#Mobile Robots Industry

[nextmscblog]

Mobile Robot Market: Emerging Technologies and Trends

According to the study by Next Move Strategy Consulting, the global Mobile Robot Market size is predicted to reach USD 14.31 billion with a CAGR of 10.4% by 2030. As technology continues to evolve at a rapid pace, the landscape of the mobile robot market is witnessing significant transformations. From industrial automation to service robots, emerging technologies are driving innovation and reshaping the way we perceive mobility and automation.

Introduction

Mobile robots, once confined to the realms of science fiction, have now become integral components of various industries, revolutionizing processes and workflows across the globe. With advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and automation, these versatile machines are capable of performing a wide range of tasks autonomously, efficiently, and with precision. In this comprehensive article, we delve into the emerging technologies and trends shaping the mobile robot market, exploring their impact on industries, society, and the future of mobility.

Request for a sample, here: https://www.nextmsc.com/mobile-robotics-market/request-sample

Advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Artificial intelligence (AI) is at the heart of the transformative capabilities of mobile robots. With the integration of AI algorithms, machine learning, and deep learning techniques, mobile robots can perceive, interpret, and respond to their environments in real-time. This enables them to navigate complex terrains, avoid obstacles, and make autonomous decisions, thereby enhancing their operational capabilities across various applications.

Machine learning algorithms play a crucial role in enabling mobile robots to learn from experience and improve their performance over time. Through continuous data analysis and feedback loops, these algorithms allow robots to adapt to changing environments, optimize their routes, and enhance their efficiency and accuracy. Reinforcement learning techniques further enable robots to learn from trial and error, enabling them to master complex tasks and scenarios with minimal human intervention.

Computer vision is another key component of AI that empowers mobile robots with the ability to perceive and interpret visual information from their surroundings. By leveraging cameras, sensors, and image processing algorithms, robots can detect objects, recognize patterns, and navigate dynamic environments with precision. Object detection, segmentation, and tracking algorithms enable robots to identify obstacles, landmarks, and targets, facilitating safe and efficient navigation in real-world scenarios.

Industry 4.0 and Automation

The emergence of Industry 4.0 has ushered in a new era of connectivity, automation, and data-driven decision-making in manufacturing and industry. Mobile robots play a pivotal role in the implementation of Industry 4.0 principles by enabling autonomous material handling, flexible production, and smart logistics solutions. Collaborative robots, or cobots, work alongside human operators, enhancing productivity, safety, and efficiency on the factory floor.

With the integration of sensors, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, and cloud computing technologies, mobile robots can collect, analyze, and leverage vast amounts of data to optimize production processes and workflows. Predictive maintenance algorithms enable robots to anticipate equipment failures and schedule maintenance tasks proactively, minimizing downtime and maximizing uptime in manufacturing facilities.

Autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) are revolutionizing warehouse automation and logistics operations by offering flexible, scalable, and cost-effective solutions for material handling and inventory management. These robots can navigate dynamic environments, collaborate with other robots and machinery, and adapt to changing workflows and demand patterns in real-time. By automating repetitive and labor-intensive tasks, AMRs enable businesses to streamline their operations, reduce operational costs, and improve overall efficiency.

Rise of Autonomous Vehicles

The rise of autonomous vehicles is reshaping the transportation and logistics industry, offering new opportunities for mobility, efficiency, and sustainability. From self-driving cars to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and autonomous drones, these vehicles leverage advanced technologies such as GPS, lidar, radar, and computer vision to navigate and interact with their environments autonomously.

Autonomous drones are revolutionizing the delivery and logistics sector by offering fast, efficient, and cost-effective solutions for last-mile delivery and aerial surveillance. By leveraging AI algorithms and sensor fusion techniques, drones can navigate urban environments, avoid obstacles, and deliver packages to remote or inaccessible locations with precision and reliability.

Self-driving cars and autonomous shuttles are transforming urban mobility, offering safe, convenient, and environmentally friendly transportation solutions for commuters and passengers. These vehicles utilize advanced sensor suites, onboard computers, and AI algorithms to perceive their surroundings, plan optimal routes, and navigate complex traffic scenarios autonomously. By reducing traffic congestion, accidents, and emissions, autonomous vehicles have the potential to revolutionize urban transportation and improve the quality of life in cities around the world.

Integration of Robotics in Healthcare

The integration of robotics in healthcare is revolutionizing medical diagnosis, treatment, and patient care, offering new opportunities for precision, efficiency, and accessibility. Robot-assisted surgery systems enable surgeons to perform complex surgical procedures with enhanced precision, dexterity, and control, leading to shorter recovery times, reduced complications, and better patient outcomes.

Telepresence robots and remote monitoring systems enable healthcare providers to deliver care remotely, bridging geographical barriers and expanding access to medical services for patients in underserved areas. These robots can facilitate virtual consultations, monitor vital signs, and assist with rehabilitation exercises, enabling patients to receive timely and personalized care from the comfort of their homes.

Autonomous delivery robots are transforming hospital logistics and supply chain management by offering efficient, secure, and contactless delivery solutions for medications, medical supplies, and laboratory samples. These robots can navigate hospital corridors, elevators, and busy hallways autonomously, ensuring timely and reliable delivery of critical healthcare resources to patients and healthcare professionals.

Challenges and Opportunities

While the adoption of mobile robots presents numerous benefits and opportunities, it also poses several challenges and considerations that must be addressed to ensure their safe and effective deployment. Concerns about safety, security, and ethical implications arise as mobile robots become more autonomous and ubiquitous in various domains.

Safety is a paramount concern in the development and deployment of mobile robots, particularly in environments shared with humans. Ensuring collision avoidance, emergency stop mechanisms, and fail-safe protocols are essential to preventing accidents and injuries in dynamic and unpredictable environments.

Inquire before buying, here: https://www.nextmsc.com/mobile-robotics-market/inquire-before-buying

Security is another critical consideration, especially in applications involving sensitive data or critical infrastructure. Protecting mobile robots from cyber threats, unauthorized access, and malicious attacks is essential to safeguarding their integrity, confidentiality, and availability in mission-critical scenarios.

Ethical considerations also play a significant role in shaping the design, development, and deployment of mobile robots. As these machines become more autonomous and capable of making decisions that affect human lives, ethical frameworks and guidelines are needed to ensure that they operate in accordance with societal norms, values, and expectations.

Conclusion

The mobile robot market is poised for exponential growth and innovation, driven by emerging technologies, evolving consumer demands, and the pursuit of efficiency, productivity, and sustainability across industries. From AI-powered robots to autonomous vehicles and robotic healthcare systems, the possibilities are limitless for the transformative impact of mobile robots on society, economy, and the future of work.

As we navigate the opportunities and challenges of this rapidly evolving landscape, collaboration, innovation, and responsible stewardship will be key to unlocking the full potential of mobile robots in addressing some of the most pressing challenges facing humanity. By harnessing the power of technology and collective ingenuity, we can create a future where mobile robots coexist harmoniously with humans, enhancing our lives, expanding our capabilities, and shaping a more prosperous and equitable world for generations to come.

[ashitakaxsan]

From Sci-Fi to Reality: The Potential for Real-Life Mecha Inspired by Gundam!

I've watched mecha anime, the seriesVoltes V,Robotech, Video Senshi Laserion. In fact the great experience is watching Gundam anime.

In recent years, advances in robotics, artificial intelligence, and engineering have brought the idea of real-life mecha closer to reality. Inspired by iconic series like Gundam, researchers and engineers are exploring the possibilities of creating large, human-piloted robots. While we may not have fully functional Gundams yet, the progress made so far is promising. Let's delve into the current developments and the potential future of real mecha.

It happened during 2018

In Japan, engineer Masaaki Nagumo always dreamed of climbing into his very own Mobile Suit Gundam mecha. As an adult, he finally made that dream a reality.

Photos below:Sakakibara Kikai

He created the 28-foot-tall, 7-tonne-heavy LW-Mononofu robot as a project for his employer, industrial machinery maker Sakakibara Kikai, in Japan’s  Gunma Prefecture. The metal colossus took six years to finish, and is probably the world’s largest anime-inspired robot that you can actually ride in and control. It can move its arms and fingers, turn its upper body, and walk forward and backward at a snail-like speed of 1km/hour. As any respectable mecha, it also has a weapon – a metal gun that fires sponge balls at a speed of 87 mph.T

The LW Mononofu can be powered by both a 200-volt AC electricity source and a 24-volt DC battery. Its cockpit features levers, pedals and buttons that the rider can use to control the movements of the robot, as well as monitors showing live footage shot by  cameras installed at five points on its gigantic body.

its only con is that it can't leave the hangar it was built in, because it is higher than the large door. It has to be dismantled to be taken out…

Despit this the enthuthiasts are determined to make the Giant mecha a real.

Well, thanks to the japanese company called Tsubame Industry, that dream is nearly becoming reality. Well, if we can afford paying it, of course. The small Japanese startup recently showcased its newest product, dubbed ‘ARCHAX’, a pilotable robot inspired by Japanese mecha culture. Standing a whopping 4.5 meters tall and weighing around 3.5 tons, this real-life mecha is powered by a 300V battery and can switch from a standing mode to drivable mode, attaining a top speed of 10 kilometers per hour.

Nonetheless,if someone desires to undergo the thrilling journey with the ARCHAX, he has to pay an estimated 400 million yen ($2.75 million) for one.

It's name is inspired by that of the flying dinosaur Archeopteryx – was recently showcased in a series of videos posted by Tsubame Industry, and the Japanese startup announced that a working version will be presented at the Japan Mobility Show 2023 (formerly the  Tokyo Motor Show) in November. As for when the mecha will hit the market, a Tsubame spokesperson said that it is expected to be available in about a year. However, considering the high price tag, the company is targeting wealthy foreign billionaires as potential clients.

