Tag Archives: robotics

Creepy Robots Do Back Flips And Parkour [VIDEO]

USA Today reports: Boston Dynamics, the company known for its robotic dogs, now has a humanoid robot capable of doing gymnastics. The robotics company previously has shown how its robot dogs can go down stairs and open doors. Some police departments have begun using the robot dogs, typically called Spot, to help patrol. And Atlas, which the company dubbed “the …

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Basketball Robot Sinks Half-Court Shot At Olympics

Market Watch reports: Nothing but net for Skynet! A 6′10″ basketball-playing robot sank a series of deep three-point shots and a half-court shot during halftime of the Men’s Preliminary Round Group B game between the U.S. and France on Sunday. And the mechanical man invited plenty of comparisons to the murderous, self-aware computer system from the ”Terminator” movies that nearly …

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Not-Scary Robot Dogs Collaborate With K-Pop’s BTS

The Verge reports: Hyundai has officially completed its acquisition of Boston Dynamics, the creator of the internet’s favorite dancing Spot and Atlas robots (which only occasionally look like dystopian nightmare machines). And to celebrate, the company is collaborating with K-pop sensation BTS on a new video that shows seven Spot robots grooving to the band’s 2020 song “IONIQ: I’m On …

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NYPD Ditches Robot Police Dog After Backlash [VIDEO]

The New York Daily News reports: The NYPD’s robot dog has been hounded out of service. The police department will return Digidog to robotics manufacturer Boston Dynamics after months of backlash and mockery that compared the four-legged bot to a dystopian sci-fi surveillance nightmare. John Miller, the NYPD’s deputy commissioner for intelligence and counterterrorism, confirmed Wednesday the NYPD had cancelled …

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NYPD Deploys Robot Dog In Public Housing [VIDEO]

Gothamist reports: The NYPD’s robot dog is once again stirring privacy concerns and cyberpunk prophesies of some New Yorkers, after the four-legged machine was spotted inside of a Manhattan public housing complex on Monday. A video shared on Twitter shows the robot trotting out of a building on East 28th Street in front of two NYPD officers, then slowly descending …

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French Army Tests Robot Dog In “Combat Scenarios”

The Verge reports: Spot, the quadruped robot built by US firm Boston Dynamics, has appeared alongside soldiers during military exercises carried out by the French army. The robot was apparently being used for reconnaissance during a two-day training exercise, but the deployment raises questions about how and where Boston Dynamics’ machines will be used in future. Pictures of the exercises …

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Robotics Firm Unveils Warehouse Worker [VIDEO]

The Verge reports: The robot is called Stretch and looks relatively dull for a Boston Dynamics creation. It’s not modeled after humans or animals, and instead aims to be as practical as possible. It has a square mobile base containing a set of wheels, a “perception mast” with cameras and other sensors, and a huge robotic arm with seven degrees …

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Art Project Lets Web Users Control Armed Robot Dog

NBC News reports: An internet-enabled art installation that launched Wednesday offers a strange proposition: the chance to pilot a $75,000 four-legged robot named Spot that is armed with a paintball gun. The robot may be familiar to people who have seen various viral videos of similar robots from Boston Dynamics that have offered a sometimes startling glimpse at leaps in …

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Today In Not At All Scary Dancing Robots [VIDEO]

The Verge reports: Boston Dynamics’ Atlas and Spot robots can do a lot of things: sprinting, gymnastic routines, parkour, backflips, open doors to let in an army of their friends, wash dishes, and (poorly) get actual jobs. But the company’s latest video adds another impressive trick to our future robotic overlords’ repertoire: busting sick dance moves. The video sees Boston …

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Startup Unveils Not Scary COVID Nasal Swab Robot

The Verge reports: If you’ve been tested for COVID-19 then you’ve probably experienced the unpleasantness of a nasal swab. Someone takes a long-handled cotton swab and sticks it up your nose — way up your nose — until it reaches the back of the mucus-cave that is your nasal cavity. Upon arrival they give the swab a good twirl to …

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Scary Robot Dogs Now On Sale To Public For $75,000

The Associated Press reports: You can now buy one of those unnerving animal-like robots you might have seen on YouTube — so long as you don’t plan to use it to harm or intimidate anyone. Boston Dynamics on Tuesday started selling its four-legged Spot robots online for just under $75,000 each. The agile robots can walk, climb stairs and open …

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Major League Baseball Monitors Test Of Robot Umpires

Axios reports: An electronic radar system called TrackMan will soon be calling balls and strikes in the Atlantic League, an independent East Coast league that has emerged as MLB’s testing ground for new rules and equipment initiatives. In a simple test to make sure that TrackMan data could be successfully transmitted and understood, home plate umpires were fitted with earpieces …

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Russian Media Falls For Man In Robot Suit [VIDEO]

The Guardian reports: A “hi-tech robot” shown on Russian state television has turned out to be a man in a suit. Russia-24 praised the ersatz android during coverage of a youth forum dedicated to robotics, boasting that “Robot Boris has already learned to dance and he’s not that bad”. But sharp-eyed bloggers were dubious. The Russian website TJournal listed questions …

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GENEVA: Vatican Calls For UN Ban On “Killer Robots”

The Catholic Crux reports: Fully automated and autonomous lethal weapons systems must be banned now before they become a reality in tomorrow’s wars, a Vatican representative said. The development of robotic weapons or “killer robots” will provide “the capacity of altering irreversibly the nature of warfare, becoming more detached from human agency, putting in question the humanity of our societies,” …

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Parking App Deploys Robot To Hold Your Space

Axios reports: Here’s a potential time-saver this Black Friday: a smartphone app that will deploy a robot to hold a parking space for you at the mall. MyPark is a Miami-based parking reservation service that deploys mobile space blockers to hold spots for customers willing to pay a few dollars for the convenience. The app triggers a pop-up rectangle that …

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Azerbaijan Grants World’s First Visa For Robot [VIDEO]

Fortune reports: The AI humanoid ‘Sophia’ has been making a worldwide tour on behalf of her creator, Hanson Robotics of Hong Kong, and made an unexpected stop to the Caucasus this week. The Caucasus stop meant granting the world’s first ever visa granted to a robot, a process that took just two minutes thanks to some smart technology. Sophia’s visit …

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Today In Creepy Twerking Robot Security Dogs [VIDEO]

Engadget reports: If what you need today is a dog robot twerking to “Uptown Funk,” well then you’re in luck. Boston Dynamics’ SpotMini robot is featured in a new video intended to show off its mobility, and it certainly does that as the robot dog steps, gyrates and dances in time with music. The SpotMini goes on sale sometime in …

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Houston City Council Bans “Sex Robot Brothel” [VIDEO]

The Houston Chronicle reports: Houston City Council on Wednesday updated its rules on sexually oriented businesses, instituting changes that could bar plans for a store that allows customers to try out sex dolls on the premises from opening near the Galleria. Toronto-based KinkySdollS had planned to open a Houston branch where it would sell “adult love dolls” constructed of synthetic …

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US And Russia Block UN Talks On Killer Robots

Politico reports: The United States and Russia were among a small number of countries that blocked the U.N. from moving toward talks on whether to ban so-called killer robots. During a week of meetings in Geneva, which ended in the early hours of Saturday, a group at the United Nations’ Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) discussed whether to take negotiations …

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STUDY: When Robots Beg For Their Lives

The Verge reports: In the study, published in the open access journal PLOS One, 89 volunteers were recruited to complete a pair of tasks with the help of Nao, a small humanoid robot. The participants were told that the tasks (which involved answering a series of either / or questions, like “Do you prefer pasta or pizza?”; and organizing a …

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