Submit a link
Start a discussion
  • Image
    9 years ago
    by drunkenninja
    +18 +1

    The Ten Weirdest One-Off Work Vehicles

    In 1968, Hungarians had to engineer something quickly to kill a massive gas fire. Pictured above, the 'Big Wind' is a T34 tank with twin MiG-29 jets pushing out a mixture of 1,585 gallons of steamed water and oxygen-poor air every minute. It's pretty bizarre, but here are ten even weirder machines.

  • Analysis
    9 years ago
    by messi
    +22 +1

    Killer Robots Could Be More Humane than Humans

    Today at the United Nations in Geneva, dozens of nations from around the world and the top minds in robotics are trying to figure out what we should do about the specter of killer robots.

  • Analysis
    9 years ago
    by KondoR
    +18 +1

    Canada's Hitchhiking Robot Completed Its Trip Without Getting Murdered

    On July 27, a brave robot named hitchBOT bid goodbye to its creators on the shoulder of a highway in Halifax, Nova Scotia. With limbs made from pool noodles, a beer-cooler body, and legs clad in Wellington rain boots, this adorable hodgepodge of a robot was ready to embark on the adventure of a lifetime. It raised its best hitchhiker’s thumb, and waited to be picked up by its first benefactor in its 6,000-kilometer road trip across Canada.

  • Video/Audio
    8 years ago
    by TNY
    +3 +1

    Got some trees to clear? You need this....

    Tree gone in 3....2....1...... Source: DAH Shots – Excavator Mulcher

  • Analysis
    8 years ago
    by manix
    +18 +1

    Robots learn to evolve and improve

    Engineers have developed a robotic system that can evolve and improve its performance. A robot arm builds "babies" that get progressively better at moving without any human intervention. The ultimate aim of the research project is to develop robots that adapt to their surroundings. The work by teams in Cambridge and Zurich has been published in the journal PLOS One.

  • Video/Audio
    8 years ago
    by hxxp
    +22 +1

    The DC Snow Monster

    Crews removing snow from the streets following Snowzilla.

  • Current Event
    8 years ago
    by tukka
    +2 +1

    The Surgeon Will Skype You Now

    The surgeon, who has spent 15 minutes gently tearing through tissue, suddenly pauses to gesture ever-so-slightly with his tiny scissors. "Do you see what's on this side? That's nerves." He moves the instrument a few millimeters to the right. "And on this one? That's cancer." Ashutosh Tewari is the head of the urology department at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. He is in the process of removing a patient's cancerous prostate, the walnut-sized...

  • Expression
    8 years ago
    by hxxp
    +30 +1

    Would you bet against sex robots? AI 'could leave half of world unemployed'

    Machines could put more than half the world’s population out of a job in the next 30 years, according to a computer scientist who said on Saturday that artificial intelligence’s threat to the economy should not be understated. Expert Moshe Vardi told the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS): “We are approaching a time when machines will be able to outperform humans at almost any task.

  • Current Event
    8 years ago
    by rawlings
    +25 +1

    Japanese firm to open world’s first robot-run farm

    A Japanese company is to open the world’s first “robot farm”, as agriculture joins other sectors of the economy in attempting to fill labour shortages created by the country’s rapidly ageing population. Spread, a vegetable producer, said industrial robots would carry out all but one of the tasks needed to grow the tens of thousands of lettuces it produces each day at its vast indoor farm in Kameoka, Kyoto prefecture, starting from mid-2017.

  • Video/Audio
    8 years ago
    by aj0690
    +26 +1

    Watch 100 Grams Of Robot Pull 1800 Kilograms Of Car

    The latest battery of experiments at Stanford’s Biomimetics and Dextrous Manipulation Lab dealt with harnessing the power of ants in robot form — specifically, researchers hoped to replicate ants’ ability to work together to haul very heavy objects. In the experiments, robots that jump or walk with a quick, jerky force were quickly determined to be inefficient in groups, while the μTugs won out due to the longer duration of pulling force they were able to create...

  • Analysis
    8 years ago
    by Chubros
    +32 +1

    ​Companies Want to Replicate Your Dead Loved Ones With Robot Clones

    In 2003, the wife of a 55-year-old Vietnamese carpenter named Le Van died. Heartbroken, he dug up her grave, cast her body in clay and slept next to "her" for five years. The story is unsettling, but there’s also something universal about his struggle to let go. Many grieving people feel an emotional connection to things that represent dead loved ones, such as headstones, urns and shrines, according to grief counselors.

