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The Drone Center’s Weekly Roundup: Weekly Roundup 12/8
At the Center for the Study of the Drone
In 2007, Addie Wagenknecht started using drones to make abstract paintings. Her works both challenge and celebrate the aerial robot and its power. In an in-...
25% of KUKA shares trade hands
Frank Tobe
08 Dec 2014
Voith GmbH, among the biggest family-owned businesses in Europe, acquired 25% of robot maker Kuka AG by buying the shares held by Grenzebach GmbH.
The transaction was valued at €555 million ...
GoPro to start making drones
Ben Fisher
04 Dec 2014
[tweetquote]GoPro is to start making its own line of drones and have them ready for release as early as Christmas 2015.[/tweetquote] Early indications of price point range from $500 to $1,000 for the ...
Ocean-going robot fleet successfully completes fish-tracking mission
National Oceanography Centre (NOC)
04 Dec 2014
The second phase of an ambitious project to gather valuable information on ocean processes and marine life using a fleet of innovative marine robots has just reached its conclusion. Co-ordinated by th...
GraspIO – An easy way to build electronics using iPhone, iPad & Android
Grasp IO, Inc.
03 Dec 2014
GraspIO is part hardware and part software, and gives everyone an easy way to build electronics projects using smartphones and tablets. It’s the world’s first DIY electronics platform with easy-to...
Christmas is orange at Amazon
Frank Tobe
02 Dec 2014
15K+ bright orange Kiva robots are operating across the US and at 10 Amazon fulfillment distribution centers this holiday season....
Agricultural technology making news
Frank Tobe
02 Dec 2014
My article Are agricultural robots ready? was widely read last month. Now there are two new in-depth articles on the subject by the NY Times and San Jose Mercury News. All are informative and worth y...
Ozobot, Knightscope, HiBot and Airware all get funding
Frank Tobe
02 Dec 2014
UPDATED 12.03.14 Four interesting funding announcements: Ozobot got $2 million; HiBot got $3.1; Knightscope got $3.7; and Airware got an undisclosed amount but from a substantial partner, GE Venture...
Robohub Digest Nov. 2014: Philae touchdown, Pirker overturned, 70K robovacuums sold
Jana Witt and Hallie Siegel
01 Dec 2014
[tweetquote]A quick, hassle-free way to stay on top of robotics news[/tweetquote], our robotics digest is released on the first Monday of every month. Sign up to get it in your inbox....
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podcast
Mobility Transformation Facility, with Edwin Olson
Audrow Nash
28 Nov 2014
NEW: Full transcript below.
In this episode, Audrow Nash speaks with Edwin Olson, an Associate Professor at the University of Michigan, about the University’s 32-acre testing environment for auton...
Transport Canada releases new framework for governing UAV operations
Diana Marina Cooper
28 Nov 2014
Earlier this month, Transport Canada announced that commercial operators will soon be able to benefit from two exemptions from the general Special Flight Operations Certificate (SFOC) requirement. Tod...
RoCKIn2014, live stream and live scores
Robohub Editors
28 Nov 2014
The RoCKIn2014 competition event is taking place right now, you can watch the live stream, broadcasting directly from Cité de l'espace science museum and you can also view the live scores from RoCKIn...
Evaluating the effectiveness of robot behaviors in human-robot interactions
Autonomous Robots Blog
26 Nov 2014
This post is part of our ongoing efforts to make the latest papers in robotics accessible to a general audience.
Robots that interact with everyday users may need a combination of speech, gaze, and...
Aeon Scientific wins 2014 Swiss Technology Award
Michael Keller and ETH Zurich
26 Nov 2014
The cardiologist sits in the control room next to the operating theatre and uses a joystick to steer a catheter through the patient's blood vessel into the heart's chambers to treat the card...
Firmer footing for robots with smart walking sticks
the National Science Foundation (NSF)
26 Nov 2014
Anyone who has ever watched a humanoid robot move around in the real world — an "unstructured environment," in research parlance — knows how hard it is for a machine to plan complex movements, bal...
The CORAL group: Interview with Joydeep Biswas and Brian Coltin
Our newest video interview features PhD student Joydeep Biswas, who works with Dr. Manuela Veloso’s CORAL research group, and scientist Brian Coltin, who is at NASA's Ames Intelligent Research g...
Japan’s new robotics push: Funding and deregulation
Frank Tobe
25 Nov 2014
In June, Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he wanted to treble the market for robots in Japan to $22 billion by 2020. Last month, the government launched a "robot revolution realization council...
EU Robotics Week is on!
Robohub Editors
25 Nov 2014
The fourth annual EU Robotics Week is on across Europe, with more than 300 activities happening this week in 25 EU countries.
Industry, research institutes and universities all over Europe will be...
