitive mistakes, and
businesses will save money in the long run by replacing us with
robots, but will this be an advanced form of human evolution,
or the start of a feared robotic revolution? This is something
only the future will show!
D.Humanoid Evolution Or Robotic Revolution:
As humans have evolved, they have continually created and
used tools to make life easier, and this trend is continuing with
the design and creation of robots; however, this search for an
easier life may lead to the formation of a new species.
Having super-intelligent semi-autonomous androids amongst
us may sound like an overactive sci-fi writer’s dream of the
future, but many experts now say that the idea is not too far-
fetched, and some even believe that the singularity, the point
when AI matches and overtakes human intelligence, is not too
far away in the future, possibly in the 21st
century; and though
many will disagree on the how, and the when, this is likely to
happen, most agree that it will; some predict a utopian future
where humans will transcend physical limitations with robotic
enhancements, much like the "Six Million Dollar Man", and
others believe that the same robotic enhancements will cause
humanity to relinquish, or replace, many human abilities and
lead to the rise of a wealth orientated cyborg race, effectively
relegating humans as an inferior species (Ghose, 2013).
E.The Future of Robotics:
It may not be long before medical robots are able to perform
delicate surgery such as removing blood clots and fatty deposits
(plaque) from our veins; and smart robotic prosthetic devices
are used to replace lost limbs to provide mobility for amputees
and paraplegics, and to replace failing organs to prolong lives;
and rescue robots are used to save lives where human safety
would be put at risk; these futuristic scenarios, and robotic
capabilities, are the result of decades of research at prominent
universities, many of which have now been applied to current
robots by robotic manufacturers that have built these advances
into products that require pattern-recognition, motion-control,
kinematics and software programming; products that range
from semi-autonomous vacuum cleaners, to high-tech assembly
line robots, to bomb-disposal robots and rescue robots like the
510 Packbots used during the aftermath of 9/11 at the World
Trade Center (Salisbury, 2013).
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
4. V.THE LIMITATIONS OF AI & HUMAN-LIKE ROBOTS:
A.Artificial Intelligence Limitations:
AI limitations include the lack of robotic common sense, a
basic ability found within most young children; for example,
current robots are efficient, and fast, at repetitive tasks that can
be automated and set up as part of a standardised process such
as assembly line work, but are unable to respond accordingly to
changing environments; they are unable to study a situation and
make logical decisions of their own; robots may be capable of
interpolation6
, but not extrapolation7
which requires abstract
thought combined with previous experience to arrive at a
conjectural result; the robotic ability to think-on-one’s-feet and
deal with unexpected problems remains in the realms of sci-fi;
this type of human creativity and common sense is something
that AI technology cannot yet replicate.
Robotic limitations include perception, object recognition
and execution, much researched topics in AI, which is why we
use Completely Automated Public Turing tests to tell
Computers and Humans Apart (CAPTCHAs) on websites to
deter none human use; however, a new algorithm developed at
MIT, that utilises multiple perspectives, may enable robots to
perceive, identify and handle previously unidentified objects
from a collection of objects; unfortunately, the current
algorithm also decreases robotic task speed, due to an
exponential increase of calculations required to execute tasks
(O'Connor, 2015).
B.How Can Current Robotic Limitations Be Overcome?
Some AI limitations can be overcome by the development of
improved algorithms that will be able to work with more, and
faster, parallel type CPU/GPU microprocessors in order to
improve, and increase, the computational power; and humanoid
robotic limitations can be overcome by improving limb types,
and increasing the number of, and functionality of, the actuators
and sensors used within them; this would greatly improve limb
flexibility and overall robotic mobility.
Even the most high-tech robot in the world cannot walk any
better than a toddler, so if this robotic mobility limitation is to
be overcome, then researchers will have to come up with
something that will enable robots to walk like adults; however,
being able to maintain an humanoid robotic stability in an
unstructured environment would require many human-like
tactile sensors and highly complex task-specific controllers in
order to manage the vast amounts of information retrieved from
the sensors, not an easy task; however, this limitation may have
been partially solved by Stanford University researchers who
are looking into ways to enable humanoid SupraPed8
robots to
navigate through, and maneuver over, rough terrain with the aid
of special Smart Trekking Poles, that are packed with sensors,
that enable them to balance themselves and decide where to step
next; this capability is backed by remote haptic teleoperation
systems that allow human operators to remotely provide high-
level commands (Ackerman, 2014).
6
Interpolation: The process of estimating, what is observable (the known),
the value of variables depending on their relationship with other variables.
7
Extrapolation: Similar process, beyond what is observable (the unknown),
the value of variables depending on their relationship with other variables.
