How to Negotiate with Robots

Kurzweil Accelerating Intelligence - 5.5.13

Everything around us is getting smarter.

Credit: Zipcar

Vehicles, robots and other autonomous devices could soon collaborate with humans, thanks to researchers at MIT who are developing systems capable of negotiating with people to determine the best way to achieve their goals.

“In general, everything around us is getting smarter,” says Brian Williams, a professor of aeronautics and astronautics and leader of the Model-Based Embedded and Robotic Systems group within MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. “So we’re trying to allow people to interact with these increasingly autonomous systems in the same way that they would interact with another human.”

Ultimately such systems could be used to control autonomous vehicles, such as personal aircraft and driverless cars. But in the short term, Williams and graduate student Peng Yu are developing systems to allow conventional vehicles to work with their drivers to plan routes and schedules.

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