Category: Robots

Impact Lab > Robots
Automation, Food, Robots, Science & Technology News, Shopping

Robot courier delivering food from shop to home

 78193C43-5DC8-4AE7-84C6-3F9B46134DF5

From the last week of September onwards, customers of REDI shopping centre may have spotted a small, wheeled robot moving about on its own. Its task is to deliver meals on demand from K-Supermarket to the Majakka high-rise building. Customers can place an order via the building’s Asumi service on their computer or mobile device, and the delivery robot courier will take the products directly to the customer or to the collection point in the building’s shared facilities.

This is an ongoing robot delivery pilot in Kalasatama district in Helsinki implemented by technology company Dimalog in collaboration with Omron and service design agency Muotohiomo. The pilot is coordinated by the city of Helsinki’s innovation company Forum Virium Helsinki with its partners SRV and KONE. SRV is involved regarding the smart living services directed at Majakka residents, while KONE Oyj offers the lift interfaces for the delivery robot to move about in Majakka. Another essential partner is REDI’s K-Supermarket, which has the opportunity to test the robot in its services.

Continue reading… “Robot courier delivering food from shop to home”

Automation, Business, Coronavirus, Robots, Science & Technology News, Shopping

Sam’s Club will deploy autonomous floor-scrubbing robots in all of its US locations

1BAD2F1C-0B55-40EB-A6B7-8E92A874D508

The past six months have seen a fairly aggressive acceleration in the option of robotics and automation as companies look for ways to augment (and, likely, replace in some instances) human workers. The appeal is certainly clear during massive pandemic-fueled shutdowns.

Sam’s Club has been into robotic floor cleaning for a bit longer, having already deployed Tennant’s T7AMR scrubbers in a number of locations. But this week the Walmart -owned bulk retailer announced that it’s adding another 372 this year, bringing the technology to all of its 599 U.S. stores.

Continue reading… “Sam’s Club will deploy autonomous floor-scrubbing robots in all of its US locations”

Automation, New Inventions, Robots, Science & Technology News

LA debuts first firefighting robot in the country, deploys it in downtown blaze

The Thermite RS3 is capable of spraying 2,500 gallons per minute

 A firefighting robot got its first major test Tuesday in Los Angeles when it was put to use for the first time in the United States to battle a major blaze.

The Los Angeles Fire Department said the Thermite RS3 robot was supposed to have its official public introduction in the afternoon but got called into duty a few hours early due to a blaze downtown.

“It had already gotten dirty at an early morning major emergency commercial structure fire that morning – proving its value from the start,” the department said.

Continue reading… “LA debuts first firefighting robot in the country, deploys it in downtown blaze”

Healthcare, Medicine, Robots, Science & Technology News

Robot that can perform colonoscopies aims to make it less unpleasant

 

 C98B583C-6D55-4909-8B7E-135218196C73

 A robot that can perform colonoscopies may make the procedure simpler and less unpleasant.

Pietro Valdastri at the University of Leeds in the UK and his colleagues have developed a robotic arm that uses a machine learning algorithm to move a flexible probe along the colon.

The probe is a magnetic endoscope, a tube with a camera lens at the tip, that the robot controls via a magnet external to the body.

The system can either work autonomously or be controlled by a human operator using a joystick, which pushes the endoscope tip further along the colon. Valdastri likens the movement to the intuitive motion of playing a video game. The system also keeps track of the location and orientation of the endoscope inside the colon.

Continue reading… “Robot that can perform colonoscopies aims to make it less unpleasant”

Agriculture, Automation, Farming, Robots, Science & Technology News

Alphabet’s Mineral moonshot wants to help farmers with robotic plant buggies

DBD7962C-CD40-47E0-996A-04996007FFE5

The tech could lead to more sustainable farming practices.

