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Thing is with 'Sophia'....it's all well and good describing her as 'AI' etc etc but I just cannot get past the fact that in every interaction shown with 'her', there are always loads of wires/cables involved, and the responses always seem scripted, as though they are being spoken by someone off camera, a sort of 'wizard of oz' thing going on.
And I'm always surprised by how good 'she' is at understanding all kinds of accents, and even mumbled speech, poor pronunciation, bad diction, and bad grammar, etc.
 
Thing is with 'Sophia'....it's all well and good describing her as 'AI' etc etc but I just cannot get past the fact that in every interaction shown with 'her', there are always loads of wires/cables involved, and the responses always seem scripted, as though they are being spoken by someone off camera, a sort of 'wizard of oz' thing going on.
And I'm always surprised by how good 'she' is at understanding all kinds of accents, and even mumbled speech, poor pronunciation, bad diction, and bad grammar, etc.
My initial thought was that all the speach from 'Sophia' was preset or prerecorded, if she did a Q&A with the audience, then that would be impressive
 
Collided? I bet it was a fight.

Ocado has cancelled thousands of orders after a fire at a fulfilment centre in south-east London on Friday.

The online grocer said the blaze started when three of the robots that help pick its groceries collided at the Erith site. About 800 staff had to be evacuated and firefighters worked through the night to contain the incident.

It is the second fire involving robots at Ocado. Its Andover facility burned down in 2019 after an electrical fault.

Shares in the company slipped by about 3% in early trade on Monday. Ocado handles up to 150,000 orders a week at the Erith warehouse.

The company said the fire would cause "disruption to operations" but that it was "working to restore normal service as soon as possible".

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-57883332
 
Collided? I bet it was a fight.

Ocado has cancelled thousands of orders after a fire at a fulfilment centre in south-east London on Friday.

The online grocer said the blaze started when three of the robots that help pick its groceries collided at the Erith site. About 800 staff had to be evacuated and firefighters worked through the night to contain the incident.

It is the second fire involving robots at Ocado. Its Andover facility burned down in 2019 after an electrical fault.

Shares in the company slipped by about 3% in early trade on Monday. Ocado handles up to 150,000 orders a week at the Erith warehouse.

The company said the fire would cause "disruption to operations" but that it was "working to restore normal service as soon as possible".

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-57883332
One would think automation made it impossible for these "robots" to collide. Wouldn't be surprised if they have a few which can be remote controlled and it was those which collided.
 
I was concerned about the proximity of these automated devices when I was watching a TV programme in which they visited the warehouse fulfilment centre and showed you the picking system, and the person being interviewed stated that they pass each other at only 5mm clearance.
Sounded like an accident waiting to happen if one of them had a 'sticky-out' bit.
 
Collided? I bet it was a fight.

Ocado has cancelled thousands of orders after a fire at a fulfilment centre in south-east London on Friday.

The online grocer said the blaze started when three of the robots that help pick its groceries collided at the Erith site. About 800 staff had to be evacuated and firefighters worked through the night to contain the incident.

It is the second fire involving robots at Ocado. Its Andover facility burned down in 2019 after an electrical fault.

Shares in the company slipped by about 3% in early trade on Monday. Ocado handles up to 150,000 orders a week at the Erith warehouse.

The company said the fire would cause "disruption to operations" but that it was "working to restore normal service as soon as possible".

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-57883332
This is our way and we are taking bets on if we’ll get our order or not.

It’s like the Titanic there was no way it could sink. Like there’s no way these can collide. And we are planning on letting cars drive themselves. I know how reliable my parking sensors aren’t.
 
Oregon State University researchers have developed a bipedal robot called Cassie, which has become the first untethered bot to complete a 5K run.
‘Star Wars’–Like Running Robot Finishes 5K on Two Legs

The untethered bipedal bot made history by completing the outdoor course in 53 minutes

Meet Cassie, a bipedal robot that just completed a 5K race in 53 minutes. Slightly resembling a mini AT-ST Walker from the Star Wars movies, this computerized set of legs made history as the first untethered machine to do so on a single charge.

Not only that, Cassie taught itself to run. Using a “deep reinforcement” learning algorithm, the computer figured out how to stay upright by transferring weight from one leg to the other while on the move ...

The robot was able to remain standing for most of the run, which is a major achievement ...

Cassie covered the course—slightly more than three miles—with a finishing time of 53:03. It would have completed the run faster, but a few glitches that added 6.5 minutes ... The bot fell twice during the experiment: once when the computer overheated and another time when its student handler directed it to take a turn too sharply.
FULL STORY: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/star-wars-running-robot-finishes-5k-two-legs-180978331/

See Also:

https://techcrunch.com/2021/07/27/cassie-the-bipedal-robot-runs-a-5k/

https://futurism.com/the-byte/experimental-robot-runs-5k

https://www.theverge.com/2021/7/28/22597655/biped-robot-cassie-runs-first-robotic-outdoors-5k

 
Chameleon-like camouflage made for soft robot
"A soft-bodied robot that can change its colour to match its background like a chameleon has been built."

Great - I can imagine in their laboratory one afternoon....
"Where's that camouflage robot gone?...."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-58159730
 
Chameleon-like camouflage made for soft robot
"A soft-bodied robot that can change its colour to match its background like a chameleon has been built."

