By Ellen H. Rumley and Allison Okamura

A leader in tech innovation

Robots are a crowd-pleasing example of American innovation and global technological leadership. The latest press release of Boston Dynamics’ Atlas executing the ‘Ghost Rabona’ soccer kick highlights the increasingly natural movements of humanoids (1). At the other end of the spectrum, academic researchers are redefining the limits of miniaturization and building robots at the micrometer scale (2). Private and government funding propel foundational research forward, leading to breakthroughs in both hardware and software across U.S. labs and corporations (3, 4). Such progress reaffirms the U.S. as an intellectual and innovative powerhouse, a reputation that carries large geopolitical weight.

But retaining a lead solely in the R&D phase yields diminishing returns if the U.S. fails to manufacture robotic hardware at scale within its own borders. Critics fear this dynamic prevents the U.S. from reaping the economic benefits of the very technology it pioneers (5, 6). Ramping up domestic production will require a heavily coordinated effort between government, industry, and academics – a pivot from traditional U.S. technology strategy.

Free market and military capital

Historically, the U.S. has maintained a laissez-faire approach to technological innovation, allowing corporate and private investors driven by the free market to shape the course of advancement. This innovation-first strategy is largely credited with fueling the growth of global tech giants and the rise of Silicon Valley, which altogether represents roughly 12% of the national GDP (7). America’s leadership in artificial intelligence can be largely attributed to this free-market engine, which prioritizes high projected profit margins and rapid scalability of software (8).

When it comes to U.S. robotics hardware, the Department of Defense/War (DoD/DoW) has stepped in as one of the primary catalysts for innovation and investment. The Pentagon’s fiscal year 2026 budget requested an unprecedented $13.4 billion for developing autonomous systems; a major increase from years prior. The DoD/DoW is requesting an additional $53.6 billion for autonomous systems and drones for 2027 (9). Private capital has quickly mirrored federal priorities; in the first quarter of 2026 alone, defense technology venture capital investments reached a record $19.8 billion. This surge is tightly bound to contemporary geopolitical conflicts, such as the hybrid warfare seen in Ukraine, where the U.S. plays a key role in funding drone production and in recent times deploying humanoids (10, 11). The significant role that autonomous systems have played in conflict zones like the Strait of Hormuz has also signaled the high dependency of strategic military operations on robotics (12).

A bottleneck for domestic manufacturing

While investment in robotic innovation does provide certain economic benefits, it does not support U.S. competitiveness in critical industries – specifically in physical manufacturing. Hardware inherently requires higher, long-term capital expenditures and yields lower short-term financial returns compared to software. Consequently, there could be less incentive to compete against other global manufacturing leaders. Furthermore, while the DoD funds early-stage R&D and specialized military platforms, its mandate stops short of supporting commercial scaling efforts necessary to implement technologies for broader civilian and industrial applications.

As a result, while the U.S. is the third-largest consumer of industrial robotics in the world (with industrial adoption surging by 11% just last year in sectors like logistics, packaging and automotive) (13), it lacks the infrastructure to build what it consumes. While a few prominent U.S. companies do manufacture application-specific robots (some examples being Intuitive Surgical, Amazon Robotics, and Agility), the U.S. mostly relies on foreign imports for baseline industrial robot installations (14). Contrast this with Japan, which relies on foreign imports for a mere 2% of its domestic installations (15).

The systemic under-development in domestic robotic manufacturing leaves the U.S. vulnerable to hardware dependencies and supply chain disruptions. While industrial leaders like Japan and Germany are reliable trade partners, the U.S. government increasingly views hardware dependencies as a national security vulnerability. In recent years, robots have been reclassified as a critical dual-use technology, considered central to 21st century technological sovereignty (16). This reality makes robotics manufacturing a target for foreign adversaries, since foreign supply chains introduce operational chokepoints.

Currently, the U.S. government responds to these vulnerabilities through aggressive export controls and protective procurement policies, which are designed to slow down adversary agendas by blocking their access to the U.S. IP and markets. As one example, in 2021 the President issued the NSPM-33 (a national security memorandum directed to executive agencies) mandating federally funded research institutions to establish strict internal compliance frameworks (17). While designed to allow the continued recruitment of international talent, it enforces rigid vetting protocols on researchers potentially associated with Malign Foreign Talent Recruitment Programs (MFTRP) or of dual national affiliation (18). As another example, in early 2026 lawmakers proposed the bipartisan American Security Robotics Act, a bill designed to ban the federal procurement and operation of unmanned ground vehicles and humanoids manufactured by foreign adversaries, specifically targeting China (19).

Getting by without a government-led national robotics strategy

Rising concerns over robotics supply chain vulnerabilities strongly echo the semiconductor anxieties that originally led to the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, which marked a historical pivot for the U.S. towards an active state-supported industrial policy (20). Today, there is a similar pressure mounting for the federal government to coordinate a sovereign robotics pipeline via a unified national roadmap.

The challenge facing the U.S. does not seem to be a lack of federal funding, but rather how the funding is distributed across multiple agencies with different mandates (21). The National Science Foundation funds basic academic research; Department of Energy runs national research laboratories and funds external research programs developing robotics relating to energy infrastructure; National Institute of Health supports and conducts medical robotics research; NASA funds and develops robotics for space applications; the ARM Institute supports domestic manufacturing initiatives while satisfying dual-use funding criteria through the DoD/DoW; and DARPA funds robotic innovations relevant to national security. (The latter organizes the well-known DARPA Grand Challenges, robotics competitions for fueling research bridging fundamental science and military applications.) Because federal investments from these programs and agencies are confined to isolated, mission-specific niches, the U.S. remains one of the few leading industrial nations without a centralized robotics strategy.

This structural fragmentation may soon change as political attention shifts towards treating robotics as a critical sector (22). In 2025, four state representatives re-launched the bipartisan Congressional Robotics Caucus as a platform for members of Congress to stay informed over the diverse issues surrounding robotics policy (23). In June 2026, legislators formally introduced the bipartisan National Commission on Robotics Act, which calls for an independent commission of 18 robotics experts tasked with providing evidence-based policy to accelerate domestic development (24). This legislative momentum is reinforced by a series of recent Executive Orders (mandates from the US President) demanding a high-level federal coordination including the Unleashing American Drone Dominance Order (25), the Golden Dome for America Order (26), and the Launching the Genesis Mission Order (27).

Robotics strategies from non-government actors

In the absence of a centralized federal initiative, stakeholders in industry, NGOs, and academia are self-organizing and publishing their own robotics frameworks recommendations for the United States.

In 2025, A3 (Association for Advancing Automation) released their Vision for a U.S. National Robotics and Automation Strategy (28), which argues that the future of U.S. leadership in artificial intelligence is inextricably linked with its global robotics leadership. A3 provides actionable policy items, such as the formation of a governmental robotics office for coordinating federal robotics initiatives, the establishment new standards for nascent robotic hardware and software, and the introduction of tax incentives for rapid robotics adoption and creation of worker training programs.

Complementing these industry goals, in 2025 the nonpartisan thinktank, Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP), has released their Memos to the President – National Robotics Strategy (29). This document couples the call for mass industrial robotics adoption with recommendations for more aggressive trade restrictions on Chinese technologies. Following this publication, SCSP launched its National Security Commission on Robotics for Advanced Manufacturing for implementing this comprehensive strategy; members include industry and academic players including GM, Boston Dynamics, Nvidia, AMD, the University of Michigan and MIT’s Industrial Performance Center (30).

Academics have similarly spearheaded their own national strategies. Once every four years, academics led by Professor Henrik Christensen (UC San Diego) publish a roadmap for U.S. robotics (31). Past editions directly catalyzed the creation of the National Robotics Initiative (NRI), a multi-agency federal program running from 2012 to 2022 that supported foundational research on robotics, specifically promoting collaborative robots for working alongside humans. (Christensen also recently published Global Robotics Technology Roadmap 2025–2035, an independent positions paper synthesizing government and industry strategies across Europe, Asia, and the United States (32).)

All three stakeholders share a common motivation for a national robotics strategy: the nation’s population and workforce are declining; There is a surplus of jobs fulfilling the 3 Ds (dull, dirty, dangerous); Robotics should become a national priority once more. In addition to funding and incentives, authors also discuss the need to consider the impact of technology on the workforce – a topic of large structural tension, with fear of robots displacing jobs and particularly outcompeting blue-collar and immigrant workers (33, 34). Christensen et al. delve deeper into the psychology of the workforce, and recommend a framework which balances technological growth with worker empowerment. They propose that prioritizing human-centered collaborative robots and wearable devices could shift the robotics narrative from a source of widening economic disparity towards heightening workplace satisfaction and production efficiency. However, recent mass layoffs amidst installations of collaborative robots reveal the complexity of this balancing act (35).

The U.S. is in the midst of a major shift regarding how it shapes robotics advancement. Because a formal federal strategy does not yet exist, private and academic stakeholders are proactively drafting the blueprints themselves. Consolidating these ideas into a unified national policy will have far-reaching consequences for national security, geopolitical influence, labor markets, and manufacturing sovereignty. The world watches carefully as this shift unfolds.

Thanks for reading. For our next article we will be delving into China’s national robotic strategies – stay tuned.

Ellen H. Rumley – Policy Analyst

Allison Okamura – Vice President

IEEE RAS Science & Technology Watch Board

References

1. Boston Dynamics and Hyundai. School of Football | The Ghost Rabona | Boston Dynamics x Hyundai. YouTube, 2026.
2. University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science. “Penn and UMich Create World’s Smallest Programmable Autonomous Robots.” Penn Engineering Today, 2024.
3. “7 Cool NSF-Funded Robots That Are Advancing Science and Helping Society.” S. National Science Foundation, 7 Apr. 2021.
4. “AI 50 List: Top Artificial Intelligence Companies.” Forbes, 2026.
5. Atkinson, Robert D. A Time to Act: Policies to Strengthen the US Robotics Industry. Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), 2025.
6. Association for Advancing Automation (A3). Policy Recommendations and Advocacy Principles for the U.S. Automate.org, 2025.
7. Consumer Technology Association. “Tech Sector Supports 18 Million US Jobs, Represents 12% of GDP, Says CTA.” CTA Press Releases, 2026.
8. Brookings Institution. Hardware and Software: A New Perspective on the Past and Future of Economic Growth. Brookings, 2024.
9. United States Department of Defense. Comptroller Budget Materials: Fiscal Year 2026. 2025.
10. Marrow, Michael. “DoD Plans Largest-Ever Investment in Drones, Anti-Drone Weapons.” DefenseScoop, 21 Apr. 2026.
11. Smith, Matt. “Humanoid Robots and Military AI Take the Field in Ukraine War.” CNBC, 30 May 2026.
12. Reuters Defense Bureau. “Iran Could Disrupt Strait of Hormuz with Drones Within Months.” Reuters, 4 Mar. 2026.
13. International Federation of Robotics. “US Robot Industry Returns to Double-Digit Growth.” IFR Press Releases, 2026.
14. McKinsey Global Institute. Ramping Up Manufacturing in America? McKinsey & Company, 2026.
15. International Federation of Robotics. “Japan Is World’s Number One Robot Maker.” IFR Press Releases, 2022.
16. Stanford University. Stanford Emerging Technologies Review 2026. 19 Feb. 2026.
17. National Science and Technology Council. Guidance for Implementation of National Security Presidential Memorandum 33 (NSPM-33). Jan. 2022.
18. White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Guidelines for Foreign Talent Recruitment Programs. Feb. 2024.
19. United States, Congress, House. American Security Robotics Act. 119th Congress, H.R. 8189. Government Publishing Office, 2026.
20. Center for Strategic and International Studies. Innovation Lightbulb: Tracking CHIPS Act Incentives. CSIS, 2025.
21. Center for Strategic and International Studies. “Why the United States Needs Robots to Rebuild.” CSIS Strategic Technologies Blog, 2025.
22. Politico Pro Staff. “White House and Congressional Frameworks Shift Toward AI and Robotics.” Politico, 3 Dec. 2025.
23. United States, Congress, House of Representatives. “McGovern, Latta, Stevens, Obernolte Announce Re-Launch of Congressional Robotics Caucus.” Office of Congressman Jim McGovern, May 2025.
24. United States, Congress, House. National Commission on Robotics Act. 119th Congress, June 2026, H.R. 7334.
25. S. Army News Service. “Drone Dominance Program Receives First Order; Gauntlet II Gets Underway.” Defense Department News, 2026.
26. Congressional Budget Office. Cost Estimate and Analysis of the Golden Dome Air Defense Framework. May 2026.
27. S. Department of Energy. “Energy Department Advances Investments in AI and Robotics for Scientific Discovery.” DOE News, 2025.
28. Association for Advancing Automation. “A3 Policy Recommendations and Advocacy Principles for the U.S.” April 2024.
29. Special Competitive Studies Project. Memos to the President: National Robot Strategy. SCSP, 2025.
30. “Boston Dynamics Joins U.S. Robot Strategy Think Tank Led by Ex-Google CEO.” Seoul Economic Daily, March 2026.
31. Christensen, Henrik, et al. Robotics for a Better Tomorrow: 2024 US National Robotics Roadmap. UC San Diego / Academic Coalition, 2024.
32. Christensen, Henrik. Global Robotics Technology Roadmap 2025–2035. Independent Position Paper, 2025.
33. Appelbaum, Binyamin. “What Replaces Deported Immigrant Workers? Not Americans.” The New York Times, Feb. 2026.
34. Pew Research Center. “Key Findings About How Americans View Artificial Intelligence and Automated Systems.” Pew Short Reads, 12 Mar. 2026.
35. “Unions Furious as GM Replaces 1,000 Factory Zero Workers with 50 Robots.” Yahoo News, June 2026.

By Holly Hartigan

A team of Cornell undergraduates beat 95 other teams to take the grand prize at The Farm Robotics Challenge with their invention: an autonomous robot that kills weeds with electricity.

Their robot can travel through a vineyard or orchard without a human operator, zapping weeds with a small amount of electricity, saving labor and energy and preventing crop loss, without the use of herbicides.

Led by Andrew James, an agricultural sciences major in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS), the team of agricultural specialists and engineers studied the existing electrical weeding technology, developed their own low-energy system and built a working prototype over the course of four intense months.

Natalia Kurz, a biological engineering major in CALS, said the project required a lot of late nights. “There were fears for us, like, was it just going to be for nothing?”

Now, James and his co-founders are using the $50,000 grand prize to form a company – Rootline Robotics – to continue working on the robot. Agricultural technology firm Reservoir sponsored the award and will host the startup at its incubator in Sonoma, California.

“I’ve always been interested in building a startup within the ag-robotics space,” James said. “So after winning this competition and seeing all the amazing support from so many different industry stakeholders in this really exciting collaboration, it makes a lot of sense to keep going.”

The problem of weeds

Weeds are a huge challenge in orchards and vineyards because they steal water and nutrients, especially in the spring, according to Steve Selin, owner of South Hill Cider in Ithaca.

“The weed pressure is very strong, and the grasses grow right up to the trees because we can’t afford to weed whack or mulch them as much as we would like to in order to control them,” he said. “If the trees get really stressed out, they’ll just drop the fruit.”

To control weeds, organic growers typically employ string trimming, mowing and mulching, which are all very labor intensive. Existing electric weeders require an operator, consume a lot of energy and cost $150,000, on average, which is out of reach for most growers, James said.

Selin provided feedback to the students as they developed their robot and said he is excited to try out Rootline’s new technology.

“In May and June, if you could do something to knock the weeds back enough that they’re not going to compete with the trees, then the rest of the year you wouldn’t have to worry about it,” he said. “You can let them come back and have positive impacts, like shading the soil, which would help the soil microbes to have a healthier ecosystem.”

The interdisciplinary nature of robots

“Robotics is many different systems in one,” Kurz said. “It is interdisciplinary by definition.”

Next, the Rootline team will work on improving its technology and validating it with growers before bringing it to market, all while Kurz and Neiss finish their degrees.

Neiss said the way the team came together felt a bit like destiny.

“If you have many different minds in one room that gives you the ability to reach solutions that are going to be the most feasible and effective,” he said.

By David Nutt

When assessing the ripeness of fruit, sight and smell can tell you a lot, but the best indicator is often how the fruit feels.

Cornell researchers used stretchable fiber-optic sensors to create a soft robot gripper that can predict the ripeness of strawberries by touch, then gently twist them off their branch or vine without causing any damage.

The technology, developed in the lab of Rob Shepherd, the John F. Carr Professor of Mechanical Engineering in the Cornell Duffield College of Engineering, could lead to more resilient and ecological food production and increase the availability of fruit species that are difficult to cultivate.

Shepherd’s Organic Robotics Lab previously demonstrated the potential of stretchable fiber-optic sensors to give soft robotic systems the ability to feel the same dynamic, tactile sensations that enable humans to navigate the natural world. In recent years, the team has expanded into agriculture, designing a soft robotic gripper that injects living plant leaves with sensors that help it detect and communicate with its environment.

“The great thing about Cornell is we’re a really great agriculture school, and a lot of avenues are opening up because of it,” Shepherd said. “It really allows us to uniquely combine our robotics expertise with our agricultural prominence.”

To develop a way to evaluate and handle fruit with care, Shepherd’s team partnered with Marvin Pritts, professor of horticulture and global development in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, who specializes in developing sustainable production methods for berry crops.

In order to train and test their gripper, they needed a model fruit. And for that, they turned to the strawberry.

“You can accurately tell when strawberries are ripe by their color,” Shepherd said. “So we could train our model to know if it’s ripe based on touch, then validate our model by looking at the color. And Anand was able to accurately estimate whether it was the right time to pick strawberries based off of the stiffness he measured.”

The soft robot gripper has an equally soft touch. The gripper is equipped with two different fiber-optic sensors, one to measure the curvature of the finger, and the other to measure the pressure at the fingertip. This way the robot can estimate the shape of an object and adjust its grip accordingly to grasp the ripe fruit without bruising it.

“The fiber-optic strain gauges have the same mechanical properties as the grippers that are using them. So it’s kind of like the flesh feels the fruit, rather than having separate sensors,” Shepherd said.

The researchers also included a planetary gear mechanism so, once the fruit is grasped, the robot wrist can rotate and twist the strawberry off its vine, instead of pulling or plucking it, which can strain and damage the fruit.

This soft-gripping technology, developed in the Organic Robotics Lab, could lead to more resilient and ecological food production and increase the availability of fruit species that are difficult to cultivate. Credit: Anand Mishra.

For cases in which touch isn’t enough, the researchers installed a camera in the gripper’s palm to find fruit that are occluded by leaves or other vegetation. However, the device will be particularly handy when ripeness can’t be detected visually, such as for avocadoes, pineapples or – Shepherd’s favorite – pawpaws.

“The problem with pawpaws is you can’t see when they’re ripe, and they ripen so fast that if you’re not there at the right time, you just miss them,” he said. “And you can’t harvest and ship them, because they don’t survive shipping very well, either. That’s one reason we don’t have pawpaws in grocery stores. But this can help with that.”

The technology could have an even greater impact on sustainable farming practices.

“Robots will allow us to do things we cannot do economically right now. We have row crops because row crops fit our machines. But if we have a larger amount of smaller robots, we can have mixed cropping of different species that support each other,” Shepherd said. “Instead of having soy one year and corn the next, you can have them both. Or you could have interspersed species that are resistant to pestilence, that help block infestations and reduce the amount of pesticides and fertilizer. You can have drought resistance from canopy species.

“It’s very complicated to manage a farm that way,” he said, “and robots could allow us to do that.”

The research was supported by the National Science Foundation Center for Research on Programmable Plant Systems (CROPPS) and the Cornell Institute for Digital Agriculture.

AIhub is excited to launch a new series, speaking with leading researchers to explore the breakthroughs driving AI and the reality of the future promises – to give you an inside perspective on the headlines. The first interviewee is Ross King, who created the first robot scientist back in 2009. He spoke to us about the nature of scientific discovery, the role AI has to play, and his recent work in DNA computing.

Automated science is a really exciting area, and it feels like everyone’s talking about it at the moment – e.g. AlphaFold sharing the 2024 Nobel Prize. But you’ve been working in this field for many years now. In 2009 you developed Adam, the first robot scientist to generate novel scientific knowledge. Could you tell me some more about that?

So the history goes back to before Adam. Back in the late 1990s, I moved from a postdoc at what was then the Imperial Cancer Research Fund – now Cancer Research UK – and got my first academic job at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. That’s where I had the original idea of trying to automate scientific research.

Our first publication on this was in 2004. It was a paper about robot scientists, published in Nature. That was the start. We showed that the different steps in the scientific method – forming hypotheses, determining experiments to test them, analysis of the results – could all be individually automated. But the whole cycle wasn’t fully automated, and the AI system didn’t do any novel science at that point.

In 2009, we built the Adam system. Adam was a (physically) large laboratory automation system, combined with AI that could perform full cycles of scientific research, and had knowledge about yeast functional genomics. Adam hypothesised and experimentally confirmed novel scientific knowledge about yeast metabolism, which we manually verified in the lab. 

How has the field evolved since then?

For many years, not much happened. Funding was difficult due to the financial crisis, which made the British Research Councils much more conservative. Before that period, panels would choose the most exciting science. Afterwards, they focused more on what would help Britain financially in the near term.

We couldn’t get funding for many years, and few others were interested. There was some work in symbolic regression – finding interpretable mathematical models to fit phenomena – but not much automation of science. What changed was the general rise of AI. As AI became more prominent, interest picked up, especially after 2017.

What are the potential upsides and downsides of AI scientists? 

I’ll start with the big picture: I think that science is positive for humanity. I think our lives in the 21st century are better than those of kings and queens in the 17th century, when modern science started. We have better food from around the world, beautiful fruits for breakfast, and much better healthcare – a 17th-century dentist was not pleasant. My mobile phone can communicate with billions of people at the touch of a button, and I can fly around the world. These are unbelievably good standards of living for billions of people, not just elites. The application of science to technology has provided this.  Of course there are downsides – pollution, environmental damage – but generally, for humans, I think life is better than in the 17th century. 

However, we still have huge problems. We can’t stop global warming or many diseases, and a billion people still live with food insecurity. I think we have sufficient technology to solve these problems if the nations of the world collaborated and shared resources. But I see no prospect of that happening in the current world situation, and I see no examples from history where these things have happened. So my only hope is that science becomes more efficient. If AI can help achieve that, then perhaps we can overcome these challenges. If we have better technology and we treat people badly after that, then it’s not down to constraints in the world, it’s down to human beings. 

As for having AI scientists as colleagues: AI systems don’t understand the big picture. They can’t do really clever things, like Einstein seeing space and time as a four-dimensional continuum as opposed to quite separate things. If you read the 1905 paper by Einstein, it starts off with this philosophical problem about electricity and magnets – AI systems are nowhere near as clever as being able to do anything like that. They can’t see deep analogies or connections, but they are brilliant at other parts of science. They can literally read everything – they have read every paper in the world 1000 times. If you have a small amount of data, machine learning systems can analyze it better than humans would. In this sense, they have superhuman powers. 

One interesting thing now is that if you’re a working scientist and you’re not using AI, in almost all fields you’re not going to be competitive anymore. AI on its own is not better than humans – yet. But a human plus AI is better than a human alone. Human scientists need to embrace AI and use it to do better science.

Do you think we’ll reach a point where autonomous AI will be able to generate the research questions and direct the movement of research?

Yes, I think so, although we’re not close to that at the moment. They can generate new ideas in constrained spaces, often better than humans, but they don’t really have the big picture yet. 

I think that will come sooner or later. I’m involved in a project called the Nobel Turing Challenge. The goal of that is to build an AI robotic system able to do autonomous science at the level of a Nobel Prize winner, by the year 2050. And if you can do that, we can build two machines, a hundred machines, a million machines – and we’d transform society.

Do you think that’s feasible by 2050? 

Just before the pandemic and during the pandemic, I thought the probability of hitting that target was dropping. But then there was the breakthrough of large language models, which are amazing in many ways – often remarkably stupid too, but generally very clever. I think that they alone will not be enough to beat the Nobel Turing Challenge, but I think they’ve made the probability of hitting that target much more likely.

What is interesting – and I don’t know the answer to this – is whether you need to solve AI in general to solve science, or whether it’s more like chess, where you can build a special machine which is genius at chess but not anything else. Imagine some machine which is a genius at physics but doesn’t know anything about poetry or history. Would that be enough? 

My instinct would be to say that it’s not, because everything’s so interlinked – poetry has rhythm, music contains mathematical structures. I think an AI scientist would need a broader understanding of reality than just its specific domain. 

People used to think that we needed those things to solve chess, so our human intuition is not very good at these things. For example, I didn’t expect LLMs to work so well, just by building a bigger network and putting in more data. I assumed they’d need some deep internal model of the world, or even that they would need a body to really understand how things move around in the world.

LLMs raise some interesting questions – are they just mimicking intelligence, as they lack internal models? 

I think AI must have, in some sense, some internal model inside. It’s just we don’t really understand why they work. It’s purely empirical, which is very unusual. I don’t remember a case where we have such an important technology, but we have so little understanding of it.

It is quite mysterious. Especially because science is always asking “what’s the mechanism?”  With AI, it’s the opposite. The question is “does it work?” We don’t know what the mechanism is. 

It’s not even clear what the theory to explain it is. Coming from machine learning, I assumed it would be some sort of Bayesian inference or something. But the mathematicians say no, it’s all to do with function mapping in some high dimensional space. These don’t seem to be the same, so it’s not even clear what framework we should use to explain it. 

And, mapping in a high dimensional space is something that’s fundamentally not intuitively understandable to humans. 

Yes, so it’s a mystery. So why do they do so well, and why do they not overfit over so many parameters. How do they manage to come to a reasonable answer? Generally, it’s easy to understand why they make mistakes, but it’s not so easy to understand why they actually work so well. 

Can you speak about your work in DNA computing, and how it relates to automated science?

With automated science, we’re using computer science to understand, for instance, biology or chemistry. With DNA computing we’re using technology from biology and chemistry to improve computer science. With DNA, you have the potential to have many, many orders of magnitude greater computing density than with electronics. This is because the bases in DNA are roughly the same size as the smallest transistors, but you can pack DNA in three dimensions, whereas transistors can only be in two dimensions. In our design for DNA, every DNA strand is a tiny computer. 

And the beautiful thing with DNA is that it can replicate itself – nature has made ways of copying DNA which are very effective. That’s how we as humans and all animals and plants and bacteria replicate, whereas electronic computers don’t replicate themselves – they’re built in factories costing billions. We can piggyback on top of this wonderful technology which nature has given us.

How does a DNA computer work? 

One of the greatest discoveries ever made was by Alan Turing, who discovered, or invented, the concept of the universal Turing machine. So this is an abstract mathematical object which can essentially compute anything which any other computer can compute. You can’t make a more powerful computer, in the sense that it can compute a function which that universal Turing machine can’t compute.

And there’s many different ways of physically implementing a universal Turing machine. The most common one is to build an electronic computer. But you could, in principle, build a Turing machine out of tin cans, for instance – the only difference is how fast they go and how much memory they have. The reason that your computer can do multiple tasks is because it can be programmed to do.

The beautiful thing which you can do with DNA is you can make a non deterministic universal Turing machine. These compute the same functions as normal universal Turing machines, but they do so exponentially faster – every time there is a decision point in the program, rather than having to explore only one path, it can go both ways simultaneously. So you can make a computer which, like an organism (think rabbits), can replicate and replicate and replicate until we solve the problem, or you run out of space. So space becomes the limiting factor rather than time. 

You can imagine that if you wanted to search through a tree to find something, you could put down all the branches in parallel, whereas a normal computer would go down one branch at a time. If you do the sums for DNA computing, you could have more memory and more compute on a desktop than all the electronic computers on the planet, which seems incredible. That’s just because of the density of compute. 

That would be an incredible scale-up – like how a modern smartphone is so  much more powerful than NASA’s supercomputers in the 60s. But computing isn’t improving at the same rate as it used to. 

Yes. Computers are not improving like they used to for many decades (Moore’s law). That’s why these big tech companies are building big compute farms the size of Manhattan or soon maybe Texas. So the world does need more efficient ways of doing compute.

If we had a lot of compute, what kinds of scientific problems or areas do you think AI-enabled science could best be applied to? Are there any low-hanging fruits?

What’s very important is to integrate AI systems with actual experiments and laboratories. You can’t just think about science and get the right answer. We need to actually go into the labs and test things, but a lot of AI people and AI companies don’t really appreciate that. They’ve been so successful in science with AI plus simulation that they don’t realize simulation is only so good as something that’s testable.

Areas with low-hanging fruit include materials science, as we need better battery materials, better solar panels, and lots more. There’s something of a gold rush happening there right now, with many startup companies getting huge valuations.

The other area of automation, which is in some sense easier, is drug design, because it’s much easier to move liquids around than solid phase materials. Closed-loop automation has sort of transformed early-stage drug design, and there are lots of companies in that space now.

The big picture is that the economic cost of science is dropping. A lot of the actual thinking involved in science can now be done by AI systems, and the experimental work can be done very well by lab automation. You don’t need to employ people to move things around, and people aren’t as accurate and don’t record things as well as automation does. So that’s the big picture: what can we do if we can make science much cheaper?

Where do you think AI science is headed next?

I think there’s an analogy with computer games like chess and Go. In my lifetime, computers went from playing chess pretty poorly to being able to beat the world champion. I think it’s the same in science. There’s a continuum of ability from what current technology can do, from the average human, to grandmasters of science like Newton, Einstein, Darwin and others. If you agree there is no sharp cutoff on that path, then I think that with faster computers, better algorithms, and better data, there’s nothing stopping them getting better and better at science. Whereas there’s evidence that humans are getting worse at science – the average economic benefit per scientist is decreasing. I think they’ll get better and better and sooner or later overtake humans in science. We shall see, but I’m optimistic. If we get through this period, better science can improve the standard of living and happiness of humanity,  and save the planet at the same time.

And now we have so much data, we need that raw power and intelligence to look at it all.

Yes, we need factories doing a lot of automation to scale things up. There’s no point in AI having brilliant ideas if we can’t test them in the lab. In my mind, science is still at the pre-industrial level. A PI with some post-docs and a few students is like a cottage industry, as opposed to a factory of science. I think humans will still be doing science, but we won’t be actually pipetting things in the future. It’s one reason we chose the name Adam (Adam Smith), we want to change the economics of science. 

And Eve?

Eve was a system we developed some years ago to look at early-stage drug design. Eve optimises a process, rather than doing pure science. Most systems don’t actually do hypothesis-driven science, they optimise something, e.g. find a better material for batteries, which is useful, but not necessarily science. 

Our new system is called Genesis. There we’re trying to scale up the experiments we can do and build up a lot of data. We’re using a continuous flow bioreactor, which enables you to control the growth rate of microorganisms. This is important if you want to understand their internal workings.

And you’re beginning with microorganisms because they’re a fundamental unit of life? 

Yes, we want to understand the eukaryotic cells. There are three branches of life, and the other two are bacteria. Eukaryotes evolved more than 1 billion years ago. We are eukaryotes. Biology is conservative, so the design of yeast and human cells is pretty much the same, but yeast cells are much simpler than human ones. To understand how we work, first we need to understand yeast, then human cells. Once we understand how human cells work, we can understand how organs work, then how humans work, and then we can solve medicine. It’s a reductionist approach to science – we understand something simple first, and then build from there. 

I like the progression, that approach makes sense. 

Unfortunately, it doesn’t make sense to our funders. They generally want to fund practical work on human cells now. They don’t easily fund research on fundamental questions. 

That’s the problem with the funding system. Most great discoveries in science over the last few centuries would not have been funded – they happened because people were doing the most impractical things for the most impractical reasons. And maybe a century later they were found to have a practical purpose. 

Exactly. Some years ago in the UK you had to write a 2-pages for every Research Council grant on how your research was going to make Britain richer or healthier. What would Alan Turing have written on his grant application for the Entscheidungsproblem? 

Thank you. This has been a very interesting conversation.

Thank you, happy to discuss this. It’s a very interesting topic. 

About Ross King

Ross King is a Professor with joint positions at the University of Cambridge, and Chalmers Institute of Technology, Sweden. He originated the idea of a ‘Robot Scientist’: integrating AI and laboratory robotics to physically implement scientific discovery. His research has been published in top scientific journals – Science, Nature, etc. – and received wide publicity. His other core research interest is DNA computing. He developed the first nondeterministic universal Turing machine, and is now working on a DNA computer that can solve larger NP complete problems than conventional or quantum computers.

The 2025 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2025) will be held from 19-25 October in Hangzhou, China. The programme includes plenary and keynote talks, workshops, tutorials, forums, competitions, and a debate.

Plenary talks

There are three plenary talks on the programme this year, with one per day on Tuesday 21, Wednesday 22, and Thursday 23 October.

• Marco Hutter – The New Era of Mobility: Humanoids and Quadrupeds Enter the Real World
• Hyoun Jin Kim – Autonomous Aerial Manipulation: Toward Physically Intelligent Robots in Flight
• Song-Chun Zhu – TongBrain: Bridging Physical Robots and AGI Agents

Keynote talks

The keynotes this year fall under eleven umbrella topics:

• Rehabilitation & Physically Assistive Systems
  • Patrick Wensing – From Controlled Tests to Open Worlds: Advancing Legged Robots and Lower-Limb Prostheses
  • Hao Su – AI-Powered Wearable and Surgical Robots for Human Augmentation
  • Lorenzo Masia – Wearable Robots and AI for Rehabilitation and Human Augmentation
  • Shingo Shimoda – Science of Awareness: Toward a New Paradigm for Brain-Generated Disorders
• Bio-inspired Robotics
  • Kevin Chen – Agile and robust micro-aerial-robots driven by soft artificial muscles
  • Josie Hughes – Bioinspired Robots: Building Embodied Intelligence
  • Jee-Hwan Ryu – Soft Growing Robots: From Disaster Response to Colonoscopy
  • Lei Ren – Layagrity robotics: inspiration from the human musculoskeletal system
• Soft Robotics
  • Bram Vanderborght – Self healing materials for sustainable soft robots”
  • Cecilia Laschi – From AI Scaling to Embodied Control: Toward Energy-Frugal Soft Robotics
  • Kyu-Jin Cho – Soft Wearable Robots: Navigating the Challenges of Building Technology for the Human Body
  • Li Wen – Multimodal Soft Robots: Elevating Interaction in Complex and Diverse Environments
• Al and Robot Learning
  • Fei Miao – From Uncertainty to Action: Robust and Safe Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning for Embodied AI
  • Xifeng Yan – Adaptive Inference in Transformers
  • Long Cheng – Learning from Demonstrations by the Dynamical System Approach
  • Karinne Ramírez-Amaro – Transparent Robot Decision-Making with Interpretable & Explainable Methods
• Perception and Sensors
  • Davide Scaramuzza – Low-latency Robotics with Event Cameras
  • Kris Dorsey – Sensor design for soft robotic proprioception
  • Perla Maiolino – Shaping Intelligence: Soft Bodies, Sensors, and Experience
  • Roberto Calandra – Digitizing Touch and its Importance in Robotics
• Human Robot Interaction
  • Javier Alonso-Mora – Multi-Agent Autonomy: from Interaction-Aware Navigation to Coordinated Mobile Manipulation
  • Jing Xiao – Robotic Manipulation in Unknown and Uncertain Environments
  • Dongheui Lee – From Passive Learner to Pro-Active and Inter-Active Learner with Reasoning Capabilities
  • Ya-Jun Pan – Intelligent Adaptive Robot Interacting with Unknown Environment and Human
• Embodied Intelligence
  • Fumiya Iida – Informatizing Soft Robots for Super Embodied Intelligence
  • Nidhi Seethapathi – Predictive Principles of Locomotion
  • Cewu Lu – Digital Gene: An Analytical Universal Embodied Manipulation Ideology
  • Long Cheng – Learning from Demonstrations by the Dynamical System Approach
• Medical Robots
  • Kenji Suzuki – Small-data Deep Learning for AI Doctor and Smart Medical Imaging
  • Li Zhang – Magnetic Microrobots for Translational Biomedicine: From Individual and Modular Designs to Microswarms
  • Kanako Harada – Co-evolution of Human and AI-Robots to Expand Science Frontiers
  • Loredana Zollo – Towards Synergistic Human–Machine Interaction in Assistive and Rehabilitation Robotics: Multimodal Interfaces, Sensory Feedback, and Future Perspectives
• Field Robotics
  • Matteo Matteucci – Robotics Meets Agriculture: SLAM and Perception for Crop Monitoring and Precision Farming
  • Brendan Englot – Situational Awareness and Decision-Making Under Uncertainty for Marine Robots
  • Abhinav Valada – Open World Embodied Intelligence: Learning from Perception to Action in the Wild
  • Timothy H. Chung – Catalyzing the Future of Human, Robot, and AI Agent Teams in the Physical World
• Humanoid Robot Systems
  • Kei Okada – Transforming Humanoid Robot Intelligence: From Reconfigurable Hardware to Human-Centric Applications
  • Xingxing Wang – A New Era of Global Collaboration in Intelligent Robotics
  • Wei Zhang – Towards Physical Intelligence in Humanoid Robotics
  • Dennis Hong – Staging the Machine: Not Built for Work, Built for Wonder
• Mechanisms and Controls
  • Kenjiro Tadakuma – Topological Robotic Mechanisms
  • Angela P. Schoellig – AI-Powered Robotics: From Semantic Understanding to Safe Autonomy
  • Lu Liu – Safety-Aware Multi-Agent Self-Deployment: Integrating Cybersecurity and Constrained Coordination
  • Fuchun Sun – Knowledge-Guided Tactile VLA: Bridging the Sim-to-Real Gap with Physics and Geometry Awareness

Debate

On Wednesday, a debate will be held on the following topic: “Humanoids Will Soon Replace Most Human Workers: True or False?” The participants will be: XingXing Wang (Unitree Robotics), Jun-Oh Ho (Samsung and Rainbow Robotics), Hong Qiao (Chinese Academy of Sciences), Andra Keay, (Silicon Valley Robotics), Yu Sun (EiC, IEEE Trans on Automation Science and Engineering), Tamim Asfour (Professor of Humanoid Robotics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology), Ken Goldberg (UC Berkeley, Moderator).

Tutorials

There are three tutorials planned, taking place on Monday 20 and Friday 24 October.

• Enhancing Digital Accessibility in Higher Education
• Design and Development of Rehabilitation Robotic Devices: Healthcare Challenges
• Retico: A Framework for Robot-ready Spoken Dialogue with Robots

Workshops

You can find a list of the workshops here. These will take place on Monday 20 and Friday 24 October.There are 83 to choose from this year.

Find out more

• Conference webpage
• Forums
• Competitions

Drones and Droids is a co-operative strategy game developed here at the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS). In it, you and four other sentient beings set out on the deck of the research vessel Seol Mara with six of our best robots to investigate an algal bloom near Lismore. Your mission is to find the source of the bloom and determine if it is dangerous before it reaches the seafarms in Ardmucknish bay. The mechanics of the game are designed to reflect the behaviour of our robots, and the narrative of your mission is told as you explore the map and deal with various calamities drawn from the real-life experiences of the roboteers, phycologists and other scientists at SAMS.

We originally designed it as a teaching tool, but after good reviews from our local pro-gamers we’re currently running a crowdfunding campaign to allow us to do a full production run. There’s a little over a month to go and we’re half-way to our goal of £16000. If we can reach it, we’ll be able to give a copy to every school in Argyll, and have plenty left over to sell, supporting our research. If you have an interest in robotics, abyssal horrors or teaching the next generation of scientists and technicians about these subjects, please consider donating, and keep an eye on the Drones and Droids website for updates.

An important aspect of autonomous soccer-playing robots concerns accurate detection of the ball. This is the focus of work by Can Lin, Daniele Affinita, Marco Zimmatore, Daniele Nardi, Domenico Bloisi, and Vincenzo Suriani, which won the best paper award at the recent RoboCup symposium. The symposium takes place alongside the annual RoboCup competition, which this year was held in Salvador, Brazil. We caught up with some of the authors to find out more about the work, how their method can be transferred to applications beyond RoboCup, and their future plans for the competition.

Could you start by giving us a brief description of the problem that you were trying to solve in your paper “Self-supervised Feature Extraction for Enhanced Ball Detection on Soccer Robots”?

Daniele Affinita: The main challenge we faced was that deep learning generally requires a large amount of labeled data. This is not a major problem for common tasks that have already been studied, because you can usually find labeled datasets online. But when the task is highly specific, like in RoboCup, you need to collect and label the data yourself. That means gathering the data and manually annotating it before you can even start applying deep learning. This process is not scalable and demands a significant human effort.

The idea behind our paper was to reduce this human effort. We approached the problem through self-supervised learning, which aims to learn useful representations of the data. After all, deep learning is essentially about learning latent representations from the available data.

Could you tell us a bit more about your self-supervised learning framework and how you went about developing it?

Daniele: First of all, let me introduce what self-supervised learning is. It is a way of learning the structure of the data without having access to labels. This is usually done through what we call pretext tasks. These are tasks that don’t require explicit labels, but instead exploit the structure of the data. For example, in our case we worked with images. You can randomly mask some patches and train the model to predict the missing parts. By doing so, the model is forced to learn meaningful features from the data.

In our paper, we enriched the data by using not only raw images but also external guidance. This came from a larger model which we refer to as the teacher. This model was trained on a different task which is more general than the target task we aimed for. This way the larger model can provide guidance (an external signal) that helps the self-supervision to focus more on the specific task we care about.

In our case, we wanted to predict a tight circle around the ball. To guide this, we used an external pretrained model (YOLO) for object detection, which instead predicts a loose bounding box around the ball. We can arguably say that the bounding box, a rectangle, is more general than a circle. So in this sense, we were trying to use external guidance that doesn’t solve exactly the underlying task.

Overview of the data preparation pipeline.

Were you able to test this model out at RoboCup 2025?

Daniele: Yes, we deployed it at RoboCup 2025 and showed great improvements over our previous benchmark, which was the model we used in 2024. In particular, we noticed that the final training requires much less data. The model was also more robust under different lighting conditions. The issue we had with previous models was that they were tailored for specific situations. But of course, all the venues are different, the lighting and the brightness are different, there might be shadows on the field. So it’s really important to have a reliable model and we really noticed a great improvement this year.

What’s your team name, and could you talk a bit about the competition and how it went?

Daniele: So our team is SPQR. We are from Rome, and we have been competing in RoboCup for a long time.

Domenico Blois: We started in 1998, so we are one of the oldest teams in RoboCup.

Daniele: Yeah, I wasn’t even born then! Our team started with the four-legged robots. And then the league shifted more towards biped robots because they are more challenging, they require balance and, overall it’s harder to walk on just two legs.

Our team has grown a lot during recent years. We have been following a very positive trend, going from 9th place in 2019 to third place at the German Open in 2025, and we got 4th place at RoboCup 2025. Our recent success has attracted more students to the team. So it’s kind of a loop – you win more, you attract more students, and you can work more on the challenges proposed by RoboCup.

SPQR team.

Domenico: I want to add that also, from a research point of view, we have won three best paper awards in the last five years, and we have been proposing some new trends towards, for example, the use of LLMs for coding (as a robot’s behaviour generator under the supervision of a human coach). So we are trying to keep the open research field active in our team. We want to win the matches but we also want to solve the research problems that are bound together with the competition.

One of the important contributions of our paper is towards the use of our algorithms outside RoboCup. For example, we are trying to apply the ball detector in precision farming. We want to use the same approach to detect rounded fruits. This is something that is really important for us; to exit the context of Robocup and to use Robocup tools for new approaches in other fields. So if we lose a match, it’s not a big deal for us. We want our students, our team members, to be open minded towards the use of RoboCup as a starting point for understanding teamwork and for understanding how to deal with strict deadlines. This is something that RoboCup can give us. We try to have a team that is ready for every type of challenge, not only within RoboCup, but also other types of AI applications. Winning is not everything for us. We’d prefer to use our own code and not win, than win using code developed by others. This is not optimal for achieving first place, but we want to teach our students to be prepared for the research that is outside of RoboCup.

You said that you’ve previously won two other best paper awards. What did those papers cover?

Domenico: So the last two best papers were kind of visionary papers. In one paper, we wanted to give an insight in how to use the spectators to help the robots score. For example, if you cheer louder, the robots tend to kick the ball. So this is something that is not actually used in the competition now, but is something more towards the 2050 challenge. So we want to imagine how it will be 10 years from now.

The other paper was called “play everywhere”, so you can, for example, play with different types of ball, you can play outside, you can even play without a specific goal, you can play using Coca-Cola cans as goalposts. So the robot has to have a general approach that is not related to the specific field used in RoboCup. This is in contrast to other teams that are very specific. We have a different approach and this is something that makes it harder for us to win the competition. However, we don’t want to win the competition, we want to achieve this goal of having, in 2050, this match between the RoboCup winners and the FIFA World Cup winners.

I’m interested in what you said about transferring the method for ball detection to farming and other applications. Could you say more about that research?

Vincenzo Suriani: Our lab has been involved in some different projects relating to farming applications. The Flourish project ran from 2015 – 2018. More recently, the CANOPIES project has focussed on precision agriculture for permanent crops where farmworkers can efficiently work together with teams of robots to perform agronomic interventions, like harvesting or pruning.

We have another project that is about detecting and harvesting grapes. There is a huge effort in bringing knowledge back from RoboCup to other projects, and vice versa.

Domenico: Our vision now is to focus on the new generation of humanoid robots. We participated in a new event, the World Humanoid Robot Games, held in Beijing in August 2025, because we want to use the platform of RoboCup for other kinds of applications. The idea is to have a single platform with software that is derived from RoboCup code that can be used for other applications. If you have a humanoid robot that needs to move, you can reuse the same code from RoboCup because you can use the same stabilization, the same vision core, the same framework (more or less), and you can just change some modules and you can have a completely different type of application with the same robot with more or less the same code. We want to go towards this idea of reusing code and having RoboCup as a test bed. It is a very tough test bed, but you can use the results in other fields and in other applications.

Looking specifically at RoboCup, what are your future plans for the team? There are some big changes planned for the RoboCup Leagues, so could you also say how this might affect your plans?

Domenico: We have a very strong team and some of the team members will do a PhD in the coming years. One of our targets was to keep the students inside the university and the research ward, and we were successful in this, because now they are very passionate about the RoboCup competition and about AI in general.

In terms of the changes, there will be a new league within RoboCup that is a merger of the standard platform league (SPL) and the humanoid kid-size league. The humanoid adult-size league will remain, so we need to decide whether to join the new merged league, or move to adult-sized robots. At the moment we don’t have too many details, but what we know is that we will go towards a new era of robots. We acquired robots from Booster and we are now acquiring another G1 robot from Unitree. So we are trying to have a complete family of new robots. And then I think we will go towards the league that is chosen by the other teams in the SPL league. But for now we are trying to organize an event in October in Rome with two other teams to exchange ideas and to understand where we want to go. There will also be a workshop to discuss the research side.

Vincenzo: We are also in discussion about the best size of robot for the competition. We are going to have two different positions, because robots are becoming cheaper and there are teams that are pushing to move more quickly to a bigger platform. On the other hand, there are teams that want to stick with a smaller platform in order to do research on multi agents. We have seen a lot of applications for a single robot but not many applications with a set of robots that are cooperating. And this has been historically one of the core parts of research we did in RoboCup, and also outside of RoboCup.

There are plenty of points of view on which robot size to use, because there are several factors, and we don’t know how fast the world will change in two or three years. We are trying to shape the rules and the conditions to play for next year, but, because of how quickly things are changing, we don’t know what the best decision will be. And also the research we are going to do will be affected by the decision we make on this.

There will be some changes to other leagues in the near future too; the small and middle sizes will close in two years probably, and the simulation league also. A lot will happen in the next five years, probably more than during the last 10-15 years. This is a critical year because the decisions are based on what we can see, what we can spot in the future, but we don’t have all the information we need, so it will be challenging.

For example, the SPL has a big, probably the biggest, community among the RoboCup leagues. We have a lot of teams that are grouping by interest and so there are teams that are sticking to working on this specific problem with a specific platform and teams that are trying to move to another platform and another problem. So even inside the same community we are going to have more than one point of view and hopes for the future. At a certain point we will try to figure out what is the best for all of them.

Daniele: I just want to add that in order to achieve the 2050 challenge, in my opinion, it is necessary to have just one league encompassing everything. So up to this point, different leagues have been focusing on different research problems. There were leagues focusing only on strategy, others focusing only on the hardware, our league focusing mainly on the coordination and dynamic handling of the gameplay. But at the end of the day, in order to compete with humans, there must be only one league bringing all these single aspects together. From my point of view, it totally makes sense to keep merging leagues together.

About the authors

	Daniele Affinita is a PhD student in Machine Learning at EPFL, specializing in the intersection of Machine Learning and Robotics. He has over four years of experience competing in RoboCup with the SPQR team. In 2024, he worked at Sony on domain adaptation techniques. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering and a Master’s degree in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics from Sapienza University of Rome.
	Vincenzo Suriani earned his Ph.D. in Computer Engineering in 2024 from Sapienza University of Rome, with a specialization in artificial intelligence, robotic vision, and multi-agent coordination. Since 2016, he has served as Software Development Leader of the Sapienza Soccer Robot Team, contributing to major robotic competitions and international initiatives such as EUROBENCH, SciRoc, and Tech4YOU. He is currently a Research Fellow at the University of Basilicata, where he focuses on developing intelligent environments for software testing automation. His research, recognized with award-winning papers at the RoboCup International Symposium (2021, 2023, 2025), centers on robotic semantic mapping, object recognition, and human–robot interaction.
	Domenico Daniele Bloisi is an associate professor of Artificial Intelligence at the International University of Rome UNINT. Previously, he was associate professor at the University of Basilicata, assistant professor at the University of Verona, and assistant professor at Sapienza University of Rome. He received his PhD, master’s and bachelor’s degrees in Computer Engineering from Sapienza University of Rome in 2010, 2006 and 2004, respectively. He is the author of more than 80 peer-reviewed papers published in international journals and conferences in the field of artificial intelligence and robotics, with a focus on image analysis, multi-robot coordination, visual perception and information fusion. Dr. Bloisi conducts research in the field of melanoma and oral carcinoma prevention through automatic medical image analysis in collaboration with specialized medical teams in Italy. In addition, Dr. Bloisi is WP3 leader of the EU H2020 SOLARIS project, unit leader for the PRIN PNRR RETINA project, unit leader for the PRIN 2022 AIDA project. Since 2015, he is the team manager of the SPQR robot soccer team participating in the RoboCup world competitions
	Can Lin is a master student in Data Science at Sapienza university of Rome. He holds a bachelor degree in Computer science and Artificial intelligence from the same university. He joined the SPQR team in September of 2024, focusing on tasks related to computer vision.

RoboCup is an international scientific initiative with the goal of advancing the state of the art of intelligent robots, AI and automation. The annual RoboCup event, where teams gather from across the globe to take part in competitions across a number of leagues, this year took place in Salvador, Brazil from 15-21 July. In a series of interviews, we’ve been meeting some of the RoboCup trustees, committee members, and participants, to find out more about their respective leagues. Christoph Steup is an Executive Committee member and oversees the @Work League. Ahead of the event in Brazil, we spoke to Christoph to find out more about the @Work League, the tasks that teams need to complete, and future plans for the League.

Could you start by giving us an introduction to the @Work league?

The @Work League, along with the Logistics League, forms the Industrial League. Our goal is to mimic some of the aspects of industrial production systems. An important aspect of this is factory automization and trying to mimic the factory of the future, where you have autonomous robots building products according to customer design. In these factories of the future, a single piece would be produced individually for each customer. Factories nowadays have big conveyor belts and a lot of automization, with the tasks mostly done in the same way, and you can only build stuff efficiently if you build millions of items. We are working on building individual pieces, where automization is still possible, and even a single piece can be built effectively. But obviously, in our RoboCup competitions, we are not interested in building on a factory scale – we are doing it on a very small scale. That means our robots are typically 80 centimeters long, the largest are around 70 centimeters wide, and some of them are also 80 centimeters high. So let’s say they fit in a one metre cubed box. Also, all our operations are done on the ground. This is just for simplification because building big tables to make it more realistic would also increase the cost for RoboCup and wouldn’t give much additional value.

What our robots need to do is transport objects from different workstations. So we have a default configuration where the arena starts, and there are workstations with objects lying on them, and some of these objects need to be transported to other workstations. The robot needs to do that completely autonomously. So this is one of the special things about the @Work League, that it’s completely autonomous and there is only a single restart allowed per team. So that means the robot really needs to be reliable. One of the big differences between medium teams and very good teams is that the very good teams perform well all the time whereas the medium teams have some good runs and some bad runs.

As well as the object transportation that you mentioned, and there other tasks that the teams need to carry out?

There are some special tasks in our league, like the precision placement task where the robot needs to fit an object into a cavity that is essentially the same shape and size as the object. It’s a little bit like the game that babies do to train their dexterity.

We also have a task that is inspired by a conveyor belt, but we are using a table that is constantly turning. The robots need to grasp stuff while the table is turning. This looks a little bit silly because no one would actually put a rotating table in a factory, however this is our way of actually mimicking a conveyor belt. The conveyor belt itself would be really, really difficult to integrate into the competition, so we just abstracted that and use this rotating table to actually have the same challenge but in a more manageable way. And it’s still a very, very hard challenge.

Then there are some special challenges that we integrate. For example, that robots need to report their state back so that we can observe what the robot is doing. We also have a challenge where humans are in the loop. For example, the robot brings pieces to a certain workstation where a human is present, the human assembles the pieces, and then the human needs to give a sign to the robot, and then the robot will take the piece away and put it somewhere else. This is designed to really mimic the automated factory flow.

In the past we also had a challenge where the robots needed to open a drawer, take something out and then close the drawer again. We’ve also had tasks where the robot has to handle fragile objects, like sweets, where the robot really needed to be careful in manipulating them. So in general, what differentiates us most from the Logistics League is that we are focusing a lot on manipulation and all the difficulties that come with manipulation and unknown objects, whereas Logistics is more tailored towards large-scale logistics processes with all their optimization and planning.

