Since Sophia the robot has been granted citizenship by Saudi Arabia, things just got a whole lot more real. And by real, I mean I have a ton of fears and excitements racing through my head about female robots and how they can impact our life as real women. Will it ever come down to […]
We’ve documented why humans are at risk to be replaced by robots — turns out, our fellow earthbound species might not fare any better! The past decade has seen an explosion of interest in biomemetics, or the use of natural animal behaviors and movements to design robots. And no, we’re not just talking about Aibo here. […]
If I tell you there’s a skittering spider robot that can transform into a wheel and zoom around at high speeds, you’re racking your brain trying to figure out what movie that’s from, right? Well, it’s probably in some movie I can’t remember, but it’s also coming to the theater of the absurd that is […]
Usually when we hear about robots coming for jobs, we’re reassured by the voices telling us that there are still plenty of jobs robots won’t be able to do. Unfortunately, that reassurance has a nasty habit of not lasting very long. Case in point: the sneaker business. Robots have been used in shoe manufacturing for […]
The oceans have always been a rewarding place for researchers to explore, but rising temperatures and growing islands of plastic waste have added a sense of urgency. Monitoring the oceans hasn’t gotten all that much easier over the years, either — improvements to robotics and sensor tech doesn’t mean much when we’re still largely blind underwater. […]
The cafe is quiet and lifeless in the late afternoon, aside from one lonely human sweeping the floor. A row of tablets display simple menus of espresso drinks, or warm milk — no food, at least not yet. The main attraction sits in the back, patiently waiting for an order so it can spring to life. […]
We’ve got the Winter Olympics and the Summer Olympics — are the Robot Olympics next? Maybe! The metal and wire crowd might not have any Phelpsian swimmers in its ranks yet, but sports-playing robots are becoming more and more common. They’re not exactly graceful or athletic just yet, but hey, they and their human friends are […]
The good stuff keeps coming out of Boston Dynamics, home of the backflipping robot. They’ve been developing four-legged robots for as long as we can remember, too, and those dog-like bots always seem to be learning new tricks. This week, the SpotMini robot learned the trick of politeness, gaining the ability to open and hold […]
Lindsey Vonn doesn’t have to look over her shoulder just yet — even the world’s best robot skiers are still on the bunny slopes. While their human counterparts were competing for gold in PyeongChang, those bots were hitting the slopes at a nearby ski resort in South Korea as part of the Ski Robot Challenge. Reuters reports […]
“Look at how wild the future is going to be!” is one of the major themes at every CES that has ever been. In the 2018 version of the electronics tradeshow in Las Vegas, the vision of a future is one of robots, everywhere. The show was loaded with them, and while most of them […]
Not content to make us feel bad about our job security, robots are now embarrassing us with their superior commitment to sick gains. Robotics are engineers are increasingly showing off what they can do by making robots that can pull off impressive athletic feats. In a span of about five years, robots have gone from […]
Ready for a story involving the SPCA, a security robot, and the unhoused population of San Francisco? Yep, in 2017 there’s somehow a dot in the center of that Venn diagram, and it also involves the robot getting canned in the end. Shameful that an org that finds homes for homeless animals is treating homeless […]
Not that airport security is what we’d call lax, but for the customs evaders of the world, at least there was some hope of human error. This month saw the beginning of the end of that hope — there’s a new kind of customs agent on the scene, and it’ll always be watching! Sanbot Max is […]
Robots are big bad metal machines here to take your jobs and eventually rise up in a backflipping revolution, right? But, what if robots didn’t have to be that way? What if they could be squishy, squid-like creatures with tentacles that can lift 1,000 times their own weight or inch along the floor like an […]
Saudi Arabia has been making some very amazing and interesting advancements lately. In late September, they announced that they are now permitted women to get behind the wheel and start driving cars. This change is taking effect June 2018, and Saudi Arabia has long been seen as oppressing women for having this legal ban on […]
If hearing about all the robots that are going to make humans obsolete got you down, we’ve got just the thing. A lot more robots out there are still bad at doing things! Robotics is a marathon, not a sprint, and let’s just say there continue to be some stumbles along the way. Trust us, […]
And you thought those self-driving cars sounded scary! Wait until you see a boat driving itself on the water. Self-driving boats are actually in the works in Amsterdam. Today, the Amsterdam Institute for Metropolitan Solutions (AMS) announced a new, five-year research initiative to explore the possibility of floating robot vehicles. “Imagine a fleet of autonomous boats for the transportation […]
Today, we’re learning that Domino’s is doing its part to end the age of human delivery. Before we know it, every Domino’s pizza might be delivered by DRU, their autonomous delivery bot. DRU is being tested on a few streets in Queensland, Australia right now, but there are plans to take this guy worldwide in […]
What started out as a DIY project to create a fun way for a nine-year-old to learn programming is shaping up to become one of the most useful home robots yet — and the most affordable. Robit is a cute little wheeled robot who has become a guard dog, an assistant, and a friendly companion, […]
The BBC had a report on this study that said 144 people died over a 14-year period in incidents involving robotic equipment during surgery a couple days ago, part of what seems to be a media trend of finding fertile ground in fear of our soon-to-be robot overlords. What they didn’t talk about much is […]
Horrifying stuff out of Germany today, as an accident resulted in a robotic system crushing a contract worker against a metal plate, crushing his chest. The man was revived, but ultimately succumbed to his injuries at the hospital where he was being treated. The accident happened at a Volkswagen manufacturing plant in Baunatal, Germany, where […]
