This Is Robotics: Radio News

Has Code Writing Capitulated To GenAI?What exactly just took place, and why?Suddenly this March, we all woke up one morning to find code fighting for its life. Why so fast? Why so suddenly? Why so completely? Unexpectedly and quietly code is disappearing. Why is that? Is AI’s argument that convincing? Sure seems that way. It was a little like the Berlin Wall: imposingly there for a few decades, then suddenly gone and forgotten.We’ll take a look at what happened to code, and what’s next for robotics. Don’t despair. The remedy is good!In early 2023, U.S. tech industries cut more than 190,000 employees from the workforce. Tens of thousands were coders. Tens of thousands of individuals who spent billions of dollars to learn how to code, so that they could get a “good” job."The new philosophy calls all into doubt," wrote the poet John Donne over 400 years ago. Indeed, GenAI's prompt engineering has done just that.Prompt engineering in AI is the process of designing and refining prompts—questions or instructions—which are at the heart of some of the most advanced AI applications…and growing.Join us as experts Andrew Ng, Stephen Wolfram, and Michael Welsh walk us through the new world of GenAI and the unparalleled opportunities that await for those who don’t wait.See also:Did AI Just Free Humanity from Code?What About You? A Primer to Combat GenAI AnxietyExperts on AI & Robot Convergence for 2040 

IN A NUTSHELL AT PACK EXPO INTERNATIONAL 2022Post-COVID, tradeshows have been slowly lumbering back into the global event circuit this past year or so, most to highly receptive audiences. One of the biggest returnees, PACK EXPO International (Chicago, October 23-26), absent since 2018, promised to return larger than ever with a flurry of new looks, staging, and attendee outreach.Upon hitting the show floor, the jump-out realizations to grab onto at Pack Expo 2022 are two: More cobots doing more things better and more flexibly than ever; and then, upon closer inspection of those same cobots, the fact that integration of cobot systems is the next great advance in robotics.  If that’s all you took away from the show, you would have, in a nutshell, seen the future of packaging and packing. PHILOSOPHY MEETS THE WORLD OF AI, ROBOTICS AND BIG DATA We’ll visit the resumes of philosophy majors to see how they are uniquely qualified for the world of AI, robotics and big data. Yes, you heard right: philosophers.According to David Deutsch, arguably the founding father of quantum computing, is betting on it in his article that he titles: “Philosophy will be the key that unlocks artificial intelligence.”Yes, philosophy, that most ancient of human brain teasers. And if AI is to ever emulate the thinking capability of a human being, philosophy is the answer.For all those job-hunting philosophers, listen up. Jobs are looking for you. INTERNATIONAL INTERNET DAY: WRONG DATE, WRONG PEOPLE… Every October 29th International Internet Day is celebrated around the world, but did you know that it’s the wrong date, the wrong people, and the wrong computers? Larry Roberts and Tom Marill did it first in February of 1966, three years earlier than 1969 event celebrated widely. And the reason why Larry and Tom did it is absolutely fascinating

PLEASE JOIN US for podcast #7 of This Is Robotics: Radio News, a fresh, new and lively look at our wonderful world of global robotics...technology, business and people. #1 Global Robotics News Podcast. You’re Going to Love What You Hear! The lineup for podcast #7 Robotics for February 2022! WELCOME TO THE AMERICAS: ADDVERB TECHNOLOGIES“We Change the Way Things Move” says Addverb Technologies. A Twelve Time Zone Chat: Boston, Bangkok, Delhi and San Diego crackled on last evening as Asian Robotics Review was introduced to Addverb Technologies for a chat with its new CEO for the Americas, Mark Messina. And we recorded it all!  WHERE THE ROBOTS ROAMAfter all those heady numbers of AMRs are bought, sold, and shipped; and then step off the gangplanks to work, where the hell do they go? Join us in the Lehigh Valley, south of Chicago, and in LA for a look at the fantastic, cavernous halls of commerce “Where the Robots Roam”FANTASTIC FIVE #2Five Fantastic Robots That Are Transforming Industries and Changing Our World! Fantastic Five travels the globe looking for special, purpose-built robots that take on heretofore impossible challenges…and pull them off! Fantastic Five salutes the robots and the innovate teams that built them.FINDING THE GENIUSES THAT ROBOTICS NEEDS Are You One of Them?There are a million undiscovered geniuses in the world who, in order to be revealed and flourish, need to experience a spark of passion that ignites and illuminates their genius. Among them are roboticists-in-waiting who will change the world. Let’s find them. These 35 free online robotics courses—from superb educators at prestigious universities—certainly help. AND MORE...   Join us at Asian Robotics Review or Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Pandora, TuneIn or where ever your podcast resource.Thanks. You’re going to love what you hear! Contact: News@ThisIsRobotics.com Website: Asian Robotics Review

