Robots – Page 33 – Impact Lab

AI, Human Behavior, New Viewpoints, Robots, Science & Technology News

Who wants to tie the knot with a bot? The answer may surprise you!

December 5, 2019

Fancy a robot as a spouse? Artificial intelligence, that marvel of software, is expected to revolutionize affairs of the human heart. But would algorithmic love still be love?

Marriages are made in heaven, we were once told. But heaven might be displaced by technology within a few decades. Credit for this disruption would go to artificial intelligence (AI), according to those who have gazed into crystal balls (of silicon, naturally), and spied weddings between humans and robots in the not-so-distant future. Among them is Maciej Musiał, a philosopher from Poland’s Adam Mickiewicz University, who has been studying bonds that we develop with machines. Virtual reality, in his view, is no longer an oxymoron, and he presents the chit-chat we do with online assistants, such as Siri and Alexa, as evidence of not just a great blurring, but also of our capacity for emotional ties with e-individuals. Of course, Spike Jonze’s 2013 film, Her, has already been there and done that—its hero falls for an AI “her”. What’s new are corporeal versions, or “sexbots”, that promise physical intimacy as well. Many believe we’re only a few upgrades away from the whole spousal package—pillow talk, toilet-seat tiffs, and all. Designer babies, engineered with DNA samples, are already being talked about. Will humanoid infants be next? What’s going on? Is human evolution about to get warped by this brave new world?

Continue reading… “Who wants to tie the knot with a bot? The answer may surprise you!”

Automation, Employment, Robots, Science & Technology News

Workers in these 10 US areas are more likely to be replaced by robots

December 4, 2019

A new report maps the top 10 areas of the US with the highest robot intensity

In the last decade, the number of manufacturing robots has more than doubled in the US to almost 2 per 1,000 workers

Some studies predict as many as 50% of all workers are at risk of losing their jobs to automation

Robots are displacing younger, less-educated, and minority workers in the Midwest manufacturing industry at the highest rates, a new report shows.

However, the findings also show that a strong economic recovery over the past decade has saved many jobs and slowed automation in the United States.

Continue reading… “Workers in these 10 US areas are more likely to be replaced by robots”

Robotics, Robots, Science & Technology News

The artificial skin that allows robots to feel

December 2, 2019

This artificial skin lets robots ‘feel’ like humans can

London (CNN Business)Robots are one step closer to gaining a human sense that has so far eluded them: Touch.

Scientists last month unveiled an artificial skin that enables robots to feel and respond to physical contact, a skill that will be needed as they come in increasingly close contact with people.

In 2017, manufacturers worldwide used roughly 85 industrial robots per 10,000 employees, according to a report by the International Federation of Robotics. The same report predicts the global supply of industrial robots to grow 14% per year until 2021.

But if robots end up working more closely with their fleshy colleagues, one concern is how they will interact safely.

“Currently, robots do not have any sense of touch,” Professor Gordon Cheng, who developed the special skin with his team at the Technical University of Munich, tells CNN Business.

Continue reading… “The artificial skin that allows robots to feel”

Automation, Robots, Science & Technology News, Shopping

The robots of Black Friday

November 30, 2019

Delivery robot from Dutch supermarket Albert Heijn. Photo: Niels Wenstedt/AFP via Getty Images

Look out for the first of the retail robots as you shop this year.

Why it matters: From machines that can restock shelves to robot deliverers, automation is creeping into the retail industry. The first-ever cargo-carrying robot for consumers comes from Italian company Piaggio. The robot is similar to the delivery bots that FedEx and Amazon have been testing, but it can be yours for a few thousand bucks, AP reports.

Between the lines: On top of the more than 15 million Americans who work in retail year-round, companies routinely hire hundreds of thousands of temporary workers to staff stores and warehouses during big shopping days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

The development of more — and smarter — retail robots puts those jobs at risk.

Continue reading… “The robots of Black Friday”

Machine Learning, Robotics, Robots, Science & Technology News

Using imitation and reinforcement learning to tackle long-horizon robotic tasks

November 22, 2019

Reinforcement learning (RL) is a widely used machine-learning technique that entails training AI agents or robots using a system of reward and punishment. So far, researchers in the field of robotics have primarily applied RL techniques in tasks that are completed over relatively short periods of time, such as moving forward or grasping objects.

A team of researchers at Google and Berkeley AI Research has recently developed a new approach that combines RL with learning by imitation, a process called relay policy learning. This approach, introduced in a paper prepublished on arXiv and presented at the Conference on Robot Learning (CoRL) 2019 in Osaka, can be used to train artificial agents to tackle multi-stage and long-horizon tasks, such as object manipulation tasks that span over longer periods of time.

Continue reading… “Using imitation and reinforcement learning to tackle long-horizon robotic tasks”

Healthcare, new technology, Robotics, Robots, Science & Technology News

Robot overlords? More like co-verlords. The future is human-robot collaboration

November 22, 2019

Davinci surgical system at Magdeburg University Hospital

It’s the classic trope of buddy cop movies: you introduce two characters with little in common aside from the job that they do. Maybe one’s old and the other’s young. Maybe one’s black and the other’s white. Maybe one’s a maverick and the other is a stickler for doing things by the book. At first they don’t get along. Perhaps one is new to the precinct and the other fears that they’re being phased out as a result. But, wouldn’t you know it, they turn out to be a great team. The strengths of one are the weaknesses of the other. The police chief might get pissed at their zany antics, but they’re much better friends than they are enemies. Could the same be true of humans and their relationship with robots?

