Meet the Living Robot; PigeonBot With Real Feathers; DeepMind Introduces AlphaFold; PyTorch 1.4 Released
Synced Global AI Weekly January 19th
Tag: robotics
CES 2020 Roundup: Tech Giants, Future Mobility, Smart Home and More
Synced Global AI Weekly January 12th
Robot Arms Selling Huawei Phones in New Unmanned Store
In a scene that looks like it came from a science fiction movie, a pair of robot arms twist and turn overhead as they serve shoppers in Huawei’s new SOTA staffless Wuhan Optics Valley retail outlet.
2019 in Review: 10 AI Failures
Synced 10 AI Failures of 2019
Japanese Scientist Insists His Robot Twin Is Not Creepy
In an exclusive interview with Synced, the 56-year-old professor shared his thoughts on humanoids, human nature, human-robot interaction, knowledge and intelligence.
A Researcher Is Sheathing Smart Devices in ‘Skin’
A new paper from researchers at the University of Bristol, Telecomm ParisTech and Sorbonne University introduces a multi-layer, silicone “SkinOn” membrane that mimics the layers of human skin.
Running an Industrial Robotics Software Startup Is Not Getting Easier
After running the industrial robot operating system startup “Cobot” for three years, founder Miao Li has decided to axe 98 percent of the company’s “fancy services” and just focus on drug logistics and sorting mushrooms.
Get a Grip! MIT Boosts Robot Grasping
The MIT researchers’ novel method can speed up the grasp-planning process from more than 10 minutes to less than a second.
Robots to Handle Rubik’s Cube, Push Stuff Around, Build a Lunar Base
Synced Global AI Weekly October 20th
OpenAI Robot Hand: Today Rubik’s Cube, Tomorrow the Real World?
We’ve lost the brain race, but humans still have unmatched dexterity, right? Wrong. OpenAI’s humanlike five-fingered gripper Dactyl just single-handedly solved a Rubik’s cube.
Free (Robot) Hugs! An Embracing Multimodal Dataset
In an attempt to unlock the science behind hugs, a team of researchers from Arizona State University slapped wearable sensors on 33 humans and collected data on their more than 350 huggings with the humanoid remote-controlled robot “Baxter.”
IEEE Ranks Robot Creepiness: Sophia Is Not Even Close to the Top
Based on users’ votes, IEEE Spectrum also compiles rankings of today’s Top Rated, Most Wanted, and Creepiest Robots. Join Synced as we take a stroll through the uncanny valley and meet the world’s top-three creepiest robots.
Why AI Is Reading Your Resume and What Can You Do About It
Artificial intelligence can help companies navigate a global human resource market that is projected to reach US$30 billion by 2025, due in large part to technological proliferation.
Robot Masters String Puppetry
A group of researchers from ETH Zurich have introduced a robotic system that can perform animation of real-world string puppets, aka marionettes.
AI x Global 500 Healthcare Companies | Drug Supply, Wearables & Glucose Monitoring
In the late 2000s Fortune Global 500 healthcare companies ramped up AI deployment in the industry, from in-hospital diagnosis and treatment to drug supply chain and out-of-hospital scenarios.
AI Visionary Nils Nilsson Dies
Respected AI pioneer and visionary Nils John Nilsson passed away early this morning at age 86.
Boston Dynamics’ Spot Toughens Up, Hauls a Truck
In a YouTube video released today, Spot looks a lot more like a workhorse, harnessed up and hauling a box truck up a hill.
Humans Call GG! OpenAI Five Bots Beat Top Pros OG in Dota 2
After eight-months of development efforts, the “Open AI Five” exacted their revenge today against one of the world’s top teams in a highly anticipated best-of-three 5v5 Dota 2 showdown in San Francisco.
Robots Vs Robocalls
Robots pitching politics, charities, sales, surveys, and scams of every stripe and in every tongue. Increasingly that’s the voice on the other end of a global citizen’s next incoming telephone call.
MWC 2019: Spotlight on AI & Robotics Innovations
Synced Global AI Weekly March 3rd
Spotlight on AI & Robotics Innovations at MWC 2019
Every year as the calendar turns from February to March, the world’s leading electronics and telecommunications companies, startups, inventors, and a herd of tech journalists and analysts head to the Mobile World Congress.
After Mastering Go and StarCraft, DeepMind Takes on Soccer
Having notched impressive victories over human professionals in Go, Atari Games, and most recently StarCraft 2 — Google’s DeepMind team has now turned its formidable research efforts to soccer. In a paper released last week, the UK AI company demonstrates a novel machine learning method that trains a team of AI agents to play a simulated version of “the beautiful game.”
AI Gaming Gets Physical: MIT Robot Plays Jenga!
There’s a lot more to a friendly game of Jenga than meets the eye. Strategies are informed by a complex set of tactile and visual stimuli — by touching a block and observing the tower, we not only see but also feel our actions and their consequences. The MIT Jenga robot thus marks an important step in AI’s transition to the physical world.
