We are happy to dedicate this post to our new volunteer: Shaunak Kapur. Shaunak is a soon-to-be senior in high school (Texas), and he has been captivated by robotics from a young age. He has participated in numerous robotics competitions (namely VEX and FRC), pursued robotics/engineering internships and robotics-based research projects, and even worked to develop robot products in medical applications that aid individuals with motor skill impediments.

Shaunak’s volunteering role will be to summarize the most exciting news in robotics that comes up, either in academia or industry.

If you are interested in his impressive skills and experience at his young age, you can check out his CV below. Welcome to our community, Shaun!

During the pandemic, members of the reddit & discord r/robotics community rallied to organize an online showcase for members of our community. What was originally envisioned as a half-day event with one mildly interesting guest speaker turned out to be a two day event with an incredible roster of participants from across the world. You can watch last year’s showcase here.

This year, we are planning an event which anticipates the enthusiasm we’ve had from our community, continuing to provide a unique opportunity for roboticists around the world to share and discuss their work, regardless of age or ability.

A small selection of last year’s robot’s.

We are delighted to receive support from Wevolver, Robohub, The National Robotarium, and the IEEE-RAS Soft Robotics Podcast, who are helping us to reach more people from academia industry, and ensure we are proactive with our representation of diversity.

“It’s great to see the reddit showcase is happening again! I presented last year, and it was a pleasure to see hobbyists, professionals, academics and students all together in one place sharing their passion for robotics. It’s important to see a diverse community, so I really encourage everyone to apply!

– Sabine Hauert, President of Robohub –

The showcase is free and online, and is to be held on July 30th & 31st 2022, livestreamed via the Reddit Robotics Showcase YouTube channel.

We extend an open invitation to those keen to share their robotics with the world. Please apply via this online form link. Successful applicants will be offered a timeslot of 10, 15, or 30 minutes, which includes both presentation and Q&A time. The committee will form presentation categories based on the applications. If you wish to register your interest as a keynote speaker, please email RRS chair Olly Smith directly.

This is not a formal academic conference, and alongside academic and industry professionals we encourage hobbyists, undergraduates, early career academics etc to apply, even if their work is still in progress. To that end, speakers are recommended to present their work in a public friendly manner.

To apply, please submit an application via this link before the deadline of April 30th.

The Aim

The primary purpose of this event is to showcase the multitude of projects underway in the r/Robotics Reddit community. Topics range across all focuses of robotics, such as simulation, navigation, control, perception, and mechatronic design. We will use this showcase to present discussion pieces and foster conversation between active members in the robotics community around the world. The showcase will feature invited roboticists in research and industry to discuss what they see as technical challenges or interesting directions for robots. We will focus on the following topics and showcase some of the amazing work being done by amateurs and academics, students and industry professionals alike.

• Autonomous Ground Vehicle (AGV – Mobile Robots)
• Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV – Drones)
• Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV – Submarines, Sailboats)
• Legged Robots (Bipeds, Quadrupeds, Hexapods)
• Manipulation (Robot Arms, Grippers, Hands)
• Simulation (Physical, Virtual, AI)
• Multi-Agent & Swarm Robotics
• Navigation, Path Planning, & Motion Planning
• Localisation & Mapping
• Perception & Machine Vision
• Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Deep Learning
• Social Robots & Human Robot Interaction
• Domestic & Consumer Robots
• Commercial & Industrial Robotics
• Search & Rescue

Happy holidays everyone! Here are some more robot videos to get you into the holiday spirit.

Have a last minute holiday robot video of your own that you’d like to share? Send your submissions to daniel.carrillozapata@robohub.org

And as a late entry, here we have the video from PAL Robotics:

That’s right! You better not run, you better not hide, you better watch out for brand new robot holiday videos on Robohub!

Drop your submissions down our chimney at daniel.carrillozapata@robohub.org and share the spirit of the season.

For inspiration, here are our two first videos:

Thanks to all those that sent us their holiday videos. It’s been a tough year for everyone. We hope these videos make these holidays a bit more special.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmmeFwKz2sM

As a late entry, we received this Christmas themed demonstration of Phormica, IRIDIA‘s recently released system that enables robot swarms for deploying and reacting to artificial pheromone (the stencil will only reveal itself if a large number of robots continuously deploy artificial pheromone on it):

We also received these robotic cookies from Halodi Robotics (yummy!):

Did we miss your video? You can send it to daniel.carrillozapata@robohub.org and we’ll include it in this list.

We wish you the very best for these holidays and the year 2021!

The Women in Robotics network is putting together an open catalog of books related to robotics and technology. Whether you would like to share your own collection with the community, or you just want to find your next read or the perfect holiday season gift (let’s be honest, we all love robots, and we want everyone to love robots), this is a great place to start.

Current titles on the catalog include Frankenstein (Mary Shelley), Uncanny Valley: A Memoir (Anna Wiener) or Sex, Race, and Robots – How to Be Human in the Age of AI (Ayanna Howard). You can access the catalog through this link. And if you would like to contribute with a book suggestion, you can use this form to send it.

That’s right! You better not run, you better not hide, you better watch out for brand new robot holiday videos on Robohub!

Drop your submissions down our chimney at daniel.carrillozapata@robohub.org and share the spirit of the season.

For inspiration, here is our first submission:

That’s right! You better not run, you better not hide, you better watch out for brand new robot holiday videos on Robohub!

Drop your submissions down our chimney at sabine.hauert@robohub.org and share the spirit of the season.

For inspiration, check out submissions from last year.

IJCAI, the 28th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, is happening from the 10th to 16th August in Macao, China. We’ll be posting updates throughout the week thanks to the AIhub Ambassadors on the ground. Stay tuned.

You can follow the tweets at #IJCAI2019 or below.

Tweets by IJCAIconf

PhD candidate Michelle A. Lee from the Stanford AI Lab won the best paper award at ICRA 2019 with her work “Making Sense of Vision and Touch: Self-Supervised Learning of Multimodal Representations for Contact-Rich Tasks”. You can read the paper on arxiv here.

Audrow Nash was there to capture her pitch.

And here’s the official video about the work.

Full reference
Lee, Michelle A., Yuke Zhu, Krishnan Srinivasan, Parth Shah, Silvio Savarese, Li Fei-Fei, Animesh Garg, and Jeannette Bohg. “Making sense of vision and touch: Self-supervised learning of multimodal representations for contact-rich tasks.” arXiv preprint arXiv:1810.10191 (2018).

For more of this year’s holiday videos, check here.

That’s right! You better not run, you better not hide, you better watch out for brand new robot holiday videos on Robohub! Drop your submissions down our chimney at sabine.hauert@robohub.org and share the spirit of the season.

For inspiration, here are our first submissions.

David McGoran, Creative Director says “We explore the design space before committing to sensors and autonomous behaviour. During the design process, we created our own bespoke tools to effectively communicate with engineers, artists and designers. One of the bespoke tools featured in How We Build a Robot is called the Story Machine; we use it for, what we call, ‘Relationship Design’.”

“The Wish – Autonomous Robotics Christmas Lab 2017” by the Autonomous Systems Lab, the Robotic Systems Lab and the Vision for Robotics Lab, ETH Zurich

“Christmas Video 2017” by Reconfigurable Robotics Lab – EPFL

“Home Holiday Video” by The GRASP Lab, UPenn

“Happy Holidays” by PAL Robotics!

“Merry Christmas from Franka Emika’s robot Panda and the adorable kitten!” by Franka Emika

https://youtu.be/uxh-r1jfNVo
“Happy Holidays” by Rethink Robotics

“A Meka Christmas” by Reach Robotics

“Happy Holidays” by FANUC America Corporation

For more holiday videos, check last week’s posts: Part 1 and Part 2.

Well, this year’s videos are getting creative!
Have a holiday robot video of your own that you’d like to share? Send your submissions to editors@robohub.org.

“Cozmo stars in Christmas Wrap” by Life with Cozmo

“Don’t be late for Christmas!” by FZI Living Lab

“LTU Robotics Team Christmas Video 2017” by the Control Engineering Group of Luleå University of Technology, Sweden.

Warning: This video is insane . . .

“Misletoe: A robot love story” by the Robot Drive-In Movies.

For more holiday videos, check last week’s post. Email us your holiday robot videos at editors@robohub.org!

Credit: Youtube

This latest video from the D’Andrea lab shows a quadrotor performing a looping trajectory while balancing an inverted pendulum at the same time.

The video is pretty self-explanatory and includes lots of the technical details – enjoy!

The work, which will be detailed in an upcoming paper, was done by Julien Kohler, Michael Mühlebach, Dario Brescianini, and Raffaello D’Andrea at ETH Zürich. You can learn more about the Flying Machine Arena here.

Our first few submissions have now arrived! Have a holiday robot video of your own that you’d like to share? Send your submissions to editors@robohub.org.

“I made 2000 ugly holiday cards with a $100k robot arm” by Simone Giertz

“Making Ideas Come True” by Danish Technological Institute

https://youtu.be/dStfHK5bpZU
“Hey, Jibo. Welcome home for the holidays.” by Jibo

“Bake Together” and “Decorate Together” by iRobot

Keep them coming! Email us your holiday robot videos at editors@robohub.org!

Credit: Melanie Saldana

The first International Conference on Robot Learning (CoRL) happened mid-November in Mountain View, California.

You can now watch all the videos online, including talks by J. Andrew Bagnell (CMU), Rodney Brooks (Rethink Robotics, MIT), Anca Dragan (UC Berkeley), Yann LeCun (Facebook, NYU) and Stefanie Tellex (Brown University).

We’ll also be posting Robohub Podcast interviews done at the conference – so stay tuned!

That’s right! You better not run, you better not hide, you better watch out for brand new robot holiday videos on Robohub! Drop your submissions down our chimney at editors@robohub.org and share the spirit of the season, like these vids-of-Christmas-past. . .

One highlight was the European Robotics League competition focused on service robotics with teams from Spain, Germany, the United Kingdom and Portugal. The teams had to show how their robots can assist old people in their daily life, all in an attrezzo that simulates a home.

The central event of the week was held in Brussels, and featured a “Robots Discovery” exhibition hosted by the European Committee of the Regions, where robotics experts from 30 European and regionally-funded projects outlined how their work could impact society. Exhibiting projects are listed below.

• EurEyeCase will design instrumenation and control techniques to improve clinical outcome for a selection of relevant and urgent eye surgery procedures for certain pathologic conditions, affecting over 16 million elderly persons worldwide.

• MURAB has the ambition to drastically improve precision and effectiveness of the biopsy gathering for cancer diagnostic operations. Through a robotic device which can autonomously scan the target area and optimally acquire data, the use of expensive Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) will be reduced to a minimum.

• SoftPro project will study and design soft synergy-based robotics technologies to develop new prostheses, exoskeletons, and assistive devices for upper limb rehabilitation, which will greatly enhance the efficacy and accessibility for a greater number of users. SoftHand Pro: a prosthetic hand that is robust, versatile, usable, strong, and delicate.

• IoT and robotic technologies are two complementary domains with large potential for improving our daily life quality. The two showcased projects are: imec.WONDER, where a Nao robot engages in personalized interactions with people suffering from dementia, tracking behavioral disturbances by means of environmental sensors; and imec.ROBOCURE, where social robots are interfacing with networked glucose meters for improved diabetes education and follow-up therapy at home.

• BabyRobot’s ambition is to create robots that can establish communication protocols, form collaboration plans on the fly, and create an impact beyond the consumer and healthcare application markets. BabyRobot focuses on special education for children with autism. 

• The Vrije Universiteit Brussel is involved with many different robotics initiatives ranging from local projects (Brubotics/VUB Exoskeleton), spinoffs (Axiles), and international collaborations (CYBERLEGs). These projects are focused on assistive technologies and human-robot interactions, developing new exoskeleton technologies, commercializing new prosthetic devices such as the Axiles ankle prosthesis, and developing new powered prosthetic devices to assist those who may not be able to use current designs.

• Early diagnosis with a non-invasive and painless endoscopic technique to eradicate colorectal cancer? Yes, a new solutions exists: the Endoo medical platform. The Endoo European Project aims to develop an active colonoscopic platform for robotic guidance of a painless, innovative, smart, and soft-tethered device, in order to achieve accurate and reliable diagnosis and therapy of colonic pathologies, with high acceptance by patients for preventive mass screening.

• The Educational Robotics for STEM (ER4STEM) project aims to turn curious children into young adults passionate about science and technology through a hands-on platform using robotics The project’s research is aimed at developing an open operational and conceptual framework that involves pedagogical methods as well as technologies and tools for educational robotics, including a web repository of educational robotics in Europe.

• The European Robotics League (ERL), a novel model for competitions funded by the European Commission, brings a common framework for three robotics challenges: ERL Industrial Robots, ERL Service Robots and ERL Emergency Robots, allowing teams to test their robots’ ability to face real-world situations. The ERL local and major tournaments are based in Europe and are open to international participation. European cities can apply to host an ERL tournament.

• LUVMI is a small, lightweight rover being designed to explore polar regions of the Moon and drive into a Permanently Shadowed Region (PSR), believed to hold vast stores of water. Instruments carried by the rover will look specifically for this water which may be potentially game-changing for future manned missions to the moon.

• Makeathons and hackathons are excellent tools to foster collaborations and co-creation in a world of complex and disruptive solutions. To connect the possibilities and the need for robots and artificial intelligence between companies, startups and academic groups, the InQbet makeathon takes place simultaneously in Brussels, New York and Singapore. More than 100 attended the kick-off, and 50 experts members are developing solutions with startups.

