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Texas Gov. Abbott Vows to Fight for SpaceX to Launch From Boca Chica Parabolic Arc – Parabolic Arc

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by Douglas MessierManaging Editor

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has vowed to fight for SpaceX to receive federal approval to launch its Super Heavy/Starlink system from the companys Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas. Rio Grande Guardian reports:

Asked by veteran broadcaster Ron Whitlock ofRon Whitlock Reportswhether he is concerned about losing SpaceX, Abbott said:

What I am going to do if Biden interferes with the ability of SpaceX to launch from Boca Chica; I am going to be working every step of the way to make sure that they are going to be able to launch from Boca Chica. We heard the vision from Mr. Patel himself about what they are working on and our job is to make sure they are able to achieve their vision. And I have worked with Elon Musk very closely with regard to Tesla and the Giga factory in Austin, Texas. And we will be working with him very closely, every step of the way in Boca Chica for the future of SpaceX. We want that future and that vision to come from Boca Chica, from Brownsville, Texas.

Whitlock followed up with: And not to Florida? Abbott responded: Correct.

Whitlock interviewed Abbott at an economic development event held recently at the Port of Brownsville. Since this event, SpaceX has learned that its application to expand its Boca Chica rocket launching site has hit a new hurdle.

The new hurdle is that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers suspended consideration of SpaceXs proposal to expand Starbase on the grounds the company had failed to adequately respond to a series of questions about the plan the Corps had raised last May. The matter can be reopened if SpaceX responds with the requested information.

The Corps sent aletterto SpaceX dated March 7 that lists a number of deficiencies in the application. The overriding concern is that SpaceX eliminated alternative locations Cape Canaveral in Florida and Vandenberg Space Force Base in California without providing a thorough analysis of why those sites were not viable.

SpaceX had originally said Boca Chica was the only viable launch site. Earlier this year, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said that if approval of the Texas site was delayed, the company would move operations to Kennedy Space Center in Florida. SpaceX subsequently ramped up Super Heavy/Starship construction in the Sunshine State.

Musks company wants to build a launch complex near Pads 39A and 39B, which are being used for launches of SpaceXs Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy boosters and NASAs Space Launch System, respectively. SpaceX also wants to develop a site situated north of that location which would be known as Pad 49. Environmental groups in Florida have raised objections to the Pad 49 plan.

The Corps is evaluating how the expansion of SpaceXs permit would affect 17.16 acres of land adjacent to SpaceXs current footprint at Boca Chica. The expansion would involve the addition of test, orbital, and landing pads, integration towers, associated infrastructure, stormwater management features and vehicle parking. The proposed expansion will impact 10.94 acres of mud flats, 5.94 acres of estuarine wetlands, and 0.28 acres of non-tidal wetlands, according to the Corps project description.

The review is being done in conjunction with the Federal Aviation Administrations (FAA) programmatic environmental assessment (PEA) of SpaceXs plan to expand the spaceport and launch Super Heavy/Starship vehicles from the location just north of the Mexican border. FAA originally planned to complete the PEA by the end of last December; however, the estimated completion date is now April 28.

Some people are arguing on various Internet sites that the Corps application only covers expansion for a second Boca Chica launch pad and is separate from the PEA document being prepared by the FAA. So, the FAA could approve launches from a pad SpaceX has already built. However, an expert in the subject who writes under the name ESG Hound said that is not so.

The land covered in the Corps application covers all the stuff in the PEA, including support buildings and other site infrastructure. The two actions are intimately intertwined but go ahead in thinking this is some Elon Musk 4D Chess, he tweeted.

You can read his full analysis of the Corps decision and its likely impact on the review processhere.

What SpaceX is looking for in the FAAs PEA is a finding that launching the worlds most powerful rocket from Boca Chica would have no significant impact (FONSI) on the surrounding area. FAA could issue a FONSI subject to a number of conditions designed to limit the impact of launches and launch failures from the site.

However, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and National Park Service have raised serious questions about whether a FONSI can be issued even with conditions. A number of environmental groups have opposed SpaceXs plans, saying launching the rocket is not compatible with the sensitive nature of the surrounding area.

There are several possible outcomes:

An EIS was originally conducted before the FAA granted approval for SpaceX to launch Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets from Boca Chica. The company abandoned those plans and began testing Starship prototypes at the site, which it named Starbase.

FAA decided that a less rigorous EA was required to approve launches of the even larger Super Heavy/Starship from the location. That in itself has proven controversial; opponents have argued that a full EIS should have been started when SpaceX changed its plans several years ago.

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Texas Gov. Abbott Vows to Fight for SpaceX to Launch From Boca Chica Parabolic Arc - Parabolic Arc

Elon Musks Starbase in Texas sits on land once pitched to Chicago Polish retirees by Polish radios John C – Chicago Sun-Times

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Billionaire Elon Musks ambitious plans for space travel are taking shape on a sandy patch of Texas not far from the U.S.-Mexico border town of Brownsville and South Padre Island, the spring break haven.

Its an area that might not seem to have much in common with Chicago, with its warm, salty waters, occasional shark sightings and the up-righted rockets that protrude from the landscape.

But Chicagoans are central to the history of Musks Texas Starbase property where spaceships are assembled and SpaceX workers, including Musk, stay in an adjacent neighborhood of ranch-style homes or campers along streets lined with palm trees and, reflecting another of Musks business interests, electric-powered Tesla cars in some of the driveways.

Elon Musks Starbase complex includes what initially was called Kennedy Shores when it was created as a retirement village in the 1960s by a Chicago developer.

Robert Herguth / Sun-Times

Campers dot the landscape of Elon Musks rocket facility in south Texas adjacent to what was once a retirement community that drew Polish Americans from Chicago.

Robert Herguth / Sun-Times

Over the past decade, Musk has bought or obtained options to buy land there just down Texas State Highway 4 from a launch site where his spacecraft might one day take off for Mars or beyond.

The area previously was home to a retirement community that Chicago radio personality John A. Caputa helped create, pitching the site on Polish-language radio programs in the 1960s and 1970s as the next Fort Lauderdale.

Caputa who was from Austria but spoke Polish also promoted the development in a Polish language newspaper in Chicago.

Elon Musk speaks at SpaceXs Starbase facility near Boca Chica Village in South Texas.

Only a smattering of homes ended up being built for the retirement community. And no more than a few dozen people at any given time ever lived in the community initially named Kennedy Shores after President John F. Kennedy, then called Kopernik Shores in homage of Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus and now known as Boca Chica Village, a nod in Spanish to the small mouth of the nearby Rio Grande River.

The entrance to Boca Chica Village, with the rocket launch site visible in the distance.

Robert Herguth / Sun-Times

What seemed like an honest venture at the start turned into a nightmare for some by the time Caputa died at 65 in 1977 after a heart attack while driving on what was then called the Northwest Tollway. At the time of his death, hed been staying, penniless or nearly so, at the Leaning Tower YMCA in Niles, noteworthy for its half-scale replica of the Pisa landmark.

In a story headlined, Hes Dead, Their Savings Gone, the Chicago Sun-Times reported: Caputa was building a retirement village for Polish immigrants in south Texas ... and with the help of the Lord and the people of Chicagos Polish community, the dream would come true. He asked his listeners to lend him money and promised a 12% return after a year.

But, according to the story, Caputa had been falling behind on payments to his creditors, including his radio listeners, since the early 1970s.

According to the Texas Almanac, after Caputas death, it was discovered that many of the Kopernik Shore residents did not hold clear title to their land.

Caputa had gotten into real estate in the 1960s, joining a venture with several others who bought a huge parcel along the Texas Gulf Coast. Their plan? To build a Fort Lauderdale of the West, using Caputas salesmanship and ties with the Chicago ethnic community to market lots.

Caputa brought train and bus loads of people from Chicago to see the property, but a series of tropical storms battered the area, and sales slowed, the Sun-Times reported.

Caputa broke with his partners, and legal and financial problems followed.

Two months after Caputas death, the old Dallas Times Herald chronicled the politics of the place, whose mayor at the time was 82-year-old Stanley Piotrowicz, whod been a home builder in Evanston and run unsuccessfully for Illinois secretary of state in 1936 as a third-party candidate.

Piotrowicz got the community incorporated, but that was overturned by a judge as a political rival fumed over the inability to get fresh water piped to the area. The bitterness spilled into the April 2, 1977, election that a judge called the most irregular in the history of Texas, rife with accusations of election fraud.

