For years, people have told me things like, “Say what you will about Musk, but Tesla has driven renewed interest in EVs,” and that’s more or less how I feel about Optimus at the moment. It’s served an import dual role of renewing the discussion around the form factor, while providing a clear visual to point to when explaining how hard this stuff is. Is it possible to dramatically raise the public’s expectations while tempering them at the same time?

Humans map sounds to words, which in turn correspond to concepts or things. Do whales communicate in a similar fashion? We aim to find out. If we extend our ears into the sea and leverage machine learning, perhaps someday we will even be able to communicate meaningfully with these fascinating creatures.

What if we could create a robotic fish that moved alongside marine creatures and mammals like a regular member of the aquatic neighborhood? That would give us a phenomenal window into undersea life.

The organization predicts "a strong sales increase" in the coming years, particularly of robotic systems used for logistics, which are expected to more than double by 2022.

Close to catastrophe: Flying over southern Spain, photographer Aya Okawa saw starkly what toxic waste looks like. “I got a clear look at the dramatic views of toxic waste pools, byproducts of phosphate-based fertilizer production,” Okawa says.

The hope is these large behaviour models, once big enough, will help machines adapt to new and unpredictable environments, such as commercial and domestic settings, rapidly transforming businesses and our home lives.

A robot would be great, Roger replied, but what he really wanted was a capsule that could attach to a whale so he could dive with these wonderful creatures and truly experience what it was like to be one of them.

So we wondered what would happen if we were to tap into the worldwide community of gamers and use their skills in new ways. With a robot working inside the deep freezer room, or in a standard manufacturing or warehouse facility, remote operators could remain What are the cons to robots on call, waiting for it to ask for assistance if it made an error, got stuck, or otherwise found itself incapable of completing a task.

At peak hours, a real-life bartender is always at the bar next to the robot; but the technology lets them delegate drinks like a vodka-lemonade, and instead focus on cocktails that require more of a human touch.

Agility Robotics co-founder and CEO Damion Shelton said the warehouse robot is “just the first use case” of a new generation of robots he hopes will be embraced rather than feared as they prepare to enter businesses and homes.

In its London headquarters, digital marketing company Brainslabs has had a robotic receptionist for three years now.  

The Associated Press is an independent global news organization dedicated to factual reporting. Founded in 1846, AP today remains the most trusted source of fast, accurate, unbiased news in all formats and the essential provider of the technology and services vital to the news business. More than half the world’s population sees AP journalism every day.

To all robot makers and researchers who kindly helped us with information and materials, and allowed us to feature their amazing projects here.

Particular care needs to be taken in the case of customer-facing cobots, such as those found in the hospitality sector. "The concept of service robots is robots that can be used where almost anyone can be exposed to the hazards," Nelson Shea told ZDNet.