All posts tagged: Robotics

Ace the Ping-Pong Robot Can Whup Your Ass

Ace the Ping-Pong Robot Can Whup Your Ass

Published by skeptic

Ace is a robot that aims high: It wants to become the world champion of table tennis. It was developed by Sony AI researchers who, in a new study published in Nature, have shown how this robot, equipped with artificial intelligence, has faced some high-level athletes, holding its own in matches played according to the official rules of table tennis. This feat represents a milestone for the world of robotics, a field that has long regarded this sport, among the most technical in the world, as one of the most difficult tests of technological advances. Robot Player We have already seen artificial intelligence systems win virtual competitions in games such as chess, Go, and even StarCraft II, but physical games are much more difficult to master. A robot needs to sense unpredictable changes in the external environment, interpret their meaning, decide how to react, and then perform the necessary action, all in a very short time. That is precisely what Ace, a very complex robot composed of three main parts, has managed to do. It …

A Humanoid Robot Set a Half-Marathon Record in China

A Humanoid Robot Set a Half-Marathon Record in China

Published by skeptic

Over the weekend in China, a humanoid robot shattered world half-marathon record—the human record—by seven minutes. The star performer was a robot developed by the Chinese company Honor (the smartphone maker), which finished the 13.1-mile race in 50 minutes, 26 seconds. The human record, set by Ugandan Olympic medalist Jacob Kiplimo, is 57 minutes, 20 seconds. The result marks an impressive milestone especially considering that, just a year earlier, the fastest robot at this half-marathon event took two and a half hours to complete the same distance. But Honor’s robot was not the only participant. The event consisted of more than 100 humanoid robots from 76 institutions across China. The robots lined up alongside 12,000 human runners in Beijing’s E-Town, albeit on separate courses to avoid accidents. The contrast in performance between humans and robots was more than evident. Run, Robot, Run A humanoid robot is designed to mimic the structure and movement of the human body, with legs, arms, and sensors that allow it to interact with its environment. In this case, the winning …

High-tech push at Canton Fair highlights China’s changing export strategy

High-tech push at Canton Fair highlights China’s changing export strategy

Published by Sam Flores

Some firms at the fair report that enquiries and sales for solar panels, inverters and wind turbines have risen by as much as 50 per cent since the latest Iran conflict began.  For buyers like Sachin Inamdar, who travelled from India, the appeal is clear: “Getting to see (so many) new technologies in one place is worth the visit.”  He added that he is exploring alternative energy solutions amid growing demand back home amid a global shift away from fossil fuels.  INNOVATION NOT A SILVER BULLET Still, analysts caution that innovation alone may not be enough to sustain China’s growth.  The country placed tech as a key strategic pillar in its 15th Five Year Plan.  “The Iran war hits global purchasing power indiscriminately, even buyers of chips and services face rising operating costs,” said Li. “The honest assessment is that tech buys China resilience, but not immunity.”  That makes China’s “dual circulation” strategy of boosting domestic consumption while expanding trade with non-Western markets increasingly important, he added.  This comes as national security concerns remain an …

Chef Robotics escaped the robot cooking graveyard and says it’s thriving — here’s why

Chef Robotics escaped the robot cooking graveyard and says it’s thriving — here’s why

Published by skeptic

Chef Robotics CEO Rajat Bhageria likes to tell people — correctly — that his industry is a veritable startup graveyard. Whether you’re talking about Chowbotics, a salad-making startup that was acquired and later shut down by DoorDash, or Zume, a $400 million attempt to “disrupt” pizza delivery that collapsed in 2023, the effort to automate a process that has heretofore required opposable thumbs and a sentient brain has not always gone so smoothly. Bhageria thinks he’s figured out the workaround. The premise is simple, even if the execution isn’t: use AI-powered robot arms to take the labor out of large-scale food production. Originally, Chef sought to do that in fast casual restaurants, the kind that litter America’s cities. But the company pivoted early, finding success instead in food manufacturing, where it now serves enterprise customers like Amy’s Kitchen and Chef Bombay, and works with one of the largest school lunch providers in the country. Now, the company says that it has passed an important milestone: 100 million servings. What’s a “serving,” exactly? A company spokesperson …

You Can Soon Buy a ,370 Humanoid Robot on AliExpress

You Can Soon Buy a $4,370 Humanoid Robot on AliExpress

Published by skeptic

Listing consumer electronics on the internet’s large ecommerce marketplaces is a key step in “democratizing” the products, allowing them to be purchased by anyone with just a click. It has happened to cars (in the United States, you can buy a Hyundai on Amazon), and now it’s happening to humanoid robots. The Chinese manufacturer Unitree Robotics, among the most active robot-makers in the field, is preparing to bring its most affordable model, the Unitree R1, to international markets through Alibaba Group’s marketplace. According to reports in The South China Morning Post, the rollout will initially cover North America, Japan, Singapore, and Europe. There’s no exact on-sale date for the robots yet, but the Post report says it will show up as soon as this week. This is not the first time Unitree has used AliExpress as a global storefront. The company’s G1 model, the more powerful and more expensive predecessor to the R1, is already listed at just under $19,000. The G1 is already on sale on AliExpress. It’s as much of a symbolic step before …

