pigfarmer
tall, thin, irritable
Jesus, that's a looooong way from the Hall of Presidents or 'It's a Small World After All'
-
july 13, 2016 - July 13, 2026 - Our 10 Year Anniversary!!!
Robots
- Thread starter Toroid
- Start date
Jesus, that's a looooong way from the Hall of Presidents or 'It's a Small World After All'
nivek
As Above So Below
60ft moving Gundam robot unveiled in Japan
Earlier this year we reported that the enormous replica robot, which is based on Japan's super popular and long-running 'Gundam' franchise, had taken its first steps - albeit with its head missing.
Now however, it looks as though the robot's construction is complete - as evidenced by an impressive demonstration at a press event on Monday at the Gundam Factory complex in Yokohama.
Featuring 20 moving parts and standing 60ft tall, the robot was shown walking out of its hangar, complete with orchestral music, spoken dialog and sound effects.
When the facility opens next month, visitors will have the opportunity to get up close to the robot via the various stairs and walkways that have been built around it.
According to reports, it will change its pose every 30 minutes and will be lit up at night. Fans will also have the chance to experience a virtual reality simulation of being a Gundam pilot. The facility was scheduled to open back in October but was postponed due to the pandemic.
You can check out the robot in action below.
Earlier this year we reported that the enormous replica robot, which is based on Japan's super popular and long-running 'Gundam' franchise, had taken its first steps - albeit with its head missing.
Now however, it looks as though the robot's construction is complete - as evidenced by an impressive demonstration at a press event on Monday at the Gundam Factory complex in Yokohama.
Featuring 20 moving parts and standing 60ft tall, the robot was shown walking out of its hangar, complete with orchestral music, spoken dialog and sound effects.
When the facility opens next month, visitors will have the opportunity to get up close to the robot via the various stairs and walkways that have been built around it.
According to reports, it will change its pose every 30 minutes and will be lit up at night. Fans will also have the chance to experience a virtual reality simulation of being a Gundam pilot. The facility was scheduled to open back in October but was postponed due to the pandemic.
You can check out the robot in action below.
nivek
As Above So Below
Robots dance the night away in fun new video
Boston Dynamics is celebrating the turn of the calendar in style with a clip showing all its robots boogying away. If there's one company that has continued to impress over the last few years, it's Boston Dynamics - the brains behind some of the most lifelike and capable robots the world has ever seen.
Now all three of its latest creations have come together for a dance video like no other - a demonstration of modern robotics that is as impressive as it is hilarious. The video, which is intended to celebrate the upcoming new year, begins with one of the firm's Atlas robots jiving away to Berry Gordy Jr.'s 'Do You Love Me'.
As the video continues, a second Atlas is introduced, along with the dog-like SpotMini robot and the two-wheeled Handle robot which is typically used to pick up and move boxes in warehouses. Between them, the robots provide a fascinating performance.
Boston Dynamics is celebrating the turn of the calendar in style with a clip showing all its robots boogying away. If there's one company that has continued to impress over the last few years, it's Boston Dynamics - the brains behind some of the most lifelike and capable robots the world has ever seen.
Now all three of its latest creations have come together for a dance video like no other - a demonstration of modern robotics that is as impressive as it is hilarious. The video, which is intended to celebrate the upcoming new year, begins with one of the firm's Atlas robots jiving away to Berry Gordy Jr.'s 'Do You Love Me'.
As the video continues, a second Atlas is introduced, along with the dog-like SpotMini robot and the two-wheeled Handle robot which is typically used to pick up and move boxes in warehouses. Between them, the robots provide a fascinating performance.
pigfarmer
tall, thin, irritable
America is falling in ‘Love’ with these funky dancing robots
By Ben Cost December 30, 2020 | 9:15am
Now robots are dancing “The Human.”
In yet more evidence that machines are taking over the world as we know it, a now-viral YouTube video has surfaced of Boston Dynamics robots performing a dance number so well-choreographed it looks animated.
In the three-minute disco tech clip, three of the robotics firm’s creations — the humanoid Atlas, Spot the robot dog and box-juggling Handle —can be seen grooving in perfect unison to the Contours’ 1962 hit “Do You Love Me.”
The bipedal bots do the twist, Spot gyrates emphatically, and Handle wheels by in a routine seemingly too fluid to be executed by humans.