The Weird & the Wacky at CES 2019
Every January, thousands of companies head to Las Vegas to launch new products at CES (Consumer Electronics Show), the world’sContinue Reading
AI Biweekly: Smarter Responses from Amazon and Google; Innovations in Robotics
In the past two weeks, news related to the field of human-computer interaction and voice interaction has been focused on technology giants Amazon and Google. Amazon upgraded its Fire TV Cube and the Amazon Music system, which enhances the diversity of voice interactions.
2018 in Review: 10 AI Failures
Last December Synced compiled its first “Artificial Intelligence Failures” recap of AI gaffes from the previous year. AI has achieved remarkable progress, and many scientists dream of creating the Master Algorithm proposed by Pedro Domingos — which can solve all problems envisioned by humans.
Fei-Fei Li’s Stanford Team Is Crowdsourcing Robot Training
Sorting a bunch of differently coloured toy trucks and action figures seems like child’s play, right? Unfortunately this remains a challenging task in the world of machine learning. So why not have humans simply show the machines how to do it?
Watch This Boston Dynamics Robot Performs Incredible Parkour
The robotics star company Boston Dynamics today posted a Youtube video of its humanoid robot Atlas doing parkour. It was a wow moment when Atlas smoothly jumps over the log and leaps up steps (40 cm step height) without breaking its pace.
Get a Grip! Berkeley Targets Dexterous Manipulation Using Deep RL
UC Berkeley researchers have published a paper demonstrating how Deep Reinforcement Learning can be used to control dexterous robot hands for complicated tasks. Learning Complex Dexterous Manipulation with Deep Reinforcement Learning and Demonstrations proposes a low-cost and high-efficiency control method that uses demonstration and simulation techniques to accelerate the learning process.
Brown University Paper Shows Research Robot Vulnerability
Google Brain Research Scientist Ian Goodfellow has tweeted an alarm about IoT hacking of a particularly nightmarish type, after Brown University security researchers were able to remotely access and control a robot in a university research lab. The research also showed that many robotic labs worldwide may be vulnerable to such a takeover technique.
Remaking Human Skin: Neurobotics at Gordon Cheng’s ICS Lab in Germany
The Technical University of Munich (TUM) had lured Cheng from a Japanese research institute. At TUM he founded the Institute of Cognitive Systems (ICS). With eight employees in a central office on Karlstraße 45, Cheng set to work on his arduous task: recreating the complexities of human skin and wiring it all to a brain.
JD Unveils HD Maps for Robotics and Autonomous Driving
At the Big Data & Spatial Information Expo in Changsha city today, Chinese Internet giant JD demonstrated a series of intelligent technology applications, including Drones, Delivery Robots and Routing Inspection Robots, etc. The company also unveiled a new set of HD Maps.
German Manufacturing Behemoth Siemens Forges AI-Enhanced IIoT
On July 10th, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang looking on, Siemens AG signed a partnership agreement with Alibaba Cloud — the cloud-computing arm of Internet conglomerate Alibaba — to bring an Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) upgrade to China’s manufacturing industry.
Computer Vision Startup Yitu Nabs $100 Million in Funding
Shanghai-based computer vision company Yitu announced today that it has acquired an additional US$100 million in funding, with China Industrial Asset Management as the sole investor this round.
Robotic Innovations from ETH Zurich Autonomous Systems Laboratory
At the recent IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) in Brisbane, Australia, the Best Student Paper award went to ETH Zurich Autonomous Systems Laboratory (ASL)’s Miguel de la Iglesia Valls et al. for Design of an Autonomous Racecar: Perception, State Estimation and System Integration.
ICRA Best UAV: A Nimble, Morphing, Hovering DRAGON
In a new video posted by IEEE Spectrum, a 7.38-kilogram red robot composed of 12 interlinking modules swiggles through a 60 cm gap before rising and floating in mid-air like the mythical Dragon it is named after.
Microsoft Partner ROOBO: Cute Robots, Smart Conferencing, AI Platform
Founded in 2014, ROOBO received US$100 million in Series A financing from iFlytek, and in September 2017 announced B Round financing of US$53 million led by Seven Seas Capital.
Microsoft Industrial IoT: Five Use Cases
We tend to notice the AI that’s in our smartphones, powering our home assistants or piloting self-driving cars. But there is another tech revolution going on — out of sight for most of us — wherein AI and robotics are reinventing entire factories and industrial processes.
Cleaning-Robot Maker ECOVACS Goes Public on Shanghai Stock Exchange
Suzhou-based Ecovacs Robotics debuted on the Shanghai Stock Exchange today. The floor sweeping and window cleaning robot company issued 40.1 million shares at US $3.13 per share, and plans to use the funds raised via its IPO to produce four million home service robots, build an IoT ecosystem, and expand into the global market.
3D Sensor Unicorn Orbbec Closes Over $200 Million Series D
AI startup Orbbec (奥比中光) today closed an over US$200 million Series D funding round led by Ant Finance. Other investors include Saif Partners, Green Pine Capital, Telstra Ventures, and Renzhi Capital.