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opinions
Don’t throw out the baby with the bath water
Frank Tobe
09 Jun 2013
There have been many headlines about "killer robots" and invasion of privacy. They protest that robots will soon choose targets and then bomb or shoot those targets under their own direction and will ...
An inspiring article by a future roboticist
Frank Tobe
08 Jun 2013
In July, 2011, I interviewed and then wrote about an inspiring high school teacher who spearheaded the founding of the Dos Pueblos Engineering Academy, was the 2010 recipient of a $500,000 MacArt...
“A Paro walks into a club…” (or, Notes on the design of automated body language)
Mark Stephen Meadows
05 Jun 2013
This article discusses personality design and how proper natural language interface design includes body language. The article is about the design of hearts and minds for robots. It argues that psyc...
We Robot Conference: 6. Manufacturer risk management
Kate Darling
29 May 2013
Q: What's the main issue that will keep the general legal counsel of a robotics company up at night? A: Massive tort liability. Maintaining that product liability is the number one issue for robot man...
New Robotics and new opportunities
Alan Winfield
28 May 2013
Here are the slides of my talk at the BARA Academic Forum for Robotics meeting Robotics: from innovation to service, on Monday 20 May 2013:...
We Robot Conference 5: Bender’s Law
Kate Darling
23 May 2013
On April 8-9, Stanford Law School held the second annual robotics and law conference, We Robot. This year’s event focused on near-term policy issues in robotics and featured panels and papers by sch...
We Robot Conference: 4. Social robot demo
Kate Darling
21 May 2013
On April 8-9, Stanford Law School held the second annual robotics and law conference, We Robot. This year’s event focused on near-term policy issues in robotics and featured panels and papers by sch...
Alan Winfield on “What is the single biggest obstacle preventing robotics from going mainstream?”
Alan Winfield
15 May 2013
Well it depends on what you mean by mainstream. For a number of major industry sectors robotics is already mainstream. In assembly-line automation, for instance; or undersea oil well maintenance and...
Brian Gerkey on “What is the single biggest obstacle preventing robotics from going mainstream?”
Brian Gerkey
15 May 2013
The biggest obstacle to broader adoption of robotics is that only experienced roboticists can develop robotics applications. To make a robot reliably and robustly do something useful, you need a d...
Mark Tilden on “What is the single biggest obstacle preventing robotics from going mainstream?”
Mark Tilden
15 May 2013
From experience, the single biggest obstacle to personal robotic markets is cost, both in money and time. Robots have the disadvantage of being over-promoted in fictional media while over-priced on ...
What is the single biggest obstacle preventing robotics from going mainstream?
RBI Editors
15 May 2013
It has been said that we are on the edge of a 'robotic tipping point' … but where, exactly, is this edge? And what's holding us back? This month we asked our panelists to weigh in on what's keepin...
Could we experience the workings of our own brains?
Alan Winfield
08 May 2013
One of the oft quoted paradoxes of consciousness is that we are unable to observe or experience our own conscious minds at work; that we cannot be conscious of the workings of consciousness. I've alwa...
We Robot Conference: The Ethical Robot License for open robotics
AJung Moon
07 May 2013
On April 8-9, Stanford Law School held the second annual robotics and law conference, We Robot. This year’s event focused on near-term policy issues in robotics and featured panels and papers by sch...
The uncanny valet (or, Notes on the design of robot psychology)
Mark Stephen Meadows
04 May 2013
This article outlines the problems of today's phone and online help systems and offers solutions to conversational systems of tomorrow. The article is about the design of hearts and minds for robots, ...
A conversation with Henri Seydoux
Frank Tobe
03 May 2013
A growing business within Parrot S.A., (PARRO:EUROLIST B) is their AR.Drone line of products, parts and software. Their first quadcopter product was developed internally by (1) observing the $1 billio...
We Robot Conference: 2. Law as algorithm
Kate Darling
03 May 2013
On April 8-9, Stanford Law School held the second annual robotics and law conference, We Robot. This year’s event focused on near-term policy issues in robotics and featured panels and papers by sch...
Intuitive Surgical, a manufacturer with almost no tangible assets?
