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Meeting on a narrow road
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
25 Aug 2015
What should a robocar do when it meets another robocar on a very narrow road? If they're in control, humans may resolve this in a number of ways, but it's a widely held belief that this is one of the...
New book by John Markoff explores common ground between humans and robots
Frank Tobe
24 Aug 2015
NY Times tech writer John Markoff traces the origins of the AI embedded in today’s virtual and physical assistants and suggests a humane way to proceed....
194 Chinese robot companies
Frank Tobe
18 Aug 2015
In China, the robotics industry is booming. Companies are deploying thousands of robots in all types of factories, particularly in the auto industry. Chinese companies that manufacture robots and the...
Google Alphabet: Is it good for robocars?
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
14 Aug 2015
Everybody has heard about Google’s restructuring. In the new setup, Google X, which includes the self-driving car division, will be a subsidiary of the new Alphabet holding company, and no longer pa...
Telcos vs. big data companies: Which sector will drive consumer robotics?
Hallie Siegel and Robohub Editors
30 Jul 2015
NTT’s recent entry into consumer robotics suggests that it’s not just about Google vs Amazon, or Softbank vs NTT anymore, but about telcos vs big data companies. With two major and distinct sector...
Beyond safety: Is robotic surgery sustainable?
Matt Beane
29 Jul 2015
This week, the “144” study on adverse events in robotic surgery made the rounds in media outlets such as the BBC, NBC and the MIT Tech review. An impressive group of researchers found that between...
Is all the hype about drone commercialization clouding our judgement?
Robert Morris
28 Jul 2015
The hype around the consumer drone industry is so thick that it clouds our judgement. It is as if our biggest boosters have forgotten what our technology stack really does, what it doesn’t do, and ...
Automated Vehicles Symposium recap (Part 2)
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
27 Jul 2015
From small beginnings, over 800 people are here at the Ann Arbor AUVSI/TRB Automated Vehicles symposium. Let’s summarize some of the news....
When do robocars become cheaper than standard cars? Automated Vehicle Symposium recap (Part 1)
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
24 Jul 2015
I’m in the Detroit area for the annual TRB/AUVSI Automated Vehicle Symposium. Those in Ann Arbor attended the opening of the new test track at the University of Michigan, but I was at a small event ...
Repeatable robotics: Standards and benchmarks from frontier science to applied technology
Robohub Editors
23 Jul 2015
In a recent article in Frontiers in Robotics and AI, Gianluca Antonelli suggests that the Grand Challenge of robotics is to systematize the way its research is conducted. At Robohub we believe this is...
Robot as marketing strategy: Bosch takes a bet on Rotimatic’s consumer flatbread maker
Andra Keay
22 Jul 2015
First it was robot vacuum cleaners; now it's robot kitchen appliances. Robots are back in the popular imagination as household helpers, and industry seems to be taking a bet on leveraging that int...
Will robocars vastly increase battery life?
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
21 Jul 2015
We know electric cars are getting better and likely to get popular even when driven by humans. Tesla, at its core, is a battery technology company as much as it’s a car company, and it is sometimes ...
Video: Robocar Q&A
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
20 Jul 2015
At Singularity U, we’re releasing a new video series answering questions about our future technology topics that come from Twitter. My segment is one of the first, and while regular readers of my bl...
Nat Geo’s Robots 3D proves that robots don’t need to be sci-fi to be compelling
Adriana Hamacher
16 Jul 2015
Close up, in 3D, what jumps out at you is not just how astonishing today’s humanoid robots are, but also how miraculous the human body they mimic is. National Geographic’s Robots 3D is showing in ...
Estimating the impact of robots on productivity and employment
Georg Graetz and Guy Michaels
14 Jul 2015
To discover the impact of robots on the average manufacturing worker, we analysed their effect in 14 industries across 17 developed countries from 1993 to 2007. We found that industrial robots increas...
Robocar news roundup: Google doesn’t hit Delphi but does go to Austin; Vislab sold for $30M
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
13 Jul 2015
The press were all a-twitter about a report from Reuters that there had been a near miss between Delphi’s test car and one of Google’s, though it was quickly denied that anything happened....
Pepper robots to roll out at 1,000 per month
Frank Tobe
10 Jul 2015
SoftBank announced that their little Pepper robot will be available for sale beginning August 1st at the rate of 1,000 per month after selling out their first 1,000 Peppers in one online minute in Jun...
Building the Jibo prototype: Interview with VP Engineering Andy Atkins
Jibo
08 Jul 2015
Our most recent video update comes from our VP of Engineering Andy Atkins. Take a sneak peak inside the minds of our engineers as they finish our newest Jibo P2s, to find out what kinds of challenges ...