I was lucky enough to attend RoboCup last year in Eindhoven and what the teams were doing was really impressive. It was also interesting to see how varied the robots were, and how teams were approaching the tasks in distinct ways, with different grabbers and so on.

Yes, this difference in approaches is related to the history of our League, which is a little bit similar to the Logistics League. The Logistics League was originally a sponsored demonstration by Festo, which is a large company from Germany that creates tools, but they also have a didactics area where they provide tools to help people understand factory optimization. The @Work League was sponsored by Kuka, the robotics company, and, in the beginning, they required every team to compete with the Kuka youBot. So this was pretty much the default platform for our league, but at some point Kuka dropped from a sponsor to just an advisor to the league, and nowadays they are not part of the league at all. So when the Kuka youBot was going out of commission, the teams searched for alternatives and now we are presented with a wide variety of robots that are competing in the league, which I personally find really cool. Now we have all these different robots, all these different approaches, and some work better in some scenarios and worse in others. So we really have a scientific approach to the problem and we are really getting some insights into how you can tackle this problem on multiple levels.

Have you noticed that some of the challenges specifically are more difficult in general for all the teams?

In 2018 we introduced a challenge of so-called arbitrary surfaces which are surfaces unknown to the teams that are put on top of the workstations. The teams need to be able to deal with these surfaces. There are two surfaces that are really, really awful for the teams – one is grass that we pretty much stole from the soccer competitions! We just thought it would be funny to try it, and it was a really interesting problem, especially for some of the grippers of the different teams. For example, the current world champion, they have a rigid gripper so they can have force feedback when they grasp. However, the grass is really difficult for them – because of their rigidity, they always grasp the grass itself and then they pull up the grass with the object. And this led to some interesting problems, like they are transporting the actual surface around and not only the object. This isn’t a problem for teams using a flexible gripper. However, on the other hand, the flexible gripper makes it really difficult to assess if you have grasped the object because you have very bad force feedback. So there are two different approaches that have their pros and cons in different scenarios.

Three robots from the @Work competition in Brazil.

Are you introducing any new tasks for this year?

Yes and no. So actually we are introducing a completely new challenge which is different from what we’ve done before. The new challenge is the so-called smart farming challenge, which is opening our league to a whole new field of applications, because we are now looking at agriculture. We are working on this with Studica, a robotics company from Canada, whose hardware we are using. We’ve already given it a try at the German Open. This challenge comes with some new specifics and one these is that the teams only get the robot shortly before the competition. So they don’t really know the robot largely in advance, and they need to assemble, program and design the robot in a very short time. To compensate for this, we reduce the amount of optimization and robustness that is necessary. Because it’s an agriculture setting, we have different objects, like fruits, that the teams need to handle. This makes it a little bit more complicated because fruits have a more arbitrary shape and different levels of ripeness that need to be detected. We also have some grapes that are hanging on a wall, which is a completely different kind of manipulation task than before, because before the teams just needed to grasp things from surfaces, but now they really need to pluck stuff from a wall in a reliable way. So this is the new challenge. It also comes with a lot of software challenges because the computational power of this robot is very limited because it only has a Raspberry Pi. For example, there is not a lot of image processing possible, especially compared to the current robots, some of which even have GPUs embedded.

Is there a particular part of the hardware or software that you’ve seen some of the biggest developments in over the last year or so?

Yeah, I think one big change I observed over the years was a switch from custom neural networks for object detection to off-the-shelf components. So pretty much all teams nowadays use YOLO networks, which you can get pre-trained and they just deploy them on GPUs that they embedded into their robots. This is also one of the reasons why the robots really grew in size over the last few years because they needed space for the larger computational power. This actually made it possible for a lot of teams to reliably detect the objects. Object detection was a big problem in the beginning of the league and nowadays it’s not really a big issue – most teams are really good at that. Sometimes they are a little bit startled with decoy objects – these are objects in the arena that are not really part of the task, and they are unknown to the teams beforehand. Sometimes they are, let’s say, evil decoys that look like an object and there’s some mismatches that the teams do, but this is becoming very rare.

I think the second big change is a switch to larger manipulators with more degrees of freedom. So in the beginning, everyone had a very small manipulator with only five degrees of freedom, which limited the operating range, and nowadays pretty much all teams have a six degree of freedom manipulator with a large range. This means that they don’t need to move their robot when they are in front of a workstation, which makes them much faster and also much more precise.

Could you talk about the future plans for the League?

There are a few things we are thinking about.

With regards to the competition itself, we had a discussion with the teams about what they are interested in doing in the future. Two things came up that they really want to have. One is mobile obstacles, so they want other objects to move autonomously through the arena. We’re in the process of creating that, in cooperation with EduArt, which is a company from Germany that also provides small educational robots. And the second thing we want to introduce is a kind of humanoid robot that the teams can use to actually handle special manipulation tasks that cannot be done simply with a robot manipulator.

In terms of creating an entry-level League, we have been working on this and one potential idea is to use the smart-farming challenge as the entry point. Through the collaboration with Studica, we can provide teams with the robot and they get to keep it after the competition. At the German Open I spoke to the Rapidly-Manufactured Rescue League about this crossover between the Rescue and the Junior Leagues, and they are very keen to collaborate.

We’re also talking with the Logistics League. Their sponsor, Festo, has dropped out of their league and now they need to reorganize. We are wondering if it would be worthwhile to bring our leagues closer together, or even fuse them together to a single RoboCup Industrial league. The Logistics League wants to do more manipulation, and the @Work League wants to do more planning, so we are closing the gap naturally between the two. However, this is just a thought at the moment – we need to see how the teams react to that.

About Christoph

Christoph Steup is an active researcher specializing in various fields of robotics, including swarm robotics, precision farming, and weather-resilient autonomous driving. He currently works at the Fraunhofer Institute for Transportation and Infrastructure Systems (IVI), where he leads the Swarm Technology Group. Prior to this role, he headed the Computational Intelligence in Robotics group at the Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg. Christoph’s involvement with RoboCup began in 2015 when he joined the robOTTO team of Otto von Guericke University as team leader. His contributions to the RoboCup community expanded as he became a member of the Technical Committee for the @Work League in 2017. In 2019, he further advanced his participation by joining the Executive Committee of the league.

Plenary talks

There are four plenary talks on the programme this year:

• Oussama Khatib – Mission in Dubai, collaboration with UAE
• Najwa Aaraj – Building Trust in Autonomous Systems: Security Strategies for the Next Generation of Robotics
• Yoshihiko Nakamura – Embodiment of AI and Biomechanics/Neuroscience
• Magnus Egerstedt – Mutualistic Interactions in Heterogeneous Multi-Robot Systems: From Environmental Monitoring to the Robotarium

Keynote talks

The keynotes this year fall under the umbrella topics of: flying machines, biorobotics, AI and robotics, and robotics competitions.

• Flying machines
• Davide Scaramuzza – Drone Racing
• Guido De Croon – DelFly Explorer
• Giuseppe Loianno – Agile Robotics and Perception Lab
• Mirko Kovac – Drones for Environmental Health
• Biorobotics
• Auke Ijspeert – Bio Robotics, Computational neuroscience
• Barbara Mazzolai – Bioinspired Soft Robotics
• Kaspar Althoefer – Graphene and 2D materials, sensor applications
• AI and robotics
• Barbara Caputo – Applied Artificial Intelligence
• Merouane Debbah – TelecomGPT
• Concepción Alicia Monje – (soft) robot control
• Jianwei Zhang – Crossmodal Learning
• Robotics competitions
• Pedro Lima – Europe: European Robotics League, euROBIN Coopetitions
• Timothy Chung – Americas: DARPA Challenges
• Ubbo Visser – RoboCup Federation
• Thomas McCarthy – Grand Challenges as a Mechanism to Hasten Translation from Lab to Market

Forums

The forums are three-hour events that focus on a particular topic. Each forum will have keynote speakers, with some including a poster session and other talks.

• Robots for Sustainability and Sustainable Robots
• Europe Regulates Artificial Intelligence: the Challenge for Robotics
• Government Forum: Funding for Robotics Research
• Robotics in Africa Forum
• Robotics & AI in the UAE: Research Innovation and Entrepreneurship
• Human-Avatars Symbiosis: Can you imagine a future society where you can remotely control multiple avatars?
• Empowering Diverse Voices in Robotics
• Sustainable Medical and Surgical Robotics
• Moonshot R&D Program Goal 3 Forum. Envisioning a Future of Human-Robot Co-living: Potential for Robotics to Transform Human Lives
• Marine Robotics in Ocean Decade Initiative for Sustainable Development
• The Future of Work: AI-Enhanced Robotics and Human Interaction Research in M3S
• Industrial Opportunities and Socio-Economic Impact of Medical Robotics
• Robots for a Better Tomorrow: Wellbeing Through Advanced Technology

Science communication for roboticists

This session is a collaboration between AIhub.org/Robohub.org and IEEE Spectrum. We will cover different ways to communicate about your work to a more general audience, and how to work with media. You can find out more here.

Workshops

The 46 workshops take place on 14 and 15 October.

• AI Meets Autonomy: Vision, Language, and Autonomous Systems
• Interactive Robots and AI for Healthcare
• Brain Over Brawn: Workshop on Label Efficient Learning Paradigms for Autonomy at Scale
• XR-ROB 2024 – Horizons of an Extended Robotics Reality – a Converging Future of XR and Robotics
• Maritime Heterogeneous Unmanned Robotic Systems
• The Evolving Landscape of Haptic Technologies: Research Challenges and Industry needs
• Agricultural Robotics for a Sustainable Future
• 3rd Workshop on Mobile Manipulation and Embodied Intelligence: Generalization Challenges for Real-World Deployment
• Collecting, Managing and Utilizing Data through Embodied Robots
• The Grand Challenge of Cybernetic Avatars: Dreams and Facts
• Nonverbal cues for human-robot cooperative intelligence
• Real-World Challenges in Multi-Robot Cooperation
• 3D/4D Printing and Smart Materials for Sustainable Soft Robotics
• Advanced Robotics and Visualization for micrO Surgery
• Equivariant Robotics: The Role of Symmetry Across Perception, Estimation, and Control
• Environment Dynamics Matters: Embodied Navigation to Movable Objects
• R-, r-, reply- Articles, what are they? Case Studies of Reproducibility and Benchmarking in Robotic Research
• Standing the Test of Time: Retrospective and Future of World Representations for Lifelong Robotics
• The Workshop and Competition on Multi-Robot Perception and Navigation Challenges in Logistics and Inspection Tasks
• The Grand Challenge of Cybernetic Avatars: Ethical and Social Sustainability
• Unlocking the Potential: Innovations in Drone-Assisted Infrastructure Inspection and Maintenance
• AI and Robotics for Future Farming
• Self-healing and Damage Resilient Soft Robots
• Autonomous Robotic Systems in Aquaculture: Research Challenges and Industry Needs
• 2nd Workshop on Machine Learning in Medical Robotics: Bridging ML Theory and Clinical Frontiers
• ROMADO: 4th workshop on RObotic MAnipulation of Deformable Objects: beyond traditional approaches
• Trustworthy Human-swarm Interaction
• Multisensory Transparency-Augmented Teleoperation in Extreme Environments
• Long-Term Perception for Autonomy in Dynamic Human-centric Environments: What Do Robots Need?
• Embodied Neuromorphic AI for Robotic Perception and Control
• Integrating Physical and Cognitive Perspectives in Assistive Robotics Design
• 3rd Workshop Toward Robot Avatars
• From Learning-based to Foundation models for mapping: challenges and opportunities (LFM)
• Robot Safety in Times of AI: Data, Decision, and Multimodal Interaction
• Bio-inspired, Biomimetics, and Biohybrid (Cyborg) Systems
• Benchmarking Autonomous Service Robotics in Real Life
• The 2nd Workshop on Formal methods techniques in robotics systems: Design and control
• Workshop on 14th Planning, Perception and Navigation for Intelligent Vehicles
• Workshop on Interaction-aware Autonomous Systems
• The SOFT frontier: adaptive technologies in soft robotics
• Variable Impedance Learning and Control: Navigating Challenges, Exploring Opportunities, and Shaping the Future
• Workshop on Ethical, Legal and User Perspectives on Assisting Robots and Systems (WELUPARS)
• Safety of Intelligent and Autonomous Vehicles: Formal Methods vs. Machine Learning approaches for reliable navigation (SIAV-FM2L)
• Building and Evaluating Ethical Robotic Systems
• From Geometry to General Autonomy of Robotic Systems
• Benchmarking via Competitions in Robotic Grasping and Manipulation

Tutorials

The tutorials take place on 14 and 15 October. There are 10 to choose from this year.

• Multi-Robot Path Planning: Heuristic Search Meets Reinforcement Learning
• ML in Autonomous Systems and Mobile Robots: Security and Privacy Issues for ML
• Edge AI for Aerial Robots: Enhancing Drone Operations with AI
• From Hover to Horizon: Mastering Drone Control in MATLAB
• KOMPASS: An event-driven advanced navigation stack for autonomous mobile robots
• Low-code design and simulation of robotics capabilities
• State-of-the-art Simulation in Autonomous Robotic Systems
• Foundations of interaction control for contact robots (part I): Interaction control in humans and with robots
• Foundations of interaction control for contact robots (part II): Energy-based methods and interactive learning
• Humanoid Hybrid sprint

You can view the programme overview here.

Be it the news or the dwindling number of creatures hitting your windscreens, it will not have evaded you that the insect world in bad shape.

In the last three decades, the global biomass of flying insects has shrunk by 75%. Among the trend’s most notables victims is the world’s most important pollinator, the honeybee. In the United States, 48% of honeybee colonies died in 2023 alone, making it the second deadliest year on record. This significant loss is due in part to colony collapse disorder (CCD), the sudden disappearance of bees. In contrast, European countries report lower but still worrisome rates of colony losses, ranging from 6% to 32%.

This decline causes many of our essential food crops to be under-pollinated, a phenomenon that threatens our society’s food security.

Debunking the sci-fi myth of robotic bees

So, what can be done? Given pesticides’ role in the decline of bee colonies, commonly proposed solutions include a shift away from industrial farming and toward less pesticide-intensive, more sustainable forms of agriculture.

Others tend to look toward the sci-fi end of things, with some scientists imagining that we could eventually replace live honeybees with robotic ones. Such artificial bees could interact with flowers like natural insects, maintaining pollination levels despite the declining numbers of natural pollinators. The vision of artificial pollinators contributed to ingenious designs of insect-sized robots capable of flying.

In reality, such inventions are more effective at educating us over engineers’ fantasies than they are at reviving bee colonies, so slim are their prospects of materialising. First, these artificial pollinators would have to be equipped for much more more than just flying. Daily tasks carried out by the common bee include searching for plants, identifying flowers, unobtrusively interacting with them, locating energy sources, ducking potential predators, and dealing with adverse weather conditions. Robots would have to perform all of these in the wild with a very high degree of reliability since any broken-down or lost robot can cause damage and spread pollution. Second, it remains to be seen whether our technological knowledge would be even capable of manufacturing such inventions. This is without even mentioning the price tag of a swarm of robots capable of substituting pollination provided by a single honeybee colony.

Inside a smart hive

Rather than trying to replace honeybees with robots, our two latest projects funded by the European Union propose that the robots and honeybees actually team up. Were these to succeed, struggling honeybee colonies could be transformed into bio-hybrid entities consisting of biological and technological components with complementary skills. This would hopefully boost and secure the colonies’ population growth as more bees survive over harsh winters and yield more foragers to pollinate surrounding ecosystems.

The first of these projects, Hiveopolis, investigates how the complex decentralised decision-making mechanism in a honeybee colony can be nudged by digital technology. Begun in 2019 and set to end in March 2024, the experiment introduces technology into three observation hives each containing 4,000 bees, by contrast to 40,000 bees for a normal colony.

Within this honeybee smart home, combs have integrated temperature sensors and heating devices, allowing the bees to enjoy optimal conditions inside the colony. Since bees tend to snuggle up to warmer locations, the combs also enables us to direct them toward different areas of the hive. And as if that control weren’t enough, the hives are also equipped with a system of electronic gates that monitors the insects movements. Both technologies allow us to decide where the bees store honey and pollen, but also when they vacate the combs so as to enable us to harvest honey. Last but not least, the smart hive contains a robotic dancing bee that can direct foraging bees toward areas with plants to be pollinated.

Due to the experiment’s small scale, it is impossible to draw conclusions on the extent to which our technologies may have prevented bee losses. However, there is little doubt what we have seen thus far give reasons to be hopeful. We can confidently assert that our smart beehives allowed colonies to survive extreme cold during the winter in a way that wouldn’t otherwise be possible. To precisely assess how many bees these technologies have saved would require upscaling the experiment to hundreds of colonies.

Pampering the queen bee

Our second EU-funded project, RoboRoyale, focuses on the honeybee queen and her courtyard bees, with robots in this instance continuously monitoring and interacting with her Royal Highness.

Come 2024, we will equip each hive with a group of six bee-sized robots, which will groom and feed the honeybee queen to affect the number of eggs she lays. Some of these robots will be equipped with royal jelly micro-pumps to feed her, while others will feature compliant micro-actuators to groom her. These robots will then be connected to a larger robotic arm with infrared cameras, that will continuously monitor the queen and her vicinity.

As witnessed by the photo to the right and also below, we have already been able to successfully introduce the robotic arm within a living colony. There it continuously monitored the queen and determined her whereabouts through light stimuli.

Emulating the worker bees

In a second phase, it is hoped the bee-sized robots and robotic arm will be able to emulate the behaviour of the workers, the female bees lacking reproductive capacity who attend to the queen and feed her royal jelly. Rich in water, proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, vitamins and minerals, this nutritious substance secreted by the glands of the worker bees enables the queen to lay up to thousands of eggs a day.

Worker bees also engage in cleaning the queen, which involves licking her. During such interactions, they collect some of the queen’s pheromones and disperse them throughout the colony as they move across the hive. The presence of these pheromones controls many of the colony’s behaviours and notifies the colony of a queen’s presence. For example, in the event of the queen’s demise, a new queen must be quickly reared from an egg laid by the late queen, leaving only a narrow time window for the colony to react.

Finally, it is believed worker bees may also act as the queen’s guides, leading her to laying eggs in specific comb cells. The size of these cells can determine if the queen lays a diploid or haploid egg, resulting in the bee developing into either into drone (male) or worker (female) bee. Taking over these guiding duties could affect no less than the rate’s entire reproductive rate.

How robots can prevent bee cannibalism

This could have another virtuous effect: preventing cannibalism.

During tough times, such as long periods of rain, bees have to make do with little pollen intake. This forces them to feed young larvae to older ones so that at least the older larvae has a chance to survive. Through RoboRoyale, we will look not only to reduce chances of this behaviour occurring, but also quantify to what extent it occurs under normal conditions.

Ultimately, our robots will enable us to deepen our understanding of the very complex regulation processes inside honeybee colonies through novel experimental procedures. The insights gained from these new research tracks will be necessary to better protect these valuable social insects and ensure sufficient pollination in the future – a high stakes enterprise for food security.

This article is the result of The Conversation’s collaboration with Horizon, the EU research and innovation magazine.

Farshad Arvin is a member of the Department of Computer Science at Durham University in the UK. The research of Farshad Arvin is primarily funded by the EU H2020 and Horizon Europe programmes.

Martin Stefanec is a member of the Institute of Biology at the University of Graz. He has received funding from the EU programs H2020 and Horizon Europe.

Tomas Krajnik is member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). The research of Tomas Krajnik is primarily funded by EU H2020 Horizon programme and Czech National Science Foundation.

If you look at the UN Sustainable Development Goals, it’s clear that robots have a huge role to play in advancing the SDGs. However the field of Sustainable Robotics is more than just the application area. For every application that robotics can improve in sustainability, you have to also address the question – what are the additional costs or benefits all the way along the supply chain. What are the ‘externalities’, or additional costs/benefits, of using robots to solve the problem. Does the use of robotics bring a decrease or an increase to:

• power costs
• production costs
• labor costs
• supply chain costs
• supply chain mileage
• raw materials consumption
• and raw material choice

Solving our economic and environmental global challenges should not involve adding to the existing problems or creating new ones. So it’s important that we look beyond the first order ways in which robotics can solve global sustainable development goals and address every level at which robotics can have an impact.

Here I propose 5 levels of sustainability to frame the discussion, much as the 5 levels of autonomy have helped define the stages of autonomous mobility.

Level 1: Robots for existing recycling

Level 1 of Sustainable Robotics is simply making existing processes in sustainability more efficient, affordable and deployable. Making recycling better. Companies that are great examples are: AMP Robotics, Recycleye, MachineEx, Pellenc ST, Greyparrot, Everlast Labs and Fanuc. Here’s an explainer video from Fanuc.

“Because of AI, because of the robotic arms, we have seen plants recover 10, 20, 30% more than what they have been doing previously,” said JD Ambati, CEO of EverestLabs. “They have been losing millions of dollars to the landfill, and because of AI, they were able to identify the value of the losses and deploy robotic arms to capture that.”

Some other examples of Level 1 use robots to better monitor aquaculture, or robots to clean or install solar farms and wind turbines. If the robotics technology improves existing recycling practices then it is at Level 1 of Sustainable Robotics.

Level 2: Robots enabling new recycling

Level 2 of Sustainable Robotics is where robotics allows new materials to be recycled and in new industry application areas. A great example of this is Urban Machines, which salvages timber from construction sites and transforms it back into useable materials, something that was too difficult to do at any scale previously.

Construction using onsite materials and robotics 3D printing is another example, as seen in the NASA Habitat Challenge, sponsored by Caterpillar, Bechtel and Brick & Mortar Ventures.

Some other examples are the ocean or lake going garbage collecting robots like Waste Shark from Ran Marine, River Cleaning, or Searial Cleaners, a Quebec company whose robots were deployed in the Great Lakes Plastic Cleanup, helping to remove 74,000 plastic pieces from four lakes since 2020.

Searial Cleaners is angling for its BeBot and PixieDrone to be used as janitorial tools for beaches, marinas and golf courses, and the BeBot offers ample room for company branding. The equipment emerged from the mission of the Great Lakes Plastic Cleanup (GLPC) to harness new technologies against litter. The program also uses other devices including the Seabin, which sits in water and sucks in trash, and the Enviropod LittaTrap filter for stormwater drains.

If it’s a brand new way to practice recycling with robotic technology, then it’s at Level 2 of Sustainable Robotics.

Level 3: Robots electrifying everything

One of the biggest sustainability shifts enabled by robotics is the transition from fossil fuel powered transport, logistics and agricultural machinery into BEV, or Battery Electric Vehicle technology. On top of radically reducing emissions, the increasing use of smaller autonomous electric vehicles across first, last and middle mile can change the total number of trips taken, as well as reducing the need for large vehicles that are partially loaded taking longer trips.

Monarch Tractor’s MK-V is the world’s first electric tractor, and is ‘driver optional’, meaning it can be driven or operate autonomously, providing greater flexibility for farmers. Of course the increased use of computer vision and AI across all agrobots increase sustainability, by enabling precision or regenerative agriculture with less need for chemical solutions. Technically, these improvements to agricultural practice are Level 2 of Sustainable Robotics.

However, the use of smaller sized fully autonomous agricultural robots, such as Meropy, Burro.ai, SwarmFarm, Muddy Machines and Small Robot Company also reduces the size and soil compaction associated with agricultural machinery, and make it possible to tend smaller strip farms by machine. This is Level 3 of Sustainable Robotics.

Level 4: Robots

The higher the sustainability level, the deeper it is into the actual design and construction of the robot system. Switching to electric from fossil fuels is a small step. Switching to locally sourced or produced materials is another. Switching to recyclable materials is another step towards fully sustainable robotics.

OhmniLabs utilize 3D printing in their robot construction, allowing them to export robots to 47 countries, while also manufacturing locally in Silicon Valley.

Meanwhile, Cornell researchers Wendy Ju and Ilan Mandel have introduced the phrase ‘Garbatrage’ to describe the opportunity to prototype or build robots using components recycled from other consumer electronics, like these hoverboards.

“The time is ripe for a practice like garbatrage, both for sustainability reasons and considering the global supply shortages and international trade issues of the last few years,” the researchers said.

This is a great example of Level 4 of Sustainable Robotics.

Level 5: Self-powering/repairing Robots

Self powering or self repairing or self recycling robots are the Level 5 of Sustainable Robotics. In research, there are solutions like MilliMobile: A battery-free autonomous robot capable of operating on harvested solar and RF power. MilliMobile, developed at the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, is the size of a penny and can steer itself, sense its environment, and communicate wirelessly using energy harvested from light and radio waves.

It’s not just research though. In the last two years, a number of solar powered agricultural robots have entered the market. Solinftec has a solar powered spray robot, as has EcoRobotix and AIGEN, which is also powered by wind.

Modular robotics will reduce our material wastage and energy needs by making robotics multipurpose, rather than requiring multiple specialist robots. Meanwhile self powering and self repairing technologies will allow robots to enter many previously unreachable areas, including off planet, while removing our reliance on the grid. As robots incorporate self repairing materials, the product lifecycle is increased. This is Level 5 of Sustainable Robotics.

And in the future?

While we’re waiting for the future, here are a couple of resources for turning your entire company into a sustainable robotics company. Sustainable Manufacturing 101 from ITA, the International Trade Administration and the Sustainable Manufacturing Toolkit from the OECD.

References

1. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/08/everestlabs-using-robotic-arms-and-ai-to-make-recycling-more-efficient.html
2. https://www.greenbiz.com/article/great-lakes-are-awash-plastic-can-robots-and-drones-help
3. https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2020/02/06/using-artificial-intelligence-agricultural-robots-are-on-the-rise
4. https://www.wired.co.uk/article/farming-robots-small-robot-company-tractors
5. https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2023/09/garbatrage-spins-e-waste-prototyping-gold

Researchers at the University of Washington developed small robotic devices that can change how they move through the air by “snapping” into a folded position during their descent. Shown here is a timelapse photo of the “microflier” falling in its unfolded state, which makes it tumble chaotically and spread outward in the wind. Photo by Mark Stone/University of Washington

By Roger Van Scyoc

On a cool afternoon at the heart of the University of Washington’s campus, autumn, for a few fleeting moments, appears to have arrived early. Tiny golden squares resembling leaves flutter then fall, switching from a frenzied tumble to a graceful descent with a snap.

Aptly named “microfliers” and inspired by Miura-fold origami, these small robotic devices can fold closed during their descent after being dropped from a drone. This “snapping” action changes the way they disperse and may, in the future, help change the way scientists study agriculture, meteorology, climate change and more.

“In nature, you see leaves and seeds disperse in just one manner,” said Kyle Johnson, an Allen School Ph.D. student and a first co-author of the paper on the subject published in Science Robotics. “What we were able to achieve was a structure that can actually act in two different ways.”

When open flat, the devices tumble chaotically, mimicking the descent of an elm leaf. When folded closed, they drop in a more stable manner, mirroring how a maple leaf falls from a branch. Through a number of methods — onboard pressure sensor, timer or a Bluetooth signal — the researchers can control when the devices transition from open to closed, and in doing so, manipulate how far they disperse through the air.

How could they achieve this? By reading between the lines.

“The Miura-ori origami fold, inspired by geometric patterns found in leaves, enables the creation of structures that can ‘snap’ between a flat and more folded state,” said co-senior author Vikram Iyer, an Allen School professor and co-director of the Computing for the Environment (CS4Env) initiative. “Because it only takes energy to switch between the states, we began exploring this as an energy efficient way to change surface area in mid-air, with the intuition that opening or closing a parachute will change how fast an object falls.”

That energy efficiency is key to being able to operate without batteries and scale down the fliers’ size and weight. Fitted with a battery-free actuator and a solar power-harvesting circuit, microfliers boast energy-saving features not seen in larger and heavier battery-powered counterparts such as drones. Yet they are robust enough to carry sensors for a number of metrics, including temperature, pressure, humidity and altitude. Beyond measuring atmospheric conditions, the researchers say a network of these devices could help paint a picture of crop growth on farmland or detect gas leaks near population centers.

“This approach opens up a new design space for microfliers by using origami,” said Shyam Gollakota, the Thomas J. Cable Endowed Professor in the Allen School and director of the school’s Mobile Intelligence Lab who was also a co-senior author. “We hope this work is the first step towards a future vision for creating a new class of fliers and flight modalities.”

Weighing less than half a gram, microfliers require less material and cost less than drones. They also offer the ability to go where it’s too dangerous for a human to set foot.

For instance, Johnson said, microfliers could be deployed when tracking forest fires. Currently, firefighting teams sometimes rappel down to where a fire is spreading. Microfliers could assist in mapping where a fire may be heading and where best to drop a payload of water. Furthermore, the team is working on making more components of the device biodegradable in the case that they can’t be recovered after being released.

“There’s a good amount of work toward making these circuits more sustainable,” said Vicente Arroyos, another Allen School Ph.D. student and first co-author on the paper. “We can leverage our work on biodegradable materials to make these more sustainable.”

Besides improving sustainability, the researchers also tackled challenges relating to the structure of the device itself. Early prototypes lacked the carbon fiber roots that provide the rigidity needed to prevent accidental transitions between states.

The research team took inspiration from elm and maple leaves in designing the microfliers. When open flat, the devices tumble chaotically, similar to how an elm leaf falls from a branch. When they are “snapped” into a folded position, as shown here, they descend in a more stable, straight downward manner like a maple leaf. Photo by Mark Stone/University of Washington

Collecting maple and elm leaves from outside their lab, the researchers noticed that while their origami structures exhibited the bistability required to change between states, they flexed too easily and didn’t have the venation seen in the found foliage. To gain more fine-grained control, they took another cue from the environment.

“We looked again to nature to make the faces of the origami flat and rigid, adding a vein-like pattern to the structure using carbon fiber,” Johnson said. “After that modification, we no longer saw a lot of the energy that we input dissipate over the origami’s faces.”

In total, the researchers estimate that the development of their design took about two years. There’s still room to grow, they added, noting that the current microfliers can only transition from open to closed. They said newer designs, by offering the ability to switch back and forth between states, may offer more precision and flexibility in where and how they’re used.

During testing, when dropped from an altitude of 40 meters, for instance, the microfliers could disperse up to distances of 98 meters in a light breeze. Further refinements could increase the area of coverage, allowing them to follow more precise trajectories by accounting for variables such as wind and inclement conditions.

Related to their previous work with dandelion-inspired sensors, the origami microfliers build upon the researchers’ larger goal of creating the internet of bio-inspired things. Whereas the dandelion-inspired devices featured passive flight, reflecting the manner in which dandelion seeds disperse through the wind, the origami microfliers function as complete robotic systems that include actuation to change their shape, active and bi-directional wireless transmission via an onboard radio, and onboard computing and sensing to autonomously trigger shape changes upon reaching a target altitude.

“This design can also accommodate additional sensors and payload due to its size and power harvesting capabilities,” Arroyos said. “It’s exciting to think about the untapped potential for these devices.”

The future, in other words, is quickly taking shape.

“Origami is inspired by nature,” Johnson added, smiling. “These patterns are all around us. We just have to look in the right place.”

The project was an interdisciplinary work by an all-UW team. The paper’s co-authors also included Amélie Ferran, a Ph.D. student in the mechanical engineering department, as well as Raul Villanueva, Dennis Yin and Tilboon Elberier, who contributed as undergraduate students studying electrical and computer engineering, and mechanical engineering professors Alberto Aliseda and Sawyer Fuller.

Johnson and Arroyos, who co-founded and currently lead the educational nonprofit AVELA – A Vision for Engineering Literacy & Access, and their teammates have done outreach efforts in Washington state K-12 schools related to the research, including showing students how to create their own bi-stable leaf-out origami structure using a piece of paper. Check out a related demonstration video here, and learn more about the microflier project here and in a related UW News release and GeekWire story.

• PAPER – Solar-powered shape-changing origami microfliers. Kyle Johnson, Vicente Arroyos, Amélie Ferran, Raul Villanueva, Dennis Yin, Alberto Aliseda, Sawyer Fuller, Vikram Iyer, and Shyamnath Gollakota. Science Robotics 8.82 (2023): eadg4276.

Source: OpenAI’s DALL·E 2 with prompt “a hyperrealistic picture of a robot reading the news on a laptop at a coffee shop”

Welcome to the third edition of Robo-Insight, a biweekly robotics news update! In this post, we are excited to share a range of new advancements in the field and highlight progress in areas like motion, unfamiliar navigation, dynamic control, digging, agriculture, surgery, and food sorting.

A bioinspired robot masters 8 modes of motion for adaptive maneuvering

In a world of constant motion, a newly developed robot named M4 (Multi-Modal Mobility Morphobot) has demonstrated the ability to switch between eight different modes of motion, including rolling, flying, and walking. Designed by researchers from Caltech’s Center for Autonomous Systems and Technologies (CAST) and Northeastern University, the robot can autonomously adapt its movement strategy based on its environment. Created by engineers Mory Gharib and Alireza Ramezani, the M4 project aims to enhance robot locomotion by utilizing a combination of adaptable components and artificial intelligence. The potential applications of this innovation range from medical transport to planetary exploration.

The robot switches from its driving to its walking state. Source.

New navigation approach for robots aiding visually impaired individuals

Speaking of movement, researchers from the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences have presented an innovative navigation algorithm for a mobile robot assistance system based on OpenStreetMap data. The algorithm addresses the challenges faced by visually impaired individuals in navigating unfamiliar routes. By employing a three-stage process involving map verification, augmentation, and generation of a navigable graph, the algorithm optimizes navigation for this user group. The study highlights the potential of OpenStreetMap data to enhance navigation applications for visually impaired individuals, carrying implications for the advancement of robotics solutions that can cater to specific user requirements through data verification and augmentation.

This autonomous vehicle aims to guide visually impaired individuals. Source.

A unique technique enhances robot control in dynamic environments

Along the same lines as new environments, researchers from MIT and Stanford University have developed a novel machine-learning technique that enhances the control of robots, such as drones and autonomous vehicles, in rapidly changing environments. The approach leverages insights from control theory to create effective control strategies for complex dynamics, like wind impacts on flying vehicles. This technique holds potential for a range of applications, from enabling autonomous vehicles to adapt to slippery road conditions to improving the performance of drones in challenging wind conditions. By integrating learned dynamics and control-oriented structures, the researchers’ approach offers a more efficient and effective method for controlling robots, with implications for various types of dynamical systems in robotics.

Robot that could have improved control in different environments. Source.

Burrowing robots with origami feet

Robots have been improving in areas above ground for a while but are now also advancing in underground spaces, researchers from the University of California Berkeley and the University of California Santa Cruz have unveiled a new robotics approach that utilizes origami-inspired foldable feet to navigate granular environments. Drawing inspiration from biological systems and their anisotropic forces, this approach harnesses reciprocating burrowing techniques for precise directional motion. By employing simple linear actuators and leveraging passive anisotropic force responses, this study paves the way for streamlined robotic burrowing, shedding light on the prospect of simplified yet effective underground exploration and navigation. This innovative integration of origami principles into robotics opens the door to enhanced subterranean applications.

The prototype for the foot and its method for fabrication. Source.

Innovative processes in agricultural robotics

In the world of agriculture, a researcher from Carnegie Mellon University recently explored the synergy between scientific phenotyping and agricultural robotics in a Master’s Thesis. Their study delved into the vital role of accurate plant trait measurement in developing improved plant varieties, while also highlighting the promising realm of robotic plant manipulation in agriculture. Envisioning advanced farming practices, the researcher emphasizes tasks like pruning, pollination, and harvesting carried out by robots. By proposing innovative methods such as 3D cloud assessment for seed counting and vine segmentation, the study aims to streamline data collection for agricultural robotics. Additionally, the creation and use of 3D skeletal vine models exhibit the potential for optimizing grape quality and yield, paving the way for more efficient agricultural practices.

A Robotic data capture platform that was introduced. Source.

Soft robotic catheters could help improve minimally invasive surgery

Shifting our focus to surgery, a team of mechanical engineers and medical researchers from the University of Maryland, Johns Hopkins University, and the University of Maryland Medical School has developed a pneumatically actuated soft robotic catheter system to enhance control during minimally invasive surgeries. The system allows surgeons to insert and bend the catheter tip with high accuracy simultaneously, potentially improving outcomes in procedures that require navigating narrow and complex body spaces. The researchers’ approach simplifies the mechanical and control architecture through pneumatic actuation, enabling intuitive control of both bending and insertion without manual channel pressurization. The system has shown promise in accurately reaching cylindrical targets in tests, benefiting both novice and skilled surgeons.

Figure showing manufacturing and operation of soft robotic catheter tip using printing process for actuator and pneumatic pressurization to control catheter bending. Source.

Robotic system enhances poultry handling efficiency

Finally, in the food world, researchers have introduced an innovative robotic system designed to efficiently pick and place deformable poultry pieces from cluttered bins. The architecture integrates multiple modules, enabling precise manipulation of delicate poultry items. A comprehensive evaluation approach is proposed to assess the system’s performance across various modules, shedding light on successes and challenges. This advancement holds the potential to revolutionize meat processing and the broader food industry, addressing demands for increased automation.

An experimental setup. Source.

This array of recent developments spanning various fields shows the versatile and ever-evolving character of robotics technology, unveiling fresh avenues for its integration across different sectors. The steady evolution in robotics exemplifies the ongoing endeavors and the potential ramifications these advancements could have in the times ahead.

Sources:

1. New Bioinspired Robot Flies, Rolls, Walks, and More. (2023, June 27). Center for Autonomous Systems and Technologies. Caltech University.
2. Application of Path Planning for a Mobile Robot Assistance System Based on OpenStreetMap Data. Stahr, P., Maaß, J., & Gärtner, H. (2023). Robotics, 12(4), 113.
3. A simpler method for learning to control a robot. (2023, July 26). MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
4. Efficient reciprocating burrowing with anisotropic origami feet. Kim, S., Treers, L. K., Huh, T. M., & Stuart, H. S. (2023, July 3). Frontiers.
5. Phenotyping and Skeletonization for Agricultural Robotics. The Robotics Institute Carnegie Mellon University. (n.d.). Retrieved August 10, 2023.
6. Pneumatically controlled soft robotic catheters offer accuracy, flexibility. (n.d.). Retrieved August 10, 2023.
7. Advanced Robotic System for Efficient Pick-and-Place of Deformable Poultry in Cluttered Bin: A Comprehensive Evaluation Approach. Raja, R., Burusa, A. K., Kootstra, G., & van Henten, E. (2023, August 7). TechRviv.‌

Getting a leg up from mobile robots comes down to getting a bunch of legs. Georgia Institute of Technology

By Baxi Chong (Postdoctoral Fellow, School of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology)

Adding legs to robots that have minimal awareness of the environment around them can help the robots operate more effectively in difficult terrain, my colleagues and I found.

We were inspired by mathematician and engineer Claude Shannon’s communication theory about how to transmit signals over distance. Instead of spending a huge amount of money to build the perfect wire, Shannon illustrated that it is good enough to use redundancy to reliably convey information over noisy communication channels. We wondered if we could do the same thing for transporting cargo via robots. That is, if we want to transport cargo over “noisy” terrain, say fallen trees and large rocks, in a reasonable amount of time, could we do it by just adding legs to the robot carrying the cargo and do so without sensors and cameras on the robot?

Most mobile robots use inertial sensors to gain an awareness of how they are moving through space. Our key idea is to forget about inertia and replace it with the simple function of repeatedly making steps. In doing so, our theoretical analysis confirms our hypothesis of reliable and predictable robot locomotion – and hence cargo transport – without additional sensing and control.

To verify our hypothesis, we built robots inspired by centipedes. We discovered that the more legs we added, the better the robot could move across uneven surfaces without any additional sensing or control technology. Specifically, we conducted a series of experiments where we built terrain to mimic an inconsistent natural environment. We evaluated the robot locomotion performance by gradually increasing the number of legs in increments of two, beginning with six legs and eventually reaching a total of 16 legs.

Navigating rough terrain can be as simple as taking it a step at a time, at least if you have a lot of legs.

As the number of legs increased, we observed that the robot exhibited enhanced agility in traversing the terrain, even in the absence of sensors. To further assess its capabilities, we conducted outdoor tests on real terrain to evaluate its performance in more realistic conditions, where it performed just as well. There is potential to use many-legged robots for agriculture, space exploration and search and rescue.

Why it matters

Transporting things – food, fuel, building materials, medical supplies – is essential to modern societies, and effective goods exchange is the cornerstone of commercial activity. For centuries, transporting material on land has required building roads and tracks. However, roads and tracks are not available everywhere. Places such as hilly countryside have had limited access to cargo. Robots might be a way to transport payloads in these regions.

What other research is being done in this field

Other researchers have been developing humanoid robots and robot dogs, which have become increasingly agile in recent years. These robots rely on accurate sensors to know where they are and what is in front of them, and then make decisions on how to navigate.

However, their strong dependence on environmental awareness limits them in unpredictable environments. For example, in search-and-rescue tasks, sensors can be damaged and environments can change.

What’s next

My colleagues and I have taken valuable insights from our research and applied them to the field of crop farming. We have founded a company that uses these robots to efficiently weed farmland. As we continue to advance this technology, we are focused on refining the robot’s design and functionality.

While we understand the functional aspects of the centipede robot framework, our ongoing efforts are aimed at determining the optimal number of legs required for motion without relying on external sensing. Our goal is to strike a balance between cost-effectiveness and retaining the benefits of the system. Currently, we have shown that 12 is the minimum number of legs for these robots to be effective, but we are still investigating the ideal number.

The Research Brief is a short take on interesting academic work.

The authors has received funding from NSF-Simons Southeast Center for Mathematics and Biology (Simons Foundation SFARI 594594), Georgia Research Alliance (GRA.VL22.B12), Army Research Office (ARO) MURI program, Army Research Office Grant W911NF-11-1-0514 and a Dunn Family Professorship.

The author and his colleagues have established a start-up company, Ground Control Robotics, Inc., partially based on this work.

If you had asked Adama Sesay as a child what she wanted to be when she grew up, the answer would have been a doctor, an architect, and a firefighter. Now a Senior Engineer specializing in sensors and microsystems, you may think she’s gone in a completely different direction, but by following the passions that led her to those ideas – science, design, and saving lives – she’s found a career she loves. At the Wyss, Adama is a member of the Advanced Technology Team and works on a wide range of projects that span from sensor-integrated Organ Chips to make drugs safer to an enzyme that converts sugar to fiber to make food healthier, while simultaneously leading the Women’s Health Catalyst. Learn more about Adama and her work in this month’s Humans of the Wyss.

What projects are you involved with?

I specialize in biosensing, microfluidics, and microsystems, and my projects span over quite a diverse area. The first project I’ve been managing is a BARDA project, which is a federally funded project looking at integrating sensors to measure biomarkers like cytokines, from a lymph node tissue model, or a lymphoid follicle (LF) Chip. In this project, I’ve mostly concentrated on the instrumentation side, providing the actual hardware (which is a sort of sensor-integrated cartridge) and retrofitting it into a commercial Organ Chip system.

Adama Sesay, Senior Engineer II. Credit: Wyss Institute at Harvard University

Then I have another project where we’re developing an enzyme-encapsulated particle that reduces sugar in food once it’s consumed, converting it to dietary fiber. Basically, this would be a “smart food” ingredient, where the enzyme is only activated once you consume it. That way, the food tastes the same, but the actual amount of sugar your body metabolizes is lower.

I’m working on a third project where we are developing and microfabricating a microfluidic Blood Clotting Chip to study clotting time for patients that have mesothelioma, a cancer caused by exposure to asbestos. We’re collaborating with Massachusetts General Hospital and Boston Children’s Hospital.

What are biosensors, microfluidics, and microsystems?

A biosensor is a device that combines a biological component with a sensor transducer and can measure a biological or chemical reaction by producing signals to indicate the concentration of the analyte, or component of interest, in the monitored sample. Microfluidics refers to a system that has small channels that can move and deliver low volumes of fluid. The concept is that fabrication-wise, a microfluidic channel is anything that has dimensions in the micrometer range. The advantage of microfluidics is that you can deliver very low volumes to different areas and manipulate those flows a classic example is a an Organ Chip. A microsystem device in this context takes it a bit further and is the integration of sensors, microfluidics, and application. The three are a closely integrated package.

What real-world problems do these projects address?

With the BARDA project, we can use the LF Chips to monitor the immune system’s reaction to different types of drugs. We can use patient samples to get time resolved data about the inflammation response. In addition to helping screen drugs for safety, this could help us determine which therapies can be used on immuno-compromised patients or what a vaccine response will be in a certain population.

This illustration demonstrates the structure of the LF Chip that Adama is working on. Credit: Wyss Institute at Harvard University

The sugar fiber project will help address America’s ever-growing problems with obesity and diabetes. Despite these issues, there is a big food industry here that relies on refined sugars, especially high fructose corn syrup. In addition to those other issues, high fructose diets contribute to metabolic syndrome. Plus, the American diet is low in fiber. We started this project looking at how to make food more enjoyable while also being responsible. Our enzyme encapsulation will hopefully address diabetes and metabolic syndrome, while increasing fiber, which will make people’s gut microbiomes healthier.

We hope to use the Blood Clotting Chip to understand the clotting time and the thrombosis factors of mesothelioma. It can also be used as a diagnostic tool. Understanding a patient’s blood clotting factor is essential when they go into surgery, even beyond those suffering from this disease. This became even more apparent to me recently when my father needed to have emergency surgery, but they had to wait until he could be off blood thinners for a period of time. If we could use this as a diagnostic test, surgeons would know when a patient’s clotting factor was such that they were ready for surgery.

What is your specific role on the team?

I’m a Senior Engineer here and part of the Advanced Technology Team, I lead the biosensing, microfluidics, and microsystems effort at the Wyss. I am also responsible for the microfabrication room and efforts, and work closely with Pawan Jolly, who is the lead on sensors. That entails but is not limited to research project management, writing funding proposals, mentorship, and overseeing relationships with internal and external collaborator.

How are you helping to advance women’s health at the Wyss?

One of my biggest interests at the moment is to build up the Women’s Health Catalyst. In a place like the Wyss that’s looking at unmet needs, it’s natural that we have quite a lot of projects already in our pipeline dedicated to women’s health because therapeutics and diagnostics specifically aimed at women’s health issues are one of the biggest unmet clinical needs in the world. All this work is being done within our existing Focus Areas. Many of our researchers are incredibly dedicated to increasing our knowledge and finding real-world solutions.

Adama and the other speakers at the Wyss’ event celebrating Women at the Intersection of Science and Art on International Women’s Day. Credit: Wyss Institute at Harvard University

So, right now we’re aiming to coalesce all these projects to bring together our brilliant scientists, clinicians, and technology teams to advance research and make drugs and devices to help people. We aim to be able to highlight these projects to attract external collaborators to work with our Wyss technology translation engine, and one day become a world-class beacon where people want to come and really make advances in women’s health.

How are you helping to bridge the gap between academia and industry at the Wyss?

I have a diverse group of researchers on my team including biologists, biotechnologists, biomedical engineers, and mechanical engineers who look at challenges very differently, while I look at the industrial need and see how we can translate the science into something to address the gaps. I think what it boils down to is facilitating the communication between scientists and engineers on the research side and translating that acquired knowledge into know-how, services, and products on the business and industrial sides.

“I think what it boils down to is facilitating the communication between scientists and engineers on the research side and translating that acquired knowledge into know-how, services, and products on the business and industrial sides.”

– Adama Sesay

For example, if I’m designing a diagnostic device, I will listen to the scientists about how the fundamental biology works in their system and use my experience in sensor development, microsystems, and developing point-of-care devices to speak to more practically minded engineers about how to build the device, finding a common language between the two. Then, we need to communicate why this device is useful to a business audience in order to successfully commercialize it.

What brought you to the Wyss?

I wanted to be in a place that was busy doing what I had been doing for a while in Europe, which is translational science. The first place on my wish list was the Wyss Institute. I loved the work going on here; the organs-on-chips and the translational nature of the place. It’s quite unique in its structure. So, I got in touch with people working here, especially in Donald Ingber’s lab, and I was lucky that there was a position open when I applied.

Members of Don Ingber’s lab, including Adama, at the Wyss Retreat in 2022. Credit: Wyss Institute at Harvard University

How has your previous work experience shaped your approach to your work today?

Starting with my master’s and Ph.D., much of my work has focused on technology transfer. It’s shaped my approach to work because it has taught me to talk to different people, bring various viewpoints and skills together, really listen to where the problems are, and find solutions. I think sometimes, especially earlier in your career, it’s easy to think that your idea is brilliant, but at the end of the day, it might be a great technology that’s hard to translate into a product. I’ve learned that you need to take your ego out of it, listen, and find the best way forward, even if it isn’t your way. Having a critical mass of new knowledge around you means you’ll always be at the forefront; you just have to be open to trying new things and making the sum of the parts better than the individual pieces.

What is your biggest piece of advice for an academic scientist looking to translate their technology?

“Maintain a level of curiosity and wonder. Be prepared to keep on improving and learning.”

– Adama Sesay

Maintain a level of curiosity and wonder. Be prepared to keep on improving and learning. Don’t be discouraged if you get knocked back, because even if your first approach doesn’t work, it’s because you go through that and you’re willing to get back up again that you will succeed.

What inspired you to get into this field?

If you had asked me what I wanted to be when I was a kid, I would always say a doctor, an architect, or a firefighter. A doctor because I really liked science and I didn’t know there was anything else out there other than that. My parents were in the medical field, so I thought that was it. An architect because I liked art, and I love buildings. I thought architecture was the practical way to apply that. I was unaware there was a profession called an engineer. And a firefighter because I enjoy being active and I thought they were so heroic. I just admired them.

I realized very quickly that none of those things were exactly for me, but I followed the passions that led me to those ideas – science, design, and saving lives – and by doing what I love I found my way to a career in translational research focused on sensors and microsystems. If you really enjoy what you do, it doesn’t feel like a job.

What continues to motivate you?

Making a difference and working with a great team in an amazing work environment. I think that knowing that the people I’m working alongside are truly having an impact, even if they’re not on my project directly, is very inspiring. It makes me feel that I’m a part of something that can cause positive change in my lifetime.

“I think that knowing that the people I’m working alongside are truly having an impact, even if they’re not on my project directly, is very inspiring. It makes me feel that I’m a part of something that can cause positive change in my lifetime.”

– Adama Sesay

When not at the Wyss, how do you like to spend your time?

I like roller skating. I started playing my clarinet again, which I used to do when I was a teenager, and that’s given me a lot of joy. I also like watching films. My favorite recent films have been Everything, Everywhere, All at Once and The Woman King. Everything, Everywhere, All at Once manages to be light while also touching some quite thought-provoking concepts. I love the types of films that you can spend time talking about. The Woman King, while it has faced some criticism for being inaccurate, opens a dialogue about African history on a world stage between individuals whom audiences in the west have never known or even wondered about it. Although some of these discussions might be uncomfortable, at least people are beginning to have them. Again, I like a film that starts a conversation.

What’s something unique about you that someone wouldn’t know from your resume?

My mother suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, and it finally took her this past Christmas. In her memory, my sister and I are working towards building a smart city in her village in Sierra Leone. To do this, we’re raising awareness and funding to build an agricultural school for women and empower them to harvest crops based on new technology that’s sustainable and appropriate for the land, given that it’s a wildlife sanctuary area, and create businesses from farming. Hopefully, by next year we can start working on the curriculum for the school. We’re putting a lot of work into this, but we think it’s a great way to honor our mother’s legacy and enable women to get out of poverty and become future entrepreneurs.

What does it feel like to be working towards translating cutting-edge technology that has the potential to have a real and significant impact on people’s lives and society?

It feels great to be part of such a dynamic environment. I think as an engineer and a technology transfer specialist, it’s the best of all worlds. I’m lucky enough to have worked at some exceptional institutes in some amazing countries, but the Wyss is quite special in that we have a critical mass of world-class, high-impact projects ripe for translation. I’m in my fifth year now and it’s been a great ride so far. I’m looking forward to what comes next.

Shutterstock / Frame Stock Footage

By Thusha Rajendran (Professor of Psychology, The National Robotarium, Heriot-Watt University)

The social separation imposed by the pandemic led us to rely on technology to an extent we might never have imagined – from Teams and Zoom to online banking and vaccine status apps.

Now, society faces an increasing number of decisions about our relationship with technology. For example, do we want our workforce needs fulfilled by automation, migrant workers, or an increased birth rate?

In the coming years, we will also need to balance technological innovation with people’s wellbeing – both in terms of the work they do and the social support they receive.

And there is the question of trust. When humans should trust robots, and vice versa, is a question our Trust Node team is researching as part of the UKRI Trustworthy Autonomous Systems hub. We want to better understand human-robot interactions – based on an individual’s propensity to trust others, the type of robot, and the nature of the task. This, and projects like it, could ultimately help inform robot design.

This is an important time to discuss what roles we want robots and AI to take in our collective future – before decisions are taken that may prove hard to reverse. One way to frame this dialogue is to think about the various roles robots can fulfill.

Robots as our servants

The word “robot” was first used by the Czech writer, Karel Čapek, in his 1920 sci-fi play Rossum’s Universal Robots. It comes from the word “robota”, meaning to do the drudgery or donkey work. This etymology suggests robots exist to do work that humans would rather not. And there should be no obvious controversy, for example, in tasking robots to maintain nuclear power plants or repair offshore wind farms.

The more human a robot looks, the more we trust it. Antonello Marangi/Shutterstock

However, some service tasks assigned to robots are more controversial, because they could be seen as taking jobs from humans.

For example, studies show that people who have lost movement in their upper limbs could benefit from robot-assisted dressing. But this could be seen as automating tasks that nurses currently perform. Equally, it could free up time for nurses and careworkers – currently sectors that are very short-staffed – to focus on other tasks that require more sophisticated human input.

Authority figures

The dystopian 1987 film Robocop imagined the future of law enforcement as autonomous, privatised, and delegated to cyborgs or robots.

