The world’s first tunnel dug by an autonomous robot swarm was just completed in the UK
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Today digging tunnels is slow – as slow as a snail – but this new method makes it exponentially faster and cheaper opening up all manner of possibilities. Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from XPotential University, read...
Tiny autonomous brainy robots get ready to explore your body from within
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Robots of all sizes are starting to loose their cables and tethers which means they’ll soon be free to do what they want. Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from XPotential University, read about exponential tech and trends, ...
Boston Dynamics’ robot dog gets busy herding New Zealand sheep
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Robots are becoming increasingly capable and versatile which means they are now able to accomplish an increasingly wide variety of tasks. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. We all know that humans jobs are under threat of being...
Researchers show off transformer-like robots that change shape without central control
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Small, cheap robots that can swarm together and transform themselves to accomplish a wide variety of different tasks make for a very hard to beat proposition. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. One of the science fiction technologies...
Volkswagen envision a future where autonomous robots charge your EV
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Retrofitting older buildings, car parks, and roads with supercharger networks will be expensive, so these robots bring the charging points to you instead. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. One of the problems of owning an electric car...
US Army explores the use of shape shifting robots for 2040
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Technology is transforming warfare, and the US military believes autonomous swarms of shape shifting robots could give them a significant advantage in battle. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. Recently I discussed how swarms of robots were able...
Synthetic proteins with “unlimited potential” usher in new era of smart cell therapies
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF New synthetic proteins, that are artificially made and unseen in nature, could usher in a healthcare revolution and open the door to new individually tailored treatments. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. Medicine has a “Goldilocks” problem. Many...
First spacecraft piloted by a humanoid robot docks with ISS
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Space navigation is challenging so scientists are exploring new ways to use robots and automation to take the strain off humans. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. It’s easy to think that increasingly there are more robots in...
Fully autonomous raspberry picking robot successfully completes field trials
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Fully automated farms aren’t far off, but one of the biggest problems so far has been harvesting soft fruits, and this new robot brings automation a step closer. Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from XPotential University, connect, watch a keynote,...
Elon Musk unveils Neuralink’s brain implants that will help humans merge with AI
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Many people worry that AI’s will one day get to a level where they replace and out compete humans, at work and in battle, so Musk is trying to help the two merge. Interested in the future and want to experience even more?! eXplore More....
World’s first autonomous robot completes its journey inside the human body
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As healthcare and robotics merge, from Robo-Surgeons to Nanobots, we need to find new ways to help them navigate to where they’re needed. Interested in the future and want to experience even more?! eXplore More. Surgeons have used robots operated by joysticks for more than...
Autonomous delivery trucks and robot dogs to be couriers of the future
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Irrespective of whether vehicles drive themselves delivery companies still have to solve the “last mile” problem, and this is one of their ideas. Interested in the future and want to experience even more?! eXplore More. As we all order more and more stuff from Amazon...
A US start up has created the world’s first fully autonomous vertical farm
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As global population grows we need new ways to produce affordable quality food, and vertical farms are increasingly the answer. Vertical farms that can grow eight times the crops using no chemicals, herbicides or pesticides, and with 99 percent less water than traditional farms...
DARPA announces plans to build conscious robots using insect brains
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF On the one hand you can write advanced AI software to control your robots, or we can use what nature’s already given us… There’s a field called Neurobiotics that, unsurprisingly, many people haven’t heard of that I came across recently where scientists try to...
World first as Japanese rovers relay incredible photos from distant ancient asteroid
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF In galactic terms Earth’s neighbourhood is huge, and we’re only just beginning to explore it. First Japan wants to be the world’s first country to drill a hole through the Earth’s mantle, and build the world’s first space elevator, and now the Japan Aerospace...
A robot taught itself how to identify and manipulate objects autonomously
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Robots that can autonomously identify and skill-fully manipulate objects without needing to be previously trained could revolutionise the robotics industry. Human dexterity is an impressive skill that requires both our body’s fine motor skills and highly efficient visual acuity, and despite recent advances from...
Canada ends its three year Universal Basic Income trial two years early
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Governments fear the fall out from the mass automation of jobs by AI will be extreme so they’re investigating new welfare systems to limit the damage, but solutions are illusive. 4,000 people in Ontario, Canada just lost their Universal Basic Income (UBI) cash and...
Ocado shows off the world’s most advanced automated warehouse
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As technology and robotics get better it won’t be long before all warehouses are completely automated. They call it “The Hive,” or “The Grid.” Or sometimes just: “The machine.” It’s a huge structure that fills a warehouse on the outskirts of Andover, a small...
Rolls Royce is building cockroach like robots and snakes to fix airplane engines
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF In the future we’ll see more maintenance jobs performed by robots of all sizes. Typically engineers want to get bugs out of their creations but that’s not the case for Rolls Royce, the engineering company who are building everything from autonomous cargo ships and...
Scientists put a worms mind into a Lego robot to control it, and it worked
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The convergence of biological intelligence with robotics will be an area of increasing interest in the future. It’s not something you do every day, put a worms brain into a Lego robot… but then again you’re probably not a scientist. This is the promise...
