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Surgical micro-robot swarms: Science fiction, or realistic prospect?
Alan Winfield
09 Mar 2015
Imagine a swarm of microscopic robots that we inject into the vascular system: the swarm swims to the source of the problem, then either delivers therapeutics or undertakes microsurgery directly.
T...
Takeoff in robotics will power the next productivity surge in manufacturing
The Boston Consulting Group (BCG)
05 Mar 2015
BCG research predicts that by 2025, adoption of advanced robots will boost productivity by up to 30 percent in many industries, and lower total labor costs by 18 percent or more in countries such as S...
Issues in regulating robocars, and the case for a light hand
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
04 Mar 2015
All over the world, people (and governments) are debating about regulations for robocars. First for testing, and then for operation. It mostly began when Google encouraged the state of Nevada to write...
While most robots are either geek or jock, CHAPPiE is a lesson in sexy
Mark Stephen Meadows
03 Mar 2015
Neill Blomkamp's new film CHAPPiE can teach us a lot about how to design robots. That, and how to be sexy. Rolling out in theatres this week....
EG Robotics: Building a robotics ecosystem in Egypt
Mahmoud AbdelAziz
03 Mar 2015
Expanding into emerging markets brings with it a specific set of challenges for designing products and services. Not only do cultural differences play a role in what, how, and why customers behave the...
Uber price in LA approaches robocar cheap
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
02 Mar 2015
I was recently considering the price of UberX in Los Angeles. It’s gotten disturbingly low, with a flag drop costing as little as $0.18 per minute / $0.90 per mile....
February was another good month for robotic investments
Frank Tobe
28 Feb 2015
February was another big month for investments in robotic startup companies, including 3D Robotics, Flyability, Fetch Robotics, EHang and many others....
Livestream: Rodney Brooks, Abhinav Gupta, Andrew McAfee on AI and the rise of robots
Robohub Editors
27 Feb 2015
Livestream of the Council of Foreign Relations' Malcolm and Carolyn Wiener Annual Lecture on Science and Technology starting 02/27/2015 at 12:45 EST....
Minesweepers uses robotics’ awesomeness to raise awareness about landmines & explosive remnants of war
Alaa Khamis
27 Feb 2015
Paul Jefferson, one of the earliest humanitarian deminers, said “a landmine is the perfect soldier: Ever courageous, never sleeps, never misses”. The simplicity and cost-effectiveness of mines are...
Should a care robot bring an alcoholic a drink? It depends on who owns the robot
Open Roboethics Initiative
24 Feb 2015
In a care scenario, a robot may have been purchased by the patient, by the doctor or hospital (which sent it home with the patient to monitor their health), or by a concerned family member who wants t...
Forget Singularity, let’s talk Multiplicity: Ken Goldberg on AI at the WEF
Audrow Nash
23 Feb 2015
Each January, the World Economic Forum's (WEF) annual meeting takes place in Davos, Switzerland. This event is one of the preeminent economic conferences in the world, and this year, there was a majo...
FAA regulations draw inspiration from Canada, but miss key aspect
Diana Marina Cooper
19 Feb 2015
Various aspects of the anticipated proposed small UAS (sUAS) regulations that were released by the FAA draw inspiration from Canada’s approach to regulation. In fact, the FAA provides a handy compar...
Maybe we need an automation tax
Alan Winfield
18 Feb 2015
Imagine that a large company decides to significantly increase the level of automation at one of its facilities. A facility that currently employs a substantial number of men and women doing relativel...
Empowering startups’ global reach
Catherine Simon
18 Feb 2015
Innorobo’s call for start-ups has just closed and 25 semi-finalists from around the world will now be reviewed by a jury of experts to select the five winners. The winners will pitch to investors...
Keep Calm and Carry Passengers: UK robocar projects level up
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
13 Feb 2015
The government-baked robocar projects in the UK are going full steam, with this press release from the UK government to accompany the unveiling of the prototype Lutz pod, which should ply the streets...
From sideshow to main event, drones are making their mark in entertainment
Hallie Siegel
12 Feb 2015
[tweetquote]What do you get when you cross hundreds of drones with an indoor football stadium equipped with GPS?[/tweetquote] Quite possibly the world's largest drone entertainment show the world has ...
Should ownership influence the decision-making of a care robot?
Open Roboethics Initiative
11 Feb 2015
For the past few months, the Open Roboethics initiative have been exploring the topic of care robots. During one of our meetings, we got into a discussion about whether the ownership of a robot sho...
