The Year In Robotics 44
malachiorion writes "From Google's emergence as a robotics giant to Gypsy Danger's emergence as a giant robot (we can root for), here's my attempt to round up the biggest trends in robotics in 2013. These trends are by no means comprehensive or ranked, but feel free to add your own picks for the year's biggest bot-related breakthroughs and setbacks."
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Google has some serious technical and financial assets they can bring to bear and for you to just dismiss that out of hand reflects poorly on your intellect.
FTA: A License to Hunt and Kill Drones (Score:2)
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It would certainly be the first hunters I've seen who ever would go after something that could shoot back. (naw, just kidding, the only actual use will be someone shooting down some kid's toy helicopter, and claiming it was legal.)
The True Future of Robotics (Score:2)
Sorry to burst everyones bubble, but the true future of robots has been anticipated since the late 70s, by a man named Mark Pauline.
He knows the nature of the robot and nurtures it for a dismal future.
In a bitter message of hopeless grief, I present to you Survival Research Laboratories. www.srl.org
The REAL future of robotics...
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fking link
http://www.srl.org/index.html [srl.org]
this should work unless there have been more code improvements to slashcode.
Comeback... (Score:5, Informative)
Robots made a comeback - on the moon, after a 37-year hiatus.
Apart from that, the article misses a bunch of very important trends and events in robotics. For example, industrial cooperative robots ( like Rethink Robotics Baster ) etc taking off.
A much better, video laden article here
http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/artificial-intelligence/video-friday-our-favorite-robot-videos-and-biggest-stories-from-2013 [ieee.org]
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How does the moon count as a revival, when there are currently multiple multi-year old robots exploring the surface of another planet? I don't like nationalism, but why would Jade Rabbit count as more relevant than Opportunity or Curiosity?
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Because its on the Moon, and its quite different from MER/MSL ? This is not about nationalism, this is about robots.
Yutu is a teleoperated machine that responds to commands in about 3 seconds, Mars rovers are also essentially teleoperated but take about 20 minutes to an hour to respond.
No robot had landed on the moon since 1976. I notice the Moon in the sky a lot often than i notice Mars - thats a comeback that counts.
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Whatever happened to NASA's... (Score:2)
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Maybe it was not as cool as they thought it was [nasawatch.com]
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Just a guess:
Budget cuts?
The real big news in robotics. (Score:5, Informative)
More significant events:
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Yeah right. There is a high cost of designing an assembly line for robots.
If companies wanted automated assembly lines, they'd build their own robotic factory, and cut Foxconn out.
Do you notice the contradiction there? Why would companies risk their own money and time building robotic factories if Foxconn already has the know-how and has already made the investment? Why do companies outsource companies to other clean their offices, then? They could hire the cleaning ladies by themselves!
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If I pay my factory workers 1/100th as much as an engineer costs and it takes a single hour to retrain them on a new project, I can still spending 1,000 engineering hours programming, testing, and debugging a SW update for the robot and come out significantly a head.
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The dangers of common words (Score:2)
Language is an amazing thing, especially Australian English; there is hardly a word in the dictionary that isn't somehow a profanity in Australia (http://www.koalanet.com.au/australian-slang.html):
Root (verb and noun) : synonym for f*ck in nearly all its senses: "I feel rooted"; "this washing machine is rooted"; "(s)he's a good root". A very useful word in fairly polite company.
Root rat : somebody who is constantly looking for sex.
Wombat : somebody who eats, roots and leaves (see also root)
meanwhile (Score:1)
while google is jacking istelf over a robby clone, real robots have been doing meaningful work for nearly a half century
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Porn? (Score:1)
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Usually yes, but right now they're fucked.
Pendatic... (Score:2)
Gypsy Danger is a giant mecha (Jagger to be precise) and not a robot. :P
Feck! (Score:2)
It's Jaeger! Not Jagger!
RepRap? (Score:2)
Unless 3D printers, CNC machines and laser cutters don't count, I would say 2013 was filled with robots.
It's Gipsy, not Gypsy (Score:1)
http://pacificrim.wikia.com/wiki/Gipsy_Danger [wikia.com]