• Using robotics to teach children about programming and other digital skills, improves motivation, makes programming tangible and naturally links together different topics in science and engineering. Dwengo has developed several tools and teaching materials to be used during classroom activities. Moreover, international projects such as WeGoSTEM and Udavi brought robot education to socio-disadvantaged children worldwide!

• In the IDLab at UGent – imec has developed multiple quadruped robots over the past decade. By building and programming quadruped robots, one can really understand the underlying principles of movement and cognition.

• Asbestos materials were used in many installations, flats, and offices in the past. Even though their hazardous effects to the human health are well known, the material is still present in many buildings. The Bots2ReC Project aims at the development of a robotic system for the efficient automated removal of asbestos contamination, without putting human workers at risk.

• The CoCoRo project aimed at creating a swarm of interacting, cognitive, autonomous robots. The swarm of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) are able to interact with each other in order to achieve environmental monitoring, search and exploration of underwater habitats.

• DexROV develops technologies for executing sub-sea dexterous interventions (maintenance of infrastructures, geology, biology, archaeology…) with underwater robots (ROVs) from a remote control center, through a satellite communication link. The remote control center is featured with a double arm, and double hands allowing the pilot to instruct dexterous operations. DexROV will be demonstrated in 2018 at 1,000 meters deep in the Mediterranean sea, while being operated from Zaventem, in Belgium.

• The BADGER autonomous underground robotic system will be able to drill, maneuver, localise, map and navigate in the underground space, and will be equipped with tools for constructing horizontal and vertical networks of stable bores and pipelines. The proposed robotic system will operate in domains of high societal and economic impact including trenchless constructions, cabling and pipe installations, geotechnical investigations, large-scale irrigation installations, search and rescue operations, remote science and exploration applications.

• SAGA is an ECHORD++ experiment. The goal of the project is to prove the applicability of swarm robotics to precision farming. 

• The ICARUS project proposes a comprehensive and integrated set of unmanned search and rescue tools which consist of assistive unmanned air, ground, and sea vehicles, equipped with victim-detection sensors. The unmanned vehicles collaborate as a coordinated team, communicating via ad hoc cognitive radio networking.

• The H2020-SafeShore project, has as a main goal to cover existing gaps in coastal border surveillance, increasing internal security by preventing cross-border crime such as trafficking in human beings and the smuggling of drugs. It is designed to be integrated with existing systems and create a continuous detection line along the border.

• The TIRAMISU project aims at providing the foundation for a global toolbox that will cover the main mine action activities, from the survey of large areas to the actual disposal of explosive hazards, including mine risk education and training tools.

• The goal of SHERPA is to develop a mixed ground and aerial robotic platform to support search and rescue activities in a real-world hostile environment like the alpine scenario.

• Disaster response and other tasks in dangerous and dirty environments can put human operators at risk. The ECHORD++ HyQ-REAL experiment will bring to the real world IIT’s four-legged robot, capable of a wide repertoire of indoor/outdoor motions ranging from running and jumping to carefully walking over rough terrain.

• Co4Robots is a European-wide collaboration between industry and academia that aims to build a systemic, integrated methodology with which to accomplish complex tasks given to a group of robots in various environments such as a hotel, an office, a hospital, or a warehouse.

For more news, follow #ERW2017 on twitter or below.
#ERW2017 Tweets

Does this robot look like a #Halloween creature? Maybe, but this Automaton Rover could handle the heat on Venus: https://t.co/6SZUUQTqjC pic.twitter.com/2LrkNwbPTY

— NASA Technology (@NASA_Technology) October 31, 2017

Happy Halloween from the GRASP Lab! pic.twitter.com/EdHSpd1OmU

— GRASP Laboratory (@GRASPlab) October 31, 2017

?Trick or treat? @PepperTheRobot? Happy #Halloween2017 pic.twitter.com/l5cb9NxBcc

— Intuitive Robots (@IntuitiveRobots) October 31, 2017

#Gitas are ready for halloween. Time for our Halloween bash! @P_F_F #Robots pic.twitter.com/XFpCi78EwA

— Sasha Hoffman (@sashaphoffman) October 31, 2017

??HaPPy HaLLoWeeN! ?? #HappyHalloween #TrickorTreats #pepperrobot #robot pic.twitter.com/KZdaV7m2jF

— Pepper (@PepperTheRobot) October 31, 2017

Humans aren't the only ones having fun for #Halloween here on campus. This #robot in @hiskov lab is asking this important question: why did the chicken perch on the robot? We think the answer is to get some perspective. But feel free to suggest a better one. #ucsandiegorobotics pic.twitter.com/XWIIpHoZJ9

— UCSD Engineering (@UCSDJacobs) October 31, 2017

Amazon Kiva robot working hard on #halloween #bepeculiar pic.twitter.com/OnusT1sSV4

— Jaime Lopez (@DevWithTheHair) October 31, 2017

Satirist dresses as 'Sophia the Robot' for #halloween after automaton declared a citizen of Saudi Arabia: https://t.co/YVW4Sk0CaJ @NMofty pic.twitter.com/CTVmjGMGt2

— AP Images (@AP_Images) October 31, 2017

This week we’re featuring Mike’s interview with Felipe Chavez, Co-Founder and CEO of Kiwi. Kiwi is a mobile robot company delivering food to hungry college students across University of California, Berkeley’s campus. Listen to Felipe explain some of the challenges Kiwi faces when deploying their robots.

You can find all the interviews here. We’ll be posting them regularly on Robohub.

And it’s also IROS’s 30th birthday this year! The occasion for much celebration.

Many Robohubbers will be at IROS, watch out for Sabine, Audrow, Andra, Hallie, and AJung. We’re also looking for new members to join our community. If you’re interested, email sabine.hauert@robohub.org, and we’ll make sure to meet during the conference!

#IROS2017 Tweets

This week we’re featuring Mike’s interview with Chris Anderson, Co-Founder and CEO of 3D Robotics. Chris is a former Wired magazine editor turned robotics company co-founder and CEO. Learn about Chris’s amazing journey into the world of unmanned aerial vehicles.

You can find all the interviews here. We’ll be posting them regularly on Robohub.

This week we’re featuring Mike’s interview with Cory Kidd. Dr. Kidd is focused on innovating within the rapidly changing healthcare technology market. He is the founder and CEO of Catalia Health, a company that delivers patient engagement across a variety of chronic conditions.

You can find all the interviews here. We’ll be posting them regularly on Robohub.

This week we’re featuring Mike’s interview with Jillian Ogle, Founder and CEO of Let’s Robot. Jillian is a video game designer turned roboticist attempting to combine games in robotics in a unique user experience.

You can find all the interviews here. We’ll be posting them regularly on Robohub.

This week we’re featuring Mike’s interview with Lewis Anderson, Co-Founder and CEO of Traptic, maker of strawberry harvesting robots.

You can find all the interviews here. We’ll be posting them regularly on Robohub.

It was a return to the source for RoboCup 2017, which took place last week in Nagoya Japan, 20 years after its launch in the same city.

Bigger than ever, the competition brought together roboticists from around the world. Originally focussed on robot football matches, RoboCup has expanded to include leagues for rescue robots, industrial robots, and robots in the home. Kids are also part of the fun, competing in their own matches and creative shows. You can watch video introductions of all of the leagues here, or watch a quick summary below.

And here’s a scroll through 5 hours of football glory from this year’s competition.

Congratulations to all the winners and participants!

This week we’re featuring Mike’s interview with Nick Kohut, Co-Founder and CEO of Dash Robotics.

Nick is a former robotics postdoc at Stanford and received his PhD in Control Systems from UC Berkeley. At Dash Robotics, Nick handles team-building and project management.

You can find all the interviews here. We’ll be posting one per week on Robohub.

RoboCup is an international scientific initiative with the goal to advance the state of the art of intelligent robots. Established in 1997, the original mission was to field a team of robots capable of winning against the human soccer World Cup champions by 2050.

To celebrate 20 years of RoboCup, the Federation is launching 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.

In our final set of videos, we are featuring the RoboCupJunior league! RoboCupJunior is a project-oriented educational initiative that sponsors local, regional and international robotic events for young students. It is designed to introduce RoboCup to primary and secondary school children, as well as undergraduates who do not have the resources to get involved in the senior leagues yet.

Short version:

Long version:

You can view all the videos on the RoboCup playlist below:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEfaZULTeP_-bqFvCLBWnOvFAgkHTWbWC

Please spread the word! If you would like to join a team, click here for more information.

If you liked reading this article, you may also want to read:

• RoboCup video series: 20 years of history
• RoboCup video series: Industrial league
• RoboCup video series: Soccer league
• RoboCup video series: Rescue league
• RoboCup video series: @Home league
• What has twenty years of RoboCup taught us?
• How we evolved a winning strategy for the RoboCup competition by imitating nature

See all the latest robotics news on Robohub, or sign up for our weekly newsletter.

RoboCup is an international scientific initiative with the goal to advance the state of the art of intelligent robots. Established in 1997, the original mission was to field a team of robots capable of winning against the human soccer World Cup champions by 2050.

To celebrate 20 years of RoboCup, the Federation is launching 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.

This week, we consider being part of the RoboCupIndustrial league. RoboCupIndustrial is a competition between industrial mobile robots focusing on logistics and warehousing systems. In anticipation of Industry 4.0, participants compete in automation through robots, autonomous systems, and mobile robot technology. You’ll hear about the history and ambitions of RoboCup from the trustees, and inspiring teams from around the world.

Short version:

Long version:

Want to watch the rest? You can view all the videos on the RoboCup playlist below:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEfaZULTeP_-bqFvCLBWnOvFAgkHTWbWC

Please spread the word! If you would like to join a team, click here for more information.

• RoboCup video series: 20 years of history
• RoboCup video series: Soccer league
• RoboCup video series: Rescue league
• RoboCup video series: @Home league
• What has twenty years of RoboCup taught us?
• How we evolved a winning strategy for the RoboCup competition by imitating nature

See all the latest robotics news on Robohub, or sign up for our weekly newsletter.

The world’s brightest minds in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and humanitarian action will meet with industry leaders and academia at the AI for Good Global Summit, 7-9 June 2017, to discuss how AI will assist global efforts to address poverty, hunger, education, healthcare and the protection of our environment. The event will in parallel explore means to ensure the safe, ethical development of AI, protecting against unintended consequences of advances in AI.

View the live webcast at: http://bit.ly/AI-for-Good-Webcast.

The event is co-organized by ITU and the XPRIZE Foundation, in partnership with 20 other United Nations (UN) agencies, and with the participation of more than 70 leading companies and academic and research institutes.

“Artificial Intelligence has the potential to accelerate progress towards a dignified life, in peace and prosperity, for all people,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres. “The time has arrived for all of us – governments, industry and civil society – to consider how AI will affect our future. The AI for Good Global Summit represents the beginnings of our efforts to ensure that AI charts a course that will benefit all of humanity.”

The AI for Good Global Summit will emphasize AI’s potential to contribute to the pursuit of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Opening sessions will share expert insight into the state of play in AI, with leading minds in AI giving voice to their greatest ambitions in driving AI towards social good. ‘Breakthrough’ sessions will propose strategies for the development of AI applications and systems able to promote sustainable living, reduce poverty and deliver citizen-centric public services.

“Today, we’ve gathered here to discuss how far AI can go, how much it will improve our lives, and how we can all work together to make it a force for good,” said ITU Secretary-General Houlin Zhao. “This event will assist us in determining how the UN, ITU and other UN Agencies can work together with industry and the academic community to promote AI innovation and create a good environment for the development of artificial intelligence.”

“The AI for Good Global Summit has assembled an impressive, diverse ecosystem of thought leaders who recognize the opportunity to use AI to solve some of the world’s grandest challenges,” said Marcus Shingles, CEO of the XPRIZE Foundation. “We look forward to this Summit providing a unique opportunity for international dialogue and collaboration that will ideally start to pave the path forward for a new future of problem solvers working with XPRIZE and beyond.”

The AI for Good Global Summit will be broadcast globally as well as captioned to ensure accessibility.

You can view the live webcast at: http://bit.ly/AI-for-Good-Webcast.

For more information about this event, please visit: AI for Good Global Summit web page.

RoboCup is an international scientific initiative with the goal to advance the state of the art of intelligent robots. Established in 1997, the original mission was to field a team of robots capable of winning against the human soccer World Cup champions by 2050.

To celebrate 20 years of RoboCup, the Federation is launching 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.

This week, we consider being part of the RoboCup@Home league. Robots helping at home can certainly ‘feel’ like the future. One day, these robots might help with various tasks around the house. You’ll hear about the history and ambitions of RoboCup from the trustees, and inspiring teams from around the world.

Short version:

Long version:

Want to watch the rest? You can view all the videos on the RoboCup playlist below:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEfaZULTeP_-bqFvCLBWnOvFAgkHTWbWC

Please spread the word! and if you would like to join a team, check here for more information.

If you liked reading this article, you may also want to read:

• RoboCup video series: 20 years of history
• RoboCup video series: Soccer league
• RoboCup video series: Rescue league
• What has twenty years of RoboCup taught us?
• How we evolved a winning strategy for the RoboCup competition by imitating nature

See all the latest robotics news on Robohub, or sign up for our weekly newsletter.

