Robotics Future on Display at the 2015 Robotronica

Nao Robot and the Robotics Future

Nao, By Pleclown (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

This past weekend witnessed an event held in Australia that showcased the robotics future.  Known as the 2015 Robotronica Festival, the celebration presented cutting-edge robotics in a series of workshops, demonstrations, games, and discussions.  The publicity for the event included the following statement in a news article.

Take part in a journey from the beginning of imaginary robotic life right up to them evolving almost as clever as humans.

Robotronica was held at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and basically was a festival of all things robotic.  Not just the current state of robotics, but the robotics future was explored and presented at the Brisbane, Australia event.  Its primary aim is to educate people about robotics and its future.  In 2013, the first occurrence of the festival attracted over 10,000 people.

The 2015 Robotronica festival  is a celebration of innovation and an opportunity to glimpse the possibilities of the future.

Part of the attraction this year was the chance to meet the one of the world’s first cyborg artists.  He has an implanted antenna in his head that extends over his head to dangle in front of his forehead.  Although he is colorblind, his implant allows him to hear colors.

Personally, I see this festival as more than just a robotics future convention.  It was certainly billed as more.  And considering its popularity, it shows how popular robotics is with the public.  People are curious about robots and how to relate to the coming world of robotics.  Do people need to fear robots or embrace them?  What is your opinion about this idea?  Let me know…

Sources:  Sentinel Republic  Come along and meet the future of robots in Brisbane university

http://sentinelrepublic.com/come-along-and-meet-the-future-of-robots-in-brisbane-university/90013/

 

Robot Butler Serves Up Snacks: Is This a Problem?

A robot butler can't be a bad thing, can it?  After all, we would all like to be waited on by a servant, especially one that can be shut down if it gives you any problems. So, just make sure that it can be turned off!  This is not a new robot, in fact the machine made its debut at Carnegie Mellon University back in September of 2009.  You can go back and look at the story done here on RobotNext about this snackbot.   Also, follow the links below to see the article from the guardian.co.uk by Charles Arthur.

       snackbot

    Credit:  Guardian.co.uk|The Observer

"The robot butler has a long and frequently chequered history. From    Robbie the Robot in Forbidden Planet (who could bring a nicely shaken  martini) through to HAL 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey (which served  food via a hatch, then later killed you), the idea that there must be a  better method of getting refreshments handed out than making a person  push a trolley is one that just won't go away."

via www.guardian.co.uk

New Robot Delivers Snacks

Here is a robot for the junk food junkies everywhere. If you need a snack, then this is the machine for you. Carnegie Mellon University has developed this robot to serve snacks to students, faculty, and office personnel that work on the campus. Of course, it also has a more serious purpose: To serve (pun intended) as a research platform for autonomous operations in a business office environment.

As the researchers explain, "The research will allow the robot to navigate through congested areas in a socially acceptable fashion, detect individual people moving near the robot, recognize when someone that the robot knows approaches it, and autonomously learn to recognize new objects."

If you look at the original source for this article at Carnegie Mellon’s website, then you will find video links and a pdf of the research paper on the Snackbot.

Snackbot-robot-02

Credit:  Carnegie Mellon University via Live Science

Snackbot is an autonomous mobile robot whose mission is to bring tasty treats.

New Robot Delivers Snacks by Bill Christensen

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 13:10:03 GMT

Snackbot is a mobile autonomous robot, intended for both fully autonomous and semi-autonomous operation, built by an interdisciplinary team at Carnegie Mellon University. Snackbot has two jobs. One job is to serve as a research platform for projects in robotics, design, and behavioral science. We welcome new partners or sponsors for this work. Snackbot’s other job is to serve snacks.

Original Source:

Carnegie Mellon University
http://www.snackbot.org/about-public.html

Lee, M.K., Forlizzi, J., Rybski, P.E., Crabbe, F., Chung, W., Finkle, J., Glaser, E., and Kiesler, S. (2009) The Snackbot: Documenting the design of a robot for long-term human-robot interaction. In
Proceedings of HRI2009, 7-14. [pdf]

Verified by MonsterInsights