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Boston Dynamics now selling its robot dog for $75,000 each

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Boston Dynamics, creator of humanoid and canine robots that have caused primal fear on a global scale, is now selling its robot dog for $75,000 each.

The company has launched commercial sales for Spot, the agile robot that climbs stairs and traverses rough terrain with ease.

The exact price per unit of the clever little canine is $74,500 and it can be bought through Boston Dynamics’ online shop. Discounts are probably available for multiple purchases. [Read more…] about Boston Dynamics now selling its robot dog for $75,000 each

Boston Dynamics canine robot Spot gets a job as a terrifying alien sheepdog

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Sheep are often herded using a real sheepdog, clever canines which run around directing the animals into a pen on a farm. 

But a clever software company is conducting a test by replacing the dog with Boston Dynamics’ terrifying canine robot, Spot.

New Zealand is at the very edge of human civilisation on Earth, and the sheep there probably see the robot as an alien. [Read more…] about Boston Dynamics canine robot Spot gets a job as a terrifying alien sheepdog

Kia unveils digital dashboard with monitor to ‘eliminate blind spots’

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Kia has revealed details of its “Blind-Spot View Monitor” technology included with the all-new Kia Sorento sports utility vehicle.

This “second pair of eyes” for drivers is designed to enhance safety for Sorento occupants and other road users by eliminating a driver’s left- and right-side blind spots.

The Sorento is the first Kia vehicle in Europe to offer this advanced driving assistance feature, one of a range of functions enabled by the car’s new fully-digital “Supervision” 12.3-inch instrument cluster. [Read more…] about Kia unveils digital dashboard with monitor to ‘eliminate blind spots’

Boston Dynamics provides its canine robot in the fight against coronavirus

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Boston Dynamics has modified its canine robot to make it more helpful in the fight against coronavirus.

In a blog post, the company says: “We have spent the last six weeks building and testing a payload and application architecture that would enable our robot, Spot, to help reduce exposure of frontline healthcare workers to the novel Covid-19 virus.”

Mobile robots play a vital role in removing people from dangerous environments, says the company, which developed the payload, hardware, and software for this application so that they are “generalizable and able to be deployed on other mobile robotic platforms with APIs and capacity for custom payloads”. [Read more…] about Boston Dynamics provides its canine robot in the fight against coronavirus

Now you can make Boston Dynamics’ robot dog as scary as you like with the new SDK

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Boston Dynamics has launched a software development kit for its robot dog, Spot.

Already one of the scariest robots the world has ever seen, now the nightmare canine can be made even more terrifying by sick and twisted developers.

Boston Dynamics says the SDK enables a broad range of developers and non-traditional roboticists to communicate with the robot and develop custom applications that enable Spot to do useful tasks across a wide range of industries. [Read more…] about Now you can make Boston Dynamics’ robot dog as scary as you like with the new SDK

Boston Dynamics bring its canine robot to market

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Boston Dynamics is making its canine robot, Spot, available to the market in limited numbers and to select customers. (See video.)

This is the first time Spot will be on sale and most of Boston Dynamics’ robots are still in various stages of research and development, most famously perhaps its humanoids, but also its unusual “Handle” material handling robot, which is basically a robotic arm on two wheels.

Boston Dynamics describes Spot as “a nimble robot that climbs stairs and traverses rough terrain with unprecedented ease, yet is small enough to use indoors”. [Read more…] about Boston Dynamics bring its canine robot to market

Universal Robots ‘maintains top spot’ in collaborative robot market

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Universal Robots is maintaining its top spot in the collaborative robot market, according to a report by ABI Research.

However, competitors including Doosan, Techman Robot and Precise Automation are “closing in“, says the study, Industrial Collaborative Robots Competitive Assessment.

There are well over 50 manufacturers of collaborative robots, or cobots, worldwide, but only a handful of these companies have so far deployed cobots on any meaningful level of scale. [Read more…] about Universal Robots ‘maintains top spot’ in collaborative robot market

Electric cars will change the way industrial robots are used in manufacturing, says Fanuc boss

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With Volvo’s decision to go all electric in its future vehicles, combined with the French government’s decision to ban sales of petrol and diesel vehicles by 2040 and similar moves in Germany, the automotive industry is preparing for a tectonic shift in the manufacturing landscape. 

The way electric cars are made already differ considerably now, and new techniques will take the production of the new vehicles further away from traditional methods.

An interesting insight into the future was offered by a senior executive at the world’s largest industrial robot manufacturer, who suggested that electric cars are highly likely to fundamentally change the way industrial robots are used.  [Read more…] about Electric cars will change the way industrial robots are used in manufacturing, says Fanuc boss