Berkeley's Two-Armed Robot Hints at a New Future For Warehouses (axios.com)

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Berkeley's Two-Armed Robot Hints at a New Future For Warehouses (axios.com)

Posted by msmash on Friday January 18, 2019 @05:28AM from the advancements-in-robotics dept.

Pick up a glass of water, lift a fork: you automatically figure out the best way to grasp each object. Now researchers at UC Berkeley have developed a robot that makes similar calculation, choosing on the fly whether to grab an object with pincers or lift it with a suction cup. From a report: Berkeley's two-armed robot, seen in this video clip [GIF file], first considers the contents of a bin and calculates each arm's probability of picking up an object. Its suction cup is good at grabbing smooth, flat objects like boxes, but bad at porous surfaces like on a stuffed animal. The pincers, on the other hand, are best with small, odd-shaped items. The system learned its pick-up prowess not from actual practice, but from millions of simulated grasps on more than 1,600 3D objects. In every simulation, small details were randomized, which taught the robot to deal with real-world uncertainty. The bot can pick up objects 95% of the time, at about 300 successful pickups per hour, its creators write in a paper published this week in Science Robotics. Warehouse robots that can move around merchandise are highly sought after. Amazon is reportedly working on its own "picker" robots, as are several robotics companies.

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Goodbye Warehouse Picker by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-18 05:31 · Score: 2, Insightful

Not right away of course, but in time. Automation will claim another job.
1. Re:Goodbye Warehouse Picker by pgmrdlm · 2019-01-18 05:38 · Score: 1
  
  Farming has already gone this route, it's becoming more automated each year.
  
  --
  Anonymous comments are as pathetic as the anonymous "sources" that contaminate gutless journalism from the New York Time
2. Re: Goodbye Warehouse Picker by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-18 05:51 · Score: 0
  
  I have seen something similar to this used in sorting for decades. Instead of flashy robot arms it just uses some kind of simple mechanical device (literally like sorting oranges by letting them fall through holes of different sizes) that is designed to grab exactly the desired object. Although pincers and suction cups are flashy, it is an aggressive use of intelligence and maybe could be dialed back a bit?
3. Re:Goodbye Warehouse Picker by cayenne8 · 2019-01-18 05:59 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Farming has already gone this route, it's becoming more automated each year.
  If that's the case, why so many still shout out that "we NEED" all these illegal 'guests' in the US from our southern border?
  I thought they were so desperately needed by the US food economy to pick/harvest.
  If that is no longer the case, why again are people defending letting them in illegally?
  
  --
  Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
4. Re:Goodbye Warehouse Picker by cascadingstylesheet · 2019-01-18 06:02 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Farming has already gone this route, it's becoming more automated each year.
  If that's the case, why so many still shout out that "we NEED" all these illegal 'guests' in the US from our southern border?
  I thought they were so desperately needed by the US food economy to pick/harvest.
  If that is no longer the case, why again are people defending letting them in illegally?
  Because they vote Democrat.
  You have indeed identified the hole in their logic - it's all robots, all the time, until somebody wants to shut that southern door. Then suddenly it's human labor again.
  They simultaneously don't matter, and also matter so much that we just can't close the door. Because reasons ...
5. Re: Goodbye Warehouse Picker by Headw1nd · 2019-01-18 06:10 · Score: 1
  
  That kind of system only works when you have a small set of items your are sorting, and the items have some sort of size difference. Neither is the case for an Amazon warehouse, where small lots of items are the norm, and the items can be a different as a teddy bear and a fishing pole or as similar as two models of phone that differ only by the UPC on their boxes.
6. Re:Goodbye Warehouse Picker by pgmrdlm · 2019-01-18 06:11 · Score: 1
  
  The rise of automated farming is an attempt to solve these problems by using robotics and advanced sensing.
  
