In a quiet aisle of a small supermarket in Tokyo, a robot dutifully goes about its work. Reaching down, it grabs yet another bottle of a flavoured drink that humans like, lifts it and places it on the shelf of a refrigerated unit. Then the next one. People come and go.
It looks like a well-integrated autonomous mechanical worker, but that is something of an illusion. This robot doesn't have a mind of its own. Several miles away, a human worker is controlling its every movement remotely and watching via a virtual reality (VR) headset that provides a robot's eye view.
Many things are taking place:
Sarcos Defense Awarded Contract by U.S.
Sarcos Defense Awarded Contract by U.S. Air Force to Develop "Smart" Dexterous Robotic Systems with Advanced Artificial Intelligence Associated Press |
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"This is a unique opportunity to leverage a robotic system that is kinematically equivalent to the human body to lay the foundation for teaching robots how to move and accomplish tasks in the real world, the same way humans do," said Denis Garagić, chief scientist, advanced systems and AI, Sarcos Robotics. "This success-based teaching will speed up the learning process of AI-enhanced perception, reasoning and decision-making techniques currently being implemented across Sarcos' platforms.
Testing medical protective gear is the perfect job for robots–but not without the help of humans.
Several months into the pandemic, there's still a high demand for surgical masks, gowns, and other types of personal protective equipment in the United States. That's partly because of the stress the COVID-19 crisis has put on the healthcare supply chain to produce and distribute the protective gear.
But those tests are difficult to perform, requiring specialized facilities that are only available at some laboratories in the U.S. And because of the logistics of sending materials to an external facility during a pandemic, that kind of testing can take more than a few weeks to complete, resulting in slow distribution times for manufacturers.
Global Industrial, Enterprise, Military, and Consumer Automation and Robotics Market 2020-2025
Dublin, Oct. 06, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Automation and Robotics Market in Industrial, Enterprise, Military, and Consumer Segments by Type, Components, Hardware, Software, and Services 2020 - 2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.
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Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.
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How Robots Will Make Our Work More Human | Washington Monthly
The COVID-19 pandemic has upended the idea of “work.” With face-to-face contact now risky, entire industries—like retail and food service—have been devastated, while the office as we know it, at least for the moment, is dead. Our interactions with customers and colleagues are muffled by face masks or mediated by the pixelated coldness of a computer screen. Work for many Americans is now alienating and isolated—assuming there’s a job at all.
This robot fry chef on rails can be yours for $30,000 - The Verge
Miso Robotics is one of the many firms trying to automate food preparation, and today, it announced that its latest machine — which places its burger-flipping bot Flippy on rails to move it about the kitchen more easily — is now on sale globally .
Prices for the contraption (known as the Flippy Robot-on-a-Rail or Flippy ROAR) start at $30,000, though Miso Robotics wants to bring the cost down to $20,000 in the future. The company is also offering the option to hire Flippy ROAR for $1,500 a month, a fee which includes maintenance and upgrades and which Miso says is cheaper overall than hiring humans.
ROBOTS: New Record of 2.7 Million Work In Factories - World Robotics by IFR reports
FRANKFURT, Germany , Oct. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The new World Robotics 2020 Industrial Robots report presented by the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) shows a record of 2.7 million industrial robots operating in factories around the world – an increase of 12%. Sales of new robots remain on a high level with 373,000 units shipped globally in 2019. This is 12% less compared to 2018, but still the 3 rd highest sales volume ever recorded.
"The stock of industrial robots operating in factories around the world today marks the highest level in history," says Milton Guerry , President of the International Federation of Robotics. "Driven by the success story of smart production and automation this is a worldwide increase of about 85% within five years (2014-2019). The recent slowdown in sales by 12% reflects the difficult times the two main customer industries, automotive and electrical/electronics, have experienced."
Robots Save Us Time — But Do They Make Us Happier?
As consumer psychologists, we have accumulated a great deal of evidence that spending money to outsource disliked tasks — such as by paying for a housecleaner — can improve happiness, lower stress, and improve our romantic relationships (even during the pandemic ). But as technology develops, we have begun outsourcing not only to humans, but to machines as well.
These findings could help to explain why the adoption of autonomous products is still significantly lower than initial predictions. While as recently as four years ago, think tanks predicted that a typical family home would hold up to 500 smart objects in 2020 , this has not yet come to fruition. For example, as of March 2020, only 10% of Americans owned an autonomous vacuum (despite decreasing price tags making these products fairly affordable).
Happening on Twitter
The robot shop worker controlled by a faraway human https://t.co/p1ArhSwywL BBCNews (from London) Tue Oct 06 00:31:06 +0000 2020
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