Piotrowicz, who was born in Poland, believed so strongly in the idea of a Polish megalopolis of senior citizens in southern Texas that he was one of the first to invest, according to the Dallas newspaper.

I was president of the Polish American Senior Citizens Council of Chicago, and we had 2,600 members sign up for land with Caputa, he told the paper. Its the best climate in the U.S. for asthma and rheumatism. Here, you get cured without a doctor just God and the sun.

A grotto of the Virgin Mary, one of the few remaining signs that Boca Chica Village was once a retirement community of Polish Americans.

Robert Herguth / Sun-Times

One of the few unused structures in Boca Chica Village.

Robert Herguth / Sun-Times

Decades later, Musk is using that land in his effort to some day travel to the heavens.

And Caputa and Piotrowiczs dream for whats now Boca Chica Village, which still includes a few retirees who hadnt sold to Musk?

In the words of Cameron County Judge Eddie Trevino Jr., It is definitely not a sleepy retirement village any longer.

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Elon Musks Starbase in Texas sits on land once pitched to Chicago Polish retirees by Polish radios John C - Chicago Sun-Times

Why YouTube wants to get into the NFT business – Protocol

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Every big platform is bracing itself for Web3. NFTs will arrive on Instagram soon. Spotify is hiring for Web3 experts. Twitter already lets users show off their virtual art as profile pictures. YouTube isn't far behind on its own NFT plans, which are vague at the moment, but CEO Susan Wojcicki said they'll help relatively small creators jumpstart their platforms.

"We are seeing that creators are selling their videos and memes as NFTs," Wojcicki told livestreamer Ludwig Ahgren on a recent podcast episode of The Yard. "If creators are selling their videos as NFTs, then that's an important form of monetization. I don't think it would be good if that all happened on another platform."

Wojcicki said allowing creators to sell NFTs on the platform can help smaller influencers who are just beginning to build up their accounts, pointing to musicians who have begun using NFTs as a way to fundraise.

At the end of the day what YouTube does is, were a platform that distributes content and monetization, she said. If NFTs are an important part of that equation, then we think we should be there.

Wojcicki, who owns "a few" NFTs herself, didn't provide too many details on YouTube's Web3 plans. But she said YouTube is in the best position to verify virtual assets that belong to creators through its Content ID tool, which lets creators track and manage their content. It would be a problem for you if some other third-party site were selling your videos without knowing that it belonged to you, Wojcicki added.

Ahgren pushed back on NFTs, saying they're a "blight" in the gaming world and will only help already big influencers in the long run. Gaming companies that have introduced these tools have gotten their fair share of backlash, both for environmental reasons and because some see crypto in gaming as unnecessary. Wojcicki acknowledged that YouTube's decision to work on NFTs was "polarizing" but that the platform's goal behind NFTs is to protect creators. Were going to be really careful. I think you are going to be OK with what we do with NFTs," she said.

YouTube's $100 million Shorts Fund has also been polarizing for creators. Wojcicki told Ahgren that the money from the program is only a temporary form of revenue. I dont think [Shorts funds are] permanent, Wojcicki said. She added that YouTube is working to make the Shorts program more scalable in the future and that the platform is working on a new program for creators to make money. But I cant say anything else, she said.

Ahgren pointed to a video posted by YouTuber Hank Green, who said creator funds arent sustainable because the pool of dedicated cash is static even though the number of creators eligible for the fund grows. But Wojcicki said the Shorts Fund was only an initial form of monetization for short-form creators, and the platform is looking to run more ads on short-form content so people can earn money like they would on longer YouTube videos. YouTube has a great monetization program for long-form creators, and we want to extend that for Shorts, Wojcicki said.

YouTube's decision to stop displaying the dislike count may not have been a popular one, but Wojcicki said even though the move got its fair share of backlash, it was made in the best interest of creators.

"I understand there were many people and yes, we heard loud and clear why people were unhappy with that decision," she told Ahgren. "But then we also saw the impact that it was having on a lot of new creators, and thats bad. We need to have, and continue to support, smaller creators and how theyre growing. Thats really important for the long-term health of our ecosystem."

Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled Ludwig Ahgren's name. This story was updated on April 11, 2022.

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Why YouTube wants to get into the NFT business - Protocol

Big tech conferences arent coming back – Protocol

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Good morning! Do you miss roaming a convention center with a tech conference badge? Or the summer camp vibe of reuniting with industry peers you havent seen in years? Well, the virtual events necessitated by the pandemic appear to be sticking around. So is the in-person tech event a thing of the past? I'm Allison Levitsky, and I once worked as a Frida Kahlo impersonator at SFMOMA.

The pandemics darkest days have passed and in-person gatherings are back, but the virtual events that emerged during the pandemic have staying power. Some of techs biggest conferences are hanging on to a hybrid element if not remaining entirely online.

Were fully into year three of the pandemic, and Big Techs conferences are still mostly virtual. The events once packed thousands of attendees into large convention centers in exotic locales like San Jose and Las Vegas, but this week, Apple announced that its annual developers conference would once again be an online event, and Facebook parent company Meta is also putting its annual developers event on pause.

Other companies are going all-in on hybrid conferences. This combines the benefits of in-person gatherings networking, more immersive experiences, a captive audience with the wider audience and deeper focus of online sessions.

In-person networking is a big part of the appeal of conferences. But apparently, thats not deterring tech companies from making their developer conferences virtual.

Well have to see whether Apple takes the wraps off its latest iPhone with a splashy IRL event this September. Either way, the more technical tech conferences are likely to stay at least partially, if not mostly, online or maybe in, IDK, the metaverse?

How is tech setting and measuring climate goals?

Net zero. Carbon offsets. Scope 3 emissions. These are just some of the terms youll find in Big Techs climate plans. Understanding what they actually mean is vital to ensuring the industry is meeting its goals. Join us at 10 a.m. PT April 19, where Protocol's Brian Kahn will talk with some of the people responsible for setting those goals and experts who are monitoring them to find out what tech companies are really doing. RSVP here.

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Tesla shareholder Ron Baron doesnt think Elon Musks Twitter buy is a big deal:

Microsofts Satya Nadella told workers to stop sending those late-night emails:

Janet Yellen said crypto regulation should be tech neutral:

Daversa Partners Frank Cumella said companies should create strong ties with their executive search firm:

Bolt Financial bought Wyre Payments, a blockchain-based payments provider, for about $1.5 billion, sources told The Wall Street Journal.

Coinbase is on a hiring spree in India. The company plans to triple its employee count in the country to 1,000, and half of the new hires will be engineers.

Discoverys new post-WarnerMedia merger leaders are in place. Jean-Briac Perrette will lead its streaming businesses; Bruce Campbell will serve as chief revenue and strategy officer; and Kathleen Finch is the new chair and chief content officer.

Skand Gupta is the new head of Engineering at Cadre. Gupta has worked in senior engineering roles at companies like Better.com and Dropbox.

Elon Musk finally visited the White House. He met with Biden officials alongside other auto industry leaders to discuss topics like charging networks and EVs.

Amazon will appeal its unionization defeat, which last week saw workers in New York vote to establish the companys first U.S. union. Hardly surprising.

Riot Games is the latest to drop its vaccine requirement and ask workers to come back to the office. Sources told Vice the change has upset employees, some of whom have left.

Twitter Employees aren't happy with Elon Musk being on the company's board, so much so that the company plans to host a town hall on the matter, according to The Washington Post.

Activision Blizzards quality assurance testers are now full-time workers after months of activism from some employees. The workers now have full-time contracts and a raise.

Twitter is testing a tool that would let users unmention themselves from conversations on the web.

Epic and Lego want to make the metaverse better for kids. Their plans to work together are vague, but theyre aiming to prioritize kids well-being and protect their privacy.

SpaceX cant expand in Boca Chica, Texas, for now because it never provided documentation on how its growth would affect surrounding ecology and wildlife.

Famous women including Gwyneth Paltrow and Reese Witherspoon are getting in on the crypto craze. Given that men have invested more in crypto than women, that leadership push from women celebrities should be seen as a good thing. But its not really?