  Nursery Planting. ...
  Crop Seeding. ...
  Crop Monitoring and Analysis. ...
  Fertilizing and Irrigation. ...
  Crop Weeding and Spraying. ...
  Thinning and Pruning. ...
  Autonomous Tractors. ...
  Picking and Harvesting.
  
  https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1&ei=gRZCXPmxL4jt5gK4mKi4Ag&q=examples+of+autimation+in+farming&oq=examples+of+autimation+in+farming&gs_l=psy-ab.3..33i10i299l3.3650.9825..9952...2.0..0.171.3605.19j16......0....1..gws-wiz.......35i39j0i131j0j0i131i67j0i67j0i20i263j0i13j0i13i30j33i22i10i29i30j33i10i160.9uZjTEUhTjc
  
  --
  Anonymous comments are as pathetic as the anonymous "sources" that contaminate gutless journalism from the New York Time
7. Re: Goodbye Warehouse Picker by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-18 06:48 · Score: 0
  
  Or you can look at it from a cartoonish point of view where either you want the pincers to pick up the object or the object to throw itself into the pincers.
8. Re:Goodbye Warehouse Picker by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-18 07:17 · Score: 0
  
  And yet none of those is fully automated, and most farms don't fully automate anything. Your entire premise is pulled out of your ridiculous lying faggot ass, you have zero concept of reality and know nothing real about this.
9. Re:Goodbye Warehouse Picker by drinkypoo · 2019-01-18 07:22 · Score: 1
  
  The number of workers needed per ton of produce uh... produced... has plummeted. But the amount produced has gone up, so we still need human labor. They are still necessary for certain high-value crops, like strawberries.
  However, this is about to change, and robots will actually be capable of doing a better job of picking strawberries than humans because they don't have to bend over, and you can build in a brix meter. In fact, you could cover the plants with a plastic film or net that would protect them from birds, and the robot could work under it.
  The corporations don't give a shit about humans, or the environment, or anything else but the bottom line. When it becomes cheaper to deploy robots than to hire illegal immigrants, they'll do that. And it will happen relatively soon. It's been "on the horizon" for a long time, as such things usually are, but now it's actually close.
  
  --
  "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
10. Re:Goodbye Warehouse Picker by ShanghaiBill · 2019-01-18 07:23 · Score: 1
  
  If that's the case, why so many still shout out that "we NEED" all these illegal 'guests' in the US from our southern border?
  Economics is not zero sum. Farm automation eliminated 80% of jobs. Manufacturing automation eliminated another 40%. So we should have an employment rate of -20%. Instead we have a full employment economy with unemployment at 40 year lows.
  As automation increases, productivity improves, human labor is more highly leveraged and more valuable, and living standards rise. American living standards have improved ten-fold since we started to automate in the 1800s. China has done the same in 30 years.
  
  If that is no longer the case, why again are people defending letting them in illegally?
  Unless there is a good reason otherwise, people should be free to move and live where they want.
  Immigrants do not "steal jobs". As immigrants set up households and raise their families, they generate more jobs than they take.
11. Re: Goodbye Warehouse Picker by ShanghaiBill · 2019-01-18 07:29 · Score: 1
  
  That kind of system only works when you have a small set of items your are sorting, and the items have some sort of size difference.
  TFA does not say this, and I see no reason to believe it is true. Why does the set have to be small? Why is a size difference needed?
  
  the items can be a different as a teddy bear and a fishing pole
  That is the point. This robot has different grippers for different products.
  
  or as similar as two models of phone that differ only by the UPC on their boxes.
  Then obviously the same gripper can be used twice. Duh.
12. Re:Goodbye Warehouse Picker by sagenumen · 2019-01-18 07:29 · Score: 2
  
  Do you have evidence that this argument has any significant voice behind it? I see right-wing rags pushing it as an argument that Dems frequently champion, but that's about it.
13. Re:Goodbye Warehouse Picker by gtall · 2019-01-18 07:35 · Score: 1
  
  In addition, Americans aren't doing the nasty like they used to. Now, we are below replacement rate. So if Americans want to retire with some social security, medicare, and a host of other services, they'd better learn to welcome some non-native born new Americans.
14. Re:Goodbye Warehouse Picker by sycodon · 2019-01-18 07:55 · Score: 1
  
  I don't think creating a job that requires back breaking work in bone chilling cold or soul oppressing heat could be called giving a shit about humans.
  Almost every aspect of farming is back breaking work and the more that is automated, the better for everyone.
  