Being made of iron and aluminum alloy, while the outer shell consists mainly of FRP (fiber-reinforced plastic). Although the head appears to feature a large  camera, it is only for show. In reality, the pilot maneuvering the ARCHAX will have footage captured by 26 different  cameras mounted all over the mecha fed into a number of monitors inside the cockpit. The control panel is reportedly similar to that of construction machinery, consisting of two joysticks, a number of pedals, and a touchscreen. Interestingly, the ARCHAX can also be remote-operated.

This mecha can move at a speed of 2 km/h, and in drive mode that speed is increased to 10 km/h. It’s not exactly soaring through the air like in video games, but it’s better than just standing still. It can tilt forward a maximum of 20 degrees in stand-up mode and 30 degrees in drive mode, to ensure that it doesn’t fall over. If these values are exceeded, the system shuts down to prevent serious accidents. The mecha is subject to risk assessment in accordance with the safety regulations of construction machinery and robots.His mechanical arms have 5 movable fingers, and it can grab a variety of things, still the weight of them is limited to 15 kilograms, for safety reasons. Trying to lift something heavy could cause the mecha to topple, putting the pilot at risk and damaging it.

Conclusion

The journey from science fiction to reality is a challenging but exciting path. While we may not see fully operational Gundams patrolling our cities in the immediate future, the advancements in robotics, AI, and engineering are bringing us closer to realizing the dream of real-life mecha. The fusion of technology and imagination continues to push the boundaries of what is possible, making the future of mecha an exhilarating topic to watch.

[thepastisalreadywritten]

【Cockpited Robot】 Archax - second PV[No CG & Real Speed]｜TSUBAME INDUSTRIES Co., Ltd.

1 September 2023

[flutteragency]

AI in Healthcare: Automating Tasks to Personalizing Treatments

The healthcare industry is currently on the cusp of a revolution- this time, driven by AI. From automating healthcare-related administrative tasks to assisting in groundbreaking medical procedures and discoveries, AI is changing the game, and very efficiently. It is rapidly changing the way we understand, diagnose, and treat health.

Since the entire world is performing half of their daily tasks like connecting with people across the continent, paying their bills, and purchasing groceries through apps, how can the healthcare industry stay behind? Healthcare mobile app development is all the rage now- at least among people who understand the futuristic implications of healthcare combined with AI.

In 2024, the AI in Healthcare market is expected to touch a whopping $67.6 billion (the potential!) worldwide. But do you understand what exactly AI brings to the table in the healthcare arena? Read ahead to understand how AI is driving the healthcare industry, and how you can tap into this potential too.

AI In Healthcare: The Implications

AI in healthcare refers to using certain Artificial Intelligence technologies like software or apps that help enhance various arenas of the healthcare industry. Various aspects of AI help to understand and analyze the medical data already available to facilitate clinical decision-making and even assist in diagnosis.

While AI is not widely implemented in healthcare today, it does have promising and positive implications, some of which are:

Automated Tasks:

A lot of tasks in the healthcare domain can be automated with the help of AI. This involves a lesser burden on already overworked staff at hospitals and clinics where there is usually a huge number of patients, and it is difficult to keep up.

Reduced Healthcare Costs:

One of the biggest implications of leveraging AI in healthcare is reduced healthcare costs. Though the costs wouldn’t come down drastically, AI can help by reducing the time required for consulting specialized healthcare professionals, thus cutting down costs around it.

Personalized Mental Healthcare:

One example of how AI can help in healthcare can be seen in the case of mental health. Over the past couple of years, many tools have come up that are helping people take care of their mental health. These include chatbots that are available to converse with, anytime; along with guided meditation and maintaining all the data that is fed into the app.

The Best Examples of AI In Healthcare

While you wonder about how you can tap into the potential of AI in the Healthcare market, here are some of the best examples of AI in use in the healthcare niche:

Medical Imaging Analysis:

AI models are currently being trained to analyze medical images like X-rays and different types of scans, like CT and MRIs, to assist radiologists in detecting any abnormalities, like tumors or fractures.

For example, Paige.AI can use mammograms to detect any signs of breast cancer.

Drug Discovery And Development:

Traditional drug discovery processes are both money and time-consuming. AI can help accelerate this process by analyzing vast amounts of data to identify potential drug targets and predict the effectiveness of new drugs by analyzing the action of the present components.

For Example, Benevolent AI uses patient data to analyze and predict alternate treatment options for different diseases.

Robot-Assisted Surgery:

Surgical robots guided by AI algorithms have an elevated precision, helping to reduce complications in complex surgical procedures. With enhanced dexterity, surgeons can now perform minimally invasive procedures with better precision.

Use Cases: AI In Healthcare

It might be worth it to ponder upon the cases and situations where AI can be leveraged. This is also the starting point where you begin to think of ideas that might help you break into the market with another app catering to healthcare. Some of these use cases are:

Administrative Efficiency:

Administrative processes take up a lot of time in the healthcare arena.

The use of AI to automate processes like patient registration, appointment scheduling, cancellation, rescheduling, patient data retrieval, insurance claims, generating patient reports etc., can easily be handed over to AI, thus freeing up more time for healthcare professionals to tend to more patients.

Disease Prediction And Prevention:

Often, the correct use of previous data to train any AI model can help to correctly diagnose, and even predict the progression of a disease by analyzing patterns.

Remote Patient Monitoring:

AI-powered wearables and sensors can continuously monitor a patient’s health data and even offer real-time updates and data on how the patient is progressing with the disease.

Drug Dosage Optimization:

For certain patients, after analyzing their health and lab tests, it can be gauged what dosage of a drug would be effective for them. This also partly falls under the arena of personalized healthcare but also deals with already existing drug compositions.

Benefits Of AI In Healthcare

Now when you understand the use cases of AI in Healthcare, it only seems fair to see how beneficial it currently is, and the potential it shows for the future. These benefits apply to doctors, patients, and the entire healthcare system as a whole:

Enhanced Efficiency:

Leveraging AI in the healthcare arena has only proven beneficial, from drug dosage optimization to automating tasks streamlining workflows, and helping patients to understand their health symptoms, AI has been able to bring out efficiency, not just in hospitals, but the overall healthcare arena.

Increased Access To Care:

Patients no longer need to stand waiting in a call for someone to check and inform them of an empty slot to book an appointment, AI can do it for them. Imagine seeing real-time scheduling slots for a healthcare professional, whom anyone can access.

Also, children who do not have an adult nearby can also use AI to identify the symptoms they are having, and AI can automatically inform the nearest hospital of the same as well.

Personalized Healthcare:

This is one of the most revolutionary things that AI is involved within healthcare. Each has different needs regarding healthcare and treatments.

AI is currently being used to study the medical data and patterns of individuals that can benefit them by making up a treatment plan for them that is tailored to their needs. 

Conclusion

While AI is not a replacement for human healthcare professionals, it can certainly be used to assist healthcare professionals in diagnosis, data analysis and treatment for patients.

Beyond the hospitals too, AI is being used in pharmaceutical industries in drug designing and more, as well as in medical research, to better understand disease progression and how AI can help by understanding the progression patterns and more.

As for someone looking to tap into this market, you can always identify niches in healthcare where the use of AI can be leveraged well, and since everything has gone mobile today, invest in a mobile apps development agency tailored for that particular niche. With time, you can break into the market and benefit many patients in the process.

[bespokesoftwaredevelopment-blog]

Top Technologies That Will Transform The Fintech Industry

Financial Technology or fintech is revolutionising the way businesses and governments function worldwide. This innovative solution refers to the application of technology to improve and optimise the use and delivery of financial services.

Fintech startups build intelligent software and algorithms that help business owners and customers easily and effectively manage various financial operations. Some of the ingenious existing examples of fintech are mobile payments, online financing, stock trading, insurance, etc.

According to a report by Statista, there were 10,755 fintech startups in America, 9,323 in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, and 6,268 in the Asia Pacific Region in November 2021.

Another report states that the global fintech revenue is expected to grow from 92 billion euros in 2018 to 188 billion euros by 2024 at an average growth rate of 12%.

Fintech has considerable potential to disrupt the traditional banking and finance industry to improve and automate financial services. Considering the evolving rate of technology, a fintech startup must remain updated with the current trends to keep up with the market. Hence in the following sections, we have listed the five technology trends that can skyrocket the growth of a fintech startup. Also, how the Best mobile app design & development company in the UK can help you in Fintech App development.

1. Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence or AI imparts the problem-solving and thinking capabilities of humans to machines. In recent years, the fintech industry has become heavily dependent on AI for numerous purposes like decision making, improving digital payments, identifying purchasing behavior patterns, etc.

The global AI in the fintech market will grow from USD 7.25 billion in 2021 to USD 24.17 billion in 2026 at a CAGR of 27.6%, reports Business Research Company.

AI can increase the value of the global banking industry by USD 1 trillion per year, says McKinsey.

AI applications like chat interfaces, wealth management, facial recognition, price forecasting, market trackers, etc., will be prevalent in the future and lead to an exponential rise in value creation. In addition, AI will drastically decrease the events of cybercrimes and financial threats because it effectively deals with unstructured data.

2. Blockchain

Blockchain is one of the most significant disruptive technologies that will radically change traditional financial services. It can be described as a digital ledger or database that records and distributes transactions in a business network.

Financial institutions use blockchain to increase security, reduce costs, and boost efficiency. This technology has been rising since 2018, tempting banks worldwide to adopt this innovative solution to secure their financial transactions.

According to research, the global blockchain in the fintech market can grow at a CAGR of 75.9%, increasing from USD 230 million in 2017 to USD 6228.2 million by 2023.

Blockchain records encrypted transactions that are impossible to penetrate. At the same time, it reduces the chances of hacking attacks by mandating transaction approval by network stakeholders. Moreover, Blockchain uses tokens as assets for value transfer, promoting the use of a single universal currency

3. Serverless

Serverless is an emerging technology that is rapidly changing the banking and financial industry by simplifying app creation. No matter what the size of your fintech startup, you can get remarkable benefits by utilising serverless features.

Your company can create and maintain applications on a simple cloud-based server in a serverless architecture. You don’t have to waste valuable resources on managing the servers or solving issues because the cloud providers maintain the back end of the app. No wonder why this technology is becoming popular among mobile app development companies.