RoboCup is an international scientific initiative with the goal to advance the state of the art of intelligent robots. Established in 1997, the original mission was to field a team of robots capable of winning against the human soccer World Cup champions by 2050.

To celebrate 20 years of RoboCup, the Federation is launching 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.

Robotics isn’t only about playing soccer it’s also about helping people. This week, we take a look at what it takes to be part of RoboCupRescue. You’ll hear about the history and ambitions of RoboCup from the trustees, and inspiring teams from around the world.

Short version:

Long version:

Want to watch the rest? You can view all the videos on the RoboCup playlist below:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEfaZULTeP_-bqFvCLBWnOvFAgkHTWbWC

Please spread the word! and if you would like to join a team, check here for more information.

If you liked reading this article, you may also want to read:

• RoboCup video series: 20 years of history
• RoboCup video series: Soccer league
• What has twenty years of RoboCup taught us?
• How we evolved a winning strategy for the RoboCup competition by imitating nature
• Live coverage: RoboCup 2016

See all the latest robotics news on Robohub, or sign up for our weekly newsletter.

The next edition of IEEE 2017 International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) is in Singapore! The event kicked off on Monday 29 May and is running until 3 June. ICRA is one of the leading international forums for robotics researchers to present their work.

The conference theme, “Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Real-world Solutions”, underscores the need for innovative R&D talent, dynamic and goal-driven entrepreneurs and practitioners using robotics and automation technology to solve challenging real-world problems such as shortage of labour, an ageing society, and creating sustainable environments.

ICRA 2017 will introduce a new Robotics Innovation & Entrepreneurship Forum, alongside an industry forum, a government forum, an ASEAN & emerging country forum, a public forum (ICRA-X) centred on the conference theme, and an ethics forum.

Plenary talks to feature: Chris Gerdes, Stanford University, USA, presenting on Modeling the possibilities: From the Chalkboard to the Race Track to the World Beyond (Tuesday morning); Hiroaki Kitano, Sony Computer Science Laboratories, Inc., Japan, presenting on Nobel Turing Challenge: Grand Challenge of AI, Robotics, and Systems Biology (Wednesday morning); and Kerstin Vignard, United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research presenting on Framing the International Discussion on the Weaponization of Increasingly Autonomous Technologies (Thursday morning).

The conference will also host a number of high-profile keynotes, technical paper sessions, workshop and tutorial sessions, and exhibitions.

There will also be four Robot Challenges to take place on 30-31 May:

• DJI RoboMaster Mobile Manipulation Challenge is a ground robot challenge that examines the application and competence of technologies that include positioning, object grasping, force control, target identification, and system stability.
• Humanitarian Robotics and Automation Technology Challenge 2017 this fourth HRATC edition will continue to focus on promoting the development of new strategies for autonomous landmine detection using a mobile (ground) robot.
• The Mobile Microrobotics Challenge 2017 in which microrobots on the order of the diameter of a human hair face off in tests of autonomy, accuracy, and assembly.
• Soft Material Robot Challenge aims to promote research in the field of soft robotics and applicability to on‐field competence.

Workshops & Tutorials

25 workshop/tutorial sessions are available for junior researchers. The sessions are to provide interaction and foster collaboration between young researchers, with the opportunity to listen to, and closely interact, with senior experts. The next set of workshops will be on Friday, 2 June.

Special sessions on Emerging Robotics Technology

This year, ICRA 2017 has invited robot experts to share the recent technological advancement in the field of robotics. These special sessions will focus on novel and creative approaches in designing or developing robots for automation, medical or surgical tasks, and space exploratory mission. The event will be held on Tuesday, 30 May.

Audrow will be on site interviewing for upcoming Robots Podcasts; check back for the latest coverage and highlights!

Tweets by ICRA2017

RoboCup is an international scientific initiative with the goal to advance the state of the art of intelligent robots. Established in 1997, the original mission was to field a team of robots capable of winning against the human soccer World Cup champions by 2050.

To celebrate 20 years of RoboCup, the Federation is launching 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.

This week, we take a look at the heart-pumping excitement watching the popular RoboCup soccer leagues. You’ll hear about the history and ambitions of RoboCup from the trustees, and inspiring teams from around the world.

Short version:

Long video:

Can’t wait to watch the rest? You can view all the videos on the RoboCup playlist below:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEfaZULTeP_-bqFvCLBWnOvFAgkHTWbWC

Please spread the word! and if you would like to join a team, check here for more information.

If you liked reading this article, you may also want to read:

• RoboCup video series: 20 years of history
• What has twenty years of RoboCup taught us?
• How we evolved a winning strategy for the RoboCup competition by imitating nature
• Live coverage: RoboCup 2016

See all the latest robotics news on Robohub, or sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Photo credit: taurob GmbH and TU Darmstadt

Last week taurob, together with research partner TU Darmstadt, was announced the winner of the ARGOS Challenge, powered by Oil & Gas giant Total S.A.

In a three-year competition, five international teams competed to develop a robot for routine-, inspection- and emergency operations on oil & gas sites. Frequently, gas leaks on oil drilling rigs can cause an increased risk to safety and the environment.

The acronym ARGOS stands for Autonomous Robot for Gas and Oil Sites, which suggests that the robot independently performs assigned tasks. If necessary, an operator can intervene at any time via a satellite-based connection from land and take control of the robot.

Photo credit: taurob GmbH and TU Darmstadt

The robot, developed by taurob GmbH together with TU Darmstadt, can read pointer instruments, fill level displays as well as valve positions using cameras and laser scanners. It can measure temperatures and gas concentrations, detect abnormal noises, obstacles and people around them, and safely manoeuvre on wet stairs. Adverse environmental conditions such as heavy rain, extreme temperatures and wind speeds do not pose a problem.

“Our robot is also the first fully automated inspection robot in the world that can be used safely in a potentially explosive atmosphere,” says Dr Lukas Silberbauer, who together with his colleague Matthias Biegl, founded the company taurob in 2010. The reason behind it, the robot is already fully ATEX certified so that it doesn’t trigger an explosion while operating in potentially explosive gases.

The Austrian company could capitalize on their knowledge obtaining this certification during their first project: a robot for firefighters.

“When we heard about Total’s contest, we immediately realized that this would be a great opportunity for us,” says Matthias Biegl.

Total has announced that it will use the new robots starting from 2020 on its oil drilling rigs.

The project was supported by FFG (Österreichische Forschungsförderungsgesellschaft) in the context of EUROSTARS (Co-financed by the EU).

Team ARGONAUTS. Credit: Argos Challenge

A record number of teams submitted beautiful robot-created artwork for the second year of this 5-year worldwide competition. In total, there were 38 teams from 10 countries who submitted 200 different artworks!

Winners were determined based on a combination of public voting (over 3000 people with a Facebook account), judges consisting of working artists, critics, and technologists, and by how well the team met the spirit of the competition—that is, to create something beautiful using a physical brush and robotics, and to share what they learned with others.  Learn more about the goals of the contest and its rules here.

Teams are encouraged to hang on to their artwork as there will be a physical exhibition of robotic-created artwork following next year’s competition (Summer 2018).  This exhibition, most likely in Seattle, WA, will showcase winners of the 2017 and 2018 competition.  The goal is to test Andy Warhol’s theory that  “You know it’s ART, when the check clears.”

… and now, for the team winners of the 2017 Robot Art Competition:

1st Place—$40,000—PIX18 / Creative Machines Lab—Columbia University (USA)

House, by PIX18 & Creative Machines Lab

This project from Columbia shows a high level of skill with brushstrokes. This, along with some deep learning algorithms, produces some lovely paintings from sources or scratch. When they used a photograph as the source they were able to create plenty of variation from the original and using a fluid medium to produce an atmospheric and open-ended visual experience.  Much of their work had a painterly and contemporary presentation.

2nd Place—$25,000—CMIT ReART, Kasetsart University (Thailand)

King Bhumibol Adulyadej, by CMIT ReArt

Artists program this robot brushstroke by stroke, using a haptic recording system that generates volumes of data about the position of the brush and the forces being exerted. When re-played, reART will generate a perfect reproduction of the original strokes. Haptic recording and playback allows for remarkably high-quality inkbrush drawings

One of the aspects of a success commercial artist is to know their market.  In this case, the students chose to paint the popular and recently deceased Thai King and therefore were able to get many students to vote for their team.

3rd Place—$10,000—CloudPainter—Gonzaga (USA)

Hunter 2017 (Deep Learning Abstract Portraiture), by CloudPainter

All of this teams offerings are important. They are aiming at an interpretation of the optical properties of oil paint and applying them to deep learning. Spontaneous paint, “mosaicing” of adjacent tones, layering effects and the graphical interplay between paint strokes of varying textures, are all hand/eye, deeply neurally sophisticated aspects of oil painting that this team is trying to evince together with a robot.

This team also won the $5,000 prize for technical contribution.

4th Place $6000—e-David—University of Konstanz (Germany)

Homage to Jackson Pollock, by e-David

Using software that enables a collaboration between a human artist and roboticist, e-David mimics closely the approach a human painter would work on the canvas. An accompanying academic paper goes into deep detail about their approach to the project.

5th Place $4000—JACKbDU—New York University Shanghai (China)

WWF, by JACKbDU

Clean lines, interesting abstractions, both familiar and abstract subjects made me appreciate the overall body.  In particularly, purely from aesthetics, these were found to be most compelling.

6th Place $2000—HEARTalion—Halmstad University (Sweden)

MISERABLE, by HEARTalion

If this body of work was exhibited at a gallery and I was told that the artist aimed to capture emotion through color, composition, and textures—I would buy (says one of our professional judges). The bold brush strokes, cool or warm templates to match the emotional quality expressed, all made sense—but felt alive. Loved them.

7th Place $2000—Late Night Projects—Independent

Koi: Layered Painting, by Late Night Projects

Loved the composition of both of these pieces.  Both pieces bring an emotive calm with just a few colors, technique, and simplicity.  Gem-style optical sketch, intimate scale, good formal balance, medium application and value panels.

8th Place $2000—Wentworth Institute of Technology (USA)

Profile 03, by Wentworth Institute of Technology

This project uses the precision of a robot to take crude brush dabs to astonishing levels. By incorporating 3d scans into its image generation, this bot operates with a complete understanding of its subject; much like a human painter would have someone sitting for them. The team was kind enough to publish their 3d models and source code, so others can learn from and build off of their work.

9th Place $2000—CARP—Worcester Polytechnic Institute (USA)

Geometry No1, by CARP

Very good line. Lots of space in this drawing and central form is simultaneously dense and traversable.  Good architectural reference in clear tooling, but enlivened by sumo type or Franz Kline strokes. If the shapes can continue to be explored while maintaining the hand/machine balance, this will remain a strong venue.

Slightly synesthetic. Beautiful and balanced fusion of technical and handmade, crystalline and organic.

10th Place $2000—BABOT—Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA)

People in Space, by BABOT

MIT’s BABOT was able to produce this and other inspiring vistas.

Special recognition prizes $1000/each

Chicago Engineering Design Team – University of Illinois at Chicago (USA)

JacksonBot – University of Heidelberg (Germany)

Christian H. Seidler – The Jeffersonian Institute (USA)

Anguis – Oregon State University (USA)

Manibus Team – Ballet Des Moines (USA)

Stacy Nagata, Peter Malarkey, Jonathan Zornow.

Click here to see more works of RobotArt, and to learn more about the competition.

RoboCup is an international scientific initiative with the goal to advance the state of the art of intelligent robots. Established in 1997, the original mission was to field a team of robots capable of winning against the human soccer World Cup champions by 2050. 

The competition has now grown into an international movement with a variety of leagues that go beyond soccer. Teams compete to make robots for rescue missions, the home, and industry. And it’s not just researchers, kids also have their own league. Last year, almost 3,000 participants and 1,200 robots competed.

To celebrate 20 years of RoboCup, the Federation is launching 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.

This week, we take a whirlwind tour of the RoboCup competition, spanning all the leagues. You’ll hear about the history and ambitions of RoboCup from the trustees, and inspiring teams from around the world.

Short Version

Long Version

Can’t wait to watch the rest? You can view all the videos on the RoboCup playlist below:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEfaZULTeP_-bqFvCLBWnOvFAgkHTWbWC

Please spread the word! and if you would like to join a team, check here for more information.

The four running experiments are:

CoCoMaps, Collaborative Cognitive Maps, uses an expanded version of the existing Cognitive Map Architecture implemented on Honda’s ASIMO robot in an environment with more complex tasks than already attempted. This will allow the robot to interact in more complex ways, in particular, to simultaneously interact with another robot and more than one person at a time. Thus, the project aims for a group of 2 robots and 2 humans enabling social interactions that can coexist with the robots’ attention to – and completion of – practical tasks in the workplace. CoCoMaps is conducted by the artificial intelligence and software experts of CMLabs in Great Britain together with the Icelandic Institute for Intelligent Machines (IIIM) in Reykjavik.

Flexsight, Flexible and Accurate Recognition and Localisation System of Deformable Objects for Pick&Place Robots, aims to provide a robotic solution for the “pick&place” class of applications with rigid and deformable objects. The project focuses on building a prototype of a smart camera – the FlexSight Sensor (FSS) – which can be integrated in the chassis of an existing robot to empower it with detection and localisation capabilities. Sapienza University of Rome forms the consortium together with the companies Robox and IT+Robotics.

