Tag: links
RBE Items of Interest: May 19, 2017
“Geometry”, by CARP (Custom Autonomous Robotic Painter)
Art in the age of ones and zeros: Robot art – A breakdown of the results of the 2017 RobotArt competition, where WPI’s “CARP: Custom Autonomous Robotic Painter” MQP placed 9th out of 38 teams from around the world! Several of their pieces are featured – very exciting!
The Surprising Repercussions of Making AI Assistants Sound Human – It comes down to the user making assumptions about the actual capabilities of the AI. If we add colloquialisms and filler sounds to our virtual assistants, it invites conversation/interaction beyond just directives – and, unfortunately, our AI can’t differentiate between chit-chat and commands.
Adding just a few self-drive cars to the road gets the traffic flowing – A team of researchers led by the University of Illinois tested the effect on traffic patterns with only a few autonomous cars in the mix – a microcosm of what we’re likely to see during the liminal period between all-human and all-autonomous drivers. There’s a lot to unpack here – from the actual results of the experiments, to traffic flow theory, control theory, and human/robot interaction.
Growing healthy resilient biological tissues on humanoid robots – It’s difficult to get musculoskeletal tissue to transplant, and it’s difficult to use engineered tissue because it’s not under the same performance pressure as tissue grown “in vivo.” Solution: Grow the tissue on robots who move like the transplantee will.
Are face-reading blimps and quadcopters in “top hats” the future of drone safety? — A brief overview of some of the practicalities of drones in daily life – from the need to consider three-dimensional safety zones for swarms (requiring “virtual top hats”!) to making drones more approachable by looking more like toy blimps.
3D-printed robot has first soft legs to tackle rough terrain – What it says on the tin. Includes a cute video – it sort of shuffles along.
Robot vs. Volcano: “Sometimes It’s Just Fun to Blow Stuff Up” – National Geographic. Blowing up robots. In a volcano.