Today, some elements of this vision are not so far away: the San Francisco Police Department has considered deploying robots – albeit under direct human control – to kill dangerous suspects.

This US military robot is fitted with a machine gun to turn it into a remote weapons platform. US Army

But having robots as authority figures needs careful consideration, as research has shown that humans can place excessive trust in them.

In one experiment, a “fire robot” was assigned to evacuate people from a building during a simulated blaze. All 26 participants dutifully followed the robot, even though half had previously seen the robot perform poorly in a navigation task.

Robots as our companions

It might be difficult to imagine that a human-robot attachment would have the same quality as that between humans or with a pet. However, increasing levels of loneliness in society might mean that for some people, having a non-human companion is better than nothing.

The Paro Robot is one of the most commercially successful companion robots to date – and is designed to look like a baby harp seal. Yet research suggests that the more human a robot looks, the more we trust it.

The Paro companion robot is designed to look like a baby seal. Angela Ostafichuk / Shutterstock

A study has also shown that different areas of the brain are activated when humans interact with either another human or a robot. This suggests our brains may recognise interactions with a robot differently from human ones.

Creating useful robot companions involves a complex interplay of computer science, engineering and psychology. A robot pet might be ideal for someone who is not physically able to take a dog for its exercise. It might also be able to detect falls and remind someone to take their medication.

How we tackle social isolation, however, raises questions for us as a society. Some might regard efforts to “solve” loneliness with technology as the wrong solution for this pervasive problem.

What can robotics and AI teach us?

Music is a source of interesting observations about the differences between human and robotic talents. Committing errors in the way humans do all the time, but robots might not, appears to be a vital component of creativity.

A study by Adrian Hazzard and colleagues pitted professional pianists against an autonomous disklavier (an automated piano with keys that move as if played by an invisible pianist). The researchers discovered that, eventually, the pianists made mistakes. But they did so in ways that were interesting to humans listening to the performance.

This concept of “aesthetic failure” can also be applied to how we live our lives. It offers a powerful counter-narrative to the idealistic and perfectionist messages we constantly receive through television and social media – on everything from physical appearance to career and relationships.

As a species, we are approaching many crossroads, including how to respond to climate change, gene editing, and the role of robotics and AI. However, these dilemmas are also opportunities. AI and robotics can mirror our less-appealing characteristics, such as gender and racial biases. But they can also free us from drudgery and highlight unique and appealing qualities, such as our creativity.

We are in the driving seat when it comes to our relationship with robots – nothing is set in stone, yet. But to make educated, informed choices, we need to learn to ask the right questions, starting with: what do we actually want robots to do for us?

Thusha Rajendran receives funding from the UKRI and EU. He would like to acknowledge evolutionary anthropologist Anna Machin’s contribution to this article through her book Why We Love, personal communications and draft review.

Emotionally intelligent’ robots could improve their interactions with people. Andriy Onufriyenko/Moment via Getty Images

By Ramana Vinjamuri (Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, University of Maryland, Baltimore County)

Robots are machines that can sense the environment and use that information to perform an action. You can find them nearly everywhere in industrialized societies today. There are household robots that vacuum floors and warehouse robots that pack and ship goods. Lab robots test hundreds of clinical samples a day. Education robots support teachers by acting as one-on-one tutors, assistants and discussion facilitators. And medical robotics composed of prosthetic limbs can enable someone to grasp and pick up objects with their thoughts.

Figuring out how humans and robots can collaborate to effectively carry out tasks together is a rapidly growing area of interest to the scientists and engineers that design robots as well as the people who will use them. For successful collaboration between humans and robots, communication is key.

Robotics can help patients recover physical function in rehabilitation. BSIP/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

How people communicate with robots

Robots were originally designed to undertake repetitive and mundane tasks and operate exclusively in robot-only zones like factories. Robots have since advanced to work collaboratively with people with new ways to communicate with each other.

Cooperative control is one way to transmit information and messages between a robot and a person. It involves combining human abilities and decision making with robot speed, accuracy and strength to accomplish a task.

For example, robots in the agriculture industry can help farmers monitor and harvest crops. A human can control a semi-autonomous vineyard sprayer through a user interface, as opposed to manually spraying their crops or broadly spraying the entire field and risking pesticide overuse.

Robots can also support patients in physical therapy. Patients who had a stroke or spinal cord injury can use robots to practice hand grasping and assisted walking during rehabilitation.

Another form of communication, emotional intelligence perception, involves developing robots that adapt their behaviors based on social interactions with humans. In this approach, the robot detects a person’s emotions when collaborating on a task, assesses their satisfaction, then modifies and improves its execution based on this feedback.

For example, if the robot detects that a physical therapy patient is dissatisfied with a specific rehabilitation activity, it could direct the patient to an alternate activity. Facial expression and body gesture recognition ability are important design considerations for this approach. Recent advances in machine learning can help robots decipher emotional body language and better interact with and perceive humans.

Robots in rehab

Questions like how to make robotic limbs feel more natural and capable of more complex functions like typing and playing musical instruments have yet to be answered.

I am an electrical engineer who studies how the brain controls and communicates with other parts of the body, and my lab investigates in particular how the brain and hand coordinate signals between each other. Our goal is to design technologies like prosthetic and wearable robotic exoskeleton devices that could help improve function for individuals with stroke, spinal cord and traumatic brain injuries.

One approach is through brain-computer interfaces, which use brain signals to communicate between robots and humans. By accessing an individual’s brain signals and providing targeted feedback, this technology can potentially improve recovery time in stroke rehabilitation. Brain-computer interfaces may also help restore some communication abilities and physical manipulation of the environment for patients with motor neuron disorders.

Brain-computer interfaces could allow people to control robotic arms by thought alone. Ramana Kumar Vinjamuri, CC BY-ND

The future of human-robot interaction

Effective integration of robots into human life requires balancing responsibility between people and robots, and designating clear roles for both in different environments.

As robots are increasingly working hand in hand with people, the ethical questions and challenges they pose cannot be ignored. Concerns surrounding privacy, bias and discrimination, security risks and robot morality need to be seriously investigated in order to create a more comfortable, safer and trustworthy world with robots for everyone. Scientists and engineers studying the “dark side” of human-robot interaction are developing guidelines to identify and prevent negative outcomes.

Human-robot interaction has the potential to affect every aspect of daily life. It is the collective responsibility of both the designers and the users to create a human-robot ecosystem that is safe and satisfactory for all.

Ramana Vinjamuri receives funding from National Science Foundation.

Working with so many robotics startups, I see this stage as the transition into revenue generation in more than pilot use cases. This is the point where a startup no longer needs to nurture each customer deployment but can produce reference use cases and start to reliably scale. I think this is a useful model but that Gartner’s classifications don’t do robotics justice.

For example, this recent Gartner chart puts Smart Robots at the top of the hype cycle. Robotics is a very fast moving field at the moment. The majority of new robotics companies are less than 5-10 years old. From the perspective of the end user, it can be very difficult to know when a company is moving out of the hype cycle and into commercial maturity because there aren’t many deployments or much marketing at first, particularly compared to the media coverage of companies at the peak of the hype cycle.

So, here’s where I think robotics technologies really fit on the Gartner Hype Cycle:

Innovation trigger

• Voice interfaces for practical applications of robots
• Foundational models applied to robotics

Peak of inflated expectations

• Large Language models – although likely to progress very quickly
• Humanoids

Trough of disillusionment

• Quadrupeds
• Cobots
• Full self-driving cars and trucks
• Powered clothing/Exoskeletons

Slope of enlightenment

• Teleoperation
• Cloud fleet management
• Drones for critical delivery to remote locations
• Drones for civilian surveillance
• Waste recycling
• Warehouse robotics (pick and place)
• Hospital logistics
• Education robots
• Food preparation
• Rehabilitation
• AMRs in other industries

Plateau of productivity

• Robot vacuum cleaners (domestic and commercial)
• Surgical Robots
• Warehouse robotics (AMRs in particular)
• Factory automation (robot arms)
• 3d printing
• ROS
• Simulation

AI, in the form of Large Language Models ie. ChatGPT, GPT3 and Bard is at peak hype, as are humanoid robots, and perhaps the peak of that hype is the idea of RoboGPT, or using LLMs to interpret human commands to robots. Just in the last year, four or five new humanoid robot companies have come out of stealth from Figure, Teslabot, Aeolus, Giant AI, Agility, Halodi, and so far only Halodi has a commercial deployment doing internal security augmentation for ADT.

Cobots are still in the Trough of Disillusionment, in spite of Universal Robot selling 50,000+ arms. People buy robot arms from companies like Universal primarily for affordability, ease of setup, not requiring safety guarding hardware and capable of industrial precision. The full promise of collaborative robots has had trouble landing with end users. We don’t really deploy collaborative robots engaged in frequent hand-offs to humans. Perhaps we need more dual armed cobots with better human-robot interaction before we really explore the possibilities.

Interestingly the Trough of Disillusionment generates a lot of media coverage but it’s usually negative. Self-driving cars and trucks are definitely at the bottom of the trough. Whereas powered clothing or exoskeletons, or quadrupeds are a little harder to place.

AMRs, or Autonomous Mobile Robots, are a form of self-driving cargo that is much more successful than self-driving cars or trucks traveling on public roads. AMRs are primarily deployed in warehouses, hospitals, factories, farms, retail facilities, airports and even on the sidewalk. Behind every successful robot deployment there is probably a cloud fleet management provider or a teleoperation provider, or monitoring service.

Finally, the Plateau of Productivity is where the world’s most popular robots are. Peak popularity is the Roomba and other home robot vacuum cleaners. Before their acquisition by Amazon, iRobot had sold more than 40 million Roombas and captured 20% of the domestic vacuum cleaner market. Now commercial cleaning fleets are switching to autonomy as well.

And of course Productivity (not Hype) is also where the workhorse industrial robot arms live with ever increasing deployments worldwide. The International Federation of Robotics, IFR, reports that more than half a million new industrial robot arms were deployed in 2021, up 31% from 2020. This figure has been rising pretty steadily since I first started tracking robotics back in 2010.

What does your robotics hype cycle look like? What technology would you like me to add to this chart? Contact andra@svrobo.org

Robot developments and the study of social processes can happen side-by-side in RoboHouse. Because we feel that technology should learn to look beyond its own horizons, if we aim to make the workplace more attractive. Why are people leaving the jobs they used to love? What’s going on in crucial sectors like healthcare, agriculture and manufacturing?

To explore these questions, we go into the field with scientists and innovators. Under the banner of FRAIM, our new transdisciplinary research centre dedicated to the future of work. What do robot specialists notice when they travel to places where people and robots work together?

Our latest instalment of FRAIM in the Field follows Maria Luce Lupetti as she meets with Henk Verdegaal on a grey November day. Last August Verdegaal, flower bulb farmer in the Netherlands, finally saw what an agricultural robot could do on his lands. The Agbot by developer AgXeed was humming along, managed by a “smart and ready to use autonomy system with a full suite of vehicle peripherals.”

Henk Verdegaal experiments with smart technology to reduce his use of pesticides. He expects that systems like Agbot can also reduce his reliance on labour and liberate him from field work, so that he can focus on more important processes. Drones however, have so far failed to impress Verdegaal. Connectivity issues caused the drone to lose its way and communicate poorly with the camera.

Assistant professor Maria Luce Lupetti, specialised in critical design for AI systems at TU Delft, arrives at a sobering insight during FRAIM in the Field: “In a place like a farm there are clear problems like not finding people to drive the truck. So it automatically makes you think: ‘OK, you make it autonomous. You have a clear need for that, the technology is there.’ But there are reasons why people have a hard time finding workers. These problems are systemic. There are financial issues, there are sustainability issues. There is a pressing housing crisis that makes the price of the land rise. A lot of different forces are coming together to influence the work of people on a farm.”

Watch the rest of the series here, or on our youtube channel.

Artificial intelligence is set to revolutionise agriculture by helping farmers meet field-hand needs and identify diseased plants. © baranozdemir, iStock

In the Dutch province of Zeeland, a robot moves swiftly through a field of crops including sunflowers, shallots and onions. The machine weeds autonomously – and tirelessly – day in, day out.

“Farmdroid” has made life a lot easier for Mark Buijze, who runs a biological farm with 50 cows and 15 hectares of land. Buijze is one of the very few owners of robots in European agriculture.

Robots to the rescue

His electronic field worker uses GPS and is multifunctional, switching between weeding and seeding. With the push of a button, all Buijze has to do is enter coordinates and Farmdroid takes it from there.

‘With the robot, the weeding can be finished within one to two days – a task that would normally take weeks and roughly four to five workers if done by hand,’ he said. ‘By using GPS, the machine can identify the exact location of where it has to go in the field.’

About 12 000 years ago, the end of foraging and start of agriculture heralded big improvements in people’s quality of life. Few sectors have a history as rich as that of farming, which has evolved over the centuries in step with technological advancements.

In the current era, however, agriculture has been slower than other industries to follow one tech trend: artificial intelligence (AI). While already commonly used in forms ranging from automated chatbots and face recognition to car braking and warehouse controls, AI for agriculture is still in the early stages of development.

Now, advances in research are spurring farmers to embrace robots by showing how they can do everything from meeting field-hand needs to detecting crop diseases early.

Lean and green

For French agronomist Bertrand Pinel, farming in Europe will require far greater use of robots to be productive, competitive and green – three top EU goals for a sector whose output is worth around €190 billion a year.

“Labour is one of the biggest obstacles in agriculture.”

– Fritz van Evert, ROBS4CROPS

One reason for using robots is the need to forgo the use of herbicides by eliminating weeds the old-fashioned way: mechanical weeding, a task that is not just mundane but also arduous and time consuming. Another is the frequent shortage of workers to prune grapevines.

‘In both cases, robots would help,’ said Pinel, who is research and development project manager at France-based Terrena Innovation. ‘That is our idea of the future for European agriculture.’

Pinel is part of the EU-funded ROBS4CROPS project. With some 50 experts and 16 institutional partners involved, it is pioneering a robot technology on participating farms in the Netherlands, Greece, Spain and France.

‘This initiative is quite innovative,’ said Frits van Evert, coordinator of the project. ‘It has not been done before.’

In the weeds

AI in agriculture looks promising for tasks that need to be repeated throughout the year such as weeding, according to van Evert, a senior researcher in precision agriculture at Wageningen University in the Netherlands.

‘If you grow a crop like potatoes, typically you plant the crop once per year in the spring and you harvest in the fall, but the weeding has to be done somewhere between six and 10 times per year,’ he said.

Plus, there is the question of speed. Often machines work faster than any human being can.

“With this robot everything is done in the field.”

– Francisco Javier Nieto De Santos, FLEXIGROBOTS

Francisco Javier Nieto De Santos, coordinator of the EU-funded FLEXIGROBOTS project, is particularly impressed by a model robot that takes soil samples. When done by hand, this practice requires special care to avoid contamination, delivery to a laboratory and days of analysis.

‘With this robot everything is done in the field,’ De Santos said. ‘It can take several samples per hour, providing results within a matter of minutes.’

Eventually, he said, the benefits of such technologies will extend beyond the farm industry to reach the general public by increasing the overall supply of food.

Unloved labour

Meanwhile, agricultural robots may be in demand not because they can work faster than any person but simply because no people are available for the job.

Even before inflation rates and fertiliser prices began to surge in 2021 amid an energy squeeze made worse by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine this year, farmers across Europe were struggling on another front: finding enough field hands including seasonal workers.

‘Labour is one of the biggest obstacles in agriculture,’ said van Evert. ‘It’s costly and hard to get these days because fewer and fewer people are willing to work in agriculture. We think that robots, such as self-driving tractors, can take away this obstacle.’

The idea behind ROBS4CROPS is to create a robotic system where existing agricultural machinery is upgraded so it can work in tandem with farm robots.

For the system to work, raw data such as images or videos must first be labelled by researchers in ways than can later be read by the AI.

Driverless tractors

The system then uses these large amounts of information to make “smart” decisions as well as predictions – think about the autocorrect feature on laptop computers and mobile phones, for example.

A farming controller comparable to the “brain” of the whole operation decides what needs to happen next or how much work remains to be done and where – based on information from maps or instructions provided by the farmer.

The machinery – self-driving tractors and smart implements like weeders equipped with sensors and cameras – gathers and stores more information as it works, becoming “smarter”.

Crop protection

FLEXIGROBOTS, based in Spain, aims to help farmers use existing robots for multiple tasks including disease detection.

Take drones, for example. Because they can spot a diseased plant from the air, drones can help farmers detect sick crops early and prevent a wider infestation.

‘If you can’t detect diseases in an early stage, you may lose the produce of an entire field, the production of an entire year,’ said De Santos. ‘The only option is to remove the infected plant.’

For example, there is no treatment for the fungus known as mildew, so identifying and removing diseased plants early on is crucial.

Pooling information is key to making the whole system smarter, De Santos said. Sharing data gathered by drones with robots or feeding the information into models expands the “intelligence” of the machines.

Although agronomist Pinel doesn’t believe that agriculture will ever be solely reliant on robotics, he’s certain about their revolutionary impact.

‘In the future, we hope that the farmers can just put a couple of small robots in the field and let them work all day,’ he said.

Research in this article was funded by the EU. If you liked this article, please consider sharing it on social media.

Watch the video

This article was originally published in Horizon, the EU Research and Innovation magazine.

A battery-free, wireless underwater camera developed at MIT could have many uses, including climate modeling. “We are missing data from over 95 percent of the ocean. This technology could help us build more accurate climate models and better understand how climate change impacts the underwater world,” says Associate Professor Fadel Adib. Image: Adam Glanzman

By Adam Zewe | MIT News Office

Scientists estimate that more than 95 percent of Earth’s oceans have never been observed, which means we have seen less of our planet’s ocean than we have the far side of the moon or the surface of Mars.

The high cost of powering an underwater camera for a long time, by tethering it to a research vessel or sending a ship to recharge its batteries, is a steep challenge preventing widespread undersea exploration.

MIT researchers have taken a major step to overcome this problem by developing a battery-free, wireless underwater camera that is about 100,000 times more energy-efficient than other undersea cameras. The device takes color photos, even in dark underwater environments, and transmits image data wirelessly through the water.

The autonomous camera is powered by sound. It converts mechanical energy from sound waves traveling through water into electrical energy that powers its imaging and communications equipment. After capturing and encoding image data, the camera also uses sound waves to transmit data to a receiver that reconstructs the image. 

Because it doesn’t need a power source, the camera could run for weeks on end before retrieval, enabling scientists to search remote parts of the ocean for new species. It could also be used to capture images of ocean pollution or monitor the health and growth of fish raised in aquaculture farms.

“One of the most exciting applications of this camera for me personally is in the context of climate monitoring. We are building climate models, but we are missing data from over 95 percent of the ocean. This technology could help us build more accurate climate models and better understand how climate change impacts the underwater world,” says Fadel Adib, associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and director of the Signal Kinetics group in the MIT Media Lab, and senior author of a new paper on the system.

Joining Adib on the paper are co-lead authors and Signal Kinetics group research assistants Sayed Saad Afzal, Waleed Akbar, and Osvy Rodriguez, as well as research scientist Unsoo Ha, and former group researchers Mario Doumet and Reza Ghaffarivardavagh. The paper is published in Nature Communications.

Going battery-free

To build a camera that could operate autonomously for long periods, the researchers needed a device that could harvest energy underwater on its own while consuming very little power.

The camera acquires energy using transducers made from piezoelectric materials that are placed around its exterior. Piezoelectric materials produce an electric signal when a mechanical force is applied to them. When a sound wave traveling through the water hits the transducers, they vibrate and convert that mechanical energy into electrical energy.

Those sound waves could come from any source, like a passing ship or marine life. The camera stores harvested energy until it has built up enough to power the electronics that take photos and communicate data.

To keep power consumption as a low as possible, the researchers used off-the-shelf, ultra-low-power imaging sensors. But these sensors only capture grayscale images. And since most underwater environments lack a light source, they needed to develop a low-power flash, too.

“We were trying to minimize the hardware as much as possible, and that creates new constraints on how to build the system, send information, and perform image reconstruction. It took a fair amount of creativity to figure out how to do this,” Adib says.

They solved both problems simultaneously using red, green, and blue LEDs. When the camera captures an image, it shines a red LED and then uses image sensors to take the photo. It repeats the same process with green and blue LEDs.

Even though the image looks black and white, the red, green, and blue colored light is reflected in the white part of each photo, Akbar explains. When the image data are combined in post-processing, the color image can be reconstructed.

“When we were kids in art class, we were taught that we could make all colors using three basic colors. The same rules follow for color images we see on our computers. We just need red, green, and blue — these three channels — to construct color images,” he says.

Fadel Adib (left) associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and director of the Signal Kinetics group in the MIT Media Lab, and Research Assistant Waleed Akbar display the battery-free wireless underwater camera that their group developed. Image: Adam Glanzman

Sending data with sound

Once image data are captured, they are encoded as bits (1s and 0s) and sent to a receiver one bit at a time using a process called underwater backscatter. The receiver transmits sound waves through the water to the camera, which acts as a mirror to reflect those waves. The camera either reflects a wave back to the receiver or changes its mirror to an absorber so that it does not reflect back.

A hydrophone next to the transmitter senses if a signal is reflected back from the camera. If it receives a signal, that is a bit-1, and if there is no signal, that is a bit-0. The system uses this binary information to reconstruct and post-process the image.

“This whole process, since it just requires a single switch to convert the device from a nonreflective state to a reflective state, consumes five orders of magnitude less power than typical underwater communications systems,” Afzal says.

The researchers tested the camera in several underwater environments. In one, they captured color images of plastic bottles floating in a New Hampshire pond. They were also able to take such high-quality photos of an African starfish that tiny tubercles along its arms were clearly visible. The device was also effective at repeatedly imaging the underwater plant Aponogeton ulvaceus in a dark environment over the course of a week to monitor its growth.

Now that they have demonstrated a working prototype, the researchers plan to enhance the device so it is practical for deployment in real-world settings. They want to increase the camera’s memory so it could capture photos in real-time, stream images, or even shoot underwater video.

They also want to extend the camera’s range. They successfully transmitted data 40 meters from the receiver, but pushing that range wider would enable the camera to be used in more underwater settings.

“This will open up great opportunities for research both in low-power IoT devices as well as underwater monitoring and research,” says Haitham Al-Hassanieh, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, who was not involved with this research.

This research is supported, in part, by the Office of Naval Research, the Sloan Research Fellowship, the National Science Foundation, the MIT Media Lab, and the Doherty Chair in Ocean Utilization.

• PAPER – Battery-free wireless imaging of underwater environments. Afzal, S.S., Akbar, W., Rodriguez, O. et al. Nat Commun 13, 5546 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038

Robotics solutions and technologies are rapidly changing society and transforming the way we live and work – with both positive improvements and unforeseen consequences.

In Robotics4EU we wish to ensure that citizens have a say when it comes to these new technologies and how they affect everyday life. Therefore, we have gathered robots which are being developed right now or have just entered the market. We have set these up in a survey style consultation.

TAKE THE CITIZENS’ AUDIT HERE

By answering the survey, you get the opportunity to have an influence on these robotics solutions, as your answers will be given directly to the companies behind the robots, who will use your feedback in the further development of the robots.

The solutions to give feedback to are various: from a robot that gives throat swabs, to a humanoid that assists medical personnel and even a solution that aims to protect farmers’ crops.

An internationally leading robotics initiative that enables academia and industry to find innovative solutions to real world challenges, celebrated its success with a Hot Robotics Symposium hosted across three UK regions last week.

The National Nuclear User Facility (NNUF) for Hot Robotics is a government funded initiative that supports innovation in the nuclear sector by making world-leading testing facilities, sensors and robotic equipment easily accessible to academia and industry.

Ground-breaking, impactful research in robotics and artificial intelligence will benefit the UK’s development of fusion energy as safe, low carbon and sustainable energy source in addition to adjacent sectors such as nuclear decommissioning, space, and mobile applications.

Visitors to UKAEA’s RACE (UK Atomic Energy Authority / Remote Applications in Challenging Environments) in Oxfordshire, the University of Bristol facility in Fenswood Farm (North Somerset), and the National Nuclear Laboratory in Cumbria, were treated to a host of robots in action, tours and a packed speaker programme.

A combination of robotic manipulators, ground, aerial and underwater vehicles along with deployment robots, plant mock-ups, and supporting infrastructure, were all showcased to demonstrate the breadth of the scheme.

Nick Sykes, Head of Operations at UKAEA’s RACE, said: “The Hot Robotics Symposium has provided a fantastic opportunity for academia and industry to learn more about research that takes place at each facility and to see some of the amazing equipment available. The valuable role that robots play in going where humans can’t, has already been proven at powerplants throughout the world and will be key in making fusion energy an environmentally responsible part of the world’s energy supply.”

These facilities support academia and industry in developing and maintaining UK skills to support work in extreme and challenging environments.

Darren Potter, Capability Leader for Plant Intervention at the National Nuclear Laboratory, said: “This was a great opportunity to showcase NNL’s facility at our Workington Laboratory, which holds industrial scale robotics, and accurate replicas of facilities on active plant. As the UK’s national laboratory for nuclear fission, this facility gives access to our unique set of capabilities, enabling ground-breaking nuclear research and development, with an offsite de-risked opportunity for academia and the supply chain to demonstrate new technology, giving users everything they need to explore brand new technologies and solutions.”

An additional benefit of Hot Robotics is to help support the development of scientists and engineers.

Chris Grovenor, Chair of the NNUF Management Group, said: “It was a pleasure to see the progress being made with the NNUF Hot Robotics programme, and I encourage the nuclear academic community to make full use of the funding available to access these world-class facilities.”

To find out more about the NNUF Hot Robotics facilities and equipment, visit: www.hotrobotics.co.uk

Sustainable Development Goals relevant for robotics

“The use of robots responds to the UN´s call for action,” says Milton Guerry, President of the International Federation of Robotics (IFR). “The IFR supports the United Nations´ sustainable development goals. There are fantastic new ways in which robots save resources and produce green technologies of the future.”

“The transformation on the way to a sustainable use of resources is proving robotics and automation to be key technologies,” says Dr Susanne Bieller, General Secretary of the International Federation of Robotics. “Intelligent automation reduces production costs: This helps battery technology achieve a breakthrough in e-mobility for example or fuel cells production for hydrogen-power as an alternative to fossil energy. At the same time, highly efficient production technology reduces CO2-emissions.”

Clean energy, industrial innovation and sustainable agriculture are just three examples which show how the use of robots contribute to achieve these UN sustainable development goals:

Energies of the future – electricity and solar heat – Clean Energy (UN´s SDG 7)

Pivoting away from fossil fuel makes solar heat and electricity energies of the future: Solar panels are predicted to provide roughly a third of the world’s total electricity demand by 2050 – says the International Energy Agency. Heat usage makes up for half of the world’s energy usage. Keeping pace with this booming customer demand for solar panels and reflectors mean being able to produce units in greater quantities.

Solar collectors made by Absolicon © Absolicon

Industrial robots are now used as part of an automated factory production line in Sweden. Solar energy company Absolicon has developed what it sees as a gamechanger for the widespread adoption of solar heat as an energy source: A parabolic reflector focuses the solar irradiation on a receiver and turns it into steam with a temperature of up to 160 degrees for the use in industrial production. Almost all industries require heat for production processes. The solar collector´s emission-saving potential: every square meter of a solar thermal collector can produce the equivalent energy of 100 liters of oil.

ABB robot in the production line of Absolicon © ABB Robotics

The automation at Absolicon´s factory in Härnösand using two ABB robots has increased production drastically. Where the company previously produced three solar collectors per day with manual production methods, the newly installed robotic production line now has the capacity to produce a finished collector every six minutes.

“Prepare-to-repair” – Industrial Innovation (UN´s SDG 9)

Prepare-to-repair is a successful strategy for robot manufacturers and their customers to save costs and resources. This takes into account that a robot has an average service life of up to thirty years. Using less parts translating into lower risk of future failure is the first step of this approach. To offer long-term repair to customers, storage of parts is a challenge. In order to keep the large number of spare parts in stock, Japanese robot manufacturer Fanuc e.g. runs a central warehouse for Europe. It is located in Luxembourg and has the size of a football pitch with 600,000 spare parts on stock.

Since every hour of machine downtime costs the customer money, it is oftentimes more resource-efficient to transport the spare parts to the customer and repair the machine on site – rather than to manufacture and ship new machines. Manufacturers like ABB, Fanuc, KUKA or Yaskawa all run dedicated repair centers where thousands of industrial robots are refurbished and upgraded for a second life.

“Robots eliminate chemical agents” – Smart Agriculture (UN´s SDG 2)

In agriculture, new field robots eliminate the use of chemical agents. These agricultural robots travel slowly up and down the rows of crops. Equipped with cameras and artificial intelligence software, they are able to locate weeds and burn them selectively with a laser shot. The new technology does not only completely eliminate the use of herbicides. Organic farmers now have an alternative to a related process called “flaming” using propane torches to kill weeds. Flaming could only operate before crops were planted – otherwise it would also have killed the crops.

The Fraunhofer EZRT research centre and partners equipped a farming robot with navigation technology for mechanical weed control in sugar beets. The BlueBob 2.0 also does the job autonomously, so that farmers can devote their time to tasks with higher added value than manual or chemical weeding. Since manual weeding is a very tedious task for humans, the new technology also helps to improve conditions of farm work. Taking over dirty, dull and dangerous tasks is something robots excel at.

Photo credit: Wise Owl Multimedia

The IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), taking place simultaneously at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia and virtually, has just kicked off. ICRA 2022 brings together the world’s top researchers and most important companies to share ideas and advances in the fields of robotics and automation.

This is the first time the ICRA community is reunited after the pandemic, resulting in record breaking attendance with over 7,000 registrations and 95 countries represented. As the ICRA 2022 Co-Chair Vijay Kumar (University of Pennsylvania, USA) states, “we could not be happier to host the largest robotics conference in the world in Philadelphia, and the beginning of the re-emergence from the pandemic after a three year hiatus. We are back!”

Many important developments in robotics and automation have historically been first presented at ICRA, and in its 39th year, ICRA 2022 promises to take this trend one step further. As the practical and socio-economic impact of our field continues to expand, robotics and automation are increasingly taking the center stage in our lives and will play an important role in the Future of Work and Society, the theme of this year’s conference. Indeed, the Future of Work Forum Session being held on Thursday May 26th will specifically address the impact of automation on the future of employment, featuring panelists Jeff Burnstein (A3), Erik Brynjolfssonn (Stanford), Moshe Vardi (Rice University), Michael Lotito (Littler), Bernd Liepert (EuRobotics), Cecilia Laschi (NUS), and Ioana Marinescu (University of Pennsylvania). Five more Forums will be happening from Tuesday to Thursday, including an Industry Forum on Tuesday May 24th, or a Startup Forum on Wednesday May 25th.

The conference will also feature Plenaries and Keynotes by world-renowned roboticists on topics such as Robot Ethics, Legged Robots for Industrial and Search & Rescue Applications, Robot Farming, Autonomous Logistics or Smart Sensing, as well as 1500 Technical Talks on the state-of-the-art in robotics. A total of 39 researchers have been nominated to the 13 awards that ICRA 2022 is giving on Thursday, for their outstanding research contributions in categories such as Automation, Coordination, Interaction, Learning, Locomotion, Manipulation, Navigation or Planning, among others. As the ICRA 2022 Program Chair Hadas Kress-Gazit (Cornell University, USA) comments, “we are so excited to see the latest and greatest in robotics research and meet old and new friends!”.

Furthermore, a robot exhibition hall has been prepared with nearly 100 confirmed Exhibitors offering robot displays and demos from companies like Dyson, Motional, Built Robotics, NVIDIA, Technology Innovation Institute, Boston Dynamics, Pal-Robotics, KUKA Robotics, Toyota Research Institute, Tesla or Waymo, among others.

Competitions are also a big part of ICRA 2022. A total of 10 exciting Competitions will be taking place from Monday May 23rd to Friday May 27th, on the following topics: Autonomous Ground & Aerial Robots Navigation, Localization and Mapping, Robot Manipulation, Autonomous Racing, Roboethics, and LEGO League for 12th grade students.

To complete the program of the largest worldwide robotics conference, there will also be several Industry Tech Huddles led by industry experts, Technical Tours to the Singh Center for Nanotechnology, Penn Medicine and the General Robotics, Automation, Sensing and Perception (GRASP) Laboratory, and several Networking Events.

ICRA 2022 is also proud to partner with the RAD Lab and several Philadelphia-based art galleries to offer a central space for art in its program. Building on the previous ICRA robotic art programs, this year’s installment explores aesthetic and creative influences on robot motion through interactive, expressive, and meditative robotic art installations. The exhibition and the associated workshop will provide new perspectives on imagining new technology futures.

“This is a very special conference for the majority of ICRA attendees,” ICRA 2022 General Co-Chair George J. Pappas (University of Pennsylvania, USA) comments. “The reason? 64% of all registrants and 56% of all in-person registrants are attending ICRA for the very first time! Given this influx of fantastic talent to our field, the future of ICRA is as bright as it has ever been.”

Not everyone can attend ICRA in person. That’s why the ICRA Organizing Committee, the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society and OhmniLabs have teamed up to offer access to the OhmiLab’s telepresence robots that will be on site. Three OhmniBots will be in the main exhibition hall (with all the other robots) from opening to closing on Tuesday May 24th, Wednesday May 25th and Thursday May 26th, with time slots aligning with Poster Sessions, networking breaks and Expo Hall hours.

No matter where you are, we hope you enjoy the conference either in person or virtually!

We would like to thank ICRA 2022 Partners, which have also supported us in record numbers this year.

Suma Reddy, CEO of Future Acres, talks about her company which is focused on creating smart farming tools to reduce labor demand and increase efficiency. Suma introduces her journey into agriculture technology and the issues in current farming practices that can benefit from robotic solutions. Future Acres’s robotic harvest companion, Carry, autonomously transports crops within the farms and collects valuable data. Suma also discusses the impact of their technology and their visions for the future of agricultural technology.

 Suma Reddy is Co-founder and CEO of Future Acres, an AgTech startup building advanced mobility and AI solutions for farms to increase production efficiency, farmworker safety and provide real-time data and analytics. She is a three-times AgTech + ClimateTech founder (vertical farming, organic waste-to-energy, renewable energy), is on the advisory board of Scale for ClimateTech, a Board Member of GrainPro, and teaches Entrepreneurship for Sustainability and Resilience at the NYC School of Visual Arts. Suma is passionate about sustainable solutions and the disruptive technology that will help advance a better environment and more resilient world forward.

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Photo by RICAIP.eu

By Tereza Šamanová

In the Czech Republic, the initial network of Digital Innovation Hubs (DIHs) in 2016 was very small – it included only two pioneer hubs raised from Horizon 2020 European projects focused on support of digital manufacturing (DIGIMAT located in Kuřim was the first one) and high-performance computing (the National Supercomputing Centre IT4Innovations located in Ostrava was the first DIH registered in CZ). Since then, the Czech network has enlarged up to twelve DIHs and their specialisation varies from manufacturing, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, robotics, high-performance computing up to sectoral focus such as agriculture and food industry, health or smart cities and smart regions development.

Nowadays you can find at least one DIH in each region of the Czech Republic:

Source: https://s3platform.jrc.ec.europa.eu

How are the Czech DIHs built and structured? They are based often on a leading competence centre, research organisation, technical university, science park, technology centre or the most active innovations-supporting NGOs who have created an efficient consortium of other partners around them, always following the selected field of specialisation. The DIHs in Czechia, as well as all over the Europe, have not been built “on a green meadow” – as we say in Czech, but based on a record of projects, activities and common references that have created the optimal mixture of the DIH`s expertise and capacities. The scheme developed by TNO in 2015 illustrates the typical position of a DIH as an “orchestrator” and cross-point of the regional activities focused on development and implementation of digital innovation:

Photo by DIH-HERO.EU

In 2021, based on the Digital Europe Programme, there were – among the existing DIHs and other players – a selection of an initial network of European Digital Innovation Hubs – DIHs with European relevance, serving not only clients coming from their region and/or country, but providing also cross-border services in the field of their specialisation.

The basic services of DIHs and European DIHs do not differ too much, their principal difference lies in the European and cross-border nature of their services. Therefore, when it comes to the arrangement of services of a standard DIH, you can imagine the mixture of different ingredients that together make a Digital Innovation Hub as a “satellite” published in 2019 by the European Commission:

Source: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/activities/edihs

How do DIHs in the Czech Republic cope with the mission to help SMEs and public organisations with their digitalisation?

• Explaining that advanced digitalisation means working with data and sophisticated interconnection of people, devices, and technologies, not simply transferring paper or analogue-based data to digital ones.
• Organising common events – regional roadshows, awareness raising activities and brainstorming among Czech DIHs to update information at national level on advanced digitalisation, and sharing examples of best practices.
• Sharing information about projects and recommending them to the appropriate beneficiaries with the objective of creating the most added value for the national innovative ecosystem.
• Attracting traditional non-tech SMEs and smaller public organisations and communities (i.e., farmers and/or service providers) to communicate with DIHs so they can offer them a starting plan of digitalisation in an appropriate way.
• Including all the new players (those who are interested in creating a DIH or cooperating with an existing one) inside the Czech DIH community and Central European Platform for Digital Innovations – CEEInno, organising an annual overview of Czech Digital Innovation Hubs and regular meetings for Czech DIHs, always with the support of our Ministry of Industry and Trade as the governmental manager of DIHs.

Photo by CEEInno

How can Czech DIHs become useful for foreign partners, especially operating in the field of robotics or interested in some of the sectors, i.e., agriculture?

• Identifying relevant partners for your project in the Czech Republic (CZ) and bordering countries. Foreign partners will be able to cooperate not only with the Czech Digital Innovation Hubs, but also with the DIHs and other players of the surrounding countries within our Central European Platform for Digital Innovations, CEEInno.
• Providing all the DIH services to clients not only from CZ, we are strengthening our forces in the near future under the Digital Europe Programme and within the European Digital Innovation Hubs initial network.
• Helping to contact Czech SMEs and public organisations, through members and cooperating organisations of the CEEInno Platform.
• Organising, co-organising or hosting your project if you intend to attract the Czech participants.

Photo by RICAIP.EU

Among relevant projects of the Czech DIHs focused on robotics and agro-robotics, there could be pointed out the following:

• RICAIP (Research and Innovation Centre on Advanced Industrial Production), which as an international distributed research centre of excellence focusing on research in robotics and artificial intelligence. The project includes Czech and German partners, being hosted at CIIRC CTU and National Centre for Industry 4.0 as one of the Czech DIHs. Its aim is to strengthen research in industrial production and to connect robotic and AI testbeds in Prague, Brno and Saarbrücken.
• Smart Agri Hub CZ-SK (AgriHub made in CzechoSlovakia), joining eight Czech and Slovak partners on common project aiming to promote digital innovation in the agri-food domain and to facilitate set-up and realisation of Innovation Experiments (IEs) in the region. Activities such as innovative hackathons, matchmaking activities for partners from different sectors and awareness raising events will take place within forthcoming year, the international community (not only from CZ and SK) is invited to participate as well.

If you would like to know more about the Czech Digital Innovation ecosystem you can contact me, Tereza Šamanová (LinkedIn, email), DIHNET Ambassador and informal coordinator of the “Czech DIHs Community” in the DIHNET community platform.

Innovative technologies are under development to reduce plastic litter at sea by at least 50% © MOHAMED ABDULRAHEEM, Shutterstock

By Gareth Willmer

‘It’s the scale of it – it’s a global problem. You can guarantee that any beach you walk on, you’ll find pieces of plastic,’ said James Comerford, a senior researcher in materials and nanotechnology at SINTEF, an independent research organisation in Oslo, Norway.

Plastics are estimated to comprise 85% of marine litter, with 11 million metric tonnes entering the oceans annually and the volume potentially tripling by 2040. Some have predicted that, by weight, there will be more plastics than fish in the seas by 2050.

In light of the alarming outlook, innovative approaches are required to tackle the problem. This is exactly what the EU Mission “Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030” is targeting, with the ambition of reducing plastic litter at sea by at least 50%, cutting microplastics released into the environment by 30%, and halving agricultural nutrient losses as well as the use of chemical pesticides.

To reduce pollution, the Mission is launching a ‘lighthouse’ in the Mediterranean Sea that will act as a hub to develop, demonstrate and deploy solutions far and wide across the world by getting all the relevant players on board. Its role is to connect and structure activities, disseminate and upscale solutions and mobilise relevant actors.

Its initial focus is on plastic pollution. Projects such as In-No-Plastic and AQUA-LIT are exploring ways to reduce the contribution of people and sea-based industries to plastic pollution, while the Maelstrom project looks at where marine debris is distributed and how best to remove it from the seabed and water. It is also exploring economically viable ways to recover and recycle marine plastic debris, such as circular product design for fishing gear.

The wide-reaching In-No-Plastic project, led by Comerford as the project coordinator, is developing a range of technologies that deal not only with easily visible, large pieces of plastics – or macroplastics – but also the insidious threat of tiny microplastics measuring less than 5 millimetres, and even smaller nanoplastics.

‘Macroplastics are going to need different cleaning technologies to microplastics, so we’re looking at the whole spectrum,’ said Comerford.

Several separate technologies that are currently under development can be deployed in tandem to clean up the water. A couple of them help to deal with microplastics by clumping them into more manageable sizes, one using biodegradable chemical substances called flocculants that cause particles to coagulate, and the other – known as SepaRaptor – using ultrasonic waves that push the particles into clusters.

These can be combined with another technology that uses a screen to sift out plastic debris.

On the macroplastics side of things is SEEker, a four-wheeled plastic-waste-collection robot being trained using artificial intelligence to identify and pick up litter from beaches and put it in a bin carried on its back. The robot will also have a loading station near the beach, where it can dispose of waste and recharge.

‘It’ll be entirely autonomous,’ said Comerford. ‘Because there’s so much litter and because it’s everywhere, you need something focusing on it all the time. To have solely a human influence is really time-consuming.’

Mobile application

Another technology, which includes features that could be key to tackling the issue of plastic pollution in the long-term future, is an application for smartphones. This encourages volunteers to gather litter and record data on their activities, using “social rewards” sourced via the local economy – for example, discounts on pizzas or at the gym.

However, the app will also eventually help to track the amount of plastic waste collected, recycled and used in products, allowing us to get more of a handle on how effectively the circular economy is working.

So many people say they include recycled material in products. If we’re really to make a difference and turn this whole thing round, that’s got to be countable

Although that function is currently under development, Comerford explained that it will be supported using photos and GPS data on collected litter, as well as blockchain technology – which can enable better tracing of the contents of goods by storing data on the movement of materials through a supply chain.

‘So many people say they include recycled material in products,’ said Comerford. ‘If we’re really to make a difference and turn this whole thing round, that’s got to be countable.’

But apart from the pure tech side, public buy-in for solutions to the plastic problem is crucial. Partners in In-No-Plastic, such as non-profit organisation Venice Lagoon Plastic Free (VLPF), are also conducting clean-up initiatives supported by the mobile application and gauging the attitudes of the public on plastic pollution.

Davide Poletto, an executive director at the organisation, says Venice is an ideal place to run plastic pollution initiatives, as a location with an enclosed area of water, and intense marine traffic, aquaculture, fishery activity and tourism. ‘The lagoon of Venice is the largest wetland in the Mediterranean basin and a World Heritage Site of UNESCO, and this is an extraordinary laboratory to work in because you have a lot of different problems,’ he said.

He also points out that the pandemic has provided a ‘unique opportunity’ to analyse just how much overtourism contributes to pollution, including that caused by plastics, and the capacity of the local ecosystem to recover. Poletto cites a study showing that 17 of 40 chemical contaminants previously found in the Venice lagoon were undetectable after early-2020 lockdowns, while the presence of many others was significantly lower.

Boosting awareness

Recent In-No-Plastic events appear to have shown promise for growing public awareness and interest in getting involved. In one clean-up event organised in Venice in 2021, 130 people collected three tonnes of waste, including more than 1,500 kilograms of plastics.

Poletto also cites figures from an ongoing awareness study carried out by his team on more than 1,500 people in Italy, the UK and Croatia, the vast majority from outside related work sectors. Over 85% of respondents per country said joining clean-up events had helped them better understand the seriousness of marine plastic pollution, while almost 95% identified microplastics as a bigger issue than macroplastics – suggesting understanding is now widespread on the perils of invisible fragments.

Poletto pointed to growing coverage in the news and social media, as well as first-hand experience. ‘It’s interesting to see how people are realising all those things,’ he said. ‘And it’s not that they are specialists.’

But apart from stimulating public interest, he said more knowledge is needed on sources of plastic pollution to better advise decision-makers on how to deal with it. Using another app that aids with beach litter identification as part of the Maelstrom project, VLPF found that on some beaches, up to 40% of plastics on nearby islands such as Pellestrina came from fishing gear – mostly mussel nets.

This is important to show, for instance, that a big proportion of plastics in these areas goes straight into the sea rather than originating in rivers, said Poletto. ‘Then there’s evidence brought to the public administration that we should do more in certain locations.’

Aquaculture challenge

Gear is a big issue in the aquaculture industry too, where there is also an urgent need to tackle plastic pollution given that it is the world’s fastest-growing food sector. Aquaculture is estimated to account for more than half of global fish consumption, and could reach over 60% in the next decade.

But Mariana Mata Lara, project manager at environmental technology organisation Geonardo, says that much more knowledge is needed on how to tackle plastic pollution from the sector, caused by items including cages, ropes, nets and buoys.

She also said we need to separate data on pollution caused by aquaculture, or farming of aquatic produce, from that caused by traditional fisheries that catch wild fish. ‘In reality, we don’t know exactly the amount of plastics that comes from this sector,’ added Lara.

With this in mind, a project she led called AQUA-LIT sought to create a knowledge base on both plastics and other marine waste before the problem gets too big as the sector surges. ‘In many things in life, we come up with solutions once the problem exists. The idea with AQUA-LIT was to go in parallel and start solving this as it grows, so we don’t later have to come up with solutions to cover what we did in the past,’ said Lara.

AQUA-LIT did this by developing a toolbox of measures to monitor and prevent marine littering in the sector, as well as to remove and recycle waste.

The idea with AQUA-LIT was to go in parallel and start solving this as it grows, so we don’t later have to come up with solutions to cover what we did in the past

The team gathered the information by working with research institutes, organisations and people involved in aquaculture in the Mediterranean, North Sea and Baltic Sea. Activities included interactive ‘Learning Lab’ workshops to discuss marine litter issues, exchange knowledge and brainstorm ideas.

More than 400 ideas and solutions

The resulting toolbox contains a variety of measures, arranged by topics including different sea basins, aquaculture types, and stage of removal and recycling, as well as policy recommendations. ‘In the toolbox, we have provided more than 400 ideas and solutions,’ said Lara.

As part of its work, AQUA-LIT has created an inventory detailing 65 sources of waste generated by aquaculture, a database on how European ports deal with litter and regional maps on percentages of aquaculture-related litter across its focus sea basins.

Lara added that many of these ideas can be applied or expanded on elsewhere. ‘We wanted this information to be useful not only for these three sea basins we worked in, so we created action plans to transfer the knowledge to other regions,’ she said.

As an example, Lara described how the resources had been used by the Global Ghost Gear Initiative, an alliance involving the fishing industry, private sector, corporates, NGOs, academia and governments that focuses on solving the problem of lost and abandoned fishing gear.

‘The Global Ghost Gear Initiative developed a best-practice framework for the management of aquaculture gear, and they used four of our reports, our marine inventory and our toolbox to help build it,’ said Lara.

With a section in the toolbox for people to contribute ideas, she hopes it will grow further and that the knowledge base will ultimately lead to more practical solutions. ‘The idea is that it’s for everyone and fed by everyone,’ she said.

Lara said that promise was shown by AQUA-LIT being invited to present at events in locations such as the Black Sea, and for a Latin American audience, reflecting the significant need for this type of information and its importance as a widespread issue. ‘I think the value of AQUA-LIT is having done that first step,’ she said.

With In-No-Plastic likewise hoping to provide foundations to drive forward solutions to marine waste, the problem of plastics and other litter is set to be tackled from multiple angles.

That will also require wide societal strategies to deal with waste, said Comerford. ‘It’s a holistic approach we need,’ he said. ‘You need to look at everything in the environment currently, but also we can be a bit cleverer about our products in terms of sustainability and end-of-life options.’

This article was originally published in Horizon, the EU Research and Innovation magazine.

Casinos and robots? It must be CES time! A few years ago, the only robots at CES were toys. And as the robot toy makers at Ologic can attest, having your robot featured as the leading image for CES was still no guarantee that your robot would make it into production (AMP is pictured above). Luckily Ologic have transferred their consumer electronics experience into building robots of every other kind. And CES now showcases robots of every shape and size, from autonomous cars, trucks and construction robotics, to food production, health and rehabilitation robots. The 2022 CES Innovation Awards recognize a range of robotics technologies as Honorees, and feature three in the “Best of Innovation” category as well.

See & Spray

By John Deere

Best of Innovation

Robotics

Honoree

Vehicle Intelligence & Transportation

See & Spray is a technologically advanced, huge robot for the agriculture industry that leverages computer vision and machine learning to detect the difference between plants and weeds, and precisely spray herbicide only on the weeds. This groundbreaking plant-level management technology gives a machine the gift of vision and reduces the use of herbicide by up to 80 percent, benefiting the farmer, the surrounding community and the environment. This revolutionary approach of technology is unprecedented in both the technology and agriculture industries.

Leica BLK ARC

By Leica Geosystems, part of Hexagon

Best of Innovation

Robotics

The BLK ARC is an autonomous laser scanning module for robotics applications. It provides a safe and autonomous way to capture, in 3D, the images and data of areas that are difficult or dangerous for humans to reach. Professionals in architecture/engineering/construction (AEC), manufacturing, plant, public safety, and media and entertainment attach the BLK ARC to a robotic carrier to capture data that is used to build 3D models and recreate situations. For example, man-made or natural disasters, automotive plants, bridges, and movie location sets. The product’s speed, accuracy, flexibility, and modular design provides fully autonomous mobile LiDAR scanning and navigation.

WHILL Model F – Foldable Personal EV

By WHILL, Inc.

Best of Innovation

Accessibility

WHILL Model F is a foldable personal electric vehicle for everyone, including seniors and people who have difficulty walking. Unlike wheelchairs, which are typically built for patients in a medical environment, Model F is designed to fit an active lifestyle for everyday use. It is lightweight and foldable, which makes it easy to load in cars and convenient when traveling by air. The WHILL smartphone app allows you to drive and lock the Model F remotely, as well as check key device information such as total mileage and battery level.

DROWay – Intelligent UATM Ground Control Platform

By CLROBUR Co., Ltd. / HANSEO UNIVERSITY

Honoree

Drones & Unmanned Systems

DROWay is an integrated and expansional multi-mobile platform that goes beyond former mobility control services. (Part of DROW4D service) – Multi-heterogeneous mobility HW integrated control and real-time monitoring control system – Automatic multiple flight path generation and flight simulation in a 4D airspace(corridor) – Indoor/Outdoor Swarm flight & simulation (DROW World/DROW ART Manager) – AI based ground control data managing & analysis

DJ25 – Fuel cell powered VTOL (with JOUAV)

By Doosan Mobility Innovation

Honoree

Drones & Unmanned Systems

DJ25 is the world’s first hydrogen fuel cell VTOL(Vertical Take Off and Landing) commercial drone solution. Doosan and JOUAV successfully integrated its advanced PEMFC(Proton-Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell) technology to VTOL air frame, With this collaboration make the flight time achieve up to 5 and half hours. DJ25 can cover up to 500km in a single flight, and it is suitable for long distance inspections, large scale site surveying and mapping compared to the ordinary batter drone. and also hydrogen-powered version has low noise and no vibration during power generation. It is stable and efficient when loading various mission equipment.

Mini GUSS

By GUSS Automation

Honoree

Drones & Unmanned Systems

Mini GUSS is the world’s first and only autonomous vineyard, hops, berry, and high density orchard sprayer.

Drone Charging Station “ON STATION”

By ISON

Honoree

Drones & Unmanned Systems

High Mast Drone Charging Station consists of a pole, drone hangar, control box and other accessories if necessary by the users. The high mast pole can raise and lower automatically by the control box and the drone hangar can be stored up to 50 feet tall so drone hangar or other accessories such as anemometer, CCTV camera, rain sensor, solar panel module, LED lights or even the weapon (M60) can be added on the pole for the purpose of end user’ s circumstance.

Delivery AMR：Mighty-D3

By Piezo Sonic Corporation

Honoree

Drones & Unmanned Systems

The AMR for transportation: Mighty-D3 is designed based on the technology of Japanese lunar exploration robots, and uses Piezo Sonic Motor for the steering mechanism. It is designed based on Piezo Sonic’s 3C concept (Cool, Cute, Compact), so it has both design and functionality. Mighty-D3 is capable of climbing over bumps of up to 15cm, turning on the spot, and moving horizontally, allowing it to avoid obstacles and travel autonomously to its destination in both outdoor and indoor environments. Mighty-D3 can be used as a transportation support robot for urban areas, hospitals, commercial facilities, and big apartments.

WasteShark

By RanMarine Technology BV

Honoree

Drones & Unmanned Systems

To contribute to the huge challenge of cleaning and monitoring our world’s waters, RanMarine Technology developed the patented WasteShark. It is the world’s first autonomous aquadrone designed for clearing marine plastic waste. At a running cost of 20% of other marine waste removal solutions and with zero emission operation, the intelligent WasteShark is easy to operate and maintain. The WasteShark is our first model and our roadmap includes products based on the WasteShark such as the OilShark and MegaShark. It is accessible to public and private entities that aim to contribute to restoring the marine environment to its natural state.

SPIDER-GO ; Warehouse Inventory Automation System

By TACTRACER CO., LTD.

