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Get It Off Me Researchers at Caltech have opened the doors to hell and allowed a creepy robot that can walk on two spindly feet and even fly to enter our world. The terrifying biped, called LEONARD (LEgs ONboARD drone), or LEO for short, is basicically the bottom half of a humanoid robot strapped to a flying drone. The researchers’ goal wasn’t to come up with the next mass-marketable invention, but to test new ways of locomotion for robots meant to complete dangerous jobs and explore hard-to-reach places. Did we mention it can skateboard and slackline as well?

Singapore has started trialing robots to patrol public areas and deter poor social behaviour in its latest effort to further augment its strong portfolio of surveillance tools. Ranked one of the safest countries in the world, Singapore has put two autonomous robots on trial to detect bad behaviour such as flouting of COVID-19 safety measures, smoking in prohibited areas and the improper parking of bicycles, Singapore's Home Team Science and Technology Agency said in a statement on Sunday. It said the two patrol robots, named Xavier, are equipped with cameras that can detect bad social behaviour and trigger real-time alerts...

AS a soldier runs from the battlefield, he's spotted by a suicide drone loitering in the sky overhead. The killing machine dives down on its target and explodes in a kamikaze attack – without anyone telling it to. t might sound like the stuff of science fiction but killer robots, sometimes called "slaughterbots", are already a reality. Last year, STM Kargu-2 drones hunted down targets in what might be the first instance of artificial intelligence killing on its own initiative. The revelation came after years of experts warning about the dangers of letting machines decide who lives and dies in...

Boston Dynamics has published a pair of videos showcasing its Atlas robots completing a complex obstacle course that requires balancing on beams and vaults. he company's Atlas robotics program is a platform for its engineers to perform research and development on sensory and perception systems. In a sandbox environment, Boston Dynamics tasked two of its Atlas robots with parkouring through various obstacles. The parkour routine entailed one of the two robots running up a series of banked plywood panels, broad jumping a gap, and running up and down a set of stairs. The second robot, meanwhile, was programmed to leap...

Meanwhile, the robots at Boston Dynamics got another software update. https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/1427671216194789377

Could your next lawyer be a robot? It sounds far fetched, but artificial intelligence (AI) software systems - computer programs that can update and "think" by themselves - are increasingly being used by the legal community. Joshua Browder describes his app DoNotPay as "the world's first robot lawyer". It helps users draft legal letters. You tell its chatbot what your problem is, such as appealing against a parking fine, and it will suggest what it thinks is the best legal language to use. "People can type in their side of an argument using their own words, and software with a...

<p>HONOLULU — If you’re homeless and looking for temporary shelter in Honolulu, expect a visit from a robotic police dog that will scan your eye to make sure you don’t have a fever.</p><p>That’s just one of the ways public safety agencies are starting to use Spot, the best-known of a new commercial category of robots that trot around with animal-like agility.</p>

Starting Monday, robots are making deliveries along South Congress and downtown under the supervision of the Austin Transportation Department... Robots will roll through Austin starting Monday making food deliveries in the South Congress area and throughout downtown. Austin Transportation Department officials say the company behind the robots, Refraction AI, will launch a fleet of 10 robots. ATD officials add the robots will travel in the bike lane unless there is not one. Then, they will travel on the main road. The robots will be monitored by a person who will travel along with the robot. Officials said it is required...

After years studying the icy waters of the Southern Ocean with floating robotic monitors, a consortium of oceanographers and other researchers is deploying them across the planet, from the north Pacific to the Indian Ocean. The project known as the Global Ocean Biogeochemistry Array, or GO-BGC, started in March with the launch of the first of 500 new floating robotic monitors containing computers, hydraulics, batteries and an array of sensors scientists say will relay a more comprehensive picture of the ocean and its health. "The ocean is extremely important to the climate, to the sustainability of the earth, its supply...

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. — It’s a scenario straight out of “The Jetsons.” A South Florida restaurant owner is using dining-room robots for touchless, socially distanced seating and ordering. Joy Wang, the owner of Mr. Q Crab House in Hollywood, bought three robo-staff members for $30,000, the Sun-Sentinel reported. Wang said she invested in the robotic workers because she is having difficulty filling shifts of servers and front-of-house staffers at the Cajun seafood restaurant.