Women celebrities interest in NFTs sounds a lot like the girlboss philosophy, which refers to a 2010s trend in which women leaders broke into male-dominated fields, but in a self-serving way. The charge looks like women are successfully breaking the glass ceiling, but at the expense of marginalized women. The ongoing hype around NFTs could play out in the same way, the Washington Post reports, but time will tell.

Tracking is a comprehensive problem over 80% of websites, apps and emails contain third-party trackers. Because of that, people need a multi-pronged privacy solution. DuckDuckGos all-in-one privacy app can be used as an everyday browser with multiple features built-in, including private search, tracker blocking, encryption, and email protection.

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Thoughts, questions, tips? Send them to sourcecode@protocol.com, or our tips line, tips@protocol.com. Enjoy your day, see you Sunday.

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Big tech conferences arent coming back - Protocol

Will Elon Musk Build a Tunnel Loop in San Antonio? – Government Technology

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(TNS) The Alamo Regional Mobility Authority doesn't exactly know where Elon Musk's Boring Co. wants to build its proposed underground transportation loop in San Antonio.

The RMA's board voted 5-0 last month to enter negotiations with the tunnel maker to construct a loop system at an estimated cost of between $247 million and $289 million connecting San Antonio International Airport and downtown.

The system could include a leg linking the Convention Center to the Pearl area on Broadway.

The Alamo RMA also has a lot of questions. Its chairman, Michael Lynd Jr., said the project remains largely conceptual.

"The tunnel is not designed," he said during an Express-News editorial board meeting Thursday. "We have no idea even what the route is today. All of that will have to be determined."

The drive from the airport and downtown is less than 10 miles, mainly on U.S. 281, and takes about 15 minutes in moderate traffic. Drive times are slower, of course, if there's an accident or it's rush hour.

Lynd said the loop would address current traffic problems and could help ease increased congestion resulting from San Antonio's future population growth.

The Boring Co. estimates it could transport 4,400 business travelers, tourists and locals per hour in Teslas from the airport to downtown and back, generating annual revenue of $25 million for the RMA. The tunnels would be about 12 feet wide.

If the loop gets built and is successful, Lynd foresees the possibility of expanding the system, with Teslas delivering passengers to Brooks on the Southeast Side, the University of Texas at San Antonio's downtown campus, Port San Antonio, Texas A&M University-San Antonio, the Shops at La Cantera and the AT&T Center, among other destinations.

But the RMA doesn't know yet whether the tunnel would be financially feasible.

"They need the ability to be self-financed, so they have to be economically viable," said Lynd, CEO of the development firm Kairoi Residential.

He said the authority will bring in consultants to conduct feasibility and ridership studies to determine whether there's enough demand to generate the revenue to pay for the loop's construction and operation.

The RMA hasn't yet hired firms to conduct the studies.

If the results show a loop makes financial sense, he said, the RMA and Boring Co. would begin working out its path. The tunnels could be dug mostly under U.S. 281 in part to avoid having to negotiate with numerous private property owners for rights of way, as well as complications with city utilities.

"It's a lot easier to generate right-of-way access for us," Lynd said. "We would need the ability to secure a right of way even if we're underneath somebody's property. We want to eliminate as many moving pieces as possible between the airport and downtown."

With the loop project, the authority's main goal is to bring in more revenue so the agency can pay for roadway projects that will result in less congestion.

Other RMAs in Texas take in revenue from toll roads. But San Antonio has none of those because of fierce opposition to such projects. As a result, the Bexar County-created Alamo RMA's biggest source of funding comes from vehicle registration fees.

In 2020, the fees accounted for $15.7 million, or more than half of the RMA's total revenue of $29 million.

The company told the RMA it could pay between $27 million and $47 million for the loop's first phase, and it could maintain and operate the system through a long-term lease agreement.

If the RMA moves forward with the project, it could sell revenue bonds to pay for construction of the tunnels. It would use money generated from passenger fares and possibly other sources to repay the debt.

"The key reason for selecting The Boring Co. is that their proposal did not reduce by $1 any available funds to construct any road," Lynd said. "It also did not require a revenue guarantee from the county or taxpayers. And it also did not require any new county taxes in order to pay for its improvement."

"In essence, the project, as proposed, is fully self-financed," he said. " The Boring Co. has indicated a willingness to construct the project under a fixed price with no cost overrun risk to the RMA."

The loop system would include several stations along the route, potentially both underground and at street-level.

Lynd said it could be more than an underground loop system that delivers passengers from Point A to Point B. Boring Co. drivers could drop off riders at locations outside the loop like rideshare drivers.

"What [drivers] can do is exit the tunnel, drive on the streets, drop you at your final destination, loop back around and then be at the entrance of the tunnel so the car can loop back into the system," he said.

Its track record is mixed.

Founded in 2016 by Musk who's also CEO of Tesla and founder and chief executive of SpaceX the company has completed one project: a $52 million, 1.7-mile tunnel under the Las Vegas Convention Center. In October, it received approval from Las Vegas officials to begin building a 29-mile tunnel to include 51 stations across the city.

It's also currently looking to build projects in Miami and Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

The Boring Co. reportedly connected with Cameron County officials last summer to pitch a tunnel system connecting southern South Padre Island to the northern portion of Boca Chica Beach, near SpaceX's launch site in South Texas.

The tunnel company, headquartered in the Austin area, also met with Austin officials last summer to discuss the possibility of connecting Tesla's "gigafactory" to downtown by tunnels.

Just as many of its proposals have fallen by the wayside, however.

The Boring Co. has halted work on projects in Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City and Washington, D.C., among others. Several of them died in the environmental review process.

"From San Antonio to Austin, this corridor is the fastest-growing in the nation in terms of population growth," he said. "There's no doubt that our roads will continue to meet expanded demand. That's the problem that we're trying to solve."

Bexar County's population alone is projected to hit 2.8 million people by 2040, up from its current 1.9 million.

The proposed San Antonio loop eventually could be expanded to New Braunfels and Austin.

2022 the San Antonio Express-News, Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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Will Elon Musk Build a Tunnel Loop in San Antonio? - Government Technology

Drake: Model-Based Design and Verification for Robotics

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Drake (dragon in Middle English) is a C++ toolbox started by theRobot Locomotion Group at the MITComputer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL). Thedevelopment team has now grown significantly, with coredevelopment led by the Toyota Research Institute. Itis a collection of tools for analyzing the dynamics of our robots and buildingcontrol systems for them, with a heavy emphasis on optimization-baseddesign/analysis.

While there are an increasing number of simulation tools available forrobotics, most of them function like a black box: commands go in, sensors comeout. Drake aims to simulate even very complex dynamics of robots (e.g.including friction, contact, aerodynamics, ), but always with an emphasis onexposing the structure in the governing equations (sparsity, analyticalgradients, polynomial structure, uncertainty quantification, ) and making thisinformation available for advanced planning, control, and analysis algorithms.Drake provides an interface to Python to enable rapid-prototyping of newalgorithms, and also aims to provide solid open-source implementations for manystate-of-the-art algorithms. Finally, we hope Drake provides many compellingexamples that can help people get started and provide much needed benchmarks.We are excited to accept user contributions to improve the coverage.

You can read more about the vision for Drake in this blogpost.

We hope you find this tool useful. Please seeGetting Help if you wish to share your comments,questions, success stories, or frustrations. And please contribute your bestbug fixes, features, and examples!

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Drake: Model-Based Design and Verification for Robotics

Robotics industry will convene in Pittsburgh to explore how the city became a leader in autonomous vehicles – NEXTpittsburgh

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Pittsburghers seem reluctant to boast about something thats pretty significant the citys role as the birthplace of autonomous vehicles, says Joel Reed, executive director of the Pittsburgh Robotics Network. Or, maybe they just dont know about it.

When I was at IAM Robotics, more often than not, people associated with smart machines saw Pittsburgh as one of the top two regions for it in the world. In the U.S., theres Boston, Pittsburgh and San Francisco (including Silicon Valley), says Reed.

But that is not as well known in Pittsburgh.

The citys dominance in the field will certainly be a topic at a special event titled The State of Our Autonomous Vehicle Industry, on April 21 at the New Hazlett Theater on the North Side. The event will feature a keynote panel discussion, awards for contributions to the robotics industry and a VIP reception.