The making of sci-fi adventure Robot Overlords
Graham Edwards and Cinefex
03 Jul 2015
In the low-budget British sci-fi adventure, Robot Overlords, alien automatons rule the streets and ordinary citizens are locked under curfew in their homes. Just by stepping outside, you risk being v...
What’s propelling China’s industrial robot revolution
Frank Tobe
03 Jul 2015
[clear]
Xi Jinping, China's President, last year called for an “industrial robot revolution.” Since then China has created policies giving value added tax refunds and subsidies to companies m...
One year later: Update from Leka, Robot Launch 2014 Grand Winner
Ladislas de Toldi and Leka
02 Jul 2015
Almost one year ago, Leka won the Grand Prize at the 2014 Robot Launch competition for Moti, a robotic toy that helps autistic children learn to regulate their own emotions through play. Leka cofounde...
Summer robot reading: Fact, fiction and debatable
Frank Tobe
25 Jun 2015
Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War, Rise of the Robots; Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future and Spare Parts: Four Undocumented Teenagers, One Ugly Robot and the Battle for the Ame...
In the future, robots will be ubiquitous
Frank Tobe
20 Jun 2015
The July/August issue of Foreign Affairs magazine has a number of dispatches from the frontlines of the robotics revolution....
Foxconn and Alibaba invest in SoftBank Robotics as Pepper goes on sale in Japan
Frank Tobe
19 Jun 2015
In a strategic move sure to have long-term ramifications, Foxconn and Alibaba each invested $118 million for a combined 40% share of the new SoftBank Robotic Holdings Group, an entity which holds Alde...
Humans: New Sci-fi drama unsettles, grips and tackles robot relations head on
Adriana Hamacher
16 Jun 2015
There are two very good reasons to watch Humans, the new robot-themed drama series that premiered in the UK on Sunday. Firstly, it’s a well-made high-energy thriller with a pacy storyline, focusing...
Powering the robocar: Ultracapacitors and other energy sources
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
11 Jun 2015
A reader recently asked about the synergies between robocars and ultracapacitors / supercapacitors. It turns out they are not what you would expect, and it teaches some of the surprising lessons of ro...
Robocar roundup: Google accidents, Baidu cars, startups and more
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
11 Jun 2015
Here’s a roundup of news stories in the field of robocars....
What’s hot in robotics? Four trends to watch
Frank Tobe
11 Jun 2015
Four diverse trends are having a big effect on the robotics industry worldwide, and the global media and financial gurus are paying attention to the process....
DARPA Robotics Challenge leaves brilliant PR legacy
Andra Keay
09 Jun 2015
With this robotics Grand Challenge, DARPA has advanced both the science of robotics and the story. Real robots did useful things, like operate power tools, drive cars and climb stairs far more succe...
Don’t be fooled by robots falling down at DARPA’s Robotics Challenge
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
08 Jun 2015
This weekend I went to Pomona, CA for the 2015 DARPA Robotics Challenge, where robots (mostly humanoid) competed at a variety of disaster response and assistance tasks. This contest — a successor ...
DRC is not just about building robots; it’s about building community
Gill Pratt and DARPA Robotics Challenge
03 Jun 2015
Something remarkable is happening in Building 9 here at the Fairplex in Pomona, Calif. Imagine a long, giant warehouse-like building divided into 24 bays, within which people from around the world are...
Amazon challenges robotics’ hot topic: Perception
Frank Tobe
02 Jun 2015
Capturing and processing camera and sensor data and recognizing various shapes to determine a set of robotic actions is conceptually easy. Yet Amazon challenged the industry to do a selecting and pick...
Automated vehicle crashes
Bryant Walker Smith
29 May 2015
Earlier this month, the Associated Press reported on several past crashes involving automated vehicles. (Per SAE Standard J3016, I use the term "automated vehicle" instead of "autonomous veh...
Two media critiques about our future with robots
Frank Tobe
26 May 2015
After years of alarmist comments from robo-ethicists, futurists, technologists, business leaders and pundits, including Elon Musk, Bill Gates and Stephen Hawking, two journalists bring some reality to...
Why Tesla’s purported liability ‘fix’ is technically and legally questionable
Bryant Walker Smith
26 May 2015
An interesting article in last week’s Wall Street Journal spawned a series of unfortunate headlines (in a variety of publications) suggesting that Tesla had somehow “solved” the “problem” ...
Swiss-based ABB to manufacture robots in US
Frank Tobe
24 May 2015
Robot manufacturing started in the US in 1961 when 26 Unimates - the first industrial robots - were made and deployed at a GM factory in Ewing, NJ. But, over the years, manufacturing and manufacturers...
