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opinions
Mark Stephen Meadows on “Do robots need heads?”
Mark Stephen Meadows
15 Aug 2013
I don't know about you, but if something has a head I assume it has thoughts. When watching a movie I stare at the character's face because I want to know what they feel. So for me a head's a pretty i...
Travis Deyle on “Do robots need heads?”
Travis Deyle
15 Aug 2013
The obvious answer to this question is "No: there are lots of robots without heads." It's not even clear that social robots necessarily require a head, as even mundane robots like the Roomba are anthr...
In-corporating body language into NLP (or, More notes on the design of automated body language)
Mark Stephen Meadows
07 Aug 2013
This article discusses how body language is a part of natural language, personality, and NLP design. The article covers various methods for approaching this problem and makes recommendations for the r...
When terrible engineers are good
Andra Keay
06 Aug 2013
A recent post "I need terrible female engineers" on Medium by Amy Nguyen describes her feelings as a female engineer; feeling that technical women are expected to be super humanly perfect - like Summe...
When robots start telling each other stories…
Alan Winfield
31 Jul 2013
About 6 years ago the late amazing Richard Gregory said to me, with a twinkle in his eye, "when your robots start telling each other stories, then you'll really be onto something". It was a remark wit...
Nate the Robot RH.11 – High “REWARD”
Jim Haas
26 Jul 2013
As always, remember you can see more at Nate's Website....
DARPA’s Virtual Robotics Challenge a practical step forward on the long road toward disaster-response capable humanoids
Hallie Siegel
24 Jul 2013
Based on a media rountable discussion with DRC Program Manager Gill Pratt and CEO of the Open Source Robotics Foundation Brian Gerkey.
The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear disaster was a wake-up call...
Robotics has a new kind of Cartesian Dualism, and it’s just as unhelpful
Alan Winfield
22 Jul 2013
I believe robotics has re-invented mind-body dualism.
At the excellent European Robotics Forum earlier this year, I attended a workshop called AI meets Robotics....
euRathlon and the DARPA Robot Challenge: A difference of approach
Alan Winfield
22 Jul 2013
A week ago the DARPA Robotics Challenge unveiled the ATLAS humanoid robot, which will be used by seven competing teams. Developed by Boston Dynamics, ATLAS is an imposing 1.8m 150Kg bipedal humano...
Paradigm shift
Frank Tobe
20 Jul 2013
Global Future 2045, held June 15-16 in New York City, had a big impact on me.
The double-message promotion of GF2045 was intriguing and I thought it would be similarly interesting to my readers. PR...
Guiding technology through uncertain valleys: SRI’s Rich Mahoney on risks, rewards, and the future of robotics
Rich Mahoney and Hallie Siegel
18 Jul 2013
As part of our series on ‘High-Risk / High-Reward’ robotics, I interviewed SRI International's Director of Robotics, Rich Mahoney, who's role there is to help identify important emerging robot...
China takes long view in funding robotics, innovation
CHEN Fei
17 Jul 2013
With the rapid economic development of the last twenty years resulting in the accumulation of great wealth, China urgently feels the need to move from a manufacturing-driven economy to an innovati...
Long view required to keep economic policy in step with developments in robotics
Frank Tobe
16 Jul 2013
Policy is really about long-term thinking — a process we should do but don't do for various reasons. Though China is a notable exception, very few governments make long-term planning a priority.
...
What do policy-makers need to do to keep pace with economic development in robotics?
RBI Editors
15 Jul 2013
Economic policy may not jump to mind as a hot topic for roboticists, but it is a fundamental and influential driver behind the failure or success of the robotics community as a whole. After all, econo...
Rich Mahoney on “What do policy-makers need to do to keep pace with economic development?”
Rich Mahoney
15 Jul 2013
I am not sure how to describe the specifics of what policy makers should do, but I think there are two gaps that policy makers should think about that are associated with the economic development impa...
Frank Tobe on “What do policy-makers need to do to keep pace with economic development?”
RBI Editors and Frank Tobe
15 Jul 2013
[RBI Editors]
As an active robotics investor, a leading authority on the business of robotics, and the author of The Robot Report and Everything Robotic, you are at the pulse of the field's econ...
Robotics and the disruptive transformation of agriculture
John Payne
15 Jul 2013
Over the last few years, there has been increasing talk about the potential of agriculture as a market for robotics. Speaking about future markets for unmanned aerial systems in a recent presentation ...