Serverless architecture reduces the burden off your shoulder and helps you create lightweight apps easily and quickly to enhance your customer experience. Moreover, this increases business productivity and helps create new revenue streams for increased profits.

We are an App Development Company in the UK and a top provider of mobile app development services and have developed outstanding applications for fintech startups using Serverless technology.

4. Robotic Process Automation

Robotic Process Automation is a technology that uses software robots to emulate human activities like collecting data, moving files, filling forms, etc. RPA can be used to automate repeatable tasks that don’t need much human intelligence, making business processes effective.

Your company can use chatbots that interact with customers and answer their queries anytime during the day or night. The chatbots also take less time to reply to customers, enhancing user experience.

Other activities include data entry, managing and processing loans, consolidation and reporting, and analysing customers’ complaints. This simple technology can impart high value to any company, ensuring accuracy and high efficiency.

5. IoT

IoT or Internet of Things has given the fintech industry a tremendous boost in the past few years by providing extra security and increasing customer satisfaction. This technology can be described as a network of connected objects using sensors to collect and exchange data with other systems.

Markets and Markets Report says that the global IoT in Banking, Financial Services and Insurance market can grow at a CAGR of 52.1% from USD 249.4 million in 2018 to USD 2030 million by 2023.

According to a Statista report, the global IoT market is expected to grow from USD 389 billion in 2020 to over USD one trillion in 2030. At the same time, the number of IoT-connected devices would increase by 200%.

Cashless payments, introducing smart ATMs and banks, using security systems for fraud protection, supervising supply chain activity to reduce complicacy in debt collection, understanding the consumer market by analysing customer behavior, etc., are examples of how IoT helps businesses improve customer services.

The major benefit for you is that IoT is our area of speciality and we have made enough advancements in the building automation industry. For more information on Ficode IoT Services, click here.

Final Words

These five trending technologies are transforming the banking and financial world swiftly. A business using artificial intelligence, blockchain, serverless, Robotic Process Automation, and the Internet of Things can be highly productive, profitable, and popular. With ever-changing market demands and cut-throat competition, fintech startups must keep track of these trends to survive and flourish in the market.

If you want a simple and powerful mobile app for your fintech startup, you can partner with Ficode. We are a UK mobile app design and development company that provides bespoke app development services using innovative technology that exceeds your expectations.

We have the best app developers in the UK who will turn your raw ideas into profitable functional apps. Be it a smart android app or a stylish IOS app, our mobile app development services in the UK are one of the most affordable solutions.

Contact us now to know if you are looking for a Mobile App Development Company in the UK.

This post originally appeared on Ficode website, and we republished with permission from the author. Read the full piece here.

[armstrongmachinebuilders]

Armstrong is India's driving supplier of cunning industry automation solutions. Our endeavors are all pointed toward making your store network the executives activities quicker and less expensive with the assistance of savvy instinctive innovation. Armstrong has many years of industry experience to its name. We have effectively conveyed in excess of 1000 tasks in around 14 unique nations over 20+ years.

industry automation solutions by Armstrong makes tasks like getting, palletizing, AS/RS or Computerized Stockpiling and Recovery Framework, Arranging and Dispatch The board multiple times more proficient and simpler. The frameworks are all Industry-4.0/IIOT agreeable, information driven, and controlled via mechanization innovation.

Armstrong's autonomous mobile robotic solutions are outfitted with a complex arrangement of sensors. They are produced involving the most recent and most progressive advancements in man-made brainpower and AI. The natural programming created by Armstrong empowers the autonomous mobile robot to figure and plan the way for compensation. These robots can likewise decipher and explore through their current circumstance with next to no wired power support.

Contact

301A, Gera 77. 3rd Floor, Besides Agakhan Palace, Nagar Road, Kalyani Nagar, Pune - 411014, Maharashtra, India.

sales@armstrongltd.com

+919673002942

[iplusmobotonline]

AMR Automated Mobile Robots: Iplusmobot's AMR is an advanced automated mobile robot that can perform a wide range of tasks in various industries. Its AI-powered technology ensures optimal efficiency and accuracy, while its modular design allows for easy customization and adaptability to specific needs. With its compact size and advanced features, iplusmobot's AMR is a game-changer in the field of industrial automation.

[psuedofolio]

I've been continuing my quest to draw 100 different characters, once a day every weekday and a couple weeks ago was like... "Girls and Mecha" week. And I tried each time to have like... a different take on the theme but would still have certain similar aesthetics. With the exception of the "school girl" the other machines were inspired more with industrial or construction machines.

So like... here's a power loader type mech. And a power armor type design. Then there was like... a mecha pilot but all she got was a roomba. Then there was the "pilot" and there was the girl that is actually the mech for a tiny robot. Was fun!

I had this whole lore where it was some corporation fighting some future union rebels on some space planet. Maybe I'll expand more on that someday.

EDIT: It occurs to me I should probably include the flavor text from when I tweeted these out. I'll put them in the same order as the images here:

"You know Kimmie, from the loading docks? Yeah she took to the Pile Bunker like a champ. You should see her tear open the corpo APCs."

2. "The off world colony workers repurposed the excavator suits into mobile armor frames. Corporate needs you to shut this down, now."

3. "The workers at the BIG PLANT found a little creative solution for taking their work with them while moving through and monitoring the factory floor. They've taken to personalizing their "Desk-bas" thinking of them like their own little mecha."

4. "The Cortex Walker, inspired by some particularly cruel science fiction, was Corporate's latest attempt to demoralize the rebel factions. While impractical from a mechanical perspective, the psychological impact of firing on captured allies could not be understated."

5. "My Best Friend is An Alien (and Unfortunately That's my Type!)"

[osakanone]

"How realistic are mecha, really?": They aren't, but not for the reason you're thinking of or the one adjacent to it. Trust me.

Crossposted from reddit, since people seemed to like it. Like in the thread, I am very happy to answer questions about any esoteric weirdness.

Hold my beer. Again

They're not becoming a possibility. Yes. I know. This sucks. But stick around. Its not for the reasons you think. Well it is, but it also isn't. You'll see.

The robot needs the technology more than the technology needs a robot.

the technologies which the robot needs will improve and alter the doctrine of every other platform

This creates a doctrinal lock-in where the potential functional space for them to exist is unmet -- that they are so far ahead, that nothing new can emerge that isn't just other platforms becoming more generalized (eg, a post-stall recovery aircraft, or a helicopter with high impact landing-gear and a rigid rotor/jet engine design to act as a surface-fighter -- a tank which walks or manoeuvres like a robot is just flat out of the question: Tanks are made to be simple-as-fuck boxes which tank hits, and shoot and acquire asap and rumours of their deaths as a doctrinal weapon are exaggerated by recent events where obsolete weapons which aren't maintained properly who's crews aren't adequately trained were fighting very clever civilians with drones)

What you consider "realistic" (5th/6th) is just as if not more unrealistic than other gens purely because of their smaller size and very bizarre relationship with the environment -- they're just both too big, and too small to make sense, sitting in a size niche which is just very weird

If such a vehicle does exist, its going to be defined by its functions rather than a humanoid appearance

we know this because specialized platforms tend to beat specialized platforms historically until specialized platforms mature and become generalized

thus, the closest you're probably going to get is some weird variation of DARPA's Ground X Vehicle Project meeting with Gravity Industry' style mobility in limited cases, hybridized with smaller robots and wingsuits, which mix manoeuvring operation styles, with some rocker-boogie mechanism elements for terrain handling: It won't be humanoid, whatever it is.

This is assuming you can magically solve the square-cube law of volume-mass which is partially negatable with certain custom topologies exceeding graphene but actually manufacturing them would be miserable work probably not even be something you can make without microgravity

Energy flat out isn't solvable with what we know about right now. Nothing with that energy density can exist that isn't going to simultaneously make for an incredible fragile, dangerous and problematic source of power given the forces involved. Cooling is also a horrifyingly unsolvable problem on this scale, as is radiation management: You can't just dump molten tungsten in emergency cooling mode - you'll not only proceed to alert everybody who has even the vaguest IRST capacity to your position, but you'll also probably set fire to the environment and cook off your own ammunition. *

Motors aren't well suited to the tasks of such bodies (its like trying to make a slingshot out of dental floss), and we don't have an effective way to turn electricity into a form of motion which corresponds with the shock absorbing and motion control qualities which are actually desirable yet

Even if we did, the actual means of ensuring it doesn't fragment every time it moves don't exist. Every time an A10C fires its main gun, the fuel lines micro-fracture and have to be replaced after it lands. Metal, when you subject it to high physical forces ends up feeling and behaving closer to how you would think of glass. You'd need a material capable of repairing itself too, atop the quasicrystalline property which again, just isn't doable, let alone simultaneously.

So in terms of our mindset going into this?

Its... Probably not happening barring a very, VERY extreme change to how we understand physics to function, or some really kick ass (and actually entirely possible) changes in how engineering achieves outcomes (which could happen if the greatest threat to the mecha didn't exist)

Combat is moving towards information dominance. 

That's drone swarms, and role modularized long range travel, and the idea of fighter beyond-visual-range combat extending out to infared search and track systems which are networked to one another, which we're already seeing in singleton weapons and their mounting strategies even on the personal scale, which DARPA is currently investigating which everybody wants to mate with the gravity industries gear for boarding ops so the most likely avenue is to scale up from people, rather than scale down from vehicles as the development pathway -- but there's probably going to be multiple pathways with competing niches once the technology becomes cheap enough.

Costing

Ultimately its down to "how much money do I have to spend to defeat something more expensive than myself?" -- because our current structure of war is defined by cost, and by making the other guys surrender by using economic, and military violence (private, and publicly funded) instead of convincing them that we (NATO members, etc) have good opinions purely because of the natural benefits of "doing as we say" (which we see with basically any conflict in the last 70 years, which are usually feigned as ideological but pretty much always about disrupting market competition, dominating markets, or controlling a pressure position in another country to achieve those two things).