Honoree

Drones & Unmanned Systems

SPIDER-GO is an automated warehouse inventory system that periodically scans and updates the inventory status in real time. The key features include automated modelling of the warehouse layout, presenting the inventories on the 3D map, and inspecting the inventory status through remote control. It is also equipped with functions that allow monitoring by CCTV, detecting fire, and remote updating. Conventional warehouse management systems have had issues like frequent errors in loading and picking, discrepancies between the system and the actual inventories due to human input errors. SPIDER-GO can innovatively improve the visibility and efficiency for proper warehouse inventory management.

Whiz Gambit – 2-in-1 AI-powered cleaning & disinfection solution

By Avalon SteriTech Limited

Honoree

Robotics

Whiz Gambit, is a 2-in-1 AI-powered cleaning and disinfection robotic solution jointly developed by Avalon SteriTech and SoftBank Robotics Group. The robot is the first disinfection robot to achieve Performance Mark by SGS, the world’s leading verification and testing company, with proven efficacy to eliminate >99% microbial bioburden. Importantly, Whiz Gambit greatly minimizes potential health risks in communal areas with its effective, consistent cleaning and disinfection performance. It has been a trusted partner for hospitality groups, shopping malls, schools, and offices around the world.

The Essentials; The Ultimate Building Blocks for Mobile Robots

By Avular

Honoree

Robotics

Avular proudly presents the world’s first end-to-end solution for mobile robots. The Essentials are modular hardware and software building blocks, specifically designed to (1) rapidly build new mobile robot applications, (2) turn existing machines into autonomous ones, and (3) develop robust and scalable end-products. The Essentials cover all the core functionalities a mobile robot needs, allowing you to focus on your specific application. Our products already enable entrepreneurs and engineers to build robots that make the world a better place in the fields of food, safety, energy, and more.

CygLiDAR_h3 (2D/3D Dual Solid State LiDAR)

By CYGBOT CO,. LTD.

Honoree

Robotics

It is a Solid State LiDAR product that does not operate mechanically, and it can measure 2D and 3D at the same time. Most robots use 2D LiDAR to identify their position and 3D Camera to determine obstacles while driving. CygLiDAR, you can get 2D and 3D data together with one product. CygLiDAR allows robots to reduce the number of sensors used and to produce robots that are competitive in design and cost.

Doosan NINA (New Inspiration New Angle)

By Doosan Robotics

Honoree

Robotics

As an achievement of Project NINA (New Inspiration. New Angle.), Doosan created an unprecedented camera robot system that empowers everyone to become professionals, opening next-level creativeness. To democratize filming robots, Doosan innovated software with intuitive UI that helps content creators to film effortlessly, including sharing presets of camera movement on Doosan’s platform. Another key part of the system is that the robot shoots 360-degrees and tracks shooting objects, simplifying complex camera moves to allow filming at any angle. It can be controlled by hand and/or joypad so that people with no experience with robot operations can handle it without difficulties.

DOTSTAND V1

By DOTHEAL Co.,Ltd.

Honoree

Computer Peripherals & Accessories, Fitness & Sports, Robotics

Using computers for an extended number of hours with poor posture results in forward head posture syndrome (FHP), a very common problem that causes neck pain and fatigue. Doctor visits and therapy are both time consuming and expensive. DOT STAND is a patent-pending, smart monitor stand that uses an AI sensor to analyze the user and automatically self-adjusts any monitor’s position to induce better posture – without the user even knowing it. DOT STAND relieves pain and improves concentration and work efficiency and improves average cervical curve ARA by up to 8%.

Hey-Bot(AI-based, Smart Disinfection&Guide Robot)

By Hills Engineering co.,ltd. / HANSEO UNIVERSITY

Honoree

Robotics

‘Hey-Bot’ is an AI-based self-driving disinfection and guide robot for convention centers, hospitals, negative pressure wards and other important but vulnerable places. The robot protects people from the coronavirus pandemic by minimizing chance of getting infection. It effectively kills the virus and limits unnecessary social contacts in guiding one’s way to his or her destination and sanitizing a given area based on its self-driving, guide and disinfection functions. ‘Hey-Bot’ is highly advanced intelligent Disinfection & Guide robot that can open safe and convenient “with coronavirus” era where people can be reassured for living and working.

RGB-D AI Robot

By Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI)

Honoree

Robotics

The RGB-D AI Robot is the world’s first collaborative robot that includes smart 3D vision as a built-in standard for high-precision object recognition. The integration of a 3D camera and MEMS laser scanning projector, along with the auto labeling technology, allows the robot to quickly learn through visually acquired data and perform hand-eye coordination skills. The miniature size of the optical sensor makes it easy to install in robotic arms and can lower installation costs. This innovation can be applied to human-robot collaboration in both manufacturing and service sectors.

Lumotive Meta-Lidar Platform

By Lumotive

Honoree

Robotics, Vehicle Intelligence & Transportation

The Lumotive Meta-Lidar Platform is the mobility industry’s smallest and most cost-effective 3D sensing solution comprising a Lumotive tiny lidar sensor with patented beam steering technology, real-time control software, and a reference system design. Unlike previous generation lidar systems that use mechanical spinning assemblies and are known for being big and expensive, Lumotive’s solution is tiny and scalable for a range of size, performance and power requirements.  The Meta-Lidar Platform removes barriers to greater proliferation of 3D sensing in automotive, industrial and consumer applications.

Monarch Tractor, MK-5

By Monarch Tractor

Honoree

Robotics

Monarch Tractor, the world’s first fully electric, driver optional, smart tractor, enhances farmer’s existing operations, alleviating labor shortages, and maximizing yields. The award-winning Monarch Tractor combines electrification, automation, machine learning, and data analysis to set a new standard in tractor technology and capabilities.

Ted

By Naio technologies

Honoree

Robotics

Ted offers a sustainable, serviceable and smart winegrowing solution combining high edge technology in robotics and AI. Ted is the first robot dedicated to vineyards, an alternative to the use of herbicides that respects your soils and improves your working conditions.

Autonomous Box Truck

By Gatik

Honoree

Vehicle Intelligence & Transportation

Gatik, the leader in autonomous Middle Mile logistics, delivers goods safely and efficiently using its fleet of light and medium duty trucks. The company focuses on short-haul, B2B logistics for Fortune 500 retailers such as Walmart and Loblaw. Gatik’s Class 3-6 autonomous box trucks are live for customers in multiple markets including Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana and Ontario. In April 2021, Gatik launched its strategic collaboration with Isuzu North America, marking the first time a global OEM is working in the medium duty category with a Middle Mile trucking company. Gatik’s autonomous driving.

XenoLidar-X

By XenomatiX – True-Solid-State-LiDAR

Honoree

Vehicle Intelligence & Transportation

XenoLidar-X is a true-solid-state LiDAR designed for high resolution and accurate analysis of the vehicle’s surroundings. It is a stand-alone, off-the-shelf solution with no moving parts, intended for autonomous and industrial applications. XenoLidar-X comes in two versions: Xact for mid-range, and Xpert for long-range measurements. Both versions include XenoWare, the 3D point cloud software enabling perception solutions in ADAS and up to fully autonomous driving.

4Sight M

By AEye, Inc.

Honoree

Vehicle Intelligence & Transportation

4Sight M is a high-performance, software-configurable adaptive LiDAR sensor designed to meet the diverse performance and functional requirements of autonomous and partially automated applications. Its solid-state reliability, combined with industry-leading LiDAR performance (extended range from 1cm to 1,000 meters), integrated intelligence, advanced vision capabilities (10-20x more accurate than camera-only systems), and unmatched reliability make it an ideal fit for mobility, trucking, transit, construction, rail, intelligent traffic systems, and aerospace and defense markets.

Eos Embedded Perception Software

By Algolux

Honoree

Vehicle Intelligence & Transportation

Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and Autonomous Vehicle (AV) systems today are not able to support many driving environments, weather conditions, and challenging scenarios. Driving in low light, snow, rain, and even tunnels are just some of the situations where perception systems often fail due to a lack of robustness. Eos is an award-winning embedded perception solution that delivers up to 3x improved accuracy across all conditions, especially in low light and harsh weather. Its efficient end-to-end deep learning architecture can be quickly personalized to any camera lens/sensor configuration or for multi-sensor fusion.

Nova Lidar

By Cepton Technologies

Honoree

Vehicle Intelligence & Transportation

Nova is a miniature, wide-angle, near-range lidar built for modern vehicles at a target volume price below $100, to help increase vehicle safety and enable autonomous driving capabilities. Powered by Cepton’s patented MMT®, Nova can be elegantly embedded all around a vehicle to provide a complete 360° view of its immediate surroundings without disrupting its design aesthetics. Nova is designed to help minimize perception blind spots and reduce accidents and vehicle damage. Nova is a transformational sensor that fundamentally changes the game for near-range sensing applications.

Automated Steering Actuator

By Nexteer Automotive

Honoree

Vehicle Intelligence & Transportation

Nexteer’s Automated Steering Actuator: High Availability, Output & Durability offers high safety coverage through a combination of software, electrical hardware, mechanical & sealing redundancies – plus increased durability & reliability performance required for higher loads due to increasing vehicle weights (battery mass) & more demanding use-cases of Shared Autonomous Vehicles without driver manual back-up. Our Automated Steering Actuator facilitates broader adoption of Shared Autonomous Vehicles (SAVs), like people movers, to be capable of higher loads and higher speeds, compared to current last-mile, geofenced and neighborhood vehicles on the market.

1-box Brake System for Highly Autonomous Driving

By Mando Corporation

Honoree

Vehicle Intelligence & Transportation

Mando’s Integrated Dynamic Brake is a 1-box electro-hydraulic brake system replacing and integrating multiple components of a traditional brake system into one unit. This promotes the reduction in vehicle mass and simplifying the assembly step by requiring less electrical and hydraulic components. ‘IDB for Highly Autonomous Driving’ is a world-first product that secures braking functional redundancy contained within the same 1-box system, eliminating the need for additional components. Moreover, in the unlikely event of failure, it provides fully redundant brake functionality and performance.

Hammerhead

By NODAR

Honoree

Vehicle Intelligence & Transportation

NODAR’s Hammerhead camera-based 3D vision software technology is a crucial component in the development of ADAS and autonomous vehicles bringing safety, advanced performance, and cost-effectiveness to the automotive market. NODAR’s 3D vision platform, Hammerhead, delivers reliable, ultra-precise, and real-time 3D sensing at long-range (up to 1000 meters), providing better than LiDAR-quality at the price point of camera technology. Between 2025 and 2030 a projected 250 million vehicles will require L2 and above autonomy to understand their environment and provide the high-level of safety required as autonomous systems control more of the driving function.

TriEye SEDAR

By TriEye

Honoree

Vehicle Intelligence & Transportation

TriEye’s SEDAR (Spectrum Enhanced Detection And Ranging) is the ultimate imaging and ranging solution for automated driving applications. SEDAR’s sensing modality, uniquely operating in the Short-Wave Infrared (SWIR) spectrum, enables imaging and 3D mapping of the road within all visibility conditions – in one sensory modality The SEDAR is based on two significant world’s first innovations: TriEye’s Raven (HD CMOS-based SWIR sensor) and TriEye’s UltraBlaze (Eye-safe SWIR pulsed laser illumination source). TriEye’s first-of-its-kind technology is suited for mass production, offering a 10X cost reduction compared to current LiDAR solutions on the market.

Phoenix Perception Radar

By Arbe

Honoree

Vehicle Intelligence & Transportation

Arbe’s Perception Radar, Phoenix, revolutionizes autonomous vehicle sensing, providing unmatched safety to the market. Ultra-high resolution transforms radar as a sensor to support advanced perception capabilities at mass market price, with top performance in all environments, weather, and lighting conditions. It is the first radar to detect stationary objects — a notorious stumbling block for autonomous radars — meeting NHTSA and NCAP requirements and resolving the factors behind ADAS and Autopilot related accidents. With an Advanced Free Space mapping and object tracking in all corner cases, Phoenix closes the sensor gap to achieve truly safe autonomous driving and Vision Zero.

‘Real-to-real’ – Unique ADAS Technology

By Cognata LTD – Ella Shlosberg

Honoree

Vehicle Intelligence & Transportation

Cognata is proud to launch its ‘real-to-real’ technology, which accelerates the global program for ADAS validation in order to meet worldwide regulatory requirements. The proprietary AI technology developed with Cognata transforms the super-high resolution data set to sensor inputs “as seen” by new sensors in new vehicle applications. Meaning, it is now possible to re-use previously collected video data to test a camera in a new position or with a new optical path and record multiscopic images and apply AI SLAM – based image transformation.

Robot Express for Smart Transportation and Logistics

By Mindtronic AI

Honoree

Smart Cities

The Robot Express is a smart logistic service that leverages the public transportation network for delivering goods. The advantage is that the sender and receiver can utilize the bus stop as express station. With the density and frequency of the shuttle bus, both service coverage and delivery time can be improved. Another advantage is energy saving because the shuttle not only transport the passengers but also the goods at the same time.

Maicat

By Macroact Inc.

Honoree

Smart Home

The social robot Maicat incorporates AI into Robotics, combining beneficial characteristics of a cute, engaging companion pet with the intelligence of AI, generating empathetic and personalized experiences for the user. Autonomous control and AI technology enable the robot to understand and adapt to its environment while its mobility, passive and active sensors support it to navigate and operate in the home, and allow an easy integration with other smart home technology via third-party Application, making it the center of the smart home. Being with Maicat adds another dimension to your life!

Mind-linked Bathbot

By Amorepacific

Honoree

Health & Wellness

Mind-linked Bathbot is the first beauty solution that produces bath bombs with customized fragrances and colors instantly, based on an individual’s electroencephalogram (EEG) data. The EEG signals are measured in real-time using a wearable headset and combined with a technology that has been developed to enable the quantitative evaluation of emotional indicators. These emotional indicators enable the identification of the fragrance and color that will provide a unique experience to the user. This user-optimized information is then transmitted to the Bathbot (bath bomb-making robot). This is the first technological invention to produce a customized bath bomb within a minute.

AVATAR 3D system (AVT-2020-700)

By AVATAR

Honoree

Health & Wellness

A next-generation system for quantification of animal behavior experiments that can replace the existing preclinical scoring that consists of human standards. As a fusion system of multi-vision hardware and AI software, all behaviors of mice, a representative animal of preclinical testing, can be quantified in real time with markerless and simulated in a 3D virtual space.

rebless

By H ROBOTICS INC.

Honoree

Health & Wellness

rebless is an FDA-registered robotic, exercise therapy device for both upper and lower limbs, providing motion to the elbow, wrist, ankle, and knee joints. With multiple operating modes, rebless allows for passive, active, active-assisted and active-resisted exercise and range of motion measurement, so therapy can be customized based on each individual patient’s condition and progress. Continuous Passive Motion (CPM) and Assist-as-Needed technology allow patients to change exercising modes depending on their rehabilitation abilities.

OMO Smart Trash Can

By GD International Inc.

Honoree

Home Appliances

The OmO Smart Can is a new and first of it’s kind self-sealing and touchless trash can.  A built-in motion sensor and compatible feature with voice assistants like Alexa and Google Assistant gives you a hand-free approach to tidying up.  When it’s time to take out the trash, an internal thermal sealing mechanism seals trash in and opens the inner bin for a ready to throw bag.  A replacement bag automatically deploys once the bin closes back up and is ready for the next dispense.

Narwal World First Self-Cleaning Robot Mop and Vacuum

By Narwal Robotics Corporation

Honoree

Home Appliances

Narwal J2 is a robotic cleaner with automatic mop-cleaning base station. Users can select between vacuum or mop modules to meet their cleaning needs. The spinning mop with 10N pressure applied against the floor, which greatly enhances the cleaning effect. It utilizes Lidar and SLAM technologies to intelligently navigate and map the environment. When the intelligent algorithm detects dirtiness of mopping pads, it automatically returns to base station to wash pads and resume work from where it stopped. Users do not need to deal with dirty mops at any time, saving hands from coming in contact with allergens or dirt.

Nailbot

By Preemadonna Inc.

Honoree

Home Appliances

Nailbot is a connected, at-home manicure device that instantly prints on nails any photo, emoji, image or any self-created design. Along with the product experience, comes a built-in community of Gen Z creators via a mobile app art marketplace. Preemadonna is the maker of Nailbot.

The full list of CES Innovation Award Honorees is here,

Here are some postcards from 2021 and wishing you all the best for 2022!

Founded and Funded in 2021

According to Crunchbase, 26 robotics startups were founded and funded in 2021. Many others were founded but not funded, or funded but not founded. :)

AION Prosthetics
Electronics, Manufacturing, Medical Device, Robotics
AION Prosthetics develops a prosthetic system designed to provide an adjustable, durable, and affordable future for amputees.
http://aionprosthetics.com/

Atorika
Augmented Reality, EdTech, Education, Edutainment, Leisure, Personal Development, Robotics, Subscription Service, Virtual Reality
Atorika offers edutainment that adapts to any child.
https://www.atorika.fr/

BOTINKIT
Big Data, Robotics
Robots

ContRoL
Autonomous Vehicles, Mechanical Engineering
ContRoL focuses on developing a range of vehicles for controlled release.
https://control-create.mcmaster.ca/

DIWÖ
Artificial Intelligence, Drones, Machine Learning, Robotics, Software
Diwö is accelerating the transition into safe AI using autonomous UAVs and Robotics
https://www.xn–diw-una.com/

Drone Express
Artificial Intelligence, Delivery Service, Drones
Drone Express is a full-service logistics company that uses airborne autonomous drones for local package delivery.
https://droneexpress.ai

Eco City
Artificial Intelligence, CleanTech, Machine Learning, Mobile Apps, Robotics, Service Industry, Smart Cities
Mobile App, Robotic, AI, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, E-service

Eight Knot
Artificial Intelligence, Navigation, Robotics
Eight Knot designs and develops autonomous navigation system for water mobility using robotics & AI.
https://8kt.jp/

Elexir
Automotive, Autonomous Vehicles, Cyber Security, Software
We redefine mobility with the truly digital car
https://www.elexir.eu/en/

General Systems
Construction, Industrial Automation, Robotics
Construction Tech, Robotics, B2B, Automated Building Masonry
https://www.generalsystems.tech

Helgen Technologies
Agriculture, Consulting, Farming, Mining, Oil and Gas, Robotics, Software, Software Engineering, Waste Management
Software and hardware services for industrial robotics
https://www.helgen.tech

Mach9 Robotics
Machine Learning, Robotics, Software
Mach9 Robotics builds integrated hardware and software to make utility infrastructure inspection more accurate at a lower cost.
https://www.mach9.io/

Meili Technologies
Automotive, Autonomous Vehicles, Software
Meili provides automatic, contactless, in-vehicle medical emergency detection and interface with EMS to protect riders and make roads safer.
https://www.meilitechnologies.com

Mowito
Artificial Intelligence, Industrial Automation, Intelligent Systems, Robotics, Software
Mowito provides software tools for mobile robots, to enable them to navigate intelligently in indoor facilities.
https://mowito.in/

Muncho
Food and Beverage, Food Delivery, Hardware, Robotics, Transportation
Pizza cooked en-route to your door & delivered in as little as 5 minutes. Currently piloting in Philadelphia.
https://www.muncho.com

Outlift AI
Artificial Intelligence, Health Care, Information Technology, Robotics
Outlift AI develops robotic process automation designed to assist and automate back-office healthcare work.
https://www.outliftai.com/

PhiGent Robotics
3D Technology, Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous Vehicles
PhiGent Robotics offers autonomous driving solutions.

Qiangua Technology
Automotive, Autonomous Vehicles
Qiangua Technology is a Chinese autonomous driving truck company.

Serve Robotics
Food Delivery, Logistics, Robotics
Serve Robotics connects people with what they need locally via robots that are designed to serve people.
http://www.serverobotics.com

Socian Technologies
Aerospace, Artificial Intelligence, Drones, Machine Learning, Software
We create safer societies using AI-enhanced UAV technologies.
https://socian.io/

Tergeo Technologies
Industrial Automation, Machinery Manufacturing, Robotics, Waste Management
Tergeo Technologies is a developer of robotic solutions to sanitation challenges.
https://www.tergeotech.com

Urban Machine
Building Material, Robotics
Salvaging the past to build the future- Stealth Startup
http://www.urbanmachine.build

Wiingy
E-Learning, Education, Robotics
Wiingy is a unique combination of multiple learning and skill development methods including 1:1 live classes, DIY robotics kits.
https://www.wiingy.com/

Xbotod Technologies Ltd
Artificial Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Electronics, Embedded Systems, Internet of Things, Robotics
Shaping the next generation of technology and cities with Artificial Intelligence & Internet of Things (AIoT)
http://www.xbotod.com

Zbeetle
Artificial Intelligence, Electronics, Robotics
Zbeetle is a robotics innovation company engaged in producing cleaning robots.
http://www.zbeetle.com

Ziknes
Machinery Manufacturing, Robotics
Ziknes develops printing technology on industrial manufacturing of metals.
https://www.ziknes.com/

News

Robot density nearly doubled globally

The use of industrial robots in factories around the world is accelerating at a high rate: 126 robots per 10,000 employees is the new average of global robot density in the manufacturing industries – nearly double the number five years ago (2015: 66 units). This is according to the 2021 World Robot Report. By regions, […] (Click here to read more)

2022 robotics predictions from industry experts

Leading robotics experts such as Juan Aparicio and Ken Goldberg, share what they’ll be keeping an eye on in 2022.

The post 2022 robotics predictions from industry experts appeared first on The Robot Report.

Investors warn Deep Tech founders about these 12 pitfalls

Firstly, what is Deep Tech as opposed to Tech or technology enabled? Sometimes Deep Tech is regarded as a science based startup, sometimes it is regarded as disruptive to the status quo, sometimes it is regarded just as slow and hard, capital intensive, with a long ROI horizon. Or as something that investors aren’t ready […] (Click here to read more)

Mind-controlled robots now one step closer

Researchers teamed up to develop a machine-learning program that can be connected to a human brain and used to command a robot. The program adjusts the robot’s movements based on electrical signals from the brain. The hope is that with this invention, tetraplegic patients will be able to carry out more day-to-day activities on their own. (Click here to read more)

Top 10 robotics stories of December

China’s new five-year plan for robotics and Toronto banning sidewalk robots topped our coverage in December 2021.

The post Top 10 robotics stories of December appeared first on The Robot Report.

Creating the human-robotic dream team

Using autonomous vehicle guidelines, a team has developed a system to improve interactions between people and robots. The way people interact safely with robots is at the forefront of today’s research related to automation and manufacturing, explains a researcher. She is one of several researchers who are working to develop systems that allow humans and robots to interact safely and efficiently. (Click here to read more)

How AI and robotics are reconstructing a 2,000-year-old fresco in Pompeii

Computer scientists and archeologists are working together to solve this ancient puzzle. (Click here to read more)

Bonus material!

Children as Social Robot Designers – IEEE Spectrum

What happens when you let kids design their own social robot from scratch. (Click here to read more)

Holiday robot videos 2021 (updated)

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 […] (Click here to read more)

MIT students and researchers from MIT Sea Grant work with local oyster farmers in advancing the aquaculture industry by seeking solutions to some of its biggest challenges. Currently, oyster bags have to be manually flipped every one to two weeks to reduce biofouling. Image: John Freidah, MIT MechE

By Michaela Jarvis | Department of Mechanical Engineering

When Michelle Kornberg was about to graduate from MIT, she wanted to use her knowledge of mechanical and ocean engineering to make the world a better place. Luckily, she found the perfect senior capstone class project: supporting sustainable seafood by helping aquaculture farmers grow oysters.

“It’s our responsibility to use our skills and opportunities to work on problems that really matter,” says Kornberg, who now works for an aquaculture company called Innovasea. “Food sustainability is incredibly important from an environmental standpoint, of course, but it also matters on a social level. The most vulnerable will be hurt worst by the climate crisis, and I think food sustainability and availability really matters on that front.”

The project undertaken by Kornberg’s capstone class, 2.017 (Design of Electromechanical Robotic Systems), came out of conversations between Michael Triantafyllou, who is MIT’s Henry L. and Grace Doherty Professor in Ocean Science and Engineering and director of MIT Sea Grant, and Dan Ward. Ward, a seasoned oyster farmer and marine biologist, owns Ward Aquafarms on Cape Cod and has worked extensively to advance the aquaculture industry by seeking solutions to some of its biggest challenges.

Speaking with Triantafyllou at MIT Sea Grant — part of a network of university-based programs established by the federal government to protect the coastal environment and economy — Ward had explained that each of his thousands of floating mesh oyster bags need to be turned over about 11 times a year. The flipping allows algae, barnacles, and other “biofouling” organisms that grow on the part of the bag beneath the water’s surface to be exposed to air and light, so they can dry and chip off. If this task is not performed, water flow to the oysters, which is necessary for their growth, is blocked.

The bags are flipped by a farmworker in a kayak, and the task is monotonous, often performed in rough water and bad weather, and ergonomically injurious. “It’s kind of awful, generally speaking,” Ward says, adding that he pays about $3,500 per year to have the bags turned over at each of his two farm sites — and struggles to find workers who want to do the job of flipping bags that can grow to a weight of 60 or 70 pounds just before the oysters are harvested.

Presented with this problem, the capstone class Kornberg was in — composed of six students in mechanical engineering, ocean engineering, and electrical engineering and computer science — brainstormed solutions. Most of the solutions, Kornberg says, involved an autonomous robot that would take over the bag-flipping. It was during that class that the original version of the “Oystamaran,” a catamaran with a flipping mechanism between its two hulls, was born.

A combination of mechanical engineering, ocean engineering, and electrical engineering and computer sciences students work together to design a robot to help with flipping oyster bags at Ward Aquafarm on Cape Cod. The “Oystamaran” robot uses a vision system to position and flip the bags. Image: Lauren Futami, MIT MechE

Ward’s involvement in the project has been important to its evolution. He says he has reviewed many projects in his work on advisory boards that propose new technologies for aquaculture. Often, they don’t correspond with the actual challenges faced by the industry.

“It was always ‘I already have this remotely operated vehicle; would it be useful to you as an oyster farmer if I strapped on some kind of sensor?’” Ward says. “They try to fit robotics into aquaculture without any industry collaboration, which leads to a robotic product that doesn’t solve any of the issues we experience out on the farm. Having the opportunity to work with MIT Sea Grant to really start from the ground up has been exciting. Their approach has been, ‘What’s the problem, and what’s the best way to solve the problem?’ We do have a real need for robotics in aquaculture, but you have to come at it from the customer-first, not the technology-first, perspective.”

Triantafyllou says that while the task the robot performs is similar to work done by robots in other industries, the “special difficulty” students faced while designing the Oystamaran was its work environment.

“You have a floating device, which must be self-propelled, and which must find these objects in an environment that is not neat,” Triantafyllou says. “It’s a combination of vision and navigation in an environment that changes, with currents, wind, and waves. Very quickly, it becomes a complicated task.”

Kornberg, who had constructed the original central flipping mechanism and the basic structure of the vessel as a staff member at MIT Sea Grant after graduating in May 2020, worked as a lab instructor for the next capstone class related to the project in spring 2021. Andrew Bennett, education administrator at MIT Sea Grant, co-taught that class, in which students designed an Oystamaran version 2.0, which was tested at Ward Aquafarms and managed to flip several rows of bags while being controlled remotely. Next steps will involve making the vessel more autonomous, so it can be launched, navigate autonomously to the oyster bags, flip them, and return to the launching point. A third capstone class related to the project will take place this spring.

The students operate the “Oystamaran” robot remotely from the boat. Image: John Freidah, MIT MechE

Bennett says an ideal project outcome would be, “We have proven the concept, and now somebody in industry says, ‘You know, there’s money to be made in oysters. I think I’ll take over.’ And then we hand it off to them.”  

Meanwhile, he says an unexpected challenge arose with getting the Oystamaran to go between tightly packed rows of oyster bags in the center of an array.

“How does a robot shimmy in between things without wrecking something? It’s got to wiggle in somehow, which is a fascinating controls problem,” Bennett says, adding that the problem is a source of excitement, rather than frustration, to him. “I love a new challenge, and I really love when I find a problem that no one expected. Those are the fun ones.”

Triantafyllou calls the Oystamaran “a first for the industry,” explaining that the project has demonstrated that robots can perform extremely useful tasks in the ocean, and will serve as a model for future innovations in aquaculture.

“Just by showing the way, this may be the first of a number of robots,” he says. “It will attract talent to ocean farming, which is a great challenge, and also a benefit for society to have a reliable means of producing food from the ocean.”

Farming robots that can move autonomously in an open field or greenhouse promise a cleaner, safer agricultural future. But there are also potential downsides, from the loss of much-needed jobs to the safety of those working alongside the robots.

To ensure that the use of autonomous robots on farms creates more benefits than losses, a process of responsible development is required. Society as a whole needs to be involved in setting the trajectories for future farming.

We are part of a project called Robot Highways, which is currently demonstrating multiple uses for autonomous robots made by Saga Robotics on a fruit farm in south-east England. Robots are now treating plant diseases in fields and glasshouses, and will be mapping terrain, picking, packing, and providing logistical support to workers over the course of the project. This is achieved by attaching different tools to an autonomous “base robot”.

In this way, autonomous farming robots have the potential to do some of the laborious agricultural work for which farmers in some countries often struggle to find employees at a cost that keeps food prices competitive. Our project has produced an estimate that robots may eventually help reduce the number of human farm workers needed by up to 40%.

At the same time, robots could help create new jobs. The UK’s National Farmers’ Union argues that increasing use of digital technologies in farms will attract younger, skilled people to a sector struggling with an ageing workforce.

There could also be environmental benefits. Swapping traditional, fossil fuel-powered farm machinery for electric robots charged from renewable sources will cut farming’s carbon emissions. Robots equipped with ultraviolet lights that can kill mildew on plants could reduce fungicide use by up to 90%.

Machines like those produced by the Small Robot Company can navigate in tight spaces between objects like trees, so could potentially be used in agroforestry systems to perform weeding, disease treatment and mapping. They could also help reduce chemical use on farms by targeting individual plants, rather than whole fields.

However, unrestricted use of autonomous farming robots could also create problems. In parts of the world where there is not an agricultural labour shortage, reducing the demand for human workers means people will need resources and opportunities to retrain in other sectors. They may just end up moving into dull, dangerous and underpaid jobs in other industries such as mining, which will be needed to produce the materials to make the robots.

Humans who are left on the farm – or walkers on footpaths – will face health and safety concerns from having to work alongside the robots. The possibility of someone hacking a farm robot and forcing it to do their bidding cannot be overlooked. And poorer farms that can’t afford robots at all are likely to be left at a disadvantage.

There are also concerns over the ownership of the data collected by robots operated by commercial companies – and whether that data will be used for the benefit of those companies, rather than the farmers.

Responsible development

To make sure farming robots are developed responsibly, we need to get those people who might be affected by the technology –- from manufacturers and regulators to rural communities -– thinking about all its possible implications.

This might include so-called “Wizard of Oz” studies, in which remote controlled robots are tested alongside human users in order to simulate what reactions and consequences fully autonomous robots might produce once the technology is ready. This would allow robot designers to save money and manage expectations by studying user experience at the early stages of development. Another option is hosting “robot movie nights” to help show the public how robots on the farm would behave.

Once countries allow autonomous robots to be used on farms, safety and data-ownership regulations will need to be swiftly updated. In Australia, a code of practice for such robots has been developed in the crop sector and similar work is underway in the UK. This will set out robots’ obligations, state the conditions in which robots can be used, and determine who is responsible for worker and public safety.

The stakes of getting things wrong are high. Injured workers, hacked or unreliable robots, or negative consumer perception could all stand in the way of the promises of autonomous robots being realised. To help avoid this, governments can start providing rural digital and internet infrastructure, training, and financial support so that farmers can hit the ground running if autonomous robots hit the market.

Will we see autonomous robots picking fruit across Britain by 2025 – or even sooner? That depends: not on the quality of our technology alone, but also on our ability to work together to listen, learn and respond to the needs of farmers and society alike.

David Rose receives funding from UKRI (Innovate UK).

Marc Hanheide receives funding from UKRI and the EU Commission, and owns shares in SAGA Robotics.

Simon Pearson receives funding from UKRI. He is Co-Chair of the DEFRA Automation and Robotics Review for Horticulture

Original post published in The Conversation.

In the last online technical talk, Adam Bry and Hayk Martiros from Skydio explained how their company tackles real-world issues when it comes to drone flying.

Abstract

Skydio is the leading US drone company and the world leader in autonomous flight. Our drones are used for everything from capturing amazing video, to inspecting bridges, to tracking progress on construction sites. At the core of our products is a vision-based autonomy system with seven years of development at Skydio, drawing on decades of academic research. This system pushes the state of the art in deep learning, geometric computer vision, motion planning, and control with a particular focus on real-world robustness. Drones encounter extreme visual scenarios not typically considered by academia nor encountered by cars, ground robots, or AR applications. They are commonly flown in scenes with few or no semantic priors and must deftly navigate thin objects, extreme lighting, camera artifacts, motion blur, textureless surfaces, vibrations, dirt, camera smudges, and fog. These challenges are daunting for classical vision – because photometric signals are simply not consistent and for learning-based methods – because there is no ground truth for direct supervision of deep networks. In this talk we’ll take a detailed look at these issues and the algorithms we’ve developed to tackle them. We will also cover the new capabilities on top of our core navigation engine to autonomously map complex scenes and capture all surfaces, by performing real-time 3D reconstruction across multiple flights.

Biography

Adam is co-founder and CEO at Skydio. He has two decades of experience with small UAS, starting as a national champion R/C airplane aerobatics pilot. As a grad student at MIT, he did award winning research that pioneered autonomous flight for drones, transferring much of what he learned as an R/C pilot into software that enables drones to fly themselves. Adam co-founded Google’s drone delivery project. He currently serves on the FAA’s Drone Advisory Committee. He holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Olin College and an SM in Aero/Astro from MIT. He has co-authored numerous technical papers and patents, and was also recognized on MIT’s TR35 list for young innovators.

Hayk was the first engineering hire at Skydio and he leads the autonomy team. He is an experienced roboticist who develops robust approaches to computer vision, deep learning, nonlinear optimization, and motion planning to bring intelligent robots into the mainstream. His team’s state of the art work in UAV visual localization, obstacle avoidance, and navigation of complex scenarios is at the core of every Skydio drone. He also has an interest in systems architecture and symbolic computation. His previous works include novel hexapedal robots, collaboration between robot arms, micro-robot factories, solar panel farms, and self-balancing motorcycles. Hayk is a graduate of Stanford University and Princeton University.

Featuring Guest Panelist: Davide Scaramuzza and Margaritha Chli

The next technical talk is happening this Friday the 12th of March at 3pm EST. Join Chad Jenkins from the University of Michigan in his talk ‘That Ain’t Right: AI Mistakes and Black Lives’ using this link.

Imagine for a moment that a road is used only for a single car and driver. Everything is smooth and wonderful. Then you wake up from that utopian dream and remember that our road networks have multiple cars of varying sizes, from different manufacturers, each with a driver with unique behaviors behind the wheel. We quickly realize that traffic conventions and rules are in place to avoid complete and utter chaos. We believe with increasing robotic use cases in the public domain as we all do see, a similar parallel reality needs to be realized and we propose that RoMi-H, an open-source robot and infrastructure framework that simplifies cross fleet robot collaboration, is the way to achieve this coming reality!

Even before the onset of COVID-19, the number of robots and automation technologies introduced and tested in the healthcare industry has been skyrocketing. Service robots perform an ever increasing and diverse set of tasks; taking on smaller and more sensitive deliveries in some cases and relying more heavily on shared infrastructure such as elevators (lifts), doors, and passageways. No single robotics or automation provider can supply the breadth of solutions required in a modern healthcare facility and no facility can afford to operate siloed systems requiring dedicated infrastructure and operating unique user interfaces. Therein lies the challenge.

ROMI-H allows robots from different vendors to interact with each other as well physical assets in the hospital like elevators. The robots can even avoid gurneys and people.

First announced in July 2018, Robotic Middleware for Healthcare (RoMi-H) is a unique open-source system built on ROS 2 and simulated using the Gazebo simulator. It allows for uniform communication and monitoring across robot platforms, sensors, and enterprise information systems. A brief explanation of this initiative can be found in WIRED Magazine: As Robots Fill the Workplace, They Must Learn to Get Along. In tomorrow’s reality, interoperability must be front and center for every developer, manufacturer, systems integrator, and end-user.

As we have written before:

We need food-delivery robots from one vendor to communicate with drug-delivery robots from another vendor. We need a unified approach to command and control for all the robots in a facility. We need a reliable way to develop and test multi-vendor systems in software simulation prior to deployment. And for it to succeed we need this critical interoperability infrastructure to be open source.

Under the leadership of Singapore’s Centre for Healthcare Assistive and Robotics Technology (CHART) and with collaborators such as IHiS, Hope Technik, GovTech and other solution providers, Open Robotics has been working since 2018 to develop an open-source software solution. Its goal is to realize the potential of a vendor agnostic and interoperable communication system for heterogeneous robots, sensors, and information systems in the healthcare space. To accelerate its development we are encouraging contributions to the open-source codebase to accelerate the development of a robust and sustainable system.

RVIZ Shows each robot’s planned path as well as keep out areas for other robots with ROMI-H

In order to understand the underlying mechanics of RoMi-H, we encourage you to take a look at Programming Multiple Robots with ROS 2. It is being continuously updated and will provide you with a thorough explanation of ROS 2 — upon which RoMi-H is built — and the core Robotics Middleware Framework (RMF) that serves to power RoMi-H. The book also features a tutorial on how one might build a web application that can interface with RoMi-H to create useful applications for robot operators or user-facing tools for the robotics industry.

RoMi-H is able to apply the same software across the different robotic systems while ROS 2 manages the communication and data routing from machine to machine; allowing for real-time, dependable and high-performance data exchanges via a publish-subscribe pattern. Publishers group their messages into different classes and subscribers receive information from the classes of messages they have indicated an interest in. This allows RMF to provide a common platform for integrating heterogeneous robotic systems.

We see the RoMi-H project as a significant step, encouraging an open and integrated approach to robotics development and digitising healthcare. We are looking forward to receiving feedback and contributions from interested parties.

RMF can take a simple map and translate it into a Gazebo simulation. The entire system is powered by ROS 2.

Learn More

A public webinar that introduced RMF and featured a live demonstration took place on 18 August 2020 in the CHART Lab. The presentations and recordings can be viewed here. At the same time, if you are interested in finding out more and viewing the source code, do check out the ROS 2 book and the following repositories:

ROS 2 Book:

• https://osrf.github.io/ros2multirobotbook

Github Repositories:

• RMF: https://github.com/osrf/rmf_core
• Traffic Editor: https://github.com/osrf/traffic_editor
• Free Fleet Management: https://github.com/osrf/free_fleet
• Demo Worlds: https://github.com/osrf/rmf_demos

We would like to acknowledge the Singapore government for their vision and support to start this ambitious research and development project, “Development of Standardised Robotics Middleware Framework – RMF detailed design and common services, large-scale virtual test farm infrastructure, and simulation modelling”. The project is supported by the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the National Robotics Program (NRP).

Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not reflect the views of the NR2PO, MOH or other parties.

VanBoven is one of the ten winners of the Academic Startup Competition 2020, currently on tour in Silicon Valley for a 4-week incubator programme.

“The market of fresh vegetables is one of constant shortages and surpluses. VanBoven predicts the harvest of fresh produce to perfectly align supply and demand. The result is decreased food waste, a resilient value chain and fair prices,” says the startup on its website.

The result is decreased food waste, a resilient value chain and fair prices.

So this firm from The Hague does not favour any particular party in the value chain, even though we do get a sense that it may have special empathy for farmers. What’s unique about the robot-powered predictions made by Klaver and his colleagues, is their cooperative deployment. The models are being used to foster symbiotic relations between all players in the system: growers of fresh vegetables, distributors and processors, agricultural service providers and retailers too. These parties can now all work together to anticipate fluctuations and coordinate a joint response to the unpredictability of nature and markets.

A refreshing proposition that could point towards a more positive future of work.

As an alternative to cutthroat, winner-takes-all capitalism, it seems a refreshing proposition that could point towards a more positive future of work. Maybe today’s tech startups from The Netherlands are not just soaking up insights during their missions to Silicon Valley, but are dishing them out too. ‘How Dutch-style Cosiness Breeds Resilience and Wellbeing’; we can already picture that headline in WIRED.

The Academic Startup Competition is an initiative of the Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU), the Netherlands Academy of Technology and Innovation (AcTI), the Netherlands Federation of University Medical Centres (NFU) and Techleap.nl. It is also supported by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy.

We can already picture that headline in WIRED.

Current winners are Kaminari Medical, IamFluidics, VanBoven, Lusoco, BIMINI, taylor, UCrowds, NC Biomatrix, digi.bio and DeNoize.

The competition aims to highlight the importance of valorisation in the academic world. In addition to a Silicon Valley tour hosted by Holland in the Valley, an ecosystem for Dutch entrepreneurs in the San Francisco Bay Area, the winners are also being showered with perks such as introductions to networks, coaching programmes and the right to carry the title ‘Best Academic Startup of 2020’.

The post What Holland can teach Silicon Valley: a joint response to unpredictability appeared first on RoboValley.

Agility Robotics builds robots that go where people go, to do pragmatically useful work in human environments.  Digit, Agility Robotics’ humanoid robot with both mobility and manipulation capabilities, is commercially available and has been shipping to customers since July 2020. Digit builds on two decades of research and development from the team on human-like dynamic mobility and manipulation, and can handle unstructured indoor and outdoor terrain. Digit is versatile and can do  a range of different jobs that have been designed around a human form factor.

In October 2020, Agility Robotics closed a $20 million Series A round led by DCVC and Playground Global, bringing their total funds raised to $29 million. The investment enables the company to meet the demand from logistics providers, e-commerce retailers and others for robots that can work alongside humans to automate repetitive, physically demanding or dangerous work safely and scalably, even in the majority of spaces that are not purpose-built for automation.

Built Robotics transforms heavy equipment for the $1 trillion earthmoving industry into autonomous robots using its proprietary AI Guidance Systems. Built Robotics combines sensors such as GPS, cameras, and IMUs with advanced software, and the systems can be installed on standard equipment from any manufacturer. The technology allows equipment operators to oversee a fleet of vehicles working autonomously in parallel.

Built Robotics is backed by some of the top investors in Silicon Valley — including Founders Fund, NEA, and Next47 — and has raised over $48M to date. They have targeted markets in which they can have a big impact, such as earthmoving, clean energy, gas pipelines, trenching, and new housing developments. Built Robotics has partnered with one of the largest labor unions in North America, the IUOE, to help train and develop the next generation of equipment operator.

“At the end of the day, robots are just tools in the hands of skilled operators, and we believe that the best-trained workers equipped with our technology will fundamentally change the future of construction,” said Noah Ready-Campbell, CEO of Built Robotics. “Together we can build and maintain the critical infrastructure our country needs.”

Covariant is building the Covariant Brain, a universal AI to give robots the ability to see, reason and act on the world around them. Bringing practical AI Robotics into the physical world is hard. It involves giving robots a level of autonomy that requires breakthroughs in AI research. That’s why Covariant assembled a team that has published cutting-edge research papers at the top AI conferences and journals, with more than 50,000 collective citations. In addition to their research, they’ve also brought together a world-class engineering team to create new types of highly robust, reliable and performant cyber-physical systems.

Instead of learning to master specific tasks separately, Covariant robots learn general abilities such as robust 3D perception, physical affordances of objects, few-shot learning and real-time motion planning. This allows them to adapt to new tasks just like people do — by breaking down complex tasks into simple steps and applying general skills to complete them. In 2020, Covariant raised a $40 million Series B round from investors such as Index Ventures, Lux Capital and Baidu Ventures, bringing their total funding to $67 million. They’ve also developed partnerships with logistics and robotics companies such as Knapp Ag. and ABB, showcasing successful order pick rates at faster than human speeds.

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Self driving technology, the integration of robotics, AI and simulation, is the hardest engineering challenge of our generation. So it’s only fitting that Cruise autonomous vehicles are on the road in San Francisco navigating some of the most challenging and unpredictable driving environments, because the best way to bring self-driving technology to the world is to expose it to the same unique and complex traffic scenarios human drivers face every day.

Cruise became the industry’s first unicorn when GM acquired the company in 2016. Cruise is building the world’s most advanced all-electric, self-driving vehicles to safely connect people with the places, things, and experiences they care about. And in the first three months of the COVID-19 pandemic, Cruise delivered more than 125,000 contactless deliveries of groceries and meals to San Francisco’s most vulnerable underserved populations. And as of December 4, Cruise has started driverless testing in San Francisco. You can see the video here:

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Dishcraft’s mission is to create happy, productive, sustainable workplaces by making automation accessible to food service operations. Dishcraft Daily® delivers a full-service clean-dish ‘dishwashing as a service’ every day to dining operations in business, education, and healthcare, providing measurable environmental benefits compared to using disposable wares.

Dishcraft provides environmental and financial efficiencies for both dine-in and to-go businesses once you calculate the hidden costs of normal restaurant or food service operation. Dishcraft has raised over $25 million from investors including Baseline Ventures, First Round Capital, and Lemnos. The company’s dishwashing as a service is now being used by dozens of companies, including hospitals, around the Bay Area. Since the advent of COVID-19, there’s been an increased demand for food safe and sterile processes in the food service industry.

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Embark technology is already moving freight for five Fortune 500 companies in the southwest U.S. By moving real freight through our purpose-built transfer hubs, we are setting a new standard for how driverless trucks will move freight in the future. Embark has compiled many firsts for automated trucks, including driving across the country, operating in rain and fog, and navigating between transfer hubs. Embark is advancing the state of the art in automated trucks and bringing safe, efficient commercial transport closer every day.

Started as University of Waterloo startup, then at YCombinator, Embark has raised more than $117 million with top investors like DCVC and Sequoia Capital. Embark is assembling a world-class group of engineers from companies like Tesla, Google, Audi and NASA with a professional operations team that averages over a million miles per driver, with the goal of developing a system tailored to the demands of real world trucking.

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Autonomous robots are awesome, but if you want to run a business with them, you’ll need a robust operations platform that connects people, processes, sensors and robots, and provides fleet-wide management, control, and analytics at scale. That is where Formant comes in.

Formant bridges the gap between autonomous systems and the people running them. Our robot data and operations platform provides organizations with a command center that can be used to operate, observe, and analyze the performance of a growing fleet of heterogeneous robots. Empowering customers to deploy faster, scale while reducing overhead, and maximize the value of autonomous robots and the data they collect.

So far in 2020, Formant’s robot data and operations platform is supporting dozens of different customers with a multitude of robot types and is deployed on thousands of autonomous devices worldwide. Formant’s customers span robot manufacturers, robot-as-a-service providers, and enterprises with robotic installations and represent a variety of industries, from energy to agriculture to warehouse automation.

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Iron Ox is an operator of autonomous robotic greenhouses used to grow fresh and pesticide-free farm products that are accessible everywhere. It leverages plant science, machine learning, and robotics to increase the availability, quality, and flavor of leafy greens and culinary herbs that enable consumers to access naturally grown and chemical-free farm products.

Iron Ox is reimagining the modern farm, utilizing robotics and AI to grow fresh, consistent, and responsibly farmed produce for everyone. From the development of multiple robot platforms to their own custom hydroponic, seeding, and harvesting systems, Iron Ox is taking a system-level approach to creating the ideal farm. The company’s experienced team of growers, plant scientists, software engineers, and hardware engineers are passionate about bringing forward this new wave of technology to grow local, affordable fresh produce.

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Robust.AI is building the world’s first industrial grade cognitive engine, with a stellar team that’s attracted $22.5 million in seed and Series A funding from Jazz Ventures, Playground Global, Fontinalis, Liquid 2, Mark Leslie and Jaan Tallis. Robust’s stated mission is to overhaul the software stack that runs many of existing robots, in order to make them function better in complex environments and be safer for operation around humans.

The all-star team of founders are Gary Marcus and Rodney Brooks, both pioneers in AI and robotics, Mohamed Amer from SRI International, Anthony Jules from Formant and Redwood Robotics, and Henrik Christensen author of the US National Robotics Roadmaps.

“Finding market fit is as important in robots and AI systems as any other product,” Brooks said in a statement. “We are building something we believe most robotics companies will find irresistible, taking solutions from single-purpose tools that today function in defined environments, to highly useful systems that can work within our world and all its intricacies.”

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Zipline is a California-based automated logistics company that designs, manufactures, and operates drones to deliver vital medical products. Zipline’s mission is to provide every human on Earth with instant access to vital medical supplies. In 2014, Zipline started flying medical supplies in Africa, and has gone on to fly more than 39,000 deliveries worldwide and raise over $233 million in funding.

Zipline has built the world’s fastest and most reliable delivery drone, the world’s largest autonomous logistics network, and a truly amazing team. Zipline designs and tests its technology in Half Moon Bay, California. The company assembles the drones and the technology that powers its distribution centers in South San Francisco. Zipline performs extensive flight testing in Davis, California, and operates distribution centers around the planet with teams of local operators.

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Zoox is working on the full stack for Robo-taxis, providing mobility-as-a-service. Operating at the intersection of design, computer science, and electro-mechanical engineering, Zoox is a multidisciplinary team working to imagine and build an advanced mobility experience that will support the future needs of urban mobility for both people and the environment.

In December 2018, Zoox became the first company to gain approval for providing self-driving transport services to the public in California. In January 2019, Zoox appointed a new CEO, Aicha Evans, who was previously the Chief Strategy Officer at Intel and became the first African-American CEO of a $1B company. Zoox had raised a total of $1B in funding over 6 rounds and on June 26, 2020, Amazon and Zoox signed a “definitive merger agreement” under which Amazon will acquire Zoox for over $1.2 billion. Zoox’s ground-up technology, which includes developing zero-emission vehicles built specifically for autonomous use, could be used to augment Amazon’s logistics operations.

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You can see the full list of our Good Robot Awards in Innovation, Vision, Commercialization and our Community Champions here at https://svrobo.org/awards and we’ll be sharing articles about each category of award winners throughout the week.

Self-driving vehicles would not be possible without sensors and so it’s not surprising to see two small new sensors in the 2020 Silicon Valley Robotics ‘Good Robot’ Innovation Awards, the Velabit from Velodyne and the nanoScan3 from SICK. We showcase three other innovations in component technology, the FHA-C with Integrated Servo Drive from Harmonic Drive, the radically new Inception Drive from SRI International and Qualcomm’s RB5 Processor, all ideal for building robots.

Our other Innovation Awards go to companies with groundbreakingly new robots; from the tensegrity structure of Squishy Robotics, which will help in both space exploration and disaster response on earth, to the Dusty Robotics full scale FieldPrinter for the construction industry, and Titan from FarmWise for agriculture, which was also named one of Time’s Best Inventions for 2020. Finally, we’re delighted to see innovation in robotics that is affordable and collaborative enough for home robot applications, with Stretch from Hello Robot and Eve from Halodi Robotics.

The Velabit, a game-changing lidar sensor, leverages Velodyne’s innovative lidar technology and manufacturing partnerships for cost optimization and high-volume production, to make high-quality 3D lidar sensors readily accessible to everyone. The Velabit is smaller than a deck of playing cards, and it shatters the price barrier, costing $100.00 per sensor. The compact, mid-range Velabit is highly configurable for specialized use cases and can be embedded almost anywhere. Gatik and May Mobility are just two of pioneers in autonomous vehicle technology using Velodyne Lidar.

The nanoScan3 from SICK is the world’s smallest safety laser scanner and is based on their latest patented Time-Of-Flight technology. Not only does it provide the most robust protection for stationary and mobile robots, but being a LiDAR, it simultaneously supports navigation and other measurement-based applications.

Founded in 1946, SICK sensors help robots make more intelligent decisions and give them the ability to sense objects, the environment, or their own position. SICK, and their west coast distributor EandM, offer solutions for all challenges in the field of robotics: Robot Vision, Safe Robotics, End-of-Arm Tooling, and Position Feedback.

The FHA-C Mini Series from Harmonic Drive is a family of extremely compact actuators that deliver high torque with exceptional accuracy and repeatability. The revolutionary FHA-C with Integrated Servo Drive eliminates the need for an external drive and greatly improves wiring while retaining high-positional accuracy and torsional stiffness in a compact housing. This new mini actuator product is ideal for use in robotics.

The Qualcomm Robotics RB5 Platform supports the development of the next generation of high-compute, AI-enabled, low power robots and drones for the consumer, enterprise, defense, industrial and professional service sectors that can be connected by 5G. The QRB5165 processor, customized for robotics applications, offers a powerful heterogeneous computing architecture coupled with the leading 5th generation Qualcomm® Artificial Intelligence (AI) Engine delivering 15 Trillion Operations Per Second (TOPS) of AI performance. It’s designed to achieve peak performance while being able to also support small battery-operated robots with challenging power and thermal dissipation requirements. The platform offers support for Linux, Ubuntu and Robot Operating System (ROS) 2, as well as pre-integrated drivers for various cameras, sensors and connectivity.

The latest breakthrough from SRI Robotics is a novel ultra-compact, infinitely variable transmission that is an order of magnitude smaller and lighter than existing technologies. The Inception Drive is a new transmission that can reverse the direction of the output relative to input without clutches or extra stages, dramatically increasing total system efficiency in applications including robotics, transportation, and heavy industry.

Squishy Robotics’ rapidly deployable, air-droppable, mobile sensor robots provide lifesaving, cost-saving information in real time, enabling faster, better-informed data-driven decisions. The company’s robots provide first responders with location and chemical sensor data as well as the visual information needed to safely plan a mitigation response, all from a safe distance away from the “hot zones.” The scalable and reconfigurable robots can carry customized, third-party equipment (e.g., COTS sensors, emergency medical aid supplies, or specialized radio components) in a variety of deployment scenarios.

