Recently, Rethink Robotics created a revolutionary robot called Baxter.

The reasons why Baxter is so useful are many. First, Baxter can actually work next to humans, with its design specific for safety. All of its limbs are encased in plastic, and so there are no extruding parts. This solves a lot of problems and also allows for people to regulate and work together with Baxter.

Baxter also has a monitor that alerts when it acknowledges people around it, or doesn’t know what to do, which allows any regular person to figure out what’s going on. This also helps increase the human feel, because it uses its eyes to sort of show what exactly its thinking, looking at, or doing.

Finally, Baxter is unique in that it doesn’t require complex programming; anyone can teach Baxter how to work just by guiding its arms and telling it what objects to target. This sort of learning algorithm simplifies its use considerably, so that, once again, anyone can operate it.

Reportedly, Baxter was created to compete with cheap foreign labor. It holds this purpose, and states that all of its parts are “Made in America.” Baxter costs $22,000, which, if you consider its efficiency, ease of use, and relatively low cost compared to an average income, Baxter will change the way that manufacturing works.

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Apparently fish are less alien to their robotic counterparts than you might expect…

Scientists wanted to find the behavior of fish by using a robot to emulate behavior in nature. So researchers from the New York Polytechnic Institute. However, they didn’t expect that the fish would take to the robotic fish so quickly, not to mention letting it lead.

This was surprising because the robot fish was almost twice as large as the fish (Gold Shiners), and they didn’t even look that similar. However, with the right frequency and motion of the tail, for some reason, the fish went in line behind it anyways.

With different velocities of water came different tail motions that made fish follow, but whatever the situation, the fish always liked to be behind the robotic fish. The researchers speculate that perhaps this is because fish benefit because of the energy advantage of moving in a school.

Scientists are hopeful for what this robotic fish could mean. It shows that real fish are not adverse to being lead by robotic fish, and this could potentially allow scientists to lead fish away from disasters such as oil spills and underwater turbines, which would be a huge step in securing biodiversity.

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