This isn't because they're particularly excellent weapons, but because they're cheap relative to the strength they offer, and how we define cheap is very different to how we defined cheap 100 years ago -- both in good, and terrible ways (such is the way of history).

Mecha are kinda the ultimate boondoggle. They are very very expensive, and just don't make sense.

They're cool as hell, yes.

But they don't make sense.

DISCLAIMER: If you're prone to depression, are dealing with a lot right now, or don't want your day ruining, you should stop reading NOW. What comes next is a psychosocial hazard and could be very bad for your mental health. LAST CHANCE . . .

The "real" reasons

If conflict some how became a meritocracy of leading by excellence rather than intimidation, and about human outcomes instead of cost outcomes, then things could change, but we don't live in that world.

Remember, violence exists to end human conflict (not to be confused with military conflict, which violence is the primary instrument of): Human conflict is when two parties oppose one another and communicate about what their goals and intentions are. Violence happens when communication stops. Communication stops, because parties cannot come to terms, or because nobody wants to be reasonable because the inherent request is unreasonable to the interests of the other party.

I'd love to say physics is the greatest threat, or maybe our concept of conflict but its not: * Its economics.

The concept of private-equity (not to be confused with venture-capital investment) is kiiiind of the dominant economic system on the face of the planet which dictates the interest of every nuclear power's actions against every non-nuclear power) is functionally dissolved, and investment models as we know them magically become better regulated OR a better economic system comes along which totally undermines private equity.

Its an economic finger-trap where most of the money that would be reinvested into people and technologies to push the world forward ends up getting swallowed up.

It also has private armies) and simulates the economy and political events in order to control them for maximum profitability. Yeah.)

We already live in Armored Core, folks.

And that economic system knows that if it gave free agents like ravens any kind of military power, it would functionally undermine itself, which is why it will never happen.

Private equity benefits from not having technology change, because its primary goal is wealth extraction. It leads to the collapse of every business you've ever seen go under, its why products undergo enshittification, which is coming for everything.

Its why the housing crisis happened, why the banking collapse happened, and its why there's an incentive to continue industrializing diseases like insulin instead of curing them.

tl;dr:

The one thing AC gets super wrong is you can either have the depressing relatable low-saturation late-stage hyper-capitalist dystopia where life is cheap on planet earth and everything terrible about South Korea times a thousand covers the whole world, and you need to have your own organs brought from you and leased back to you to lock you in to a lifetime of debt the same way everything else works...

OR

you can have the robot;

You can't have both.

e: I'd pick the robot any day

--

Apologies for any inaccuracies, I haven't edited this and I threw the original together in the space of around 40 minutes. Questions very welcome: I enjoy giving long detailed and substantiated answers.

If you enjoyed this, please consider reading my other work on the theoretical design factors of mecha, their control systems, and my fictional writing in mechposting.

[admiral-mason]

I'm bored, random crossover time again

Recently I have gotten into a little shooter game known as Ultrakill.

For those who don't know: Ultrakill is basically a shooter game that combines elements from Titanfall, Doom Eternal, Devil May Cry, etc. You play as V1, a literal blood-powered combat robot that descends into Hell (from Dante's Inferno) to get more blood. On the way, you fight demons, angels, and other machines.

So? With my blog basically sporadically alive, let me revive it with another nonsensical crossover!

Gender neutral reader

SPOILERS AHEAD!

How these two games crossed over:

So you own both a PC and a phone/tablet. You would mostly play Genshin Impact on your mobile device while you played Ultrakill on your PC.

You've managed to complete both games and right now you tried obtaining all the alternate 'slab' weapons in Ultrakill. You have one already, simply called the slab revolver by many. Your next weapon to obtain is the sawblade launcher, located in stage 4-4 Clair de Soleil.

So, you did so. Whiplashing the blue skull from the right room after you used the first jump pad, the door opened and you shot your railcannon into the water. However, when you did so, the game decided to crash on you.

"What the hell??" You said before grumbling a little and trying to boot the game back up to no avail. Closing out the game, you bothered to play a little Genshin. However, within a few seconds of booting up the game, you got shocked and blacked out.

How you got to Teyvat:

After waking up, you found yourself in a plains area... and then you saw an anemo slime.

"Hey, you. You're finally awake." A voice that sounded like Microsoft Sam said from behind you.

(V1's voice from this program)

Turning around, you were greeted by the blue camera head himself.

"What the frick V1 how are you here??"

"I don't fucking know, one moment I touched the sawblade launcher, and now I'm here in what appears to be Limbo but not fake with the human who basically assisted me in murdering all of hell for blood. By the way, you perform really great shotgun yeets!*"

"Uh, thanks." You awkwardly responded.

"Now where the fuck can I get some blood?"

In Mondstadt:

The two of you ended up wandering around V1 had managed to kill a few wild animals for blood with his revolver. It didn't take long for someone to hear the sounds and approach you two afterward.

"You two! Stop right there!" Amber heard the sounds of V1's revolver shots as she ran towards you two. If it weren't for you rapidly telling V1 to not shoot her, she'd likely be on the floor in a pool of her own blood.

"...Hi there." You awkwardly said before she ended up tackling you to the ground in a hug with V1 just looking at the sight.

After Amber took you two to Mondstadt, word spread quickly of the Divine One and their blue angel-looking machine. The two of you managed to receive free housing with the Knights of Favonius alongside a tour of the city.

V1 abused his superior mobility to cross the entire city from one side to the other in less than a minute. This astonished the local citizens at this strange individual's movement skills. And then he accidentally crashes into a random citizen's cart.

"WHEEEEEEEEEEE"

"V1 don't you're gonna-!"

V1 crashes into a cart full of cabbages, toppling it

"..."

Everyone's also confused at his ability to seemingly generate coins... before shooting at them with that curved thing he holds in his hands and then it kills stuff. (I presume that most Mondstatians have never seen guns, the closest they have seen is probably a bow,)

Then he somehow pulls a giant double-barreled minigun?? Then a tube that shoots rockets??

Expect Klee to be all over him.

"Well see, this rocket launcher used to be an industrial tool, until some-"

"HOW BIG OF A BOOM CAN IT MAKE?!"

"...Let me demonstrate!"

V1 activated the freeze mode on his Freezeframe Rocket Launcher and fired a few rockets at a group of wolves...

...Safe to say, those wolves and their surroundings got blown up to high hell.

When Jean found the destructive duo, V1 just took Klee into his arms and proceeded to abuse his mobility yet again.

"BOING! Catch me now, bozo!"

"Get back here you blue thing-"

"I am not a blue thing thank you- BOING!"

Looking past shenanigans, Albedo and Sucrose have taken an interest in V1's lethal arsenal that's even far superior to Fatui tech. Noelle might ask to train with the machine after some introductions.

In Liyue

After a few days of staying in Mondstadt, you kinda wanted to see Liyue so you told everyone else and asked V1 to accompany you. Upon arrival though, you found out that Liyue prepared a celebration for the two of you. Turns out news can leak out quickly to the world even if you've only interacted with a part of it.

V1 found Liyue significantly more fun to traverse and navigate around. From mountainous marvels to spacious streets, the nation provided him with no short of tricks to pull off.

Everyone interacted with V1 normally until he started using the Whiplash to grab items from various vendors merely flipping a few coins at them in return. This led to a scuffle with the Millelith and he ended up shocking everyone by knocking all of the soldiers out with a mere punch to their chest.

Thankfully you managed to calm him down.

When he saw the Jade Chamber, he made it a personal challenge to ascend without using the proper way. He unfortunately did so while Ningguang was pleasantly talking with you.

"This, your grace, is-" You could then faintly hear rocket sounds in the distance, with Ningguang following suit shortly after. You both turned in the direction of the sound to see V1 flying on a rocket with his Freezeframe Rocket Launcher yet again before he jumped off and landed right next to the two of you.

"Hi friend I'm back! Mechanic abuse is funny!"

Ningguang just blinked at the sight of the combat machine that somehow stood on a small flying object to get up here without proper authorization. "...Your grace what the heck did that thing just do??"

"I AM NOT A THING-"

Part 2?

*Shotgun yeets refer to projectile boosts.

[nextmscblog]

Reinventing Operations: Autonomous Mobile Robot Market in E-commerce

Introduction

The landscape of e-commerce has been witnessing a seismic shift in recent years, with the advent of innovative technologies reshaping the way businesses operate and serve their customers. Among these transformative technologies, Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) stand out as a key enabler for enhancing efficiency, agility, and customer satisfaction in the e-commerce supply chain. According to a study by Next Move Strategy Consulting, the global Autonomous Mobile Robot Market size is predicted to reach USD 3.13 billion with a CAGR of 13.4% by 2030. This article delves into the role of AMRs in revolutionizing e-commerce operations, exploring their impact on warehouse management, order fulfillment, customer experience, and sustainability efforts.

The Rise of E-commerce and Operational Challenges

The exponential growth of e-commerce in recent years has been fueled by shifting consumer preferences, technological advancements, and the proliferation of digital platforms. Today, consumers expect seamless shopping experiences, fast deliveries, and a wide range of product choices at their fingertips. While e-commerce offers unparalleled convenience and accessibility, it also poses significant challenges for businesses, particularly in the landscape of fulfillment and logistics.

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Traditional warehouse operations often struggle to keep pace with the dynamic nature of e-commerce, leading to inefficiencies, bottlenecks, and increased operational costs. Manual processes, outdated systems, and limited scalability hinder the ability of e-commerce companies to meet the evolving demands of customers and compete effectively in the market. As order volumes continue to surge and delivery expectations rise, there is a pressing need for innovative solutions that can revolutionize e-commerce operations and drive sustainable growth.

Enter Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs)

Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) have emerged as a disruptive force in the e-commerce industry, offering a paradigm shift in warehouse automation and logistics management. Unlike traditional automation solutions that rely on fixed conveyor systems or robotic arms, AMRs are agile, flexible, and intelligent robotic systems capable of autonomously navigating through warehouse environments, picking and packing items, and transporting them to designated locations.

