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20 years of RoboCup

20 years in the books! RoboCup, which first started in 1997, was originally established to bring forth a team of robots that could beat the human soccer World Cup champions. Twenty years on, RoboCup is so more than just a soccer competition. In fact, the competition has grown into an international movement with a variety of leagues. Teams compete against each other in four different leagues and many sub-competitions, including home, work, and rescue missions. The complexity of missions in RoboCup requires intelligent, dynamic, sensing robots that can react to chaotic and changing environments. And in its 20-year history, the competition has brought forth numerous winners who have gone on to achieve great things.

Without robot competitions like RoboCup, the field of robotics wouldn’t be where it is today. So to celebrate 20 years of RoboCup, the Federation launched a video series featuring each of the leagues with one short video for those who just want a taster, and one long video for the full story. Robohub will be featuring one league every week leading up to RoboCup 2017 in Nagoya, Japan. You can watch all videos from the playlist here.

ICRA 2017 in Singapore

While we have RoboCup 2017 to look forward to, the IEEE 2017 International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) took place in Singapore. Under the conference theme “Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Real-world Solutions”, the event brought together engineers, researchers, entrepreneurs and industry to address some of the major challenges of our times.

This year’s keynote speakers included Louis Phee, who described development and implementation of a surgical robot called EndoMaster, and Peter Luh, giving an overview of Industry 4.0. Alongside the speeches, the event included 25 workshops and tutorials, various exhibitions, as well as four Robot Challenges.

Self-driving cars: Competition heats up

May wasn’t just events and competitions. In the world of autonomous vehicles, French Groupe PSA, the second largest car manufacturer in Europe which owns brands such as Peugeot and Citroen, have teamed up with autonomous car maker nuTonomy. The collaboration will seek to build a self-driving Peugeot 3008, which they hope will hit the roads of Singapore in the not-too-distant future.

Groupe PSA and other well-known car manufacturers, including Ford Motors, who are just starting their bid to enter the autonomous car market, are lagging way behind Waymo (the self-driving car developed by Google’s parent Alphabet) when it comes to putting their cars on actual roads. And with Waymo about to team up with ride-hailing start-up Lyft, Google is getting ever closer to making their autonomous car part of mainstream traffic.

Another player in the self-driving car game we haven’t mentioned yet is cab service Uber. The company is locked in a dispute with Google over allegedly stolen design secrets and will likely be going to public trial later in the year. Linked to the lawsuit, Uber fired the engineer at the heart of the dispute, Anthony Levandowski, who is suspected of having stolen company secrets when he left Google and founded his own company, Otto, which was acquired by Uber last year. The information war continues.

Self-driving cars: Innovation

Meanwhile, a group of veterans previously linked with Alphabet founded their own company – DeepMap Inc. – which aims to develop systems that allow cars to navigate complex cityscapes.

It’s not just cityscapes that are complex to navigate. Considering other vehicles, cyclists, and pedestrians on busy roads form part of the difficult environment a self-driving car has to cope with due to its unpredictable nature. It will, therefore, become necessary for autonomous cars to understand and predict behaviour. Here, machine learning will be key, as Dr Nathan Griffiths explains in The Royal Society’s blog on machine learning in research.

And with so much interest and research into autonomous, intelligent cars, it’s not surprising that some, like Chris Urmson in a recent lecture at CMU, predict we will see a shift from the traditional transport model where people own their cars to a more dynamic, responsive model of “Transportation as a Service”, in which, companies own fleets of cars that can be used by anyone when and where they’re needed.

Robots in the fields

Much of the innovations that have enabled autonomous cars are transferable to industrial, commercial and agricultural vehicles. In the case of the latter, self-driving tractors and precision agribots have already increased productivity and made 24-hour autonomous, high-yield farming a possibility.

In Salinas Valley, California, robots are already used to pick lettuce, and to help vineyard owners decide when they need to water their plants. And GV (formerly Google Ventures) just invested $10 million into Abundant Robotics to build a picking robot, initially to pick apples but with potential for adaptation to support the harvest of other fruit.

It is believed the uptake of farming technologies is not progressing as quickly as it could be, due to farmers being slow to accept precision agriculture products, software, equipment and practices. But the farming (r)evolution is well underway, as agricultural robotics are already a 3 billion dollar industry set to grow to an impressive 12 billion by 2026.

Robots in the skies

While robots are still waiting to be fully accepted in agriculture, it’s no secret that the US military uses drones extensively. What came as a surprise was the strange video feed that surfaced in May from what appeared to be a drone flying over Florida’s panhandle, apparently sponsored by the National Reconnaissance Office – a body that doesn’t usually publicise its drone-related activities. The footage, now believed to have been shot in February, was likely uploaded as a demo video by a contractor.

While the Florida video caused quite a bit of confusion this month, another drone was making headlines for very different reasons. Previously used in military operations, the ArcticShark (a modified version of the military TigerShark) drone is now helping to fight climate change. And it’s now on a scientific mission to help scientists understand cloud formation and other atmospheric processes.

In other drone-related news, the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities has allowed some of its employees to receive licenses to operate drones to support projects involving roads, bridged and other structures. And a report has shown that drone funding fell by 64% in 2016 compared to 2015, with DJI dominating the market and issues such as battery life, connectivity problems and drone regulations stifling development efforts.

Robots in the water

From the skies to the sea: this May, NATO Nations agreed to use JANUS for their digital underwater communications. JANUS has the potential to make military and civilian, NATO and non-NATO, devices fully interoperable, doing away with the communication problems between systems and models by different manufacturers that have made underwater communication difficult up to this point.

Robots in the lab

Researchers at the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition in Pensacola, Florida, have developed a two-legged robot that can run without using sensors and a computer. The robot, called Planar Elliptical Runner, is stable through its physical design, which makes it different to other two or four-legged robots.

Meanwhile, a team at the University of California, Berkeley, has come up with a nimble-fingered robot that is able to pick up a wide range of objects using a 3D sensor and a deep learning neural network. It may not be perfect, but it’s the most nimble-fingered robot yet and the technology may find applications in picking and manufacturing in future.

Human-Machine Interaction

Most of the robots we interact with are practical helpers, offering support in the home, on the road or at work. Innovations some of us may have interacted with are autonomous lawn mowers, cars with self-driving features, or Amazon’s Alexa. With there plenty more robots in the pipeline.

A four-wheeled, waterproof, battery-powered robot inspector developed by a team in Nevada, may soon be supporting civil engineers and safety inspectors with bridge checks to reduce the chance of human error and omissions that could lead to a collapse such as the I-35W bridge disaster in Minnesota on 2007.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUXC7vMjEa8

And finally, engineers in Germany have built a robot priest called BlessU-2 that can beam light from its hands and deliver blessings in five languages. The robot is meant to spark discussions about faith, the church and the potential of AI.

Learning resources: Robot Academy

And to finish off our digest for May, we wanted to highlight a new open online resource for robotics education: the Robot Academy. Developed by Professor Peter Corke and the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), the Academy offers more than 200 lessons from robot joint control architecture to limits of electric motor performance. So if you find yourself with a bit of time on your hands, why not try a Robot Academy Masterclass?

Or if you’re after something a little bit different, there’s a new toolkit on “Computational Abstractions for Interactive Design of Robotic Devices” that allows you to drag and drop parts of a virtual robot on screen without the need to know exactly what needs to connect to what as a complex physics engine ensures your robot won’t fail or fall over.

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Upcoming events for June – July 2017

Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition: June 2-5, Rochester, MI.

CES Asia: June 7-9, Shanghai, China.

Unmanned Cargo Ground Vehicle Conference: June 13-14, Maaspoort, Venlo, The Netherlands.

Autonomous machines world: June 26-27, Berlin, Germany.

RoboUniverse: June 28-30, Seoul.

CIROS: July 5, 2017 – July 8, 2017, Shanghai, China. 

ASCEND Conference and Expo: July 19, 2017 – July 21, 2017, Portland, OR 

RoboCup: July 25, 2017 – July 31, 2017, Nagoya, Japan 

Call for papers:

1st Annual Conference on Robot Learning (CoRL 2017): Call for papers deadline 28 June.

Robots and jobs: It’s complicated

The debate around robots and jobs has been going for years. It received renewed attention again this April when the Robotics Industries Association (RIA) published a new White Paper saying that 8 in 10 manufacturers are struggling to find skilled workers. Far from suggesting that robots are replacing human workers, the paper suggests that up to 2 million job vacancies in the sector will go unfilled in the US alone in the next 10 years.

But there’s a counter-argument to this debate, with many fearing that robots are taking more jobs, particularly unskilled jobs than they create. But according to the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), less than 10% of roles could really be fully automated – all others will actually require humans and robots to work together.

Whatever side of the argument you’re on, automation is happening. For example Boxed, an e-commerce retailer, just purchased a bunch of iBots to support the picking process in its warehouses. Instead of losing their jobs, the company’s human ‘pickers’ will all be retrained to work with the robots, their roles changing so that instead of having to retrieve the items themselves, the pickers will be telling the robots what to get.

Unfortunately, not every employer will be as keen to keep and develop their workforce in light of increasing automation. And there is some evidence that, particularly for blue-collar workers in the manufacturing industry, there will be job losses. Curiously, it was predicted this month that women will be less affected by increased automation – at least in the short term. The reason for this is simple: roles that are currently threatened by automation are mainly in the manufacturing and transport industry – which mostly dominated by men. Jobs in healthcare, education and other sectors are harder to automate.

But as we said earlier, it’s not all bad news and there will be increasing need for humans and robots to work together. That includes human-AI collaborative working. This can be particularly useful when it comes to dangerous jobs, such as in the nuclear industry and disaster relief, where artificial intelligence and humans collaborate together to control a remote robot.

The rise of ‘clever’ robots?

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are, of course, incredibly powerful tools to make robots more useful. But the way in which AI-technologies are developed and used is critical. In the UK, the Royal Society published a report this month calling for “careful stewardship” to ensure advances in machine learning benefit everyone in society and encouraging research that focuses on public confidence, rather than just technical developments.

To demonstrate how AI is already affecting our daily lives, the Royal Society published an interactive infographic: “Machine learning in the world around you”. And the UK’s Pension watchdog revealed that it has built a machine-learning tool to monitor pension schemes and flag those that may be in breach of its guidelines.

Self-driving revolution

Another area where AI is starting to infiltrate our daily lives is self-driving cars, as several companies are getting ready to move their vehicles onto public roads. After years of testing, Google’s autonomous vehicle spin-off Waymo is now inviting the public to have a go at riding its self-driving cars; Apple put in an application for self-driving care test plates and is going to train experts in driverless vehicles; and in the UK, a consortium of British companies announced that they are planning to test their fleets on London and Oxford roads in 2019.

With autonomous cars set to share the roads with human drivers in the foreseeable future, it is no surprise there are going to be some issues. The crash of an Uber car in driverless mode this month illustrated this once again. While a human driver was legally to blame for the crash, it sparked a debate about safety, regulation and data sharing. But regulation of robotics is a complex and tricky area that still needs to address key issues before there’s a modernised legal system that is truly appropriate for humans, robots and other new technologies.

Meanwhile, a fifth senior leader quit his job at Uber for as yet unknown reasons, and Tesla is facing a lawsuit over their vehicles with a semi-autonomous driving system, which three owners say aren’t functional or safe.

Business & Finance

A substantial robot business deal in April with ABB’s acquisition of Austrian manufacturer B&R (Bernecker & Rainer) for an amount that rumoured to be close to $2 billion. The deal is set to complete in the summer and will strengthen ABB’s position in factory automation.

In other finance news, MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) announced a collaboration with industry partners to create functional human-like systems through machine learning.

Frank at The Robot Report also summarised other acquisition and funding news from earlier this year.

Meanwhile in the lab…

Researchers and engineers have been busy this month with some cool stuff. One group in China built a soft robot fish that can swim just like a real one, NASA has come up with a shape-shifting origami robot and Toyota launched a rehab robot rental service.

And that’s not all. A start-up called RightHand Robotics developed a dexterous new robotic gripper that uses machine learning to enable it to pick up a variety of objects – sharing its new ‘knowledge’ with others via a hive mind in the cloud. And Tecnalia in collaboration with the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) has developed a 3D printing robot that can print a small house and at the same time monitor if its work is drying.

April Fools?

This wouldn’t be a proper robot digest for April if we didn’t bring you a selection of the tech-related April Fools pranks the robotics world had to offer. This year, they included Google windmills, tattooed train tickets, and a cash-printing phone.

But in an interesting twist, pizza giant Domino’s April fool’s gag from 2015 is now set to become a reality. Two years ago the company jokingly announced its Domi-No-Driver campaign, but this year (just a few days before April Fools), they announced that they’ll soon be starting robot pizza deliveries in Germany and the Netherlands.

Spring events: Recaps

To finish off this month’s digest, we had a look back at all the awesome robotics events over the spring.

At Automate 2017, established industry leaders and innovate start-ups met for the Launchpad competition in which eight budding entrepreneurs competed for a $10,000 prize and a chance to make it big. Appelix, a robotic system designed to protect human workers, took the prize, with honourable mentioned for Kinema Systems and SAKE Robotics.

Also, this spring, the 2017 Silicon Valley Robot Block Party and event hosted as part of the US National Robotics Week, attracted more than 1,000 robot enthusiasts and set a new record for attendance. And in Europe, the European Robotics League celebrated a successful first season and started preparations for the 2017/2018 tournaments later this year.

Meanwhile, in Nigeria, 160 public and private school students competed in the country’s First Lego League Competition, which aims to introduce children to science and technology. The event was sponsored by the Australian and US Embassies in Nigeria and focused on the relationship between people and animals.

Last but not least, World Book Day 2017 on 23rd of April was a day to celebrate books and reading. To join in the fun, Robohub published a list of 20 great robot-related books to inspire children and teenagers.

Missed any previous Digests? Click here to check them out.

Upcoming events for May – June 2017

AUVSI Xponential: May 8-11, Dallas, TX.

Connected & Autonomous Vehicles: May 15-18, Santa Clara, CA.

Innarobo: May 16-18, Paris, France.

ICRA 2017: May 29-June 03, Singapore.

Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition: June 2-5, Rochester, MI.

CES Asia: June 7-9, Shanghai, China.

Unmanned Cargo Ground Vehicle Conference: June 13-14, Maaspoort, Venlo, The Netherlands.

Autonomous machines world: June 26-27, Berlin, Germany.

RoboUniverse: June 28-30, Seoul.

A quick, hassle-free way to stay on top of robotics news, our robotics digest is released on the first Monday of every month. Sign up to get it in your inbox.

Big Ideas

February is only just gone, and already 2017 is shaping up to be a year full of big ideas and ambitions. The Future of Life Institute, for example, just published the Asilomar AI principles: 23 guidelines to ensure AI developments are beneficial to humanity. They are calling for shared responsibility and caution against an AI arms race. The principles have already been supported by more than 700 researchers, including the likes of Elon Musk, Demis Hassabis and Stephen Hawking.

But February wasn’t just about making new rules, it was also about breaking the mould. In Switzerland, Kickstarter Accelerator launched its second programme, which will help 30 selected international start-ups develop their ideas and products with the ultimate goal of disrupting one of the programme’s chosen verticals to benefit wider society.

Image: Phillipe Rossier

And in Dubai, big plans for passenger drones to carry people through the city’s skies, as early as July this year, were announced. Meanwhile in the UK, the public is invited to take a look back at the history of humanoid robots from the very (very) early days to the present day, and to ask the critical questions, such as ‘will robots bring us closer together or drive us apart’ and ‘how will humanoids impact on our lives’?

Robots – paying their fair share?

Bill Gates suggested robots that are being used to replace human workers should ‘pay taxes’ to ensure there isn’t a gap in tax income due to increased automation. While that might sound like a good idea, the European Parliament this month already rejected a robot tax, instead, calling for new legislation to regulate the rise of robots.

Going mobile

One of the areas in which robots are most definitely on the rise, and could soon be competing with their human counterparts, is in delivery services. Delivery robots are becoming more reliable and more mobile, and many big firms have announced plans to employ some form of a delivery robot in the near future. No wonder then that the states of Georgia and Virginia have brought in legislation for delivery robots and driverless vehicles.

On the innovation front, Agility Robotics showed off their ostrich-inspired robot, which has the potential to be deployed over uneven terrain in disaster relief, and even package delivery (including up steps!). Similarly, Boston Dynamics’ latest addition to its family, 6.5ft tall ‘Handle’, has wheels and legs/arms in a clever combo that enables the robot to be incredibly agile, lift and carry boxes, and even tackle stairs. And Italian company Vespa, most famous for its iconic scooters, announced plans for a small robot called Gita that will carry your groceries for you.

But robots that carry and deliver things aren’t the only mobile robots on the block. The TERESA project is developing semi-autonomous, mobile telepresence robots to enhance social interactions. The robots can autonomously perform low-level behaviours, such as navigating their way through groups of people and maintaining a socially appropriate distance, so that the remote user can focus on high-level decisions such as who to talk to and what to say.

Going nuclear

In Japan, small mobile robots are being used to look inside the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant following the 2011 tsunami disaster. The latest to take on this task was a scorpion-shaped robot developed by Toshiba Corp.

But while the robot probe did manage to transmit some data, it failed to provide vital information about the location of suspected melted fuel, which is urgently needed to inform clean-up activities at the site. The robot’s left roller-belt failed before it could reach a grate that might have allowed a view of the leaked fuel. Structural damage and higher than expected radiation mean that researchers now need to go back to the drawing board in order to design robots better suited for the harsh environment of the reactors.

The Zwentendorf Nuclear Power Plant in Austria was completely built but never put into operation. Reactor supervision and decommissioning is one important operational area for robots in the RN domain.

With the lessons learnt from Fukushima and the earlier nuclear disaster in Chernobyl, the European Reference Network for Critical Infrastructure Protection (ERNCIP) has established a group to specifically focus on radiological and nuclear threats, developing protocols and response procedures, including some on the use of robots in various scenarios involving radiation.

Decorative drones and the Super Bowl

On a lighter note, viewers of the Super Bowl on 5 February watched a fabulous light show, thanks to Lady Gaga and a swarm of 300 ‘Shooting Star’ Intel drones that created an airborne image of Old Glory. What most of us probably didn’t realise at the time was that a 34.5 mile radius drone ban during the Super Bowl, put in place by the FAA, meant that the light show had actually been filmed earlier, and was sync’d into Lady Gaga’s performance later.

Lady Gaga performing at Super bowl LI Source: NFL/YouTube

And if you missed that, don’t despair. There’s plenty more drone-related fun to be had. Drone racing, for example? Australian company Freedom Drone Sports is working on a bigger, better drone at the moment, which could soon be seen at ‘giant drone racing’ events. That sounds pretty fun.

And how about drone art? There are plenty of weird and wonderful ways in which drones are being used in the arts, including theatre and musical shows. And at the Imperial War museum in London, visitors can now admire the work of Mahwish Chishty, setting Pakistani folk art against America’s drone warfare.

Military drones

Drone warfare is of course not primarily a matter of art at all. In fact, it’s a very real threat for millions of people. The US has been using drones in conflicts in the Middle East for years. And in Mosul,  the so-called Islamic State recently deployed drones against the Iraqi army and Kurdish forces.

But drone threats are not just relevant in the Middle East. France reported that it’s  monitoring its airspace for any suspicious activity from foreign aircraft and drones, and has been running simulations of potential drone threats since the 2015 Paris attacks.

In the US, the army is keen to integrate an electronic warfare system into its Gray Eagle drones, while the Navy scrapped its unmanned warfare office. And China is planning to use a giant solar-powered drone in the mesosphere as an early warning system, as well as for weather and disaster surveillance, and communication.

Regulating robotics

When it comes to domestic drone use, by companies such as Amazon or individual drone enthusiasts, February was buzzing with regulation chatter, but with few resulting decisions. The long-awaited framework for drone flight over people was delayed and is now caught up in President Trump’s temporary stop on new regulations, meaning it may be some time before there’s more clarity on how drones can and can’t be used near people.

In San Diego, regulations to allow local agencies to enforce safe drone operations were proposed by a working group made up of representatives from emergency services and other agencies. The regulations were passed by a City Council sub-committee, but needs to be voted on by the full Council before becoming law. And a bill barring the use of drones near state prisons and county jails was passed in Senate, but still needs to go to the S.C. House of Representatives before taking effect.

Drones are, of course, not the only type of robot that requires new regulations and laws. In a popular video (above) Polo Sant’Anna Valdera explored legal and ethical challenges of robot regulation, and posed the question: ‘What legal rights should robots have’?

Robocars

It seems every month for the last few years there’s at least one big story on autonomous cars, and February 2017 was no exception. This month, California published a summary of robocar testing in the state, showing that Google/Waymo left its competition far (far) behind by doing around 30 times as much test driving as everyone else put together!

But while Google is clearly in the lead when it comes to distance, Drive.ai released a video showing its self-driving car navigating the rainy streets of the Bay Area, in the middle of night, with ease. This is not a small feat considering that the car’s sensors had to deal with reflected lights from the wet road surface, congestion, and a broken traffic light.

Away from the sunshine state, the self-driving car industry is still booming. Car giant Ford, for example, just invested $1 billion in Pittsburgh based start-up Argo AI, becoming the majority shareholder.

But it’s not just good news and easy rides for the sector. Some have expressed concerns over the risk of hacking and cyber security for autonomous cars. This is a problem that hasn’t been fully resolved by manufacturers yet, and will need more research.

And in a worrying yet slightly amusing twist, companies are finding that their test engineers are falling asleep during test drives. Turns out rides are just too smooth. And with nothing to do, it engineers can’t help but doze off. This could spell trouble for semi-autonomous cars that require human monitoring and intervention, such as those planned by BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi.

Artificial intelligence

February 2017 was a pretty exciting month for those interested in AI. At MIT’s CSAIL lab, they’re working on a  wearable AI that can detect the tone of a conversation and could help people with social anxiety or Asperger’s syndrome understand social interactions better. And Kickstarter campaign  Bots_alive smashed its crowdfunding target, and will offer an app that’ll give Hexbug spider robots a bit of character via machine learning.

Samsung Simband. Image: Jason Dorfman, MIT CSAIL

But it’s not all about developing nifty consumer products: Discussions this month highlighted the potential for  AI to manage the UK’s national power grid at a time when increasing supply by renewables has to be supplemented by occasional boosts from other sources due to variable demand.

And a team at MIT  improved automated planners, with potential applications in flight scheduling and optimisation, by giving them some human intuition, winning the International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling’s International Planning Competition.

Finally, Facebook is planning to use  AI to monitor its content for terrorist propaganda materials in a bid to be less dependent on users reporting offensive or worrying content.

Money

Talking of Facebook, the social media giant was also made the news this February when it was told to  pay game development firm ZeniMax $500 million in a lawsuit pertaining to Oculus Rift, the virtual reality headset.

In other business news, the International Federation of Robotics forecast  massive growth for the robotic cleaning market, with vacuums clearly in the lead for most sought-after product. But other must-have appliances, such as automated mopping devices, are also increasingly becoming available.

iRobot Braava jet 240. Source: irobot.com

And finally, mobile phone and network provider  Verizon bought drone operations and management company Skyward.

Automation – the end of the human workforce?

The debate about robots replacing workers is almost as old as the field of robotics itself. With new automation technologies coming on the market almost daily, the debate is perhaps even more pressing than ever.

For those who are concerned about increasing automation, the news that internet giant Amazon plans to construct massive two-story supermarkets that could, allegedly, be run by just three human staff, won’t be well received. Similarly, with increasing automation in the farming sector, some may worry that the role of the farmer will never be the same. And with AI technologies becoming ever more intelligent, some have now started talking about  AI-based legal systems.

But despite all these developments, the contribution of human workers will be vital for many years to come, and although robots might replace human workers in some positions, they’re also likely to create new jobs.

Bio-bots and new tech in action

And to wrap up February’s digest, there are also quite a few cool videos that we just didn’t want to keep from you. DARPA showed off their  robot arm as it catches a UAV mid-flight, engineers at MIT developed a  gel robot that can catch (and not hurt) live fish, researchers at CalTech and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign  made a flying bat bot, a team of students  designed the NAST OpenHand M2S, and  computer simulations of the running gaits of the fruit fly helped us to understand how robots might walk and climb better.

And if you have a dog, you’ll probably quite like 2015’s Robot Launch start-up winner CleverPet, a robot that’ll  keep your dog entertained while you’re away (or sat on the couch watching TV).

Teach your bot

Last but not least, we’ve published our  educational tutorials on Python programming, which will help you begin programming your NAO. There’s videos, step-by-step guides and lots of helpful hints and tips – so why not have a go?

Upcoming events for March – April 2017

Conf on Human-Robot Interaction: March 6-9, Vienna, Austria.

Age of Drones Expo: March 14-15, Hamburg, Germany.

European Robotics Forum: March 22-24, Edinburgh, Scotland.

Automate: April 3-6, Chicago, IL.

Unmanned Security Expo: April 4-7, Las Vegas, NV.

Robobusiness Europe: April 19-21, The Hague, Netherlands.

ICCAR: April 22-24, Nagoya, Japan.

A quick, hassle-free way to stay on top of robotics news, our robotics digest is released on the first Monday of every month. Sign up to get it in your inbox.

2017 predictions

Amongst other things, December was a month to look to the future and guess what it holds. So what did people predict will happen in the world of robotics in 2017? Well, there were certainly some exciting prophesies, including the prospect of voice interface becoming mainstream with Amazon’s Echo, augmented reality replacing virtual reality, and machine learning changing computing forever.

Image credit: Parrot/YouTube

And the prognoses didn’t stop there. The economy is often a hot topic at the end of a year, and 2016 wasn’t any different. Automation and AI are set to continue their seemingly unstoppable and widespread rise to prominence; taxi company Uber, for example, just launched its very own AI lab to ensure it can keep up with the competition.

On Robohub, Frank Tobe explained why robots may potentially save the economy by providing social assistance as well as buttressing a shrinking labour pool in industrial production. And in a panel discussion at November’s European Robotics Week, experts discussed the important contribution robots with AI could make to elderly care.

But despite AI coming on leaps and bounds in 2016, there’s still much to learn. And what we see in the news and read in the papers may not always give us the clearest idea of where the field really is because, when it comes to AI, there’s a lot of hype. Robohub president Sabine Hauert explained why accurate, reliable and balanced information about robotics and AI is so important.

Robocar evolution

From AI to robocars, 2016 has seen a whole range of exciting developments and fascinating new tech making its way out of labs and onto our streets. To ensure the safety of autonomous vehicles, US auto-safety regulators just proposed new rules under which automakers must allow cars to communicate with each other.

Google – one of the biggest players in the robocar field – just announced that its robocar division will now be its own subsidiary company called ‘Waymo’. This is a huge step which acknowledges the importance of the division, giving it more opportunities to act independently and be more innovative.

Source: Waymo

Whilst Google is refashioning its autonomous car division as a stand-alone start-up, former Google employee and robocar guru Chris Urmson appears to be working on his own self-driving company. He was seen recently talking to a number of top engineers – stay tuned for more on this in 2017.

And Uber had some bad news this month as the California Department of Motor Vehicles claimed that the company was breaking the law, using test vehicles that didn’t comply with requirements under automated driving law. Despite Uber denying any wrong doing, the claims could hinder their testing plans in California for the foreseeable future.

New EU roadmap

After last month’s US robotics roadmap, December saw the latest edition of the Multi-Annual European Roadmap for Horizon 2020. Whilst there weren’t many changes from the 2015 edition, the annual update ensures that changing priorities, technologies and strategic developments continue to shape European research development and innovation in the area of robotics.

In other news from Europe, the EU just revealed its biggest ever defence funding and research plan. This new investment isn’t focused on robotics per se, nevertheless drones form a crucial part of the defence plans, along with advanced cyber warfare systems and hi-tech gear. Definitely an exciting opportunity for companies working on defence systems for 2017.

Drones evolving beyond just hardware

The coming year will undoubtedly offer plenty of fascinating stories on drone regulation and innovation, not least because giants such as Amazon are pushing forward with their plans for drone deliveries – this despite a slight fall in drone investments in the last two quarters of 2016.

And 2017 won’t all be about corporate drone operations. The video above shows a new drone-set, developed by a team at MIT, allowing users to design, simulate and build their very own drone, custom made to their personal requirements.

Challenging the status quo

The end of 2016 was about more than simply looking to the future of technology, it was about challenging the status quo in robotics, and paving the way for more inclusivity.

The ‘Girls of Steel’ have been successfully engaging girls in engineering activities, exciting them to consider careers in STEM, and challenging the archaic fallacy that engineering is ‘just for boys’. Robotics currently remains a male dominated field, but more and more women are joining forces with their male colleagues in labs around the world. Let’s hope this trend continues in 2017!

Photo: Outreach at the 2016 Pittsburgh Maker Faire.

