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Submission + - First global startup competition for robotics announces its winners (robohub.org)

Submitted by Hallie Siegel
Hallie Siegel writes: In February 2014, Robohub and Silicon Valley Robotics launched Robot Launch — the first global startup competition for robotics. More than 75 startups from 19 countries entered the competition, with robotics innovations ranging from duct and floor cleaning robots, to educational robots, welding robots and even toy robot fish. Several rounds of judging culminated in a pitch session by the six finalists in front of a panel of live judges last week. Learn about the winning startups ...

Submission + - Kids with wheels: Should the unlicensed be allowed to 'drive' autonomous cars? (robohub.org)

Submitted by Hallie Siegel
Hallie Siegel writes: From the Open Roboethics Research Initiative: Earlier this month, when we asked people about your general thoughts on autonomous cars, we found that one of the main advantages of autonomous cars is that those who are not licensed to drive will be able to get to places more conveniently. Some results from our reader poll: About half of the participants (52%) said that children under the legal driving age should not be able to ride driverless cars, 38% of the participants believe that children should be able to ride driverless cars alone and the other 10% also think that children should be able to drive autonomous cars with proven technology and specific training.

Submission + - Should the unlicensed be allowed to 'drive' an autonomous car? Share your ideas (robohub.org)

Submitted by Hallie Siegel
Hallie Siegel writes: How comfortable are you in putting unlicensed persons as the only passengers of autonomous cars? Would you feel comfortable letting your eight year old daughter ride an autonomous car alone to get to school? How about those who are legally blind? Let us know what you think in this opinion poll from the Open Roboethics Initiative.

Submission + - Robot helps 94-year-old Italian grandmother live independently at home (robohub.org)

Submitted by Hallie Siegel
Hallie Siegel writes: EU invests in new technology to support silver generation
At 94, Grandma Lea could not live alone anymore, but she wanted to stay at home. She still does thanks to the EU-funded GiraffPlus system, which uses a combination of wearable devices, sensors throughout the home and a mobile robot to assist older people in their homes, and to connect them to family, friends and healthcare professionals who need to keep an eye on the person’s health and activities. The system should be in commercial production by the end of 2015. The EU market for robots and devices assisting elderly people is estimated to reach €13 billion by 2016.

Submission + - What is 'computational thinking'? Your future job may depend on it (robohub.org)

Submitted by Hallie Siegel
Hallie Siegel writes: Behavioural economist Colin Lewis explains why skills such as the ability to recognize patterns, to filter out unnecessary information, or to break down a task into minute details so that we can clearly explain a process to another person or to a computer, will be critical to the next generation of workers.

Submission + - Robotics MOOC prototype: CloudSim-Ed (robohub.org)

Submitted by Hallie Siegel
Hallie Siegel writes: This project intends to provide students with a means to learn robotics using open source software. For schools with limited robotics laboratory space and equipment, the simulated worlds and environments give students a chance to experiment with minimal setup time and effort. This will hopefully reduce the time used in software troubleshooting when dealing with actual robot hardware.

Submission + - How do you design a robot that knows right from wrong? (robohub.org)

Submitted by Hallie Siegel
Hallie Siegel writes: In order to better understand the technical and social challenges of designing robots today, this pilot study shows how a robot can learn from interacting with humans to determine the most appropriate way to act. AJung Moon, the author, writes "Our pilot survey data indicates that, as is the case for humans, ethical behavior is not simply a set of inflexible rules, but is highly dependent on the context of a situation and on communication and interaction with other actors. The emphasis respondents placed on engaging in dialogue suggests that the key to developing robots with ethical decision-making capabilities may lie not in the creation of a set of principles guiding robots to make predetermined decisions, but in the development of robots that can better communicate and negotiate with the people they encounter to reach mutually agreeable outcomes."

Submission + - Share your opinion on autonomous cars: Reader poll (robohub.org)

Submitted by Hallie Siegel
Hallie Siegel writes: Putting autonomous cars on the road requires a lot work, not only in getting the technology ready, but also in figuring out how we want the technology to shape the way we live. Share your opinion and help shape the future of autonomous cars by taking this reader poll.

Submission + - Minesweepers robotic competition aims for a landmine-free world (robohub.org)

Submitted by Hallie Siegel
Hallie Siegel writes: Dr. Alaa Khamis writes: "Detection and removal of antipersonnel landmines is, at present, a serious problem of political, economical, environmental and humanitarian dimensions in many countries across the world. It is estimated that there are 110 million landmines in the ground right now; one for every 52 inhabitants on the planet. These mines kill or maim more than 5,000 people annually. If demining efforts remain about the same as they are now, and no new mines are laid, it will still take 1100 years to get rid of all the world’s active land mines because current conventional methods of removal are very slow, inefficient, dangerous and costly. Robotic systems can provide efficient, reliable, adaptive and cost effective solutions for the problem of landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) contamination."

Submission + - Robot Launch global start-up competition announces top 30 semi-finalists (robohub.org)

Submitted by Hallie Siegel
Hallie Siegel writes: Want to find out who the semifinalists are in the first global startup competition for robotics? With 76 applications from 19 different countries, and entries covering industrial, service and consumer robotics, it’s clear that robotics is entering a period of strong growth. The judges did not have an easy job, but here are the TOP 30 ...

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