From sunrise through sundown, rows of lettuce, broccoli, and cauliflower are planted, tended to and harvested on the thousand-acre ranch — partially by humans, increasingly by machines.
The products are then packaged and shipped to major grocery store chains and restaurants nationwide. You might have seen their products in the frozen-food aisle under the Green Giant brand at Walmart, Target or virtually every other major supermarket.
But what you probably haven’t seen is how much more work autonomous machines and drones are doing on the farm as the minimum wage ticked up a dollar in California this year, heading toward $15 an hour for larger employers across the Golden State, effective 2022.
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Simple robots, smart algorithms | EurekAlert! Science News
IMAGE: When sensors, communication, memory and computation are removed from a group of simple robots, certain sets of complex tasks can still be accomplished by leveraging the robots' physical characteristics, a... view more
Anyone with children knows that while controlling one child can be hard, controlling many at once can be nearly impossible. Getting swarms of robots to work collectively can be equally challenging, unless researchers carefully choreograph their interactions -- like planes in formation -- using increasingly sophisticated components and algorithms. But what can be reliably accomplished when the robots on hand are simple, inconsistent, and lack sophisticated programming for coordinated behavior?
Robots are becoming more human-looking thanks to the pandemic - CBS News
"I've been very worried about COVID-19 lately," said Sophia, a creation of the Hong Kong-based Hanson Robotics. Sophia, who has appeared onstage at a multitude of technology conferences and even appeared on "The Tonight Show," is one of the world's best-known androids — robots designed to appear humanlike. Sophia can now carry on a conversation, offer a range of facial expressions and even high-five.
Hanson designed the robot in 2016 and has been improving the technology ever since. Last month, a piece of art Sophia co-created was auctioned for $688,000 — the first time an artwork created by a robot has been sold.
Hong Kong robots help autistic children boost social skills | Reuters
Autism tutor Sarah Ng uses robots to teach a 5-year-old child with special needs to introduce herself, in Hong Kong, China April 17, 2021. Picture taken April 17, 2021. REUTERS/Yoyo Chow
A Hong Kong professor has developed an educational programme using role-playing robots to help children with autism improve their social skills, part of an initiative adopted by non-profit groups and schools.
The programme, Robot for Autism Behavioral Intervention (RABI), is designed for people with autism between the ages of 3 and 18, and aims to help them be more social and to resolve issues such as conflicts and bullying.
Walmart Is Pulling Plug on More Robots - WSJ
The retailer is phasing out the hulking automated pickup towers that were erected in more than 1,500 stores to dispense online orders. The decision reflects a growing focus on curbside pickup services that have become more popular during the Covid-19 pandemic and continues a broader retreat from some initiatives to use highly visible automation in stores.
Over the past year Walmart has started to remove or turn off the 17-foot-tall machines often placed at the front of stores. About 300 machines are being removed from stores, and around 1,300 "hibernated" while Walmart focuses on other services, said Larry Blue, chief executive of Bell & Howell, a Durham, N.C.-based automation services company that installed and maintains the devices for the retailer.
The New Breed review: The case for treating robots as animals | New Scientist
BEFORE dawn, a Roomba sweeps the floor in my home. Suckubus (as we call it) can get tangled up with shoelaces or carpet tassels and need rescuing. At the local grocery store, a robot called Marty patrols looking for spills, summoning employees loudly for clean-ups. Its skulking presence annoys customers.
In the world’s cities, free-roaming robots are poised to work alongside humans. Will these machines steal jobs? Might they harm the humans they work alongside? And will social robots alter human relationships?
Auxiliary equipment makers line up future work while noting: 'Robots didn't get the
Auxiliary equipment manufacturers automate clean rooms to make critical medical devices, supply robots to package products, develop scanners for reverse engineering, and now they have a chance to play a greater role in the rebuilding of U.S. infrastructure.
Adam Grier, president of radar sensor technology producer Inoex LLC, is optimistic about President Joe Biden's $2 trillion American Jobs Plan to overhaul the economy while spending on roads, bridges, broadband, the electric grid, advanced manufacturing and more.
MagicDNA: Tiny, Complex DNA Robots Designed in Minutes Instead of Days
This “airplane,” made of strands of DNA, is 1000 times smaller than the width of a human hair. Credit: Ohio State University
Researchers took a big step toward that future by developing a new tool that can design much more complex DNA robots and nanodevices than were ever possible before in a fraction of the time.
In a paper published on April 19, 2021, in the journal Nature Materials , researchers from The Ohio State University – led by former engineering doctoral student Chao-Min Huang – unveiled new software they call MagicDNA.
Happening on Twitter
Black farmers have lost more than 90% of their land since 1910 — in part due to widespread discrimination by USDA b… https://t.co/YdflmgXpR4 typeinvestigate (from New York, NY) Fri Apr 23 13:04:53 +0000 2021
Just heard that government sources are trying to pin blame on farmers for lack of oxygen in Delhi. Delay because of… https://t.co/d7KtyklyQg kartikeya_1975 (from Delhi) Tue Apr 20 15:07:10 +0000 2021
More than 300 farmers have lost their lives. Repeal the laws #FarmerLivesMatter deepsealioness (from Morally bankrupt society ) Sun Apr 18 02:14:20 +0000 2021
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