We know, you’re thinking “Great, yet another pizza-making robot.” But the inventors of RoDyMan (RObotic DYnamic MANipulation) digitized the actions of noted pizzaioloEnzo Coccia, who wore a motion-capture suit while making traditional pies. Result: a robot going through the motions of making pizzas while producing soulless, pizza-like objects.
More:
“$2.9 Million Pizza-Making Robot Still Can’t Make Pizza,” Joel Hruska, ExtremeTech
Purdue University’s Bio-Robotics Lab has produced an amazing hummingbird robot. It flies, hovers, manouvers, and avoids obstacles. Robot Hummingbird would also be a great name for a band.
More:
“This Robot Hummingbird Is Almost as Agile as the Real Thing,” Evan Ackerman, IEEE Spectrum
“The world’s largest retailer is rolling out 360 autonomous floor-scrubbing robots in some of its stores in the U.S. by the end of the January, it said in a joint statement with Brain Corp., which makes the machines. The autonomous janitors can clean floors on their own even when customers are around, according to the San Diego-based startup.”
–“Robot Janitors Are Coming to Mop Floors at a Walmart Near You,” Pavel Alpeyev, Bloomberg
That means Walmart will retrain its janitors as cashiers and open more checkout lines, right? Ha.
“Zume, the robotic pizza maker, is now valued at more than US $2 billion, thanks to its latest round of investment. According to The Wall Street Journal, this latest infusion of funds—$375 million—came entirely from SoftBank; and the Japanese conglomerate apparently has another $375 million at the ready should Zume need it. The valuation, in Silicon Valley terms, makes the new company a unicorn, one of the rare breed of startups thought to be worth over $1 billion.
This is just wrong. Because it’s just not good pizza.”
— “Zume, the Robotic Pizza Company, Makes Pies Only a Robot Could Love,” Tekla S. Perry, IEEE Spectrum
NotionsCapital 