Help fund Bezos’ next yacht Re/Cappers, your lead story today profiles Amazon’s latest robot that’s doing things a little more…gracefully, at the ol’ warehouse. But look, any such droid advancement in our era comes courtesy of the first industrial robot in 19-freaking-61.
Though, its conception was more like ‘54! That’s when George Devol, an inventor from Louisville, Kentucky, filed a patent for an autonomous machine capable of storing commands and moving parts - a concept he called a "programmed article transfer" device. It was a 2,700-pound arm that could move with six degrees of freedom that would be called Unimate (a marriage of “universal” and “automation”).
Its breakthrough came at a 1956 cocktail party, where Devol met Joseph Engelberger, an engineer and entrepreneur with a passion for Isaac Asimov’s science fiction and the concept of mechanical workers. Engelberger was immediately spellbound by Devol’s idea, famously exclaiming, “Sounds like a robot to me.” This led to the founding of Unimation, Inc. in Danbury, Connecticut. The world had its first robotics company, with Engelberger steering business and marketing.
After years of development, the first Unimate robot was installed in 1961 at a General Motors plant in Ewing Township, New Jersey. The one-ton-plus arm was tasked with handling hot metal parts from a die-casting machine, doubling production rates of work that was dangerous for humans due to toxic fumes and injury risk.
Growth persisted, then exploded, as Unimate went Hollywood. In 1966, it appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, where it conducted the band, knocked a golf ball into a cup, and even opened a can of beer, capturing the public’s imagination and demonstrating the robot’s dexterity and reliability. Unimate robots were soon adopted by prime automakers like Chrysler, Ford, and Fiat.
But ohhhhh, that ruthless gauntlet of capitalism. Competition commenced as the space evolved, and Unimation capitulated to it. In 1983, Westinghouse Electric Corp. acquired Unimation for $107 million, aiming to become a force in factory automation and robotics. But as the industry shifted from hydraulic to electrically powered robots, Westinghouse decided to boogie, selling Unimation to Stäubli International AG, a Swiss automation firm. While this proved to be the death knell for Unimation, it was clearly a catalyst for the still-humming Stäubli!
It’s easy to eulogize Unimate as a relic: clunky, hydraulic, outclassed by today’s near-Olympians or practical canines (*coughSpotcough*). But that would miss the point. Like the Model T or the first modem screeching into the void, Unimate mattered not for its elegance, but its audacity. It was the moment humanity extended its will into steel and circuits, and didn’t flinch.
What began as a cocktail-party “what if” now choreographs the daily ballet of global supply chains. And in that sense, every box lifted, every widget welded, handled, or packaged by today’s automation owes a tip of the hat - and maybe a beer can popped - to the first metal arm that dared to dream.
What’s Cappenin’ This Week
“Numb and dumb”. That’s how diplomatic Amazon Robotics AI Director Aaron Parness was when he classified typical robots working in commercial/industrial settings. He’s not wrong, as unexpected contact for them often means a game of 0 or 100; emergency stoppage, or blasting through said contact like an amphetamined Kool-Aid Man.
So of course he would be assiduous in developing with his team “Vulcan”, Amazon’s latest robotic unveiling at their Delivering the Future event in Dortmund, Germany.
Vulcan’s graceful retrieval ability stems from its camera and suction cup. Image credit Amazon
Using force feedback sensors and AI, Vulcan is Amazon’s first droid blessed with a “sense of touch.” Its essence is its ability to “feel” how much force it is applying, enabling it to avoid damaging items and to manipulate objects with a finesse previously unattainable by warehouse bots. Its specialized arm uses cameras, suction, and conveyor belts to pick, move, and stow about 75% of inventory types. It adjusts grip strength based on each item’s size and shape, can tactfully avoid “co-extraction of non-target items” thanks to its adroit camerawork, and can self-improve.
Currently being trialed in Spokane, Washington, and Hamburg, Germany, Vulcan has already processed hundreds of thousands of orders. Amazon emphasizes that Vulcan is meant to assist, not replace, human workers by taking over repetitive or physically demanding tasks. This boosts safety and efficiency, but it also creates new skilled roles for employees to maintain and operate the robots.
Linked below is Tomorrow’s World Today explaining in full why Parness could say Vulcan is “a technology that three years ago seemed impossible but is now set to help transform our operations.”
Billions of people, over thousands of years.
That’s the legacy of Go, the board game likely invented in China, likely around 2000 B.C.
But Go may have sparked a separate legacy in 2016. A game of it wasn’t the mere site of a winner or a loser, but an invention, a banner day. An AI - Google’s AlphaGo - made a move no human ever had, en route to defeating a world champion. It was the moment when Eric Schmidt, former CEO & Executive Chairman of Google (now CEO of customer-centric aerospace venture Relativity Space) knew a paradigm shift was underway.
Today, he couldn’t feel more validated.
He joined the TED stage for a special 25-minute exploration with technologist Bilawal Sidhu to convey why AI will soon establish itself as the most important development in 500, maybe 1,000 years.
In between risk illustration if we don’t proceed cautiously, the two discuss training methods, energy, limits of knowledge, agentic AI, supply chains, network-effect businesses, the prospect of mutually-assured destruction, open sourcing, surveillance states, disease eradication, materials science, recursive self-learning, and birth rates.
Big dunes? The ones in nature programming, the Wright Brothers’ Kitty Hawk, every third truck ad, your shoe after a 2-minute beach stroll, or, well, Dune?
