Shockingly, Robots Are Really Bad at Waiting Tables
Evan Ackerman for IEEE Spectrum: According to Chinese newspaper Workers’ Daily, two restaurants in Guangzhou, China, that gained some amount of notoriety for their use of robotic waiters have now been forced to close down. One employee said, “the robots weren’t able to carry soup or other food steady and they would frequently break down. The boss has decided never to use them again.” Yeah, we can’t say we’re surprised.
As far as I can tell, all of these waiter robots can do essentially one thing: travel along a set path while holding food. They can probably stop at specific tables, and maybe turn or sense when something has been taken from them, but that seems to be about it. “Their skills are somewhat limited,” a robot restaurant employee told Workers’ Daily. “They can’t take orders or pour hot water for customers.” Those are just two of the many, many more skills that human servers have, because it’s necessary to have many, many more skills than this to be a good server. Cont'd...
MMC's Hydrogen-fueled Drone, the HyDrone 1800, Leads the Way into a New UAV Era
HyDrone's alternative source of energy keeps it in the air for more than 4 hours, gives it a radius of up to 100km with a live video stream, and works in temperatures below -20 Celsius.
XPONENTIAL - U.S. Army, Navy Leaders to Speak at AUVSI XPONENTIAL 2016
Gen. David G. Perkins, commander of Training and Doctrine Command, and Frank Kelley, deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for Unmanned Systems, to address largest trade show for unmanned systems industry
WHILL and 5D Robotics Collaborate to Accelerate Autonomous Personal Mobility Development
"Fully autonomous personal mobility devices can bring our B2B customers enormous benefits in terms of greater convenience, lower cost and improved safety for their mobility services," said WHILL founder and CEO, Satoshi Sugie.
Datakit is offering users of CrossManager an export in STEP format at no additional cost
Datakit provides a STEP output to every user of its CAD converter CrossManager.
DENSO Invests in Semiconductor Laser Technology Startup TriLumina
DENSO is looking to speed up the adoption of LiDAR and driver monitoring technologies in Advanced Driver Assistance systems, which are key technologies used in autonomous vehicles. This strategic investment enables TriLumina to gain broader access to the automotive market.
Velodyne LiDAR Announces ULTRA Puck™ VLP-32A, High Definition Real-Time 3D LiDAR Sensor for the Automotive Market
Advanced, Small Form-Factor 32-Channel Unit To Make Public Debut at SAE 2016 in Detroit
Toyota Expands AI, Robotics Research to Third Facility
Kirsten Korosec for Fortune: Toyota will expand the footprint of its artificial intelligence and robotics research center by adding a third facility in Ann Arbor, Mich.
Gill Pratt, CEO of the Toyota Research Institute, made the announcement on Thursday during his keynote speech at Nvidia’s GPU Technology Conference in San Jose. The Ann Arbor facility will be located near the University of Michigan, where it will fund research in artificial intelligence, robotics, and materials science.
Last year, the world’s largest automaker said it would invest $1 billion over the next five years in a research center for artificial intelligence to be based in Palo Alto, Calif. The institute aims to bridge the gap between research in AI and robotics in order to bring this technology to market. The technology is largely being developed for self-driving cars, but the institute is also researching and developing AI products for the home. Cont'd...
Robots Helping Grads Get Jobs
Not many students can claim they have hands-on experience with automation and robotics going into an interview. Looking at the question with a macro lens, our students are offered job opportunities on being well-rounded, even at the sophomore-level when many accept summer/semester-long internships.
DAIHEN Licenses WiTricity Magnetic Resonance Technology for Wireless Charging of Automatic Guided Vehicles (AGVs)
DAIHEN to target wireless charging applications for the rapidly expanding industrial market
Maple T.A. 2016 Enables Easy Authoring of STEM Testing Content
New release incorporates customer feedback to enhance user experience
Insect eyes enable drones to fly independently
After studying how insects navigate through dense vegetation, researchers at Lund University in Sweden have come up with a system that can be applied to flying robots. By adapting the system to drones, they can be made to adjust their speed to their surroundings and fly on their own- completely without human intervention and control.
XPONENTIAL - UAS Magazine Announces UAS Energy In Sight Summit Co-Located at AUVSI's 2016 Xponential in New Orleans
Produced by UAS Magazine, this one-day event will highlight the connection between the energy industry and UAS technology or services
Anything Technologies Media Inc., Completes Acquisition of GSP an Innovative Technology Company focused on the Development of Drones
GSP is also the owner of proprietary rights to develop drones for a wide range of uses for Agriculture, Disaster Relief, Military, and Environmental research. GSP has partners in China and India to develop their new innovative drones.
IEEE Standards Association Introduces Global Initiative for Ethical Considerations in the Design of Autonomous Systems
Industry Connections Program to identify needs and build consensus for standards, certifications and codes of conduct regarding the ethical implementation of intelligent technologies
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