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Dr. David Hanson leads the engineers and designers that created Sophia, the team's most advanced android to date. Sophia's lifelike skin is made from patented silicon and she can emulate more than 62 facial expressions. Cameras inside her "eyes," combined with computer algorithms, enable her to "see," follow faces and appear to make eye contact and recognize individuals.

As minimum wages across the country rise and restaurants face increased labor costs, one fast food CEO is thinking about replacing human workers with robots. Carl's Jr. head honcho Andy Puzder wants to open a new restaurant concept that's "employee-free," reports Business Insider. Puzder was inspired by a visit to Eatsa, the futuristic San Francisco-born restaurant where patrons order via tablet and retrieve their food from automated cubbies. He believes the idea of a restaurant free of social interaction could be especially appealing to millennials, noting that young people seem particularly fond of ordering from kiosks over humans.

When it comes robots, humans can be a little too trusting. In a series of experiments at Georgia Tech that simulated a building fire, people ignored the emergency exits and followed instructions from a robot -- even though they'd been told it might be faulty. The study involved a group of 42 volunteers who were asked to follow a "guidance robot" through an office to a conference room.They weren't told the true nature of the test. The robot sometimes led participants to the wrong room, where it did a couple of circles before exiting. Sometimes the robot stopped moving and...

While there are fears robots may rise up to take over the world if artificial intelligence progresses too quickly, some of us may find ourselves simply marrying machines in the future. A leading computer scientist has predicted that as robots become more human-like, people may start turning to them for companionship. His predictions mirror the plot of the hit TV series Humans, where people formed emotional attachments to robots brought in to help out around the home.

If the Department of Labor continues to make it difficult for companies to hire American workers, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) warned, robots would take over key jobs in the economy. During a town hall in Okatie, S.C., Rubio warned that the Department of Labor was too big, too powerful, and turned into “anti-business agency” that hurt the private sector.

We don't incessantly stare at other people when we speak to them, and we don't expect them to stare back. Programming companion robots to understand this kind of social protocol is tricky but crucial, according to researcher Sean Andrist, a Ph.D. student at the University of Wisconsin's Department of Computer Sciences. An interesting write-up over at IEEE Spectrum details Andrist's research, which involves the "gaze mechanisms" that we humans take for granted when interacting with one another. The goal is to improve the function of both physical humanoid robots and virtual avatars by establishing rules that govern when, why and...

The Japanese lettuce production company Spread believes the farmers of the future will be robots. So much so that Spread is creating the world's first farm manned entirely by robots. Instead of relying on human farmers, the indoor Vegetable Factory will employ robots that can harvest 30,000 heads of lettuce every day. Don't expect a bunch of humanoid robots to roam the halls, however; the robots look more like conveyor belts with arms. They'll plant seeds, water plants, and trim lettuce heads after harvest in the Kyoto, Japan farm. "The use of machines and technology has been improving agriculture in...

The video shows the robot solving the Rubik's Cube at times of 1.196 seconds, 1.152 seconds, 1.047 seconds and 1.019 seconds, as the machine displayed not just extreme speed in the task, but also consistency in keeping the solving time between 1 second and 1.2 seconds. The machine is built using 3D-printed frames, stepper motors, and four USB web cameras that are connected to a PC. The cameras scan the Rubik's Cube to begin analyzing the puzzle through the Kociemba solving algorithm, and the solution is then carried out by the robot in lightning fast movements. The Rubik's Cube being...

The US army says it has mothballed plans to deploy a robot developed in conjunction with Google because it is "too loud". The Legged Squad Support System, referred to by some as "the big dog," is capable of carrying 400lbs (181.4kg) of equipment over rugged terrain. But the US Marines now say its petrol-powered engine is too noisy for them to use in battle. ... The LS3 was developed by Boston Dynamics, a robotics firm acquired by Google in 2013 - as part of a tie-up with the Pentagon's research arm, the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa). The robot...

Nadine is loaded with intelligent "assistant" software similar to Siri and Cortana, with her own moods and emotions. She can also remember the people she'd met before and the contents of their conversation. Professor Thalmann's robotic doppelganger was developed to become a personal assistant or a companion for kids and the elderly in the future. She believes social robots like her creation could eventually become real-life C-3POs "with knowledge of language and etiquette." For now, she and her team are putting Nadine to work as a receptionist at the university

Simbe Robotics, based in San Francisco, announced its first product, a 30-pound robot called Tally that can move up and down a store's aisles checking inventory. The robot determines what products need restocking and send reports to workers who can add more stock. Tally also is set up to work during normal store hours, alongside employees and customers. "Tally performs repetitive and laborious tasks of auditing shelves for out-of-stock items, low stock items, misplaced items, and pricing errors," the company said in a release. "Tally has the ability to audit shelves cheaper, more frequently, and significantly faster than existing processes;...

