Robots Absolute Genius Super Tech with Dick & Dom

This is... BOTH: Absolute Genius.

HE SCREAMS

Come with us as we dive into the wonderful world of technology.

This is mind blowing.

Each show we introduce you

to geniuses whose inventions have changed the world for ever.

We then take their tech

and supersize it in our Genius Tech Challenge.

THEY SHOUT

The question is - can they pull it off?

Is this his brain?

If you love gadgets, then strap yourself in.

-It's genius.

-Absolute Genius.

In this show we're finding out how robots

have leapt from the pages of fiction into reality.

And how in the future they could change the way we live.

Please say hello to Dick and Dom.

Plus we design our very own big, bad robot to destroy

some terrible old tech.

ALL: Yeah!

Today's show is all about robotics...

and I don't mean the dodgy dance from the '80s.

Prepare to have your mind blown

because these metal beasts aren't just in sci-fi movies,

no, they are real, and they are already helping us on a daily basis.

Welcome to the Genius world of robotics.

The idea of robots has been around for centuries.

Way back in 1495,

Leonardo da Vinci created a mechanical suit of amour that moved.

And they've been in the movies for well over 100 years.

But today, robots are real and in action.

Nasa has the Mars Rover, a robot on Mars sending images back to Earth.

In China there are robots serving people in restaurants.

And here at factories like this one,

robots are hard at work building cars.

This car plant has around 650 robots working.

They can work 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Yeah, turning over around a quarter of a million cars in a year!

But where did it all begin, who got the ball rolling?

Where did robots come from?

Well, it wasn't in the tech districts of Tokyo.

Or the Universities of America.

It was in the UK...

In glorious Bristol, by our first genius.

Meet the man who gave us the first-ever autonomous robot -

Dr William Grey Walter!

I'm a man - not a robot.

In the 1940s, William Grey Walter was a man

with an interesting hobby - building Robots.

They are small and he doesn't dress them up to look like men.

He calls them tortoises.

Robots had existed before Grey Walter,

but they were mechanical marvels that had to be wound up or cranked.

What he did was create two battery-powered machines.

They were the first true autonomous robots

and helped change technology for ever.

Grey Walter's invention was revolutionary

because the tortoises were fitted with sensors.

They were simple, but for the first time ever

a powered machine was able to change its actions based

on the world around it and that was genius.

So, we've come to Bristol, where it all began.

Delighted to meet you.

To tell us everything we need to know about Grey Walter's robots

is Genius helper Professor Alan Winfield -

who specialises in mobile robots.

There he is, or she is, we don't know the gender, do we?

-It.

-It.

Why was the tortoise so important?

It's now regarded as the world's first electronic,

autonomous, mobile robot.

Why was this so ground-breaking to technology at the time?

It's the way that the tortoise connects the sensors,

the electronics and the motors that was really new - in fact, radical.

And what kind of sensors has it got?

Two sensors, in fact - this thing right here is a light sensor.

-The robot is attracted to a bright light.

-Ah!

-TV PRESENTER:

-When light strikes the cell,

a driving and steering mechanism

sends her hurrying towards it, but if she brushes

against any object in her path, contacts are operated

that turn the steering away.

This switch arrangement means that whenever the shell is touched,

anywhere around the shell actually triggers the touch sensor.

No, that way. That way.

It doesn't follow any orders.

-No, it doesn't.

-It does its own thing.

It does... Entirely does its own thing.

I think these really were genius for their time, but how do they work?

BOTH: Fran!

-Are you ready?

-Our genius scientist friend Fran can explain things

in a way that even we can understand...

Oh, no, no!

-..and she loves a good experiment.

-Exactly.

Fran, we've seen the tortoises in action, but how do they work?

Well, I thought before you guys discover how they work,

I thought it would be best if you could be the tortoise.

We get to be human robot tortoises?

-Yes, you do.

-How?

Well, by using these.

-These?

-Dodgems? We get to go on dodgems?

-As part of our job with you?

-Yeah.

What? What? What?

-Yes!

-So you're in a dodgem

because you remember when the tortoise bashed into things?

It would change direction.

It would and dodgems do exactly that type of thing.

You are going to try and follow the light just like the tortoises

follow towards the light.

I want you to see like the tortoise sees - right?

Which is why you're going to be blindfolded.

And the only way you'll be able to see where you're going

is with this periscope.

I've put a filter on top, so you don't see the exact image,

you'll just see where light is coming from.

