The autonomous driving system is equipped with six pairs of cameras, three in the front and three in the rear that provide a 360-degree view of the tractor’s surroundings. The images are fed to the onboard computer, where a convolutional neural network—an advanced form of artificial intelligence that analyzes images—classifies pixels in milliseconds, identifies objects in the tractor’s path, and determines whether the tractor should remain on course, steer around an obstacle, or stop.
A farmer monitors and manages the autonomous tractor from a mobile application that provides live video and continuous data on the machine’s operations. Farmers have the option to drive the vehicle from the cab.
To ease their concerns, she ordered a vending machine where shoppers can choose their steaks, sausages, or salami, pay with a card or cash, and retrieve their meat after it drops into the bin—without having to queue inside or interact with a salesperson.
Now, her coronavirus rescue is a growing part of her business. Most stores in Germany must close on Sundays and public holidays, but no such restrictions cover vending machines, leading to an upsurge of sales when the shop is shuttered. Thanks at least in part to a billboard Marx put on a nearby Autobahn, customers who haven’t sufficiently prepared for their Sunday at the grill come from as far as Hamburg to pick up bratwurst or barbecue. Once, when Marx’s husband saw a police car stopping by in the wee hours, he feared something was amiss, but the officers simply wanted breakfast supplies.
Sea Machines Robotics, a Boston-based developer of autonomous vessel software and systems, announced on Tuesday that it is readying a tugboat for a 1,000-nautical-mile autonomous journey (that’s roughly 1,150 miles) around Denmark.
Crafted in the Netherlands, the tug will employ long-range computer vision and a “sensor-to-propeller” system called the SM300. Together, Sea Machines says these features allow for “path-planning, obstacle avoidance replanning, vectored nautical chart data, and dynamic domain perception.” In other words, it is designed to follow along a predetermined path safely, identifying and avoiding any obstacles that might appear along the way.
BFI4, located in exurban Kent, Wash., is Amazon’s flagship fulfillment center and regularly hosts senior company leaders—Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy dropped by recently—who want a better understanding of what happens after a shopper clicks “Buy Now.” It was the first facility of its kind capable of processing more than 1 million items a day, three times what was possible at the company’s state-of-the-art warehouses a decade ago. Improving technology means Amazon can stay several steps ahead of brick-and-mortar rivals Walmart Inc. and Target Corp., which are now adopting many of the practices Amazon has worked on for years.
More than the physical robots, the stars of Amazon’s facilities are the algorithms—sets of computer instructions designed to solve specific problems. Software determines how many items a facility can handle, where each product is supposed to go, how many people are required for the night shift during the holiday rush, and which truck is best positioned to get a stick of deodorant to a customer on time. “We rely on the software to help us make the right decisions,” says Shobe, BFI4’s general manager.
A quartet of houses designed by local firm Logan Architecture and built from 3D-printed concrete by construction tech company ICON has completed in Austin, Texas.
The four dwellings have ground-floor walls built using ICON's Vulcan construction system, which uses a robotic armature to layer Portland-cement-based material Lavacrete into striated surfaces.
"3D-printing technology provides safer, more resilient homes that are designed to withstand fire, flood, wind and other natural disasters better than conventionally built homes," said the company.
Rather than presenting a straightforward analysis, the new volume is organized around 10 factual essays, written by Lee, each explaining a different aspect of the technology and its potential impact over the next two decades. Each of these is then paired with a short work of speculative fiction by Qiufan, each set in a different country, with narratives centered around the same themes Lee identifies. The effect is a bit like reading an issue of McKinsey Quarterly and then watching an episode of the dark sci-fi TV series Black Mirror.
Robots consistently dispense the same amount of food every time, resulting in less waste and tighter control over ingredients. Robots can also operate dangerous machinery like a deep fryer or pizza oven without getting injured. And especially important in our ongoing pandemic, not only do robots not get sick, but they create more social distance for other human workers inside a kitchen.
All of these reasons help explain why we are starting to see more food-creation robots come to market. XRobotics and Middleby both make commercial pizza-assembling robots. Last week, Hyphen unveiled its Makeline automated food assembly system for fast casual restaurants like Sweetgreen. And while Miso Robotics’ Flippy is already working the fryer at White Castle, the company recently announced a new automated drink dispenser for QSR drive-thrus.
Amazon is bringing its cashierless “Just Walk Out” technology to two new Whole Foods locations next year, the company has announced. One of the stores will be in Washington, DC, while the second will be in Sherman Oaks, California. When they’re open, customers will have the option of paying at a traditional self-checkout or customer service booth, or having the new technology automatically bill them when they leave the store.
Mike Rowe talks about his new show "How America Works"
"This is us taking a single topic like logging and saying, "Okay, maybe you've heard some things about logging. Maybe you have formed some opinions about it." Rather than telling you how to think about the industry, we just introduce you to the regular people who put bread on the table by getting us the lumber we need to build the desk you're sitting at right now and the one underneath this glass, right? We just make it as personal as we can. We do the same thing with energy. We do the same thing with electricity. We go to the Hoover Dam and we just spend a day with people who are trying to repair and maintain the turbines, which provide electricity for about a sixth of the country. We do the same thing with waste management, just by hanging out with some garbage people for the better part of a day.
And people will be surprised by the degree of sophistication that informs all of these vocations. They'll be surprised by the passion that these workers feel for their jobs.
People are very confused about energy in general. And look, this is headline news, right? And the show doesn't try to be political or polemic, but you can't help but make the point: When it comes to energy, a lot of people think about electricity as being fundamentally clean, whereas maybe coal or oil they might think of as fundamentally dirty. What most people don't really understand though, is that their Tesla or their Prius that they plug in and feel great about plugging in, uses electricity and that electricity doesn't come from the electricity tree. It comes from a turbine and that turbine is spinning, and in the vast majority of cases, the energy that's being used to spin that turbine is being provided by natural gas or oil. And so what I hope we learn from the series is the way that we all are truly interconnected. You can't just arbitrage the part of the workforce that makes you uncomfortable in the equation."
Two years ago, DeJesus became the first umpire in a regular-season game anywhere to use something called the Automated Ball-Strike System. Most players refer to it as the “robo-umpire.” Major League Baseball had designed the system and was testing it in the Atlantic League, where DeJesus works. The term “robo-umpire” conjures a little R2-D2 positioned behind the plate, beeping for strikes and booping for balls. But, for aesthetic and practical reasons, M.L.B. wanted human umpires to announce the calls, as if playacting their former roles. So DeJesus had his calls fed to him through an earpiece, connected to a modified missile-tracking system. The contraption looked like a large black pizza box with one glowing green eye; it was mounted above the press box. When the first pitch came in, a recorded voice told DeJesus it was a strike. He announced it, and no one in the ballpark said anything.
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