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      pubsub.blastersklan.com / slashdot · Wednesday, 7 February - 02:05 edit · 1 minute

    In a new video released today, Boston Dynamics' Atlas robot is shown performing "kinetically challenging" work, like moving some medium-weight car parts and precisely picking stuff up. Ars Technica reports: In the latest video, we're on to what looks like "phase 2" of picking stuff up -- being more precise about it. The old clamp hands had a single pivot at the palm and seemed to just apply the maximum grip strength to anything the robot picked up. The most delicate thing Atlas picked up in the last video was a wooden plank, and it was absolutely destroying the wood. Atlas' new hands look a lot more gentle than The Clamps, with each sporting a set of three fingers with two joints. All the fingers share one big pivot point at the palm of the hand, and there's a knuckle joint halfway up the finger. The fingers are all very long and have 360 degrees of motion, so they can flex in both directions, which is probably effective but very creepy. Put two fingers on one side of an item and the "thumb" on the other, and Atlas can wrap its hands around objects instead of just crushing them. Atlas is picking up a set of car struts -- an object with extremely complicated topography that weighs around 30 pounds -- so there's a lot to calculate. Atlas does a heavy two-handed lift of a strut from a vertical position on a pallet, walks the strut over to a shelf, and carefully slides it into place. This is all in Boston Dynamics' lab, but it's close to repetitive factory or shipping work. Everything here seems designed to give the robot a manipulation challenge. The complicated shape of the strut means there are a million ways you could grip it incorrectly. The strut box has tall metal poles around it, so the robot needs to not bang the strut into the obstacle. The shelf is a tight fit, so the strut has to be placed on the edge of the shelf and slid into place, all while making sure the strut's many protrusions won't crash into the shelf.

    Read more of this story at Slashdot.

    Boston Dynamics' Atlas Tries Out Inventory Work, Gets Better At Lifting
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      A “robot” should be chemical, not steel, argues man who coined the word

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Tuesday, 23 January - 23:15 · 1 minute

    Enlarge (credit: Getty Images )

    In 1921, Czech playwright Karel Čapek and his brother Josef invented the word "robot" in a sci-fi play called R.U.R. (short for Rossum's Universal Robots). As Even Ackerman in IEEE Spectrum points out, Čapek wasn't happy about how the term's meaning evolved to denote mechanical entities, straying from his original concept of artificial human-like beings based on chemistry.

    In a newly translated column called "The Author of the Robots Defends Himself," published in Lidové Noviny on June 9, 1935, Čapek expresses his frustration about how his original vision for robots was being subverted. His arguments still apply to both modern robotics and AI. In this column, he referred to himself in the third-person:

    For his robots were not mechanisms. They were not made of sheet metal and cogwheels. They were not a celebration of mechanical engineering. If the author was thinking of any of the marvels of the human spirit during their creation, it was not of technology, but of science. With outright horror, he refuses any responsibility for the thought that machines could take the place of people, or that anything like life, love, or rebellion could ever awaken in their cogwheels. He would regard this somber vision as an unforgivable overvaluation of mechanics or as a severe insult to life.

    This recently resurfaced article comes courtesy of a new English translation of Čapek's play called R.U.R. and the Vision of Artificial Life accompanied by 20 essays on robotics, philosophy, politics, and AI. The editor, Jitka Čejková , a professor at the Chemical Robotics Laboratory in Prague, aligns her research with Čapek's original vision. She explores "chemical robots"—microparticles resembling living cells—which she calls "liquid robots."

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      Au CES 2024, LG présente un assistant robot tout droit sorti d’un dessin animé

      news.movim.eu / JournalDuGeek · Tuesday, 9 January - 11:00

    Lg Agent Ia (1)

    Cette semaine au salon technologique de Las Vegas, LG a présenté le plus mignon des assistants robots.
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      Tesla unveils its latest humanoid robot, Optimus Gen 2, in demo video

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Wednesday, 13 December - 16:57

    The Tesla Optimus Gen 2 robot on a blue background.