Cos I'm going to shine a flashing light

from somewhere in this arena

and you guys have got to get to it.

Right, folks, this should be interesting.

Strap on your seatbelts, we're off.

Dick is the touch sensor so he is going to be completely blindfolded.

Dom is the light sensor, so when he looks through the periscope,

he can only see this.

Using only these two senses, we've got

to work together to get all the way over to Fran.

She'll be flashing her light on and off so Dom can sense where she is.

Go!

Argh!

-Which way?

-I don't know.

-What do you mean you don't know?

Stop a minute!

Argh!

Hang on, I see something. Left.

No, no, the other left.

This place is full of flashing coloured lights,

so it's not making it very easy to find Fran's light.

-I can see something flashing.

-You're doing well.

That's right.

Come on. My tortoises could do it.

Right, right, right. No, left. No, left.

What do you mean left?

Go left. Left, left.

Left. That's it!

-We've got it.

-Is that right?

There she is!

Hey! Look at that.

It's not as easy as it looks being a tortoise.

Back to Fran's lab to find out what that was all about.

That was great fun, but I'm sure

there's some science in there somewhere.

There certainly was. When you guys were on the dodgems

you were acting like the tortoise.

Dom, you were the light sensor and, Dick,

you were the touch sensor,

but there was one main difference between you guys and the tortoises.

-OK, what's that?

-Intelligence, believe it or not.

When you were changing direction,

you thought about changing direction.

With the tortoise, there's no thought involved.

How does it work, then?

The sensors on the tortoise are a bit like an electrical reflex...

-Dick, could you just cross your legs for me, please?

-What for?

I'm going to make your leg move by hitting it with a hammer.

-Are you ready?

-Yeah.

Oy!

-Did you see that?

-Oy!

-That'll do.

-Has your leg moved yet?

-Yeah.

-But you weren't thinking about it, were you?

-No.

And that's a reflex. It's something that happens automatically.

It's the same thing with the tortoise.

When the tortoise bumps into something, it doesn't think

about changing direction, it's like someone has turned on a switch.

There's no intelligent thought involved at all.

So if the tortoise isn't intelligent,

where are we going to find an intelligent robot?

Well, to do that, you need to go to Boston.

Boston, Boston, I love Boston.

William Grey Walter had built the very first autonomous robots.

The genius idea of giving a machine senses would lay

the foundations for all modern robots -

from dancing ones to car-building ones.

While we jet off to Boston, here are the top five genius robots.

At five - need more kangaroo in your life? Good news!

Meet Bionic Kangaroo,

a fully robotic jumping kangaroo made by scientists in Germany.

Hoppy.

At four - it's Actroid-F. It's considered the world's

most life-like robot.

It's so realistic-looking that people think it's a real person.

At three - it's Robo Chef.

Sick of having to make your own food?

Well, Robo Chef is a fully automated, cooking robot

and may be whisking eggs near you soon.

At two - it's the Grandebot 2,000 - also known as Ariana Grande -

now with enhanced high notes.

Only joking - I just made that one up!

And at one. Don't want to do your art homework?

Well, Paul the drawing robot could be your new best friend.

Paul can focus on a person's face and sketch it.

Ahh, here we are. Hot and lovely Boston.

Thanks to Grey Walter, machines could change their movements

based on the environment around them.

But they were just electrical reactions -

they weren't actually thinking for themselves.

A truly thinking robot needs artificial intelligence.

That's why we've come to one of the world's top universities -

the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

And MIT is the home to our next genius,

who co-founded the artificial intelligence lab.

Let us introduce you to Professor Marvin Minsky.

I think, therefore I am.

In the 1950s, the idea that computers could one day

think for themselves only existed as a theory.

But it was our genius, Marvin Minsky, who started to turn it

into a reality when he co-founded the artificial intelligence lab

here at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

His genius idea was that you could give a computer

a set of pre-programmed rules

and those rules could allow it to decide its own actions.

He built the world's first ever neural network learning machine -

the first computer that worked like a brain.

It was modelled on a rat in a trap and was capable of using

its computer brain to work out an escape plan.

Got it? Good. Now, get out.

Today, machines that learn exist in a variety of forms.

From driverless cars that can decide how to navigate safely...

..to websites that know what type of movies you like.

But we're talking robots in this show.

So to show us one of the world's largest robots with

artificial intelligence, we've got genius helper from MIT Pat Marion.

-Hi, Pat.

-Hi, Dom.

-Who is this?

