Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Robopocalypse Report #31

Drones:


Even the Chinese air force (PLAAF) is having problems with drones getting where they ought not.

Drones will transform American agricultural.

Why it really *IS* a good idea to have the FAA register drones.  Drone registration is expected to be simple according to the FAA.

Some ski resorts are actually bucking the trend and trying to see if they can accommodate drones, at least in specific areas.

Drones have been seized INSIDE of British prisons.

Here are five fun uses of drones, including the drone fight club!

There is a drone racing league with a VR feeds for watchers.

Leading commercial drone manufacturer, DJI, is going the Apple Store route and opening a store in Shenzen, China.

DJI has unveiled a geofencing capability for its drones to keep them away from airports, prisons and elsewhere. 3d Robotics has done likewise.

CEO of Parrot Drones is predicting there will be a lot of drone businesses going under in the next year.  Its starting to seem so, the Zano drone project that went through kickstarter collapsed.   This is just after the robotic dragonfly project melted down too.

Self Driving Cars:



A Google Car got pulled over for going too slow and nearly got its first ticket.

Ford is taking its self driving cars to Mcity.

Texas may approve regulations for self driving cars faster than California.   In no small part because California is going so slow in developing those regulations.  Nevada is creating regulations to keep being a part of self driving car development.

 Japan is hustling getting their regulations in place.

There's a car seat designed specifically for self driving cars that will give massages.  o.O

Self driving cars could be awesome or a disaster for companies like ZipCar.

Self driving cars may be coming faster than anyone thinks and may only be held up by regulations.

Here's another piece on Switzerland's coming self driving buses.

For the short/medium term, self driving trucks will actually be a boon for truckers.  Supposedly.

Robotics:



A Canadian company is planning on mining the seabed using submersible robots off the shore of Papua New Guinea.  This can only end well.

Meet the bot that never needs fueling, floats and cleans up pollution.

Robots are going to transform the waste sorting industry.

Here's another look at the robotic urban farm in Japan.

The Germans have come up with a new surgical robot.

China is buying lots of ReThink Robotics' robots (and here).

Robots might actually create more manufacturing jobs.

Robot startups are the thing in Silicon Valley right now.

In Australia, a shortage of brick layers is helping drive the robot invasion into the profession.

3d printing and robotics are the future of construction.

3d Printing:


Arevo Labs introduces a 3d printer mounted on a robotic arm with 6 degrees of freedom.

There are a new breed of 3d printers that include CNC capabilities.  With successful integration, this could become the fabers of scifi writing.

3d concrete printers are becoming a big thing.

Is a 3d concrete printing company from China offering a scam loan setup?

The Dutch are progressing on their concrete printers.

TU Eidenhoven is making progress with their giant concrete printer, too.

NNRGY Crops is trying to make a 3d printable concrete from plants.

Potterbot is doing ceramic 3d printing.

Renishaw has developed a straight from CAD to metal 3d printing.

Software Bots:


Silicon Valley is working on a new neuron model for neural nets.

New machine vision programs are being developed to detect 'hidden' facial expressions.

Cyborgism:

Brain computer interfaces are coming to the public.

Philosophy/Opinion:

Robots and humans are partners, not adversaries.

Are robots actually taking enough jobs?

The Bank of England says 95 million jobs will be taken over by the bots in the next 10 to 20 years.

China will have the largest populations of elderly and robots in the future.

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