But it’s not just the gender balance in labs we need to think about. Research by James Zou suggests that AI systems may be inheriting gender bias via language data sets. Zou introduced a way to remove this bias, challenging entrenched linguistic gender dynamics that we unintentionally pass to our AI systems.

New perspectives on roboethics, such as the ‘one being two origins’ idea could also summon us to question our traditional understanding of robots and robotic design. How do we ensure robots are used for good? Do we need to redesign our own mindsets, as well as future robotic technology?

Robotics funding landscape

Frank Tobe offered a comprehensive overview of the end-of-year funding landscape, citing seventeen robotics companies who were funded for a combined total of more than $225million. Four more companies got acquired in November 2016, three went public to raise funds, and one failed. Overall, 2016 was the best year so far for robotics startup funding, and hopefully this trend can continue onward into 2017.

Aerospace and defence giants Boeing acquired Liquid Robotics. The company is set to be swallowed up by Boeing’s Autonomous Systems for Defense, Space & Security division. Financial terms weren’t provided for the deal, but it was the second acquisition of an unmanned undersea vehicle maker by a major defense firm in 2016, after General Dynamics Mission Systems acquired robot maker Bluefin Robotics during February (also for an undisclosed amount).

In the lab

Even wintry festivities couldn’t slow down the pace of robotics innovation in labs around the world. Roboticists at UC Berkeley designed a small robot that can leap into the air and then spring off a wall, or perform multiple vertical jumps in a row, resulting in the highest robotic vertical jumping agility ever recorded. The agility of the robot opened new pathways of locomotion that were not previously attainable. It’s hoped that such vertically agile robots might be developed with the aim of jumping around rubble in search and rescue missions.

Meanwhile, a group of astro-minded Norwegian researchers were looking into how a snake robot might carry out maintenance work on the International Space Station, study comets, and explore the possibility of living and working in lava tunnels on the Moon. Such innovations have fueled imaginings of human colonies beyond Earthly realms, and how robotics might be incorporated into space architecture.

And if that sounds like science fiction, then check this out: A South Korean company has been working with a former Starcraft concept artist to create a real-life giant robot, and it’s already got a working prototype. Korea Future Technology has designed and built the METHOD-1 mecha – a bipedal robot that’s fully articulated, capable of movement, and houses a human pilot. Put the manga down, and stay tuned to Robohub instead!

https://youtu.be/NCrBC_V92hY

Happy Holidays!

And finally, at the end of the year Robohub usually invites readers to submit their robotics-related festive season videos. From robots that help Santa make the perfect gift for every child to robots that can pour your mug of mulled wine. Watch our first batch of videos here.

Upcoming events for January – February 2017

CES: January 5-8, Las Vegas, NV.

The 10th Annual Crunchies Awards: January 6th, San Francisco, CA.

The Innovation Summit: January 10-12, Santa Barbara, CA.

9th Global Deep Learning Summit: January 26-27, San Francisco, CA.

Momentum Tech Conference: February 6-7. Karachi, PK.

Webstock: February 13-17, Wellington, NZ.

MIT Tech Conference: February 18th, Cambridge, MA.

A quick, hassle-free way to stay on top of robotics news, our robotics digest is released on the first Monday of every month. Sign up to get it in your inbox.

Politics and robotics – are we going to see a shift in 2017?

Big news in November. In case you’ve been hiding under a rock or actively avoiding the news, Donald Trump is now president-elect. Since the November 8th election, there has been speculation regarding future plans in the manufacturing sector, retaining jobs in the US, and what exactly that will entail for the robotics industry.

In his interview with the NY Times, Mr Trump outlined his plans to introduce big tax cuts to tempt companies (such as Apple) to relocate their manufacturing processes to the US. Asked whether he was worried that companies that already manufacture in the US might replace human workers with robots, he answered that he wanted to bring robot manufacturing back to the US, creating more jobs.

On Robohub, Frank Tobe (Editor for The Robot Report) summarised Trump’s thoughts on robotics from the NY Times interview – and outlined why it would be good if the president-elect does what he said he would do regarding robots and robotics.

Others voiced concerns that Trump may revert many of the National Security policies introduced by President Obama, which could mean a lift of the ban on torture and a change in the rules designed to minimise civilian casualties in drone strikes.

Trump’s policies on drone warfare are also not very clear. How, and if, the new president will use drone strikes is still a matter of much debate, and while he has spoken about plans to use more surveillance drones on the borders to Mexico and Canada how he will implement these programmes remains to be seen.

New US robotics roadmap

Just prior to the election a group of researchers led by Henrik I. Christensen, director of the Contextual Robotics Institute at UC San Diego, released the third edition of the US Robotics Roadmap. The document, first published in 2009 then later updated in 2013, outlines how researchers can solve societal problems with robotics in a wide range of areas, including healthcare, consumer services and defense.

The 2016 edition of the Robotics Roadmap highlights the need for better policy frameworks to help guide the integration of robots into everyday life and calls for more research into human-robot interaction, as well as, more education in STEM subjects.

One area the report notes is particularly promising is home companion robots for the elderly to enable people to stay in their homes. Another important research field, according to the report, will be the development of more flexible robotic systems for manufacturing. Read the full report here.

With their report, the researchers hope to showcase the potential of robotics to help society and to guide the new president’s policies regarding robotics.

But the Robotics Roadmap is not the only robotics related report Mr Trump needs to consider. A recent publication by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission examined the progress China is making in the development of unmanned industrial, service and military robotics systems – and highlighted opportunities for collaboration, but also concerns that China’s quick progress could erode the US military advantage.

Others are worried that increased use of robots in manufacturing will mean job losses for workers in the US, but a report by the International Federation of Robotics showed that while in the last six years US industry installed 135,000 new industrial robots, mainly in the automotive sector, at the same time 230,000 more jobs opened up in this sector. So the robotics industry is booming and it job prospects in manufacturing. For manufacturing-focused Mr Trump this must be welcome news.

Robotics startup community

In the start-up community there was quite a bit of exciting news. Two start-ups managed to raise vital funds for their projects: Zoox secured $50 million for their self-driving cars and Zipline raised $25 million to deliver medical supplies by drones. Australia’s Fastbrick Robotics walked away with the WA Innovator of the Year award and a $75,000 prize for their bricklaying robot Hadrian X – which could take up to eight weeks off in home building time. You may recognize this start-up: Robots podcast spoke with Mark Pivoc from FastBrick about their Hadrian the bricklaying robot — listen here.

November also wrapped up Robot Launch 2016 with Silicon Valley Robotics. Winners include Robohub readers pick UniExo, a Ukrainian startup developing low-cost modular exoskeletons, and grand prize winner Swiss company ViDi systems, a company that develops deep learning vision software. The judges praised the grand prize winner for their “great early traction, impressive customers, strong team and large market potential”, beating stiff competition from other start-ups competitors.

European Robotics Week 2016

European Robotics Week (ERW) took place from 18 – 27 November with participants taking part in record-breaking numbers, over 830 events in 30 countries across Europe. A full list of all the activities can be found here. ERW was conceived with the desire of the European Robotics community to bring robotics research and development closer to the public and to build the future Robotics Society. Many more than 400,000 people across Europe have been part of ERW in its six years of existence.

The night of Friday the 18^th November saw the opening of the Hack for Healthy Ageing, an elderly-centric, 48-hour hackathon, tackling this societal challenge. The winner was a group inventing the dog collar Snoop which is able to remind the dog’s owner to feed or walk the dog. “The idea stemmed from the fact that dogs are the perfect animal for active elderlies. Snoop combines the familiarity of a household pet with robotic sensors, connectivity and data processing to introduce lifestyle improvement technologies to the elderly and initiate positive changes in their behaviour”, explains Jurjen Söhne, co-organiser of the central event and founder of the Hackitarians.

Read our report from two of the featured panels here.

Drone updates

Drone industry news this November varied across industries. Near Earth Autonomy secured a prestigious NASA award to develop technologies for safer drone operation with a view to support NASA’s plans to use drones in National Airspace. Less positive news came from Alphabet Inc’s ‘Project Wing’ which axed its planned partnership with coffee giant Starbucks Corp. over disagreements about access to Starbuck’s customer data.

Drones are not all about flying; if you’re one of the people more interested in underwater drones Dan Gettinger has updated an in-depth report on what’s happening in this particular field.

Multidisciplinary robotics and collaborations

Robotics isn’t a field that’s completely independent and separate from other disciplines. In fact, roboticists often find themselves working with people from all kinds of fields, such as biology, policy, medicine and agriculture.

The complex nature of robot swarm systems is a perfect example of a robotics field that requires collaboration across disciplines. But this isn’t always easy. Chih-Chun Chen and Nathan Crilly from Cambridge University are looking to make collaboration easier by developing a primer and attempting to explain difficult concepts from swarm robotics to others who wish to engage with the field.

Another area with collaboration is in agricultural robotics. From driverless tractors to soil sensors and monitoring drones – the robotic applications in agriculture need to work in real-life farming context and require input from engineers, biologists and farmers.

Deep learning and AI

When people think of artificial intelligence they often think of sci-fi movies and shows, such as Ex Machina, Her or Westworld. And as a result they might be forgiven if they believe that intelligent, sentient machines are almost here.  Most people familiar with the real world of robotics know that this isn’t the case. We’re making great progress, but we’re still far off a sentient machine – on Robohub, Arend Hintze took a look at the different kinds of AI Arend Hintze took a look at the different kinds of AI and where we’re at right now.

For instance, as humans, we effortlessly understand our surroundings and we automatically predict what will happen next – we’re able to know that the car on the road will drive past for example, or that a soccer player running towards a ball will kick it next. Machines currently aren’t very good at predicting how scenes will change and objects interact. At MIT, researchers are working to resolve this problem and published a paper this month describing their work using deep learning with predictive videos.

And while we watch and wait what will happen next in the world of AI, it’ll be important to consider the ethical implications of sentient machines.

Research

Meanwhile, in laboratories across the globe, researchers are hard at work developing new and exciting robotic technologies. Researchers at Tufts University are investigating the need for machines to be able to ‘disobey’ orders by humans and how humans react when they do.

A team at Utrecht University in the Netherlands reported a breakthrough communication system which uses a brain-computer interface and successfully enabled a paralyzed woman with locked-in syndrome to share her thoughts.

And finally, the University of Michigan announced that it will be providing access to its automated cars and real-world testing facility for developers of self-driving vehicle technologies to accelerate progress in the field.

Good news

In closing for our Digest, on November 30th Onalytica announced the top 100 influencers and brands in robotics – with Robohub not only featuring on the list, but coming in 10th – meaning we’re one of the top 10 robotics-focused blogs! Thanks to all our contributors and readers for keeping us going!

Upcoming events for December 2016 – January 2017

ROBIO 2016- IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics: December 3-7, Qingdao, China.

NIPS 2016: December 5-10, Barcelona, Spain.

IEEE World Forum on Internet of Things: 12-14 December, Reston, VA.

SIMPAR 2016 – IEEE International Conference on Simulation, Modeling, and Programming for Autonomous Robots: December 13-16, San Francisco, CA.

RoboUniverse San Diego 2016: December 13- 15, San Diego, CA.

CES: January 5-8, 2017, Las Vegas, NV.

A quick, hassle-free way to stay on top of robotics news, our robotics digest is released on the first Monday of every month. Sign up to get it in your inbox.

Robo-Politics?

In October, the presidential race for the White House entered its final stretch that will culminate on Tuesday, November 8th (no doubt, to the relief of many Americans). While the majority of the political spotlight is on Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, current “geek-in-chief” President Barack Obama sat with MIT Media Lab Director Joi Ito to discuss hopes, goals, and challenges of artificial intelligence in society. The conversation, covered by Wired magazine, focussed on cyber security, autonomous cars, and even Star Trek – as well as the roles government, academia, industry and the public should be part of in developing, using, and regulating AI.

In a fitting move with Obama’s interview, the White House published two reports outlining the Administration’s thoughts on the future of AI. Rather than pushing for broad regulation, the reports explore opportunities for AI to better society if developers pay “thoughtful attention to its potential and to managing its risks.”

They call upon practitioners to ensure their technologies are “open, transparent, and understandable; that they can work effectively with people; and that their operation will remain consistent with human values and aspirations.” The government’s role is described as a provider of vital funding, as well as a user of technologies who must ensure AI benefits the people, and the economy is ethical, fair and safe.

But only a few weeks after the reports were published, an article in the New York Times flagged that the Defense Department is spending billions of US dollars on AI technology that is at the “center of its strategy to maintain the United States’ position as the world’s dominant military power.” The Pentagon argues this is essential to compete with rivaling nations who are also investing in AI technology, but many fear that the government’s call to use AI for good won’t apply to the autonomous weapons being built for the military.

It’s a brave new ‘Westworld’

Those who followed the sci-fi drama ‘Person of Interest’, which sadly concluded in June, may find solace in the new alternative sci-fi show HBO’s ‘Westworld’. Many of the people involved in writing and producing Westworld were also behind Person of Interest (Jonathan Nolan, JJ Abrams, Bryan Burk), and this science fiction thriller isn’t afraid to ask big philosophical questions about ourselves and robotics, pushing the limits of how we define humanity.

Can artificially intelligent humanoids become sentient? If so, what would happen? And how would we – the real humans – compare? Research fellow at Sheffield Robotics Michael Szollosy, summed up his thoughts about Westworld, wondering whether this new series will live up to what it promises in episode 1. Many have also taken to YouTube and Reddit to discuss each episode in detail.

Meanwhile in today’s world, DeepMind’s latest AI (the Differentiable Neural Computer or DNC) learned how to read the London tube map. We all know programmes like Google maps and Citymapper can do this already, but the way the DNC tackles the problem is a little more impressive because it has no prior knowledge of the tube network. By separating processing and memory DeepMind have come up with a system that can learn what it has to do to solve a problem – and remember it for later.

Mixing it up – diversity in robotics research

At the Wall Street Journal WJSDLive conference in Laguna Beach this month, two leading ladies in robotics, Maja Matarić and Cynthia Breazeal, made a strong case for diversity in the research field, arguing that robotics is for everyone and therefore needs to engage everyone.

Their remarks came just a few days after Ada Lovelace Day on the 11th of October, a day that celebrates the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and maths around the world. Joining in the celebrations, Robohub published 25 women in robotics you need to know about, our annual list showcasing women working in research, development, and commercialization of robotics to celebrate women leading the way in future developments within this field. And a new international community, Women in Robotics, was launched, giving female roboticists the opportunity to network locally and globally, and improve the visibility of women in the field.

Diversity is not just about gender but also about different backgrounds and so events, such as the innovation tour offered by Silicon Valley Robotics to its global partners, brought together global leaders to foster greater understanding and looking at ways to further international collaboration and partnerships.

Space robotics heats up in Europe

Meanwhile in Europe, the European Space Agency (ESA) is analysing what went wrong when its Entry, Descent and Landing Demonstrator Module (EDM), Schiaparelli, apparently crashed on Mars. The BBC reported that data so far indicate that the descent systems did not work as they should have. But ESA experts in Darmstadt, Germany, are reviewing what happened exactly.

On a more positive note, the Advanced Concepts Team (ACT) of the ESA reported that a joint experiment with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Micro Air Vehicles lab (MAV-lab) of Delft University of Technology on the ISS was successful. In the experiment, a small done learned to ‘see’ distances with just one ‘eye’ (camera) using a self-supervised learning algorithm. This kind of advanced AI could in future be used to develop truly autonomous space systems.

Driving technology forward (or back) with autonomous cars

Back on Earth, autonomous cars made the headlines once again this October. Tesla announced that it would build and sell its cars with fully autonomous driving technology, but also said that drivers wouldn’t actually be able to use the technology yet. The company plans to calibrate and improve the system before actually enabling it – so those eager to try out this new piece of tech may have to wait just a little while longer.

Meanwhile, small start-up company comma.ai made a complete U-turn on starting sales of their self-driving system designed as an add-on to Hondas and some Acuras after receiving a stern letter from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The letter points out a number of issues with the suggested technology that applies beyond comma.ai’s proposed system and could also pose problems for bigger companies, such as Tesla, as they plan to build self-driving technology.

A solution to at least some of the issues currently facing developers of autonomous cars could be the technology highlighted by Carol Reiley in the MIT Technology Review. She explains how deep learning could help cars see and make sense of their surroundings (including moving cars, buses, and people as well as fixed items such as lamp posts), enabling them to be more responsive and flexible in the ever-changing context of road traffic  – possibly even making a more ‘human’ driving experience.

Funding and acquisitions

Also in October, the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) released its industrial and service robotics reports, predicting double-digit growth for the rest of this decade, and investments in agricultural tech hit a record $25 billion in 2015. So it’s looking good in the world of robot business. No wonder then that Member of European Parliament Mady Delvaux believes that robots will positively impact the economy.

Also this month, CB Insights named the seven most active robotics investors over the last 5 years – among them Eclipse Ventures, Lux, and Intel Capital. And among the big business news in October were Samsung’s acquisition of Viv and Zymergen’s venture capital injection of $130 million to produce industrial chemicals.

But in the world of drone funding, a report revealed a change in the kinds of ventures getting funded – moving away from funding construction of drones and towards funding for applications. Many of the companies that are now being funded use DJI drones to develop their applications, prompting Franke Tobe to discuss  how DJI beat its competition in the drone manufacturing market.

Know your drones

Sticking with the topic of drones, Amazon’s and other companies’ plans to use delivery drones in the near future took a hit when expert aviation safety advisors revealed that they didn’t expect drone deliveries to take off until 2020.

Don’t expect Uber’s latest idea to become reality any time soon either. Thecab hailing service is exploring whether they could use autonomous drone people carriers to get customers from A to B. As of right now, US regulations don’t permit autonomous flight for delivery drones, let alone massive drones that carry people in them. As reported, Uber would need to “develop an entirely new type of aircraft and have it approved by a country’s aviation authority.” Too futuristic? Maybe.

Back in the real world of drones today at a military base in Florida, the Department of Defence was hosting its annual two-week Black Dart event, where developers can show off their latest anti-drone tech. Much of the event happens in secret, but John Knefel from Inverse allowed us a rare look behind the scenes of Black Dart.

And finally, a film shot entirely by autonomous, pre-programmed drones premiered at the London Film Festival in the UK this month.

Meanwhile in the lab

Researchers in labs around the world were also keeping busy this October with a number of exciting and fascinating stories making the headlines. In Bristol, UK, engineers are using swarms of robots to help fight cancer; a team from EPFL in Switzerland developed a self-healing stiffness fibre; researchers at the University of California, Riverside, designed a highly reliable navigation system that doesn’t need GPS; in Italy, roboticists are working on precision agriculture robots to help farmers; and finally, engineers in Japan have developed a robot that can sweat.

And in a new European project, led by the Laboratory of Computational Embodied Neuroscience (LOCEN), researchers are planning to use open-ended learning in autonomous robots to solve increasingly challenging tasks.

Robot Launch

It’s that time of year again when Robot Launch announces its shortlist of interesting, ambitious start-ups competing for the prestigious Robot Launch awards. Every week in November you’ll be able to ‘meet’ a number of short-listed start-ups and cast your vote. And Robohub readers can also vote for their very own Robohub Readers’ Pick. Winners will be announced at the end of November.

And finally…

Ever wondered how many quadcopters it would take to screw in a lightbulb? The answer may surprise you.

Upcoming events in November-December

Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems (DARS): November 6-9, Natural History Museum, London UK.

GCC Manufacturing Excellence and Technology Summit: November 14-15, Dubai, U.A.E.

Humanoids 2016 – IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robotics: November 15-17, Cancun, Mexico.

European Robotics Week 2016: November 18-22, Amsterdam, Marine Base.

ROBIO 2016- IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics: December 3-7, Qingdao, China.

SIMPAR 2016 – IEEE International Conference on Simulation, Modeling, and Programming for Autonomous Robots: December 13-16, San Francisco, CA.

A quick, hassle-free way to stay on top of robotics news, our robotics digest is released on the first Monday of every month. Sign up to get it in your inbox.

AI100: Big announcement in artificial intelligence

September was all about AI and lots of big, exciting announcements that’ll keep us on our toes for years to come. Eric Horvitz at Stanford University invited leading thinkers to join him to begin a 100-year effort to study the effects of artificial intelligence on society. The group plans to produce a report every five years to track the impact of AI on all aspects of work, family and social life – for a century! The studies are expected to develop assessments that provide expert-informed guidance for directions in AI research, development, systems design, as well as programs and policies to help ensure that these systems broadly benefit individuals and society. Soon, it’s set to penetrate nearly every area of our lives, with experts trying to forecast what AI will look like in 2030. Despite the abundance of AI research, we don’t quite have all the answers to the complex ethical and legal questions that arise from the use of such technologies.

You can read and download the 2016 report here.

This kind of work will be vital, as ‘clever software’ has become more and more mainstream, with programmes like Siri, and as AI is starting to be used routinely by many big companies now.

It’s a good thing, then, that a group of the world’s largest tech companies, including Google, Amazon and Microsoft, are coming together to create a standard of ethics for the creation of artificial intelligence, to ensure AI is developed to benefit and not harm humans.

Law of Robotics, 2.0

And while the tech and internet giants are just about to start their discussions on ethical issues in robotics, the British Standards Institute just issued an official version of what constitutes ‘good behaviour’ in robots, based on the original rules formulated by Isaac Asimov. The guidance outlines potential hazards researchers and makers of robots need to consider in their work – including sci-fi-like scenarios, such as robots capable of deception and robot addiction.

Conducting dangerous work? Get help from a robot

Meanwhile, in the real world, robots are being used for good – taking on dangerous, sometimes deadly jobs, and keeping humans from harm. In the recent bomb attacks in New York, police used robots to disarm explosive devices they found, one which did detonate. And Los Angeles county police used a robot to disarm a suspected murderer, ending a six-hour stand-off.

Elsewhere, a robot-human disaster response team (TRADR) were able to assist the post-earthquake response in Amatrice, Italy. The robots helped to create models of two churches that were at risk of collapsing, to provide vital information about how to support the structures to prevent additional damage.

Cybathlon, advancements in healthcare robotics

As mentioned briefly in last month’s digest, 2016 is the year for the very first Cybathlon – an event for people with disabilities to compete against each other with the help of assistive technologies. In the lead-up to the event, we conducted a Robohub Roundtable discussion with our experts and discussed current and future advancements in prosthetics. And our Robots Podcast explored the use of exoskeletons for rehabilitation and people with disabilities.

But robotic technologies have applications in healthcare beyond rehab and disability support, of course, and this was once again demonstrated when surgeons in the UK performed the first robotic eye surgery. “With a robotic system, we open up a whole new chapter of eye operations that currently cannot be performed”, said Professor Robert MacLaren of John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford in the Guardian.

And in another world first, researchers at the University of California Irvine reported on a first-of-its-kind study that allowed chronically ill children to use telepresence robots to attend school. The research found that children felt more socially connected and academically involved when they could go to school virtually. Although more research is needed before telepresence in schools can become mainstream, the success of the study shows great promise for those unable to attend school due to chronic illness or disability.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTJNGY5FJ24

Robots in the water

Outside of the healthcare field, robots are currently being used in several bioconservation efforts across the globe – and not just on land. We mentioned the use of airborne drones for conservation before, and now autonomous robot sailboats are also sailing the Bering Sea counting fish and monitoring seals, all without the need for a sailor on board.

And in Amsterdam, researchers from MIT and the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (AMS) are developing a fleet of autonomous boats for the city’s canals. Meanwhile across the Atlantic, the US Navy is providing funding to develop more versatile underwater vehicles by studying the locomotion of fish.

Robots on the farm

In agriculture, the use of robots has the potential to transform how farming works – and there’s a whole bunch of technologies already available, including GPS, precision irrigation, and autonomous grain cart systems. The latest addition to this arsenal of farming tech may be a driverless tractor, which had its first outing at the annual Farm Progress Show in Boone, Iowa. It’s only a concept vehicle at this stage, but its makers are hoping that it will become commercially available in the not too distant future.

Drone watch: Responsible drone journalism

September also marked the long awaited unveiling of GoPro’s Karma – a new stabilized drone kit and system that’ll allow users to capture engaging, wide-angle video from the air. “This is a game-changing experience that we will continue to build upon”, said Nicholas Woodman, founder and CEO of GoPro, at the unveiling ceremony. And for those with a smaller budget keen to produce content for social media, there’s the latest drone from Yuneec, which allows users to take 4K video and 13MP images.

With the growing capability of drones to take high quality pictures and video, it’s no wonder that many journalists are among the first to take the test to become licensed drone pilots. But being able to fly a drone isn’t quite the same as good drone journalism, so the Drone Journalism Lab has just released an operations manual to help media outlets operate responsible drone journalism from the newsroom.

With the dawn of drone journalism looming, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), a privacy advocacy organization in Washington, has voiced concerns that increased use of drones could threaten people’s right to privacy which the FAA regulations do not cover, according to the organization.

And in a final piece of drone news, Amazon has secretly been testing its delivery drones in the UK, hiding their activities behind ‘a wall of haybales’, while students on Virginia Tech’s campus could observe drones delivering small white parcels, rumoured to contain burritos in a test-run of Google’s food deliver service.

Robocars news and updates

In the world of autonomous vehicles, Drive.ai has announced that it’s going to use deep learning to teach self-driving cars, and the US Department of Transportation has released guidance on automated driving.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=800&v=YSYjxXfdBcs

Meanwhile, some companies are sending their vehicles out onto the roads. Cab service Uber will be offering some of their Pittsburgh users the option of being picked up by a self-driving car, and nuTonomy just launched their first autonomous taxi pilot on the streets of Singapore.

Car manufacturer Tesla released an update for their cars with improved autopilot radar and more ‘human-like’ lane positioning. The update also features a time out warning that’ll come on when a driver has taken their hands off the wheel for a while (exact time depends on speed and road conditions). It’s meant as a reminder that the Tesla system isn’t actually a full autopilot, but rather a sophisticated cruise control system, and comes after the death of a Tesla enthusiast earlier this year.

Sadly though, this month news emerged that another Tesla vehicle had been involved in a fatal crash in China back in January, and that the autopilot is thought to have played a role in the collision. This lead to further questions about whether the company is doing enough to ensure driver safety.

While it’s still not quite clear whether autonomous cars are in fact ‘robots’, research reports have traditionally looked at them together with other robots – seeing advances in the robocar industry as part of the wider developments in robotics.

Developments in the lab

In the research world, Boston Dynamics posted a pretty cool video of their Atlas robot balancing on a 2cm thick plywood edge, in Austria, engineers are working to deliver energy to explorer robots through improved coordination, and researchers at the University of Sheffield developed a new machine learning method that allows machines to simply observe and learn, without being told what to look for.

Lastly, a team at the University of Pennsylvania have developed a small quadruped robot, called Minitaur, that can conquer doors and stairs thanks to four direct-drive legs.

Fun robotics news

New Zealand phone provider Spark had a great idea to help their customers get their hands on the new iPhone 7 without having to wait in line – they allowed tech fans to have a robot take their place in the queue. One hundred Alpha 1 robots, controlled through phone apps, patiently waited in line, moving, dancing and live-streaming the experience to their human ‘handlers’. We think that’s a pretty nifty marketing idea!

In memoriam

Finally, we were sad to hear that Victor Scheinman, inventor of the first robotic arm, passed away this month, aged 73. He was one of the fathers of industrial robotics and his ‘Stanford Arm’, commercialized as the PUMA robotic arm, is still used in almost every industry application today.

Upcoming October-November events

Workshop on Brain-Machine Interface Systems 2016: October 9-12, Budapest, Hungary.

Cybathlon 2016: 8 October, SWISS Arena, Kloten.

IROS 2016: October 9-14, Daejeon, Korea.

World Robot Conference 2016: October 21-25, Beijing, China

SSRR 2016 – IEEE International Symposium on Safety, Security, and Rescue Robotics: October 23-27, Lausanne, Switzerland.

Minesweepers Competition: Towards a landmine-free world: October 27-30, Zewail City of Science and Technology, Egypt.

Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems (DARS): November 6-9, Natural History Museum, London UK.

GCC Manufacturing Excellence and Technology Summit: November 14-15, Dubai, U.A.E.

Humanoids 2016 – IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robotics: November 15-17, Cancun, Mexico.

A quick, hassle-free way to stay on top of robotics news, our robotics digest is released on the first Monday of every month. Sign up to get it in your inbox.

Olympics coverage, courtesy of robots

The big event in August was, of course, the 2016 Rio Olympics. As millions watched sporting legends like Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps make history, those behind the scenes were bringing all of us the stellar Olympics coverage by an army of cameramen, photographers, and yes, robots. Getty Images, the official photo agency of the International Olympic Committee, used Mark Roberts Motion Control’s robotic rig, which allows photographers to change a camera’s vantage point and move a full 360 degrees – all via remote control – bringing us closer to the action.

The Washington Post utilised AI software, Heliograph, to cover the Rio Games – writing some of the ‘simpler’ news, such as: who won which event, which country is now first on the medal board. Having the AI conduct point-by-point updates freed up their human reporter counterparts to cover in-depth and more exciting stories. Pretty cool, right?

