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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...
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...
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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