The typical narrative, as cliché as any Lethal Weapon buddy cop movie ripoff, is that robots are here to steal our jobs. Unless you’re one of the people lucky enough to be building or selling the robots, you should view robots as the flashy new rival in town, hovering in the wings to replace you. But while there are certainly jobs that robots will take from humans (hopefully the dirty, dull, and dangerous jobs humans don’t really want), there are plenty of other jobs in which robots working alongside humans could greatly increase human productivity.

In doing so, they won’t just augment our abilities; they’ll make it possible to scale jobs in a way that was unimaginable in the pre-robot age.

Continue reading… “Robot overlords? More like co-verlords. The future is human-robot collaboration”

Human Behavior, Robots, Science & Technology News

Sex robots take over Swiss brothel

November 17, 2019

A brothel in Switzerland is giving the boot to its’ female staff in favor of sex robots as more and more clients become financially strapped. The brothel in Lucerne has replaced most of the employees with sex robots and the switch has been quite a hit. The ‘Arsenal-51’ brothel now has twelve sex robots to pick from and just a couple of prostitutes providing their services. The move to the robots comes as another sex robot company has unveiled a transgender doll with a detachable penis. It runs $1,600.

Via Iheart.com

Robots, Science & Technology News, Startup

Russian startup sells robot clones of real people

November 16, 2019

Will robots like this eventually replace human workers?

“Everyone will now be able to order a robot with any appearance — for professional or personal use. Thus, we open a huge market in service, education and entertainment. Imagine a replica of Michael Jordan selling basketball uniforms and William Shakespeare reading his own texts in a museum?” said Aleksei Iuzhakov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Promobot, in a statement

The company’s Robo-C has a neck and torso that each have three degrees of freedom of movement, but it cannot walk.

The robot’s face has 18 moving parts, allowing it to make 600 “micro-expressions,” and its artificial intelligence contains 100,000 speech modules.

“Promobot believes that a robot like this is capable of removing the barrier in human-machine interaction and replacing a number of employees in crowded places– post offices, banks, and municipal institutions,” the company states in a press release.

However, the android — which Promobot calls a “completely anthropomorphic machine,” only has 8 hours of battery life.

Via Fox News

Automation, Employment, Robotics, Robots, Science & Technology News

Robots aren’t coming to steal your job. They’re coming to improve it

October 31, 2019

For many people, the word “automation” conjures up dystopian scenes of humans versus machines. A future in which people set aside our differences to oppose the sleek, metallic products of our own engineering. Few but growth-minded business types get a warm-and-fuzzy feeling of optimism when the word “automation” comes up. And for good reason.

There’s virtually no job that won’t be touched by artificial intelligence (A.I.) and robotics. According to a recent Ball State study, robots and A.I. accounted for around 87 percent of job loss in the United States between 2000 and 2010. PricewaterhouseCoopers recently estimated that 38 percent of American jobs may be at risk by the 2030s. And in 2016, a 55-page report titled from the Executive Office of the President painted a similarly dire picture, warning that millions of workers may be displaced.

Continue reading… “Robots aren’t coming to steal your job. They’re coming to improve it”

Animals, Automation, Robots, Science & Technology News

The Beetl robot is designed to pick up dog poop

October 30, 2019

While I prefer to walk my dogs, there have been times when the weather has been bad, or I’m just too tired at the end of the day, and they end up pooping in the yard. If you let your dog do its business on your lawn, then this new invention could be a godsend.

The Beetl is a fully-autonomous robot that drives around your yard, looking for piles of poop. It then scoops them up into a container for easy and clean disposal. The robot uses computer vision to detect piles of dog doo, as well as to avoid obstacles. It can also be programmed to work strictly within the boundaries of your lawn.

Continue reading… “The Beetl robot is designed to pick up dog poop”

Automation, Banking, Robots, Science & Technology News

Robots to replace 200,000 US jobs in banking in 10 years

October 7, 2019

As the September jobs report looms, a recent report from Wells Fargo is casting a bleak light on the future of banking jobs.

The report revealed that robots are likely to reduce headcount by 200,000 over the next decade throughout the financial industry in the U.S. Wells Fargo’s Mike Mayo spoke to Yahoo Finance’s On The Move this week and said banks will be investing significantly in technology over the next 10 years.

“The next decade should be the biggest decade for banks in technology in history. You’re about to see the biggest capital for labor swap in history,” Mayo said.

Continue reading… “Robots to replace 200,000 US jobs in banking in 10 years”

Entertainment, Robotics, Robots, Science & Technology News

Boston Dynamics’ Spot is leaving the laboratory

September 29, 2019

A new leasing program is putting dozens of robots to work in the real world

Boston Dynamics is letting its first major robot out of the lab.

Since June, the company has been talking about a public release for its Spot robot (formerly SpotMini), and today, it finally gave some details about what’s in store. The Spot isn’t going on sale exactly, but if you’re a company with a good idea (and some money), you’ll be able to get one. That also means, for the average person on the street, that the odds of seeing a Spot in the wild just got a lot better.

The capabilities are more or less what the company showed off in June, but it’s still impressive to see them in person. The Spot can go where you tell it, avoid obstacles, and keep its balance under extreme circumstances — which are all crucial skills if you’re trying to navigate an unknown environment.

The Spot can also carry up to four hardware modules on its back, giving companies a way to swap in whatever skills the robot needs for this particular job. If it’s checking for gas leaks, you can build in a methane detector. If you need connectivity over longer distances, you can attach a mesh radio module. Boston Dynamics is already outfitting units with LIDAR rigs from Velodyne (a favorite component for self-driving car projects) to create 3D maps of indoor spaces. Since the Spot is designed to work in the rain, outdoor spaces are on the table, too.

Continue reading… “Boston Dynamics’ Spot is leaving the laboratory”