Looking ahead to the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, we can expect to see robots take on even more roles, from greeting you at the airport, checking you into your hotel and showing you to your seat in the stadium.

But first, we have the Rio Paralympics to look forward to, followed by the first ever Cybathlon this October in Zurich, Switzerland. While the use of technology by athletes in the Paralympics can be a contentious matter (due to issues of accessibility and affordability of such technologies for athletes from some countries), the Cybathlon will be celebrating the many ways in which robots can assist disabled people. Dubbed the ‘Cyborg Olympics’ by some, the event will include an exoskeleton obstacle course and a virtual race using a brain control interface.

Hello, Dr Robot!

The difference robots can make to the lives of people with disabilities is astounding – enabling people to regain lost functions by lending a helping hand, or providing more independence. Exoskeletons, in particular, are at the forefront of such assistive technologies, with a number of products going through FDA approval at the moment. In the US this month, Dakota Privette, who suffers from cerebral palsy, got to experience his first ever steps with one such product, made by Rex Bionics. And he won’t be the only one to benefit once exoskeletons become available to patients. We also covered this topic in our Robots Podcast, with Hugh Herr, Director of the Biomechatronics Group at MIT.

But exoskeletons are not the only robots used in healthcare – Intuitive Surgical’s machines (like the da Vinci) are increasingly used in hospital theatres around the world to make surgery safer and minimally invasive. And now, competitors are beginning to produce similar devices. Lastly, AI could eventually help doctors diagnose patients, but only if patients and doctors are willing to accept this technology, as argued by Owen Johnson from the University of Leeds.

How human should they be?

This topic of acceptance of – and trust in – robots can also be a concern for those creating humanoid robots for home environments. Researchers at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia have developed R1, a cheaper and more accessible version of iCub. The question of how ‘human’ robot companions should or shouldn’t be is an important one in this context. How much intelligence is too much? How much personality is too much?

Interesting research about expressive communication with robots was conducted by Robohub’s own, Adriana Hamacher. The research indicated that human-like attributes, such as regret, can be “powerful tools in negating dissatisfaction.” The testing found that people tend to prefer robot with expressive features, despite it taking 50 per cent longer to complete the task. The research notes that: “if there are no ground rules then we may end up with robots with different personalities, just like the people designing them.”

In addition, ever improving AI technologies could enable us to build robots that are more cooperative and more considerate, what we would consider as more human. But whether we are ready to accept such robots and trust them remains to be seen.

The road to autonomous vehicles

Lots of big, big changes in autonomous vehicles happened over the month. Top roboticist Chris Urmson quit Google’s self-driving car division, making him the latest in a string of high-profile resignations that could become a problem for the autonomous car division of the company and could cost them their status as a leader in the field.

Meanwhile, others working on autonomous cars are making preparations to get their vehicles out onto the roads. In Singapore, Delphi Automotive is testing on-demand self-driving taxis, while in the US, cab service Uber’s autonomous cars are arriving in Pittsburgh. Not to be outdone, Ford has promised it’ll have fleets of driverless cars out on the roads by 2021 and Airbus has announced plans to build helicopter-like autonomous flying taxis to tackle city traffic. Truly, the autonomous vehicle competition has been dynamic to watch. We can only wait and see what will happen in the next few years.

Others benefitting from the race to get autonomous vehicles out onto the roads include companies Velodyne and Quanergy, both of which received funding this month to improve their LiDAR technologies – an essential component for most assistive steering and self-driving tech. Meanwhile, at MIT, a team has managed to pack their LiDAR sensor onto a single chip smaller than a dime, which could eventually be mass-produced at low cost.

For a summary of what’s been happening in robocars, Brad Templeton’s Robocar Recap is a great once-stop-shop.

Problems with robotics crowdfunding

Crowdfunding can be a good way to make things happen in robotics – but it doesn’t always work. With lots of stories of crowdfunding success, it’s easy to forget that less than half of projects on Kickstarter (for example) manage to reach their funding goal. And even among those that hit their target, not all actually manage to deliver on their promise.

For instance, Jibo, originally crowdfunded in 2014, announced it won’t be able to ship the social robot to any investors outside of the US and Canada. While affected investors will receive a full refund, the disappointment and anger at the group’s failure to deliver Jibo became clear in Twitter responses following the announcement.

So while crowdfunding can be a fantastic investment, there’s no guarantee of success. Robohub’s roundtable discussion focused on problems with crowdfunding, unrealistic expectations, improbable timeframes, and what to look out for.

But it’s not all doom and gloom because when crowdfunding works it’s a wonderful way to get a project off the ground. FarmBot.io just finished its Genesis launch with more than eight times of its fundraising goal and they clearly have investors excited at the prospect of having an open-source farming machine in the not too distant future.

Big funding in robotics

In the world of big business – and big money – there’s rarely a month without at least a few announcements about new investments and acquisitions. Recently (to name a few!), German robot maker Kuka was bought by China’s Midea; Google acquired French company Moodstocks; Cambridge Medical Robotics raised $20 million in Series A funding; FiveAI got $2.7 million in equity funding; and Autonomous Marine Systems secured $1.6 million in seed funding plus $1.9 million in matched funding. For a summary of this summer’s big funding, acquisitions, and failures be sure to check out Frank Tobe’s Robot Report.

And Professor Alan Winfield discussed the debate about the robot economy. In the media, we tend to see people picking sides (robots will take jobs, or, no they won’t), but really, there is no single answer to all this he says, stating: “the extent to which robots replace jobs depends on the specific robot and the job. You need to unpick the context on a case-by-case basis. It’s quite a nuanced question. As a result, it’s very hard to figure out how this will average out in terms of net number of jobs gained or lost.”

On the flip side, robots can also , in turn, be affected by the economy, as is evident in the field of underwater drones. These robots are typically used by fossil fuel companies to support exploration, drilling, construction and maintenance, but some have now been mothballed as a consequence of the slump in oil prices.

Drone news around the world

Sticking with the topic of drones, the FAA’s new regulations, that finally clarifies how media companies are allowed to use drones, led to a bout of enthusiasm for the use of such technologies. CNN launched CNNAir, their new drone division which will be dedicated to aerial imagery and reporting.

It’s not just media companies enthusiastic about drones – private users are excited that these technologies and new consumer drones are entering the market regularly. The next addition, due to be launched soon, is Parrot’s “Disco”, a fixed wing drone that can fly for up to 45 minutes and reaches top speeds of 70 kilometres per hour.

In other drone news, researchers in Hawaii used drones to help them count whales from the air, without having to disturb the animals, and a team in Switzerland performed a 26-hour search-and-rescue flight with their AtlantikSolar UAV, which could ultimately help tackle the European refugee crisis.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FciTmU6inf4

Race to space

NASA is one of the key funders and supporters for space robotics and its sample return robot challenge has now reached the final stage. Seven teams will compete for the £1.36 million prize by showing off their robot’s ability to locate and collect samples in a three-day event to be held in September. We wish them luck and will let you know who won as soon as the announcement is made.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-7VUhBk3Xs

And another NASA-sponsored competition, the Space Robotics Challenge has now kicked off! The challenge promises a potential $1 million award for teams to develop abilities of an R5 robot to contribute to NASA missions to Mars in future.

There’ve been announcements from other space robotics companies, as well. California-based private space company Moon Express has been granted permission to land a robot on the moon – and is planning to do so as soon as next year. And Deep Space Industries announced that it plans to fly the first commercial interplanetary mining mission before the end of this decade.

Research in the lab

August saw a few reports on soft robotics, including news that a research team from Harvard University had demonstrated the first 3D-printed autonomous, untethered, entirely soft robot, and a team at the University of Warsaw designed a bioinspired caterpillar soft robot that is powered and controlled by light.

And, non-profit company RISE (Robots in Service of the Environment) is creating an underwater robot that can hunt lionfish, which are invasive to the Atlantic ocean and are causing damage to coral reefs.

Upcoming September-October events

Mechatronics 2016: September 5-8, Loughborough, UK.

COSUR 2016 – 1st bi-annual summer school on control of surgical robots: September 5-9, University of Verona, Italy.

Robobusiness: September 28-29, San Jose, California.

Workshop on Brain-Machine Interface Systems 2016: October 9-12, Budapest, Hungary.

Cybathlon 2016: 8 October, SWISS Arena, Kloten.

IROS 2016: October 9-14, Daejeon, Korea.

World Robot Conference 2016: October 21-25, Beijing, China

SSRR 2016 – IEEE International Symposium on Safety, Security, and Rescue Robotics: October 23-27, Lausanne, Switzerland.

Minesweepers Competition: Towards a landmine-free world: October 27-30, Zewail City of Science and Technology, Egypt.

A quick, hassle-free way to stay on top of robotics news, our robotics digest is released on the first Monday of every month. Sign up to get it in your inbox.

Tesla crash and the ‘AutoPilot’ question

Earlier this year, Tesla announced that Joshua Brown was in a fatal car crash driving his Model S while the Autopilot system was activated. This tragic news eventually sparked a debate in July on whether Tesla should continue to allow their customers to use the Autopilot system, or whether they should disable the feature if a driver is not being diligent enough, with some questioning whether calling it ‘Autopilot’ was misleading and luring drivers into a false sense of security by thinking the car can drive itself. Autopilot is meant as driver assistance (a more sophisticated form of cruise control), not driver replacement.

Tesla’s Autopilot driven cars are still a long way off truly autonomous robocars – and drivers need to be aware of this. Nevertheless, rumours are afoot that the company may be working on their next big step: Autopilot 2.0 with LIDAR – a more advanced and safer self-driving system, possibly for their new Model 3, Model S, and X cars. And it seems Tesla is not about to stop there, as Elon Musk laid out the company’s master plan (Part Deux) in a blog post.

Tesla isn’t the only company thinking about autonomous cars. Numerous companies are racing to build the first real and successful generation of driverless cars. But taking autonomous cars from research labs and testing grounds to roads isn’t a simple process, as Karl Iagnemma from nuTonomy explained in the recent Robots Podcast, and it may be a while yet until we see driverless vehicles on our roads.

Legal and ethical debate: Can and should police use lethal robots?

Autonomous cars aren’t quite here yet but people in Dallas were starkly reminded that other types of robots are in use on our streets — when police used a bomb-defusing robot to kill a suspect who had already shot several officers. As it turns out, law enforcement has over 1,000 robots in use already across the US.

What happened in Dallas was not illegal, as police are allowed to use lethal force and the way in which the robot was used was probably the best of several bad options given the situation. But, it sparked numerous debates about the militarization of the police force and the legality of using remote controlled robots to kill. These ethical questions are justified and important, as there has been little discussion of the use of robots by police. Now, people are asking questions about accountability, about regulation, and about the use of robots by police in less extreme circumstances, too. A discussion that’s essential if robots, including bomb-diffusion units and drones, become standard tools in law enforcement.

The discussions around police use of robots come at the same time as a report revealing the civilian death toll from US drone airstrikes outside war zones – another controversial use of robots.

Know your drone

In other drone news, the (not quite so controversial) use of commercial drones for deliveries is going ahead – at least in the UK. Amazon has announced that it’ll start making test deliveries soon, while in the US FAA regulation still hinders the company from introducing AmazonPrime drone service. But there was some exciting drone news in the US too, when DJI, the world’s leading commercial drone manufacturer, and Washington State University announced they are working to develop UAV systems for agriculture. Plus, the 3rd annual International Drone Photography Contest crowned its worthy winners this month, providing us some stunning aerial videos and photos to enjoy.

Lastly, we were once again reminded that drones aren’t necessarily just for the air as two young engineers from start-up OpenROV used their Trident submarine drone to explore Lake Tahoe – broadcasting their dives over social media. What a great idea!

Making your life and home smarter, with robots

While Amazon is just about to test its drone delivery systems in the UK, self-driving delivery bots are about to hit the streets. People in Germany and the city of London may soon have their parcels and take-away meals delivered by Starship robots. So if you live in Germany or London, next time your doorbell rings there may well be a delivery bot waiting outside!

And robots won’t just come to your doorstep. If Jibo Inc. has their way they’ll be in your home, too. The company just brought on veteran researcher Michael I Jordan as an advisory board member to help their home robot Jibo have better conversations with human owners through machine learning, so it can really ‘lend a helping hand’ in the household.

Advancements in AI

Machine learning and AI have developed in leaps and bounds since its early inception – and Google’s DeepMind proved this once again as it made Google’s data centers more efficient by effectively cutting electricity costs by 50 percent! There is still a long way to go of course and challenges to be met, not least when it comes to testing how clever our AIs really are.

A study published in the Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Artificial Intelligence exposed a major flaw in the standard test for AI – the Turing test. The researchers found that by remaining silent, robots could essentially outsmart the test and pass it without ever uttering a word, as judges wouldn’t be able to determine whether they were interacting with a robot or a human. While many had previously pointed out various issues with the Turing test, the findings from this study essentially call into question what passing the test really means and how limited its potential is to answer any deeper questions about AI.

So, do we need a new test? Probably. But for now, there aren’t many alternatives. However, challenges that maybe combine AI with the need to perform reactive physical tasks could be one answer, as Daniel Polani explored whether soccer may be the final frontier for robotic AI.

RoboCup and other competitions

Speaking of soccer, hundreds of teams from countries around the world entered their smart, autonomous bots into the soccer competition, hoping to take away this year’s RoboCup soccer crown. With eight different soccer categories, there were a lot of entries and of course eight final winners, but Robohub thinks with such an amazing show that everyone won!

Also at Robocup “Team Delft” from the Netherlands took home $50,000 after winning the Amazon Picking Challenge at RoboCup 2016 in Leipzig, Germany. Their robot used a combination of an off-the-shelf robotic arm and deep learning techniques to beat its competitors.

Winning the competition is of course not the same as getting the robot into Amazon warehouses (yet), as the speed of the robot is still four times slower (100 items per hour) compared to human workers (400 items per hour). But the improvement between last year’s and this year’s entries was astonishing. We can’t wait for next year’s event – where we’ll undoubtedly see an impressive range of new robots on the soccer fields. But RoboCup 2017 won’t just be about soccer of course, as we’ll see more picking robots as well as a new competition for domestic helpers, for which Toyota’s HSR was just selected as the standard robot.

But RoboCup was not the only big event – far away from the robot soccer fields, the 2016 China International Robot Show (CIROS) crowned Rethink Robotic’s Sawyer robot winner of Best Industrial Robot 2016 in the CIROS Golden Finger Awards. This high-performance collaborative robot is designed to work alongside humans in manufacturing environments – something the judges felt was highly relevant in China’s ambitious economy.

Are we there yet? Turning points and revolutions

AUTOMATICA, the world’s largest robot and automation event, took place at the end of June, but the debates it stimulated about the future of industry carried over into July. Robohub Associate Editor, Adriana Hamacher, and SPARC robotics explored the promise of Industry 4.0 and how close we really are to ‘a turning point in the robotics and automation marketplace’.

And while Industry 4.0 may or may not be here yet (depending on your point of view), robots are certainly no longer just science fiction, and questions of robot ethics are becoming more relevant. Dr Yueh-Hsuan Weng interviewed European Parliment MEP Mady Delvaux-Stehres about the importance of new robot laws as the robot revolution continues.

Getting down to Robot Business

July robotics business news saw Softbank’s move to buy UK company ARM holdings for £24 billion and Midea’s confirmed majority ownership (85.69%) of KUKA shares. But while some other big acquisitions (such as Toyota’s plans to purchase Boston Dynamics) haven’t quite come to fruition, the ever increasing popularity of robotics is reflected in not just one, but more than a hundred reports looking at the robotics industry – with reports on drones making up a third (35)!

Robotics startups making waves

But of course, it’s not just about the big names – robotics start-ups make a huge contribution to the industry and often have some of the most exciting and innovative ideas and products for direct-to-consumer marketing. Success stories include consumer robot maker Anki with their Cozmo SDK toy robots that are more than just toys, Iran-based Ikap Robotics’ Olive, the world’s first intelligent suitcase, and the first ever open-source CNC farming machine by FarmBot, which just reached its $100,000 pre-order goal.

Start-up competition Robot Launch (by Silicon Valley Robotics and Robohub) has an open call to find the world’s best robotics and AI start-ups for 2016. Past winners of this competition have continued on winning public support and more awards, as well as, getting their product ready for market. It’s a prize that could change a start-up’s future – entries close on 15 August!

In the lab

Meanwhile in the lab, researchers are working on some seriously cool stuff. Engineers at the University of Michigan took their bipedal robot MARLO for a walk across the wave field (a patch of grass with an uneven, wavy surface). While the robot may have a looked a little unsteady, the algorithms it uses to keep its balance will be useful in other types of robotics, including prosthetics.

In Lausanne, Switzerland, researchers developed a salamander robot that can help to understand the evolution of vertebrates. And in the US, a team is working to recreate ancient vertebrate’s first step on dry land with a robot. Lastly, researchers at Harvard have designed a robotic stingray that could help our understanding of the human heart.

Research like this is fascinating and important if we want to make progress in robotics. But how good is the robotics community at communicating with the publics? And how can it ensure that people do not distrust or fear progress being made? In the aftermath of Brexit, Michael Szollosy explored on Robohub what lessons the robotics community can learn about communication and how the science community can engage people now.

Fun stories in robotics

To finish our Digest, we like to take a look back at a couple of happy robotics stories of the month, one of which, must be the story of 10 year old Eva, whose fascination with robots and determination to make the world a better place landed her a spot on the Paris Summer Innovation Fellowship programme. A summary of her pitch: “The streets of Paris are sad. I want to build a robot that will make them happy again. I’ve already starting learning how to code on Thymio robots, but I have trouble making it work. I want to join the program so the mentors can help me.” Well done, Eva!

Another great story is Verity Studios of Zurich in collaboration with Cirque du Soleil using flying robot lampshades as performance pieces on Broadway. Paramour just surpassed its 100th performance, still astonishing audience members with a spectacle of colours and lights. Some readers may recognise them as the direct siblings of the similarly dressed quadcopters in Sparked: A Live Interaction Between Humans and Quadcopters.

Upcoming events in August

ICMA 2016 – IEEE International Conference on Mechatronics and Automation: August 7-10, Harbin, China

DISCOVER 2016: IEEE Distributed Computing, VLSI, Electrical Circuits and Robotics: August 13-14, National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal.

Next-Generation Collaborative Robotics & Automation Technologies Automotive Manufacturing 2016: August 17-18, Detroit, MI.

URAI 2016 – International Conference on Ubiquitous Robots and Ambient Intelligence: August 19-22, Renmin Square, Xian, China.

CASE 2016 – IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering: August 21-25, Fort Worth, TX.

ICRAE 2016- International Conference on Robotics and Automation Engineering: August 27-31, Jeju Island, Korea.

RO-MAN 2016 – IEEE International Symposium on Human and Robot Interactive Communication: August 26-31, Columbia University, New York.

MMAR 2016 – 21st International Conference on Methods and Models in Automation and Robotics: August 29 – September 1, Miedzyzdroje, Poland.

A quick, hassle-free way to stay on top of robotics news, our robotics digest is released on the first Monday of every month. Sign up to get it in your inbox.

Celebrating success through collaboration

June was a time for celebrations in the US, as this month marked the fifth anniversary of the National Robotics Initiative – a collaboration of multiple US agencies who promote the development and use of robots that work alongside, or collaboratively, with humans. Since its inception, the Initiative has provided funding for fundamental research and contributed to major developments in robotics technology, so its fifth anniversary is certainly reason for celebrations. But it wasn’t the only US collaborative to shout about this June as the White House is running a series of workshops and plans the creation of a new collaborative interagency working group on AI to investigate and promote the use of this technology for the social good.

Meanwhile in Europe, ROBOTT-NET, an EU-funded robot technology transfer partnership, was created to provide support and expertise for companies who want to use or develop robots.

And while we’re on the topic of collaboration, Robohub would like to congratulate the winning team of the Airbus Shopfloor challenge this year. The team (officially a Japanese team despite none of the members being from Japan) was made up of researchers from all over the world, who worked together to create a precision drilling robot. We say: well done!

Acquisition, competition and automation

With all the collaborations and friendly celebrations going on, it’s easy to forget that robotics is also a competitive industry, but we were reminded of that by car giant Toyota’s move to purchase not one but two companies from Google this month: Boston Dynamics as well as Japanese start-up Shaft. While the deal hasn’t been made just yet, the offer on the table is certainly impressive.

Recent acquisitions made by Chinese investors, who seem to snap up many of the leading international robotics companies (including Gimatic and KraussMaffe Group), are also a sign that the global interest in robotics is huge. And some in Germany and Belgium have now voiced concerns over another bid by the Chinese, this time, to purchase German robot maker Kuka. In late June, Chinese Midea made a $2.5 billion bid up to 49% (instead of a full takeover) for Kuka.

The field is definitely booming, highlighted this month by the International Robotics Foundation figures showing industrial robot sales set a new record in 2015. However, it’s not all rosy news as many fear the increase in automation may come with job losses and poverty. In May, Foxconn announced it would replace 60,000 factory workers with robots – a controversial decision that inspired an in-depth Robohub Round Table discussion this month about what it could mean for the jobs of tomorrow.

Better together: working with robots

The use of robots in the workplace may not necessarily indicate future job losses, rather, it could create better incentives for retraining human workers for more fulfilling and versatile work. And in some instances, robots can take on jobs that humans either couldn’t do or could only do if willing to risk their health or even their lives. In these instances, the robot revolution can’t come soon enough. Examples include strenuous, dangerous and dirty jobs in nuclear decommissioning and mining, including space mining (which admittedly is still some way off, but an exciting idea).

‘We’re out’ – UK votes to leave the EU

On June 23^rd the UK population voted to leave the European Union. As something that has never happened in the EU before there is speculation for unpredictable consequences in science, and robotics projects in particular. Early discussions within the robotics community focused on how ‘Brexit’ could affect funding for robotics research, but there may also be other consequences. For instance, UK robots could lose out on a bill of rights being debated in the EU as Oliva Goldhill of Quartz pointed out. As of right now, it’s too early to tell how things are going to shape for the robotics community within the UK.

Good robot?

The bill of rights (mentioned previously) refers to a proposal put forward to the European Parliament asking to classify robots as ‘electronic persons’ and to address issues of taxation and legal liability – the latter being a much-debated topic among roboticists. Who is ultimately responsible for the ‘actions’ of a robot and any harm caused? And, how can we ensure that robots act ethically as far as possible? Despite AI still lagging behind human intelligence, these questions are hugely important. Benjamin Kuipers looked back on Asimov’s law and explored how we may plan for ethical robots of the future.

When it comes to robot-related ethics questions, the robocar industry (alongside killer robots) is often at the forefront of public scrutiny, not least because of the widely publicised trolley problem. So, maybe it’s time to create a panel of experts to rule on driving ethics and then advise robocar developers on ethical questions. While some are still debating the ethical side of robocars, others are making very practical decisions. UK insurer AdrianFlux launched the country’s first driverless car insurance policy, setting out (in their view) who or what is liable for any damage or harm under which circumstances.

But, these debates and forward steps in the area of driverless vehicles were overshadowed this month by the announcement that Tesla fan Joshua Brown sadly died after a tragic accident in a Model S autopilot driven vehicle. This sad news is a stark reminder that while the industry is moving forward rapidly, driverless technology is still relatively new and that while we may be able to purchase cars with autopilots it’s essential to be vigilant on the road.

Our future human-robot world

Let’s now move from robots on our roads to robots in our homes. Social robotics is booming and robots are set to play a big part in our future according to experts at the Bloomberg Technology Conference. And those who think social robots are just a Japanese oddity at present are mistaken: Belgium, for example, now boasts service bots in over 300 institutions.

Social robots are here to stay, but it won’t just be them supporting and serving us. It’s likely that we’ll have to serve and support them, too – especially when it comes to adapting environments allowing them to better function. From our homes to shops, restaurants and hotels, the environments of the future in a hybrid human-robot world will look a little different from what we’re used to now. But maybe that’snot necessarily a bad thing. Watch this space.

Drones

Our monthly Robohub digest wouldn’t be complete without us mentioning drones. Recently, the FAA released its new rules for commercially used small UAVs. This long-awaited decision was greeted with enthusiasm by many US companies hoping to use drones commercially. They will come into effect in August 2016 and will mean that, among other things, commercial drones that fit within the framework of Part 107 no longer require approval by exemption and operators no longer need a manned aircraft pilot’s license.

In other drone news, Chinese start-up Xiaomi entered the drone market with an affordable personal HD drone that seeks to take some of the market space current occupied by DJI’s Phantom drones. On the other end of the drone spectrum, Airobotics secured $28.5 million to develop autonomous drone platforms for heavy industry. And finally, Cape Town based photographer Johnny Miller used his drone to capture fascinating images of the thin lines dividing rich and poor in South Africa.

Stories from the lab

June was also a busy month for researchers across the globe with a number of pretty cool announcements, particularly from the US. Researchers at Harvard developed a new actuator that can mimic movements of skeletal muscles, a team at the University of Nevada is working on a novel polymer-based material to create artificial muscles, and MIT’s AI passed the Turing Test for sound. Outside academia, CSIC and its spin-off, Marsi Bionics, patented the world’s first exoskeleton for children with spinal muscular atrophy, Boston Dynamics presented their new SpotMini robot, and Japanese company YSEC developed a small jet engine for use in UAVs.

A bit of a laugh

On a lighter note, robots also caused quite a few laughs this June. ‘Sunspring’, a movie written entirely by an AI that calls itself Benjamin, turned out to be a great hit at the annual film festival Sci-Fi London. The plot and stage instructions Benjamin came up with may be a bit hard to follow at times (one stage instruction allegedly read “He is standing in the stars and sitting on the floor”), but the movie had cast, crew and audience in fits of laughter.

And finally, in Russia, a runaway robot ended up causing a traffic jam on a busy road when it escaped from Promobot laboratories and spent 40 minutes exploring the city of Perm before being recaptured.

Upcoming events for July

CIROS China Intel Robot Show: 6-9 July, Shanghai, China.

Conference on Artificial Intelligence: 9-15 July, New York City, NY.

ROS-Industrial Asia Pacific Workshop: 14-15 July, Singapore.

Autonomous Vehicles Symposium: 19-21 July, San Francisco, CA.

A quick, hassle-free way to stay on top of robotics news, our robotics digest is released on the first Monday of every month. Sign up to get it in your inbox.

Spotlight: US National Robotics Week

Source: nationalroboticsweek.org

April was a big month for robotics in the US as those working in the field hosted the seventh annual National Robotics Week, with numerous robotics activities, talks and workshops for anyone with an interest in robotics. The aim of Robotics Week is to engage and inspire people at a time when the field is moving forward so quickly that many struggle to keep up. For kids in particular the different activities offer a rare insight into what robotics is all about – and how much fun it can be.

Events took place across the country and one group in California, Robot Garden, stood out as the group that hosted the most activities, ranging from a Lego Robotics Club to a robot swap event. And don’t worry if you missed it – Robot Garden hosts events all year round, just check out their website.

April’s Fools’ Day robot fun

In many countries 1 April is known as April Fools’ Day – a day you get creative and think of ways to fool those around you with made-up stories and practical jokes. The robotics community joined in the fun once again this year with a number of crazy ideas, including: robotic note takers, remote pizza slicers, and levitating speakers. Robohub summarised some of the best robotics-related April Fools’ Day jokes here. And don’t worry if you fell prey to any of those jokes – with the astonishing advances being made in robotics every day, it can be difficult to distinguish fact from fiction.

Showcasing Industry 4.0

People may think the idea of multi-purpose robotic arms or cells – much discussed in industry circles – is still more fiction than fact. But in Belgium a collective centre for technology industry called Sirris is now showcasing what industry 4.0 could look like. Dutch-German partnership, SInBot, have developed an operating system that will allow low cost, small-scale production with industrial robots. Smart factories are certainly not just fiction any more! No wonder then that the International Federation for Robotics reported that industrial robot sales were higher than ever in 2015.

Investments, Acquisitions, Mergers

Dmitry Grishin at the Skolkovo Robotics conference in Russia.

Competition is heating up for venture capital with Grishin Robotics announcing a new $100 million fund open to hardware and software companies to support the Hardware Revolution, expanding their geographical focus to include Europe. Meanwhile San Francisco based startup Dispatch secured $2 million to build a fleet of autonomous delivery vehicles.

But it’s not just venture capital investments that fuel the interest and excitement in new technologies – acquisitions and mergers can have a similar effect. GM’s acquisition of Cruise Automation has led to a renewed interest in kits for self-driving cars – essentially kits that allow conversion of normal cars into (more) autonomous ones. And Amazon’s acquisition of Kiva in 2012 left a void that paved the way for several smaller companies to develop novel warehouse robotic systems, many of which were showcased this April at MODEX 2016.

Drones vs. FAA

While researchers and industry are excited about new applications for robotics, lawmakers are thinking about how these applications should be regulated. The best example for this is the regulation of drones, a hot topic for many months (or possibly years) and has been making headlines once again in April. This is because the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), responsible for the regulation of drones at a national level, has to be (re-)authorized every few years – a process happening right now.

