Ken Goldberg: 4 lessons from robots about being human

Translator: Morton Bast Reviewer: Thu-Huong Ha

翻译人员: Troy Zheng 校对人员: Hanqiang Shan

I know this is going to sound strange,

我知道这听起来很奇怪，

but I think robots can inspire us to be better humans.

但我认为机器人可以启发我们

去做更好的人。

我在宾夕法尼亚州的伯利恒长大，

See, I grew up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania,

the home of Bethlehem Steel.

那里是伯利恒钢铁之乡。

My father was an engineer,

我的父亲是一名工程师，

当我一天天长大，他教给我

and when I was growing up, he would teach me how things worked.

事物是如何运行的。

我们在一起做项目

We would build projects together,

like model rockets and slot cars.

比如火箭模型和插槽汽车。

Here's the go-kart that we built together.

这里是我们一起做的卡丁车。

方向盘后面这个是我

That's me behind the wheel,

with my sister and my best friend at the time.

还有我的妹妹和我当时最好的朋友，

And one day,

一天，

he came home, when I was about 10 years old,

他回家，那时我10 岁左右

and at the dinner table, he announced

在饭桌上，他宣布

that for our next project, we were going to build ...

下一个项目，我们打算做一个机器人。

a robot.

A robot.

一个机器人。

当时，我超级激动

Now, I was thrilled about this,

because at school, there was a bully named Kevin,

因为在学校，

有名叫凯文的小霸王

老是欺负我

and he was picking on me,

because I was the only Jewish kid in class.

因为我是班里唯一的犹太孩子。

So I couldn't wait to get started to work on this,

所以我迫不及待要开始着手做

so I could introduce Kevin to my robot.

这样我就可以让凯文认识认识我的机器人。（笑声）

(Laughter)

(Robot noises)

(机器人噪音）

(Laughter)

But that wasn't the kind of robot my dad had in mind.

但这并不是的我爸爸想的那种机器人。

(Laughter)

See, he owned a chromium-plating company,

你看，他拥有一家镀铬公司

and they had to move heavy steel parts between tanks of chemicals.

他们不得不得在

大量的化学品中搬运重钢部件

所以他需要像这样的工业机器人

And so he needed an industrial robot like this,

that could basically do the heavy lifting.

基本上要能做托举的事。

But my dad didn't get the kind of robot he wanted, either.

但我爸没得到他想要的那种机器人，

He and I worked on it for several years,

我和他研究了几年，

but it was the 1970s, and the technology that was available to amateurs

但当时是 1970 年代，

暂时还没有

提供给业余人士的技术

just wasn't there yet.

So Dad continued to do this kind of work by hand.

所以爸爸继续手工做这种工作

And a few years later,

几年以后，

he was diagnosed with cancer.

他被诊断出患上癌症

You see,

你看，我们在试着做的机器人

what the robot we were trying to build was telling him

正告诉他别做重型起重。

was not about doing the heavy lifting.

It was a warning

这是向他发出别接触有毒化学品的警告。

about his exposure to the toxic chemicals.

他那时并没有意识到，

He didn't recognize that at the time,

and he contracted leukemia.

他还染上了白血病，

And he died at the age of 45.

45 岁的时候去世了

我被击溃了，

I was devastated by this.

And I never forgot the robot that he and I tried to build.

然而我永远不会忘了我们尝试做的机器人。

When I was at college, I decided to study engineering, like him.

我在大学的时候，决定修读工程学，就像他一样。

我去了卡耐基梅隆大学，取得了我的机器人技术博士学位。

And I went to Carnegie Mellon, and I earned my PhD in robotics.

I've been studying robots ever since.

从那时起我一直研究机器人。

So what I'd like to tell you about are four robot projects,

所以我想告诉你们的是

四 个机器人项目

还有他们如何鼓舞我成为一个更好的人。

and how they've inspired me to be a better human.

By 1993, I was a young professor at USC,

1993 年，我是南加州大学的年轻教授

and I was just building up my own robotics lab,

我刚建好我自己的机器人技术实验室，

and this was the year the World Wide Web came out.

这也是互联网出来的那一年，

And I remember my students were the ones who told me about it,

我记得我的学生就是那些

那些告诉我互联网的人

and we would -- we were just amazed.

我们当时都十分惊叹。

We started playing with this, and that afternoon,

我们开始摆弄，那天下午，

we realized that we could use this new, universal interface

我们意识到我们可以利用这个新的、 通用的接口

to allow anyone in the world to operate the robot in our lab.

