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A Piece-By-Piece Guide to the Most Advanced Bots

XopherMV cuts-and-pastes from Wired: "In an article from Wired, 'Consider the progress of just the past 15 years. There are now robots that can get around on two legs, participate in simple conversations, and manipulate objects in rudimentary ways. Of course, we don't yet have a bot that can navigate downtown Manhattan, tie its shoelaces, or even tell a chair from a desk. MIT's Cynthia Breazeal holds out hope that within five years, robots will cross a critical threshold, becoming partners rather than tools - in other words, we'll have friends, not appliances.'" Reader ptorrone adds: "In Los Angeles, CA at the Century Plaza Hotel for the 4Site conference, our favorite robot vacuum/military supplier, iRobot, showed off the tactical mobile robot! The 'Tactical mobile Robot' has its own brochure and site: www.packbot.com. The rad thing about this platform is its skateboard design, where it appears to support various plug-in modules. Here are some photos of the packbot!"

16 of 194 comments (clear)

  1. Good robot. by SIGALRM · · Score: 4, Funny

    Machines are getting more and more like the rest of us

    Uh, oh.

    There are some human behaviors I'd rather robots not emulate, such as warring against each other, spamming, biting their fingernails, and forgetting to put the toilet seat down.

    --
    Sigs cause cancer.
    1. Re:Good robot. by Zorilla · · Score: 2, Funny

      Because this is Slashdot. A day without mentioning "I, Robot" in a robotics-related article is like a day without, uh, whatever it is nerds need to survive.

      --

      It would be cool if it didn't suck.
    2. Re:Good robot. by BRSloth · · Score: 2, Funny

      I'd guess there are maybe 3 people in the world who really want a robot "friend"

      Hoorray! It's the first someone talk about me in Slashdot!

      Who are the other two?

    3. Re:Good robot. by Fulcrum+of+Evil · · Score: 2, Funny

      Robots will become "friends" instead of "tools" the day the first one says, "No, I will not help you move", or "Not tonight, I have a headache."

      "Prom will be a whole lot better this year with my robot. My _Girl_ robot."

      --
      "We returned the General to El Salvador, or maybe Guatemala, it's difficult to tell from 10,000 feet"
    4. Re:Good robot. by XryanX · · Score: 2, Funny

      "like a day without, uh, whatever it is nerds need to survive."

      Hentai and caffeine?

  2. Ummm...which one? by nebaz · · Score: 5, Funny

    From the article:
    ACT HAND: The Anatomically Correct Testbed hand also aims to imitate human anatomy. Its bones mimic ours, the joints provide the same range of motion and stiffness as human joints, and for control it relies on signals that emulate neural commands from the brain. While the goal is to build a full hand, researchers at Carnegie Mellon have completed only one finger. - Xeni Jardin

    I wonder which one?

    --
    Rhymes that keep their secrets will unfold behind the clouds.There upon the rainbow is the answer to a neverending story
  3. I'm still waiting? by EvilBudMan · · Score: 4, Funny

    for the fembots.

  4. Yeah.... by kpansky · · Score: 3, Funny

    "becoming partners"...

    And as everyone knows the porn industry will have this technology in widespread use 10.5 microseconds after it becomes commercially available.

    Rotate 28 degrees. Engage rotor.

    --

    --Kevin
  5. Nothing new... by GillBates0 · · Score: 5, Funny
    robots will cross a critical threshold, becoming partners rather than tools - in other words, we'll have friends, not appliances.

    To most Slashdotters...RealDoll is already a partner and best friend.

    --
    An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
  6. Re:partners? by dnoyeb · · Score: 2, Funny

    becoming partners rather than tools

    We don't even consider our current spouses this way let alone a robot...

    Tool!

  7. Re:Hmmm by Pvt_Waldo · · Score: 4, Funny

    iWonder

  8. Re:Hmmm by lukewarmfusion · · Score: 2, Funny

    Knowing the mainstream penchant for science fiction, I'm guessing they likely got the idea from Will Smith.

    GeneralAwesome: "OMG! Will Smith is in a movie where he fights robots! Kewl!!"

    SgtSlotter: "LOL, sir!!!!1"

  9. But, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    we already have Furby. Why keep going? Man, isn't that little guy a riot?

  10. "rad??" by Lando+Griffin · · Score: 1, Funny
    ...The rad thing is...

    All the 12 year-olds from 1987 called--they want their word back!

  11. Re:you're kidding! by bizard · · Score: 2, Funny
    Of course, we don't yet have a bot that can... even tell a chair from a desk.

    Most of the people who visit my office can't make that distinction either.

  12. This old joke is gonna get recycled. by blair1q · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'm not going to update this, I'm just going to let it work for itself.

    Guy is sitting in his upper berth in a sleeper car and hears a strange noise below him. He peeks over, and there's a woman down there, unhooking a prosthetic leg.

    He watches a little more, as she pops out her false teeth and a glass eye.

    She rolls up her sleeve and starts to detach her arm, when she spies him out of her remaining eye.

    "What do you want?" she stage-whispers.

    "You know what I want," he says, "just unscrew it and throw it up here."