PLEASE JOIN US for podcast #5 of This Is Robotics: Radio News, a fresh, new and lively look at our wonderful world of global robotics...technology, business and people. #1 Global Robotics News Podcast. You’re Going to Love What You Hear! The lineup for podcast #5 The People Program includes: THE IMPORTANCE OF AN END-OF-YEAR “PEOPLE PROGRAM” This Is Robotics: Radio News proudly concludes its 2021 podcast programming season with The People Program: Robotics and Automation Are Really All About People, Unless We Give Up On Ourselves! ...Will We?CHINA’S CHRISTMAS MIRACLE AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR ROBOTICSThe first story in today’s People Program is as fantastic as it is true. It’s called China’s Christmas Miracle.  What this event meant for robotics and automation is incalculable. Funny things happen when you give people hope. This is a story about hope. China’s best-ever Christmas gift, December 1978: Deng Xiaoping and the birth of modern China.YES, ROBOTS TAKE JOBS (NOW WE KNOW. WHAT NEXT?)In Honor of Studs Terkel: Pink Slips for Old Technology. For every robot deployed in the U.S., three jobs are lost…permanently. Do the math, it’s only a matter of time until those deployments take their toll. Robots are necessary, but so are jobs for people. Here’s how to have both.FLEXING PITTSBURGH’S ROBOTICS PROWESSPittsburgh’s transformation from dying steel town to a global robotics powerhouse has it positioned to help meet America’s greatest manufacturing challenges. ARM Institute is ready to train and upskill a workforce in robotics (for students, college graduates, and displaced workers …no matter what age you are!) Including Free 2022 how-to PDF download with links and references. HOME & HUMANOIDS FOR THE HOLIDAYS Home for the holidays is not such a pleasant experience for millions globally. But it could be. Holiday Humanoids for those abandoned and living alone, the totally depressed…or the desperately lonely. The possibility of “relational AI” and humanoid robots combining to be wonderful companions for humans…and not just on holidays.AND MORE...   Join us at Asian Robotics Review or Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Pandora, TuneIn or where ever your podcast resource.Thanks. You’re going to love what you hear!  Contact: News@ThisIsRobotics.comWebsite: Asian Robotics Review

PLEASE JOIN US for podcast #3 of This Is Robotics: Radio News, a fresh, new and lively look at our wonderful world of global robotics...technology, business and people. The lineup for podcast #3 includes: AMAZON, ASTRO AND OUR LIVING ROOMSIs Amazon about to crack the code on how to make a mobile robot a part of the family? Amazon shocked the robotics world in 2012 with Kiva, then again in 2015 with Alexa, and maybe now is gearing up for a trifecta.PHILOSOPHY MEETS THE WORLD OF AI, ROBOTICS AND BIG DATAWe’ll visit the resumes of philosophy majors to see how they are uniquely qualified for the world of AI, robotics and big data. Yes, you heard right: philosophers. INTERNATIONAL INTERNET DAY: WRONG DATE, WRONG PEOPLE…Every October 29th International Internet Day is celebrated around the world, but did you know that it’s the wrong date, the wrong people, and the wrong computers? Larry Roberts and Tom Marill did it first in February of 1966, three years earlier than 1969 event celebrated widely. And the reason why Larry and Tom did it is absolutely fascinating. SPACE JUNK & ROBOTS We’ll visit with Space Junk in Low-Earth Orbit. Whether it’s mom’s dinner table or outer space, we haven’t learned to clean up after ourselves. Meet the robots that want to take on the chore. THE IMPORTANCE OF MACHINE TOOLS TO EVERYTHINGWe’ll peer into the wonderful world of machine tools—tools that make tools, without which there are no robots, automation or smart factories. There are only three countries that dominate. Perish the thought that we have a trade war with any one of them. THE RISE OF DAEGU CITY Have you ever heard about Daegu City? No? Thought so. Well, Daegu City (Korea) is on its way to being the largest and most influential Robotics Technopolis in Asia…maybe the world.AND MORE...  Join us at Asian Robotics Review or Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Pandora, TuneIn or where ever your podcast resource.Thanks. You’re going to love what you hear! News@ThisIsRobotics.com