Two of the major bills being debated by US Congress in relation to FAA authorization are focused on drones that could have a profound effect on the future of the US drone industry. Some are worried that the wording in the bills could curtail local drone laws and law enforcement in relation to drones, something lawmakers are seeking to change before the bill is passed. While Congress continues to deliberate, drones are still being used around the globe for a variety of tasks.

A view from above

It has only been five years since the devastating earthquake off the east coast of Japan that caused a tsunami and massive destruction March 2011, and on 16 April 2016 the earth in Kumamoto and Ōita Prefectures shook again. Soon after it happened, drones were used to assess the aftermath of this quake, helping to map the destruction and devastation caused.

And mapping the impact of natural disasters is not the only way in which drones may monitor environments – they’ve also been used in bio-conservation to help monitor wildlife, as is the case in the Bornean jungle where Dirk Gorissen is tracking orangutans with python and react.js.

Drone racing

With the popularity of drones ever increasing, it’s no wonder that racing drones against one another is a new ‘sport’ that’s moving from backyards, fields, and abandoned buildings to mainstream media – more precisely to ESPN. This upcoming August, ESPN will broadcast the US National Drone Racing Championships online. And who knows – drone racing may soon be on our TV’s soon enough.

Robots take to the high seas

Clownfish BIV

But robots are not just conquering the air(waves) – they’re also taking to the seas. This month DARPA celebrated the naming of their remote controlled submarine hunting vessel, Sea Hunter. The unmanned ship can track and follow submarines and may spell a new era for naval seafaring. But DARPA weren’t the only ones celebrating in April as SpaceX successfully landed their Falcon 9 rocket on their drone ship off the Florida coast for the first time. And where SpaceX’s drone ship leads, commercial shipping might soon follow – at least according to Oskar Levander, head of innovation for Rolls Royce’s marine unit, who is expecting commercial drone ships to sail the seas in the not too distant future.

Robots are not just conquering the sea’s surface. In an effort to support conservation for example, South African inventor Simeon Pieterkosky developed a bio-inspired robotic fish that can monitor water quality, clean up debris, and save fish from illegal fishing nets – fully immersible and mainly under water, of course.

Autonomous cars on public roads

Platooning. Photo: Dan Boman

Unmanned vehicles at sea and on land are still somewhat of a rarity at the moment, so in a bid to speed up the introduction of autonomous truck platoons in Europe, Daimler let three of its autonomous trucks loose on German and Dutch roads as part of the European Truck Platooning Challenge. The trucks drove from Stuttgart to Rotterdam using the company’s Connected Highway Pilot system and reached their destination without incident on 7 April.

While the successful completion of this challenge may have been great for Daimler, it’s likely that the appearance of fully autonomous cars on our roads are still years away. In the US, car manufacturers have asked the government to slow down the introduction of such vehicles, and there are practical challenges to consider, such as insurance covers and city infrastructure, as SPARC explained on Robohub.

3-D printing blowing our minds

Source: The Next Rembrandt/YouTube

And finally: We’ve known for a while that the possibilities of 3D printing are seemingly endless – April astonished us once again with the limitless imagination using this technology. Researchers at MIT’s CSAIL have developed a way to print solid and liquid materials simultaneously, allowing them to produce dynamic robots in one step, abolishing the need for assembly and paving the way for rapid production of fully functional robots.

Lastly, a team at the Smithsonian used a mixture of 3D printing, scanning, and AI to create a new Rembrandt-style painting. We can’t wait to see what this technology, and the people behind it, will create next!

Upcoming events

International Collaborative Robots Workshop (RIA ICRW 2016): 3-4 May, Hynes Convention Center in Boston, MA.

IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2016): 16-21 May, Stockholm, Sweden

International Conference on Real-time Computing and Robotics (RCAR 2016): 6-9 June, Angkor Wat, Cambodia

International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems, (ICUAS 2016): 7-10 June, Arlington, VA, USA

Automatica: 21-24 June,  Messe München, Germany

IEEE International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics (BioRob 2016): 26-29 June, University Town, Singapore

9th IFAC Symposium on Intelligent Autonomous Vehicles (IAV 2016): 29 June – 1 July, Messe Leipzig, Germany

A quick, hassle-free way to stay on top of robotics news , our robotics digest is released on the first Monday of every month. Sign up to get it in your inbox.

Rise of AI gaming

Exciting game news this month with DeepMind’s AlphaGo AI match-up against human pro player Lee Se-dol, from South Korea. Human and AI played Go: an ancient, complex, and abstract strategy board game, in a bid to win best of five. AlphaGo ended up beating his human rival, but Lee Se-dol managed to snatch one game for a final score of 1-4 in favour of AlphaGo. Whilst AI may outwit humans in chess and now Go, it still cannot compete in games like blackjack and poker, which require intuition and judgement for bluffing, value-betting, and re-steal– so humans are not a beaten race quite yet.

In other AI news, Microsoft’s internet chat bot Tay had to be shut down just a few hours after launching as the innocent AI quickly became racist and abusive as it ‘learned’ from other users on Twitter. Microsoft reacted by shutting it down and deleting the most offensive tweets, but not before the media picked up on what happened, making this a very public AI flop. For Microsoft, it’s back to the drawing board.

Taking to the skies

photo: FAA

It has been a long time coming, but start-up Flirtey reported their six rotor drone made the first ever fully autonomous urban delivery. The drone delivered bottled water, food, and a first-aid kit to a house in a small town in Nevada. While Flirtey is making headlines with their drone delivery success, pizza company Domino’s is trialling an unmanned ground vehicle in Australia for their pizza delivery service.

The Centre for the Study of the Drone released a report analysing 2,732 Section 333 exemption documents issued by the FAA between September 25, 2014 and December 31, 2015 to individuals, companies, and other institutions wishing to use drones for non-recreational purposes in U.S. airspace. The report indicates the rate of exemptions for non-recreational purposes of drones are on the rise, pointing towards the emergence of a ‘Various Uses’ drone business model. It appears not only are drones here to stay, but they will become an even more common sight in our skies.

Lastly, the New York City Drone Film Festival announced its winners this month – publishing visually stunning pieces of aerial cinematography well worth a watch. And if videos shot by robots aren’t your thing, there’s also a nine-part documentary by Academy Award®-nominated director Orlando von Einsiedel and Executive Producer J.J. Abrams called ‘Moon Shot’. The documentary follows teams competing for $30 million in a race to land a privately-funded robot on the moon.

Losses, gains – and robotics’ first unicorn

The Atlas robot, created by Boston Dynamics and DARPA, used by several teams in the DRC Trials. Source: DARPA

It wasn’t all good news on the business front as drone-maker 3D robotics announced they would be cutting jobs and focus more on the corporate market in an effort to avoid the growing competition in the direct-to-consumer market.

There was also a shake-up in the robotics world when Google announced they were putting Boston Dynamics up for sale. The previously successful maker of humanoid and four-legged robots was acquired by Google in 2013. However, after a series of high-profile resignations and failed collaborations Google does not believe the company will “produce a marketable product in the next few years”. When and for how much Boston Dynamics may be sold is a matter of debate – we’ll keep our eyes peeled.

In the meantime, small San Francisco-based start-up Cruise Automation made history as it was bought by GM for what is rumoured to be a sum exceeding $1 billion – the first time more than $1 billion has been invested in a robotics start-up.

European Robotics Forum, #ERF2016

Official opening for ERF2016, with representatives on the panel.

March also saw the annual ERF take place in Ljubljana, Slovenia, with a record number of delegates in attendance. There were lots of new and exciting showcases and engaging discussions focused on the European robotics industry.

Innovation, skills, and regulation were at the heart of the opening panel discussion, with government and industry officials discussing greater efforts to continue leading in the robotics industry and remain at the forefront of robotics advancement.

Autonomous cars

Microsoft wasn’t the only big company with some embarrassing news as Google revealed one of its self-driving cars caused a crash (with no injuries) that – for the first time – was not directly linked to human error, but an incorrect assumption the car made. On the positive front, having this type of low speed crash was actually a good chance to learn and improve safety for autonomous car programming.

Meanwhile in Singapore, MIT spinout nuTonomy is developing a fleet of unmanned taxis to roam the streets of the island nation and hoping this will solve mobility issues. Singapore’s population is projected to increase by 30 per cent in the next 20 years.

Swarm robots on the farm

Source: swarmfarm

It’s not just the streets that may soon see unmanned autonomous vehicles, they may also be operating on a field near your house. At least that’s what Australia-based company SwarmFarm Robotics hopes. The company has developed a swarm of collision-avoiding robots that work together to spray a field with fertiliser or pesticides, potentially saving farmers time and money. A programme built into the robots means the machines can also detect when they are running out of water, chemicals or fuel, and go to a nearby tanker to refuel. They can dock with the tank without aid, fill up and return to their midnight spraying.

Meanwhile in the lab…

Researchers at Stanford University built six microrobots modelled on ants, weighing just 3.5 ounces in total, and pulled a car weighing 3,900 pounds. You can watch the impressive video here.

At MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), researchers developed a phone-based laser rangefinder that works outdoors – something current depth sensors (such as Microsoft Kinect) struggle to do. The team plans to present their new rangefinder at ICRA in May.

Finally, an exoskeleton built by Indego was granted FDA approval after successfully completing a large US clinical trial. The company joins only a handful of others who have FDA or CE certified exoskeletons on the market.

In Memoriam

Photo courtesy: We Robot 2015.

We could not end this digest without a nod to Professor Tony Dyson – builder of the original R2-D2 robot for Star Wars – who sadly died on 4th March. The special effects expert designed robots for many big tech companies such as Sony and Toshiba, and worked on Superman II, Moonraker and Dragon Slayer. Rest in peace.

Upcoming events

• 7th Annual National Robotics Week: April 2-10
• AISB 2016: University of Sheffield, UK, April 4-6
• IEEE Haptics Symposium 2016: Philadelphia, PA, April 8-11
• Drone Dealer Expo: Orlando, FL, April 11- 13
• RoboUniverse: New York, April 11-12

A quick, hassle-free way to stay on top of robotics news, our robotics digest is released on the first Monday of every month. Sign up to get it in your inbox. 

Off to a flying start

It’s the beginning of the New Year, what will happen in the robotics world in 2016? Whilst no one really knows for sure, popular discussions and trends in robotics over the past months feature exciting developments. For example, substantial growth in robotic startups, progress in connected autonomous cars and drones, more prominent roles for social robots, and a boost in industrial and agricultural robot use. The latter in particular is predicted to see big changes in supply chains and the world’s first farm run entirely by robots, which by 2017 aims to harvest 30,000 heads of lettuce daily.

YuMi robot | photo ABB

Collaborative robots (co-bots) working jointly with humans are rapidly advancing, thanks to affordable sensors and computer power. It’s no wonder this sector is expected to grow and reach over $1 billion in 2020 with collaborative lightweight robots becoming the top seller in the industry in about 2 years.

Another trend we haven’t discussed — but it tends to come up again and again — is the Internet of Things. Whilst this area isn’t actually ‘new’ it is worth watching as we’re shifting away from building devices to designing services.

Forbes also expanded their ’30 under 30’ list, highlighting more trends in advanced manufacturing, conversational systems and human-augmented AI.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution

This year’s World Economic Forum in Davos discussed the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’, the technological revolution that will alter the way we live, work, and relate to one another. To stimulate further discussion along these lines, topics focused on powerful new technologies and concepts — from artificial intelligence to advanced analytics — along with philosophical questions about human values and human traits.

With eminent speakers, including Alan Winfield and Vanessa Evers, attendees tackled a range of topics from the future of jobs in times of increasing automation, to the impact of robotics on the car industry, and the fear of robots rising up against us.

How friendly is your AI?

Artificial intelligence was another hot topic at the WEF with discussions on the current state of AI and debates around emotional intelligence. January saw several interesting articles about this area. On Robohub we asked ‘how friendly is your AI?’ and whether AI and humans can learn to collaborate, or are destined to compete. Researchers believe it is imperative to carefully define rewards in order to avoid costly surprises. In addition, we published an interview with New York Times reporter John Markoff about his career and views on the quickly evolving AI sector.

Big investments in robotics

Whilst the start of the New Year is a time to look forward it is also a time to reflect. 2015 was a year of great successes for robotics, including record investments in drone technology. Frank Tobe looked back at robotics funding, IPOs, acquisitions and failures in 2015 to see what we can learn from the past and how it might help us predict what will happen in the future.

2016 looks set to continue with the upward trend, as Horizon 2020 earmarked almost €100 million for European robotics, and Savioke, developer of service robot ‘Relay’, secured $17.6 million in funding from Intel Capital, EDBI, Northern Light Venture Capital. Autonomous and connected cars continue seeing investments, with the White House putting forward a $4 billion proposal to speed up the deployment of robocars, and GM combining forces with Lyft to bring forward the day when your taxi is a driverless car.

Consumer electronics

Autonomous vehicles were all the rage at this year’s CES in Las Vegas. But the time robocars – and only robocars – roam our streets won’t be for quite a while as there are still a number of issues that need to be resolved, according to Google’s intervention rate reports.

CES is not just robocars, there were plenty of other exciting talks and news from the event, like the CEOs of IBM and Intel describing the ways in which purchasing has been transformed by technology, Aldebaran’s chief of innovation outlining the rise of the social robot, and Toyota’s announcement of their all-star leadership team for AI and robotics research. But not all the cool stuff shown and discussed at CES is ready for the market, as Farhad Manjoo argued in the New York Times, describing the ‘awkward adolescence’ of  consumer tech. If you’d like to learn more, there’s a brief CES round-up available online, where you can also watch a replay of the keynote speech given by Brian Krzanich, CEO of Intel Corporation.

Service robots are growing up

It’s no secret that service and social robots are gaining in popularity (as the success of Pepper’s presentation at CES showed once again) and becoming more affordable. On 27 December another batch of Pepper robots sold out in just one minute and researchers are working on various improvements. In Germany, roboticists are training robots to predict your organisation preferences. And in the US, Savioke is trialling its service robot in real-world settings to find out whether and how it impacts on service. Several companies are working to implement and improve telepresence, by improving natural language recognition. It’s exciting for service robotics, certainly an area to watch.

 Robot’s podcast: 200th episode special

We couldn’t end this digest without a nod to the Robots Podcast, which celebrated its 200^th episode on 22 January with a look back at nearly 8 years of podcasting. Run entirely by volunteers, the podcast has featured many of the great names in robotics, including Rodney Brooks (who also appears in the celebratory 200^th episode) and Alan Winfield.

In memoriam

Marvin Minsky visiting the OLPC office. Photo credit: Sethwoodworth, Wikimedia Commons

There was also sad news at the start of the New Year with AI pioneer Marvin Minsky passing away at the age of 88. This comes after the father of robotics, Joseph F Engelberger, recently passed at 90, just one month prior. Minsky was the first to explore the use of common-sense reasoning in computer programming and paved the way for the fields we now know as AI and machine learning.

Coming up in February

• Unmanned Systems Expo 2016, The Hague, Netherlands, 2 February
• Quark 2016, K.K. Birla Goa Campus (India), 5 February
• WearRAcon 16, Phoenix, AZ, 10-12 February
• AAAI-16, Phoenix, AZ, 12-17 February

A quick, hassle-free way to stay on top of robotics news , our robotics digest is released on the first Monday of every month. Sign up to get it in your inbox. 

Significant investments in Silicon Valley

DJI and Toyota both announced this November that they will be setting up large R&D centers in Silicon Valley, with Toyota promising to spend $1 billion on AI research in the area. Toyota’s announcement comes on the heals of formalizing their new partnership with MIT’s CSAIL and Stanford’s SAIL labs to develop advanced driving technology.

Check out other investments and acquisitions from this fall here.

Meanwhile in China

Swiss industrial robot manufacturer ABB announced plans for rapid expansion into China.

The Chinese robotics market is booming and, according to the IFR, one third of the world’s installed industrial robots will be located in that country by 2018. So it is no surprise that Swiss industrial robot manufacturer ABB announced it is planning rapid expansion into China to capitalize on this growth. But the South China Morning Post argues that China is still reliant on importing key aspects of industrial robotics technology, and that it will have to significantly develop its competence in-house if it hopes to transform the country’s manufacturing sector and rival foreign competitors.

Amazon’s robots have competition

Locus Robotics Corporation announced the first deployment of its new multi robot warehouse fulfillment system, just in time for critical holiday season shipping.

Amazon may have doubled the number of robots in its warehouses in the past year, but new robotic solutions are emerging to rival the internet giant’s Kiva system. Startups from around the world, including the US, Europe and Asia, are developing clever systems to fill the gap left by Kiva when it was acquired by Amazon. Readers are probably already familiar with the Fetch and Freight system from Fetch Robotics and the Butler from GreyOrange. The newest player on the scene is Locus Robotics, which does fulfillment for Zara, Bonobos and Bluefly, and which claims to offer the “world’s first robotic fulfillment solution built by warehouse people for warehouse people”.

Service robots are catching on

Deliverbot, by Starship Technologies

Indeed, as tracked in a new case study on service robots by Silicon Valley Robotics Director Andra Keay, robot helpers are making the move from factories and into warehouses, retail stores and beyond. Take Simbe Robotic’s new inventory tracking robot, Tally, for example. This little bot is being trialled by several retailers in North America, helping to keep track of stock, fill inventory gaps and ensure good product placement.

The ‘last mile’ of the delivery chain is another area being targeted by automation. This month Amazon revealed a new design for its Prime Air drone delivery service, and Starship Technologies (created by two of the founders of Skype, Janus Friis and Ahti Heinla) unveiled its plans for self-driving delivery bots. Their slogan: “A new era in local delivery.”

Jobs and economies debate continues

Martin Ford’s ‘Rise of the Robots’ named most influential business book of the year by Business Insider.

With service robots taking on tasks traditionally done by humans, the debate about robotics’ impact on jobs and economies has once again gained momentum. A newly published Merrill Lynch report on how automation technology is disrupting markets paints a not-so-rosy picture. However, earlier this year a report by Deloitte argued that robotics creates more jobs than it takes. Whichever side of the argument you fall on, it is clear that jobs and robots are top of mind — probably the reason why Martin Ford’s ‘Rise of the Robots’ was named the most important business book of the year by Business Insider.

Consumer robots, by the numbers

While the debate on robots and jobs raged on, 1,000 busy human workers produced the latest batch of 1,000 Pepper robots – which flew off the shelves in just 1 minute. An even more remarkable number is the 180,000 robotic vacuum cleaners that were sold on Singles Day, a consumer holiday for the Chinese singles and youth market.

Hasbro’s new $99.99 robocat for seniors: Is it Fur Real?

When it comes to holiday shopping, it’s debatable how big the market is for Hasbro’s new $99.99 robotic cat for seniors. However, the FAA is expecting more than 1 million drones to be sold this season, a number that lit a fire under the FAA and the US Department of Transportation to finalize rules for consumer drones. This month the DOT’s 25-member Drone Regulation Task Force announced 11 key recommendations, the most notable of which is that drones weighing more than 250g will need to be registered. The 18-page report recommends that there be no fee for registration, however it suggests a $25,000 penalty for non-compliance. It will be interesting to see whether these new registration requirements will impact sales this holiday.

Another key number in consumer robotics is 2020 — the year by which Google’s robot group is looking to create new consumer robot technology. But according to Business Insider, its ability to do so will depend on whether they can fill the leadership vacuum left by Andy Rubin.

News from the research front

MIT’s “Shrinking bull’s-eye” algorithm speeds up complex modeling from days to hours. Image: Wikipedia/Almoz

With sales in consumer robotics booming this season, those working at the other end of the spectrum – researchers and developers – are busy inventing the next big thing. This month both Google and Microsoft have opened up their machine learning libraries to stimulate development. Meanwhile, MIT researchers have developed a new algorithm that vastly reduces the computation of virtually any computational model. Also at MIT, researchers in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) have built a drone that can competently navigate through a tree-filled field, and have just received a humanoid robot from NASA, which they will test and develop for use in space travel.

Events

New collaborative robots — and product lines — were unveiled at iREX this year.

European Robotics Week 2015 spawned more than 600 robotics events and activities right across the region this November. The focus of this year’s event was ‘Robots and Society’. Also taking place in November was the Humanoids conference in Seoul, Korea, and ending last week was iREX in Japan.

International events coverage is important to our readers — why not consider writing about an event you have attended recently? Send your draft or pitch to info@robohub.org. And don’t forget to take photos!

Coming up this December:

• The Robot Performance Festival | Prague, Czech Republic, through Dec 12
• RoboUniverse Shanghai | Shanghai China, Dec 8-10.
  Use discount code ROBOHUB for 10% off passes.
• Manufacturing Summit: Robotics, Automation and Development | Berlin, Germany, Dec 10-11
• RoboUniverse San Diego | San Diego, CA, USA, Dec 14-16.
  Use discount code ROBOHUB for 10% off passes.

Miss a previous digest? Don’t worry! Check out our archives. 

Who’s driving?

Former DARPA Program Manager Gill Pratt will direct Toyota’s new $50M robotics research investment

Auto giant Toyota announced that it will invest $50 million to develop “advanced driving support” technology in partnership with MIT’s CSAIL and Stanford’s SAIL, and has hired Former DARPA Program Manager Gill Pratt as their new Executive Technical Advisor to direct the project. And Google announced former Hyundai CEO John Krafcik as its new self-driving car chief executive, a decision that could take this Google’s research enterprise one step closer to becoming an actual business.

Meanwhile, ride share service Uber hired two security experts — Charlie Miller from Twitter and Chris Valasek from IOActive, who in July demonstrated they could hack a moving Jeep — to join the growing team of researchers at their company’s Advanced Technologies Center in Pittsburg, notorious for having recruited dozens of experts from Carnegie Mellon University’s robotics department.

All the corporate interest would suggest that the technology is rapidly maturing, but is it a good thing for basic research? While the New York Times Magazine speculates whether high tech academia can survive poaching from Silicon Valley, others suggest that there will always be a need for early stage research that only university labs can cater to.

Cleaning up

What does the VW scandal mean for robocars?

Volkwagen made headlines when it was discovered that millions of their vehicles used software to cheat during emissions tests. Unfortunately this was not the first time an automaker used software to break the law. Brad Templeton muses on what the scandal means for the future of robocars.

On a tidier note, Volvo announced it would team up with the Chalmers University of Technology, Mälardalen University of Sweden, Penn State, and recycling company Renova to develop a new project called Robot-based Autonomous Refuse handling (ROAR). The hope is to have supervised robots collecting your garbage soon.

Meanwhile Peloton Technology, a developer of adaptive cruise control systems for trucks, cleaned up when they secured $17 million from several strategic investors, including Japanese robot maker Denso.

Retailing robots

Using a BeamPro, Brianna Lempesis waits in line to buy an iPhone6s from the Apple Store in downtown Palo Alto. Photo: Suitable Technologies.

While department store giant Target announced plans to test robot workers in its upcoming concept store, Chloe the robot has already started work at Best Buy in New York city, and in San Francisco, at a fully automated restaurant called Eatsa, guests can order their meal via in-store iPads and collect their food from small glass compartments with no human staff in sight.

And robots aren’t just working behind the counter these days. This September shoppers used telepresence devices to queue up at their local Apple stores to buy the newly released iPhone 6S.

Talking robots

IBM’s Rob High chats with Nao during RoboBusiness 2015 keynote.

Mattel, manufacturer of the iconic Barbie doll, is planning to use AI to help conversational dolls to get to know their human playmates. Every little girl’s dream? Maybe, but critics have already raised concerns about the talking doll’s impact on privacy and gender perceptions.

Meanwhile, the makers of Jibo are working hard to make their social robot sound lifelike, and a chatbot named Rose came out tops to win the Loebner artificial intelligence prize despite not convincing the judges she was actually human.

The push towards conversational systems should not come as a surprise to anyone who attended RoboBusiness this year. In the keynote talk, IBM‘s Robert High posited that “Cognitive computing will be to computing what transaction processing is today.”  (Check out more Robobusiness coverage, including Rethink’s Sawyer and the new OTTO from Clearpath here).

Winners’ circle

Cleverpet wins the 2015 Robot Launch international startup competition.

The Robot Launch international startup competition announced its winners this September. CleverPet’s smart pet feeder took first prize, with judges citing the how product’s adaptability and focus on play distinguished it from other robotic pet products. First runner up was Preemadonna’s Nailbot — a robot that lets you paint custom designs on your fingernails.

euRathlon 2015 Grand Challenge Winners

Meanwhile in Europe, euRathon — the world’s first outdoor land, sea and air disaster competition — came to an end. Using teams of land, air and sea robots, participants were required to locate missing workers, map a building and identify critical hazards, and inspect land and underwater pipes and stem a leak, all within 100 minutes. The multi-domain partnership Cobham (land), Universitat de Girona (sea) and ISEP/INESC TEC (Air) were crowned Winners of the Grand Challenge.

Fast moving prosthetics

Jason Barnes, an amputee drummer who tours nationwide by playing with a robotic arm.

Robotic prosthetics are fast becoming one of the most exciting developments in rehabilitation, giving hope to thousands of amputees. This was beautifully demonstrated in a short documentary exploring the life of ‘cyborg drummer’ Jason Barnes.

If you think those drumsticks are moving fast, so is the research. A hand developed at Johns Hopkins using DARPA technology gives its wearer sense of touch, and researchers from CNIB and EPFL have developed a brain-controlled prosthetic that learns from its mistakes, adapts to changing conditions, and speeds up the prosthetic training process for patients.

Hot and bothered

Nothing will generate headlines like sex. Except maybe robots and sex.

This September robot sex hit the news when robot ethicist Kathleen Richardson launched the Campaign Against Sex Robots. Drawing parallels between robot sex and prostitution, Richardson argued that sexbots reinforce asymmetrical relationships and could exacerbate gender inequalities. Others disagreed, arguing that fringe sex toys could hardly doom all of humanity to exploitation and empty relationships, and that they may offer a safe environment for fulfilling sexual fantasies.

Then, just when we thought the topic was going limp, a paper titled ‘The Future of Sex Report’ stoked the fire again by claiming that by 2050, people will be having more sex with robots than with each other.

All this pillow talk was clearly too much for some: SoftBank reportedly issued a clause in their purchasing contract that bans users from having sex with Pepper, and Malaysian authorities withdrew their support for the Love and Sex with Robots conference, which was planned for November.

Want tease out the finer points of the debate? Check out the Robot-Human Love episode from the Robots Podcast.

Events to watch for this October:

• RoboUniverse Tokyo – Tokyo, Japan – Oct 7-11
• Maker Faire Pittsburgh – Pittsburgh, PA, USA – Oct 10-11
• Maker Faire Seoul – Seoul, South Korea – Oct 10-11
• National Robot Safety Conference – Pittsburg, PA, USA – Oct 12-14
• International Collaborative Robots Workshop – Pittsburg, PA, USA, Oct 25
• Maker Faire Rome – Rome, Italy – Oct 16-18
• Robotics Innovation Show – London, UK – Oct 20-21
• International Conference of Social Robots in Therapy and Education – Almere, Netherlands – Oct 22-23
• International Conference on Social Robotics (ICSR) – Paris, France – Oct 26-30
• Field and Assistive Robotics 9 – Lahore, Pakistan – Oct 30 – Nov 1

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Money flowing into robotics startups

Money was flowing into robotics startups this August. You’ll recall that in July, Softbank’s Pepper gained a rival when Japanese telco NTT announced it was launching a competing consumer robot called Sota. Well, now a third consumer robot is entering the frey: this month Boston-based Jibo received $11 million from leading Asia-Pacific investors to bring its robotic smart assistant to Asian markets. Although a full version is not available just yet, the investment means that Jibo is now poised and ready to go on sale in Asia as soon as the robot is ready.

Look familiar?

Also this month, GreyOrange – a company focused on materials and handling based in India and Singapore – received $30 million to produce more of its Butler mobile robot. Similar to Amazon’s Kiva Systems robot, Butler is a shelves-to-picker robot system designed to support transportation and logistics in warehouses. Frank Tobe asks: Does their technology infringe on Kiva’s IP?

Meanwhile in the US, Carnegie Mellon University and GE Ventures announced a for-profit $20 million venture fund, coupled with a new accelerator program called “The Robotics Hub”, which aims to bring leading robotics firms to Pittsburgh. The Robotics Hub will also help CMU’s robotics institute to spin off ideas from their lab. (We couldn’t help but notice that the name of the program shares astonishing similarities with a certain non-profit online communication platform focused on robotics news and developments.)

Combined with the many trade shows, conferences and reports of sales records, investments such as these seem to be building the business case for robotics. And some are taking a bet on it: the InterContinental Group just introduced Savioke mobile delivery robots at the 300-room Crown Plaza in Silicon Valley, hoping to showcase the cutting-edge technology produced in the region (not to mention offering guests a unique experience).