    Enlarge / The Tesla Optimus Gen 2 robot. (credit: Tesla | Benj Edwards)

    On Tuesday, Tesla released a demo video showing the latest version of its prototype humanoid robot, Optimus Gen 2. Over one year after Tesla's first public Optimus robot demonstration , which showcased shaky robots that waved and slumped over, things have apparently progressed quite a bit, assuming that the video accurately reflects the technology.

    "Everything in this video is real, no CGI. All real time, nothing sped up. Incredible hardware improvements from the team," wrote Tesla Senior Staff Software Engineer Julian Ibarz on X.

    After a recent episode where Google fudged an AI demonstration for the sake of marketing hype, it's best to take Tesla's claims with a grain of salt until they are independently verified in practical, real-world demonstrations. With that dose of skepticism in mind, let's take a look at what Tesla is promising in this non-production prototype robot.

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      Le robot Optimus Gen 2 de Tesla réussit à faire des squats

      news.movim.eu / Numerama · Wednesday, 13 December - 14:40

    optimus squat

    La nouvelle version de l'androïde Optimus Gen 2, un robot fabriqué par Tesla, est dotée de facultés supplémentaires. Il a un meilleur équilibre, il se déplace plus vite et manipule avec délicatesse des objets fragiles.

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      Des mains de robots plus souples grâce à l’impression 3D

      news.movim.eu / JournalDuGeek · Saturday, 9 December - 10:00

    Main Robot

    Une nouvelle technique d'impression 3D a permis à des chercheurs de créer une main robotique dotée d'une fluidité et d'une flexibilité de mouvement rivalisant avec celles du corps humain.

    Des mains de robots plus souples grâce à l’impression 3D

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      Les robots risquent-ils de faire du mal aux personnes âgées ?

      news.movim.eu / Numerama · Saturday, 2 December - 07:05

    S’il est possible de hacker un pacemaker ou un sextoy, qu’en est-il des robots compagnons ? [Lire la suite]

    Abonnez-vous aux newsletters Numerama pour recevoir l’essentiel de l’actualité https://www.numerama.com/newsletter/

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      “Do not open robots,” warns Oregon State amid college food delivery bomb prank

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Wednesday, 25 October - 15:14 · 1 minute

    A 2020 file photo of a Starship Technologies food delivery robot.

    Enlarge / A 2020 file photo of a Starship Technologies food delivery robot. Food is stored inside the robot's housing during transportation and opened upon delivery. (credit: Leon Neal/Getty Images )

    On Tuesday, officials at Oregon State University issued a warning on social media about a bomb threat concerning Starship Technologies food delivery robots, autonomous wheeled drones that deliver food orders stored within a built-in container. By 7 pm local time, a suspect had been arrested in the prank, and officials declared there had been no bombs hidden within the robots.

    "Bomb Threat in Starship food delivery robots," reads the 12:20 pm initial X post from OSU. "Do not open robots. Avoid all robots until further notice." In follow-up posts , OSU officials said they were "r emotely isolating robots in a safe location" for investigation by a technician. By 3:54 pm local time, experts had cleared the robots and promised they would be "back in service" by 4 pm.

    In response, Starship Technologies provided this statement to the press : "A student at Oregon State University sent a bomb threat, via social media, that involved Starship’s robots on the campus. While the student has subsequently stated this is a joke and a prank, Starship suspended the service. Safety is of the utmost importance to Starship and we are cooperating with law enforcement and the university during this investigation."

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      Avec le robot humanoïde Digit, Amazon parie sur la collaboration homme-robot

      news.movim.eu / JournalDuGeek · Friday, 20 October - 13:30

    amazon-robotics-digit-158x105.jpg Amazon robot Digit

    Amazon intensifie son processus de robotisation au sein de ses entrepôts en recrutant Digit, un robot humanoïde qui collaborera avec le personnel au sein du géant américain.

    Avec le robot humanoïde Digit, Amazon parie sur la collaboration homme-robot