We know how they form (a practical ocean of sand combined with abundant wind). Where things get mysterious is where they get granular, because small dunes, called “proto dunes,” are a Sahara-sized puzzle. They’re often tiny with a fleeting lifespan, making proper study harder than maintaining a sand castle in a tsunami.
But those obstacles are no more, thanks to the deft laser scanning and modeling of the University of Southampton and French research institutes.
In this line o’ work, TLS is “totally loving sand.” Image credit University of Southampton via Phys.org
The research team got scanning in Namibia, discovering that sand grains moving over firm, more dense surfaces bounce higher, becoming more sensitive to the wind. When these grains land on softer, rippled surfaces, they accumulate, leading to dune formation. As these initial bumps form, they alter wind patterns, promoting further sand accumulation and dune growth.
To deepen their understanding, the team crafted a computer model simulating these dynamics, and enabling parameter experimentation. It accurately replicated observations in myriad conditions, from arid regions like Namibia to moist climates like Colorado.
So there’s your Earthly geomorphology lesson and discovery for the day. The rest of the epiphany, though, has potential ramifications for Martian lessons and discovery, given the Red Planet’s sandy, windy makeup. Phys.org unveils the full study and takeaway below.
Two by two, they came: AI and robotics, BIM and VR, drones and digital twins…
2025’s construction technology forecast ain’t no drizzle, it’s a deluge. So if you’re not boarding this ark of innovation, prepare to tread water in a sea of obsolescence, bloated budgets, and if you’re unlucky enough, maybe OSHA dealings.
Green concrete, stronger and eco-friendlier thanks to graphene. Image credit Dimitar Dimov via NBC News
For Construction Pros constructed for us all a red-carpet walkway to such a vessel, recently publishing their “Top 10 Construction Technology Trends to Watch in 2025”. Entries go LOD 500, efficiently packing perspective, data, benefits, and case studies, making a proper read worth the click.
But if you’re just the scanning type of reader, the tech goes: Generative AI, BIM, drones & aerial imaging, robotics & automation, wearable technology, IoT sensors, green technologies, augmented reality, virtual reality, 3D printing.
Madrid’s Windsor Tower, 2005. No one perished, but plenty got hot. Image credit Uly Martin via El pais
At midnight on February 12, 2005, Madrid’s financial district went from after-hours trading to moonlit blazing, when the 32-story Windsor Building became one of Europe’s most dramatic high-rise fires - somehow, sans a single fatality.
Originally constructed in the 1970s with a reinforced concrete core, concrete waffle slabs, and perimeter steel columns, the building was in the middle of a fire protection and façade upgrade. Unfortunately, the fire didn’t wait for the punch list.
The blaze began on the 21st floor, likely from an electrical fault (but maybe a thief OR a cigarette if you’re feeling conspiratorial) and wasted no time exposing the gaps in both the building and the renovation timeline. Literally. Open floor plans, incomplete fire compartmentation, and generous voids between the new aluminum cladding and floor slabs turned the tower into a vertical fire tunnel. Firestopping between floors and at the cladding interface was still “in progress,” and the sprinkler system was so unfinished it could have applied for an entry-level position.
By 1:15 a.m., a ten-story inferno raged above the 21st floor. Flaming façade panels began to peel away and crash onto the street below like very expensive, very charred confetti. Nearly every floor above the 17th was consumed in the hours that followed, and while the concrete core and transfer slabs held, the perimeter steel framing and slab edge bays didn’t fare so well. It took 24 hours to extinguish the fire. Seven firefighters were injured, but no lives were lost. The building itself, however, was declared a total loss. Damage was estimated at $72 million, with demolition adding another €22 million to the tab. The site was later redeveloped into Torre Titania, presumably with more fireproofing and fewer pyrotechnics.
Investigators pointed to the usual suspects: steel columns above the 17th floor with no fire protection, unfinished firestopping between slabs and cladding, and an open-plan layout that practically begged the flames to “make yourself at home.” But the real culprit was timing. The Windsor Tower was a textbook case of phased renovation without phased risk mitigation - a gamble that didn’t pay off.
(If buildings’ dismantling is your jam, the Windsor’s is a neat read)
Had this happened today, reality capture and adjacent tech might have kept the fire from becoming a full-building roast.
3D scans and advanced imaging could have documented which fire barriers were installed and which ones were just on the to-do list. High-resolution modeling of the façade envelope would have identified gaps between cladding and slabs—the same ones that turned into fire express lanes. Robotic inspections could’ve reached tight spots where crews missed critical protection, while AI could have flagged unsafe assemblies before they made their debut in a press release titled “Windsor Tower Evacuated.”
Enter BIM and digital twins: A full federated BIM model paired with sensor-fed digital twins could have given first responders real-time visibility into what was burning, where it was spreading, and what structural components were at risk of failure. HVAC shafts, escape routes, load-bearing zones—everything could’ve been tracked and monitored live, not guessed at through smoke.
Smart building systems, integrated with IoT, could have auto-sealed fire doors, rerouted airflow to slow flame spread, and sent precise evacuation guidance to occupants and responders. Think smart sprinkler prioritization - targeted suppression, not a wet free-for-all.
Even post-fire, 360° capture—drones, pole cams, and helmet-mounted rigs—could’ve safely documented the aftermath for insurers, investigators, and future designers looking to build smarter, safer high-rises.
The Windsor Tower fire is a permanent mark in the blueprint of fire safety history - a reminder that in high-rise construction, half a firestop is no firestop at all. If we’re trusting buildings to stand tall, we can’t afford to build in blind spots. With today’s digital toolset, there’s no excuse for saying “we didn’t know” - because now, we can see everything.
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