使得世界上任何人

都能操作在我们实验室的机器人。

于是，我们打算造播种机

So, rather than have it fight or do industrial work,

we decided to build a planter,

而不是用机器人来打架或是投入工业

put the robot into the center of it,

把它放进播种机中间，

and we called it the Telegarden.

我们管它叫Telegrarden。

And we had put a camera in the gripper of the hand of the robot,

我们还放了一台相机在机器人把手的

抓手上，我们写了一些特殊的脚本

and we wrote some special scripts and software,

和软件，如此一来，世界上任何人都能进来

so that anyone in the world could come in,

并通过在屏幕上单击

and by clicking on the screen,

they could move the robot around and visit the garden.

就可以移动机器人

还能参观花园。

But we also set up some other software

而且，我们同时还设置一些其他软件

that lets you participate and help us water the garden, remotely.

允许你们参与和帮助我们在花园远程浇水

如果你多浇它几次，

And if you watered it a few times,

we'd give you your own seed to plant.

我们就会给你些种子，自己来种。

Now, this was an engineering project,

这是一个项目，工程项目

and we published some papers on the system design of it,

我们发表了一些论文，关于它的设计，

系统的设计，但我们也把它看做

but we also thought of it as an art installation.

是一种艺术装置。

It was invited, after the first year,

一年后，它被请到

by the Ars Electronica Museum in Austria,

奥地利的 Ars 电子乐博物馆里去

to have it installed in their lobby.

装在他们的大厅里，

我很高兴地说，将近九年

And I'm happy to say, it remained online there, 24 hours a day,

一天二十四小时，它依然在线运行。

for almost nine years.

That robot was operated by more people

操纵这个机器人的人

than any other robot in history.

比史上任何一个机器人都多

Now, one day,

有一天，

I got a call out of the blue from a student,

我突然接到一个意外的电话

一个学生打来的

who asked a very simple but profound question.

问了一个非常简单但又深刻的问题。

他说，“机器人是真的吗？”

He said, "Is the robot real?"

Now, everyone else had assumed it was,

所有人都觉得它是，

and we knew it was, because we were working with it.

而我们知道，因为我们和它一同工作。

But I knew what he meant,

但我知道他的意思，

because it would be possible

因为它将有可能拍一组花园里

to take a bunch of pictures of flowers in a garden

花朵的图片，然后，基本上，把索引加到

and then, basically, index them in a computer system,

在计算机系统里，这样就看起来

such that it would appear that there was a real robot,

像是真有这么一个机器人，而实际上没有。

when there wasn't.

And the more I thought about it,

我越是想到这个问题，我越是想不出

I couldn't think of a good answer for how he could tell the difference.

一个好答案，来告诉他个中区别

那时有个恰巧的时机，我被提供一个职位，

This was right about the time that I was offered a position

在这里，加州大学柏克莱分校，

here at Berkeley.

And when I got here,

我来这里，我咨询了休伯特 · 福斯，

I looked up Hubert Dreyfus,

who's a world-renowned professor of philosophy,

世界知名的哲学教授，

And I talked with him about this and he said,

我和他谈到这一点，他说：

"这是哲学里最古老和最核心的问题之一

"This is one of the oldest and most central problems in philosophy.

这要追溯到怀疑论者，

It goes back to the Skeptics and up through Descartes.

直到笛卡尔。

It's the issue of epistemology,

这是认识论的问题，

the study of how do we know that something is true."

是研究我们怎么知道什么是真的."

So he and I started working together,

所以我和他开始一起工作，

and we coined a new term: "telepistemology,"

我们创造了一个新名词： telepistemology，

对知识的远程研究。

the study of knowledge at a distance.

We invited leading artists, engineers and philosophers

我们邀请了著名艺术家、 工程师、

还有哲学家，就此写论文

to write essays about this,

and the results are collected in this book from MIT Press.

这些结果收录在麻省理工学院出版社出版的

这本书里。

So thanks to this student,

谢谢这位对人人都信以为真的东西，

who questioned what everyone else had assumed to be true,

提出质疑的学生

this project taught me an important lesson about life,

这个项目教给我人生重要的一课，

which is to always question assumptions.

那就是总是质疑假设。

Now, the second project I'll tell you about

现在，我要告诉你们第二个项目

grew out of the Telegarden.

是由Telegarden 培养起来的。

As it was operating, my students and I were very interested

在它运行期间，我和我的学生都很感兴趣

in how people were interacting with each other,

人们直接如何彼此互动

and what they were doing with the garden.

他们在花园里做什么。

所以我们开始思考，如果机器人能离开

So we started thinking:

what if the robot could leave the garden

花园，出到其他一些

and go out into some other interesting environment?