The gathering will also include the announcement of the Pittsburgh Robotics Cluster Profile, a document that focuses on the regions unique growth and opportunities in the robotics industry. The profile expands upon a report commissioned last year by the Regional Industrial Development Corporation called Forefront: Securing Pittsburghs Break-out Position in Autonomous Mobile Systems, which shows Pittsburghs powerful role in the autonomous vehicle sphere.

Aurora self-driving vehicles. Photo courtesy of Aurora.

That study estimates the direct employment of about 6,300 jobs in the autonomy sector in Western Pennsylvania, which generates an estimated $651 million in income, $34.7 million in state and local tax revenues, and $126.7 million in federal tax revenues. The industry also helped to create 8,604 full- or part-time indirect jobs, for a total of 14,923.

Thats not anywhere close to, say, banking or medicine in Pittsburghs economy. But its pretty good for a sector that barely existed 20 years ago.

Its growing, too. Last year, Waymo the self-driving vehicle operation affiliated with Google announced an expansion in Pittsburgh. Giants in the field such as Aurora and Argo AI have made Pittsburgh their headquarters, which anchors a lot of non-engineering jobs (that are crucial to growing the field) in the region.

That report shows that it has the potential to be a $10 billion market locally, says Reed.

William Red Whittaker of Carnegie Mellon University will receive the Pittsburgh Robotics Impact Award at the event.

Dr. Whittakers commitment to robotics spans decades and his work pioneered autonomous vehicles, space robotics, sensing and perception, robotic manipulation and industrial robotics, and has even given rise to the entire discipline of field robotics, says Jennifer Apicella, program director at the Pittsburgh Robotics Network.

The event, hosted by the Pittsburgh Robotics Network, kicks off a bimonthly Industry Insights Speaker Series with local robotics industry experts. Tickets for the April 21 event are $20 and are available to the public.

Keynote panel speakers include:

autonomous vehiclesPittsburgh roboticsPittsburgh robotsRIDCrobotics

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Robotics industry will convene in Pittsburgh to explore how the city became a leader in autonomous vehicles - NEXTpittsburgh

Watch: Robotics in the Warehouse: Will It Scale? – SupplyChainBrain

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Customers are turning to robotics in the warehouse because of the technology's modularity and scalability, says Romain Moulin, chief executive officer and co-founder of Exotec Inc.

When Moulin speaks of automation in the warehouse, he thinks of huge and quite complex machinery; he thinks of hardware. Conversely, when it comes to robotics, he tends to think of software and more intelligence.

Theres an army of robots running everywhere in the warehouse, bringing totes to your operators so that you can speed up their processes, he says.

With robots, one has the ability to get to work as soon as theyre out of the box. This system can be deployed much faster, say, in six months, instead of usually one to one-and-a-half years, Moulin says. That's really the speed of deployment. And then theres the ability to add modules, to add robots, to scale up the system, which makes a difference between robotics and automation. Things are more flexible when you use robotics. Looking at the robotics industry as a whole, Moulin sees tremendous growth possibilities in the coming years, given the fact that current warehouse operations are still around 90% manual.

The 10% with automation has less flexibility than they would have with robotics, he says. These are systems that are difficult to modify. And once you put in the system, you don't touch it for 10 years. So we are bringing flexibility to these customers, the ability to have a high performance machine, but at the same time a machine that can be modified. I'm pretty sure that of this 90% with a manual warehouse, a big part of it will be converted to robotics. So it's a tremendous market.

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Watch: Robotics in the Warehouse: Will It Scale? - SupplyChainBrain

Albany High robotics team gets grand send-off for championships – Times Union

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ALBANY The Albany High School robotics team and their bot got a festive send-off at the National Grid headquarters in downtown Albany on Wednesday ahead of their trip to Houston.

The Falcons team and their creation, "Rein," are headed to the three-day FIRST Robotics World Championship at the end of May.

National Grid directors congratulated the students and presented the team with a $35,000 check and a cake at Wednesday's event.

After winning the regional competition, the club had less than a month to figure out travel and hotel costs not to mention how to transport a 120-pound robot across the country. Shipping it was too risky given the unpredictability of postal delivery.

Between National Grid, community donations and funds from the school district, the team raised nearly $100,000, more than double their $46,500 fundraising goal, in a week.

High school senior Alison Powell's parents volunteered to drive the team's creation on a pickup truck from Albany to Houston.

"Having it driven down is the best way to ensure that it makes it there in one piece and it's functional for the competition," Powell said.

Jacob Ennis, a National Grid gas field operations supervisor, has mentored the robotics team for the last eight years.

"I thought they would make it," Ennis said. "Albany High is always kind of scrappy when it comes to funding for the team and we always find a way to pull it out."

Rein pulled off some fancy maneuvers for the National Grid staff Wednesday. Its 360-degree swerve drive technology enables Rein to move faster and smoother in any direction in comparison to the tank-style robots the team has built in previous years. LED lights flash red, blue, and green to let the operator know how many balls it is holding.

Rein tossed balls into a trash can. At the upcoming competition, the robot will shoot balls into a net that is 8 feet tall.

During the regionals last month, the students identified some weaknesses in the robot. Then the brakes malfunctioned and the tire treads wore out. But the new-and-improved Rein is ready to compete, they said.

"I have taken it apart and remade it more times than I can count," senior Dorothy Sperry said.

According to Robotics Club president Thor Hammer, coming up with the concept was a team effort.

"We all have a brainstorming day and collectively the entire team comes up with ideas for the robot and then we narrowed down the options," he said.

Albany Superintendent Kaweeda Adams thanked National Grid for the generous contribution and for its ongoing support for the Falcons team.

"Truly the inspiration for everything that we do, you are looking at it right here," Adams said Wednesday. "This is what motivates me every single day. These are the people who motivate me to get up at 4:30 every single morning and last well until midnight ... this is the group that will be our engineers, our mathematicians, our doctors. All of these things that they are learning here within this STEM program is what will help us in the future as a community."

It is the second time the award-wining robotics team has made it to the nationals.The Falcons won the regional contest in 2018 and participated in the national championships in Detroit a destination less cost-prohibitive because it did not require airfare.

Sophia Lucarelli, the club's treasurer, said arranging hotel and airfare and meals for 17 students was an ordeal, but thanks to the community's support, they pulled it off.

"Especially during senior year, you want to go out with a bang ... I'm just really looking forward to going to Houston and I'm so happy," Lucarelli said.

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Albany High robotics team gets grand send-off for championships - Times Union

Diligent Robotics Lands $30 Million In Series B Funding to Empower Healthcare with Robotics – Grit Daily

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One thing that became abundantly clear during the pandemic is that staffing issues can become a big deal when there is an influx of patients. But Diligent Robotics is providing a solution for that problem. The companys robots are focused on supporting and empowering healthcare teams, allowing them to focus on the patients instead of other, less valuable, tasks. Read more about the company and this recent funding round below.

Led by Tiger Global, funding will accelerate product development to meet demand for healthcare service robot and enhance interoperability, integrations and efficiency in healthcare institutions

AUSTIN, Texas, April 11, 2022 /PRNewswire/ Austin-based robotic automation company, Diligent Robotics, today announced that it has closed over $30 million in Series B funding, bringing the total investment raised to date to nearly $50 million. Diligent Robotics develops socially-intelligent service robots and artificial intelligence solutions that enable robots to collaborate within and adapt to human environments.

The flagship product, Moxi, is a robot that performs delivery tasks for frontline healthcare teams. Stress and burnout have been a persistent problem in healthcare for years, creating a shortage of nurses and clinical staff. But over the past two years COVID-19 has accelerated this into a crisis moment, with projections of more than 1 million new nurses needed in the U.S. alone. More and more health systems are looking for automation to provide workforce augmentation at a critical time for this market.

Tiger Global, an investment firm focused on private and public companies in the internet, software, consumer, and financial technology sectors, led the Series B funding round. Diligent also maintains the support of existing investors, including True Ventures, DNX Venture, Ubiquity Ventures, E14 Fund, Next Coast Ventures, Boom Capital, Gaingels as well as additional commitments from new investors including Cedars-Sinai Health Ventures.

We are proud to have the full support of our past investors and welcome our new partners who joined during our Series B raise, said Dr. Andrea Thomaz, co-founder of Diligent Robotics. This new round of funding will help us scale the company to meet the incredible demand for our healthcare service robot. Thanks to the support of our investors and the Diligent team, we are focused on expanding automated support for clinical teams so nurses and clinicians can focus on tasks that matter most, patient care.

