Meet the Soft Robots Doing the Hard Jobs of the Future

Bold Names

The Wall Street Journal

Technology

4.4 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 18 August 2023

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When you think of a robot, what comes to mind? A big metal arm in a car factory? A shiny android like C3PO from “Star Wars”? What about a robot that’s soft, floppy and looks a little more like the hot dog fingers from “Everything Everywhere, All at Once”? Soft robots are engineered for more delicate tasks that used to require a human touch – like handling food or conducting tests inside our bodies. But for now, they’re isolated to specific fields, like manufacturing and medicine, and haven’t really made their way into the daily lives of most people. WSJ’s Alex Ossola looks into what it will take to bring soft robots out of the factory and hospital and into our homes. Further reading: Robots Are Learning to Handle With Care Robots Are Looking to Bring a Human Touch to Warehouses What Picking Up an Apple Tells You About the Future of Robotics First Autonomous, Entirely Soft Robot Developed Amid the Labor Shortage, Robots Step in to Make the French Fries The Quest for a Robot With a Sense of Touch Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	want to make the most of festival season.
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0:24.8	subject to availability.
0:25.9	Look for on-pack info and co-cap for how to enter and tease and seize.
0:28.6	Entrance must be 18 plus.
0:34.1	Picture a robot.
0:36.4	The first thing that comes to mind is probably something from a movie or a TV show.
0:41.7	It may have special abilities like superintelligence.
0:44.8	Take Hal from 2001 a space odyssey.
0:48.1	I'm sorry Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that.
0:52.2	Or Eve from Wally taking scans of its surroundings.
0:55.7	This robot probably spends most of its time around humans.
1:01.1	Think C3PO from Star Wars.
1:03.4	Protocol. Why it's my primary function?
1:05.7	Or Rosie from the Jetsons.
1:08.0	Coming sir.
1:11.2	Here I am sir.
1:14.1	But in real life robots that interact with people and even look sort of human,
	...

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