MecklerMedia launches RoboUniverse
Frank Tobe
24 Nov 2014
MecklerMedia, a trade show organizer, is launching a new three-day, two-track workshop, seminar and exhibition on most verticals in robotics (other than heavy industry, military and space) to be held ...
Minesweepers 2014: Outdoor robotic competition on humanitarian demining
Alaa Khamis
21 Nov 2014
Minesweepers: Towards a Landmine-Free World is an outdoor robotic competition initiated by IEEE Robotics and Automation Society – Egypt Chapter that aims to raise public awareness of the seriousne...
National Science Foundation and federal partners award $31.5M to advance co-robots in US
the National Science Foundation (NSF)
20 Nov 2014
From disaster recovery to caring for the elderly in the home, scientists and engineers are developing robots that can handle critical tasks in close proximity to humans, safely and with greater resili...
Over 70,000 robotic vacuum cleaners sold on a single day
Frank Tobe
20 Nov 2014
Just last month Rod Brooks chided me that robotic vacuum cleaners were already mainstream in response to what I had written: that they had just recently moved from niche to mainstream partly because ...
NTSB overturns Pirker case: Drones are aircraft
Dronologista
19 Nov 2014
The Pirker case was a landmark case in UAV legislation development. In 2011, Raphael Pirker used his Ritewing Zephyr UAV to make some aerial footage over the University of Virginia campus, and for tha...
Better micro-actuators to transport materials in liquids
Fabio Bergamin and ETH Zurich
18 Nov 2014
Researchers have developed improved forms of tiny magnetic actuators thanks to new materials and a microscopic 3D printing technology....
Drone designers/builders compete in finals of ASME Student Design Competition
American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
17 Nov 2014
Eighteen teams of young engineers-in-training competed for the right to call themselves world champion drone builders at the 22nd annual ASME Student Design Competition (SDC) finals today at the Inter...
UN discusses humanitarian uses of drones
Frank Tobe
17 Nov 2014
At a recent meeting at the United Nations, UN and UNICEF officials met with NGOs including Red Cross, food and peacekeeping groups, to discuss setting up a network of humanitarian uses for drones and...
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podcast
Finding Objects Using RFID, with Travis Deyle
Sabine Hauert
15 Nov 2014
Full transcript below.
In this episode, Sabine Hauert speaks with Travis Deyle, about his IROS-nominated work on RFID tags, his blog Hizook, and the career path that brought him from academia, to fou...
Ground Drone Project: Urban mobile robot chassis
Phillip Walker
13 Nov 2014
The Ground Drone Project wants to make a [tweetquote]low cost ground robot chassis for hobbyists and inventors that is capable of traversing challenging obstacles[/tweetquote]. The project’s origina...
Video: Autonomous robot surgery on deformable tissue phantoms
Automating repetitive surgical subtasks such as cutting and debridement can facilitate supervised tele-surgery, and reduce surgeon fatigue and procedure times. Programming these tasks can be difficu...
Google commits $1.36 billion for NASA facility, to house their robotics, space and flight technologies
Frank Tobe
12 Nov 2014
Google subsidiary Planetary Ventures has committed to a 60-year $1.16 billion lease of the 1,000 acre Moffett Field Naval Air Station. The agreement includes an additional $200 million to refurbish th...
Touchdown! Rosetta’s Philae makes first ever landing on a comet
Ioannis K. Erripis
12 Nov 2014
UPDATE: ESA's Rosetta mission has soft-landed its Philae probe on to the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The signal confirming the successful touchdown arrived on Earth at 16:03 GMT (17:03...
ABB invests in AI startup Vicarious
Frank Tobe
11 Nov 2014
ABB Technology Ventures, the VC arm of ABB, joins a long list of notables investing in artificial intelligence startup Vicarious Systems that include Peter Thiel, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Mu...
Transport Canada relaxes commercial drone regulations, increases focus on academic use
Diana Marina Cooper
10 Nov 2014
Last week, Transport Canada announced upcoming changes to the regulatory framework surrounding drones. Transport Canada’s exemption notification simultaneously signals a relaxation of commercial dro...
Maker Club: Learn to code, design and build 3D printed robots!
Maker Club
10 Nov 2014
At Maker Club, we make 3D printed robotics projects that teach electronics, programming and CAD design. Every project is remote controlled using our Arduino-based bluetooth chip, the MakerConnect, and...
Latest research report shows 10.4% CAGR for robotics to 2025
Frank Tobe
10 Nov 2014
Boston Consulting Group (BSG) recently released a global robotics market study that projects industry growth of 10.4% CAGR (Compounded Annual Growth Rate)....
Novel robots for gait and arm rehabilitation: Interview with Robert Riener
In this pair of video lectures, Robert Riener presents his team's research efforts in the field of rehabilitation robotics, and describes the vision behind Cybathlon, the competition for robot-assist...
