Japanese architect Kengo Kuma designed a pair of Christmas trees made from different components that will become furniture at the Edition Hotels in Toranomon and Ginza, Tokyo. The trees are made from timber components, which have been arranged to form a traditional Christmas tree. Once the holiday season ends, the trees will be disassembled and converted into furniture by Japanese wooden furniture manufacturer Karimoko.

“I designed the Christmas tree as an architectural structure for this project,” said Kuma. “The trees have a story of their own assembly; even after it is finished, they will live forever. In this sense, I realized the ideal way of architecture in the future through the Christmas tree.”

Designer: Kengo Kuma

The first tree is called Kigumi and will be situated in the lobby of the Tokyo Edition, Toranomon Hotel. The hotel was also designed by Kuma. The tree is made using linear timber pieces, made from six types of wood – oak, magnolia, castor aralia, Japanese walnut, Japanese maple, and North American walnut. These woods are paired with silver and bronze metallic finishes. The elements will be utilized as table legs once the tree is disassembled.

The second tree is called Komorebi, and it is placed in the lobby bar of the Tokyo Edition, Ginza. The tree is made from rounded elements that have been built from oak, castor aralia, Japanese walnut, Japanese maple, and magnolia. The different elements have been made from curved timber. The elements will be converted into table tops and hollow pieces of legs for a desk.

“This project of reusing the wood used for the event as furniture is very attractive because it aligns with what we cherish daily,” said Karimoku board director Eiichiro Kato. “We hope that by purchasing the table, you will be able to enjoy the variety of the wood used in the table and feel the charm of the wood and the individuality of the forests we benefit from through our daily lives.”

The post Kengo Kuma Designs Unique Christmas Trees Using Timber Furniture Components first appeared on Yanko Design.

Not all robots have to look, well, robotic. There is a growing number of robots that are inspired by real life creatures (sometimes, even humans, but that’s a whole other discussion) or so called bio-inspired bots. The latest winner of the Natural Robotics Contest is inspired by a pretty unlikely animal: the insect-eating mammal called the Pangolin.

Designer: Dorothy and Dr. Robert Siddall

A high school student from California named Dorothy designed a robot whose main goal is to dig and plant seeds. Since pangolins are naturally digging animals, why not use it to create a robot that can help populate areas with more trees? The winning concept was turned into an actual prototype called the Plantolin by the partner research institute. More than just looking like a pangolin, it uses features from the mammal and incorporate it into the functions of the robot.

The Plantolin roves around on two wheels and just like the pangolin, it balances on its long, movable tail. Each of the wheels has an electric quadcopter drone motor. The digging is done by these two front legs with the tail tilting down once it starts to provide leverage. Once there’s a hole already, the robot drives over it and poops out a yew tree seed bomb nugget (containing both seeds and soil).

It’s a pretty interesting way to re-populate a space with more trees. It will probably be faster and will need minimal human intervention when it’s programmed right, so no need to train actual pangolins to do the job.

The post Pangolin-inspired robot can dig and “poop” out seeds to plant trees first appeared on Yanko Design.

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CFOs are sitting alongside CIOs for at least 60% of the technology decisions companies are making in 2024. New Rimini Street research finds this closer collaboration could end up benefiting IT budgets.

Software vendor SAP plans to end mainstream support for its on premise ERP software in 2027 as it pushes global customers to upgrade to S/4HANA Cloud. SAP customers in APAC will soon need to migrate or look for other ERP products or SAP service options.

Unitree, le fabricant chinois de robots bien connu (sauf par moi visiblement) pour ses quadrupèdes comme le Go2 et le B2, nous réserve une sacrée surprise avec son nouveau robot humanoïde baptisé G1. Et apparemment, ce n’est pas un gadget de geek.

Avec un prix de départ à 16 000 $, le G1 est une « affaire intéressante » comparé à d’autres robots humanoïdes comme l’Atlas de Boston Dynamics (qui coûte bien plus cher). Ce qui frappe d’emblée quand on regarde la vidéo, c’est la flexibilité hallucinante de ce robot. Grâce à ses 23 degrés de liberté dans les articulations, il peut bouger dans tous les sens, bien au-delà des capacités humaines. C’est un peu flippant ^^. Il peut même se plier pour se ranger facilement dans un coin.

Mais ce n’est pas qu’un contorsionniste en manque de reconnaissance. C’est aussi un sacré costaud avec ses 35kg (ou 47 kg… les infos divergent…) et sa vitesse de déplacement de 2 m/s. Ses moteurs délivrent jusqu’à 120 Nm de couple, de quoi soulever des charges d’environ 3 kg avec ses petits bras. Et avec sa batterie de 9000 mAh, il peut tenir environ 2 heures sur une seule charge (sur le papier). Bref, de quoi l’utiliser pour divers travaux sans craindre qu’il tombe à plat trop vite.

Côté look, Unitree a joué la carte du robot futuriste avec son casque aux allures de Daft Punk et son visage illuminé qui cache des capteurs 3D LiDAR et une caméra de profondeur. Mais ce sont surtout ses mains robotiques à trois doigts qui impressionnent le plus. Elles lui permettent d’attraper et de manipuler des objets avec une précision et une dextérité bluffantes.

Ce robot apprend aussi en permanence grâce à des techniques d’imitation et d’apprentissage par renforcement. Il peut simuler les mouvements humains et acquérir de nouvelles compétences au fur et à mesure. Son cerveau embarque 8 cœurs haute performance pour un traitement ultra-rapide des informations. Et avec le WiFi 6 et le Bluetooth 5.2, il est hyper connecté ! Pour ceux qui cherchent à le développer davantage, le modèle G1 EDU inclut même en option le module de calcul haute performance NVIDIA Jetson Orin.

Alors Terminator en devenir ou pas ? Bien qu’il puisse encaisser des coups, il reste très docile. Enfin, pour l’instant… Car Unitree prévoit de l’entraîner dans des environnements simulés pour muscler encore plus son IA.

Bref, ce G1 de Unitree apporte un peu de fraicheur, surtout qu’à ce prix, ça commence à devenir accessible pour le commun des friqués. Certaines de ses fonctionnalités impressionnantes sont encore en développement, mais avec le rythme auquel avancent les technologies robotiques, ce n’est qu’une question de temps avant qu’il ne devienne encore plus polyvalent et sache se rendre indispensable.

Bref, pour en savoir plus, rendez vous sur le site Unitree.

Perso, je me porte volontaire pour le tester.

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