PLEASE JOIN US for podcast #2 of This Is Robotics: Radio News, a fresh, new and lively look at our wonderful world of global robotics...technology, business and people. The lineup for podcast #2 includes: THE TROUBLE WITH COBOTSArguably the most important advance in robotics in the last 50 years has got a problem: sales. Why is that? Important and far-reaching consequences of those puny sales are a major concern for manufacturing and productivity.THE FANTASTIC FIVEFive fascinating robot innovations from Asia, each with a massive upside for the global robotics industry.CHINA AND ITS INLAND TRADING PARTNERS: ITS SUPERCITIES!Morgan Stanley fanned out 30 researchers across China to take the automation pulse of five unique regions. The results are fascinating.WORLD ROBOTICS THROUGH THE YEAR 2030Boston Consulting Group has put an interesting lens to the next decade of robotics, highlighting “seven unfolding developments that will influence the direction of robotics in the next ten years.”AND MORE... Join us at Asian Robotics Review or Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Pandora, TuneIn or where ever your podcast resource.Thanks. You’re going to love what you hear!News@ThisIsRobotics.com

PLEASE JOIN US for the podcast premier program of This Is Robotics: Radio News, a fresh, new and lively look at our wonderful world of global robotics...technology, business and people. The lineup for our premier show includes: BACK TO THE FUTURE WITH SURGICAL ROBOTS Oh, boy, new millionaires will be made WHEN THE ROBOT BURNS THE TOAST Toyota Research Institute’s kitchen robots THE DEMISE OF DUMB The rise of “smart” robots for factory and warehouseUNINTENDED COINCIDENCE has our premier program coinciding with National Kiss & Make Up Day (seriously, look it up) https://lnkd.in/de6xpbFF In honor of NKMU Day, Radio News will take a look at the human fascination & repulsion for sex robots. SEX ROBOTS WILL NEVER MAKE YOU CRY The allure, fascination and repulsion for humanity’s new best friend THE FOUR MOST REVOLUTIONARY ROBOTS OF THE NEW MILLENNIUM We have our picks. What about yours? FUTURE REVOLUTIONARIES: THREE TOP ROBOT CONTENDERS Three contenders for the “most revolutionary” list ten years from now.  Join us at Asian Robotics Review or Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Pandora, or TuneInThanks. You’re going to love what you hear!

This Is Robotics: Radio News (trailer)                         (Launch date: August 2021)This Is Robotics: Radio News is a new and very different robotics news program. One that we’re very excited about, and know that you’re going like a lot…and also find super useful. Radio News is a compilation of the best in robotics news, views and interviews gathered worldwide and presented as a 30-minute podcast. The global best in robotics!Now you can consume the best in global robotics news while driving to work, waiting to board a plane, or at the breakfast table. Miss something? Stream it again. Want to go deeper? Go online to the This Is Robotics news page for the very same articles, as text, a bit longer, with links and references.The overriding theme of Radio News is the same as the first three words everyone encounters at our website: Robotics, Automation and People. That’s our global news beat.And we’re fun, never stuffy, and always on point. A refreshing news format and program covering the fastest-growing industry in the world…robotics!Look for us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneInRadio, and Pandora.Or, sign up for our weekly newsletters, and we’ll send Radio News directly to your inbox.Please join us for the best news program in robotics. You're going to love what you hear!This Is Robotics: Radio News is a production of Asian Robotics Review Specializing in Asia by Covering the WorldCopyright 2021, Asian Robotics Review, All rights reserved  

Hi folks, welcome to This Is Robotics for February 2024, Episode #28. I’m Tom Green, your host and companion as we travel together through the big, wide world of modern robotics…and now, robotics is getting even better as it converges with artificial intelligence.Ah, the age of smart robots is upon us.Thanks again for making This Is Robotics the #1 robotics news podcast worldwide…for two years running. We did some investigative journalism this month to find out why…and we were surprised at what we found. You will be as well. An article series on the topic we published in Asian Robotics Review titled Why So Little Robot Automation in America? got over 10,000 hits. Our email response from our readership attested to the fact that we were not the only ones surprised by our findings. It’s accompanied by a news report from CBS which also covered the strange state of robotics in the U.S.Then we’ll dip off into What’s New in Robotics? What’s New in Robotics? is the blog we write in partnership with Robotiq. From the blog, we present here at This Is Robotics three FIRST-EVERS in robotics. We love what people have been doing with robots and cobots lately.  Simply amazing!Two of them hail from Korea: Hyundai’s micro-factory in Singapore; and a huge breakthrough by Koreans in teaching robots to respond to the human voice. Then we nip over to Argonne Laboratories to see cobots in a first-ever making medical radioisotopes. We close out the podcast with what is the biggest story in robotics for the foreseeable future: Can Robots Save East Asia?China, Korea, & Japan are suffering from a new pandemic: Too Few Workers, Too Many Elderly, and Too Little Automation.China, Korea, and Japan are plagued with the very same “too few, too many, and too little” affliction simultaneously.The clock is ticking on China, Korea, and Japan. The five years 2025 to 2030 will be critical. Each country has a plan. What is each doing…and can each plan work?We have been following this mega-story since 2023. Along with an in-depth article series on the subject in Asian Robotics Review, we brought the story into this month’s podcast as well. We’ll show you what we know. As always, look in the show notes for all the links to the online articles. Thanks for coming. We appreciate your attention and loyalty.