Equipped with advanced sensors, cameras, lidars, and artificial intelligence algorithms, AMRs possess the ability to perceive their surroundings, avoid obstacles, and adapt to changes in real-time. This inherent agility and adaptability make AMRs well-suited for the dynamic and unpredictable nature of e-commerce operations, where rapid order fulfillment and seamless logistics are paramount.

Transforming Warehouse Management

At the heart of e-commerce operations lies the warehouse, where inventory management, order processing, and fulfillment activities take place. Traditional warehouses often rely on manual labor and static infrastructure to manage inventory and fulfill orders, leading to inefficiencies and operational bottlenecks. AMRs offer a transformative solution to these challenges by automating repetitive tasks, optimizing workflows, and maximizing operational efficiency.

By deploying AMRs in warehouses, e-commerce companies can significantly reduce reliance on manual labor, minimize errors, and accelerate order fulfillment processes. AMRs can autonomously navigate through warehouse aisles, locate items, and transport them to packing stations with precision and efficiency. This not only improves the speed and accuracy of order processing but also enables warehouses to handle higher order volumes and peak demand periods without compromising on performance.

Furthermore, AMRs enable e-commerce companies to optimize warehouse layouts, maximize storage capacity, and minimize travel distances, thereby reducing operational costs and improving overall productivity. With their ability to adapt to changing demand patterns and dynamically reconfigure workflows, AMRs empower warehouses to operate more efficiently and effectively in the fast-paced world of e-commerce.

Enhancing Order Fulfillment

Efficient order fulfillment is critical to the success of any e-commerce business, as it directly impacts customer satisfaction, retention, and brand reputation. Delays, errors, and inaccuracies in order processing can lead to dissatisfied customers, increased returns, and lost revenue opportunities. AMRs play a crucial role in enhancing order fulfillment processes by streamlining picking, packing, and shipping operations with speed, accuracy, and reliability.

Traditionally, order picking – the process of retrieving items from warehouse shelves – has been a labor-intensive and time-consuming task in e-commerce fulfillment centers. Manual pickers navigate through aisles, locate products, and collect them for packing and shipping. However, this manual approach is inherently inefficient and prone to errors, particularly in large warehouses with extensive product inventories.

AMRs revolutionize order picking by automating this process with precision and efficiency. Equipped with advanced navigation systems and intelligent algorithms, AMRs can autonomously traverse warehouse aisles, identify pick locations, and retrieve items with speed and accuracy. This not only reduces the time and labor required for order picking but also minimizes errors and improves order accuracy, resulting in higher customer satisfaction and fewer returns.

Moreover, AMRs enable e-commerce companies to implement dynamic order fulfillment strategies such as batch picking and zone picking, which further optimize efficiency and reduce cycle times. By orchestrating the movement of multiple AMRs simultaneously and coordinating picking activities in real-time, warehouses can achieve higher throughput rates and handle a greater volume of orders with ease.

Elevating Customer Experience

In the era of e-commerce, customer experience has become a key differentiator for businesses seeking to stand out in a crowded marketplace. Today's consumers expect fast, reliable, and convenient shopping experiences, with seamless order fulfillment and timely deliveries being top priorities. AMRs play a pivotal role in elevating the customer experience by enabling e-commerce companies to meet and exceed these expectations with efficiency and precision.

By accelerating order processing and reducing delivery times, AMRs enable e-commerce companies to offer same-day or next-day delivery options, thereby enhancing convenience and satisfaction for customers. The speed and agility of AMRs in navigating warehouse environments and fulfilling orders enable e-commerce companies to fulfill orders faster and more accurately, resulting in shorter lead times and improved on-time delivery performance.

Moreover, the accuracy and reliability of AMRs in picking and packing tasks ensure that customers receive the right products in perfect condition, leading to higher satisfaction and fewer returns. By minimizing order errors, discrepancies, and damages, AMRs help e-commerce companies build trust and loyalty with their customers, driving repeat purchases and positive word-of-mouth recommendations.

Furthermore, AMRs enable e-commerce companies to offer innovative delivery options such as autonomous last-mile delivery, where robots autonomously deliver packages directly to customers' doorsteps. This not only enhances convenience and flexibility for customers but also reduces delivery costs and environmental impact, making it a win-win solution for businesses and consumers alike.

Driving Sustainability Efforts

In addition to improving operational efficiency and enhancing the customer experience, AMRs also play a vital role in driving sustainability efforts in the e-commerce industry. As concerns about environmental impact and carbon emissions continue to grow, businesses are under increasing pressure to adopt sustainable practices and reduce their ecological footprint. AMRs offer a sustainable solution to e-commerce logistics by optimizing warehouse operations, minimizing energy consumption, and reducing carbon emissions associated with order fulfillment and transportation.

By optimizing warehouse layouts and route planning, AMRs help e-commerce companies minimize the distance traveled by workers and vehicles within the warehouse, thereby reducing fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. The efficiency and precision of AMRs in picking and packing tasks also contribute to reducing waste and minimizing the need for excess packaging materials, further reducing the environmental impact of e-commerce operations.

Moreover, AMRs enable e-commerce companies to implement more efficient and sustainable transportation strategies, such as route optimization and load consolidation, which help minimize fuel consumption and emissions associated with order deliveries. By leveraging AMRs for autonomous last-mile delivery, businesses can further reduce reliance on fossil fuels and mitigate the environmental impact of traditional delivery methods, while also enhancing efficiency and reducing costs.

Overall, the adoption of AMRs in e-commerce operations represents a significant step towards achieving sustainability goals and mitigating the environmental impact of e-commerce logistics. By optimizing efficiency, reducing waste, and minimizing carbon emissions, AMRs help e-commerce companies operate in a more environmentally responsible and socially conscious manner, aligning with growing consumer demand for sustainable and ethical business practices.

Challenges and Considerations

While Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) offer numerous benefits and opportunities for e-commerce businesses, their adoption and integration into existing operations also pose challenges and considerations. One of the key challenges is the initial investment required for deploying AMRs, including the cost of hardware, software, integration, and training. While the long-term benefits of AMRs in terms of efficiency, productivity, and cost savings are significant, businesses must carefully evaluate the return on investment and weigh the upfront costs against the potential long-term gains.

Another consideration is the complexity of integrating AMRs into existing warehouse management systems (WMS) and e-commerce platforms. Seamless integration with existing systems and workflows is essential for maximizing the benefits of AMRs and minimizing disruption to operations. Businesses must ensure compatibility, interoperability, and scalability when deploying AMRs, and may require support from experienced integrators or consultants to streamline the integration process.

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Furthermore, the deployment of AMRs also raises considerations related to workforce management and human-robot collaboration. While AMRs automate repetitive tasks and optimize efficiency, they also require oversight, maintenance, and supervision by human operators. Businesses must ensure proper training and upskilling for employees to operate and interact with AMRs safely and effectively, and to address any concerns or resistance among workers regarding job displacement or automation.

Moreover, regulatory and safety considerations also play a critical role in the deployment of AMRs in e-commerce operations. Businesses must adhere to industry standards, safety regulations, and ethical guidelines when deploying and operating AMRs in warehouse environments to ensure the safety of workers, customers, and assets. This includes implementing robust safety protocols, emergency stop mechanisms, and fail-safe systems to prevent accidents and mitigate risks associated with autonomous robotic systems.

Future Outlook and Conclusion

The future of e-commerce operations is undoubtedly intertwined with the evolution and proliferation of Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) as a key enabler for efficiency, agility, and sustainability. As technology continues to advance and costs decrease, the adoption of AMRs in e-commerce is expected to accelerate, with more businesses leveraging these intelligent robotic systems to streamline warehouse operations, enhance order fulfillment, and elevate the customer experience.

Looking ahead, the integration of AMRs into e-commerce operations holds immense promise for revolutionizing the way businesses operate and serve their customers in a rapidly evolving digital economy. From optimizing warehouse management and order fulfillment to driving sustainability efforts and enhancing the customer experience, AMRs offer a transformative solution to the complex challenges facing e-commerce businesses today.

In conclusion, the integration of Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) into e-commerce operations represents a paradigm shift in the way businesses manage and optimize their supply chain processes. By harnessing the power of automation, intelligence, and agility, AMRs enable e-commerce companies to reinvent their operations, drive efficiency, and deliver unparalleled value to customers. As the global Autonomous Mobile Robot (AMR) Market continues to expand and evolve, e-commerce businesses stand to benefit greatly from embracing this transformative technology to navigate the challenges and opportunities of the digital age.

[stevebattle]

Sakura No. 2 anti-explosive model (2016), Future Robotics Technology Center (fuRo), Chiba Institute of Technology, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Japan. "This remotely operated mobile robot is the first in Japan to be officially certified as anti-explosive model, developed to inspect conditions in flammable gas environments where a single spark could ignite an explosion. Developed with support and assistance by Japan’s NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization)." – Innovating for safer work environments, MHI.

[wanderersrest]

Mecha's "I'm Not Like the Other Girls" Problem

Preface: I'd like to apologize to everyone who reads this post. Normally, my posts are pretty lighthearted and informative. This one, however, is not lighthearted.

I feel it is important to talk about this topic though, as this is a problem that has been plaguing mecha shows for a long time now. It bothers me when people dismiss the things that I like *gestures at G Gundam*, so it should be of no surprise that I have strong feelings about this topic. It's pretty adjacent to the reason why I don't like the "Real vs Super Robot" dick-measuring contests that happen between fans, especially as someone whose favorite mecha show gets a lot of heat because of that stupid debate.

Part of what makes it worse is that I don't dislike these shows a whole lot. Okay, two of them I don't like a whole lot, but one is because its second season really drops the ball on things while the other is, in my opinion, a pretty mediocre show that is being propped up as the hottest thing since sliced bread by its fans.

I'm also going to be talking about gen:Lock, a show that I hate from pure pop cultural osmosis. So content warning: suicide, children getting killed, and gen:Lock, among other things.

Stop me if you've heard this one before:

"Evangelion's not like other mecha shows because it focuses on the character drama instead of the robots."