Founded in 2017, Diligent Robotics is the leading company in the social robotics space and the first to build a unique robot with social intelligence and mobile manipulation capabilities to help people in their work environments. In 2018, the company debuted Moxi, a collaborative robot assistant that assists clinical staff with routine, not-patient-facing tasks including fetching and delivering supplies, medications, or lab samples. Since launching and integrating into several healthcare systems, Moxi demonstrated improvement in overall clinical flows and gave care team members back valuable time to spend with their patients.

We started implementing Moxi into our clinical workflows in December and planned on going through a trial phase to determine if the technology would be helpful to our staff, said Cody Blankenship, Vice President Performance Improvement at Mary Washington Healthcare. Right away, we could see the impact Moxi made on the efficiency of our staff and how morale immediately increased. We were so impressed with what Moxi took off our teams hands, we chose to add even more robots to our fleet.

In the two years since its Series A funding, Diligent Robotics has achieved several milestones including:

According to a report from Research and Markets, the global smart hospital market is estimated to be at $27.6 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach $82.89 billion by 2026, compounding at 24.6% annually.

Robotic automation technology will be the key to optimizing efficiency and productivity in health care operations, said Connie Lee, Partner, Tiger Global. As a leader in robotic technology, Diligent Robotics has been able to scale to meet demand while developing an impressive product that delivers tremendous value for its customers. We are excited to partner with Diligent Robotics as their positive impact on the healthcare system grows.

The funds raised during this round will help Diligent optimize supply chain and design teams for faster robot deployment. They will continue to enhance interoperability and drive purposeful integrations with existing hospital infrastructure, electronic health records and clinical communications, which will allow them to continue to meet the demands during the persistent nursing shortage. The team at Diligent is excited about the next chapter and how the Series B funding will be able to accelerate their plans.

Diligent Robotics participation in the Cedars-Sinai Accelerator program led to the exploration of our team testing this solution with our clinical teams, said Dr. David Marshall, Chief Nursing Executive at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles. Using the robot to relieve front-line health care workers from point-to-point delivery and retrieval tasks has been successful in our original launch. Staff members have told me that gives them more time for direct patient care.

The original article can be found at PR Newswire.

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Diligent Robotics Lands $30 Million In Series B Funding to Empower Healthcare with Robotics - Grit Daily

Plus One Robotics expands to the Pittsburgh Innovation District with plans to grow here long term – Technical.ly

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Another robotics firm is coming to Pittsburgh.

San Antonio-based Plus One Robotics announced that it would expand into the Avenu: Meyran space in the Pittsburgh Innovation District in May. The news comes after another growing robotics company, Neuraville, also announced an expansion to the innovation district and after Avenu announced the opening of the new Meyran location last month.

Nearly a year ago, Plus One Robotics announced a $33 million Series B round to fund international expansion. The goal was to meet increased demand for computer vision software for robotics in industries relying on warehouses and logistics. Founded in 2016, the company also raised $8.3 million in a Series A round in 2018, putting its total funding so far over $40 million.

Pittsburgh Innovation District is home to not one but two of the top-100 colleges in the United States. Being close to other startups in the District, plus Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, was very important for us so we can situate ourselves in that high-energy, relevant, forward-looking and optimistic environment, said Bener Suay, senior developer for Plus One Robotics, in a statement. Our company is future-focused, industry-leading, and deeply knowledgeable in our field. We feel that these pillars are very much aligned with our neighbors in the Pittsburgh Innovation District.

Plus Ones software uses 3D and AI-powered perception tools to give robots increased coordination capabilities, including hand-eye coordination relevant to placement and sorting tasks required by warehouse and distribution center settings. Most recently, a press release noted, the company has branched into leveraging its software for depalletization capabilities, specifically looking to improve the computer vision for that feature using its Pittsburgh-based talent.

As someone with experience in material handling robots, I have a great deal of respect for Plus One Robotics. Having them come to Pittsburgh is a big deal and we welcome them to the community, Pittsburgh Robotics Network (PRN) Executive Director Joel Reed said. Pittsburgh is a world leader in research, innovation and commercial development for the robotics industry and is increasingly becoming the place to be if youre developing AI-driven autonomous and robotics solutions.

Plus Ones choice to expand to Pittsburgh next in its company journey also strengthens the conviction of Reed and PRNs claim last summer that the region is the robotics capital of the world. Its a sign that local business within that sector continues to grow beyond the realm of autonomous vehicles and leverage Pittsburghs robotics and AI expertise toward more commercial opportunities.

Suay and one of his colleagues, Senior Engineer Nick DePalma, said that the Pittsburgh Innovation District in particular will enable them to take advantage of all the benefits the city has to offer in robotics. With a growing number of businesses and access to CMU and Pitt, DePalm said he hopes Plus Ones new location will foster a sense of community with other innovators in Pittsburgh.

And it sounds like Plus One is here to stay. While it will continue development of its computer vision software for new applications, Suay said one of the first goals after the move is expanding the team.

Within the next 1-3 years, we hope to see our company grow its customer, application, and employee footprint, he said. We are working tirelessly on solving critical problems in warehouses and distribution centers. We hope to see our efforts scale, hire more talent, and augment our customers capacity to achieve more picks per day.

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Plus One Robotics expands to the Pittsburgh Innovation District with plans to grow here long term - Technical.ly

Warrior Robotics finish second, third in national tournament – Ashland Daily Press

