Wikipedia

Shakey the robot

Shakey the Robotwas the first general-purpose mobilerobotable to reason about its own actions. While other robots would have to be instructed on each individual step of completing a larger task, Shakey could analyze commands and break them down into basic chunks by itself.

Shakey the mobile robot
Shakey the Robot in itsdisplay caseat theComputer History Museum
ManufacturerSRI International
Year of creation1966
Replaced byFlakey the robot

Due to its nature, the project combined research in robotics,computer vision,andnatural language processing.Because of this, it was the first project that melded logical reasoning and physical action.[citation needed]Shakey was developed at theArtificial Intelligence Centerof Stanford Research Institute (now calledSRI International).

Some of the most notable results of the project include theA* search algorithm,theHough transform,and thevisibility graphmethod.[citation needed]

History

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Shakey was developed from approximately 1966 through 1972 withCharles Rosen,Nils NilssonandPeter Hartas project managers. Other major contributors included Alfred Brain, Sven Wahlstrom,Bertram Raphael,[1]Richard Duda,Richard Fikes,Thomas Garvey,Helen Chan Wolfand Michael Wilber. The project was funded by theDefense Advanced Research Projects Agency(DARPA) based on a SRI proposal submitted in April 1964 for research in "Intelligent Automata".[2][3]

Now retired from active duty, Shakey is currently on view in a glass display case at theComputer History MuseuminMountain View, California.[4]The project inspired numerous other robotics projects, most notably theCentibots.[citation needed]

Software

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Shakey in 1972
Main article:Stanford Research Institute Problem Solver

The robot's programming was primarily done inLISP.TheStanford Research Institute Problem Solver(STRIPS) planner it used was conceived as the main planning component for the software it utilized. As the first robot that was a logical, goal-based agent, Shakey experienced a limited world. A version of Shakey's world could contain a number of rooms connected by corridors, with doors and light switches available for the robot to interact with.[5]

Shakey had a short list of available actions within its planner. These actions involved traveling from one location to another, turning the light switches on and off, opening and closing the doors, climbing up and down from rigid objects, and pushing movable objects around.[6]The STRIPS automated planner could devise a plan to enact all the available actions, even though Shakey himself did not have the capability to execute all the actions within the plan personally.

An example mission for Shakey might be something like, an operator types the command "push the block off the platform" at a computer console. Shakey looks around, identifies a platform with a block on it, and locates a ramp in order to reach the platform. Shakey then pushes the ramp over to the platform, rolls up the ramp onto the platform, and pushes the block off the platform. Mission accomplished.

Hardware

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Physically, the robot was particularly tall, and had an antenna for a radio link,sonarrange finders, a television camera, on-board processors, and collision detection sensors ( "bump detectors" ).[7]The robot's tall stature and tendency to shake resulted in its name:

We worked for a month trying to find a good name for it, ranging from Greek names to whatnot, and then one of us said, 'Hey, it shakes like hell and moves around, let’s just call it Shakey.'

— Charles Rosen[7]

Research results

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Peter Hart discussed Shakey's firsts in a talk at Google in February 2015.

The development of Shakey provided far-reaching impact on the fields of robotics and artificial intelligence, as well as computer science in general. Some of the more notable results include the development of theA* search algorithm,which is widely used inpathfindingandgraph traversal,the process of plotting an efficiently traversable path between points; theHough transform,which is a feature extraction technique used inimage analysis,computer vision,anddigital image processing;and thevisibility graphmethod for findingEuclidean shortest pathsamong obstacles in the plane.[8]

Media and awards

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Shakey's creators at the IEEE Milestone award event at theComputer History Museum,February 2017: (from left) Richard O. Duda, Tom Garvey, IEEE President Elect Jim Jeffries, Peter E. Hart, Nils J. Nilsson, Richard Fikes, Helen Chan Wolff, Claude Fennema, Bertram Raphael, Mike Wilber.

In 1969 the SRI published "SHAKEY: Experimentation in Robot Learning and Planning",[9]a 24-minute video. The project then received media attention.[4]This included an article in theNew York Timeson April 10, 1969. In 1970,Lifereferred to Shakey as the "first electronic person";[10]and in November 1970National Geographic Magazinecovered Shakey and the future of computers.[4]TheAssociation for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence's AI Video Competition's awards are named "Shakeys" because of the significant impact of the 1969 video.[11]

Shakey was inducted intoCarnegie Mellon University'sRobot Hall of Famein 2004 alongside such notables asASIMOandC-3PO.[12][13][14]

Shakey has been honored with anIEEE Milestonein Electrical Engineering and Computing.[15][16]

Shakey was showcased in the BBC'sTowards Tomorrow: Robot(1967) documentary.

References

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  1. ^"Oral History: Bertram Raphael".IEEE Global History Network.Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.Retrieved2012-10-08.
  2. ^Press, Gil."12 AI Milestones: 1. Shakey The Robot".Forbes.Retrieved2024-05-25.
  3. ^"Shakey the Robot".darpa.mil.RetrievedMay 25,2024.
  4. ^abc"Shakey".SRI InternationalArtificial Intelligence Center.Retrieved2012-10-07.
  5. ^"Shakey the Robot".SRI International.Archived fromthe originalon 2013-05-04.Retrieved2012-10-07.
  6. ^Moravec, Hans(1998). "Caution! Robot Vehicle!".ROBOT: Mere Machine to Transcendent Mind.p. 27.
  7. ^ab"Shakey".Exhibition: Artificial Intelligence & Robotics.Computer History Museum.Retrieved2012-10-07.
  8. ^Lozano-Pérez, Tomás; Wesley, Michael A. (1979), "An algorithm for planning collision-free paths among polyhedral obstacles",Communications of the ACM,22(10): 560–570,doi:10.1145/359156.359164
  9. ^"Shakey Video (320x212 - 24 min - RealVideo - 91.7 MB)".SRI International.Retrieved2012-10-07.
  10. ^Meet Shakey, The First Electronic PersonbyBrad Darrach,LIFE,November 20, 1970.
  11. ^"AAAI Video Competition 2012".Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence.Retrieved2012-10-07.[failed verification]
  12. ^"Shakey".Robot Hall of Fame2004 Inductees.Carnegie Mellon University.Retrieved2012-10-07.
  13. ^Hanlon, Mike (21 January 2004)."More inductees into the Robot Hall of Fame".Gizmag.Retrieved2012-10-07.
  14. ^"Carnegie Mellon Inducts Second Class into Robot Hall of Fame".Carnegie Mellon University.2004-10-11.Retrieved2012-10-07.
  15. ^"SRI International's Shakey the Robot to be Honored with" IEEE Milestone "at the Computer History Museum".Retrieved2017-02-17.
  16. ^Perry, Tekla (17 February 2017)."SRI's Pioneering Mobile Robot Shakey Honored as IEEE Milestone".IEEE Spectrum.Archived fromthe originalon February 20, 2017.Retrieved18 February2017.

Further reading

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