If you've ever watched any mecha show ever, you'd realize just how bizarre this line really is. There's always some variation where it'll be the favorite series of the person saying this and, when confronted, will bare their ass out for the world to see by showing that they have not watched any other mecha show. If you're lucky, they might have watched one or two other mecha shows, and chances are likely that it will be one of the other "Not Like the Other Girl" shows.

So today, for something a bit lighter in comparison to my soul-crushing Abbreviated History of Mecha, I'm going to take my turn dismantling this braindead take. Really take my turn at this dead horse, because it is something that plagues this genre of stories.

Context: Evangelion's Legacy Is Exaggerated

Thank you, cast of the hit anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion. I felt brave just saying that.

Jokes aside, I feel it is important to get this out of the way now. And, to be fair, Evangelion is critically acclaimed for a reason. Eva's success did leave an impact on the rest of the industry. A whole generation of anime shows have tried to capture the same energy that Eva had, leading to the rise of the extremely nebulous sekai-kei trend. This isn't even touching on the fact that Eva is also one of the most popular mecha franchises of all time.

That being said, the problem with Eva's legacy is that people in the west exaggerated its legacy. So instead of it being an important series that builds off of the legacy of the shows it was inspired by in order to create something new and just as noteworthy as its forebears, it is now this transgressive series that brutally deconstructs mecha on top of everything mentioned prior. Evangelion became a series that was more than most mecha shows, since it really spends a lot of its time with its characters, particularly the Eva pilots and their handler. Evangelion was different because it was about the characters and not the giant robots.

...Except, that's not true.

This is Ideon Erasure

One of the shows that inspired Evangelion, Space Runaway Ideon, is about as serious as they come. It's a story about the horrors of war, and the characters have to contend with this and press on. And while it might not be as introspective as say Evangelion, the difference is what both had as inspiration: Ideon only had shows like Space Battleship Yamato, Voltes V, Zambot 3, and Mobile Suit Gundam as reference points. Evangelion has all four of those shows as well as other shows like Fang of the Sun Dougram, Super Dimension Fortress Macross, and Legend of the Galactic Heroes among other shows to reference

I'm not saying that those shows also influenced Evangelion. I'm just pointing out that, in the history of mecha, Eva has more things to be compared to. And to be fair to the people who kickstarted the "Eva's not like the other girls" mentality, the west's experience with mecha prior to Eva was either shows like Transformers, which existed largely to sell toys, or shows like Gundam Wing, where a lot of the show can be seen as "Wow, cool robot." So along comes Evangelion with its esoteric Christian imagery, brooding protagonists, and eldritch antagonists. It's really nothing anyone in the west has seen before, and so the "Not Like the Other Girls" meme is born.

And now, I'd like to go into debunking this line of thinking with a lot of the big offenders. Because it turns out that Evangelion is not the only show to get this treatment. And if you thought Eva was a bad example of "Not Being Like the Other Girls," then oh boy are these examples somehow worse.

Case Study 1 - Code Geass: Casval Lelouch of the Rebellion

Code Geass is probably the closest example to in terms of being "Not Like the Other Girls" that isn't Evagenlion itself. Like Evangelion before it, Code Geass has more of a focus on its characters than its mech action. A fair bit of screen time is spent focused on the politicking and strategizing and brainwashing (with actual, factual magic) of our main character, Lelouch Code Geass Lamperouge, with all of the shenanigans that ensue. It's a series with a unique spin on the military robot shows of old due to its inclusion of magic (namely the titular Geass) and advanced super materials like Sakuradite (based off of the mythical metal hi'hiirokane or scarletite).

The problem with Code Geass being a "Not Like the Other Girls" show is twofold:

The robots of Code Geass, here known as Knightmare Frames, play a pivotal part in the story. The Knightmare Frames are what allow Britannia to take over the world as well as they do, and a big focus on the series is just how advanced the latest Knightmare Frame, Lancelot, is compared to the other Knightmare Frames. Season 2 exacerbates this problem when the elite Knightmare Frames like Lancelot are constantly getting exponentially more upgrades throughout the season.

It's also hard not to ignore the similarities between this show and Mobile Suit Gundam (the original, not the franchise as a whole). Consider that Code Geass' main character is, for lack of a better word, a Char clone. He wears a mask and oftentimes hides his true motives, which helps when it comes time for politics. He's even got a special power that helps him with his core skills. The only thing Lelouch is lacking is the piloting skill, which is where Kallen Kouzuki comes in (and fun fact: her signature Knightmare Frame, the Guren MK II, is red).

Oh, I should also mention this here: before working on Code Geass, Goro Taniguchi worked on Gun x Sword, which is unabashedly a giant robot anime. Does this really add anything to my point? Not really. I just think it's interesting to point this out due to Gun x Sword's proximity to Code Geass in terms of release dates.

Case Study 2 - Tengen Toppa Getter Robo Gurren Lagann

Probably the single most insane version of this is when people treat Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann as being "Not Like the Other Girls."

Y'know... Gurren Lagann. The show where the giant robots grow as large as the known universe. A show where one of the major thematic elements is a celebration of giant robot shows that's reflected in the four major story arcs representing a distillation of the four decades of giant robot shows from as early as Mazinger Z. A show where the main character draws a lot of his self worth from, among other things, how well he pilots his mini robot (a gender-swapped Noa Izumi, if you will).

Oh, and most important of all: this is also the show written by, and I'm not making this up, a man who refers to himself as Getter Robo's number one fan.

This doesn't even touch on other shows that one could argue also had a hand in influencing Gurren Lagann like Mobile Fighter G Gundam and The King of Braves, GaoGaiGar. Look me in the eye and tell me that Kamina wasn't written with characters like Domon Kasshu and Guy Shishioh in mind. Or the fact that Simon the Digger is less Ryouma Nagare and more Domon Kasshu by way of Guy Shishioh.

In the case of Gurren Lagann, though, it should also be of no surprise that this is the series brought up the least amongst the "Not Like the Other Girls" shows. A big part of this stems from, as I mentioned earlier, the fact that Gurren Lagann is a celebration of giant robots.

...What's that? Why does it sound like an axe is being sharpened in the background? No, reader, you're hearing things. I clearly don't have an axe to grind with the next show.

Case Study 3 - Armored Trooper 86: Eighty Six

Part of what I hate about the modern seasonal anime release schedule is that it's created an entire generation of anime fans who refuse to watch any series that released before 2010. This line of thinking can be pretty dangerous, and this is coming from a guy who's always saying the newer Pokemon games are generally better than the older ones. The difference is twofold:

Pokemon isn't anywhere near as old as all of anime. Like it's not even close to being that old.

This only really applies to core game mechanics in the mainline non-Legends games. It doesn't really take into account things like story elements, Pokemon rosters, or generation design differences (read as: is the game pre- or post-Physical/Special split).

I'm bringing this up because I feel like the seasonal anime format is the reason why 86: Eighty Six became a "Not Like the Other Girl" show. As someone who watches a lot of mecha shows, 86 is just...

...it's there. It exists. In my opinion, 86 doesn't really have a whole to say outside of racism is bad and look at how much Shin and company suffer because of it. Everything 86 does has been done before in some fashion by literally every military robot series that existed prior to 86's first publication in 2017. Heck, two years prior to it's publication was the first airing of Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans, the then-latest entry in the Gundam franchise. And that series is all about how unfettered capitalism makes it almost impossible for the marginalized to survive without having to resort to violence.

But I think it's folly to suggest fans of 86 to go watch Iron-Blooded Orphans. Not because it's bad, which I'd argue that it's not. No, it's more because IBO is too recent. Part of the problem with the "Not Like the Other Girls" mentality is that people will limit themselves into only watching one show, oftentimes failing to see that part of what makes their favorite show so special is the fact that it is inspired by other works. For people who like 86, it would be better to recommend shows like Armored Trooper VOTOMs, Fang of the Sun Dougram (or really any military robot series directed by Ryousuke Takahashi), or even the original Gundam from 1979. But as harsh as I may be on 86, it's not the worst offender. I'd even go so far as to say that 86 is, at worst, a symptom. I think the real problem lies with the next series I'm going to talk about.

The Worst Offender - gen:Lock

If you thought I disliked 86 because of how its fans hype it up as being better and so much different than the rest of the canon, at least 86 is a pretty entertaining watch.

gen:Lock makes me turn into AM from I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream. To describe the enmity I have towards gen:Lock is not something I want to fully unload on this blog, as it is this series that really kicked the "Not Like the Other Girls" mentality into overdrive. gen:Lock was once described by one of its executive producers as being about the characters and not the robots. Which kind of spits in the face of the canon of mecha in its entirety, as the entire genre has almost never really frontlined the machines as being the main character. And when mecha stories are about the machines, the machine tends to be a character in its own right.

And if I'm being honest, part of what makes me so livid about gen:Lock is how this series basically funneled away funds from other projects at Rooster Teeth. That's what got series creator Gray Haddock fired, after all. So you can't even say that season one, which I've been told is a pretty decent season, is okay in comparison. So even if the "It's not about the mecha" line is supposed to be marketing speak, the behind-the-scenes nonsense still sullies the show. I don't even think I need to touch on the mess that is gen:Lock season 2; between the poorly animated sex scene, the sudden killing of a recently-outed queer character, and the fact that one of the main characters, and later the entire main cast, get rewarded for committing suicide... Yeah. Let's just move on before a blow a fuse.

Magic Knight Rayearth Is Actually Not Like the Other Girls

I think part of what makes all of this so absurd is that there is a series that can actually be considered "Not Like the Other Girls."

It's Magic Knight Rayearth.

A lot of what helps in this case is that Rayearth is, primarily, a magical girl series. That is not to say that Rayearth is not a mecha show though, as the Rune Gods play a pivotal role in the series. Not helping things is the fact that the Rune Gods are literally an extension of their magic knight's personalities, which is true of pretty much every giant robot ever. But, by being a magical girl series first and foremost, Rayearth approaches giant robots from a unique angle due to the world of Cephiro being similar to that of a fantasy JRPG setting where willpower determines everything. So the Rune Gods end up being real, living creatures that take the form of giant robots, as opposed to just being giant robots that exist in the setting.

