13 things and updates in robotic technology you may not have known

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Long gone are the days of machine labs research spheres have moved in a different tangent altogether. What’s that, robotics is your best bet right now for the future. The expected migration is continuing to grow and as you read this article, countless robots are deployed to manufacture higher quality products with shorter turnaround times in the coming future for sure.

And guess what? These updates in robotic technology are proving more than effective at handling basic tasks and menial jobs. And with robots being prone to lesser errors and defects they require significantly less downtime while being cost effective.

Also check our blog post: How Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant Lost the AI Race to Chatbots

Robotic Technology – Robots last longer

They enjoy high retention rates with relatively low maintenance, but as with all machinery there’s bound to be repairs and factory operators working on it for ensuring its seamless functionality. Here’s where mechatronics experts come to play as a significant contributor.

Our new robotic technology list

We enlist some of the latest updates in robotic technology, that will boggle your minds off and awaken you to the endless possibilities of this newfound technology.

1. Work Bots by Google

Image Source: Techcrunch

Heard about robots with personalities. This well-known tech giant declared its dream patent project that’s ambitious enough to create humane robots. With engineers enabling machines to self-download personalities straight from a database of cloud-based systems. These humane robots are capable of storing and displaying even multiple personalities at a time while interacting with other humans. Interesting, isn’t it?

2. The multi-tasker bots

Momentum Machines created a multitasker bot that is capable to prepare a gourmet hamburger in just 10 secs to be precise. This upcoming robot could eventually be the next big thing for serving in fast food restaurants.

3. The UR3

Image Source: Robotiq

Created by universal robots this automated device better known as UR3 can self-build its own replacement parts amazingly while still in flight. The delicately nimble robot can also juggle through a variety of tasks, such as glue, paint, solder, grasp and much more. A manufacturer’s dream machine.

4. The Saul bot

Image: Shutterstock

Asus Zenbo is a low-cost robot capable of rolling around autonomously, and it understands verbal commands. Asus developed the device to help individuals remember daily tasks, such as exercise and medication schedules as well as doctor’s appointments. Zenbo can also monitor the surroundings to detect any emergencies. It is capable of connecting to smart-home components like security cameras, lights, and door locks.

5. The Asus Zenbo bot

Image Source: Fortune

6. Paro bot

Image Source: Wired

Appearing like a fur laden live baby harp seal. Paro is a therapeutic bot of sorts. This furry device lowers stress levels and stimulates empathetic exchanges between caregivers and patients alike. It’s helped motivate and relax patients from anxiety attacks and hypertension. Taken in account from the documented benefits of animal exposure therapy. It’s designed with five varied sensors, including movement and posture, light, touch, auditory, and temperature measuring sensors.

7. Pepper bot

Image Source: Robots

Imagine a talkative humanoid bot that aligns its attitude according to your mood. Well, that’s what pepper bot is. This device can detect human emotional states like that of sadness, surprise, happiness, joy, and anger. And guess what it answers back in an exactly appropriate reaction manner. Pepper bot uses multi-directional embedded sensory microphones to detect sounds from all over the surroundings.

This cheekily clever machine analyzes even the lexical field for tonal voice assessment. Allowing it to accurately understand human emotional contexts. For its vision and perception, the Pepper bot has embedded sets of 2 HD and 3D cameras to recognize the shape and appearance of objects. Its developers have gone up to embed up to a whopping 20 engines in its head, back, and arms to regulate its movements.

8. Teleoperated bots

Image Description: Wevolver

These are semi-autonomous bots using a network that’s wireless enabling human monitoring from a far safe distance. These bots usually come to work in extreme geographical conditions, weather and disaster management circumstances. Examples of teleoperated bots that come to light are the semi human-controlled submarines that are deployed to fix underwater pipe leaks and oil spills or flying drones that are used to detect landmines on a field.

9. VR Robots

Image Source: Allerin

Also known as augmentation bots that can simulate human capabilities and enhance the overall human vision and experience even replacing a lost capacity or an impairment. The field of robotics for human augmentation is a step where the long-drawn thoughts of science fiction novels could become the reality very soon, with bots having the ability to redefine the very definition of humankind by making them faster, error-free and stronger. Examples of current human augmenting bots are prosthetic limbs that are robotic or exoskeletons lifting hefty, larger than life weights.

10. Cleaning Bots (The Roomba)

Image Description: Mashable

It’s not ‘ the unthinkable ‘anymore. Robots are all over our modern homes, helping with errands and cleaning chores, sometimes even reminding our schedules and even telling jokes or seen entertaining our kids with some random fun facts and trivia. The most popular home robot is the autonomous vacuum cleaner Roomba. We have all been acquainted with her by now. Additionally, there are more cleaner robots that have further evolved to do everything from automatically mowing grass lawns to cleaning swimming pools.

11. Hospital Bots

Image Source: LinkedIn

Robots have ruled over the healthcare industry for the past couple of years and for good reasons though. These mechanical miracles have been in use in just about each and every aspect of medical healthcare, straight from robot-assisted surgery to bots aiding humans’ recovery from injury in physiotherapy. Robots at work in healthcare are the Toyota’s health assistants, aiding patients to regain walking abilities, and the TUG, an automated robot designed to stroll through a hospital floor delivering almost everything right from medications to clean washed linens. Amazing!

12. Vehicle Bots

Image Source: Techcrunch

Is there anything more trippy than self-driving vehicles? These autonomous cars are no longer a figment of imagination. Not anymore. A mash-up of data science and robotics, these self-driving vehicles are taking the world by storm for good reasons. With car companies like Tesla, Ford, the Waymo, Volkswagen and BMW all working on the next wave of self -driving cars that lets us sit back, relax and enjoy the ride without the need for driving. Even rideshare companies like Uber and Lyft are also developing autonomous cars that don’t necessarily require humans to operate them. Quite interesting.

13. Autonomous Drones

Image Source: Robotreport

They fall in the logistics bots category with the ability to manage quality control off shelf floors retailers often deploy them in warehouses to manage shipments at lightning speed and enhance time efficiency. Right from packaging, labelling to transporting across the factory floor, they do it all. And soon you’ll be seeing the last mile bots delivering the shipment package straight at your doorstep in the near future.

Conclusion

Robotics is a rapidly growing interdisciplinary sector of technology and science with a dedicated engineering design layout, coming with trials and construction with the increasing use of mechanical robots.

Hope this list gives you a fair peek at the world of robotics, including different types of robots and how they’re being applied across multiple industry domains. Quite successfully.