- The thoughts of the nerds at Romotive.
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- Robots (5)
What is Personal Robotics?
Jun03
We all know Rosie from the Jetsons or Roomba from iRobot; both serve as classic examples of personal robots. They exemplify the application of robotics to everyday life for us as individuals, and that’s how we define personal robotics.
Now, improving everyday life can cover a range of tasks from coffee retrieval to companionship, which is why robotics can involve a wide range of subjects. Roboticists can’t just think about gears and wires. They also have to consider the world and people with whom these robots will interact.
While robots currently … Read the rest
Posted by: Jessica Shutt
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Announcing the Romotive SDK
Jun01
We’re really excited to announce the public release of the Romotive SDK. The Romotive SDK gives you the power to write your own programs for Romo, and we can’t wait to see what you build.
In the past, robotics has been a fairly inaccessible field. In order to “hack around” with a robot, you either had to build one yourself or work in a research lab. We’re trying to make “tinkering” with a robot so accessible that you don’t need ANY robotics experience to get started. And we think that we’re off to a great start with our first public release of the Romotive SDK.
The SDK comes as a … Read the rest
Posted by: Phu
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When Creating Robot Overlords…
May27
The field of robotics provides unique insights into human psychology. Stressing his longtime interest in the human mind, our Adam Setapen explains the valuable role personal robots play when trying to understand how we make decisions.
Adam also discusses the role of a roboticist in exploring the topic and thinking about the different types of social interactions we can have with bots.… Read the rest
Posted by: Jessica Shutt
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Compassion for the Little Bot
May20
RI-MAN, a Japanese nursing robot, from RIKEN
Empathy plays a powerful role in the lives of humans. From helping us to control our rage when we feel wronged to cheering with a friend upon hearing their good news, it paves the way toward harmony in many social interactions. The ability to feel empathy determines how well we can forge relationships with others.
Those of us who build robots often wonder if we can use this powerful force outside the realm of human to human interaction.
Researchers at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany have shown that we probably can. Utilizing fMRIs, researchers have discovered that our brains react … Read the rest
Posted by: Jessica Shutt
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An iPad for Every Student: Bringing Technology to San Diego Schools
May17
By Jess Shutt
Technology in schools can dramatically change the way students learn. I had that experience eight years ago at High Tech High (from the name of my school you can see I was destined to be a Nerd from a young age). While my friends at the local high school lugged around text books and focused on secondary sources, I had access to conflicting perspectives and primary sources in every Google search made from one of the hundreds of computers around school. In fact, with only 400 students on campus, we used to joke that the school had more computers than people.
Due to my access to technology, … Read the rest
Posted by: Jessica Shutt
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Making Robotics Personal
May10
“The future of robotics is personal.” - Keller
How do we make robotics personal? That’s a difficult question to answer. Maybe I’m a C3PO type of girl, but you’re more into R2D2. Maybe you never even thought about yourself as a robot person at all.
Personal robotics means creating a robot that everyone is excited to have around, that we all want to take home and spend an afternoon with. Much like a person, a robot should be friendly, attentive and not creepy. Your robot has to be someone you want to spend time with, not just another machine or appliance in your home.
Right now, we can think … Read the rest
Posted by: Jessica Shutt
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Kids Learning to Code
May03
Once in a while – more and more frequently these days – we stumble upon a talented young person who blows us away with their computer programming savvy. The latest example is Thomas Suarez, a 12-year old app developer who founded CarrotCorp and created Bustin Jieber, a whack-a-mole-style app that irks beliebers everywhere.
Thomas also gave an inspiring TEDX talk in 2011. He raises an important question: Where can kids go to learn how to create an app?
Some have the good fortune of getting introduced to Scratch. Others attend computer summer camps, immersion programs for girls and other awesome initiatives to attract more underrepresented groups to … Read the rest
Posted by: Jessica Shutt
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Why robots are ready for takeoff
Apr24
By Keller Rinaudo
At Romotive, we are obsessed with robots. We’re a team of nerds, and we grew up watching science fiction that prominently featured robots doing extraordinary things to help or protect their human counterparts. We figured that as adults, our lives would be better because of robots.
Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened yet, and robots remain one of the great unfulfilled promises of science fiction. We think that’s going to change over the next decade.
First, the barriers to entry in robotics that have typically precluded individuals or small teams from building robots are falling away. The rise of cheap rapid-prototyping tools like 3-D printers is making it possible … Read the rest
Posted by: Jessica Shutt
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Hello World!
Apr20
Welcome to the new and improved website. As you can see it is full of new features and some hints of things to come (like the Romo Community). We hope that you have fun exploring!
The past few weeks have been pretty exciting here at Romotive. Keller’s TED talk was shared with the world. Romo got an app patch. And the Nerds have been hard at work, deep in the fortress that is the Romotive offices.
The next few months will be even more exciting. Romotive will be moving to SF. Romo will be getting many app updates (tsk tsk, spoilers). And Romotive Nerds will still be hard at … Read the rest
Posted by: Phu
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