有趣的环境

Like, for example, what if it could go to a dinner party

比如，如果它走到白宫

去参加一个晚宴？（笑声）

at the White House?

(Laughter)

So, because we were interested more in the system design

于是，因为我们更感兴趣的是系统设计

and the user interface than in the hardware,

以及用户界面而非硬件

we decided that,

我们决定，并非是要

rather than have a robot replace the human to go to the party,

机器人代替人去参加聚会，

we'd have a human replace the robot.

我们会有人代替机器人去。

We called it the Tele-Actor.

我们叫它远程演员。

We got a human,

我们有这么一个人，

someone who's very outgoing and gregarious,

一个非常外向和合群的人，

and she was outfitted with a helmet with various equipment,

给她配了头盔

还有各种设备、 摄像头和麦克风，

cameras and microphones,

and then a backpack with wireless Internet connection.

还有一个带无线网络连接的背包

And the idea was that she could go

我们的想法是，她进到一个远程的

into a remote and interesting environment,

有趣的环境中，然后通过互联网，

and then over the Internet,

people could experience what she was experiencing.

人们可以经历她所经历的

So they could see what she was seeing,

他们可以看到她所看到的，

but then, more importantly, they could participate,

然后，更重要的是，他们能够通过彼此的互动

by interacting with each other and coming up with ideas

来参与其中

并且想出她下一步该做什么

about what she should do next and where she should go,

她该去哪里

and then conveying those to the Tele-Actor.

然后把这些想法传输给远程演员。

So we got a chance to take the Tele-Actor

于是我们得到一个机会让远程演员

to the Webby Awards in San Francisco.

去旧金山的威比奖现场

And that year, Sam Donaldson was the host.

那一年，主持人是山姆 · 唐纳森。

在大幕升起之前，我只有大约 30 秒

Just before the curtain went up, I had about 30 seconds

向唐纳森先生解释，我们打算干嘛

to explain to Mr. Donaldson what we were going to do.

我说：“远程演员

And I said, "The Tele-Actor is going to be joining you onstage.

将会加入你，和你一同站在台上，

This is a new experimental project,

这是一个新的实验项目，

人们在他们的屏幕上看着她

and people are watching her on their screens,

there's cameras involved and there's microphones

她有相机

有麦克风，在她的耳边，还有耳塞

and she's got an earbud in her ear,

and people over the network are giving her advice

网络上的人会给她建议

告诉她接下来做什么"。

about what to do next."

他说，"等一下，

And he said, "Wait a second.

That's what I do."

这不是我干的事吗”（笑声）

(Laughter)

So he loved the concept,

他爱这个理念，

and when the Tele-Actor walked onstage, she walked right up to him,

当远程演员走上舞台的时候，

她径直走向他，给了他一个大大的吻

and she gave him a big kiss right on the lips.

正好吻在嘴唇上。（笑声）

(Laughter)

We were totally surprised -- we had no idea that would happen.

我们完全惊到了。

我们根本不知道会发生这个。

And he was great, he just gave her a big hug in return,

他很棒。他就回以她一个热烈的拥抱，

and it worked out great.

效果很好

But that night, as we were packing up,

但那天晚上，当我们在打包的时候，

I asked the Tele-Actor, how did the Tele-Directors decide

我问那个远程演员，远程导演们怎么会

决定他们要向 山姆·唐纳森献吻？

that they would give a kiss to Sam Donaldson?

And she said they hadn't.

她说：他们没有

She said, when she was just about to walk onstage,

她说，当她刚要走上台时，

the Tele-Directors still were trying to agree on what to do,

远程导演们仍在试图达成一致到底要做什么，

and so she just walked onstage and did what felt most natural.

因此她刚刚走上舞台，就做了

感觉最自然的事。（笑声）

(Laughter)

So, the success of the Tele-Actor that night

这样，远程演员当夜的成功

was due to the fact that she was a wonderful actor.

归功于她是个很棒的演员。

She knew when to trust her instincts.

她知道何时该相信她的本能，

And so that project taught me another lesson about life,

因此，这个项目教给我，人生的另一课

which is that, when in doubt, improvise.

也就是，纠结时，即兴来。（笑声）

(Laughter)

Now, the third project grew out of my experience

第三个项目是基于

我父亲在医院时，我的经验。

when my father was in the hospital.

他在接受治疗，

He was undergoing a treatment -- chemotherapy treatments --

化疗，还有个相关的疗法

and there's a related treatment called brachytherapy,

被称为近距离放疗，很小，放射性的籽

where tiny, radioactive seeds are placed into the body

被放到身体里，来治疗癌性肿瘤。

to treat cancerous tumors.

