Hyundai bought Boston Dynamics, but they’re keeping the irreverent attitude. First piece of evidence: this fun video showing Spot dancing to the music of K-pop boy band BTS. Hyundai bought Boston Dynamics as SoftBank drew back from their robotics investment. They stopped making Pepper, their best-known robot. Known as the first humanoid social robot, Pepper… Read more »
Biorobotics
There are plenty of great engineers out there, but none as good as nature. Swimming, flying, running, jumping — nature has perfected it all. Evolution has provided billions of years of trial and error to produce organisms that are perfectly built to perform specific tasks. That’s why engineers look to nature as a resource in… Read more »
Do You Like It?
A travel agency –wait, what? Do travel agencies still exist? With plenty of apps happy to help us find just the right destination, flight, hotel room, and rental car, what could human beings still do in a travel agency? Travel agents are definitely on the list for automation — a 64% chance in the near… Read more »
“Huge Industry Turbulence” Predicted
Will automation reduce jobs for human workers? A new study says it’s more complicated than that. First, companies that embrace automation become more productive and grow. That means they hire more workers. It doesn’t happen immediately, but it happens consistently, according to one of the most comprehensive studies on the subject yet attempted. It’s the… Read more »
Cost of Human vs. Robot
Technology makes our lives easier. Electric lights allow us to see in the dark. Cars cut our travel time from weeks to hours. The internet allows us to have the answer to virtually everything. Can technology make our lives too easy? Can it facilitate work so much that human workers aren’t even necessary anymore? Many… Read more »
E281 or F281: Still a Mains Fault
When Indramat components have a problem, they let you know by showing you an error code. What if you’re seeing E281 or F281? Both are mains faults. E281 tells you there is an error in the mains and your drive controller is not getting the juice it needs. Check your power supply connection. F281 says… Read more »
Robots in Elder Care Might Be Better than Humans
Robots are already indispensable in manufacturing. As the pandemic changes consumer behavior and workplace realities, they’re becoming more common in agriculture and service industries. But there are some areas in which robots have been a possibility — but a controversial one — for years. Robots in elder care are one of those areas. The need… Read more »
Calculating the Cost of Downtime
Downtime can end up costing you a lot of money, especially when you consider all of the costs. The cost of downtime includes more than just the loss in production. There are a number of other factors that contribute to downtime costs. Calculating the cost of downtime will differ for each company. It’s difficult to… Read more »
Robot Plays Fetch
One of the things you’ll notice about robot innovations if you follow the news is that they don’t necessarily work. You’ll notice that about Boston Dynamics’ Spot, who can kind of play fetch. Here’s how it works. Take a dog toy and photograph it 400 times or more in a specific environment, so you can… Read more »
Biomimicry in Robotics
Biomimicry is neat. It’s incredibly fascinating to see mechanical representations of cheetahs, falcons, kangaroos, ants, and more, all built from wires and steel and servo motors. Enough robots have been designed using biomimicry that we could probably put together a pretty remarkable robotic zoo. But biomimicry is more than just neat. Biomimicry can help roboticists… Read more »