  --
  When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
15. Re:Goodbye Warehouse Picker by sycodon · 2019-01-18 07:57 · Score: 1
  
  Well shit, you have to get a Consent Contract signed and notarized before you can even hug a woman these days...EVERY TIME.
  No wonder PornHub is so popular,
  
  --
  When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
16. Re:Goodbye Warehouse Picker by Shotgun · 2019-01-18 07:58 · Score: 1
  
  The corporations don't give a shit about humans, or the environment, or anything else but the bottom line.
  Corporations don't care about the bottom lines, either. They can't, because corps are a legal fiction, not people. The reason this is important is because if you're going to attack something, you have to make sure you take good aim.
  I would agree that corporate LEADERS don't give a shit about humans (at least not those in their immediate vicinity), or the environment, or anything else but the bottom line. But, then again, that doesn't make corporate leaders unique, does it?
  
  --
  Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
  Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
17. Re:Goodbye Warehouse Picker by Shotgun · 2019-01-18 08:07 · Score: 1
  
  Unless there is a good reason otherwise, people should be free to move and live where they want.
  Agreed. In this case, the good reason is the American/European social safety net. Once you put that in place, someone moving from a poor country to try their hand at the American Dream is not a zero cost to me. They must stop swinging, because my nose is occupying the space.
  And immigrants do "steal jobs". I worked with a part time tobacco farmer. He bragged about hiring Latinos, because they would work for practically nothing and were happy to live in a dilapidated shed he had on the property. He couldn't get Americans to ignore minimum wage laws to work all day in the NC heat and humidity, so those American jobs went to illegal immigrants.
  
  --
  Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
  Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
18. Re:Goodbye Warehouse Picker by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-18 08:11 · Score: 0
  
  This is because "farming" is an incredibly broad activity that requires different levels of dexterity and admits different levels of automation at current technology levels depending on what, precisely, is being farmed.
  For example, grain farming has proven to be incredibly easy to automate. A gigantic tractor can plow fields at hundreds of times the efficiency of draft animals. Seed can then be planted via relatively simple machines. Water, fertilizer and pesticide can all be efficiently applied with mechanical aid to great effect. That same gigantic tractor can then reap and thresh the grains similarly efficiently.
  On the other hand, grape farming is incredibly difficult to automate. There currently do not exist machines with the capability to pick a bunch of grapes off of a vine without irreparably damaging the vine, the grape, or both. Thus, we can automate *some* types of farming, but human hands are absolutely necessary for others.
  What color and/or nationality those hands "should" be is in enough people's economic self-interest to allow for debate on those grounds, but the suggestion that we do not need human labor for farming is simply incorrect.
19. Re:Goodbye Warehouse Picker by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-18 08:18 · Score: 0
  
  You're a moron, you have no concept of economics and your education is woefully inadequate... no wonder day laborers are a threat to you, you're a moron.
20. Re:Goodbye Warehouse Picker by zaq1xsw2cde9 · 2019-01-18 08:21 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  I agree with your sentiment, however, in this case, these two things are not mutually exclusive. "Farming" is not one thing. "Farming" consists of many processes bringing hundreds of type of products to market, and each of these product have multiple steps in getting it to market.
  It is not unreasonable to automate picking of many crops and continuing to add more to this while still requiring manual labor for other more delicate crops.
  By the way, plenty of Republican business owners also want the border open to get cheaper labor to improve their profit margins.
21. Re:Goodbye Warehouse Picker by ShanghaiBill · 2019-01-18 08:21 · Score: 0
  
  Agreed. In this case, the good reason is the American/European social safety net. Once you put that in place, someone moving from a poor country to try their hand at the American Dream is not a zero cost to me. They must stop swinging, because my nose is occupying the space.
  Logically, this applies just as much to Americans as it does to immigrants. Benefits for a poor American are not zero cost to you either.
  