And the way it's done, as you can see here,

做的方法，你可以看到，在这儿

is that surgeons insert needles into the body

外科医生将针插入身体

to deliver the seeds.

把籽送进去，这所有的一切，

And all these needles are inserted in parallel.

所有这些针都并排插进去，

So it's very common that some of the needles penetrate sensitive organs.

所以经常地，有些针

会穿透易受伤的器官，结果就是

And as a result, the needles damage these organs, cause damage,

这些针损伤了这些器官， 造成了伤害

which leads to trauma and side effects.

造成了创伤和副作用。

So my students and I wondered:

所以我和我的学生们想知道，如果我们可以

what if we could modify the system,

改进这个系统

so that the needles could come in at different angles?

那么，针能从不同的角度进去吗？

So we simulated this;

所以我们模拟了这个，开发了一些

we developed some optimization algorithms and we simulated this.

优化算法。我们模拟的这个

And we were able to show

能够表明我们是可以避开

that we are able to avoid the delicate organs,

脆弱的器官并且仍然能够实现对

and yet still achieve the coverage of the tumors with the radiation.

肿瘤范围的辐射。

So now, we're working with doctors at UCSF

我们正在和加州大学旧金山分校的医生

and engineers at Johns Hopkins,

还有约翰 · 霍普金斯大学的工程师

and we're building a robot that has a number of --

一起制作一个具有很多的

it's a specialized design with different joints

专门的设计带着不同的接头的机器人，可以使得

that can allow the needles to come in at an infinite variety of angles.

针能从无限多个角度进来，

And as you can see here, they can avoid delicate organs

你还可以在这里看到，它们能避开脆弱的器官

且仍然触及它们所瞄准的目标。

and still reach the targets they're aiming for.

那么，通过质疑所有针都需要平行这种假设

So, by questioning this assumption that all the needles have to be parallel,

这个项目还教给我

this project also taught me an important lesson:

重要的一课： 当有疑问的时候 — —

When in doubt, when your path is blocked, pivot.

当前路受阻的时候，换个角度。

And the last project also has to do with medical robotics.

最后一个项目也跟医疗机器人技术有关。

And this is something that's grown out of a system

这是从一个叫做达芬奇手术机器人

called the da Vinci surgical robot.

的系统里产生的，

And this is a commercially available device.

这是一个商业上可用的设备。

It's being used in over 2,000 hospitals around the world.

在世界各地，超过 2000 家医院正在使用它

它使外科医生

The idea is it allows the surgeon to operate comfortably

能在他自己舒服的地盘里手术

in his own coordinate frame.

但许多手术中的子任务

Many of the subtasks in surgery are very routine and tedious, like suturing,

是非常例行公事和又乏味的，比如缝合，

and currently, all of these are performed

然而目前，所有这些都在外科医生特定的

under the specific and immediate control of the surgeon.

实时的控制之下完成的。

So the surgeon becomes fatigued over time.

因此，随着时间的推移，外科医生变得倦怠。

我们想知道，

And we've been wondering,

what if we could program the robot to perform some of these subtasks,

我们是否能给机器人编程，

来让它执行这些子任务的一部分

and thereby free the surgeon

从而把外科医生解放出来，去关注

to focus on the more complicated parts of the surgery,

手术更复杂的部分

and also cut down on the time that the surgery would take

同时还能省下外科手术所需的时间

if we could get the robot to do them a little bit faster?

如果我们让机器人做得快点的话

Now, it's hard to program a robot to do delicate things like this.

给机器人编程做这样精细的事是很难的

不过我的同事，来自加州大学伯克利分校的

But it turns out my colleague Pieter Abbeel, who's here at Berkeley,

这儿的Pieter Abbeel，开发了

has developed a new set of techniques for teaching robots from example.

一套新的技术，用实例来教会机器人

So he's gotten robots to fly helicopters,

他已经教会机器人驾驶直升机，

do incredibly interesting, beautiful acrobatics,

通过看专业人士飞行

by watching human experts fly them.

来做不可思议的、有趣的、美妙的特技。

我们拿到这些机器人中的一个。

So we got one of these robots.

We started working with Pieter and his students.

我们开始和彼得还有他的学生们一起工作

And we asked a surgeon to perform a task --

我们请了一位外科医生来操作

一项任务。而我们做的就是和机器人一起

with the robot.

So what we're doing is asking the surgeon to perform the task,

我们在做的就是让机器人，

进行外科医生的任务

and we record the motions of the robot.

然后我们记录机器人的动作。

So here's an example.