Hi folks, welcome to This Is Robotics, and our last episode for 2023. Next up a wild and woolly 2024. We are already planning our January show. It’s forecast to be a fabulous for robotics, logistics and automation in general. Plus, it’s also the Year of the Dragon (2024)The dragon, one of the luckiest and most powerful symbols offering prosperity, and good fortune throughout 2024. It is the perfect time for rejuvenated beginnings and setting the foundation for long-term success.THE STATS ARE IN FOR 2023! Our podcast host just gave us the best-ever Christmas present from our listeners:Once again, we are #1 worldwide for a robotics news podcast.Across 12 time zones and 63 countries, This Is Robotics podcast was downloaded by over 3,000 fans per week!Yearly, over 150,000 touchpoints with our listeners.Every hour of every day 18 pairs of ears somewhere in the world seek us out for the very best news in robotics. Thank you so very much!This closing episode for 2022, we highlight robots converging with artificial intelligence…in laboratories. Already making good headway, we look closely at what’s going on.We’ll look at one fascinating woman’s brilliant insight on how best to discover a cure for our most intractable diseases, especially those without cures in neuroscience like ALS, Parkinson's, and Alzheimer's. How research is broken and how she’ll fix it. Hmmm, interesting. Her name, Alice Zhang, founder and CEO of Verge Genomics, and she just got $134 million to realize her brilliant insight.We catch up with her at a lecture at Stanford where she explains it all.Then we take a stab at answering a question we get all the time from our listening audience: How exactly do robots and AI work together in a laboratory to come up with miraculous discoveries as of late? We go to a lab in Liverpool UK where Andy Cooper explains it all.Then, how are all these elements taking over the industry? And giving it a name like Pharma 4.0? We present a concise, little episode excerpt that explains it all.Wow, that’s a lot of “explaining it all” but it’s all cool stuff.We close out our show with one of our most favorite and memorable episode excerpts, one that we get a large call to repeat throughout the year. But, it just so happens to be a perfect Christmas story, so we retell it every December: It’s a story about China’s supreme leader Deng Xiaoping, without whom China would have no middle class or be the giant in robotics it is today. We call it China’s Christmas Miracle. A more heartwarming tale you can’t find anywhere.SHOW NOTES ADDENDUMPlease see the show notes for more on the incurable disease that is ALS, including one very sad diary from a 31-year-old woman just diagnosed with ALS.ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord.Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), formerly known as Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurological disorder that affects motor neurons, the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord that control voluntary muscle movement and breathing. As motor neurons degenerate and die, they stop sending messages to the muscles, which causes the muscles to weaken, start to twitch (fasciculations), and waste away (atrophy). ALS is progressive. Eventually, in people with ALS, the brain loses its ability to initiate and control voluntary movements such as walking, talking, chewing and other functions, as well as breathing. 

Welcome everyone to This Is Robotics, episode #26 for November, 2023.Oh, and BTW: Thanks for making us the #1 Global Robotics News Podcast for TWO YEARS IN A ROW. I’m Tom Green, your guide and companion into the wide, wonderful world of robotics. Welcome.It’s that time of year when we take a look at Time Magazine’s picks for its Global Top Inventions for the year. This year, 2023, there are 200 selections in 21 different categories. Robotics, as usual, has its very own category, category #18, but my oh my, robotics, now with its new partnership in convergence with AI, has it ever seeped its way into nearly every other category. We’ll take a look at Time’s picks, plus we’ll pull one out and showcase it. It’s an amazing 5-year-old developer called Shift Robotics, from Pittsburgh. Shift has taken robotics, AI, and automation and brought them into the shoe business. Footwear!What caught my eye was its founder, Xunjie Zhang, and his 3-minute description of the company’s design process, the "ask it, research it, plan it, create it, test it, and improve it" of finding a problem and coming up with a solution. Beautifully clear thinking and execution. Then we’ll see what Wired’s Brent Rose thinks about the company during his visit.Following that is our annual Homage to Pittsburgh. A segment that we run every Thanksgiving. The heartwarming story of Pittsburgh’s fall and rise on the wings of robotics, after 29 steel companies filed for bankruptcy and left the city in tatters. I usually do a preamble to our Homage to Pittsburgh segment, but this year we have a contributor providing us with one. Florian Pestoni, well-known in the robotics biz as co-founder and CEO of InOrbit, a cloud robotics platform, who is also a pizza fanatic and a great admirer of Pittsburgh. He just made a trip to Pittsburgh and jotted down his thoughts. We’ll share them with you.Then we’ll take a look at our newest website: Robo AI News where we aggregate and curate the best in the convergence of robotics with AI; and we’ll look to you guys to Get On Our Wall at Robo AI News. We’ll show you how. It’s simple but powerful. Robo AI News is dedicated to the most interesting man in the world: Garry Mathiason: The Man Who Knew Way Before! More on Garry a bit later in the show.Okay, let’s get on with the news.