  • Expression
    8 years ago
    by hxxp
    +23 +1

    This Is What It Feels Like When A Robot Takes Your Job

    For about a year, Sam Fox-Hartin had worked for an on-demand concierge startup called GoButler as a "Hero," the company's term for employees who field users' requests, via text message, and then complete tasks such as booking tables at restaurants, scheduling appointments, or ordering food for delivery on their behalf. Most of these tasks, like the ones I watched Fox-Hartin maneuver when GoButler invited me to...

  • Analysis
    8 years ago
    by drunkenninja
    +20 +1

    Massive Robots Keep Docks Shipshape

    TraPac LLC’s Los Angeles shipping terminal offers a window to how coming global trade will move: using highly automated systems and machinery to handle a flood of goods amid new free-trade accords.

  • Expression
    7 years ago
    by drunkenninja
    +11 +1

    Will capitalism survive the robot revolution?

    Economic experts are trying to figure out a question that just two decades ago seemed ridiculous: If 90 percent of human jobs are replaced by robots in the next 50 years — something now considered plausible — is capitalism still the ideal economic system to champion? No one is certain about the answer, but the question is making everyone nervous — and forcing people to dig deep inside themselves to discover the kind of future they want. After America beat Russia in the Cold War...

  • Current Event
    7 years ago
    by zobo
    +27 +1

    A man in China has spent £35,000 building a robot that looks just like Scarlett Johansson

    Like innumerable children with imaginations fired by animated films, Hong Kong product and graphic designer Ricky Ma grew up watching cartoons featuring the adventures of robots, and dreamt of building his own one day. Unlike most of the others, however, Ma has realized his childhood dream at the age of 42, by successfully constructing a life-sized robot from scratch on the balcony of his home.

  • Current Event
    7 years ago
    by TNY
    +9 +1

    China restaurant sacks robot waiters

    Of the three establishments, two have closed down, while the third has sent all but one of their robots back and reverted to human servers, the Workers' Daily newspaper reports. While the robot waiters were an excellent gimmick to get customers through the door, they were not quite so good at their programmed task of serving food and drink to customers, according to staff. "The mobility of the catering staff was great, we initially recruited six for service, but after a...

  • Analysis
    7 years ago
    by Chubros
    +32 +1

    Giving people free money could be the only solution when robots finally take our jobs

    For centuries, the way people make money has stayed mostly the same: People earn a living based on the skills they bring to society. Doctors make more than plumbers because open-heart surgery saves more lives than fixing leaky toilets. Star athletes make more than teachers because entertainment is more lucrative than education. But the recent evidence is overwhelming: Automated robots are replacing workers faster than our economy can handle.

  • Current Event
    7 years ago
    by rhingo
    +14 +1

    Huawei Prepares for Robot Overlords and Communication with the Dead

    Chinese technology giant Huawei is preparing for a world where people live forever, dead relatives linger on in computers and robots try to kill humans. Huawei is best known as one of the world's largest producers of broadband network equipment and smartphones. But Kevin Ho, president of its handset product line, told the CES Asia conference in Shanghai on Wednesday the company used science fiction movies like "The Matrix" to envision future trends and new business ideas.

  • Current Event
    7 years ago
    by TNY
    +36 +1

    Drones could replace $127 billion worth of human labour

    The robots are invading — from above. A new report from PwC finds that drones could replace $127 billion worth of human labour and services across several industries. Infrastructure and agriculture make up the largest chunks of the potential value — some $77.6 billion between them — including services like completing the last mile of delivery routes and spraying crops with laser-like precision.

  • Current Event
    7 years ago
    by TNY
    +34 +1

    Hyundai's new wearable robot turns you into a mech pilot

    South Korean automaker Hyundai has unveiled what is apparently a new robotic exoskeleton. In a blog post the company compares its "wearable robot" prototype to an Iron Man suit, saying it gives the wearer extra strength, allowing them to lift objects "hundreds of kilograms" in weight. The company says that in the future the exoskeleton could be used in factories, by the military, or to help with physical rehabilitation.