Research buzz

Russia’s ExoAtlet takes its first steps into clinical trials.

A team of scientists have begun a clinical field trial of Russia’s first medical exoskeleton, the ExoAtlet-Med. Backed by Skolkovo, this is the first exoskeleton from Russia, and the scientists hope the trial will enable them to demonstrate its ability to support movement and rehabilitation in patients with restricted limb function or spinal injury.

Elsewhere, experts in swarm robotics have developed a new programming language for heterogeneous robot swarms called Buzz. This novel language allows developers to create, modify and disband swarms as needed, with the freedom to choose the most appropriate approach to behavior development and learning.

Biologists have long hoped to learn more about cooperation and complex social behaviors in nature from robot swarms. Digital antlike robots created by a team of computer scientists at Aberystwyth University in the United Kingdom have now brought them one step closer to this goal. The robots mimic leafcutter ants and allow scientists to explore how cooperation and division of labour might evolve over hundreds of generations.

Another research team is looking at evolution, too, but this time the evolution is in the robots themselves. In their paper, the researchers from Zurich and Cambridge describe how they built a robot arm that creates “babies” that are better adapted to their surroundings than their “mother”  – and all this without human input. Fascinating as this may sound, lead researcher Dr Fumiya Iida reassures us that the days of robots independently producing superior offspring are still a long way off.

Finally, it’s not just us humans who can learn from robots. MIT’s new robot called “Hermes” borrows its quick and graceful reflexes from a human controller. Hooked up to the human pilot, it mimics the controller’s movements in real time. In future, this robot may be useful to support search and rescue operations.

Robocar roundup

“A” is for autonomous.

This August Google X was made a subsidiary of the new Alphabet holding company, which is no longer part of the Google family. Brad Templeton (Robocars.com) explored what the decision means for Google’s robocars and came to the conclusion that, despite a number of drawbacks, the move could be a positive one.

And at Bloomberg Business, Noah Buhayar and Peter Robinson discussed whether the insurance industry will survive autonomous cars. Arguing that increased autonomy will result in fewer accidents and a subsequent drop in insurance premiums, they warn that if the industry does not adapt, it will nosedive.

Killer robots

Last month’s debates on killer robots, including IJCAI’s open letter calling for a ban on offensive autonomous weapons and Elon Musk’s investment in research to keep “AI robust and beneficial”, sparked further discussions this August. In an article in The Conversation, for example, the authors encouraged researchers to engage with military robots and to ensure that these robots act as ethically responsible as possible. Also in response to the open letter, Erik Sofge argued that a ban on killer robots is inevitable, and critically explored what such a ban could look like.

Hitchbot’s demise

Following successful trips across Canada, Germany and the Netherlands, Hitchbot was supposed to trek across the US from Boston to San Francisco, but the robot was found decapitated in Philadelphia, bringing its latest trip to an abrupt end. The ensuing hunt for Hitchbot’s killer heated up when one of its last companions’ claimed to have found a video showing Hitchbot’s attacker. However, the video turned out to be a hoax, even if Hitchbot’s unseemly decapitation was not.

Hitchbot’s family, a group of researchers from Canada, soon confirmed that the robot was beyond repair. A Kickstarter campaign to revive Hitchbot (started by some Philadelphia techies bent on restoring their city’s honor) far exceeded its goal, but was soon cancelled when the Canadian research team said that it was still deciding what to do next.

An untimely end.

The robot’s earlier adventures stand in stark contrast to its violent and untimely end. But Hitchbot knew the risks and continued on its journey in spite of them: designed primarily as a social experiment, some argued that it was only a question of time before Hitchbot met its demise. Whatever the reason for the attack, Hitchbot’s travels and even his destruction have taught us much about human behavior, just as the researchers intended. Talking about their loss, the researchers highlighted the many questions the robot helped to answer, and discussed possible future incarnations for the project.

If Hitchbot is indeed resurrected, we suggest that before it sets off on another journey it should get some self-defense lessons from this Tokyo robot that has learned to avoid bullies and flee from physical abuse.

New books

Several new books on robotics came out this August.

First among them is “Machines of Loving Grace” by Pulitzer-Prize-winning science writer John Markoff, which examines the history of automation and explores the paradox between “artificial intelligence” (AI) and the more human-centered concept of “intelligence augmentation” (IA).  Jerry Kaplan’s “Humans need not apply: A guide to wealth and work in the age of artificial intelligence” reviews advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence and looks at how these have (and will) transform the world economy. And author Murray Shanahan takes on the Singularity debate in his primer “The Technological Singularity”, outlining a series of scenarios that raise philosophical, ethical and pragmatic questions we, as a society, should consider.

At the other end of the spectrum, Jonathan Ledgard, former Africa correspondent for The Economist walks readers through his vision of how robotics – and cargo drones specifically – could transform the African continent and its economy. In a series of three essays, titled Terra Firma Triptych, Ledgard builds on his journalistic practice tracking the mass adoption of mobile phones throughout Africa, and predicts that cargo drones could have a similar impact on the region’s economy and productivity by bringing goods into regions where roads are poor or non-existent.

Events

The Robot Launch finals will be held on Friday Sept 18 when a selection of great startups will pitch live to an investor panel. Are Robohub readers on the same wavelength as our expert panelists? This week is the final vote for the Robot Launch “Readers’ Pick”, so vote now to have your say.

Other events this month to watch for:

• IFA Consumer Trade Show– Berlin, Germany – Sep 4-9
• IMA Conference on Mathematics of Robotics – Oxford, UK – Sep 9-11
• InterDrone – Las Vegas, USA – Sep 9-11
• Robo-Revolution – Karnataka, India – Sep 12-15
• Drone Apps Conference – Lausanne, Switzerland – Sep 14-15 (Use the discount code “Robohub” when registering for a 150CHF discount at checkout.)
• euRathlon Challenge – Piombino, Italy – Sep 17-25
• Robot Launch Finals – Robohub – Sep 18
• RoboBusiness – San Jose, CA, USA – Sep 23-24
• IROS – Hamburg, Germany – Sep 28 – Oct 4
• RTEX – Dubai, UAE – Sep 29 – Oct 1

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A quick, hassle-free way to stay on top of robotics news , our robotics digest is released on the first Monday of every month. Sign up to get it in your inbox.

A new battle for consumer marketshare is on

Japanese telcos vie for share in consumer robot-as-a-service business. Source: Getty Images

First it was Google, Amazon and Apple. Now it’s Japanese telcos that are jockying for position in the robotics game. In early July, SoftBank announced that they will produce and sell 1,000 Pepper robots per month starting August 1. Then, a few weeks later rival Japanese telco NTT launched a competing consumer robot called Sota. Not to be outdone, Softbank responded the next day by announcing they will take preorders for the enterprise version of Pepper starting in October. Both companies will be using the robots to sell data subscription services. Could it be that it’s not just about Google vs Amazon, or Softbank vs NTT anymore, but about telcos vs big data companies? Robohub will be reopening its focus series Big deals: What it means to have the giants investing in robotics to explore how telcos might be changing the game.

At your service

Cyberdyne’s waist-based mini-exoskeleton for airport employees charged with moving and lifting baggage and goods. Source: Getty Images.

Pepper and Sota aren’t the only robots Japanese consumers will be seeing more of soon. Haneda Airport is about to deploy three robots made by Cyberdyne, including an autonomous floor cleaner, a mobile luggage porter and an exoskeleton to help employees handling baggage and goods. And then there is Japan’s new fully robotic Henn na Hotel, which developers hope will change the face of low-cost travel accommodation.

Several market research reports are predicting impressive growth rates for service robotics generally.

Cooking up a storm

Robot as marketing strategy: Bosch takes a bet on Rotimatic’s consumer flatbread maker

But there is more news in service robotics.

This month Robotic flatbread maker Rotimatic (by Zimplistic) received $11.5million from two venture funds. The company took more than $5M in pre-orders of their cooking robot at their launch in 2014 and already has $72M worth of backorders. It seems that robots are back in the popular imagination as household helpers, and investors are taking a bet on leveraging consumer interest in robots as a viable marketing strategy.

But the Rotimatic is not the only cooking robot vying for our attention this month. At the PRISMA lab in Naples, Italy, researchers have chosen to study robotic dynamic manipulation through the task of making pizza (how very Italian!). They hope their RoDyMan robot will provide answers to key problems related to robot gripping.

Major milestones

Industrial robotics pioneer Joe Engelberger turned 90 this July. Image courtesy of Ars Electronica.

One of the pioneers of industrial robotics, Joe Engelberger, celebrated his 90^th birthday this July. Industrial robotics has come a long way in the sixty years since Engelberger founded Unimation, the world’s first robotics company: Financial Times analysts are now predicting that the payback period for industrial robots with a 10 year life cycle is just 1.7 years in 2015, down from 11.8 yrs in 2008. Meanwhile, Siemens announced a new Robot Launch “Industrial Robotics Award” as part of their Frontier Partner program.

T=81 hours. Thunderstorm clouds and winds up to 60 km/h make landing the AS-2 challenging.

Another major milestone was met when ETH Zurich’s fully solar powered UAV AtlantikSolar achieved a full day/night flight. Then, just two weeks later, they achieved solar powered flight for 81 hours, setting a new endurance world record for UAVs in its class. Demonstrating this kind of endurance has been called the ‘holy grail of perpetual flight’ because overcast skies can inhibit recharging and poor weather or high winds can effect power consumption.

In other news, ReWalk Robotics’s new exoskeleton allowed paraplegic Robert Woo to take a walk on the streets of New York, and the very first robot-aided paediatric surgery was performed at Brooke Army Medical Centre in the US.

Robots making (more) headlines

Is the intense focus on safety and effectiveness compromising training opportunities for new robotic surgeons?

A study on adverse events in robotic surgery released this month reported that between January 2000 and December 2013, FDA records showed that robotic surgical procedures were linked to the deaths of 144 people, 1,391 injuries, and involved 8,061 malfunctions – this is out of a total of more than 1.7 million procedures performed in that time period. The report made headlines in mainstream news outlets, including MIT Technology Review. But is the intense focus on safety and effectiveness compromising training opportunities for new robotic surgeons?

In an unfortunate incident this month, a 21-year-old contractor was killed while installing a robot at a VW assembly plant in Germany when he was accidentally struck in the chest and pinned against a metal plate. The story was tweeted by Financial Times employment reporter Sarah O’Connor, whose name coincidentally shares striking similarities to Sarah Connor, the lead female protagonist in the Terminator movies. In the ensuing hours, O’Connor’s Twitter feed unwittingly received a barrage of Skynet references, the story went viral in the media, and robots got a lot of negative headlines in the process, causing some to question whether the story would have received the same attention had it been labelled as an ‘industrial accident’.

And at the end of July, the IJCAI in Buenos Aires kicked off with an open letter organized by the Boston-based Future of Life Institute (FLI) calling for a ban on offensive autonomous weapons. The letter was signed by over a thousand individuals, including prominent researchers, technologists and thought leaders such as Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking, Steve Wozniak, Erik Brynjolfsson, Eric Horvitz, Geoff Hinton, Yann LeCun, Stuart Russell, and many others. The letter generated headlines across the globe warning of an “AI arms race”, and was celebrated by some as a bold move, but it was taken to task by Automaton’s Evan Ackerman, and criticized as a PR stunt in Pando. Meanwhile, the Future of Life Institute named 37 research teams that will be awarded a share of $7 million from Elon Musk and the Open Philanthropy Project to support research on “keeping AI robust and beneficial”.

Space

In June, Philae made headline news when it woke up after a crash landing that had left it silent for months. But now the lander has gone silent once again. Despite the lack of communication, engineers keep transmitting commands to Philae, in hope that it will continue to carry out measurements and eventually send results back to Earth.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk and his team at SpaceX have been analysing the CRS-7 explosion and have tentatively proposed that a faulty strut may be to blame. Investigations into the incident are ongoing.

The art of the real, and the art of CGI

National Geographic’s new movie, Robots 3D, proves that robots don’t need to be sci-fi to be compelling.

We are used to seeing robots with astonishing powers running around on film and TV screens, but National Geographic’s new movie “Robots 3D” is different. It takes us on a tour of real robots in their labs around the world, explaining how far we have really come in the field of humanoid robotics without the need for special effects. We were impressed!

But if you’re into deconstructing sci-fi, check out this article by special effects expert Graham Edwards, who explains – from script writing and robot design to filming and post production – what goes into making the robots in movies like “Robot Overlords” look so real.

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Upcoming robotics events

• Robotronica – Brisbane QLD, Australia – August 23, 2015
• TRADR Summer School on Autonomous Micro Aerial Vehicles – Sankt Augustin, Germany – August 24-28, 2015
• IEEE Intl Conf on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE) – Gothenburg, Sweden – August 24-28, 2015
• IEEE Ro-Man Socially Embedded Robots Conference – Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan – August 31 – September 4, 2015
• IFA 2015 Consumer Trade Show – Messe Berlin, Germany – September 4-9, 2015

A quick, hassle-free way to stay on top of robotics news , our robotics digest is released on the first Monday of every month. Sign up to get it in your inbox.

April Fools’

Domino’s was just one of the many robot hoaxes that came out this April Fools’ Day.

April began (how could it not?) with April Fools’ Day and an impressive range of robot-related hoaxes, inlcuding a “Domi-No-Driver” robotic pizza delivery vehicle, and a “parking ticket avoidance system” upgrade for Tesla’s Model S.

While these hoaxes were mostly just about fun, Frank Tobe argues in The Robot Report that the Domi-No-Driver is not so farfetched given the number of established companies – like FedEx, UPS, DHL and a myriad of restaurant chains in the US and especially China – that are all working on the concept.

Lost together

Tepco sent a snake robot inside Fukushima’s Reactor 1 this April to measure radiation levels.

Two robots were sent in to explore the stricken Fukushima power plant this April. Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) sent a shape-shifting snake robot into the plant’s highly radioactive Reactor 1 to assess damage and radiation levels, but lost control of it three hours into the mission. They tried again with a second robot and were able to capture some haunting images before they lost control of this robot, too. Both robots remain inside the plant and Tepco has given up on recovery attempts. The mission is being hailed a success by the company despite the robots being lost; Tepco plans to use the data to inform the future decommissioning of the plants.

Google gets personality

Google gets personality.

Google was awarded a “robot personality patent” this month that outlines ways to download and customize the personality of a robot or computer. The general idea is to leverage cloud-robotics to build, store and download robot personalities that can adapt to owners’ personalities, habits and moods. Needless to say, the patent approval received significant media attention. In Automaton Blog, Kate Darling argued that the patent impedes innovation because Google got the patent without actively pursuing the technology. And on Robohub Mark Stephen Meadows points out that the patent is less about developing robot personalities, and more about collecting data about owners’ personalities – something that could ultimately be used to influence our purchasing decisions. Given that Google’s business model centers around data collection, this does not seem so far fetched.

More big player news

Google is not the only big player in the data business, however. This month IBM teamed up with Apple on an artificial intelligence health program set to glean life-saving insights by tapping into the vast amounts of health data available through personal devices and digital records.

On April 29, 2015, Blue Origin (founded by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos) conducted its first successful test of a reusable rocket designed to take tourists into space.

Meanwhile, Amazon Web Services made its Amazon Machine Learning available to developers looking to use AI modelling in their own apps and web-services. And another branch of the internet giant got an FAA exemption, allowing it to test Amazon Prime Air delivery drones in US airspace, albeit under tight restrictions. The exemption came one week after Amazon had criticized the FAA’s rulemaking process in a U.S. Senate hearing. Also connected to Amazon was Blue Origin’s successful test of its New Shepherd rocket – Blue Origin was founded in 2000 by Amazon’s CEO, Jeff Bezos. The vehicle is designed for commercial space flights and could one day take up to six tourists into space at a time.

Industry launches

Robotics startup Fetch gets into the warehouse fulfillment game with its flexible two-robot system.

In other industry news, Fetch Robotics launched its Fetch and Freight robot system for warehouses. The system comprises two separate robots, one mobile manipulator (Fetch) to get items from shelves, and a much smaller, faster robot base (Freight) to move and deliver items. The two collaborate to form a system that is intended to be more flexible than existing warehouse fulfillment solutions, giving competitors like Kiva and Swisslog a run for their money.

Another launch came when global leader in power and automation technologies ABB showcased their new two-armed YuMi robot at this year’s Hannover Messe, at the same time announcing they had bought German start-up gomTec, maker of the one-armed “co-bot”.

And Ekso Bionics, a manufacturer of wearable robots, announced their new “Works” exoskeleton aimed at the industrial and construction markets. They are also planning a new robotic body suit to support the elderly.

Consumer drone competition heats up

Solo is 3D Robotics’ most consumer friendly drone yet.

Competition is fierce in the world of consumer drones these days, especially among companies marketing products than can produce pro quality video and photography without having to hire a drone operator or a camera person. April saw the launch of new Phantom UAVs with suped up cameras from DJI as well as the Solo drone by 3D Robotics, whose products will be available on the shelves at 400 locations of retailer Best Buy starting in May. Also just launched is a new Kickstarter campaign by Helen Greiner’s Cyphyworks for their new LVL 1 drone, which they hope will have you filming “right out of the box”.

With all these developments and no sign of slowing down, it is no wonder that the commercial drone market is expected to grow by 109% annually.

Autonomous Driving

Delphi completed its transcontinental test drive this April.

You may recall the announcement last February that Uber is partnering with CMU to develop autonomous cars; this month the company is hiring engineers for its robotics centre in Pittsburgh. Meanwhile, Deplhi has successfully completed the trans-continental test drive of its robocar, and Hyundai is planning to invest $70 million to ensure the first commercialised robocars hit our roads by 2020.

Asia news

Chinese VCs are shopping for global robotics ventures.

With notable buyouts including Segway and SMD, and a $200M partnership with Russia’s Skolkovo Foundation, Chinese venture capital firms have been busy this month working to import foreign robotics tech and knowledge into the country. The Chinese robotics market is growing fast and robot deployment within the manufacturing sector is being actively encouraged to boost capacity.

Elsewhere in Asia, initiatives are underway to train workers in automation and robotics with the goal to boost the use of technology within manufacturing and service industries.

UN debates killer robots

United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons meeting, discuss Lethal Autonomous Weapons (LAWS). Credit: United Nations.

On the 13^th of April, delegates from the United Nations came together to discuss Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS). As calls to stop killer robots got louder, representatives from member states outlined their nations’ stance on the subject, listened to expert presentations and developed a framework for future debates.

To help people learn more about the issues, the Centre for the Study of the Done published a primer outlining the current knowledge of and experience with killer robots. See also the Open Roboethics Initiative’s survey exploring attitudes about autonomous military weapons versus remote-controlled ones.

AI

Talking Machines is a new bi-weekly podcast series featured on Robohub that brings you clear conversations with experts in the fields of AI and machine learning.

Much like killer robots, AI has long been a controversial topic, with big names like Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk voicing concerns. This month, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak joined in, wondering out loud in an interview with the Australian Financial Review whether AI could turn us into “family pets”. Oxford Professor Nick Bostrom also suggested caution, and calling on Google and Facebook to help ensure AI stays friendly and safe.

Despite the worries and warnings, engineers working at the cold face of AI are feeling positive about their work and don’t tend to agree with the fears and concerns that surround the field. To learn more about AI’s early days, we recommend the Star’s article on one of the grandfathers of deep learning, Geoffrey Hinton, and Max Welling’s video primer on the subject.

Women in robotics

Steffi Paepcki from OSRF argues that robots designed and built exclusively by men (or exclusively by women, for that matter) will fail to meet the needs of half their users.

Robotics, like many of the related STEM subjects, is a field dominated mostly by men. And yet there are an increasing number of women who have dared to venture into this male domain and who have persevered. This month Lauren Orsini shared the encouraging stories of four women and their pathways into a successful robotics career, OSRF’s Steffi Paepcke outlined the many opportunities for women in robotics, and Silicon Valley Robotics Director Andra Keay hosted a panel discussion titled “Women in Robotics: Challenge or Opportunity?” as part of her Influencers series.

And the all-women organising committee at ICRA is in the final preparations for the premiere academic robotics event coming up this May in Seattle, WA. Preview the latest in robotics and AI in the video trailer:

(Multiple languages available here.)

Robots on campus

People and Robots: UC’s new multidisciplinary CITRIS initiative wants humans in the loop. Photo credit: Aaron Bestick, UC Berkeley.

In the world of academia, the University of Michigan has approved the construction of a new $54 million research facility for its robotics program. The high-tech centre will house office space, classrooms and state of the art laboratories. Meanwhile, the University of California’s Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) has launched an initiative that wants to keep “humans in the loop”.

Finally, a computer programme developed at Carnegie Mellon University called “Claudico” is facing human poker pros Doug Polk, Dong Kim, Bjorn Li and Jason Les in a two week no-limit Texas Hold’Em poker competition. Set to end on 7^th of May, the competition will test Claudico’s intelligence and ability to call a bluff.

Events

April saw the University of Washington host 2015’s We Robot conference, an event focused on robotics, law and policy. Kate Darling of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, discussed her research on how anthropomorphic framing can affect our behaviour with respect to robots. Tweets from the event can be found here and more coverage of the event will be published on Robohub in the coming month.

The US National Robotics Week also took place this April with a myriad of activities and presentations across the country.

Upcoming events

• AUVSI Unmanned Systems Conference & Trade Show – Atlanta, GA, USA
  May 4, 2015 – May 7, 2015
• Binaural Hearing for Robots – MOOC – hosted by INRIA
  May 11, 2015 – June 12, 2015
• RoboUniverse New York – New York, NY, USA
  May 11, 2015 – May 13, 2015
  Use discount code ROBOHUB for 10% off all pass types.
• Mobile Robots and Autonomous Vehicles – MOOC – hosted by INRIA
  May 18, 2015 – June 21, 2015
• 2015 CES Asia – Shanghai, China
  May 25, 2015 – May 27, 2015
• ICRA 2015 – Seattle, WA, USA – Check out the ICRA video trailer!!
  May 26, 2015 – May 30, 2015
• Communicating robotics in 140 characters or less: Strategies, pitfalls and success stories in leveraging social media to promote your research – ICRA Social Media Workshop – hosted Robohub @ICRA, Seattle, WA, USA
  May 26, 2015
  This noontime workshop includes a light lunch for registered participants.

A quick, hassle-free way to stay on top of robotics news , our robotics digest is released on the first Monday of every month. Sign up to get it in your inbox.

In the air

Amazon takes its drone delivery research to Canada.

This month closed with a positive announcement from European stakeholders as they agreed on the basic principles for a regulatory framework on RPAS (Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems) use. The focus of the new framework is on safety, integration and liability, and could govern RPAS operations in Europe from 2016.

In the US, the FAA is currently consulting on its proposed rules for UAVs, which were published last month and have been hailed as a start to more clarity on drone operations in the country. Drone flights beyond visual line of site remain an unresolved issue under the new rules, but are already possible in Canada, Australia, France, Israel, Poland and other countries. These FAA restrictions on flights beyond visual line of site are the main reason why internet giant Amazon has decided to move their outdoor trials of drone delivery service Prime Air to Canada. Meanwhile, investment in drone ventures continues despite the uncertainty, with Matternet going into production with their new drone delivery platform.

On the road

Delphi goes on a cross country road test.

Last month saw Uber joining forces with Carnegie Mellon University, possibly to compete with Google in the race to get the first robotaxis on the road. But can a robotaxi business model work? Brad Templeton did the number crunching for us this month and found that an UberX flag drop now costs as little as $0.18 per minute / $0.90 per mile. This could mean that we will soon start seeing people deliberately dropping cars for Uber, and that robotaxi services could be available for even less.

But it could be that the first robotaxi on the road will be from neither Uber or Google, but from Nissan. Documents obtained by IEEE Spectrum show that the car manufacturer is working with NASA, and they are aiming to have the first fleet of robotaxis ready in as little as two years from now.

Meanwhile, Delphi took their sensor-laden vehicle on a test drive from New York to San Francisco, and Tesla’s Model S is about to go semi-automatic when a new software update is released later this year. The company’s CEO Elon Musk even went as far as to predict a future where it is illegal for humans to drive.

With robocars and robotaxi services no longer just an idea for the distant future, it is no surprise that some have started to call for regulations to be put in place. Questions about safety features, possible certification of robocars, or even special drivers licenses for operating autonomous cars have been raised. But in an essay about regulating autonomous cars, Brad Templeton argues that it might be too early for such strict rules to be put in place, as too little is known at this point about the technology and how it will work in the real world.

On the job front

The impact of automation on jobs was the topic of the opening session at this year’s European Robotic Forum. Credits: Viennamotion KG.

With increasing investment and big names pushing forward innovation in automation, it is no wonder that critics are voicing concerns, fearing the loss of many jobs and mass unemployment. Neil Jacobstein explains the risks of automation and artificial intelligence on Sigularityhub.com, but maintains an overall positive outlook if humans manage to adapt.

Forbes writer John Tammy even goes so far as to suggest that robots will become the biggest creators of jobs in history. He argues that when robots take on jobs traditionally done by humans, we will be freed to pursue new and more exciting careers that could take humanity to the next level. On a similarly positive note, research by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) indicates that the use of robots could boost manufacturing productivity by up to 30 per cent by 2025, while lowering total labour costs.

The impact of automation on jobs was also the focus of the opening sessions at the EU Robotics Forum held in Vienna this month. During the opening session a panel of experts discussed whether fears of mass unemployment were justified and how they might be addressed. More coverage from the ERF can be found here.

In Russia

The Skolkovo International Robotics Conference took place this March, to promote innovation and robotics startups in Russia. Credit: sk.ru

Kalashnikov Concern – maker of the infamous AK-47 automatic assault rifle – has decided to purchase a majority stake (51%) in ZALA Aero, a Russian company that specializes in producing unmanned aircraft. The company hopes to enter the robotics market by producing reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicles.

While such military robotic ventures are nothing new for Russian manufacturer, the recent Skolkovo International Robotics Conference sought to stimulate innovation in other areas, such as recognition, artificial intelligence and personal service robotics.

Robotic personal assistants

All three hundred units of Pepper sold out this March in Japan.

Globally, teams working on AI solutions for personal assistance robots are racing to develop a product that satisfies businesses, end users and consumers alike. At the moment it is still unclear whether virtual or physical solutions will be favoured. Meanwhile in Japan, all three hundred units of Pepper sold out quickly, showing just how much demand there is for social robots. Why are such products so popular? With Pepper it may well have something to do with the novelty of this type of robot.

A study by a team from the University of Manitoba presented at the recent HRI conference showed that humans empathize more with robots when they can interact with a physical entity, rather than just a software simulation.

Tiny medicine

There was exciting news from the medical robotics front this month. One of the most exciting recent inventions in medical robotics is a nano-device that can disarm drug resistant cancer cells and then deliver targeted chemotherapy. The approach has recently been shown to work in mice by MIT researchers and could offer hope to patients with recurring drug resistant cancer in the future. Google’s Deep Mind is also joining the fight against cancer with a similar project, attempting to develop nanotechnology that can switch off cancer cells. Alan Winfield outlined the future of robotics surgery and the potential of surgical micro-robot swarms from a presentation at the Royal Society of Medicine.

More Google News

Google scraps original Project Wing design.

This month Google declared that they will scrap ‘Project Wing’ design in favour of a secret new design the company is now testing in Australia. The switch was motivated by problems with high winds and control, something designers are now working to overcome with the new design.

Another team at Google is rethinking the way office space is used. They are working on Crabots, small robotics cranes that can move floor tiles and furniture to completely transform offices of the future. And that’s not all, as Google is also looking to get into robotic surgery by joining forces with Johnson & Johnson to develop a robotic-assisted surgical platform.

Business News

Intuitive Surgical wins a lucrative contract with the US Department of Defense.

The move by Google and Johnson & Johnson means they are now competing with surgical robotics manufacture Intuitive Surgical, who have managed to grow and thrive despite various setbacks over the years, most recently winning a lucrative contract with the US Department of Defense.

Other robotics companies also managed to obtain additional funding, with Hansen Medical selling shares worth $35 million and Clearpath Robotics receiving $11.2 million to create a swarm of self-driving carrier robots for factories.

In other business news, Samsung just launched a $100 million laboratory dedicated to drones, robotics, 3D printing and virtual reality.

New in arms

Rethink launches their new single-armed Sawyer.

Universal Robots have developed a universal robotic arm that can be programmed by almost anyone by simply grabbing and moving it. The UR-5 arm is compact and lightweight and can be used to automate many manufacturing tasks. Meanwhile, Rethink Robotics launched their new single armed robot, Sawyer, designed to take on precise, repetitive tasks, particularly in the assembly of electronics.

But robotic arms don’t all have to be about manufacturing, as was amply demonstrated at London’s Wearable Tech Show this month. At the event, Grace Mandeville presented Open Bionics new 3D printed Swarovski-crystal-adorned prosthetic arm, demonstrating that prosthetics can be about glamour just as much as they are about functionality.

