Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Alexis Coning
Professor Stalbird
English 1201
5 April 2018
Research Essay
I believe that the advancement of robots will be able to help people in the
workplace by assisting them, and making their jobs run smoother. Of course there is a
point where it might go too far, but if we miss that point we are on track to have a
When I first started this research project, my initial thought was that robots were
that robots were terrifying because they were out to take over human existence. After
doing plenty of research with an open mind, my perspective has actually changed. I now
believe that robots are a good thing, when used in moderation. When they are used to
help, not take over. I think it is necessary in these types of arguments to have done your
Robots can be used for a number of things. They can be used in the classroom
as a helper and to help students learn quicker through interaction. As a student, I can
agree that having access to hands on interaction helps to retain knowledge. In one of
the sources I used, the article talked about how a robot was used to play games with
students in the classroom while tracking their progress. I found the quote ““An additional
outcome of the study was the significant difference in the perception of the children
about the difficulty of the game – the game with the robot was seen as more challenging
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reassuring that the robots are being used for educational purposes. It also points out
that in each instance, the robot was the smarter opponent, which requires the students
to work harder to be able to play the game on the same level as the robot.
robotic arm that is used to package and sort through things on an assembly line so that
humans don’t have to do it over and over again. This is extremely beneficial because it
will help make the work more accurate and efficient, and will relieve some stress from
the factory workers. The quote “Such calibration is widely used in reverse engineering,
robot-assisted medical applications, visually guided robot grinding, and robotic visual
inspection.” works to expand on how useful and versatile this robotic arm will be.
Some people fear that robots will become too advanced and start to take over.
This has become a concern, especially after the newest and most advanced robot,
Sophia. Sophia has been granted citizenship, and it legally allowed to work. She can
have normal conversations with people, and do regular human things. This is
concerning because she has no real purpose. It seems as though she were just an
experiment. The idea of Sophia having ‘skin’ and ‘hair’ has freaked some people out as
well. She looks decently human like, which means from here forward these robots will
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only get more and more realistic. It is predicted that someday we may not be able to
It seems like when we hear the word ‘robot’ we only think of robots like Sophia.
But the truth is there are hundreds of other kinds of robots. Your smartphone essentially
is a robot because if you say “hey siri” it will respond and have a small conversation with
you. But it is a piece of technology. This is because it is programmed to your voice, and
is listening to you at all times. Scientists are trying to develop a type of drone that can
deliver packages right to your front door. Instead of UPS of FedEx, a drone would be
programmed with your address to drop the package off then return back to the facility.
This is a controversial topic, because drones will only be able to carry packages up to a
certain size and weight. It also might be difficult for the drone to be successful if you live
in a very big city. The quote “Companies like Amazon have big ideas for drones that can
deliver packages right to your door. But even putting aside the policy issues,
programming drones to fly through cluttered spaces like cities is difficult. Being able to
avoid obstacles while traveling at high speeds is computationally complex, especially for
small drones that are limited in how much they can carry onboard for real-time
processing.” supports my statement that drones will only be able to carry some
packages due to size and weight. Here is an image of a drone flying for “Amazon” to
Another type of robot that humans should allow to become popular is the fire
fighting robot. This is definitely my favorite robotic invention out of any of the others,
because it is so smart and helpful. This robot firefighter will be able to withstand much
more heat that a human firefighter would be able to do. I believe that this invention is a
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great idea because sometimes in house fires, everyone unfortunately doesn’t make it
out. These robots will be able to enter a burning house to retrieve important belongings
without feeling a thing, because they have no feeling. “Further, it will sense and
communicate information regarding these situations in real time with the server. The
robot is fixed with multi-sensors and further, a driver circuit has been integrated for
system (DAQ).” This quote gives some information on how a fire fighting robot will be
Some might still argue that robots are becoming too powerful and too advanced.
And the truth is, they can be. The “self-driving” cars are one thing I will most likely never
be able to agree with. These cars seem dangerous and unreliable. It is scary to imagine
unknown environments is one of the most challenging problems in the field of robotics.”
supports my statement that these cars may not always know where they are going, and
would possibly require the help of a human to drive the car instead.
One of the most interesting robots I found while researching was one that
actually gives you a massage. The article I read from gave real life reviews from people
who have received a massage from this robot, and they all said they weren’t even able
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to tell that it wasn’t a real human performing the massage. The feedback from the
humans goes to show that these robots are exceptional, and are able to carry out this
task successfully. The quote “It is used alongside a doctor and massage therapist and,
indistinguishable from a professional masseuse." goes to support the fact that this robot
Going back to the beginning of this paper when I talked about robots being used
in the classroom, this robot is able to put together and solve mathematical algorithms.
amazes me to think that a robot, with an artificial brain is able to do this so easily, when
even the smartest person might have trouble doing so. Some people might see this as
too much, because if these robots are doing all this work, then what is left for the
teachers to do? I believe that this one in unnecessary and should only be used when
desperately needed. Although it could be used to speed up the process when trying to
configure an algorithm, it is unnecessary because this should be the job of the teachers
and students.
It seems that many of these robotic inventions are used for educational
purposes. This next robot is again used in the classroom to play learning games with
the students. The robot is obviously always going to one up the student, because it has
access to internet at all times and can quickly find an answer to anything. The students
played an educational learning game, once with the robot and once without and took a
quiz after each game. The results showed that the students learned more when they
played the game with the robot. I believe this is because it made it more challenging for
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the students and required them to do more critical thinking. The quote “When the
students’ responses to the interview questions were examined, it was revealed that the
students generally had positive attitudes and that the education given was motivating
There are hundreds of ways in which I feel robots will be a great help to
humankind, some I have already listed. This next one stood out to me the most because
I believe it will be extremely helpful to the elderly. It is a robot that you keep in your
home, and it helps you with simple tasks like putting away groceries. This is a great
invention to save us time, and also help us when we are old and can’t get around as
easily. This robotic ‘arm’ can sense what it is grabbing and know exactly where to put it
away at. You will have to have the robot specially programmed to your home, which can
be very expensive, but in the long run it may save you some trouble. The quote ““This
can be applied to warehouse sorting, but also may be used to pick things from your
kitchen cabinet or clear debris after an accident.” shows the versatility of the robotic arm
In the end, I was able to gather a lot of new information from conducting this
research. Enough to change my viewpoint and be able to teach others what I have
learned. I believe that the advancement of robots is becoming a hot topic in today's
society, and the people themselves are responsible for doing their research and
understanding why these robots are going to be helpful rather than harmful. In the end,
we are not in full control of these advancements, so we will have to learn to live with
Works Cited
Barakova, E. l., et al. “Socially Grounded Game Strategy Enhances Bonding and
27 March 2018.
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Chu | MIT News Office, Jennifer. “Robo-picker Grasps and Packs.” MIT News.
vol. 67, no. 5, Sept. 2017, pp. 572-580. EBSCOhost, doi: 10.14429/dsj.67.10237.
for a Nonholonomic Wheeled Mobile Robot with Unknown Wheel Slips, Model
Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences, vol. 26, no. 1, Jan. 2018, pp. 378-
Computer Sciences, vol. 25, no. 3, June 2017, pp. 1629-1642. EBSCOhost,