Robots are rolling out into the real world and we need to meet the emerging challenges in responsible fashion but one that doesn’t block innovation. At the recent ARM Developers Summit 2020 I shared my suggestions for five practical steps that we could undertake at a regional, national or global level as part of the Five Laws of Robotics presentation (below).
The Five Laws of Robotics are drawn from the EPSRC Principles of Robotics, first developed in 2010 and a living document workshopped by experts across many relevant disciplines. These five principles are practical and concise, embracing the majority…
Here’s a Women in Robotics Spotlight, where we share stories from women who are working on all sorts of interesting projects who haven’t yet been featured in our Annual Showcase. We hope these stories provide inspiration to everyone to join us working in the field of robotics. And if you’re a woman working in robotics, why not contribute your story too!
“I love robots however I do find it frustrating when the code that was working the day before doesn’t work. I also find it hard supplying my robots with power. I learn online although I do have a few…
Women in Robotics is a grassroots community involving women from around the world. Our mission is to support women working in robotics and women who would like to work in robotics. We formed an official 501c3 non-profit organization in 2020 headquartered in Oakland California.
We’d like to introduce our 2021 Board of Directors:
You invest in the future you want to live in. I want to invest my time in the future of rapid logistics.
Three years ago I set out on a journey to build a future where one-day delivery is available anywhere in the world by commercializing high precision, low-cost automated airdrops. In the beginning, the vision seemed almost so grand and unachievable as to be silly. A year ago we began assembling a top-notch team full of engineers, aviators and business leaders to help solve this problem. After a lot of blood sweat and tears, we arrive at present day…
The gendering of robots is something I’ve found fascinating since I first started building robots out of legos with my brother. We all ascribe character to robots, consciously or not, even when we understand exactly how robots work. Until recently we’ve been able to write this off as science fiction stuff, because real robots were boring industrial arms and anything else was fictional. However, since 2010, robots have been rolling out into the real world in a whole range of shapes, characters and notably, stereotypes. My original research on the naming of robots gave some indications as to just how…
We’d like to share the video from our 2020 Ada Lovelace Day celebration of Women in Robotics. The speakers were all on this year’s list, last year’s list, or nominated for next year’s list! and they present a range of cutting edge robotics research and commercial products. They are also all representatives of the new organization Black in Robotics which makes this video doubly powerful. Please enjoy the impactful work of:
Dr Ayanna Howard — Chair of Interactive Computing, Georgia Tech
Dr Carlotta Berry — Professor Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
Angelique Taylor — PhD…
30 women in robotics you need to know about — 2020
It’s Ada Lovelace Day and once again we’re delighted to introduce you to “30 women in robotics you need to know about”! From 13 year old Avye Couloute to Bala Krishnamurthy who worked alongside the ‘Father of Robotics’ Joseph Engelberger in the 1970s & 1980s, these women showcase a wide range of roles in robotics. We hope these short bios will provide a world of inspiration, in our eighth Women in Robotics list!
In 2020, we showcase women in robotics in China, Japan, Malaysia, Israel, Australia, Canada, United States…
The ethics of androids and autonomous systems has fascinated me since childhood. Asimov’s Four Laws of Robotics unfolded in a series of classic cautionary tales describing just how badly those simple rules could and would go wrong. I have been searching for effective ethical rules for robots ever since.
Before we talk about the ethics of robotics and AI, we must understand the goals and limitations of any public discussion into ethics. Ethics are like emotions: everyone has some, yet they aren’t always positive. Or, for that matter, equal, informed, or appropriate. …
ROSCon 2019 was a chance for ROS developers of all levels, beginner to expert, to spend an extraordinary two days learning from and networking with the ROS community in Macau. Silicon Valley Robotics recently hosted a ‘ROSCon Rewind’ event with recaps of the best papers and now Open Robotics has posted the videos and talks from ROSCon 2019 online. See links below!
ROSCon is a developers conference, in the model of PyCon and BoostCon. Following the success of the past six annual ROSCons, this year’s ROSCon was held in Macau. Similar to previous years, the two-day program will comprise technical…
Veteran’s Day seems like a fitting day for this discussion! At the present, the US is one of only two nations in formal opposition to the proposed UN ban against lethal autonomous robots, within the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. If you’d like to learn more, I’ve copied some information from The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots. Here’s also a very informative recent article by Lisa A. Bergstrom in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. As robot makers, we should be fully informed about this issue.
Bringing robotics into the real world, startup by startup, event by event. @svrobo @robogard @robohub #robotlaunch