 In 2018, Alphabet’s X lab said it was in the process of exploring how it could use artificial intelligence to improve farming. On Monday, X announced that its “computational agriculture” project is called Mineral. The Mineral team has spent the last several years “developing and testing a range of software and hardware prototypes based on breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, simulation, sensors, robotics and more.”

One of the tools that has come out of the project is a robotic plant buggy. Powered by solar panels, the machine makes its way across a farmer’s field, examining every plant it passes along the way with an array of cameras and sensors. In conjunction with satellite, weather and soil data, Mineral says the buggy and its AI software can identify patterns and give farmers insights into their crops.

Continue reading… “Alphabet’s Mineral moonshot wants to help farmers with robotic plant buggies”

Automation, Robotics, Robots, Science & Technology News, Space, Space Flight

GITAI aims to bring autonomous robot workers to space

8D5301CE-7C5E-40F1-9F6D-7D8ECE52D471

An artist’s rendering brings to life GITAI’s vision of robots working on the International Space Station.

GITAI will conduct a technical demonstration of autonomous robot, S1, aboard the ISS in 2021.

Upon hearing the phrase, “robots in space,” one might have an image flash of a corny 60s sci-fi movie, but startup GITAI has its sights on making that a reality in 2021. The space robotics company, which was founded in 2016, is on track for conducting a technical demonstration on the International Space Station (ISS), in collaboration with Nanoracks.

Since its start, GITAI has focused its efforts on various robots for space. Its G1, which is a humanoid torso, was its most advanced machine. It was designed to be controlled by an immersive telepresence system. For the technical demonstration, the company is moving toward more autonomous methods with its S1, a mountable robotic arm with 8 degrees of freedom and 1-meter reach that has an integrated sensing and computing system.

Continue reading… “GITAI aims to bring autonomous robot workers to space”

Artificial Intelligence, Automation, Farming, Farms, Robots, Science & Technology News

Robot reapers and AI: Just another day on the farm

8D3E6BBB-9431-48DE-9BFD-0B22B03ACAFA

Pressures on agriculture have forced a technological revolution that are driving a new age of farming.

The agriculture industry has hit a turning point. Faced with a massive labor crunch and environmental instability, aggressive technology deployments are no longer an option for outliers in the sector, but a necessary and critical element in the success of the farm.

Enabling the transformation are a host of new developers, but also legacy companies with deep roots in agriculture. Smart technology from companies like John Deere, for example, is helping farmers to produce more with less and create more successful crops, all while having a smaller impact on the land and environment. In contrast to prevailing wisdom that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, John Deere is employing AI and machine learning in its equipment to identify and enable needed actions at a scope and speed beyond human capacity, automating farming actions through smart robotics to enable consistent and precise actions at large scale, and providing precise, geospatial intelligence generated with machine technology and coupled with cloud-stored data to enable sustainable farming.

In other words, it’s like farming with technologies that might be more commonly associated with NASA than a tractor company. I caught up with Dr. Cristian Dima, Lead of Advanced Algorithms, John Deere Intelligent Solutions Group, to discuss the changes underway in the farming sector and what we can expect going forward.

Continue reading… “Robot reapers and AI: Just another day on the farm”

drones, Engineering, New Inventions, Robots, Science & Technology News

Insect-inspired robots that can jump, fly and climb are almost here

590E3FF5-98A3-4FE4-BC4F-5285C61B4731

Roboticists who designed these robots, called Tribots, took inspiration from the real-life trap-jaw ant’s locomotion strategies.

Did you envision a giant machine assembling cars, Data from “Star Trek,” C-3PO from “Star Wars” or “The Terminator”? Most of us would probably think of something massive — or at least human size.

But a whole arm of robotics is focusing on bug-size ‘bots (and smaller).

It’s not just the size of tiny insects that are inspiring roboticists; it’s also the many complex tasks and physical feats that comprise the everyday lives of many fleas, flies and other six-legged creatures.

