A group of MIT scientists and engineers have spent the last few years developing robots that can work together to solve problems. First unveiled in 2015, these robots can cooperate and share tasks, working together to achieve a common goal. But Arizona senator Jeff Flake wants the program shut down because he saw those robots serve beer one time.

Senator Flake has recently introduced an amendment to the Defense Department appropriations bill currently in Congress. His amendment—which can be found here in the Congressional record—reads as follows:

None of the amounts appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be obligated or expended for the development of a beerbot or other robot bartender.

The language appears targeted directly at a specific project under development at MIT, which we covered back in 2015. Researchers were developing robots that could communicate with each other and cooperate to complete a task, even modifying their actions on the fly. This type of research is extremely useful for real-world applications where robots have to work together and autonomously.

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Specifically, the researchers had delivery of medical supplies in mind when they were building their robots, but during the demo they thought it would be fun to substitute beer cans instead. After all, who doesn’t like beer? As the lead scientist for the project, Chris Amato, told IEEE Spectrum:

“Our target application domains were logistics problems such as delivering medical supplies. As a fun substitute, we used beer in the demo. The research really doesn't have anything to do with beer and wasn't about beer delivery.”

But apparently Senator Flake never got the memo. Instead of seeing what the researchers intended—a novel and useful way to employ robots in medical emergencies or disaster zones—he only saw a robot bartender and tried to shut it down as wasteful spending since the MIT project is funded partially by the Department of Defense.

Flake’s amendment has since passed the Senate by unanimous vote, but there are still a few steps before it becomes law. If the amendment passes, we could lose more than just an effective bartender. It could cost us valuable research on robotics and a potential ally in a crisis. That’s worth the money, even if Senator Flake doesn’t think so.

Source: IEEE Spectrum

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