robots
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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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This ‘ballbot’ is like a real-life BB-8
It isn’t quite as lovable as the spherical droid from Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but this robot from Carnegie Mellon University has the benefit of being more than a special effect (however cool). And believe it or not, it basically has no moving parts. Read More
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Crunch Network
Will the coming robot nanny era turn us into technophiles?
In as little time as a decade, affordable robots that can bottle-feed babies, change diapers and put a child to sleep might be here. The human-machine bond that a new generation of kids grows up with may be unbreakable. We may end up literally loving our machines almost like we do our mothers and fathers. Read More
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HBO’s new show Westworld explores the hedonism and horror of VR
What if you could shoot or screw whoever you wanted without consequences? Would you feel bad about your decisions? Would you pity your victims, even if their digital memories were wiped clean? HBO dives into the heady, murky depths of virtual reality ethics with its new show Westworld, premiering October 2nd. Based on Jurassic Park author Michael Crichton’s 1973 book, Westworld… Read More
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The vivacious, acrobatic Minitaur robot will definitely improve your day
Mondays, as we all know, are the worst. That’s why it’s important to keep an eye out for heart-warming videos like puppies sliding on hardwood floors, otters holding hands, or energetic robots doing flips and climbing fences. It helps if, as in this case, the background music is a jam. Read More
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Crunch Network
Robots pave the way for our sci-fi future now
As robotics begins to leave controlled environments and navigate the real world alongside humans, the question remains: How will this affect the way we interact, work and talk to not only robots, but one another? Read More
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Crunch Network
Hard questions about bot ethics
Bots are becoming a part of our life. I wake up in the morning and tell Alexa to play my Brazilian samba, I let Amy set my meetings and I check stats and reports in Slack. Bot builders and users alike are starting to understand that bots are an integral part of our life. But what are the rules that govern these new tech friends? Read More
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MegaBots debuts a trailer for its new web series, outlines its giant fighting robot kit
In the shadow of AT&T Park, two Bay Area-based engineers took to the stage at TechCrunch Disrupt SF to showcase their plans for a new kind of sports league. Dressed like a matching pair of flamboyant American flags, Gui Cavalcanti and Matt Oehrlein debuted a trailer for an upcoming web series following MegaBots’ journey from pipe dream to a Formula 1-inspired robotic fighting… Read More
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Robin is automating lawn care with robots and putting an end to checks under the doormat
A well-kept lawn is one of the most common mixed blessings with which homeowners can treat/afflict themselves. Robin is a startup looking to take as much pain out of the process as possible, both by improving the way you hire and pay for your yard’s care, and soon, by putting a robot on the job. Read More
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Pepper the Inflight Service Bot is a multi-lingual flight attendant who doesn’t hate picking up your garbage
At the Disrupt SF Hackathon today in San Francisco, a team of seasoned software engineers unveiled Pepper the Inflight Service Bot, a robot flight attendant that doesn’t hate picking up barf bags, can circulate in a plane even when there’s turbulence, and can speak to passengers in their own language. The robot is built using the Pepper companion robot, IBM Watson’s… Read More
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Magazino’s TORU inventory-grabbing robot rolls into major German logistics center
If you work in any kind of storage facility or warehouse, there’s a better chance every day that you’re going to be working alongside robots. Magazino’s TORU is a good example of the latest generation: navigating by sight, safe around humans, and simple to put to work. Read More
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Robots and on-board ovens deliver on Zume’s promise of better pizza
Today, in a world of bacon-wrapped crust and custom-modified Chevys with pizza warmers, being excited about pizza is just not as easy as it used to be. Zume Pizza founder Julia Collins and her Elon Musk-esque approach to pizza doesn’t care much for the rest of the pizza industry. In her mind, the pizzavations of the previous decades are irrelevant if the pies arrive soggy, cold and… Read More
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Dyson’s 360 Eye robot vacuum succeeds by seeing more
Dyson’s 360 Eye robot vacuum has been a long time coming to U.S. carpets. The squat little cylinder of a bot first broke cover in September 2014, with a splashy product announcement and a consumer launch in Japan in 2015. North American homes are only just getting their first taste of Dyson’s inaugural foray into robotics, however, and my own has been playing host to one for the… Read More
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GOAT legs will let future robots handle rough terrain with ease
A Master’s Thesis by CMU’s
Simon Kalouche posits a new form of robotic leg, one designed for maximum range of motion and, more importantly, an easily control method for force reduction. In other words, this is the kind of leg you want on your robot when you send it to Mars. GOAT stands for Gearless Omni-directional Acceleration-vectoring Topology and uses a single motor and… Read More -
Having conquered Chess and Go, the robots move to master Foosball
We’ve come a long way since the days of selecting a CPU player for the other Pong paddle, tank or hand-to-hand combatant. Now the computers are taking it to us, in meatspace, and seemingly no tabletop activity is safe from their depredations. The latest to succumb to computer domination? Foosball. Read More
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Crunch Network
How computer-assisted art will help humans embrace the rise of the robots
For many people, the robot-populated future is a zero-sum game; it’s either going to be us or them running things. Headlines are rife with dire predictions: “Robots will take over most jobs in 30 years” and “The future has lots of robots, few jobs for humans.” Even the arts aren’t safe. “Computer art” (where a computer uses algorithms to create… Read More
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Watch wall-walking spiderbots weave ‘impossible’ structures with carbon fiber
Normally, the notion of setting a pair of spiderbots free in your house would seem alarming. But if you knew that they were weaving you a strange and mathematical hammock while you were gone? Suddenly that fear turns to wonder — and eventually, a nap. Read More
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