The comedian Colin Quinn jokes that reaction videos have become popular because we are now too lazy to even react to things. Better to watch someone else do it than expend the energy.
I thought of that when I saw this robot bicycle, which at the moment appears to have no function beyond winning a BMX freestyle competition you won’t have to bother entering:
The bike-bot is called the Ultra Mobile Vehicle (UMV). It was developed by the Robotics and AI Institute, apparently as pure research absent a concrete application. RAI, which is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Zurich, Switzerland describes their mission as follows:
“We need to make robots smarter, more agile and dexterous, and generally easier to use — more like people. Once we do that, robots and other types of intelligent systems will increase productivity, free people from dangerous work, care for the disabled, and generally help people live better lives.”
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I’m curious to see what useful civilian applications might develop for a two-wheeled bot that can jump and do tricks. If it can climb stairs, perhaps door-to-door urban food delivery?
