This Is Robotics: End-Of-Year Program, 30 December 2024
What Was the Most Important Story in Robotics for 2024?

Yes, there Was Only One.

And no, it wasn’t bipedal humanoids. Not by a long shot. Not as long as there’s gravity and Mother Nature to contend with.

The hype and investment millions going into bipedal humanoid robots these days feels a lot like the over-hyped, over-heated, craziness of the multi-billion-dollar market that was self-driving cars back in 2009-2017. Remember?

Google invested $1.1 billion, so say recent Waymo court documents. Yikes!

The single, most important news story for 2024 is now changing our lives and futures.

Please join us. 30 December 2024 for that news story’s reveal.

“You’re Going to Love What You Hear!

Heartfelt Thanks for Making This Is Robotics the #1 Global Robotics News Podcast

PITTSBURGH: HOW ROBOTICS SAVED A CITY
By 2000, 29 steel companies in Pittsburgh had declared bankruptcy, cratering its middleclass, and any future upon which the great city might have had hopes to grow and thrive. How did robotics bring the city back from the dead?

Pittsburgh: From Dying Steel Town to Global Robotics Hub by Henry Lenard

IS THIS THE GOLDEN AGE OF AMRS?
Unless you’ve been under a rock somewhere, you’ve undoubtedly heard the noise of their wheels and the rush of their whizzing by you, either on TV news, YouTube, or better, in person. What you’re seeing and hearing is the future arriving in a hurry. They’re called AMRs, robotics newest celebrities, autonomous mobile robots.

GLOBAL ROBOTICS PATENTS: THE PATENT WARS!
Patent activity is a useful indicator of technological progress and innovation in robotics. “Between 2005 and 2019, 72,618 robotics patents were granted worldwide.” Who is leading, who is on the rise, and who are the also-rans?

In other words, the patent wars! Who’s winning? Let’s take a look.

THREE BREAKTHROUGHS: CAPSULE ROBOTICS, THE ALL-ROBOT AUTO PLANT, AND THE DEXTEROUS, FIVE-FINGERED COBOT HAND
Instrument-free, noninvasive diagnosis and therapy inside the digestive tract will be performed through a new branch of robotics: capsule robotics.

In Japan, it seems that only “smart” robots need apply for work at Nissan’s brand new “intelligent” auto plant.

What’s the next big breakthrough tech for the cobot. How about a dexterous, sophisticated five-fingered hand?

Our Annual Tribute to Pittsburgh and Its People
Heartwarming & Inspirational Holiday Story
The Fall & Rise of Pittsburgh
From Dying Steel Town to Global Robotics Hub

Hello folks and welcome to This Is Robotics. I’m your host and fellow companion, Tom Green.

The last half of 2024 is upon us, robotics-driven automation is in rapid ascendancy once again, especially now since 2024 is showing how robotics engages with GenAI, and how prompt engineering is significantly increasing the ease of adoption for robots everywhere.

Last month, we gave you a longish one-hour show, which was necessary for it was meant to support my keynote address at SuperTechFT in San Francisco.

If you have yet to listen to it, it’s Episode # 31 and deals with how quickly computer code has capitulated to prompt engineering…and why. Plus, the new breed of workers on the rise who are being hailed as the “New Collar” generation of workers.

This month, we are listening to our global fans for feedback. We have a global fan base in 68 countries according to Buzzsprout stats.

A fangirl Celina from the Philippines wants us to reprise a woman’s show. Specifically, the rise of Alice Zhang (Verge Genomics) and her pursuit of answers to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and ALS. Thank you, Celina for also pointing out how this story highlights how human insight creates the technical challenge and how LLMs are then employed to reveal a way forward for bio research. For Alice, it was robotics and LLMs cracking the code for ALS.

During Alice’s piece, she laments how broken bio research is and why. Which leads to our second fan request from Martin in Augsburg, Germany, who was fascinated with robotics in bio labs working with AI in what he calls Pharma 4.0.

New drug research and discovery companies with strange, new names like Recursion Pharmaceuticals, Arctoris, Insitro, Relay Therapeutics, and Insilico Medicine are forging the way. Martin, good pick.

We lead off this month humankinds almost innate fascination and attraction to humanoid robots. Why is that? We let a half dozen experts offer up some truly interesting insights and theories on just why that is. Those insights are wrapped up in a show about human attraction to robots where we commemorate National Kiss & Make up Day which is coming up in August.

Okay, strap on your earphones or pop in your earbuds, which Buzzsprout tells us 3,000 people do daily worldwide to listen to This Is Robotics. We’re thrilled you can join us today. Thanks and welcome.

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