This Is Robotics: Radio News #21

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 CobotsHeartfelt Thanks for Making This Is Robotics the #1 Global Robotics News Podcast