Hi folks. And welcome.Question: Is it okay with everyone if we talk about 2024? I know it’s still October of 2023, but so much is at the ready for 2024 now that it seems a shame not to give the upcoming new year some mega attention.Okay, deal. Let’s do it.Welcome again to This Is Robotics, episode #25, October of 2023. I’m Tom Green, your host and companion as we take a robotics look forward at the upcoming New Year of 2024.The word in the air and on the streets for 2024 is LOGISTICS. Yes, warehouses large and small, especially the small ones, DCs, and last-mile micro-warehouses have been in the news lately. And if you go back a few months, all the way to Walmart’s big meeting, big things have been brewing for a while.So, without more ado, Happy New Year 2024.From the Walmart shareholders meeting back in May, it was announced that Walmart was going all-in for robots and automation for 42 distribution centers in the U.S. and Canada. The lucky vendor is Symbotic, who Walmart has been working with for 4 years.That news got the juices flowing because a few months later SoftBank and the aforementioned Symbotic agreed to partner for a new offering called GreenBox to sell WaaS…Warehouse as a Service.That was followed by SoftBank and its secretive Project R squirreling around for even more of this purported new $500 billion market.Which was followed by old friend Amazon, rolling out its new automation giant, Sequoia.Then, halfway around the world, India for 2024 will use logistics during the build-out of Grade A warehouses, as well as to use logistics for nation-building for the country as a whole. In fact, the Asian Century that was last seen in China, is on the move away from East Asia and about to take up residence in India. As the late Swedish scientist and demographer Hans Rosling said: “In the past, economic growth was driving demographics, and now it's the other way around.” Demographics is driving economic growth. And nowhere is that more in evidence than in India. India, with over 36,000 warehouses, is going to have a very interesting 2024.Then we have an announcement to make. This Is Robotics and its parent company Asian Robotics Review, have a new birth announcement to make. Our family this month is growing bigger. We are launching our newest website Robo AI News.com (roboainews.com), which will specialize in rounding up, sorting through, and artfully displaying the best news on robotics and artificial intelligence (AI). News that specifically heralds the convergence of robotics and AI…and our call to action for everyone in robotics with the ability to contribute to Get On Our Wall. Send us your best in the ongoing robotics/AI convergence and we’ll publish it…and promote it and you throughout our family of online publications. Here again is the link. Take a peek: Robo AI News.The Asian Century: Emphasis, India

Hi everyone and welcome to This Is Robotics, Episode 24. Thanks for joining us. I’m Tom Green your guide and companion for today’s journey into our global robotics news podcast.Our first story explores the reasons for Why Is There So Little Automation in America?As sci-fi writer William Gibson once remarked:  “The future is already here but it’s not evenly distributed.” Well, much the same can be said for automation in America. Why is it that only 5 out of 50 U.S. states get 77% of all industrial robots? Those states are Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Kansas. While the remaining 45 states average 175 industrial robots apiece.  Those are definitely places that are "underautomated". Three recent reports explain why, and the whys are not good for America.The reports also answer the question: Do robots take jobs? Yes, they do! For every one robot deployed in this 5-state region, 3.3 jobs are lost. The reports also tell us what happens to the health of those individuals who lose their jobs to an industrial robot. It can be unsurprisingly grim.Death by Robots!Facts: Yes, Robots Take Jobs and Lower WagesThis five-state region could well become a test zone—a laboratory, if you will—for America’s future in dealing with people, robots, artificial intelligence, job loss, retraining and reskilling. Perfect things in these 5 Robo Hubs, and then spread them out to the rest of the country.We’ve been covering Korea’s robot $177 billion-dollar breakout all this year. See the links for Korea’s Major Growth Spurt in 2023 in our show notes.  Everything “robot” in Korea is getting max attention these days from the government, industry, and academia. Doosan is no exception. It’s going public and its cobots have an excellent shot at pushing themselves into being #1 worldwide. We take a look at Doosan and its upcoming IPO. And while we’re on the subject of cobots, what’s STILL up with them and their weaker-than-tepid sales? Arguably the most important technical advance in robotics in the last 50 years has got a problem: SALES! And it’s been a problem for a decade. We’ve got an answer or two as to why. Join us and see if you agree. As an added bonus, we are reprising in this podcast our episode clip and PDF download titled: The Problem with Cobots. It offers a nice perspective on cobots going forward and how Doosan could take the lead.With Doosan’s new cobot venture, we may finally see cobot sales finally hit the mega-numbers that forecasters have been predicting for cobots for years. And finally, Agility Robotics is feeling very fertile these days and its new humanoid Digit is about to multiply. Join us for Agility’s shot at assembly-line humanoids. Maybe as many as 10,000 someday soon striding out soon out of the world’s first humanoid robot factory. A 70,000-square-foot-factory that Agility calls its RoboFab.REPRISE: The Problem with Cobots 

