This story was edited at 9:45 a.m., Jan. 24 to address several typos and 11:54 a.m. to remove a quote that subjects affected by the story said was misstated.

KENDALL COUNTY, IL Konnichiwa, hajimemashite. In Japanese, this phrase means 'hello, nice to meet you,' and it's one the members of the 'Pheonix Cubitects' local youth robotics team may want to remember. They have all been invited to participate in an international youth robotics competition, the 2020 FIRST Lego League International Invite in Nagoya, Japan, this May. The invite is spread over three days from May 7 - 10 and involves both competitive and friendly events.

"It's a really great way for the kids to see the diversity, to see the different ways that other children are coming up with solutions in the robotics world," Laurel Coonradt, the mother of one of the older team members, 8th-grader Jensen Coonradt, said.

The team's invitation came as a result of their winning second place at the FIRST Illinois Robotics Lego League Illinois State Championship, and a Global Innovation Award to boot. That competition too place on Saturday, Jan. 18 at Elgin Community College and involved 54 teams from around the state. Their high score in all contest areas qualified them to participate in an international competition of the same type, Coonradt said.

"[They received the invite] yesterday," Coonradt said. "The second place finisher for students was offered an international invite, and Japan was what our team was offered."

Nagoya is one of Japan's primary industrial cities and a global center for robotics innovations, so it's fitting that a global youth robotics event would be held there. Coonradt said 50 countries would send representatives.

"There will be more than 120 teams from a total of 50 countries," she said. "Japan, China, Korea, Australia, Brazil, Spain, Netherlands... there's a two page list."

Some larger countries, like the U.S., were sending more than one team to the competition. The Pheonix Cubitects would be the only team there from Illinois.

Coonradt said these grade-school inventors were eager to represent their communities on the world stage.

But there's a catch.

Even though the team was invited to Japan, FIRST officials made it clear that the team would have to pay their own way to Japan. Coonradt said they'd need at least $6,000 to pay for the airfare, hotels, food sundries involved in with the three-day trip, never mind the actual contest registration fees. The team has a 401c non-profit set up for these kinds of situations, but are also asking team members' friends, families and community members to pitch in. To save costs, Coonradt said some parents could stay home from the trip if necessary.

"Right now, we have three parents who have signed on... and hopefully we'll be able to do more, but if not, one or two parents could feasibly take everybody," Coonradt said.

On previous occasions where members of the team have traveled internationally for robotics events in China and Qatar, Coonradt said they have received financial help from public officials in those team members' communities. She said she hoped more public officials would be willing to help out this time as well.

Coonradt also said that she and other parents are considering setting up a GoFundMe page to help pay for the trip. Until then, anyone wishing to donate to the team's travel fund can contact the team's adult leaders at Phoenixcubitects@gmail.com or by phone at 630-715-3011.

"It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity... when I look at the kids today and how much they've grown through taking robotics, " Coonradt said, "all of this started as an after-school program at [Oswego School] District 308."

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Local Kids Robotics Team Invited To Competition In Japan - Oswego, IL Patch

Poway High Schools community robotics team, Mechanical Advantage Team 16884 earned several awards at two competitions in December.

The team competed at the Tucson, Arizona FIRST Tech Challenge on Dec. 7 and the Central Phoenix Qualifying Tournament on Dec. 21. The win in Tucson has qualified the team to compete in the Arizona State Championship in Flagstaff in February. This is the teams first year competing in the FIRST Tech Challenge.

Mechanical Advantage is a community-based robotics team, supported by Poway High School with members from five different area schools. It is coached by Thomas Bosworth.

The team earned a first-place win with alliance partner The ROBO Warriors 15652 at the Tucson event, as well as earning the Control Award for programming. In Phoenix, the team took home the first-place Design Award and the second-place Connect Award, despite facing and overcoming a major electrical failure, according to a press release.

While the team has worked hard to produce a competitive robot, the members also spend substantial time mentoring other younger FIRST robotics teams and volunteering within their community, according to officials.

The team collaborates with Poway High Schools FIRST Robotics competition team, Team Spyder 1622, on various community outreaches. These include hosting FIRST Lego League tournaments, VEX competitions, participating in local food drives to support food relief efforts for hurricane victims and helping to host the inaugural FIRST Tech Challenge robotics scrimmage in South America, which was held in Asuncion, Paraguay.

For this team, FIRST robotics is more than just robots, said Bosworth. The program gives the team a chance to work with others who share a passion for STEM and improving their community. Mechanical Advantage looks forward to competing in the San Diego league for the remainder of the season and will continue to look for opportunities to help their community both at home and abroad.

The team is captained by Poway High freshman Rohan Bosworth, Poway High sophomore Madalyn Nguyen and Westview High sophomore PJ Wetherell. Other team members include Reily Hopkins (sophomore, Westview High School); Manjusri Gobiraj, Kaila Rosing and Christina Schierbeck (freshmen, Scripps Ranch High School); Rohin Sood (seventh grade, Oak Valley Middle School); and Arya Bosworth (sixth grade, Black Mountain Middle School Academy).

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Poway High community robotics team brings home wins in Arizona - The San Diego Union-Tribune

Farming is one of the oldest professions, but today those amber waves of grain (and soy) are a test bed for sophisticated robotic solutions to problems farmers have had for millennia. Learn about the cutting edge (sometimes literally) of agricultural robots at TC Sessions: Robotics+AI on March 3 with the founders of Traptic, Pyka and FarmWise.

Traptic, and its co-founder and CEO Lewis Anderson, you may remember from Disrupt SF 2019, where it was a finalist in the Startup Battlefield. The company has developed a robotic berry picker that identifies ripe strawberries and plucks them off the plants with a gentle grip. It could be the beginning of a new automated era for the fruit industry, which is decades behind grains and other crops when it comes to machine-based harvesting.

FarmWise has a job thats equally delicate yet involves rough treatment of the plants weeding. Its towering machine trundles along rows of crops, using computer vision to locate and remove invasive plants, working 24/7, 365 days a year. CEO Sebastian Boyer will speak to the difficulty of this task and how he plans to evolve the machines to become doctors for crops, monitoring health and spontaneously removing pests like aphids.

Pykas robot is considerably less earthbound than those: an autonomous, all-electric crop-spraying aircraft with wings! This is a much different challenge from the more stable farming and spraying drones like those of DroneSeed and SkyX, but the choice gives the craft more power and range, hugely important for todays vast fields. Co-founder Michael Norcia can speak to that scale and his companys methods of meeting it.

These three companies and founders are at the very frontier of whats possible at the intersection of agriculture and technology, so expect a fruitful conversation.

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Students, grab your super-discounted $50 tickets right here. You might just meet your future employer/internship opportunity at this event.

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Unearth the future of agriculture at TC Sessions: Robotics+AI with the CEOs of Traptic, FarmWise and Pyka - TechCrunch

Imagine being able to program a robot to perform complex tasks by itself, running simply on code.

Thats exactly what a team of students from Anaconda and Butte high schools imagined, leading to their winning performance at the state robotics competition.

Last week, some of Montanas best and brightest students converged on Montana State University grounds to put their brains and robots to the test.

After months of intense planning, programming and construction, Robolution, made up of students from Butte High School and Anaconda High School, walked away with the top trophy.

The For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology Organization (FIRST) Tech Challenge is a global robotics competition.

Students in seventh through 12th grade are challenged to design, build, program and operate a robot to compete in head-to-head challenges with competitor's robots doing specific tasks.

The competition is designed to help students realize the value of hard work, innovation and sharing ideas.

Robolutions win last Friday means earned it the sole Montana spot at the global FIRST Tech Challenge in Houston this April.

I have to give all the credit to the kids who put in the hard work. Im just really proud of them, said team coach Carlton Nelson, who was sporting a green Mohawk during Wednesdays robotics practice at Anaconda High, where he teaches science. They've spent many, many hours of researching and looking, designing, rebuilding and testing. And they really got that whole engineering process down.

Nelson established Robolution two years ago. He said last Friday was the teams second appearance at the FIRST Tech Challenge state competition and that he did not expect the team to win.

