Quick question – did any of you want to get any sleep tonight? Yes? Then it might be a good idea for you to skip this article. What I’m about to show you may well be one of the most nightmarish dance robots ever invented. You have been warned.
Xprize – known for awesome projects like a working Star Trek Tricorder – has set its sights on an entirely new frontier: artificial intelligence. The outfit is teaming up with TED in order to produce a TED talk presented entirely by an artificial intelligence. That’s not all – they want your help.
There are two primary challenges facing the world of robotics at the moment: the navigation of complex environments, and the ability to collide safely with humans. MIT’s Computer Science And Artificial Intelligence Laboratory appears to have overcome both, with a robotic fish made of silicone.
Currently, the problem with a lot of human-like robots is how undeniably inhuman they appear. In spite of their creators’ best efforts, there’s still something undeniably ‘off’ about them. Researchers may have just discovered why, and in so doing, how to address the issue.
Students at Carnegie Mellon University have put together a robot that’s capable of playing scrabble – and trash talking its opponents as it does so. Victor, as its known, has been installed in the computer science lounge for the last 18 months, where it’s battled – and berated – countless foes.
You can add puzzles to the long list of things robots are already better
than us at doing. A Lego robot called Cubestormer 3 just solved a
Ruik’s Cube puzzle in 3.253 seconds, shattering the existing world speed
record. Yes, a robot constructed out of a children’s toy is a
world-class puzzle champ.
The way human infants learn motor skills – by grasping continually at whatever object they can get their hands on – is being used as a design inspiration for a new generation of robots. A German engineering firm has created a bionic elephant trunk that can learn – and be taught – like a baby.
Roboy is a robot created with a very specific purpose: to move like a human. It’s hoped that Roboy’s design -3D-printed bones, joints, tends, and coiled-spring muscles – will allow robots and humans to work in closer proximity to one another, with the former posing less of a threat to the latter.
Looks like the robot uprising’s going to be on hold for at least a few more years. To celebrate the opening of its first plant in Shanghai, China, Kuka Robotics decided to host a match between table tennis champion Timo Boll and one of its industrial robots. Boll won…but was it even a fair fight?
Turns out, the answer to the myriad safety concerns surrounding massive industrial robots is virtual reality. Johns Hopkins Computational and Interactove Robotics Lab has developed an Immersive Virtual Robotics Environment that allows workers to directly interact with and control robots.
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