RoboEarth

Joris Peels, of i.materialse, has a curious hobby he calls “Skynet search.” He goes around the internets looking for evidence of the real-world emergence of Skynet. He posted this item about RoboEarth to his blog. RoboEarth is an attempt at creating a sort of Google Earth/Internet for robots, a place where standardized navigation and object information can be uploaded, stored, and then downloaded by a bot that needs it.

Scientists and researchers from the Technical University of Eindhoven, Philips & the universities of Stuttgart, München, Zaragoza & Zurich have just made a huge breakthrough with RoboEarth. They have managed to get the TechUnited AMIGO robot (pictured above) to download all the information it needs for a specific task and then carry out this task. The task seems simple, the robot had to pick up and serve a bottle of water to a person. The AMIGO was successful in doing this autonomously.

Wait. Is that the dusty crunch of a human skull being mindlessly trammeled beneath a robotic foot? Why yes, I think it is.

(BTW: Some viewers might find the audio to this video a little annoying. I turned my volume way down.)

Skynet is here. Robo Earth & the ‘AMIGO’

3 Responses to RoboEarth

David Kavanagh on February 3rd, 2011 at 1:33 pm said:

I love that over the top music. It built and built until it actually lifted the juice box off the counter. Though, If I were dying in bed, I’d still probably just get it myself instead of waiting the mind numbing amount of time for this thing!

Noticed the Kinect, but it seemed to be in “stowed” position. Was it actually used at some point, or more for “cool” value?

Reply ↓
David Kavanagh on February 3rd, 2011 at 1:33 pm said:

I love that over the top music. It built and built until it actually lifted the juice box off the counter. Though, If I were dying in bed, I’d still probably just get it myself instead of waiting the mind numbing amount of time for this thing!

Noticed the Kinect, but it seemed to be in “stowed” position. Was it actually used at some point, or more for “cool” value?

Reply ↓
David Kavanagh on February 3rd, 2011 at 1:33 pm said:

I love that over the top music. It built and built until it actually lifted the juice box off the counter. Though, If I were dying in bed, I’d still probably just get it myself instead of waiting the mind numbing amount of time for this thing!

Noticed the Kinect, but it seemed to be in “stowed” position. Was it actually used at some point, or more for “cool” value?

Reply ↓