In the quest for the most capable robotic bug (which is a quest that many roboticists seem to be on, because robotic bugs are nifty), some of the most exciting designs are inspired by the dynamic, multi-modal ways in which insects are conquering the world. Combining skills like running with skills like jumping can make little robots much more efficient movers, allowing them to go farther on a charge as well as helping them surmount obstacles and rough terrain.
A Chinese company called Midea Group that makes washing machines, air conditioners, and other household appliances is offering a little over $5 billion to acquire one of the world’s biggest industrial robot companies, Germany’s Kuka. It would be a big deal, but it should also come as no surprise.
Pepper is finally coming to America. SoftBank said today that its chatty humanoid robot, unveiled with great fanfare by the company’s founder and CEO Masayoshi Son two years ago, is expected to debut in the North American market later this year. SoftBank also announced that a new developer portal is now available to anyone interested in creating applications for the robot. And tomorrow at Google I/O, SoftBank engineers will take the stage, along with Pepper, to introduce a tool that they hope will entice more developers to build apps for the robot: an Android SDK.
El fabricante automovilístico Hyundai ha dado a conocer su exoesqueleto que "permitirá al usuario" levantar objetos de cientos de kilogramos y que la propia compañía ha comparado con Iron Man.
La idea de la compañía coreana es que este peculiar 'traje' robótico, bautizado como H-LEX, sirva de en divesos aspectos sociales aplicándose desde "reducir la probabilidad de accidentes" hasta servir para la "rehabilitación de lesionados", explica la compañía a través de su blog.
In a robotic surgery breakthrough, a bot stitched up a pig’s small intestines using its own vision, tools, and intelligence to carry out the procedure. What’s more, the Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot (STAR) did a better job on the operation than human surgeons who were given the same task.
STAR’s inventors don’t claim that robots can replace humans in the operating room anytime soon. Instead they see the accomplishment as a proof of concept—both for the specific technologies used and for the general concept of “supervised autonomy” in the OR.
Cuando Daniel Politeski, un ingeniero de Vancouver, Canadá, se acercó al mostrador de la recepción en el hotel Henn-na, cerca de Nagasaki, Japón, dos empleados estaban listos para atenderlo: ¿debería acercarse a la joven en el traje formal color crema o a su colega, que tenía un gran parecido a un Tyrannosaurus Rex?
El huésped se acercó al dinosaurio, no solo porque interactuar con un animal parecía novedoso, o porque le gustaba su corbatín, sino porque era el que hablaba inglés. La joven empleada no se ofendió al ser ignorada, ella, al igual que su colega reptiliano, era también un robot.
If you were in the audience for Oussama Khatib’s IROS keynote in Hamburg last year, you may remember him talking about this crazy thing:
We, of course, cornered Oussama immediately afterwards, because humanoid robotic submarine what?! It turned out that OceanOne, as it was called, was involved in a top secret (or something) project in collaboration with the French, which has (now that it’s over and wasn’t a disaster) been un-topsecretified so we can finally, finally tell you about it.
Bossa Nova Robotics, a company specializing in building robotic technology for retailers, has raised $14 million to expedite the rollout of its robots in stores.
Founded out of Pittsburgh, with offices in San Francisco as well, Bossa Nova has been developing its robot technology over the past few years, setting out to serve retailers through automation and analytics. Its machines analyze stock on shelves and collect data to optimize inventory, with fully autonomous robots unleashed in stores among shoppers. The company says it is now testing its “retail robots” with “five of the world’s leading retail chains,” though it wouldn’t divulge any names.
Inside a large, windowless room in an electronics factory in south Shanghai, about 15 workers are eyeing a small robot arm with frustration. Near the end of the production line where optical networking equipment is being packed into boxes for shipping, the robot sits motionless.
“The system is down,” explains Nie Juan, a woman in her early 20s who is responsible for quality control. Her team has been testing the robot for the past week. The machine is meant to place stickers on the boxes containing new routers, and it seemed to have mastered the task quite nicely. But then it suddenly stopped working. “The robot does save labor,” Nie tells me, her brow furrowed, “but it is difficult to maintain.”
“Every failed on demand startup will reappear as a successful robotics driven business in five to 10 years.” So tweeted Jeremy Conrad, founding partner of the San Francisco-based hardware fund Lemnos Labs, one recent afternoon.