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Country

United States of AmericaUS Virgin IslandsUnited States Minor Outlying IslandsCanadaMexico, United Mexican StatesBahamas, Commonwealth of theCuba, Republic ofDominican RepublicHaiti, Republic ofJamaicaAfghanistanAlbania, People's Socialist Republic ofAlgeria, People's Democratic Republic ofAmerican SamoaAndorra, Principality ofAngola, Republic ofAnguillaAntarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S)Antigua and BarbudaArgentina, Argentine RepublicArmeniaArubaAustralia, Commonwealth ofAustria, Republic ofAzerbaijan, Republic ofBahrain, Kingdom ofBangladesh, People's Republic ofBarbadosBelarusBelgium, Kingdom ofBelizeBenin, People's Republic ofBermudaBhutan, Kingdom ofBolivia, Republic ofBosnia and HerzegovinaBotswana, Republic ofBouvet Island (Bouvetoya)Brazil, Federative Republic ofBritish Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago)British Virgin IslandsBrunei DarussalamBulgaria, People's Republic ofBurkina FasoBurundi, Republic ofCambodia, Kingdom ofCameroon, United Republic ofCape Verde, Republic ofCayman IslandsCentral African RepublicChad, Republic ofChile, Republic ofChina, People's Republic ofChristmas IslandCocos (Keeling) IslandsColombia, Republic ofComoros, Union of theCongo, Democratic Republic ofCongo, People's Republic ofCook IslandsCosta Rica, Republic ofCote D'Ivoire, Ivory Coast, Republic of theCyprus, Republic ofCzech RepublicDenmark, Kingdom ofDjibouti, Republic ofDominica, Commonwealth ofEcuador, Republic ofEgypt, Arab Republic ofEl Salvador, Republic ofEquatorial Guinea, Republic ofEritreaEstoniaEthiopiaFaeroe IslandsFalkland Islands (Malvinas)Fiji, Republic of the Fiji IslandsFinland, Republic ofFrance, French RepublicFrench GuianaFrench PolynesiaFrench Southern TerritoriesGabon, Gabonese RepublicGambia, Republic of theGeorgiaGermanyGhana, Republic ofGibraltarGreece, Hellenic RepublicGreenlandGrenadaGuadaloupeGuamGuatemala, Republic ofGuinea, RevolutionaryPeople's Rep'c ofGuinea-Bissau, Republic ofGuyana, Republic ofHeard and McDonald IslandsHoly See (Vatican City State)Honduras, Republic ofHong Kong, Special Administrative Region of ChinaHrvatska (Croatia)Hungary, Hungarian People's RepublicIceland, Republic ofIndia, Republic ofIndonesia, Republic ofIran, Islamic Republic ofIraq, Republic ofIrelandIsrael, State ofItaly, Italian RepublicJapanJordan, Hashemite Kingdom ofKazakhstan, Republic ofKenya, Republic ofKiribati, Republic ofKorea, Democratic People's Republic ofKorea, Republic ofKuwait, State ofKyrgyz RepublicLao People's Democratic RepublicLatviaLebanon, Lebanese RepublicLesotho, Kingdom ofLiberia, Republic ofLibyan Arab JamahiriyaLiechtenstein, Principality ofLithuaniaLuxembourg, Grand Duchy ofMacao, Special Administrative Region of ChinaMacedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic ofMadagascar, Republic ofMalawi, Republic ofMalaysiaMaldives, Republic ofMali, Republic ofMalta, Republic ofMarshall IslandsMartiniqueMauritania, Islamic Republic ofMauritiusMayotteMicronesia, Federated States ofMoldova, Republic ofMonaco, Principality ofMongolia, Mongolian People's RepublicMontserratMorocco, Kingdom ofMozambique, People's Republic ofMyanmarNamibiaNauru, Republic ofNepal, Kingdom ofNetherlands AntillesNetherlands, Kingdom of theNew CaledoniaNew ZealandNicaragua, Republic ofNiger, Republic of theNigeria, Federal Republic ofNiue, Republic ofNorfolk IslandNorthern Mariana IslandsNorway, Kingdom ofOman, Sultanate ofPakistan, Islamic Republic ofPalauPalestinian Territory, OccupiedPanama, Republic ofPapua New GuineaParaguay, Republic ofPeru, Republic ofPhilippines, Republic of thePitcairn IslandPoland, Polish People's RepublicPortugal, Portuguese RepublicPuerto RicoQatar, State ofReunionRomania, Socialist Republic ofRussian FederationRwanda, Rwandese RepublicSamoa, Independent State ofSan Marino, Republic ofSao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic ofSaudi Arabia, Kingdom ofSenegal, Republic ofSerbia and MontenegroSeychelles, Republic ofSierra Leone, Republic ofSingapore, Republic ofSlovakia (Slovak Republic)SloveniaSolomon IslandsSomalia, Somali RepublicSouth Africa, Republic ofSouth Georgia and the South Sandwich IslandsSpain, Spanish StateSri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic ofSt. HelenaSt. Kitts and NevisSt. LuciaSt. Pierre and MiquelonSt. Vincent and the GrenadinesSudan, Democratic Republic of theSuriname, Republic ofSvalbard & Jan Mayen IslandsSwaziland, Kingdom ofSweden, Kingdom ofSwitzerland, Swiss ConfederationSyrian Arab RepublicTaiwan, Province of ChinaTajikistanTanzania, United Republic ofThailand, Kingdom ofTimor-Leste, Democratic Republic ofTogo, Togolese RepublicTokelau (Tokelau Islands)Tonga, Kingdom ofTrinidad and Tobago, Republic ofTunisia, Republic ofTurkey, Republic ofTurkmenistanTurks and Caicos IslandsTuvaluUganda, Republic ofUkraineUnited Arab EmiratesUnited Kingdom of Great Britain & N. IrelandUruguay, Eastern Republic ofUzbekistanVanuatuVenezuela, Bolivarian Republic ofViet Nam, Socialist Republic ofWallis and Futuna IslandsWestern SaharaYemenZambia, Republic ofZimbabwe

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Warrior Robotics finish second, third in national tournament - Ashland Daily Press

Thundercomm Join Hands with Pudu Robotics to Accelerate the Development of Intelligent Delivery – Business Wire

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BEIJING--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Pudu Robotics, the global benchmark in commercial service robots, recently unveiled two intelligent robots that are empowered by Thundercomms advanced SOM (system on module) products and technologies. The two robots: SwiftBot and PUPU D1 are designed to meet different demands from food delivery in restaurants and goods delivery in various scenarios, separately.

Nowadays, the interaction and travelling abilities are increasing important for food delivery robot to provide better dining experience for customers, especially during the dining rush time. SwiftBot, the flagship food delivery robot can perfectly meet these demands by redefining the interaction between robots and customers during food deliveries. Supported by the strong computing power of Thundercomm TurboX C8250 SOM, SwiftBot excels in visualizing delivery routes, accurate backward perception, and flexible multi-directional avoidance, all of which bring food delivery efficiency and customer experience to a new level.

Besides, Pudu Robotics also launched PUPU D1, its first quadruped delivery robot, to fully cover all delivery scenarios both indoor and outdoor. PUPU D1 is equipped with two intelligent SOMs, TurboX C8250 and C5165, which feature small volume, excellent HMI and motion control capabilities. Based on these advantages, PUPU D1 can adapt to more complex terrains in different delivery scenarios

Hiro Cai, CEO of Thundercomm, says: "We are very pleased to work with Pudu Robotics to build leading delivery robot products and solutions. Thundercomm is committed to empower our clients to develop competitive and innovative products in the intelligent sector. We expect that both Pudu Robotics and Thundercomm will further promote technological innovation and launch more excellent products to meet the diversified delivery demands from different markets."

For more robotic solutions from Thundercomm please follow our latest news at Embedded World 2022.

About Thundercomm

Thundercomm, headquartered in San Diego, is a joint venture between ThunderSoft and Qualcomm. Thundercomm was established to accelerate innovation in the Internet of Things and automotive industry, providing one-stop solutions powered by Qualcomm Technologies. Through its capabilities in operating systems including Android, Linux, and others, abroad software and on-device AI technology portfolio acquired from ThunderSoft, and a global sales and support network, Thundercomm is a valuable and trusted partner to global customers aiming to build high-quality, next-generation products and shorten time-to-commercialization. Learn more at http://www.thundercomm.com

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Thundercomm Join Hands with Pudu Robotics to Accelerate the Development of Intelligent Delivery - Business Wire

Manipulating the future | MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology – MIT News

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As robots evolve, societys collective imagination forever ponders what else robots can do, with recent fascinations coming to life as self-driving cars or robots that can walk and interact with objects as humans do.

These sophisticated systems are powered by advances in deep learning that triggered breakthroughs in robotic perception, so that robots today have greater potential for better decision-making and improved functioning in real-world environments. But tomorrows roboticists need to understand how to combine deep learning with dynamics, controls, and long-term planning. To keep this momentum in robotic manipulation going forward, engineers today must learn to hover above the whole field, connecting an increasingly diverse set of ideas with an interdisciplinary focus needed to design increasingly complex robotic systems.

Last fall, MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science launched a new course, 6.800 (Robotic Manipulation) to help engineering students broadly survey the latest advancements in robotics while troubleshooting real industry problems. Its a unique course that can provide an inroad into robotics for students with no robotics experience at all, designed by Russ Tedrake, the Toyota Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Aeronautics and Astronautics, and Mechanical Engineering at MIT. Tedrake developed the course after robotic manipulation became the new focus of his own research at the Toyota Research Institute and MITs Robot Locomotion Group, and it became apparent to him that developing a pedagogical framework would be important because the field is so diverse and changing so rapidly.

It was time for there to be a single place where you could really get a view of all the pieces, Tedrake says.

His students learn fundamental algorithmic approaches to build robot systems capable of autonomously manipulating objects in unstructured environments. Exploring topics like perception, planning, dynamics, and control, students solve problem sets to guide themselves through developing a software stack, typically using the permissively licensed open-source software Drake which is why industry leaders watch Tedrakes lectures, too. Not focused on quizzes and final exams, the course culminates instead with a final project where students can explore any problem in robotic manipulation that fascinates them.

Undergraduate engineering student David von Wrangel is currently in the course. His background is in rocketry and propulsion, and he only just became interested in robotics through a recent mobile robotics internship at Tesla. Learning what it took to make a robot move around, soon his next question became: how can a robot be made to pick something up? Thats when a colleague at his internship told him about MITs Robotic Manipulation course.

I was super excited, because that was exactly what I was missing: now that you can manipulate your robot, you just need to figure out how to use manipulation to move other things, von Wrangel says.

Tedrakes course notes provide students like von Wrangel with a window to peer across the professors own mental landscape of the field. Students say they are unlike any course notes theyve ever seen providing a constantly updated roadmap of what it would take to advance robotics as a field.

Teaching assistants (TAs), like PhD student H.J. Terry Suh last fall, develop problem sets that offer students opportunities to apply less familiar concepts and see for themselves how various disciplines connect.

