Please see nano-robotics sub-menu as well

To begin, we need to keep in mind the Business-IT-Society triangle as MIT Professor Andrew McAfee presents some very interesting facts and analysis and I can only hope his optimism presented at the end is realized.

I have been following the Indian newspapers and they seem to fear massive unemployment in the 100s of millions. With this I personally fear for an increased digital divide, massive unemployment and with it social unrest. To this extent I recommend you read: Google bets on robots: Goodbye jobs?

Yes, the Robots Are Coming for Our Jobs, But Just the Boring Ones
By Sam Grobart
http://bloom.bg/201uUVP
Bloomberg

Warehouse Robots

Grocery Packing

Package sorting

Health

Surgery

Bionics

Automobiles

 Now what shapes should our robots be?  Is there any reason to make them in our visage as 4 legs can be clearly superior.

Construction Robots

Drones

We have of course heard of Amazon’s plan to use drones to deliver packages but what about this $64 micro-drone with camera or this wrist worn unit.  In the presentation above, Prof McAfee speaks about the dropping prices of technology and the benefits  for individuals and small organizations.  This is great but how does it impact privacy and security as we saw the convergence of cell phones and cameras required new legislation to prevent people from taking pictures in locker rooms and children’s playgrounds.

For benefits of personal drones, consider a HS football team that can now take pictures of their practices and games from overhead as this technology has always been reserved for NFL and Division 1 College football teams.   Now what if someone launches a drone over an upcoming opponent’s football game or practice to spy on them and get their formations?  Could we have the New England Patriot’s Spygate in HS or even Pop Warner football?

Drones could be great for small businesses that want to due site surveys or provide surveillance over their extended perimeter however, what does it mean for what we used to call “Peeping Toms” as this device could be parked outside a window?  Again please recall the Business-IT-Organization triangle where a change to any one of these elements can and will drive changes in the other two.  Similar to other technologies robots represent a major disruptive force to business and society.

 

Warehouse Robots

Robotics & HCI

Now robotics must also overcome perception problems and in this video we see evolving HCI that reminds me of Saturday Morning Cartoons.  Now while positive it can also be deceiving to some populations (especially children?).

Alot of this has to do with the scientific study of what humans perceive as normal.

and this – Robots with Emotion by Guy Hoffman

Lifelike Robotics

https://youtu.be/641D5QQ3b5o

Robotic Architecture

NASA Modular Design

Biological Muscle Driven Robots

Emerging uses – robotic bomb disposal

IoT relies on Embedded Computing

Martine Rothblatt: My daughter, my wife, our robot, and the quest for immortality

HVCC CISS 180 – Introduction to Robotics

Presently we use Lego Robotics and the Java API and plan to also cover the Microsoft Robotics Development Studio but importantly, we also are purchasing an AR Parrot Drone for the launch of this summer’s CISS 180 Introduction to Robotics.  The AR Parrot Drone site has some great videos including someone using the drone for paintball:  http://ardrone2.parrot.com/

Continuing Exploration

If you search the tags on the right you will find many articles on robots (military and private  but something fun in closing.  Here is an interesting article from IEEE on Rescue Robots.