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Robotics by Invitation

What does it take to get from imagination to market?

RBI Editors 12 Mar 2014

It's the top-of-mind question for every would-be entrepreneur, and with the Robot Launch 2014 competition deadline coming up on March 30, it's an especially fitting question to pose to our panelists t...

Do robots need heads?

RBI Editors 15 Aug 2013

Robots are machines and most people agree that they primarily serve a utilitarian purpose. So why do so many of them have heads? Here are some thoughts by AJung Moon, Mark Stephen Meadows, Travis Deyl...

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]. ...

AJung Moon on “Do robots need heads?”

AJung Moon 15 Aug 2013

Are you curious about what your future robotic assistants will look like? My bet is that by the time you buy your very first robotic butler, it will have a friendly head on it that moves. In fact, ...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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. ...

Daniel H. Wilson on “How will robots shape the future of warfare?”

Daniel Wilson 16 Mar 2013

Robots have already changed the face of modern warfare, particularly through the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), commonly called "drones." Currently, armed drone aircraft are in widespread use...

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...

Nicola Tomatis on “What funding scheme is the most conducive to creating a robotics industry?”

Nicola Tomatis 15 Feb 2013

I would like to start from the other side: "Why is robotics great in creating new technologies and poor in creating new businesses?". Well, someone may disagree, but I really think that robotics is gr...

Frank Tobe on “What funding scheme is the most conducive to creating a robotics industry?”

Frank Tobe 15 Feb 2013

Funding new robotic projects in America is mostly done two different ways: (1) strategic funding from NASA, DARPA, DoD, NSF and other government organizations to do the pure science involved in sol...

Henrik Christensen on “What funding scheme is the most conducive to creating a robotics industry?”

Henrik Christensen 15 Feb 2013

The public should in most cases not subsidize companies. Tax payers should not be venture capitalists. The new wave of Lean Startup going around the world is a great model to ensure that companies are...

Raffaello D’Andrea on “What funding scheme is the most conducive to creating a robotics industry?”

Raffaello D'Andrea 15 Feb 2013

The best way to commercialize robotics research is to make better connections between academics and entrepreneurs. Academics venturing out into the business world tend to have a "hammer looking for ...

Mark Tilden on “What funding scheme is the most conducive to creating a robotics industry?”

Mark Tilden 31 Jan 2013

Funding schemes aren't viable until we can make more innovative roboticists, and over the years I've tried several methods of engendering the Divine Frankenstein Complex in others. Teaching at a unive...

If you had a EUR 100M investment fund, into which robotics technology or field of robotics would you put your money?

RBI Editors 15 Jan 2013

Welcome to Robotics by Invitation! Each month we pose a question of general interest to the robotics community, and ask our panel of experts to answer. So, where would the experts invest their m...

Herman Bruyninckx on “If you had a EUR 100M investment fund, into which robotics technology or field of robotics would you put your money?”

Herman Bruyninckx 15 Jan 2013

A project that would: represent human knowledge about manufacturing in an ontology server; focus on system integration software and hardware issues; develop affordance-driven system and compon...

Mark Tilden on “If you had a EUR 100M investment fund, into which robotics technology or field of robotics would you put your money?”

Mark Tilden 15 Jan 2013

Well if it was for fun, I'd invest in autonomous paving mothers (APMs). A self-driving solar-powered mobile furnace robot that eats sand and dirt and spits out interlocking solar-panel paving stones...

Henrik Christensen on “If you had a EUR 100M investment fund, into which robotics technology or field of robotics would you put your money?̶

Henrik Christensen 15 Jan 2013

Robots for manufacturing. Generating a new family of robots that have a fluent interaction with humans. It will be easily programmable. Some would argue that Baxter provides this functionality. Unfo...

Frank Tobe on “If you had a EUR 100M investment fund, into which robotics technology or field of robotics would you put your money?”

Frank Tobe 15 Jan 2013

As the robotics industry continues to grow, enters new industries, and provides new applications, strategic focus is necessary or the overall industry will develop haphazardly and spread out around th...