Engineering Cybernetics

Eleanor Cole

And

Frank Conover

What is cybernetics?

“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?

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

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– Machines had become very effective and even

dangerous. – Game Playing

“War Games”

– Artificial Intelligence “Terminator” - Skynet

The 1960s - Consequences

New man-machine relationship– Apollo, Cuban Missile Crisis, Computers

Blurring of the boundary between machine and organism– Cybernetics, Systems Theory, Intelligent

Computers

Threaten the existence of humans– Hydrogen Bomb

The Cyborg

A cybernetic organism has both artificial and natural systems.– Fictional

“The Six Million Dollar Man”

– Real Prosthetics Feedback: a prosthetic leg, may have sensors to aid in

walking

Cyborgs are Safe

Concerns over automation, replacement of workers, and unemployment.

Master and slave reversing, malfunctions, technology out of control.

US astronaut John Glenn: “Let man take over!” “2001: A Space Odyssey”

Asimov first law of Robotics– 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

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

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)

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

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.html http://cyberneticzoo.com/?tag=quadruped-walking-machine http://www.ehow.com/about_5185625_history-cybernetics.html