It was very shocking. Just a surreal experience, Nelson said. We just didnt know what we were doing last year. The students built a robot that could do the task but it wasnt fast enough. It looked like a kit robot rather than something ... they constructed themselves.

Nelson said Robolution finished in 36th place at last years state competition. But with the help of a grant, the team still traveled to Houston to watch the competition.

We went and watched and I think that really inspired the kids," Nelson said.

Each season, the robots are challenged with a different task. This year, the teams had to build robots to play a sophisticated field game. The game is played on a 12-foot square field with approximately one-foot high walls. The challenge includes a 30-second autonomous period, a two-minute driver-controlled period and end game scoring. During the autonomous period, robots operate using only pre-programmed instructions developed by team coders.

Nelson said that last year, other coaches told him, "Don't worry, you're going to grow fast. The first year is your year to figure out what this is all about.

In Montana, teams can advance from a qualifying tournament to the state competition not only by earning points on the robot playing field, but also by competing in judged awards for their robot design, engineering notebooks, programming and outreach efforts off the field programming.

Nelson said Robolution went to the two qualifying tournaments offered in Montana. The first one was held in Butte, and we qualified for state then and got the design award for best design. Then we went to the second qualifier in Helena to practice, and we were actually on the winning alliance at that time and we got the design award there, too, he explained.

When Robolution traveled to the state contest, Nelson said he privately expected it would only win a design award, or a control award.

There are two really, really competitive and good teams. One is the Redneck Robotics from Sun River and the other one called Fusion from Helena. Both teams have gone on to worlds. Fusion, for example, goes to worlds almost every year, Nelson explained. So to be competitive as a second-year team was gonna be a hard challenge.

At the end of the state competition, organizers handed out awards to teams that excelled in design, teamwork, innovation and other accomplishments, as demonstrated in a teams engineering notebook and interview with judges.

I thought for sure we were going to win one of those and go home and be happy because we did good, Nelson said.

When all but the highest award the Inspire Award had been announced, Robolution members started to worry.

I thought we were going to go home without any kind of trophy or any kind of medal. I was really bummed, Nelson said.

He said the team assumed the highest award would either go to Redneck Robotics or Fusion. That team would then get to go on to the world event.

But then the announcer leaned into the microphone and said Robolution had captured the Inspire award.

The team was ecstatic; some members began crying, while others were shocked.

Nelson recalled, It was nuts! The kids were jumping and crying. Oh, it was a pretty neat experience. I've never been part of anything like that. It was really surreal. That whole weekend I would wake up thinking that this cant be real. Did we really do this? The kids told me they thought that, too.

He said even though it was the teams goal to win the Inspire Award and go to the world championship, that dream just seemed so far out of reach.

I just didn't really didn't think we had the potential to win the top team, said Nelson. But I was wrong, and thats why Im wearing this green hair.

Two months ago, Nelson told his team members they should start preparing for a new robotics competition hosted at Montana Tech, which overlapped with the FIRST Tech Challenge World Championship.

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I told them that the schedule conflict shouldn't be a problem because we're not going to go to worlds, Nelson said.

So Robolution members made a bet with their coach.

They said, OK, if we go to worlds, youve got to get a Mohawk and turn it green, Nelson said. I didnt think we would be sitting in this position two months ago.

Nelson said he credits the team members' attitude and willingness to support each other for their success.

I think the biggest thing is that theyre all operating together as a team. They really came together cohesively as a team this year, and they really honed in on their strengths. So we've got kids that are really strong at building, and we've got kids that are really strong at programming, said Nelson. For them to find out their own niches and strengths in the team was just amazing to watch.

On Wednesday evening, Robolutions eight members two from Butte High School and the rest from Anaconda gathered in a classroom in Anaconda to prepare for the world competition.

In one corner of the room, Aaliyah Andersch was making design improvements to the teams remote controls and robot controlling info.

So for the past competitions, Ive just been carrying around the robots in a foam. So having this design will help us look more professional at worlds, said the Butte High School junior. Andersch joined Robolution last year and initially helped with the programming until she realized she was a much better designer.

I think having the skills to imagine things in your head and how they would work are some of the most important things to have as a designer, said Andersch.

Sitting next to Andersch, Kaden Dean stared at his laptop intently with his headphones on. He was concentrating on coding with Android Studio.

Dean is also a Butte High junior and a Robolution veteran. He started learning how to code at a summer program held at Montana Tech through Upward Bound, where hes learned Java, Scratch, Eclipse and Block in Java among other programming.

Dean joined Robolution when he found out that Upward Bound would support and fund a robotics team for Butte and Anaconda students.

I just stuck with it and its something extracurricular, which is better than doing nothing, Dean explained. My favorite part of working in this team is the fact that we can all work through our differences. Well have our arguments but we can still come back together and work things out, still have fun and not be super serious and hardcore all the time. Were just a group of friends who are just doing what we like.

At the other end of the room was the table of builders. Dean said hes dependent on them because he finds it difficult to program without seeing a visual build of the project.

Sitting with the builders was Caleb Thompson, a senior at Anaconda High School, who is the team captain and a programmer.

At state, it was unfortunate that we didnt get to complete all the matches because of a static problem, Thompson explained as he drew a blueprint on a sheet of graphing paper. The wheels can create static electricity when the robot is rolling on the ground, and that could overload the system. Its like an energy shock, and when that happens you cant control the robot.

Across the table from Thompson, William Barrington explained how theyre tinkering with the robots chassis and re-positioning the motors.

Caleb, last year, was coding the robot the night before the competition. So for him to take on the coding a little more in depth this year and with more background was really good for the team because he knows what hes doing, said Barrington, also a senior at Anaconda. For me, between programming or building, it was a no-brainer. Im pretty good at thinking in 3-D so I can look at something and say that thing is going to run into that.

Another builder at the table is Jaiden Connors, a sophomore at Anaconda High. He said his favorite part of being a builder is problem-solving and figuring out how to make things work.

This year, weve had a lot more teamwork and worked better together. And I think we knew more about how everything works, Connors said. He explained that while the teams are judged on their robots performance and completion of tasks, other qualities like sportsmanship, ability to follow rules, and team outreach all get factored into which team becomes the overall winner.

Team outreach is typically done by the scouts. Andrew Werner, a sophomore at Anaconda High and the newest member of Robolution, is one of them.

I help scout, so I go around and see what other teams are capable of and I try to see if we can maybe form an alliance with them later on, explained Werner.

Connors said scouts like Werner play an essential role in the team. A scout has to go talk with other teams and see how they can work well with our team. And if you choose your alliances right, you have a better chance of making it to the finals round, he said.

It brings all of the teams together and forces individual teams to think outside the box, he concluded.

As the team prepares for the world championship in April, some members are having mixed feelings, especially the seniors.

It feels really good to end my high school career like this, but Im also dreading the moment when its done, said Thompson. Like, I was really sad going into state because I thought we wouldnt get to come here any more and work on the robot. But winning state gives us a couple more months.

Barrington, the only other senior on the team, said winning a spot at the world championship means a lot for Anaconda. Its like our first state championship for literally anything in a while I think its our first state championship since three years ago, which was in wrestling, I think.

Next up is fundraising. Robolution will have to come up with funds to pay for their trip to the world contest in Houston.

Were going to have to rely a lot on local businesses and the community, said Thompson.

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Butte-Anaconda robotics team beats Montana, takes on the world - Montana Standard

Soft Robotics, a company that develops enterprise level soft robotic grippers for a variety of materials handling and pick and place applications, is on a roll. After securing a high level strategic partnership in 2019, the company has announced an oversubscribed Series B worth $23M.

Back in December, Soft Robotics rolled out an innovative adaptable gripper system designed especially to work with FANUC robots via a new controller. The combined product debuted at IREX in Tokyo in December. Unlike robotic end effectors made of rigid materials that only flex via built-in joints, soft end effectors conform to the objects they pick up, allowing for a wider variety of applications with a single unit.

"Variability is the kryptonite of the robotics industry," says Carl Vause, CEO of Soft Robotics. "By offering a system that is able to grasp and manipulate items that vary in size, shape, and weight, we are able to solve the problem of high variability in both products and processes."

