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Google gets patent for driverless car
Frank Tobe
18 Dec 2011
... Google was granted a US Patent “for transitioning a mixed-mode autonomous vehicle from a human driven mode to an autonomously driven mode.”
... Now comes the endless red tape over safety, neg...
Robots in the kitchen: Sooner than you think
Frank Tobe
18 Dec 2011
... “James (a PR2 robot from Willow Garage) and Rosie (a custom lightweight two-armed robot from Kuka and DLR) aren’t specifically programmed with a “left, right, break egg, stirR...
Iranians hacked US drone and instructed it to land in Iran
Frank Tobe
17 Dec 2011
... In an exclusive to The Christian Science Monitor, an Iranian engineer describes how they hacked a U.S. military drone - a Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel - into landing at an Iranian airbase.
... ...
IPM: Integrated pest management
John Payne
16 Dec 2011
The concept of Integrated Pest Management has been around for several decades, and is just as useful in a robotic, no-till scenario as it is combined with conventional, traction-based agricu...
Reforming agriculture through more sophisticated mechanization
John Payne
10 Dec 2011
Historically, at least since the mechanization of agriculture began in earnest, there have been two primary measures of agricultural productivity, the amount that could be grown on a given acreage and...
Monitoring fields with UAVs
John Payne
09 Dec 2011
They're using radio-controlled aircraft rather than autonomous machines, but it's still a big improvement over the time spent walking fields or the lack of detail that comes from only checki...
Will there be a universal robotic control system?
Frank Tobe
06 Dec 2011
... From a highly fragmented industry with few common standards or platforms, there will soon be a universal interface so that 3rd parties can add platforms and modules to robotic systems.
... There w...
Robotics is a highly fragmented industry with few common standards or platforms
Frank Tobe
06 Dec 2011
Imagine being present at the birth of a new industry. It is an industry based on groundbreaking new technologies, wherein a handful of well-established corporations sell highly specialized devices for...
2011 robot gift suggestions
Frank Tobe
02 Dec 2011
... Gift and book suggestions for almost every family member.
... Product descriptions, photos, prices, and where to buy....
Robotics labs and companies open up for EU Robotics Week
Frank Tobe
28 Nov 2011
... Today is the start of the first European Robotics Week: from 28th of November to 4th of December 2011. Check events calendar for an event near you.
... In a novel approach to show their labs effor...
Abandoned railway roadbeds
John Payne
26 Nov 2011
In the Emma Marris video, linked from a previous post, there appears to be an abandoned railway roadbed in the background. Such spaces almost automatically return to nature, left to themselves for a ...
Emma Marris: Rambunctious Garden
John Payne
26 Nov 2011
While I fully expect Emma Marris would deem the use of robots to create her Rambunctious Garden a distraction, and my contention that robotics is necessary to the achievement of sustainabili...
Intelligrated adding 200 tech/engineering jobs at new Ohio facility
Frank Tobe
23 Nov 2011
... Intelligrated, a material handling automation integrator, is building a new R&D facility in Ohio. 200 new tech and engineering jobs will be added.
... The new facility will support the company...
Aldebaran Robotics acquires Siri-like front-end for their NAO robot
Frank Tobe
23 Nov 2011
... Aldebaran Robotics, the venture-funded Paris-based developer of the NAO robot, has acquired the assets of the recently defunct Mindscape, a French gaming software company. NOTE: there are now 2,00...
Foxconn to mass produce their own robots
Frank Tobe
19 Nov 2011
... Taiwan-based Hon Hai Precision Industry (Foxconn) breaks ground for $223 million R&D and manufacturing facilities in Taiwan to develop and produce robots.
... The project is expected to genera...
Huge employer in China makes big step toward robots
Frank Tobe
18 Nov 2011
Foxconn, a big contractor for Apple and others, breaks ground for robot facilities. It plans to replace 500,000 workers with 1 million robots.
Workers are seen inside a Foxconn factory...
Toyota displays four new healthcare robots available in 2013
Frank Tobe
16 Nov 2011
... Toyota displays four new nursing and healthcare robots which are scheduled to be commercialized and available for sale in 2013.
... Two robots assist with walking, another with balance and the fou...
Robots coming online in 2012, 2013 and 2014
Frank Tobe
11 Nov 2011
... Harvest Automation’s labor-saving potted plant mover to go commercial in 2012 and 2013
... Sea Robotics hull-cleaning navy robot is slated for 2014
... Foxconn factory robots - from their ow...