Needless to say, viewers were impressed by the dance droids’ dynamic display, as the clip already has more than 4 million views in less than 24 hours as of Wednesday morning.
“I needed this. This is so cool!!!” gushed one commenter of the less-than-robotic moves.
Another joked, “Robots after successfully conquering the world.”
Even outspoken SpaceX boss Elon Musk weighed in:
Snake-head dog had my undivided attention until winder-head ostrich came gliding through all nonchalant pic.twitter.com/dtPMdM3TQp
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 30, 2020
Indeed, the unsettlingly impressive routine marks a major evolution from Spot’s herky-jerky rendition of “Uptown Funk” way back in 2018. Or the box-packing showcase by Atlas’ 2016 earlier iteration, which looks like stop-motion animation by comparison.
In fact, many were convinced that the cybernetic shindig was too good to be true.
“Nice render,” snarked one about the darlings Boston Dynamics, which was recently purchased by Korean automaker Hyundai.
Another wrote, “Perfect CGI.”
However, the apparently real exhibition is just the latest display of the BD bots’ cutting-edge capabilities, which have encompassed everything from gymnastics to sniffing out radiation. If that wasn’t dystopian enough, Spot even joined the Massachusetts State Police force in 2018 a la the synthetic pooches in “Fahrenheit 451.”
Although Atlas and Handle are still prototypes, BD has recently started selling Spot models for $74,500, the Verge reported.
The robotics firm was recently purchased from SoftBank in a $1.1 billion deal, according to Forbes. The company
was originally founded in 1992 as a spinoff from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where it became known
for its dog-like quadrupedal robots (most notably, the DARPA-funded BigDog, a precursor to the company’s first
commercial robot, Spot.) It was bought by Google in 2013, and then by SoftBank in 2017.
By Ben Cost December 30, 2020 | 9:15am
Now robots are dancing “The Human.”
In yet more evidence that machines are taking over the world as we know it, a now-viral YouTube video has surfaced of Boston Dynamics robots performing a dance number so well-choreographed it looks animated.
In the three-minute disco tech clip, three of the robotics firm’s creations — the humanoid Atlas, Spot the robot dog and box-juggling Handle —can be seen grooving in perfect unison to the Contours’ 1962 hit “Do You Love Me.”
The bipedal bots do the twist, Spot gyrates emphatically, and Handle wheels by in a routine seemingly too fluid to be executed by humans.
Needless to say, viewers were impressed by the dance droids’ dynamic display, as the clip already has more than 4 million views in less than 24 hours as of Wednesday morning.
“I needed this. This is so cool!!!” gushed one commenter of the less-than-robotic moves.
Another joked, “Robots after successfully conquering the world.”
Even outspoken SpaceX boss Elon Musk weighed in:
Snake-head dog had my undivided attention until winder-head ostrich came gliding through all nonchalant pic.twitter.com/dtPMdM3TQp
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 30, 2020
Indeed, the unsettlingly impressive routine marks a major evolution from Spot’s herky-jerky rendition of “Uptown Funk” way back in 2018. Or the box-packing showcase by Atlas’ 2016 earlier iteration, which looks like stop-motion animation by comparison.
In fact, many were convinced that the cybernetic shindig was too good to be true.
“Nice render,” snarked one about the darlings Boston Dynamics, which was recently purchased by Korean automaker Hyundai.
Another wrote, “Perfect CGI.”
However, the apparently real exhibition is just the latest display of the BD bots’ cutting-edge capabilities, which have encompassed everything from gymnastics to sniffing out radiation. If that wasn’t dystopian enough, Spot even joined the Massachusetts State Police force in 2018 a la the synthetic pooches in “Fahrenheit 451.”
Although Atlas and Handle are still prototypes, BD has recently started selling Spot models for $74,500, the Verge reported.
The robotics firm was recently purchased from SoftBank in a $1.1 billion deal, according to Forbes. The company
was originally founded in 1992 as a spinoff from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where it became known
for its dog-like quadrupedal robots (most notably, the DARPA-funded BigDog, a precursor to the company’s first
commercial robot, Spot.) It was bought by Google in 2013, and then by SoftBank in 2017.
nivek
As Above So Below
A Look into the Rabbit Hole of Hiroshi Ishiguro and Japan’s Creepiest Robots
One of the proposed waves of the future is the realm of robotics. The gap between reality and science fiction has narrowed every day as more and more advanced robots are developed, and their role in society in the years to come has been much discussed and debated. Some see them as a sort of savior for humankind, while others see them as a threat. There seems to be no conclusive agreement on how much of a good idea it is to pursue AI and robot technology, but one thing many can agree on is that some robots are inherently creepier than others. From the land of Japan, which is at the forefront of robot technology, we have both astounding and decidedly spooky developments, including some robots that just seem to be from a surrealist nightmare. Here we will take a trip into the world of one of Japan’s leading robot developers and his strange menagerie of strange creations that manage to amaze and repulse in equal measures.
