Posted on 02/04/2010 8:41:22 AM PST by jmcenanly
NASA and General Motors are working together to accelerate development of the next generation of robots and related technologies for use in the automotive and aerospace industries. 
Engineers and scientists from NASA and GM worked together through a Space Act Agreement at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston to build a new humanoid robot capable of working side by side with people. Using leading edge control, sensor and vision technologies, future robots could assist astronauts during hazardous space missions and help GM build safer cars and plants.
(Excerpt) Read more at nasa.gov ...
Just what I want to hear more about......two GOVERNMENT liability entities collaborating together to tax what little we have left.
That’s nice. Two government agencies working together.
and in the next round of union negotiations, they will be forced to join the AFL-CIO...
If it can’t make breakfast, it’s useless.
Oh goody. I love it when government agencies form task forces to solve problems that don’t matter for way too much money.
Automation and cheap energy are key to recapturing manufacturing from China. If you get the labor costs down, transportation costs, and raw material costs become paramount. Manufacturing will move closer to home and/or closer to raw materials.
General purpose robots are one area where we ought to subsidize with an eye to pushing the robots down the path of the PC. If you can get the price cheap enough that you can put a bunch of these into the hands of professional and amateur software developers, then suddenly you’ll see a ton of practical applications for them.
The faster you automate, the greater the disruption in the labor markets. It will create jobs, but at the same time, it will eliminate a lot of unskilled labor. How you handle that is important. There will be a need for more unemployment benefits and retraining.
Of course, you need energy to run these things, and Obama is still betting the farm on a green pipe dream instead of pursuing viable energy options.
BreakfastBot...works for me.
They come with an optional wind mill on there head>
Never. The ZerO cut their funding... a move that will decimate the space program going forward and also threaten our national defense... never mind killing a slew of hi-tech jobs.
there=their
Ford/Toyota/Honda etc.. will have to compete with a corporation that gets its research and development free from a taxpayer funded government agency. I’d say this is an illegal arrangement.
Why, for the vast majority of uses, would you want to build a robot that is shaped like a human? You have all kinds of issues with balance, and a limited stabilizing base for extended reach, etc., etc.
I’d think something like a big dog as a base but with an extensible, flexible arm coming from the middle of it would be much better.
I wish we could replace all union jobs with robots because robots cannot vote....
LOL, what then explains the election of zero?
I think we should send teleoperated humanoid robots tot he moon to work on building manufacturing plants ON THE MOON.
The whole idea would be to build a base ont he moon before you send the lunarnauts...
The Japanese (primary Fanuc and Panasonic) completely control the market for industrial robots. Nice to see them have some domestic competition.
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