Manufacturing is not merely about giving people jobs. The next generation of technological innovations is intimately tied to production processes. (MIT Technology Review) This new partnership will make sure that tomorrow’s breakthroughs are America’s breakthroughs. (President Obama at CMU) With much fanfare, and a trip to the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute, President Obama launched a…

Will big industrial robot makers such as ABB, Fanuc and Kuka, transition and begin making products for the consumer and service markets? I’m beginning to think not. And here are a few of my reasons: I’ve been impressed by the possibilities for power companies to reduce costs and expand safety and efficiency by adapting robots…

Thus far, the biggest hitch in the development of commercially feasible and consumer-friendly robots is not the robotic devices themselves, but the artificial intelligence that manages their activities and communicates with their users and managers. Andrew Ng, an Associate Professor at Stanford U’s AI Lab, made a wonderfully illuminating 16-minute video about the problems and…