Robotics and the Meaning of Life

Posted 20 Jul 2004 at 15:45 UTC by steve

The Open University in the UK, has found a practical use for Asimov's robot stories. They're being used as part of a robotics class, called Robotics and the Meaning of Life: a practical guide to things that think. The Laws of Robotics are considered in terms of real control architectures such as subsumption and on the practicality of using them to design safe robots. Asimov's Laws are just one part of a larger course that reviews the history and state of the art in robotics from R.U.R. and the Turing Test to Moore's law. Students get hands-on experience using a Lego Mindstorms compatible robotics simulator called OU-Robotlab. Required reading for the course includes Asimov's I, Robot, and Ruth Aylett's Robots: Bringing Intelligent Machines to Life.