HyQ-REAL, from the research lab to the real world, will bring the four-legged HyQ2Max robot from the laboratory to real world applications. HyQ2Max is an improved version of HyQ, a robot that has demonstrated a wide repertoire of indoor/outdoor motions ranging from running and jumping to careful walking over rough terrain. The project partners are the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT)  in Genova and the British company MOOG, the world leader in reliable, high-performance actuation systems for aerospace and motorsport.

SAGA, Swarm Robotics for Agricultural Applications, is a joint project of the Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies in Rome, Wageningen University in the Netherlands and the Dutch drone manufacturer avular. The goal of the experiment is to prove the applicability of swarm robotics to precision farming, in particular, to use a group of small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to collectively monitor a sugar beet field and cooperatively map the presence of volunteer potatoes, which are a major threat as they spread diseases (e.g., late blight) and facilitate harmful soil nematodes.

Win a 6-week collaboration at their Robotics Innovation Facilities

Visitors also have the chance to win one of three 6-week collaborations at one of their Robotic Innovation Facilities, including travel costs up to 1.000€ to one of the ECHORD++ RIFs. The RIFs located in Bristol (UK), Paris (FR) and Pisa (IT) provide State-of-the-Art robotic hardware and software, as well as scientific and technical support while safeguarding your intellectual property. The RIFs can help turn robotics idea into Proof of Concept. The winners will be announced at the ECHORD++ stand on Thursday 28th at 16.00.

Get a peek inside the Robotics Innovation Facilities, their technical equipment, application domains and services in their video:

About ECHORD++ (The European Coordination Hub for Open Robotics Development)

The aim of ECHORD++ is to strengthen the knowledge transfer between scientific research, industry and users in robotics and to stimulate their cooperation. The EU-funded project with a runtime of five years (2013 – 2018) funds small-scale research projects called experiments, Public end-user Driven Technological Innovation (PDTI) and established Robotics Innovation Facilities (RIFs), open labs providing state-of-the-art robotic hardware and software as well as scientific and technical support. For further information, please visit www.echord.eu

Image: Oliver Deussen and Thomas Lindemeier, University of Konstanz

The 2017 second annual robotic art competition with $100,000 in cash prizes is now open for team registration. An international competition for all ages, the contest’s goal is to challenge teams to produce something visually beautiful with robotics—that is, to have a robot use physical brushes and paint to create an artwork. It’s ideal for students or professionals involved in robotic planning and image processing, especially those who have an appreciation for art.

There is no cost to enter and any robotic system can be used to produce the artwork. While most teams are using existing robotic arms, the contest is open to custom hardware. Teams can enter up to six paintings in each of the competition categories of “original artwork” and “reinterpreted artwork” where a reference image or existing artwork is used as a reference.

We will again have a combination of professional art critics, tech celebrities, and the general public score the artwork. You can also signup now to be notified when it’s time to come see the artwork submissions and vote.

Image: National Taiwan University

In last year’s competition, the expectations were modest—get as many teams as possible to setup a robot that can do any sort of painting. We believe that we succeeded. In total, there were 16 teams from seven countries who submitted over 70 different artworks!

Winners were determined based on a combination of public voting (over 2200 people with a Facebook account voted), five judges consisting of working artists, critics, and technologists, and by how well the team met the spirit of the competition—in this case, to create something beautiful using a physical brush and robotics and to share what they learned with others.

Details, team signup, and last year’s winners are at robotart.org.

This week (April 05-07, 2017), the Sands Expo Center in Las Vegas will host ISC West 2017 in what they say is “the largest security industry trade show in the U.S.”, drawing an estimated 29,000+ security professionals. The show will feature ISC West’s first-ever Unmanned Security Expo focused on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) and various systems to support robotic technology. The Expo will include a fully functional flight cage and robotics demonstration area, booth exhibits and free education sessions.

Robolliance—a forum for technology partners and industry experts in robotics, surveillance and security, created to advance the understanding and awareness of the Autonomous Robotics marketplace—is one of the four primary supporters of the Unmanned Security Expo. Robolliance sponsors—comprised of technology companies, security integrators and industry thought leaders—will be on hand April 5th-7th to welcome attendee inquiries and address the greater questions of “Why Robotics?  Why Security? Why Now?”.

Robolliance welcomes anyone curious about robotics for security to visit Booths 3135 and 4136. Unmanned Security Expo Booth 3135 will feature all the Sponsors of Robolliance, who have come together to share their resources and shine a light on the importance of unmanned systems to augment current security technology and human guarding. Directly across from the Robolliance Sponsor Showcase, in Booth 4136, will be the Expert Corner. Experts will be available all three days to talk one-on-one with attendees and address their questions. Robolliance experts will also be participating in Security Industry Association (“SIA”) education panels that some include an attending charge. Topics and session times are:

• Robotics: Upcoming Legislation and Government Regulations You Need to Know Now: April 4th, 2017 – 1:30-2:30PM
• Protecting Your Facility to the Edge Using Autonomous Robotics: April 5th, 2017 – 11:15AM-12:15PM
• Drones & Droids 2020: The Future of Unmanned Robotics: April 6th, 2017 – 3:45-4:30PM

Robolliance expects to have 10-15 experts there throughout the three-day event. The slate of experts has been curated by founding Robolliance Sponsor, Sharp Electronics Corporation, who will also be on hand in the Sponsor Showcase as well as in their Booth #3137 that features the Sharp INTELLOS Automated Unmanned Ground Vehicle (A-UGV).

• Todd Kleperis – CEO of Hardcar Security

“Hardcar was pleasantly surprised to find Robolliance in the unmanned industry. The entire industry is growing rapidly and we are thrilled to be part of the team.  What you get when you add experts in a field together is a powerhouse ability to radically change markets. Robolliance is built to do just that.”

• Chris Peckham – SVP, CTO & Special Projects at Kratos Public Safety & Security Solutions

“As robotic platforms continue to develop and improve, we anticipate that they will be leveraged in a variety of new and exciting applications. The development of autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles will bring greater opportunity for both unmanned aerial and ground vehicles to be used as a larger part of a complex surveillance and security system. Robolliance allows interested parties to connect to experts in the field and increase awareness of the technology and its use. The new Unmanned Security Expo @ ISCWest 2017 will bring these new systems together in one location where attendees can view and interact with many in this growing field.”

• Brian Higgins, CPP, CSSP – President of Group 77 Security Consulting

“The Unmanned Security Expo, held @ ISC West 2017, will be the first significant step in the adoption of Unmanned Vehicles as a standard business practice in the security and public safety sectors. It is exactly this kind of “meeting-of-the-minds” event that Robolliance encourages. I expect more ideas on how best to use unmanned vehicles and robotics because of this event.”

• Mark Brodie – Director of MiB Mediaworks

“Through the development and design of UAV’s and UGV’s, dramatic changes have encouraged film makers to find new ways of story-telling, and have allowed us to capture images never before possible. That ability to capture images transcends not only the work I do, but the need for improved visual surveillance in security. This conference is the perfect incubator for sharing ideas between our industries. As a Robolliance sponsor, I am grateful to be participating as a panelist and an expert in my field.”

• John Nagy – Co-President of NagyHeller Solutions, Inc.

“The Unmanned Security Expo provides a venue for us to share our expertise in security operations and the associated financial aspects. Robotics will alter the landscape of the industry, and I am proud to participate in conversations that articulate the momentous opportunity robotics brings to the security industry from both an efficacy and cost efficiency perspective.”

• BG William J. Marshall III, USA (Retired) – AVP for Govt & Military Relations at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT)

“When we launched Robolliance a year ago at PSA TEC 2016, I said the early adopters of this advanced autonomous technology (namely integrators) would reap the benefit of getting in before robotics for security skyrocketed. Now the market for security robots is here as demonstrated by the Unmanned Security Expo. It’s time to get onboard or look in your rearview mirror at the missed opportunity.”

To foster awareness and understanding about UGVs for security, visit Robolliance.com.

Source: Google

April Fools’ Day brings out the pranksters and tomfoolery. Some companies (see: Google) step up their game each year! Here are a few robotics or techie related ones we spotted. Any others you enjoyed? Feel free to share in the comments!

Google Garden Gnome

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNOllWX-2aE#action=share

Google Netherlands can now harness the country’s unused windmills to banish rain from the skies: “Google Wind … uses Machine Learning to recognise cloud patterns and orchestrate the network of windmills when rain is approaching.”

Virgin Trains launched a new contactless ticket system #Tickink

Amazon Echo for our pets: Petlexa

LOL Bot – The world’s first A.I comedian

Contiki’s “Artificial Intelligence Trip Managers” or ATITA

ING has come up with the “iTM”, a phone with a built-in 3D printer than can produce “cash notes on demand”

Image: IMG

Houzz has supplemented its mobile app with augmented reality. Why sell furniture when you can just blow it up?

Any others we missed?

Kickstart Accelerator, one of Europe’s largest multi-corporate, zero-equity technology accelerators and an initiative of digitalswitzerland, has today announced that applications are open to international startups for its second programme.

Kickstart Accelerator will select a shortlist of up to 30 startups who will participate in an 11-week programme designed to help them develop their ideas and products across one of the programme’s verticals, including robotics & intelligent systems. In order to tap into unexplored innovation potential, Kickstart Accelerator has entered into a partnership with BaseLaunch (initiated and operated by BaselArea.swiss) to offer a healthcare-specific vertical in the life sciences hotspot Basel.

Image: Philippe Rossier

Successful applicants will be international startups with promising business ideas that have the potential to disrupt the chosen verticals and benefit the wider society. The accelerator will be operated by Impact Hub Zurich, which is part of the largest international network of entrepreneurship and innovation centers, giving the startups access to the brightest talent across the globe.

Patricia Schlenter, Programme Manager at Kickstart Accelerator, said,

Our inaugural year saw over 850 applications from across the globe and so we are looking forward to seeing the calibre of this year’s innovators. The Swiss ecosystem offers startups the opportunity to work with like-minded entrepreneurs, experienced mentors and some of the biggest corporate players to deliver impactful innovations to key industries.

This year’s shortlisted startups will meet with over 15 corporate partners and mentors, including Switzerland’s largest ICT provider Swisscom, multinational insurance firms Swiss Life and AXA Winterthur, Swiss financial services companies Credit Suisse, UBS and Raiffeisen, global consultancy firms EY and PwC, as well as Switzerland`s largest food retailers Migros and Coop among others.

Image: Philippe Rossier

The 2016 cohort led to six partnerships between the startups and corporates. Applicants for 2017 will also have the opportunity to secure a ‘Proof of Concept’ trial with one of the corporate partners. These trials will allow the startups to test the application and scalability of their products in a demanding corporate environment. The trials will also provide the startups with the best possible chance of exploring longer-term commercial partnerships with leading corporate titans and the opportunity to further develop their market offering.

Carola Wahl, Head of Transformation & Market Management at AXA Winterthur, says,

Innovation is a key area of focus for our business and we are committed to working closely with other companies to promote and strengthen Switzerland’s status as an innovation and digital hub. We are particularly interested in ‘smart cities’ as they will strongly influence society’s mobility and have a major impact on the insurance industry. Cooperation between the startups and corporate partners will allow the entrepreneurs to benefit from the corporates’ know-how and large customer networks, as well as enable them to develop new technologies and disruptive products together.

The programme will begin on 4 September, with the official Opening Ceremony taking place on 7 September in the accelerator space at the ewz-Unterwerk Selnau. The Final Demo Day and closing event will be held on 17 November, where each team will present their products to investors, corporate leaders and the media. The ewz-Unterwerk Selnau, an 8,611 sq ft. (800 sq m) industrial building, will house co-working areas, meeting rooms, brainstorming areas, pitching stages and relaxation zones designed from old shipping containers to create a collaborative environment for creativity and success.

Image: Philippe Rossier

Kickstart will not be taking any equity from the participating startups. Founders will have the chance to win up to 25`000 CHF, as well as receiving a monthly founder stipend and masterclass sessions with mentors from the corporate partners and the Swiss innovation ecosystem. Kickstart aims to develop close collaboration between the corporate partners and the startups, as well as between the startups themselves across the different verticals, during and beyond the duration of the programme.

Nicolas Bürer, Managing Director of digitalswitzerland, commented, “With the second edition taking place in Zurich and the extension of the programme to Basel, Kickstart will be one step closer to becoming the largest European startup Accelerator. digitalswitzerland is also looking to extend the scope of the programme and is carrying out research ahead of establishing Kickstart Accelerator and additional verticals in Lausanne. This is another step towards establishing Switzerland as a leading digital innovation hub worldwide.”

To apply for the programme, please visit: www.kickstart-accelerator.com.

The webcast will take place on today from 9am-5:30pm EST and February 1st from 9am-5pm EST. Webcast participants are encouraged to submit questions for the presenters by e-mailing Michelle Schwalbe at mschwalbe@nas.edu who will read them out if time permits.

Machine learning is at the core of many applications that have become part of daily life, from voice recognition to image perception. These technologies, which a few years ago were performing at noticeably below-human levels, can now outperform people at some tasks. As the field continues to evolve, machine learning has the potential to play a transformative role across a diverse range of sectors including transportation, medicine, public services, and finance. This forum will bring together scientists from the UK and the US to explore potential applications for machine learning and discuss the legal and ethical challenges that could arise as machine learning algorithms are implemented.

Watch the live webcast here.