One of the most innovative and oddball personalities within the world of Japanese robotics is a man named Hiroshi Ishiguro, director of the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory, which is a part of the Department of Systems Innovation in the Graduate School of Engineering Science at Osaka University, Japan. One of Ishiguro’s aims in the field of robotics is to create ever more human-like androids for the purpose of interacting with us and giving us what he calls “a strong sense of presence,” as well as serving to “better integrate them into the everyday lives of the people they serve.” He is also interested in using human-like robots to explore what it means to be human, our very nature, intelligence, and behavior, using his realistic robots as what he calls “test beds for my hypotheses,” and hopes that his many creations will find some place in society in such capacities as workers, physical therapy, caring for the elderly, and others. His ultimate goal is to create a robot indistinguishable from a human, able to intermingle with us flawlessly. Yet, one person’s hope for the future is another’s nightmare fuel, and Ishiguro’s laboratory has consistently put out creations that have often been ranked by the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) as among the world’s creepiest. Let’s take a look.
Hiroshi Ishiguro
Perhaps one of the least human-like, as well as the creepiest, of Ishiguro’s creations is what is called the “Telenoid R1,” meant to be a portable teleoperated android telecommunications robot. Designed to “appear and to behave as a minimalistic human,” it is meant to act as a surrogate to a loved one being spoken to online, to act as their presence in the room during a conversation, what the Japanese call sonzaikan, and according to the laboratory’s website “it’s soft and pleasant skin texture and small, child-like body size allows one to enjoy hugging and communicating with it easily.” That is a nice thought, until you consider the Telenoid’s appearance. Armless and legless, it is as if a dismembered doll, with pale skin and an only rudimentarily vaguely human face with eyes that stare into the soul, it is difficult to imagine anyone feeling as if this could possibly replace a loved one being in the room. To many it is intensely, even nightmarishly creepy, a sentiment which Ishiguro has denied, saying:
The Telenoid. Hug it or destroy it? You decide
Nevertheless, for many it’s just plain creepy, but we are just getting started. Similarly spooky is a model of robot created by the lab called the “Ibuki.” It is an experiment in what Ishiguro calls “socially developmental robotics,” and takes the form of a child-like android that gets about on a wheeled mount. It is mostly unambiguously robotic looking except for its humanlike face, which can display various emotional expressions and different facial expressions, which are very humanlike but also jerky and somehow “off.” The robot can also utilize numerous gestures and hold basic conversations with its AI system, as well as be controlled remotely by an operator for interacting with people or scaring the bejeezus out of them.
Hi, I’m Ibuki. I stare into your soul.
Another well-known Ishiguro creation is what is called the “Actroid,” which is a mannequin sized android that looks significantly more humanlike than the Telenoid or the Itsuki, although whether that is a good thing or not largely depends on the person. First unveiled in 2003, the Actroid appears as an attractive young woman, with lifelike skin, facial movements, and subtle mannerisms such as blinking, fidgeting, even breathing. She can also speak, and is adorned with an array of sensors and air actuators that allow her to react to people in her vicinity as well as to touch. The Actroid is unsettlingly good at mimicking human movements, and it can remember, record, and learn from its interactions with people. It is able to maintain eye contact, give answers to questions and engage in rudimentary conversation, and react nonverbally, all through sophisticated AI that is housed externally, which limits her mobility and forces her to mostly take up a sitting or standing position. The Actroid has appeared at various events charming and creeping people out all the way up to the present, and you can see a video of her talking to a crowd here.