This is the atlas humanoid robot,

built by Boston Dynamics in Waltham, Massachusetts. Our team here at MIT

is doing the software development to control this robot.

Atlas was built to enter a competition called

the Darpa Robotics Challenge - a test to try and find a robot which

can work alone to enter dangerous buildings on rescue operations.

And the team at MIT are working on Atlas's artificial intelligence.

It's got eyes.

It does. This is its sensor head -

it's got a stereo pair of cameras here,

and a laser range finder.

Can you make this robot make its own decisions as opposed to you

telling it what to do every step of the way?

The robot does make a lot of decisions.

In fact, it has a control loop that is making a thousand

-decisions a second.

-Is it more intelligent than him?

-Right now? Maybe.

-You said a thousand thoughts a second, yeah?

I'm more like a fish.

Atlas's intelligence lies in its ability to scan its environment and

then make decisions about where to place its feet and how to balance.

So this could walk like a human, on its own,

making its own decisions without any visible support?

-That's right.

-Can we see it in action?

All right - let's do it.

So it's scanning everything?

Atlas is equipped with sensors, including lasers and cameras,

allowing it to constantly scan its surroundings.

To test it, Pat has put concrete blocks in its way.

Here it goes.

It's so humanlike...

the way it moves.

Brilliant.

Well done, Atlas.

Atlas can even react to unexpected knocks.

That's not very nice.

Atlas is continuously making tiny adjustments to its body

so it doesn't fall over.

This is what we're talking about here.

It's making its own decisions and they're split-second reactions.

Where do you see robots like Atlas in about five years' time?

We're going to see a lot more autonomy.

They'll be built stronger and lighter weight,

so they can move more quickly and get into more interesting areas.

You heard it here.

One day, they will take over the world.

A truly genius robot -

in part thanks to a true genius, Professor Marvin Minsky.

I'm officially intelligent.

But here's a robot that's not so clever.

It's The Not So Genius Idea!

HitchBOT was a Canadian robot designed to travel all over

the world by hitchhiking and taking photos of its travels.

HitchBOT had successfully travelled across Canada

and even visited Europe, popping to Germany.

But when it tried to travel across the USA

it was broken up by vandals. Naughty.

It looks like it might just be a bit too soon for humans

and robots to live together peacefully.

Still to come, we're going to destroy some of the worst tech ever

with the help of a robot friend of ours in our Genius Tech Challenge.

But first, we're back in Boston.

So far, we've seen the beginnings of the robot world in Bristol.

And here in Boston,

we've seen how robots of the future will have artificial intelligence.

But one day, the dream is to have robots helping us daily in our homes.

And our next genius is someone that has helped make that dream

a step closer to reality.

Ladies and gentlemen, we give you Satoshi Shigemi.

-Konnichiwa, Dick and Dom.

-What?

He's Japanese, you fool. We went there last series.

Oh, yeah. Konnichiwa.

Satoshi Shigemi is the chief engineer on a robot called

ASIMO - something he's been working on since the 1980s.

Although ASIMO has been around for a while, it has constantly been

updated and is now one of the most advanced humanoid robots.

Satoshi Shigemi is a true genius and we'd love to interview him.

But we can't because we're in Boston and he's in Tokyo.

Do we know anyone in Japan?

We do, actually - our lifelong friend.

We've only met her once.

Our good colleague, Leah from Newsround.

She's our second favourite Newsround presenter.

Let me just call her.

Oh, it's dialling.

PHONE RINGS

-Hello.

-Ah, hello, Leah.

It's Dom here. Dom from Dick and Dom.

We hear you're in Japan. Having a good time?

Well, I was just...

-Speaker.

-..maybe buy some souvenirs.

-Any chance you can do us a favour?

-No.

-Go on.

-No.

-Please.

-Fine.

-Good.

You know genius robotics engineer Satoshi Shigemi?

Could you interview him for us?

If I do that, will you leave me alone?

-Yeah.

-OK.

You really need to get off this phone

because it's costing me a fortune.

Aww, she's hung up. I think that went well.

Thanks, Leah.

While she heads to meet ASIMO and our genius,

we decided to have a bit of a gander around MIT -

and look what we've found.

Yes, it's a robot cheetah!

Oh, wow.... His head's fallen off.

THEY CHORTLE

How did you find that? It blew my head off.

Yeah, slightly awkward.

Let's hope Leah has better luck with ASIMO.

Hello, Leah.