When I ran into Vause at a robotics conference a couple years back, he impressed me with a story of his end effectors picking up Peeps, the soft candy birds, directly off the line without deforming them, something unthinkable with rigid end effectors.

Read also:Robot builds an Ikea chair. Everyone goes nuts.

As I wrote in 2018 following Soft Robotics' Series A, building a better gripper is now akin to the age-old quest to build a better mousetrap. As use cases for robots proliferate and the demand for automation explodes thanks to fast fulfillment and grocery delivery, one of the big challenges is confronting variability in packaging. Soft Robotics' proprietary grasping technology, machine vision, and software solutions address these issues for large and meaningful industries such as food and beverage, consumer goods and cosmetics manufacturing, e-commerce supply chains, and more.

Additional use cases include handling item returns. According to Soft Robotics, UPS alone recently processed nearly two million returns on a single day. According to some sources, holiday returns could add up to as much as $90 to $95 billion worth of merchandise this year.

"Creating or accelerating a direct-to-customer channel is a strong cross-sector trend that has moved beyond markets such as food packaging and consumer goods manufacturing and more," says Remy Glaisner, Research Director WW Robotics at IDC. "At the order management level, it also means establishing highly dynamic 'reverse supply chains.' However, the general labor scarcity for use-cases related to order management is a critical roadblock. In that context, the role of nimble gripper solutions adaptable to both the inbound and outbound workflows become of strategic importance."

The gripper problem is being solved by companies like Soft Robotics and labs specializing in soft systems at research institutions likeCarnegie Mellon UniversityandUC Berkeley.

The venture arms of robotics giants ABB and Yamaha Motor Co., invested in Soft Robotics' last round. Calibrate Ventures and Material Impact participated in the latest round, along with additional existing investors Honeywell, Hyperplane, Scale, Tekfen Ventures, and Yamaha.

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Soft robotic hands may soon have a firm grip on the industry - ZDNet

Robot valet service helps regional French airport reduce carbon footprint, reduce hassle of airport parking.

By RBR Staff | January 22, 2020

LYON, France Following a successful one-year trial involving 500 parking spaces at the Lyon Airport, Stanley Robotics and VINCI Airports announced this week they agreed to expand the program to more than 2,000 spaces by summer 2020.

The innovative outdoor car park is entirely managed by robots, in which seven autonomous robots work simultaneously to deliver cars to the parking lot from 28 cabins that are available for customers to drop off or pick up their vehicles. The companies said that the project, initially started in 2017, ultimately aims to offer more than 6,000 parking spaces.

The Stanley Robotics robotic car valet. Image: ESoudan via Stanley Robotics

The robot valet service frees up time for passengers looking for free spaces or trying to locate their vehicle in a traditional parking lot or garage. After booking a space through the Lyon Airport website, passengers can drop off their vehicle in one of the dedicated cabins, and travel to the airport using a shuttle bus. The robot then takes care of the car, parking it within the secure car park area. When a passenger returns, they can pick up their vehicle in one of the cabins.

Clement Boussard, Stanley Robotics

This agreement represents a major development stage for our benchmark project on the Lyon Airport site, and for our service, said Clement Boussard, CEO of Stanley Robotics. The opening of 2,000 spaces illustrates how far we have come in terms of maturity, with a product that is increasingly professional. It represents a significant leap forward in the history of our young company, and boosts are confidence in our plan to conquer the airport market and get other projects up and running right now.

The robotic valet service allows cars to be parked more closely than a traditional parking. Image: ESoudan, courtesy of Stanley Robotics

The project aligns with the airport companys sustainable development approach, the company said. The robot valet service provided by Stanley Robotics and developed in Lyon meets the strategic objectives of Lyon Airport, namely, to enhance customer experience and reduce the environmental impact of the airports activities, said Tanguy Bertolus, CEO of Lyon Airport. The companies said the project:

The companies released the following statistics regarding usage of the 500 spaces during the trial period:

The Lyon Airport served 11.7 million passengers in 2019, offering 130 direct destinations and 52 new routes in the last three years. It is managed by VINCI Airports, the leading private airport operator in the world, managing 46 airports in France, Portugal, the U.K., Sweden, the U.S., and other countries. Stanley Robotics is a venture-backed company that offers a smart and high-density car storage solution for airports and other car logistics industries. The full-stack solution comprises of fully autonomous robots and intelligent storage management software.

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Stanley Robotics, Lyon Airport to expand robotic parking service - Robotics Business Review

A diagram from Amazons patent application shows a customer issuing a command to open up one of the doors on a storage compartment vehicle. (Amazon Illustration via USPTO)

Amazon is already testing robots that deliver packages, but a newly issued patent covers a far more ambitious scheme, involving storage compartment vehicles that can roam the sidewalks to make multiple deliveries along their routes.

As described in the patent application published today, Amazons proposed SCVs could pick up items for return as well.

If the plan is fully implemented, it could address the last mile or final 50 feet challenge for delivery systems by having customers come out to the sidewalk, tap the required security code on their smartphones, and open up the right doors to grab the items theyve ordered.

Theres no guarantee that well see treaded SCVs roaming the street anytime soon. Amazon says its patent applications explore the full possibilities of new technologies but those inventions dont always get turned into new products and services as described in the applications. Sometimes the inventions never see the light of day. (Just ask Jeff Bezos about the airbag-cushioned smartphone he invented.)

That being said, the storage compartment vehicle isnt all that much of a stretch beyond the Amazon Scout delivery robots which are being tested north of Seattle in Snohomish County, and in other climes as well.

The device itself, as shown in the patent applications drawings, is reminiscent of the Dalek cyborgs from the Doctor Who TV series. But instead of bristling with weapons, these robots bristle with boxes.

Delivery agents could fill up the SCVs with items and set them loose from a loading area to make their dropoffs. The robots could position themselves at predetermined locations for pickups, or head out to the neighborhoods where the customers live. Whether the customers go to the robot, or the robot goes to the customer, doors would be opened and closed using a security code that registers with the SCVs cloud-based control system.

Much is made in the patent application which was filed two and a half years ago by Seattle-area inventors Wicksell Metellus, Kristopher William Bell, Julius Chen, Wesley Scott Lauka and Ryan Scott Russell about the tanklike tracks that enable the SCV to move along a wide range of slopes and rough terrain.

Each compartment could contain a protective air bladder that can be inflated to cushion the package within. Cameras, microphones, GPS devices, biometric scanners and other gizmos could be installed onto the robots to monitor their surroundings, provide navigational data, make sure the deliveries get to the right customers and make sure the robots dont get messed with.

Theres even a model thats outfitted with floats for marine delivery applications, or with propellers for aerial deliveries.

Amazon Robotics is growing by leaps and strides but filling the sidewalks, waterways and flight paths with robots on regular routes would represent a whole new level of automation. Lets just hope theres an off switch to flip in case those delivery Daleks start shouting Exterminate! Exterminate!

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Amazon wins patent for robots that drop off bunches of items on delivery routes - GeekWire

The First Robotics Club at Lynn Camp High School is ready to make a run. The group recently received the goals their new bot needs to achieve in competition. They will have six weeks to design and build a robot capable of climbing, accurately turning a table, and picking up and shooting a ball.

Natalie Hosman-Collopy, a senior in the club since freshman year, described the competition simply as working together to solve a goal. The production begins with deigning 3-D models and digital sketches before beginning construction. Parts for the robot are sourced from different places and 3-D printed in the engineering department. Although she plans to major in education, Natalie hopes to mentor future club members.

Lynn Camp is set to compete in March in Memphis. The competition will feature about 60 schools and a strong enough finish could send them to the world competition. Junior Rodney Alcorn is one club member whos already experienced the worlds stage. He described robotics as the best thing about high school to me, although he also has a fondness for football.

First Robotics is poised to carry on a strong team in the future with students like freshman Adrianna Hamilton. She acts as an understudy to one of the seniors and enjoys learning the ins and outs of programing. Like many she discovered the club through engineering class. Fellow freshman Bryson Riffe brings experience from the Lynn Camp Elementary Lego Robotics Team with him. Riffe wishes to enter into the engineering field in college and is helping develop a ball loading system for the robot.