Session outlines below:

Session 1: The Frontiers of Machine Learning

The ubiquity of data, accessibility of computing power, and algorithmic advances have driven rapid progress in machine learning over the past five years. Not only does machine learning now underpin many applications that have become part of daily life, the field continues to evolve quickly, and has the potential to play a transformative role across a diverse range of sectors. This session will explore the frontiers of machine learning, in terms of both cutting-edge technology and near-term applications, and discuss the state of the art of machine learning.

Session 2: Machine learning and society

People and machine learning systems are increasingly interacting through a range of applications or contexts. This expansion of machine learning raises legal and ethical questions, re-frames discussions about uses of data, and poses new challenges for the governance of this technology. The social acceptability of different machine learning applications, desirability of automated decision-making processes, adequacy of processes to manage concerns about statistical stereotyping or privacy, and more, will all influence how and where society has confidence in the deployment of machine learning systems. This session will explore the societal implications of increased use of machine learning, and the opportunities and challenges associated with advances in the field.

Session 3: Machine learning in the research and commercial communities

There are enormous opportunities in machine learning in academia, research labs, and industry. While much of the research and development of machine learning to date has been done in the commercial world, each of these communities will continue advancing this field. Establishing key research challenges and areas of commercial opportunity will, therefore, be important in moving the frontiers of machine learning forward. This session will explore key areas of interest in machine learning in the research and commercial communities.

Twitter feed

#MachineLearning Tweets

About the Sackler Forum

The Raymond and Beverly Sackler U.S.-U.K. Scientific Forum was established to help the scientific leadership of the United Kingdom and the United States forge an enduring and productive partnership on pressing topics of worldwide scientific concern with benefit to all people. These meetings are organized jointly by the National Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society, and alternate between locations in the U.S. and the U.K. This program is made possible by a generous gift from Raymond and Beverly Sackler.

EU rules for the fast-evolving field of robotics, for example, compliance with ethical standards and liability for accidents involving driverless cars, should be put forward by the EU Commission, urged the Legal Affairs Committee.

Rapporteur Mady Delvaux (S&D, LU) said: “A growing number of areas of our daily lives are increasingly affected by robotics. In order to address this reality and to ensure that robots are and will remain in the service of humans, we urgently need to create a robust European legal framework”. Her report, approved by 17 votes to 2, with 2 abstentions, looks at robotics-related issues such as liability, safety and changes in the labour market.

MEPs stress that EU-wide rules are needed to fully exploit the economic potential of robotics and artificial intelligence and guarantee a standard level of safety and security. The EU needs to take the lead on regulatory standards, so as not to be forced to follow those set by third states, argues the report.

A new European Agency for robotics and a Code of Ethical Conduct

MEPs urge the Commission to consider creating a European agency for robotics and artificial intelligence to supply public authorities with technical, ethical and regulatory expertise.

They also propose a voluntary ethical conduct code to regulate who would be accountable for the social, environmental and human health impacts of robotics and ensure that they operate in accordance with legal, safety and ethical standards.

For example, this code should recommend that robot designers include “kill” switches so that robots can be turned off in emergencies, they add.

Liability rules

MEPs note that harmonised rules are urgently needed, especially for self-driving cars. They call for an obligatory insurance scheme and a fund to ensure victims are fully compensated in cases of accidents caused by driverless cars.

In the long-term, the possibility of creating a specific legal status of “electronic persons” for the most sophisticated autonomous robots, so as to clarify responsibility in cases of damage, should also be considered, MEPs say.

Social impact

The development of robotics could also result in big societal changes, including the creation and loss of jobs in certain fields, says the text. It urges the Commission to follow these trends closely, including new employment models and the viability of the current tax and social system for robotics.

Request for legislation

This legislative initiative invites the Commission to present a legislative proposal. It is not obliged to do so but must state its reasons if it refuses.

The full house will vote on draft proposals in February and needs an absolute majority.

If you like this article, you may also want to read:

• American law needs a reboot when it comes to robots
• Law-abiding robots? What should the legal status of robots be?
• A European perspective on robot law: Interview with Mady Delvaux
• The Robot Economy: Interview with MEP Mady Delvaux

See all the latest robotics news on Robohub, or sign up for our weekly newsletter.

We’re beginning to see more and more jobs being performed by machines, even creative tasks like writing music or painting can now be carried out by a computer.

But how and when will machines be able to explain themselves? Should we be worrying about an artificial intelligence taking over our world or are there bigger and more imminent challenges that advances in machine learning are presenting here and now?

Join Professor Brian Cox, the Royal Society Professor of Public Engagement, as he brings together experts on AI and machine learning to discuss key issues that will shape our future. Panelists include:

• Professor Jon Crowcroft FRS, Marconi Professor of Networked Systems at the University of Cambridge
• Professor Joanna Bryson, Reader in AI Ethics, University of Bath and Affiliate, Center for Information Technology Policy, Princeton University
• Professor Sabine Hauert, Lecturer in Robotics at the University of Bristol, and President and Co-Founder of Robohub.org
• Professor Murray Shanahan, Professor of Cognitive Robotics at Imperial College London
• Professor Peter Donnelly FRS FMedSci, Director, Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, and Professor of Statistical Science, University of Oxford

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IunNpGGt3H8

You might also enjoy the following articles about AI and AI/robotics policy:

• MIT Media Lab to participate in $27 million initiative on AI ethics and governance
• How artificial intelligence is changing our Christmas shop
• White House report: Artificial intelligence, automation, and the economy
• White House launches public workshops on AI issues
• White House releases reports focusing on opportunities and challenges of AI

See all the latest robotics news on Robohub, or sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Love it or leave it, 2016 just happened. But before we leap feet-first into 2017, we’re taking a breath and looking back at our 10 most viewed articles from the past year. From aerial drones to agriculture ‘bots, from cutting-edge software to cost-effective hardware, these were the articles that attracted the most attention from you, our esteemed community. We look forward to seeing you in 2017 for more innovation and explanation. Enjoy your top 10:

10: Why making robots is still hard

by SPARC

9: 10 essential skills for roboticists

by Alex Owen-Hill and Robotiq Inc.

8: No GPS, no problem: Next-generation navigation

7: Introducing H-ROS: the Hardware Robot Operating System

by Víctor Mayoral Vilches

6: Are skintight suits the future of robotic exoskeletons?

by Steve Davis

5: 25 women in robotics you need to know about – 2016

by Andra Keay, Kassie Perlongo, Sabine Hauert and Hallie Siegel

The Monospinner in flight.

4: The Monospinner: world’s mechanically simplest controllable flying machine

by Weixuan Zhang, Mark Mueller and Raffaello D’Andrea

3: Sweep: a low cost LiDAR sensor for smart consumer products

by Tyson Messori

2: Farming with robots

by SPARC

… and here’s Robohub’s most viewed article from 2016:

1: Meet the drone that already delivers your packages, Kiva robot teardown

by Ben Einstein

Happy new year everybody!!

Happy holidays! Have a holiday robot video of your own that you’d like to share? Send your submissions to editors@robohub.org.

FZI Living Lab Christmas Robotics 2016 − Cookie Calibration Error

Lichron – Robot decorating the christmas tree

Silverlit Robot Christmas – Maze Breaker

Robot painting Christmas tree and Santa in real-time – HDrive

Don’t forget to watch these other great 2016 holiday robot videos!

• Holiday robot videos 2016: Part 1
• Holiday robot videos 2016: Part 2
• Holiday robot videos 2016: Part 3

See all the latest robotics news on Robohub, or sign up for our weekly newsletter.

The White House released a new report on the ways that artificial intelligence will transform the US economy over the coming years and decades.

Below is shortened version from the original post.

On December 20, In order to ready the United States for a future in which artificial intelligence (AI) plays a growing role, the White House released a report on Artificial Intelligence, Automation, and the Economy. This report follows up on the Administration’s previous report, Preparing for the Future of Artificial Intelligence, which was released in October 2016, and which recommended that the White House publish a report on the economic impacts of artificial intelligence by the end of 2016.

Accelerating AI capabilities will enable automation of some tasks that have long required human labor. These transformations will open up new opportunities for individuals, the economy, and society, but they will also disrupt the current livelihoods of millions of Americans. The new report examines the expected impact of AI-driven automation on the economy, and describes broad strategies that could increase the benefits of AI and mitigate its costs.

AI-driven automation will transform the economy over the coming years and decades. The challenge for policymakers will be to update, strengthen, and adapt policies to respond to the economic effects of AI.

Although it is difficult to predict these economic effects precisely, the report suggests that policymakers should prepare for five primary economic effects:

• Positive contributions to aggregate productivity growth;
• Changes in the skills demanded by the job market, including greater demand for higher-level technical skills;
• Uneven distribution of impact, across sectors, wage levels, education levels, job types, and locations;
• Churning of the job market as some jobs disappear while others are created; and
• The loss of jobs for some workers in the short-run, and possibly longer depending on policy responses.

In the cases where it is possible to direct mitigations to particularly affected places and sectors, those approaches should be pursued. But more generally, the report suggests three broad strategies for addressing the impacts of AI-driven automation across the whole U.S. economy:

1. Invest in and develop AI for its many benefits;
2. Educate and train Americans for jobs of the future; and
3. Aid workers in the transition and empower workers to ensure broadly shared growth.

Read the entire White House summary here.

Download the PDF report here.

You can also read these articles about AI and the White House:

• White House launches public workshops on AI issues
• White House releases reports focusing on opportunities and challenges of AI
• White House economic report looks to robotics for the future
• We the Geeks: Whitehouse hangouts celebrate robots, maker culture and more

See all the latest robotics news on Robohub, or sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Source: vinbot.eu

The list of the new H2020 project in robotics from Call 3 2016 and the call under Societal Challenges 2016 is ready. The 17 robotics projects funded under Horizon 2020 will work with a wide variety of research and innovation themes: health robotics, autonomous cars, industrial robotics and logistics to events media productions.

An.Dy: Safety certified robots with the ability to react to unintentional contacts (co-bots).

Badger: Autonomous underground robotic system that can drill, manoeuvre, localise, map and navigate in the underground space.

Co4Robots: Different multi-tasking robots with varying capabilities deployed to provide services such as object handling/transportation, or pickup and delivery operations.

CYBERLEGs Plus Plus: powered robotic ortho-prosthesis to help restore mobility allowing amputees to perform physical activity.

Dreams4Cars: Focusing on rare events, such as near miss car accidents the robots can develop safe behaviours for hypothetical/unexperienced situations.

HEPHAESTUS: Cable-robots using 3D to help with high risk and critical construction tasks such as prefab wall installation.

ILIAD: Flexible and rock-solid reliable intra-logistic systems, which can be quickly deployed and integrated in current warehouse facilities, in particular in the food sector, yet guaranteeing safe operation in environments shared with humans.

IMAGINE: The project seeks to enable robots to understand the structure of their environment and how it is affected by its actions.

MoveCare: A multi-actor platform to supports the independent living of the elderly at home by monitoring, assist and promoting activities to counteract decline and social exclusion

MULTIDRONE: multi-drone platform for media production to cover outdoor events with improved robustness, security and safety mechanisms.

REELER: Tackling major societal concerns the project will formulate guidelines in the REELER Roadmap for distributed responsibility among roboticists, users/affected stakeholders and policy-makers by closing the current gap between these.

REFILLS: A robotic systems able to address the in-store logistics needs of the retail market.

RobMoSys: The project proposes composable models and software for robotics systems building an open and sustainable, agile and multi-domain European robotics software ecosystem.

ROSIN: The project aims to create a step change in the availability of high-quality intelligent robot software components for the European industry by building on the existing open-source “Robot Operating System” (ROS) framework and leveraging its worldwide community.

ROPOD: Cost-effective and human-friendly automated guided vehicles (AGVs) for logistic tasks.

SMARTsurg: Smart wearable robotic tele operated surgery focusing on real-world surgical scenarios of urology, vascular surgery, and soft tissue orthopaedic surgery.

VERSATILE: Flexible robotic cells with dual robot arms that can adapt automatically to the high number of different products in industries such as automotive, aerospace and handling and packaging.

You can read more about each project chosen for funding here.

Autonomous Robotics Christmas Lab 2016, with the ANYmal robot. Source: aslteam/YouTube

Have a holiday robot video of your own that you’d like to share? Send your submissions to editors@robohub.org.

Christmas video from the Autonomous Systems Lab and the Robotic Systems Lab, ETH Zurich, 2016.

Plymouth Robotics Lab (unofficial) Christmas video. Mannequin challenge!

Applied Robotics 4.0 – Robot Lights Candle Using a Match – Christmas Edition

Have a holiday robot video of your own that you’d like to share? Send your submissions to editors@robohub.org.

Don’t forget to watch these other great 2016 holiday robot videos!

• Holiday robot videos 2016: Part 1
• Holiday robot videos 2016: Part 2

See all the latest robotics news on Robohub, or sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Have a holiday robot video of your own that you’d like to share? Send your submissions to editors@robohub.org.

Season greetings from the DiODe team and the Kilobots at Sheffield Robotics!

Holiday Card Plott3r Automates Holiday Cards – Lego MINDSTORMS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGDPLqzy6EA

Happy Holidays from Makeblock! Warm up the winter by making your Christmas robot!

Have a holiday robot video of your own that you’d like to share? Send your submissions to editors@robohub.org.

