PGDrive Simulator Generates Unlimited Diverse Driving Environments
Researchers proposed PGDrive, a driving simulator designed to evaluate and improve end-to-end driving agents’ generalization abilities.
Tag: Robots
2020 in Review: 10 AI Failures
This is the fourth Synced year-end compilation of “Artificial Intelligence Failures.” Our aim is not to shame nor downplay AI research, but to look at where and how it has gone awry with the hope that we can create better AI systems in the future.
Singapore Coffee Shop Builds a Robot Barista With Intel AI
At Crown Coffee, a small-yet-homey coffee bar in downtown Singapore, the autonomous robot barista “Ella” never gets your order wrong.
AI Is Making Robots More Fun
The market size of physical and interactive social and entertainment robots is expected to hit US$3.7 billion by 2023.
Google Brain’s DRL Helps Robots ‘Think While Moving’
The proposed concurrent DRL algorithm enables robots to take a broader and more long-term view of tasks and behaviours, and decide on their next action before the current one is completed.
Robot Lovers Rejoice! Fei-Fei Li Stanford Team Crowd-Sources World’s Largest Robot Manipulation Dataset
The crowdsourcing produced 111.25 hours of video from 54 non-expert demonstrators to build “one of the largest, richest, and most diverse robot manipulation datasets ever collected using human creativity and dexterity.”
Meet the Living Robot; PigeonBot With Real Feathers; DeepMind Introduces AlphaFold; PyTorch 1.4 Released
Synced Global AI Weekly January 19th
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 Open-Sourced AI Datasets
In the conclusion to our year-end series, Synced spotlights ten datasets that were open-sourced in 2019.
Fighting Fire & Floods With Smart Emergency Systems
Simulation systems can play a valuable role in identifying and testing evacuation plans to enable individuals to promptly leave a dangerous area via the safest and fastest route.
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.
Extreme E-Commerce: Shipping 2.8 Billion Singles’ Day Parcels
China’s National Post Bureau forecasts some 2.8 billion parcels will be shipped between November 11-18th. While robots will do much of the heavy lifting, an average human warehouse worker will cover 42 kilometers per day, equivalent to a full, sweaty marathon.
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.
Boston Dynamics Lets the Dogs Out; Google Releases Deepfake Detection Dataset
Synced Global AI Weekly September 29th
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.
Robot Music Through the Ages
With recent developments in artificial intelligence and automation in machines, robots are advancing into previously unexplored industries such as music and entertainment.
Harvard’s Tiny, Solar-Powered Flying Robot
Last month, Harvard Microrobotics Lab researchers introduced RoboBee X-Wing, a solar-powered micro-aerial vehicle that fits in the palm of your hand.
AI x Global 500 Manufacturing Companies | Robots, Data & Maintenance
Artificial intelligence is changing the operation modes of industrial production, and has become one of the key tools in the new era of global manufacturing.
UC Berkeley’s RL-Powered SOLAR Accelerates Robotic Learning
Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research (BAIR) has introduced a new reinforcement learning (RL) method, Stochastic Optimal Control with Latent Representations (SOLAR), which can help robots quickly learn tasks such as stacking blocks or pushing objects from visual inputs.
Grandma’s Robot: How AI Is Revolutionizing Elder Care
By 2050 almost one-in-four humans will be aged 60 years and older, double today’s share. Moreover, the number of people aged 80 years and older will quadruple. This demographic shift is opening new vistas for AI technologies in elders’ daily healthcare management, and as a useful tool for healthcare professionals and institutions treating seniors.
Five Powerful Robots You Shouldn’t Miss
Synced Global AI Weekly May 26th
Game On! AI Revolutionizes The Video Game Industry
Synced Global AI Weekly April 21st
Improving Robot Control With Residual RL
As robots take over industrial manufacturing, specific and accurate robot control is becoming more important. Conventional feedback control methods can effectively solve various types of robot control problems by capturing structures with explicit models such as motion equations.
Boston Dynamics And Google Robots “Handle” Things Better Than You Do
Synced Global AI Weekly March 31st
Let Boston Dynamics ‘Handle’ That Package
In a scene that looks like it’s from a sci-fi movie, a YouTube video posted today by robotics company Boston Dynamics shows a huge, ostrich-like robot “Handle” whirling round while deftly moving boxes in a warehouse. The video has garnered over 138,000 views in less than four hours.
AI Is Personalizing Hotel Services
Synced surveyed several “future hotels” that are already applying AI in hospitality, to see how the tech can provide guests with a unique and satisfying experience.
You Can’t Keep an RL-Powered ANYmal Down
ANYmal does not have an easy life. One of the four-legged robot’s main tasks is to learn how to stand up again — no matter how many times it is kicked, pushed or otherwise tumbles to the ground. A research team from Switzerland’s ETH Zurich University trained ANYmal using reinforcement learning (RL) and published their work last Wednesday.
Natural Language Processing In Early Education
Natural Language Processing (NLP) is a hot research area in artificial intelligence and computer science. The technology teaches machines to understand human language so they can more effectively communicate with us. NLP research is integrated with linguistics, context analysis and semantics.
Is It Real or Is It Gibson? A New Virtual Environment for AI Training
Researchers from Stanford University and University of California Berkeley have introduced Gibson Environment, a real-world-based virtual environment for training and testing active perception agents.
Different Schools of Thought: How Silicon Valley Teaches Robots
When robots need a brain, their creators turn to Silicon Valley. Most of the AI tech that drives advanced robotics originates in Bay Area labs. At last month’s ReWork Deep Learning for Robotics Summit in San Francisco, researchers from Silicon Valley AI labs and institutes discussed their latest work and how it is being used to teach robots. Synced was onsite to bring you an inside look at their work.
Humans Feared Smart Robots Over a Century Before Elon Musk et al Raised the Alarm
The galloping progress in artificial intelligence has stirred up widespread public concern over unemployment and displacement. One can see however that humans have a surprisingly long history of fearing intelligent machines and their potential societal impacts.
UBTECH Robotics Gets US$820 Million Funding; Becomes the World’s Most Valuable AI Startup
Chinese AI and humanoid robotic company UBTECH Robotics today announced a staggering US$820 million in Series C funding. With its new estimated value of US$5 billion, Shenzhen City-based UBTECH becomes the world’s most valuable AI startup.
China’s Lunar New Year’s Gala Wowed Watchers with AI Innovations
China is determined to win the global AI race. The country continues to spark technological breakthroughs and establish AI-powered infrastructures for its cities and transportation networks.
Advanced Vision Algorithm Helps Robots Learn to See in 3D
Researchers introduced a new object representation that allows the robots to identify three-dimensional objects with partially obscured geometry.