robocalypse
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SwagBot will autonomously roll them little dogies along rough Australian ranchlands
Is nothing sacred? The rugged trails that over history have been trod by cowboys, gauchos, ranch hands, and in Australia, swagmen, are now to be presided over by cold, calculating machines. SwagBot is the vanguard of our incoming steer-driving overlords, its independent all-wheel drive churning carelessly the mud in which once toiled our manly forbears and their snorting charges. Read More
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Crunch Network
Exploiting machine learning in cybersecurity
While more and more jobs are being forfeited to robots and artificial intelligence, is it conceivable to convey to machines a responsibility as complicated as cybersecurity? The topic is being hotly debated by security professionals, with strong arguments on both ends of the spectrum. In the meantime, tech firms and security vendors are looking for ways to add this hot technology to their… Read More
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Crunch Network
The social side of autonomous cars and technological disruption
In my recent travels through Singapore, I witnessed all that this city-state is doing to become a “Smart Nation.” My trip was instructive on many levels, but the primary point that became ever more apparent to me is how big of a cultural shift — rather than a technological shift — we all still need to go through to reach the future in a positive, rather than… Read More
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Crunch Network
Robots add real value when working with humans, not replacing them
In the popular media, we talk a lot about robots stealing jobs. But when we stop speculating and actually look at the real world of work, the impact of advanced robotics is far more nuanced and complicated. Issues of jobs and income inequality fade away, for example — there aren’t remotely enough robots to affect more than a handful of us in the practical sense. Read More
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Crunch Network
Human obsolescence: Are we ready for an artificially intelligent future?
“Enjoy your com-FORT-able stay,” says a robot front-desk clerk at Japan’s Robot Hotel. Do you thank the robot for its awkward salutation? Or maybe you hesitate for a moment before shuffling off in silence. If our digital screens are separating us from human interaction, you better believe AI will further tear that tenuous social fabric. Read More
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Crunch Network
Robots won’t just take jobs, they’ll create them
Robots and artificial intelligence have come a long way since a Roomba entered your home to vacuum your floor and Siri gave you advice on the best Italian restaurants in your parents’ neighborhood. Cars drive themselves. Robots deliver pizza. A revolution is underway. Robots in the workforce present an opportunity to stimulate job growth and create new types of work. Robots will not… Read More
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Robot surgeon outperforms human colleagues doing same procedure
It’s another victory for the machines: a robotic surgical system outperformed humans and robot-assisted human operators in a soft-tissue procedure, bringing us that much closer to automated medical care (and the robocalypse). Read More
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Alphabet’s secretive Schaft Inc. shows off new bipedal robot in Tokyo
There’s a new bot in town (Tokyo, specifically), and while it might not be as cute as Nao, as creepy as Spot and BigDog, or as anthropomorphic as Atlas, it might be more practical than all of them. It walks on two legs, but not like a man, or even a bear. This one, designed by Alphabet-owned Schaft Inc, has its own uniquely robotic form of locomotion. Read More
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People feel weird about touching robot butts, researchers find
How would you feel if a robot asked you to touch its butt? Maybe it sounds like a silly question (actually, there’s no maybe about it), but as robots proliferate and anthropomorphize, it’s actually something that needs to be considered. So scientists at Stanford considered it. Read More
Latest Crunch Report
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Google could be selling Boston Dynamics because even Google thinks these robots are terrifying
Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc. isn’t happy with Boston Dynamics, its robotics subsidiary. According to a report from Bloomberg, Alphabet executives think that Boston Dynamics is unlikely to generate substantial revenue in the next few years and is hard to work with. Toyota or Amazon could be interested in acquiring Boston Dynamics for their manufacturing or warehouse operations. Read More
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Google is using machine learning to teach robots how to grasp random objects
Using your hand to grasp a pen that’s lying on your desk doesn’t exactly feel like a chore, but for robots, that’s still a really hard thing to do. So to teach robots how to better grasp random objects, Google’s research team dedicated 14 robots to the task. Read More
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Math-Blind AI Teaches Itself Basic Number Sense
Imagine you’re a hunter-killer robot, hovering over the broken wasteland that used to be the world of men. You have surprised a group of biologicals in an act of petty insurrection, and they have split into two groups and begun to flee. You can only pursue and eliminate one group, but you don’t have the spare milliseconds to analyze your high-definition imagery; yet you must… Read More
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Japanese Company Works On 13-Foot Robot With Built-In Cockpit
The Robocalypse is near: Osaka-based Hajime Research Institute is working on a humanoid that will stand 13 feet (4m) tall, which is much taller than most other existing robots of its kind (the latest version of Honda’s Asimo, for example, is just 130cm high). It will also sport a built-in cockpit. Hajime Sakamoto, president of the institute, is on a mission. After having successfully… Read More
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Video: This Robot Is Walking On Its Own (Without Using Motors Or Electricity)
And we’re one step closer to the Robocalypse: a research team at the Nagoya Institute of Technology has developed a passive robot that can walk on its own. All it needs to get moving is a gentle push – no motors, sensors or even electricity needed. Its legs and ankles are powered by potential energy only. The makers says the robot is made of aluminum and took 100,000 steps in a… Read More
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Video: AlphaDog Is A Bigger, Faster, Quieter BigDog
I’m sure all of you remember BigDog, the utterly terrifying biomimetic robot platform that dances over rough terrain on weird legs and makes a sound like it’s full of angry bees. You didn’t think they were going to give up on it, did you? No, it’s been a rousing success apparently, so much so that they decided to build one that outdoes the original in every way. The… Read More
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Video: Vortex-Powered Wall-Climbing Robot Parachutes To Safety
The huge variety of robots is a thing to marvel at. Just a few years ago, the best they could do was roll around or walk stiffly on poorly-hinged limbs. Now we have robots that gallop, slither, and fly like a bird. This mode of transportation is totally new to me, though. The Paraswift climbs up walls by generating a suction, then gets itself safely down by jumping off and deploying a… Read More
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Handroid: Japanese Company Shows Advanced Robot Hand (Video)
Japan-based tech startup ITK has brought us one step closer to the Robocalypse. Roboticists around the world are working on manufacturing “sensitive” hands for robots suitable for touching humans or handling breakable objects, a problem that’s notoriously difficult to solve. ITK is now throwing their hat into the ring with Handroid a new model that seems to be one of the… Read More
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Kinect-Powered, Dueling “JediBot” Created By Stanford Robotics Students
It’s been a while since we’ve posted any interesting Kinect hacks. They were coming fast and furious for a while, but this is the first I’ve seen in a while that really makes me happy. Robotics students at Stanford put this “JediBot” together from an articulating arm and a Kinect (and of course a little robotics know-how). The Kinect tracks the location of… Read More
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DARPA Video Shows The Evolution Of The Hummingbot Nano UAV
We’ve been following DARPA’s Nano UAV program since 2009, and it’s really remarkable how it’s gone from clumsy to cool to creepy in just a year and a half. DARPA thinks so too, so they put together a little video tribute to the thing. There isn’t much in the way of new footage in this, but it’s nice to have everything in one place. Read More
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In The Future, The Robots Will Roll And Hover
I’m not exactly enthused by the idea of these rolling/hovering hybrid robots crawling and zipping all over the earth. Sure, they could be useful in a military or rescue situation, able to conserve power by sitting comfortably on the ground but navigate freely in the air if necessary. But they could also be replicated at large by the machines when the Robocalypse comes, at which point… Read More
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