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If you had a Ranch Robot

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nr

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If you could own a robot on your ranch to do just one job, what would you give it? I saw this article in The Globe which unfortunately mentions NO ranch help. Yet.

"Nagakute, Japan — Robots of all shapes and sizes were batting fastballs, drawing portraits, teaching the waltz and doing standup comedy at a Japanese exposition – but several years of testing are still needed before most of them can be used in public, developers say.

Lined up in a row of booths, the more than 60 robots on display starting Thursday at the Prototype Robot Exhibition – being held in a corner of the sprawling expo in Aichi, Japan – are designed to become part of everyday lives, helping the sick, rescuing disaster victims and entertaining families.

The exhibit, which runs through June 19, aims to showcase Japan's leadership in robotics. With the nation's economy still sluggish, corporations, researchers and government officials are hoping the sector can provide new growth opportunities.

The Japan Robot Association, a trade group, expects the Japanese market for next-generation robots – those being developed now as opposed to industrial robots currently in use – to grow to $14-billion (U.S.) by 2010, and to more than $37-billion by 2025.

All the robots on display, however, were test models that researchers are several years from being used safely and reliably in public. Several robots had obvious glitches.

Many of the robots were designed to help communication. One worked as a fancy videophone, replicating the moves of the distant caller with its mechanical arms and projecting a three-dimensional image of the caller on its face.

One model called Batting Robot has a vision system that handles 1,000 images a second, more than 30 times as many as the human eye can, that should allow it to accurately hit pitches of up to 160 kilometres an hour. At the expo, however, it was using a plastic bat to hit rubber balls at far slower speeds.

Hiroshima University Associate Professor Idaku Ishii believes the robot can help train major-league baseball players, although a more practical purpose is processing information at lightning speeds, such as detecting cracks in walls during an earthquake.

A model called InterAnimal is a teddy bear about 120 centimetres tall that moves its arms and nods in synch to the sound the human voice. Developers claim it helps children who have problems talking with adults.

The robot that looks most like a human being is the Repliee Q1expo, which is covered with a skin-like substance and moves its mouth and shifts its torso as though it is breathing. It also gives the illusion of reacting to approaching people.

But Repliee sometimes goes into what appears to be spasms when its program hits a glitch.

Still, it may be a precursor of the day when robots will be helping with tasks such as guiding the elderly around the streets or selling tickets, developers say.

More whimsical is the golden Kinshachi Robot that swims like a fish. The slithering robot has comical bulging eyes, but it has a serious purpose: To go into the ocean to monitor the safety of bridges and gather information for fishing, according to Ryomei Engineering Co., which also develops more lifelike carp and sea bream robots.

The robots, which originated as shipbuilding research, rent for about $940 a day, although there have not been many requests to buy or rent them, sales official Hiroo Minoda said."
 
A model called InterAnimal is a teddy bear about 120 centimetres tall that moves its arms and nods in synch to the sound the human voice. Developers claim it helps children who have problems talking with adults.
I'm sorry, but I just don't think a robot could ever replace human help in any stage of development of a child. I never have trouble talking to anybody , but the only time someone nodded their head at the sound of my voice, they were catatonic. Scariest way to find a person.
 
Sierraman said:
A model called InterAnimal is a teddy bear about 120 centimetres tall that moves its arms and nods in synch to the sound the human voice. Developers claim it helps children who have problems talking with adults.
I'm sorry, but I just don't think a robot could ever replace human help in any stage of development of a child. I never have trouble talking to anybody , but the only time someone nodded their head at the sound of my voice, they were catatonic. Scariest way to find a person.

In total agreement- that one was very creepy. Seems more like something a CEO could use- a bunch of yes men.
 
Actually, catatonic is a word and it is the paralysed state of "withdrawal" that is entered by an abuse victim due to recurrent memories or fear. So you are correct in saying that is is a scary state in which to find someone. They just shut right down and become totally unresponsive.
 
Probably not any,except house work and cooking for everyone-i enjoy most other ranch work and probably would not trust Mr Robot to do the job quickly and accurately enough to suit me. But that is just me-------
 
I always thought it would be nifty to have a pet chimpanzee to ride along in a pickup and do nothing else but open and shut gates. Maybe they could also act as a "cow dog" on occasion, and they would probably get the cattle less excited and stirred up than a real dog.
 
Soapweed said:
I always thought it would be nifty to have a pet chimpanzee to ride along in a pickup and do nothing else but open and shut gates. Maybe they could also act as a "cow dog" on occasion, and they would probably get the cattle less excited and stirred up than a real dog.


Better talk to Katrina as it looks like she has herself a new pet. :wink: :wink:
 
Soapweed
We have to get you over this terrible phobia of dogs! :lol:

Seems like people who are control freaks can't ever get a good dog. I wonder why? :lol:
 
Jinglebob: "Soapweed, we have to get you over this terrible phobia of dogs!"

I just don't like being mad. Nothing worse than an incompetent dog to arouse a cattleman's ire. The cattle are always facing the dogs and they can't move forward when they're turned the wrong direction.

We have a good old pet dog, half German Shepard half Rotweiller, gentle as a kitten and everybody's friend. She's an outdoor dog, and we don't permit her to be in the house. We were gone recently and a lightning storm was in progress. She thought she needed in the house, and tore all the trim away from the door seeking admittance. Oh well, I'll have to take the price of the trim out of her wages.

Fortunately Saddletramp shares my lack of enthusiasm for cow dogs. If a new applicant was wanting to hire on, my first question would be, "Do you have a dog and plan to use it?" If the answer was "yes" my answer would be "no". How's that for being narrow minded and set in my ways? :wink: :mad: :???: :D
 
Think I have said this on here before-maybe a dog would be OK with just stockers,but I must say I feel the same as MR. Soapweed our dog is a pet and watch dog only -she is 12 and in good shape and does a great job keeping coons and varmits out of sacked feed. She also is afraid of thunderstorms here in her later years. She might pace back and forth with us in the shop for hrs. and tries to hide under everything --she is a good predictor of upcoming storms also. Just a matter of opinion for dogs-as I know of several that use them and get along ok.
 
Nothing sends a chill down my spine when I'm setting up an A';I job then 'we have a good dog'. I love dogs but I haven't seen many good ones or good handlers in all the years and places I've been-our pack consists of a beagle and a pyreneees lol.
 

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