Not so simple answer: "That's the goal of neurobotics, a science that sits at the convergence of robotics, artificial intelligence, computer science, neuroscience, cognitive psychology, physiology, mathematics and several different engineering disciplines."

HPlusMagazine.com::Here Come the Neurobots

[08 June 2009, top]

John Billingsley is correct when he says: "Automation is becoming a necessity rather than an enhancement."

NewScientists.com::Robot farmhands prepare to invade the countryside

[01 June 2009, top]

   "There is always going to be, at least for a long time to come, 
    a human in the loop, as far as trying to decide when a robot 
    should employ lethal force. You know, AI is not to the point 
    where a machine should be making a life-or-death decision, 
    and I wouldn't even be able to tell you when I thought that 
    might actually come to pass."--Colin Angle

Could advances in AI (Artificial Intelligence) grow exponentially given the capabilities of supercomputing and 21st century informatics?

   "People don't understand that before we have a robot human, 
    people are going to be doing things like incorporating robot 
    technology into their own bodies."--Colin Angle

News.CNet.com::Q&A: iRobot taps into its Warrior spirit

[Extra] TechRadar.com::2009: Year of the kill-bot?

[03 May 2009, top]

Brookings.edu::Military Robots and the Laws of War

[22 April 2009, top]

Discovery.com::Bird Maneuvers Inspire Next-Gen Flying Robots

[10 April 2009, top]

UPI.com::Robot scientist acts without human aid

[03 April 2009, top]

   "The HRP-4C humanoid robot showed off her stormtrooper-like 
    silver and black frame and bowed to a fashion-savvy audience 
    at the start of the annual Japan Fashion Week in Tokyo -- but 
    even her creators admit the mechanical model needs more work."

The keyword in the following hyperlink is "yet"...

Tech.Yahoo.com::Robot model no challenge yet to human rivals (Reuters)

[23 March 2009, top]

   "There is a lot of research going on around the world today 
    trying to use robots to treat children with autism spectrum 
    disorders, or ASD. It has shown that the children are attracted 
    to robots, raising the promise that appropriately designed robots 
    could play an important role in their treatment," says Nilanjan 
    Sarkar, associate professor of mechanical engineering at 
    Vanderbilt University. "However, the efforts so far have 
    been quite limited because they haven't had a way to monitor 
    the emotional state of the children, which would allow the 
    robot to respond automatically to their reactions."

If this isn't 21st century stuff, then I don't know what is.

Vanderbilt.edu::Robots that monitor emotions of ASD children

[03 March 2009, top]

Kudos to the Arizona Republic reporting on Carmen at Carl Hayden High (page B1 on 02009.02.24). Carmen is Carl Hayden High's robot for this year's FIRST robotics contest. [Note: FIRST is For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.]

Carl Hayden High is a powerhouse when it comes to robotics and they are an asset for the state of Arizona, the United States of America, and the world.

Excellent job Allan Cameron and Faridodin "Fredi" Lajvardi. And an A+ to all the student members of Carl Hayden High's robotics team. Go Carmen!

Four years ago Wired Magazine wrote about robotics at Carl Hayden High.

Wired.com::La Vida Robot (April 02005)

[25 February 2009, top]

The following sounds like an interesting combination of disciplines.

   "His research specialty is developmental robotics, a blend of 
    robotics, artificial intelligence, developmental psychology, 
    developmental neuroscience and philosophy."

I agree with Stoytchev when he says...

   "In the not-too-distant future, we will have personal robots 
    just like we have personal computers today.  The robots of 
    the future will be generalists. They will be employed in a 
    large variety of tasks that require a lot more smarts and 
    autonomy than is currently possible. They will have the 
    ability to learn how to perform new tasks on their own 
    without human intervention."

ScienceDaily.com::Robots To Clean Your Kitchen And Play A Game Of Hockey?

ECE.IaState.edu::Alexander Stoychev's Home Page

[09 February 2009, top]

   "Stair represents a new wave of AI, one that integrates learning, 
    vision, navigation, manipulation, planning, reasoning, speech 
    and natural-language processing." -- ComputerWorld.com

AI (Artificial Intelligence) and robots go together like bread and butter.

ComputerWorld.com::Future Watch: A.I. comes of age

[26 January 2009, top]

Title: Caterpillar, robotics and Peoria, Illinois

Caterpillar announced it is eliminating 20,000 jobs. I'm not from Peoria, Illinois, but I've been there and I feel for its residents.

[side-bar] Peoria, Arizona, was started by four families who moved to Arizona from Peoria, Illinois, back in the late-1880s.

I hope Caterpillar continues working on autonomous large haul trucks. I'm concerned that the United States is not the leader that it should be when it comes to robotics.

I find it ironic that our country need companies like Caterpillar to help lead us into the Age of Robotics, yet it is robotics that probably enables Caterpillar to fire 20,000 employees and still do $50 billion a year in revenue.

Who knows... maybe robots will play in Peoria.

Speaking of robotic trucks...

CMU.edu::Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute and Caterpillar Inc. To Automate Large Off Highway Haul Trucks

[26 January 2009, top]

I kept putting off and off and off, but there's no more putting it off--I needed to start blogging about robots. So on 8 June 2008, the Robot YottaFiler blog was created.

Yotta- is a metric prefix that implies 10 raised to the 24th power (1024), which when written as a whole number is 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. One YottaFiler equals one septillion. The symbol for Yotta- is 'Y'. The multiplicative inverse for Yotta- is yocto- (i.e. 'y'). My initial name for this blog was PetaFiler, but that term Googled too well. One YottaFiler is one million Petafilers.

M-W.com (Merriam-Webster Online) gives the following definitions for file: [transitive verb] "to arrange in order for preservation and reference" and [intransitive verb] "to place items in a file." A filer is one who files.

I used the Wikipedia to get the following "definition" for robot: "A robot is a mechanical or virtual, artificial agent." The term bot typically refers to software agents. Nanorobots are nano-sized robots and nanobots are very, very, very small bots.

One of my favorite quotes comes from Ray Kurzweil...

   "The future is biotech, nanotech, and, ultimately, robotics."

Robotics, in a nutshell, is the "science and technology of robots, their design, manufacture, and application."

In this blog, we're going to file yotta-bits of information about robots, bots, robotics, nanorobots and nanobots.

Robot YottaFiler Archives: 2008

[01 January 2009, top]