robots
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Crunch Report | Jay Z Has Arrived
More news about Jay Z’s new venture (Arrive), robots that fix their mistakes and Y Combinator launches its MOOC. All this on Crunch Report. Read More
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MIT programs a robot to self-correct when a human detects a mistake
In a new video from MIT’s CSAIL department, a smirking industrial robot from Rethink picks up spray paint cans and spools of wire, dropping them in the properly labeled bin. The robot hesitates briefly, before accidentally making the wrong choice, only to self-correct and drop the can of paint where it belongs. The correction comes courtesy of an observer in an EEG cap, who… Read More
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Teaching robots to adjust their grip the way humans do
Pick up that can. Now say you had to put it down on its side rather than its base, how would you go about doing it? Very easily and without thinking about it, no doubt. But simple manipulations like that, which allow us to interact fluidly with objects and environments, are actually incredibly hard for robots to pull off. Researchers at MIT are working to make it a little bit easier. Read More
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Superintelligent AI explains Softbank’s push to raise a $100BN Vision Fund
Anyone who’s seen Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son give a keynote speech will know he rarely sticks to the standard industry conference playbook. And his turn on the stage at Mobile World Congress this morning was no different, with Son making like Eldon Tyrell and telling delegates about his personal belief in a looming computing Singularity… Read More
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Cassie the ostrich bot does the bipedal robot chicken walk
Bipedal robots are one of the most intensely researched areas of mechanical engineering, and while it’s a notoriously difficult problem, there’s no shortage of material from which to draw inspiration. Cassie, a new robot from Agility Robotics, is a great example of that: its stable yet precise gait and was based on that of birds — specifically, ostriches. Read More
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Rethink Robotics makes its workplace bots easier to train and redeploy
Robots are invaluable tools in the workplace, but they often still require a specialist to train in anything more than elementary tasks. Rethink Robotics is helping improve that situation with a powerful and intuitive new platform for its Sawyer robots called Intera 5. Read More
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Bat Bot is the biomimetic flying soft robot we deserve
If you’ve ever seen a bat in flight, you know how impressive their aerial acrobatics can be — so impressive that we have yet to successfully imitate it the way we have with locomotion or even bird flight. This impressive new flying robot is the best attempt yet, though it’s still a long way from the “unrivaled agility” of the real thing. Read More
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Cafe X opens in San Francisco, bringing robots to the coffee shop
The world’s first coffee shop opened in Constantinople in 1555. Four hundred and some years later, Cafe X is putting a twist on that old barista model. Opening in San Francisco today, the startup is opting instead to have a large robotic arm craft your caffeinated potions. Founder Henry Hu noticed that baristas spent a majority of their time moving cups around while making… Read More
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Hanson Robotics built a Professor Einstein toy to teach kids science with a familiar face
Hanson Robotics is making its first foray into the consumer electronics market with an educational toy called Professor Einstein. The device is a pint-sized, shuffling Albert Einstein that uses natural language processing, and other artificial intelligence capabilities, to comprehend and answer kids’ questions about science. The Einstein toy robot works as a standalone or in conjunction… Read More
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Crunch Network
Robots, jobs and the human fear of change
When it comes to technology’s impact on the economy, there continues to be concern that robots and other advances will lead to unemployment. But what does history really tell us about the impact of new technologies on jobs and the economy? And more importantly, what happens to America’s ability to compete in a global economy if we reject automation and stifle technological innovation? Read More
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Welcome to the future of work
With advances in information technology, robotics, and artificial intelligence developing at a rapid rate, workforce dislocations are happening now and are here to stay. As existing trends accelerate and irreversibly change the workforce as we know it, the question to be answered is–what will we do to broadly share the gains and alleviate the challenges? Cities often lead trend cycles… Read More
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Crunch Report | Tesla and SolarCity-powered Island
Tesla and SolarCity power an island in American Samoa, after skipping last year Apple holds its Black Friday sale, robots will be helping with shopping at Westfield malls in San Francisco, Michigan doubles down on autonomous cars and Munchery gets a new CEO. All this on Crunch Report. Read More
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Oh, the humanoid! Don’t worry, this blimp-bodied robot can’t crash
Generally one thinks of robots as powerful, rigid things packed with motors and actuators. But they don’t have to be like that, and in fact it may be freeing for engineers to work outside those constraints. What if, for example, your robot was almost lighter than air? That’s the concept tested in this highly buoyant prototype created by roboticists at UCLA. Read More
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Come see Boston Dynamics and its robots stomp on the Disrupt London stage
If artificial intelligence will inevitably be a central part of how we will interact with machines and services in the future, then learning more about who is developing these new AI systems — and what they are making — is essential to us understanding and helping shape that world. And you, dear reader, will have a chance to do exactly that next month, when Marc Raibert… Read More
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Crunch Network
How combined human and computer intelligence will redefine jobs
The man versus machine dichotomy has been a staple of pop culture for decades. From 2001: A Space Odyssey to Blade Runner to Terminator to The Matrix and beyond, film makers have envisioned what the world would look like if artificial intelligence took over. However, a new mindset is taking shape — the era of AI-human hybrid intelligence. Read More
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Piccolissimo joins the ranks of ultra-tiny flying robots
Big robots like Spot may be great for carrying things or trotting out onto stages, but just as much sophisticated engineering goes into creating tiny ones as well — and this little flyer from the University of Pennsylvania is one the tiniest yet. Read More
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Swarms of tiny, cute robots will one day bring you your phone, like this
Robots are taking over factories and warehouses, but their next stop might be your desktop or kitchen counter. These tiny “Zooids” work together at high speed to act as tools, display information or move things around like little ants. Read More
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Disney builds a jolly, one-legged hopping robot
Researchers at Disney Research in Pittsburgh have built a single-legged hopping robot that can currently bounce around 19 times without falling over. The project by Zachary Batts, Joohyung Kim, and Katsu Yamane began as a computer simulation and finally a hardware product. The researchers based their system on Marc Raibert’s hopping controller and it’s controlled by a linear… Read More
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Crunch Network
Industrial robots will replace manufacturing jobs — and that’s a good thing
There is no denying that the U.S. and Canada have been losing jobs to offshore competition for almost half a century. From 2000-2010 alone, 5.6 million jobs disappeared. Interestingly, though, only 13 percent of those jobs were lost due to international trade; 85 percent of job losses stemmed from “productivity growth” — another way of saying machines replacing human workers. Read More
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