Brave Man Gets Hair Cut By Robot Barber

In Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAffee's Race Against The Machine the topic of technological obsolescence is discussed in depth, however they did not explicitly mention one job that will fall by the wayside--the barber.

In this case, the procedure is perfomed by a "Multi-Arm Unmanned Ground Vehicle" from Intelligent Automation Inc. (IAI), a Rockville, Md.-based R&D firm focused on artificial intelligence applications. Its three arms provide more degrees of freedom than can be safely used by a human remote operating hair-cutting implements, but they're probably great for the tasks that the robot was actually designed for, which include backpack inspection, tool handling, shovel manipulation, door breaching, knot tying, and tackling IEDs.

In the death-defying video below, Tim, the human guinea pig shows a lot of courage, in spite of his concerned face.

As well as a demonstration of the  Multi-Arm UGV (Unmanned Ground Vehicle) dexterity, and the AI commentary provided by another robot, Tim's head shave helped to raise money for the St. Baldrick's Foundation, a charity committed in funding research for finding a cure for childhood cancer.

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