The company’s first target market is the HazMat and CBRNE (chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive) response market, enabling lifesaving maneuvers and securing the safety of first responders by providing situational awareness and sensor data in uncharted terrains. The robots can be quickly deployed by ground or be dropped from drones or other aerial vehicles and then be used in a variety of ways, including remote monitoring, disaster response, and rescue assistance. A spin-off of prior work with NASA on robots for space exploration, the company’s Stationary Robot has been successfully dropped from airplanes from heights of up to 1,000 ft; the company’s Mobile Robot can traverse rugged and uneven territory.

Dusty Robotics develops innovative robotics technology that power the creation of high-accuracy mobile printers for the construction industry. Dusty’s novel robotics algorithms enable the system to achieve 1-millimeter precision printing construction layout on concrete decks, which is a breakthrough in the industry.

Construction industry veterans who are normally skeptical about new innovations have all embraced Dusty’s FieldPrinter as the solution to critical problems in the industry. Layout today involves a number of manual steps, each of which has the potential to introduce errors into the process. Errors increase building cost and delay time to completion. Dusty’s robotic layout printer automates the BIM->field workflow and is poised to be the first widely adopted robotic technology in the field across the construction industry.

For vegetable growers who face increased growing costs and new environmental and regulatory pressures, the FarmWise suite of data-driven services harnesses plant-level data to drive precise field actions in order to streamline farm operations and increase food production efficiency.

Titan FT-35, the automated weeding robot from FarmWise Labs, has just been named one of Time Magazine’s ‘Best Inventions of 2020’. Titan consists of a driverless tractor and a smart implement that uses deep learning to detect crops from weeds and mechanically removes weeds from farmers’ fields. Thanks to the trust and collaborative effort of visionary growers, the FarmWise idea of a machine that could kill weeds without using chemicals went from a proof-of-concept to a commercialized product.

Hello Robot has reinvented the mobile manipulator. In July 2020 they launched Stretch, the first capable, portable, and affordable mobile manipulator designed specifically to assist people in the home and workplace. At a fraction the cost, size, and weight of previous capable mobile manipulators, Stretch’s novel design is a game changer.

Stretch has a low mass, contact-sensitive body with a compact footprint and slender telescopic manipulator, so that it weighs only 51lb. Stretch is ready for autonomous operation as well as teleoperation, with Python interfaces, ROS integration and open source code. In the future, mobile manipulators will enhance the lives of older adults, people with disabilities, and caregivers. Hello Robot is working to build a bridge to this future.

Halodi Robotics has developed the EVE humanoid robot platform using its patented REVO1 actuators to enable truly capable and safe humanoid robots. The robots have been commercialized, and the first commercial customer pilots are being planned for next year in security, health care and retail.

By developing a new actuator and differential rope based transmission systems, the company has overcome many of the obstacles preventing the development of capable and safe robots. Impact energies of less than a thousandth of comparable systems means that the system can be inherently safe around humans and in human environments.

Halodi Robotics is using the EVE platform to pilot humanoid robotics into new areas while their next generation robot Sarah is being developed for 2022 launch.

You can see the full list of our Good Robot Awards in Innovation, Vision, Commercialization and our Community Champions here at https://svrobo.org/awards and we’ll be sharing articles about each category of award winners throughout the week.

OAKLAND, California, Dec. 14, 2020 /Press Release/ — Silicon Valley Robotics, the world’s largest cluster of innovation in robotics, announces the inaugural ‘Good Robot’ Industry Awards, celebrating the robotics, automation and Artificial Intelligence (AI) that will help us solve global challenges. These 52 companies and individuals have all contributed to innovation that will improve the quality of our lives, whether it’s weed-free pesticide-free farming, like FarmWise or Iron Ox; supporting health workers and the elderly manage health care treatment regimes, like Catalia Health or Multiply Labs; or reimagining the logistics industry so that the transfer of physical goods becomes as efficient as the transfer of information, like Cruise, Embark, Matternet and Zipline. 

Mabu from Catalia Health helps treat a patient. (image from Catalia Health)

The categories Innovation, Vision and Commercialization represent the stages robotics companies go through, firstly with an innovative technology or product, then with a vision to change the world (and occasionally the investment to match), and finally with real evidence of customer traction. The criteria for our Commercialization Award is achieving $1 million in revenue, which is a huge milestone for a startup building a new invention. 

Titan agribot from FarmWise weeding fields in California. (image from FarmWise)

Tessa Lau, Founder and CEO of Dusty Robotics, an Innovation Awardee said “We’re almost there. $1 million in revenue is our next goal.” Dusty Robotics’ FieldPrinter automates the painstaking, time-consuming process of marking building plans in the field, replacing a traditional process using measuring tape and chalk lines that hasn’t changed in 5000 years. The company’s vision of creating robot-powered tools for the modern construction workforce resonates strongly with commercial construction companies. Dusty’s robot fleet is now in production, producing highly accurate layouts in record time on every floor of two multi-family residential towers going up in San Francisco.

The FieldPrinter from Dusty Robotics drawing plans. (image from Dusty Robotics)

The SVR ‘Good Robot’ Industry Awards also highlight diverse robotics companies. In our Visionary Category, Zoox is the first billion dollar company led by an African-American woman, Aicha Evans, and Robust AI shows diversity at every level of the organization. Diversity of thought will be critical as Robust AI tackles the challenge of building a cognitive engine for robotics that incorporates common sense reasoning. 

“Robotics and AI will shape the next century in the same way the Industrial revolution shaped the 20th century. To create a future that amplifies human potential, the full spectrum of human perspective needs to contribute to the design process. This is fundamental to how we are building Robust.AI” explains COO Anthony Jules. 

PR2 robots ‘graduate’ from Willow Garage before going to universities around the world.

We also wanted to highlight the community in robotics with our Champion Award, because as Silicon Valley Robotics Managing Director Andra Keay says, “In robotics, we’re always standing on the shoulders of giants. And many of these contributions go unrecognized outside of the robotics community. We depend on a strong community to help startups cross the chasm to commercialization, and so we want to recognize our Champions, starting with Willow Garage, which was the Fairchild of the 21st century.” 

Willow Garage had a massive impact on robotics in seven short years, from 2006 to 2013. Not only did they produce ROS, now maintained by Open Robotics, but alumni of Willow Garage can be found in the core teams of almost every groundbreaking new robotics company. Some, like Fetch Robotics, winner of our Overall Excellence Award and pioneer in autonomous mobile robots for logistics, achieved the full cycle from startup to ground breaking industry leader in only five short years. By 2018, Fetch Robotics was named a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum, and is winner of our Award for Overall Excellence along with Ambidextrous.

Fetch Robotics now produces an entire family of robots. (image from Fetch Robotics)

Ambidextrous looks likely to follow the same successful trajectory as Fetch, but focused on manipulation instead of autonomous mobility. Ambidextrous is spinning out research from the University of California Berkeley, that uses AI and simulation to solve the ‘pick problem’ for handling real world items. At only two years old, Ambidextrous is already piloting solutions for significant customers. Two other UC Berkeley startups made our inaugural award list, Squishy Robotics and Covariant.ai, highlighting the large amount of robotics research happening in the Bay Area, in more than fifty robotics research labs. 

Dr Ayanna Howard, Chair of the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech, soon to be Dean of Engineering at Ohio State University. (image from Dr Howard)

Hopefully, this will lead to more good robots solving global challenges. As one of our Champions, Dr Ayanna Howard says, “I believe that every engineer has a responsibility to make the world a better place. We are gifted with an amazing power to take people’s wishes and make them a reality.”

The full details of the 52 Awardees in the 2020 Silicon Valley Robotics ‘Good Robot’ Industry Awards can be seen at https://svrobo.org/awards . 

Overall Excellence Award:

Fetch Robotics 

Ambidextrous 

Innovation Award:

Eve – Halodi
FHA-C with Integrated Servo Drive – Harmonic Drive LLC
FieldPrinter – Dusty Robotics
Inception Drive – SRI International
nanoScan3 – SICK
QRB5 – Qualcomm
Stretch – Hello Robot
Tensegrity Robots – Squishy Robotics
Titan – FarmWise
Velabit – Velodyne Lidar Inc.

Visionary Award:

Agility Robotics
Built Robotics
Covariant.ai
Cruise
Dishcraft Robotics
Embark
Formant
Iron Ox
Robust.ai
Zipline
Zoox

Commercialization Award:

Canvas
Catalia Health
Haddington Dynamics
Kindred.ai
Matternet
Multiply Labs
OhmniLabs
Simbe Robotics
Ubiquity Robotics

Entrepreneurship Award:

Yateou

Community Champion Award:

Companies:

NASA Intelligent Robotics Group
Open Robotics
PickNik Robotics
Robohub
SICK
Willow Garage (best to see the Red Hat series How to Start a Robot Revolution)

Individuals:

Alex Padilla
Ayanna Howard
Evan Ackerman
Frank Tobe
Henrik Christensen
Joy Buolamwini
Katherine Scott
Khari Johnson
Louise Poubel
Mark Martin
Rodney Brooks
Rumman Chowdhury
Timnit Gebru

About Silicon Valley Robotics

Silicon Valley Robotics (SVR) supports the innovation and commercialization of robotics technologies, as a non-profit industry association. Our first strategic plan focused on connecting startups with investment, and since our founding in 2010, our membership has grown tenfold, reflecting our success in increasing investment into robotics. We believe that with robotics, we can improve productivity, meet labor shortages, get rid of jobs that treat humans like robots and finally create precision, personalized food, mobility, housing and health technologies. For more information, please visit https://svrobo.org

SOURCE: Silicon Valley Robotics (SVR)

PRESS CONTACT: Andra Keay andra@svrobo.org

In this episode, Abate interviews Josh Lessing, co-founder and CEO of Root AI. At Root AI they are developing a system that tracks data on the farm and autonomously harvests crops using delicate grippers and computer vision. Lessing talks about the path they took to build a product with good market fit and how they brought a venture capital backed startup to market.

Josh Lessing

Josh is one of the world’s leading minds on developing robotics and AI systems for the food industry, previously serving as the Director of R&D at Soft Robotics Inc. His current venture, Root AI, is integrating advanced robotics, vision systems and machine perception to automate agriculture. Josh was a Postdoctoral Fellow in Materials Science & Robotics at Harvard University, having earned his Ph.D. studying Biophysics & Physical Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and received an Sc.B. in Chemistry from Brown University.

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It’s Ada Lovelace Day and once again we’re delighted to introduce you to “30 women in robotics you need to know about”! From 13 year old Avye Couloute to Bala Krishnamurthy who worked alongside the ‘Father of Robotics’ Joseph Engelberger in the 1970s & 1980s, these women showcase a wide range of roles in robotics. We hope these short bios will provide a world of inspiration, in our eighth Women in Robotics list! 

In 2020, we showcase women in robotics in China, Japan, Malaysia, Israel, Australia, Canada, United States, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Israel, Norway, Spain, The Netherlands, India and Iran. There are researchers, industry leaders, and artists. Some women are at the start of their careers, while others have literally written the book, the program or the standards.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Members of the Kennedy Space Center government-industry team rise from their consoles within the Launch Control Center to watch the Apollo 11 liftoff through a window. Photo credit: NASA

We publish this list because the lack of visibility of women in robotics leads to the unconscious perception that women aren’t making newsworthy contributions. We encourage you to use our lists to help find women for keynotes, panels, interviews etc. Sadly, the daily experience of most women in robotics still looks like this famous NASA control room shot from the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing, with one solitary woman in the team. It has taken sixty years for the trailblazers like Joann Morgan, Katherine G. Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson and Poppy Northcutt to become well known. And finally now we have a woman, Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, serving as Launch Director for the upcoming Artemis Mission, and another, Gwynne Shotwell, serving as President and COO of SpaceX.

In celebration of Women’s History Month, the “Women of Launch Control” working in Exploration Ground Systems take time out of their Artemis I launch planning to pose for a photo in Firing Room 1 of the Launch Control Center at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on March 4, 2020. Artemis I will be the first integrated flight test of the Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System rocket, the system that will ultimately land the first woman and the next man on the Moon. Photo credit: NASA/Glenn Benson

In 2019, women still accounted for less than a quarter (23.6%) of those working in natural and applied sciences and related occupations. In these occupations, women earned, on average, \$0.76 to every \$1.00 earned by men in annual wages, salaries, and commissions in 2018. [ref Catalyst.org ]

This issue is even more pervasive and devastating if you are a person of color. We have always strived to showcase a wide range of origins and ethnicities in our annual list, and this year, as well as four African American roboticists, our list includes the first African American female CEO of a company valued over $1Billion USD. This is just a small step forward, but we’re pleased to announce the recent launch of the Black in Robotics organization, as well as greater recognition of the citation problem.

The citation problem is expected to significantly disadvantage women and people of color due to the historical lack of women followed by the recent growth of large scientific teams, multiplying exclusion. For example, Nature recently published a paper on the impact of NumPy, a significant scientific resource. NumPy was originally developed by many contributors. But the authoritative citation is likely to belong to this description paper, which has 26 authors, all male. [ref Space Australia]

On a positive note, many individuals and organizations intentionally try to reverse this bias. For example, Tulane University just published a guide to help you calculate how much of your reading list includes female authors and a citation guide, similar to the CiteHer campaign from BlackComputeher.org.  And as Bram Vanderborght, editor of IEEE Robotics and Automation magazine pointed out in the March 2020 issue, “Scientists are starting to consider how gender biases materialize in physical robots. The danger is that robot makers, consciously or not, may reinforce gender stereotypes and inadvertently create even greater deterrents for young, underrepresented people interested in joining our field.”

We hope you are inspired by these profiles, and if you want to work in robotics too, please join us at Women in Robotics. We are now a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, but even so, this post wouldn’t be possible if not for the hard work of volunteers; Andra Keay, Hallie Siegel, Sabine Hauert, Sunita Pokharel, Ioannis Erripis, Ron Thalanki and Daniel Carrillo Zapata.

Fatemeh Pahlevan Aghababa CTO and co-founder at Intelize | Technical Committee Head of International Robocup Federation | Technical Lead at Farakav co. Fatemeh Pahlevan Aghababa is CTO and co-founder of Intelize startup which provides AI-powered solutions such as Ribona whose mission is to make a difference in Industry 4.0 via novel technologies. She is an active researcher in intelligent systems and cognitive robotic fields, and received the Silvia Coradeschi Robocup Award for “the young female scientists with distinguishing research in AI and robotics”. She is the Technical Committee Head of the International Robocup Federation, and has won the RoboCup World Championship for two consecutive years in Rescue Simulation League. Pahlevan was named among Rising Stars in VentureBeat’s Women in AI Awards.

Ariel Anders Roboticist – Robust.AI Ariel Anders is a black feminist roboticist who enjoys spending time with her family and artistic self-expression. Anders is the first roboticist hired at Robust.AI, an early stage robotics startup building the world’s first industrial grade cognitive engine. Anders received a BS in Computer Engineering from UC Santa Cruz and her Doctorate in Computer Science from MIT, where she taught project-based collaborative robotics courses, developed an iOS app for people with vision impairment, and received a grant to install therapy lamps across campus. Her research focused on reliable robotic manipulation with the vision of enabling household helpers.

Carlotta Berry Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering – Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Carlotta Berry, professor at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, helped found and co-directs the Rose Building Undergraduate Diversity (ROSE-BUD) program with a goal of recruitment, retention and professional development of historically marginalized and minoritized populations in computer science, computer, electrical and computer engineering. Berry also worked with faculty to create Rose-Hulman’s first multidisciplinary minor in robotics and has judged and organized FIRST Robotics competitions. Berry’s research is focused on educational mobile robotics, human-robot interaction and interfaces. Berry has also mentored and organized robotics programs for Girl Scout groups and visited elementary, middle, and high schools to motivate student’s interests in STEM.

Avye Couloute Gen Arm 2Z Ambassador/ Founder of Girls into Coding Avye Couloute is a multitalented 13-year-old, with a passion for coding from the age of 7. Avye founded Girls into Coding which is a volunteer event series empowering girls with the tools and skills to get in the tech industry. She has facilitated online and offline robotics workshops as well as raising money to provide textbooks and computer starter kits. Avye, a Gen Arm 2Z Ambassador, is also the recipient of The Diana Award’s Legacy Award and the winner of the 2020 FDM Everywoman in Technology Awards.

Yael Edan Professor, Head of ABC Robotics Lab – Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) Yael Edan, professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev is Head of the Agricultural, Biological, and Cognitive Robotics Initiative. Her research is specifically focused on agricultural robotics, human-robot cooperation, systems engineering of robotics systems and adaptive sensor selection and fusion. Edan has made major contributions in the introduction and application of intelligent automation and robotic systems to the field of agriculture with several patents. Edan has been involved in many international projects, is a member of IEEE RAS and a member of ASABE where she was the Chair of the Flexible Automation and Robotics/Mechatronics and BioRobotics committees.

Autumn Edwards Professor – Western Michigan University Autumn Edwards researches how ontological considerations, or people’s beliefs about the nature of communicators and of communication, both shape and are shaped by their interactions with social robots, as an emergent class of digital interlocutor. She is co-founder/co-director of the Communication and Social Robotics Labs (combotlab.org), Professor of Communication at Western Michigan University, and founding Editor-in-Chief of the journal Human-Machine Communication. She inspires passionate support from students and fellow staff, receiving the University Distinguished Teaching Award (2014), the Kim Giffin Research Award from the University of Kansas and was designated a Claude Kantner Research Fellow at Ohio University.

Marwa ElDiwiny Researcher – University of Twente Marwa ElDiwiny is a PhD researcher at Vrije Universiteit Brussel whose current research focus is on modelling and simulating self-healing soft materials for industrial applications. Her master thesis was UAV anti-stealth technology for safe operation. She has worked as a research engineer at Inria, Lille nord Europe, research scholar at Tartu Institute of Technology and lecturer in the Mechatronics and Industrial Robotics Program at Minia university, Egypt. Eldiwiny hosts the IEEE RAS Soft Robotics Podcast where researchers from both academia and industry are interviewed about the soft robotics field, with over 94 episodes available.

Aicha Evans CEO – Zoox Aicha Evans is the CEO of Zoox, the company developing purpose-built, zero-emission autonomous vehicles with end to end autonomy software stack. Evans is a former senior vice president and chief strategy officer at Intel Corporation where she drove Intel’s long-term strategy to transform from a PC-centric company to a data-centric company. Evans spent 10 years in various engineering management positions at Rockwell Semiconductors, Conexant, and Skyworks, before Intel. Evans is also on the Supervisory Board of SAP and is the first AfricanAmerican female CEO of a billion dollar company.

Elena Garcia Armada Co-Founder – Marsi Bionics. Senior Researcher – Centre for Automation and Robotics Elena Garcia Armada is a tenured researcher at the Spanish National Research Council and co-founder of Marsi Bionics. She is an expert in pediatric exoskeletons optimized for active gait rehabilitation of children suffering from neuromuscular diseases. She has won over 30 awards, is a member of the Innovation and Knowledge Transfer Working Group of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, a member of the Industrial Activities Board of IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, and on the jury of the Princess of Asturias Scientific and Technical Research Awards. She is passionate about helping children walk again.

Keiko Homma Senior Researcher Service Robotics Research Team, Robot Innovation Research Center – AIST Keiko Homma is a senior researcher at AIST in the Assistive Robotics Research Team, Human Augmentation Research Center. She received B.Sc and Ph.D degrees in Engineering from the University of Tokyo, and was a visiting researcher at Aalto University. Her current research interests include assistive and robot systems, particularly their safety aspects, and has developed a risk assessment tool for assistive robots and test dummies for exoskeleton typed physical assistant robots. She is also an IEEE RAS Distinguished Lecturer.

Michelle J. Johnson Associate Professor & Director of Rehabilitation Robotics Lab – University of Pennsylvania Michelle J. Johnson is an associate professor of the departments of physical medicine and rehabilitation, and of bioengineering at University of Pennsylvania, and directs the Rehabilitation Robotic Research and Design Laboratory in the Pennsylvania Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine which is affiliated with the General Robotics, Automation, Sensing & Perception (GRASP) Lab. Johnson’s PhD is in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University. Her research specialization is in the design, development, and therapeutic use of novel, affordable, intelligent robotic assistants to quantify upper limb motor function in adults and children at risk of or with brain injury. She is also a US Fulbright Scholar.

Hadas Kress-Gazit Associate Professor – Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and ICRA2022 Program Chair Hadas Kress-Gazit is an Associate Professor at the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University. Her research focuses on formal methods for robotics and automation and more specifically on synthesis for robotics – automatically creating verifiable robot controllers for complex high-level tasks. Her group explores different types of robotic systems including modular robots, soft robots and swarms, and synthesizes ideas from robotics, formal methods, control, hybrid systems and human-robot interaction. She has received multiple recognitions and awards for her research, her teaching and her advocacy for groups traditionally underrepresented in robotics.

Bala Krishnamurthy CEO – Mobile Software Inc Bala Krishnamurthy is a pioneer in robotics. From her early days at Unimation to her current role as CEO of Mobile Software. Krishnamurthy has over 40 years of experience in researching, designing and developing embedded real-time systems and software. She adapted the VAL language designed for PUMA robots to the hydraulic Unimate robots, then led the team at Engelberger’s HelpMate Robotics developing the software that allowed autonomous courier robots to navigate throughout hospitals. Krishnamurthy was also a member of NASA’s Office of Exploration Systems research proposal review panel for Human and Robotic Technology and authored dozens of technical articles.

Sam MacDonald President – Deep Trekker Sam MacDonald is President and cofounder of Deep Trekker, a Canadian made ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) for economical underwater robotic exploration. After working in automation and at Blackberry in marketing, Macdonald founded her own marketing leadership company. She then started Deep Trekker in 2009 taking it from garage to global company. Today, Deep Trekker has expanded into a host of verticals, including aquaculture, commercial diving, salvage, military, first responders, oil and gas, energy, marine surveying, wastewater, infrastructure and recreation, and sells products in 80 countries.

Karon Maclean Professor – University of British Columbia, Director – SPIN The Sensory Perception and Interaction Research Group Karon MacLean is a Professor in Computer Science at UBC, with degrees in Biology and Mechanical Engineering and time spent as a professional robotics engineer and haptics / interaction researcher at Interval Research, Palo Alto. MacLean’s research specializes in haptic interaction: cognitive, sensory and affective design for people interacting with the computation we touch, emote and move with and learn from, from robots to touchscreens and the situated environment. MacLean leads UBC’s Designing for People interdisciplinary research cluster and is Special Advisor, Innovation, and Knowledge Mobilization to UBC’s Faculty of Science.

Chris Macnab Associate Professor – University of Calgary Chris Macnab is an associate professor at the University of Calgary. She earned a BEng in Engineering Physics from the Royal Military College of Canada and a PhD from the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies, where she investigated control of flexible-joint space robots using neural networks. Macnab has worked as a control systems designer for Dynacon Enterprises, as part of a team that developed and tested a control system for an antenna on the space station. She has also worked for CRS Robotics, programming robot movements. Macnab’s specialization is in control systems, motion control, and robotics.

Shauna McIntyre CEO – Sense Photonics Shauna McIntyre is CEO at Sense Photonics, developer of high-performance, scalable 3D vision systems with offices in San Francisco, North Carolina and the UK. She is an automotive industry veteran who has led Google’s automotive services and Google Maps’ automotive programs. Mclntyre was also Chief of Staff for Google’s consumer electronics division and serves on the Board of Directors of Lithia Motors. Mclntyre brings a track record of driving innovation in traditional industries and a long-standing mission to deliver new, breakthrough experiences to industrial and automotive companies through intelligent hardware.

Elena Messina Group Leader, Manipulation & Mobility – National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Elena Messina leads the Intelligent Systems Division’s Manipulation & Mobility Systems Group at the US National Institute of Standards and Technology. She also manages the Engineering Laboratory’s Robotic Systems for Smart Manufacturing Program. Messina founded key efforts to develop test methodologies for measuring performance of robots, which range from long-term use of robotic competitions to drive innovation to consensus standards for evaluating robotic components and systems. Messina has received three Department of Commerce Bronze Medals for Superior Performance and Technical Leadership, and the Edward Bennet Rosa Award for research and development leading to standardized test methods for emergency response robots.

Linda Nagata SciFi Writer, Owner – Mythic Island Press Linda Nagata is a science fiction and fantasy writer from Hawaii, best known for her high-tech science fiction, including the far-future adventure series, Inverted Frontier, and the near-future thriller, The Last Good Man. Nagata is most recognized for her Nanotech Succession series, which is considered exemplary of the Nanopunk genre. Nagata’s work has been nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, John W. Campbell Memorial, and Theodore Sturgeon Memorial awards. She has also won the Nebula award, and is a two-time Locus award winner.

Samia Nefti-Meziani Founder and Head, Professor – Salford University,University of Salford’s Autonomous Systems and Advances Robotics Research Centre Samia Nefti-Meziani is a Professor at Salford University UK, where she is founder of the ASAR Centre. She is a veteran and one of the pioneers in Soft Robotics and low cost cross-sectorial robotics systems and their application in many sectors including Manufacturing, Nuclear, Space, Autonomous cars and Healthcare. Nefti-Meziani runs several large UK and European research programs, and regularly appears on TV and radio. She is also a Cofounder and Executive Board Member of the UK’s National Robotics Network, former Vice Chairman of IEEE RAS UK and a member of the UK-Government Robotics Growth Partnership.

Nicci Rossouw CEO – Exaptec Nicci Rossouw is CEO and founder of Exaptec, a provider of social, service and telepresence robots. Rossouw specializes in robotics automation solution design and delivery using a Robotics-as-a-Service as a business model. Rossouw has provided robotic telepresence solutions to educational facilities and businesses to augment communication and movement for disabled and incapacitated people. Exaptec was one of Westpac’s top Businesses of Tomorrow winners.

Yulia Sandamirskaya Applications Research Lead, Neuromorphic Computing Lab – Intel Labs Yulia Sandamirskaya is a senior researcher at Intel Labs leading a group developing applications of Intel’s neuromorphic research chips. Sandamirskaya was also a group leader in the Institute of Neuroinformatics at the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich. Sandamirskaya specializes in perception, movement control, memory formation, and learning in embodied neuronal systems, and implemented neuronal architectures in neuromorphic devices, interfaced with robotic sensors and motors. Sandamirskaya has served as the chair of EUCOG, the European Society for Artificial Cognitive Systems, and as coordinator of the NEUROTECH project.

Katherine Scott Developer Advocate – Open Robotics Katherine Scott is a Developer Advocate at Open Robotics, the maintainers of ROS and Ignition Gazebo, and sits on the board of the Open Source Hardware Association. Scott was Cofounder and Software Lead at Tempo Automation, a manufacturer of low-volume electronics, served as Director of Research and Development at Sight Machine, a leader in manufacturing analytics, and worked as a computer vision engineer. Along the way, Scott developed a large part of the SimpleCV Python library, and several innovative software prototypes in the fields of computer vision, graphics, augmented reality, and robotics.

Hazlina Selamat Associate Professor – Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Director – Apt Touch Sdn Bhd, Research Fellow – Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (CAIRO) Hazlina Selamat is an Associate Professor at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, an active member of the university’s Centre for Artificial Intelligence & Robotics (CAIRO), Founding Member for the Malaysian Society for Automatic Control Engineers (MACE). She is the co-founder and Director of Apt Touch Sdn Bhd, a company that designs, develops, and manufactures fuel injection systems for small engines. Her projects include developing the optimization engine for an energy management system, and the pre-commercialization of a retrofit fuel injection kit for carburetor engines. Her interests are adaptive control, online system identification and application of control to the high-order and nonlinear systems.

Elizabeth Sklar Research Director and Professor – Agrirobotics and University of Lincoln and Kings College of London Elizabeth Sklar is a Professor at the University of Lincoln and King’s College London, UK, where she heads the Centre for Robotics Research. Sklar is a veteran of MIT/Lincoln Lab, a Founder Trustee of the RoboCup Federation, a Fulbright Scholar 2013-2014, former member of the Board of Directors for the IFAAMAS, and sits on the Editorial Board for the Journal of Autonomous Agents & MultiAgent Systems. Sklar specializes in interaction for multi-robot and human-robot systems, and shared decision making by applying computational argumentation-based dialogue to human-agent and human-robot systems.

Allison Thackston Staff Software Engineer, Manager Shared Autonomy – Waymo Allison Thackston has a passion for solving practical problems with robotics. She currently leads a team solving some of the toughest problems in self-driving technology at Waymo. Thackston was previously the Engineering Lead and Manager of the Shared Autonomy Robotics team at Toyota Research Institute and was the Lead Engineer for Robotic Perception on Robonaut 2, the first humanoid robot on the International Space Station. Thackston is experienced in robust task and motion planning, manipulation, and applied computer vision.

Liane Thompson CEO – Aquaai Norway AS Liane Thompson is the CEO of Aquaai, a marine robotics company that uses data to improve our understanding of ocean health by collecting and delivering real-time visual and environmental data to a web-based dashboard. Thompson’s company has grown from a daughter’s idea into a full-fledged production, with a global VC backed brand. Norwegian salmon producer Kvarøy Fiskeoppdrett is working with Aquaai’s bio-inspired finned robots to monitor fish behavior and conditions at their fish farms. Aquaai has been awarded Top Aquaculture Innovation Award 2019 Fish2.0 Global Forum, an Innovation Norway grant, as well as being selected to Australia’s TekFish Challenge.

Claire Tomlin Charles A. Desoer Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences – UC Berkeley Claire Tomlin is a professor at the University of California Berkeley, where she holds the Charles A. Desoer Chair in Engineering. She specializes in control of safety-critical systems applied to air traffic control automation and unmanned air systems, and is known for her pioneering work developing methods for verifying the safe range of operation for hybrid systems. Tomlin is a MacArthur Foundation Fellow, a Fellow of the IEEE and AIMBE, a member of the US National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She received the IEEE Transportation Technologies Award, and an honorary doctorate from KTH.

Janet Wiles Professor – University of Queensland Janet Wiles is Professor of Complex and Intelligent Systems at the University of Queensland, where she leads a multidisciplinary team studying social robotics and has pioneered the use of robots in Indigenous communities. She also leads the Future Technologies thread at the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language developing Human Centred AI for language technologies and making AI tools available to a broad range of users. She is in the Human Centred Computing discipline in UQ’s School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering. Wiles specializes in human-robot interaction, language technologies, bio-inspired computation, visualization and artificial intelligence, complex systems modelling in biology and neuroscience, human memory, language, and cognition.

Rong Xiong Professor at Zhejiang University – Institute of Cyber Systems and Control, Zhejiang University Rong Xiong is a professor and head of the Robotics Laboratory at Zhejiang University, co-director of the ZJU-UTS Joint Center on Robotics Research, international trustee of RoboCup, and expert member for a special project on intelligent robots. Ministry for Science and Technology, China. Her group is known for their work developing humanoid robots that can play table tennis with each other and also compete with human players. Xiong received first prizes at the Scientific and Technological Award, and Teaching Achievement of Zhejiang Province. Xiong’s research specialization includes visual recognition, simultaneous localization and mapping, motion planning, and control for robots.

Want to keep reading? There are 180 more stories on our 2013 to 2019 lists. Why not nominate someone for inclusion next year!

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“Grocery workers are risking their safety, often for poverty-level wages, so the rest of us can shelter in place,” said John Logan, director of labor and employment studies at San Francisco State University. “The only way the rest of us are able to stay home is because they’re willing to go to work.” [Washington Post April 12 2020]

In our April 7th edition of “COVID-19, robots and us”, we heard from Linda Pouliot, CEO and founder of Dishcraft Robotics and Vipin Jain, CEO and founder of Blendid. Both provided us with insights into robotics in the food industry and the difficulties and joys of adapting robots to COVID-19 work.

Dishcraft Robotics is Linda Pouliot’s fourth startup, and second robotics startup. She previously cofounded Neato Robotics, the number two player in automated vacuuming. Dishcraft Robotics is a clean dish delivery service for cafeterias, or large kitchens. On a daily basis they deliver customized clean dishes to the customer, they collect the dirty dishes, and return them to a central hub where custom robots wash them.

“We initially thought we would develop the robot and install it directly into dish rooms. And then we found that it was a really high hurdle for an operation to have a big capital expense, and that we could solve their problem in a really frictionless way, by simply doing the delivery because there’s no upfront cost for them. There is no risk for them to try it. And in fact, we give a free couple week trial and we have found that once you start with dish craft, you immediately convert because the service solves all their labor problems, it also is more sustainable. And in today’s environment, it’s very, very sanitary.”

“We give them carts full of clean dishes, they are our dishes that are proprietary. The way our robots work is using magnetics. And so it requires using our specialized wares. And so we just bring in flexible, clean dishes and we give them a collection system where they can drop off. It’s very organized, it’s ADA compliant. It’s pretty space saving compared to where people normally store their dishes. So it’s worked really well for us. And that means for a customer, there’s no construction costs. There’s no months of planning. You know, it’s just been pretty delightful for both us and them.”

“Currently we service essential businesses and we have started to offer our services to help in this time of need to hospitals. Dish rooms are very small and cramped spaces and we realized that workers in them were unlikely to be able to be socially distance. Also today, the hospitals are overloaded. Some have twice the volume of what they normally expect a dish room to have to process. And so this was a great opportunity for them to use robots and use our service and keep their existing staff very safe.” [Linda Pouliot April 7 2020]

Vipin Jain is the CEO and founder of Blendid, a food robotic kiosk startup. After about 5 years of R&D Blendid opened their first kiosks just over a year ago in March 2019 at the University of San Francisco, followed by Sonoma State University, and while they were initially doubtful that people were ready to have their food or drink made by robots, they’ve seen great interest.

“We were told that automating food was too hard. And people won’t like it. People don’t want robots to make the food, people said. But people have different tastes and and standardized food doesn’t cut it anymore. So you need a better solution so that I can get what I like to eat anytime of the day wherever I am. And that can only be done using a lot of data, AI and robotics.”

“We were just getting ready to start deploying into retail, corporate and hospital environments when the COVID hit. So I wish we were a little bit ahead further ahead in terms of deployment because as you can imagine, food is an essential service. We all want food, we all want access to food, but in this environment, we will be fearful about the safety of people working on food preparation, because we don’t know how the food was handled.” [Vipin Jain April 7 2020]

Rich Stump is one of the cofounders of Studio Fathom for prototyping, product development and production services. Fathom specializes in 3d printing additive manufacturing, dealing with multiple materials and leveraging traditional manufacturing alongside, allowing them to solve some interesting engineering challenges or product development challenges. Fathom has been very active in COVID-19 response.

“There’s three main initiatives that we have going right now with COVID-19. And some of them are, are potentially revenue generating, but most of them are just just trying to help us with our expertise and capabilities. The first is obviously with PPE challenges we have. We have a facility in Asia and southern China and so we have a vast amount of supply chain resources. So, we called in our colleagues over there and we found a number of factories that had FDA approved PBE supplies that that were overrun from the flattening of the curve in Asia.”

“The news has been talking about investment into 3M and Honeywell ramping up production in the US, which is absolutely great. The problem is, it’s just not going to get done in time, right? Anytime you buy 150 thermoforming machines and you try to ramp up production to make n95 masks, it’s going to take weeks or potentially months to get any volume. So what we were trying to do is match hospitals and senior homes and folks that needed PPE with supply chain resources that we had in Asia.”

“We’ve had a bunch of roadblocks to the point where we’ve tried to reach out to the state government officials to try to remove some of the roadblocks with customs and tariffs and freight constraints. And so that’s been a an interesting challenge. But we’ve been able to connect, I think over 1.5 million and counting supplies into the US from Asia. It’s not our everyday business, but we have resources, so we tried to help there.

“The second initiative was around the test kits. Obviously there’s been a shortage of test kits. And it turns out, interestingly enough, one of the big shortage items is the nasopharyngeal swab that goes back into your nasal cavity. The main manufacturer was in Italy, and obviously with everything happened in Italy, that that shut down a lot of the supply. There’s been a community of about 50 folks that have come out of the 3d printing community to see if we can 3d print these swabs. And we’ve made a lot of progress.”

There’s now four manufacturers approved to 3d print nasopharyngeal swabs. Next week, we’ll get into production of these in at least hundreds of thousands, if not millions, in order to support the short term need. Long term, it probably doesn’t make sense to 3d print them given the cost base. But using 3d printing technology, we can design swabs that could potentially perform better than the traditional swab. So that’s been a fun and challenging project at the same time.”

“And the third initiative is around the ventilators. You have folks like Lawrence Livermore developing a ventilator with spare parts that are available today. And you have JPL, the NASA team, trying to develop their own ventilator. Then you have the large automotive manufacturers who have partnered up with various existing ventilator manufacturers and are trying to ramp up production. By today I think more than 270 people have come to us with either a ventilator design, a mask design, or some type of shield design, just over the last 10 days. There’s just a tremendous amount of activity. And it’s great because everyone wants to help, but at the same time, it presents a lot of challenges because so much effort going in so many different directions, that you you worry that, you know, all these efforts won’t end up being impactful by the time we need the supplies.” [Rich Stump April 7 2020]

Mark Martin is the Director of Industry and Workforce Development for California Community Colleges and founder of the Bay Area Manufacturers Discussion Forum. He’s very connected with manufacturers in the region and has a lot of insights into what’s going on in the manufacturing sector.

“Many of the manufacturing companies are being hurt and having to furlough people. There’s about 8000 in the Bay Area and we’re trying to help them repurpose. In some things, it’s relatively easy, maybe you have an injection mold facility, and you can injection mold these face shields, or some of these parts of the face shield. You have to make the molds but it’s still within your core business. Others are contract manufacturers that could theoretically assemble ventilators because they’re already doing medical products. Ventilators are a complicated product, but not necessarily more complicated than some of these people already doing.”

“But for others, you might have to get specialized machines, which can take a long time. And then you need to have expertise around. If you haven’t done medical products before, do you know how to handle the equipment and ensure QC? And the FDA approves factories, not just the designs. I created a list of Bay Area manufacturers and I got almost 200 responses with things they think they can manufacture and I’ve supplied that list to the state government.”

“And community colleges have makerspaces or fab labs. So where I’m located at Laney College in Oakland, we started working on face shields a week and a half ago, because that was relatively simple for us to be able to do. And we printed up 500 face shields to Highland hospital. It took us a day to do it with six people. And I asked the hospital what their daily use was for face shields and they said 600 a day. So I was like, all right, that was a day’s worth for this one hospital.”

“And then we actually took a design that was done by Stratasys for 3D printing and modified it a little bit. And in like two days, we got a molder to set up injection molding, although it’s going to take a couple of weeks to finish. And honestly, I have no idea if we’re going to need in a couple weeks. Because I have no idea what the demand is.”

“Apple’s bringing in over a million a week and others are doing this hundreds or even thousands a time in basements and little shops. But we don’t know if the demand is 5 million a week or 50 million. “

“So that that’s the thing the manufacturers all trying to figure out. I kept wondering why the government didn’t take a little bit of control. Even just financial incentives to say we will backstop you if you supply PPE, so that if the demand falls out, you don’t lose money.” [Mark Martin April 7 2020]

Ken Goldberg is the William S. Floyd Jr Distinguished Chair in Engineering at UC Berkeley, Director of CITRIS People and Robots Initiative and a regular guest on COVID-19, robots and us. Today in keeping with the theme of food robotics, Ken explained the reasoning behind one of his latest projects, AlphaGarden.

This is a farm bot that you can buy from a local company, in San Luis Obispo for about $3,000. Our garden includes 14 species of edible herbs and plants and they’re all growing in close proximity. The challenge is that they’re competing for increasingly scarce light and water. So what happens is that this starts to get quite out of control. Right now, the garden has been acting very autonomously because we haven’t been able to get into the greenhouse, and so it’s starting to decay, and certain invasive species like mint have essentially taken over.”

“We’re trying to optimize diversity, that is to maximize the number of different plant types that are growing. But the key idea here is that we’re using AI to simulate the garden, because a grow cycle takes three months. So we have a simulator that can simulate 10,000 times the speed of nature. We have 64 gardens but thousands of parameters to fine tune the system. Then we evaluate each of those gardens to figure out how to tune the parameters for the watering and pruning devices.”

“This is an ongoing project but the end goal is to be able to learn a policy for successful gardening because polyculture is much more labor intensive than monoculture. The reason that I call it an art project is because it’s extremely difficult for AI and robotics. It’s a big challenge. I’m not at all convinced we’re actually going to succeed. We’re really putting AI to the test. But just this week we did a deep learning method based on the data that we collected from our simulator. And in time we hope to learn how to be able to automate some of these very difficult tasks like organic gardening.” [Ken Goldberg April 7 2020]

The moderator of the weekly ‘COVID-19, robots and us’ discussions, Andra Keay, is the Managing Director of Silicon Valley Robotics, supporting innovation and commercialization of robotics technologies. Andra was also the Industry Co-Chair of the Human-Robot Interaction Conference 2020, which is taking place online. In the April 3 Industry Talks Session, Chris Roberts from Cambridge Consultants described the process of working out what sort of robotics or automation made sense for food production.

“Chris described a project with the food service industry to look at using robotics and AI. And of course what he wanted to build was a robot dipping chips and flipping burgers and all the rest, but on evaluation, that was not the best direction to go. In this instance AI optimization of locations was the best option. And this is something I’ve heard from a number of other people who’ve been doing robots for the actual preparation of food itself. For example, Creator, who make those fantastic hamburgers, didn’t have a robot arm, imitating the way humans cook. Instead, they completely re architected the entire process of constructing a burger, so that it could be done mechanically.” [Andra Keay April 7 2020]

There’s much more to hear in our weekly discussion on ‘COVID-19, robots and us’ from April 7 2020 with guest expert speakers: Linda Pouliot, CEO of Dishcraft Robotics Vipin Jain, CEO of Blendid Rich Stump, Principal at Studio Fathom Mark Martin, Industry & Workforce Development California Community Colleges and Bay Area Manufacturing Discussion Forum Ken Goldberg, Director of CITRIS People and Robots Initiative and William S. Lloyd Jr Distinguished Chair in Engineering at UC Berkeley; moderated by Andra Keay, Silicon Valley Robotics.

Many executives naively group AI into its own category with SmartCity inventions as a niche use case. However as Akio Toyoda, Chief Executive of Toyota, presented at CES it is the reverse. The “Woven City,” initiative by the car manufacturer illustrates that autonomous cars, IoT devices and intelligent robots are subservient to society and, hence, require their own “living laboratory”. Toyoda boldly described a novel construction project for a city of the future 60 miles from Tokyo, “With people, buildings and vehicles all connected and communicating with each other through data and sensors, we will be able to test AI technology, in both the virtual and the physical world, maximizing its potential. We want to turn artificial intelligence into intelligence amplified.” Woven City will include 2,000 residents (mostly existing and former employees) on a 175 mile acre site (formerly a Toyota factory) at the foothills of Mount Fuji, providing academics, scientists and inventors a real-life test environment.

Toyota has hired the Dutch architectural firm Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) to design its urban biosphere. According to Bjarke Ingels, “Homes in the Woven City will serve as test sites for new technology, such as in-home robotics to assist with daily life. These smart homes will take advantage of full connectivity using sensor-based AI to do things automatically, like restocking your fridge, or taking out your trash — or even taking care of how healthy you are.” While construction is set to begin in 2021, the architect is already boasting: “In an age when technology, social media and online retail is replacing and eliminating our natural meeting places, the Woven City will explore ways to stimulate human interaction in the urban space. After all, human connectivity is the kind of connectivity that triggers wellbeing and happiness, productivity and innovation.”

Walking back into the LVCC from the Westgate, I heard Toyoda’s keynote in my head – “mobility for all” – forming a prism in which to view the rest of the show. Looking past Hyundai/Uber’s massive Air Taxi and Omron’s ping-pong playing robot; thousands of suited executives led me under LG’s television waterfall to the Central Hall. Hidden behind an out of place Delta Airlines lounge, I discovered a robotics startup already fulfilling aspects of the Woven City. Vancouver-based A&K Robotics displayed a proprietary autonomous mobility solution serving the ballooning geriatric population.  The U.S. Census Bureau projects that citizens over the ages of 65 will double from “52 million in 2018 to 95 million by 2060” (or close to a quarter of the country’s population). This statistic parallels other global demographic trends for most first world countries. In Japan, the current population of elderly already exceeds 28% of its citizenry, with more than 70,000 over the age of 100. When A&K first launched its company it marketed conversion kits for turning manual industrial machines into autonomous vehicles. Today, the Canadian team is applying its passion for unmanned systems to improve the lives of the most vulnerable – people with disabilities. As Jessica Yip, A&K COO, explains, “When we founded the company we set out to develop and prove our technology first in industrial environments moving large cleaning machines that have to be accurate because of their sheer size. Now we’re applying this proven system to working with people who face mobility challenges.” The company plans to initially sell its elegant self-driving wheelchair (shown below) to airports, a $2 billion opportunity serving 63 million passengers worldwide.

In the United States the federal government mandates that airlines provide ‘free, prompt wheelchair assistance between curbside and cabin seat’ as part of the 1986 Air Carrier Access Act. Since passing the bill, airport wheelchair assistance has mushroomed to an almost unserviceable rate as carriers struggle to fulfill the mandated free service. In reviewing the airlines performance Eric Lipp, of the disability advocacy group Open Doors, complains, “Ninety percent of the wheelchair problems exist because there’s no money in it. I’m not 100% convinced that airline executives are really willing to pay for this service.” In balancing profits with accessibility, airlines have employed unskilled, underpaid workers to push disabled fliers to their seats. A&K’s solution has the potential of both liberating passengers and improving the airlines’ bottomline performance. Yip contends, “We’re embarking on moving people, starting in airports to help make traveling long distances more enjoyable and empowering.”

A&K joins a growing fleet of technology companies in tackling the airport mobility issue. Starting in 2017, Panasonic partnered with All Nippon Airways (ANA) to pilot self-driving wheelchairs in Tokyo’s Narita International Airport. As Juichi Hirasawa, Senior Vice President of ANA, states: “ANA’s partnership with Panasonic will make Narita Airport more welcoming and accessible, both of which are crucial to maintaining the airport’s status as a hub for international travel in the years to come. The robotic wheelchairs are just the latest element in ANA’s multi-faceted approach to improving hospitality in the air and on the ground.” Last December, the Abu Dhabi International Airport publicly demonstrated for a week autonomous wheelchairs manufactured by US-based WHILL. Ahmed Al Shamisi, Acting Chief Operations Officer of Abu Dhabi Airports, asserted: “Convenience is one of the most important factors in the traveller experience today. We want to make it even easier for passengers to enjoy our airports with ease. Through these trials, we have shown that restricted mobility passengers and their families can enjoy greater freedom of movement while still ensuring that the technology can be used safely and securely in our facilities.” Takeshi Ueda of WHILL enthusiastically added, “Seeing individuals experience the benefits of the seamless travel experience from security to boarding is so rewarding, and we are eager to translate this experience to airports across the globe.”

At the end of Toyoda’s remarks, he joked, “So by now, you may be thinking has this guy lost his mind? Is he a Japanese version of Willie Wonka?” As laughter permeated the theater, he excitedly confessed, “Perhaps, but I truly believe that THIS is the project that can benefit everyone, not just Toyota.” As I flew home, I left Vegas more encouraged about the future, entrepreneurs today are focused on something bigger than robots. In the words of Yip, “As a company we’re looking to serve all people, and are strategically focused on airports as a step towards smart cities where everyone has the opportunity to participate fully in society in whatever way they are interested. Regardless of age, physical challenges, or other, we want people to be able to get out of their homes and into their communities. To be able to see each other, interact, go to work or travel whenever they want to.”

Sign up today for next RobotLab event forum on Automating Farming: From The Holy Land To The Golden State, February 6th in New York City. 

Drone delivery. Credit: Wing

Returning from vacation, my inbox overflowed with emails announcing robot “firsts.” At the same time, my relaxed post-vacation disposition was quickly rocked by the news of the day and recent discussions regarding the extent of AI bias within New York’s financial system. These unrelated incidents are very much connected in representing the paradox of the acceleration of today’s inventions.

Last Friday, The University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) became the first hospital system to safely transport, via drone, a live organ to a waiting transplant patient with kidney failure. The demonstration illustrates the huge opportunity of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to significantly reduce the time, costs, and outcome of organ transplants by removing human-piloted helicopters from the equation. As Dr. Joseph Scalea, UMMC project lead, explains “There remains a woeful disparity between the number of recipients on the organ transplant waiting list and the total number of transplantable organs. This new technology has the potential to help widen the donor organ pool and access to transplantation.” Last year, America’s managing body of the organ transplant system stated it had a waiting list of approximately 114,000 people with 1.5% of deceased donor organs expiring before reaching their intended recipients. This is largely due to unanticipated transportation delays of up to two hours in close to 4% of recorded shipments. Based upon this data, unmanned systems could potentially save more than one thousand lives. In the words of Dr. Scalea, “Delivering an organ from a donor to a patient is a sacred duty with many moving parts. It is critical that we find ways of doing this better.” Unmentioned in the UMMC announcement are the types of ethical considerations required to support autonomous delivery to ensure that rush to extract organs in the field are not overriding the goal of first saving the donor’s life.

As May brings clear skies and the songs of birds, the premise of non life saving drones crowding the air space above is often a haunting image. Last month, the proposition of last mile delivery by UAVs came one step closer with Google’s subsidiary, Wing Aviation,  becoming the first drone operator approved by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Transportation. According to the company, consumer deliveries will commence within the next couple of months in rural Virginia. “It’s an exciting moment for us to have earned the FAA’s approval to actually run a business with our technology,” declared James Ryan Burgess, Wing Chief Executive Officer. The regulations still ban drones in urban areas and limit Wings autonomous missions to farmlands but enable the company to start charging customers for UAV deliveries.

While the rural community administrators are excited “to be the birthplace of drone delivery in the United States,” what is unknown is how its citizens will react to the technology, prone to menacing noise and privacy complaints. Mark Blanks, director of the Virginia Tech Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership, optimistically stated, “Across the board everybody we’ve spoken to has been pretty excited.” Cautiously, he admits, “We’ll be working with the community a lot more as we prepare to roll this out.” Google’s terrestrial autonmous driving tests have received less than stellar reviews from locals in Chandler, Arizona, which reached a crescendo earlier this year with one resident pulling a gun on a car (one-third of all Virginians own firearms). Understanding the rights of citizenry in policing the skies above their properties is an important policy and ethical issue as unmanned operators move from testing systems to live deployments.

The rollout of advanced computing technologies is not limited to aviation; artificial intelligence (AI) is being rapidly deployed across every enterprise and organization in the United States. On Friday, McKinsey & Company released a report on the widening penetration of deep learning systems within corporate America. While it is still early in the development of such technologies, almost half of the respondents in the study stated that their departments have embedded such software within at least one business practice this past year. As stated: “Forty-seven percent of respondents say their companies have embedded at least one AI capability in their business processes—compared with 20 percent of respondents in a 2017 study.” This dramatic increase in adoption is driving tech spending with 71% of respondents expecting large portions of digital budgets going toward the implementation of AI. The study also tracked the perceived value of the use of AI with “41 percent reporting significant value and 37 percent reporting moderate value,” compared to 1% “claiming a negative impact.

Before embarking on a journey south of the border, I participated in a discussion at one of New York’s largest financial institutions about AI bias. The output of this think tank became a suggested framework for administrating AI throughout an organization to protect its employees from bias. We listed three principals: 1) the definition of bias (as it varies from institution to institution); 2) the policies when developing and installing technologies (from hiring to testing to reporting metrics); and 3) employing a Chief Ethics Officer that would report to the board not the Chief Executive Officer (as the CEO is concerned about profit, and could potentially override ethics for the bottomline). These conclusions were supported by a 2018 Deloitte survey that found that 32% of executives familiar with AI ranked ethical issues as one of the top three risks of deployments. At the same time, Forbes reported that the idea of engaging an ethics officer is a hard sell for most Blue Chip companies. In response, Professor Timothy Casey of California Western School of Law recommends repercussions similar to other licensing fields for malicious software, “In medicine and law, you have an organization that can revoke your license if you violate the rules, so the impetus to behave ethically is very high. AI developers have nothing like that.” He suggests that building a value system through these endeavors will create an atmosphere whereby “being first in ethics rarely matters as much as being first in revenues.”

While the momentum of AI adoption accelerates faster than a train going down a hill, some forward-thinking organizations are starting to take ethics very seriously. As an example, Salesforce this past January became one of the first companies to hire a “chief ethical and humane use officer,” empowering Paula Goldman: “To develop a strategic framework for the ethical and humane use of technology.” Writing this article, I am reminded of the words of Winston Churchill in the 1930s cautioning his generation about balancing morality with the speed of scientific discoveries, as the pace of innovation even then far exceeded humankind’s own development: “Certain it is that while men are gathering knowledge and power with ever-increasing and measureless speed, their virtues and their wisdom have not shown any notable improvement as the centuries have rolled. The brain of modern man does not differ in essentials from that of the human beings who fought and loved here millions of years ago. The nature of man has remained hitherto practically unchanged. Under sufficient stress—starvation, terror, warlike passion, or even cold intellectual frenzy—the modern man we know so well will do the most terrible deeds, and his modern woman will back him up.”

Join RobotLab on May 16th when we dig deeper into ethics and technology with Alexis Block, inventor of HuggieBot, and Andrew Flett, partner at Mobility Impact Partners, discussing “Society 2.0: Understanding The Human-Robot Connection In Improving The World” at SOSA’s Global Cyber Center in NYC – RSVP Today! 

Two small figures guard the table holding the Buddha’s relics. Are they spearmen, or robots? British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA

As early as Homer, more than 2,500 years ago, Greek mythology explored the idea of automatons and self-moving devices. By the third century B.C., engineers in Hellenistic Alexandria, in Egypt, were building real mechanical robots and machines. And such science fictions and historical technologies were not unique to Greco-Roman culture.

In my recent book “Gods and Robots,” I explain that many ancient societies imagined and constructed automatons. Chinese chronicles tell of emperors fooled by realistic androids and describe artificial servants crafted in the second century by the female inventor Huang Yueying. Techno-marvels, such as flying war chariots and animated beings, also appear in Hindu epics. One of the most intriguing stories from India tells how robots once guarded Buddha’s relics. As fanciful as it might sound to modern ears, this tale has a strong basis in links between ancient Greece and ancient India.