Great - I can imagine in their laboratory one afternoon....
"Where's that camouflage robot gone?...."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-58159730
At least with a real chameleon you can release a bunch of flies and watch for the tongue.
 
Robot weeder zaps weeds with laser

This field doesn’t belong to a dystopian future but to Shay Myers, a third-generation farmer whose TikTok posts about farming life often go viral.

He began using two robots last year to weed his 12-hectare (30-acre) crop. The robots – which are nearly three metres long, weigh 4,300kg (9,500lb), and resemble a small car – clamber slowly across a field, scanning beneath them for weeds which they then target with laser bursts.

“For microseconds you watch these reddish color bursts. You see the weed, it lights up as the laser hits, and it’s just gone,” said Myers. “Ten years ago this was science fiction.” Other than engine sounds, the robots are almost silent and each one can destroy 100,000 weeds an hour, according to Carbon Robotics, the company that makes them.

Farmers are under increasing pressure to reduce their use of herbicides and other chemicals, which can contaminate ground and surface water, affect wildlife and non-target plants, and have been linked to increased cancer risk. At the same time, they are battling a rise in herbicide-resistant weeds, giving extra impetus to the search for new ways to kill weeds.

“Reduced herbicide usage is one of the spectacular outcomes of precision weeding,” said Gautham Das, a senior lecturer in agri-robotics at the University of Lincoln. Destroying weeds with lasers or ultraviolet light uses no chemicals at all. But even with robots that do use herbicides, their ability to precisely target weeds can reduce the use about 90% compared with conventional blanket spraying, Das said.
1629031231266.png
 
The headline I read was the Musk robot was going to be used for "boring" tasks. Can dangerous tasks be boring?
 
Perhaps it means 'boring' as in digging tunnels. That'd be both dangerous and...er....'boring' in it's other sense.

You could get them to mine asteroids! If you want ideas, Elon, they're right here!
 
Persephone is a new robot that serves as a tour guide at the Alistrati Cave in Greece.
Persephone, the robot guide, leads visitors in a Greek cave

Billed as the world’s first robot tour guide inside a cave, Persephone has been welcoming visitors since mid-July to the Alistrati Cave in northern Greece, 135 kilometers (84 miles) northeast of the city of Thessaloniki.

The multilingual robot covers the first 150 meters (roughly 500 feet) of the part of the cave that is open to the public. In the remaining 750 meters (2,400 feet), a human guide takes over. ...

The robot can give its part of the tour in 33 languages and interact at a basic level with visitors in three languages. It can also answer 33 questions, but only in Greek. ...

Nikos Kartalis, the scientific director for the Alistrati site, had the idea of creating the robot when he saw one on TV guiding visitors at an art gallery. Seventeen years later, “we got our funds and the robot guide became a reality,” Kartalis told The Associated Press. ...

“We already have a 70% increase in visitors compared to last year since we started using” the robot, says Kartalis. “People are enthusiastic, especially the children, and people who had visited in the past are coming back to see the robot guide.”

“It is something unprecedented for them, to have the ability to interact with their robot by asking it questions and the robot answering them,” he said. “Many foreign visitors couldn’t believe Greece had the capacity to build a robot and use it as a guide in the cave.” ...
FULL STORY: https://apnews.com/article/technolo...t-and-nature-9a1cb0869a4d27bcfb49471147ac4a58
 
The choice of the name 'Persephone' is a little surprising as she was taken to the underworld but then released and subsequently only a visitor during the winter.
As this robot presumably spends it's whole time in the caves maybe they should have called it Hades.
Plus it would have given them the opportunity to think up some kind of suitable (english) explication, something like;
Humanlike Automaton Delivering Excellent Service
 
This humanoid robot is 'available for purchase'

Apparently called 'digit' and mentioned before, but the company now says that you can buy one from them.

 
This humanoid robot is 'available for purchase'

Apparently called 'digit' and mentioned before, but the company now says that you can buy one from them.

Dont Amazon already use robot pickers, there is no real need for them to be humanoid, and I cant see delivery drivers bothering to unload the robot to take a box from their van to a door step, it's a lot quicker to do it yourself, plus are they programmed for every location and type of doorbell and door knocker? They seem a bit unnecessary for the proposed purpose.
 
Oh you wait....they'll be everywhere before you know it. The answer to a question nobody has asked yet.

These humanoid robots won't take very long at all to get to market, and the prices will come down, in the same way as what has led to smartphones to become ubiquitous.
 
Oh you wait....they'll be everywhere before you know it. The answer to a question nobody has asked yet.

These humanoid robots won't take very long at all to get to market, and the prices will come down, in the same way as what has led to smartphones to become ubiquitous.
There will be issues with letterboxes and door knockers, videophone door entry systems, etc. I suspect that all customers will be required to fit a special mail and parcel delivery box to their property, a bit like they have in the US.
 
There will be issues with letterboxes and door knockers, videophone door entry systems, etc. I suspect that all customers will be required to fit a special mail and parcel delivery box to their property, a bit like they have in the US.
Cant see us Brits putting up with that nonsense, we like out mail crumpled and torn as its forced through a slot in our door :omr:
 
Cant see us Brits putting up with that nonsense, we like out mail crumpled and torn as its forced through a slot in our door :omr:
When my copy of FT arrives it is usually carrying obvious signs of being folded in half across the spine.
 
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