Category: Commentary
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Why we need a robot registry | context
Robots are rolling out into the real world and we need to meet the emerging challenges in responsible fashion but one that doesn’t block innovation. At the recent ARM Developers Summit 2020 I shared my suggestions for five practical steps that we could undertake at a regional, national or global level as part of the […]
30 women in robotics you need to know about 2020 | Robohub
It’s Ada Lovelace Day and once again we’re delighted to introduce you to “30 women in robotics you need to know about”! From 13 year old Avye Couloute to Bala Krishnamurthy who worked alongside the ‘Father of Robotics’ Joseph Engelberger in the 1970s & 1980s, these women showcase a wide range of roles in robotics. We hope […]
AI Ethics: We Need to Walk the Walk, Not Just Talk
Join me at the ARM Dev Summit for an indepth presentation on ethics for robots and AI, and why that’s important, as I introduce in this post in ARM Blueprint. Plus, why we need license plates for robots! #goodrobots
Is it farewell to the Journal of Field Robotics?
2020 is proving to be a watershed year. First COVID-19 has forced the cancellation (eg. ROSCon 2020, Hannover Messe) or the complete redesign of almost every major robotics conference. Now it seems that the science publishing community is also undergoing a sea change, as yesterday’s mass resignation of the editors and editorial board of the […]
Robots in retail: From ROI to frictionless customer experience
Retail is the fastest growing industry sector for robotics, if we include the logistics associated with e-commerce, and the current pandemic is exacerbating the demand for and shortage of robotics. On July 7th Silicon Valley Robotics hosted a ‘Retail Robotics for Startups’ discussion with David Pakman, robotics investor at Venrock, Steven K. Platt, founder of […]
Why robotics startups fail!
What are the main reasons that robotics companies and startups fail? Is it the technology or is it the business? Fresh Consulting analyzed significant industry case studies from Rethink Robotics to iRobot for their whitepaper “Why Robotics Companies Fail,” and launched it on June 11 at a panel discussion moderated by James Dietrich, from Fresh […]
How does robotics research funding compare globally?
The Corona crisis highlights the important contribution that robots make to industry and to society. Research funding programs (R&D) are vital to enable and further support these developments. IFR summarized national funding programs in the new “World Robotics R&D Programs”. How Nations Invest in Robotics Research – report by International Federation of Robotics Tweet this […]
ICRA 2020 launches with plenary panel ‘COVID-19: How Roboticists Can Help’
ICRA is the largest robotics meeting in the world and is the flagship conference of the IEEE Robotics & Automation Society. It is thus our honor and pleasure to welcome you to this edition, although the current exceptional circumstances did not allow us to organize it in Paris as planned with the glimpse and splendor that our wonderful robotics […]
SLAM and Spatial AI
You can watch this seminar here at 1PM EST (10AM PST) on May 15th. Andrew Davison (Imperial College London) Abstract: To enable the next generation of smart robots and devices which can truly interact with their environments, Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping (SLAM) will progressively develop into a general real-time geometric and semantic `Spatial AI’ perception capability. I […]
Where are the robots when you need them!
That’s a question we’re trying to answer in our weekly discussions about ‘COVID-19, robots and us’, but it was repeated with urgency by Rachel ‘McCrafty’ Sadd. Rachel has been building systems and automation for COVID mask making, as the founder of Project Mask Making and #distillmyheart projects in the SF Bay Area, an artist and […]
Can robots make food service safer for workers?
Health care workers are not the only unwilling essential services frontline workers at increased risk of COVID-19. According to the Washington Post on April 12, “At least 41 grocery workers have died of the coronavirus and thousands more have tested positive in recent weeks”. At the same time, grocery stores are seeing a surge in […]
Robots providing social support while we’re social distancing
Wired Magazine recently called for us to, post pandemic, “ditch our tech enabled tools of social distancing”. But are our telepresence robots creating emotional distancing or are they actually improving our emotional lives. This week in our weekly “COVID-19, robots and us” discussion with experts, we’re looking at the topic of virtual presence and emotional […]
How can robots help?
Guest post by Florian Pestoni from InOrbit.ai As the COVID-19 epidemic continues to wreak havoc in countries around the world, there’s some reason for hope as the number of new cases in China drops to 0. This shows that with concerted effort by individuals, companies and government, it is possible to limit the exponential scale […]
COVID-19, robots and us March 31 special guests
Join us on Tuesday at 7pm Pacific for our next weekly discussion on COVID-19, robots and us. This week we’re focusing on disaster robotics, social robotics, telemedicine and human-robot interaction with special guests: Robin Murphy, Founder of the field of Disaster Robotics and Raytheon Professor at Texas A&M University Ross Mead, Founder of Semio and […]
Robotics respond to COVID-19
This is the start of Silicon Valley Robotics list of local robotics companies and service providers who can build or make useful stuff for first responders and health organizations during the COVID-19 crisis. Ranging from volunteers, open source project designs, telepresence robots, robots for all sorts of things and groups with critical resources available. Today […]
Technological Revolutions and the Governance Gap
by Tim Kastelle University of QLD Business School The Core Problem of Management Today Sur-veil-lance Cap-i-tal-ism, n. 1. A new economic order that claims human experience as free raw material for hidden commercial practices of extraction, prediction, and sales; 2. A parasitic economic logic in which the production of goods and services is subordinated to a […]
The US opposition to Killer Robots ban
Veteran’s Day seems like a fitting day for this discussion! At the present, the US is one of only two nations in formal opposition to the proposed UN ban against lethal autonomous robots, within the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. If you’d like to learn more, I’ve copied some information from The Campaign to Stop […]
Should robots be gendered? comments on Alan Winfield’s opinion piece
The gendering of robots is something I’ve found fascinating since I first started building robots out of legos with my brother. We all ascribe character to robots, consciously or not, even when we understand exactly how robots work. Until recently we’ve been able to write this off as science fiction stuff, because real robots were […]