  And immigrants do "steal jobs".
  The problem with your anecdote is that you are ignoring the jobs generated when those workers spend their earnings. You are also ignoring the alternative jobs that the citizens find, thus allowing other areas of the economy to expand that otherwise would be restricted by lack of labor. More than 60% of America businesses say they are unable to find all the workers they need.
22. Re:Goodbye Warehouse Picker by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-18 08:33 · Score: 0
  
  As automation increases, productivity improves, human labor is more highly leveraged and more valuable, and living standards rise. American living standards have improved ten-fold since we started to automate in the 1800s. China has done the same in 30 years.
  More recently (last 40 years) productivity has increased, but hourly compensation for the workers at the bottom hasn't really budged. An old trend doesn't necessarily continue.
23. Re:Goodbye Warehouse Picker by Solandri · 2019-01-18 08:45 · Score: 1
  
  It already skews representation in Congress and votes for the Presidential election. The wording for the Census says it will count all "persons", not just those eligible to vote. In 2016, the Supreme Court decided that this wording means people in the country illegally get counted in the Census. (I should note that this was a 9-0 decision. If you don't like it, the Constitution needs to be amended to change the wording.)
  
  Since the Census is used to decide apportionment (how many Representatives a state gets in the House), and the number of Electoral votes a state gets in the Presidential election, this has the effect of giving additional votes to states with higher populations of illegal immigrants. It's currently at about 710,000 residents per representative, so California gets 3 additional House seats, Texas gets 2 extra, and New York and Florida get 1 extra due to their illegal resident populations. That's a net +4 for blue states, +2 for red, and 1 swing state.
  
  This is what the whole brouhaha over the citizenship question on the census is about. Those for it argue it's needed to properly measure the magnitude of the skew. Those against it argue the question discourages people in the country legally from responding to the Census.
24. Re:Goodbye Warehouse Picker by ShanghaiBill · 2019-01-18 09:00 · Score: 1
  
  More recently (last 40 years) productivity has increased
  It has increased by less than you may think. In the 1st World, productivity has stagnated. The easy gains came from automating agriculture and manufacturing decades ago. Today we are mostly a service economy, and services are harder to automate.
  Stagnant productivity gains are slowing economic growth
  There is a myth that automation is happening "faster and faster". It isn't, and that is a problem.
  
  hourly compensation for the workers at the bottom hasn't really budged.
  Capitalism excels at creating wealth. It isn't so good a "fairly" distributing that wealth.
  We should focus on how the gains from automation are distributed, rather than trying to stifle those gains.
25. Re:Goodbye Warehouse Picker by lgw · 2019-01-18 09:00 · Score: 2
  
  Very few people are saying America shouldn't have immigration. Very many people are saying America shouldn't have illegal immigration. Lying assholes pretend to be confused about that.
  
  --
  Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
26. Re: Goodbye Warehouse Picker by Headw1nd · 2019-01-18 09:01 · Score: 1
  
  You haven't read the comment chain. I am responding to the grandparent poster who was talking about alternative systems, and am explaining why you need something like the suction/pincer system.
27. Re:Goodbye Warehouse Picker by ShanghaiBill · 2019-01-18 10:05 · Score: 0
  
  Very few people are saying America shouldn't have immigration.
  Plenty of people are saying that. One of them is our president, who has said that legal immigration should be curtailed.
  
  Very many people are saying America shouldn't have illegal immigration.
  Many of us are saying that most people coming here illegally should be able to come legally.
  It is hypocritical to push these people into the shadows when our economy depends on them. The meatpacking industry is largely staffed with illegals. During the summer fires in California, firefighting teams were organized as either "English" or "Spanish" so there would be no intra-team communication problems. 80% of the teams choose Spanish. So you want to deport the family of the guy who just saved your house?
28. Re:Goodbye Warehouse Picker by sycodon · 2019-01-18 10:13 · Score: 1
  
  All you have are excuses for breaking the laws.
  
  --
  When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
29. Re:Goodbye Warehouse Picker by sycodon · 2019-01-18 10:16 · Score: 1
  
  So..you are an open borders motherfucker.
  I see.
  
