Transcript Engineering Cybernetics - SUNYIT Computer Science Department

Engineering Cybernetics
Eleanor Cole
And
Frank Conover
What is cybernetics?
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“Cybernetics” comes from a Greek word
meaning “the art of steering”
About having a goal and taking actions to
achieve that goal
Involves a feedback system
Began in natures, was referenced by Plato
and made popular by Norbert Wiener
What is engineering cybernetics?
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Established by H.S. Tsien
Sub-field of cybernetics
Used to control and predict behavior of
certain systems like mechatronic and
chemical
Is an engineering science
The Purpose of Engineering
Cybernetics
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To study the parts of cybernetics with direct
applications in designing controlled or guided
systems
The 1960s - Technology
“Some Moral and Technical Consequences of
Automation” - Norbert Wiener
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Machines had become very effective and even
dangerous.
Game Playing
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“War Games”
Artificial Intelligence
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“Terminator” - Skynet
The 1960s - Consequences
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New man-machine relationship
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Blurring of the boundary between machine
and organism
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Apollo, Cuban Missile Crisis, Computers
Cybernetics, Systems Theory, Intelligent
Computers
Threaten the existence of humans
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Hydrogen Bomb
The Cyborg
A cybernetic organism has both artificial and
natural systems.
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Fictional
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“The Six Million Dollar Man”
Real
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Prosthetics
Feedback: a prosthetic leg, may have sensors to aid in
walking
Cyborgs are Safe
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Concerns over automation, replacement of
workers, and unemployment.
Master and slave reversing, malfunctions,
technology out of control.
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US astronaut John Glenn: “Let man take over!”
“2001: A Space Odyssey”
Asimov first law of Robotics
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A robot may not injure human beings. “I,Robot”
Cybernetic Anthropomorphous
Machine
Possibly the climax of Engineering Cybernetics in the
1960s.
 A gigantic cyborg robot that moved by following the
movement of the human inside of it.
 General Electric's Schenectady plant
 11 feet tall, 3,000 pounds, four-legs
 Feedback System
 Prototype of more advanced systems being built
such as Military Exoskeleton – super soldier.
Suspicion
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In spite of such achievements technology
continues to scare people.
Considered more threatening than promising.
Avatar - Amplified Mobility Platform "AMP"
Suit
CAM - 1969
AMP - 2154
Cybernetics Today
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Concepts and origins of cybernetics are
being revisited
Lack of success with AI has lead to greater
curiosity as towards what a brain does, and
views on the biology of cognition
Designers are rediscovering the needs for
rigorous models of goals, interactions, and
systems limitations
Cybernetics Today (cont)
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Notable figures in the development of
modern cybernetics are Norbert Wiener,
William Ashby, and Warren McCulloch
It is an important subject in many academic
and scientific fields
Questions? Comments?
Sources
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http://www.pangaro.com/published/cyber-macmillan.html
http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/SPT/v7n3/hong.html
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,900752,00.ht
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http://cyberneticzoo.com/?tag=quadruped-walking-machine
http://www.ehow.com/about_5185625_history-cybernetics.html