SmartPlanet Features Xconomy’s Future of Robotics Event [Video]

“The tiniest bit of bot news will attract a swarm of journos,” comments SmartPlanet chief correspondent Sumi Das. And she’s right: our May 3 forum on the Future of Robotics in Silicon Valley and Beyond brought in one of the biggest contingents of reporters ever to attend an Xconomy event. Das herself came away with one of the best reports we’ve seen—and we’re embedding the 3-minute video below for your viewing pleasure.

Sumi Das

SmartPlanet is a CNET/CBS Interactive site dedicated to news about technologies that could improve the environment and living conditions around the world. Das’s report from the robotics event appeared May 10 and highlights several of the organizations featured at the forum, including SRI International and its bomb-defusing robot Taurus, Liquid Robotics and its sea-going Wave Glider robot, Kiva Systems and its warehouse automation robots, and Google, sponsor of the Google Lunar X Prize competition to land private robotic craft on the Moon.

Separately, Das published a video report on Grabit, an SRI spinoff company that hopes to revolutionize robot arms and grippers.

Here’s the main video. (Flash-only—sorry, iOS users.)

Author: Wade Roush

Between 2007 and 2014, I was a staff editor for Xconomy in Boston and San Francisco. Since 2008 I've been writing a weekly opinion/review column called VOX: The Voice of Xperience. (From 2008 to 2013 the column was known as World Wide Wade.) I've been writing about science and technology professionally since 1994. Before joining Xconomy in 2007, I was a staff member at MIT’s Technology Review from 2001 to 2006, serving as senior editor, San Francisco bureau chief, and executive editor of TechnologyReview.com. Before that, I was the Boston bureau reporter for Science, managing editor of supercomputing publications at NASA Ames Research Center, and Web editor at e-book pioneer NuvoMedia. I have a B.A. in the history of science from Harvard College and a PhD in the history and social study of science and technology from MIT. I've published articles in Science, Technology Review, IEEE Spectrum, Encyclopaedia Brittanica, Technology and Culture, Alaska Airlines Magazine, and World Business, and I've been a guest of NPR, CNN, CNBC, NECN, WGBH and the PBS NewsHour. I'm a frequent conference participant and enjoy opportunities to moderate panel discussions and on-stage chats. My personal site: waderoush.com My social media coordinates: Twitter: @wroush Facebook: facebook.com/wade.roush LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/waderoush Google+ : google.com/+WadeRoush YouTube: youtube.com/wroush1967 Flickr: flickr.com/photos/wroush/ Pinterest: pinterest.com/waderoush/