  --
  When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
30. Re:Goodbye Warehouse Picker by ShanghaiBill · 2019-01-18 10:25 · Score: 0
  
  All you have are excuses for breaking the laws.
  No, I am saying the laws should be changed.
  Our way of life requires millions of people to break the law in order to pick our strawberries, butcher our hogs, and extinguish our fires. We have an immoral system, and we need to fix it.
31. Re:Goodbye Warehouse Picker by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-18 10:55 · Score: 0
  
  If that is no longer the case, why again are people defending letting them in illegally?
  
  Because they vote Democrat.
  
  There is this thing called "critical thinking". I suggest you take a course at a respectable institution. You don't have to be wrong about everything for people to stop listening.
32. Re:Goodbye Warehouse Picker by pgmrdlm · 2019-01-18 12:32 · Score: 1
  
  Really numbnuts? And what pray tell is your reference you can share to prove your position. Till you put up, shut the fuck up.
  
  --
  Anonymous comments are as pathetic as the anonymous "sources" that contaminate gutless journalism from the New York Time
33. Re:Goodbye Warehouse Picker by sarren1901 · 2019-01-18 13:28 · Score: 1
  
  That's just it. You are being played by both sides. Illegal immigration is a wonderful football issue they can kick back and force. Both sides can use it to whip up their base. That's why nothing real is ever done about it.
  Big companies love the slave labor and Democrats love the optics if gives their candidates with the people that can vote that sympathize with those that are here unlawfully.
  Jail CEOs for hiring illegals. Mandatory e-verify. Sure, you will still have individuals going for fraudulent papers but this would go a long way to helping. Also do away with birthright citizenship. Anyone with enough money can fly here on a travel visa, have a child, and go back home. It's an abuse of the system and a deprecated law that was designed to give slaves citizenship.
34. Re:Goodbye Warehouse Picker by sarren1901 · 2019-01-18 13:38 · Score: 1
  
  Why not require legal workers and proper compensation? Why should big farm get to screw over illegal workers for their profit margins? If you required citizens with workers rights you would indeed find American citizens willing to do these seasonal jobs.
  Would food cost more? It just might but then again we would have a larger tax base with those extra jobs so we could afford more services or food subsidies if you wanted to go that route.
  No one should be here undocumented and without basic medical screening. No one should be working without a tax ID. It's not fair on those of us that pay taxes for corporations and undocumented (illegal) workers to skip out on that. It also screws the worker out of retirement and disability which they have indeed earned.
  I guess we both can agree the laws need some work.
35. Re:Goodbye Warehouse Picker by lgw · 2019-01-18 13:52 · Score: 1
  
  Do you understand the difference between "less immigration" and "no immigration"? Assuming you believe in democracy, I'd assume you'd agree that the voting citizenry has the right to determine the rate, whatever it might be? A goal that is impossible before we secure the border.
  
  During the summer fires in California, firefighting teams were organized as either "English" or "Spanish" so there would be no intra-team communication problems. 80% of the teams choose Spanish. So you want to deport the family of the guy who just saved your house?
  I moved to a state less mindbogglingly fucking stupid in every way and every decision than California, and so my state is not on fire! But that's neither here nor there.
  
  --
  Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
36. Re:Goodbye Warehouse Picker by dryeo · 2019-01-18 14:19 · Score: 1
  
  Here in Canada, we (actually the farmers) fly them up from Central America, house them, pay them $15+ an hour, and fly them back at the end of the season. Everyone is happy and food isn't that much more expensive.
  
  --
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
37. Re:Goodbye Warehouse Picker by dryeo · 2019-01-18 14:26 · Score: 1
  
  You did report him didn't you? People like your tobacco farmer are the ones responsible for the illegals coming to get jobs.
  And does America actually give benefits to illegals? Or is like here where Americans show up with fake papers and sponge of our medical system without paying into it.
  