The story is set in the time of kings Ajatasatru and Asoka. Ajatasatru, who reigned from 492 to 460 B.C., was recognized for commissioning new military inventions, such as powerful catapults and a mechanized war chariot with whirling blades. When Buddha died, Ajatasatru was entrusted with defending his precious remains. The king hid them in an underground chamber near his capital, Pataliputta (now Patna) in northeastern India.

Traditionally, statues of giant warriors stood on guard near treasures. But in the legend, Ajatasatru’s guards were extraordinary: They were robots. In India, automatons or mechanical beings that could move on their own were called “bhuta vahana yanta,” or “spirit movement machines” in Pali and Sanskrit. According to the story, it was foretold that Ajatasatru’s robots would remain on duty until a future king would distribute Buddha’s relics throughout the realm.

Ancient robots and automatons

Hindu and Buddhist texts describe the automaton warriors whirling like the wind, slashing intruders with swords, recalling Ajatasatru’s war chariots with spinning blades. In some versions the robots are driven by a water wheel or made by Visvakarman, the Hindu engineer god. But the most striking version came by a tangled route to the “Lokapannatti” of Burma – Pali translations of older, lost Sanskrit texts, only known from Chinese translations, each drawing on earlier oral traditions.

In this tale, many “yantakara,” robot makers, lived in the Western land of the “Yavanas,” Greek-speakers, in “Roma-visaya,” the Indian name for the Greco-Roman culture of the Mediterranean world. The Yavanas’ secret technology of robots was closely guarded. The robots of Roma-visaya carried out trade and farming and captured and executed criminals.

Robot makers were forbidden to leave or reveal their secrets – if they did, robotic assassins pursued and killed them. Rumors of the fabulous robots reached India, inspiring a young artisan of Pataliputta, Ajatasatru’s capital, who wished to learn how to make automatons.

In the legend, the young man of Pataliputta finds himself reincarnated in the heart of Roma-visaya. He marries the daughter of the master robot maker and learns his craft. One day he steals plans for making robots, and hatches a plot to get them back to India.

Certain of being slain by killer robots before he could make the trip himself, he slits open his thigh, inserts the drawings under his skin and sews himself back up. Then he tells his son to make sure his body makes it back to Pataliputta, and starts the journey. He’s caught and killed, but his son recovers his body and brings it to Pataliputta.

Once back in India, the son retrieves the plans from his father’s body, and follows their instructions to build the automated soldiers for King Ajatasatru to protect Buddha’s relics in the underground chamber. Well hidden and expertly guarded, the relics – and robots – fell into obscurity.

Two centuries after Ajatasatru, Asoka ruled the powerful Mauryan Empire in Pataliputta, 273-232 B.C. Asoka constructed many stupas to enshrine Buddha’s relics across his vast kingdom. According to the legend, Asoka had heard the legend of the hidden relics and searched until he discovered the underground chamber guarded by the fierce android warriors. Violent battles raged between Asoka and the robots.

In one version, the god Visvakarman helped Asoka to defeat them by shooting arrows into the bolts that held the spinning constructions together; in another tale, the old engineer’s son explained how to disable and control the robots. At any rate, Asoka ended up commanding the army of automatons himself.

Exchange between East and West

Is this legend simply fantasy? Or could the tale have coalesced around early cultural exchanges between East and West? The story clearly connects the mechanical beings defending Buddha’s relics to automatons of Roma-visaya, the Greek-influenced West. How ancient is the tale? Most scholars assume it arose in medieval Islamic and European times.

But I think the story could be much older. The historical setting points to technological exchange between Mauryan and Hellenistic cultures. Contact between India and Greece began in the fifth century B.C., a time when Ajatasatru’s engineers created novel war machines. Greco-Buddhist cultural exchange intensified after Alexander the Great’s campaigns in northern India.

In 300 B.C., two Greek ambassadors, Megasthenes and Deimachus, resided in Pataliputta, which boasted Greek-influenced art and architecture and was the home of the legendary artisan who obtained plans for robots in Roma-visaya. Grand pillars erected by Asoka are inscribed in ancient Greek and name Hellenistic kings, demonstrating Asoka’s relationship with the West. Historians know that Asoka corresponded with Hellenistic rulers, including Ptolemy II Philadelphus in Alexandria, whose spectacular procession in 279 B.C. famously displayed complex animated statues and automated devices.

Historians report that Asoka sent envoys to Alexandria, and Ptolemy II sent ambassadors to Asoka in Pataliputta. It was customary for diplomats to present splendid gifts to show off cultural achievements. Did they bring plans or miniature models of automatons and other mechanical devices?

I cannot hope to pinpoint the original date of the legend, but it is plausible that the idea of robots guarding Buddha’s relics melds both real and imagined engineering feats from the time of Ajatasatru and Asoka. This striking legend is proof that the concepts of building automatons were widespread in antiquity and reveals the universal and timeless link between imagination and science.

Adrienne Mayor, Research Scholar, Classics and History and Philosophy of Science, Stanford University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

In a recent BBC report, “Food production accounts for one-quarter to one-third of all anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, and the brunt of responsibility for those numbers falls to the livestock industry.” The average US family, “emits more greenhouse gases because of the meat they eat than from driving two cars,” quipped Professor Tim Benton of the University of Leeds. “Most people don’t think of the consequences of food on climate change. But just eating a little less meat right now might make things a whole lot better for our children and grandchildren,” signed Benton.

Americans continue to chow down more than 26 billion pounds of meat a year, distressing environmentalists who assert that the current status quo is unsustainable. While veganism would provide a 70% relief to greenhouse gases worldwide, it is not foreseeable that 7 billion people would instantly change their diets to save the planet. Robotics, and even more so, artificial intelligence, is now being embraced by venture-backed entrepreneurs to artificially grow meat alternatives as creative gastronomic replacements.

Chilean startup, Not Company (NotCo), built a machine learning platform named Giuseppe to search animal ingredient substitutes. NotCo founder Matias Muchnick explains, “Giuseppe was created to understand molecular connections between food and the human perception of taste and texture.” While Muchnick did not disclose his techniques, he revealed to Business Insider that the company has hired teams of food and data scientists to classify ingredients into bits for Giuseppe. Muchnick explains the AI begins the work of processing the “data regarding how the brain works when it’s given certain flavors, when you taste salty, umami, [or] sweet.” Today, the company has a line of egg and milk alternatives on the shelves including: “Not Mayo,” Not Cheese,” “Not Yogurt and “Not Milk.” The NotCo website states that this is only the first step in a larger scheme for the deep learning algorithm: “NotCo currently has a very ambitious development plan for Giuseppe, which includes the generation of new databases with information of a different nature, such as production processes and other molecular properties of food, in such a way that Giuseppe gets closer and closer to be the most advanced chef and food scientist in the world.”

NotCo competes in a growing landscape of other animal substitute upstarts. Hampton Creek, which recently rebranded as JUST, also offers an array of dairy and egg alternatives from plant-based ingredients. The ultimate test for all these companies is creating meat in a petri dish. When responding to the challenge, JUST announced, “Through a first-of-its-kind partnership, JUST will develop cultured Wagyu beef using cells from Toriyama prized cows. Then, Awano Food Group (a premier international supplier of meat and seafood) will market and sell the meat to clients exactly how they do today with conventionally produced Toriyama Wagyu.” Today, a handful of companies, many ironically backed by livestock corporations, are also tackling the $90 billion cellular agriculture market, including: Mosa Meat, Impossible Burger, Beyond Meat, and Memphis Meats. Mosa, backed by Google founder Sergi Brin, unveiled the first synthetic burger in 2013 at a staggering cost of nearly a half million dollars.

While costs are declining, cultured meat is too expensive to supplement the American diet, especially when $1 still buys one a fast food dinner. The key to mass acceptance is attacking the largest pain point in the lab – acquiring enough genetic material from bovine tissue. Currently, the cost of such serums are close to $1,000 an ounce, and not exactly cruelty free as they are derived from animals. Many clean meat founders are proudly vegan with the implicit goal of replacing animal ingredients altogether. In order to accomplish this task, companies like JUST have invested in building robust AI and robotic systems to automatically scour the globe for plant-based alternatives. “Over 300,000 species are in the plant kingdom. That’s over 18 billion proteins, 108 million lipids, and 4 million polysaccharides. It’s an abundance almost entirely unexplored, until now,” exclaims their website. The company boasts that it is on the verge of major discoveries, “The more we explore, the more data we gather along the way. And the faster we’ll find the answers. It’s almost impossible to look at the data and say, ‘Here’s a pattern. Here’s an answer.’ So, we have to come up with algorithms to rank the materials and give downstream experiments a recommendation. In this way, we’re using data to increase the probability of discoveries.”

The next few years will unearth major breakthroughs, already Mosa announced it will have an affordable product on the shelves by 2021. To accomplish this task, the company turned to Merck’s corporate venture arm, M Ventures, and Bell Food to lead its previous  financing round. Last July, Forbes reported that the strategic partnerships are critical to Mosa’s vision in mass producing meat. According to Mosa’s founder, Mark Post, “Merck’s experience with cell cultures is very attractive from a strategic standpoint. Cell production is key to scaling cultured meat production, as they still need to figure out how to get cells to grow more rapidly and at higher numbers. In short, new technology needs to be developed. That’s where companies like Merck can lend a hand.” In addition to leveraging the conglomerates expertise in the lab, food-packaging powerhouse, Bell Food, provides a huge distribution advantage. Already, Lorenz Wyss, CEO of Bell Food Group, excitedly predicts, “Meat demand is soaring and in the future it won’t be met by livestock agriculture alone. We believe this technology can become a true alternative for environment-conscious consumers, and we are delighted to bring our know-how and expertise of the meat business into this strategic partnership with Mosa Meat.”

While the Green New Deal has been met with skepticism, the charging forces of climate change and technology are steaming ahead. Today, we have the computational and the mechatronic power to turn back the tides of destruction to implant positive change across the planet, quite possibly starting with scaling back animal agriculture. Even Winston Churchill commented in the 1931, “We shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or wing, by growing these parts separately under a suitable medium.”

Is our food source and AgTech networks under attack? Learn more at the next RobotLab on “Cybersecurity & Machines” with John Frankel of ffVC and Guy Franklin of SOSA on February 12th in New York City, RSVP Today!

]]> https://robohub.org/anymal-robot-tested-on-offshore-platform/ Sun, 04 Nov 2018 08:09:51 +0000 https://robohub.org/anymal-robot-tested-on-offshore-platform/

ANYmal

A crucial task for energy providers is the reliable and safe operation of their plants, especially when producing energy offshore. Autonomous mobile robots are able to offer comprehensive support through regular and automated inspection of machinery and infrastructure. In a world’s first pilot installation, transmission system operator TenneT tested the autonomous legged robot ANYmal on one of the world’s largest offshore converter platforms in the North Sea.

In September 2018, the ANYbotics field team boarded a helicopter to fly out to one of the world’s largest offshore converter platforms in the North Sea. Equipped with a customized sensorhead, our four-legged robotic platform ANYmal autonomously performed various inspection tasks of the platform in a one-week pilot installation, making it the world’s first autonomous offshore robot.

Offshore Wind Farms
Offshore energy production is a key component of global energy supply. Apart from oil and natural gas extraction, wind energy is increasingly being produced offshore. One of the key innovators in this field is the Dutch-German transmission system operator TenneT, which connects large-scale offshore wind farms to the onshore grid over a high voltage DC connection. Set out to provide reliable and low-cost energy transmission and distribution, the company adopts most recent technologies.

Robotic Inspection with ANYmal
ANYbotics is partnering with TenneT to evaluate robotic inspection and maintenance on their offshore converter platforms. In periods of unmanned platform operation, a mobile robot helps to reduce the risk of disruptions and ensures the security of the electricity supply. Based on its autonomous navigation capabilities, ANYmal performs routine inspection tasks to monitor machine operations, read out sensory equipment and detect thermal hotspots and oil or water leakages. Whenever required, ANYmal can be remotely operated from an onshore control center in order for TenneT to receive real-time information through the robot’s onboard visual and thermal cameras, microphones and gas detection sensors.

Successful Pilot Installation
Before being deployed on the offshore mission, the ANYbotics field team underwent a rigorous safety training including helicopter escape and survival on sea scenarios. After being taken on a guided tour of the platform to 3D-map the environment and learn the position and characteristics of all inspection points, ANYmal autonomously navigated the platform and processed inspection protocols. The video documents a fully autonomous mission, covering a total of 16 inspection points such as gauges, levers, oil- and water levels and various other visual and thermal measurements.

From driving rovers on Mars to improving farm automation for Indian women, once again we’re bringing you a list of 25 amazing women in robotics! These women cover all aspects of the robotics industry, both research, product and policy. They are founders and leaders, they are investigators and activists. They are early career stage and emeritus. There is a role model here for everyone! And there is no excuse – ever – not to have a woman speaking on a panel on robotics and AI.

But to start, here’s some news about previous nominees (and this is just a sample because we’ve showcased over 125 women so far and this is our 6th year).

In 2013, Melonee Wise was just launching her first startup! Since then she’s raised $48 million USD for Fetch Robotics and Fetch and Freight robots are rolling out in warehouses all over the world! Maja Mataric’s startup Embodied Inc has raised $34.4 million for home companion robots. Amy Villeneuve has moved from President and COO of Kiva Systems, VP at Amazon Robotics to the Board of Directors of 4 new robotics startups. And Manuela Veloso joined the Corporate & Investment Bank J.P. Morgan as head of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Research.

In 2014, Sampriti Bhattacharya was a PhD student at MIT, since then she has turned her research into a startup Hydroswarm and been named one of Forbes 30 most powerful young change agents. Noriko Kageki moved from Kawada Robotics Corp in Japan to join the very female friendly Omron Adept Technologies in Silicon Valley.

2015’s Cecilia Laschi and Barbara Mazzolai are driving the Preparatory action for a European Robotics Flagship, which has the potential to become a 1B EUR project. The goal is to make new robots and AIs that are ethically, socially, economically, energetically, and environmentally responsible and sustainable. And PhD candidate Kavita Krishnaswamy. who depends on robots to travel, has received Microsoft, Google, Ford and NSF fellowships to help her design robots for people with disabilities.

2015’s Hanna Kurniawati was a Keynote Speaker at IROS 2018 (Oct 1-5) in Madrid, Spain. As were nominees Raquel Urtasun, Jamie Paik, Barbara Mazzolai, Anca Dragan, Amy Loutfi (and many more women!) 2017’s Raia Hadsell was the Plenary Speaker at ICRA 2018 (May 21-25) in Brisbane, Australia. And while it’s great to see so many women showcased this year at robotics conferences – don’t forget 2015 when the entire ICRA organizing committee  was comprised of women.

ICRA 2015 Organizing Committee

2016’s Vivian Chu finished her Social Robotics PhD and founded the robotics startup Diligent Robotics with her supervisor Dr Andrea Thomaz (featured in 2013). Their hospital robot Moxi was just featured on the BBC . And 2016’s Gudrun Litzenberger was just awarded the Engelberger Award by the RIA, joining 2013’s Daniela Rus. (The RIA is finally recognizing the role of women after we/Andra pointed out that they’d given out 120 awards and only 1 was to a woman – Bala Krishnamurthy in 2007 – and are now also offering grants for eldercare robots and women in robotics.)

We try to cover the whole globe, not just the whole career journey for women in robotics – so we welcome a nominee from Ashesi University in Ghana to this year’s list!  So, without further ado, here are the 25 Women In Robotics you need to know about – 2018 edition!

Crystal Chao Chief Scientist of AI/Robotics – Huawei Crystal Chao is Chief Scientist at Huawei and the Global Lead of Robotics Projects, overseeing a team that operates in Silicon Valley, Boston, Shenzhen, Beijing, and Tokyo. She has worked with every part of the robotics software stack in her previous experience, including a stint at X, Google’s moonshot factory. In 2012, Chao won Outstanding Doctoral Consortium Paper Award, ICMI, for her PhD at Georgia Tech, where she developed an architecture for social human-robot interaction (HRI) called CADENCE: Control Architecture for the Dynamics of Natural Embodied Coordination and Engagement, enabling a robot to collaborate fluently with humans using dialogue and manipulation.

Sougwen Chung Interdisciplinary Artist Sougwen Chung is a Chinese-born, Canadian-raised artist based in New York. Her work explores the mark-made-by-hand and the mark-made-by-machine as an approach to understanding the interaction between humans and computers. Her speculative critical practice spans installation, sculpture, still image, drawing, and performance. She is a former researcher fellow at MIT’s Media Lab and inaugural member of NEW INC, the first museum-led art and technology in collaboration with The New Museum. She received a BFA from Indiana University and a masters diploma in interactive art from Hyper Island in Sweden.

Emily Cross Professor of Social Robotics / Director of SoBA Lab Emily Cross is a cognitive neuroscientist and dancer. As the Director of the Social Brain in Action Laboratory (www.soba-lab.com), she explores how our brains and behaviors are shaped by different kinds of experience throughout our lifespans and across cultures. She is currently the Principal Investigator on the European Research Council Starting Grant entitled ‘Social Robots’, which runs from 2016-2021.

Rita Cucchiara Full Professor / Head of AImage Lab Rita Cucchiara is Full Professor of Computer Vision at the Department of Engineering “Enzo Ferrari” of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, where since 1998 she has led the AImageLab, a lab devoted to computer vision and pattern recognition, AI and multimedia. She coordinates the RedVision Lab UNIMORE-Ferrari for human-vehicle interaction. She was President of the Italian Association in Computer Vision, Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning (CVPL) from 2016 to 2018, and is currently Director of the Italian CINI Lab in Artificial Intelligence and Intelligent Systems. In 2018 she was recipient of the Maria Petrou Prize of IAPR

Sanja Fidler Assistant Professor / Director of AI at NVIDIA Sanja Fidler is Director of AI at NVIDIA’s new Toronto Lab, conducting cutting-edge research projects in machine learning, computer vision, graphics, and the intersection of language and vision. She remains Assistant Professor at the Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto. She is recipient of the Amazon Academic Research Award (2017) and the NVIDIA Pioneer of AI Award (2016). She completed her PhD in computer science at University of Ljubljana in 2010, and has served as a Program Chair of the 3DV conference, and as an Area Chair of CVPR, EMNLP, ICCV, ICLR, and NIPS.

Kanako Harada ImPACT Program Manager Kanako Harada, is Program Manager of the ImPACT program “Bionic Humanoids Propelling New Industrial Revolution” of the Cabinet Office, Japan. She is also Associate Professor of the departments of Bioengineering and Mechanical Engineering, School of Engineering and the University of Tokyo, Japan. She obtained her M.Sc. in Engineering from the University of Tokyo in 2001, and her Ph.D. in Engineering from Waseda University in 2007. She worked for Hitachi Ltd., Japan Association for the Advancement of Medical Equipment, and Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Italy, before joining the University of Tokyo. Her research interests include surgical robots and surgical skill assessment.

Jessica Hodgins Professor / FAIR Research Mgr and Operations Lead Jessica Hodgins is a Professor in the Robotics Institute and Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon University, and the new lead of Facebook’s AI Research Lab in Pittsburgh. The FAIR lab will focus on robotics, lifelong-learning systems that learn continuously, teaching machines to reason and AI in support of creativity. From 2008-2016, Hodgins founded and ran research labs for Disney, rising to VP of Research and leading the labs in Pittsburgh and Los Angeles. She received her Ph.D. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University in 1989. She has received an NSF Young Investigator Award, a Packard Fellowship, a Sloan Fellowship, the ACM SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics Achievement Award, and in 2017 she was awarded the Steven Anson Coons Award for Outstanding Creative Contributions to Computer Graphics. Her groundbreaking research focuses on computer graphics, animation, and robotics, with an emphasis on generating and analyzing human motion.

Heather Justice Mars Exploration Rover Driver Heather Justice has the dream job title of Mars Exploration Rover Driver, and is a Software Engineer at NASA JPL. As a 16-year-old watching the first Rover landing on Mars, she said: “I saw just how far robotics could take us and I was inspired to pursue my interests in computer science and engineering.” Justice graduated from Harvey Mudd College with a B.S. in computer science in 2009 and an M.S. from the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University in 2011, having also interned at three different NASA centers, and working in a variety of research areas including computer vision, mobile robot path planning, and spacecraft flight rule validation.

Sue Keay COO Sue Keay is the Chief Operating Officer of the ACRV and in 2018 launched Australia’s first National Robotics Roadmap at Parliament House. A university medallist and Jaeger scholar, Sue has more than 20 years experience in the research sector, managing and ensuring impact from multidisciplinary R&D programs and teams. She has a PhD in Earth Sciences from the Australian National University and was an ARC post-doctoral fellow at the University of Queensland, before turning to science communication, research management, research commercialisation, and IP management. Keay is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, and Chairs the IP and Commercialisation Committee for the Board of the CRC for Optimising Resource Extraction. In 2017, Keay was also named one of the first Superstars of STEM by Science & Technology Australia.

Erin Kennedy Founder Erin Kennedy is a robot maker and the founder of Robot Missions, an organization that empowers communities to embark on missions aimed at helping our planet using robots. She designed and developed a robot to collect shoreline debris, replicable anywhere with a 3D printer. Kennedy studied digital fabrication at the Fab Academy, and worked with a global team at MIT on a forty-eight-hour challenge during Fab11 to build a fully functional submarine. A former fellow in social innovation and systems thinking at the MaRS Discovery District’s Studio Y, Kennedy has been recognized as a finalist in the Lieutenant Governor’s Visionaries Prize (Ontario), and her previous robotic work has been featured in Forbes, Wired, and IEEE Spectrum, and on the Discovery Channel.

Kathrine Kuchenbecker Director at Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems / Associate Professor Katherine J. Kuchenbecker is Director and Scientific Member at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart, on leave from the Department of Computer and Information Science at UPenn. Kuchenbecker received her PhD degree in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University in 2006. She received the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Academic Early Career Award, NSF CAREER Award, and Best Haptic Technology Paper at the IEEE World Haptics Conference. Her keynote at RSS 2018 is online. Kuchenbecker’s research expertise is in the design and control of robotic systems that enable a user to touch virtual objects and distant environments as though they were real and within reach, uncovering new opportunities for its use in interactions between humans, computers, and machines.

Jasmine Lawrence Technical Program Manager – Facebook Jasmine Lawrence currently serves as a Technical Program Manager on the Building 8 team at Facebook, a research lab to develop hardware projects in the style of DARPA. Previously, she served as a Technical Program Manager at SoftBank Robotics where she lead a multidisciplinary team to create software for social, humanoid robots. Before that she was a Program Manager at Microsoft on the HoloLens Experience team and the Xbox Engineering team. Lawrence earned her B.S. in Computer Science, from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and her M.S. in Human Centered Design & Engineering from U of Washington. At the age of 13, after attending a NFTE BizCamp, Jasmine founded EDEN BodyWorks to meet her own need for affordable natural hair and body care products. After almost 14 years in business her products are available at Target, Wal-Mart, CVS, Walgreens, Amazon.com , Kroger, HEB, and Sally Beauty Supply stores just to name a few.

Jade Le Maître CTO & CoFounder – Hease Robotics Jade Le Maître spearheads the technical side of Hease Robotics, a robot catered to the retail industry and customer service. With a background in engineering and having conducted a research project about human-robot interaction, Le Maître found her passion in working in the science communication sector. Since then she has cofounded Hease Robotics to bring the robotics experience to the consumer.

Laura Margheri Programme Manager and Knowledge Transfer Fellow – Imperial College London Laura Margheri develops the scientific program and manages the research projects at the Aerial Robotics Laboratory at the Imperial College London, managing international and multidisciplinary partnerships. Before joining Imperial College, she was project manager and post doc fellow at the BioRobotics Institute of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna. Margheri has an M.S. in Biomedical Engineering (with Honours) and the PhD in BioRobotics (with Honours). She is also member of the IEEE RAS Technical Committee on Soft Robotics and of the euRobotics Topic Group on Aerial Robotics, with interdisciplinary expertise in bio-inspired robotics, soft robotics, and aerial robotics. Since the beginning of 2014 she is the Chair of the Women In Engineering (WIE) Committee of the Robotics & Automation Society.

Brenda Mboya Undergraduate Student – Ashesi University Ghana Brenda Mboya is just finishing a B.S. in Computer Science at Ashesi University in Ghana. A technology enthusiast who enjoys working with young people, she also volunteers in VR at Ashesi University, with Future of Africa, Tech Era, and as a coach with the Ashesi Innovation Experience (AIX). Mboya was a Norman Foster Fellows in 2017, one of 10 scholars chosen from around the world to attend a one week robotics atelier in Madrid. “Through this conference, the great potential robotics has, especially in Africa, been reaffirmed in my mind.” said Mboya.

Katja Mombaur Professor at the Institute of Computer Engineering (ZITI) – Heidelberg University Katja Mombaur is coordinator of the newly founded Heidelberg Center for Motion Research and full professor at the Institute of Computer Engineering (ZITI), where she is head of the Optimization in Robotics & Biomechanics (ORB) group and the Robotics Lab. She holds a diploma degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Stuttgart and a Ph.D. degree in Mathematics from Heidelberg University. Mombaur is PI in the European H2020 project SPEXOR. She coordinated the EU project KoroiBot and was PI in MOBOT and ECHORD–GOP, and founding chair of the IEEE RAS technical committee on Model-based optimization for robotics. Her research focuses on the interactions of humans with exoskeletons, prostheses, and external physical devices.

Devi Murthy CEO – Kamal Kisan Devi Murthy has a Bachelors degree in Engineering from Drexel University, USA and a Masters in Entrepreneurship from IIM, Bangalore. She has over 6 years of experience in Product Development & Business Development at Kamal Bells, a sheet metal fabrications and components manufacturing company. In 2013 she founded Kamal Kisan, a for-profit Social Enterprise that works on improving farmer livelihoods through smart mechanization interventions that help them adopt modern agricultural practices, and cultivate high value crops while reducing inputs costs to make them more profitable and sustainable.

Sarah Osentoski COO – Mayfield Robotics Sarah Osentoski is COO at Mayfield Robotics, who produced Kuri, ‘the adorable home robot’. Previously she was the manager of the Personal Robotics Group at the Bosch Research and Technology Center in Palo Alto, CA. Osentoski is one of the authors of Robot Web Tools. She was also a postdoctoral research associate at Brown University working with Chad Jenkins in the Brown Robotics Laboratory. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, under Sridhar Mahadevan. Her research interests include robotics, shared autonomy, web interfaces for robots, reinforcement learning, and machine learning. Osentoski featured as a 2017 Silicon Valley Biz Journal “Women of Influence”.

Kirsten H. Petersen Assistant Professor – Cornell University Kirstin H. Petersen is Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. She is interested in design and coordination of bio-inspired robot collectives and studies of their natural counterparts, especially in relation to construction. Her thesis work on a termite-inspired robot construction team made the cover of Science, and was ranked among the journal’s top ten scientific breakthroughs of 2014. Petersen continued on to a postdoc with Director Metin Sitti at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems 2014-2016, and became a fellow with the Max Planck ETH Center for Learning Systems in 2015. Petersen started the Collective Embodied Intelligence Lab in 2016 as part of the Electrical and Computer Engineering department at Cornell University, and has field memberships in Computer Science and Mechanical Engineering.

Kristen Y. Pettersen Professor Department of Engineering Cybernetics – NTNU Kristin Ytterstad Pettersen (1969) is a Professor at the Department of Engineering Cybernetics, and holds a PhD and an MSc in Engineering Cybernetics from NTNU. She is also a Key Scientist at the Center of Excellence: Autonomous marine operations and systems (NTNU AMOS) and an Adjunct Professor at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI). Her research interests include nonlinear control theory and motion control, in particular for marine vessels, AUVs, robot manipulators, and snake robots. She is also Co-Founder and Board Member of Eelume AS, a company that develops technology for for subsea inspection, maintenance, and repair. In 2017 she received the Outstanding Paper Award from IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, and in 2018 she was appointed Member of the Academy of the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters.

Veronica Santos Assoc. Prof. of UCLA Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering / Principal Investigator – Director of the UCLA Biomechatronics Laboratory Veronica J. Santos is an Associate Professor in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at UCLA, and Director of the UCLA Biomechatronics Lab. She is one of 16 individuals selected for the Defense Science Study Group (DSSG), a two year opportunity for emerging scientific leaders to participate in dialogues related to US security challenges. She received her B.S. from UC Berkeley in 1999 and her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Mech. Eng. with a biometry minor from Cornell University in 2007. Santos was a postdoctoral research associate at the Alfred E. Mann Institute for Biomedical Engineering at USC where she worked on a team to develop a novel biomimetic tactile sensor for prosthetic hands. She then directed the ASU Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program and ASU Biomechatronics Lab. Santos has received many honors and awards for both research and teaching.

Casey Schulz Systems Engineer – Omron Adept Casey Schulz is a Systems Engineer at Omron Adept Technologies (OAT). She currently leads the engineering and design verification testing for a new mobile robot. Prior to OAT, Schulz worked at several Silicon Valley startups, a biotech consulting firm, and the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Labs.Casey received her M.S in Mech. Eng. from Carnegie Mellon University in 2009 for NSF funded research in biologically inspired mobile robotics. She received her B.S from Santa Clara University in 2008 by building a proof-of-concept urban search and rescue mobile robot. Her focus is the development of new robotics technologies to better society.

Kavitha Velusamy Senior Director Computer Vision – BossaNova Robotics Kavita Velusamy is the Senior Director of Computer Vision at BossaNova Robotics, where she builds robot vision applications. Previously, she was a Senior Manager at NVIDA, where she managed a global team responsible for delivering computer vision and deep learning software for self-driving vehicles. Prior to this, she was Senior Manager at Amazon, where she wrote the “far field” white paper that defined the device side of Amazon Echo, its vision, its architecture and its price points, and got approval from Jeff Bezos to build a team and lead Amazon Echo’s technology from concept to product. She holds a PhD in Signal Processing/Electrical Communication Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science.

Martha Wells Author Martha Wells is a New York Times bestselling author of sci-fi and speculative fiction. Her Hugo award-winning series, The Murderbot Diaries, is about a self-aware security robot that hacks its “governor module”. Known for her world-building narratives, and detailed descriptions of fictional societies, Wells brings an academic grounding in anthropology to her fantasy writing. She holds a B.A. in Anthropology from Texas A&M University, and is the winner of over a dozen awards and nominations for fiction, including a Hugo Award, Nebula Award, and Locus Award.

Andie Zhang Global Product Manager – ABB Collaborative Robotics Andie Zhang is Global Product Manager of Robotics at ABB, where she has full global ownership of a portfolio of industrial robot products, develops strategy for the company’s product portfolio, and drives product branding. Zhang’s previous experience includes 10+ years working for world leading companies in Supply Chain, Quality, Marketing and Sales Management. She holds a Masters in Engineering from KTH in Stockholm. Her focus is on collaborative applications for robots and user centered interface design.

Join more than 700 women in our global online community https://womeninrobotics.org and find or host your own Women in Robotics event locally! Women In Robotics is a grassroots not-for-profit organization supported by Robohub and Silicon Valley Robotics.

And don’t forget to browse previous year’s lists, add all these women to wikipedia (let’s have a Wikipedia Hackathon!), or nominate someone for inclusion next year!

Weather is often the nemesis of autonomous missions. The example of NASA’s billion-dollar fleet being disabled by mere dust illustrates the profound problem that machines are far from being self-reliant. Closer to Earth, high atmospheric ice is one of the biggest challenges for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). This natural phenomena is responsible for grounding even the most critical military drone operations, as freezing conditions adversely affect aerodynamics and performance.

The paradigm of reversing nature in aeronautics is useful for all aspects of autonomous systems. Starting in the late 1980s, NASA set out to develop a series of deicing solutions to make aviation safer. The most famous of these technologies is the Electro-Expulsive Separation System (EESS) or “Ice Zapper” developed by NASA engineer Leonard Haslim. According to the space agency’s website, the Zapper “employs a pair of conductors embedded in a flexible material and bonded to the aircraft’s frame—on the leading edge of a wing, for example. A pulsing current of electricity sent through the conductors creates opposing magnetic fields, driving the conductors apart only a fraction of an inch but with the power to shatter any ice buildup on the airframe surface into harmless particles.”

The Zapper was eventually licensed by NASA to a private company, Ice Management Systems (IMS), which was acquired by Thompson Ramo Wooldridge (TRW), now part of Northrop Grumman. Haslim’s invention today is a complete aeronautic platform that is embedded within an energy-efficient power system, conductive actuators and an internal carbon-fiber core. According to IMS founder Mark Bridgeford, the platform has already been deployed on the Northrop Grumman’s Hunter UAVs and General Atomics Sky Warriors. “One reason we have hit a spot with the UAV business is the simple fact that our system utilizes so little energy,” explains Bridgeford. The IMS platform is one of the first mechatronic systems that is energy efficient. Bridgeford comtinues, “With the electroexpulsive technology, UAVs are able to incorporate continuous, year-round ice protection into their airframes.”

Energy consumption is the key to active deicing. Unlike anti-icing systems that prevent particle buildup through material design and engine back-flow systems, deicing is typically manually implemented in manned aircraft, on an as-needed basis to conserve fuel. Drones do not have this luxury of flipping a switch and need active pervasive monitoring. While the Zapper and other electro-expulsive methods shoot bursts of energy to shake ice off of wings, this method has underdelivered for many unmanned missions. Aerospace solutions provider Cox & Company is now offering a competing technology called “Thermo-Mechanical Expulsion Deicing System (TMEDS)” for Northrup Grumman’s Triton drones. Cox claims that this technology not only delivers better results for unmanned systems, but also consumes less power.

Inspired by the US Coast Guard’s ice breaking marine technology, Dr. Kim Sorensen joined NASA’s Ames Research Center as part of his doctoral thesis on aerial ice protection systems. Soon after, Sorensen launched the first autonomous deicing flight in Alaska using an ultra-lightweight one-meter drone. The success of this prototype led to him establishing Ubiq Aerospace in 2017 to bring cost-effective automated deicing to the commercial UAV sector. Based in Sorensen’s home country of Norway, Ubiq aims to be customer ready by the end of 2019. “The D•ICE technology was based on three design principles – No Weight, No Volume, No Power. Aside from these principles we also needed to ensure that the system could operate in complete autonomy,” says Dr. Sorensen. By contrast “Various systems have been designed and are flying on the commercial manned aircraft that fly today. All these systems require human interaction in various degrees. They carry penalties as most are very heavy, all of them are structurally invasive, and/or some are environmentally harmful… As such, none of the existing icing protection systems are suitable for use on unmanned aircraft,” explains Dr. Sorensen.

According to Aviation International News Ubiq has filed its initial patents and is currently in discussions with manufacturing partners to build its “carbon-nano thermal panel components” to meet industry standards. The large-scale platform will be composed of these thermal panels, as well as embedded temperature sensors, power components, and a computational brian. One of Ubiq’s differentiating features is its intelligent algorithms that automatically enable safe deicing with minimum power drain  by switching the unit on and off as needed. Sorensen describes, “There is a lower boundary for what power you do require to ensure that icing doesn’t build or you can deice, and we are trying to get as close to that boundary as possible.” The company is already working with Norway’s defense department on expanding its applications to rotor UAVs, potentially accelerating the use cases for large-scale cargo missions and, even, flying cars. In an email to me earlier this week, Ubiq’s founder states, “The D•ICE tech has wider use indeed. There are several secondary industries that would have use for a solution like this. Most obvious is the wind energy industry with their enormous ocean-based farms.” Ironically, many terrestrial wind turbine operators are turning to drone service providers today for deicing solutions as demonstrated in numerous YouTube videos.

As robotics continues to cross the chasm from lab research to field operations, weather-control systems are becoming increasingly more critical. The center for subfreezing temperature research is the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. According to a press release this past May, The University has partnered with the U.S. Department of Transportation to help shape the “the future of drones in America” and “speed up the safe entry of unmanned vehicles into the nation’s airspace.” A key component of this endeavor is researching technological solutions for unmanned systems operating in harsh climate environments “to deliver medical devices to remote areas, help with search and rescue operations, survey fish and wildlife, and monitor pipelines, roads and other infrastructure.” In announcing the partnership, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao declared, “We are looking forward to helping today’s winners unlock the enormous potential of drone operations, which will create new services and jobs in their local communities.” Besides the economic opportunity that Secretary Chao cites, there could be other “winners” altruistically driven by the pursuit of science on Earth, Mars and, maybe, the entire galaxy.

A few weeks ago we had the kick-off meeting, in York, of our new 4 year EPSRC funded project Autonomous Robot Evolution (ARE): cradle to grave. We – Andy Tyrrell and Jon Timmis (York), Emma Hart (Edinburgh Napier), Gusti Eiben (Free University of Amsterdam) and myself – are all super excited. We’ve been trying to win support for this project for five years or so, and only now succeeded. This is a project that we’ve been thinking, and writing about, for a long time – so to have the opportunity to try out our ideas for real is wonderful.

In ARE we aim to investigate the artificial evolution of robots for unknown or extreme environments. In a radical new approach we will co-evolve robot bodies and brains in real-time and real-space. Using techniques from 3D printing new robot designs will literally be printed, before being trained in a nursery, then fitness tested in a target environment (a mock nuclear plant). The genomes of the fittest robots will then be combined to create the next generation of ‘child’ robots, so that – over successive generations – we will breed new robot designs in a process that mirrors the way farmers have artificially selected new varieties of plants and animals for thousands of years. Because evolving real robots is slow and resource hungry we will run a parallel process of simulated evolution in a virtual environment, in which the real world environment is used to calibrate the virtual world, and reduce the reality gap*. A hybrid real-virtual process under the control of an ecosystem manager will allow real and virtual robots to mate, and the child robots to be printed and tested in either the virtual or real environments.

The project will be divided into five work packages, each led by a different partner: WP1 Evolution (York), WP2 Physical Environment (UWE), WP3 Virtual Environment (York), WP4 Ecosystem Manager (Napier) and WP5 Integration and Demonstration (UWE).

Here in the Bristol Robotics Lab we will focus on work packages 2 and 5. The goal of WP 2 is the development of a purpose designed 3D printing system – which we call a birth clinic – capable of printing small mobile robots, according to a specification determined by a genome designed in WP1. The birth clinic will need to pick and place a number of pre designed and fabricated electronics, sensing and actuation modules (the robot’s ‘organs’) into the printing work area which will be over printed with hot plastic to form the complete robot. The goal of WP5 will be to integrate all components, including the real world birth clinic, nursery, and mock nuclear environment with the virtual environment (WP3) and the ecosystem manager (WP4) into a working demonstrator and undertake evaluation and analysis.

You can see an impression of what the birth clinic might look like above.

One of the most interesting aspects of the project is that we have no idea what the robots we breed will look like. The evolutionary process could come up with almost any body shape and structure (morphology). The same process will also determine which and how many organs (sensors, actuators, etc) are selected, and their positions and orientation within the body. Our evolved robot bodies could be very surprising indeed.

And who knows – maybe we can take a step towards Walterian Creatures?

*Anyone who uses simulation as a tool to develop robots is well aware that robots which appear to work perfectly well in a simulated virtual world often don’t work very well at all when the same design is tested in the real robot. This problem is especially acute when we are artificially evolving those robots. The reason for these problems is that the model of the real world and the robot(s) in it inside our simulation is an approximation. The Reality Gap refers to the less-than-perfect fidelity of the simulation; a better (higher fidelity) simulator would reduce the reality gap.

Related materials:
Article in de Volkskrant (in Dutch) De robotevolutie kan beginnen. Hoe? Moeder Natuur vervangen door virtuele kraamkamer (The robot evolution can begin. How? Replacing Mother Nature with virtual nursery), May 2018.
Eiben and Smith (2015) From evolutionary computing to the evolution of things, Nature.
Winfield and Timmis (2015) Evolvable Robot Hardware, in Evolvable Hardware, Springer.
Eiben et al. (2013) The Triangle of Life, European Conference on Artificial Life (ECAL 2013).

The top fundings were:

1. Rockwell (NYSE:ROK) made a $1 billion equity investment in PTC (NASDAQ:PTC), an automation control software provider to government and industry.
2. Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) is investing $500 million in JD (JingDong) (NASDAQ:JD), the Chinese equivalent to Amazon and China’s 2nd largest e-commerce provider.
3. Yitu Technology, a Chinese vision systems and AI startup, raised $200 million in a Series C funding.
4. CMR Surgical, the Cambridge, UK developer of the Versius surgical robotic system, raised $100 million in a Series B funding.

This month’s $2.1 billion in fundings brings the year-to-date total to $7.1 billion!

Fundings

1. PTC (NASDAQ:PTC), a IoT, Industry 4.0 and control software provider to government and industry, has partnered with Rockwell Automation (NYSE:ROK), the world’s largest company dedicated to industrial automation and information, “to accelerate growth for both companies and enable them to be the partner of choice for customers around the world who want to transform their physical operations with digital technology.” Rockwell is making a $1 billion equity investment in PTC as part of the deal in which the two agreed to align their respective smart factory technologies and industrial automation platforms.
2. JD (JingDong) (NASDAQ:JD), the Chinese equivalent to Amazon and China’s 2nd largest e-commerce provider, raised $500 million from Google/Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG). Like Amazon, JD is heavy in the automated logistics business and now, with this investment, JD plans to open restaurants staffed by robots starting this August and ramping up to 1,000 by 2020. (The restaurants will serve 40 or fewer dishes with customers ordering and paying by smartphone.) JD is also involved in last mile deliveries and just launched 20 mobile robot carts in the Beijing area (each robot can deliver up to 30 different parcels). Google has been partnering and investing in smart logistics, online grocery shopping, virtual assistant shopping and same day delivery and this investment in JD adds to that effort.
3. Yitu Technology, a Chinese vision systems and AI startup, raised $200 million in a Series C funding from ICBC International Holdings, SPDB International and Gaocheng Capital.
4. CMR Surgical, the Cambridge, UK developer of the Versius surgical robot system, raised $100 million in a Series B funding round led by Zhejiang Silk Road Fund and included existing investors Escala Capital Investments, LGT, Cambridge Innovation Capital and Watrium. CMR employs over 200 people and is close to submitting its surgical robotic system for regulatory approval.
5. Quantum Surgical, a French surgical robotics startup, raised $50 million in a Series A funding round led by Ally Bridge Group with participation from China’s Lifetech Scientific through its joint venture with Ally Bridge Group.
6. Bossa Nova Robotics, a San Francisco inventory management AI-enhanced robot maker, raised $29-million funding in a Series B-1 round led by Cota Capital, with participation from China Walden Ventures, LG Electronics, and Intel Capital, Lucas Venture Group, and WRV Capital.
7. Ceres Imaging, an Oakland, CA-based aerial spectral imagery and analytics company for the ag industry, raised $25 million in a Series B funding led by Insight Venture Partners and joined by Romulus Capital.
8. DroneDeploy, a San Francisco provider of software solutions for drones (automated safety checks, workflows and real-time mapping), raised $25 million in a Series C round led by Invenergy Future Fund with participation by Scale Venture Partners, AngelPad, Emergence Capital, AirTree Ventures and Uncork Capital.
9. Starship Technologies, the Estonian mobile robot delivery startup, raised $25 million in a seed round from existing investors Matrix Partners and Morpheus Ventures, along with extra funding from Airbnb co-founder Nathan Blecharczyk and Skype founding engineer Jaan Tallinn. The money will go toward expanding the fleet which they forecast to exceed 1,000 robots across 20 work and academic campuses, as well as various neighborhoods, in the next year.
10. Silexica, a provider of AI-on-a-chip for ADAS vehicle applications, raised $18 million in a Series B round led by EQT Ventures Fund with previous investors Merus Capital, Paua Ventures, Seed Fonds Aachen, and DSA Invest.
11. Verity Studios, a Swiss indoor entertainment drone startup from one of the co-founders of Kiva Systems, raised $18 million in a Series A round led by Fontinalis Partners with Airbus Ventures, Sony Innovation Fund, and Kitty Hawk.
12. Matternet, a Silicon Valley developer of drone logistics solutions, raised $16 million in Series A funding. Boeing HorizonX Ventures led the round and was joined by Swiss Post, Sony Innovation Fund and Levitate Capital.
13. Andrew Alliance, a Swiss developer of a line of bench-top lab pipetting robots, raised $14 million in a Series C funding round from Tecan Group, the Waters Corporation, Inpeco, Rancilio Cube, Sam Eletr Trust and Omega Funds. Andrew Alliance has supplied 18 of the top 20 pharmaceutical companies, the top four diagnostic companies, and 16 of the top 20 of the world’s leading academic research institutions with lab robots.
14. Savioke, the Silicon Valley hospitality robot maker, raised $13.4 million in a Series B funding from Brain Corp, Swisslog Healthcare, NESIC and Recruit. The addition of Swisslog as an investor opens a new market for Savioke: hospital point-to-point delivery helping nurses, lab techs and other healthcare workers deliver essential items throughout the hospital.
15. NextInput, a Silicon Valley developer of MEMS-based force-sensor solutions, raised $13 million in a Series B funding round from Sierra Ventures, Cota Capital and UMC Capital.
16. Hailo Technologies, an Israeli chip making startup developing deep learning capabilities on edge devices, raised $12.5 million in a Series A round from Ourcrowd.com, Maniv Mobility, Next Gear; Zohar Zisapel and Gil Agmon.
17. Sphero (Orbotix), a Colorado-based robotic toymaker (think Star Wars, Spider Man and Lightning Mcqueen), raised $12.1 million as the first part of a $20 million fundraising led by Mercato Partners. Sphero spun out Misty Robotics to handle new robot toy business, readjusted its staff after a lackluster holiday sales season, and is remaking itself into an education-first robotics company.
18. WaterBit, a Silicon Valley precision ag irrigation system provider, raised $11.4 million in Series A funding led by New Enterprise Associates and including TJ Rodgers and Heuristic Capital.
19. Chowbotics, the Silicon Valley salad-making robot, raised $11 million in a Series A-1 funding round led by the Foundry Group and Techstars. They will use the funding to develop grain, breakfast, poke, açai and yogurt bowls.
20. Box Bot, a Berkeley-based developer of autonomous delivery robots, raised $7.5 million in seed funding. Artiman Ventures led the round and was joined by Pear Ventures, Afore Capital, Ironfire Ventures and The House Fund.
21. Kittyhawk, a San Francisco-based drone innovation company, raised $5 million in a Series A funding round led by Bonfire Ventures and joined by Boeing HorizonX Ventures and Freestyle Capital.
22. Smart Ag, an Iowa developer of an aftermarket kit for driverless tractors, and AutoCart, a plug-and-play system that automates existing grain cart tractors, raised $5 million from Stine See Farm.
23. CyPhy Works, sans founder Helen Greiner, raised $4.5 million from unknown sources in a Series C funding round. CyPhy provides “persistent” tethered drone platforms for defense and public safety. The company previously raised ~$35 million. Its backers include Bessemer Venture Partners, Draper Nexus, Lux Capital, and investment arms of UPS and Motorola. Greiner is now working with the U.S. Army on robotics and artificial intelligence initiatives.
24. Chasing Innovation Technology, a Shenzhen startup making underwater drone products, raised $3 million in a Seed round from Shenzhen Capital Group.
25. InterModalics/Pick-it, a Belgian vision system provider for co-bots, raised $2.9 million from Urbain Vandeurzen and PMV to provide growth capital for the Pick-it vision and distancing device.
26. Acryl, a Korean voice and emotion recognition AI startup, raised around $934,000 from LG Electronics (which equated to a 10% stake in the venture).
27. Centaurs Tech (Chewrobot), a Chinese and American voice processing startup, raised an undisclosed Series A amount from Zongton Capital, Leaguer Venture Capital and Boyaa Interactive.

Acquisitions

1. Bonsai AI, a Berkeley software and AI startup, was acquired by Microsoft (in what might be called an acqui-talent grab) for an undisclosed amount. Bonsai’s 45+ employees will be used by Microsoft to build the machine learning model for autonomous systems of all types.
2. Carter Control Systems, a Maryland integrator of material handling logistics systems for high-volume mail handlers and postal automation, was acquired by Systems Solutions of Kentucky, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lummus, a legacy provider of machinery and parts for cotton gin companies, for an undisclosed amount. Systems Solutions is an integrator of letter, parcel, baggage and cargo sortation devices and conveyor equipment. Carter offers a full range of robotic solutions for picking, packing, machine tending, assembly and palletizing.
3. ESYS Automation, a Michigan industrial robotics integrator, was acquired for an undisclosed amount by JR Automation Technologies, also an industrial robotics integrator.
4. FFT Production Systems, a German integrator of industrial robots, was acquired by Chinese conglomerate Fosun International for an undisclosed amount. FFT provides complete vehicles and production plants for Tier 1 equipment makers in Germany, the USA, Japan, China and other countries. In 2017, FFT recorded revenues of over $984 million and employs over 2,600 people.
5. HEXAGON (STO:HEXA-B), the Swedish conglomerate integrating sensors and software into precision measuring technologies, acquired American AutonomouStuff, a developer and supplier of autonomous vehicle solutions, for an undisclosed amount estimated to be around $160 million. Hexagon has ~18,000 employees and net sales of ~$4.2 billion. During 2017 Hexagon acquired MSC, Vires, Catavolt and Luciad to enhance their autonomous, visualization and mobile capabilities. AutonomouStuff joined Baidu’s Apollo project team working on autonomous vehicle solutions earlier this year and had 2017 sales of $45 million.
6. MyStemKits, an Atlanta-based STEM learning kit that uses 3D printed items, was acquired by Robo 3D, a San Diego 3D printing equipment and supplies provider, for an undisclosed amount.
7. OnFarm Systems, a Fresno, CA-based SaaS for farmers, was acquired by Swiim, a Denver, CO irrigation system provider, for an undisclosed amount. The plan for the acquisition is to integrate SWIIM’s water balance monitoring and reporting data into the OnFarm dashboard thereby creating a more user-friendly product for SWIIM’s clients.
8. On Robot, a Danish gripper maker startup, has become the remaining name in the 3-way merger/acquisition of On Robot, OptoForce, a Hungarian force sensor provider and Perception Robotics, a Los Angeles gripper and tactile sensor developer. No financial information was provided.
9. RedZone Robotics, a Pittsburgh-based multi-sensor inspection provider for wastewater pipeline systems founded 30 years ago by famed roboticist “Red” Whittaker, was acquired by a group of investors led by Milestone Partners and including ABS Capital Partners, for an undisclosed purchase price.
10. Scott Technology (NZ:SCT), a NZ-based food handling robotics provider, has acquired the assets and IP of Transbotics (OTCMKTS:TNSB), an American AGV manufacturer. No financial details were provided.

IPOs

1. Albert Analytical Technology (TYO:3906), a Japanese analytics firm developing AI for self-driving vehicles, issued shares to Toyota Motor in return for $3.6 million of cash “For technological innovation as in the development of automated driving technologies with advanced analytical capacity centered on AI and machine learning.”
2. Odico Formwork Robotics (CPH:ODICO), a Danish construction robotics provider, issued 10 million shares to trade on the Nasdaq First North Denmark Exchange.

I start the keynote with Alan Turing’s famous question: Can a Machine Think? and explain that thinking is not just the conscious reflection of Rodin’s Thinker but also the largely unconscious thinking required to make a pot of tea. I note that at the dawn of AI 60 years ago we believed the former kind of thinking would be really difficult to emulate artificially and the latter easy. In fact it has turned out to be the other way round: we’ve had computers that can expertly play chess for over 20 years, but we can’t yet build a robot that could go into your kitchen and make you a cup of tea (see also the Wozniak coffee test).

In slides 5 and 6 I suggest that we all assume a cat is smarter than a crocodile, which is smarter than a cockroach, on a linear scale of intelligence from not very intelligent to human intelligence. I ask where would a robot vacuum cleaner be on this scale and propose that such a robot is about as smart as an e-coli (single celled organism). I then illustrate the difficulty of placing the Actroid robot on this scale because, although it may look convincingly human (from a distance), in reality the robot is not very much smarter than a washing machine (and I hint that this is an ethical problem).

In slide 7 I show how apparently intelligent behaviour doesn’t require a brain, with the Solarbot. This robot is an example of a Braitenberg machine. It has two solar panels (which look a bit like wings) acting as both sensors and power sources; the left hand panel is connected to the right hand wheel and vice versa. These direct connections mean that Solarbot can move towards the light and even navigate its way through obstacles, thus showing that intelligent behaviour is an emergent property of the interactions between body and environment.

In slide 8 I ask the question: What is the most advanced AI in the world today? (A question I am often asked.) Is it for example David Hanson’s robot Sophia (which some press reports have claimed as the world’s most advanced)? I argue it is not, since it is a chatbot AI – with a limited conversational repertoire – with a physical body (imagine Alexa with a humanoid head). Is it the DeepMind AI AlphaGo which famously beat the world’s best Go player in 2016? Although very impressive I again argue no since AlphaGo cannot do anything other than play Go. Instead I suggest that everyday Google might well be the world’s most advanced AI (on this I agree with my friend Joanna Bryson). Google is in effect a librarian able to find a book from an immense library for you – on the basis of your ill formed query – more or less instantly! (And this librarian is poly lingual too.)

In slides 9 I make the point that intelligence is not one thing that animals, robots and AIs have more or less of (in other words the linear scale shown on slides 5 and 6 is wrong). Then in slides 10 – 13 I propose four distinct categories of intelligence: morphological, swarm, individual and social intelligence. I suggest in slides 14 – 16 that if we express these as four axes of a graph then we can (very approximately) compare the intelligence of different organisms, including humans. In slide 17 I show some robots and argue that this graph shows why robots are so unintelligent; it is because robots generally only have two of the four kinds of intelligence whereas animals typically have three or sometimes all four. A detailed account of these ideas can be found in my paper How intelligent is your intelligent robot?