Actroid
The basic premise of the Actroid has been reworked into various other models, including one of a 5-year-old girl, called the “Repliee,” and others, but Ishiguro really took it to the next level when he decided to create a robotic copy of an actual living person, and what better model to use than himself? To do this, his team used a cast to make a perfect copy of his face and physique, with hyper realistic silicone skin and even hair from Ishiguro’s own scalp, the result being a nearly perfect carbon copy of Ishiguro, called the “Geminoid HI-1.” Beneath its eerie veneer is an improved actuator system, advanced body-control software to generate even finer motions, and powerful software to allow it to mimic even the finest and most subtle human movements. The Geminoid is not meant to be autonomous, and is instead remotely operated, kept completely in synch with the movements and facial expressions of its operator, including blinks, twitches, shrugs, glances, and it even appears to be breathing. Ishiguro has said of his robotic clone:
Ishiguro with the Geminoid. Can you tell which is which?
Although it is a remarkable technical achievement, it seems that Ishiguro has mostly used it to attend far away meetings “in person,” as well as to teach courses and creep out his students at Osaka University. Ishiguro seems to think that, while most people are unsettled at first, they soon form a bond with human-looking robots, and that this is the best way towards the future. Indeed, Ishiguro has stubbornly adhered to creating robots that are as human-like as possible, deeming them to the type of robot we are most willing to want to interact with, but not everyone agrees. In fact, there are plenty of people in the field of robotics that think it is important to make sure that they look mechanical and decisively robotic, so as to avoid a natural sense of eeriness and revulsion popularly called “The uncanny valley.” The uncanny valley is a concept in which anything that approaches a human appearance, but not quite, is liable to instill within us feelings of horror and repellence, and it can apply to robotics, computer animation, and dolls. The reaction seems to come the closer an object gets to a barely human state, the more humanlike the stronger the effect, destroying any chance of empathy. No one is sure quite why this happens, with theories ranging from out natural revulsion of “the other” to it reminding us of death, but the point is in robotics fully human looking robots are looking more and more like a dead end for this reason. Not for Ishiguro.
So is this all really good for the future of our species, or is it just the rantings of a mad scientist? Is the future of robotics or the beginning of the end? Do you prefer robots that look like us or those that are more distant from the human form? The work of Ishiguro seems to point into a direction that many might not agree with, and it causes us to think about what the horizon of robotics will look like or act. As we approach a new chapter in technology, robots seem to be here to stay. Will they be benevolent and agreeable, or something else? It is ultimately up to individual preference, but one tends to think we won’t have too much choice in the matter.
.
One of the proposed waves of the future is the realm of robotics. The gap between reality and science fiction has narrowed every day as more and more advanced robots are developed, and their role in society in the years to come has been much discussed and debated. Some see them as a sort of savior for humankind, while others see them as a threat. There seems to be no conclusive agreement on how much of a good idea it is to pursue AI and robot technology, but one thing many can agree on is that some robots are inherently creepier than others. From the land of Japan, which is at the forefront of robot technology, we have both astounding and decidedly spooky developments, including some robots that just seem to be from a surrealist nightmare. Here we will take a trip into the world of one of Japan’s leading robot developers and his strange menagerie of strange creations that manage to amaze and repulse in equal measures.
One of the most innovative and oddball personalities within the world of Japanese robotics is a man named Hiroshi Ishiguro, director of the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory, which is a part of the Department of Systems Innovation in the Graduate School of Engineering Science at Osaka University, Japan. One of Ishiguro’s aims in the field of robotics is to create ever more human-like androids for the purpose of interacting with us and giving us what he calls “a strong sense of presence,” as well as serving to “better integrate them into the everyday lives of the people they serve.” He is also interested in using human-like robots to explore what it means to be human, our very nature, intelligence, and behavior, using his realistic robots as what he calls “test beds for my hypotheses,” and hopes that his many creations will find some place in society in such capacities as workers, physical therapy, caring for the elderly, and others. His ultimate goal is to create a robot indistinguishable from a human, able to intermingle with us flawlessly. Yet, one person’s hope for the future is another’s nightmare fuel, and Ishiguro’s laboratory has consistently put out creations that have often been ranked by the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) as among the world’s creepiest. Let’s take a look.
