ALBAWABA - School, where students go to learn and become part of society, is no longer limited to just humans, as school for robots opens in eastern China - classes, tests, graduation; the whole thing.
This comes as China faces a discrepancy between their investment into robot development and their real-life use and applications; “Enterprises have done well with hardware but lag in software,” said Jin Xinglai, a robotics firm executive. Their solution to make robots more useful, it seems, is to send them to school.
The robot school is the brainchild of Zhejiang University’s Robotics Institute in partnership with provincial quality-inspection authorities and local government agencies, according to state TV. The curriculum will focus on teaching the robots ethics, communication, movement, and scenario-based decision-making.
The robots will undergo classes such as cognitive development, object recognition, conversation, emotional interaction, movement and navigation - all in an effort to teach robots more than just memorized responses.
“We’ve built a complete educational system, modelled on human training institutions,” said Zhu Shiqiang, founder of the Hangzhou Robot School. “It covers ethics, laws and regulations, and a full set of specialized courses.”
After finishing the curriculum, each robot undergoes an evaluation, ‘finals’ if you will, and depending on the evaluation they are placed in tracks such as physical training, arts, technical skills or health care. After they receive their ‘degree’ - a specialized skill level certificate - they are given a unique code to work in their specialized fields.
“What our robots earn is not just a certificate,” Zhu said, “but a system of training that can keep improving in real-world use.”