Coach Hank Gevedon described the club as a sports team given the long hours they put in after school. Gevedon is in his first year as coach after being an assistant last year. Hes very proud of his club and of Lynn Camp itself. Gevedon gives his students plenty of credit and encouragement along the way. He placed Natalie in charge of conducting the interview for this article with a grade attached. She certainly received an A+.

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Lynn Camp First Robotics Club gears up for season The News Journal - The News Journal

by Laura Moretz, Contributing Editor Robotic Industries Association Posted 01/03/2020

In warehouses, hospitals, and factories, mobile robots are doing tasks that can tax workers with repetitive stress injuries or fatigue. AMRs (Autonomous Mobile Robots) carry heavy loads in factories, deliver meals, medicine, and laundry in hospitals, and select and pick products off warehouse shelves for shipments. In some cases, AMRs can fill empty jobs that lack applicants, and in others, they work alongside humans. Robot makers are continuously incorporating better mapping systems into AMRs to create routes through the workplace, creating better sensors to protect people who work in the same space with AMRs, and finding optimal methods for recharging AMRs. Leaders who are creating new robots reflect here about whats coming next.

New Hospitals and Hotels Plan on RobotsIn hospital environments, Aethons TUG carries meals, medicine, and linens. Peter Seiff, senior vice president for Aethon, says, When youre operating a hospital, its a miniature city in a lot of ways. The residentspatientshave a lot of needs. Aethon programs the TUGs to be personable and friendly when they meet people, using scripted phrases. The University of Pittsburg Medical Center uses 27 Aethon TUG robots. They work well around humans, as seen at this Halloween event.

Seiff hopes that architects and owners will plan for AMRs when they design new hospitals and hotels, creating designs that provide the best use of space for AMRs and humans. He says that as they employ robots, hospitals could eliminate laundry shoots and linen storage closets if AMRs like TUGs take away old linens and deliver fresh ones. In addition, thered be a gain in floor space.

The TUG rarely needs human back up, but if it does, Aethon has a patented Cloud Command Center launched in 2006 that guides TUGs remotely and also updates software for the companys 800 TUGs. Seiff says that the robots need remote assistance only 0.01% of the time.

Worker Shortage? AMRs Are Ready Jason Walker, the CEO and co-founder of Waypoint Robotics, believes that the need for AMRs is growing because employers cant find enough workers to hire. Walker says, Our value proposition is lets take the people youve already got who you know and trust and love, and lets give them better tools. Waypoints AMRs are ready to work soon after they arrive on a loading dock and dont need weeks of attention from engineers to get up to speed. They can drive through a factory once and make a map that will guide its future movements. Waypoints Vector, which has payloads of 300 pounds and 600 pounds, and MAV3K, which carries up to 3,000 pounds, both move materials efficiently. MAV3K can move pallets and large material loads, and its great for mobile manipulation with really big arms he says, but its not a forklift, and so it doesnt work alone.

The future for AMRs involves heterogenous fleets of AMRs, Walker says. Weve built our systems so that they are easy to integrate and are interoperable with all kinds of third-party external systems. He envisions AMRs from multiple manufacturers working together to complete jobs.

Walker says that he doesnt know of another company using a charging method similar to Waypoint. Through a partnership with Wibotics, Waypoint has adopted a wireless charging method called EnZone which uses radio frequency at multiple sites within a workplace. As long as you get the receiving antenna within about an inch of the transmitting antenna, it will charge at full power, and it will do it all day long.Waypoint is selling Enzone to other companies, he says. The reason we want to do that is to create an ecosystem and a standard in the robotics community where we all use one type of wireless charging system. Id rather create a bigger pie than hoard the piece Ive got.

Future AMRs Will Build on Current Success, But More SlowlyTom Galluzzo, the founder and chief technology officer of IAM Robotics, says that IAM focuses on helping companies to pick, pack, and ship longtail inventory in warehouses, that is, items stocked in small amounts. IAMs AMR, Swift, locates merchandise, uses Flash to read the SKUs, grasps the package, and moves it. It is controlled by the Swift Link server, which integrates with the existing warehouse management server.

IAM Robotics first client was Rochester Drug, a large cooperative of pharmacies that needed automation to fulfill orders at night to be delivered the next day. Galluzzo says IAM Robotics is working with everyone from fortune-five level retailers to two major health and beauty corporations that work internationally.

Galluzzo expects that as robots need to become more complex, there might be a slow down as far as implementing them. With the current technology, AMRs have the potential to do up to 80% of the thinking, he says. That frees up a person to do higher value critical thinking for operations.

Robots Perform Better with Fast, Accurate MapsKaarta, founded in 2015, does one thing and does it well: Create 3-D maps quickly in real-time. Kevin Dowling, CEO, says, Were essentially answering two questions for robots. One is, What is around me? Which is the map. And then, where am I? Which is its location. He says that customers use Kaarta software for AMRs in retail and factory environments. Were a thin part of the full stack but a very important part. In addition, the companys Contour software was used recently in the six-part National Geographic documentary series Buried Secrets of WWII.

Its other software, Stencil, is used for interiors. Examples of the results are here.

Some clients in the construction industry use a Kaarta device mounted to an AMR with legs to map difficult terrain. Data is uploaded to Kaartas cloud where it is processed. Kaarta can create a map for robots to use, or the software can be within the robot.

In addition to attaching a Kaarta system to an AMR, it can be attached to a handheld device and walked through a space to create a map. Dowling says, a large Wal-Mart takes about three hours to fully scale. There is some post-processing afterward, but the onsite time is reduced. The system can also be attached to a drone to create a map.

Remote Controls Will Keep Humans in ControlIn 2018, Fort Robotics, formerly part of Humanistic Robotics, separated its operations to focus on refining and marketing remote safety controls for AMRs.

Daria Duda, the director of product marketing at Fort, says the company designed the Wireless E-Stop and Safe Remote Control System to prevent dangerous AMR interactions with humans. The company sells the controls in construction, agriculture, and warehousing markets. Theres always going to be a need for a human to stay in control of automation or mobile robotic machine, she says. The remote control technology can be within existing remotes or it can be a separate control.

As to Forts vision for the future, she says: We want to keep things broad to gauge where the market is going and what industries are moving faster than others.

AMR Advances Mean Better Machine CollaborationMobile robots have developed the ability to lift, carry, pick, pack, sense obstacles, and stop to avoid collision. Increasingly, mobile robots from different manufacturers work collaboratively to complete tasks, and developers continue to build on existing skills. As AMRs become more able, doing most of their own thinking, humans will continue to supervise them. Developers will build on existing strengths and improve robot collaboration.

Originally published by RIA via http://www.robotics.org on 01/03/2020

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Mobile Robots Where Are... - Robotics Online

Back in October, I took a look at investing in the robotics sector, reviewed some of the biggest robotic stocks, and picked out five stocks worthy of close consideration for investors. It's now time to reappraise the five stocks: Deere (NYSE:DE), Zebra Technologies (NASDAQ:ZBRA), Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX), Germany's KION Group (OTC:KIGRY), and France's Dassault Systemes (OTC:DASTY), and also add two more stocks to the list -- Switzerland's ABB (NYSE:ABB) and PTC (NASDAQ:PTC).

Image source: Getty Images.

Deere's inclusion is down to its precision agriculture solutions, which are increasingly being adopted by customers of Deere's agricultural equipment machinery. The solutions include on-board computers, telematics, and web-enabled sensors, which help farmers use automated guidance technology to manage and guide equipment.

Those solutions will help drive sales in the long term, but in the near term Deere is having to deal with pressure due to farmers being cautious in spending because of the U.S.-China trade war and, arguably more importantly, the impact of African swine fever on demand for soybean meal.

KIGRY data by YCharts

That said, an easing of trade tensions would obviously help Deere, and in the long term U.S. farmers can export crops to markets other than China. However, if you are worried about African swine fever spreading into neighboring countries from China, Deere might be a stock to avoid in the near term.

Machine vision company Cognex has also had a difficult year, at least operationally, due to a slowdown in spending on automation solutions in the automotive and consumer electronics (notably smartphones) industries -- early adopters of automation and robotics, and consequently machine vision technology.