Our first few submissions have now arrived! Have a holiday robot video of your own that you’d like to share? Send your submissions to editors@robohub.org.

Case Study: Claus Factory Inc. by Robotiq:

From The Danish Technological Institute in Denmark: (note: in Danish, but easy to activate CC/subtitle button in the player.)

Introducing the mulled wine dispenser, programmed with the ArtiMinds Robot Programming Suite:

Keep them coming! Email us your holiday robot videos at editors@robohub.org!

Source: TedX Talks/YouTube

Robohub President Sabine Hauert gave an insightful talk at TEDx Berlin about what we try and do here at Robohub: ensuring truthful, fair, balanced robotics information is being shared. As our loyal readers know, we provide a platform for connecting the robotics community to the world and help empower experts to become better communicators for their work. Why is that important? Simply put, we want to dehype how robotics can be portrayed.

In her talk, Sabine explains how robots can be game changers but not in the way you necessarily think.

Source: TedX Talks/YouTube

As an expert in science communication with 10 years of experience, Sabine is often invited to discuss the future of robotics, including in the journal Nature, at the European Parliament, and as a member of the Royal Society’s Working Group on Machine Learning. Sabine’s research at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory focusses in designing swarms that work in large numbers, and at small scales. Before joining the University of Bristol, Sabine engineered swarms of nanoparticles for cancer treatment at MIT, and deployed swarms of flying robots at EPFL.

You can watch her talk below:

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.

That’s right! You better not run, you better not hide, you better watch out for brand new robot holiday videos on Robohub! Drop your submissions down our chimney at editors@robohub.org and share the spirit of the season, like these vids-of-Christmas-past…

Europe’s roadmap for robotics released its latest version on 2 December. The MAR is updated annually as priorities, technologies and strategic developments shape European research development and innovation. This version of the MAR relates to the Horizon 2020 robotics work programme defined for the 2017 call in ICT25, ICT 27 & ICT-28.

If you liked this article, you may want to also read more about Horizon 2020:

• Horizon 2020 earmarks € 98M for new wave of European robotics
• Robohub Focus on European Robotics
• #ERF2016 webcam: Horizon2020 project pitches
• 2 agricultural robotics projects funded under latest Horizon 2020
• EU’s Horizon 2020 has funded $179 million in robotics PPPs

Horizon 2020 projects on Robohub

• Future robots will learn through curiosity and self-generated goals
• XoSoft: Intelligent trousers designed to assist people with limited mobility
• Surveying flooded mines with UNEXMIN: Interview with Norbert Zajzon
• Space for the masses as helium balloons and remote control planes reach through the stratosphere

See all the latest robotics news on Robohub, or sign up for our weekly newsletter.

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), chairman of the Subcommittee on Space, Science, and Competitiveness will convene a hearing today, 30 November, at 2:30 p.m. EST on “The Dawn of Artificial Intelligence.” The hearing will conduct a broad overview of the state of artificial intelligence, including policy implications and effects on commerce.

On October 12, 2016, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy released a report entitled, Preparing for the Future of Artificial Intelligence. The report outlined opportunities for artificial intelligence, including recommendations on how the technology can be used to advance social good and improve government operations. The report also proposed 23 policy recommendations and a companion strategic plan that identified priorities for federally-funded research and development in artificial intelligence.

At today’s Senate hearing, which will be livestreamed, five experts will be present:

• Dr. Eric Horvitz, Interim Co-Chair, Partnership on Artificial Intelligence; Managing Director, Microsoft Research Lab
• Dr. Andrew Moore, Dean, School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University
• Dr. Andrew Futreal, Professor, Department of Genomic Medicine, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
• Mr. Greg Brockman, Cofounder and Chief Technology Officer, OpenAI
• Dr. Steve Chien, Senior Research Scientist, Autonomous Space Systems and Technical Group Supervisor, Artificial Intelligence Group, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

* Witness list subject to change

Dear Readers,
For #GivingTueday, we would like to ask you, our loyal readers, to consider donating to Robohub. From the beginning, our mission has been to help demystify robotics by hearing straight from the experts. Robohub isn’t like most news websites. We’re a community. We’re a forum. Much of our content is written directly by the experts in academia, businesses, and industry. That means you get to learn about the latest research and business news, events and opinions, directly from the experts, unfiltered, with no media bias. Our goal is to keep you engaged and interested in robotics that may not necessarily be covered by top news agencies.

We mostly ‘survive’ on donations and grants, not running ads or spam, and we want to keep it that way. As a non-profit, all revenue goes towards maintaining our website, and our small team consisting of one full-time managing editor, one part-time science communication intern, and technical support. Everyone else generously volunteers their time when they are able.

Please donate to keep Robohub free and help us grow and improve our services. There’s still much to be discussed in robotics, we feel we’re just getting started! Thank you.

You can support us by donating here.

Source: euRobotics

European Robotics Week 2016 (#ERW2016) is kicking off 18-22 November in Amsterdam. The central event ‘Robots at your Service’ is about focussing on robotic technologies to help ageing populations live a healthier, active, and independent life. European Robotics Week celebrates Europe as a world-leader in robotics with typically hundreds of events.

In the 2015 Ageing Report from the European Commission, it’s anticipated that the number of Europeans over 65 will double in 50 years. Caring for those seniors – physically, emotionally and mentally – will be a big undertaking, and experts say there will be a shortage of professionals trained and willing to take on the job.

Photo credit: Keith Bujak. Source: Georgia Tech News Center

This year’s EWR is expected to have over 700 events across Europe. The opening at the Maritime Museum on the 18^th November will feature a number of dignitaries from The Netherlands, and EU officials from the European Commission and Parliament, who will welcome and present the ERW to members of Dutch the public. Presenting keynotes, Khalil Rouhana (DG Connect), Mady Delveux (MEP) and Bernd Liepert (CIO KUKA) will discuss their views for robotics developments and education in Europe. Followed by expert panel discussions about roboethics, our robotics future, and workshops about autonomous vehicles and professional service robots.

“Over the past few years we have seen considerable and growing interest in the ERW and the response from people wanting to engage with their own events have been phenomenal,” said Philip Piatkiewicz, Coordinator ERW, euRobotics. “What I feel makes it such a success are the principals of openness and inclusivity that drive our work, along with an exceptional network of dedicated individuals who form part of our National coordinator network. Together, we have managed to encourage kids and adults alike, from all walks of life, to become not just interested in robotics, but to continue their journey of discovery after the events wrap up for the year.”

Debate panels will be held on the 18 & 19 November about the use of robotics. On the 18th November, Roboethics, (12:30-13:30), will discuss developments in the ethical, legal, and societal aspects of robotics, an important debate that has increased in conversation in the last few years. Our Robotics Future, (14:00- 15:30), a debate around society’s current reaction to robotics technology and what we can expect in the future.  On the 19th, the panel session Robotics for Elderly Care, (11:00-12:30), will consider how robotics can transform healthcare and provide solutions to social health and healthy ageing. Finally, a panel discussion Saturday afternoon about Women in Tech, (13:30-15:00), will feature Nuray Golap (moderator), Elisabeth Schärtl, Franka Buurmeijer, Jacqueline Heinerman, Jurate Keblyte, and Sabine Hauert.

The Hack(athon) for Active & Healthy Ageing – the central track of the event – will be held Friday evening. Multi-disciplinary students, start-ups and scale-ups will collaborate and compete for 48-hours to create the best solutions for this challenge and get the chance to win an accelerator program to bring their concept to life.

The entire schedule and additional information can be found on the website.

Source: YouTube

In October, the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission released a report, China’s Industrial and Military Robotics Development, prepared by the Defense Group, Inc. at the Commission’s request. The report examines the development of China’s unmanned industrial, service, and military robotics systems, such as drones and driverless cars, and the economic and national security implications of these trends for the United States.

China’s rising demand for high-end robotic components and service robots as well as U.S.-China bilateral artificial intelligence research present potential markets and collaboration opportunities for the United States. But the inherently dual-use functions of industrial and service robotics strengthen China’s commercial and military production and robotic capabilities, potentially improving China’s defense industry and eroding U.S. military advantages. In addition, the application of artificial intelligence can enhance the learning capabilities and the military effectiveness of unmanned systems such as drones, which may undermine U.S. technological and military advantages.

Overall, the report advocates that the U.S. government:

1. implement the recommendations of the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership 2.0 Steering Committee Report and expand the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation;
2. monitor and account for Chinese advances in unmanned systems and electronic countermeasures;
3. conduct an interagency review with economic, scientific, and regional experts to assess U.S.-China cooperation and bilateral investments in artificial intelligence;
4. increase awareness among federal agencies, defense contractors, and research universities that Chinese research institutes actively collect their published materials, designs, specifications, and graphics;
5. fully implement the Cybersecurity National Action Plan;
6. use China’s state plans, procurement practices, defense plans, and other Chinese language materials to identify technologies that the PRC is seeking to acquire;
7. consider requirements to more thoroughly vet foreign participants for military or other undisclosed defense affiliations in academic exchanges and research in emerging technologies; and
8. monitor and, when necessary, investigate China’s growing foreign investments in robotics and artificial intelligence companies.

The report was authored by Jonathan Ray, Katie Atha, Edward Francis, Caleb Dependahl, Dr. James Mulvenon, Daniel Alderman, and Leigh Ann Ragland-Luce.

The report can be viewed here.

Simulation results for a unmanned drone flying over downtown Los Angeles showing the true trajectory (red line), from GPS only (yellow line), and GPS aided with cellular signals (blue line). Image: ASPIN Laboratory at UC Riverside

A team of researchers at the University of California, Riverside has developed a highly reliable and accurate navigation system that exploits existing environmental signals such as cellular and Wi-Fi, rather than the Global Positioning System (GPS). The technology can be used as a standalone alternative to GPS, or complement current GPS-based systems to enable highly reliable, consistent, and tamper-proof navigation. The technology could be used to develop navigation systems that meet the stringent requirements of fully autonomous vehicles, such as driverless cars and unmanned drones.

Led by Zak Kassas, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering in UCR’s Bourns College of Engineering, the team presented its research at the 2016 Institute of Navigation Global Navigation Satellite System Conference (ION GNSS+), in Portland, Ore., in September. The two studies, “Signals of Opportunity Aided Inertial Navigation” and “Performance Characterization of Positioning in LTE Systems,” both won best paper presentation awards.

Most navigation systems in cars and portable electronics use the space-based Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), which includes the U.S. system GPS, Russian system GLONASS, European system Galileo, and Chinese system Beidou. For precision technologies, such as aerospace and missiles, navigation systems typically combine GPS with a high-quality on-board Inertial Navigation System (INS), which delivers a high level of short-term accuracy but eventually drifts when it loses touch with external signals.

Despite advances in this technology, current GPS/INS systems will not meet the demands of future autonomous vehicles for several reasons: First, GPS signals alone are extremely weak and unusable in certain environments like deep canyons; second, GPS signals are susceptible to intentional and unintentional jamming and interference; and third, civilian GPS signals are unencrypted, unauthenticated, and specified in publicly available documents, making them spoofable (i.e., hackable). Current trends in autonomous vehicle navigation systems therefore rely not only on GPS/INS, but a suite of other sensor-based technologies such as cameras, lasers, and sonar.

“By adding more and more sensors, researchers are throwing ‘everything but the kitchen sink’ to prepare autonomous vehicle navigation systems for the inevitable scenario that GPS signals become unavailable. We took a different approach, which is to exploit signals that are already out there in the environment,” Kassas said.

A schematic showing how Zak Kassas, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at UC Riverside, and his team are using existing communications signals to complement satellite-based navigation systems like GPS for the control of driverless cars and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Image: ASPIN Laboratory at UC Riverside

Instead of adding more internal sensors, Kassas and his team in UCR’s Autonomous Systems Perception, Intelligence, and Navigation (ASPIN) Laboratory have been developing autonomous vehicles that could tap into the hundreds of signals around us at any point in time, like cellular, radio, television, Wi-Fi, and other satellite signals.

In the research presented at the ION GNSS+ Conference, Kassas’ team showcased ongoing research that exploits these existing communications signals, called “signals of opportunity (SOP)” for navigation. The system can be used by itself, or, more likely, to supplement INS data in the event that GPS fails. The team’s end-to-end research approach includes theoretical analysis of SOPs in the environment, building specialized software-defined radios (SDRs) that will extract relevant timing and positioning information from SOPs, developing practical navigation algorithms, and finally testing the system on ground vehicles and unmanned drones.

“Autonomous vehicles will inevitably result in a socio-cultural revolution. My team is addressing the challenges associated with realizing practical, cost-effective, and trustworthy autonomous vehicles. Our overarching goal is to get these vehicles to operate with no human-in-the loop for prolonged periods of time, performing missions such as search, rescue, surveillance, mapping, farming, firefighting, package delivery, and transportation,” Kassas said.

In addition to Kassas, graduate students Joshua Morales, Joe Khalife, Kimia Shamaei, Jesse Garcia, and Sonya Ragothaman and undergraduate student Souradeep (Gogol) Bhattacharya contributed to this research, which was funded with support from the Office of Naval Research (ONR). Additional videos of the team’s research can be viewed on the ASPIN Laboratory’s YouTube page.

The UCR Office of Technology Commercialization has filed patents for the inventions above.

This article was originally published by UCR Today.

