Robotics & automation for societal good bridging competitions & challenges and technology & public policy

Abstract

Recent developments in robotics, automation, and artificial intelligence accompanied by the confusion and concerns surrounding their societal impacts (e.g., self-driving cars, drones, and robots equated to job losses) only fuel the speculation of their negative effects while making the discussion imbalanced and skewed. Consequently, there exists a huge disconnect between what is possible from an engineering viewpoint and what the expectations of the general public are. While the source of this disconnect can be conveniently blamed on Hollywood movies and alarmist opinions reported by the media, the scientific community also can be held accountable, at least partly, for some of these confusions and exaggerations. Fundamentally, the problem lies in the fact that we have not seen many practical, robust, and affordable solutions that can make a difference in the quality of lives of end-users. My previous work focused on performance evaluation, benchmarking and standardization of intelligent systems (mostly ground robots). My current work focuses on the applied use of robotics and automation technologies for the benefit of underserved and under-developed communities by working closely with them to develop solutions that showcase the effectiveness of solutions in domains that strike a chord with the beneficiaries. This is made possible by bringing together researchers, practitioners from industry, academia, local governments, and various entities such as the IEEE Robotics Automation Society's Special Interest Group on Humanitarian Technology (RAS-SIGHT), NGOs, and NPOs across the globe. In this keynote, I will discuss a demining challenge that I have been co-organizing with the intent of producing an open-source solution for detecting and classifying buried unexploded ordnance. I will also outline my recent efforts in the technology and public policy domains with emphasis on socio-economic, cultural, privacy, and security issues in developing and developed economies. Finally, I will draw my conclusions based on the competitions and challenges that have been organized from industrial, academic, and humanitarian viewpoints and how their impacts could be assessed.