The long-term trend toward increasing penetration of automation and robotics in manufacturing is still in place and will be boosted by the increasing adoption of Internet of Things (IoT) technology --even if 2019 was a year of synchronized, but cyclical, weakness in the automotive and consumer electronics industries.

Zebra Technologies and its data capture and analysis solutions (barcode readers, scanners, and mobile computers) are an essential part of the movement toward smart manufacturing and logistics. If companies are going to increase automation and robotics spending, they are going to have to gather information in order to manage physical assets better -- that's where Zebra comes in.

The company is set for another year of mid-single-digit revenue growth (more of the same is expected in 2020) and remains a prodigious cash generator -- around 15% of sales are expected to convert into free cash flow in 2020. On a P/E ratio of 18 times forward earnings Zebra still looks a good value, even if its strong rise in 2019 meant it was one of the best-performing industrial stocks in the market.

KION is No. 1 in Europe in industrial trucks (only Toyota is bigger on the global stage) and the No. 1 global provider of supply chain solutions (material handling solutions for warehouses), with a heavy focus on the U.S. -- two-thirds of its supply chain solutions go to the Americas region.

Image source: Getty Images.

As such, KION is a company heavily exposed to industrial spending rates and particularly the trend toward warehouse automation spending. The growth of e-fulfillment may boost warehouse automation spending, but industrial spending overall is expected to decline in 2020.

Next year probably don't be a great one for the company. Analysts project revenue growth of just 1.1% next year as the industrial economy slows. Still, the company's stock now trades at 13 times 2020 earnings and 13.7 times free cash flow. For a company with long term growth prospects, that price is too cheap to ignore.

ABB, one of the leading robotics manufacturers in the world, makes the list because of its potential to play catch-up on margins with its main competitors. The company has been a serial underperformer in recent years, but its management is committed to restructuring the company, cutting costs, and focusing the business on digital solutions -- meanwhile paying a hefty dividend. Cautious investors might want to avoid the stock for the moment, but over the long term it presents a value opportunity.

If companies are going to invest in smart automation, robotics, and IoT solutions, such as digital twins -- digital replicas of physical assets that can be used and simulated in order to make the physical assets run better -- they are going to need industrial software to power the process.

Dassault's solutions, in common with its partner ABB, help companies design, develop, and manage the lifecycle of their products through the creation of digital twins. PTC's ThingWorx platform connects multiple devices that are capturing data and is then used to better analyze and manage physical assets -- the essence of IoT. If the wide-scale adoption of robotics and smart manufacturing is just around the corner, then Dassault and PTC are set for huge growth in the future.

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7 Top Robotics Stocks to Buy in January - The Motley Fool

PARK HILLS, Ky. Rock 'Em Sock 'Em robots, they are not, but these bots built by Northern Kentucky middle and high school students are designed to rip apart the competition.

Over 50 teams from across the region convened on Covington Catholic High School Saturday morning for the Colonel's Classic VEX robotics contest dubbed "Tower Takeover."

Students work in teams to build their own robots and program them to score points against opponents by dropping bright-colored blocks into goal zones.

More cubes you put in the goal zone, the more points you have, student Jason Hackman explained.

Each competition involves four teams that pair up and strategize to take down their competitors.

If they put a purple cube up in the top of the stack in the tower, each purple cube becomes two points, so they can change the dynamic of the game on the fly, CovCath Robotics Coach Bob Lind said.

To win, students use careful strategy and computer skills they learn in class and after school.

Were usually here about three hours a day, working either on programming the robot or building on new parts of it, Covington Catholic student Zach Smith said. We get a morning class where we spend about fifty minutes, and then we stay a little over two hours after school to just work on what needs to get done.

Lind sees his 29 students dedication every day. Despite the rigor, he says the teams are growing every year.

We started five years ago here, Lind said. We had three teams. Weve now grown to nine teams in that time frame.

And at least one member of the school's robotics team has qualified for state each year, and a few have gone to worldwide competition.

Original post:

Programmed to win: NKY student robotics teams compete at CovCath - WCPO

Kuka's KMR iiwa combines its LBR iiwa lightweight robot with a mobile, flexible platform.

The robotics market is set to transform over the next 10 years. Thats according to ABI Research, which notes that while there will be enormous growth across all subsectors, highlighted in a total market valuation of US$277 billion by 2030, that growth will not be distributed evenly. By 2022, the burgeoning mobile robotics space will start to overtake the traditional industrial robotics market. Currently, mobile autonomy is concentrated in material handling within the supply chain, but ABI Researchs new market report, Commercial and Industrial Robots," indicates that mobile robots are set to touch every sector of the global economy for a wide range of use cases.

Everyone talks about self-driving passenger vehicles, but mobile automation is far more developed in intralogistics for fulfillment and industry, says Rian Whitton, Senior Analyst at ABI Research. The automation of material handling will see huge segments of the global forklift, tow truck, and indoor vehicle market consumed by robotics vendors and Original Equipment Manufacturers [OEMs] that bring indoor autonomy.

Says ABI Research, Amazon Robotics is the leader that has driven growth in mobile robotics for the last seven years since their acquisition of Kiva Systems. With an estimated 256,000 Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) deployed to date, Amazon holds close to 50% of material handling robot market share and is broadening its portfolio of robot subtypes with autonomous mobile robots for transport and delivery.

According to the report, other major AGV developers like Quicktron, JD.com, Geek, and Grey Orange are deploying thousands of robots yearly, while Automated Mobile Robot (AMR) developers are just beginning to scale up. Brain Corp. has deployed 5,000 systems primarily in retail, and BlueBotics has deployed some 2,000 robots for intralogistics in and around the supply chain. Meanwhile MiR, an AMR company acquired by Teradyne in 2018, is beginning to achieve growth rates in excess of the companys other robotics acquisition of major cobot developer, Universal Robots.

Mobile robots debut at PACK EXPO Las Vegas

At PACK EXPO Las Vegas in September 2019, several equipment suppliers unveiled mobile robots specifically for the packaging industry. One company, Mobile Industrial Robots (MiR) showed off its range of AMRs, including its new MiR1000. With a payload of 1,000 kg, it can handle twice the weight of MiRs previous models. The MiR1000 can automatically pick up, transport, and deliver pallets and other heavy loads through dynamic environments. Like its predecessor, the MiR500, the MiR1000 is a collaborative, safe, and flexible alternative to forklifts on the factory floor.

As evidenced at the show, some robotics suppliers have started combining their mobile and cobot technologies to create even more flexible manufacturing and improved operational efficiency. In one example, Columbia/Okura partnered with Universal Robots to develop miniPAL, a mobile collaborative system that can address a range of applications in machine tending, palletizing, and packaging. The mobile setup makes it easy to move and redeploy the cobot to new processes.

Omron exhibited what it calls an autonomous mobile manipulation solutionit integrates self-navigating LD mobile robots with Omrons TM cobot arm. Its a proof-of-concept demo that lets cobots move easily to wherever they need to be, making it useful for tending and resupply of things of materials or cases.

Kuka Robotics has taken a similar approach, mounting cobots on top of mobile robots and setting them to work together in a collaborative system. Its KMR iiwa combines its LBR iiwa lightweight robot with a mobile, flexible platform. As demonstrated in Kukas booth, the system adapts easily to changing manufacturing processes to optimize production. The robots can communicate with each other to more easily work together as a complete system.

AGVs vs AMRs

According to ABI Research, the distinction between AGVs and AMRs can be contested, but AMRs do not require external infrastructure to localize themselves and are built with sensors and cameras to self-navigate their environments. Currently, AGVs represent the majority of mobile robot shipments, but by 2030, this will change. While there will be 2.5 million AGVs shipped in 2030, the total shipments of AMRs will reach 2.9 million in the same year. This is due to the declining costs of superior navigation and the desire to build flexibility into robotic fleets.

Many new verticals, like hospitality, delivery, and infrastructure, will demand systems that do not require external physical infrastructure to move about. While AGVs will thrive in intralogistics for fulfillment, especially in greenfield warehouses, AMRs solve the challenges faced by many end users by offering incremental automation that does not require a complete change of environmental infrastructure, ABI Researchs Whitton explains.

