Tag: slapmybot

Human skinned robot

Researchers are exploring using livable human skin to cover a mechanical apparatus. Apparently, human skin has interesting properties for robots also.

To demonstrate this concept, they’ve recreated a human face.

“In this study, we managed to replicate human appearance to some extent by creating a face with the same surface material and structure as humans,” said Takeuchi. “Additionally, through this research, we identified new challenges, such as the necessity for surface wrinkles and a thicker epidermis to achieve a more humanlike appearance. […] Of course, movement is also a crucial factor, not just the material, so another important challenge is creating humanlike expressions by integrating sophisticated actuators, or muscles, inside the robot. 

https://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/focus/en/press/z0508_00360.html

Dude, you’re going to have to do better than putting 2 googly eyes on a petri dish to call this a human face. But at least it seems you’re having fun.

Absolutely Robody Cares

Rothing speaks bullshit more than an android nobot in a wheelchair tele-operated by a white dude wearing Hololenses, as if he was in some kind of alternate hospitality world we’d all want to live in.

Making it a square video does not make it cooler either.

“Remote caregivers”, I suppose that’s what they call “robodies”, providing “companionship”, “genuine human connection” and “the warmth of human interaction” is now a “comforting reality”, says the soothing female narrator voice trying to hit every keyword in the marketing 101 playbook.

“Nurturing human connection, enriching lives and redefining the essence of care”, more like nurturing the techno dream of total surveillance, enriching stock value for shareholders and pouring gasoline over healthcare.

Robotaxis are on fire

San Franciscans celebrate Chinese new year by setting Waymo’s robotaxi on fire.

More than meets the vision sensor

Waymo, the robotaxi company from Alphabet/Google, broke the first law of Asimov.

Way more interesting is to read how the robocompany describes the incident:

“The cyclist was occluded by the truck and quickly followed behind it, crossing into the Waymo vehicle’s path. When they became unoccluded, our vehicle applied heavy braking but was not able to avoid the collision,” Waymo said.

https://boingboing.net/2024/02/07/waymo-autonomous-car-hit-bicyclist.html

Let me emphasize that: “the cyclist crossed into the Waymo vehicle’s path“. That’s such an engineering thing to say. It’s your 2 tons metal box on wheels that does not have a small moving vehicle hidden by a larger one in its computation vision model. Your software calculates a trajectory to pass behind that truck. Oops, there was a cyclist there. But it’s the cyclist who crosses your path? How convenient.

Robots put you to sleep… forever

Product shot of Philips DreamStation device.

Philips DreamStation, a robot to help you breath at night, turned out to be a killing machine.

Since April 2021, the FDA has received more than 116,000 MDRs [Medical Device Reports], including 561 reports of death, reportedly associated with the PE-PUR foam breakdown or suspected foam breakdown.

Problems Reported with Recalled Philips Ventilators, BiPAP Machines, and CPAP Machines

Manufacturers […] are required to submit medical device reports (MDRs) when they become aware of an event that reasonably suggests that one of their devices may have caused or contributed to a death or serious injury, or has malfunctioned and that device or a similar device marketed by the manufacturer would be likely to cause or contribute to a death or serious injury if the malfunction were to recur.

ibid.

Philips recalled the machines and stop selling them in the US. Where else are those still on sale?

/ht @boingboing

…but safe

Not sure if it’s intentional, but agile and safe in the same sentence is sure to hit high on search engine confusion, especially with a github website to promote your paper. You’re going to get a ton of hits from webshits with 99 problems but robotdog obstacle-avoidance ain’t gonna be one.

Also, calling something “but safe” is, how do I say it clearly but nicely, shooting yourself in the bearing balls. You’re not going to make me think for one sec that this noisy cocaine high articulated pet is inoffensive.

Looks like you know your classics though. The “robotdog kicking bloopers” are always welcome. You seemed a little too careful though not to hurt the animal, a little too safe?

Promobot self-destructs (reputation) with help of self-driving Tesla

A meme doing the rounds on social media sent me down a rabbit hole of clickbait articles strangely all converging to this ice-cream truck shaped android called Promobot.

Grey surveillance video showing a strange looking android robot standing still on the side of a road. A Tesla passes by and the robot tips over. A person runs across the street to bring assistance to the robot.

The meme mainly emphasized how Promobot made the news in 2019 when their inventor claimed a self-driving Tesla ran over it and “killed” it.

A robot doing seppuku with the help of another robot has quite a bit of meme power, I agree.

It gets strange when you read that Promobot is that same proud Russian droid that recognized and shook hands with Vladimir Putin a few months earlier.

Maybe those two events are related.

But it does not stop here. Promobot was also “arrested” at a political rally and, according to the company recount of the events, the “police tried to handcuff” it. Sure.

It’s that same robot that is sooooo intelligent, it “escaped form its lab” and blocked traffic for a few hours while its creators were busy taking photos of the incident.

You can’t make up this shit.

Don’t kick my robotaxi

A pretty good summary of the issues with robotaxis right now. The gap between young Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and tenured city officials is abysmal. Best part of the video is right at the beginning, when we see the journalist trapped in an expensive fully automated metal box getting kicked by an angry citizen not allowed to park their car because of the “intelligence” of said metal box.

We have no standards on which to base whether these vehicle are actually as safe as humans, safer than humans or not as safe as humans, except to trust that these companies are telling us the truth about their safety statistics

Sam Abuelsamid, Principal Research Analyst