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January 8, 2022
Published by Robot Tracker at January 8, 2022
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RE2 Robotics is creating an underwater robot to autonomously neutralize underwater mines for the U.S. Navy. RE2 Robotics, a 2021 RBR50 Robotics Innovation Award winner, shared a recap of what it accomplished in 2021 and some thoughts on what to expect in 2022. RE2 said some of its technical and operational successes in 2021 included: Celebrated its 20th anniversary, establishing itself as one of the longest-tenured robotics companies in Pittsburgh. It grew revenue 40% and doubled its staff to more […]
June 18, 2021
Published by Robot Tracker at June 18, 2021
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Welcome to Episode 45 of The Robot Report Podcast, which brings conversations with robotics innovators straight to you. Join us each week for discussions with leading roboticists, innovative robotics companies, and other key members of the robotics community. You can subscribe to The Robot Report Podcast on Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, SoundCloud, Spotify and more. Please subscribe to the podcast and leave us a review! This week’s podcast recaps the RBR50 Robotics Innovation Awards, which were announced earlier […]
January 7, 2019
Published by Robot Tracker at January 7, 2019
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In spite of what most are writing, it was a year of much progress. A number of other summaries of 2018 in robocars have called it a bad year, the year it all went south, even the year the public realized that robocars will never come. In fact, 2018 was the year the field reached a new level of maturity, as its warts began to show, and we saw the first missteps (minor and major) and the long anticipated popping […]
September 26, 2018
Published by Robot Tracker at September 26, 2018
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The Icelandic startup Aha takes on Amazon with basic drones bearing burgers Photo: Aha Air Drop: Aha’s drone delivery service operates until 7 p.m. in Reykjavik on days that are not too windy, too snowy, or too rainy. An Icelandic startup called Aha is using a Chinese-made drone and an Israeli logistics system to deliver hot food, groceries, and electronics to households in Iceland’s capital city of Reykjavik. It’s a world’s first, and one that flouts the standard aviation safety […]
July 9, 2018
Published by Robot Tracker at July 9, 2018
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The latest version of this skittery little sprawling robot can climb walls and crawl like a turtle We’re always impressed by the way David Zarrouk (a professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev by way of UC Berkeley’s Biomimetic Millisystems Lab) manages to extract a ton of functionality from the absolute minimum of hardware in his robots. In the past, we’ve seen clever designs like a steerable robot that only uses a single motor, and a multi-jointed robot arm that uses […]
June 26, 2018
Published by Robot Tracker at June 26, 2018
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UC Berkeley and CMU researchers demonstrate dynamic walking on stepping stones Photo: UC Berkeley Like humans and most terrestrial animals, legged robots need the ability to move over rugged terrain to be useful in applications such as disaster response and search and rescue. However, designing control algorithms that can handle discrete footholds (like rubble or stepping stones) is challenging, because there are strict constraints on foot placement that can’t be violated and the motion of these systems are governed by […]
June 25, 2018
Published by Robot Tracker at June 25, 2018
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A casual Q&A with a robotics PR expert and a robotics journalist Image: iStockphoto Evan Ackerman is a journalist who has been covering robotics (and some other stuff) for the last 11 years. Last time he counted, he’d written well over 6,000 articles, which seems like a lot. Tim Smith is the CEO of Element Public Relations, a boutique PR firm in San Francisco specializing in emerging technologies. Element has particular expertise in robotics, given their work with Willow Garage, […]
June 25, 2018
Published by Robot Tracker at June 25, 2018
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Axed engineers say IBM isn’t always smart about artificial intelligence Illustration: IEEE Spectrum; Images: IBM; iStockphoto IBM, a venerable tech company on a mission to stay relevant, has staked much of its future on IBM Watson. The company has touted Watson, its flagship artificial intelligence, as the premier product for turning our data-rich but disorganized world into a smart and tidy planet. Just last month, IBM CEO Ginni Rometty told a convention audience that we’re at an inflection point in history. Putting […]
June 22, 2018
Published by Robot Tracker at June 22, 2018
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Researchers wager on a possible Deepfake video scandal during the 2018 U.S. midterm elections Illustration: iStockphoto A quiet wager has taken hold among researchers who study artificial intelligence techniques and the societal impacts of such technologies. They’re betting whether or not someone will create a so-called Deepfake video about a political candidate that receives more than 2 million views before getting debunked by the end of 2018. The actual stakes in the bet are fairly small: Manhattan cocktails as a reward for the “yes” camp and […]
June 22, 2018
Published by Robot Tracker at June 22, 2018
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Your weekly selection of awesome robot videos Photo: Tech United Eindhoven Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your Automaton bloggers. We’ll also be posting a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months; here’s what we have so far (send us your events!): RSS 2018 – June 26-30, 2018 – Pittsburgh, Pa., USA Ubiquitous Robots 2018 – June 27-30, 2018 – Honolulu, Hawaii MARSS 2018 – July 4-8, 2018 – Nagoya, Japan AIM 2018 – July 9-12, 2018 […]
June 20, 2018
Published by Robot Tracker at June 20, 2018
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DRAGON can change its shape to move through complex environments and even manipulate objects Photo: JSK Lab/University of TokyoDRAGON is able to autonomously decide how to transform when given the constraints of the space it needs to pass through. There’s been a lot of recent focus on applications for aerial robots, and one of the areas with the most potential is indoors. The thing about indoors is that by definition you have to go through doors to get there, and […]
June 15, 2018
Published by Robot Tracker at June 15, 2018
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Your weekly selection of awesome robot videos Photo: Festo Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your Automaton bloggers. We’ll also be posting a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months; here’s what we have so far (send us your events!): RoboCup 2018 – June 18-22, 2018 – Montreal, Canada RSS 2018 – June 26-30, 2018 – Pittsburgh, Pa., USA Ubiquitous Robots 2018 – June 27-30, 2018 – Honolulu, Hawaii MARSS 2018 – July 4-8, 2018 – Nagoya, Japan […]
June 14, 2018
Published by Robot Tracker at June 14, 2018
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Alphabet’s DeepMind neural networks can grasp a three-dimensional scene from just a handful of two-dimensional snapshots Image: DeepMind Researchers at Alphabet’s DeepMind today described a method that they say can construct a three-dimensional layout from just a handful of two-dimensional snapshots. So far the method, based on deep neural networks, has been confined to virtual environments, they write in Science magazine. Natural environments are still too hard for current algorithms and hardware to handle. The article doesn’t speculate on commercial applications, and the authors weren’t available for interview. That gives me […]
June 14, 2018
Published by Robot Tracker at June 14, 2018
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A drone surveillance system trains to watch out for humans stabbing or punching each other Images: University of Cambridge/National Institute of Technology/Indian Institute of Science/IEEE Drones armed with computer vision software could enable new forms of automated skyborne surveillance to watch for violence below. One glimpse of that future comes from UK and Indian researchers who demonstrated a drone surveillance system that can automatically detect small groups of people fighting each other. The seed idea for researchers to develop such a drone […]
June 14, 2018
Published by Robot Tracker at June 14, 2018
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Some 400 engineers are working under the radar at AutoLab AI with former Autodesk CEOs leading the pack Illustration: iStockphoto What exactly is the “future of autonomous manufacturing?” According to venture capitalist and AutoLab AI cofounder Lior Susan, stealth startup AutoLab AI is building it, but isn’t defining it yet, at least not publicly. That kind of cryptic chatter doesn’t usually get Silicon Valley talking—more likely yawning, or at most mumbling about vaporware. But AutoLab AI, according to Axios, already […]