Collingwood-based Elephant Thoughts is helping Canadian individuals and organizations introduce a new concept to the world: Indigenization.

The word Indigenization refers to bringing an Indigenous perspective to computing and programming.

Jon Corbett, one of the presenters at the Elephant Thoughts Indigenization2019 conference, is a professional computer programmer and Canadian Metis media artist.

He coined the phrase Indigitalizationand is combining his art and computer programming for the cause.

Indigenizationrefers to bringing an Indigenous perspective, and Indigitalization refers to an Indigenous perspective in computer programming and coding.

Corbett does beading portraits and is a self-taught programmer. One day while working on a beading project, he decided to create a computer program to tell him which colour of bead to use and in what order.

In creating the program he needed, he realized the default was for the program to tell him one row at a time, left to right. But that didnt fit the beading pattern which alternates left to right, then right to left.

In fact, he had to write an inefficiency into the program for it to work for his needs.

Thats where it started, said Corbett. I thought the only thing that would make this even better is if I could do this in my heritage language, the language of my grandmother: Cree.

The idea became reality and now Corbett is a third-year PhD student at the University of British Columbia where his research is focused on the development of a Cree-based computer programing language, physical input devices for the Cree Syllabic Orthography, and specialized software for creating interactive media artworks from oral and/or transcribed Indigenous Storywork.

He said his work has involved more than just writing a new language, hes had to ditch the philosophy behind computer programing and replace it with one founded in Indigenous teachings.

Like the loop for beading, that activity within the computer is a single activity that does one thing without taking into consideration the whole, said Corbett. Theres no holistic view attached to that in the current programming panel. Indigenous computing framework favours cultural practices over computational efficiency.

Corbett was one of the presenters at the Elephant Thoughts conference, and he said what stood out to him was the wide network of people who can work together toward Indigenization.

Lisa Farano of Elephant Thoughts said the conference was all about collaboration.

Each of the organizations invited received funding through Cancode, and are working to bring Indigenous perspective and presence to the coding world.

To this end, the conference was a tremendous success, said Farano. By the second day we practically abandoned the very jam-packed agenda to make time for the team to take our work in the direction that best suited everyone.

"We believe we started something meaningful and important and hope the next conference will be hosted with everyones input from the start.

The conference brought together 30 of the top digital tech education organizations both Indigenous and non-Indigenous focusing on coding and robotics, all of whom work in Indigenous communities across Canada.

The conference was sponsored by the National Science and Engineering Council of Canada.

Farano said the organizations will continue to meet and discuss ideas through the year with the aim of more conferences in the future.

The goals were mainly to bring this group of experts and elders from across the country together to collaborate on how we can collectively better serve the communities we work in through shared knowledge and resources, said Farano.

Anyone working in this sector and interested in joining the regular working group calls can email Lisa Farano at lisa@elephantthoughts.com.

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Coding, robotics industry join forces to create Indigenization - OrilliaMatters

Do We Need A Recruitment Agency For Robots?

The number of industrial robots in operation around the world has grown rapidly in recent years, but nowhere more so than in China, where some 30% of the worlds robots are in operation.This growth has prompted many to ponder whether humans are being pushed out of the workforce in favor of their robotic brethren.

This isn't really born out by the evidence however.For instance,astudyfrom a few years ago suggests that such fears of widespread job displacement may be somewhat overblown.The study saw over 300 occupations examined over a 33 year time-scale from 1980 to try and examine the impact of automation. To put it bluntly, it emerged that employment generally rose fastest in professions with the most automation.

The idea that automation kills jobs isnt true historically, and if you look at the last 30 years, its not true then either,the author says.Right now, the best thing that can happen to you is to get some automation to do your job better.

A second paper, published in 2017, by the London School of Economics examined actual employment data from the last few decades.It looked at the role technology plays in economic recoveries, both in terms of economic growth and the number of jobs.

They explored data across 28 different industries in 17 countries over a period spanning 1970 to 2011, during which 71 economic recoveries occurred. When the numbers were crunched, the researchers found no real difference in terms of the joblessness of recovery in industries prone to automation, and those that were not, and this was consistent across nations, with the notable exception of the United States.

This apparent American outlier was confirmed by a secondpaperpublished recently in the National Bureau of Economic Research.The paper examined 19 industries over a similar timeframe to that explored by the LSE team, with all 19 of the industries having introduced industrial robots (as opposed to AI) over that timeframe.

The data comes to a similar conclusion to the LSE paper, in that those industries investing most in industrial robotics did indeed suffer lower employment levels, with each robot equating to around six human employees.

These findings suggest that the main problem caused by industrial robotics is not their presence in our workplaces, but the lack of a presence.Indeed, a recent German study found that the jobs landscape is harmed by the poor distribution of technologies such as robotics throughout the economy.

This need for greater dissemination of technology was recently promoted by areportfrom MITs task force on the work for the future, which argued that there are relatively few organizations that are fully utilizing the technologies of our age, and that productivity stats wont really move until these technologies are utilized not by the 1% of organizations at the frontier of our economy, but the remainder who are thus far lagging far behind.

