Robohub.org
 

Robotics has a new kind of Cartesian Dualism, and it’s just as unhelpful


by
22 July 2013



share this:

I believe robotics has re-invented mind-body dualism.

At the excellent European Robotics Forum earlier this year, I attended a workshop called AI meets Robotics. The thinking behind the workshop was:

The fields of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robotics were strongly connected in the early days of AI, but became mostly disconnected later on. While there are several attempts at tackling them together, these attempts remain isolated points in a landscape whose overall structure and extent is not clear. Recently, it was suggested that even the otherwise successful EC program “Cognitive systems and robotics” was not entirely effective in putting together the two sides of cognitive systems and of robotics.

I couldn’t agree more. Actually I would go further and suggest that robotics has a much bigger problem than we think. It’s a new kind of dualism which parallels Cartesian brain-mind dualism, except in robotics, it’s hardware-software dualism. And like Cartesian dualism it could prove just as unhelpful, both conceptually, and practically – in our quest to build intelligent robots.

While sitting in the workshop last week I realised rather sheepishly that I’m guilty of the same kind of dualistic thinking. In my Introduction to Robotics one of the (three) ways I define a robot is: an embodied Artificial Intelligence. And I go on to explain:

…a robot is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) with a physical body. The AI is the thing that provides the robot with its purposefulness of action, its cognition; without the AI the robot would just be a useless mechanical shell. A robot’s body is made of mechanical and electronic parts, including a microcomputer, and the AI made by the software running in the microcomputer. The robot analogue of mind/body is software/hardware. A robot’s software – its programming – is the thing that determines how intelligently it behaves, or whether it behaves at all.

But, as I said in the workshop, we must stop thinking of cognitive robots as either “a robot body with added AI”, or “an AI with added motors and sensors”. Instead we need a new kind of holistic approach that explicitly seeks to avoid this lazy “with added” thinking.

[This post originally appeared on Alan Winfield’s blog on March 24, 2013.]



tags: , , ,


Alan Winfield is Professor in robotics at UWE Bristol. He communicates about science on his personal blog.
Alan Winfield is Professor in robotics at UWE Bristol. He communicates about science on his personal blog.





Related posts :



Robot Talk Episode 126 – Why are we building humanoid robots?

  20 Jun 2025
In this special live recording at Imperial College London, Claire chatted to Ben Russell, Maryam Banitalebi Dehkordi, and Petar Kormushev about humanoid robotics.

Gearing up for RoboCupJunior: Interview with Ana Patrícia Magalhães

and   18 Jun 2025
We hear from the organiser of RoboCupJunior 2025 and find out how the preparations are going for the event.

Robot Talk Episode 125 – Chatting with robots, with Gabriel Skantze

  13 Jun 2025
In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Gabriel Skantze from KTH Royal Institute of Technology about having natural face-to-face conversations with robots.

Preparing for kick-off at RoboCup2025: an interview with General Chair Marco Simões

and   12 Jun 2025
We caught up with Marco to find out what exciting events are in store at this year's RoboCup.

Interview with Amar Halilovic: Explainable AI for robotics

  10 Jun 2025
Find out about Amar's research investigating the generation of explanations for robot actions.

Robot Talk Episode 124 – Robots in the performing arts, with Amy LaViers

  06 Jun 2025
In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Amy LaViers from the Robotics, Automation, and Dance Lab about the creative relationship between humans and machines.

Robot Talk Episode 123 – Standardising robot programming, with Nick Thompson

  30 May 2025
In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Nick Thompson from BOW about software that makes robots easier to program.

Congratulations to the #AAMAS2025 best paper, best demo, and distinguished dissertation award winners

  29 May 2025
Find out who won the awards presented at the International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems last week.



 

Robohub is supported by:




Would you like to learn how to tell impactful stories about your robot or AI system?


scicomm
training the next generation of science communicators in robotics & AI


©2025.05 - Association for the Understanding of Artificial Intelligence


 












©2025.05 - Association for the Understanding of Artificial Intelligence