It Takes A Village To Deploy A Tactile Telerobot

Observing MLK Day, I followed in the footsteps of Katherine Johnson at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Her memory still looms large over the Mission Control room that launched Apollo 11’s successful lunar landing fifty years ago. This historic milestone could not have been achieved without the mathematical genius … Read More

Summer Travel Diary: Reopening Cold Cases With Robotic Data Discoveries

Traveling to six countries in eighteen days, I journeyed with the goal delving deeper into the roots of my family before World War II. As a child of refugees, my parents’ narrative is missing huge gaps of information. Still, more than seventy-eight years since the disappearance of my Grandmother and … Read More

Automate 2019 Startup Showdown Recap

It’s been two years since the last time I judged the Automate Startup Competition. More than any other trade show contest, this event has been an oracle of future success. In following up with the last vintage of participants, all of the previous entrees are still operating and many are … Read More

The End Of Parking As We Know It

A day before snow decapacitated New York commuters, researchers at the University of Iowa and Princeton demurred the growth of urbanization as the leading cause for catastrophic storm damage. Wednesday’s report stated that the $128 billion wake of Hurricane Harvey was 21 times greater due to the population density of … Read More

Educating The Workforce Of The Future, In The Age of Accelerations

I have two kids in college and one of my biggest concerns is their knowledge that what they have labored hard to acquire will become obsolete by the time of graduation. Our age is driven by the hypersonic accelerations of technology and data forcing innovative educators to create new pedagogical … Read More

The New Restaurant Experience: Robot Servers, Cooks And Hostesses

At the new Alibaba restaurant, Robot.he, in Shanghai the human hostesses have been relegated to smiling and pointing at touch screens. The hard work of interacting with guests and serving dinner is done by mobile phones and mobile robots that look oddly similar to Amazon’s warehouse rovers. Cao Haitao of Robot.he … Read More

An Analysis Of Jibo: What Went Wrong?

Two weeks ago, RobotLab hosted its most thought provoking panel yet, on The Future Of Work and Universal Basic Income. Democratic Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang presented his dystopian outlook on the demise of jobs for “Normal People” caused by the acceleration of automation and artificial intelligence. Yang’s solution, a $1,000 … Read More

WAZE For Drones: Expanding The National Airspace

Sitting in New York City, looking up at the clear June skies, I wonder if I am staring at an endangered phenomena. According to many in the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) industry, skylines across the country soon will be filled with flying cars, quadcopter deliveries, emergency drones, and other robo-flyers. … Read More

Those Amazing Flying Machines

Last year, Intel partnered with Lady Gaga on the Super Bowl Halftime Show to showcase its latest aerial technology called “Shooting Star.” Intel did a reprise performance of its Shooting Star technology for Singapore’s 52nd birthday this past week. Instead of fireworks, the tech-savvy country celebrated its National Day Parade … Read More

Preparing For The End Of Moore’s Law

Last Thursday night, in a packed room of over 100 professionals, Nuzha Yakoob shared with the hushed crowd how nature is the greatest innovator. Ms. Yakoob showcased Festo Robotics’ bionic zoo from elephant nose-inspired end-effectors to grippers modeled after chameleon tongues. My personal favorite are the robotic ants that collaborate over the … Read More