这是一个例子。我要用数字8

I'll use tracing out a figure eight as an example.

用描出一个数字8作例子

这是机器人做的样子

So here's what it looks like when the robot --

this is what the robot's path looks like, those three examples.

这是机器人描出来的样子

这有三个例子。

Now, those are much better than what a novice like me could do,

这些比新手做的好很多

比如我所做的。但他们仍是生涩且不精确。

but they're still jerky and imprecise.

So we record all these examples, the data,

所以我们记录所有这些例子，数据，

然后我们进行一系列步骤。

and then go through a sequence of steps.

首先，我们使用一种从语音识别里来的

First, we use a technique called dynamic time warping

from speech recognition.

叫做动态时间规整的技术。这使我们

And this allows us to temporally align all of the examples.

能暂时匹配的所有示例，

And then we apply Kalman filtering, a technique from control theory,

然后我们应用卡尔曼滤波，

一种来自控制论的技术，使我们

that allows us to statistically analyze all the noise

能够统计上分析所有的噪音

并提取所需的对应轨迹

and extract the desired trajectory that underlies them.

Now we take those human demonstrations --

我们在做的是考虑那些

they're all noisy and imperfect --

人类的操作演示，它们都是嘈杂的、不完美的

and we extract from them an inferred task trajectory

我们提取出一个推断出的任务轨迹

and control sequence for the robot.

以及控制机器人的程序

We then execute that on the robot,

然后我们用机器人来执行，

we observe what happens,

我们观察会发生什么情况，

then we adjust the controls,

然后我们用一系列技术来调整控件

using a sequence of techniques called iterative learning.

这叫做迭代学习。

Then what we do is we increase the velocity a little bit.

接下来我们做的是，稍微提高速率。

We observe the results, adjust the controls again,

根据我们观察到的结果，再次调整控件

观察会发生什么情况。

and observe what happens.

And we go through this several rounds.

我们检查好几轮

And here's the result.

这是结果。

That's the inferred task trajectory,

这就是推断出的任务的轨迹，

and here's the robot moving at the speed of the human.

这是以人类的速度运行的机器人。

Here's four times the speed of the human.

这是人类的速度的四倍。

Here's seven times.

这里是七倍。

And here's the robot operating at 10 times the speed of the human.

这是以人速十倍

运行的机器人

So we're able to get a robot to perform a delicate task

所以，我们要想能够让机器人来做精细的任务，

like a surgical subtask,

比如外科的子任务，

at 10 times the speed of a human.

就要以人的速度十倍来进行。

So this project also,

所以这项目，也有，因其涉及的实践

because of its involved practicing and learning,

与学习，反复做某些事

doing something over and over again,

this project also has a lesson, which is:

这个项目也教了一课，就是，

if you want to do something well,

如果你想要做好什么事，

没有什么能替代实践、 实践、 实践。

there's no substitute for practice, practice, practice.

所以这些就是这么多年来

So these are four of the lessons that I've learned from robots

我从机器人那里学来的四课

over the years.

机器人学，机器人技术领域随着时间的过去

And the field of robotics has gotten much better over time.

已经进步很多

Nowadays, high school students can build robots,

如今，高中学生可以造机器人

like the industrial robot my dad and I tried to build.

像我爸爸和我尝试造的工业机器人

But, it's very -- now ...

现在，我有了一个女儿，

And now, I have a daughter,

named Odessa.

叫敖德萨。

She's eight years old.

她八岁

And she likes robots, too.

也喜欢的机器人

Maybe it runs in the family.

也许是在家里跑动的。（笑声）

(Laughter)

I wish she could meet my dad.

我多希望她能够见到我爸爸。

And now I get to teach her how things work,

现在我要教她事物是如何工作的，

and we get to build projects together.

我们开始一起做项目，我不知道

And I wonder what kind of lessons she'll learn from them.

她会向它们学到怎样的经验

Robots are the most human of our machines.

机器人是我们这些机械中

最像人的。

They can't solve all of the world's problems,

他们不能解决所有的世界问题，

but I think they have something important to teach us.

但我认为他们有重要的事情要教我们。

I invite all of you

我请大家来思考

to think about the innovations that you're interested in,

你感兴趣的创新

the machines that you wish for.

你想要的机器

And think about what they might be telling you.

想想他们可能会告诉你什么，

因为我有一种预感

Because I have a hunch that many of our technological innovations,

我们的很多技术革新，

the devices we dream about,

我们梦想的装置

可以激励我们做更好的人类。

can inspire us to be better humans.

Thank you.

谢谢。（掌声）

(Applause)