The future of wireless robot security - By N.L. Belardes
As I embark into my latest novel that incorporates futuristic automation issues regarding robots, I can't help but study the world of wireless robotics. You remember the first robots don't you? The first remote control anything was attached with wires. You had a little box with knobs and it was attached to a car, train, robot and you got it all tangled.
Many robotics in factories are industrial automation pneumatics hooked up with cables to control systems; robot arms that can do a hundred mundane and semi-complex factory tasks. That's a far cry from the beginning of remote control. And factories are going more wireless all the time. That's where the world is headed: Data packets over the air.
So that means not all robotics are wireless. But are robots?
I think so. And independent thinkers too. Here's a definition of robot from the Yahoo.com dictionary:
1. A mechanical device that sometimes resembles a human and is capable of performing a variety of often complex human tasks on command or by being programmed in advance.
2. A machine or device that operates automatically or by remote control.
3. A person who works mechanically without original thought, especially one who responds automatically to the commands of others.
You can see, wireless is practically built in to the very definition of robot. Not exactly, but in an either/or fashion. A robot might not transmit data wirelessly. A robot may work independent of long cables but have to physically perform tasks like turning on lights with its own robotic arm rather than via wireless commands.
Which would be the most effectively automated robot to serve your needs? You have to ask?
A robot that could do both.
Seems kind of scary. You can't blink and turn lights on and off. But your robot could. You can't use thought-control on your high definition television set to change the channel to Monday Night Football. But your robot could seem to do that, and take your coat... and its eyes could flash like a strobe and lock your doors and cupboards.
And then, what if someone hacked your robot?
You would have to literally re-hack into your robot (or kill it - kill? terminate? shut down?) or you would be locked in your home forever like the Cask of Amontillado; locked in your sweet little home and starving to death because your robot won't let you into your refrigerator...
Real-time data security. I hope you believe in a secure future.
Many robotics in factories are industrial automation pneumatics hooked up with cables to control systems; robot arms that can do a hundred mundane and semi-complex factory tasks. That's a far cry from the beginning of remote control. And factories are going more wireless all the time. That's where the world is headed: Data packets over the air.
So that means not all robotics are wireless. But are robots?
I think so. And independent thinkers too. Here's a definition of robot from the Yahoo.com dictionary:
1. A mechanical device that sometimes resembles a human and is capable of performing a variety of often complex human tasks on command or by being programmed in advance.
2. A machine or device that operates automatically or by remote control.
3. A person who works mechanically without original thought, especially one who responds automatically to the commands of others.
You can see, wireless is practically built in to the very definition of robot. Not exactly, but in an either/or fashion. A robot might not transmit data wirelessly. A robot may work independent of long cables but have to physically perform tasks like turning on lights with its own robotic arm rather than via wireless commands.
Which would be the most effectively automated robot to serve your needs? You have to ask?
A robot that could do both.
Seems kind of scary. You can't blink and turn lights on and off. But your robot could. You can't use thought-control on your high definition television set to change the channel to Monday Night Football. But your robot could seem to do that, and take your coat... and its eyes could flash like a strobe and lock your doors and cupboards.
And then, what if someone hacked your robot?
You would have to literally re-hack into your robot (or kill it - kill? terminate? shut down?) or you would be locked in your home forever like the Cask of Amontillado; locked in your sweet little home and starving to death because your robot won't let you into your refrigerator...
Real-time data security. I hope you believe in a secure future.
1 Comments:
I don't even want to think about a robot keeping me from my fridge. How scary that would be?!
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