In a major example of automation extending to new and important vehicle types, the shipments of automated forklifts are set to grow from 4,000 in 2020 to 455,000 in 2030, with a CAGR of 58.9%. Meanwhile, the revenue for all mobile robotics is expected to exceed US$224 billion by 2030, compared to US$39 billion for industrial and collaborative systems.

Even more esoteric form factors, like quadrupeds, are expected to increase significantly for data collection purposes, particularly for real estate, construction, and industrial inspection. ABI Research predicts that quadrupeds will increase to 29,000 yearly shipments by 2030.

As mature sectors of the robotics industry achieve growth more in line with established technology markets, mobile robotics are set to create lasting transformative effects across the supply chain and will become increasingly ubiquitous throughout the global economy, Whitton concludes.

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Robotics Industry to Shift from Fixed Automation to Mobile Systems - Packaging World

January 01, 2020Matt Verkuilen, CIMTEC

It is safe to say we would not be able to enjoy many of our modern conveniences without automation. Thanks to advancements in robotic technology, many industrial processes have been made faster, safer and more efficient.

Although the use of automated equipment is ubiquitous now, it is important to remember that this was unheard of a lifetime ago. The first robots were used in industry in 1961, to unload parts in a die-casting facility. About 20 years later, Japanese manufacturers took advantage of new designs to introduce robotic production lines. Over the years, robots and artificial intelligence have advanced by leaps and bounds. Manufacturing and warehousing operations continue to find new ways in which they can improve and integrate their processes.

For example, robotic devices can be used to perform the most dull, repetitive tasks on the assembly line with precision and accuracy every time. By minimizing or eliminating the possibility of human fatigue or boredom, errors can be basically eliminated. Robots also enhance safety by replacing the tasks of humans who performed hazardous tasks or worked in dangerous environments. This reduces the amount of downtime caused by injuries and accidents.

As exciting as automation is for manufacturers today, the future holds virtually limitless possibilities. Thanks to the rapid development of artificial intelligence, robots are becoming smarter and more independent. Soon, humans and machines will be able to collaborate more closely on even more complex jobs.

For additional information about how far automation has come and how far it can go, see the accompanying infographic.

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Infographic: The Evolution of Robotics and Automation - Robotics Business Review

CES 2020, the worlds largest annual technology trade show produced by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), kicks off this week, with more than 170,000 people expected to descend in Las Vegas, Nevada, to witness the latest breakthroughs and innovations in technology.

Indeed, the sheer scale of this giant tech event is mind boggling.

Officially slated to start on Tuesday, January 7 through Friday, January 10, CES 2020 is expected to see more than 4,500 exhibitors showcase around 20,000 new tech products. These companies both startups and established tech names will showcase their latest innovations to over 170,000 attendees from at least 160 countries.

Some of the products expected to be showcased include giant TVs by the likes of LG and Samsung, a 5G-ready laptop by Dell, foldable phones and dual-screen devices likely from Samsung, Dell, Huawei, and Microsoft, as well as smart cars and smart home products powered by Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa.

And thats not all.

CES 2020 will feature over 1,100 industry experts and visionaries, who are slated to speak at over 300 sessions.

Additionally, more than 1,200 startups from at least 45 countries will participate at the event, making their presence felt alongside more established tech names like Intel, AMD, Dell, Nikon, Sharp, Samsung, LG, Bosch, and Panasonic, among others all of them showcasing their tech novelties at 11 different hotels and convention centres, or across a total exhibit space of more than 2.9 million square feet, in Las Vegas.

In a growing sign of the pervasiveness of tech-led innovation across industries, this years expo will see the participation of a slew of more traditional, non-tech enterprises.

Companies such as German automaker Daimler, US carrier Delta Airlines, personal care goods company Procter & Gamble, French auto parts maker Valeo, food startup Impossible Foods, and mass media conglomerate NBC Universal, are expected to make significant announcements at CES 2020, with a few even delivering keynote addresses.

With privacy a strategic imperative for all consumer businesses", Apples Senior Director of Global Privacy Jane Horvath will participate in the Chief Privacy Officer Roundtable, along with Facebooks VP of Public Policy and Chief Privacy Officer for Policy Erin Egan, Federal Trade Commissions Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter, and Procter & Gambles Global Privacy Officer Susan Shook.

The roundtable will focus on how consumer companies can build and ensure privacy at scale, regulation to ensure privacy, and what consumers want when it comes to privacy.

Quibi CEO Meg Whitman to showcase the new mobile streaming service Quibi with founder Jeffrey Katzenberg at CES 2020

Another major appearance due at CES 2020 is mobile streaming service Quibi CEO Meg Whitman, who along with Quibi founder Jeffrey Katzenberg, will showcase their new streaming service that is scheduled to launch in April.

Quibi, short for quick bites, will feature bite-sized episodes of not more than 10 minutes in duration and is expected to charge $5 per month for a version with ads.

Not just Quibi, NBCUniversal, which is also expected to launch its own streaming service in April this year, will deliver a keynote address at CES 2020, where Linda Yaccarino, Chairman of Advertising and Partnerships at NBCUniversal, will lead a panel discussion examining the future of entertainment.

Linda joins other featured speakers such as Ivanka Trump, Salesforce Chairman and co-CEO Marc Benioff, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elaine Cho, FTC Chairman Joseph Simons, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, Entrepreneur and Billionaire Mark Cuban, Unilever CEO Alan Jope, White House CTO Michael Kratsios, The Female Quotient CEO Shelley Zalis, Golden Globes nominated actor Mandy Moore, award-winning journalist Katie Couric, NFL CIO Michelle McKenna, and Americas Got Talent host Terry Crews, among others.

Ivanka Trump, Advisor to US President Donald Trump, to speak on the Path to the Future of Work at CES 2020

Ivanka Trump, who serves as an Advisor to US President Donald Trump and heads the White Houses Office of Economic Initiatives and Entrepreneurship, will participate in a fireside chat with Gary Shapiro, President and CEO, Consumer Technology Association, to talk about the Path to the Future of Work.

And theres more.

From new conference tracks to a focus on diversity and inclusion to even the appearance of companies focused on sex technology, this years event has many firsts.

YourStory is at Las Vegas, Nevada to cover CES 2020 at the invitation of the Consumer Technology Association.

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CES 2020: From Apple and Ivanka Trump to 5G, AI, robotics here's whats in store at the annual tech bonanza - YourStory

FIRST robotics competition season kick-off and 2020 game reveal

A world wide robotics game reveal celebration for the upcoming robotics competition season. FIRST announced the 202 game is infinite recharge. Teams on the Monterey Peninsula will have six weeks to get their robots ready for the regional competition March 25-28 at Seaside High School.