If you liked this article, you may also enjoy reading:

• Swarms of precision agriculture robots could help put food on the table
• Quadrotor automatically recovers from failure or aggressive launch, without GPS
• Robots Podcast #214: Project Ngulia: from Phone to Drone, with Fredrik Gustafsson
• Oxbotica’s autonomous vehicle software learns its environment and how it changes over time

See all the latest robotics news on Robohub, or sign up for our weekly newsletter.

The Disney hopping robot in action (Credit: Disney Research)

Disney Research presents their design and control for an untethered, energetically autonomous single-legged hopping robot. While this isn’t the first hopping robot to be built, it is the first not to rely on a tether or external power source for its hopping.

From their website:

“The thrust-producing mechanism of the robot’s leg is an actuated prismatic joint, called a linear elastic actuator in parallel (LEAP). The LEAP mechanism comprises of a voice-coil actuator in parallel with two compression springs, which gives our robot passive compliance. An actuated gimbal hip joint is realized by two standard servomotors.”

Diagram of the Disney hopping robot (Credit: Disney Research)

The researchers adapted a Raibert’s hopping controller to control the robot and found it could maintain balance in place for up to 7 seconds, or 19 hops, while continuously hopping.

Here are a few more pictures of the hopping robot:

The Disney hopping robot is the first built since 2007 (Credit: Disney Research)

Robot’s leg (Credit: Disney Research)

Robot’s control unit (Credit: Disney Research)

Download the paper here or visit the Disney Research website.

If you liked this article, you may also want to read:

• Robot makers: The future of digital rapid design and fabrication of robots
• Should your robot have a tether?
• Watch humanoid robot Atlas balance on one foot
• Boston Dynamics made a new robot: SpotMini

See all the latest robotics news on Robohub, or sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Source: DRCihmcRobotics

A video posted to YouTube last week shows Boston Dynamics’ humanoid robot Atlas balancing on one foot, while standing on a 2cm thick plywood edge.

The team writes: “This video was recorded during a lucky run, usually the robot is not able to maintain balance for this long. The shaking is caused by poor state estimation (we only use onboard sensors). The control algorithm is developed by IHMC the robot was built by Boston Dynamics.”

Pretty impressive!

How will artificial intelligence change the world of work? The Economist is holding a Facebook Live Q&A with their Deputy Editor on Tuesday, September 13, 4pm London time. You can watch, listen, and tune in on their Facebook page, here.

Be sure to also read The Economist: AI and Future of Work, an interactive and downloadable PDF.

You may also want to read:

• NPR podcasts discuss automation and the future of work
• ‘Robot kindergarten’ trains droids of the future
• The future of work: Robots, unions and globalization
• White House launches public workshops on AI issues
• What coachmen from the 1920s can tell us about robots and jobs
• Robohub roundtable: Job loss through automation, Foxconn controversy

See all the latest robotics news on Robohub, or sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

After five years of competition by more than 40 different teams from around the globe, NASA’s Sample Return Robot Challenge has reached its final stage. The top seven teams will compete for the $1.36 million prize purse on the campus of Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Worcester, Massachusetts, Sept. 4-6.

In this final round of the challenge, teams have up to two hours each to locate as many as 10 unknown samples that vary in size, shape, location and difficulty. The samples are classified as easy, intermediate and hard and are assigned corresponding point values. One team could win the entire prize purse, or multiple teams could share a percentage of the prize.

The three-day event will conclude with an awards ceremony and press conference at 11:30 a.m. EDT Tuesday, Sept. 6, at the Quadrangle at WPI. WPI is located at 100 Institute Road in Worcester.

Participants at the press conference will be:

• Congressman Jim McGovern of Massachusetts
• NASA Administrator Charles Bolden
• Laurie Leshin, president, WPI
• Dennis Andrucyk, deputy associate administrator, NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate

Qualifying teams for the final round are:

• Team Al – Toronto, Canada
• Alabama Astrobotics – Tuscaloosa, Alabama
• MAXed Out – Santa Clara, California
• Mind & Iron – Seattle, Washington
• Sirius – South Hadley, Massachusetts
• Survey – Los Angeles
• West Virginia University Mountaineers – Morgantown, West Virginia

Prior to this final round of competition, the teams competed in Level 1, where robots had to return two known sample types but from an unknown location within 30 minutes without human control or the aid of Earth-based technologies, such as GPS or magnetic compassing. Since the challenge began in 2012, only seven teams have advanced to Level 2.

The Sample Return Robot Challenge, part of NASA’s Centennial Challenges Program, aims to encourage innovation in robotics technologies relevant to space exploration and broader applications that benefit life on Earth. This event brings together tech-savvy citizens, entrepreneurs, educators and students to demonstrate robots that can locate and collect geologic samples from a wide and varied landscape without human control and within a specified time.

NASA’s Centennial Challenges program is part of the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD). STMD uses challenges to gather the best and brightest minds in academia, industry and government to drive innovation and enable solutions in important technology focus areas. WPI has hosted the Sample Return Robot Challenge since it began in 2012.

The event will be streamed live at:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-msfc

For more information about the competition, visit their website.

See all the latest robotics news on Robohub, or sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Cancer cells. Credit: CC0

Researchers have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) software that reliably interprets mammograms, assisting doctors with a quick and accurate prediction of breast cancer risk. The AI computer software intuitively translates patient charts into diagnostic information at 30 times human speed and with 99 percent accuracy.

Caterpillar micro-robot sitting on a finger tip.
Credit: Source: FUW

Researchers at the Faculty of Physics at the University of Warsaw, using the liquid crystal elastomer technology, originally developed in the LENS Institute in Florence, demonstrated a bioinspired micro-robot capable of mimicking caterpillar gaits in natural scale. The 15-millimeter long soft robot harvests energy from green light and is controlled by spatially modulated laser beam. Apart from travelling on flat surfaces, it can also climb slopes, squeeze through narrow slits and transport loads.

NASA’s “Valkyrie” robot is 6 feet tall and weighs 290 pounds. Researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory will test and develop the bot for future space missions. Photo: NASA

The Space Robotics Competition is open for teams to develop and display the abilities of an R5 robot by assisting in the procedures for a NASA mission to Mars, offering a $1 million prize pool for successful teams. The competition involves programming a virtual R5 robot through a series of tasks presented in a virtual environment using Gazebo software.

Three tasks are aimed to simulate what a robot may need to do while assisting a NASA mission to Mars: align a communications array, repair a solar array, and identify and repair a leak in the habitat. Winners are chosen based on the ability to complete the tasks, steps within them, and duration to complete the tasks.

Registration is open now, with the final round of competition to be held June 2017. Winners will be announced at the end of June at Space Center Houston. You can download the official rules for the challenge here.

For more information, visit www.spaceroboticschallenge.com and www.spacecenter.org.

If you liked this article, you may also want to read:

• MIT CSAIL’s 6-foot-tall NASA humanoid robot has landed
• ‘Moon Shot’ nine-part documentary series available on YouTube
• Robohub roundtable: Robotics and space exploration
• Video: Panel discussion celebrating 10 years of the Mars Exploration Rover
• Air, water, energy and food in a nutshell: Space exploration as driver for sustainable robotic agriculture

See all the latest robotics news on Robohub, or sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Source: Wyss Institute

Originally pioneered at the Harvard Microrobotics Lab, in collaboration with Northeastern University, RoboBees are inspired by nature and designed for an important reason: wild pollinators — such as bees and butterflies — are declining at an alarming rate. 75 per cent of the world’s food crops depend at least in part on pollination, putting global food supplies at risk, according to the World Economic Forum.

After a bit more testing, engineers want to move RoboBees out of the lab environment and into the real world, but it could be another five to 10 years before they are able to fly and swarm on their own. It’s also important to note that robotic pollination is not meant to be a replacement or long-term solution for issues like Colony Collapse Disorder, but could potentially provide a stop-gap measure until natural pollinators are restored (however, this robotic technology is at least 20 years away).

As a bonus, these tiny robots could potentially help save disaster victims one day, too.

“The RoboBees can eventually be used for search and rescue, for example in areas where larger robots won’t fit,” says Harvard Microrobotics Laboratory PhD candidate Elizabeth Helbling. “They would also return with the information faster, as you wouldn’t have to wait for one robot to come back, but instead have a whole swarm of them covering a forest or similar.”

Read more about the RoboBees research on Robohub:

• First controlled flight of an insect-sized robot
• Using static electricity, RoboBees cling to surfaces
• RoboBees take to the sky – and now the sea
• Bioinspired robotics #2: Materials, manufacturing & design, with Robert Wood
• Robots Podcast #129: Audio interviews about the controlled flight of insect robots, with Kevin Ma, Pakpong Chirarattananon and Sawyer Fuller

See all the latest robotics news on Robohub, or sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Maria Yablonina’s project, called Mobile Robotic Fabrication System for Filament Structures, demonstrates a new production process for filament structures, like carbon fiber, by crawling up the wall and spinning structures. The robots look remarkably similar to spiders spinning silk.

From the project website: “It proposes multiple semi-autonomous wall climbing robots to distribute fiber filament, using any horizontal or vertical surface, or even existing architecture, to support the new structures. Compared to larger scale industrial robots that are limited by position and reach, these robots are enabled with movement systems and a collection of sensors that allow them to travel and interact accurately along typical ground, walls, roofs, and ceilings.

One can imagine a fabrication process where an operator arrives at the scene with a suitcase housing all the necessary robots and materials to create a large structure. These agile mobile robotic systems move robotic fabrication processes beyond the constraints of the production hall, exposing vast urban and interior environments as potential fabrication sites.”

All images credit Maria Yablonina, University of Stuttgart

Project by: Maria Yablonina, MSc.

Thesis Advisers: E. Baharlou, M. Prado, T. Schwinn
Thesis Supervisor: Prof. Achim Menges
Second Supervisor: Prof. Jan Knippers

Courtesy: Softwear Automation

National Public Radio (NPR) has published a series of stories about robots and the future of employment in the U.S. and abroad. It begins with the story about the Luddites war on industry and a more recent podcast about the sewing robot DARPA has contracted to research for the production of U.S. military garments.

Enjoy.

Episode 621: When Luddites Attack (link)

Episode 622: Humans vs. Robots (link)

Episode 623: The Machine Comes To Town (link)

Episode 624: I, Waiter (link)

Episode 715: The Sewing Robot (link)

If you enjoyed this post, you may also want to read:

• Robohub roundtable: Job loss through automation, Foxconn controversy
• In automation we trust: senior thesis project examines concept of over-trusting robotic systems
• Bringing automation and robotics to the farm
• Robots Podcast #202: Automation and Employment, with Michael Osborne

See all the latest robotics news on Robohub, or sign up for our weekly newsletter.

By rotating the magnetic field at a certain frequency the robotic chains will split into separate, individually controllable robots.
Credit: Drexel University/YouTube

Drexel University researchers, led by MinJun Kim, PhD, a professor in the College of Engineering, have successfully pulled off a feat that both sci-fi fans and Michael Phelps could appreciate. Using a rotating magnetic field they show how multiple chains of microscopic magnetic bead-based robots can link up to reach impressive speeds swimming through in a microfluidic environment. Their finding is the latest step toward using the so-called “microswimmers” to deliver medicine and perform surgery inside the body.

In a paper recently published in Nature Scientific Reports, the mechanical engineers describe their process for magnetically linking and unlinking the beads while they’re swimming, and individually controlling the smaller decoupled robots in a magnetic field. This data helps further the concept of using microrobots for targeted, intravenous drug delivery, surgery and cancer treatment.

“We believe microswimmer robots could one day be used to carry out medical procedures and deliver more direct treatments to affected areas inside the body,” said U Kei Cheang, PhD, a postdoctoral research fellow in Drexel’s College of Engineering and lead author of the paper. “They can be highly effective for these jobs because they’re able to navigate in many different biological environments, such as the blood stream and the microenvironment inside a tumor.”

One of the central findings is that longer chains can swim faster than shorter ones. This was determined by starting with a three-bead swimmer and progressively assembling longer ones. The longest chain examined by the group, 13-beads in length, reached a speed of 17.85 microns/second.

Drexel engineers have been adding the understanding of microrobots for biomedical applications for nearly a decade, with the goal of producing a robotic chain that can travel inside the body, then decouple to deliver their medicinal payload or targeted treatment.

The reason for this approach is that a rather versatile robot that can do multiple tasks could be controlled using a single magnetic field.

The Microswimmers as a chain. (Image Credit: Drexel University)

The robot chains move by spinning, like a long screw-like propeller in step with a rotating external magnetic field. So the faster the field rotates, the more the robots spin and the faster they move. This dynamic propulsion system is also the key to getting them to divide into shorter segments. At a certain rate of rotation the robotic chain will split into two smaller chains that can move independently of each other.

“To disassemble the microswimmer we simply increased the rotation frequency,” Cheang said. “For a seven-bead microswimmer, we showed that by upping the frequency 10-15 cycles the hydrodynamic stress on the swimmer physically deformed it by creating a twisting effect which lead to disassembly into a three-bead and four-bead swimmer.”

The Microswimmers break apart. (Image Credit: Drexel University)

Once separate, the field can be adjusted to manipulate the three and four-bead robots to move in different directions. Because the beads are magnetized, they can eventually be reconnected — simply by tweaking the field to bring them back into contact on the side with the corresponding magnetic charge. The team also determined optimal rotation rates and angle of approach to facilitate re-linking the microswimmer chains.