China now largest market for robots
Frank Tobe
12 Jul 2013
The China International Robot Show CIROS was held July 2-5 in Shanghai. 30,000 people were expected to attend and 56 companies exhibited. Although most of the exhibitors were Taiwanese, Japanese, Kore...
Why fostering high-tech innovation and entrepreneurship matters to the economy, and what universities can do about it
Peter Seitz and Roland Siegwart
11 Jul 2013
For many people, the term “innovation” implies having a great idea, and hoping that somehow it will take off. According to H. Chesbrough, this is clearly insufficient, and in his definition, he is...
A dilemma of high-risk / high-reward
Frank Tobe
09 Jul 2013
Often funding sources - the groups taking the risk - are not the beneficiaries of the rewards of the venture. Intuitive Surgical is an example.
NSF, DARPA and NASA funded a project to solve a very ...
Visions of transformative research: Risk-reward, variation-selection, hot trends, exploration of the wild
Juan Rogers
08 Jul 2013
Over the last 20 years or so, a sense that science has become conservative or incrementalist has developed, and calls for change in the approaches to public funding of research have been heard from va...
FIRST 2013 photo essay: Girls of Steel in the trenches at the FRC championship finals
Lynn Urbina
05 Jul 2013
It’s the end of the competition, and we’ve worked hard to get here: the long nights in the machine shop, drawing 3D models, writing essays for awards and fixing our robot whenever it breaks down. ...
My robot is smelling my dirty laundry (or, Notes on privacy, PRISM, and home service robotics)
Mark Stephen Meadows
03 Jul 2013
This article considers privacy in robotic systems (such as personal service robotics) as being of greater importance than privacy in telecommunications (such as Internet). We will return to our regula...
Funding high risk proposals at the National Science Foundation: A brief history
Marc Rothenberg
03 Jul 2013
National Science Foundation (NSF) efforts to develop a mechanism to fund research proposals that had a high risk of failure, but which also had the potential for high return, began in 1980. In that ye...
Space mining: Robots in the final frontier
Kris Zacny
01 Jul 2013
Over the past two decades, robotic planetary exploration has generated an incredible wealth of knowledge about our neighbors in the Solar System. We now realize that celestial bodies within our reach...
Global Future 2045 takes a hard look at today
Frank Tobe
23 Jun 2013
Dmitry Itskov, a wealthy Russian Internet entrepreneur, hosted and sponsored last weekend's Global Future 2045, an event organized to highlight the state of present day science and its relentless expo...
World’s most human-like android wasn’t unveiled at GF2045
Frank Tobe
18 Jun 2013
Headlines preceding the Global Future 2045 Congress proclaimed: WORLD’S MOST HUMAN-LIKE ANDROID TO BE UNVEILED AT GF2045
“The Dmitry Avatar-A head represents the most expressive facial robot in ...
Food delivery drones. But is it a business?
Andra Keay
18 Jun 2013
Food drone delivery ideas are taking off all over the place. But is it a business or just an advertizing stunt? Tacocopter was one of the first although still more of a theory than a practice. Stanfo...
What would you research if you did not have to worry about grants?
RBI Editors
17 Jun 2013
'Bean-counting' is a dull but necessary component of every grant proposal; it helps to keep our plans realistic, doable and accountable. But what if we weren't tied to grants and budgets? Would it cha...
Mark Tilden on “What would you research if you did not have to worry about grants?”
Mark Tilden
17 Jun 2013
Well, I'm lucky enough to be a gentleman scientist, so I concurrently study problems on minimal dynamical control systems (optimizing performance to silicon ratios), power regeneration and efficiency...
Illah Nourbakhsh on “What would you research if you did not have to worry about grants?”
Illah Nourbakhsh
17 Jun 2013
Community empowerment through massive robotic sensing.
There is no question we live in a world that is changing. Pollutants are changing the dynamics of the air we breathe, the water we drink and...
Science without borders: Becoming cross-disciplinary
Sabine Hauert
14 Jun 2013
Those who move away from home, for long enough, know that you end up not belonging anywhere. The more you move the easier it becomes. Looking back, you realize that you've learned new languages and cu...
Robots: The “ables” of the next technology trend
Andra Keay
11 Jun 2013
The report is out – there should be rejoicing up and down robot street! Why? Because one of the tech industry’s most respected analysts is being very bullish about robots as the next technology tr...