Updated: 6:24 PM PST Jan 4, 2020

Hide TranscriptShow Transcript

WORLD WIDE ROBOTICS GAME CELEBRATION FOR THE UPCOMING ROBOTICS COMPETITION SEASON. THIS YEAR'S GAME IS CALLED INFINITE RECHARGE. TO EXPLAIN... ACTION NEWS REPORTER ALANI LETANG HAS THE STORY. ### MICAELA HOUSE- MONTEREY HIGH SCHOOL ROBODORES CO-CAPTIAN CLIP#0683 12:22:58 "IT'S HUGE EXCITEMENT WE'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS FOR A WHILE...FOR THIS GAME REVEAL," ALONG WITH NEARLY A DOZEN OTHER MONTEREY PENINSULA TEAMS HAVE WAITED FOR THE WORLD WIDE GAME REVEAL.... AND KICK OFF TO THE GLOBAL ROBOTICS COMPETITION SEASON THIS YEAR...THE NON- PROFIT STEM PROGRAM.....FOR INSPIRATION AND RECOGNITION OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY ...OR FIRST ROBOTICS ANNOUCING THE STAR WARS THEME OF "INFINITE RECHARGE" AS THE GAME TO PLAY IN 2020. ROBIN COYNE-MONTEREY HIGH SCHOOL ROBOTICS INSTRUCTOR CLIP#0681 12:16:19 AND ONE OF THE COMPONETS OF THE GAME IS A GIANT SWINGING ARM THAT HAS 8 FOOT PIPE AND ROBOTS HAVE TO CLIMB AND ATTACH TO IT 12:16:29 THE GOAL IS TO HAVE MORE THAN ONE ROBOT ON EACH TEAM ATTACH TO IT AND LEVEL IT OUT AND SCORE POINTS TEAMS WILL BE CHALLENGED TO BUILD... DESIGN...AND PROGRAM ROBOTS IN SIX WEEKS FOR THE UPCOMING REGIONAL COMPETION IN MARCH MONTEREY HIGH SCHOOL'S ROBOTICS TEAM ---THE ROBODORES ---HAS EVEN LESS TIME ROBIN COYNE-ROBOTICS INSTRUCTOR CLIP#0681 12:16:43 "BECAUSE WE'VE BEEN INVITED TO BEIJIN FOR AN INVITATION ONE OF THREE TEAMS FROM THE US THAT'S BEEN INVITED. SO WE HAVE TO BUILD SOONER AND SHIP OUR ROBOT TO CHINA." MICAELA HOUSE- MONTEREY HIGH SCHOOL ROBODORES CO-CAPTAIN CLIP#0683 12:26:01 "IT'S A CULTURAL EXCHANGE MICAELA HOUSE- MONTEREY HIGH SCHOOL ROBODORES CO-CAPTAIN CLIP#0683 12:26:01 "IT'S A CULTURAL EXCHANGE COMPETITION THAT'S REALLY WHAT ITS ABOUT EXCITED TO GET A GLIMPSE OF WHAT THEIR CULTURE IS LIKE AND SEEING HOW THEY WORK TOGETHER," WORKING AND LEARNING TOGETHER.. ..ROBODORES MEMBERS SAY..GOES BEYOND THE STEEL AND REMOTE CONTROLLERS MICAELA HOUSE-MONTEREY HIGH SCHOOL ROBODORES CO-CAPTIAN CLIP#0683 12:24:10 "IT ENDS UP HELPING THE WORLD THROUGH TEACHING US WHAT IT MEANS TO WORK TOGETHER TO WORK ON THIS CHALLENGE, RIGHT. BUTT TO 12"23:39 IVE BECOME A LOT MORE COLLABORATIVE WITH OTHER PEOPLE IN MY SCHOO GROUPS AS A RESULT OF THIS TEAM," IN MONTEREY ...IM ALANI LETANG...KSBW ACTION NEWS EIGHT ... ## AFTER REGIONALS... THE WINNING ROBOTICS ALLIANCE WILL COMPET AT THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP IN HOUSTON IN APRIL. ###

FIRST robotics competition season kick-off and 2020 game reveal

A world wide robotics game reveal celebration for the upcoming robotics competition season. FIRST announced the 202 game is infinite recharge. Teams on the Monterey Peninsula will have six weeks to get their robots ready for the regional competition March 25-28 at Seaside High School.

Updated: 6:24 PM PST Jan 4, 2020

A world wide robotics game reveal celebration for the upcoming robotics competition season. FIRST announced the 202 game is infinite recharge. Teams on the Monterey Peninsula will have six weeks to get their robots ready for the regional competition March 25-28 at Seaside High School.

A world wide robotics game reveal celebration for the upcoming robotics competition season. FIRST announced the 202 game is infinite recharge. Teams on the Monterey Peninsula will have six weeks to get their robots ready for the regional competition March 25-28 at Seaside High School.

See the rest here:

FIRST robotics competition season kick-off and 2020 game reveal - KSBW Monterey

OptiPro Metrology Lab is using a system supplied by New Scale Robotics to inspect small parts. (See video below.)

The optics manufacturer is using New Scales Q-Span technology, based on its precision gripper / caliper, to automate measurement and machine tending.

The optics measuring solution involves a collaborative robot from Universal Robots and end effectors developed by New Scale.

The gripper not only picks up and moves the part, but it also makes a preliminary measure of the part.

Part handling can be an issue when using a coordinate measuring machine (CMM) to inspect small parts.

New Scale Robotics says its solution not only solves the part handling issue, but adds the significant additional new benefit of providing in-line measurement to improve CMM throughput.

In this case study with OptiPro Systems, New Scales precision gripper / caliper tool is installed on a UR3e cobot, and paired with a Zeiss O-Inspect CMM system.

Several different types of parts within a family of optics are to be inspected. The robot gripper / caliper has the following features:

The Zeiss CMM uses the measurement information to identify the part type and determine which measurement procedure to perform.

After measuring the part, the CMM relays information back to the robot indicating whether the part is good or bad. The robot sorts the parts accordingly when placing them in the output trays.

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OptiPro uses New Scale Robotics system to inspect small parts - Robotics and Automation News

AI and robotics are increasingly working together. Source: Mobile Industrial Robots

As 2019 winds down, every news media and technology site is pausing to reflect on the biggest trends of the past year. Some aspects of robotics and artificial intelligence are advancing rapidly; others, not so much. What should AI and robotics developers recall as they prepare for a new year?

The Robot Reportspoke with the following leaders at AI and robotics companies about their observations from the past year:

In your opinion, what was the biggest news in AI and robotics in 2019?

Visti: The biggest news in robotics this past year is a combination of two big stories the introduction of autonomous mobile robots for higher-payload materials, as well as the ability for these AMRs, and even those focused on lighter payloads, to benefit from advancements in artificial intelligence.

Innovative AI capabilities drive improved efficiency in both path planning and environmental interaction. Instead of reacting the same way to all obstacles, mobile robots can learn as they go. For example, they can distinguish between human workers and a forklift and adapt their driving patterns accordingly.

AI also enables AMRs to avoid high-traffic areas during specific times, such as when goods are regularly delivered and transferred by fork truck or when crowds of workers are present, such as during breaks or shift changes. Well definitely see the benefits of combining AI and robotics in the months and years ahead.

Versace: One of the biggest trends in 2019 has been organizations taking AI beyond the hype and actually applying it to real-world use cases. The past few years have seen a lot of buzz around the technology, but we need to cut through the noise and develop AI that can actually be implemented across industries.

Take the retail/grocery industry as an example. These companies were among the first to adopt AI and deploy robots at scale. Companies like Badger Technologiesare leaders in working with AI companies to deliver robots that retainers can deploy in supermarkets across the country.

These robots help with taskssuch as inventory management, increasing store safety, and elevating the customer experience. Weve seen more and more examples of companies approaching AI with these real-world applications in mind.

What technologies and techniques have improved the most lately, and which capabilities do you still want to see?

Versace: Weve seen progress when it comes to implementing new approaches to deep neural networks (DNNs). People may not realize that there are actually several approaches to DNNs think of them as different shades of neural networks that fall along a spectrum. The one you choose can make the difference between a failed experiment and a successful deployment.

Emerging approaches such as Lifelong-DNN (L-DNN) are moving the industry toward new, more brain-inspired approaches that are able to add new information to AI algorithms on the fly. This means that rather than starting from scratch each time you want to improve the network, you can continue to train it incrementally as you see its strengths and short fallings when deployed in the field.

While many people think thats how all AI works, it has actually been a real challenge in the industry to develop methodologies that support ongoing learning without complete retraining. Even more importantly for robotics, L-DNN moves learning to the compute edge. No server required. This means that the need to ping a server for training disappears.

Source: Neurala

In terms of what capabilities Id like to see, Im interested in platforms doing the work to connect the technology to the use case. Were seeing a lot of general-purpose solutions, but specificity is a strength in AI, and Im looking at technology that is easy to customize taking the lead this year.

Jha: There were continued improvements in large-scale machine learning (in particular deep learning), better understanding and generation of languages for much better conversational interfaces, and more accuracy in machine vision to provide better robotic perception. All of this has allowed robots to come out of cages and interact more readily with humans to solve complex problems.

In parallel, we also had a much stronger realization that ethics/bias/trust in AI needs to be center stage and not be an afterthought for developers and researchers. As AI makes more and more decisions in our everyday lives, we need to ensure that these decisions are fair and can be trusted.

Whats the most persistent misperception of AI and robotics that you encounter?