Hi folks, and welcome once again to This Is Robotics: Radio News, Episode #23I’m Tom Green, your host and companion on this incredible journey called robotics.For two years running now, we have been the #1 Robotics News Podcast worldwide…we’re up to over 100,000 fans, and you my dear folks put us at #1. Thank you very much.And thanks for joining us todayIt’s August, the harbinger of September,  and the 4th and final Quarter 4 for 2023. That year went fast! Maybe because it was such a rollicking year for GenAI converging with everything, especially robotics.August observed National Kiss & Make Up Day. Did You? If not, and you’re still angry, indecisive, or ready to move on, we have a special segment that just may be of help. Sex Robots.Could falling in love with a robot friend be such a bad thing?Dr Helen Driscoll of the University of Sunderland says "The point is, people already fall in love with fictional characters, even if there is no chance to meet and interact with them." How many humans readily let go of their emotions and fall in love with a character in a movie? Plenty!And we’ve also had an Astro sighting. You know Astro, Amazon’s $1600 diminutive home robot that rolled into our lives in 2021, and then disappeared. Seems Astro is now fueling up with GenAI, which Amazon has named Burnham. It won’t be around for a few years, says Amazon. Which for any other product would surely mean the kiss of death.But, the entire category of home robots has also disappeared. What’s with that?There’s a potential forecast looming that says home robots are looking at a marketplace of $16 billion. If they ever show up!We love Coming to America stories, and our Orangewood Labs article is just such a tale of fresh ideas and hard work washing up on our shores. Just goes to show that immigrants come to the U.S. with more than their suitcases. Orangewood is about three Indian guys who are on a mission to democratize robotics for the small manufacturer, which is a segment in dire need of automation.Okay, let's get on with the news.

This summer of 2023 is one to particularly remember for robotics. We’ll remember 2023 for a long time, even as it spawns two more equally amazing and remarkable years to come 2024 and 2025. Robotics technology and sales will thunder into the quarter-century mark of this millennium’s first 100 years.  Today’s podcast looks at three bellwether happenings for robotics here in 2023…and the carryover for them through 2025.Of course, leader of the bellwether gang is generative AI or genAI that bull-rushed the world this spring sowing fear, chaos, glee, elation…and even adulation as it blindly fast changed most everything around us…and continues to do so. Then there was the rise of general-purpose robots and cobots. Oh my, these smart robots and cobots change everything and are the future of everything. Like Google and DeepMind’s RoboCat.  We’ll take a look at the RoboCat effect on robotics going forward. Plus, from a real-world look at smart robots in action, we’ll look at Lockheed’s use of smart robots. See how and why Lockheed got a 10x productivity bump. Are these smart critters the future? You bet.Then another amazing happening in robotics: two countries, not just one, making a bid for greatness. In March there was Korea and its $177 billion dollar move into leadership in East Asia with all things AI and robotics. We profiled Korea in a multi-series article set in March and then featured Korea in the March edition of the This Is Robotics podcast.Next up, is our second pick for greatness. India. India’s time has come. Not only for robotics and automation but as a country that has enabled the extraordinary ascent of India’s indigenous robotics technology. The intertwined future of India’s economics and its robotics technology.As economist Tyler Cowen put it: “With Rishi Sunak as prime minister of the U.K., it is now impossible to deny what has been evident for some while: Indian talent is revolutionizing the Western world far more than had been expected 10 or 15 years ago.”  And finally, from Gutenberg to GenAI. Why is it that humans will always reign supreme? I found out at 39,000 feet over the Pacific on my way to Asia… in the pages of a book from 2014 by Steven Johnson called How We Got to Now. Mother Nature did things to us in both brain and body that make us supreme. Sorry AI. Article Set for Rise of Indian RoboticsIs Addverb Technologies the Big Bang of Indian Robotics?Indian Robotics: Sometimes the Future Is NowCan India Build a Homegrown, Indigenous Robot Industry to Rival China’s?Top 10 Best Homegrown, Industrial Robot Builders in India