  --
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
38. Re:Goodbye Warehouse Picker by drinkypoo · 2019-01-19 02:03 · Score: 1
  
  "I don't think creating a job that requires back breaking work in bone chilling cold or soul oppressing heat could be called giving a shit about humans."
  Didn't I just get done saying that they don't care?
  (In regards to the sibling comment, saying that corporations don't care is a perfectly acceptable figure of speech in the English language.)
  "Almost every aspect of farming is back breaking work and the more that is automated, the better for everyone."
  You're assuming a rational world with primarily benevolent actors. Stop that, we don't live in one of those. If the wealth is not distributed then it is provably not better for everyone if we automate their jobs away. Only in a fantasy world is everyone better off if we automate their jobs. Maybe that will eventually be the case, but the wealthy are not going to give up their avarice (Google autocorrected avarice to "Snapple" REPEATABLY on this Nexus 7 2nd, wtf is that about?) without a battle.
  
  --
  "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
39. Re:Goodbye Warehouse Picker by cayenne8 · 2019-01-19 09:43 · Score: 1
  
  Plenty of people are saying that. One of them is our president, who has said that legal immigration should be curtailed.
  No, he said we should be able to be SELECTIVE about who gets to immigrate in.
  I agree with that.
  Let's let people that are higher on the education and productivity totem pole in ahead of the others.
  We have plenty of lower class and folks that drag on the welfare system.
  We should want and welcome those more educated and productive into our country.....I don't know anyone that has a problem with that.
  
  It is hypocritical to push these people into the shadows when our economy depends on them. The meatpacking industry is largely staffed with illegals. During the summer fires in California, firefighting teams were organized as either "English" or "Spanish" so there would be no intra-team communication problems. 80% of the teams choose Spanish. So you want to deport the family of the guy who just saved your house?
  There's an illustration of HUGE problem right there.
  The US has been historically an ENGLISH speaking county. Immigrants of the past, came here, learned english and assimilated for the greater good.
  There should be absolutely NO NEED for anyone to have to go out of their way to speak spanish in the US for official purposes.
  That's one of the problems of letting ourselves be invaded by a horde of folks that are not coming here legally, to become citizens and assimilate into the US melting pot.
  
  --
  Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
hey! by cascadingstylesheet · 2019-01-18 05:32 · Score: 1

The pincers, on the other hand, are best with small, odd-shaped items.
You insensitive clod! Why I oughta ...
Oh, never mind.
I will wait... by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-18 05:34 · Score: 0

To see how a company like amazon implements this instead of depending on claims from some lab test
I kept thinking of 1 armed bandits now becoming 2 by pgmrdlm · 2019-01-18 05:43 · Score: 1

armed bandits. Now that I think about it, don't most modern slot machines have 2 levers? for people that are right/left handed. So, the 2 armed robot has already been around for years.

--
Anonymous comments are as pathetic as the anonymous "sources" that contaminate gutless journalism from the New York Time
as the son of a former warehouseman by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-18 05:58 · Score: 0

Let's just keep automating away the low-skilled but good paying jobs.
Why can't we automate lawyers? There's too many, they're too expensive, and they don't add value to society. If we could automate lawyers, human society would enter a new golden age.
1. Re: as the son of a former warehouseman by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-18 06:03 · Score: 0
  
  Automate lawyers? You are like most people think of all the ways lawyers have irritated you and in hindsight think you could have done better. It is possible that is correct in some cases. In other cases, lawyers are probably irreplaceable. Every profession has its indispensable ways, its dispensable ways, and things they cant handle at all. Would you ask the best chef in the world to tile a floor? Probably not.
2. Re:as the son of a former warehouseman by Headw1nd · 2019-01-18 06:12 · Score: 2
  
  They already are
3. Re: as the son of a former warehouseman by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-18 09:31 · Score: 0
  