People with disabilities are no longer waiting for health services to catch up – they are dragging their medical devices into the future on their own.

On the red carpet

Alex Garland’s first feature film as a director, Ex Machina, had its US debut at SxSW on March 14.

Two much anticipated robot movies hit the big screens this March. Neill Blomkamp’s CHAPPiE is an action packed movie about a robot that learns to think and feel for himself, while Alex Garland’s Ex Machina is a beautifully framed film about human-AI-interaction.

Robohoax at SxSW

On the subject of entertainment, at this year’s SxSW event in Austin Texas, a small group of protesters wielding signs saying “Stop the Robots!” descended on the grounds outside the event, saying they represented a group of students who were concerned about the future impact of robots on society. The protesters received attention from the International Business Times, PC Magazine, TechCruch, USA Today, Yahoo News, and Fox News even did a TV segment, but it turns out it was all a viral marketing stunt by a new online dating app called Quiver that uses humans to do the matchmaking instead of algorithms. Quiver admitted to the hoax a few days later, but it turned out theirs was not the only robot PR stunt at SxSW – promoters for the new film Ex Machina got into the game too.

DARPA Robotics Challenge

Photo: DARPA/Team WPI-CMU

Finally, DARPA announced that a total of 25 teams will be participating in the finals in June, and they can expect a surprise task will be waiting for them at the end of the trials. Tech writer Eric Sofge predicts that the robots will be falling all over themselves in the final stages of the competition when the training wheels finally come off. Whether this comes to pass is hard to tell, but we’re certainly looking forward to an exciting end to the competition.

Events to watch out for in April

• National Robotics Week, April 4-12, across the US
• How to Integrate & Leverage Robotics in Warehouses, April 6, RBR Webinar
• Xconomy Forum: Robo Madness West, April 7, Menlo Park, CA
• Ground Robotics Capabilities Conference and Exhibition, April 7-8, Arlington, VA
• CRUSER TechCon 2015, April 7-8, Monterey, CA
• Silicon Valley Robot Block Party, April 8, Palo Alto, CA
• 5th Annual “Robots in the Roses” Research Fair,  April 9, Menlo Park, CA
• We Robot 2015, April 10-12, Seattle, WA
• 2015 UN CCW meeting on killer robots, April 13-17, Geneva
• Gulf Coast MakerCon 2015, April 18, Tampa, FL
• RoboCupJunior US Competition, April 19, Bronx, NY
• New Frontiers in Human-Robot Interaction, April 21-22, Canterbury, UK
• VEX Robotics World Championships, April 22-25, Anaheim, CA
• RoboBusiness Europe, April 27-30, Milan, Italy

A quick, hassle-free way to stay on top of robotics news , our robotics digest is released on the first Monday of every month. Sign up to get it in your inbox.

Spot on

Spot on.

With robots like BigDog and Wildcat, Boston Dymanics has already made a name for itself in the world of four-legged, life-like robots. This February, the team released a short video of its latest tech, another four-legged robot, named “Spot”. Spot certainly looks like he is related to his predecessors BigDog and Wildcat, but he is much smaller and lighter, and quieter too – his power comes from electricity, rather than an internal combustion engine.

Pass the Pepper

Bye bye, Bruno.

Sobering news from Aldebaran this February. First, SoftBank confirmed that deliveries of Pepper will be delayed until the summer, and then two of Aldebaran’s top executives, Bruno Maisonnier and Jean-Christophe Baillie, left the company. The reasons for the shakeup are not yet completely clear, but a story in the French startup blog Rude Baguette, with information obtained from anonymous current and former employees of Aldebaran, suggests that internal turnover and disorganization were important factors. It was sad month for France’s startup community.

Business and funding

$50M in series C for 3DR.

Beyond Aldebaran, there were a few downs and mostly ups for robotics business news this February. While Intuitive Auotmata unfortunately closed its doors this month, SeeGrid had its reorganisation plan approved by a judge and is now looking to get back on its feet.

February also saw some headliners: Qualcomm acquired Kmel Robotics, a company famous for its flying quadrocopters; 3D Robotics raised $50M in a series C funding, also mostly from Qualcomm; and Fetch Robotics was granted $3 million to support the roll-out of its mobile platform and manipulator.

Plus, a number of new research reports released this month are predicting growth for the industry, covering a wide range of robotics markets, including exoskeletons, pharmacy automation, and mobile robots.

On the move

More mobile manipulators coming to market.

The $3 million investment in Fetch Robotics might just be the tip of the iceberg in terms of excitement for mobile manipulators. Spanish company PAL Robotics released its very own mobile manipulator “Tiago” (take it and go); mobile robots and mobile manipulators featured prominently in RBR’s latest Top 50 list; and Silicon Valley Robotics Director Andra Keay predicts that 2015 will see more mobile manipulators coming to market.

And while mobile robots usually have wheels to get around, one very special robot has proven that you don’t need wheels to get around. HitchBot has been hitchhiking its way across Germany this month, visiting Neuschwanstein Castle, joining the Rose Monday Parade in Cologne, and crashing a wedding near Frankfurt. Now safely back in Munich with some of its creators, we are sure that HitchBot has already started to plan its next adventure.

Whitehouse drone crash fallout

Drone crash: who is liable?

At the end of last month a Phantom drone crashed at the Whitehouse; shortly thereafter drone maker DJI announced a mandatory firmware update that would prevent its drones from flying near downtown Washington. Legal experts questioned the move, suggesting that by the company may be opening itself up to liability concerns, and then DJI rolled back the update amid bug concerns.

FAA leak and proposed regulations

A leak of proposed FAA drone regulations this month prompted a surprise weekend conference call by the organization to release its first official proposal for how the FAA will govern commercial UAVs. In the aftermath, first reactions came from many stakeholders, including the small UAV Coalition, the Professional Society of Drone Journalists, and the Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue to name a few. While there was general hopefulness toward the proposed rules, key concerns about lack of clarity remained, including limits on flying after dark, beyond visual line of sight, and over private property. A further criticism was that the proposed rules do not reward safe drone use – something Canadian regulators do. The public has 60 days to comment on the proposals.

Uber gets into robocars

Back on the ground, cab service Uber announced a robocar collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University. The move has caused speculation that Uber plans to compete with Google, just as Google itself seems to be planning a cab-hailing service using its own driverless vehicles. Others argue that the companies are unlikely to split just yet, given that much research is still needed before we will be hailing a self-driving cab from the curb.

Another company that could soon join in the robocar race might be Apple. Amind claims that Apple has started looking at self-driving cars surfaced rumours that sensor-laden vehicles spotted in the US are operated by the company. More robust evidence that Apple is moving into the transport market came later this February from the Wall Street Journal, which reported that Apple is apparently working on an electric vehicle. Although this car may not be self-driving (yet), the tech giant is clearly expanding beyond its traditional remit of producing small consumer electronics.

In other robocar related news, the Lutz pod, a driverless car produced in the UK may soon be roaming the streets of Milton Keynes and Greenwich. Discussions and research are on-going as to whether self-driving vehicles should be using V2V (vehicle to vehicle) communication, how AI might be used to programme safety into robocars, and what kind of sensors are required for various levels of autonomous driving.

Fire fighting bots and other robots for good

SAFFiR’s hands are strong enough to grip and hold a firehouse blasting water.  Source: Virginia Tech.

February saw the release of a video showing a humanoid robot on board a US Navy ship extinguishing an actual fire. The adult-sized “SAFFiR” robot, built by students from Virginia Tech, could walk, stop, turn, locate the heat source of a fire behind a door, and (once the door opened) take a hose and blast the flames with water, all without falling or stopping. And in a related project CMU researches released details of an autonomous drone that can fly through narrow, dark and smoke-filled corridors to map fires and find victims. The drone and SAFFiR could, in future, be linked up as a team to support human fire fighters.

Other good news stories include that of Robots For Humanity (R4H.org) and Henry Evans, who was left paralysed after a stroke in 2002 and now uses robotics to help him live his life as independently as possible. potential. Or, DARPA’s HAPTIX project, which is developing prosthetic hands that can actually ‘feel’. And let’s not forget that Baxter the robot has now been recruited to help fight the Ebola outbreak in West Africa by looking at ways that robots could take over high risk activities, such as handling contaminated materials, from health workers.

Good news comes in threes.

Amidst all these good works, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced the winners of its ‘Drones for Good’ competition (with Flyability winning the $1M prize with its crash-resilient drone “Gimball”), following up shortly thereafter with an announcement for a spin-off $1M competition ‘AI and Robotics for Good’. The UAE is on a robotics roll this month, also announcing the new $5M Mohamed Bin Zayed International Robotics Challenge (MBZIRC), as well as opening a brand new science and technology museum in Dubai with a focus on robotics, drones and robocars.

Forget the singularity, let’s talk multiplicity

Ken Goldberg’s session at the WEF was released on YouTube this month.

This month Google’s DeepMind team published an article in the journal Nature this month introducing their “novel artificial agent”, which is a combination of a deep neural network with a reinforcement-learning algorithm. The publication of DeepMind’s article coincided with a podcast on the history of machine learning and a livestream event with Rodney Brooks, Abhinav Gupta, Andrew McAfee on AI and the rise of robots.

You may recall that AI was a hot topic last month at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Some videos from this event were released on YouTube this month, including one with Ken Goldberg – don’t miss Audrow Nash’s interview with Ken, where he describes his impressions of the event.

STEM and Education

New Arduino tutorial at Robohub.

In STEM and education news, the popular Rasberry Pi platform released a Pi 2 Model B, which offers hugely increased performance compared to the Pi 1 Model B+. While the release came as a surprise to many, it marks a new era for Rasberry Pi, as the increased performance means it has now become a usable PC.

And at Robohub we have just launched a new Arduino tutorial series. Look for new posts every 2-3 weeks.

Events to watch out for in March

• Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) – Mar. 2-5 – Portland, OR, USA
• AUVSI’s Unmanned Systems Europe – Mar. 3-4 – Brussels, Belgium
• European Robotics Forum – Mar. 11-13 – Vienna, Austria
• SxSW – Mar. 13-22 – Austin, TX, USA
• AUTOMATION – Mar. 18-20, Warsaw, Poland
• Skolkovo International Robotics Conference – Mar. 20-22 – Moscow, Russia
• Automate – Mar. 23-26 – McCormick Place, United States
• Ferrara Drone Show – Mar. 28-29 – Ferrara, Italy

A quick, hassle-free way to stay on top of robotics news , our robotics digest is released on the first Monday of every month. Sign up to get it in your inbox.

Politics and intrigue

Slide from US President Barack Obama’s 6th State of the Union address.

The New Year got off to political start, with robotics featuring high on the agenda for many world leaders this January. In his State of the Union address, US President Barack Obama spoke about how new technology can benefit the economy, specifically referring to the value of new robotic prosthetics and developments in space exploration, and encouraging Americans “to win the race for the kind of discoveries that unleash new jobs”. And at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, world leaders discussed the impact of robotics, AI and Big Data and their potential to disrupt the global economy.

While leaders were preparing to discuss AI at the WEF in the public eye, the Future of Life Institute (FLI) – a privately funded non-profit whose mission is to “mitigate existential risks facing humanity” – held a closed (some would say ‘secretive‘) conference in early January to discuss AI safety. The speakers roster was a who’s who list of tech and AI influencers, including Demis Hassabis, Thomas Dietterich, Erik Brynjolfsson, Nick Bostrom, Peter Norvig, Stuart Russell, and Elon Musk, and the goal of the conference was to identify promising research directions that will “maximize the future benefits of AI while avoiding pitfalls.” (The conference was closed to the media in order “to facilitate candid and constructive discussions”, however, some of the speaker’s presentations can now be found online here.) Following the conference, the FLI issued an open letter that outlined research priorities for robust and beneficial Artificial Intelligence. While the open letter itself seemed to illustrate a desire on the part of those working in AI to hold themselves to high ethical standards, it generated a flurry of hyped headlines from a jilted media that had been left to speculate in the vacuum. Days later, Elon Musk added to the media frenzy by donating $10 million to fund a global research program aimed at keeping AI beneficial to humanity, and Tom Dietterich and Eric Horvitz of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) published an article discussing the risks of advancements in AI, arguing that “we must not put AI algorithms in control of potentially-dangerous systems until we can provide a high degree of assurance that they will behave safely and properly”. Meanwhile, Lee Gomes wrote that the Turing test is not robust enough to test the intelligence of computer programmes and welcomed the efforts by a group of roboticists now looking into alternatives.

Lifting the AI veil

With all the AI intrigue afoot, it’s refreshing to note that January also brought forth two new efforts to demystify the topic. Robohub’s newest syndicated podcast, Talking Machines, will be bringing listeners clear conversations with experts in the field of AI. Since kicking off on January 1, the podcast has featured interviews with Ilya Sutskever, who thinks that a little bit of magical thinking is crucial to work in AI, and Kevin Murphy, who spoke about how to learn about machine learning. Look for new episodes every other Thursday.

The AAAI video competition was also held this month in Austin, Texas, to spread the word about research and applications in AI through exciting educational videos. The Best Video award went to the Cowriter Project, an initiative through which children learn to write by teaching a robot to write.

Other winners included a video about adaptive learning through a Mario game (People’s Choice Award) and a video about self-organising collective decisions in swarms (Best Student Video).

Re-usable space tech: One step closer

autonomous spaceport drone ship (ASDS)

This month, SpaceX’s 7^th Dragon mission successfully sent another spacecraft to dock with the International Space Station (ISS) – the fifth successful dock under NASA’s CRS program. More remarkable was SpaceX’s ambitious attempt to return the first stage of the Falcon9 rocket back to earth. The rocket performed a successful re-orientation maneuver and controlled decent, and almost landed as intended on an unmanned ocean barge. Unfortunately the rocket lost control – possibly due to insufficient hydraulic fluid – just before the final touchdown and was lost at sea. Although the project did not achieve its ultimate goal of a safe landing, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk hailed the mission an overall success.

In other space-related news, NASA teamed up with Nissan for a robocar project, seeking to a zero-emission self-driving car, and announced that it is planning to build a helicopter scout to travel aboard the next Mars rover, in order to help explore and map the Red Planet.

Future thinking

Raffaello D’Andrea speaks to the Boston Consulting Group about the future of robotics.

If the new year is a time for resolutions, it is also a time for looking ahead, and many have been tempted to name 2015 “The Year of the Robot”. This is what MIT Mechanical Engineering Professor John Leonard discussed on Bloomberg Business this month, addressing issues such as Google’s secret robot plan and the regulation of drones.

Meanwhile, Peter Diamandis published his eleven top tech picks for 2015, including virtual reality, 3D printing and drones. Similarly, Raffaello D’Andrea shared his views on robotics’ past and what developments in robotics we might expect to see in the future.

Consumer Electronics Show (CES)

Mercedes F105 at CES 2015.

January also saw this year’s CES, which boasted an exciting range of new gadgets and inventions, including a Mercedes concept car and several demos of supervised traffic jam assist. Also notable was the variety of drones at CES, including self-flying, personal camera and follow-me drones, and the drone rodeo was one of the show’s most exciting events.

Yet while drones, robocars and consumer electronics were certainly exciting, according to a Fortune survey, what users are really looking for is longer battery life. The reason? Gadgets are great, but they would be so much more fun if you didn’t have to charge them every few hours.

Social robotics

Pepper goes on sale in February in Japan.

Personal robots could rival drones and robocars as the autonomous tech to watch for in 2015. Two of the first personal robots are set to go on sale soon, including a new low-tech “baby robot” designed to curb loneliness in senior citizens, and Pepper the robot, which goes on sale in Japan in February.

While social robotics will be tested in the marketplace this year, several challenges remain. One of these is the refinement of speech, as natural language is the key interface paradigm for social robotics. Another challenge will in be developing social and regulatory norms around how much interaction with robots is safe and acceptable. As we introduce social robots into our lives, we will have to figure out what kind of relationships we want with them.

Business and government

In the world of business, The Robot Report looked back on 30 fundings, acquisitions, IPOs and failures of 2014, providing figures and statistics to understand last year’s robotics market. Despite a few setbacks, investment in robotics was booming overall, with more than $1 billion in acquisitions and $100 million in IPOs. Several new funding announcements were also made in January.

The EU has co-funded 17 new robotics-related projects under Horizon 2020.

Looking forward, China predicts forty per cent annual growth in their robotics market and US-based Rethink Robotics got a $26.6 million Christmas gift to ensure that its operations can continue. Also in the US, iRobot founded a new venture capital firm and Ford is opening a new 25,000 sq ft Research and Innovation Center in Palo Alto, creating new jobs for 125 researchers, engineers and scientists. In the EU, governments have now invested $87 million for European robotic projects under Horizon 2020. However, this kind of support may now reduce as European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker proposed legislation to pay for economic stimulus using funds previously allocated to scientific research.

The rise of the drone

More than a dozen agents searching WH north lawn, w/ flashlights into the bushes. Source: Nedra Pickler.

As things are looking up for most robotics markets around the world and drones are quickly becoming one of the most sought after consumer products, it’s no wonder then that Scott Mayerowitz compared today’s drone market to Silicon Valley in its early days, suggesting that drones will soon become a permanent fixture in our lives.

The FAA, the body that has been looking at drone regulation in the US, granted two further exemptions for commercial drone use, for real estate and agricultural crop scouting. The organisation had also found a journalist who used a drone to film a car crash last year not guilty of recklessness, a fact only recently revealed through a FOIA request filed by Conneticut television station FoxCT. These events may indicate that things are moving forward in the hotly debated area of drone regulation – we may be on our way to further exemptions and clearer rules in 2015.

Despite the forward movement, a quadrocoper crashed onto the White House this month, bringing the issue of drone safety and regulation to the forefront once again.

Meanwhile in the lab…

The e-Dura is able to function while being bent (photo: © EPFL 2015)

A team from EPFL and NCCR Robotics in Switzerland working on a spinal cord implant to treat paralysis have reported on a major breakthrough, publishing proof that their device, the e-dura implant, is viable for months in animals. The team is now moving on to the next stage of research, which will involve testing of the implant in human subjects.

In other research news, a team from the University of Maryland and NICTA, Australia, is teaching robots how to cook by showing them YouTube videos of cooking shows.

Robotainment

Spare Parts opened January 16th in US theatres.

2015 is promising to be a big year for entertainment with, by and about robots. The latest in a series of movies tackling robot-related topic is a feel-good Hollywood movie called Spare Parts, about a group of young immigrants who against all odds win a major US robotics contest. While the movie concludes on a happy note, the real life ending is less positive, as highlighted in the NY times by the story’s author.

In other robotainment news, CBC launched a new documentary called Robotize Me, which explores our desire to develop intelligent and emotional machines. It turns out that Roboticize me is co-hosted by RoboThespian, which was just featured this month on the Robots Podcast.

Events to watch for in February

• The Unmanned Systems Expo TUSEXPO – Feb. 4-6, The Hague, Netherlands
• World Ag Expo – Feb. 10-12, Tulare, CA
• ATX Automation Technology West Trade Show – Feb. 10-12, Anaheim, CA
• RE.WORK Internet of Things Meetup – Feb 18, 2015, London, UK
• Intl Expert Days Service Robotics – Feb. 26-27, Laufin, Germany

A quick, hassle-free way to stay on top of robotics news , our robotics digest is released on the first Monday of every month. Sign up to get it in your inbox.

Moving inventory

December is one of the busiest months of the year when it comes to shopping. While millions of us managed to avoid the rush to the shops this year by purchasing our gifts online, 15,000 Kiva bots worked overtime at Amazon fulfillment centres to convert our virtual clicks into actual presents in our homes. In Amazon’s pick and pack areas, these bots worked alongside high-end computer systems and human employees to make sure those all important gifts arrived in time for the holidays.

And while the parcels this year were still being delivered by humans, next Christmas may be a different story, as Amazon has now started looking for “Flight Operations Engineers” to test their drone delivery system PrimeAir. With the costs for such a system being estimated at 20 cents/ package by Kiva co-founder Raffaello D’Andrea, it is no surprise that interest in drone delivery is great; however others disagree with this figure and see drone delivery as more of a niche market.

Though we will have to wait and see who will be delivering the presents next year, the Fraunhofer Institute is developing flying robots to keep tabs on warehouse stock and to take over the dreaded task of taking inventory. While these robots won’t have direct contact with customers, their help will undoubtedly be welcomed by the many stores that must close their doors (and lose business) when taking inventory.

Meanwhile, diners in Singapore’s Timbre Group restaurant can expect to be served by indoor delivery drones from autumn 2015.

Ag tech making news

December isn’t a month we traditionally associate with harvest, but agricultural robotics was a hot topic in the news this month, exploring how technology has changed and is changing the age-old traditions of farming. High-tech farming is poised to change the way the world eats. In the New York Times, Quentin Hardy outlined how computer monitoring and data collection have increased productivity for some farmers, but are leading to the demise of others. He further suggested that technology encourages farmers to grow “easy” crops at the cost of diversity and tradition. But Hardy also acknowledges that tech can be advantageous, making farming easier, safer and more efficient.

A good example of robotics’ beneficial impact in the world of farming is robotic weeding. Traditionally a time-consuming and labour intensive task, particularly in organic farming, technologies for intra-row weed removal have the potential to transform farming in an environmentally friendly manner. Furthermore, with robotic nursery plant pot movers, autonomous tractors and self-driving harvesters, there’s a lot more in the pipeline that will change the way we look at agriculture.

To help figure out how it will all happen, the Australian Centre for Field Robotics is planning an IEEE RAS Summer School on Agricultural Robotics this February (it’s summer there!) to bring together experts in this area and to discuss the potential and future of robots in agriculture.

AI future

In a BBC interview in early December, Professor Stephen Hawking warned that artificial intelligence could end mankind. According to the famous theoretical physicist, humans could be superseded by AI as the former are limited by slow biological evolution, while the latter is not. The BBC later followed up with James Barrat (author of Our Final Invention), who agreed with Hawking, and with Professor Joanna Bryson, who felt that his view was too pessimistic. Then, Demis Hassabis, founder of DeepMind, said that AI has huge potential to be amazing for humanity, and Oren Etzioni, head of the Paul Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, emphasised that AI won’t eliminate us, but will rather empower us to be better. Even NASA scientists added to the debate by suggesting that the dominant form of intelligence in the cosmos are most likely to be artificial.

The discussion surrounding AI is set to continue into the New Year and beyond.

Advances in space

Following the recent success of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Rosetta mission that saw spaceprobe Philae land on a comet, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched an asteroid-chasing probe this December to meet asteroid 1999 JU3 and (eventually) bring back samples of rock in late 2020.

While ESA and JAXA focus on comets and asteroids, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft just woke from hibernation 2.9 billion miles from Earth, the farthest any space mission has ever traveled. The mission now prepares for its exploration of the Pluto System in 2015, which will bring us completely novel and unique insights into the far sight of our solar system.

A little closer to home, NASA’s Curiosity is already sending back data from Earth’s neighbour Mars. The unmanned probe found spikes in atmospheric methane and some organic compounds in drill samples that could indicate that there was once life on the Red Planet.

And back here on Earth, DeepSpace Industries partnered with 3D printing company Solid Prototype to reduce fabrication costs, speed turnaround times for new designs, and eliminate mass from spacecraft structures, with a view to revolutionising spacecraft design in the future.

Government and institutional news

As 2014 drew to a close, many countries were planning for a future in robotics.

The South Korean government increased robotics funding for 2015 by 8.3% from $134.3 million to $145.8million. The UK robotics strategy outlined how the country plans to make more use of its expertise in robotics and autonomous systems (RAS) to increase its market share. In Switzerland, ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich announced that they are founding a new translational research centre, bringing together expertise in medicine, engineering and robotics. In Europe, the EU Robotics Brokerage Day held this December provided an opportunity to meet and network with a view to encouraging new partnerships that can compete for the 561 million Euro funding available in the ICT 2015 grant round.

Robotics education

Two MOOCs on robotics led by Peter Corke were announced by Queensland University of Technology this December and registration is now open for the courses “Introduction to Robotics“ and “Robotic Vision”, which will run in early 2015. Registration is free.

Meanwhile, other initiatives sought to encourage younger minds to take an interest in robotics this December, including CompuGirls – a project based at Arizona State University that supports girls to develop culturally relevant technical and computer skills. Other initiatives use robotics gaming platorms to teach STEM, and GraspIO, a part hardware, part software DIY electronics platform. Check out also our new educational robotics review series by Kidbotics, who looked at the Thymio II from the perspective of a robotics novice.

Year end accounting

2014’s last set of business news included a variety of announcements, sales and new business ventures. iRobot announced the launch of a new robot “Create 2”, twenty-five per cent of KUKA shares traded hands for 555M Euros, Foxconn found that their robots are unsuitable for iPhone assembly and will be working on next generation robots to increase productivity in coming years, and finally, in an interview with Robohub’s Andra Keay, Carl Vause of Soft Robotics speaks about the challenges of commercializing the soft actuators he is developing.

With so many business related activities (not only this December but throughout 2014), it is very helpful that Frank Tobe summarised 2014’s robotics business news in his annual review, published this month on Robohub.

Autonomous cars: Prototypes and business models

It probably would not be a complete digest if we did not mention autonomous cars – one of the recurring topics of 2014. Just before Christmas, Google revealed their actual self-driving prototype which, after some drives on the closed off test track, they plan to take out on public roads in 2015. With autonomous car developers, such as Google, pushing forward, Brad Templeton from robocars.com discussed possible business models for self-driving cars, and used the recent controversies surrounding online ride service provider Uber as a basis to explore the challanges facing robocars.

Drone startups carving out niches

CyPhy Works, led by Helen Greiner, is coming out with a tethered pocket-sized drone. The new pocket drone is designed to support search and rescue efforts by allowing rescue workers to stay safe and let the drone explore territory and buildings lying before them. Also this December, Skysense says it is releasing a charging pad for charging multiple drones at the same time, as well as a hangar for storing and recharging drones between flights.

Meanwhile, GoPro (a camera manufacturer favoured by extreme sports and aerial photographers) announced it will start making its own drones. Some drones currently on the market, such as the amphibious HexH2o drone (which can shoot both aerial and underwater videos), are already able to carry a GoPro camera, but the manufacturer now wants to capitalise on the rapidly growing hardware market and hopes that their own drone will be ready for Christmas 2015.

Swarming and swimming

Some robots can fly, some robots can swim, some can do both – and some can do it together with others. This ability to work together and function as a swarm is something which roboticists such as Dr Sabine Hauert of Bristol University are looking to use to fight cancer. Hauert is working on tiny particles that could be programmed to swarm and mount a determined attack on cancer in a patient’s body.

On a much larger scale, others have already built an ocean-going robot fleet, that saw three marine robots successfully complete a fish-tracking mission coordinated by the National Oceanography Centre (NOC). It is hoped that swimming robots will be used more often in biology in the future. For example, evolving swimming robots may be used to study the origins of extinct vertebrates.

And with a new low-cost open source underwater robot kit now available, even hobby roboticists can now join the underwater exploration.

Holiday content

December is Christmas season – and so we could not end our December digest without mentioning some of the interesting gift ideas, season greetings and suggestions to pass the time until Santa comes to visit. Among the gift ideas for Christmas 2014 were essential reading for robot fans, 20 books to get kids into robotics and unique wardrobe ideas for the robot enthusiast. For those looking for something to do over the holiday, we pulled together a list of robot movies to watch and of course recommended our festive greeting video compilation.

And finally, if the last digest of the year hasn’t satiated your need for robotics news, we’ve compiled a list of  Robohub’s most viewed articles of 2014, covering topics from Cyborgs and AI to Facebook and Fukushima.

Events to watch out for in January

• AIAA Guidance, Navigation, and Control Conference – January 5-9, FL, USA
• 2015 International CES – Jan 6-9, Las Vegas, NV, USA
• A3 Business Forum – Jan 21-12, Disney’s Yacht Club Resort, Lake Buena Vista, FL
• Call for Innorobo Startup Competition Closes – Jan 31, Lyons, France

Touchdown!

The biggest robotics story of November came on the 12^th when Rosetta’s Philae space probe touched down on the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko – the first time that­­ a manmade spacecraft has ever landed on a comet. A project of the European Space Agency, the mission is primarily scientific, and serves as a proof of concept that landing on a comet is, in fact, achievable. Given that 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was far more difficult to reach than most asteroids would be, for those in the commercial space industry the feat also represents an important step toward a future where mining precious metals and rare materials from space is feasible, and perhaps even profitable.

Drone regulation: Incremental change?

Pirker case overturned

Flying a little closer to earth, drones (and specifically, they regulation) continued to make the news this month. In the US, the FAA announced on November 5^th that they would be set to publish new rules before the end of 2014 that “will open the door to a lot of commercial applications that aren’t authorized today,” according to Jim Williams, who manages the FAA’s UAS integration office. Two weeks later, the National Transportation Safety Board found that unmanned aircraft (including drones) fall under the jurisdiction and rules of the FAA, overturning the Pirker case in which a judge had previously found that FAA rules did not apply to model aircraft. In response, the Small UAV Coalition urged the FAA to not get distracted by this latest ruling, and warned that the new draft rules “will not address the realities of today’s UAV technology, such as varying degrees of autonomy and the ability to perform operations beyond line of sight,” and are “costing US competitiveness in the global market place.” Meanwhile, the Brookings Institute published a 34-page report on drones and aerial surveillance this month, outlining the specific considerations legislators should take into account when making drone laws.