Continue reading… “Insect-inspired robots that can jump, fly and climb are almost here”

Analysis, Future, Health & Fitness, Healthcare, Robots, Science & Technology News

The future is cyborg: Kaspersky study finds support for human augmentation

 

2A3A0607-31EF-4ACE-8EA1-022076997515
LONDON (Reuters) – Nearly two thirds of people in leading Western European countries would consider augmenting the human body with technology to improve their lives, mostly to improve health, according to research commissioned by Kaspersky.

As humanity journeys further into a technological revolution that its leaders say will change every aspect of our lives, opportunities abound to transform the ways our bodies operate from guarding against cancer to turbo-charging the brain.

The Opinium Research survey of 14,500 people in 16 countries including Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Spain showed that 63% of people would consider augmenting their bodies to improve them, though the results varied across Europe.

Continue reading… “The future is cyborg: Kaspersky study finds support for human augmentation”

Artificial Intelligence, Automation, Military, Robots, Science & Technology News

Future autonomous machines may build trust through emotion

C789FDB1-0F18-4A5F-B095-CECDBCA9D65F

Future autonomous machines may build trust through emotion

Army researchers found that the effect of emotion expressions is moderated by strategy. People will only process and be influenced by emotion expressions if the counterpart’s actions are insufficient to reveal the counterpart’s intentions.

Army research has extended the state-of-the-art in autonomy by providing a more complete picture of how actions and nonverbal signals contribute to promoting cooperation. Researchers suggested guidelines for designing autonomous machines such as robots, self-driving cars, drones and personal assistants that will effectively collaborate with soldiers.

Dr. Celso de Melo, computer scientist with the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command’s Army Research Laboratory at CCDC ARL West in Playa Vista, California, in collaboration with Dr. Kazunori Teradafrom Gifu University in Japan, recently published a paper in Scientific Reports where they show that emotion expressions can shape cooperation.

Continue reading… “Future autonomous machines may build trust through emotion”

2019 CES, Machine Learning, Nanotechnology, Robots, Science & Technology News

Self-learning robot autonomously moves molecules, setting stage for molecular 3D printing

ABD88B38-38DE-4901-808E-DF959081FC31

If you know even just a little bit about science, you probably already know that molecules are often referred to as “the building blocks of life.” Made of a group of atoms that have bonded together, molecules make up all kinds of materials, but behave totally differently in regards to macroscopic objects than atoms do. Picture how a LEGO model is made of many teeny tiny bricks—it’s easy for us to move these bricks around, but if you think of molecules as these bricks, it’s much more difficult to do so, as each one basically requires its own separate set of instructions.

Continue reading… “Self-learning robot autonomously moves molecules, setting stage for molecular 3D printing”

Artificial Intelligence, Military, Robots

Robot dogs join US Air Force for major exercise, could be ‘key to next-gen warfare’

15BAD95A-ADC7-4CFA-8C49-BAFFFF3593F6
US Air Force exercised robot dogs last week

The robot dogs — four-legged, headless, mechanical creatures — were made to exit an aircraft and look for signs of danger at Nellis Air Force Base in the US state of Nevada.

New Delhi: In a bid to increase use of artificial intelligence in the military, the US Air force conducted a major exercise with robot dogs trained to scout for threats before their human counterparts enter the field.

The four-legged, headless, mechanical creatures were made to exit an aircraft and look for signs of danger at the Nellis Air Force Base in the US state of Nevada last week.

They are part of an Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS) that the US Air force is building, which will use artificial intelligence and data analytics to detect counter threats to the US military.

“Valuing data as an essential war fighting resource, one no less vital than jet fuel or satellites, is the key to next-gen warfare,” Will Roper, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics, told CNN.

Continue reading… “Robot dogs join US Air Force for major exercise, could be ‘key to next-gen warfare’”

Discover the Hidden Patterns of Tomorrow with Futurist Thomas Frey
Unlock Your Potential, Ignite Your Success.

By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.

Learn More about this exciting program.