Please say hello to Dick and Dom.

Oh, hello, ASIMO.

-Konnichiwa.

-Konnichiwa.

What is so special about ASIMO?

What can it do?

-TRANSLATION:

-In the initial stage, ASIMO was only able to walk.

However, ASIMO is now able to open a bottle and pour coffee.

Milk and two sugars, please, ASIMO.

What's the plan for ASIMO for the future?

Since ASIMO is multi-lingual,

at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics ASIMO

might be able to guide visitors in their mother tongue.

ASIMO: Let's shake hands to remember your visit.

Besides having a mean handshake, there is also the plan that

one day ASIMO will be able to help care for people in their homes.

I came for a delivery.

And you didn't spill a drop.

What advice would you give to future geniuses of technology?

Now, that is a good question.

Whatever you do, think how you can use your knowledge to help

people and think what kind of pleasure it could bring to them.

Thanks to our genius, Satoshi Shigemi, one day

we might all have a robot serving us dinner at home.

Absolute Genius.

We've seen how autonomous robots with sensors

have gone from being simple tortoises to human-like helpers.

It's official, robots are genius.

Yes, we've seen some pretty impressive robots.

The problem is they're just all a bit too good.

When you think of robots in the movies

you think about destruction!

So our Tech Challenge is to design and build our very own

destructive robot.

Here's the plan...

Our challenge is to come up with a robot that can do

some serious damage.

It's going to need some serious strength and firepower

because our machine of destruction has to successfully terminate

three of the worst pieces of technology ever.

Smash!

But that's not all.

Before our robot can annihilate the terrible tech, it has to get

to it, as each item will be hidden within a special protective case.

It's going to take everything we've learned about robotics

and more, but can we pull it off?

To help us build our robot, we've got our mate Grant Cooper,

who builds battle robots professionally.

But for our challenge, we're going to need Grant to make

the biggest robot he's ever built.

Grant, you've built robots for us before, but this time we want

one that's bigger and better - maybe with a little destructive edge.

It's got firepower - it crashes, it bashes.

We want lasers that come out the sides,

we want wheels that've got spikes on them.

We want big sharp teeth, chainsaws,

-bombs that can go and blow things up.

-Can you do it?

It sounds ambitious, but if you guys can come up with an idea,

we can create almost anything.

We dream the dreams and you make it a reality?

We've built loads of real scary machines

and robots before, so if you want to go

and take a look at some of them and come back with some ideas

-and we'll go from there.

-Robot time.

-Right, what have we got here?

-Look at the size of that hammer.

HE GRUNTS

One of them.

HE SQUAWKS

So a massive hammer in one hand, chainsaw in the other...

Yeah, but we need fire.

Right, so that's it.

-Fire finger, chainsaw, hammer hitting...

-Yeah.

-..penguin of doom.

-Let's go and draw it.

In a dress.

-Go on then, da Vinci.

-What kind of dress do we think?

Nice dress, flowers...

Lasers coming out of the flowers.

That's hardly menacing, is it?

-It's a crow's head.

-That's not destructive.

I'll give it evil eyebrows.

There you go. Evil eyebrows.

Well, Grant did say he could do pretty much anything...

except giving it a name.

What do you call it? Skeleton Donkey.

It is a Kleefstof.

-It says it there - Kleefstof. Kleefstof III.

-Perfect.

-Done.

Let's go and show Grant.

We've got a genius name and a genius robot - let's see

if Grant can make it. We think you're going to like this.

Sounds exciting.

-Erm...

-Do you like it?

What...what is it?

THEY LAUGH

Let's run you through what we've got here.

We've got a crow's head.

Two big arms - one's holding a chainsaw, the other a mallet.

We dream it, you make it.

Caterpillar tracks at the bottom, fire coming out of them,

all based on top of a donkey.

Firstly, I think

having tracks on the back of the donkey is a bad idea -

I'd lose the donkey.

Lose the donkey. Donkey gone.

I think the general idea - something on wheels and tracks

with a chainsaw and the flames certainly...

I think they're always a cool feature.

How about...? Could the flames come out of the beak?

-I don't see why not.

-So it's like a flame-throwing crow.

You've got some of the basics of a good idea in there.

So we'll go back to the drawing board, have a look...

No need because it's all here for you, Grant. Good luck.

-Thank you.

-And we'll see you on the dance floor.

-See you soon.

-He's off.

-Good day's work, that.

-I think so.

-All he's got to do is just weld it together, really.