For many of us visions of the future have often included images of robots who can think on their own and perform tasks. In some visions, those robots were in a Jetson’s style universe with floating objects and robots who make our lives easier. For others, they envisioned a dystopianTerminator style landscape where robots are trying to kill us.While these scenarios make for great TV’s and movies – the reality is much more nuanced, but still very exciting. We are seeing firsthand that robotic and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are becoming a regular part of our lives and our economy...

According to a report by the McKinsey Global Institute, which first appeared in late 2017, 800 million workers across the world could lose their jobs to robots, including one-third of the workforce in the United States. And while the report says that those who operate machines and "food workers" will suffer most, robots or automation, the report claims, will displace its share of mortgage brokers, paralegals, accountants and back-office workers. CBS's 60 Minutes last night had a segment on the future of robotics, showing the technology's rapid advances. By 2030, if the experts are correct, anywhere from 39 million to...

Guy goes into a bar, there's a robot bartender. Since the minimum wage was increased to $15 the owner had to replace his regular human bartender. The robot says, "What will you have?" The guy says, "Martini." The robot brings back the best martini ever and says to the man, "What's your IQ?" The guy says," 168." The robot then proceeds to talk about physics, space exploration and medical technology. The guy leaves, but he is curious..So he goes back into the bar. The robot bartender says, "What will you have?" The guy says, "Martini." Again, the robot makes a...

COVID-19 Quarantine Victoria (CQV) will undertake a pilot scheme of a robot that captures both audio and video at one of its hotel in coming weeks as part of a wide-ranging review of the state’s troubled hotel quarantine system. Security company Monjon, who first offered a similar solution to Victorian officials in September, will provide the technology that was successfully used in the hotel quarantine program for the US Open. There have been multiple leakages out of hotel quarantine despite Premier Daniel Andrews boasting Victoria has the strictest regime in place. The state was plunged into its third lockdown about...

Aircraft without pilots could be flying commuters to UK regional airports within a decade - possibly using hydrogen as fuel making them environmentally friendly. British aircraft manufacturer Britten-Norman is working alongside technology company Bear Blue to first develop a semi-autonomous plane with just one pilot, followed by an aircraft with no humans on the flight deck. The government has pledged £1.8 million to the project, which could see the first aircraft carrying passengers by the mid 2020s. The Civil Aviation Authority, who regulate Britain's skies are currently working on guidelines for 'operations that present an equivalent risk to that of...

Boston Dynamics robots can do a lot more than run these days: they can mash potato, they can do the twist and they can dance (hopefully not on our graves after the uprising). The Massachusetts-based robotics company shot to the top of the YouTube charts this week with a spectacular — and slightly unsettling — new music video, which shows its highly mobile robots dancing to Do You Love Me by The Contours. The video shows off the tech firm’s impressive achievements in artificial intelligence, including the ability to make a robot dance better than a drunk human at a...

Boston Dynamics is dancing into the new year. The Waltham company released a carefully coordinated dance routine featuring their Atlas, Spot and Handle robots. Earlier this month, the Hyundai Motor Group reached a $1.1 billion deal to buy a controlling interest in Boston Dynamics.

Boston Dynamics' Dancing Robots Boston Dynamics' Dancing Robots

In the current era of artificial intelligence (AI), the use of robots in the military is no longer an idea relegated to science fiction movies. Today, robots and intelligent machines are increasingly being used in military operations for a wide range of tasks ranging from surveillance, intelligence, reconnaissance, bomb disposal, and search and rescue operations. But that’s not all. Military professionals are starting to envision future battlefields consisting of intelligent robot teammates that can understand and follow orders without constant supervision thanks to the widespread adoption of IoT technologies. In this article, we’ll look at the rush to weaponize AI...

[E]ngineering researchers from the University of New South Wales in Sydney were inspired by an elephant’s trunk and designed what looks more like a robotic tongue that can firmly grasp objects by wrapping around them like a snake. An elephant’s trunk can have as many 40,000 muscles it uses to manipulate its long appendage with surprising dexterity, as well as millions of nerve endings allowing it to feel what it’s grasping in order to know how much pressure to apply. The gripper doesn’t have quite as many muscles as an elephant’s trunk—zero, to be exact—but instead relies on materials that...