The Global Robotics Brain Project. Why is this man smiling? Because in his brain resides a database with more than 36,000 robotics companies, robotics labs, robotics projects, robotics researchers, and robotics publications, all categorized, tagged, and linked. No, not in the brain inside his head. We're talking about the Global Robotics Brain, a project that the man, Wolfgang Heller, started to keep track of the robotsphere. Inspired by Google's PageRank, Heller, a business intelligence consultant from Sweden, asked himself: Could he use a similar approach to draw a map of interactions between the different robotics players and identify who is doing the most relevant work? What trends are emerging? In 2005, after a visit to the World Robotics Exhibition in Aichi, Japan, he started to systematically feed his database with anything related to robotics he came across.
Heller isn't building this brain for fun. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Check out the Global Robotics Brain to see if you envisage other trends. Google Shows Us Why We All Need Robot Cars. We're pretty familiar with autonomous cars around here, and we've even been treated to a ride in one of Stanford's robots at their automotive innovation lab, which they launched in partnership with Volkswagen. You might also remember Shelley, their autonomous Audi TTS, which autonomously raced to the top of Pikes Peak last year. Volkswagen's thinking behind all of this high performance autonomous car stuff is that at some point, they'll be able to program your car to be a far, far better driver than you could ever be, and it'll have the ability to pull some crazy maneuvers to save you from potential accidents.
Google, who's just down the road from Stanford, seems to understand this, and they've turned their autonomous cars up to "aggressive" in this driving demo that they gave to some lucky sods in a parking lot at the TED conference in Long Beach. It's pretty impressive: So why aren't we all driving autonomous cars already? [ Searchengineland ] via [ Engadget ] Robot Butlers Are Finally a Reality. PAL Robotics has been working on its REEM-x lineup of wheeled humanoid robots for some time. Now it's just revealed its newest edition, simply called REEM, which is its first commercial offering. He's a genuine robot butler. PAL, a Spanish company with interests in the United Arab Emirates, describes REEM as a "humanoid robot, equipped with an autonomous navigation system, a touch screen" and notes that he is "capable of roaming through any kind of surroundings" thanks to the simple wheeled-base assembly. The company thinks it can be used as "a guide, an entertainer, a logistical tool.
" And its large chest-based touchscreen has a "variety of applications," such as "displaying a map of the surrounding area" or for "teleassistance. " The droid is highly customizable thanks to a modular design, and can be customized for each customer's needs. Final Jeopardy! and the Future of Watson. Japan nuclear crisis: Where are the robots? Today, Reuters asked the questions we've all been thinking. Namely, "This is Japan, right? They've got lots of robots, right? So why aren't there robots helping out at Fukushima? " The answer they got is somewhat unsatisfying. Mostly, there's a lot of, "Nope, no robots being used right now.
Sorry. " • Robots are a part of the wider nuclear industry, capable of doing tasks like detecting radiation, and scaling walls. . • There are no robots currently working at Fukushima Daiichi. . • There is one possible reason why robots aren't being used at Fukushima. Reuters: Japan a robot power everywhere, except at nuclear plant Via Jer Thorp Image: Some rights reserved by ChelseaWa.