People Prefer to Take Orders from Robots than Bosses

You could be taking orders from Honda's Asimo someday if we are to go by this report

It must be an ego problem....

Research coming out of MIT confirms that in a two-human, one-robot team working toward a common goal, the humans would rather the robot be in charge.

Not only do human participants prefer taking robo-orders when it comes to tackling a manufacturing task, but the robot ended up leading the team in a more productive manner than the humans could.

The fully-autonomous condition proved to be not only the most effective for the task, but also the method preferred by human workers. The workers were more likely to say that the robots “better understood them” and “improved the efficiency of the team.”

[Project lead Matthew] Gombolay emphasizes that giving robots control doesn’t mean a team of cyborgs will be running the show. It means the tasks are delegated, scheduled, and coordinated via a human-generated algorithm.

This experiment was conducted in two other arrangements as well — manual, in which all tasks were coordinated by a human, and semi-autonomous, in which one human worked delegated its own work and the robot delegated tasks to the other human.
You can see how the various setups compare against each other in the data below. The team's two hypotheses are confirmed: that the level of automation in a system greatly affects efficiency, and that people want to be involved without the burdens of small management decisions.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/robots-as-bosses-2014-8#ixzz3BPxYCh7Q

Barack Obama Meets and Plays Soccer with Honda's Asimo Robot

This is a first...very soon some people will be campaigning that robots be treated like people!



Obviously the robot is a better footballer, sorry "soccer player" than President Obama.

Robots Deployed as Traffic Police in DR Congo

Interesting...

Kinshasa's traffic robot

DR Congo recruits robots as traffic police

The Democratic Republic of Congo's capital Kinshasa is notorious for bad traffic. So police are getting a helping hand to keep the cars moving.

Two giant traffic robots have appeared in the capital, a city where drivers normally spend hours in traffic and which has become notorious for corrupt traffic police.

Unlike their human counterparts, the robots, which have built-in cameras to report traffic offences to a central computer, are unable to collect bribes.

“There are several kinds of traffic lights in the world," said French engineer Thérèse Izay, who designed the robots.

"But I can tell you that the only robot, in human form, in the shape of a policeman who is regulating traffic, is made in Congo," she said.

Izay, who runs a women's technology cooperative, hopes authorities will pay for the robots to be installed in cities across Africa and beyond, to promote Congo's female engineers and create much-needed jobs.

So far pedestrians at a busy intersection seemed impressed with a robot, which, with its red lights on its front and back of its chest and green lights on its arms, was rotating to direct traffic.

“It is better than before. Now you can cross with confidence. The robot is doing its job correctly,” a pedestrian said.


Source: Al Jazeera




pedestrian said.

Google Acquires Robot Maker, Boston Dynamics

I do not know if you have noticed it but the world is moving very quickly towards adopting robots as part of normal day-to-day living. Google is one of the big companies driving this movement and this latest acquisition of Boston Dynamics, a leading robotics company is more evidence of the attempt to push robots into the society...

 

Prototype robots by Boston Dynamics

Google acquires Boston Dynamics, the robot builder behind Big Dog and Cheetah

The New York Times reports tonight that Google has acquired Boston Dynamics, builder of terrifying walking robots DARPA-related projects like WildCat/Cheetah, Atlas, Petman and Big Dog. Andy Rubin has moved over from leading Android to directing Google's robotics efforts and tweeted a link to the story, commenting that "The future is looking awesome!" While we're sure it does -- if you always thought the T-1000 was just misunderstood -- reactions from meatbags are ranging from slightly uneasy to completely freaking out that a company with robots that go anywhere is teaming up with a company that seems to know everything about us.

There's no word on how much Google spent to snap up the robotics company, but its founder Marc Raibert is quoted by the Times saying "I am excited by Andy and Google's ability to think very, very big, with the resources to make it happen." When we interviewed Raibert during Expand earlier this year (included after the break) he specifically highlighted his company's recent growth and the possibility of building consumer-focused robots in the future.

Read more at Engadget