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What do people think about autonomous cars? Results from our reader poll
Open Roboethics Initiative
12 May 2014
What do people think are the main advantages of owning an autonomous car? Do people think autonomous cars should be easily identifiable? How much money are people willing to pay for an autonomous car ...
Reader poll: What do you think about autonomous cars?
Open Roboethics Initiative
29 Apr 2014
Today we drive our cars. In the future they’ll do the driving.
Autonomous cars are no longer a far-off futuristic dream, but something that we can expect to see on the road within the next dec...
Don’t blame technology for persistent unemployment | Slate
John Payne
06 Oct 2013
Posting on the Slate blog Future Tense, James Bessen takes issue with the notion that technology causes unemployment, illustrating his point by debunking a pair of frequently cited examples, textile w...
Classroom robotics: Motivating independent learning and discovery
Sharon Marzouk
03 Oct 2013
Sharon Marzouk with a class of excited youngsters and their Thymio-based creations.
Sharon has found classroom robotics is an excellent motivator for independent learning and discovery: “The way I ...
Mentors of Steel: The role of mentoring in robotics education
The Girls of Steel – a competitive FIRST team located in Pittsburg, PA – is on a mission to draw more young women into engineering. We've already heard what it's like to be part of an all-girls ro...
Drones for Schools
Matthew Schroyer
24 Sep 2013
To understand what the Drones for Schools program is, and how it came about, it helps to know a few things about my background. I didn't originally set out to be a STEM educator. I had some science ed...
Getting started in robotics, an educational concern
Claude Baumann
23 Sep 2013
I am profoundly convinced that if we are able to preserve the natural curiosity of early childhood in growing up individuals, without fail they will develop a durable attraction to science, technology...
David Robert on “Do robots need heads?”
David Robert
15 Aug 2013
As a robot animator I can attest to the fact that robots don't "need" heads to be treated as social entities. Research has shown that people will befriend a stick as long as it moves properly [1].
...
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...
Videos of presentations at Ryerson University symposium on UAVs
John Payne
11 Aug 2013
On June 30th of this year, Ryerson University in Toronto held an event titled UAVs: Pros vs Cons Symposium. Some of the presentations have since been incorporated into a YouTube playlist by Nikola Dan...
Calling all do-it-yourselfers: Robohub seeking contributions for focus series on “Getting Started in Robotics”
Mike Hamer
08 Aug 2013
In light of the popularity of his AR.Drone tutorials, we have invited Robohub contributor Mike Hamer to act as Guest Editor for our next focus series "Getting Started in Robotics."
Like many ch...
SUSBEXPO: The first unmanned systems business conference
Andra Keay
27 Jul 2013
SUSBEXPO is the first conference about unmanned systems to really focus on the growing commercial opportunities of this market. AUVSI put on a spectacular annual show, but it is predominantly militar...
Research Days: Multi-UAV systems
Christian Bettstetter and Evsen Yanmaz
17 Jul 2013
Autonomously flying robots — also called small-scale unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) — are more and more exploited in civil and commercial applications for monitoring, surveillance, and disaster r...
Boston is actually living up to the hype this year!
Robert Morris
11 Jun 2013
The definitive list of private funding in robotics--or at least the most widely cited is the Hizook VC Funding for Robotics list. The list for 2012 is out. Please help make it complete by adding...
iRobot unveils new AVA 500 mobile robot for professionals
Frank Tobe
11 Jun 2013
New iRobot AVA 500, planned for 2014 delivery, navigates autonomously and can be sent from point A to B using an iPad....
Boston bombings show future use for drones | Tulsa World
CIS Blog
10 May 2013
Boston Police Chief Edward F. Davis said he wants to use drones at next year's Boston Marathon, calling them "a good idea." Using a drone to pursue fleeing suspects like the Tsarnaev brothers would b...
Smart vehicles are here: Can government keep pace? | NY Times Energy for Tomorrow Conference
CIS Blog
29 Apr 2013
The pressures are building for safer and smarter vehicles on our roads, raising questions about the national, state and local policies that will emerge. Several states are already early adopters of le...
Campaign to Stop Killer Robots: Let’s all stop them, shall we?
AJung Moon
27 Apr 2013
Killer robots.
Looking at the two words together is enough to conjure up images of chaos and destruction. They're an image far too familiar in science fiction settings such as Isaac Asimov or Ar...
Rethink Robotics and Aldebaran both launch robots for research, teaching and custom development
Frank Tobe
26 Apr 2013
Rethink Robotics just launched a version of their Baxter robot armed with a new SDK providing educators and researchers with almost limitless capabilities at an affordable cost. Using ROS and the new ...
Stopping the deployment of “killer robots” | Humans Rights Watch
Mike Hamer
23 Apr 2013
In November last year, the Human Rights Watch released the "Losing Humanity" report (which we've already covered on Robohub). This report discussed the role of robots in armed conflict, summarized th...
Ryan Calo on spyware for your brain
CIS Blog
18 Apr 2013
Ryan Calo discusses how researchers at Oxford, Geneva, and Berkeley have created a proof of concept for using commercially available brain-computer interfaces to discover private facts about today's g...
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...
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.
...
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. ...
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....
Jobs for roboticists
Sabine Hauert
11 Apr 2013
During my Master studies in computer science, I had the opportunity to spend a year at Carnegie Mellon University in the USA. Most of my classes there were about robotics, I got to participate in Robo...
Noel Sharkey: Ban the killer robots before it’s too late | CNN
Hallie Siegel
03 Apr 2013
As wars become increasingly automated, we must ask ourselves how far we want to delegate responsibility to machines. Where do we want to draw the line?
Noel Sharkey on CNN....
VLAB: Drones – The commercial era takes off, but breaking the law is going to blow-up in our faces
Robert Morris
26 Mar 2013
Last Tuesday I had the pleasure of attending VLAB: Drones – The Commercial Era Takes Off at Stanford GSB. The event was truly fantastic and the panel was amazing. The moderator was Chris Anderson,...
Alone together with man’s new best friend | NPR Technology Podcast
John Payne
21 Mar 2013
In the latest (March 20th) episode of NPR's Technology Podcast, the first two segments are devoted to addressing the questions “Are We Plugged-In, Connected, But Alone?” and “Will Man's Best Fri...
How will robots shape the future of warfare?
RBI Editors
15 Mar 2013
Updated March 17, 2013 | This month we've asked our experts to weigh in on the future of robotics in warfare, and the broadness of this topic has prompted some of our panelists to push back and reques...
Robohub focus: Robots and warfare
Hallie Siegel
13 Mar 2013
For the rest of this week, Robohub will have a special focus on the use of robots in warfare.
All kinds of robots are being developed for strategic defence and military action (in space, in the...
Mark Tilden on “How will robots shape the future of warfare?”
Mark Tilden
13 Mar 2013
Robot machines have been shaping the future of war since the first siege engines appeared in ancient times (I like to think the Trojan Horse was motorized). Now with technology significantly exten...
Raffaello D’Andrea on “How will robots shape the future of warfare?”
Raffaello D'Andrea
13 Mar 2013
How will robots shape the future of war? I don’t know. I think that the more important question, however, is: what role should robots have in warfare?
In my answer I have tried (as much as is h...
