Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google Puts Money on Robots, Using the Man Behind Android

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 83 posts

Re: Google Puts Money on Robots, Using the Man Behind Android

#51

Post by Qworg »

ijs wrote: post #8
conjecTech wrote: post #5

What kind of background is Google looking for when recruiting people to work on teams like these?

Bot & Dolly is hiring: http://www.botndolly.com/jobs

The question I've always had in regards to Bot & Dolly - how are they ensuring safety? Industrial robot arms are notoriously unforgiving and kill people every year. Putting untrained actors in close proximity with arms without some sort of safety system seems like madness. I hope I'm wrong though, since the company seems to be bringing robots to an interesting new place.

Re: Google Puts Money on Robots, Using the Man Behind Android

#52

Post by dekhn »

Qworg wrote: post #51
ijs wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bot & Dolly is hiring: http://www.botndolly.com/jobs

The question I've always had in regards to Bot & Dolly - how are they ensuring safety? Industrial robot arms are notoriously unforgiving and kill people every year. Putting untrained actors in close proximity with arms without some sort of safety system seems like madness. I hope I'm wrong though, since the company seems to be bringing robots to an interesting new place.

"Industrial robot arms are notoriously unforgiving and kill people every year"

um, how many people are actually killed by industrial robots? while the robots provide what economic value?

Re: Google Puts Money on Robots, Using the Man Behind Android

#53

Post by iandanforth »

waps wrote: post #25
sown wrote: post #11

I feel like I'm greatly missing out on new stuff like this. I'm trying to get a turtle bot together and build a sort of lab component of Prof Thrun's robot car class. But I wonder what else I could be doing. Anyone have pointers?

Some suggestions. To learn: 1) http://societyofrobots.com/ especially the forum 2) https://www.coursera.org/course/conrob 3) download the old coursera course on computer vision from some torrent site 4) anything and everything on 3d mathematics you can find. Get a job making robots. Oh and the interview question is "how do you find a path for a non-point robot with non-line obstacles". The answer is to add the point-…

I also highly recommend bioloid (Dynamixel AX-12) servos. Next year there will also be slightly cheaper version (XL), but the current AX line is a great way for a software person to start working with robots right away.

Re: Google Puts Money on Robots, Using the Man Behind Android

#54

Post by Zigurd »

danielharan wrote: post #3
IBM wrote: post #2

Not keen on letting Amazon hog the PR spotlight, Google lets Andy Rubin out of the doghouse because the X Labs are all tapped out.

Why is he in the dog house?

Presumably: He bought Motorola. Meh patents, troubled OEM competitive with key Google partners. An expensive mistake even for Google.

Re: Google Puts Money on Robots, Using the Man Behind Android

#55

Post by will_work4tears »

dekhn wrote: post #52
Qworg wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The question I've always had in regards to Bot & Dolly - how are they ensuring safety? Industrial robot arms are notoriously unforgiving and kill people every year. Putting untrained actors in close proximity with arms without some sort of safety system seems like madness. I hope I'm wrong though, since the company seems to be bringing robots to an interesting new place.

"Industrial robot arms are notoriously unforgiving and kill people every year" um, how many people are actually killed by industrial robots? while the robots provide what economic value?

Only three reported deaths last time I checked. One in 1979, one in 1984 and another in 2009. Pretty sure more deaths occur from other equipment than that, every year even.

Re: Google Puts Money on Robots, Using the Man Behind Android

#56

Post by fidotron »

Zigurd wrote: post #54
danielharan wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is he in the dog house?

Presumably: He bought Motorola. Meh patents, troubled OEM competitive with key Google partners. An expensive mistake even for Google.

No, it's all Google internal politics.

In my experience big SV companies have classes of staff on payroll merely to prevent them working somewhere else where they would represent a bigger threat to the core business. Google seems to have more than normal of this type of character.

Re: Google Puts Money on Robots, Using the Man Behind Android

#57

Post by fidotron »

lifeisstillgood wrote: post #37

For me this article tells me I am growing up. Previously I would have thought "gosh Google is getting into robots, well that sews up the market everyone will buy from them." today I think - "Wow, Google is path blazing, there is going to be so many opportunities - let's dig out ROS and find a local company with a needs"

And you'll know you're grown up when you can spot a reactionary PR fluff piece instead of anything with actual content in it!

The Amazon announcement had a concrete end goal and time commitments, and was met with cynicism, whereas this fuzzy approach allowing people to project what they want into what they're reading creates a sort of delusional optimism among many.

Re: Google Puts Money on Robots, Using the Man Behind Android

#58

Post by mturmon »

fidotron wrote: post #56
Zigurd wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Presumably: He bought Motorola. Meh patents, troubled OEM competitive with key Google partners. An expensive mistake even for Google.

No, it's all Google internal politics. In my experience big SV companies have classes of staff on payroll merely to prevent them working somewhere else where they would represent a bigger threat to the core business. Google seems to have more than normal of this type of character.

"Better to have him inside the tent pissing out, than outside pissing in."

Re: Google Puts Money on Robots, Using the Man Behind Android

#59

Post by Zigurd »

fidotron wrote: post #56
Zigurd wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Presumably: He bought Motorola. Meh patents, troubled OEM competitive with key Google partners. An expensive mistake even for Google.

No, it's all Google internal politics. In my experience big SV companies have classes of staff on payroll merely to prevent them working somewhere else where they would represent a bigger threat to the core business. Google seems to have more than normal of this type of character.

Rubin is brilliant, and was absolutely the right guy to kick the carriers' asses and conquer the handset OEM world. I suppose that's all the more reason to keep him "inside the tent." I just think of it as horses for courses.

Re: Google Puts Money on Robots, Using the Man Behind Android

#60

Post by Shooti »

waps wrote: post #25
sown wrote: post #11

I feel like I'm greatly missing out on new stuff like this. I'm trying to get a turtle bot together and build a sort of lab component of Prof Thrun's robot car class. But I wonder what else I could be doing. Anyone have pointers?

Some suggestions. To learn: 1) http://societyofrobots.com/ especially the forum 2) https://www.coursera.org/course/conrob 3) download the old coursera course on computer vision from some torrent site 4) anything and everything on 3d mathematics you can find. Get a job making robots. Oh and the interview question is "how do you find a path for a non-point robot with non-line obstacles". The answer is to add the point-…

3) seems available here: https://class.coursera.org/vision/class/index
Post reply on HN