Robots That Teach Each Other

Many of the jobs humans would like robots to perform, such as packing items in warehouses, assisting bedridden patients, or aiding soldiers on the front lines, aren’t yet possible because robots still don’t recognize and easily handle common objects. People generally have no trouble folding socks or picking up water glasses, because we’ve gone through “a big data collection process” called childhood, says Stefanie Tellex, a computer science professor at Brown University. For robots to do the same types of routine tasks, they also need access to reams of data on how to grasp and manipulate objects. Where does that data come from? Typically it has come from painstaking programming. But ideally, robots could get some information from each other.

The Multi-Billion Dollar Robotics Market Is About to Boom

Here’s another sign that the robotics industry is poised to see big gains in the future.

On Wednesday, a report by International Data Corporation said worldwide spending on robotics and related services will hit $135.4 billion in 2019. The research firm said that global robotics spending in 2015 was $71 billion, and is set to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 17%.

Lumping together everything from robot software to hardware components to robot services (like robotic hotel receptionists) in its tally of robotic spending, the report’s authors explain that the total spend on robot services, business consulting, education, and training will eventually eclipse sales of the robots themselves by 2019.

“Robotics as a technology has really reached its tipping point,” said IDC Manufacturing Insights research manager John Santagate in a statement. “Robotic capabilities continue to expand while increasing investment in robot development is driving competition and helping to bring down the costs associated with robots.”

The authors said that the two fastest growing industries for robotics are healthcare and process manufacturing, which is a branch of manufacturing that involves developing products based on recipes or formulas, like sodas or drugs.

Currently, the manufacturing sector is purchasing the most robots and related services. But the report explained that the healthcare sector is expected to see a bump in robotics purchases, with spending expected to double by 2019.

Read More: http://fortune.com/2016/02/24/robotics-market-multi-billion-boom/

3D Printing and Technology Convergence

Unexpected convergent consequences… this is what happens when eight different exponential technologies all explode onto the scene at once.

This blog (the 5th of 7) is a look at 3D printing. Future blogs will look at other tech areas.

An expert might be reasonably good at predicting the growth of a single exponential technology (e.g. 3D Printing), but try to predict the future when A.I., Robotics, VR, Drones, and Computation are all doubling, morphing and recombining… You have a very exciting (read: unpredictable) future. ​ This year at my Abundance 360 Summit I decided to explore this concept in sessions I called "Convergence Catalyzers."

For each technology, I brought in an industry expert to identify their Top 5 Recent Breakthroughs (2012-2015) and their Top 5 Anticipated Breakthroughs (2016-2018). Then, we explored the patterns that emerged.

3D Printing – Context
At A360 this year, my expert on 3D Printing was Avi Reichental.

Avi is the Founder and CEO of XponentialWorks, an expert advisory, venture investment and incubation ecosystem company that is focused on monetizing exponential tech innovation and business model disruption. For 12 years, Avi was the CEO of 3D Systems, the largest publicly traded 3D printing Company in the world. A dear friend and brilliant entrepreneur, Avi is also part of our core faculty in additive manufacturing at Singularity University.

Before we dive in, here's some more context around 3D printing:

3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, is the process of printing, layer by layer, any three-dimensional object based on a digital file.

Read More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/3d-printing--technology-c_b_9397578.html?section=india

Robotics, data driven technologies and futuristic design: Work is complete on ‘the most advanced factory in the world’

The £48m Factory 2050 is now open at the University of Sheffield’s new advanced manufacturing campus on Sheffield Business Park.

It is the first building to complete on the 50-acre Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) with Boeing site, which will eventually create 1,800 jobs and is a step towards the development of the UK’s first Advanced Manufacturing Innovation District.

The glass-walled “reconfigurable” Factory 2050 will be used in research programmes designed to revolutionise the manufacturing process, and has been designed by architects Bond Bryan, who worked with the concept of creating a circular factory first mooted in 2005, but not achievable due to budget constraints.

Factory 2050 will be home to the AMRC’s Integrated Manufacturing Group (IMG), which is currently installing cutting edge manufacturing and assembly technologies, advanced robotics, flexible automation, next generation man-machine interfaces and new programming and training tools that will drive its research, ready for it to be fully operation in spring next year.
The factory has been designed to rapidly respond to the demands of its customers, switching production between different high-value components and one-off parts - but aesthetics were also at the forefront of the design process.

Bond Bryan Architects, which has a history of designing Advanced Manufacturing Research Centres nationally, said the building’s modern design proved that flexibility does not need to rely on traditional building form and layout.

Read More: http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/future-yorkshire/research/robotics-data-driven-technologies-and-futuristic-design-work-is-complete-on-the-most-advanced-factory-in-the-world-1-7619165