Category Archives: Robots and Society

Personalized Assistance from Robots

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Robots help out—the way we want them to!

Both humans and robots work in manufacturing plants however, they don’t usually work alongside one another. Robots are most often used in repetitive, exhausting or hazardous work, while people are needed for tasks that require finer skill and detail. An earlier post on this blog discussed some of the ways robots have started working alongside humans but there are of course some important issues to consider if we really want to make this kind of collaboration work.
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The Last Moment Robot

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It’s OK if this gives you the creeps

If you think this kind of robot may be taking things a step too far, its creator Dan Chen would be pleased he’s gotten his point across. For starters, this robot isn’t actually being used for the application shown in the video above. In fact, the bed and fluorescent lit room are nothing more than props used to create a hospital-like environment within this interactive installation.
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Robots Get Social…

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Creating hype on Twitter and other networks

Twitter has reached over 500 million users, but of those, apparently only 140 million actually use it regularly. Now it turns out that some of these users may not even be real people, but robots instead!

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Racing with Robots

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Ready, Set, Joggobot!

Running can be a challenging activity to get into and keep up. Whether it’s a friend or canine pal acting as a running buddy, the company often provides us with the motivation needed to push ourselves further or to get us out there on days when we’d rather not lace up those trainers. But since not everyone has a dog or an active friend, researchers at the Exertion Games Laboratory at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia have recently created the Joggobot so you won’t have to be the lone ranger out there on the track!
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Hiroshi Ishiguro's Huggable Robot

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After a bad day, there’s nothing like a Hugvie

If you’re a fan of bizarre robots, you’ve got to be familiar with some of Hiroshi Ishiguro’s work. As the director of the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory at Osaka University in Japan, Ishiguro’s gained a lot of fame through many of his pseudo-human creations.
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Technology as Empowerment

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Joanne O’Riordan’s Address to the UN

On April 26, 2012, 16 year old Joanne O’Riordan gave a speech to the United Nations for Girls in ICT Day. Although Joanne was born with one of rarest conditions we know of, Total Amelia, her motto in life is no limbs, no limits.
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Fishing for New Ways to Monitor Water Pollution?

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The SHOAL project develops robotic fish to help keep our waters clean!

SHOAL is a European research project that aims to produce a network of robotic fish to monitor pollution in aquatic environments.The project is being lead by BMT Group with support from several European universities and institutions which are focused on 5 specific aspects of SHOAL development:
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Up Next… Neo-Humanity?

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Check out Russia 2045

Could we reach an age of cibernetic immortality? It’s a controversial question (to say the least) however, Dmitry Itskov is now making it loud and clear that he thinks the answer is yes and the Russian media tycoon doesn’t stand alone in his opinion. By founding the Russia 2045 movement in 2011, Itskov is now supported by a team of over 30 experts including some of Russia’s leading astronauts, physicians, mathematicians, neuroscientists and engineers (oh, and he’s also recieved the thumbs up from Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama).
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Robots with Green Thumbs

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Could blending living and artificial systems help make agriculture more eco-friendly?

What started out as an undergraduate summer project at the Distributed Robotics Lab (DRL), part of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab at MIT, has now turned into a long-term plan to
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BrainGate2

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¨Turning thought into action¨

The Robotic arm moves  a thermos filled with coffee towards Cathy Hutchinson’s  mouth while she imagines carrying out this same motion with the very  hand she has been unable to move for the past fifteen years.
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