That potential to gain a new point of view in robotics is precisely what drew graduate student Anubhav Guha to the course. His research focuses on applications of controls, and he took the course to examine open-ended problems in robotics that directly related to his research. I kind of wanted to explore the field a bit and get a feel for the technical problems, Guha says.

Tedrake says theres rampant industry interest in engineers skilled in manipulation, and that demand helped motivate him to launch the course. Manipulation is just kind of exploding in the field, Tedrake says, adding that recently, it's less of a niche area, everybody's got an eye on making robots do things with their hands. Right now, the big companies are investing.

They arent the only ones invested in the future for robots. Because there was so much student interest in the course, Tedrake decided to open Robotic Manipulation enrollment up to both undergraduate and graduate students.

For PhD student Daniel Yang, who took the course when it was first offered last fall, his interest in robotic manipulation increased while working in industry and seeing the limited environments in which robots currently operate. As part of the MIT/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) Joint Program, Yang collaborates with oceanographers, helping to build autonomous robotic systems capable of diving into the water to collect scientific data.

Broadly, I'm interested in getting robots out in the real world, Yang says.

For Yangs course final project, he was inspired to explore the inner workings of a throwing robot like Googles TossingBot. Collaborating with a partner to build their own ball-throwing robot in a simulator, they were able to clearly document effects that threw the robot off its tossing game, because the course simulator allowed them to freeze and reexamine every interaction while troubleshooting. For one example, they realized that the accuracy of their robots throwing arm was limited because the exact physics of how the ball interacted with the robots gripper were still unknown.

You may think picking something up with your fingers is quite simple, Yang says. But when you try to translate that into simulation, theres just so much added complexity.

Suh says that Guhas final project was among the most ambitious. Guha created an entire simulated manipulator system that pieces together a puzzle using a camera system that detects the correct image placement and orientation for each puzzle piece.

Some other projects kind of focused on one aspect of the manipulation pipeline, like grasping or perception, Guha says. And they really went in deep into that. And I wanted to explore all of the different components that are required to make a fully functioning system.

Tedrake says that whether students decide to focus on one aspect of the manipulation pipeline or tackle an entire system, solving problems at any level equates to a great success in this fast-growing field thats hungry for solutions.

Even if it's an algorithm that I know well, but I see what they struggled with, or how they made work, it sharpens my understanding of the algorithm, Tedrake says.

Tedrake takes many of the solutions found in his class directly into the lab, pushing forward his own research and gaining new research ideas each week. And sometimes he brings the students with him. Thats what happened with von Wrangel, whose enthusiasm for the course led Tedrake to recruit him to help refine algorithms for Tedrakes Robot Locomotion Group.

Yang and Suh agree with Tedrake that the future of robotic manipulation is coming fast and the Robotic Manipulation course will help train engineers to steady the field as it advances.

I think the last few years, there's been so many advances in all these different fields, but there hasn't been anything that ties them together into one specific problem space, Yang says.

Suh thinks people will start seeing more advancements in everyday life, and as that happens the Robotic Manipulation course will be there as a resource. His vision of the future sees robots everywhere.

It's going to be sort of manipulation in the wild, where we'll have robots go inside arbitrary places, like people's homes or kitchens, and carry out very delicate manipulation tasks that we would usually expect humans to do, Suh says.

For von Wrangel, the future of robotic manipulation will help us go well beyond the seeming luxury of self-driving cars and robot task-rabbits. I'm very much into space exploration and humans becoming multi-climate and multiplanetary species, von Wrangel says. And I believe that robots could help us build our future on Mars.

In its second year, Robotic Manipulation keeps inspiring bigger and bolder ideas from students, who ply TAs like Suh with sometimes esoteric questions in the middle of the night, always seeking guidance to better simulate systems. Tedrake says the ideas for final projects this year have already been more ambitious than last year. Each project, tweaking each algorithm little by little or imagining entire systems from a unique point of view, will serve a role in driving innovation in the field.

Some years, with student projects, it's more like, I want to try this paper and just make it a little bit better, Tedrake says. And this year, it's like, I want a robot thats going to tie my shoes.

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Manipulating the future | MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology - MIT News

Afterschool program to bring robotics, music production to Flint area youth – Flint Beat

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Flint, MIThis week, hundreds of YouthQuest students will have the chance to immerse themselves in all things science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics as part of the afterschool programs weeklong STEAMQuest event.

Each day, a different group of YouthQuest students will visit one of YouthQuests sites to participate in hands-on activities that promote problem solving, analytical thinking, learning by trial and error and creativity.

Hands-on activities will include robot races, music production, puzzle design, dance and more.

YouthQuest is a research-based afterschool program offering educational and enrichment activities that engage young minds. The program is administered by Flint & Genesee Education & Talent, a division of Flint & Genesee Group, with support from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and 21st Century Community Learning Centers.

For more information on YouthQuest, you can visit their website.

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Afterschool program to bring robotics, music production to Flint area youth - Flint Beat

MV Index Solutions (MVIS) Launches the BlueStar Global Robotics & 3D Printing Index – Business Wire

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FRANKFURT, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--MV Index Solutions GmbH (MVIS) today announced the launch of the BlueStar Global Robotics & 3D Printing Index (ticker: BRB3D).

The BlueStar Global Robotics & 3D Printing Index (ticker: BRB3D) tracks the performance of the global robotics, industrial automation and 3D printing segments. The index includes companies that generate at least 50% of their revenue from Robots or manufacturing automation equipment, computer aided design software (CAD), or additive manufacturing (3D printing) systems or related materials and software.

It is weighted by free float market capitalisation and is calculated in USD as a price index and a total return net index. The index is reviewed on a semi-annual basis. Detailed information about the index, including methodology details and index data, is available on the MV Index Solutions website.

Key Index FeaturesBlueStar Global Robotics & 3D Printing Index (ticker: BRB3D) Number of Components: 56Base Date: 31 December 2015Base Value: 100

Note to Editors:About MV Index Solutions - http://www.mvis-indices.com MV Index Solutions (MVIS) develops, monitors and licenses the MVIS Indices and BlueStar Indexes, a selection of focused, investable and diversified benchmark indices. The indices are especially designed to underlie financial products. MVIS Indices cover several asset classes, including equity, fixed income markets and digital assets and are licensed to serve as underlying indices for financial products. Approximately USD 34.09 billion in assets under management (as of 12 April 2022) are currently invested in financial products based on MVIS/BlueStar Indices. MVIS is a VanEck company.

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MV Index Solutions (MVIS) Launches the BlueStar Global Robotics & 3D Printing Index - Business Wire

Sutton FIRST robotics team competes at WPI; earns two awards – Millbury-Sutton Chronicle

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Jan Gottesman, The Clinton Item| The Millbury-Sutton Chronicle

WORCESTER -- The Sutton FIRST Robotics team8544, the Reinforcements, competed in the district event at WPI from April 8 to 10.

The alliance made it to the semifinals, before losing to the eventual meet winners.

The Sutton squad, which includes Sutton middle and high schoolers, as well as some Auburn students, began in 2021 during the pandemic, when the competition was all virtual. So, as a first-year in-person team, they were honored at WPI with two awards: one for being the highest rookie finisher; as well as the Rookie All Star award.

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The Reinforcements won the Rookie Inspiration Award at its prior competitionat Shrewsbury High School March 25 to 27.

FIRST Robotics was started by entrepreneur Dean Kamen in 1992 to promote STEM in schools. Clinton's Gael Force was one of the original teams and won the first year's competition, earning an invitation to the White House.

Each year, FIRST invents a new competition for the robots. This year, it is calledRapid React. The games had robots pick up and shoot large balls into the hoops in the middle of the field, then hang and climb bars located at the corners of the field.

The Reinforcements will be heading to Springfield for the New England Championships this weekend.

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Sutton FIRST robotics team competes at WPI; earns two awards - Millbury-Sutton Chronicle

Robotics hiring levels in the power industry rose in March 2022 – Power Technology

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The proportion of power industry operations and technologies companies hiring for robotics related positions rose in March 2022 compared with the equivalent month last year, with 19.3% of the companies included in our analysis recruiting for at least one such position.

This latest figure was higher than the 14.6% of companies that were hiring for robotics-related jobs a year ago and an increase compared to the figure of 17.3% in February 2022.

When it came to the rate of all job openings that were linked to robotics, related job postings kept steady in March 2022, with 0.8% of newly posted job advertisements being linked to the topic.