Except it's still a giant robot series. Everything I just said doesn't suddenly mean that Magic Knight Rayearth is no longer a mecha show.

Conclusion

Look. I get it. These shows are great. Okay, gen:Lock isn't, but the other four are. I get it. The people who trot out this line do it because they love the series they're putting up on a pedestal. My issue comes with the putting it up on a pedestal part. It has a tendency to displace other shows that are just as worthy of praise, and in some cases maybe even better depending on the viewer, than the "Not Like the Other Girl" shows. So, to close this rant out, I'd like to suggest some shows for people whose only experience with mecha are one of the "Not Like the Other Girls" shows.

If you like...

...Neon Genesis Evangelion, you might be interested in checking out Ultraman, Mobile Suit Gundam, Space Runaway Ideon, Aura Battler Dunbine, Patlabor (either the TV or OVA timeline), or Gargantia on the Verduous Planet.

...Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion, you might be interested in checking out Mobile Suit Gundam (again), Fang of the Sun Dougram, Patlabor (the OVA timeline this time), Gun x Sword, or Psalm of Planets Eureka Seven.

...Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, you might like Mazinger Z, Getter Robo, Gunbuster, Mobile Fighter G Gundam, The King of Braves GaoGaiGar, Back Arrow, SSSS.Gridman, SSSS.Dynazenon, and Gridman Universe.

...86: Eighty Six or gen:Lock, you might like Mobile Suit Gundam (pretty much any series that isn't G or Build), Armored Trooper VOTOMs (or really anything related to Ryousuke Takahashi), Metal Armor Dragonar, Patlabor (See Evangelion above), or Full Metal Panic!.

...Magic Knight Rayearth, you might be interested in Aura Battler Dunbine, Panzer World Galient, Patlabor (the TV timeline), Mobile Fighter G Gundam (yes really), or The Vision of Escaflowne.

And thanks for reading my rant. Next time, something else!

[booleanean]

Day 9 - Aphrodisiacs - Robots with Dicks

"Oh fuck, yes, yes," Carla panted.

She heard Felix scribble something on his clipboard. For an AI postdoc, he was oddly attached to pen and paper.

The Mk1's chassis had been completed weeks ago. Carla had stared at it, stood in the corner of their basement workshop, waiting for Felix to finish training the AI, until finally she couldn't take it anymore.

"Yes, harder, faster." Carla moaned as the robot's control loop interpreted the commands and thrust into her with greater intensity.

Every inch of it was as good as she could make it, artificial filament muscles covered in variably translucent silicone to visually measure performance, hydraulic actuators in the torso visible behind 3D printed transparent aluminium. Strength was about twice what the strongest human could achieve without modification or drugs, dexterity on par with the best industrial robots from ten years ago, but on a fully mobile base. It was the peak of humanoid robotics, right at the very bleeding edge of technology. Their research paper was going to omit certain additions she'd made to it, though she had been half tempted to see if they could win a Nobel and Ig Nobel for the same project.

Felix looked up long enough from his clipboard to stroke her hair.

"Feel good?"

"Oh fuck yes, I'm close."

Even the penis attachments were works of art. Integrated in a special modular pelvis, she'd created two prototypes. The one that was rocking her world right now was a basic steel shaft with an internal set of ducting keeping it at body temperature, and a separate network of microtubules dispensing lubrication along the entire length. Pressure transducers and temperature sensors fed back into the control loop, letting the robot respond to her physiological responses as well as her voice commands.

She was saving the other prototype for the full AI integration test. The basic functionality worked the same as a mammalian penis. Silicone stood in for flesh, with a body safe hydraulic fluid for blood, filling corpora cavernosa made of custom designed aerogel. It even had realistic skin that slid along the basic structure. The sensors were also inspired by biological systems, with increased density in the tip. The piece de resistance was a realistic set of testicles, weighted properly, that contained most of the operating mechanics and a fully functional ejaculation system tuned to mimic anything from a pathetic little dribble to a pressure and volume any porn star would sign away their immortal soul for.

She already had plans for another, more futuristic attachment with a direct magnetic nerve stimulator for the clit and g-spot.

"Fuck YES!" Carla screamed as she came.

The sensors in the robot's dick tripped the control loop into a new regime, keeping the same pace perfectly, matching her thrashing movements, letting her focus on nothing but her own pleasure. The impassive face, silicon lips pressed tightly together, eyes scanning her face mechanically, pulled her out of the moment a little but the perfect fucking it was delivering got her close to the edge again right on the heels of her first orgasm. Just before her pleasure peaked, the robot pulled back out of her completely and sat back on its heels between her legs.

"CONTROL LOOP FAILURE, SAFETY MODE ENGAGED."

She screamed her frustration at the abrupt feeling of emptiness and ruined orgasm so tight on the heels of such a good one.

"Fuck, that sucked." Carla tried to catch her breath. "Mk1, go stand in the corner."

"COMMAND UNCLEAR, PLEASE RESTATE."

She pushed it off the bed with her foot, the basic inverse kinematics keeping it stable as it shifted to the floor. At least that was still working.

"Walk forward four paces, turn forty-five degrees clockwise, walk two more paces, then go into standby mode."

Carla pulled at Felix's shirt, trying to get it off over his head while he tried to hold on to his clipboard.

"Are you going to take notes, or are you going to fuck me? The Mk1 clearly isn't up to the task yet."

He froze, then tossed his clipboard aside. They kissed as he fumbled his pants off. He was inside of her seconds later, rock hard. They'd fantasized together about being with other people, but never wanted to make it a reality. The fantasy was hot, real people was too far for both of them. When they'd been working on the Mk1 together, Carla had suggested a little side project. Felix clearly really got off on seeing her with it, he was rock hard.

"Yes, fuck me, fuck me." Carla rocked her hips against him, meeting him thrust for thrust. She held his gaze, urging him on. Within minutes, he had her back at the edge, years of being together had taught him exactly what she liked. She held herself there, holding back, waiting for him.

"Cum in me, fill me, yes, YES!" Carla felt Felix stiffen inside of her and then warmth flooded her. She let go and screamed his name as she came, "Felix, Felix, Felix!"

When he collapsed on top of her, she stroked his back. He was still inside of her, and she could still feel the occasional twitch of his cock.

"Of course! There was no path from the 'partner orgasm occurring' state into the 'partner orgasm starting' state! God damnit, I forgot to account for multiple orgasms in quick succession. Fuck."

Felix kissed her, muffling her last word. He pushed up on his hands, hovering over her, still inside. "The tensor farm should be done testing the latest model by 8pm. If this one is all green, we can probably have it installed by 10 and give it another shot with the AI this time."

"I'll rewire the state machine for the control loop in case there's any red tests still."

This had been their sex life for the last couple of months, since they started the project to build the ultimate sex bot. After, often with Felix still inside of her, they'd discuss ideas about what they could change, or features they had to have. This was the first time after a field test though.

"Did you like watching me with it?"

"Oh yes. God damn, that was hot."

"Would you ever want to try it? Both cocks are self lubricating, you know."

"Mmm, maybe. I want to see if we can get a threesome mode working first though."

After dinner they guided the bot back onto its stand in the basement workshop with a dozen cables leading to various parts to extract telemetry, recharge, and provide data connections for reprogramming. Carla was getting distracted trying to rewire the state machine, each possible transition suddenly causing both real and imagined sense memories. Felix looked tastier and tastier as she worked. He was futzing with parameters, rerunning partial tests on subsystems. The tests had all been green, but he'd had ideas to get everything optimized before their first live test.

By 2am, they had the first version of Felix's AI uploaded to the Mk1. She and Felix had curated a lot of videos from Pornhub over the last couple of months, finding performances they liked. Lots of hotwife scenes and threesomes, some bisexual stuff, but mostly relatively vanilla scenes. Carla had added some scenes where the male performer was a bit more rough than Felix was comfortable with doing himself, spanking and pinning wrists above heads. For vocal interactions, they'd retrained a large language model on erotica and textual descriptions of the scenes in the porn videos, generated by an off the shelf accessibility AI.

There wasn't any actual universal intelligence in the robot of course. This was a sexy version of an AI chat bot that most phones had built in now, combined with a convoluted control loop for its physical interactions. Simply a very clever way of giving the impression that something was smart, when really all it was doing was basic pattern recognition based on a predefined dataset.

"Want to give it a shot?" Felix asked, but Carla shook her head.

"I want you, not the bot."

Shutting the bot down for the night, Carla drew Felix upstairs back to their bedroom. As they made love, they teased each other with all the amazing things they'd do with the robot tomorrow and in the weeks to come.

The next weekend, Carla really had to admit Felix had been right. Her control loop version of the robot's software was good. It got her off just fine, but it was impersonal. As its designer, she had a hard time focusing on herself as she felt it roll into new control regimes. The AI felt much more human. He looked at you, used his hands for more than balance, and even showed some imperfections in his motions. He got (artificially) winded, slipped out, fell over, all the things a real human partner would do. The experience was so much more realistic, she sometimes forgot it was a robot fucking her if she couldn't see him.

She sat at her desk in their upstairs office now, working on the more serious portion of her research. They had run a series of strength and dexterity tests that afternoon, characterizing the robot's ability to maintain precision while assert force at different levels, and she was processing the data. Felix was downstairs in the lab, tinkering with parameters and adjusting the training data for the next version of the AI.

Carla heard the neighbor plug in his bass guitar, the amp turned way up. She muttered under her breath about people not respecting their tools. Didn't he know he could damage the speaker like that? The noise wasn't too bad, but listening to Seven Nation Army played by a spirited amateur over and over again didn't really appeal either. Her noise cancelling headphones were in the basement with Felix though, so for now she'd just suffer through.

Her phone beeped halfway through the neighbor's warmup.

Felix: Robot reacting to bass music. Carla: "music" Felix: He's getting better. Anyway:

The next message was the robot's dick, the biomorphic one, clearly at half mast.

