European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 18, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Safe exit in a Jet emergency by Betsy Wade new York times of know those cardboard sheets in airline Seal pockets the ones with pictures of the me jacket and oxygen mask and diagrams of exit doors i now read them with a lot More interest and even put a Book Down and watch the flight attendants talk with something like curiosity. This new found interest allowed a Brief period i spent wobbling around in an evacuation slide raft floating in the Lagoon at Long Beach calif., and a half hour virtually immobilized inside a fully inflated airline life Vest. Ii was also caused by watching videotapes of people lighting to get out of exits in a plane fuselage where the incentive was not survival but $10. The life raft experiences were fortunately Only a result of volunteering to participate in a training demonstration for flight attendants at the sixth annual aircraft Cabin safely symposium. But they have radically changed Many of my attitudes about flying. They have not made me More afraid air professionals always remind you that the drive to the Airport is More hazardous than the flight and figures for 1987 uphold this. The fatality Rale for passenger cars and taxis in the United states is 0.92 for each 100 million passenger Miles for scheduled airlines it is 0.07 for each 100 million passenger Miles. One change in behaviour resulting from my recent experience involves footwear. Even As a Lark getting into a 58-passenger raft it can hold 78 people if it must tells you Why in an evacuation you would be  required to take off your High heeled shoes before you got in Sharp heels even Cowboy Boot heels would immediately poke holes in the rubbery neoprene skin that forms the Bottom of the boat. In such a boat you can barely Neep your balance even in Bare feet. It s like walking on a water bed if you have Ever tried that. I boarded the raft wearing stockings and my feet got wet and cold. Hereafter it will be rubber Soled athletic shoes or Flat leather ones on air trips. For a second thing getting into a life jacket is not like pulling on a sweater. The Waist strap must be buckled underneath the rubber front and you have to do it by feel unless someone helps. Then when you tug on the red tags the Metal Gas cartridges inflate the thing to the maximum. For a woman the effect was Akin to wrapping one s neck and ears in one of those kids rubber Boa dumb by Catherine Dressler associated press a Merican scientists in the 1950s called the robot the wave of the future. It would free housewives of Drudgery and fill factories with a tireless steel Collar workforce. But in Many ways the wave has been a washout robots can paint cars Salvage nuclear fuel and even assist in brain surgery but they re still pretty dumb. And they Are Lar from the science fiction Promise of comic books and movies. Robots now Are significantly better than 30 years ago but that does t necessarily mean we Are anywhere close to an r2-d2 or c-3po," says Raj Roddy director of the robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University referring to the robot characters in the movie Star wars. Orders for american made robots have been falling since their Peak of $501 million in 1984, according to the robotics industries association. Experts say automating a factory is More complicated than just buying a robot and putting it on the Assembly line. In addition they say some Industrial robots Are Loo complicated and prone to failure and when they do work they Don t always fit in with factory operations. About 33.000 robots work in the United states mostly in manufacturing with automakers buying at feast 40 percent says robots association spokesman Jeffrey a. Burnstein. It s not a revolution. It s an evolution Burnstein says robots Are another new productive technology in the same Way that computers  Japan is the world s leading robot user followed by the United states West Germany and France. Robots Are still dumb Reddy says they re dumb because we Haven t taken the trouble to put the pieces to Gelner not because we Don t know How. That takes Money and time and Effort and we Don t have the  but today s robots can see. They Don t see like humans but they can recognize forms and shapes and measure distances through sonar ranging devices and lasers. Hear and speak. They use computers that recognize thousands of words. Smell. Their sensors can detect smoke or fumes. Move. They most often Roll on wheels but some models hop on one leg and others walk with As Many As eight legs ambling like a spider on uneven terrain. Touch. They can recognize texture and the Force of a movement such As pressing. Many robots have one or two of these abilities to some degree but creating a competent robot that combines most or All of them has been difficult. In addition scientists have found it s difficult to match human abilities that most people take for granted such As the dexterity of a linger or the ability to identify objects. The Rule of thumb is that if you think the Job is easy then it s usually difficult says Takeo Kanade co director of the Carnegie Mellon Institute. The list of things that robots can do better than humans is much much Shorter than the list of things robots  Industrial robots can perform Many tedious tasks with precision including welding assembling painting packaging and loading yet Burnstein estimates that less than 5 percent of american companies have installed even one robot. Japanese companies which have installed More than twice As Many robots As american companies have been More willing to invest in robots that take years to pay for themselves Burnstein says. Robots Are very expensive to make and they can do very Little says Hans Moravec senior research scientist at Carnegie Mellon. It s hard to find a Job for them that actually pays  Moravec says the Industrial robot is about As smart As an insect. The robots working on the Assembly line today might also be compared to spiders he says. They do their jobs competently but it s a narrow  Industrial robots often shut Down when even the slightest thing goes wrong forcing humans to their Aid says Donald Michie chief scientist of the Turing Institute of Glasgow Scotland which conducts research into artificial intelligence. Michie is trying to develop computers that learn from experience a technology that could result in robots thai adjust to changing circumstances and learn from mistakes. Moravec believes technology will enable robots to have human like intelligence in about 50 years. Service robots a new Breed Are moving off the factory floor to handle work in hazardous environments help the disabled or just sweep floors. Underwater robots Are examining Lake Bottoms and doing risky deep sea  at memorial medical Center of Long Beach calif., have performed More than 35 brain operations with the help of a robot Arm that guides surgeons As they Drill into the Skull. Research is under Way at Carnegie Mellon on a six legged robot to explore the surface of Mars in the next decade and on a car that can drive itself. University researchers also made robots to remove radioactive waste from the crippled three mile Island nuclear Plant near Harrisburg a. , Engelhardt director of the University s health and human services lab is developing a robotic workstation that allows the disabled especially those without the use of their hands to work in an office. The station should be marketed by the end of the year Page 14 the stars and stripes saturday m