Welcome everyone to This Is Robotics, Episode #12.  I’m Tom Green your host and fellow traveler in the wonderful world of robotics.This is our first podcast while the world is hip deep in generativeAI. In fact, much of our show today is about AI and robotics. We lead off with our partnership blog What’s New in Robotics? with Robotiq, the automation company that helps you elevate your workforce with easy-to-use cobot solutions that do the work for you.Two of our blog posts from What’s New in Robotics? talk about an “inflexion point” arriving in 2023 heralding exponential advances in AUTONOMY and ADAPTIVITY. Both advances are arriving simultaneously with gererativeAI, which should make for an interesting year.Following that one of our main AI articles this episode: Does AI Need a Body?GenerativeAI, say the experts, is limited while AI is disembodied, but give it a body… and whamo! With a body, AI explore the world on its own. Because of that, look for bi-pedal humanoid robots in 2023 to get a lot of attention from AI.Casey Neistat had AI write a vlog script on places of interest in Manhattan. Casey shot the script, edited it, and then presented it on his YouTube channel. Here’s Casey’s take on AI as a scriptwriter: Even Casey thinks something major is missing. Could it be a body?Then we present a segment on cobots. Yes, cobots again! A segment we call Cobots Sing the Blues. What is going on with cobot sales? The cobot is one of the greatest advances in robotics, yet for nearly a decade now, it’s sales have been flaccid: less than 5% of total robot sales…and seemingly going nowhere fast. Our big question is are cobots chasing the wrong customer? We say, yes, and have for some time now. I personally love Elite cobots, which I think are the best out there; and I love what igus has done with the REbel for $7500. But there’s something missing, and we contend that it’s the right fit with the right customer. Our concluding section offers up and in-depth analysis of the cobot and how to fix sales: we call the segment: The Trouble with Cobots!EXTRA: Download PDF version: The Trouble with Cobots

Hi folks, and welcome once again to This Is Robotics: Radio News, Episode #20 For two years running now, we are the #1 Robotics News Podcast worldwide…and you my dear folks put us at #1. Thank you very much. Thanks for joining us today We’d really be remiss here at This Is Robotics if we didn’t put some sense into the biggest robotics story of the last several months. That story is of humanoid robots, bi-pedal humanoid robots hooking up with AI.Our next story is called Humanoid Robots and AI Cross the Rubicon…together. The point of no return!Where once people were frightened of humanoid robots taking jobs and more, they now seem to be frozen in fear over generative AI.And with humanoid robots and AI converging, the spectre of a twin fear of humanoids high on AI running amok is scaring more than a few.Let’s make some sense of what is really going on in this fast-paced world where the benefits from the convergence far outweigh the negatives.Here also are two new articles courtesy of What’s New in Robotics, from our blog partnership with Robotiq, leader in automating work with easy-to-use cobot solutions.The first one we call: Robots, Needles & Babies, which is about robotics disrupting infertility and in-vitro fertilization or artificial insemination, referred to as IVF.Our second article from What’s New in Robotics  we titled: Robot Lost & Found, which is the first-ever development of a robot designed to find lost items for dementia patients.Our next story asks the question: Is India next up for an automation makeover? It appears so, and Indian robotics is rolling out to the launchpad to drive it all.The Wall Street Journal, the International Federation of Robotics, and the International Monetary Fund are out with glowing reports on India’s upcoming successes. The timing couldn’t be better.See our companion articles in Asian Robotics Review:Indian Robotics: Sometimes the Future Is NowAsia-Pacific 70% of Global Growth 2023Finally, in an interview with Simon Winchester, the historian looks at the precision engineering styles of Henry Ford and Henry Royce as he celebrates the unsung breed of engineers who through the ages have designed ever more creative and intricate machines. He takes us on a journey through the evolution of “precision,” which in his view is the major driver of what we experience as modern life.    

Hi folks, and welcome once again to This Is Robotics: Radio News, Episode #19For two years running now, we are the #1 Robotics News Podcast worldwide…and you my dear folks put us at #1. Thank you very much.Thanks for joining us todayTopping the news of the month is Walmart with its blockbuster 5-year plan filled to the brim with automation and robots.  A story we call: Walmart Goes All-In for Robots.In short, it’s a massive upside for the entire robotics industry.That’s sure to prompt other retailers to follow suit. Some already have and are ahead of Walmart. Even Walmart’s suppliers are sure to speed things up as well. Got to get those gazillions of cans of Campbell’s soup shipped to Walmart’s 4700 stores either fast or faster.Walmart vendors winning out: Symbotic, GreyOrange & Alert Innovation. Check out the Robotiq blog for the full storyThen we’re off to a factory automation story circa 1803, the world’s very first automated factory, from which the reverberations, here 200 years later, still ring out loudly. The noted historian Simon Winchester wrote about it, and he’ll narrate what happened. The Future of Warehouse Work: Technological Change in the U.S. Logistics Industry.As he does, think about robot-driven automation in today’s warehouses and factories. There’s a lot of relevance for where today’s automation is headed.Following Simon and the world’s first automated factory from 1803, is our piece on Australian robotics. Once high-flying, Australian robotics went into an eclipse after the 2014 budget cuts. Listen to the sadly haunting news clip from 2014 that recounts the tragedy. And now the country wants a return to its former glory. Here, a decade on, is that possible? Know this, the world needs Australian robotics and Australian innovation. It’s a tragedy that the government let it wither. Can Australia now make a comeback? Is Australian Robotics Making a Comeback?