2015 sees mobile manipulators coming to market
Andra Keay
09 Feb 2015
[tweetquote]Fetch Robotics has just announced $3 million funding from Shasta Ventures and O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures[/tweetquote], which will be used to bring their new mobile manipulator robots to...
Is Apple building a robocar? Maybe. Or maybe not.
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
05 Feb 2015
There is great buzz about some sensor-laden vehicles being driven around the USA, which have been discovered to be owned by Apple. The vehicles have cameras, LIDARs, and GPS antennas, and many are wo...
Uber and Google are not breaking up quite yet
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
04 Feb 2015
After yesterday’s story about Uber and CMU, and a rumour about Google's plans to launch an Uber-like “ride share” service, a lot of speculation has flown that Uber will now be at odds with Goo...
Will robocars use V2V at all?
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
03 Feb 2015
I commonly see statements from connected car advocates that vehicle to vehicle (V2V) and vehicle to infrastructure communications are an important, even essential technology for robocar development. R...
Uber to collaborate with CMU on robocars
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
03 Feb 2015
Uber announced a strategic partnership with CMU yesterday, including a robocar lab in Pittsburg, and rumours reported in TechCrunch suggest Uber could be hiring up to 50 CMU folks to staff it....
Raffaello D’Andrea on the future of robotics
Massimo Russo and The Boston Consulting Group (BCG)
28 Jan 2015
Raffaello D’Andrea’s robots can do amazing things: play soccer and ping-pong, perform complex choreographed acrobatics in the air, build towers brick by brick, and move pallets around warehouses. ...
Robot caregivers: How much interaction with a robot is socially acceptable?
Open Roboethics Initiative
28 Jan 2015
With the continuous increase in life expectancy and the number of people aged 65+ on the rise, it is no wonder that many roboticists have been discussing the use of robot as companion/caregiver for e...
UMich team works on perception and localization using cameras
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
27 Jan 2015
Some new results from the NGV Team at the University of Michigan describe different approaches for perception (detecting obstacles on the road) and localizations (figuring out precisely where you are)...
Robotics needs to get political
Alan Winfield
27 Jan 2015
A couple of weeks ago I was a panelist on a public debate at the 2014 Battle of Ideas. The title of the debate was The robots are coming: friends or foes? with a focus not on the technology but the ...
Might the first, supervised robocars be… well… boring?
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
23 Jan 2015
Let me confess a secret fear. I suspect that the first “autopilot” functions on cars are going to be a bit boring....
Open science: Preaching what I practice
Alan Winfield
22 Jan 2015
Open science isn't one thing - it is a set of practices that range from making sure your papers are openly accessible (which is relatively easy), to open notebook science, which makes the process ope...
Natural language: The de-facto interface convention for social robotics
Mark Stephen Meadows
21 Jan 2015
Social Robotics: The UX of Natural Language
A very smart and snotty journalist told me that he had spoken with Aldebaran's Pepper system when he was in Boston. Much to his chagrin, the robot didn't ...
Why drones are good for business
Ben Fisher
20 Jan 2015
Drones have made a huge splash over the last couple of years and grabbed a lot of headlines. This has mostly been due to strong consumer products coming onto the market from hardware manufactures s...
Robocar parking
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
19 Jan 2015
In my earlier article on robocar challenges I gave very brief coverage to the issue of parking. Challenged on that, I thought it was time to expand. The world “parking” means many things, and the ...
A cruel waste of STEM talent
Frank Tobe
19 Jan 2015
"Spare Parts" is a new movie showing grit, creativity, determination, and leadership in robotics through teamwork and individual success.
The movie has a Hollywood ending: teacher and kids inspire ...
Who will buy your bot? End user opportunities
Adriana Hamacher
16 Jan 2015
Unless robotics is just a hobby, commercial and funding opportunities should be at the forefront of every developer's mind and at the root of these are the end users and their needs. But who are the e...
Robot bodies and how to evolve them
Alan Winfield
16 Jan 2015
Evolutionary robotics has been around for about 20 years: it's about 15 years since Stefano Nolfi and Dario Floreano published their seminal book on the subject. Yet, surprisingly the number of real,...
SoftBank/Aldebaran Pepper robots go on sale in February
Frank Tobe
15 Jan 2015
IEEE/Spectrum Senior Editor Erico Guizzo describes in a recent post (and two videos) how Aldebaran's two-year Pepper project is coming to fruition....