In the next segment, slides 18-20 I ask: how do we make Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)? I suggest that the key difference between current narrow AI and AGI is the ability – which comes very naturally to humans – to generalise knowledge learned in one context to a completely different context. This I think is the basis of human creativity. Using Data from Star Trek the next generation as a SF example of an AGI with human-equivalent intelligence as what we might be aiming for in the quest for AGI I explain that there are 3 approaches to getting there: by design, using artificial evolution or by reverse engineering animals. I offer the opinion that the gap between where we are now and Data like AGI is about the same as the gap between current space craft engine technology and warp drive technology. In other words not any time soon.

In the fourth segment of the talk (slides 21-24) I give a very brief account of evolutionary robotics – a method for breeding robots in much the same way farmers have artificially selected new varieties of plants and animals for thousands of years. I illustrate this with the wonderful Golem project which, for the first time, evolved simple creatures then 3D printed the most successful ones. I then introduce our new four year EPSRC funded project Autonomous Robot Evolution: from cradle to grave. In a radical new approach we aim to co-evolve robot bodies and brains in real-time and real-space. Using techniques from 3D printing new robot designs will literally be printed, before being trained in a nursery, then fitness tested in a target environment. With this approach we hope to be able to evolve robots for extreme environments, however because the energy costs are so high I do not think evolution is a route to truly thinking machines.

In the final segment (slides 25-35) I return to the approach of trying to design rather than evolve thinking machines. I introduce the idea of embedding a simulation of a robot in that robot, so that it has the ability to internally model itself. The first example I give is the amazing anthropomimetic robot invented by my old friend Owen Holland, called ECCEROBOT. Eccerobot is able to learn how to control it’s own very complicated and hard-to-control body by trying out possible movement sequences in its internal model (Owen calls this a ‘functional imagination’). I then outline our own work to use the same principle – a simulation based internal model – to demonstrate simple ethical behaviours, first with e-puck robots, then with NAO robots. These experiments are described in detail here and here. I suggest that these robots – with their ability to model and predict the consequences of their own and others’ actions, in other words anticipate the future – may represent the first small steps toward thinking machines.

Related blog posts:
60 years of asking can robot think?

How intelligent are intelligent robots?

Robot bodies and how to evolve them

Twenty-seven startups were funded in May for a total of $2.5 billion.

The top five were:

1. Cruise Holdings announced a two-phase funding by SoftBank Vision Fund totaling $2.25 billion. $900 million will be funded right away. Future funding of $1.35 billion is contingent on two things: regulatory approval and at the time when Cruise AVs are ready for commercial deployment. At that time GM will also invest another $1.1 billion thereby providing sufficient capital to reach commercialization beginning in 2019.
2. UBTech Robotics, the Chinese toy robot builder, raised $820 million to help them develop adult-sized robots for commercial applications.
3. Ocado, the UK online grocer, raised $247 million by selling a 5% stake to US grocer Kroger.
4. Roadstar AI, another Chinese startup, raised $128 million for their radars and sensors for self-driving vehicles.
5. SoundHound, a Silicon Valley developer of voice-enabled AI for consumer robots and self-driving vehicles, raised $100 million.

This month’s $2.5 billion in fundings doubles the January thru April total of $2.5 billion. Thus a YTD of $5 billion!

Four acquisitions occurred in May. The most notable was SPX Corp., the large inspection equipment components manufacturer, which acquired CUES, a Florida robotic pipeline video inspection and rehab company, for $189 million.

Fundings

1. Cruise Holdings announced a two-phase funding by SoftBank Vision Fund totaling $2.25 billion. $900 million will be funded right away. Future funding of $1.35 billion is contingent on two things: regulatory approval and at the time when Cruise AVs are ready for commercial deployment. At that time GM will also invest another $1.1 billion to provide the combined capital to reach commercialization beginning in 2019. As a result of this two-pronged funding, SoftBank Vision Fund will end up owning a 19.6% equity stake in GM Cruise.
   

   Placing the roof instruments. Look at all those LiDARs!

2. 

   Functions of new UBTech humanoid robots.

   UBTech Robotics, the Chinese toy robot builder that’s been featured in the Guiness Book of Records for the most simultaneous dancing robots, raised $820 million in a Series C funding round led by Tencent Holdings with participation from Green Pine Capital, Haier Group, Minsheng Securities, CDH Investments and Telstra. The new investment brings UBTech’s valuation to approximately $5 billion. UBTech said the money would be used to develop adult-sized humanoid robots and will focus particularly on the R&D of servo systems, movement control algorithms for walking, and computer vision.

3. Ocado, the UK leader in home-delivered groceries using robot-run distribution centers, which raised ~$192.5 million (in Feb) by selling shares of it’s publicly traded stock (LON:OCDO), has established a licensing deal with US grocery chain Kroger whereby Kroger will take a 5% stake in Ocado – an investment valued at ~$247.5 million and Ocado will help Kroger set up systems to help it manage online ordering, fulfillment and delivery operations. Ocado invested $57.5 million on technology last year, up from $46 million the previous year. The company is developing proprietary technology and has also increased its tech staff to 1,100.  The company uses about 500 robots interacting with each other on a grid which have allowed it to process more than 20,000 orders.
4. Roadstar.AI, a Chinese self-driving startup integrating multiple sensors and LiDARs, cameras, radars, GPS and IMU to provide time and spatial synchronization for self-driving vehicles, raised $128 million in a series A round led by Wu Capital and Shenzhen Capital Group and also Yunqi Partners, CMBI International Capital Corporation Ltd and Vision Capital.
5. SoundHound, a Silicon Valley developer of voice-enabled AI for consumer robots and self-driving vehicles, raised $100 million in a round full of strategic partners: Tencent, Midea, Hyundai, Daimler and France Telecom (Orange).
6. Rapid Micro Biosystems, a Mass-based lab sciences testing equipment provider, raised $60 million in a venture round led by Bain Capital and Xeraya Capital
7. Saildrone, an Alameda, CA autonomous marine surface vehicle collecting scientific data, raised $60 million in a Series B funding led by Horizons Ventures and also Capricorn’s Technology Impact Fund, Lux Capital, Social Capital, and The Schmidt Family Foundation.
8. Hesai Photonics Technology, a Chinese laser sensor maker for self-driving vehicles, raised $39 million in a Series B round led by Lightspeed and Baidu. Hesai also makes a natural gas safety drone which can sense leaks in hi-rise buildings.
9. Medical Microinstruments, an Italian maker of a robotic platform for microsurgery, raised $24.5 million in a Series A round led by Andera Partners with participation from Panakes Partners and Fountain Healthcare, returning seed investor Sambatech, and industry veterans Gus Castello, former Senior Vice President of Product Operations for Intuitive Surgical Inc., and John Engels, founder of AxoGen, Inc.
10. Cowa Robot, the Chinese follow-me suitcase startup, raised $21.2 million in a Series B round jointly led by SoftBank China Venture Capital and China Creation Ventures with additional participation from Infore Capital, China Minsheng Investment Group.
11. Soft Robotics, a Cambridge, MA-based startup which designs and builds soft robotic gripping systems, raised $20 million in a round led by Hyperplane Venture Capital and including Scale Venture Partners, Calibrate Ventures, Honeywell Ventures, Tekfen Ventures, Yamaha Motor, Material Impact, ABB Technology Ventures, Taylor Farms Ventures and Haiyin Capital.
12. Trio.AI, a Beijing startup developing a dialogue engine for IoT and robotics, raised $17 million in a Series B round led by HanFor, China Minsheng Investment Group, Foxconn Technology Group and Xiamen Torch Group.
13. Superpedestrian, the Boston-based developer of the Copenhagen Wheel to enhance bicycles by amplifying pedal power by up to 10X, raised $16.5 million in a Series B round from Extol Capital LLC, Spark Capital and General Catalyst. This brings Superpedestrian’s total investment to ~$44 million.
14. Fictiv, a San Francisco-based developer of a virtual manufacturing platform used by Silicon Valley autonomous vehicles and medical robotics providers, raised $15 million in a Series B funding from Accel, Intel Capital, FJ Labs, Tandon Group, Stanford-StartX Fund, and Bill Gates.
15. Arevo Labs, a Silicon Valley provider of carbon fiber 3D printing technology, raised $12.5 million in Series B funding led by Asahi Glass and joined by Sumitomo Corporation of Americas, Leslie Ventures and Khosla Ventures.
16. Resson, a Canadian ag analytics provider, raised $10.9 million in a Series C round led by Mahindra & Mahindra with existing partners McCain Foods, Monsanto Growth Ventures, Build Ventures, Rho Canada, BDC Capital, East Valley Ventures and the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation.
17. EcoRobotix, the Swiss ag-tech startup developing a mobile weeding robot, raised $10.7 million in a Series B funding round led by BASF Venture Capital with participation by Business Angels Swiss, 4FO Ventures, Investiere, and CapAgro.
18. Algolux, a Canadian provider of machine-learning stacks for autonomous vision and imaging, raised $10 million in Series A funding. General Motors Ventures led the round, and was joined by investors including Drive Capital, Intact Ventures, and Real Ventures.
19. ForwardX, a Chinese follow-me suitcase developer, raised $10 million in a Series A round led by CDH Investments and Eastern Bell Venture Capital
20. Metawave, a Silicon Valley developer of beam steering radars for autonomous vehicle apps, raised $10 million in funding. Investors include DENSO, Toyota AI Ventures, Hyundai Motor Company, Asahi Glass, Motus Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Autotech Ventures, Bold Capital, SAIC Capital, Western Technology Investment (WTI), and Alrai Capital.
21. Verifly Holdings, a U.K.-based manufacturer of drone control systems and on-demand insurance sales agency, raised $7 million in funding. Investors include Slow Ventures, OpenOcean, and the founders of Kayak and HotelTonight.
22. Hummingbird Technologies, a UK-based drone, aerial and satellite sensing ag startup, raised $4.1 million in a Series A funding round from The European Space Agency, Sir James Dyson, Newable Private Investing and Velcourt, the UK’s largest commercial farming operation.
23. Plus One Robotics, a Texas vision and controls systems developer for robotic automation, raised $2.35 million (in 2017) in a seed round led by Schematic Ventures and joined by Lerer Hippeau, FF Venture Capital, First Star and Dynamo.
24. SkySquirrel Technologies (which recently merged into VineView), a Canadian ag drone and analytics provider for the wine industry, raised $2.3 million (in January) from an Ontario-based private investor and Innovacorp.
25. Kewazo, a German robotic construction equipment startup, raised $1.2 million in a seed round led by MIG Fonds 14 and Alfred Bauer.
26. C2RO Robotics, a Canadian startup enabling mapping, self-localization, and autonomous path planning in real-time with cloud-based SLAM, has raised $1.1 million in a seed round led by Chicago-based Harbor Street Ventures, with the participation of Fonds InnovExport, TandemLaunch Ventures and several angel investors in Canada, the U.S. and Europe.
27. Beijing Tiddler (AI Nemo), a Chinese consumer products and home companion robot developer, raised an undisclosed amount in a Series C round led by Baidu with participation from Foxconn.

Acquisitions

1. CUES, a 50-year old, 365-person Florida robotic video pipeline inspection and rehab company, was acquired by SPX Corp, an inspection equipment components manufacturer, for $189 million.
2. SkySquirrel Technologies, a Canadian ag-industry startup, has merged into VineView, Scientific Aerial Imaging, a California ag startup which will now be headquartered in Halifax, Nova Scotia. SkySquirrel’s founder and CEO will remain CEO of the new combined company.
3. Mavrx, a failing San Francisco-based aerial imagery platform startup, was acquired for an undisclosed amount by Israeli ag aerial imagery provider Taranis. Mavrx, which raised $12.5 million since 2012, ran into some financial and operational difficulty and was not able to service its clients for the upcoming growing season despite providing a popular product with a 90% customer renewal rate.
4. Jodone, a Boston robotics-related software and AI startup, was acquired by RightHand Robotics for an undisclosed amount.

IPOs

• None

Failures

• Ticktock AI — tried lots of approaches but never solved any problems that people wanted solved — good review here.

An Aside:

It seems like seed rounds are getting bigger and less frequent while Series A rounds are happening later in the development cycle. So says Bessemer Venture partner Amit Karp in a recent post on Medium.

“Most early stage startups we meet these days attempt to raise a $2M-$4M seed investment with some seed rounds expanding even further. These larger seed rounds are often led by a new pool of dedicated seed funds. In addition, the larger funds sometimes also participate in these early rounds, which results in even larger seed rounds (and often higher valuations). Angel investors are often added into the mix to bring more credibility and help with their experience in the early stages of the startup, but it’s a ‘professional’ seed investor who often leads the seed round.”

According to Karp there are several implications to these new large seed rounds:

1. 1. Series-A financing is pushed later, and Series-A investors now expect to see much more business traction before they commit.
   2. Series-A rounds have also become larger and are now often north of $8M. This reduces the amount of Series-A investors as it requires a larger fund to invest in that stage.
   3. Securing a Series-A investment is more difficult than it used to be since there are fewer funds and the startup needs to demonstrate more business traction.
   4. Lastly, and likely most important, is that the winners are separated from the losers earlier than ever. It is very difficult for a startup which raised a $500K seed round to compete with another startup that raised $4M at the same stage. A similar phenomena to the massive SoftBank fundings.

Reviewing The Robot Report’s Y-T-D 2018 seed rounds, there were 13 fundings averaging $3.8 million each thus confirming Karp’s thesis from our smaller sample of robotics-related fundings.

• • May: $1.2M and $1.1M
  • April: $3M
  • March: $10M, $6M, $2M and $1.1M
  • February: $11.5M, $5.5M and $2M
  • January: $3M, $2.8M and $750k

Since Lupashin’s demo, there are now close to a hundred providers of drones on leashes from innovative startups to aftermarket solutions in order to restrain unmanned flying vehicles. Probably the best known enterprise solution is CyPhy Works which has raised more than $30 million. Last August, during President Trump’s visit to his Golf Course in New Jersey, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) deployed CyPhy’s tethered drones to patrol the permitter. In a statement by DHS about their “spy in the sky program,” the agency explained: “The Proof of Concept will help determine the potential future use of tethered Unmanned Aircraft System (sUAS) in supporting the Agency’s protective mission. The tethered sUAS used in the Proof of Concept is operated using a microfilament tether that provides power to the aircraft and the secure video from the aircraft to the Operator Control Unit (OCU).” CyPhy’s systems are currently being utilized to provide a birdseye view to police departments and military units for a number of high profile missions, including the Boston Marathon.

Fotokite, CyPhy and others have proved that tethered machines offer huge advantages from traditional remote controlled or autonomous UAVs, by removing regulatory, battery and payload restrictions from lengthy missions. This past week Genius NY, the largest unmanned systems accelerator, awarded one million dollars to Fotokite for its latest enterprise line of leashed drones. The company clinched the competition after demonstrating how its drones can fly for up to twenty-four hours continuously providing real-time video feed autonomously and safely above large population centers. Fotokite’s Chief Executive, Chris McCall, announced that the funds will be utilized to fulfill a contract with one of the largest fire truck manufacturers in the United States. “We’re building an add-on to fire and rescue vehicles and public safety vehicles to be added on top of for instance a fire truck. And then a firefighter is able to pull up to an emergency scene, push a button and up on top of the fire truck this box opens up, a Fotokite flies up and starts live streaming thermal and normal video down to all the firefighters on the ground,” boasted McCall.

Fotokite is not the only kite drone company marketing to fire fighters, Latvian-born startup Aerones is attaching firehoses to its massive multi-rotor unmanned aerial vehicles. Aerones claims to have successfully built a rapid response UAV that can climb up to a thousand feet within six minutes to extinguish fires from the air. This enables first responders to have a reach of close to ten times more than traditional fire ladders. The Y Combinator startup offers municipalities two models: a twenty-eight propeller version that can carry up to 441 pounds to a height of 984 feet and a thirty-six propeller version that ferriess over 650 pounds of equipment to ascend over 1,600 feet. However, immediate interest for the Aerones solution is coming from industrial clients such as wind farms. “Over the last two months, we’ve been very actively talking to wind turbine owners,” says Janis Putrams, CEO of Aerones. “We have lots of interest and letters of intent in Texas, Spain, Turkey, South America for wind turbine cleaning. And in places like Canada, the Nordic and Europe for de-icing. If the weather is close to freezing, ice builds up, and they have to stop the turbine.” TechCrunch reported last March that the company moved its sales operations to Silicon Valley. 

The emergency response industry is also looking to other aerial solutions to tackle its most difficult challenges. For over a year, Zipline has been successfully delivering blood for critical transfusions to the most remote areas of Africa. The company announced earlier this month that it has filed with the FAA to begin testing later this year in America. This is welcome news for the USA’s rural health centers which are straddled with exploding costs, staff shortages and crippling infrastructure. In a Fast Company article about Zipline, the magazine reported that “Nearly half of rural providers already have a negative operating margin. As rural residents–who tend to be sicker than the rest of the country–have to rely on the smaller clinics that remain, drones could ensure that those clinics have access to necessary supplies. Blood products spoil quickly, and outside major hospitals, it’s common not to have the right blood on hand for a procedure. Using the drones would be faster, cheaper, and more reliable than delivering the supplies in a van or car.”

Keller Rinaudo, Zipline’s Chief Executive, describes, “There’s a lot that [the U.S.] can be doing better. And that’s what we think is ultimately the promise of future logistics and automated logistics. It’s not delivering tennis shoes or pizza to someone’s backyard. It’s providing universal access to healthcare when people need it the most.”

To date, Zipline has flown over 200,000 miles autonomously delivering 7,000 units of blood throughout Rwanda. To prepare for its US launch, the company re-engineered its entire platform to bolster its delivery capabilities. Rinaudo explains, “In larger countries, you’re going to need distribution centers and logistics systems that are capable of doing millions of deliveries a day rather than hundreds or thousands.” The new UAV is a small fixed-wing plane called the Zip that can soar close to 80 miles per hour enabling life-saving supplies such as blood, organ donations or vaccines to be delivered in a matter of minutes.

As I prepare to speak at Xponetial 2018 next month, I am inspired by these innovators who turn their mechanical inventions into life-saving solutions. Many would encourage Rinaudo and others to focus their energies on the seemingly more profitable  sectors such as e-commerce delivery and industrial inspections. However, Rinaudo retorts that “Healthcare logistics is a way bigger market and a way bigger problem than most people realize. Globally it’s a $70 billion industry. The reality is that there are billions of people who do not have reliable access to healthcare and a big part of that is logistics. As a result of that, 5.2 million kids die every year due to lack of access to basic medical products. So Zipline’s not in a rush to bite off a bigger problem than that.”

The topic of utilizing life-saving technology will be discussed at the next RobotLab event on “The Politics Of Automation,” with Democratic Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang and New York Assemblyman Clyde Vanel on June 13th @ 6pm in NYC – RSVP Today! 

Twenty-four startups were funded in March 2018 raising a combined total of $350 million. That brings the 3-month total to $1.5 billion!

Sorting robots at JD’s smart automated warehouse in Shanghai

There was an additional funding of $2.5 billion to JD Logistics, an 81.4%-owned spin-off that is the logistics arm of JD, China’s 2nd largest online retailer. Funding came from Hillhouse, Sequoia, China Merchants, Tencent, China Life, China Development Bank, China Structural Reform and ICBC International.

JD Logistics has 14 smart warehouses serving a network of ~500 warehouses occupying over 130 million sq ft of warehouse space. The 14 smart warehouses are using robotic shuttles, AS/RS systems, parallel robots and AGVs and JD Logistics is experimenting with autonomous delivery vehicles. Consequently, some of that funding will be used to research, develop and increase the number of smart warehouses with robotic logistics solutions.

Also in March there were three acquisitions and an IPO.

Fundings

1. Desktop Metal, a Burlington, Mass.-based company making metal 3d printing system for mass production raised $65 million in funding. Ford Motor Company led the round, and was joined by other investors including Future Fund. Desktop Metal has raised $277 million to date, has over 225 employees and has sold products into more than 40 countries.
2. Mythic, an Austin, Texas-based AI chip company, raised $40 million in Series B funding. SoftBank Ventures led the round, and was joined by investors including DFJ, Lux Capital, Data Collective, AME Cloud Ventures, Lockheed Martin Ventures and Andy Bechtolsheim. Mythic’s low-power lightweight chips are used for onboard processing in drones.
3. Corindus Vascular Robotics
   

   CorPath GRX System.

   , a Waltham, MA-based robotic-assisted surgical platform and the developer of the FDA-approved CorPath GRX system, raised another $25 million in a post-IPO equity private placement to existing investors including Hudson Executive Capital and BioStar Ventures, and new investors. Corrindus has raised $118 million and installed 33 systems to date.

4. ReWalk Robotics, an Israeli exoskeleton provider, in another post-IPO equity private placement, exchanged 16 million shares of its stock RWLK for $20 million in a private placement with Hong Kong Timwell Garment, a wholesale distributor of men’s and boy’s apparel. Timwell and ReWalk are joint venturing in China with RealCan Ambrum, a Shenzhen VC for healthcare products, to develop, manufacture and market ReWalk’s new soft-suit exoskeleton. ReWalk will provide the technology; Timwell and RealCan will provide additional funding and do the rest.
5. Airspace Systems Inc, a San Leandro, Calif.-based manufacturer of comprehensive drone defense systems, raised $20 million in Series A funding. Singtel Innov8 led the round, and was joined by investors including s28 Capital, Shasta Ventures and Granite Hill Capital Partners.
6. Blackmore Sensors and Analytics, a Bozeman, Montana-based developer of frequency-modulated continuous wave LiDAR for the auto industry, raised $18 million in Series B funding. BMW i Ventures led the round and was joined by Toyota AI Ventures, Millennium Technology Value Partners and Next Frontier Capital.
7. Starsky Robotics, a San Francisco-based self-driving truck startup, raised $16.5 million in funding. Investors include Shasta Ventures, Y Combinator, Trucks.vc, 50 Years, and 9Point Ventures.
8. Fortem Technologies, a Utah developer and provider of ultra small C-SWAP radar for beyond line of sight UAS operations, raised $15 million in a Series A round led by Data Collective with participation by New Ground Ventures, Mubadala Investment Co, New Ground Ventures, Signia Venture Partiers and The Boeing Company.
9. Laifual Drive, a Chinese harmonic drive gearbox manufacturer and robot reducer supplier, raised $15 million in a Series A round led by Northern Light VC with participation from Rushan Investment.
10. Transphorm, a CA chipmaker using gallium nitride semiconductors, has raised $15 million from Yaskawa Electric who uses Transphorm products in the servo motors for robots.
11. Blue Vision Labs, a Los Angeles machine perception startup, raised $14.5 million in a Series A round led by GV with participation by Accel Partners, Horizons Ventures and SV Angel.
12. Cobalt Robotics
    

    Cobalt mobile security robot.

    , a Silicon Valley mobile security robot startup, raised $13 million in a Series A financing led by Sequoia Capital with participation by Founders Fund, Storm Ventures, Bloomberg Beta, Promus Ventures and others.

13. Bestmile, a Swiss autonomous driving fleet management platform startup, raised $11 million in a Series A round let by Road Ventures with participation from Serena Capital, Partech, Airbus Ventures, Mobility.fund and Aéroport de Paris.
14. Robotic Vision Technologies, an Illinois developer and integrator of vision systems, raised $10.5 million from unknown sources. RVT has a 3D vision guidance system for guided vehicles and the collaborative robot market.
15. Ascent Robotics, a Tokyo-based AI startup focusing on self-driving vehicles and autonomous robotic systems, raised $10.3 million in a Series A round led by SBI Investment with participation from Bart Joseph Broadman.
16. OpenTrons, a Brooklyn, NY lab liquid-handling pipetting robot maker, raised $10 million in a seed round led by Khosla Ventures with participation by Y Combinator, Lerer Hippeau Ventures and Jeffrey Kindler.
17. Arraiy, a Silicon Valley vision systems and machine learning startup, raised $10 million in a Series A round led by Softbank Ventures Korea and Lux Capital with participation by IDG Capital Partners, Dentsu Ventures, Cherry Tree Investments and CRCM Ventures.
18. Agility Robotics
    

    Agility bipedal mobile robots.

    , an Oregon startup developing legged robots into products that need rugged mobility and must fit into human spaces, closed a $8 million Series A round. Playground Global led the round, with participation from Sony Innovation Fund and existing investor Robotics Hub. Agility’s two-legged Cassie robot is already deployed in 6 research institutes. Agility is planning on using Cassie for everything from deliveries to facility inspections to hazardous search-and-rescue operations.

19. Scotty Labs, a tele-operations company working on technology for remote control-enabled self-driving cars, raised $6 million in seed funding. Gradient Ventures led the round, and was joined by investors including Horizon Ventures and Hemi Ventures.
20. Hummingbird Technologies, a UK drone, aerial and satellite imagery and remote sensing ag startup, raised $4.1 million in a Series A round led by Sir James Dyson, the European Space Agency, Newable Private Investing and Velcourt.
21. Circular Wave Drive, an Ohio startup developing a long-life speed reducer gear for robots, raised $2 million in a Seed round led by Ikove Venture Partners.
22. Skycision,  a Pittsburgh-based ag drone analytics startup, raised $1.1 million in a seed round from Innova Memphis, AgLaunch Accelerator, Scurich Berry Farms and individual investors.
23. Mojio Inc, a Vancouver-based connected car platform, raised funding of an undisclosed amount. Investors include Iris Capital and Telus Ventures.
24. Oxford Robotics (Dynium), an Oxford, UK autonomous farm tractor startup, raised an unknown amount in seed investment from unknown sources.

Acquisitions

1. Energid, a Cambridge, MA-based integrator, engineering firm and developer of robot control, simulation and machine vision software, was acquired by Teradyne (NYSE:TER), the company that acquired Universal Robots back in 2015.
2. Syngenta (NYSE:SYT), an ag conglomerate which was acquired by ChemChina in 2017, has acquired NC ag analytics startup FarmShots, for an undisclosed amount. FarmShots will be integrated into Syngenta’s AgriEdge Excelsior whole-farm management system and be available to growers worldwide.
3. Tarena Intl, a Chinese educational services company, acquired Wuhan Haoxiaozi Robot Technology, also known as Rtec, a K-12 robotics programming education service. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

IPOs

Mobile Octopus robot aerates chicken litter.

1. Octopus Robots (FP:MLOCT), a French developer of mobile robots for the ag industry, raised $32.8 million from selling 1.765M shares of stock on the Paris Stock Exchange.

The main objective of ROBOTT-NET is to create a sustainable European infrastructure to support novel robotic technologies on their path to market.

ROBOTT-NET includes Danish Technological Institute (DTI,DK), Fraunhofer IPA (DE), Tecnalia (ES) and The Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC,UK).

The initiative combines European competencies in state-of-the art applied robotics and enables companies to benefit from Danish, German, Spanish and British expertise, says project coordinator Kurt Nielsen of DTI’s Centre for Robot Technology.

By offering highly qualified consulting services, ROBOTT-NET contributes to an easy access to specialist expertise and helps companies of all sizes bring their ideas to the market and optimize the production.

During the project ROBOTT-NET has arranged Open Labs in Denmark, Germany, England and Spain, where companies can learn about robotics opportunities.

Any European company that wanted to use or produce robots has been invited to apply for a voucher, which is the backbone of the program. Big manufacturers, garage start-ups and everything in between were eligible as long as the idea was concrete enough.

64 projects were selected and received a voucher. The voucher entitled the companies to approximately 400 hours of free consulting with robotics experts from all over Europe at the four partner locations.

Amongst these 64 projects ROBOTT-NET has assisted Orifarm in developing vision system for identifying new medicin boxes, helped AirLiquide in developing an autonomous mobile robot for handling of high pressure containers and supported Trumpf in developing a robot gripper that can perform unstructured bin picking of large metal sheets.

Additionally, eight projects will be selected for a ROBOTT-NET pilot, that will help the companies develop their voucher work through proof of concept level and accelerate it towards commerciality.

Check out the voucher page on ROBOTT-NET.eu and get inspired by the work that already has been done between European Companies and Research Technology Organizations.

The aim of the euRobotics Technology Transfer Award (now in its 15th year) is to showcase the impact of robotics research and to raise the profile of technology transfer between science and industry. Outstanding innovations in robot technology and automation that result from cooperative efforts between research and industry are eligible for the prize.

The First prize went to Germany’s Roboception: rc_visard – 3D perception & manipulation for robots made easy team, composed of Michael Suppa, and Heiko Hirschmueller from Roboception GmbH, and Alin Albu-Schaeffer from the Institute of Robotics and German Aerospace Center (DLR).

“This award is a recognition of our institute’s continued efforts of supporting the go-to-market of technologies developed at our institute or – as in this case – derived thereof,” said Prof. Albu-Schaeffer. Dr. Suppa added that “since spinning Roboception off the DLR in 2015, a significant amount of thought, hard work and – first and foremost – unfailing commitment of our team have gone into bringing this technology from a research state to a market-ready product. And we are very proud to see these efforts recognized by the jury, and rewarded with this prestigious award.” The rc_visard is already in operational use in a number of customer projects across a variety of robotic domains. Prof. Albu-Schaeffer, an enthused rc_visard user at his DLR Institute himself, is convinced that “this product is one that will shape the future of robotics, thanks to its unique versatility.”

Watch the an interview with rc_visard filmed at Hannover Messe

The Second prize went to Germany, to the project Mobile Agricultural Robot Swarms (MARS), created by a team made up of Timo Blender and Christian Schlegel, from Hochschule Ulm, and Benno Pichlmaier from AGCO GmbH. The MARS experiment aims at the development of small and stream-lined mobile agricultural robot units to fuel a paradigm shift in farming practices. 

The Third prize went to Smart Robots from Italy, a team made up of Paolo Rocco and Andrea Maria Zanchettin, from Politecnico di Milano, and Roberto Rossi, from Smart Robots s.r.l., Italy. Smart robots provides advanced perception and intelligent capabilities to robots, enabling new disruptive forms of collaboration with human beings.

The Finalist was the In situ Fabricator (IF), an autonomous construction robot from Switzerland, with a team made up of Kathrin Dörfler from Gramazio Kohler Research, ETH Zurich, NCCR Digital Fabrication, Markus Giftthaler and Timothy Sandy from Agile & Dexterous Robotics Lab, ETH Zurich, NCCR Digital Fabrication.

Technology Transfer Award winners and coordinator Martin Haegele. Credits: Visual Outcasts

The members of jury of the TechTransfer Award were: Susanne Bieller (Eunited Robotics), Rainer Bischoff (KUKA), Georg von Wichert (Siemens), Herman Bruyninckx (KU Leuven), Martin Haegele (Fraunhofer IPA). The euRobotics TechTransfer Award 2018 is funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 Programme.

The Georges Giralt PhD Award showcased the best PhD theses defended during 2017 and 2018 in European universities from all areas of robotics

The 2017 edition saw 41 submissions from 11 countries. The jury composed of 26 academics from 16 European countries awarded:

Winner: Johannes Englsberger, Technical University of Munich, Germany – Combining reduced dynamics models and whole-body control for agile humanoid locomotion

Finalists:

• Christian Forster, University of Zurich, Switzerland – Visual Inertial Odometry and Active Dense Reconstruction for Mobile Robots
• Stefan Groothuis, University of Twente, the Netherlands – On the Modeling, Design, and Control of Compliant Robotic Manipulators
• Meng Guo, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden – Hybrid Control of Multi-robot Systems under Complex Temporal Tasks
• Nanda van der Stap, University of Twente, the Netherlands – Image-based endoscope navigation and clinical applications

Georges Giralt PhD Award 2017 winners and coordinator Gianluca Antonelli. Credits: Visual Outcasts

The 2018 edition saw 27 submissions from 11 countries. The jury composed of 26 academics from 16 European countries awarded:

Winners:

• Frank Bonnet, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland – Shoaling with fish: using miniature robotic agents to close the interaction loop with groups of zebrafish Danior rerio
• Daniel Leidner, University of Bremen, Germany – Cognitive Reasoning for Compliant Robot Manipulation

Finalists:

• Adrià Colomé Figueras, University Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain – Bimanual Robot Skills: MP Encoding and Dimensionality Reduction
• Đula Nađ, University of Zagreb, Croatia – Guidance and control of autonomous underwater agents with acoustically aided navigation
• Angel Santamaria-Navarro, University Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain – Visual Guidance of Unmanned Aerial Manipulators

Georges Giralt PhD Award 2018 winners and coordinator Gianluca Antonelli. Credits: Visual Outcasts

The Ceremony saw the handing of the European Robotics League (ERL) Awards: ERL Industrial Robots and ERL Service Robots, and ERL Emergency Robots. Points are awarded by attending local and major tournaments, not a central event, with three main objectives: strengthening the European robotics industry, pushing innovative autonomous systems for emergency response, and addressing societal challenges of aging populations in Europe. The European Robotics League is funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 Programme. 

Read the ERL Awards press release: European Robotics League winners revealed in Tampere, Finland (Season 2017/18)

CB Insights said that China dominated the funding of AI-related startups during 2017. So far in 2018, the China funding percentage appears to be less than the 48% of 2017.

Robotics Fundings

1. PROCEPT BioRobotics, a Redwood Shores, Calif.-based surgical robotics company, raised $118 million in financing. Viking Global Investors LP led the round, and was joined by investors including Perceptive Advisors and CPMG Inc. More Coverage on The Robot Report

2. Aurora Innovation, a Silicon Valley self-driving vehicle startup, raised $90 million in funding. Investors include Greylock Partners and Index Ventures.

3. Rani Therapeutics, a Silicon Valley medical device startup, raised $53 million raising their total funding to $142 million. The round included Chinese GeneScience Pharmaceuticals, Shire, Bossa Ventures, and Cathay Venture, GV, Novartis, AstraZeneca, Ping An Ventures, Virtus Ventures and others. More Coverage on The Robot Report

4. DecaWave, a Dublin, Ireland-based fabless semiconductor company specializing in precise location and connectivity applications, raised $30 million in funding. Atlantic Bridge Ventures led the round, and was joined by investors including Enterprise Ireland, China Ireland Growth Technology Fund, ACT Venture Capital and ZZ Ventures.

5. Magazino, a Munich startup providing mobile picking robots for small and medium-sized boxes, cases and pods, raised $24.8 million in a round led by the Körber Group with participation by Cellcom Resources, Zalando and Fiege Logistics.

6. CommonSense Robotics, an Israeli startup integrating robotics with online grocery fulfilment, raised $20 million in a Series A funding led by Playground Global, with participation from Aleph VC and Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavors. CommonSense employs robots to power custom warehouses or micro-fulfilment centers that are small enough to be placed in urban areas. The robots are designed to store products and bring the right ones to humans who then pack a customer’s order. More robots are then used to get the packaged order out to dispatch.

7. Prophesee SA, a Paris-based creator of a bio-inspired vision system, raised $19 million in funding. Investors include 360 Capital Partners, Supernova Invest, iBionext, Intel Capital, Renault Group and Robert Bosch Venture Capital.

8. Citadel Defense Company, a San Diego-based drone system developer, raised $12 million in Series A funding. Investors include Lightspeed Venture Partners.

9. Drone Base, a Los Angeles startup that connects drone users with commercial tasks, raised $12 million in a Series B funding round co-led by Upfront Ventures and Union Square Ventures. DJI, Hearst Ventures and Pritzker Group also participated in the round.

10. May Mobility, an Ann Arbor-based startup developing self-driving shuttles for large campuss and central business districts, raised $11.5 million in seed funding from Toyota AI Ventures and BMW i Ventures. More Coverage on The Robot Report

11. Miso Robotics, a Pasadena, CA food handling robot startup, raised $10 million in a Series B round led by Acacia Research Corporation, with participation from Levy Restaurants, OpenTable CTO Joseph Essas, and Cali Group, owner of CaliBurger. Miso Robotics is one of a number of companies trying to use robots to replace or augment fast food workers.

12. inVia Robotics, a Westlake Village, Calif.-based provider of robotics warehouse automation solutions for e-commerce fulfillment centers, raised $9 million in funding. Upfront Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including Embark Ventures.

13. EdgyBees, a CA startup providing augmented reality for drones and other moving platforms, raised $5.5 million in a seed round led by OurCrowd with participation from 8VC, Verizon Ventures, Aspect Ventures, Motorola Solutions Ventures and NFX.

14. Fourier Intelligence, a Chinese startup providing exoskeletons for rehab and prosthetics, raised $4.7 million in a Series A round let by Prosperico Venture with participation from Volcanics Venture, IDG Capital Partners and Qianhai Fund of Funds.

15. Invert Robotics, a NZ RaaS (robotics as a service) startup providing inspection of industrial equipment across a range of applications, raised $4.6 million (6.4 NZ$) from Powerhouse Ventures, NZ Venture Investment Fund and Allan Moss.

16. American Robotics, a Boston-based startup developing a drone system for farmers, has raised $2 million in a second seed round (they raised $1.1 million last year). Investors included BRC Innovation and Brain Robot Capital.

17. Dash Robotics, a Silicon Valley startup developing futuristic, app-controlled toy robots, raised $2.7 million in a Series A funding round led by Ironfire Ventures.

18. Planys Technologies, an Indian marine robotics startup, raised $1 million  from Kris Gopalakrishnan along with Pratithi Investment Trust and MEMG (Manipal Education and Medical Group).

19. Solinftec, a Brazilian ag tech startup, raised an undisclosed Series B funding from AgFunder and TPG ART.

Acquisitions

1. KBR, a large engineering and construction company formerly owned by Halliburton, acquired Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies, an integrator of space and defense systems, from the government for $355 million.

2. Fanuc acquired Japanese co-bot maker Life Robotics for an undisclosed amount.

3. Humatics, a Cambridge, MA startup developing a localization platform, has acquired 5D Robotics, a Carlsbad, CA provider of mobility products using radio waves for distancing, and 5D’s subsidiary, Time Domain, an Alabama provider of ultra-wide-band chips, for an undisclosed amount. More Coverage on The Robot Report

4. Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices acquired Orthotaxy, a French developer of software-enabled surgery technologies, including a differentiated robotic-assisted surgery solution for total and partial knee replacement. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. More Coverage on The Robot Report

5. FarmShots, a NC startup providing imagery and analytics for farmers, was acquired by Syngenta for an undisclosed amount. FarmShots collects data for 8 million acres.

IPOs

Nada. Zip. Zero!

Failures

1. New Matter, a Pasadena-based maker of 3D printers is closing down after running out of the $6.5 million funding it had raised. It will continue to maintain printers it has sold to consumers and schools through the summer of 2018.

2. RoboBusiness Europe, a trade conference and expo scheduled to be held in February by the same group that produces RoboBusiness in America, cancelled due to lack of funding.

3. Innorobo, a service robotics expo and conference to be held in June has also been cancelled due to a lack of funding.

Fundings:

1. Farmers Business Network, a San Carlos, Calif.-based farmer-to-farmer network raised $110 million in Series D funding. T. Rowe Price Associates Inc and Temasek led the round, and were joined by investors includingAcre Venture Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, GV and DBL Partners.
2. Ripcord, a Hayward, CA robotic digitization company, raised $59.5 million this year in a March Series A and Aug/Dec Series B equity funding led by GV and Icon Ventures with Lux Capital, Telstra Ventures, Silicon Valley Bank, Kleiner Perkins, Google and Baidu Ventures. Ripcord has developed and is providing as a service a digitization service using AI, scanning and robotics to go from cardboard storage boxes full of tagged manila folders, to scanable pdf files available through ERP and other office systems.
3. JingChi, a Chinese-funded Beijing and Silicon Valley self-driving AI systems startup, raised $52 million (in September) in a seed round led by Qiming Venture Partners. China Growth Capital, Nvidia GPU Ventures and other unnamed investors also participated in the round. Baidu is suing former Baidu employee Wang Jing for using Baidu IP for his new startup.
4. Groove X, a Tokyo startup developing a humanoid robot Lovot, raised $38.7 million in a Series A round by Mirai Creation Fund, government-backed Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ), Shenzhen Capital Group, Line Ventures, Dai-ichi Seiko, Global Catalyst Partners Japan (GCPJ), Taiwan’s Amtran Technology, OSG and SMBC Venture Capital. Groove X has raised $71.1 million thus far.
5. Kespry, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based aerial intelligence solution provider, raised $33 million in Series C funding led by G2VP, and was joined by investors including Shell Technology Ventures, Cisco Investments, and ABB Ventures.
6. Ouster, a San Francisco startup developing a $12,000 LiDAR, raised $27 million in a Series A funding round led by Cox Enterprises with participation from Fontinalis, Amity Ventures, Constellation Technology Ventures, Tao Capital Partners, and Carthona Capital.
7. Fetch Robotics, a Silicon Valley logistics co-bot maker, raised $25 million in a Series B round led by Sway Ventures in San Francisco and included existing investors O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, Shasta Ventures and SoftBank’s SB Group US. The round brings total funding to $48 million. Fetch, in addition to warehousing customers, is selling to “Tier 1” automakers, which like the ability of Fetch’s robots to detect and track the location of parts “to avoid losing transmissions.
8. Virtual Incision, a spinout from the U of Nebraska, is a medical device company developing miniaturized robotically assisted general surgery device, raised $18 million in a Series B funding round co-led by Chinese Sinopharm Capita and existing investor Bluestem Capital, with participation from PrairieGold Venture Partners and others.
9. Wuhan Cobot Technology, a Chinese co-bot startup, raised $15.4 million in a Series B round led by Lan Fund with participation by Matrix Partners and GGV Capital.
10. PerceptIn, a Silicon Valley vision systems startup, raised $11 million in Angel and A round funding, from Samsung Ventures, Matrix Partners and Walden Intl. Perceptin also announced their new $399 Ironsides product, a full robotics vision system combining both hardware and software for realtime tracking, mapping and path planning.
11. Upstream Security, a San Francisco-based cybersecurity platform provider for connected cars and self-driving vehicles, raised $9 million in Series A funding. Charles River Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including Glilot Capital Partners and Maniv Mobility.
12. Robocath, a French medical robotics device developer, raised $8.6 million in two funding rounds from from Crédit Agricole Innovations et Territoires (CAIT), an innovation fund managed by Supernova Invest. Cardio Participation also invested. Robocath raised $5.6 million in May led by Normandie Participation, M Capital Partners with participation by NCI Gestion and GO Capital and $3 million in December.
13. FarmWise, a San Francisco agricultural robotics and IoT startup developing a weeding robot, raised $5.7 million in a seed round led by hardware-focused VC Playground Global with Felicis Ventures, Basis Set Ventures, and Valley Oak Investments also participating.
14. Guardian Optical Technologies, an Israeli sensor maker, raised $5.1 million in Series A funding from Maniv Mobility and Mirai Creation Fund.
15. Aeronyde, a Melbourne, Fla,-based drone infrastructure firm, raised $4.7 million led by JASTech Co. Ltd.
16. Elroy Air, a San Francisco startup building autonomous aircraft systems to deliver goods to the world’s most remote places, raised $4.6 million in a seed round led by Levitate Capital with participation by Shasta Ventures, Lemnos Labs and Homebrew.
17. Tortuga AgTech, a Denver-based robotics startup targeting controlled-environment fruit and vegetable growers has raised a $2.4 million Seed round led by early-stage hardware VC Root Ventures and closed in September. Also participating in the round were Silicon Valley tech VCs Susa Ventures and Haystack, AME Cloud Ventures, Grit Labs, the Stanford-StartX Fund and SVG Partners. Tortuga is developing robotic systems for harvesting fresh produce in controlled environments, from indoor hydroponics to greenhouses, starting with strawberries.
18. FluroSat, an Australian crop health startup, has raised $770k in a seed round by  Main Sequence Ventures, manager of the Australian government’s $100 million CSIRO Innovation Fund, Airtree Ventures and Australia’s Cotton Research and Development Corporation (CRDC).
19. Blue Frog Robotics, a Paris-based robotics startup, raised funding of an undisclosed amount. Fenox Venture Capital led the round with Gilles Benhamou and Benoit de Maulmin participating.
20. SkyX, an Israeli agtech developing variable aerial spraying software methods, raised an undisclosed seed funding round by Rimonim Fund.
21. TetraVue, a Vista, Calif.-based 3D technology provider, raised funding of an undisclosed amount. Investors include KLA Tencor, Lam Research, Tsing Capital, Robert Bosch Venture Capital GmbH, Samsung Catalyst Fund and Nautilus Ventures.

Acquisitions:

1. Chinese medtech investment firm Great Belief International has acquired the IP and assets of the SurgiBot surgical robot developed by TransEnterix for $29 million. TransEnterix retains distribution rights outside of China. SurgiBot failed an FDA application whereupon TransEnterix acquired an Italian competitor with a less advanced product. TransEnterix will continue to develop and market that Senhance robotic assisted surgery platform – which has both CE and FDA approvals. “The relationship with GBIL will allow us to advance the SurgiBot System toward global commercialization while significantly reducing our required investment and simultaneously leveraging ‘in-country’ manufacturing in the world’s most populous country,” TransEnterix president & CEO Todd Pope said.
2. Estun Automation, a Chinese industrial robot and CNC manufacturer, acquired 50.01% (with the right to acquire the remainder of the shares) of Germany-based M.A.i GmbH, a 270 person integrator with facilities in the US, Italy, Romania and Germany, for around $10.5 million.
3. Rockwell Automation (NYSE:ROK) acquires Odos Imaging for an undisclosed amount. Odos develops 3D imaging technologies for manufacturing systems.

By Paul Salmon, University of the Sunshine Coast

Millions of fans all over the world eagerly anticipated this week’s release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the eighth in the series. At last we will get some answers to questions that have been vexing us since 2015’s The Force Awakens.

Throughout the franchise, the core characters have been accompanied by a number of much-loved robots, including C-3PO, R2-D2 and more recently, BB-8 and K2-SO. While often fulfilling the role of wise-cracking sidekicks, these and other robots also play an integral role in events.

Interestingly, they can also tell us useful things about automation, such as whether it poses dangers to us and whether robots will ever replace human workers entirely. In these films, we see the good, bad and ugly of robots – and can thus glean clues about what our technological future might look like.

The fear of replacement

One major fear is that robots and automation will replace us, despite work design principles that tell us technology should be used as a tool to assist, rather than replace, humans. In the world of Star Wars, robots (or droids as they are known) mostly assist organic lifeforms, rather than completely replace them.

So for instance, C-3PO is a protocol droid who was designed to assist in translation, customs and etiquette. R2-D2 and the franchise’s new darling, BB-8, are both “astromech droids” designed to assist in starship maintenance.

In the most recent movie, Rogue One, an offshoot of the main franchise, we were introduced to K2-SO, a wisecracking advanced autonomous military robot who was caught and reprogrammed to switch allegiance to the rebels. K2-SO mainly acts as a co-pilot, for example when flying a U-Wing with the pilot Cassian Andor to the planet of Eadu.

In most cases then, the Star Wars droids provide assistance – co-piloting ships, helping to fix things, and even serving drinks. In the world of these films, organic lifeforms are still relied upon for most skilled work.

When organic lifeforms are completely replaced, it is generally when the work is highly dangerous. For instance, during the duel between Annakin and Obi Wan on the planet Mustafar in Revenge of the Sith, DLC-13 mining droids can be seen going about their work in the planet’s hostile lava rivers.

Further, droid armies act as the frontline in various battles throughout the films. Perhaps, in the future, we will be OK with losing our jobs if the work in question poses a significant risk to our health.

However, there are some exceptions to this trend in the Star Wars universe. In the realm of healthcare, for instance, droids have fully replaced organic lifeforms. In The Empire Strikes Back a medical droid treats Luke Skywalker after his encounter with a Wampa, a yeti-like snow beast on the planet Hoth. The droid also replaces his hand following his battle with Darth Vadar on the planet Bespin.

Likewise, in Revenge of the Sith, a midwife droid is seen delivering the siblings Luke and Leia on Polis Massa.

https://youtu.be/ohsLZxQYBk8

Perhaps this is one area in which Star Wars has it wrong: here on earth, full automation is a long way off in healthcare. Assistance from robots in healthcare is the more realistic prospect and is in fact, already here. Indeed, robots have been assisting surgeons in operating theatres for some time now.

Automated vehicles

Driverless vehicles are currently flavour of the month – but will we actually use them? In Star Wars, despite the capacity for spacecraft and star ships to be fully automated, organic lifeforms still take the controls. The spaceship Millenium Falcon, for example, is mostly flown by the smuggler Han Solo and his companion Chewbacca.

Most of the Star Wars starship fleet (A-Wings, X-Wings, Y-Wings, Tie Fighters, Star Destroyers, Starfighters and more) ostensibly possess the capacity for fully automated flight, however, they are mostly flown by organic lifeforms. In The Phantom Menace the locals on Tatooine have even taken to building and manually racing their own “pod racers”.

It seems likely that here on earth, humans too will continue to prefer to drive, fly, sail, and ride. Despite the ability to fully automate, most people will still want to be able to take full control.

Flawless, error proof robots?

Utopian visions often depict a future where sophisticated robots will perform highly skilled tasks, all but eradicating the costly errors that humans make. This is unlikely to be true.

A final message from the Star Wars universe is that the droids and advanced technologies are often far from perfect. In our own future, costly human errors may simply be replaced by robot designer errors.

The B1 Battle Droids seen in the first and second Star Wars films lack intelligence and frequently malfunction. C-3PO is notoriously error prone and his probability-based estimates are often wide of the mark.

In the fourth film, A New Hope, R5-D4 (another astromech droid) malfunctions and explodes just as the farmer Owen Lars is about to buy it. Other droids are slow and clunky, such as the GNK Power droid and HURID-327, the groundskeeper at the castle of Maz Kanata in The Force Awakens.

The much feared scenario, whereby robots become so intelligent that they eventually take over, is hard to imagine with this lot.

Perhaps the message from the Star Wars films is that we need to lower our expectations of robot capabilities, in the short term at least. Cars will still crash, mistakes will still be made, regardless of whether humans or robots are doing the work.

Paul Salmon, Professor of Human Factors, University of the Sunshine Coast

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

The two biggest societal challenges for the twenty-first century are also the biggest opportunities – automation and climate change. The confluence of these forces of mankind and nature intersect beautifully in the alternative energy market. The epitaph of fossil fuels with its dark cloud burning a hole in the ozone layer is giving way to a rise of solar and wind farms worldwide. Servicing these plantations are fleets of robots and drones, providing greater possibilities of expanding CleanTech to the most remote regions of the planet.

As 2017 comes to end, the solar industry for the first time in ten years has plateaued due to the proposed budget cuts by the Trump administration. Solar has had quite a run with an average annual growth rate of more than 65% for the past decade promoted largely by federal subsidies. The progressive policy of the Obama administration made the US a leader in alternative energy, resulting in a quarter-million new jobs. While the Federal Government now re-embraces the antiquated allure of fossil fuels, the global demand for solar has been rising as infrastructure costs decline by more than half, providing new opportunities without government incentives.

Prior to the renewal energy boom, unattractive roof tiles were the the most visible image of solar. While Elon Musk, and others are developing more aesthetically pleasing roofing materials, the business model of house-by-house conversion has been proven inefficient. Instead, the industry is focusing on “utility-scale” solar farms that will be connected to the national grid. Until recently, such farms have been straddled with ballooning servicing costs.

In a report published last month, leading energy risk management company DNV GL exclaimed that the alternative energy market could benefit greatly by utilizing Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics in designing, developing, deploying and maintaining utility farms. The study “Making Renewables Smarter: The Benefits, Risks, And Future of Artificial Intelligence In Solar And Wind” cited that “fields of resource forecasting, control and predictive maintenance” are ripe for tech disruption. Elizabeth Traiger, co-author of the report, explained, “Solar and wind developers, operators, and investors need to consider how their industries can use it, what the impacts are on the industries in a larger sense, and what decisions those industries need to confront.”

Since solar farms are often located in arid, dusty locations, one of the earliest use cases for unmanned systems was self-cleaning robots. As reported in 2014, Israeli company Ecoppia developed a patented waterless panel-washing platform to keep solar up and running in the desert. Today, Ecoppia is cleaning 10 million panels a month. Eran Meller, Chief Executive of Ecoppia, boasts, “We’re pleased to bring the experience gained over four years of cleaning in multiple sites in the Middle East. Cleaning 80 million solar panels in the harshest desert conditions globally, we expect to continue to play a leading role in this growing market.”

Since Ecoppia began selling commercially, there have been other entries into the unmanned maintenance space. This past March, Exosun became the latest to offer autonomous cleaning bots. The track equipment manufacturer claims that robotic systems can cut production losses by 2%, promising a return on investment within 18 months. After their acquisition of Greenbotics in 2013, US-based SunPower also launched its own mechanized cleaning platform, the Oasis, which combines mobile robots and drones.

https://youtu.be/fGcfeBswv_4

SunPower brags that its products are ten times faster than traditional (manual) methods using 75% less water. While SunPower and Exosun leverage their large sales footprint with their existing servicing and equipment networks, Ecoppia is still the product leader. Its proprietary waterless solution offers the most cost-effective and connected solution on the market. Via a robust cloud network, Ecoppia can sense weather fluctuations to automatically schedule emergency cleanings. Anat Cohen Segev, Director of Marketing, explains, “Within seconds, we would detect a dust storm hitting the site, the master control will automatically suggest an additional cleaning cycle and within a click the entire site will be cleaned.” According to Segev, the robots remove 99% of the dust on the panels.

Drone companies are also entering the maintenance space. Upstart Aerial Power claims to have designed a “SolarBrush” quadcopter that cleans panels. The solar-powered drone professes to reduce 60% of a solar farm’s operational costs. Solar Brush also promises an 80% savings over existing solutions like Ecoppia since there are no installation costs. However, Aerial Power has yet to fly its product in the field as it is still in development. SolarPower is selling its own drone survey platform to assess development sites and oversee field operations. Matt Campbell, Vice President of Power Plant Products for SunPower, stated “A lot of the beginning of the solar industry was focused on the panel. Now we’re looking at innovation all around the rest of the system. That’s why we’re always surveying new technology — whether it’s a robot, whether it’s a drone, whether it’s software — and saying, ‘How can this help us reduce the cost of solar, build projects faster, and make them more reliable?’”