Lots of robots coming onboard in 2013, 2014 and 2015
Frank Tobe
11 Nov 2011
Pure science is an integral part of robotics and often leads to solutions for strategic needs for an audience of willing buyers. Here are a few examples of that process from companies with products sc...
iRobot to cut 9% of workers from military div; consumer products booming
Frank Tobe
05 Nov 2011
... iRobot CEO Colin Angle said the workforce reduction will result in a $1 million charge but won’t impact the home robots business unit.
... Federal government cutbacks in military R&D spendin...
More disasters plaguing Japanese auto industry
Frank Tobe
02 Nov 2011
... Thailand flooding inundates Honda auto manufacturing plant and many auto parts providers; robots and computers under water.
Flooding continues and the factory remains submerged.
... Toyota shutter...
Help for independent scientists and early-stage companies developing radical ideas
Frank Tobe
26 Oct 2011
... Peter Thiel, of Google’s driverless car fame, launched Breakout Labs, a new program to help independent scientists and early-stage companies develop their most radical ideas.
... Funding agr...
Emerging underwater businesses
Frank Tobe
25 Oct 2011
... ROVs repairing underwater oil rigs; treasure hunters finding $230 million in silver; recovering the black box from a crashed airline; tracking sea creatures - these are just a few of the non-defen...
iWalk expanding availability of lower limb bionic prosthetics
Frank Tobe
08 Oct 2011
... MIT spinoff iWalk now producing a leg system that replaces the combined functions of the foot, ankle and calf regions of the human body for amputees.
... Prosthetic emulates or even augments physi...
MS donates 2,500 Kinects to FIRST
Frank Tobe
08 Oct 2011
... The Kinect sensor will be a valuable enhancement to the FIRST robot competition experience. Teams will be able to either program their robots to respond to their own custom gestures, or use defaul...
Five finalists chosen for RoboBowl healthcare robotics competition
Frank Tobe
05 Oct 2011
... Five finalists in the RoboBowl next-generation competition for healthcare robotic devices hosted by CMU were announced. Each wins $5,000. The best of the five wins another $20,000.
... Proposals i...
James Cameron wins Popular Mechanics’ 2011 Leadership Award
Frank Tobe
04 Oct 2011
... Cameron wins Breakthrough Leadership Award not only for technologies he has pioneered for his movies, but for his other explorations in providing 3D cameras for NASA’s next Mars rover, for u...
The importance of robotics to the achievement of sustainability
John Payne
28 Sep 2011
In a mid-August post bearing the same title, on my primary blog, I stated:
I firmly believe that (short of convincing the vast majority of people to return to subsistence farming, something which cou...
Notes from IROS 2011 San Francisco
Frank Tobe
26 Sep 2011
... Week long conference on intelligent robots and systems had presentations, exhibitions, demonstrations and interactive sessions.
... Read one observer’s picks for most interesting, crowd plea...
Yaskawa porting ROS to robot line
Frank Tobe
10 Sep 2011
... Southwest Research Institute porting Willow Garage’s Open Source ROS Robotic Operating System to Yaskawa line of Motoman robots.
... Work to be done by Q1 2012.
... “The next step for ...
PerkinElmer acquires Caliper Life Sciences for $600 million
Frank Tobe
10 Sep 2011
... Both companies design, produce and market lab automation robots.
... Sale will be finalized in two months....
IFR says robots did well in 2010
Frank Tobe
08 Sep 2011
... Industrial robot sales almost doubled compared to 2009 - to $5.7 billion - with the auto and electronics industries as the main drivers.The IFR expects China to become the world’s largest ma...
Win $25,000 for healthcare robotics invention
Frank Tobe
03 Sep 2011
... Carnegie Melon University (CMU), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Robotics Technology Consortium (RTC) and the Innovation Accelerator (IA) are all working together to organize and host a...
Robotic technology for treating hair loss gets $41 million
Frank Tobe
03 Sep 2011
... Restoration Robotics, Inc received clearance from the FDA in April for it’s ARTAS™ System for harvesting hair follicles from the scalp in men. It combines an image-guided robotic arm, spec...
Foxconn to deploy 1,000,000 robots by 2014
Frank Tobe
27 Aug 2011
... Foxconn is planning to up their factory robot count to 300,000 by 2012 and 1 million by 2014.
... A Taiwanese contract manufacturer with factories in Taiwan, China, Vietnam and Indonesia, Foxconn...
Free Stanford online course in AI
Frank Tobe
21 Aug 2011
... Artificial Intelligence is the science of making software that reasons about the world around it. Humanoid robots, Google Goggles, self-driving cars, music you might like to hear suggesting softwa...
