In this week’s Economist, we see new developments on a topic that we have covered numerous times in the past: robotics.  In Polyphemus Does the Hoovering, the Economist discusses the creative use of existing technology to better enable robots to “see” and thus act without direct human commands.  Most commercially-viable robots today are blind and dumb; the Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner being a good example.  (Some of the Roombas are actually quite advanced and can even “see” using infrared sensors, but for the most part they bump along as they clean, oblivious to the world.) Read the rest of this entry »