  Automate lawyers? You are like most people think of all the ways lawyers have irritated you and in hindsight think you could have done better. It is possible that is correct in some cases. In other cases, lawyers are probably irreplaceable. Every profession has its indispensable ways, its dispensable ways, and things they cant handle at all. Would you ask the best chef in the world to tile a floor? Probably not.
  You really think you know how I think? Are you electronically telepathic, able to break into my brain through the internet? No? Then you're making assumptions.
  I have worked with 23 lawyers in my life, mostly professional and some personal. I've worked with litigators, business counsel, IP attorneys, contract counsel (for vendor and contract management), a divorce lawyer and 2 estate-planning attorneys, and that doesn't count my friend who was a DA and is now a litigator, 2 other friends who are in-house counsels for business, and 2 personal injury attorneys I know but have not worked with. Only one lawyer has actually screwed me; this was the defense attorney in a case where my family member had to sue somebody decades ago.
  Generally I like every one of them personally. The problem is that with working with all of those attorneys, I have never once worked in the legal services business. Not once. It is lawyers who create the myriad complex problems in the system that then require other lawyers to interpret. Even the ones that are on your side, you can't trust them because they bill you for every 6 minutes they spend writing an email or a phone call, and then berate you for not reaching out to them for advice (hint: when you charge $250-$700/hr, a 6 minute phone call costs $25-$70). So you can't lean on them for advice or questions when they're supposed to be your counsel because they have a straw placed firmly in your bank account and suck funds out. The worst part is, even when you explain it that way they have no idea why you're mad at this situation because it's normal. During the recession, the legal services industry is the only industry that kept increasing prices, and they don't understand why that's bat-shit crazy.
  Lawyers are fine people. Professionally working with them is nearly impossible because their interest is to maximize hours and charge you for work, not adding true value. So even your own counsel isn't always aligned in your interests.
How many-armed? by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-18 06:05 · Score: 0

Well I for one welcome our multi-armed robot overlords!
Overstated by Areyoukiddingme · 2019-01-18 06:39 · Score: 2

Pick up a glass of water, lift a fork: you automatically figure out the best way to grasp each object.
No you don't. You spend weeks learning, as a child. These researchers have completely forgotten that humans don't know these things. They learn them, with lots of spills along the way. Then they relearn them as their musculature changes as they grow older. The robot gets to skip that second part, but the human doesn't get the skip the first part any more than the robot does. They both have to perform the "more than 1600 pickups" before they can make a reasonable prediction of the best way to grasp something, and then succeed in the attempt on the first try. I don't know if anyone has counted how many pickup attempts a baby makes before it gets good at picking things up, but I'm betting it's at least 1600 attempts, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if it's many more.
There's been years and years of development in picker robots, and they're still pretty bad. Let's face it, a 95% success rate is pretty terrible. The researchers shouldn't feel bad about their continued failures though. Picking things up is hard for humans too. Hell, for some humans it's permanently hard. Even with adult-sized hands, a developmentally disabled human may never get good at picking things up.
Neither of you nazi faggots actually farms shit by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-18 06:55 · Score: 0

You could sit around eating the turds out of Putin's ass like Trump does... but you don't grow shit in reality, most all your food is picked by immigrants. You're welcome, obese nazi faggots. When Trump hangs, remember that.
Bad headline by myth24601 · 2019-01-18 07:03 · Score: 1

The headline held so much promise but it turns out there are no armed robots. Hoping for a real life Robotron.

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No matter where you go, there you are.
armed robots? by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-18 07:12 · Score: 0

I missed the hyphen and initially thought that Berkeley was creating armed robots for warehouses.
1. Re:armed robots? by sycodon · 2019-01-18 08:00 · Score: 1
  
  They are also working robot protesters.
  Complete with black masks, stupid signs and recorded shouts of "Nazi!"
  
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  When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
You're a 0-brained moron by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-18 07:14 · Score: 0

pgmrdlm has the dumbest ideas.
1. Re:You're a 0-brained moron by pgmrdlm · 2019-01-18 12:34 · Score: 0
  
  Your just a smelly cunt that even the winos won't fuck. Have you been fucking your broomstick lately?
  
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  Anonymous comments are as pathetic as the anonymous "sources" that contaminate gutless journalism from the New York Time
I never use my suction cup. by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-18 07:29 · Score: 0

Because I guess I don't have one. Call me when Berkeley figures out how to make something as versatile as a human hand.
1. Re:I never use my suction cup. by PPH · 2019-01-18 08:14 · Score: 1
  
  You have no future in tentacle porn.
  
