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Bezos, Nvidia Join OpenAI in Funding Humanoid Robot Startup

Par : EditorDavid
26 février 2024 à 12:34
OpenAI, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Jeff Bezos are all part of a pack of investors in a business "developing human-like robots," reports Bloomberg, "according to people with knowledge of the situation..." At the startup — which is named "Figure" — engineers "are working on a robot that looks and moves like a human. The company has said it hopes its machine, called Figure 01, will be able to perform dangerous jobs that are unsuitable for people and that its technology will help alleviate labor shortages." Figure is raising about $675 million in a funding round that carries a pre-money valuation of roughly $2 billion, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private. Through his firm Explore Investments LLC, Bezos has committed $100 million. Microsoft is investing $95 million, while Nvidia and an Amazon.com Inc.-affiliated fund are each providing $50 million... Other technology companies are involved as well. Intel Corp.'s venture capital arm is pouring in $25 million, and LG Innotek is providing $8.5 million. Samsung's investment group, meanwhile, committed $5 million. Backers also include venture firms Parkway Venture Capital, which is investing $100 million, and Align Ventures, which is providing $90 million... The AI robotics industry has been busy lately. Earlier this year, OpenAI-backed Norwegian robotics startup 1X Technologies AS raised $100 million. Vancouver-based Sanctuary AI is developing a humanoid robot called Phoenix. And Tesla Inc. is working on a robot called Optimus, with Elon Musk calling it one of his most important projects. Agility Robotics, which Amazon backed in 2022, has bots in testing at one of the retailer's warehouses. Bloomberg calls the investments in Figure "part of a scramble to find new applications for artificial intelligence."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Ces deux aspirateurs robots performants de chez Xiaomi sont pratiquement à moitié prix

23 février 2024 à 10:20

[Deal du jour] Il existe de nombreux modèles d'aspirateurs robots à des prix très différents, et qui n’ont pas tous les mêmes fonctionnalités. Ces deux modèles de Xiaomi sont basiques, mais offrent de bonnes performances. Ils sont bien plus intéressants en promotion.

Boston Dynamics' Atlas Tries Out Inventory Work, Gets Better At Lifting

Par : BeauHD
7 février 2024 à 00:45
In a new video released today, Boston Dynamics' Atlas robot is shown performing "kinetically challenging" work, like moving some medium-weight car parts and precisely picking stuff up. Ars Technica reports: In the latest video, we're on to what looks like "phase 2" of picking stuff up -- being more precise about it. The old clamp hands had a single pivot at the palm and seemed to just apply the maximum grip strength to anything the robot picked up. The most delicate thing Atlas picked up in the last video was a wooden plank, and it was absolutely destroying the wood. Atlas' new hands look a lot more gentle than The Clamps, with each sporting a set of three fingers with two joints. All the fingers share one big pivot point at the palm of the hand, and there's a knuckle joint halfway up the finger. The fingers are all very long and have 360 degrees of motion, so they can flex in both directions, which is probably effective but very creepy. Put two fingers on one side of an item and the "thumb" on the other, and Atlas can wrap its hands around objects instead of just crushing them. Atlas is picking up a set of car struts -- an object with extremely complicated topography that weighs around 30 pounds -- so there's a lot to calculate. Atlas does a heavy two-handed lift of a strut from a vertical position on a pallet, walks the strut over to a shelf, and carefully slides it into place. This is all in Boston Dynamics' lab, but it's close to repetitive factory or shipping work. Everything here seems designed to give the robot a manipulation challenge. The complicated shape of the strut means there are a million ways you could grip it incorrectly. The strut box has tall metal poles around it, so the robot needs to not bang the strut into the obstacle. The shelf is a tight fit, so the strut has to be placed on the edge of the shelf and slid into place, all while making sure the strut's many protrusions won't crash into the shelf.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Amazon blâme l’Europe pour lui avoir fait rater l’un de ses plus gros rachats

29 janvier 2024 à 16:17

Amazon ne mettra pas la main sur l'entreprise américaine iRobot, spécialisée dans la robotique domestique (comme les aspirateurs Roomba). La faute à la réglementation européenne, selon le géant de l'e-commerce.

Cet aspirateur robot en promo est moins adorable qu’un chat, mais il fait le ménage

24 janvier 2024 à 14:54

[Deal du jour] Il existe de nombreux aspirateurs robots et il est parfois difficile de faire un choix. L’iRobot Roomba J7+ est un modèle basique et efficace, en ce moment en promotion.

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