How many rabbits is your robot? And interesting robotics research

Explain. I wished a image of a adorable robotic cat as an instance the observe up from final week’s robotic pets article! But if I lead with Rodney Brooks’ skepticism on generative AI, then this image more or less makes sense. (substack generated suggested ‘adorable robotic cat’ – 1. where’s the robotic? 2. why most life like seemingly one entrance leg? 3. how many faces? 4. uncommon forward/backwards ears and many others. and many others. on the opposite hand it is CUTE)

Factual description of how Robust.ai will get greater results for pragmatic work functions from a circulate of warehouse records comparatively than LLMs, and moreover a restating of Moravec’s paradox, (which the ‘fails to cite sources’ Steven Pinker reworded as “the main lesson of thirty-5 years of AI compare is that the laborious complications are easy and the easy complications are laborious“).

Brooks moreover delivers a takedown of exponential thinking, ie Moore’s laws is some construct of inviolable never-ending technological truth.

After showcasing Maah and Qoobo final week, I tried to search out out what had came about to one of the most most diversified innovative light robotic pets that crowdfunded within the final couple of years. Does anybody know what came about to FlatCat from JetPack Cognition Labs? Their web role says they are peaceful shopping for preseed funding and ‘angle investors’.

And what about Moflin from Vanguard Industries?

ps. We peaceful use our Qoobo for enjoyable, comfort and too annoy the cats within the event that they sleep on it.

pss. Brian, became as soon as that an Imperial Rabbit or a Metric Rabbit for scale?

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The applying lower-off date is Friday, July 26 2024

An match for cleantech startups to connect with companions who can mean you may perchance perchance possibly scale. From NREL Innovation & Entrepreneurship Heart – August 12-14 Denver, Colorado

Wander to CoolestThingCalifornia.com to nominate your California-made product for the 2nd annual Coolest Thing Made in California Contest hosted by CMTA.

Potentially the most well-liked round of the Picture voltaic Prize is now start. Better than $4.2 million will doubtless be disbursed to opponents over this three-phase competition designed to catalyze innovations in U.S. solar hardware and instrument technologies with the functionality to be commercialized in 3 to 5 years. Be taught more about the originate of the Picture voltaic Prize Spherical 8!

The KUKA Innovation Award 2025 primarily targets the interaction of robotic systems with humans within the medical atmosphere and robots being share of future medical applications. Contributors from academia, compare and industrial are encouraged to display machine ideas that will perchance possibly lead to, or are already on the brink to, commercialization. Closing date for application June 28

The goal of the robotic agree with competition of the 33rd RO-MAN is to construct a platform for researchers and college students from a diverse background to display their vision of interactive robotics, and encourage their peers on how human-centered intelligence may possibly possibly augment human-robotic interaction. Every crew’s initial submission may possibly possibly fair peaceful be a 2-4 page pictorial, following the name template start format. Closing date extended to June 27

The U.S. Division of Commerce is dedicated to advancing transparency, innovation, and the responsible use and dissemination of public records property, at the side of for use by records-driven AI technologies. To this stay, we are gay to explain this Demand for Info (RFI) to be taught about precious insights from industrial experts, researchers, civil society organizations, and diversified participants of the public on the development of AI-willing start records property and records dissemination standards.

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Shagun Uppal Ananye Agarwal Haoyu Xiong Kenneth Shaw Deepak Pathak

Paper arXiv Video Summary

Summary: Whereas there has been excellent progress recently within the fields of manipulation and locomotion, mobile manipulation stays a prolonged-standing field. When compared with locomotion or static manipulation, a mobile machine have to construct a diverse vary of prolonged-horizon tasks feasible in unstructured and dynamic environments. Whereas the applications are mountainous and attention-grabbing, there are a plethora of challenges in rising these systems equivalent to coordination between the defective and arm, reliance on onboard perception for perceiving and interacting with the atmosphere and most significantly, simultaneously integrating all these parts together. Prior works technique the topic using disentangled modular abilities for mobility and manipulation that are trivially tied together. This causes loads of obstacles equivalent to compounding errors, delays in decision-making and no complete-body coordination. In this work, we display a reactive mobile manipulation framework that uses an active visual machine to consciously behold and react to its atmosphere. Corresponding to how humans leverage complete-body and hand-gape coordination, we originate a mobile manipulator that exploits its potential to lumber and search for, more specifically — to lumber in hiss to look for and to look for in hiss to lumber. This lets in it to no longer most life like seemingly lumber round and work alongside with its atmosphere nonetheless moreover, resolve on when to behold what using an active visual machine. We peep that such an agent learns to navigate round complex cluttered scenarios while displaying agile complete-body coordination using most life like seemingly ego-vision with out desiring to construct atmosphere maps.