Elsewhere, incremental change was afoot. In Australia, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority proposed a new class of “low-risk” aircraft that would require no special certification and would include any remotely piloted aircraft under 2kg. Canada similarly announced a new regulation exempting commercial and hobby users of UAVs weighing less than 2kg from the Special Flight Operations Certificate.

On the medical front

Advances were reported this month in robotic surgery: researchers from UC Berkley’s Center for Automation and Learning for Medical Robotics released a video showing that repetitive surgical tasks like suturing, cutting and debridement of deformable tissue can be automated; and Aeon Scientific won a Swiss Technology Award in the startup category with Phocus, its magnetically-guided robotic surgical system.

Strides have also been made in the rehab sector. The Robot-Aided Gait Training and the ARMin neuro-rehabilitation device were designed to help patients who have lost full use of their arms or legs. And in Japan, the Muscle Suit just came to market, designed to prevent injury in those who regularly have to lift heavy loads, such as nurses, factory workers and farmers.

Governments boost robotics

Be it for research or commerce, governments around the world are looking to give a boost to robotics. The fourth annual EU Robotics Week, which ran this month, showed off what European robotics is all about. In the UK, Imperial College London is set to build a £1.25 million state-of-the-art drone lab. Japan is planning to boost investment in order to triple its robotics market to $22 billion by 2020, and sees deregulation as key to ensure that the country remains competitive in the global marketplace. And in the US, the National Science Foundation and partners just announced a $31.5 million investment in co-robots, robots that work cooperatively with people, including those for eldercare, surgery and disaster relief.

Co-robots

While the NSF hopes its recent investment will help bring more robots into people’s workplaces and homes, co-robots (or cobots) are already a common sight in some places. At Carnegie Mellon University in the US, a group of co-robots has been navigating the university’s halls and corridors since 2011, guiding visitors and running errands. On the 18^th of November, the combined distance travelled by the three co-robots involved in the project reached 1000km of autonomous operation, an exciting achievement for PI Manuela Veloso. You can learn more about this research in an interview with two of Veloso’s PhD students.

And in case you thought co-robots were only to be found in research labs, food and drinks giant Nestle announced that it will use Softbank’s Pepper the robot to sell Nescafé products, and diners at a café in Ningbo, China are now being served by robot waiters.

Business news

Google subsidiary Planetary Ventures has committed to a 60-year $1.16 billion lease of the 1,000 acre Moffett Field Naval Air Station.

November was a good month for robotics business, with a range of deals, collaborations and investments. One of the biggest news items was Google’s new lease on NASA’s Silicon Valley airfield, which the company plans to use for research and testing of technologies, including robotics, aviation and space. Google committed $1.16 billion for the 60 year lease and will even spend money on refurbishing the site, with $200 million earmarked for improving the facilities.

Investment news includes ABB Technology Ventures’ $12million contribution to AI start-up Vicarious’ fundraising campaign, and the new ROBO-STOX® for EU investors, which opened at the London Stock Exchange on the 27th of November. The stock specifically offers investment opportunities that are compliant with the European UCITS requirements.

With all new developments, it’s no wonder that the latest report from the Boston Consulting Group (BSG) predicts a 10.4% Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) in the robotics sector. While the fastest growing market according to BSG is likely to be personal robotics, other markets are also up and coming; agricultural robotics is an area that is often overlooked, yet may benefit substantially from robotic solutions. To keep track of it all, trade show organizer MecklerMedia is launching a new three-day, two-track workshop, seminar and exhibition on most verticals in robotics (other than heavy industry, military and space) to be held May 11-13 at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City.

Sucking it up

On Singles Day, Ecovacs sold $24.8 million worth of robotic products, mostly their robotic vacuum cleaners.

As if to prove BSG’s prediction that personal robotics will be the fastest growing market, the personal robotics market experienced an unexpected boost this month in China. The 11^th of November is “Singles Day” in the country, a made-up online shopping holiday for singles and young people. On this one day, more than 70,000 robot vacuums were sold (mostly online). The exact connection between Singles Day and robovacuums is anyone’s guess, but the global upward trend in robovacuum sales is set to continue with new releases by Dyson and Samsung, and Sharp, which is releasing a premium model of their COCOROBO series called COCOROBO Imouto (“little sister”), which will be available for a limited time only.

Smart homes and connected devices

Would you invite a device that is always listening into your home?

Vacuums aside, the personal robotics market has a broad variety of autonomous devices to offer, from lawn mowers and pool cleaners to rocking baby chairs. Taking it one step further is the idea of smart homes with features such as remotely controlled heating, blinds and security cameras. Despite the convenience, inviting such technologies into your home can change the way your home feels – and the way you live. Robohub readers had their say in a poll about smart homes in November, with the majority indicating that it’s all about comfort.

A robot for grand-dad

A robot hands a medication bottle to a person. Photo credit: Keith Bujak. Source: Georgia Tech News Center

On the subject of comfort and convenience, in the past we’ve discussed the potential of robots to enable the elderly to live independently in the comfort of their own homes for longer. This month was no exception: Nate the robot took on eldercare with a sense of humour, our readers confirmed that they were optimistic about the role of robots as care assistants for seniors in our reader poll, and our podcast team explored an RFID system that allows robots to precisely locate and identify tagged objects. This could be used, for example, to help a robot find a bottle of medication in a cupboard – and make sure it’s the correct medication – before bringing it to a person.

The AI debate continues

Nick Bostrom’s new book “Superintelligence” was released this fall.

While being able to move around and map an environment is a pretty nifty trick, improving the intelligence of robots is still a hotly debated topic. Following Elon Musk’s and Stephen Hawking’s public remarks earlier this year about the potential dangers of AI, there has been a flurry of mainstream debate about where AI is headed and what we should be doing about it. Kurt Andersen of Vanity Fair wrote that “AI is suddenly everywhere” and the New York Times columnist John Markoff wrote about “bombs that can pick whom to kill”, while David Crookes of the Independent argued that now is the time to get involved in AI, which in his opinion is one of the most exciting areas of the field of robotics. Released this fall, Nick Bostrom’s book “Superintelligence” takes a critical look at the future of artificial intelligence and what it may mean for humanity. Rodney Brooks also took up the debate, concluding that it is a tool, not a threat.

In the movies

A new action/sci-fi thriller by Neill Blomkamp (District 9, Elysium) is due in theatres March 6, 2015.

Soon to be on the silver screen are two movies that explore both the dark and light sides of AI: “Chappie”, a new action/sci-fi thriller by Neill Blomkamp, and “Ex Machina,” which has a distinctly darker tone. Both films are set for release this spring. If you can’t wait until then, try “Robots, Botox and Google Glass” – a lively short documentary about the uncanny valley by Ken Goldberg and Tiffany Shlain – or the new Disney release of “Big Hero 6”, whose main supporting character is a big soft inflatable robot called Baymax.

Seasonal Robotics

If all this talk about robots and movies has inspired you, then check out our call for holiday robot videos. You’re officially invited to make your short movie about robots to get you in the holiday spirit!

And if you are not feeling festive enough yet, Robohub has created a list of holiday gift ideas for the robogeek in your life. Keep an eye out also for our holiday reading and movie list, coming soon.

Events to watch out for in December

• RE.WORK Cities Summit – Dec. 4-5, London, UK
• IFA 2014 – Dec. 5-10, Berlin, Germany
• RobotsConf 2014 – Dec. 6-7, Amelia Island, FLA
• NERVE Center Open House – Dec. 9, Lowell, MA
• LA Drone Expo UAVSA – Dec. 13, Los Angeles, CA
• ICIAFS – 7th International Conference on Information and Automation for Sustainability – Dec. 22-24, Colombo, Sri Lanka

All about 3D printing

Opensource 3D printed “Poppy” humanoid hopes to enable experimentation in robot design.

October’s robotics news was awash with stories about 3D printing, which is being used for anything from building houses from mud to assisting in teleoperation and giving UAVs their wings. One of the most popular pieces was a feature on Poppy, a 3D printed open source humanoid, which will enable researchers to quickly print custom body parts and experiment with design in ways that weren’t possible before. And with Arduino’s launch of an open source, reasonably priced 3D printer, making those body parts will now also become much easier and more affordable.

The possibilities of 3D printing are huge and some users have already sprinted ahead. Joel Gibbard was recently recognized as young designer of the year for the 3D printed bionic hand he developed, and also made the Intel finals.

Regulating Robotics

Readers may recall that regulation was a hot topic last month, largely stemming from Ryan Calo’s Brookings paper The Case for a Federal Robotics Commission. The debate continued this month, with Frank Tobe questioning the need for a new regulatory body in the US, and Andrea Bertolini from the EU’s RoboLaw project explaining why and how robotics should be regulated.

Drone regulation in particular (rather than robotics regulation in general) also received some attention this month, as Skyward announced the first ever commercial drone network demonstration project in Las Vegas, Vancouver, London, and Portland, and Airware said it is joining forces with NASA to develop a drone air traffic control system.

Drones for your pocket

Anura pocket drone.

While discussions about drone regulation are on-going, drone developers continue their work, launching a new tethered mini-drone that can fly for two hours straight and introducing Anura, the first foldable pocket drone.

Mixed news in space

The last week of October was not a good week for the commercial space industry. On October 28 Orbital Sciences corporation lost its Antares launcher Cygnus spacecraft in an explosion. Orbital Sciences was one of two private companies under contract from NASA for supplying the International Space Station with cargo, supplies and secondary experimental, and commercial ISS payload, and many science experiments were lost in the explosion, including 26 cube sats from Planet Labs. Then on October 31, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo broke apart in midair, leaving one pilot dead and another seriously injured, leaving many to question the future of the private space industry.

Earlier in the month had cheerier news, with various new players announcing their entry into space exploration. Luxembourg and China teamed up in a bid to launch a private mission to fly around the moon, which will be the first of its kind. At the end of September, India joined the “Mars Club” when its Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) probe arrived safely on Mars. And the United Arab Emirates have now started building their first probe destined for Mars, which they hope to launch in 2021.

Meanwhile, the European Space Agency is planning to make history as well, as it confirmed the primary landing site for Philae, the first ever lander to attempt soft touchdown on a comet. Philae will be released on 12^th of November and we will know whether the mission was successful by around 15:30 GMT.

Robocars

SMART-NUS enhanced driverless buggy. The steering wheel has been removed and replaced with an in-vehicle touchscreen for alternate selection of destination. Researchers will shadow the buggy on electric bicycles during the demo.

While some are hoping to advance robotics in space, others are firmly planted on this planet’s surface. In Singapore, autonomous golfcars are currently being tested publicly in the Singapore Chinese and Japanese Gardens, and in Michigan, the state university is now building an entire town to test driverless cars.

Others renewed their commitment to developing autonomous vehicles this October, with various announcements of plans and advances in the robocar industry, including news from Audi and Tesla. This despite doubts whether autonomous cars will ever fulfill their promise.

Nursing grandma with a robot

All this talk about being replaced by robots is getting old.

For the elderly, autonomous cars could mean more independence andfreedom, whilst allowing residents of retirement communities to stay safe on the road, and some are suggesting that robocars could be a natural fit for retirement communities. Beyond providing transport, robots have plenty more potential to contribute to the care of the elderly; with this population increasing to a predicted 1.6 billion by 2050 in the US alone, they could offer a solution to the dilemma many family carers face today: to work or to provide care. Some have gone as far as to say that it may be the retirement communities that will drive the wider acceptance of robots in society.

Japan pushes the robot agenda

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe delivering an address at the Robot Revolution Realization Council. Source: Prime Minister’s Office.

When it comes to accepting robots as part of everyday life, Japan certainly is a step ahead of many other countries. This fall, the country’s “robotics evolution” council met for the very first time to discuss how to promote measures to increase the use of robots and related technologies with the goal to make Japan a showcase for service robots by 2020.

Befittingly, October was also the month in which the Japan Robot Week was hosted in Tokyo, with a special focus on assistive (service) robots, such as nursing robots, life support robots, disaster response robots, and even a robot by Kawada Robotics that sold coffee to visitors. Kawada’s NEXTAGE robot already has competition, however, as Softbank struck a deal with Nestlé to bring Pepper to 20 of its stores by year end to help them Nescafé products. Nestle hopes to deploy them in over 1000 of its stores within the next year.

Industry News

At your service: OSHbot by Fellows Robot.

Robot assistants aren’t just selling coffee. Fellow Robots, in partnership with Lowes Hardware, launched the OSHbot this October to help assist customers at their Orchard Supply Hardware store in San Jose. OSHbot will help customers search for items and find information about products, and will also help store employees with inventory management.

At the Robobusiness convention in Boston, the winners of Pitchfire were announced, with a Norwegian startup company called NLink taking first prize for their robotic drilling and measuring system for ceiling work. Two other startups from Boston and Helsinki received honourable mentions.

Robobusiness also saw the launch of Qualcomm’s robotics accelerator, which seeks to fund ten companies that create smart machines and robots. Applications will be open until February 22^nd 2015. This came on the heels of an announcement by Robot Labs that it is looking to fund robots that can change the world with its latest round of seed stage funding. Up to $350,000 are up for grabs and applications are accepted on a rolling basis.

Overall, business news this October were positive with reports showing an increase in robot sales and experts predicting steady growth for the sector. Additionally, a number of acquisitions and new partnerships promises exciting developments. Kuka bought Swisslog for $357 million, adding a mobility arm to its product line. Robotshop, a Canadian company, proceeded with its expansion, adding FlyingEinstein to the growing list of companies it acquired over the last few months, becoming the exclusive source for FlyingEinstein’s products, such as the Quadrino Nano Flight Controller. Finally, Google added two British startup companies to its robotics arm. The startups are Dark Blue Labs (a developer of systems to understand natural language) and Vision Factory (a developer of systems capable of the visual recognition of objects). Google also partnered with Oxford University, giving substantial contributions to the education hub to expand its AI and deep learning capabilities.

Perhaps the biggest business shakeup this month, however, was the news that Andy Rubin has departed Google to start a tech incubator focused on hardware. Rubin was the Google executive who was in charge of the company’s robotics group.

Ada Lovelace Day celebration

This October many celebrated Ada Lovelace Day, an international celebration of the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). Although we can’t do justice to the many things that went on during the Ada Lovelace celebrations, we will mention some.

Steve Henn, NPR’s technology correspondent, published an interesting story exploring why the number of women taking up computer science suddenly dropped in the 1980s and hasn’t recovered since. A recently published book, “The Innovators” by Walter Isaacson, praises the contribution of many women in robotics and emphasises that most robotics developments come out of collaborations of people (many of whom were female).

At Robohub, we also joined in the Ada Lovelace spirit, publishing this year’s list of the 25 women in robotics everyone should know about, and the Robots podcast aired a special episode on how to engage girls in robotics.

Competitions

Registration for Cybathlon is now open.

It wouldn’t be a proper digest without mentioning some of the exciting robotics competitions that are happening all around the world. In Spain this month, the winners of the five euRathlon 2014 sea competition scenarios were unveiled and are now invited to attend the euRathlon Grand Challenge 2015. In the United Arab Emirates, the Drones for Good Awards announced its list of semi-finalists who will enter the next stage of the competition, and registration is now open for the Cybathlon in Switzerland, which will be held in 2016. Finally, the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) RobotX competition started by publishing a video about the boating platform given to all the teams

Robohub Birthday

Last but not least, October was also a very special month for us at Robohub, as we celebrated our second birthday. We have come a long way from our humble beginnings and now have over 50,000 unique visitors each month and hundred of robotics experts contributing. We hope to continue on this trajectory with the help of our loyal readers, so to find out how we are doing and how we could improve, we have launched our second annual reader survey, open to all visitors of our site. Your feedback will help us immensely, so if you have a spare minute or two, why not complete the survey and tell us what you think?

Events to watch for in November

• Humanoids 2014 – IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots – Nov 18 – 20, Madrid, Spain
• National Robotics Initiative Principal Investigators Meeting – Nov 19-20, Arlington, VA
• The Road Ahead | MIT Senseable City Lab – Nov 21, Boston, MA
• European Robotics Week 2014 – Nov 24-30, Europe-wide
• RoCKIn Competition 2014 – Nov 26-30, Toulouse, France
• Curtin Robofair 2014 – Nov 30, Bently WA, Australia

Business by the numbers

Just as September came to a close the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) released its 2014 reports on Industrial and Service robots, revealing strong growth in robot sales in 2013 across all sectors. While the total sales value for service robots decreased slightly in 2013 (to US$ 3.6 billion), the number of units sold was up 4% over 2012 data, and sales forecasts up to 2017 are optimistic. On the industrial side, the IFR reports a 15% increase in industrial installations in 2014 over the previous year, with growth that will “likely continue at about 12% on average per year”.

New investments in robotics also provided hope for the future: Jibo’s crowd funding campaign coming to a close at a whopping $2.3 million, making it the most successful technology campaign on Indiegogo to date; Precision Hawk raised $10 million to expand its work in aerial data collection, processing and analysis; and ReWalk Robotics and Corindus Vascular Robotics sold shares for $36 million and $26.6 million to fund their work on exoskeletons and percutaneous coronary intervention devices, respectively.

But it wasn’t all good news in robotics business this September: Microsoft laid off its entire robotics team in a tactical move to focus on core areas of strength. The robotics team was not working on robotics systems per se, but rather on tools for robot developers.

Housework 2.0

The battle of the household robots has finally begun – at least when it comes to vacuuming. This September, vacuum giant Dyson launched a new robotic vacuum cleaner, the Dyson 360 Eye. Their campaign began with a short teaser video early on in the month, followed by a public launch at IFA in Berlin – the very same day that Samsung announced its own Powerbot VR9000 – signalling that robotic vacuums are transitioning from geek-niche to mainstream consumer product.

Due to their long-standing history with Dyson and their huge consumer interest in new technologies, Japanese consumers will be the first to get the 360 Eye, while the rest of us will have to wait a little longer.

Meals on (robot) wheels

Vacuuming isn’t the only chore robots are taking on: this month a hospital in Paris is trialling two robots to help transport endoscopes throughout their facility; and Korean robotics company Yujin Robot launched GoCart, a meal transport robot designed for service in eldercare, health care and other hospitality facilities. Robots are helping with mealtime in other ways too: Google just bought smart spoon maker LiftLabs, a company that develops smart spoons for people with neurodegenerative diseases; and Hellospoon, a mealtime assistant robot is currently fundraising on Indiegogo.

To regulate, or not to regulate?

As more products like the 360 Eye and GoCart enter our homes and workplaces, calls to regulate robotics have become louder. This month Ryan Calo made the case for a federal robotics commission. However, others called into question whether this would be the right move, suggesting that we should avoid precautionary, top-down regulation that could stem innovation. Concurrent to the US debate, the European Robolaw project published an EU Roadmap for developing guidelines to regulate robotics.

Robohub’s Andra Keay summarised the debate about robot policy for us, calling for change and reform in the robotics policy agenda. We have invited key experts in this debate to contribute to a new focus series on the topic, so watch this space!

Ethical by design

Researchers continue to develop robots and intelligent systems with surprising capabilities, including systems that can play Atari video games, and or find connections between fine works of art.

But just as the the movement of robots into human environments is prompting calls for robot regulation, advances in AI are prompting many argue that robots must be capable of acting ethically if we are to ensure the safety of the people relying on and working with them. Alan Winfield and his team at the Bristol Robotics Lab are trying to figure out how do just that: design a robot that can exhibit ethical behaviour.

Despite have built a minimally ethical robot that appears to implement Asimov’s first and third laws of robotics, Winfield argues that people should not fear the evolution of robots or technological singularity. Rather, they should look at current AI and think about how this might be made safer and more ethical.

Accurate fiction?

To discourage unwarranted fears of robot terminators taking over the world, a group at Arizona State University is hoping to improve our image of the future – through sci fi! Project Hieroglyph brings together top science fiction authors and researchers to encourage realistic, rather than pessimistic, storytelling. It is hoped that this approach will help to explore how societies might react and change with technological advances.

Meanwhile, on the screen, US hit TV series “Person of Interest” is set to explore questions about AI in its new season, and the new movie “Automata” seeks to stimulate a moral debate about robot ethics.

Drones, drones, everywhere!

While the abilities of robots portrayed in movies are often enhanced by CGI, real robots can feature in a very different way. A new short film by Cirque du Soleil, ETH Zurich, and Verity Studios released this September used real quadrocopters to demonstrate how inspiring human robot interaction can be. In an interview with Robohub, Bill Keays, technical advisor at the Cirque du Soleil, explained why they chose to use real robots instead of CGI for the film.

Real robots in front of the camera may still be relatively rare; however, robots behind the scenes may soon be commonplace. The FAA is now set to approve drones for use in the film industry in the US, although a number of rather strict requirements must be met for their use to be legal.

Summarising the key issues affecting drone use and its history, the Centre for the Study of the Drone at Bard College released “The Drone Primer”. This document offers a comprehensive overview and discussion about drones, including their use in the military, journalism and art.

September also saw various other drone related news and features, including: the announcement of the winners of the Drone Social Innovation Award, with a landmine detection project and a project providing disaster relief in the Philippines sharing the $10K prize; the Robots Podcast interview with AirDog, a soon-to-be-released quadrocopter designed to video sports; the announcement by DHL that it is now testing drone delivery, initially transporting medications to an island in the North Sea.

Eye-openers at IROS

The International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) took place from September 14-16 in Chicago, Illinois, and was kicked off by Peter Corke who gave the plenary session on the first day with an eye-opening history of computer vision; he also announced a new MOOC he is planning to launch soon. You can learn more about Corke’s talk and his MOOC in our Robots Podcast interview. Also announced at IROS was MIT’s robot cheetah, which can run and jump across grass, and Clearpath’s new Jackal ground vehicle.

This year presenters were asked to prepare 3-minute mini pitches that would serve as teasers for the interactive sessions, and Robohub captured some of these with our first-ever IROS Webcam, including pitches from Ryan Wolcott (winner of the best student paper award) and Mike Tolley (you may have seen his untethered soft jumping robot on Automaton Blog) – among many others. We hope to bring our webcam to more conferences – so look out for us!

With exhibitors such as Rethink Robotics, Kuka, Schunk, Clearpath and many more, experts from the industry track offered advice for startups and entrepreneurs – see our coverage of the IROS Industry Forum. Check out also the winners of the IROS 2014 Baxter contest and the Microsoft Kinect Challenge.

Last but not least, it was announced at the IROS Women’s lunch that the next International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) will have a 50-strong all-women organizing committee – a historic decision for the robotics community. For more stories from IROS have a look at Robohub’s complete event coverage.

Upcoming events in October to watch out for:

• RE.WORK The Future of Robotics Forum – October 14
• Open Innovations Forum 2014 – October 14-16
• The End of Transit and the Beginning of the New Mobility: Policy Implications of Self-Driving Cars – October 14
• CARPI2014 – October 14-16
• RoboBusiness 2014 – October 15-17
• ICSR 2014 – Fifth International Conference on Social Robotics – October 27-29
• Robot Expo – РоботЭкспо – 2014 – October 29-30

Fighting for lift-off

As predicted in our July digest, this August once again saw a flurry of activity around drones and drone regulation.

In a bold move, Amazon, 3D Robotics, DJI (which just released their new Spreading Wings S900), Parrot and others came together to form a “Small UAV coalition” to speed up federal action on drone regulation. With their eye squarely on the consumer market, the new coalition has hired DC-based lobbying firm Akin Gump in an effort to smooth the way for civil drone development in the US; you can learn more about why the coalition members felt such a step was necessary here.

The following week, the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) wrote an open letter to the FAA in support of Amazon’s bid to test its PrimeAir drone delivery service, and just days later, Google revealed that it was also getting into the drone delivery game, having secretly developed their own platform in Australia for the past two years. Commercial drone advocates are hoping that the heft of these big players will spur US regulators into action.

In labs around the world, researchers are focusing on making drones safer and more efficient for these kinds of applications. At MIT, roboticists have been looking into allowing delivery drones to monitor their own health and, if necessary, reroute to a recharge station to avoid running out of fuel mid-mission. Similarly, a paper recently published by John Daly explored how UAVs might pair up with unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) to extend the range of UAV delivery systems. Finally, students at the University of Leuven have developed VertiKUL, a new drone with two modes that can lift off like a helicopter, but fly like a plane.

Although it will be some time before these innovations make it to market, it’s clear that progress toward commercial drone systems is being made on all fronts. And this is great news for the many businesses and industries that stand to benefit from their widespread use. And not all benefits will be solely for commercial gain: as ecologist Lian Pin Koh explained this month, drones have the potential to be used as conservation tools. In Namibia for example, drones have just been used for nature conservation mapping, allowing scientists to map the vast area of Kuzikus Wildlife Reserve. Similarly, many believe drones could support humanitarian aid efforts. For instance, researchers from the University of North Texas are now developing a drone that expands the wifi range for zones hit by disasters.

And from the frontiers of research …

Of course robotics research is not all about drones, and this month saw developments in other exiting areas of robotics too. Roboticists in Harvard have produced a swarm of over 1000 robots that can self-assemble into arbitrary shapes without the need for an operator. Also at Harvard, graduate students have developed an Origami-inspired robot that can fold itself and start working without any intervention from a human controller. Scientists at the University of Houston in Texas are looking into developing mind-controlled robotic legs, and in France, a group of researchers at the Sorbonne have built a robot that can learn to walk again after breaking its leg.

More ups than downs for robot businesses

The sudden announcement of Unbounded Robotics’ shut down took many in the robotics community by surprise, especially given its star status as a Willow Garage spinoff. Despite this upset, robotics business is looking bright: the North American Robotics Industries Association announced that the first half of 2014 set a new record in robot sales, and Korea announced a $2.6 billion public-private investment in robotics by 2018, following various other countries and governments that have promised more funding for robotics over the past few months.

Jobbing robots

While businesses and industries are clearly excited by the potential of robotics, a report this month by the Pew Research Center asked robotics experts whether robots will create more jobs than they will take, highlighting the risks for blue-collar workers in particular.

Broadly speaking, there appear to be two camps: those who take the dystopian view, believing that mass unemployment will result as robots replace human workers; and those who see things more positively, arguing that robots will augment our work rather than replace us, and that they will be needed to maintain productivity in the face of a rapidly ageing workforce. A summary of some of the arguments used by both camps can be found in a series of videos about robots and jobs.

To be fair, the PEW report also emphasised some of the positive potential of AI and robotics in the workplace; however, since its publication it has been heavily scrutinized, namely by Erik Sofge in his blog Zero Moment. He argued that the report was nothing more than “speculative fiction” and that it fell prey to some of the most common myths about robotics. Erik’s article was welcomed by many who say that robotics and its impact on the economy is a complex matter that is far harder to predict than one might first believe.

At your service

Which camp is right about the future of robots and their impact on the economy remains to be seen. However, there can be no doubt that service robotics has made a giant leap over the past decade, and the latest industry to embrace a robotic workforce is the tourism industry. Starwood hotels have teamed up with Savioke and are now trialling robot butlers at the Aloft Cupertino hotel in Silicon Valley. Guests can now look forward to receiving room service from a new member of staff – a robotic butler called botlr. Similarly, at the Edmonton airport in Canada, travellers who are lost or need directions can now get help from a multi-lingual customer service robot called Furo. Furo can not only give you directions, but might even accompany you to where you have to go – just to make sure you find the right gate in time.

Demerit points, anyone?

The safety record of autonomous may not be as squeaky clean as has been previously suggested, as Quartz revealed that Google kept minor accidents of its vehicles secret. Although these accidents happened while the cars were disengaged (being driven by a human rather than in autonomous mode), these incidents may have serious implications for situations in which transition from autonomous to manual mode are necessary, for instance when the car enters an unmapped area. Further safety risks relating to cars already on the market today, such as Cadillac Escalades, Jeep Cherokees or Infiniti Q50s, were exposed this month as these vehicles may be at risk of hack-attacks.

Perhaps unsurprisingly in light of such reports, Robohub readers were split as to whether they would miss their good old manual cars. Adding to the discussion around autonomous driving, Brad Templeton wondered how cities and city transportation might change to take advantage of autonomous cars, and Patrick Lin asked whether adjustable ethics settings in self-driving vehicles would be a good idea.

Have heart, dear robot

This month Waterloo-based Clearpath Robotics made a public pledge that it will not develop lethal autonomous weapons, despite holding various military contracts. The move sets a precedent in corporate responsibility, disclosing the company’s stance on roboethics and supporting the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots.

And speaking of corporate responsibility, Slate magazine argued this month that if US federal law extends ‘legal personhood’ to corporations, it should do the same for robots as well.

