From comic book to reality, 'robo-shorts' reduce body's energy needs
Once confined to comic books, exosuits that enhance a wearer's physical abilities took a step forward Thursday as researchers unveiled a pair of robotic shorts that assist in walking and running. The entire get-up, which includes a battery that straps around the waist and a ...
Israeli army in no rush to go fully robotic as it puts sealed tanks through their paces
Israel, a world leader in hi-tech, is around 30 years away from its ambition of deploying robot forces, and for now will chose between three prototypes of semi-automated armored vehicles to cocoon its troops in battle, defense officials said on Sunday. Israel has long eyed ...
Walmart Inc. is facing a strike by thousands of workers in South America amid the retail giant's push to increase automation at its physical stores. About 17,000 Walmart workers in Chile went on an indefinite strike on Wednesday after labor talks between the company and ...
Rise of the machines: AI beats humans in multiplayer shooter Quake III Arena
It's official: The machines are going to destroy you (if you are a professional gamer). A team of programmers at a British artificial intelligence company has designed automated "agents" that taught themselves how to play the seminal first-person shooter Quake III Arena, and became so ...
Laundry-phobics' dreams crushed as Tokyo-based developer of Laundroid robot files for bankruptcy
When Seven Dreamers Laboratories Inc. unveiled its prototype laundry-folding robot in 2015, it generated a buzz, with people saying they couldn't wait to buy one if it ever went to market. But the AI-based tidying device dubbed Laundroid is apparently coming to an end before ...
Robot overlords wouldn't be the worst
Robot rights: From Asimov to Tezuka
Asimov's "Three Laws of Robotics" are fictional rules, so why do we keep looking to them for guidance? The closest thing to real-world robot law we could have more seems likely to develop around the question of when autonomous military drones can make "kill" ...
Do the elderly and disabled people in Japan want robots to look after them?
What appears to be lacking are detailed surveys and studies, asking questions of the elderly and disabled people whose quality of life Japan's new legion of robots are supposed to improve.
Education in the age of automation
The outcome of the race between technology and education will determine whether the opportunities presented by major innovations are seized, and whether the benefits of progress are widely shared.
'Plum Rains' is entertaining, provocative and eerily plausible
In this complex sci-fi novel, Andromeda Romano-Lax weaves in issues of robotics, kamikaze pilots and Japan's dependence on foreign healthcare workers.
From robots to girl power, getting Cameroon's women into work
With a flash of green light, a robot sputters and whizzes across the room, obeying the remote control commands 15-year-old Xaviera Nguefo and her team send its way. It is a scene that would not look out of place in a futuristic sci-fi fantasy, but ...
