Chronicling Robots Since 2011
In the wake of the closure of Apple’s autonomous car division (Project Titan) this week, one questions if Steve Jobs’ axiom still holds true. “Some people say, ‘Give the customers what they want.’ But that’s not my approach. Our job is to figure out what they’re going to want before they do,” declared Jobs and … Read more
This past Tuesday, Suki Bagel, a 12 week old Border Collie arrived in our house. Suki was so excited to be united with her new family that she peed on our kitchen floor. Seeing my disappointment, my wife retorted, “what do you expect, she’s not a robot?” I replied that AIBO never peed. As our lives are quickly … Read more
Last week, at RoboUniverse, one of the largest suppliers of industrial robots was noticeably absent, ABB. This powerhouse of automation that has installed over 250,000 robots worldwide could be resting on its laurels, but the latest news from Zurich suggest otherwise. Earlier this year, ABB declared war on Baxter and Sawyer with their new “YuMi” collaborative robot (see video). Now this … Read more
Last week, I got flak from one reader for broaching the subject of ethics and robotics. This week, I was pleased to learn about Clearpath’s $11 million in financing for developing new “ethical” robots. According to the press release issued by the company, the majority of the funding will be applied to R&D to expand into new applications … Read more