Robert Morris
01 May 2013
Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ:ISRG) is a prime example of how robotics is similar to other IP intensive industries like software, biotech, and entertainment.
In December my colleagues and I produced a...
We Robot Conference: 1. Intellectual property
Kate Darling
30 Apr 2013
On April 8-9, Stanford Law School held the second annual robotics and law conference, We Robot. This year’s event focused on near-term policy issues in robotics and featured panels and papers by sch...
A crisis of expectations
Alan Winfield
29 Apr 2013
At the first UK Robot Ethics workshop on 25th March 2013, I offered — for discussion — the proposition that robotics is facing a Crisis of Expectations. And not for the first time. I argue that on...
EPFL’s Festival Robotique draws a record 17,000 visitors
Robohub Editors
24 Apr 2013
The 6th Annual Festival Robotique in Lausanne, Switzerland drew a record number of visitors this past Saturday, making it one of the largest public science events in the country....
Robohub focus: Dealing with the ‘jobs’ question
Hallie Siegel
15 Apr 2013
For the next week, Robohub will host a special focus on robots and jobs, featuring original articles from leading experts in the fields of robotics and automation. The goal of the series is to explore...
The great equalizer: How robotics frees manufacturers from consolidating in low-wage nations
John Dulchinos
15 Apr 2013
These days it is hard to read an article about the future of robots that does not include a reference to jobs. As a pure roboticist I object to the constant connection between the two, but as a concer...
Effect of robots on jobs? Only time — and management teams — will tell
Rich Mahoney
15 Apr 2013
Although there is a surge in early stage personal and service robotics activity right now, it will take time to find out which technologies and companies will be the real winners, and only then will w...
Do robots kill jobs?
RBI Editors
15 Apr 2013
To coincide with Robohub's Jobs Focus, we asked our panelists to weigh in on the role that robots play in the wider economy, and whether this is a good thing or a bad thing for employment numbers. Her...
Raffaello D’Andrea on “Do robots kill jobs?”
Raffaello D'Andrea
14 Apr 2013
There is no doubt that robots, and automation in general, replace humans in the work-force: all productivity-enhancing tools, by definition, result in a decrease in the number of man-hours required to...
Mark Tilden on “Do robots kill jobs?”
Mark Tilden
14 Apr 2013
Robots do kill jobs but they're crappy jobs, so good riddance. If you've ever had a job you were desperate for the money, but immediately regretted after you got it, then you know what I mean.
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Ability to do creative, non-routine work will be a must in the coming automation era. Is this realistic for most workers?
Martin Ford
13 Apr 2013
There can be no doubt that technological progress has resulted in a far more prosperous society. Technology has often disrupted entire industries and, in some cases — as with the mechanization of ag...
There is no war other than the one we are fighting with ourselves
Federico Pistono
13 Apr 2013
Just five years ago, anybody who spoke of technological unemployment was labeled a luddite, a techno-utopian, or just simply someone who doesn’t understand economics. Today things are very different...
Robots and the economy: Red herrings, or canaries in a coal mine?
Matt Beane
13 Apr 2013
Recent economic trends are perplexing. Corporate profits are up. Productivity is up. Jobs and pay for the average worker have crashed, and are recovering slower than in any other decade on record. ...
Commercial opportunities to create more than 100,000 manufacturing jobs when FAA opens airspace to UAS
Chris Mailey
12 Apr 2013
AUVSI recently released a report titled The Economic Impact of Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration in the United States. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) currently has heavy restrictions on...
Do industrial robots really have a positive impact on employment?
Frank Tobe
12 Apr 2013
Do industrial robots really have a positive impact on employment? Of course they do and there are over 50 years of data proving that to be the case....
Xconomy Forum’s final word about robots and jobs
Frank Tobe
12 Apr 2013
At the Xconomy Forum held in Palo Alto earlier this week, the focal topic was "Robots Remake the Workplace." It was expected that the jobs issue would permeate the event. Do robots take away jobs? Ins...
In agriculture robots replace job vacancies
John Payne
12 Apr 2013
It used to be that it didn’t matter how grueling the work was, so long as it was safe enough that a worker could get through the day uninjured by being careful. If the boss paid cash at the end of t...