Alpha 2, The World's First Humanoid Robot for the Family. Intelligent, Interactive and Expandable!

The world's first robot 'actress': Talking android fitted with a human face is given star role in Japanese nuclear disaster film Android called 'Geminoid F' is the co-star in the Japanese film 'Sayonara' Designed to look and act like a human with rubber 'skin' and woman's face The robot is equipped with motorised actuators and controlled remotely By Julian Robinson for MailOnline Published: 22:29 GMT, 1 November 2015 | Updated: 00:25 GMT, 2 November 2015 Japanese film-makers have created a robot movie star - by casting an android 'actress' in a lead role. The robot co-stars alongside a human in...

From the army of machines that work in Amazon warehouses to automatons that milk cows, the job-taking robots of the future are among us. Now the lettuce in your salad of the future might be grown by robots too. Oh, by “future,” we mean 2017. That’s the hope of Spread, a company in Kyoto, Japan, that plans to begin constructing the world’s first large-scale lettuce factory next spring. Once it’s fully operational, the entire process of growing a head of lettuce—from seeding to harvest—will be automated and run by robots. The efficiency of machines will enable the factory to produce...

Researchers in Germany are currently creating a "nervous system" that would mimic a pain response in robots, allowing them to quickly react and avoid harmful situations. "Pain is a system that protects us,” researcher Johannes Kuehn told a conference of engineers last week. “When we evade from the source of pain, it helps us not get hurt.” The researchers programmed their robot to experience a "hierarchy" of pain through a variety of different stimuli, such as blunt force or heat. Depending on the threat, such as a harsh movement or intense heat, the robot is programmed to retract to the...

A predictable consequence of the move to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour will be the hastened transition from human to a more robotic work-force. A photo that went viral this week showed a robot "manning" the take-out window at McDonald's. You can expect to see more of this. Employers will, of course, be pilloried by the usual cast of economically-challenged Marxists in the political and chattering classes as heartless, sexist, homophobic racists, etc., who put profits before people. But the non-economically challenged among us realize that the increased use of robots is a completely rational response of...

At the RoboUniverse expo in New York City, robots of all shapes and sizes were being put to work. Companies showed off automated machines designed to perform tasks that many humans would consider less than desirable. “There are certain tasks in our society… that will stay on and not be attractive for humans to do. And we cannot get rid of them if we want to live our lives in the usual fashion,” said Preben Hjørnet, founder and CEO of robotics startup Blue Workforce. “Robots have no conscience, no self-awareness, so they’ll never be social,” Hjørnet added, “But they don’t...

Apple and Samsung supplier Foxconn has reportedly replaced 60,000 factory workers with robots. One factory has "reduced employee strength from 110,000 to 50,000 thanks to the introduction of robots", a government official told the South China Morning Post. Xu Yulian, head of publicity for the Kunshan region, added: "More companies are likely to follow suit." China is investing heavily in a robot workforce. In a statement to the BBC, Foxconn Technology Group confirmed that it was automating "many of the manufacturing tasks associated with our operations" but denied that it meant long-term job losses. [snip] Since September 2014, 505 factories...

Gentlemen, we have the technology. We can build the perfect sex companions. But do we want them? David Mills has a great story about the time he brought a date home and she almost saw his sex robot. “Everything was going well, and we were heading toward the bedroom,” he says. “And that’s when I realized, ‘Oh crap, Taffy’s in there!’” Taffy is Mills’s sex robot. He gave her that name because it sounded young and playful. Mills and Taffy are celebrating their two-year anniversary. In June of 2014, Mills had her delivered from a company called Abyss Creations in...

Getting stitched up by Dr. Robot may one day be reality: Scientists have created a robotic system that did just that in living animals without a real doctor pulling the strings. Much like engineers are designing self-driving cars, Wednesday’s research is part of a move toward autonomous surgical robots, removing the surgeon’s hands from certain tasks that a machine might perform all by itself. No, doctors wouldn’t leave the bedside — they’re supposed to supervise, plus they’d handle the rest of the surgery. Nor is the device ready for operating rooms. But in small tests using pigs, the robotic arm...