Hiroshi Ishiguro
Perhaps one of the least human-like, as well as the creepiest, of Ishiguro’s creations is what is called the “Telenoid R1,” meant to be a portable teleoperated android telecommunications robot. Designed to “appear and to behave as a minimalistic human,” it is meant to act as a surrogate to a loved one being spoken to online, to act as their presence in the room during a conversation, what the Japanese call sonzaikan, and according to the laboratory’s website “it’s soft and pleasant skin texture and small, child-like body size allows one to enjoy hugging and communicating with it easily.” That is a nice thought, until you consider the Telenoid’s appearance. Armless and legless, it is as if a dismembered doll, with pale skin and an only rudimentarily vaguely human face with eyes that stare into the soul, it is difficult to imagine anyone feeling as if this could possibly replace a loved one being in the room. To many it is intensely, even nightmarishly creepy, a sentiment which Ishiguro has denied, saying:
The Telenoid. Hug it or destroy it? You decide
Nevertheless, for many it’s just plain creepy, but we are just getting started. Similarly spooky is a model of robot created by the lab called the “Ibuki.” It is an experiment in what Ishiguro calls “socially developmental robotics,” and takes the form of a child-like android that gets about on a wheeled mount. It is mostly unambiguously robotic looking except for its humanlike face, which can display various emotional expressions and different facial expressions, which are very humanlike but also jerky and somehow “off.” The robot can also utilize numerous gestures and hold basic conversations with its AI system, as well as be controlled remotely by an operator for interacting with people or scaring the bejeezus out of them.
Hi, I’m Ibuki. I stare into your soul.
Another well-known Ishiguro creation is what is called the “Actroid,” which is a mannequin sized android that looks significantly more humanlike than the Telenoid or the Itsuki, although whether that is a good thing or not largely depends on the person. First unveiled in 2003, the Actroid appears as an attractive young woman, with lifelike skin, facial movements, and subtle mannerisms such as blinking, fidgeting, even breathing. She can also speak, and is adorned with an array of sensors and air actuators that allow her to react to people in her vicinity as well as to touch. The Actroid is unsettlingly good at mimicking human movements, and it can remember, record, and learn from its interactions with people. It is able to maintain eye contact, give answers to questions and engage in rudimentary conversation, and react nonverbally, all through sophisticated AI that is housed externally, which limits her mobility and forces her to mostly take up a sitting or standing position. The Actroid has appeared at various events charming and creeping people out all the way up to the present, and you can see a video of her talking to a crowd here.
Actroid
The basic premise of the Actroid has been reworked into various other models, including one of a 5-year-old girl, called the “Repliee,” and others, but Ishiguro really took it to the next level when he decided to create a robotic copy of an actual living person, and what better model to use than himself? To do this, his team used a cast to make a perfect copy of his face and physique, with hyper realistic silicone skin and even hair from Ishiguro’s own scalp, the result being a nearly perfect carbon copy of Ishiguro, called the “Geminoid HI-1.” Beneath its eerie veneer is an improved actuator system, advanced body-control software to generate even finer motions, and powerful software to allow it to mimic even the finest and most subtle human movements. The Geminoid is not meant to be autonomous, and is instead remotely operated, kept completely in synch with the movements and facial expressions of its operator, including blinks, twitches, shrugs, glances, and it even appears to be breathing. Ishiguro has said of his robotic clone:
Ishiguro with the Geminoid. Can you tell which is which?
Although it is a remarkable technical achievement, it seems that Ishiguro has mostly used it to attend far away meetings “in person,” as well as to teach courses and creep out his students at Osaka University. Ishiguro seems to think that, while most people are unsettled at first, they soon form a bond with human-looking robots, and that this is the best way towards the future. Indeed, Ishiguro has stubbornly adhered to creating robots that are as human-like as possible, deeming them to the type of robot we are most willing to want to interact with, but not everyone agrees. In fact, there are plenty of people in the field of robotics that think it is important to make sure that they look mechanical and decisively robotic, so as to avoid a natural sense of eeriness and revulsion popularly called “The uncanny valley.” The uncanny valley is a concept in which anything that approaches a human appearance, but not quite, is liable to instill within us feelings of horror and repellence, and it can apply to robotics, computer animation, and dolls. The reaction seems to come the closer an object gets to a barely human state, the more humanlike the stronger the effect, destroying any chance of empathy. No one is sure quite why this happens, with theories ranging from out natural revulsion of “the other” to it reminding us of death, but the point is in robotics fully human looking robots are looking more and more like a dead end for this reason. Not for Ishiguro.
So is this all really good for the future of our species, or is it just the rantings of a mad scientist? Is the future of robotics or the beginning of the end? Do you prefer robots that look like us or those that are more distant from the human form? The work of Ishiguro seems to point into a direction that many might not agree with, and it causes us to think about what the horizon of robotics will look like or act. As we approach a new chapter in technology, robots seem to be here to stay. Will they be benevolent and agreeable, or something else? It is ultimately up to individual preference, but one tends to think we won’t have too much choice in the matter.
