When you think of a game you most likely think of kid-friendly classics like hide-and-seek, go fish, or maybe even a fun family board game. “The knife game”, however, is far from Parcheesi. Precision is the name of the game. Also known as stabscotch and five finger fillet, the knife game is intense and dangerous…. Read more »
IEEE Spectrum had an interesting conversation with robotics experts on robots falling down. There were some interesting speculations on why people respond strongly to videos showing robots falling down. We think the robotics experts might have been looking at it the wrong way, though. It’s unusual? Both of the experts suggested that people are interesting… Read more »
With actors and screenwriters on strike, the conversation about robots taking over human jobs is heating up again. One of the complaints from the Hollywood workers is that their jobs are threatened by artificial intelligence. AI is already used to populate crowd scenes, whether it be armies of orcs or cheering crowds in a stadium…. Read more »
The Economist lists four reasons governments worldwide are eager to increase manufacturing in their economies: Manufacturing provides stable middle-class jobs. Manufacturing drives innovation and growth. Manufacturing can support environmental responsibility. Tensions between America and China make individual countries think they need to produce their own goods. Spoiler alert: they go on to question all of… Read more »
Indramat motors, drives, and controls still run in factories across the globe. That’s because Indramat offered state of the art motion control systems with unrivaled durability. Your motors have run reliably for the past 20 or 30 years, but it’s now time for a repair. If you operate in the United States or North America,… Read more »
Fast food prep robots have been right on the horizon for years, and some, such as Flippy and Chippy, are already hard at work at a quick service restaurant near you. Now, see the Autocado, Chipotle’s new guacamole maker. Autocado can’t actually make guacamole from start to finish, but it can cut, peel, core, and… Read more »
Chat GPT, and the myriad additional apps built on it, are taking the world by storm. On the one hand, we see utopian suggestions that generative AI will let everyone communicate directly with machines in plain English. It will foresee machine errors, schedule our work time for us, and make our workers happier and more… Read more »
A bud is the first sign of leaf, limb, or flower. A bud is small and unassuming, but it’s also an indication that something more significant will eventually appear. If you cut, clip, or nip a bud, you prevent that flower from blooming, or that limb from growing. In other words, you remove something small… Read more »
Indramat products last for such a long time that people typically don’t know what to do when they wear out. It’s pretty common for the Indramat servos in your factory machines to be older than the engineers working on your factory floor. Then one day the servo stops working. You open the cabinet and see… Read more »
Some people say that a lie is a lie no matter what, and that it’s never OK to be dishonest. Others distinguish between different types of lies. They believe that it’s sometimes OK to tell trivial lies in order to avoid hurting someone’s feelings. After all, if a dim friend asks you if he is… Read more »