A bit of cutting sheet steel. He's got the easy job.

We'll leave Grant to crack on and turn our genius idea

into a robot capable of destroying some of the worst tech ever.

The question is, though -

what is this bad tech that we're going to destroy?

Up first, the very worst in electronic gaming.

The Barcode Battler.

Who needs video games when you can scan barcodes

and battle other barcodes?

Next, representing possibly the worst

in home entertainment technology...

The Philips V2000.

The time has come for a company to create a more sophisticated system.

You could hardly rent any movies that would play on it

and tapes had to be turned over halfway through viewing.

Useless and annoying.

Finally for bad transport tech, it's the legendary Sinclair C5.

It was a powered tricycle that hardly anyone bought

and those that did got laughed at for using it.

It's been voted the worst gadget ever.

Now we know what it needs to destroy, it's time for us

to meet our robot!

Look at that!

It's exactly how we drew it.

Caterpillar tracks, flowery dress...

crow's head, flame thrower.

Chainsaw...

-Mallet.

-More than a mallet - it's a grabber.

I hope you like it. Threw it all in the mix and this is...

this is what happened.

You and your team did some work on this,

-but I think the real credit has to go to us.

-Yeah.

-Didn't we do well? Clever, aren't we?

-We did do this.

Genius, eh?

Right, let's destroy some really bad tech.

But to make things more difficult,

each piece of tech is hidden in something.

The Barcode Battler in a school desk,

the V2000 in a car

and the C5 in a shed.

To make sure we're super safe, we've got the fire brigade on standby.

Let see what Kleefstof is made of.

Kleefstof is genius, but, unlike ASIMO,

it can't think for itself, so we're taking the controls.

This robot is incredibly dangerous,

so we have to operate it from a safe distance.

Kleefstof, let's do this.

BELL DINGS Round One - the Barcode Battler.

Here we go!

I'm controlling where Kleefstof goes.

And I'm controlling how it destroys.

Yeah!

Barcode Battler!

-Yeah! Go on.

-I think you've done all the damage you need to.

All right. Well, let's go and assess it

and see if we've broken the Barcode Battler.

The desk was no match for Kleefstof, but the tech is intact...

What are the chances of that?

Everything is in bits apart from the Barcode Battler.

They made things well back then. Look at that.

Well done, technology. You win.

Let's move on to Round Two.

It's Bad Tech 1, Kleefstof 0.

Can Kleefstof redeem himself and prise the V2000

from inside the car and destroy it?

BELL DINGS Round Two.

Oh!

CRASH

That's it - Kleestof's eyes are on the prize.

-Wait!

-Nice and gentle.

Oh, yeah.

I tell you what. Let's knock the car over.

All right. Ready? Here we go. Right.

-Oh!

-Lift, lift.

Oh!

Come on!

-Keep going, keep going.

-Come on.

-That's it.

-Yeah!

Look! There's a bit of 2000. It's come out.

Oh, ya, ya, ya...

Surely that's got to have seen it off.

-There you are - some bad technology.

-Yeah, yeah.

-Busted.

-Look at that.

I think the car's worse off than this.

Anyway, Kleefstof versus Bad Technology, Kleefstof wins.

Kleefstof 1 Bad Tech 1.

It's the final round. Kleefstof will destroy

the legendary Sinclair C5.

We're going to chuck all this lot in there as well.

Yeah, the Philips 2000 and the Barcode Battler.

-Let's go.

-Love it.

-BELL DINGS

-Round Three.

-Let's do it.

-Time to bring out the fire power.

-No!

-Stop there.

Come on.

Boogie on down.

-Up! Up!

-Yes!

-Yes!

There you go.

Nice, nice.

Come on, Kleefstof.

Kleefstof, save yourself.

-What a result.

-Finally.

And with a tiny bit of cheating... Kleefstof wins!

This robot is genius...

In this episode we found out how a robot tortoise with sensors

started modern-day robotics.

How artificially intelligent machines can be programmed to learn.

And how, in the near future, robots could be serving us our drinks.

Not only that...

We used a bad robot to destroy some bad technology.

But more importantly, we've found out how robots are real

and are already changing our lives.

So thank you very much to our geniuses, Grey Walter.

Minsky.

And Shigemi.

-You're all...

-BOTH: Absolute genius!

Where has it gone?

It's stopped.

Argh!

A long line is a...

Wow!

Its head's fallen off.

How did you find that?

It blew my head off.

You can't end it like that!