Tony Zaragoza’s very popular biweekly feature:
Automation and Robotics News–Oct. 24, 2010
Highlights: DARPA, DARPA crazy; Robotics Rodeo; Call Center Automation; Robotic Teachers; Reports on robot job displacement; positive ways of looking at robot job displacement; piano bot; bowler bot; babies and robots; and antarctic exploration.
Click here to go directly to this issue:
TERROR, MILITARY, POLICING, SURVEILLANCE
DARPA Seeking to Revolutionize Robotic Manipulation
Erico Guizzo / Mon, October 18, 2010
RIA, 10/18/2010
For the second consecutive year, the U.S. Army has invited prominent robotics technologists from across the country to display their …
Feds Plot ‘Near Human’ Robot Docs, Farmers, Troops
Katie Drummond, October 22, 2010Robots are already vacuuming our carpets, heading into combat and assisting docs on medical procedures. Get ready for a next generation of “near human” bots that’ll do a lot more: independently perform surgeries, harvest our crops and herd our livestock, and even administer drugs from within our own bodies. Those are only a few of the suggested applications . . .
Friends Made in Low Places: Swat Teams Adopt Tiny Reconnaissance Robots
JOE BARRETT, 10/18/10
For years, military and police bomb squads have used large robots to help investigate suspicious objects without putting…
Boeing to Offer A160T Hummingbird in Response to NAVAIR RFP
By Robotics Trends Staff – Filed Oct 15, 2010Robot weapons creating human enemies
ABC Online - Lisa Millar - Oct 18, 2010
AGRICULTURE AND FOOD PRODUCTION
Robot milks cows for all they’re worth
3News NZ - Oct 20, 2010 By Dave Goosselink
SERVICE SECTOR
Call centre automation could save economy £23bn a year
Computing - Nicola Brittain - Oct 22, 2010
. . . the automation of customer service as a way to cut costs.
Robot teachers invade South Korean classrooms
CNN - Susannah Palk - Oct 22, 2010
A student practices her English pronunciation with a robot as part of South Korea’s robot-learning program.
Toyota and Fujita Health University Testing Robot to Aide Stroke Patients
SlashGear - Evan Selleck - Oct 18, 2010
JOB DISPLACEMENT
David Autor, Inequality and Technological Change
Excellent econ reports on tech impacts on the US economy.
Automation Insurance: Robots Are Replacing Middle Class Jobs
Andrew Price, October 13, 2010
The middle class is disappearing and the problem is deeper than politics. How will we understand work in the coming age of robotics?
Last April, the MIT economist David Autor published a report that looked at the shifting employment landscape in America. He came to this scary conclusion: Our workforce is splitting in two. The number of high-skill, high-income jobs (think lawyers or research scientists or managers) is growing. So is the number of low-skill, low-income jobs (think food preparation or security guards). Those jobs in the middle? They’re disappearing. Autor calls it “the polarization of job opportunities.” These days, all of us, from President Obama on down, are thinking about jobs. The unemployment rate is hovering around 10 percent, we’ve watched the ground disappear from under Detroit and Wall Street, and there’s a pervading sense that other industries might be next. It’s not that the issue isn’t getting attention. The Princeton economist Paul Krugman is out there telling Congress to spend more money to create jobs. The former secretary of labor Robert Reich is arguing for tax breaks for the bottom brackets so people can buy stuff again. Here’s the thing, though: The erosion of the middle class is a phenomenon that’s bigger than the Great Recession. Middle-range jobs have been getting scarcer since the late 1970s, and wages for the ones that are still around have remained stagnant.
Robots the Best Way to Keep Jobs in America
October 22, 2010, Robotworx.comAnti-robot sentiments are on the rise. There’s a lot of chatter online right now about a study published by MIT economist David Autor. In a nutshell, Autor states that while American manufacturing is strong, middle class jobs are dying out and robots are to blame. . . . A closer look at the issue doesn’t have to result in a doom and gloom response. Ultimately, robots offer opportunities to keep and create new and better jobs for Americans.
Will robots replace doctors? It’s already happening
Examiner.com - Oct 22, 2010
Recent studies by Duke University researchers show that robots performing medical operations may be part of our future. In studies conducted by Duke …
RESEARCH AND NEW DEVELOPMENTS
Piano player bot tickles the ivories in Taiwan
Wednesday, October 20, 2010 Posted by Tim Hornyak
Robot can bowl a perfect strike every time
Tuesday, October 19, 2010 Posted by Matt Hickey
Hey robots, census wants to know all about you
Wednesday, October 13, 2010 Posted by Leslie Katz
Study Shows That If a Robot Acts Like a Human, A Baby Will Think It’s Human
Switched - Amar Toor - Oct 20, 2010
Underwater robot studying ice-covered Antarctic Ocean
CTV.ca - Oct 23, 2010
