My Next Puppy?

Boston Dynamics' Spot Robot Dog is now for sale...

Their YouTube channel says,

"Spot is an agile mobile robot that you can customize for a wide range of applications.  The base platform provides rough-terrain mobility, 360 degree obstacle avoidance, and various levels of navigation, remote control and autonomy.   You can customize Spot by adding specialized sensors, software and other payloads.  Early customers are already testing Spot to monitor construction sites, provide remote inspection at gas, oil and power installations, and in public safety.  Spot is in mass production and currently shipping to select early adopters.  Find out more about using Spot in your application by visiting us at https://www.BostonDynamics.com/Spot."

Atlas

Incredible progress!

On their YouTube channel, Boston Dynamics says... "Atlas uses its whole body -- legs, arms, torso -- to perform a sequence of dynamic maneuvers that form a gymnastic routine.  We created the maneuvers using new techniques that streamline the development process. First, an optimization algorithm transforms high-level descriptions of each maneuver into dynamically-feasible reference motions.  Then Atlas tracks the motions using a model predictive controller that smoothly blends from one maneuver to the next.  Using this approach, we developed the routine significantly faster than previous Atlas routines, with a performance success rate of about 80%. For more information visit us at https://www.BostonDynamics.com "

Bless U-2 Robot Priest

Bless U-2 is a Robot Priest that will forgive your sins. Read about it here in Popular Mechanics.  According to the author, Avery Thompson, "This holy robot questions the future of technology and the church!"

Kyoto Temple Has Robot Priest

The robot is based on the Buddhist deity of mercy.  The robot leads services at the Kodaiji temple in Kyoto.

“This robot will never die; it will just keep updating itself and evolving,” said priest Tensho Goto.

The robot was developed between the Zen temple and robotics professor Hiroshi Ishiguro at Osaka University.

Hat tip to Chief Robot - See here.

Oodles of Robots Bowl

Oodles of Robots Bowl - A Kickstarter project to make big, fine-quality porcelain bowls festooned with oodles of robots. Click here.

Project Pope

One of my college classmates posted the following on Facebook - "Going through some of my old science fiction books, I found this. Wondering if you had ever read it?"

Amazon says:

Robot believers at the far end of the galaxy endeavor to create a true religion, but their efforts could be shattered by a shocking revelation.

Far in the future, on the remote planet End of Nothing, sentient robots are engaged in a remarkable enterprise. They call their project Vatican-17: an endeavor to create a truly universal religion presided over by a pope, whose extreme godliness and infallible artificial intelligence are fed by telepathic human Listeners who psychically delve into the mysteries of the universe. But the great and holy mission could be compromised by one shocking revelation that threatens to inspire serious crises of faith among the spiritual, truth-seeking robotic acolytes while tearing them into warring religious factions.  For the Listener Mary is claiming that she has just discovered Heaven.

 There are those among the Clifford D. Simak faithful who consider Project Pope his masterpiece. But whether the crowning literary achievement of a multiple Hugo and Nebula Award–winning science fiction Grand Master or merely another brilliant novel of speculative fiction to stand among his many, Simak’s breathtaking search for God in the machine ingeniously blends science and spirituality in a truly miraculous way that few science fiction writers, if any, have been able to accomplish.

My kind of book! Though the new cover (I got the Kindle version) is not nearly as cool!

Full report to follow here on R.U.S. Thanks, Don!

P.S. - Another added to the list...

Bible on the Moon Left by an Episcopalian

In 1971, St. Christopher Episcopal Church in League City, Texas, gave a Bible to a parishioner, David Scott, to take with him on a business trip. To this day, the congregation still has not gotten it back.

That’s because he left it on the moon.

The Bible left by Astronaut David R. Scott is shown in the red circle.

The Bible was left on the lunar rover in the Hadley Plains area of the Moon by Apollo 15 Mission Commander Colonel David R. Scott on August 2, 1971. The Bible was provided by the people of Saint Christopher Episcopal Church League City, Texas, where Scott was a member.

Story from the Episcopal News Service here - The only Bible on the moon was left there by an Episcopalian on behalf of his parish - Episcopal News Service