ICRA is underway, and of course AI and robotics are in the forefront of the show. The 2023 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) is in the UK this year, and Ameca is one of the headliners. As the AI-powered humanoid robot dazzles visitors with poetry, the Center for AI Safety published a… Read more »
Did you know that Memorial Day is one of the highest beer consumption days of the year, coming in at number three for beer sales? The great American beer-drinking holidays are the 4th of July, Labor Day, Memorial Day, Father’s Day, Christmas/New Year’s Eve, Thanksgiving, Easter, and Superbowl Sunday, in that order. Gotta admit, we’re… Read more »
There are plenty of reasons for building robot animals — more than the reasons for building humanoid robots, in fact. Biomimicry Many animal-shaped robots were developed specifically to try out design solutions based on what animals do. From the jumping mechanisms of fleas to the flexibility of octopi, robots inspired by animals are intended to… Read more »
Short answer: no. This photo (or Aigen) of Elon Musk kissing what appears to be a robot is actually an AI-generated illustration. The maker intended to draw attention to the possible dangers of artificial intelligence. What dangers? Possibly the danger of believing that AI-generated illustrations are photos of actual events. We know that disinformation is… Read more »
There you are on the moon or Mars, ready for some intensive research projects but also really tired of hanging out in your spacecraft. How will you build a home for yourself and your fellow astronauts to use while you sojourn in space? Using earth approaches As our forebears moved out into new habitats, they… Read more »
We may think of slavery as a historical problem, but there are actually many people today working without pay and without free choice. An organization called Made in a Free World has developed technology to help companies identify points along their supply chain where they may be unwittingly benefiting from slave labor. Specialized software FRDM‘s… Read more »
Hackaday reports that Italian roboticist are working on getting robots to blink naturally. Not blinking, they report, or blinking in non-human ways, can create that feeling of uncanniness that makes people uncomfortable with robots. Natural blinking behavior, on the other hand, makes people think the robots are more intelligent and more likeable. Disney seems to… Read more »
Bosch Rexroth is an environmentally conscious company, so it makes sense that they would be pioneering the automation of battery recycling for electric vehicles. The new automated system discharges and disassembles the batteries of electric vehicles so the elements can be reused. With current manual processes, it takes 24 hours to deep discharge a… Read more »
When you see E2077 sent as an error message by your Rexroth drive, you’re looking at a communication failure. Basically, your drive can’t read the encoder signal. There are a number of possible reasons for this. Check the simplest possibilities first. Is the motor encoder cable correctly connected to the same drive as the power… Read more »
When you use IndraDrive components, you rely on parameters programmed into the software. If these parameters are accidentally changed — or, though we don’t like to think about it, maliciously changed — you may in a very bad situation. Without the correct parameters, your component can turn into a very expensive boat anchor. Fortunately, you… Read more »