VI. ROBOTIC TRACKING NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURE:
A.Researching Cyber-Physical Network Infrastructure:
In June 2014, the National Science Foundation announced a
5-year, $4000000 award to tackle the time synchronisation in
cyber-physical systems that integrate sensing, computation,
control and networking into autonomous robotic objects and
infrastructure; this real-time situational awareness is required to
connect to, communicate with and control machines such as
autopilot systems, tele-robotics devices and androids; without it
the robots could not infer exact location or coordinate detailed
real-time activities (NSF, 2014).
B.NASA Robotic Networking Infrastructure:
NASA relies on their extremely capable, sophisticated and
versatile robotic arms, robots and rovers to investigate our solar
system's planets, and their moons, in order to help pave the way
for the more fragile human crewed missions; their Human
Exploration Telerobotics (HET) Technology deals with the
semi-autonomous control of hi-tech robots from a distance, and
currently uses a mix of Cabled, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Deep
Space Network technology for its network infrastructure; using
robots in this way removes the routinely, highly-repetitive,
dangerous and/or long-duration tasks from human hands, which
helps us to improve and safely hasten human space exploration
(Boen, 2013).
C.A Privately Funded Space Internet Network:
Elon Musk, an American billionaire with his own rocket
company ‘SpaceX’, has announced plans to deploy hundreds of
satellites at approximately 750 miles above the Earth to create
a Space Internet that could provide a fiber-optic type speed, and
cheaper internet access, around the globe, improving world-
wide coverage; the project, that may be in effect within 6 years,
could plausibly aid in forming an improved communications
system with Mars, but would definitely aid our existing robotic
communications on Earth, and has broad applications for future
robotic and human led operations in space (Allen, 2015).
8
SupraPed: Having increased walking capability beyond bipedal limits, to
possible quadrupedal capability.
Fig. 7
5. D.Cloud Robotics, An Information Revolution:
The term, Cloud Robotics, introduced by Google in 2010,
describes how robots could use existing wireless networking
and expanding Internet resources to enable massively-parallel-
computing and the real-time sharing of data; this would be used
in conjunction with existing onboard computational, memory
and programming capabilities; Google already uses this type of
technology to index maps and images, collected by satellites,
for their Street View app, and for crowdsourcing, which obtains
services, ideas and content by soliciting information from large
groups of people and online communities, instead of just from
local employees and suppliers; and Kiva Systems uses the same
type of technology for their warehouse automation and
logistics, utilising multiple mobile platforms to move pallets
within local networks to co-ordinate platforms and update their
tracking data in real-time (Goldberg, & Kehoe, 2013).
E.RoboEarth Networking:
The RoboEarth project intends to create a cloud-based
WWW infrastructure solely for robots; essentially creating a
massive online network and database repository to enable
robots to share and store data and information, and to aid them
in learning from each other's experiences in real-time; this could
mean that any connected robot could also share its individual
programming between other robots, meaning that only one
robot would need to be programmed for all robots to be able to
use that programming.
It would also mean that multiple robots could work together,
in parallel, to solve supercomputer type problems; in addition
to this RoboEarth offers the Robot Operating System (ROS),
which is a set of software libraries, drivers, state of the art
algorithms and tools that can assist with robotic applications for
high-level robotic control (RoboEarth, 2014); as I wrote this I
began to think, have I not heard of something like this described
before, such as the 'Cyberdyne Systems Skynet' type global
network, which became the fictional self-aware, sentient,
synthetic intelligence featured within the Terminator franchise?
VII. IN CONCLUSION:
Even though it is really fascinating, remarkable and amazing
what the current AI and Robotic technology can now achieve,
what the high-tech humanoid robots are now capable of, how
human-like some of the androids can be, and what networking
facilities are, and will be, available to these humanoid robots,
many researchers still believe that we are a very long-long way-
a-way from being able to create Data-like androids; researchers
are making many advances in all these areas, helping mankind
in a myriad of ways, proving that, apart from the real prospect
of robot enforced unemployment, they are a source of good.
We currently utilise AI, within gadgets, computers, robots
and androids to equal or exceed human intelligence and/or
efficiency at specific tasks, and apart from manufacturing
thousands of different products for us, they also look after our
mobile phones, anti-lock brakes, Google search, e-mail filters,
flying planes, etc., and they even beat us at chess, scrabble and
backgammon, so they are in control of our lives, albeit not
completely, we still have the power to be in control of them;
however, sub-standard AI programming could still be the cause
of catastrophic events like crashing a plane or a power grid,
causing a nuclear power melt-down, or even causing a financial
market disaster; and though AI would initially be blamed for
this, AI controlled machines can only do what we humans
program them to do; they cannot think and plan against us.
I believe this paper answers the question posed in the abstract
"Will androids like Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation
be living amongst us any time soon, and is this likely to happen
in our lifetime?" My answer to this is a resounding no! We need
not fear an AI, Robotic or Android take-over any time soon;
androids like Data will stay within the realms of Science fiction,
and will only become realities within our imaginations, scary
novels, sci-fi programs and films.
Fig. 8
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