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About this blog
This blog explores the fields that embrace the development of an ecology of soft and sentient machines that will help and assist humans in the broadest possible sense to support and sustain our welfare.
You will find entries on biology, robotics, artificial intelligence, ecology, science-fiction, neuroscience... and many more that converge around questions like: what does it take to make our assisting machines sentient?
The blog is written by the Coordination Action initiative of the Future Emerging Technologies (FET) programme of the EU, named "Robot Companions for Citizens". Click here for more information on that initiative.
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Blogroll
Monthly Archives: August 2011
Are You Leaving Your Algorithms Unsupervised?
Don’t feel so bad, Wall Street does it too According to Kevin Slavin, Wall Street now employs over 2000 physicists developing algorithms to help manage stock trades. Slavin fears that we’ve done the math but are now unable to understand … Continue reading
Has IBM Taken a Trip Back to the Future?
According to scientists in the field, neuromorphic chips are old news In last week’s IBM press release, the company revealed its creation of a ¨ new generation of experimental computer chips designed to emulate the brain’s abilities for perception, action … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Cognitive computing, computer chip, Dharmendra Modha, IBM, Smarter planet, SyNAPSE
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¨One Small Step for a Robot and One Giant Leap for Robot-kind¨
NASA’s International Space Station welcomes its first non-human crew member The humanoid robot R2, developed by NASA and General Motors, was launched as part of the STS-133 mission on the Discovery shuttle on February 24, 20011. Up until last week R2 … Continue reading
Posted in Robots and Research, Robots and Society, Robots Around the World
Tagged General Motors, NASA, R2, STS-133 mission
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Wiggling to the Rescue
Check out the worm-bot This robot is modeled after the Caenorhabditis elegans, a tiny roundworm whose very simple nervous system allows it to carry out complex body movements. Its designer Dr. Jordan Boyle, from the schools of Computing and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Leeds, … Continue reading
Posted in Biology, Europe, Robots and Research, Robots and Society, Robots Around the World
Tagged Jordan Boyle, Worm-bot
1 Comment
Bio-ICT
Europe supports new biological approaches for Information and Communications Technology Evolvable hardware, artificial cells, bidirectional interfaces between mechanical and living entities. These are all examples of how biology can be applied to ICT. Tony Prescott, professor of cognitive
Working With Robots
Instead of stealing our jobs, robots might keep them around and even make them easier Robots are becoming more intelligent at the same time as they’re becoming more affordable. An article in The Economist discusses the need for executives of large … Continue reading
Tissue Engineering
An interdisciplinary field where live cells provide building blocks for engineers. Tissue engineering provides a means for
It’s Written on Your Face
Check out this video explaining what makes human faces so special and how this relates to a European robotics project Our faces paint a portrait of our inner emotions for the rest of the world to see. Whether we like … Continue reading
Posted in Europe, Robots and Research, Robots and Society, Robots Around the World
Tagged LIREC
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Cognitive Automobiles
Take a ride in a car with reasoning abilities Rüdiger Dillmann and his team at the Humanoids and Intelligent Systems Lab at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology are working on creating cognitive automobiles that have an understanding of traffic situations … Continue reading
Posted in Europe, Robots and Research, Robots Around the World
Tagged ARMAR-III, Cognitive Cars, Rüdiger Dillmann
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Racy times with Roxxxy
Let’s talk about sex (with robots) 7000 USD can now buy you alternative forms of intimacy with a companion/sex robot developed by the American company TrueCompanion. Some people may find the idea of this revolting, perverted or just plain weird … Continue reading
Posted in Robots and Society, Robots Around the World, Science Fiction, USA
Tagged Metropolis, Roxxxy, TrueCompanion
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