Upcoming events in September to watch our for:

• Minesweepers: Towards a Landmine-Free World; September 1-3; Coimbra, Portugal
• IFA Consumer Electronic Show; September 5-10; Berlin, Germany
• IMTS 2014 – International Manufacturing Technology Show; September 8-13; Chicago, USA
• 2014 The Second Machine Age Conference (IDE / MIT); September 10-11; Cambridge, USA
• IROS 2014 – IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems; September 14-18; Chicago, USA – Hope to see you there!!
• Spatial Cognition 2014; September 15-19; Bremen, Germany
• RE.WORK Technology Summit; September 18-19; London, UK
• World Maker Faire – New York; September 20-21; NYC, USA
• Robot Technology Exhibition (RTEX); September 28-30; Dubai, UAE

The rise of social robots

Robohub’s Andra Keay called it the second wave of social robots: on the heals of Pepper’s unveiling last month, July saw the launch of Cynthia Breazeal’s new start-up, “Jibo”, and Honda announced that its social robot Asimo has a new upgrade.

The Jibo crowd funding campaign is now in full swing, having surpassed its initial target of $1 million within its first week. In an article about Jibo’s potential on Forbes, Ryan Calo even wondered whether Cynthia Breazeal could be the Steve Wozniak of robots.

Robohub crowd funding

In other crowd funding news, July also saw the launch of Robohub’s Indiegogo partner page for robotics startups. Our first campaign, featuring Jerry the Bear, has already hit its crowdfunding target and is still going strong. We hope there will be many more crowdfunding success stories to come in the future. Watch this space!

Future driving

Launched in June, Robohub’s autonomous vehicle series has remained a hot topic this July. Brad Templeton outlined the two schools of thought on autonomous vehicles, explaining that companies like Google have elected an aggressive approach – essentially developing computers on wheels – while manufacturers of ‘old school’ cars are following a more conservative approach, integrating automation into existing vehicles. Whatever the approach, the cars of the future will surely be more autonomous than they are now.

What do you think about autonomy?

Robohub readers once again had their say in a poll about decision-making in autonomous cars, involving a scenario where an autonomous car must make a choice in colliding with a motor cyclist wearing a helmet versus one without. Despite the potential control afforded by autonomous systems to determine the outcome, readers paradoxically chose random chance over informed decision, perhaps reflecting on the difficulty in dealing with situations where autonomy meets law and ethics. Another recent poll in the UK showed that British drivers shun autonomous cars, citing reliability as their biggest concern. Clearly trust remains a big obstacle in their adoption.

Evolving robots

With the rise of social robots, and the ways in which robots are now being used to complete many of the mundane human jobs in various industries, the very definition of what constitutes a robot is constantly evolving. And with robots becoming increasingly prevalent, intelligent, and social, one can be forgiven for having ethical concerns as to their use, as was pointed out in the Slate article “Robots are people, too“.

Yet while AI is definitely here to stay and developments in this field will continue, Alan Winfield argued that artificially evolving human-equivalent AI is unlikely. In his contribution to the book “Our work here is done – visions of a robot economy”, he closes with a section on what’s not coming soon: super intelligent robots.

Robots and jobs

The contentious issue of robots taking over the jobs of humans once again received attention this July with a YouTube interview with one of the co-founders of Google about whether we should let robots take our jobs. Manufacturing jobs have long been on the list of those at risk of being taken over by robots, and this seems confirmed by the recent announcement by Chinese company Foxconn that it will use 10,000 robots to build the new iPhone6. It is perhaps a little more surprising that robot convoys may soon take the place of trucks on our roads, farmers will have robot help in the field, and even doctors may be replaced by virtual Physician Assistants. However, it’s not all doom and gloom on the job market. Various reports this July indicate that robots also create jobs, for instance, recent investments in robotics in general and drones in particular have led to the recruitment of thousands of new staff worldwide.

STEM stories

Robots are becoming more and more popular in education, and a new wearable fashion toy is now teaching girls how to program. Another STEM start-up this month was the TiddlyBot, which can be programmed to draw harnessing the power of Rasberry Pi.

Exoskeletons and helping hands

July saw a third exoskeleton company, ReWalk Robotics, go public, after Ekso Bionics and Cyberdyne. There is a definite buzz around exoskeletons, with a recent Robots Podcast also covering this topic.

Smaller bionics are also making the headlines, for instance with the hand from MIT that will give you super powers. But it’s not all about human hands. New sensors have also been developed that will give robot fingers an actual sense of touch.

Drone discussions continue

Given all the interest in drones this year, various stories about drones made it into the news once again this month. Among them was a request from internet giant Amazon seeking FAA approval for testing its 50mph delivery drones. As yet, there has been no response from the FAA, which is also expected to miss its 2015 deadline for UAS/NAS Integration.

While the regulatory battle around drones is rages on, their potential has once again been proven as a family in Fitchburg used a drone to find a missing person. Also in July, Martha Stewart explained in Vanity Fair why she loves her drone.

In research, students developed UAVs to support search and rescue efforts via wifi signals, and drones have now also been suggested as broadcasting devices. Whether these new ideas will be able to take off in the US, though, is up to the FAA. We are sure there will be more on this issue next month.

Drone competitions

There was sad news for the African drone community, as a delivery drone challenge for areas with little or no infrastructure in Arica – the Flying Donkey challenge – was cancelled this month as aviation authorities in Kenya decided that they could not go ahead due to security concerns following the Westgate Mall incident.

In contrast, in the US, a University Aeronautics Engineering Design Challenge concerned with Hurricane trekking UAVs run by NASA announced its winners, giving the three winning teams the cash and support to take their ideas to the next step.

Robotic events

July saw an extremely successful Robotics Science and Systems conference (RSS) 2014, which showcased social, ethical and economic issues in robotics, and highlighted robotics start-up stories in some very well attended sessions. Robohub’s Andra Keay summarised the event in a two part report, focusing on the new start-ups and perspectives from the established robotics industry. The China International Robot Show was also a big hit this July with record numbers of exhibitors and visitors attending the event in Shanghai.

RoboCup Success

Finally, we could not finish this month’s digest without at least mentioning that, just a few weeks after the Football World Cup, the RoboCup (also in Brazil) took over, with a team from the Netherlands taking first place. Congratulations to Eindhoven University of Technology for their 3-2 win against the University of Beijing!

Upcoming events in August to watch out for:

• IEEE/RAS-EMBS International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics (BioRob 2014) – Aug 12 – 15
• CASE – IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering – Aug 18 – 22
• RO-MAN – IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication – Aug 25-29

FAA dallies while drone community rallies

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) featured heavily in robotics news this June, starting with their first ever approval for a commercial unmanned flight over land. While touted by the FAA as an important first step in the area of drone regulation, experts agree that more needs to be done to allow commercial drone business in the US to grow. The FAA is now considering special waivers for drone use in the film making industry, but it has prohibited the use of UAVs in other areas, including using drones for package deliveries. This was not good news for Amazon as the company was hoping to “get packages into customers’ hands in 30 minutes or less” with their Prime Air drone delivery service.

While the FAA’s Pirker ruling from last March is still under appeal, those wishing to use drones for deliveries are continuing to make plans, hopeful that there will be a future for this industry. This is despite a ban on drones in National Parks and a recent ruling by the Federal Communications Commission issuing a $34.9 million fine to a company that sells GPS-jammers might spell yet more problems for drone regulation in the years ahead.

Indeed, it was not all bad news for UAVs this month. The drone community in South Africa is thriving, and in other parts of the world, follow-me drones are riding a wave of popularity – with startup AirDog vastly exceeding its initial crowdfunding goal.

Robots at the World Cup

UAVs were also featured in football news, with allegations that the French team’s closed practice had been spied on by a quadrotor. Recalling an earlier story about the Packbot serving security detail at Brazil’s twelve World Cup stadiums, you might think that the news is all about surveillance. But these stories were overshadowed by a far more positive story about the World Cup, with robotics playing a vital role in enabling a very special start to the event. Kick-off happened so fast that you might have missed it, but the first shot was actually taken by a paralysed man who was supported by an exoskeleton. Why? The skeleton’s developers wanted to show that Brazil is about more than just football, with a thriving science community and inventions to be proud of.

More exoskeletons

The World Cup exoskeleton story was not the only one in the news this June. The Federal Drug Administration just approved an exoskeleton for home use by people with lower body paralysis. It is hoped that this device will “have an immediate, life-changing impact on individuals with spinal cord injuries”. Similarly, a new start-up company, Noonee, is hoping that its Chairless Chair will benefit those who must spend long periods of time bending and crouching at work. The Noonee chair is essentially an exoskeleton for the legs that can be fixed by the push of a button to support workers when they are required to spend long periods of time in one position. Prototype testing is currently under way.

That’s what friends are for

While exoskeletons can support people on the outside, other robots are offering a different kind of support – as social companions. As MIT’s Cynthia Breazeal has argued, social and ‘humanised’ robots have the potential to change people’s lives. These types of robots were a big theme this June, owing to the unveiling of Pepper the robot by Japanese company SoftBank. Pepper is designed to be sensitive to its environment, to read and react to human emotions, and to communicate with people. The robot will be available to Japanese consumers as of next February.

Are you for real?

As robots like Pepper become more intelligent and more human-like, the challenge of creating a robot that can trick humans into thinking it is a real-life person no longer seems unachievable; note that Russian chatbot Eugene was hailed as passing the Turing Test this June. However, critics have voiced their doubts about the robot’s achievement, claiming that if the rules of the test were stringently applied, the robot would not have passed.

Nevertheless, it’s hard to argue against the fact that robots are becoming more intelligent and independent, and to wonder what the future of AI will bring. In a wide-ranging interview with CNBC, Elon Musk explained that earlier this year he invested in AI company Vicarious in order to “keep an eye on what’s going on in artificial intelligence”. When asked what AI could be used for, Musk replied “I don’t know, but there are some scary outcomes and we should try to make sure that the outcomes are good.”

An ethical dilemma

Given all the news about social robotics and AI in recent weeks, it would seem there is an urgent need for regulation and a code of ethics to govern human-robot interaction. Here at Robohub we thought it a nice co-incidence that this theme was featured in the Robots Podcast this month. 

Ethical issues are of course not only a consideration relevant to designers of social robots, but also to developers of autonomous vehicles. One aspect of this was outlined by Jason Millar on Robohub, who explored the “Tunnel Problem” and its implications for the design of autonomous cars in our autonomous vehicle series. Robohub readers contributed their thoughts on the dilemma through one of our reader polls, with almost two thirds electing the passenger’s safety over that of a person in the road.

Star power: Good for business

While Robohub editors agreed that it was rather US-centric, Business Insider published a list of the most important people working in robotics today, and robotics business news in general was encouraging this June. Note an increase in venture capital funding, reports on a surge in the number of robotics patents being awarded in the last decade, and growth forecasts for the mobile robotics market as well as the home cleaning and entertainment sector. Further announcements at this year’s AUTOMATICA in Munich confirmed record industrial robot sales, and introduced a new EU robotics funding programme, and various other funding streams.

With nearly 35,000 visitors this year, AUTOMATICA featured the likes of Universal Robots, KUKA, gomTec and SMErobotics, all introducing exciting new products. The even also brought robot users and manufacturers together to explore future needs and solutions as part of a panel discussion that may well inspire the next generation of robots.

DRC update

Gill Pratt’s DARPA issued new information about the DRC finals, due to take place in a year’s time. Stating that DARPA was impressed with the results at the DRC trials, Pratt said they have made the challenges more difficult than initially planned. The big news, however, was that SHAFT announced that they would withdraw from the competition despite having won the trials. New teams sponsored by Japan, Korea and the EU will be joining the fray, and the competition will be still open to new teams until February 2015. We are looking forward to the finals next June!

Robot selfies on Mars

We couldn’t wrap up this month’s digest without tipping our hats to Curiosity, which celebrated its 1 year anniversary on Mars this month by taking a selfie – by coincidence we had just published an article about robot selfies a few weeks earlier.

Upcoming events in July to watch out for:

• International Symposium on Automation and Robotics in Construction and Mining (ISARC 2014) – July 9-11
• CiROS – China (Shanghai) International Robot Show – July 9-11
• Robotics Science and Systems Conference – July 12-16
• Hamlyn Symposium on Medical Robotics 2014 – July 12-15
• International Conference on Intelligent Autonomous Systems (IAS-13) – July 15-19
• Robot Film Festival IV – July 19
• RoboCup Competition – July 21-24

A quick, hassle-free way to stay on top of robotics news from the past month, our monthly digest is released on the first Monday of every month.

The risks and regulation of autonomous robots featured prominently in the news this May 2014, including a debate at the United Nations on the regulation of lethal autonomous weapons. Professors Ron Arkin and Noel Sharkey spoke at the event, which aimed to cover the key issues surrounding the use of autonomous technology for warfare. However, with only five out of eighty-seven countries currently supporting a pre-emptive ban on lethal autonomous weapons, agreement on their regulation seems a long way off. Interestingly, the US Navy appeared to have put some thought into the risks of automation and offered a $7.5 million grant for the development of autonomous robots with moral ethics.

Public discourse around autonomous robots went beyond the weapons debate to include a lively discussion about autonomous cars, which also featured heavily in the news this month. Google presented its first prototype of a purpose-built autonomous car and pointed out that none of their autonomous cars had ever gotten a ticket. On Robohub, readers completed our first poll focused on autonomous cars and their regulation, giving their opinion on whether the unlicensed should be allowed to ‘drive’ them and whether these cars should be allowed to speed.

Some big names in science also spoke out this month about the risks associated with autonomous robots and artificial intelligence, as well as their potential. Stephen Hawking and a number of other leading scientists discussed what AI has to offer and why we might need to take the risks linked to it more seriously. And Rodney Brooks spoke about what robots can and cannot do, and argued that autonomous or intelligent robots are not necessarily a bad or scary thing.

The robots and jobs question was reignited this month when Amazon announced that it will have 10,000 robots in its warehouses by the end of this year. Amazon said that despite the increase in robots, they will not be reducing the number of people employed in their warehouses, supporting the idea that robots maybe best seen as co-workers rather than competitors. In developed economies, at least, robots seem to create high quality jobs through the reshoring, and are here to stay in many industries.

Another hot topic on Robohub this month was the announcement of the winners of the Robot Launch competition, the first ever global robotics competition, run jointly by Robohub and Silicon Valley Robotics. The grand winner was Leka, a startup from France that develops intuitive and intelligent toys for autistic children, supporting children’s learning and development.

Various other ways in which robots could support us and make our lives just that little bit easier also featured in May’s news. Word is that Apple is developing a new smart home platform that will allow users to unite the various applications they use in their home. Cleaning robots were also a theme this May, including a ROS-based cleaning robot from Avidbots (who received an honourable mention in the Robot Launch competition), and a feature article on various commercial cleaning robots. There was also a focus on robots for elder care this month, with an article on how technology could help senior citizens live independently at home for much longer, and an inspiring story of a 94-year-old lady who is able to do just that thanks to her helper robot ‘Mr Robin‘.

However, robots don’t just have the potential to help with cleaning or care of the eldery, and this was demonstrated once more this May when robots were deployed after the South Korean ferry disaster to survey the wreck and to support the rescue operation.

In other robots news, researchers at EPFL in Switzerland have developed robotic, self-configuring furniture that can transform living spaces; and a group of researchers at CU Boulder want to build a swarm of 1,000 droplet robots and plan to use crowd funding to get it done.

Also in the news this May: at the SOLID conference in Fort Mason, Robohub’s very own Andra Keay gave a keynote speech asking “Are robots the new black?”; and, last but not least, the robotics community bid farewell to Professor Rolf Pfeifer this month, who announced his retirement after 30 years in AI. Robohub wishes him well.

Upcoming events in June to watch out for:

• ICRA 2014 – May 31 – June 7 (Hong Kong)
• ISR/Robotik – June 2-3 (Munich)
• Automatica – June 3-6 (Munich)
• IEEE-CYBER 2014 – June 3-6 (Hong Kong)
• RSS – June 12-16 (Berkley)
• EuRathlon Workshop/Summer School – June 15-18 (Seville)
• RE.WORK Technology Summit – June 19-20 (Berlin)

A quick, hassle-free way to stay on top of robotics news from the past month, our monthly digest is released on the first Monday of every month.

Robotics grabbed mainstream headlines this April 2014, starting with the Economist’s 14-page special report on the “Rise of the Robots” written by a reporter who travelled the world to gather information and finally concluded that the rise of robots is “cool” – we agree!

Then, following last month’s FAA news and an incident in which a triathlete was injured by a falling drone, some called for immediate limited commercial UAS use this April amidst fears that drone crashes could cause numerous headaches and lawsuits. However, at the DEMO conference, Helen Greiner, co-founder of iRobot, suggested that the outlook for and potential of drones overall is promising. UAVs also featured heavily in April’s business news, with a variety of items on acquisitions, for instance by the ECA Group and Google, summarized for us by Frank Tobe in his UAV news wrap-up.

Overall, business news in April was once again positive with various deals being done, including Apple buying UK speech recognition firm Novauris and Google Ventures investing in robot maker Savioke. Robohub’s Frank Tobe picked up on some of these business developments and tried to shed light on what they might mean.

Finally, following last month’s news that the NAO Next Gen robot became available to a wider audience in March, you can now also pre-order the  pro-model UBR-1 from Unbounded Robotics.

April also saw some interesting developments relating to the future of robots in space. NASA signed an agreement with SpaceX for commercial use of their historic launch pad and some space-faring lettuce was delivered to the international space station by a SpaceX Dragon capsule. Also in April, DARPA launched its new Phoenix program that will work towards enabling assembly of modular satellites by robots in space.

Military robotics also featured in the news this April, with a robotic “Porton Man” worth 1.1M£ designed to test protective clothing for the UK’s armed forces. Additionally, DARPA launched the Hand Proprioception and Touch Interfaces (HAPTIX) program to develop prosthetics with lifelike sensory feedback that could significantly improve the lives of many amputees in the future.

Various robotics-related events took place in April, including Robohub’s Robots from Imagination to Market seminar and networking event at MIT, the WeRobot conference and the 2014 Xconomy Forum on “Robo Madness”, giving attendees an opportunity to explore and discuss such important issues as the diffusion of robots into society and the desirability (or otherwise) of autonomous operation.

We must have been onto something when we did a Robots Podcast on FutureDairy for our agricultural series last fall, because robotic milking caught headlines on both BBC Radio 4’s “Farming today” and the New York Times this April.

Last but not least are some highlights from our own pages this month:

• We launched RoboJobs: the new dedicated jobs board for the global robotics community, where you can now find a range of robotics jobs in just one place.
• Everyone’s invited to vote for their “People’s Choice” startup from Robohub’s startup competition in collaboration with Silicon Valley Robotics.
• Tell us what you think about autonomous cars in our new reader poll, done in collaboration with the Open Robotics initiative.
• Robohub’s most popular post in April was Adam Klaptocz’s Fukushima photo essay: A drone’s eye view, which allows readers a unique look at three towns affected by the 2011 disaster.

March 2014 was a contentious month for the robotics community. An intense debate about the commercialization of drones in the US was sparked (or re-ignited) after a US Court ruled against the Federal Aviation Administration in the case of a 29-year old Austrian who had been accused of operating a drone recklessly and without a license. With the FAA’s appeal, regulation of drones in the US is still a hot topic and will probably remain so for some time to come.

Another hot topic was the state of AI, and whether artificial intelligence would overtake human thinking in the not-too-distant future. In an interview in the Observer,  Ray Kurzweil suggested that robots will be smarter than humans by 2029. In response, Alan Winfield argued why they will not.

Finally, we couldn’t talk about controversy without mentioning Edward Snowdon’s telepresence-supported appearance via BEAM at TED this month. While some of us at Robohub discussed how telepresence bots like BEAM can be used to disrupt borders, others  questioned whether telepresence devices like the BEAM are even robots at all.

Business news was good all-around in March, following the excellent industry outlook in February. This was demonstrated by various reports of expected growth in sectors such as remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) and rehab robots and exoskeletons. We also heard announcements of further investments in underwater drones by the Pentagon and news of the high number of Play-i pre-orders, which means the company now has an impressive $8 million in Series A financing.

March also saw several stories about internet giant Google’s robotics related activities. This included a RoboHub interview with DARPA’s Gill Pratt on Google’s recent investments (part of our Big Deals series). The Verge then also picked up on the relationship between Google and DARPA, publishing a piece discussing Google’s rejection of military funding. Whatever Google’s long term decision on that front, DAPRA did announce that the SCHAFT team – recently acquired by Google – would be staying in the DARPA Robotics Competition. Finally, there was also a story confirming that Google’s Project Tango – a prototype smartphone – will be headed to space with the Orbital 2 mission scheduled for May this year.

Staying with the space-theme, many robotics enthusiasts will have been pleased by the announcement that the popular ROS operating system is also headed for space, or more precisely, to the International Space Station, where it will support the Robonaut 2.

Competitions were another hot topic this March. Round one of Robohub’s own Robot Launch 2014 startup competition closed with an impressive 57 entries from 19 different countries – stay tuned as we proceed to judging!! Also, the African Robotics Network (AFRON) announced the winners of its latest ultra-affordable robot competition (the print-and-fold robot from MIT took first place in the hardware category), and the Flying Donkey Challenge, which asked entrants to create a UVA to deliver items to remote locations, announced that it had 33 entrants for its first sub-challenge. Finally, inspired by the paralympic games in Sochi (Russia), March also saw the announcement of a new kind of sporting event: The Cybathlon, a championship for athletes using robotic assistive devices, is now scheduled to take place for the first time in October 2016.

In other news, many roboticists will have been delighted to hear that the NAO Next Gen robot from Aldebaran Robotics is now sold to a wider audience from March 13^th and will no longer be available only to academic researchers or hard-core developers – so if you’ve got the cash, you can now get a NAO Next Gen.

Upcoming events in April to watch out for:

• National Robotics Week (US) – April 5 -13
• Silicon Valley Robot Block Party – April 9
• Xconomy Forum: Robo Madness – April 10
• The Vision Show and Conference – April 15 – 17
• ROBOTS: From Imagination to Market – April 17 * Robohub Event!!

A quick, hassle-free way to stay on top of robotics news from the past month, our new monthly digest will be released on the first Monday of every month. 

One of the biggest news items this February was without a doubt the collaboration between Google’s robotics division and Taiwanese design manufacturer Foxconn. Although this has been developing since last year, it was a hot topic in this month’s Wall Street Journal and was featured on Robohub in mid February. Google and Foxconn say they will work together to test and develop Google’s robotics technology, ultimately aiming for a robotics operating system that would make Google a major player in the technology industry.

Robotics industry news was generally good all-round in February, as the IFR released its final figures for the 4th quarter of 2013, showing an overall increase in robot sales compared to 2012.  Also came the positive news that robotics is the fastest growing industry in the world and that demand for people with robotics skills is on the rise. In echo to the positive news of this recent growth is the investment this February by vacuum cleaner giant Dyson of £5 million (approx. $8.4 million US) in a new robotics laboratory at Imperial College London to advance the science of robotic vision systems.

We also saw lots of news items about drones this month – including a controversial dispute between US Police and a Hartford journalist who used an aerial drone to take images of a car wreck. The story was featured on ABC News and sparked new interest in the discussions about regulation of drones by the Federal Aviation Administration, and renewed the drone journalism/privacy debate. Drone use for sports photography was also a hot topic this month, especially because of the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia, that saw a number of drones being successfully used particularly in the downhill ski and snowboarding events. It’s no surprise that use of drones for documenting sports events is likely to increase in the coming years. In line with all the buzz about drones, the Drone User Group Network launched its drone competition, the Drone Social Innovation Award this month, with a top prize of $10,000 US for the most exciting and innovative ideas for social or civil use of aerial robots.

In other news this month, the SAE International On-Road Automated Vehicle Standards Committee helped to shape standards for the automation of vehicles by defining six levels of driving automation, and the US government announced that it will run the first ever White House Maker Faire later this year to foster the “inventive spirit across the US“. Details of the event will be publicised later – watch this space!

A Robohub Digest would not be complete without telling you about the new developments right here on our pages. February saw the launch of our global robotic startup competition in partnership with Silicon Valley Robotics. With this being the first ever startup competition exclusively focused on robotics, we are all very excited and look forward to the entries, so get your robot prototypes off the ground! If you’ve got a startup idea, make sure to submit your Round One entry by the 30th of March.  We also launched the Big Deals series this month (still ongoing), to help shed light on why big companies like Amazon and Google are so interested in robotics right now.   And last, but not least, we are proud to tell you that the bi-weekly Robots Podcast celebrated its 150th episode this month!

Upcoming events in March to watch out for:

• HRI – 9th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction
• SXSW 2014 – South by Southwest (SXSW) Conference & Festival
• InnoRobo
• AI & Robotics Innovation Forum
• Robot Challenge

Campus Party events pride themselves in bringing together bright and like-minded people from all over the world, offering them an opportunity to hear from some of the greats in the worlds of the gaming, technology and enterprise. The events run for several days and cover a wide range of themes and topics, including robotics. This year’s EU Campus Party took place between the 2^ndand 6^th of September at the O2 arena in London. It was an event packed with stimulating talks, fascinating workshops, networking, gaming opportunities, and hackathons. On Friday, Robohub joined in the fun to see what kind of robotics content Campus Party had to offer. Here’s what we found …

During the morning session, Paul McKnight from VEX robotics gave a presentation about competitive robotics in education. He emphasized the benefits robots and a bit of friendly competition can bring to the classroom.

Friday’s lunchtime keynote was presented by Nolan Bushnell, founding father of gaming giant Atari. He spoke about how the gaming world started, expanded and became what it is today, before giving the audience a glimpse of his dreams for the future of gaming, which include games for health and memory as well as gaming in schools.

One of the afternoon lectures on offer was given by Alvaro Justen, a Brazilian free software developer. This session focused on robot and platform programming with Arduino and Python. Alvaro demonstrated how to write source code for Arduino platforms and how to use Python with Arduino for more complex tasks.

The afternoon also offered a series of workshops, one of which focused on designing and programming robots and later testing them in a friendly competition.

For anyone not keen to listen to any of the presentations or attend any of the workshops on Friday – possibly due to staying awake until 4am competing in one of the hackathons – the exhibition zone downstairs boasted networked desks, a market place, gaming areas and chill-out zones.

Under the giant roof of the O2 arena, hundreds of campuseros could get talking, hacking, gaming, networking and developing, although some of them preferred to use the beanbags and sofas for a quick power nap instead.

Friday evening, the event finally ended with award ceremonies and a big party, before campuseros packed up their bags and returned to their homes. With hundreds of campuseros from all over Europe attending the EU Campus Party, it appeared to have been a successful event, maybe best summarized with the words of Nolan Bushnell: “Game until you drop and then crawl into a tent.”

McKnight spoke about how robotics competitions could help pupils learn a set of new skills that are neglected in schools, but are in high demand on the job market, including creative thinking, task-oriented design and problem solving. Furthermore, he emphasised the need for good team work and mutual respect during robotics competitions: “The ethos of our competitions is not about winning, it’s about winning in the right way, it’s a collaborative approach.”

Attending “campuseros” were then offered a chance to get involved in one of two robotics challenges. Participants could either have a go at programming a robot using their personal computers, or they could get their hands dirty in a mechanical challenge, which involved building a robot designed to compete in a game challenge.

Ten groups of campuseros opted for the mechanical challenge. Using a prebuilt platform, the participants had to come up with a design that would enable the robot to lift, push or throw balls of various sizes and sacks filled with granules into an opposing team’s court. Really getting into the competitive spirit, campuseros battled for the best parts, tested their ideas and attempted to perfect their designs before the competitive matches began.

After one hour of design time, the groups were called to compete in matches that saw a total of four robots at a time face each other in teams of two. The aim of the challenge was to fill the opposing team’s court with as many items as possible, while preventing the opposing team from filling one’s own court with the same items.

The matches were certainly one of the loudest events in the exhibition zone and attracted quite a crowd of interested passer-bys who stopped to watch. When the winners of the challenge were finally announced – after winning every single one of their matches – their joy clearly showed that robotics competitions do not only have the potential to delight school pupils, but many others too.

This year’s EU campus party is currently taking place at the O2 Arena in central London in the United Kingdom. With over 500 hours of presentations, workshops and hackathons, the event has attracted hundreds of bright minds who are keen to meet like-minded people, hear from global leaders in technology and gaming, and who want to try their hands at some of the world’s most cutting-edge technology. Themes range from enterprise and start-ups to e-commerce and social media to astronomy, 3D video making and robotics. You can check out the full schedule here.

Robohub is joining the party to find out what the Campuseros are up to this week, so look out for #cpeurope or check the widget below. Robohub correspondents Jana Witt and Aaron Boardley will be attending the Campus Party on its last day to experience first-hand some of the presentations, discussions and workshops around robotics that are on offer. Look out for their live tweets this Friday, and for follow-up coverage in the coming week.

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