Last Saturday night, a young woman out on the town in Brisbane saw a dog-shaped robot trotting towards her and did what many of us might have felt an urge to do: she gave it a solid kick in the head. After all, who hasn’t thought about lashing out at “intelligent” technologies that frustrate us as […] … learn more→
Tag Archives: Robots
Is it OK to kick a robot dog?
Robots are playing many roles in the coronavirus crisis – and offering lessons for future disasters
A cylindrical robot rolls into a treatment room to allow health care workers to remotely take temperatures and measure blood pressure and oxygen saturation from patients hooked up to a ventilator. Another robot that looks like a pair of large fluorescent lights rotated vertically travels throughout a hospital disinfecting with ultraviolet light. Meanwhile a cart-like robot brings food to […] … learn more→
What are the problems that need to be solved before supervising robot efficiency?
Today, you can almost solve any problem using software. However, did you know that some problems can’t be solved by software? While software plays a huge role in enhancing diverse universal robot applications, you will first have to solve some common problems as we shall see below. A messy process which no one can comprehend […] … learn more→
How do robots ‘see’ the world?
The world has gone mad for robots with articles talking almost every day about the coming of the robot revolution. But is all the hype, excitement and sometimes fear justified? Is the robot revolution really coming? The answer is probably that in some areas of our lives we will see more robots soon. But realistically, […] … learn more→
We can’t blame the loss of mid-level jobs purely on robots
Several developed countries including the US, UK and Germany have seen their labour markets polarised in recent decades as the number of middle-skilled jobs has declined relative to that of low and high-skilled ones. Technology has been singled out as the main culprit: computers and automation have reduced the demand for mid-level skilled workers in […] … learn more→
Job survival in the age of robots and intelligent machines
It is a sobering thought that in ten years, around 65% of the jobs that people will be doing have not even been thought of yet, according to the US Department of Labor. In Australia, there are reports that up to half a million of existing jobs could be taken over by robotics or machines […] … learn more→
Thousand-robot swarm assembles itself into shapes
There is something magical about seeing 1,000 robots move, when humans are not operating any of them. In a new study published in Science, researchers have achieved just that. This swarm of 1,000 robots can assemble themselves into complex shapes without the need for a central brain or a human controller. Self-assembly of this kind […] … learn more→
Woodie Flowers, a pioneer of hands-on engineering education
When Woodie Flowers SM ’68, MEng ’71, PhD ’73 was an MIT student in mechanical engineering, most of his classes involved paper-and-pencil design exercises with predetermined “right” solutions; actual class-related construction work tended to be limited to small test devices, built by the book. But having grown up taking things apart and putting them back […] … learn more→
Robots to sense environment: A new edge to next Gen surveillance
Scientists at Lockheed Martin have been developing prototypes at the Advanced Technologies Laboratory, which are expected to obtain useful intelligence in sensitive areas. This prototype was unveiled last month and can survey its environment, calculate lines of sight, locate good hiding places and detect potential threats. These prototype robots have been created with stealthy bodies […] … learn more→
