Milestone-Proposal talk:Shakey: The World’s First Mobile, Intelligent Robot, 1972

Advocate's comments -- Savini (talk) 07:34, 19 April 2016 (CDT)

As the advocate for the proposal, I do appreciate the proposed recognition of the remarkable step forward in the evolution of robotics represented by Shakey, the first research robot to be able to reason about its own actions. As a matter of fact, it was not a single achievement since it incorporated a collection of achievements particularly in computational methods, which had a long-term impact on the development of robotics and artificial intelligence, in general. The documentation provided is more than sufficient. Let me just put forward a few remarks: 1. The proposed citation is pretty short (less than 60 words). Therefore there is room, for instance, to mention the location and the inventor, if this is welcome. As a result, the starting sentence might read " Shakey, the world's first mobile intelligent robot, invented by Charles A. Rosen at the Stanford Research Institute, could perceive its surrounding ....". 2. In the title delete the comma between Mobile and Intelligent in the similar way as in the citation. 3. In the last but one line replace "critical" by "seminal".

Re: Advocate's comments -- Bberg (talk) 20:02, 29 April 2016 (CDT)

Thanks very much for your quick action on this submission! I have discussed your excellent comments with Peter Hart. Here are the actions taken. Re: #1: added Stanford Research Institute, but not any city since SRI moved from the Stanford campus to Menlo Park during the development period; did not add an inventor since this was a team effort, and including the name of just the late Charles A. Rosen was felt to not be what he would have wanted. Re #2: good comment - done. Re #3: good comment - done.

Citation - use of the term "first" -- Djkemp (talk) 14:11, 8 May 2016 (CDT)

The milestone guidelines caution on the use of the term "first". This milestone proposal does offer a description of some "first" characteristics of the robot's development and design. This however does not substantiate it being called "the world’s first mobile, intelligent robot". Perhaps those in the field of interest might be able to offer substantiating comments.

Re: Citation - use of the term "first" -- Bberg (talk) 16:44, 1 June 2016 (CDT)

The lengthy and methodically organized material in the proposal should substantiate the claim that SHAKEY was the world’s first mobile, intelligent robot.

First, in Section 3, re: “...what sets this work apart", three earlier systems that had even the most remote connection to SHAKEY are discussed.

Two of these ("Turtle" and the "Beast") were mobile devices. Turtle had the sole function of moving either towards or away from a light, and the Beast tried to plug itself into a wall socket to recharge its batteries. There appears to be no record of either of these ever being called “intelligent” by either their designers or anyone else. Unlike SHAKEY, neither of these could do any of the following: “...perceive its surroundings, infer implicit facts from explicit ones, create plans, recover from errors in plan execution, [or] communicate using ordinary English.” This quote is from the citation, and is amplified in the write-up, and supports our use of the term "intelligent."

The third predecessor system noted in the proposal is the Unimate, a mechanical arm for factory automation. The Section 3 write-up is very specific about the many fundamental distinctions between those of SHAKEY and those of the Unimate.

Section 1.3 also details the SHAKEY panel at the 2015 meeting of the International Conference on Robotics and Automation, which was populated by an eminent panel of robotics academics. A link to a video of the panel is included in that section, along with a summary of the panel’s description of SHAKEY as being “the first physical system with computational abilities to perceive, reason and act” to set the context for the panel’s conclusion. (Note that this statement is broader than just robots.)

“Mobility” was obvious and therefore not mentioned in the write-up, but viewing the 24-minute archive video linked in the proposal shows that SHAKEY was indeed mobile when it was created - in fact, its name came from its shakiness as it moved about.

Viewing that archive video, and considering the preceding statements, will hopefully leave no doubt that SHAKEY was indeed the world’s first mobile, intelligent robot.

Re: Re: Citation - use of the term "first" -- Allisonmarsh (talk) 13:31, 3 June 2016 (CDT)

I encourage all members of the History Committee to review the materials to see if we all agree that this is a place for using the word first.

Change from passive voice -- Allisonmarsh (talk) 13:30, 3 June 2016 (CDT)

I suggest the following change to the first sentence: Stanford Research Institute's Artificial Intelligence Center developed the world’s first mobile intelligent robot, SHAKEY.

Re: Change from passive voice -- Savini (talk) 05:18, 6 June 2016 (CDT)

Replace this text with your reply

Allison's remark puts the stress on the place (SRI) rather than on the object (SHAKEY). I accept her suggestion as well

This looks better with those amendments -- Microman (talk) 08:23, 6 June 2016 (CDT)

And I'll vote in favour. Roland