Category: Industrial
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The Future We Saw Coming Is Now
As IEEE Spectrum editors, we pride ourselves on spotting promising technologies and following them from the research phase through development and ultimately deployment. In every January issue, we focus on the technologies that are now poised to achieve significant milestones in the new year. This issue was curated by Senior Editor Samuel K. Moore, our…
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11 Intriguing Engineering Milestones to Look for in 2024
This story is part of our Top Tech 2024 special report. Journey to the Center of the Earth To unlock the terawatt potential of geothermal energy, MIT startup Quaise Energy is testing a deep-drilling rig in 2024 that will use high-power millimeter waves to melt a column of rock down as far as 10 to…
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Humanoid Robots Are Getting to Work
Ten years ago, at the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC) Trial event near Miami, I watched the most advanced humanoid robots ever built struggle their way through a scenario inspired by the Fukushima nuclear disaster. A team of experienced engineers controlled each robot, and overhead safety tethers kept them from falling over. The robots had to…
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Video Friday: More Happy Holidays!
Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your friends at IEEE Spectrum robotics. We also post a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months. Please send us your events for inclusion. Cybathlon Challenges: 02 February 2024, ZURICH, SWITZERLAND Eurobot Open 2024: 8–11 May 2024, LA ROCHE-SUR-YON,…
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Top Robotics Stories of 2023
2023 was the best year ever for robotics. I say this every year, but every year it’s true, because the robotics field seems to be always poised on the edge of changing absolutely everything. Is 2024 going to be even better? Will it be the year where humanoids, or AI, or something else makes our…
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AI alters middle managers’ work
The introduction of artificial intelligence is a significant part of the digital transformation bringing challenges and changes to the job descriptions among management. A study conducted at the University of Eastern Finland shows that integrating artificial intelligence systems into service teams increases demands imposed on middle management in the financial services field. In that sector,…
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Large language models validate misinformation
New research into large language models shows that they repeat conspiracy theories, harmful stereotypes, and other forms of misinformation. In a recent study, researchers at the University of Waterloo systematically tested an early version of ChatGPT’s understanding of statements in six categories: facts, conspiracies, controversies, misconceptions, stereotypes, and fiction. This was part of Waterloo researchers’…
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Video Friday: The Simplest Walking Robot
Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your friends at IEEE Spectrum robotics. We also post a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months. Please send us your events for inclusion. Cybathlon Challenges: 02 February 2024, ZURICH Eurobot Open 2024: 8–11 May 2024, LA ROCHE-SUR-YON, FRANCE…
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This Robotic Pack Mule Can Carry Your Gear (and You)
This article is part of our exclusive IEEE Journal Watch series in partnership with IEEE Xplore. The useful niche that quadrupedal robots seem to have found for themselves, at least for the moment, is infrastructure inspection. They’ve had a mild to moderate amount of success monitoring industrial sites, tracking construction progress, and things of that…
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U.S. renters are hit the hardest when a hurricane strikes, new research shows
With a severe shortage of affordable housing in the United States, renters living along the East and Gulf coasts are uniquely vulnerable to hurricane disasters. Two new studies based on data from 2009 to 2018 show that renters living along the East and Gulf coasts of the United States face rent increases, higher eviction rates,…