In 2008, The US Department of Energy published an ambitious proposal to have “20% Wind Energy by 2030: Increasing Wind Energy’s Contribution to U.S. Electricity Supply.” Presently at thirteen years before the goal, less than 5% of US energy is derived from wind. Developing wind farms is not novel, however to achieve 20% by 2030 the US needs to begin looking offshore. To put it in perspective, oceanic wind farms could generate more than 2,000 gigawatts of clean, carbon-free energy, or twice as much electricity as Americans currently consume. To date, there is only one wind farm operating off the coast of the United States. While almost every coastal state has proposals for offshore farms, the industry has been stalled by politics and servicing hurdles in dangerous waters.

For more than a decade the United Kingdom has led the development of offshore wind farms. At the University of Manchester, a leading group of researchers has been exploring a number of AI, robotic and drone technologies for remote inspections. The consortium of academics estimates that these technologies could generate more than $2.5 billion by 2025 in just the UK alone. The global offshore market could reach $17 billion by 2020, with 80% of the costs from operations and maintenance.

Last month, Innovate UK awarded $1.6 million to Perceptual Robotics and VulcanUAV to incorporate drones and autonomous boats into ocean inspections. These startups follow the business model of successful US inspection upstarts, like SkySpecs. Launched three years ago, SkySpecs’ autonomous drones claim to reduce turbine inspections from days to minutes. Danny Ellis, SkySpecs Chief Executive, claims “Customers that could once inspect only one-third of a wind farm can now do the whole farm in the same amount of time.” Last year, British startup Visual Working accomplished the herculean feat of surpassing 2000 blade inspections.

In the words of Paolo Brianzoni, Chief Executive of Visual Working: “We are not talking about what we intend to accomplish in the near future – but actually performing our UAV inspection service every day out there. Many in the industry are using considerable amount of time discussing and testing how to use UAV inspections in a safe and efficient way. We have passed that point and have alone in the first half of 2016 inspected 250 turbines in the North Sea averaging more then 10WTG per day, and still keeping to the “highest quality standards.’”

This past summer, Europe achieved another clean-energy milestone with the announcement of three new offshore wind farms for the first time without government subsidies. By bringing down the cost structure, autonomous systems are turning the tide of alternate energy regardless of government investment. Three days before leaving office, President Barack Obama wrote in the journal Science last year that “Evidence is mounting that any economic strategy that ignores carbon pollution will impose tremendous costs to the global economy and will result in fewer jobs and less economic growth over the long term.” He declared that it is time to move past common misconceptions that climate policy is at odds with business, “rather, it can boost efficiency, productivity, and innovation.”

The most popular startup was UniExo with 70.6% of the vote, followed by BotsAndUs on 14.8% and Northstar Robotics on 13.2%.

These three startups will be able to spend time in the Silicon Valley Robotics Accelerator/Cowork Space in Oakland, and we hope to have a feature about each startup on Robohub over the coming year. The overall winner(s) of the Robot Launch 2017 competition will be announced on December 15. The grand prize is investment of up to $500,000 from The Robotics Hub, while all award winners get access to the Silicon Valley Robotics accelerator program and cowork space.

UniExo | ukraine 

UniExo aims to help people with injuries and movement problems to restore the motor functions of their bodies with modular robotic exoskeleton devices, without additional help of doctors.

Thanks to our device, with its advantages, we can help these users in rehabilitation. The use of the product provides free movement for people with disabilities in a comfortable and safe form for them, without the use of outside help, as well as people in the post-opined period, post-traumatic state, being on rehabilitation.

We can give a second chance to people for a normal life, and motivate to do things for our world that can help other people.

https://youtu.be/kjHN35zasvE

BotsAndUs | uk (@botsandus)

BotsAndUs believe in humans and robots collaborating towards a better life. Our aim is to create physical and emotional comfort with robots to support wide adoption.

In May ‘17 we launched Bo, a social robot for events, hospitality and retail. Bo approaches you in shops, hotels or hospitals, finds out what you need, takes you to it and gives you tips on the latest bargains.

In a short time the business has grown considerably: global brands as customers (British Telecom, Etisalat, Dixons), a Government award for our Human-Robot-Interaction tech, members of Nvidia’s Inception program and intuAccelerate (bringing Bo to UK’s top 10 malls), >15k Bo interactions.

https://youtu.be/jrLaoKShKT4

Northstar Robotics | canada (@northstarrobot)

Northstar Robotics is an agricultural technology company that was founded by an experienced farmer and robotics engineer.

Our vision is to create the fully autonomous farm which will address the labour shortage problem and lower farm input costs.  We will make this vision a reality by first providing an open hardware and software platform to allow current farm equipment to become autonomous.  In parallel, we are going to build super awesome robots that will transform farming and set the standard for what modern agricultural equipment should be.

https://youtu.be/o2C4Cx-m2es

Six acquisitions were reported during the month including another takeover of a European robotics company by a Chinese one.

On the IPO front, three existing publicly-traded stocks announced additional shares to raise additional funds.

Fundings:

1. Ubtech, a Shenzhen-based humanoid robots maker startup, raised $400 million in a Series C round led by Tencent Holdings (which invested $40 million in the round). Ubtech (Union Brothers Technology) builds and sells toy robots. Their most recent is a $300 Star Wars Stormtrooper robot which will ship just before the movie debuts mid-December.
2. TuSimple, a Chinese startup providing autonomous driving technology for the trucking industry, raised $55 million in a Series C round led by Fuhe Capital with Zhiping Capital and SINA Corp. Note that TuSimple raised $20 million in August in a Series B round.
3. Markforged, a Watertown, MA maker of carbon fiber and metal 3D printing devices, raised $30 million in a Series C round led by Siemens’ next47 venture firm. Microsoft Ventures and Porsche SE also participated along with existing investors Matrix Partners, North Bridge Venture Partners, and Trinity Ventures.
4. Kindred Systems, a Toronto warehousing AI startup, raised $27.5 million in a Series B round led by First Round Capital with participation by Tencent Holdings and Eclipse. Kindred is building human-like intelligence in machines. It’s first commercial offering is Kindred Sort, a put wall integration of arm, gripper and software to pick and sort random objects.
5. Locus Robotics, an Andover, MA-based provider of mobile robots for e-commerce fulfillment warehouses, raised $25 million in a Series B funding led by Scale Venture Partners with participation by existing investors.
6. Optimus Ride, a MIT spinoff company developing self-driving technology, raised $18 million in Series A funding. Greycroft Partners led the round, and was joined by investors including Emerson Collective, Fraser McCombs Capital and Joi Ito.
7. Bossa Nova, a San Francisco-based developer of autonomous service robots for the global retail industry, raised $17.5 million in Series B funding. Paxion led the round, and was joined by investors including Intel Capital, WRV Capital, Lucas Venture Group, and Cota Capital.
8. Riverfield Surgical Robot Lab, a Japanese startup and spin-off from the Tokyo Inst of Technology, raised $10 million in a Series B round from Toray Engineering, SBI Investment and JAFCO Japan.
9. Arbe Robotics, an Israeli radar collision avoidance platform, raised $9 million in a Series A round. O.G. Tech Ventures and OurCrowd led the round, with previous investors Canaan Partners, iAngels, and Taya Ventures also participating. Arbe is also developing radar for autonomous vehicles that facilitates real-time mapping at distances up to 300 meters.
10. AUBO Robotics (prev named Smokie), a Chinese co-bot manufacturer, raised $9 million in a Series A round by Fosun RZ Capital. “When we decided to manufacture in China we had to be incorporated in China to get the incentives. They had to have a name change because the laws in China state that the name be a Chinese name. AUBO or AU BO loosely translated means ‘New Technology’. The AUBO-i5 production is in Changzhou and we also have R&D in Beijing and Knoxville TN,” said Aubo’s VP of Sales Peter Farkas.
11. Beijing TechX Aviation Innovation, a Chinese drone startup for military and high-end industrial users, raised $7.5 million in a Series A round from Fosun RZ Capital.
12. Leju Robotics, a Shenzhen startup developing humanoid robots for the service industry, raised $7.4 million (in August) from Green Pine Capital Partners and Tencent.
13. Embodied Intelligence, an Emeryville, CA startup developing teaching AI for existing robots, raised $7 million in a seed round led by Amplify Partners with participation from Lux Capital, SV Angels, FreeS, 11.2 Capital and A.Capital.
14. Apis Cor, a Moscow startup using a massive robotic 3D device for printing concrete, raised $6 million (in September) in a seed round from Rusnano Sistema Sicar venture fund.
15. Rokae, a Chinese startup making lightweight/lightload industrial robot arms, raised $6 million in a Series A round from THG Ventures, the venture arm of Tsinghua Holdings, and Delin Capital.
16. AerDrone Intl, a startup of Irelandia Aviation Drones, both of Dublin, raised $5 million in seed funding from Irelandia to provide leasing funding for drone users.
17. GJS Robot, a Shenzhen startup making personalized fighting robots known as Ganker robots, raised an undisclosed Series A investment estimated to be $5 million, from Tencent Holdings.
18. Catalia Health, a San Francisco-based healthcare startup providing an AI-powered patient engagement platform, raised $4 million in pre-Series A funding. Ion Pacific led the round.
19. TortugaAgTech, a Colorado ag robotics startup, raised $2.6 million (in September) from SVG Partners and Thrive AgTech Ventures. Tortuga is developing robotics for indoor farming operations.
20. Ceres Imaging, the Oakland, CA aerial imagery and analytics company, raised an additional $2.5 million for their May, 2017 Series A round (which raised $5M). Romulus Capital was the sole investor.
21. Wink Robotics, a startup focused on using robotics, AI and machine vision for the beauty industry, raised $1.73 million (in August) in seed funding from undisclosed sources.
22. Natilus, a San Jose, Calif.-based maker of large aircraft drones to haul freight, raised seed funding of an undisclosed amount. Investors included Starburst Ventures, Seraph Group, Gelt VC, Outpost Capital and Draper Associates.

Acquisitions:

• Dash Robotics, a Hayward, CA connected toys developer, acquired Austin, TX-based Bots Alive, a robotics and AI hobby kit and toy developer, for an undisclosed amount.
• Huachangda Intelligent Equipment, a Chinese industrial robot integrator servicing primarily the auto industry, has acquired Swedish Robot System Products (RSP), for an undisclosed amount. RSP manufacturers grippers, welding systems, tool changers and other peripheral products for robots.
• Atronix Engineering, a GA-based industrial robot system integrator, was acquired by MHS (Material Handling Systems), a KY-based integrator of material handling systems, for an undisclosed amount. In April, 2017, MHS was itself acquired by Thomas H. Lee Partners, a Boston-based equity fund.
• Mapbox, a DC and SF nav systems provider for car companies, acquired a 4-person Minsk, Belarus mapping startup, MapData, for an undisclosed amount. Just last month Mapbox raised $164 million in a round led by the SoftBank Vision Fund. The deal spearheads the hiring of more engineers to help build its next big product, an SDK that will let developers build augmented reality-based maps into their apps that will work by way of the front-facing cameras on people’s devices.
• Argo AI, a Pittsburgh autonomous vehicles and AI startup, using some of the $1 billion it raised from Ford, acquired Princeton Lightwave for an undisclosed amount. Princeton is a New Jersey manufacturer of real-time Geiger-mode LiDAR technology.
• Tesla acquired Perbix, a Minnesota integrator of automated machines and industrial robotics that had been a contract supplier to Tesla for many years, for around $10.5 million.

IPOs:

• Titan Medical (TSE:TMD), a Canadian single-port surgical robot device maker, announced an offering of shares for a minimum of $14,000,000 and a maximum $18,000,000. Titan will issue shares at a price of CDN $0.50 per Unit and each Unit is comprised of one common share and one warrant, exercisable for one Common Share at a price of CDN $0.60, for a period of 5 years following the closing of the Offering.
• Myomo (NYSEMKT:MYO), a Cambridge, MA-based exoskeleton provider, announced an offering of 1.5 million shares of common stock and warrants to purchase an additional 750,000 shares at a price of $6.25 per share for 1/2 a warrant. Myomo hopes to raise $8.5 on the initial offering with an additional $1.4 million from an underwriter’s option.
• Fastbrick Robotics (ASX:FBR), an Australian brick-laying startup, raised $26.5 million by offering 184 million shares in a private placement. This is in addition to the $2 million investment in July by Caterpillar who will be manufacturing, selling and servicing Fastbrick’s technology mounted on Caterpillar equipment.

]]> https://robohub.org/vote-for-your-favorite-in-robot-launch-startup-competition/ Sat, 02 Dec 2017 01:30:00 +0000 http://robohub.org/vote-for-your-favorite-in-robot-launch-startup-competition/ In the lead up to the finals of the Robot Launch 2017 competition on December 14, we’re having one round of public voting for your favorite startup from the Top 25. While in previous years we’ve had public voting for all the startups, running alongside the investor judging, this year it’s an opt-in, because many of the startups seeking investment are not yet ready to publicize. Each year the startups get better and better, so we can’t wait to see who you think is the best! Make sure you vote for your favorite – below – by 6pm PST,  10 December and spread the word through social media using #robotlaunch2017.

Vote for Robohub Choice! (in alphabetic order)

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BotsAndUs | uk (@botsandus)

BotsAndUs believe in humans and robots collaborating towards a better life. Our aim is to create physical and emotional comfort with robots to support wide adoption.

In May ‘17 we launched Bo, a social robot for events, hospitality and retail. Bo approaches you in shops, hotels or hospitals, finds out what you need, takes you to it and gives you tips on the latest bargains.

In a short time the business has grown considerably: global brands as customers (British Telecom, Etisalat, Dixons), a Government award for our Human-Robot-Interaction tech, members of Nvidia’s Inception program and intuAccelerate (bringing Bo to UK’s top 10 malls), >15k Bo interactions.

https://youtu.be/jrLaoKShKT4

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C2RO | canada (@C2RO_Robotics)

C2RO (Collaborative Cloud Robotics) has developed a cloud-based software platform that uses real-time data processing technologies to provide AI-enabled solutions for robots. It dramatically augments the perceptive, cognitive and collaborative abilities of robots with a software-only solution that is portable to any cloud environment. C2RO is releasing it’s Beta offering in November 2017, has over 40 organizations signed up for early access, and is currently working with 4 lead customers on HW integrations and joint marketing.

no video

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Kinema Systems Inc. | usa (@KinemaSystems)

Kinema Systems has developed Kinema Pick, the world’s first deep-learning based 3D Vision system for robotic picking tasks in logistics and manufacturing. Kinema Pick is used for picking boxes off pallets onto conveyors with little a-priori knowledge of the types of boxes and their arrangement on the pallet. Kinema Pick requires minimal training for new boxes. Kinema Pick uses 3D workcell information and motion planning to be self-driving, requiring no programming for new workcells. The founders and employees of Kinema Pick include veterans of Willow Garage, SRI, Apple and KTH who created MoveIt!, ROS-Control, SimTrack and other open-source packages used by thousands of companies, researchers and start-ups around the world.

https://youtu.be/PrQc-od2jeY

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Mothership Aeronautics| usa (@mothershipaero)

The future is here. Mothership’s solar powered airship will enable robotic aerial persistence by serving as a charging/docking station and communications hub for drones. This enables not only a globally connected logistical network with 1 hour delivery on any product or service but also flying charging stations for flying cars. Imagine a Tesla supercharger network in the sky.

Our first stepping stone to this future is a solar powered airship for long range aerial data collection to tackle the troublesome linear infrastructure inspection market.

A vote for mothership is a vote for the Jetsons future we were promised.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsLM8vy7aDo&t=1s

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Northstar Robotics | canada (@northstarrobot)

Northstar Robotics is an agricultural technology company that was founded by an experienced farmer and robotics engineer.

Our vision is to create the fully autonomous farm which will address the labour shortage problem and lower farm input costs.  We will make this vision a reality by first providing an open hardware and software platform to allow current farm equipment to become autonomous.  In parallel, we are going to build super awesome robots that will transform farming and set the standard for what modern agricultural equipment should be.

https://youtu.be/o2C4Cx-m2es

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Tatu Robotics Pty Ltd | australia (@clintonburchat)

BLKTATU Autonomous drone delivery platform using computer vision allowing deliveries to hard to reach places like highrise buildings and apartments. We deliver to where you are, autonomously.

https://youtu.be/2l7x2-xJ2As

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Tennibot | usa (@tennibot)

Tennibot is the world’s first autonomous ball collector. It perfectly integrates computer vision and robotics to offer tennis players and coaches an innovative solution to a tedious task: picking up balls during practice. The Tennibot saves valuable time that is currently wasted bending over for balls. It allows the user to focus on hitting and let the robot take care of the hard work. Tennibot stays out of the way of players and works silently in an area specified by the user. It also comes with a companion app that gives the user full control of their personal ball boy.

https://youtu.be/BcHl1RKVhaM

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UniExo | ukraine 

UniExo aims to help people with injuries and movement problems to restore the motor functions of their bodies with modular robotic exoskeleton devices, without additional help of doctors.

Thanks to our device, with its advantages, we can help these users in rehabilitation. The use of the product provides free movement for people with disabilities in a comfortable and safe form for them, without the use of outside help, as well as people in the post-opined period, post-traumatic state, being on rehabilitation.

We can give a second chance to people for a normal life, and motivate to do things for our world that can help other people.

https://youtu.be/kjHN35zasvE

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Woobo| usa (@askwoobo)

Woobo unfolds a world of imagination, fun, and knowledge to children, bringing the magic of a robot companion into children’s life. Relying on cutting-edge robotics and AI technologies, our team is aiming to realize the dream of millions of children – bringing them a fluffy and soft buddy that can talk to them, amuse them, inspire them, and learn along with them. For parents, Woobo is an intelligent assistant with customized content that can help entertain, educate, and engage children, as well as further strengthen the parent-child bond.

https://youtu.be/Z_ip6nigzDg

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CAST YOUR VOTE FOR “ROBOHUB CHOICE”

VOTING CLOSES ON SUNDAY DEC 10 AT 6:00 PM [PDT]

]]> https://robohub.org/european-robotics-week-2017/ Fri, 24 Nov 2017 19:47:27 +0000 http://robohub.org/european-robotics-week-2017/ We hope you’re enjoying the European Robotics Week! If you’re still looking for events to attend over the weekend, make sure to check out the map of 1000 happenings all over Europe.

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

]]> https://robohub.org/302-research-reports-forecast-significant-growth-for-robot-industry/ Fri, 24 Nov 2017 17:08:13 +0000 http://robohub.org/302-research-reports-forecast-significant-growth-for-robot-industry/

Press releases for this batch of 30 research reports all agree that most segments of the robotics industry are expected to grow at a double-digit pace at least through 2022.

Although these reports vary widely in their forecasts – often on the same topic, they all seem to agree that the global robotics industry is growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in the teens or greater.

Unmanned mobile air, land and sea vehicles (commercial and military)

• Commercial UAV Report
  Aug 2017, Interact Analysis, free
  Industry revenues for commercial-use drones are forecast to reach $15 billion by 2022, up from just $1.3 billion in 2016. This includes revenues from hardware, software/analytics and drone services. Rapidly increasing penetration rates into a huge number of commercial applications are driving a six-fold increase in drone shipments, surpassing 620,000 units in 2022. Only the trend of using drone service providers rather than purchasing hardware will temper this growth.
• Global driverless tractors market
  Nov 2017, 109 pages, QY Research, $3,500
  Describes offerings from John Deere, Autonomous Tractor, AGCO/Fendt and CNH/Cash IH.
• Robotics for ag, construction, warehousing & logistics, telepresence and customer service
  Nov 2017, 127 pages, Tractica, $4,200
  Tractica forecasts that worldwide shipments of enterprise robots will grow from approximately 83,000 units in 2016 to 1.2 million units in 2022, increasing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 57% during that period.  Worldwide revenue for the enterprise robotics market will increase from $5.9 billion in 2016 to $67.9 billion in 2022.
• Global indoor robots market
  Oct 2017, 223 pages, BIS Research, $4,499
  The global indoor robots market, which consists of cleaning, medical, security & surveillance, public relations, education, entertainment, and personal assistant robots, generated $3.7 billion in 2016 and has exhibited a high growth rate.
• Global defense counter-UAS technologies
  Oct 2017, Frost & Sullivan, $1,500
  Over 50 global defense companies now offer some sort of counter unmanned aerial systems (C-UAS).
• Military robots market
  Sep 2017, 186 pages, Reports n Reports, $5,650
  The military robots market is expected to grow from an estimated $16.79 billion in 2017 to $30.83 billion by 2022, at a CAGR of 12.92%. Drivers for military robots include rising number of terrorist activities, increasing need of systems that can conduct remote operations for a longer time, and technological developments in unmanned systems. Mine clearance is expected to witness the highest growth during the forecast period.
• Global EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) Robot Market
  Sep 2017, 101 pages, Absolute Reports, $4,000
  The Global Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Robot market is valued at $5.98 billion in 2016 and is expected to reach $8 billion by the end of 2022, growing at an annual CAGR of 4.6%.
• Autonomous underwater vehicle market
  Aug 2017, Markets and Markets, $5,650
  The market for autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) is expected to grow from $362.5 million in 2017 to $1,206.9 million by 2023, at a CAGR of 22.20% between 2017 and 2023.

Industrial, collaborative and sensors

• Worldwide spending on robotics
  July 2017, IDC, subscription service
  IDC forecasts worldwide purchases of robotics, including drones and robotics-related hardware, software and services, will total $97.2 billion in 2017, an increase of 17.9% over 2016. IDC expects robotics spending to accelerate over the next five years reaching $230.7 billion in 2021 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.8%.
• Global collaborative robots market
  Nov 2017, Energias Market Research, $4,895
  The Global Collaborative Robots market is expected to increase from $177.2 million in 2016, to $4,238.3 million in 2023, at a significant CAGR of 57.4% from 2017 to 2023. Increasing investments in automation by industries to support industry 4.0 revolution (smart production), low price of collaborative robots and high return on investment (ROI) rates are the factors attributing towards the growth of the global collaborative market during the forecast period.
• Global industrial robots market and trends
  Dec 2017, 350 pages, Data Bridge Market Research, $4,200
  The Global Industrial Robots Market accounted to $38.20 billion in 2016 growing at a CAGR of 9.54% during the forecast period of 2017 to 2024. The upcoming market report contains data for historic years 2015, the base year of calculation is 2016 and the forecast period is 2017 to 2024.
• Global industrial and service robots market
  Nov 2017, 125 pages, QY Research, $3,560
  No forecasts available for this report.
• Global robot programming services market
  Oct 2017, 87 pages, TechNavio, $2,500
  TechNavio forecasts that the market will grow steadily at a CAGR of around 12% through 2021.
• Global industrial robotics rental market
  Jul 2017, 81 pages, TechNavio, $2,500
  TechNavio forecasts the global industrial robotics rental market to grow at a CAGR of 13.58% during the period 2017-2021.
• Industrial robotics market
  Oct 2017, 114 pages, Variant Market Research, $3,746
  Variant forecasts this market to reach $77.7 billion by 2024 growing at an annual CAGR of 9.3% from 2017 to 2024.
• Global industrial robot positioners market
  Mar 2017, 70 pages, TechNavio, $3,500
  For blind robots to pick an object those objects must be properly positioned – a niche industry that is forecast to grow at a 7% CAGR.
• US Co-bot market
  Nov 2017, 104 pages, QY Research, $3,500
  No forecasts available for this report.
• Global collaborative robots market
  2017, Inkwood Research, $2,500
  Global Collaborative Robots market is expected to grow at 49.14% CAGR during the forecast period 2017-2025; North America collaborative robots market was valued at $74 million in 2016 and is estimated to generate a net revenue of approximately $1592 million by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 40.93%.
• Packaging robot market
  Oct 2017, 120 pages, ReportLinker, $4,795
  Forecasts the global packaging robot market to grow at a CAGR of 13.9% from 2017 to 2023.
• Global collaborative robots market
  Oct 2017, GMI Research, $4,786
  The market for collaborative robots is expected to grow at a CAGR of 56.6% from 2017 to 2023. Drivers are towards automation as well as growing demand for compact, lightweight and dexterous robots along with low average selling price and higher returns by investing on collaborative robots.
• Global industrial robot reducer sales market
  Sep 2017, 108 pages, QY Research, $4,000
  The report reviews the major drive providers (Nabtesco, Harmonic Drive, Sumitomo) and four new Chinese providers as well (an important factor since there is a major backlog in harmonic drive production and much of the demand is for robots in China).
• Innovations in sensor space
  Oct 2017, Frost & Sullivan, $6,950

  Low power, smaller, lighter sensors with enhanced performance attributes and minimal false alarms is driving innovations in the sensors space for safety systems, wearables, drones, radar and intrusion detection.

Professional, agricultural, commercial and consumer service robots

• Global Agriculture robot market
  Sep 2017, Energias Market Research, $4,895
  The global Agriculture Robot market is expected to increase from $1.03 billion in 2016, to $4.7 billion in 2023, at a CAGR of 24.31% from 2017 to 2023. The overall Agriculture Robots market is mainly driven by the focus on technological innovations such as precision farming to enhance the yield of crops.
• Global Robot Lawn Mowers Market
  Sep 2017, 127 pages, Market Insights Reports, $2,900
  Europe was the largest production market with a market share of 48.63% in 2016, it is also the biggest consumption market with a market share of 59.44% in 2016. North America ranked the second markets with the production market share of 33.28% in 2016 and with the consumption share of 32.52% in 2016.
• Commercial robotics market
  Oct 2017, Transparency Market Research, $5,950
  The global commercial robotics market is set to rise to $17.6 billion by 2022 at a CAGR of 24.4% beginning at $5.9 billion by the end of 2017, 40% of which is medical robotics.
• Agricultural robots market
  Sep 2017, 205 pages, Allied Market Research, $3,840
  The global agricultural robots market is estimated to account for a market revenue of $2,927 million in 2016 and is expected to reach to $11,050 million in 2023.
• Food robotics market
  Oct 2017, 203 pages, Meticulous Market Research, $4,175
  Global Food Robotics Market is expected to reach $2.2 billion by 2022 supported by a CAGR of 12.5% during the forecast period of 2017 to 2022. Drivers include lack of skilled workforce, increasing food safety regulations, rising demand for advanced food packaging and growing demand to improve productivity.
• Global service robotics market
  Oct 2017, 241 pages, Berg Insight AB, $1,890
  Ten major segments hold great market potential for next decade: floor cleaning robots, robot lawn mowers, milking robots, telepresence robots, surgical robots, automated guided vehicles, autonomous mobile robots, unmanned aerial vehicles and humanoid, assistant and social companion robots. The installed base of service robots in these segments reached 29.6 million worldwide at the end of 2016.
• Humanoid Robot Market
  Oct 2017, 133 pages, ReportsnReports, $5,650
  The humanoid robot market is expected to reach $3.9 billion by 2023 from $320.3 million in 2017, at a CAGR of 52.1% between 2017 and 2023. This growth can be attributed to the introduction of advanced features in humanoid robots, the increasing use of humanoids as educational robots, and growing demand from the retail industry for personal assistance.
• Anthropomorphic robot sales
  Nov 2017, 126 pages, QY Research, $4,000
  Covers top manufacturers Softbank, Robotis, Hanson, Ubtech, Hasbro, Wowwee, Qihan and basic uses for this type of robot in education, entertainment, space, R&D, personal assistance, caregiving, search & rescue and PR.

Two International Federation of Robotics Annual Reports

The fact-based backbone for many of the research reports shown above are the International Federation of Robotics’ (IFR) annual World Robotics Industrial Robots and World Robotics Service Robots reports. These two books represent the official tabulation and analysis from all the robot associations around the world and cover all aspects of industrial and service robotics.The 2017 reports cover 2016 activity.

Industrial Robots: By 2020 the IFR estimates that more than 1.7 million new industrial robots will be installed in factories worldwide. In 2017 robot installations are estimated to increase by 21% in the Asia-Australia region. Robot supplies in the Americas will surge by 16% and in Europe by 8%.

Service Robots: The IFR estimated that sales of all types of robots for domestic tasks – e.g. vacuum cleaning, lawnmowing, window cleaning – could reach almost 32 million units in the period 2018-2020, with an estimated value of about $11.7 billion. At the same time total unit sales of professional service robots are estimated to reach a total of almost $18.8 billion – about 400,000 units will be sold.

The two reports can be purchased from the IFR for $2,100 (€1800 + VAT where applicable). The reports can also be purchased separately: the industrial report in pdf format costs $1,400 (€1200)​ and the service report $700 (€600).

]]> https://robohub.org/how-will-robots-and-ai-change-our-way-of-life-in-2030/ Thu, 09 Nov 2017 17:22:14 +0000 http://robohub.org/how-will-robots-and-ai-change-our-way-of-life-in-2030/

Sydney Padua’s Ada Lovelace is a continual inspiration.

At #WebSummit 2017, I was part of a panel on what the future will bring in 2030 with John Vickers from Blue Abyss, Jacques Van den Broek from Randstad and Stewart Rogers from Venture Beat. John talked about how technology will allow humans to explore amazing new places. Jacques demonstrated how humans were more complex than our most sophisticated AI and thus would be an integral part of any advances. And I focused on how the current technological changes would look amplified over a 10–12 year period.

After all, 2030 isn’t that far off, so we have already invented all the tech, but it isn’t widespread yet and we’re only guessing what changes will come about with the network effects. As William Gibson said, “The future is here, it’s just not evenly distributed yet.”

What worries me is that right now we’re worried about robots taking jobs. And yet the jobs at most risk are the ones in which humans are treated most like machines. So I say, bring on the robots! But what also worries me is that the current trend towards a gig economy and micro transactions powered by AI, ubiquitous connectivity and soon blockchain, will mean that we turn individuals back into machines. Just part of a giant economic network, working in fragments of gigs not on projects or jobs. I think that this inherent ‘replaceability’ is ultimately inhumane.

When people say they want jobs, they really mean they want a living wage and a rewarding occupation. So let’s give the robots the gigs.

Here’s the talk: “Life in 2030”
It’s morning, the house gently blends real light tones and a selection of bird song to wake me up. Then my retro ‘Teasmade’ serves tea and the wall changes from sunrise to news channels and my calendar for today. I ask the house to see if my daughter’s awake and moving. And to remind her that the clothes only clean themselves if they’re in the cupboard, not on the floor.

Affordable ‘Pick up’ bots are still no good at picking up clothing although they’re good at toys. In the kitchen I spend a while recalibrating the house farm. I’m enough of a geek to put the time into growing legumes and broccoli. It’s pretty automatic to grow leafy greens and berries, but larger fruits and veg are tricky. And only total hippies spend the time on home grown vat meat or meat substitutes.

I’m proud of how energy neutral our lifestyle is, although humans always seem to need more electricity than we can produce. We still have our own car, which shuttles my daughter to school in remote operated semi autonomous mode where control is distributed between the car, the road network and a dedicated 5 star operator. Statistically it’s the safest form of transport, and she has the comfort of traveling in her own family vehicle.

Whereas I travel in efficiency mode — getting whatever vehicle is nearby heading to my destination. I usually pick the quiet setting. I don’t mind sharing my ride with other people or drivers but I like to work or think as I travel.

I work in a creative collective — we provide services and we built the collective around shared interests like historical punk rock and farming. Branding our business or building our network isn’t as important as it used to be because our business algorithms adjust our marketing strategies and bid on potential jobs faster than we could.

The collective allows us to have better health and social plans than the usual gig economy. Some services, like healthcare or manufacturing still have to have a lot of infrastructure, but most information services can cowork or remote work and our biggest business expense is data subscriptions.

This is the utopic future. For the poor, it doesn’t look as good. Rewind..
It’s morning. I’m on Basic Income, so to get my morning data & calendar I have to listen to 5 ads and submit 5 feedbacks. Everyone in our family has to do some, but I do extra so that I get parental supervision privileges and can veto some of the kid’s surveys.

We can’t afford to modify the house to generate electricity, so we can’t afford decent house farms. I try to grow things the old way, in dirt, but we don’t have automation and if I’m busy we lose produce through lack of water or bugs or something. Everyone can afford Soylent though. And if I’ve got some cash we can splurge on junk food, like burgers or pizza.

My youngest still goes to a community school meetup but the older kids homeschool themselves on the public school system. It’s supposed to be a personalized AI for them but we still have to select which traditional value package we subscribed to.

I’m already running late for work. I see that I have a real assortment of jobs in my queue. At least I’ll be getting out of the house driving people around for a while, but I’ve got to finish more product feedbacks while I drive and be on call for remote customer support. Plus I need to do all the paperwork for my DNA to be used on another trial or maybe a commercial product. Still, that’s how you get health care — you contribute your cells to the health system.

We also go bug catching, where you scrape little pieces of lichen, or dog poo, or insects into the samplers, anything that you think might be new to the databases. One of my friends hit jackpot last year when their sample was licensed as a super new psychoactive and she got residuals.

I can’t afford to go online shopping so I’ll have to go to a mall this weekend. Physical shopping is so exhausting. There are holo ads and robots everywhere spamming you for feedback and getting in your face. You might have some privacy at home but in public, everyone can eye track you, emote you and push ads. It’s on every screen and following you with friendly robots.

It’s tiring having to participate all the time. Plus you have to take selfies and foodies and feedback and survey and share and emote. It used to be ok doing it with a group of friends but now that I have kids ….
Robots and AI make many things better although we don’t always notice it much. But they also make it easier to optimize us and turn us into data, not people.

Six acquisitions were reported during the month including Delphi Automotive’s buying nuTonomy for $450 million and Boeing’s acquisition of 550-employee Aurora Flight Sciences.

On the IPO front, Altair Engineering raised $156 million and Restoration Robotics raised $25 million when both went live on the NASDAQ stock exchange this month.

Fundings

• Mapbox, a Washington, DC and San Francisco provider of nav systems for car companies and others involved in autonomous vehicles, raised $164 million in a Series C round led by the SoftBank Vision Fund, with participation from existing investors including Foundry Group, DFJ Growth, DBL Partners, and Thrive Capital. “Location data is central and mission critical to the development of the world’s most exciting technologies,” said Rajeev Misra, who helps oversee SoftBank’s Vision Fund.
• Element AI, a Canadian startup providing learning platform solutions for self-driving and advanced manufacturing, raised $135 CAD million (around $105 million) in a Series A round (in June) led by Data Collective, a SV-based venture capital firm, and included participation by Fidelity Investments Canada, National Bank of Canada, Intel Capital, and Real Ventures.
• Ninebot, the Chinese consumer products company that bought out Segway and raised $80 million in 2015, raised another $100 million in a Series C round  from the SDIC Fund Management Co. and the China Mobile Fund.
• Horizon Robotics, another Chinese startup, raised $100 million in a Series A round led by Intel Capital with participation by Wu Capital, Morningside Venture Capital, Linear Venture, Hillhouse Capital and Harvest Investments. Horizon is developing self-driving vehicle autopilot and self-navigating consumer and neural network chips. Wendell Brooks, Intel SVP and President of Intel Capital which invested in Horizon said, “By 2020, every autonomous vehicle on the road will create 4 TB of data per day. A million self-driving cars will create the same amount of data every day as 3 billion people. As Intel transitions to a data company, Intel Capital is actively investing in startups across the technology spectrum that can help expand the data ecosystem and pathfind important new technologies.”
• Innoviz Technologies, an Israel-based developer of LiDAR sensing technology for autonomous vehicles, raised $73 million in Series B funding. Investors include Samsung Catalyst and SoftBank Ventures Korea.
• Zume Pizza, the Silicon Valley robotic pizza making startup, raised $48 million in a Series B funding. Investors in the round were not detailed. Zume is already delivering pizzas in Silicon Valley. It uses an assembly line of robots to flatten dough into circles, spread sauce and cheese, and slide the pies into and out of an 800 degree oven. Pizzas finish cooking in ovens inside delivery trucks.
• Momenta AI, a Beijing autonomous driving tech startup using machine vision (rather than LiDAR), raised $46 in a Series B round led by NIO Capital, Sequoia Capital China, Hillhouse Capital and Cathay Innovation Fund.
• Wonder Workshop, previously named Play-i, a Silicon Valley and Chinese educational robot startup, raised $41 million in a Series C round from a series of investors including Tencent, TAL Education Group, MindWorks Ventures, Madrona Venture Group, Softbank Korea, VTRON Group, TCL Capital, Sinovation Ventures, Bright Success, WI Harper, and CRV. Wonder Workshop’s Dot and Dash robots are in use by thousands of student groups and schools around the world. “We founded Wonder Workshop to provide all children — girls and boys of all ages — with the skills needed to succeed in the future economy. This round of financing will allow us to continue on our mission to inspire the inventors of tomorrow,” said Vikas Gupta, CEO.
• FogHorn Systems, a Silicon Valley smart manufacturing software startup, raised $30 million in a Series B round led by Intel Capital and Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures with new investor Honeywell Ventures and all previous investors participating, including Series A investors March Capital Partners, GE, Dell Technologies Capital, Robert Bosch Venture Capital, Yokogawa Electric Corporation, Darling Ventures and seed investor The Hive.
• Nanotronic Imaging, an Ohio testing solutions provider, raised $30 million in a Series D funding led by Investment Corp of Dubai and Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund.
• Wandercraft, a French rehabilitation exoskeleton startup, raised $17.8 million in a Series B round from XAnge, Innovation Capital, Idinvest Partners, Cemag Invest and BPIFrance.
• Ever AI, a San Francisco startup developing facial recognition, announced that they had raised $16 million in a Series B funding led by Icon Ventures with participation from Felicis Ventures and Khosla Ventures. On the same day SoftBank announced their intention to use Ever AI’s facial recognition platform as a new feature for their Pepper robot.
• Built Robotics, a San Francisco startup developing a self-driving kit for construction equipment – a self-driving excavator – raised $15 million in a Series A round led by NEA (New Enterprise Associates) with participation by Founders Fund, Lemnos and angel investors including Eric Stromberg, Maria Thomas, Carl Bass, Edward Lando and Justin Kan.
• Veo Robotics, a Cambridge, MA-based vision systems startup, raised $12 million in a Series A funding. Lux Capital and GV led the round, and were joined by unnamed investors including Next47.
• Riverfield Surgical Robot Lab, a Japanese startup, raised $10 million in a Series B round led by Toray Engineering and included SBI Investment, Jafco and Beyond Next Ventures.
• Beijing Beehive Agriculture Technology Co. raised $9.4 million in an A funding round led by Tendence Capital and other unnamed sources.  The funding marks the company’s second financing round after it raised around $5 million from e-commerce giant JD.com Inc. and others in its pre-A funding.
• Titan Medical, a Canadian robotic single-port surgery device developer, raised $9.1 million: $2.6 million by floating 13.4 million common shares in a private placement to more than a dozen robotic surgeons in the US and Canada and an additional $6.5 million from the early exercise of purchase warrants for 42.6 million common shares.
• Robart, an Austria-based developer of AI and navigation intelligence for autonomous consumer robots, raised $7.2 million in a Series B funding. CM-CIC Innovation led the round, and was joined by Innovacom, Robert Bosch Venture Capital and SEB Alliance.
• Nileworks,  a Japanese drone crop spraying startup, raised $7.1 million from a group of Japanese investors including public-private partnership the Innovation Network Corporation of Japan, agricultural chemical maker Kumiai Chemical Industry Co., Sumitomo Corporation and its subsidiary  Sumitomo Chemical Co., the Japanese National Federation of Agricultural Co-operative Associations, and The Norinchukin Bank. When the product goes on sale in 2019 the company will target rice farmers in Japan.
• Impossible Objects, an Illinois provider of 3D printing tech, raised $6.4 million in a Series A funding led by OCA Ventures and joined by IDEA Fund Partners, Mason Avenue Investments, Huizenga Capital Management and Inflection Equity Partners.
• AeroFarms, the indoor vertical farming startup which raised $34 million reported earlier this year, rounded out their $40 million Series D funding with $6 million from Ikea Group and chef David Chang of the Momofuku Group. AeroFarms just built its 9th indoor farm in Newark, NJ.
• Blickfeld, a Munich-based LiDAR maker for autonomous driving, raised $4.25 million in seed funding. Investors include Unternehmertum Venture Capital Partners, High-Tech Gruenderfonds, Fluxunit – OSRAM Ventures and Tengelmann Ventures.
• Realtime Robotics, a Boston motion planning and control startup, raised $2 million in seed funding from SPARX Group, Scrum Ventures, and Toyota AI Ventures.
• Vitae Industries, a Rhode Island pharma dispensing robot maker, raised $1.8 million in seed funding from Lerer Hippeau Ventures and Slater Technology Fund. Other investors in the round included Techstars, BoxGroup, Compound and Founder Collective.
• Acutronic Robotics, a Swiss startup that last year acquired Spanish component maker Erle Robotics, raised an undisclosed amount from Sony in a Series A funding round. Sony will also adopt Acutronic’s Hardware Robot Operating System (H-ROS), for use in its own robotics division. Sony’s strategic use of the H-ROS platform in its own operations, and DARPA’s prior investment, suggest there’s a lot of interest in H-ROS for unifying legacy robotic systems from old-line robot providers.
• Bharati Robotic Systems, a Pune, India-based industrial robotic cleaning startup, raised an undisclosed amount of funding from its existing investors – Society For Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE, IITB Incubator), and other angel investors.
• IUVO, an Italian exoskeleton and wearable prosthetics spin-off from the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, has received a joint investment from robot manufacturer Comau and Össur, a global provider of non-invasive orthopedics. No financial amounts were provided however Comau and Össur will now hold a majority share of IUVO. “This joint venture represents a key step toward the creation of wearable robotic exoskeletons that can enhance human mobility and quality of life,” emphasized Mauro Fenzi, CEO of Comau. “By uniting the know-how and enabling technologies of the various partners, we are in a unique position to extend the use of robotics beyond manufacturing and toward a truly progressive global reality. I believe the differentiating factor of a project like IUVO is the combination of Comau’s automation skills and Össur’s extensive experience in bionics and bracing to enable the production of products, such as the exoskeletons, and to be able to demonstrate the benefits of robotics”.
• Ultimaker, a manufacturer of professional desktop 3D printers and employer of over 300, raised an undisclosed amount from NPM Capital, a Benelux investment company.

Acquisitions

• Delphi Automotive, a UK Tier 1 automotive supplier, acquired nuTonomy, a Boston self-driving ride sharing startup, for $450 million. nuTonomy, a spin-off from MIT and Singapore and with funding from Ford, has grown to 100 employees including 70 engineers and scientists. The acquisition will double Delphi’s autonomous driving applications team.
• HTI Cybernetics, a Michigan industrial robotics integrator and contract manufacturer, has been acquired by Chongqing Nanshang Investment Group for around $50 million. HTI provides robotic welding systems to the auto industry and also has a contract welding services facility in Mexico.
• Ridecell, a San Francisco mobility platform provider of car sharing, ride sharing and autonomous vehicles software, has acquired Auro Robotics, a Silicon Valley self-driving vehicle startup with shuttles operating on the Santa Clara University campus, for an undisclosed amount but which TheInformation estimates to be around $20 million.
• Applied Automation, a UK components manufacturer of automation and control equipment, is changing and upgrading their status to include becoming an integrator of industrial and collaborative robots and, through the acquisition of PTG Precision Engineers, has gained talented engineering manpower to augment their sales/integration efforts. PTG is located across the street from Applied. No financial details about the acquisition were provided by either party.
• General Motors acquired Pasadena-based Strobe, a vision systems startup developing an optical micro-oscillator for LiDAR timing, navigation and sensing applications, for an undisclosed amount. Strobe will join the Cruise Automation self-driving group.
• Boeing is acquiring Aurora Flight Sciences, a 550 employee Virginia-based UAS provider, for an undisclosed amount. “Since its inception, Aurora has been focused on the development of innovative aircraft that leverage autonomy to make aircraft smarter,” said John Langford, Aurora Flight Sciences founder and chief executive officer. “As an integral part of Boeing, our pioneered technologies of long-endurance aircraft, robotic co-pilots, and autonomous electric VTOLs will be transitioned into world-class products for the global infrastructure.”

IPOs

• Restoration Robotics, a San Jose, Calif.-based company focused on robotics that assist doctors in hair transplant procedures, raised $25 million in an upsized offering of 3.6 million shares priced at $7. In 2016, the company posted revenue of $15.6 million and a loss of $21.8 million. HAIR is now listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange.
• Altair Engineering, a Troy, Mich.-based engineering software maker, raised $156 million in an IPO of 12 million shares at $13. The stock (ALTR) is now trading on Nasdaq. Altair develops simulation and design software for industrial applications, automobiles, consumer goods and all types of robotics.
• Nilfisk Holdings, a Danish manufacturer of industrial cleaning machines including a new line of autonomous cleaners, was spun off from NKT A/S, a Danish conglomerate, and went public on the NASDAQ Copenhagen exchange as NLFSK. Financial details were not disclosed.

Despite recent attempts to tease the robotics projects incubating at its Google X skunkworks, industry observers say that Google has done more to stifle than advance innovation in robotics.

A bit of history

On December 4th, 2013, John Markoff, a technology reporter for The New York Times, broke the story that Google had acquired seven robotic companies and that Andy Rubin, of Android fame, would be heading the group. Schaft, a Japanese start-up developing a humanoid robot; Industrial Perception, a Silicon Valley start-up that developed a computer vision system for loading and unloading trucks; Meka Robotics, a robot developer for academia; Redwood Robotics, a start-up intended to compete with the Baxter robot (and others) entering the small and medium-sized shop and factory marketplace; Bot & Dolly, a maker of robotic camera systems used for special effects such as in the movie “Gravity;” Autofuss, a design and marketing firm and a partner in Bot & Dolly; and Holomni, a maker of powered caster modules for omnidirectional vehicles.

On December 14th, 2013, Markoff followed up with the news that Google had added to its new stable of robotic companies by acquiring Boston Dynamics, a 20-year old developer of mobile and off-road robotics and human simulation technology mostly for DARPA and the Department of Defense.

Thus some of the leading startups in the industry and the whole 80+ talent pool from Boston Dynamics became part of Google. According to Markoff quoting Rubin,

“The company’s initial market will be in manufacturing, e.g., electronics assembly which is mostly done by hand. Manufacturing and logistics markets not being served by today’s robotic technologies are clear opportunity markets and the new Google robots will be able to automate any or all of the processes from the supply chain to the distribution channels to the consumer’s front door thereby creating a massive opportunity.”

The eight acquisitions were the talk of the business news but one piece from SFGate Tech Chronicles quoting Brian Gerkey described the positive sentiment best:

“Google’s move into robotics is likely to draw renewed attention and money into the space. It’s a pretty exciting day for robotics when someone like Google makes an investment like that in robots, others are likely to follow suit. It can only spur investment and innovation.”

Sales, vesting, transfers and departures

From 2014 to 2016 there were rumors and some media attention to the difficulties Google was having coordinating the talents within their robotic acquisitions, particularly after Rubin left and Google let it be known that they wanted to sell off Boston Dynamics because “their two- and four-legged robots were too far from being marketable.” Commercial projects were discussed but none came to fruition. People started to leave or move over to other parts of Google and GoogleX. Of the people that came from the 2013 acquisitions, some have left saying that the lack of direction and management had thwarted their desire to stay and contribute. Others have stayed but let it be known they’ll be available after their four-year sign-on stock options vest which will happen later this year.

In 2015 and 2016 the news of dissent continued as the name and group managers changed. No products emerged. James Kuffner led the robotics group until he left in January, 2016 to become the CTO of the Toyota Research Institute. Aaron Edsinger followed, but then he too left.

In June of 2017 Google finally found a buyer for Boston Dynamics – SoftBank. SoftBank also bought Schaft, a Japan-based startup whose walking robots never integrated into Google and, like Boston Dynamics, operated separately from the rest of Google’s robotics acquisitions.

For SoftBank, which acquired Aldebaran in 2012 and helped them make the humanoid robot Pepper, the two acquisitions offer mobility and robotics talent as SoftBank grows its SoftBank Robotics joint venture with Alibaba and Foxconn.

Google made a mess

In a blistering recap of Google’s involvement in robotics from 2013 until now, Mark Bergen and Joshua Brustein wrote in BloombergBusinessweek Magazine:

“None of the acquired companies have robots in use beyond the offices of Google’s now-parent company, Alphabet Inc. At least three key robotics chiefs who joined in that 2013 wave left the company in the last few months, and, because four years is the typical vesting period for Google stock options, they probably won’t be the last. At this point, the exodus counts as a win for robotics, since many of the brightest minds in the field have essentially spent the past few years trapped in a time capsule. Ultimately, Google’s run on roboticists held the industry back more than moving it forward.”

Google today

Google hasn’t entirely receded from robotics. There is Waymo, Alphabet’s autonomous-car division, and Titan (renamed Project Loon), Google’s drone development project. In fact, Project Loon balloons are being used today in Puerto Rico to provide stationary platforms from which emergency Internet and web services are available. Additionally, GoogleX has operated their “arm farm,” a room full of robotic arms that are learning to grasp and manipulate random objects and teach the other robots in the room how to do the same. In a recent GoogleX blog, Hans Peter Brondmo, who now heads up Google’s remaining robotics team, said:

We’re working with the Google Brain team to explore how to teach robots new skills by learning from their shared experience, and we’re even simulating robots in the cloud so they can train fast, and then we’re transferring this learning onto real robots. By having virtual robots we can gather lots of data for training in the cloud. Then we transfer what the virtual robots learn to the real-world robots so they can quickly learn to perform new tasks. This is all critical research that will pave the (long) path toward building machines that can learn new skills quickly and operate safely and cost effectively in the world we live in.”

Bottom line

Rumors abound about the value of Google’s ant farm (the room where a dozen or more robot arms are using machine learning and swarm control to pick and place random objects which Brondmo described in his blog). But so far, except for those that have left or moved over to Waymo, nothing but research has come from the 3-1/2 years Google has had a robotics group. Unless you count the years of anxiety, secrecy and disappointment for all those super-smart entrepreneurs that initially had hoped for so much of their new association with Google.

But as Brian Gerkey said, “…when someone like Google makes an investment like that in robots, others are likely to follow suit. It can only spur investment and innovation.” That has happened in spades! 2015, 2016 and 2017 have all shown exponential growth in investments and strategic acquisitions for the robotics industry.

If you enjoyed this episode, you may also want to listen to:

• Talking Machines: The long view and learning in person, with John Quinn
• Talking Machines: Machine Learning in the Field and Bayesian Baked Goods, with Ernest Mwebaze
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Robots help ants with daily chores so they can be accepted into the colony. Image credit – Dr Bertrand Collignon

Tiny mobile robots are learning to work with insects in the hope the creatures’ sensitive antennae and ability to squeeze into small spaces can be put to use serving humans.

With a soft electronic whirr, a rather unusual looking ant trundles along behind a column of its arthropod comrades as they march off to fetch some food.

While the little insects begin ferrying tiny globules of sugar back home, their mechanical companion bustles forward to effortlessly pick up the entire container and carry it back to the nest.

It is a dramatic demonstration of how robots can be introduced and accepted into insect societies.

But the research, which is being conducted as part of the EU-funded CyBioSys project, could be an important step towards using robots to subtly control, or work alongside, animals or humans.

‘The idea is to be able to solve (a) problem with a better solution than they (the robots and insects) can produce individually,’ said Dr Bertrand Collignon, who is leading the research at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, in Switzerland.

The robots, which ‘live’ with the ants, pick up signs that food has been discovered through a camera mounted inside the nest. The camera alerts the robots when it detects an increasing numbers of ants are departing – a sign that food has been found.

The robots – reprogrammed off-the-shelf Thymio bots managed by simple Raspberry Pi computers – then use sensors to follow the columns of exiting ants. Once the ants have led their robotic counterparts to their discovery, the robots take over, using their superior muscle power to lug it home.

Dr Collignon described this as a ‘cyber-biological system’, which improves both on the natural order, and on what robots could achieve on their own. By getting ants and robots to collaborate, each community plays to its strengths, he says.

‘The ants are good at exploring the environment very efficiently, with many scouts patrolling the vicinity of the nest at the same time,’ said Dr Collignon, who is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie action fellow. ‘But individual ants are not able to transport large amounts of food and some can get lost between the food and the nest.’

‘By getting ants and robots to collaborate, each community plays to its strengths.’

Dr Bertrand Collignon, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland

Robots are like pack animals in comparison, carrying an order of magnitude more food than an ant can, and accomplishing in a few minutes what would have taken the ants hours.

Dr Collignon believes it is the first project to consider an insect swarm as a biosensor and then embed in a robot the ability to extract data from the colony.

But he also believes this research could be combined with other work teaching robots to communicate with animals. Instead of relying on top-down instructions — like a shepherd dog herding sheep — this would work by subtly influencing them from a position as one of the group.

As many social insects such as ants and bees can form aggressive colonies that normally do not respond well to outsiders, influencing them from within may offer a new approach.

In a previous EU-funded project, LEURRE, a team pioneered the creation of small mobile robots that could interact with cockroaches and influence their collective behaviour.

When kept in a pen together, cockroaches will gradually gather under the same dark shelter. They achieve this simply by following two rules: stay close to other cockroaches, and head for somewhere dark.

But when the researchers released small robots into the pen programmed with slightly different rules — stay close to other cockroaches but prefer a lighter refuge — in time the cockroaches, along with the robots, gathered in the lighter shelter instead.

Dr Collignon believes that the two types of robotic work – collaboration and communication – could find applications in search and rescue, exploring environments too dangerous or inaccessible for humans. Eventually, small animals could be used to get into restricted environments such as collapsed buildings.

By integrating artificial systems, such as robots, into more natural ones – such as a warehouse full of chickens – it could lead to new solutions to help control animal behaviour on farms. An example might be preventing deadly mass panic attacks amongst intensively reared animals by using robots that can detect the early signs of an impending stampede and diverting one by behaving in a different way.

‘The first step is to be able to track what natural agents are doing and react appropriately to that,’ he said. ‘That’s already a tricky thing. Once you have sensed what nature is doing, you can then interact. The robotic agent can do what it has been designed for and then act on the system.’

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CyBioSys