Hi everyone and welcome, I’m Tom Green, your host for this episode of  This Is Robotics, and your fellow companion on one of the most incredible journeys in human history: robotics.Thanks so much for tuning us in today.  March 20th, at 5:24 p.m. EDT) spring rolled in. It’s that time of year when the ground begins to thaw, birds return, and many vendors introduce their outdoor robots. Outdoors meaning robots for backyards, construction sites, farms, and major infrastructure projects most everywhere. In short, it’s springtime for robots.In honor of March, we’ll review some of these new spring robots for 2023. Renovate Robotics, Swap Robotics, Built Robotics, and GlüxKind.  Then, we’re off to Korea as Korea makes its $177 billion move at becoming a robotics kingpin: trying to be the third or fourth-largest producer of robots worldwide, as well as making a strong move on leadership in artificial intelligence. Big things are happening in Korea, and robotics will be a direct beneficiary of Korea’s remarkable plan for AI leadership, not only in East Asia and Asia…but the entire globe.  Articles in Asian Robotics Review: Major Growth Spurt Ahead for Korean Robotics 2023-2026 Korea could leapfrog competition through integration of robotics, AI/ML, and ICT Korea’s Plan for AI/ML Dominance...Brilliant! Korea looks to ramp up artificial intelligence and converge with recent successes in robotics (6x growth from 2009 to 2016). Can Korea pull it off?Our last two segments for this episode ask the question: What happened? Generative AI: Finally, America Gets a Real Wake-up CallIn 1983, the United States had 50-plus manufacturers of industrial robots. Today there are zero…as in none! Well, excepting for the recent one ABB in 2015 (Swiss/Swedish conglomerate) built in Michigan. Americans are left to "assembling" other peoples’ robots. Even though the U.S invented robots.   What if there's a supply-chain fiasco preventing shipments? Or worse, what if embargos from  US alliances make it impossible to import from Germany, Japan, Italy or China.? What has that mean’t for manufacturing in the U.S. today? Will America’s logistics go the same way as industrial robots.Between 2000 and 2010, the US lost one-third of its manufacturing jobs. The US remains the second-largest manufacturing country in the world, but its global dominance has been well and truly lost.What happened? And is this decline a harbinger of what Generative AI might do in the very near future? We’ll let you know what the leadership of DHL, a company that ships 5 billion packages annually, says about the situation.Finally, our last news report: Machine Tool Kingpins: Germany, Japan & China Machine tools keys to the future of global manufacturing. See also Asian Robotics Review news report and free downloadable PDF from Bismarck Analysis on machine tools.  The Importance of Machine Tools To Have and Have Not: Advanced Manufacturing's Most Important Skill

FABULOUS FEBRUARYHi everyone and welcome to This Is Robotics for February. It’s been a mere two months into 2023 and already big things, major innovations, are happening in robotics.And some of them are quite fabulous and are the harbinger of follow-on innovations that are even more fabulous.Because of what’s popped to the surface these last  2 months, we’re going into full-stop mode for This Is Robotics for February Episode 17. We’re calling it Fabulous February.Because, If this is what the first two months of 2023 are like for robotics, the remaining 10 months may well be the best in years.We’ll take a look at Service robotics, logistics, then cobots x3 with one of them being  the arrival of the ultimate, affordable, and simple-to-use cobot for SMEs at $9k.I’ve been writing about cobots for ten years, and this is the first to come along that’s tailor-made for SMEs and its not from an old-line robot maker or a new-line cobot maker; it’s from a 50-year-old, German company that makes high-performance plastics. The company is named igus, and the cobot is called the ReBel. And it could easily revolutionize the use of cobots for SMEs. How about a personal robot as family historian?All the elements to build one exist, there needs only a company smart enough to take it on. Perfect for ancestry.com.Instead of a family scrap book or memory sticks of media loaded with a family’s life events and special occasions, what about an undying, self-repairing home robot as family historian that records and stores everything.  A family robot that would record (audio and video) of the good, bad, and ugly of a family all year long, and then with the help of generative AI, organize it all into an annual movie co-narrated by Orson Wells and Lauren Becall (both deceased but with AI anything is possible)? Narrator choice is up to you.It's the ultimate hand-me-down, like the grandfather clock of robots.OKAY, LET’S GET ON WITH Fabulous February.