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  Have gnu, will travel.
2. Re: I never use my suction cup. by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-18 08:31 · Score: 0
  
  The Japanese have a stranglehold on the market.
Something to do with your racism, lies maybe? by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-18 07:31 · Score: 0

Robots would vote Democrat also, Republican lies are just too illogical for any intelligence to support, natural or artificial. Trump is a traitor, the craven cowards of this GOP went traitor defending him. Hang them all, be done with it.
The future is solidly liberal and there's nothing you dying dinosaur faggots can lie about to stop it. Trump's on his way to prison along with his whole traitor family. He keeps picking solid AG's and failing to obstruct justice, the moron.
Rope is coming, traitors. If you weren't such obviously lying craven racist faggots, yeah, people might consider you a viable alternative. But you decided to go full traitor instead, and may Satan have mercy on your bitch souls in Hell.
Truly you racist faggots will always have yourselves to blame.
1. Re:Something to do with your racism, lies maybe? by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-18 11:39 · Score: 0
  
  Here we have more evidence that vaccinations cause autism.
Video? GIF? by DontBeAMoran · 2019-01-18 08:04 · Score: 1

Berkeley's two-armed robot, seen in this video clip [GIF file]...
GIF was NEVER meant to be used for videos and whoever made this should never be allowed near a web server or code editor ever again for the rest of his life.
What's next? A spreadsheet with background coloured 1x1 pixel cells instead of using JPEG to display a photo?
A high-resolution PNG of a waveform instead of using MP3?

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#DeleteFacebook
1. Re:Video? GIF? by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-18 09:38 · Score: 0
  
  If you really wanted to take a stand on this issue, the ideal time to do it would have been 30 years ago, when the GIF89a spec was finalized, introducing the graphic control extension that enabled animated GIFs.
ARMED!?!?! by pr0fessor · 2019-01-18 08:48 · Score: 1

Am I the only person that saw the headline and thought you can't give robots guns that's an accidental shooting waiting to happen. Then read the summary and was a little disappointed.
Foods can be substituted by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-18 09:04 · Score: 0

Foods can be substituted. There are enough foods, which are mostly mechanized, to the point where we can hire more expensive Americans. One can have a diet free of niche foods, like strawberries, asparagus, etc..
Mechanized crops include: Corn, wheat, soybeans, peanuts, sugarcane, juice oranges, beans, some varieties of grapes, onions, tomatoes. Now, some hand picked varieties taste better fresh, but the machine varieties are good enough for my poor self.
Real robots have three arms by WillAffleckUW · 2019-01-18 10:52 · Score: 2

And they know how to use them in warehouses.
Only slacker bots use two arms.

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Test it on the sidewalks of Berkeley by edi_guy · 2019-01-18 12:35 · Score: 1

How about using this picking up the litter around the city of Berkeley first, then head off to the warehouses.
1. Re:Test it on the sidewalks of Berkeley by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-19 19:05 · Score: 0
  
  How about using this picking up the litter around the city of Berkeley first, then head off to the warehouses.
  I am sure eventually it'll come to that. Then the only jobs left for humans will be cleaning the cleaning bots.
I need sleep by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-18 15:32 · Score: 0

I read "Berkeley's (Two-) Armed Robot Hints at a New Future For Warhorses". That conjured images of some smaller scale AT-AT. I went "dafuque?!?!" until I read it again, properly. I need some rest.
Bullshit. by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-18 17:31 · Score: 0

Every illegal I've known working for someone has been working for a Republican.
And I'm not talking about just one person. I'm talking at least a dozen independent republican businesspeople ranging from restaurant owners to rental owners, to hardware stores to people running ebay businesses.
Now I am not saying there are not democrats doing the same thing, but based on my experience living in california, most of the illegal labor here is supported by republicans trying to cut costs and avoid paying into state institutions like unemployment, medical coverage, etc, while also benefitting from extra employees in even worse financial positions than minimum wage employees often find themselves in.
Truly disgusting from the party who emancipated slaves and claim to be against illegal immigration and 'outsourcing' jobs.
What's it do if I kick it? by mnemotronic · 2019-01-18 18:12 · Score: 1

How does it behave if I kick it, whack it with a bat or just mess with it? Not that I'd normally even think of doing that, but the researchers are giving me ideas.

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The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.