The Internet scion also suggests that the innovations leading this revolution would most likely be launched outside of the hallowed office buildings of Silicon Valley, Boston, and New York. In starting Revolution Ventures, Case set out to find disruptive technologies in America’s heartland often ignored by typical venture investors.
The Race For Robot Clairvoyance
This week a Harvard Business School student challenged me to name a startup capable of producing an intelligent robot – TODAY! At first, I did not understand the question, as artificial intelligence (AI) is an implement like any other in a roboticist’s toolbox. The student persisted, she demanded to know if I thought that the […]
YouTube Is Making Machines Really Smart
As the playoffs are in full swing, everyone is littering their speech with baseball apologies, “We are only at the bottom of the first inning for all these technologies,” declared Pano Anthos at last week’s RoboLab forum. When illustrating his point, Anthos deconstructed one of XRC Labs‘ portfolio companies which utilizes computer vision to identify store merchandise. “Right […]
The New Restaurant Experience: Robot Servers, Cooks And Hostesses
Rising labor costs and rents worldwide are driving retail establishments toward a mechanical future, potentially leaving 66 million human workers in jeopardy.
Get Ready For Humanoids
Memphis at 1 am is quite possibly the busiest airport without passengers on the globe. Touring the 880 acre FedEx facility, I marveled at the speed and efficiency of the automation technologies that can process close to a half a million shipments an hour and 250 flights a day. The cargo hub is a shining example […]
Ice-Bot Cometh: Building Self-Reliant Unmanned Systems
Last June, a massive dust storm engulfed Mars and immobilized the most famous robots in the galaxy, Opportunity and Curiosity. This is not the first time that Martian dirt has prevented Opportunity from recharging its solar panels. Its creators originally predicted that the planet’s harsh weather conditions would limit the rover’s mission to ninety sols (the […]
Disney Launches New Era Of Autonomy With Gravity-Defying Stickmen And More
Ever since the première of “Steamboat Willie” in 1928, The Walt Disney Company has pushed the envelope of imagination. Mickey Mouse is still more popular worldwide than any single human actor. In fact, from that one cel an entire world of animated characters was birthed. The entertainment powerhouse demonstrated last week a new generation of […]
Disposable Robots Take Flight
Recently, I attended AeroVironment’s presentation of their contribution to NASA’s Mars Helicopter mission. The autonomous vertical-lift drone is remarkably capable of flying through the planet’s thin atmosphere, as demonstrated on Earth in a vacuum chamber by their CEO, Wahid Nawabi. The unmanned aerial craft will provide a bird’s eye view of the Martian landscape to guide the growing fleet of terrestrial […]
WAZE For Drones: Expanding The National Airspace
Sitting in New York City, looking up at the clear June skies, I wonder if I am staring at an endangered phenomenon. According to many in the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) industry, skylines across the country soon will be filled with flying cars, quadcopter deliveries, emergency drones, and other robo-flyers. Moving one step closer to […]
New Battery Technology Is Accelerating Autonomy And Saving The Environment
If the robotics world had a celebrity it would be Spot Mini of Boston Dynamics. Last month at the Robotics Summit in Boston the mechanical dog strutted onto the floor of the Westin Hotel trailed by hundreds of flickering iPhones. Marc Raibert first unveiled his metal menagerie almost a decade ago with a video of Big Dog. Today, […]