Zipeng Fu* Qingqing Zhao* Qi Wu* Gordon Wetzstein Chelsea Finn

Paper Hardware DatasetsCode

ABSTRACT: One amongst the main arguments for constructing robots that absorb an analogous construct factors to human beings is that we can leverage the wide human records for practising. Yet, doing so has remained consuming in observe attributable to the complexities in humanoid perception and have a watch on, lingering physical gaps between humanoids and humans in morphologies and actuation, and shortage of an files pipeline for humanoids to be taught autonomous abilities from selfish vision. In this paper, we introduce a chunky-stack machine for humanoids to be taught motion and autonomous abilities from human records. We first educate a low-level policy in simulation by technique of reinforcement studying using existing 40-hour human motion datasets. This policy transfers to the accurate world and lets in humanoid robots to observe human body and hand motion in accurate time using most life like seemingly a RGB camera, i.e. shadowing. Through shadowing, human operators can teleoperate humanoids to gain complete-body records for studying diversified tasks within the accurate world. Using the records light, we then construct supervised behavior cloning to educate skill insurance policies using selfish vision, allowing humanoids to full diversified tasks autonomously by imitating human abilities. We display the machine on our customized 33-DoF 180cm humanoid, autonomously winding up tasks equivalent to wearing a shoe to stand up and stroll, unloading objects from warehouse racks, folding a sweatshirt, rearranging objects, typing, and greeting one more robotic with 60-100% success rates using as a lot as 40 demonstrations.

Also from Luiza Jarovsky…
🚨 Intellectual AI paper alert: Woodrow Hartzog publishes “Two AI Truths and a Lie,” and it is a have to-be taught for all and sundry in AI. Well-known quotes:

“The two AI truths and a lie are moreover share of a greater story about skills and company greed. There are a few diversified accounts of this story. Kate Crawford explains AI’s extractive nature by reference to the capitalist-colonial logics of classification that underpin it. Shoshana Zuboff sees digital extraction as the inevitable endgame of gradual capitalism. Julie Cohen sees digital platform extraction and manipulation as one contrivance to remake social and political institutions to legitimize their monetary carry out. AI is dazzling essentially the most well-liked instrument to succumb to what Cory Doctorow has called the “enshittification” of digital platforms. Doctorow describes the inevitable degradation cycle of platforms as “first, they are correct to their users; then they abuse their users to style things for his or her industrial possibilities; within the break, they abuse these industrial possibilities to claw serve your complete mark for themselves. Then, they die.” Under this theory, companies deploying AI are going to strive to carry a long way off from the four forces that discipline companies: competition, regulation, self-wait on, and workers. Any holistic regulatory response to AI and the broader story of craftsmanship and company greed have to embolden these forces, or otherwise the cycle will proceed”

–

“One amongst essentially the most sturdy defaults lawmakers may possibly possibly fair peaceful take into myth is presumptive prohibitions absent justifications and demonstrably real use. This may perchance perchance possibly hold the construct of licensing regimes, pre-clearance regimes, and diversified correct frameworks deployed in contexts admire healthcare devices and prescribed pills. Gianclaudio Malgieri and Frank Pasquale absorb proposed a machine of “unlawfulness by default” for AI systems, which may possibly possibly possibly be “an ex-ante mannequin where some AI developers absorb the burden of proof to display that their skills is no longer discriminatory, no longer manipulative, no longer unfair, no longer erroneous, and no longer illegitimate in its correct bases and functions.” (…)”

–

“There’s worthy we don’t be taught about how AI systems will work to change our world. But there are some things that lawmakers may possibly possibly fair peaceful count on. Companies will hold the complete lot they’ll for his or her have serve, and we can secure broken-down it. Other folk can serve from AI systems and peaceful be in my conception and collectively worse off total. Unless lawmakers construct ideas to reply to extraction, normalization, and selfdealing, companies will use AI systems to permanently impoverish our lives.”

➡ Be taught the chunky paper.

Agility’s humanoid robots are going to address your Spanx – TechCrunch

Beware the smiling robotic with the residing skin – TechCrunch

Robotics investments are gaining toddle postpandemic slowdown – TechCrunch

Persona’s founders are particular the world wants one more humanoid robotic – TechCrunch

Canadian authorities backs 2024 home accelerator in California – SpaceNews

NATO targets AI, robotics and home tech in $2B fund – Reuters

Why no longer give robots foot eyes? – IEEE Spectrum

Elon Musk Says Tesla’s Optimus Robotic May possibly well moreover Power Company To $25 Trillion Valuation – Right here’s What Experts Think – Forbes

Robots steal jobs from unions – gape reveals decline in unionizations – Phys Org *correlation no longer causation!

Germany’s robotics centers attach RIG, the Robotics Institute Germany – The Robotic Picture

Robotics Australia Community is constructing a sustainable robotics industrial – The Robotic Picture

Realtime Robotics Optimization machine for workcell motion planning wins IERA recognition – The Robotic Picture

Endiatx plans pivotal trial through Mayo Sanatorium: see TED focus on – The Robotic Picture

Kara Walker Is No One’s Robotic – Fresh York Times

• SF Deep Tech Week – starts Saturday June 22

• Protection Industrial Wrong Hackathon – June 28

• SVR Startup Accelerator: Provide protection to your IP AND observe your pitch

  • Speakers on IP and manufacturing/scaling robotic manufacturing

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• AIM 2024 Boston MA 14 July – 18 July

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