Carla: Is he on? Felix: in standby Carla: Odd. Sensors recording? Felix: Yup, caught it before the buffer flushed. AI parameter log too. Carla: nice

Before she could really get back into her work, the neighbor finished Seven Nation Army. The next tune he played was the Pornhub sting. She almost spat out her drink. He did a pretty good version, though the lack of drums made it not quite perfect.

Before she could get back into her work, Felix yelled from down in the basement.

"Carla, come take a look at this!"

The Mk1 was standing in its alcove, still docked to all the various wires and cables. Felix was standing in front of it, studying the biomorphic cock. It was throbbing like a real one would.

"Remember how it was at half mast during the first song the neighbor was playing? Despite it being in standby? I think I figured out the reason."

The neighbor, who had just finished House of the Rising Sun, chose that moment to play another couple of Pornhub opening stingers. The Mk1 responded, humping the air slightly, his cock throbbing.

"You didn't cut out the intros on the training data so—"

"— now every time it hears bass music, and the Pornhub riff in particular, it gets aroused. It's still in standby, it's barely drawing current, but there's enough residual charge in the artificial muscle fibers for, well, this." He gestured at the robot's midsection, still rocking back and forth.

"Aren't the tensor cores supposed to be off?" Carla watched a slow drop of lubricant fall from the tip of the twitching robot cock.

Felix shook his head, "Some stay on to parse voice commands."

She reached out, touching the silicone cock. It was slick, the lubricant dispensers clearly activated. It was interesting to see that it was apparently simulating precum as well, despite that not necessarily being the focus of their training data. The artificial dick twitched at her touch, and she grasped it firmly, stroking up and down. A slow trickle of fake cum was leaking out the tip now, covering her hand.

"So we're thinking bass guitar is a robo-aphrodisiac then? Because you trained it on videos with Pornhub intros?"

"Mm-hmm."

"That's hilarious."

"And means I have to remove the intro from over fifteen hundred videos, and then retrain and retest the entire model." Felix sighed heavily. "Again."

"There's an ffmpeg command for that, surely."

"The trimming, sure."

Carla kept stroking the robot's cock, watching the artificial foreskin slide back and forth over the head.

"Seems like a shame to waste this though. It really shouldn't be erect out in the open air for too long, it's designed with the idea of at least some counter pressure. Also, it would be a shame to not gather some extra data. It might be interesting to have a robo-aphrodisiac function, though maybe something more specific that won't just trigger if someone forgets to unplug their Bluetooth speaker when they're going to rub one out."

Felix grinned at her, then nodded.

Carla pulled her sweat pants and top off, standing naked in front of the mechanical man. "Mk1, wake up."

The Mk1 went through his wakeup sequence, part mandated by technology, part for show because they were both massive nerds. The cables, mostly plugged in along his arms and back, ejected and retracted into the alcove like Neo waking up in the real world for the first time. The sound effect of Seven of Nine's alcove powering down at the end of her regeneration cycle played, and Mk1 took a single step forward.

"Hello Carla, nice to see you again. What would you like to do today?"

Felix had campaigned long and hard for the robot to say "Please state the nature of the sexual emergency" but eventually she had put her foot down. The chances of that ending up in a version they showed off at their defense were too high, and while Robert Picardo could get it, the Doctor was a bit too acerbic for her tastes.

She walked over to the mattress they kept in the basement for quick tests, standing at the foot. She was in the mood for something a bit more rough than just the vanilla stuff they'd tried with the bot so far, and this heightened state it was operating in seemed to be a perfect opportunity to try that out.

"Take me. Be a little rough."

Before, he'd always asked for confirmation before initiating anything sexual. It hadn't been hardwired, but the AI training data was heavily incentivized towards asking consent first. This time though, with three long, powerful strides he was inches away from her. The intensity of his movements were a little scary, but she had the utmost faith in her and Felix's work. Still, she took a half step back reflexively.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Felix asked.

Carla stood staring at the Mk1, transfixed by his gaze. She knew it was just servos and cameras and tensor cores running a neural network, there was nothing there, but she still couldn't look away.

"I need this," Carla whispered.

With that, Mk1 took one more step, pushing her over and onto the mattress. He guided her down as they tumbled, cushioning her fall a little and making sure her head didn't hit the ground, but it was still an intense experience.

Decided to fight a little, she tried to push him off. He gathered her wrists in one hand and effortlessly pinned her arms above her head.

"Pause," Carla said.

Immediately, the Mk1 froze. He still held her, but the pressure on her wrists was lower, and he held all his weight off of her.

"Good, that still works just fine. Resume."

The intensity the Mk1 showed was unreal. She'd enjoyed him before, but with this added level of robotic arousal added on top, she could finally completely lose herself in the act. There was no room for thinking about kinematics and control loops, muscle fiber force limits, defects, or additions to the training data. There was no worry about her partner's pleasure, no anxiety for her own performance. All that was there was her own pleasure, pure and uncomplicated.

She fantasized about a future where a Mk2 and Mk3 could join in with the Mk1, taking turns getting her off, letting them recharge and refuel in shifts as they spent an entire day teasing her from orgasm to orgasm.

Mk1's synthesized voice, indistinguishable from human despite being produced by a speaker rather than a voice box, let her know how good this felt for him. All artificial of course, but so necessary for a realistic experience. Soft moans, grunts, little gasps. Even simulated breathing growing shorter as he exerted himself. It had still sounded artificial to her previously, but now it just went straight to the pleasure center of her brain, letting her enjoy the moment even more. She came, crying out as he whispered her name in her ear.

Just as her wrists were beginning to hurt, he shifted, pulling her legs up against his chest. The new position let him reach new and interesting places inside of her, the intentional curve she'd put on his cock letting him hit her g-spot. As she approached her second orgasm of the afternoon, he started moaning louder, grunting. When she came, so did he. The twitching of his cock was entirely lifelike, his orgasm forceful enough she could feel it deep inside of her.

She lay there panting, and he emulated her, letting her bask in the moment. Felix had sat next to her on the mattress, watching her closely. She could see his erection clearly in his sweats.

"That looked intense," he said when she looked over to him.

"Oh yes. We definitely need this feature."

"Would you like to continue?" the Mk1 asked.

Carla flicked her gaze down to Felix's sweats then looked him in the eyes. "Join us?"

Felix grinned and started pulling his shirt off.

[scarefox]

Signed up to watch a 2h speech / presentation I need to attend... BUT it is online via zoom so I don't have to go outside and can sit on my couch in a blanket and drink coffe!

It's about new AI laws and legally save AI software... I need to know this as graphics designer 😔

---

lol started with a AI animated avatar / deepfake of himself that totally looked AI because the hand movements didn't match what he said.

Oh no, he is a Zuckerberg fanboy.

This is going to be fun. (probably will get pissed along the way tho)

But they have some lawyers there to answer questions. Yay Christian Solmecke is there too (popular german media lawyer on yt)

---

so far: unlike human made work, AI generated artwork or designs are not copyrighted (in germany) AND if the AI piece is based on an existing human made work and it's still visible in the AI piece you need to get the copyright from the original owner / creator (includes designs, logos, images, text and music)

Copyright owner can opt-out and sue if it's still gets used for AI training / generation (american laws aren't finished yet but also will go into that direction)

---

They test different AI software to give out a little comic scenario. And oh boy as a graphic designer with knowledge about typography the text is triggering me so hard. It's so bad. SEE alone typography is an area that can't be made by a machine because even tho it is based on design laws it's still an intuitive human-eye based way of design. There is a difference between mathematical-centered and optical-centered.

---

Man they are all so horny for AI and reduction of jobs and costs.... But no matter how good an AI could generate an image or video... it will never give you the raw files where you can do individual changes afterwards.

Besides that I still think humanity isn't ready yet for the power and options AI is giving us. (at least one of the very high quality AI builders isn't selling it atm because they are afraid that it will get misused for fake news and stuff, so they try to find a way to prevent that before they bring it on the market)

So many creative jobs and professions that will die out just for us to get 100% digital made "creative" content and advertisements :/ (so far even the most high quality AI still has some small uncanny vibe). Like even actors will be replaced in the future... all they need to do is allow companies to use their face / body.... there is literally a Black Mirror episode about that.

Reminds me of that one AI kpop idol project I have seen last year on tiktok.... absolutely creepy and wrong. I know some of us are simping over anime, game or vocaloid characters but... man idk, do yall want to simp over uncanny digital kpop idols who don't even exist nor actually work for their skills and talent? 💀 Being into an idol is not just about the visuals and songs, it's about their personality and individuality.... for me at least.... (but of course the kpop industry is one of the first trying this). I do like Taemin for example beacuse he's breaking out of the industry norms. AI dude could never be on his level.

---

"Amazing. In a company in the US a CEO told us that with the use of an AI they could remove 700 jobs and save so much money!"

.... yeah cool. Maybe we should remove ALL jobs on this earth and let AI do it, so we humans don't do anything at all anymore. Oh wait, no, of course we still have to do hard repetitive labor like some work drones because it's cheaper than to build and maintain actual robots for these jobs.

---

BRUH of course the event is mainly to sell an AI class from the hosting company. For the cheap price of 4900€ FOR THE LAST TIME because the next class will be over 6000€

I feel like AI bros always hype each other up to blow it all up artificially. Just like NFT and the mobile game market.

---

DID HE JUST SAY that there aren't enough graphic designer and programmer on the market and that they will profit from the support of AI?? (it's actually oversaturated and therefore jobs are hard to get) AI bros really live in a secluded bubble hu? Of course none of these dudes in this event are from the creative industry but lawyers and CEOs

[i-identify-tanks-in-posts]

What the heck is this? It's tank-adjacent (tracks). Some kind of robot?

"Beetle", US mobile manipulator, 1961, Jared Industries.

This was a mobile manipulator vehicle built for the United States Air Force Special Weapons Command, designed to handle nuclear material for the fleet of nuclear-capable bombers. It was based on the chassis of an M42, and was scrapped when the project was canceled, being labeled as "confidential waste", and left to rot at the Nevada nuclear test site.

100% confidence.