.
nivek
As Above So Below
Robot doctors take over hospital to reduce COVID spread
The digi-doctor is in.
Dr. Spot, a dog-like mobile robot programmed to triage hospital patients, is the newest front-line health-care worker to join the fight against COVID-19. And while at first glance this four-legged creature might look like something out of your worst nightmare, people are actually doggone happy about it.
“People are very positive and accepting of robotic systems in health-care settings, particularly during the pandemic,” MIT assistant professor of mechanical engineering Giovanni Traverso told The Post.
In a new study out this month, Traverso and colleagues Peter Chai and Henwei Huang found that patients are widely receptive to receiving medical attention from robots designed to evaluate symptoms in a contact-free way.
They’re even willing to let robo-docs like Spot — made of aluminum, plastic and circuit boards — perform minor procedures on them, such as assessing their vital signs, taking a nasal swab or placing an intravenous catheter.
“Early on in the pandemic we wanted to help protect the health-care workforce from the virus by limiting their exposure to potentially COVID-infected patients,” Traverso said. “We wondered if we could do that by incorporating robotic systems in health-care environments, and if patients would be willing to engage with robots during their evaluations,” he said.
(More on the link)
The digi-doctor is in.
Dr. Spot, a dog-like mobile robot programmed to triage hospital patients, is the newest front-line health-care worker to join the fight against COVID-19. And while at first glance this four-legged creature might look like something out of your worst nightmare, people are actually doggone happy about it.
“People are very positive and accepting of robotic systems in health-care settings, particularly during the pandemic,” MIT assistant professor of mechanical engineering Giovanni Traverso told The Post.
In a new study out this month, Traverso and colleagues Peter Chai and Henwei Huang found that patients are widely receptive to receiving medical attention from robots designed to evaluate symptoms in a contact-free way.
They’re even willing to let robo-docs like Spot — made of aluminum, plastic and circuit boards — perform minor procedures on them, such as assessing their vital signs, taking a nasal swab or placing an intravenous catheter.
“Early on in the pandemic we wanted to help protect the health-care workforce from the virus by limiting their exposure to potentially COVID-infected patients,” Traverso said. “We wondered if we could do that by incorporating robotic systems in health-care environments, and if patients would be willing to engage with robots during their evaluations,” he said.
(More on the link)
nivek
As Above So Below
New Robot Workers use AI to Predict Human Co-Worker Movements
A new AI system that helps industrial robot workers observe and even predict their human co-workers’ movements has been developed and tested by researchers at the KTH Royal Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. Once in place, the new system hopes to address one of the biggest problems in robotic manufacturing, limited context awareness by current automated systems that can dramatically delay production and impact worker safety.
“Under the (current) ISO standard and technical specification, when a human approaches a robot, it slows down, and if he or she comes close enough, it will stop,” says researcher Hongyi Liu, who is overseeing the project. “If the person moves away, it resumes. That’s a pretty low level of context awareness. It jeopardizes efficiency. Production is slowed, and humans cannot work closely to robots.”
BACKGROUND: ROBOT WORKERS ARE EVERYWHERE
Unlike the now-infamous dancing robots or the U.S. Military’s robot guard dogs already in service, robotics have played a key role in industrial manufacturing for decades. Tesla Founder Elon Musk once tried to move the bulk of his manufacturing to robotics before learning how many obstacles still stand in the way of an all-robot assembly line.
Like similar efforts, most issues centered around human worker safety and delays, both of which the new KHT system is designed to address using an increased level of contextual awareness.
ANALYSIS: HOW WILL MODERN ROBOT WORKERS PREDICT YOUR MOVEMENTS?
An offshoot of the recently completed Symbiotic Human Robot Collaborative Assembly project, the positive results from the team’s successful tests were published in the journal Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing and co-authored by KTH Professor Lihui Wang. In that published work, Liu and Wang note how a context-aware system like the one they have developed can not only react to a human co-worker’s movements but, given the right learning curve, even predict those movements.
“This is safety not just from the technical point of view in avoiding collisions,” said Liu, “but being able to recognize the context of the assembly line. This gives an additional layer of safety.”
