For Robby the Robot on Forbidden Planet, Kinoshita cobbled together several concepts contributed by MGM’s art and special effects departments, and made a miniature prototype of wood and plastic. The model, with a domed head of clear plastic, was quickly approved, and Kinoshita completed its construction. The film received an Oscar nomination for special effects.
Brett Kennedy is the supervisor of JPL’s Robotic Vehicles and Manipulators Group…“I went to Japan when I was 8 and brought back as many of the robot toys as I could. Interestingly, their robotics culture has been stronger for longer than the USA. Robots were seen as friends and companions there, not something that was ‘coming to get you!’ but something that was coming to help,” he continued. “I came to JPL because, at my interview, they said, ‘Would you like to build robots that run around on Mars?’ And if someone asks you that, you say yes.”
via Can NASA’S RoboSimian Clinch $2M DARPA Robotics Prize? | PCMag.com.
A.I. is already out of the lab and deep into the fabric of things. “Soft A.I.,” such as Apple’s Siri and Amazon recommendation engines, along with infrastructural A.I., such as high-speed algorithmic trading, smart vehicles and industrial robotics, are increasingly a part of everyday life — part of how our tools work, how our cities move and how our economy builds and trades things.
via Outing A.I.: Beyond the Turing Test – NYTimes.com.
Atlas is a bipedal humanoid robot primarily developed by the American robotics company Boston Dynamics, with funding and oversight from the United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The 6-foot (1.8 m) robot is designed for a variety of search and rescue tasks, and was unveiled to the public on July 11, 2013.
Atlas scares the crap out of me…
I agree, not exactly a cuddly design, Atlas looks like scaffolding.