AI & Robotics News and Discussions

weatheriscool
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'Butterfly bot' is fastest swimming soft robot yet
https://techxplore.com/news/2022-11-but ... robot.html
by North Carolina State University
Inspired by the biomechanics of the manta ray, researchers at North Carolina State University have developed an energy-efficient soft robot that can swim more than four times faster than previous swimming soft robots. The robots are called "butterfly bots," because their swimming motion resembles the way a person's arms move when they are swimming the butterfly stroke.

"To date, swimming soft robots have not been able to swim faster than one body length per second, but marine animals—such as manta rays—are able to swim much faster, and much more efficiently," says Jie Yin, corresponding author of a paper on the work and an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at NC State. "We wanted to draw on the biomechanics of these animals to see if we could develop faster, more energy-efficient soft robots. The prototypes we've developed work exceptionally well."

The researchers developed two types of butterfly bots. One was built specifically for speed, and was able to reach average speeds of 3.74 body lengths per second. A second was designed to be highly maneuverable, capable of making sharp turns to the right or left. This maneuverable prototype was able to reach speeds of 1.7 body lengths per second.

"Researchers who study aerodynamics and biomechanics use something called a Strouhal number to assess the energy efficiency of flying and swimming animals," says Yinding Chi, first author of the paper and a recent Ph.D. graduate of NC State. "Peak propulsive efficiency occurs when an animal swims or flies with a Strouhal number of between 0.2 and 0.4. Both of our butterfly bots had Strouhal numbers in this range."
weatheriscool
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Flocks of assembler robots show potential for making larger structures
https://techxplore.com/news/2022-11-flo ... arger.html
by David L. Chandler, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Researchers at MIT have made significant steps toward creating robots that could practically and economically assemble nearly anything, including things much larger than themselves, from vehicles to buildings to larger robots.

The new work, from MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms (CBA), builds on years of research, including recent studies demonstrating that objects such as a deformable airplane wing and a functional racing car could be assembled from tiny identical lightweight pieces—and that robotic devices could be built to carry out some of this assembly work. Now, the team has shown that both the assembler bots and the components of the structure being built can all be made of the same subunits, and the robots can move independently in large numbers to accomplish large-scale assemblies quickly.

The new work is reported in the journal Nature Communications Engineering, in a paper by CBA doctoral student Amira Abdel-Rahman, Professor and CBA Director Neil Gershenfeld, and three others.

A fully autonomous self-replicating robot assembly system capable of both assembling larger structures, including larger robots, and planning the best construction sequence is still years away, Gershenfeld says. But the new work makes important strides toward that goal, including working out the complex tasks of when to build more robots and how big to make them, as well as how to organize swarms of bots of different sizes to build a structure efficiently without crashing into each other.

As in previous experiments, the new system involves large, usable structures built from an array of tiny identical subunits called voxels (the volumetric equivalent of a 2D pixel). But while earlier voxels were purely mechanical structural pieces, the team has now developed complex voxels that each can carry both power and data from one unit to the next. This could enable the building of structures that can not only bear loads but also carry out work, such as lifting, moving and manipulating materials—including the voxels themselves.
spryfusion
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Time_Traveller
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Location: Clermont, Indiana, USA, October 7th 2019 B.C.E

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This isn't news but :-

@Homebrewandhacking @mafeesh prompted #ai to create this, this morning :D I love how it turned out, thought you might like it too
(Via Mastodon)

Image

They created this on the software Midjourney with 5 images.
"We all have our time machines, don't we. Those that take us back are memories...And those that carry us forward, are dreams."

-H.G Wells.
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caltrek
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A Glimpse Into Our Future if We Survive Another Million Years
by Anders Sandberg
November 30, 2022

Extract:
(Science Alert) Most species are transitory. They go extinct, branch into new species or change over time due to random mutations and environmental shifts. A typical mammalian species can be expected to exist for a million years.

Modern humans, Homo sapiens, have been around for roughly 300,000 years. So what will happen if we make it to a million years?

Through brain emulation, a speculative technology where one scans a brain at a cellular level and then reconstructs an equivalent neural network in a computer to create a "software intelligence", we could go even further.

…we should be able to get many more artificial minds per kilogram of matter and watts of solar power than human minds in the far future. And since they can evolve fast, we should expect them to change tremendously over time from our current style of mind.

If biological humans go extinct, the most likely reason (apart from the obvious and immediate threats right now) is a lack of respect, tolerance and binding contracts with other post-human species. Maybe a reason for us to start treating our own minorities better.
Read more here: https://www.sciencealert.com/holdout-h ... ion-years
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
spryfusion
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agi
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Yuli Ban
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And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future
weatheriscool
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Krispy Kreme CEO: Robots will start frosting and filling doughnuts 'within the next 18 months’
Brooke DiPalma

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/krisp ... QL20viqf5M

Krispy Kreme (DNUT) is aiming to cut time in its doughnut production line through automation.

"Probably within the next 18 months, you'll see some automation starting to go into the frosting, the filling, the sprinkles, and even the packaging," Krispy Kreme CEO Mike Tattersfield told Yahoo Finance Live (video above).

The Winston-Salem, North Carolina-based company announced the investment as part of its Investor Day, along with its long-term outlook of generating $2.15 billion in revenue by fiscal year 2026.

The addition of robots is part of an effort to maximize the fresh hub and spoke model opportunity in the United States, and increase points of access to deliver-fresh-daily (DFD) to grocery stories, convenience stores, quick-serve restaurants, and other locations. With this model, customers can get full-sized doughnuts produced that day, locally, without going to a Krispy Kreme location.
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