Talking robot guide dog uses AI to describe the world as it leads

Talking robot guide dog uses AI to describe the world as it leads

Published by Jenni Sidey

A robot dog that talks back may sound like a novelty. In this case, it is meant to solve a practical problem: guide dogs can lead, but they cannot explain. That gap is what researchers at Binghamton University and State University of New York, set out to address with a robotic guide dog system that uses a large language model to hold spoken conversations with visually impaired users. The machine can suggest routes, explain trade-offs before a trip begins, and describe what is happening during the walk itself. “For this work, we’re demonstrating an aspect of the robotic guide dog that is more advanced than biological guide dogs,” said Shiqi Zhang, an associate professor at the Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering and Applied Science’s School of Computing. “Real dogs can understand around 20 commands at best. But for robotic guide dogs, you can just put GPT-4 with voice commands. Then it has very strong language capabilities.” The project builds on earlier work from Zhang’s team, which trained robotic guide dogs to respond to leash …

Two excellent new sci-fi novels, Luminous by Silvia Park and Ode to the Half-Broken by Suzanne Parker, tackle robots in very different ways

Two excellent new sci-fi novels, Luminous by Silvia Park and Ode to the Half-Broken by Suzanne Parker, tackle robots in very different ways

Published by skeptic

Do we relate better to stories about robots with faces and bodies? Carlos Castilla/Alamy Ode to the Half-BrokenSuzanne Palmer, Daw Books LuminousSylvia Park, Magpie Robots and whether they will one day deserve to be treated like people – or destroy humanity, or both – have interested writers for well over a century now. In the real world, the robot threat appears to involve the uses of artificial intelligence in misinformation and more direct forms of warfare such as drone attacks. In the world of literature, however, many writers focus on individual robots. Maybe giving the AI a body and a face simply helps tell your story better to creatures with bodies and faces. Fictional robots have a lot going for them. They can be funny, cool or sexy. They can be nerdy and a bit depressed. Some represent “the other”, a test of how humane we are. They can also help us think about concepts of ownership that may apply to our treatment of pets or farm animals. And they can be terrifying killing machines. …

Czech startup lets factory workers teach robots by demonstration

Czech startup lets factory workers teach robots by demonstration

Published by skeptic

A Czech startup is making factory automation easier by letting workers teach robots new tasks through simple demonstrations instead of complex coding, as Anthony King explores. What if training a robot to handle dirty, dangerous work on the factory floor was as simple as showing it how? Czech startup RoboTwin is doing exactly that, helping factory workers teach robots new skills by demonstration. Instead of writing complex code, workers perform the job once and RoboTwin’s technology turns those movements into a robot programme – opening the door to automation for smaller manufacturers. Founded in Prague in 2021, RoboTwin builds handheld devices and no-code software that capture human movements and translate them into instructions for industrial robots. The aim is to make automation faster, simpler and more accessible to manufacturers that do not have specialist robotics programmers. “The robot basically copies the human demonstration,” said Megi Mejdrechová, RoboTwin’s co-founder and chief technology officer. “People with no coding skills can transfer their know-how and experience to robots.” Mejdrechová, a mechanical engineer trained at the Czech Technical University …

Four-legged robots look to speed up Mars and Moon exploration

Four-legged robots look to speed up Mars and Moon exploration

Published by Jenni Sidey

The slowest part of a Mars mission is often not the driving, it is the waiting. A rover can only do so much when every move must be planned from Earth, then checked, then sent back across a gap that can stretch communication delays to between four and 22 minutes one way. Moreover, limited data transfer and dangerous terrain make a cautious style of exploration necessary. As a result, rovers may cover only a few hundred meters in a day. A new study suggests there is a faster way to work. In tests at the University of Basel’s Marslabor facility, researchers showed that a semi-autonomous four-legged robot could move to several targets in sequence and deploy instruments on its own. Despite this independence, the robot still returned scientifically useful results for planetary prospecting and the search for signs of past life. Legged robot performing analogue tests in Marslabor at the University of Basel. (CREDIT: Dr Tomaso Bontognali) A robot that does more than wait The robot used in the study was ANYmal, a quadrupedal machine …

Lucid Bots raises M to keep up with demand for its window-washing drones 

Lucid Bots raises $20M to keep up with demand for its window-washing drones 

Published by skeptic

Andrew Ashur, the founder and CEO of window cleaning robot startup Lucid Bots, likes to joke that his company is the antithesis of the robotics industry right now. While many companies are trying to build humanoids or tout demos of their robots dancing and doing flips, Lucid Bots’ drones are out in the field making traditionally unsexy and dangerous work, like cleaning windows, safer and more efficient. “The sad truth is most are still selling a lot of hype and headlines, and we sell performance on the job site that shows up in our customers, profits, and losses,” Ashur told TechCrunch. “We’re not just in the lab and simulators. We’ve got dirt under our fingernails, and we’re out on job sites getting work done.” Charlotte, North Carolina-based Lucid Bots is a full-stack robotics company that sells its Sherpa drones and Lavo robot to cleaning companies to help them on their job sites. The company designed and manufactures its own robots in the U.S. and just raised a $20 million Series B round co-led by Cubit …