This latest figure was a decrease compared to the 1.3% of newly advertised jobs that were linked to robotics in the equivalent month a year ago.

Robotics is one of the topics that GlobalData, from which our data for this article is taken, has identified as being a key disruptive force facing companies in the coming years. Companies that excel and invest in these areas now are thought to be better prepared for the future business landscape and better equipped to survive unforeseen challenges.

Our analysis of the data shows that power industry operations and technologies companies are currently hiring for robotics jobs at a rate higher than the average for all companies within GlobalData's job analytics database. The average among all companies stood at 0.5% in March 2022.

GlobalData's job analytics database tracks the daily hiring patterns of thousands of companies across the world, drawing in jobs as they're posted and tagging them with additional layers of data on everything from the seniority of each position to whether a job is linked to wider industry trends.

You can keep track of the latest data from this database as it emerges by visiting our live dashboard here.

Fabric Expansion Joints, Metal Expansion Joints and Elastomer Expansion Joints

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Robotics hiring levels in the power industry rose in March 2022 - Power Technology

First Licensed Metaverse Casino: BetuVerse Innovation in Web3 – Yahoo Finance

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Bali, Indonesia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 12, 2022) - BetUVerse introduces fully licensed metaverse resort, casino and entertainment complex.

As expansion of the Metaverse continues and the adoption of crypto explodes worldwide, many people's favorite pastimes are finding their way into the digital world. One of the most recent innovations in the space has been the introduction of cryptocurrency gambling.

BetUVerse

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One project that grew major traction was EarnU. This project allowed users to earn through predicting correct results on both sports and esports. From launch, this platform gained over 8000 users in just one week. Earnings were paid out in the project's own token, BetU, which players could then transfer or cash out into fiat.

The next project they started working on is the BetU platform, which takes the basics of EarnU, but allows players to actually bet their tokens on games in true gambling style, with real stakes. This platform is still in development and is due to be released in May.

Due to the already major success, as well as the brilliant foundations of the ideas and platforms thus far, the team has now had the go ahead for potentially one of the biggest projects to grace the Metaverse and the future of the digital world. Currently in development is the first ever, fully licensed metaverse resort, casino and entertainment complex.

Players will be able to enter the resort, known as the BetU Verse, using a unique NFT avatar and participate in a number of different games and activities across the casino floor. These will include things such as getting drinks at the bar, socializing, playing blackjack or trying their luck on the slot machines. All of these can be done within the BetU Verse ecosystem using the BetU token.

Although players can enter and participate regardless of NFT ownership, owning an avatar supplies the player with a host of other benefits, one of the main ones being able to own their own condominium, as well as decorate, build and rent it out, with all assets as further individual NFTs.

Story continues

There's a lot more information and developments to come so stay tuned for further updates.

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Media Contact:

Name: Marius AucampEmail: hello@betu.io

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First Licensed Metaverse Casino: BetuVerse Innovation in Web3 - Yahoo Finance

Nanotechnology Market Scope and overview, To Develop with Increased Global Emphasis on Industrialization 2028 | Nortech Systems, Inc., Tecomet, Inc.,…

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The Nanotechnology Market is valued at USD 1409.3 Million in 2020 and is expected to reach USD 2963.1 Million by 2027 with a CAGR of 11.2% over the forecast period. Emerging use and applications of Nanotechnology and significant R&D investments in this field are the major factors driving the growth of the Global Nanotechnology Market.

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Nortech Systems, Inc.

Tecomet, Inc.

Celestica Inc.

Heraeus Holding

Flextronics International Ltd.

Integer Holdings Corporation

Plexus Corp.

West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc.

Sanmina Corporation

others.

Nanoscience and nanotechnology are the analysis of nanoparticles and devices, which achieve their application throughout all the science fields like chemical, mechanics, bio-medical, and material science, amongst others. Nanoparticles are the usually described as a particle of matter between 1 and 100 nanometers (nm) in diameter. Nanotechnology is the designing of convoluted structures from an atomic or molecular stage to high-level performance and high excellent products at a low cost. This technology brings a considerable impact and is believed to be a revolutionary and advantageous technology. Nanotechnology incorporates fields of science as distinct as molecular nanotechnology, micro-fabrication, organic chemistry, surface science, semiconductor physics, molecular biology, energy storage, and molecular engineering. This technology possesses several advantages in various fields such as manufacturing, energy and electronic, medical benefits, and many others.

Nanotechnology provides a revolutionary throughout a variety of industrial domains, involving transportation, energy, communication, medicine, materials & manufacturing, consumer products, agriculture, and households. Health hazards including nano pollutants, social and economy-associated risks like privacy invasion, nanotech weapons can be considered as risks in nanotechnology. The theories that seeded nanotechnology were first debated in 1959 by legendary physicist Richard Feynman in his talk Theres Plenty of Room at the Bottom, where he portrayed the probability of synthesis via direct falsification of atoms.

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By Type

Nano Devices

Nanomanipulators

Nanomechanical Test Instruments

Nanoscale Infrared Spectrometers

Others

Nanosensors

Optical Nanosensor

Biological Nanosensor

Chemical Nanosensor

Physical Nanosensor

Others

By Applications:

Electronics

Chemical Manufacturing

Energy

Aerospace & Defense

Healthcare

Others

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On April 13th, 2021- KAIST researchers have developed a novel nanofiber production technique called centrifugal multispinning that will open the door for the safe and cost-effective mass production of high-performance polymer nanofibers. This new technique, which has shown up to a 300 times higher nanofiber production rate per hour than that of the conventional electrospinning method, has many potential applications including the development of face mask filters for coronavirus protection. Nanofibers make good face mask filters because their mechanical interactions with aerosol particles give them a greater ability to capture more than 90% of harmful particles such as fine dust and virus-containing droplets.

Emerging use and application of nanotechnology in the various sectors is one of the major factors driving the growth of nanotechnology market. Increasing investment in this field is also supplementing the market growth. For instance; the U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative projected that about 20,000 researchers were operating in the field of nanotechnology. In the UK, the Institute of Occupational Medicine expected that roughly 2,000 people were employed in new universities and nanotechnology companies where they may be potentially subjected to nanoparticles. In addition, various organizations are investing in nanotechnology market across the globe which is eventually enhancing the growth of the market for nanotechnology. For example; in 2018, Osaka University-led researchers, in a collaborative research project with The University of Tokyo, Kyoto University, and Waseda University, created incorporated gene logic chips called gene nanochips. These self-contained nanochips can switch genes on and off within a single chip, avoiding unintended crosstalk by using integrated components on the nanochips. Due to the various beneficial application and properties of miniaturization, nanotechnology is gaining attention of many organizations throughout the world.

Chapter 1, About Executive Summary to describe Definition, Specifications and Classification of Global Nanotechnology market, Applications, Market Segment by Types

Chapter 2, objective of the study.

Chapter 3, to display Research methodology and techniques.

Chapter 4 and 5, to show the Nanotechnology Market Analysis, segmentation analysis, characteristics;

Chapter 6 and 7, to show Five forces (bargaining Power of buyers/suppliers), Threats to new entrants and market condition;

Chapter 8 and 9, to show analysis by regional segmentation[North America (Covered in Chapter 6 and 13), United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe (Covered in Chapter 7 and 13), Germany, UK, France, Italy, Spain, Russia, Others, Asia-Pacific (Covered in Chapter 8 and 13), China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, India, Southeast Asia, Others, Middle East and Africa (Covered in Chapter 9 and 13), Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa, Others, South America (Covered in Chapter 10 and 13), Brazil, Argentina, Columbia, Chile & Others ], comparison, leading countries and opportunities; Regional Marketing Type Analysis, Supply Chain Analysis

Chapter 10, to identify major decision framework accumulated through Industry experts and strategic decision makers.

Chapter 11 and 12, Global Nanotechnology Market Trend Analysis, Drivers, Challenges by consumer behavior, Marketing Channels

Chapter 13 and 14, about vendor landscape (classification and Market Ranking)

Chapter 15, deals with Global Nanotechnology Market sales channel, distributors, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data source.

Thanks for reading this article; you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia or Oceania [Australia and New Zealand].

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Nanotechnology Market Scope and overview, To Develop with Increased Global Emphasis on Industrialization 2028 | Nortech Systems, Inc., Tecomet, Inc.,...