RoboBusiness 2009 in the News

RoboBusiness Conference & Exposition 2009 wrapped up on Thursday, April 16 and the media has been buzzing about the latest news, developments, and technologies announced at the event:

The nearly invincible robotics industry
Boston Globe/Boston.com

The recession that's hammered the global economy appears to have spared the robot makers gathering in Boston this week. Executives at the RoboBusiness Conference & Expo at the Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center said that demand for military robots, combined with the likely effects of President Obama's economic stimulus package, is helping to offset a slowdown in commercial orders and difficulties in obtaining bank financing. Click here for more and to watch the video.

Robots of the future revealed
BBC/BBC NewsBeat

They can make your video gaming more realistic, help clean your house and make it easier for you to park your car. And soon robots could be finding their way into your life in ways you might not even notice. Companies are exhibiting cutting edge technology at a major robot exhibition in the USA. On show at RoboBusiness in Boston are machines used by the American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, gadgets to help with the house work, and the world's "most advanced robotic arm”. Click here to read more and watch the video.

Robo-World
PRI's The World

Anchor Marco Werman speaks with The World's technology correspondent Clark Boyd about the latest in the world of robotics showcased at the Robo Business 2009 Conference and Expo in Boston. Click here to watch video slideshow.

Robots Get Down to Business
MIT Technology Review/TechnologyReview.com

Yesterday, at the RoboBusiness conference in Boston, companies demonstrated a number of robots designed for use in offices, the military, even down on the farm. While plenty of very cool, cutting-edge research is going on in robotics labs across the world, RoboBusiness focuses on those companies looking to turn that research into a profit. Here are some of the most promising robots on show at the event … Click here to read more.

New robot to assist elderly at home
E-Health Europe

French robotics specialist Robosoft and SRI International have demonstrated a new service robot designed to assist the elderly at home. The RobuLAB, is able to navigate, follow and assist people moving from room to room using SRI Karto navigation software. Click here to read more.

Robotic ocean exploration to extend to space
CrunchGear.com

Chris German, Chief Scientist for Deep Submergence at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution here in Massachusetts, has been busy finding undersea volcanoes with the help of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and remotely operated vehicles (ROVs). With more than half the planet’s water exceeding depths of two miles, mapping the sea floor is no easy task. Click here to read more.

Robots Will Aid in Health Care as Population Ages
PC World/PCWorld.com

The medical needs of the aging adult population will increase the market for robotics to assist in health care, according to a speaker at the RoboBusiness Conference in Boston. Surgical robots are commonly found in hospital operating rooms, said Holly Yanco, an associate computer-science professor at the University of Lowell in Massachusetts. Assistive robots will follow the same route, she said on Wednesday, and their use will increase as the population ages. However, this technology needs to overcome some barriers before the industry thrives, she said. Click here to read more.

Star Trek lite: Can telepresence save the universe?
NetworldWorld/NetworkWorld.com

Can the technologies that make up telepresence have a societal impact that could change everything from space exploration to telecommuting? Seems like a lot of pressure to put on any one particular technology but there are a few experts out there who say advanced telepresence technology could indeed change the way people remotely communicate with work, run factories and investigate distant solar systems. Click here to read more.

iRobot NOT working on autonomous killing machines
CrunchGear.com

Doug Aamoth here in Boston at the 2009 RoboBusiness Expo with some fodder for the “Robots Will Eventually Rise Up and Kill Us All” debate. No matter which side of the argument you support, if you’re someday killed by an autonomous robot it won’t have been made by iRobot. Towards the end of his How Robots Make War More Survivable presentation this morning Vice Admiral Joseph W. Dyer (U.S. Navy, Ret.), President of the Government & Industrial Robots division of iRobot, touched on the subject of robot ethics. He posed the following question: Will we ever see autonomous killing machines? Click here to read more.

Robots invade Massachusetts — and our lives
Examiner.com

The Robobusiness 2009 conference is going on this week in Boston, proving that robots are not our future but our present. They already affect our daily lives in more ways than we realize and promise to do more in the near future. And the markets for their application seem to have no bounds. Click here to read more.