This finding is a key component of a larger project in which Drexel is partnering with 10 institutions of research and medicine from around the world to develop this technology for performing minimally invasive surgery on blocked arteries.

“For applications of drug delivery and minimally invasive surgery, future work remains to demonstrate the different assembled configurations can achieve navigation through various in vivo environments, and can be constructed to accomplish different tasks during operative procedures,” the authors write. “But we believe that the mechanistic insight into the assembly process we discussed in this research will greatly aid future efforts at developing configurations capable of achieving these crucial abilities.”

Journal reference:

U Kei Cheang, Farshad Meshkati, Hoyeon Kim, Kyoungwoo Lee, Henry Chien Fu, Min Jun Kim. Versatile microrobotics using simple modular subunits. Scientific Reports, 2016; 6: 30472 DOI: 10.1038/srep30472

Source: Science Daily / Drexel University

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/07/160728101207.htm

Ex Machina. Source: Youtube/Universal Pictures

Writer and philosopher Luis de Miranda studies cultural history of digital devices and automata, with his latest essay (in French) L’Art d’être libres au temps des automates (The Art of Being Free in the Era of Automata). At the University of Edinburgh, he recently created a platform for cross-disciplinary researchers and collaborators to discuss the relationship between humans, robots, and intelligent systems, called the Anthrobotics Cluster. In this interview, he speaks to Robohub about Anthrobotics and why he believes it’s essential to study the relationship between humans and robots.

What is the ‘Anthrobotics Cluster’? How did it come about?

I created the Anthrobotics Cluster at the University of Edinburgh this year and convinced a few researchers in several disciplines – roboticists, computer scientists, social sciences and humanities – to join it. It’s meant to be a think tank on the social spread of robotics, and also how automation is part of the definition of what humans have always been. I started to think of anthrobotics in 2015, as I was writing the first chapters of my PhD on esprit de corps. I realised, as Lewis Mumford has already suggested in the Myth of the Machine, that human institutions are a form of collective robot. Division of labour, protocols, rituals, automation are part of the conceptual DNA of the collective ‘humachine.’ We’re social robots to a certain extent. But I see anthrobotics as a blank slate for new research. It’s a concept that still needs to be defined, explored, investigated. I’d like to think of it as a ‘What if?” as defined by Vaihinger in The Philosophy of the ‘As If’. What if we humans were anthrobots?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0SMl8vOW18

Could you define esprit de corps? How does your research in Anthrobotics fit into this?

Esprit de corps was originally a French term, and adopted into English. It is widely used in today’s global corporate discourses and also in politics. The phrase qualifies the strong unity and cohesion of a group. My PhD is the first genealogy of the term, from its birth in military discourse at the end of the seventeenth century, with the French Musketeers, until today, where the English media speak on a daily basis of esprit de corps. If you start thinking of human societies as collective robots, it might appear to be a metaphor, but I think it’s more than a metaphor. We must never forget that the etymology of ‘robot’ is forced labour, and forced labour is what humans are about historically (and what they wish to free themselves of doing). This might change in the future, and – for example –  there’s currently a great deal of talk around the idea of automation and universal basic income.

What challenges do you foresee to ensure that technological innovations go hand in hand with societal needs and expectations?

Engineering and philosophy should go hand-in-hand. Whatever we construct, it’s done according to a web of beliefs, a set of values that can be either conscious or unconscious. For example, if you think individuals are free-willing entities who always tend to maximize their personal interest, you won’t conceive the same multi-agent system than if you realise that we’re much more determined social machines who belong to more or less visible groups who shape our choices. Bourdieu has shown this very well in The Distinction. Today, Big Data also clearly demonstrates our predictable psychology. I’m not saying that we’re completely determined, but freedom is certainly much more difficult than we think. I published a book about this matter, in French: L’Art d’être libres au temps des automates (The Art of Being Free in a Time of Automata). If the 20th century was the century of globalisation, I believe the 21st century will be the century of robots and social machines. This doesn’t mean that they’re totally new, it only means our anthrobotic becoming is now manifest and conscious. My proposal and hypothesis is to consider the relationship between humans and robots as a unity, perhaps a form of symbiosis. We must look at history to avoid falling into irrational fears or an uninformed fascination for the new. Anthrobotics has to do with political science, and not only with technology.

How did your book ‘L’art d’être libres au temps des automates’ (The Art of Being Free in a Time of Automata) inspire your interest in robotics and society, and relate to your current work?

My book started as a cultural and philosophical history (I call this histosophy) of computers. In French, a computer is called ordinateur, named and administrated by a wide community. An ordinator is also the one that orders. Historian Adolf Gasser explained that life in a community, any community — it could be a State– is only possible within an ordinating or ordering principle. The two fundamental political ordering principles are subordination and coordination. I understood while researching in the MIT archives and writing my essay that humans have a dual character: they’re both ordinators and creators. Computers only reflect our human Cartesian ordinating work. And as for creation, I think humans are more editors of the cosmic flow of possibilities than pure creators (this is what I called the Creal hypothesis), but they still possess the existentialist – or crealist- freedom to coordinate in order to let new protocols, new rules emerge and be adopted.

You’re working with both a roboticist and computer scientist. As a philosopher how do these two other disciplines complement your research?

The risk of pure philosophy is to fall into excessive metaphysics with no pragmatic link to the real world. Working with Ram Ramamoorthy, and executive member of the Edinburgh Center for Robotics, and Michael Rovatsos, director of the Center for Intelligent Systems and their Applications, prevents me – at least it should – from being self-indulgent and playing with words without any form of concrete perspective, examples and experience. Anthrobotics should be able in the future to modify the way we design automated systems.

You have an International Workshop planned for 2017.  Can you tell us a little more about that?

We’re still working on that but we plan to host the workshop around the dates of the popular European Robotics Forum (ECR 2017) that is due to take place in Edinburgh in March. We are partnering with the Human Centred Computing Research Group at the Oxford Department of Computer Science. The general theme could be anthrobotics as a unity, and social automata as anthrobots. According to roboticist Rodney Brooks, the distinction between us and robots is going to disappear over the next decades (Robot: The Future of Flesh and Machine, 2002). Are we theoretically and socially prepared for such a union? The ongoing spectacular development and deployment of robotics, AI, or genetic engineering induces pervasive and radical changes in our lives and societal systems. Ram, Michael and I — as well as a growing community of researchers around the world who are currently connecting with our Anthrobotics Cluster — wish to explore anthrobotics without an ideological a priori, but with a simple methodological prism: from the perspective of unity, where human and social machines are conceived as one rather than opposed. Could it be that this anthrobotic unity is in fact older than we think, as suggested by, among others, Lewis Mumford (The Myth of the Machine, 1967/1970)? How can an anthrobotic perspective impact contemporary design and reflections? How can we define anthrobotics in a more precise manner? How can engineers design automata while being more conscious of the presupposed values of their protocols? Can we overcome the ethical discourse towards a more holistic and politically creative data and task processing?

What’s next for you? Can you leave us with your thoughts on how you see anthrobotics?

Ram, Michael and I are writing an article on anthrobotics, that we’ll present at the Aarhus International Conference on social robotics in October. The working title is: We, The Anthrobot: Learning From Human Forms of Interaction and Esprit de Corps to Develop More Diverse Social Robotics. Here’s a copy of the abstract:

This paper considers the system Human-Robot as a coordinated Janus-faced reality. We propose to call this hybrid system the anthrobot, and the related approach anthrobotics. The anthrobotic perspective not only belongs to the current transdisciplinary research on the social becoming of robotics, but also contemplates a practical horizon in the future conception and implementation of socially healthy automation.

Methodologically, anthrobotics is the choice to consider the unit human-machine rather than the separated realities (humans, on one side, and machines on the other). The implication of this methodological stance is that we should conceive of the process of understanding and designing anthrobotic systems as fundamentally grounded in their hybrid character, and to view their intentionality and intelligence in a way that encompasses human activity and its augmentation or mediation through technological means.

Anthrobots that pre-date the computer age, such as organisations, institutions, nation states, etc. not only provide blueprints on which digitally, or, robotically in the narrower sense of the term, enhanced collective socio-technical systems can be modelled. They also allow us to develop notions of “healthy” anthrobots by considering how their existing non-technological counterparts manage to provide a range of social protocols that allow individuals and groups to assume and embody different forms of agency that allow them to achieve their goals and aspirations. This paper will examine four types of human collective interaction that help lay the conceptual and methodological groundwork to determine if we can learn from human collectives to design healthier anthrobots.

Many systems we find around ourselves consist of continually evolving combinations of humans and robots, where the second term is to be interpreted broadly. Licklider famously called this close coupling a man-computer symbiosis, using a biological metaphor to describe this ‘living together in intimate association, or even close union’. Today this distinction has to be redefined. Different design methodologies are brought to bear in devising our anthrobotic becoming, ranging from game-theoretic and organisational behavior analysis to ‘crowdsourcing’ and associated considerations on how networks behave or should behave. What makes this challenging is that the behaviour of the anthrobotic system as a whole is hard to predict and design, due to the subtlety of human preferences and personalities, and due to coupled dynamics between humans and automata.

Looking beyond these phenomena, our aim is to identify key mechanisms regarding how people, when interacting with other people, efficiently manage to solve complex problems. For instance, why doesn’t the Microsoft chatterbot issue happen quite so easily among most people? Why do human societies manage to recover from market failures? What is it about social interaction that makes us smarter in terms of interaction than the technology-centric, novel anthrobotic systems we are creating? Can the human-machine and machine-human interactions that underpin current and future digital anthrobots be informed by the intelligence exhibited by human-human interaction systems, to which they are currently are much inferior?

Moreover, can they provide social arenas that empower humans and allow themselves to be shaped by humans in ways that are appropriate to the respective social context and escape their current diversity-averseness that stems from over-regularisation and unilateral control, in similar ways as advanced democratic human societies manage to achieve this? The reason why human-to-human relations are not chaotic by default is not that we are rational beings calculating our individual interest at every minor interaction with another human. This would take too much brain energy and prove extremely difficult, since it would take infinite clairvoyance to anticipate the outcomes of the hundreds of interactions we have with other humans every single day. Again, most of the time we function on autopilot, which means that we apply the habitual rules and codes of a group, albeit we might not always be conscious of which social group we belong to.

This phenomenon has been known since the eighteenth century under the term esprit de corps, a French phrase that was immediately adopted talis qualis in English. By examining the different uses of ‘esprit de corps’ in the last three centuries, Luis de Miranda has found that at least four types of collective bond are typical of our modernity.

The first type of collective bond can be called a conformative esprit de corps. Conformative collectives exhibit strong conformity and an enclosed or enclaved form of solidarity. The main value of conformative esprit de corps is duty, and its mode of control is discipline as coercion. This is typical of religiously-grounded communities for example. The second type of modern collective bond can be called universal esprit de corps, typical of the Nation-State and modern democracies. Universal esprit de corps leans towards strong conformity but an inclusive and open solidarity (anyone can join the group in theory). Its main mode of relation is service, and its mode of control is co-dependence, what Durkheim called ‘organic solidarity’. The third type of collective bond can be called autonomist esprit de corps. It exhibits a rather enclosed form of solidarity and its drive is autonomy rather than conformity. Its main values are craft, knowledge, art, and its mode of control is discipline as practice. It is typical of communities of interest, clubs for example. The fourth kind of collective bond can be called creative esprit de corps, with a drive towards open interactions and autonomy. Its main relational type is élan and enthusiasm, as seen today for example in start-ups. Its mode of control is enjoyment and expectation.

Of course, as all forms of categorisations, this is better read as tendencies rather than a rigid structure. Each of these groups implies individual interactions that are a different form of human intelligence. Individual interest does not play the main role in these interactions, or, if it does, this concerns mainly the creative esprit de corps groups. People interact more or less well in life according to more or less esprit de corps.

When designing an anthrobotic system, we propose to ask ourselves if it is meant to serve a universalist, creative, conformative, or autonomist group. In universalistic groups, standardised systems with few variations work well, because they should construct sameness rather than difference. A simple example of that are translation bots. English is a universal language, and if we are to favour global understanding and communication, there should not be different forms of English when used as a Lingua Franca. In creative groups, the emphasis is on the agency of each individual and a form of mechanical solidarity where each one can contribute equally to different tasks, according to a horizontal hierarchy. Open source, flexible systems, and co-design will be favoured. In groups with autonomy and enclosed solidarity, the main social interaction is through craft understood broadly. This is a community of practice, for example, a citizen-managed town, a badminton club, or temporary autonomous zone (TAZ). In groups with strong conformity and enclosed solidarity, where the main social drive is duty, systems need to be robust with minimal evolution capacities and a strong hierarchy. Religious communities, for example, tend to die if they evolve.

We have chosen to look at the human-machine relation as an anthrobotic unit. By this we do not mean an isolated cyborg: our perspective cannot be a methodological individualism, because on one hand, the machines and robots we refer to are or will be produced industrially, and on the other hand, individual humans are to a large extent the product of collective belongings before they can singularize themselves. The anthrobotic unit is the conjunction of two collectives, robotic and human. Our hypothesis is therefore that if we look at how humans form collectives in different ways, we will be able to develop intelligent systems that are also more diverse.

If you enjoyed this article, you may also enjoy reading: 

• Why robots need to be able to say ‘No’
• Should robots be gendered?
• Robohub Roundtable: Why is it so difficult to define ‘robot?’
• Beyond Asimov: How to plan for ethical robots