Versace: One of the biggest misconceptions about AI and robotics is that once AI is deployed, you never have to touch it again. In fact, because systems and processes are always changing, the opposite is true.

Instead, organizations need to shift their mentality to look beyond today in order to be successful. AI is continuously being challenged by emerging use cases or changing conditions, so robotics companies need to be designing AI that is able to adapt to new real-world scenarios, as they are encountered in real time, as opposed to building a solution and assuming it will work for eternity.

Jha: People continue to feel more threatened by AI and robotics than any other technology. While some of this is understandable due to the wide applications and somewhat opaque nature of the technology, a lot of this is driven by what people may have seen on screen or read in stories [that] is very different than what is the current reality.

We are nowhere near designing a machine that can think on its own and understand/display emotions to seek destruction of human beings. Most AI-based systems are trained to perform a handful of tasks efficiently and learn from the data that is fed to them. They are very good at processing vast amounts of data and drawing lots of conclusions to pick the best options, and in this limited domain, they are often better than humans.

But this doesnt make them more powerful than the humans who decide in which domains to use the machine or what datasets they would have access to. As with any other technology, we still have to be careful to ensure that robots and AI are not exploited by malicious people.

Related content: The robotics sector in 2020 and beyond: Predictions from industry gurus

What was your biggest success in 2019?

Visti: MiRs biggest success was our booming international growth, as we see more of the worlds largest companies invest in our robots for multiple sites. To accommodate this growth, weve opened larger offices throughout the world, including a new collaborative automation center in Barcelona with Universal Robots and a much larger U.S. headquarters in New York.

Teradynes industrial automation strategy makes it a strong partner for us. [Editors note: North Reading, Mass.-based Teradyne owns MiR, Universal Robots, Energid, and AutoGuide Mobile Robots.] It has the experience, capital, and power to help bring more advanced automation to companies of all sizes to make the workplace more productive, safer, and able to produce higher-quality products. While we continue to run very independently, we definitely take advantage of their expertise, and it continues to pay off for both companies.

Note: These experts will look ahead to AI and robotics in 2020 in another article to be posted soon.

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AI and robotics execs look back tech trends of 2019 - Robot Report

In recent years, there have been massive advances in the world of hard roboticsrobots that are made from hard plastics and metals. These robots are excellent for industrial jobs because they are precise, strong, and well-equipped for strenuous labor. Its a smart solution for factories and warehouses, but what about jobs where humans are more integral to the work itself, such as nursing or healthcare? If researchers could develop robots that interact with humans as carefully as humans interact with one another, they could be used in a variety of fields to improve daily life in radical new ways. This is where soft robotics comes in.

James Pikul, assistant professor in mechanical engineering and applied mechanics, studies soft robotics, an emerging field that seeks to build robots that can safely handle more delicate and fragile objects. These robots must incorporate materials that deform under pressure, reducing the chances of crushing, pinching or otherwise hurting the equally soft things they interact with, such as human bodies.

In2019, Pikul and his team received a$2 million grant from the National Science Foundationto explore a new type of soft robotics that dont conform to the common conception of robots at all. These soft robots start as flat sheets, then transform into precise shapes to perform tasks. Their goal: to create an inflatable robotic mat to be placed on top of hospital beds and used to move patients. This application has the potential to increase patient comfort and decrease injuries to nurses and healthcare workers that can be caused by patient handling.

Read more at Penn Engineering.

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Engineers and nurses team up to build inflatable robots - Penn: Office of University Communications

Chip designer Ambarella has announced a new robotics platform based on its CVflow architecture for artificial intelligence processing, and it has also signed a deal with Amazon Web Services to make it easier to design products with its chips.

Santa Clara, California-based company will demo the robotics platform and the Amazon SageMaker Neo technology for training machine-learning models at CES 2020, the big tech trade show in Las Vegas next week.

Ambarella, which went public in 2011, started out as a maker of low-power chips for video cameras. But it parlayed that capability into computer vision expertise, and it launched its CVflow architecture to create low-power artificial intelligence chips.

Based on CVflow architecture, the new robotics platform targets automated guided vehicles (AGV), consumer robots, industrial robots, and emerging industry 4.0 applications.

The robotics platform provides a unified software infrastructure for robotics perception across Ambarellas CVflow SoC family, including the CV2, CV22, CV25, and S6LM. And it provides access and acceleration for the most common robotics functions, including stereo processing, key points extraction, neural network processing, and Open Source Computer Vision Library (OpenCV) functions.

Ambarella will demonstrate the highest-end version of the platform during CES 2020 in the form of a single CV2 chip, which will perform stereo processing (up to 4Kp30 or multiple 1080p30 pairs), object detection, key points tracking, occupancy grid, and visual odometry. This high level of computer vision performance combined with Ambarellas advanced image processing including native support for up to 6 direct camera inputs on CV2 and 3 on CV25 enables robotics designs that are both simpler and more powerful than traditional robotics architectures, the company said.

Jerome Gigot, senior director of marketing at Ambarella, said the technology combines the companys advanced imaging capabilities with its high-performance CVflow architecture for computer vision, leading to smarter and more efficient consumer and industrial robots.

The platform supports the Linux operating system, as well as the ThreadX real-time operating system for products that require functional safety, and it comes with a complete toolkit for image tuning, neural network porting, and computer vision algorithm development. It also supports the Robotics Operating System (ROS) for easier development and visualization.

The new robotics platform and its related development kits are available today and can be paired with various mono and stereo configurations, as well as rolling shutter, global shutter, and IR sensor options.

Above: Attendees at Amazons annual cloud computing conference walk past the AWS logo in Las Vegas, November 30, 2017.

Image Credit: Reuters / Salvador Rodriguez/File Photo

Meanwhile, Ambarella and Amazon Web Services said customers can now use Amazon SageMaker Neo to train machine learning models once and run them on any device equipped with an Ambarella CVflow-powered AI vision system on chip (SoC).

Until now, developers had to manually optimize ML models for devices based on Ambarella AI vision SoCs. This step added considerable delays and errors to the application development process.

Ambarella and AWS collaborated to simplify the process by integrating the Ambarella toolchain with the Amazon SageMaker Neo cloud service. Now, developers can simply bring their trained models to Amazon SageMaker Neo and automatically optimize the model for Ambarella CVflow-powered chips.

Customers can build an ML model using MXNet, TensorFlow, PyTorch, or XGBoost and train the model using Amazon SageMaker in the cloud or on their local machine. Then they upload the model to their AWS account and use Amazon SageMaker Neo to optimize the model for Ambarella SoCs. They can choose CV25, CV22, or CV2 as the compilation target. Amazon SageMaker Neo compiles the trained model into an executable that is optimized for Ambarellas CVflow neural network accelerator.

The compiler applies a series of optimizations that can make the model run up to 2 times faster on the Ambarella SoC. Customers can download the compiled model and deploy it to their fleet of Ambarella-equipped devices. The optimized model runs in the Amazon SageMaker Neo runtime purpose-built for Ambarella SoCs and available for the Ambarella SDK. The Amazon SageMaker Neo runtime occupies less than 10% of the disk and memory footprint of TensorFlow, MXNet, or PyTorch, making it much more efficient to deploy ML models on connected cameras.

Excerpt from:

Ambarella shows off new robotics platform and AWS AI programming deal - VentureBeat

Warehouse automation companyGeek+ Robotics says it has sold more than 10,000 units of its autonomous mobile robots.

The company has seen a dramatic increase in demand for warehouse robots from sectors such as e-commerce and automotive supply chains.

Geek+ revealed the new sales figure in an update about its activity during Singles Day in China, occurring annually on November 11th, traditionally one of the busiest in the e-commerce calendar.

Other Singles Day milestones Geek+ listed include:

The company also highlighted that 4,000 robotic units were used for large-scale cluster scheduling.

And the largest-scale robotics warehouse application during the peak order volumes and delivery period of Singles Day.

Geek Plus was established in 2014 with fewer than 10 people, and now employs more than 700.

It raised more than $150 million in funding last year and is looking to expand beyond its Asian market into Europe and America.

Moreover, it has been adding more products to its range, which now includes a driverless forklift.

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Geek Plus sells 10,000 warehouse robots - Robotics and Automation News