In one particular test, a robotic arm was blocked by a human hand. However, rather than simply stop like current systems, the robot arm accurately predicted the future trajectory of the unexpected hand and moved around it, all without stopping.
To accomplish this unprecedented feat, Liu says they used a type of machine learning called transfer learning. An emerging type of AI software/hardware interface, transfer learning reuses what it learns through training and requires less computing power and much smaller datasets than methods currently in use.
Such a higher level of machine learning, Liu notes, is like the context-aware system in a self-driving car. Instead of simply stopping at a red light, a contextually trained car can recognize how long the light has been red and, using its previously acquired knowledge, adjust its speed while still cruising toward the intersection, reducing the wear and tear on the brakes and transmission.
In the case of a manufacturing and assembly line, such a system would allow robots to not only judge the distance between themselves and their human co-workers but identify them individually using things like a person’s shape and skeletal model. This acquired contextual dataset allows a robotic AI to recognize a worker’s current pose and movements, and like their successful test, predicts the human’s next pose to react accordingly.
(More on the link)
.
A new AI system that helps industrial robot workers observe and even predict their human co-workers’ movements has been developed and tested by researchers at the KTH Royal Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. Once in place, the new system hopes to address one of the biggest problems in robotic manufacturing, limited context awareness by current automated systems that can dramatically delay production and impact worker safety.
“Under the (current) ISO standard and technical specification, when a human approaches a robot, it slows down, and if he or she comes close enough, it will stop,” says researcher Hongyi Liu, who is overseeing the project. “If the person moves away, it resumes. That’s a pretty low level of context awareness. It jeopardizes efficiency. Production is slowed, and humans cannot work closely to robots.”
BACKGROUND: ROBOT WORKERS ARE EVERYWHERE
Unlike the now-infamous dancing robots or the U.S. Military’s robot guard dogs already in service, robotics have played a key role in industrial manufacturing for decades. Tesla Founder Elon Musk once tried to move the bulk of his manufacturing to robotics before learning how many obstacles still stand in the way of an all-robot assembly line.
Like similar efforts, most issues centered around human worker safety and delays, both of which the new KHT system is designed to address using an increased level of contextual awareness.
ANALYSIS: HOW WILL MODERN ROBOT WORKERS PREDICT YOUR MOVEMENTS?
An offshoot of the recently completed Symbiotic Human Robot Collaborative Assembly project, the positive results from the team’s successful tests were published in the journal Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing and co-authored by KTH Professor Lihui Wang. In that published work, Liu and Wang note how a context-aware system like the one they have developed can not only react to a human co-worker’s movements but, given the right learning curve, even predict those movements.
“This is safety not just from the technical point of view in avoiding collisions,” said Liu, “but being able to recognize the context of the assembly line. This gives an additional layer of safety.”
In one particular test, a robotic arm was blocked by a human hand. However, rather than simply stop like current systems, the robot arm accurately predicted the future trajectory of the unexpected hand and moved around it, all without stopping.
To accomplish this unprecedented feat, Liu says they used a type of machine learning called transfer learning. An emerging type of AI software/hardware interface, transfer learning reuses what it learns through training and requires less computing power and much smaller datasets than methods currently in use.
Such a higher level of machine learning, Liu notes, is like the context-aware system in a self-driving car. Instead of simply stopping at a red light, a contextually trained car can recognize how long the light has been red and, using its previously acquired knowledge, adjust its speed while still cruising toward the intersection, reducing the wear and tear on the brakes and transmission.
In the case of a manufacturing and assembly line, such a system would allow robots to not only judge the distance between themselves and their human co-workers but identify them individually using things like a person’s shape and skeletal model. This acquired contextual dataset allows a robotic AI to recognize a worker’s current pose and movements, and like their successful test, predicts the human’s next pose to react accordingly.
(More on the link)
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Toroid
Founding Member
In the first 2:00 minutes Elon talks about the Tesla robot.
Elon Musk introduces the Tesla Robot to end human work…
www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_ubwnA9428&t=227s
Elon Musk introduces the Tesla Robot to end human work…
www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_ubwnA9428&t=227s
nivek
As Above So Below
Despite good intentions, it didn’t take long
Are those robot dogs with assault rifles attached to their frickin heads? No attached on their backs. The other question is how hackable are these? Cause that’s gonna happen eventually. And what about EMP attacks? How will this beast then behave? By the way, we should stop calling those dogs… Dogs are better than these toasters.
