Autonomous Systems
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khorum
Murder Apologist
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BD's Handle robot has suction cups. Not for the application you're thinking of but it seems a lot more mature than the Digit-1 bot Ford used in that promo video.
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Borzak
Bronze Baron of the Realm
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Sounds meh. Prolly gonna be some blinged out tourist thing with LED display walls and shit then.
In other news, Ford's recent layoffs is actually related to a long-term transition to self-driving vehicles with a particular focus on leveraging Ford's advantage in fleet sales.
One of the things is with 3PL retail delivery... which now features bipedal robots from Agility Robotics. But the best part is that ford will deploy those robots like the dumb battle droids from star wars episode 1:
Get off my lawn. LOL.
khorum
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This is fucking amazing. Way more energy efficient than bipeds and a whole order of magnitude more efficient than quadrocopters. Probably a generation or two from being more efficient than wheeled robots but they're already more mobile:
Now put a 1-pound semtex charge on it and you got a DoD contract.
In the event of a civil war we'd either have to capture Berkeley and the valley first or just nuke it right away.
Now put a 1-pound semtex charge on it and you got a DoD contract.
In the event of a civil war we'd either have to capture Berkeley and the valley first or just nuke it right away.
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Women Face Job Loss from Automation | Blog Posts
This is a somewhat curious article from the Wall...
vdare.com
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Borzak
Bronze Baron of the Realm
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Boston Dynamics' creepy robot dog is going up for sale
Videos of Boston Dynamics' robots have been the stuff of both awe and inspiration, as well as nightmares. Now, it appears the robots will be doing more than just performing parkour or dancing around on videos. They're going up for sale.
Videos of Boston Dynamics' robots have been the stuff of both awe and inspiration, as well as nightmares. Now, it appears the robots will be doing more than just performing parkour or dancing around on YouTube.
They're going up for sale.
In October, Boston Dynamics, which is now owned by Japanese conglomerate Softbank, released a video of Spot walking around construction sites in Tokyo as it began to test it "for commercial usage around the world."
“We’re manufacturing them at a reasonably high rate for an early product,” Raibert said, adding that the company is "aiming for 1,000 a year.” Currently, there are 50 robots available for beta testing.
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Tuco
I got Tuco'd!
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The two big questions I have for those robots is cost and runtime/distance between charges. They look spectacular and can handle many mobility challenges that wheeled robots aren't suited for. I can think of numerous use cases where they could be used even with limited range.
And I bet they are working on something that will combine their high mobility with some wheeled form. Like a pair of wheels on one side of their legs that can be retracted down to enable it to skate around. Or maybe a deployable skateboard
And I bet they are working on something that will combine their high mobility with some wheeled form. Like a pair of wheels on one side of their legs that can be retracted down to enable it to skate around. Or maybe a deployable skateboard
khorum
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They're selling it to OEMs really, they'll be modding it for specific applications. Softbank's ownership means it'll get past some of the "not invented here" stigma that most Japanese vendors still harbor and it may get into the most aggressive automation market in the world.
Could see a radiation-shielded spot mini working on the Fukushima decommissioning site in a year.
Could see a radiation-shielded spot mini working on the Fukushima decommissioning site in a year.
Cybsled
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No doubt. I also see early adaptation into the aging population assistance market. Follows the person around and can help carry groceries or things up the stair
khorum
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The eldercare application will prolly be closer to telepresence/telemedicine though. They could deploy spot mini's equipped with cameras and able to open doors and traverse into narrow hallways and then double up as a telepresence client for the nursing staff to check on older folks or watch them take their medicine REMOTELY from a centralized nursing station or even offsite.
But even then, Japan's inclination towards automated disaster mitigation would have applications for THAT. Imagine this snake arm originally developed by a Japanese firm to help inspect industrial accidents applied on the spot platform as a telepresence tool to help doctors/nurses observe their senior patients remotely.
khorum
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Years ago, I got roped into a private fund that started out investing in stuff like fish farms for Australian Barramundi or Chilean Sea Bass... but lately their research nerds have been spamming the mailing list with robotics/AI and vertical farming stuff. And they have a particular hardon for these farm automation ventures.