It's into this domain that Israeli startup SixAI Robotics is attempting to make its mark by providing a 'robotic recruitment agency' to help firms access the kind of technologies they need to become more productive and keep pace with their larger rivals.

"In Japan, one shift by one employee checking parts is approximately $50,000 per year, and our business model is simple," SixAI founder and chairman Ran Poliakine told me recently. "For $50,000 per year, you can have a robot that can work two shifts, and all of the servicing and maintenance of that robot is included."

It's part of a Robotics as a Service market that research from Allied Market Research estimated will be worth some $34.7 billion worldwide within three years as a result of 23% growth year on year.

Data from the Centre for Economic and Business Research (CEBR) shows that investment in robotics is crucial to the economic health of the economy, and indeed has a greater impact than investments in any other technology.

The report finds that investment in technology such as robotics has a greater positive impact on the economy than almost any other form of technology.Indeed, a 1% increase in investment correlates with a growth in GDP per capita of 0.03%.

Suffice to say, investment in robotics and automation has not been spread equally around the world.The U.S. leads the way, investing heavily in robotics and automation.By contrast, the U.K. languishes behind peers such as Japan, Germany and the U.S.In PPP terms, the U.S. invested $86 billion in 2015, which is roughly 62 times the amount invested in the U.K. in the same period.

It's a situation that Poliakine believes can only be improved by providing a more accessible way to introduce robotics into the workflow of businesses around the world.

Our robot employment agency is a gamechanger. It will provide capacity in markets that struggle with labor capacity either through the difficulty of the work itself or the cost pressures they face. By offering hourly or task rates, our autonomous AI robots are easy to plan for and to integrate,he explains.

While costs and expertise are both elements that robotics as a service can help to address by making investments a matter of operational expenses rather than capital expenses, and the maintenance of the technology outsourced to the provider, there is still a strategic divide in many smaller businesses.

This was emphasized by a survey from McKinsey a few years ago which highlighted a 15% gap emerging between large and small companies in terms of the adoption of technologies such as industrial robotics.They provided a number of strategic recommendations to help bridge that gap, including:

The productivity gap between big and small enterprises is unquestionably a drain on the economic performance of economies across the western world and it remains to be seen whether changes such as robotics-as-a-service help to democratize technology more broadly.

While the financials of shifting expenditure to the opex budget rather than the capex budget do undoubtedly support adoption from smaller enterprises, the McKinsey findings remind us that there are a broader range of barriers to overcome if the benefits of the latest technologies are to be spread across society.

Read more from the original source:

Do We Need A Recruitment Agency For Robots? - Forbes

In 2019, WGBHs Forum Network recorded 150 talks around greater Boston on topics ranging from sustainable housing development, to the psychology behind political movements, to snow leopard conservation, and numerous author readings, including one of the year's Nobel laureates and a newly named MacArthur genius.

While its hard to pick our favorite lectures from among so many, here are six that introduce surprising perspectives and offer context to some of this years top news events.

1. Jared Hardesty On How New England Was Built By The Slave Trade Over the last 25 years, increased access to numerous historic collections from the slave trade has spurred a new era of scholarship on U.S. slavery, according to Jared Hardesty, associate professor of history at Western Washington University. In his book Black Lives, Native Lands, White Worlds: A History Of Slavery In New England, Hardesty explains how New England was built on earnings and supported by the the slave trade.

In his talk at the Royall House and Slave Quarters Museum in Medford, Mass. on Oct. 17, Hardesty shares the findings from his book. He examines how slavery supported the growth of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and later New England states, spanning from the 1630s to the early 1890s. Puritans arriving in New England needed labor for clearing fields and building shelters. They traded captured Piquots for African slaves coming from sugar plantations on Barbados, Antigua, and later Jamaica.

This boon in scholarship, Hardesty said, has inspired many New England institutions, historic sites and local and state governments to reckon with their own ties to slavery.

I was just at Old North Church talking about their connections with slavery, Hardesty says. There is this kind of thirst of these institutions to explore their own ties and histories of slavery in the region.

2. As The Opioid Crisis Continues, The Medical Community Discusses Resources Following a community screening of the NOVA film "Addiction" hosted by the Wayside Youth and Family Support Network at the Mosesian Center for the Arts in Watertown, Mass., on March 5, a panel of medical providers and substance abuse prevention workers discuss the roles that physicians and families can fill to help end the opioid epidemic.

From examining the first signs of addiction to debating the states hesitation in implementing supervised consumption sites, the panel provided context to policy initiatives while offering tangible steps for families seeking addiction support.

The four panelists were Dr. Laura Kehoe, medical director of the Substance Abuse Disorder Bridge Clinic at Mass General Hospital; Dr. Damian Archer, chief medical officer at North Shore Community Health Center; Dr. Dara Arons, family physician at Charles River Community Health; and Peter Airasian, founder of the advocacy group Watertown Overcoming Addiction. They discussed infrastructure and policy solutions to the epidemic, gave a local perspective on the resources needed in the state to provide adequate support, and suggested services for those struggling with addiction.

While Purdue Pharma and several other pharmaceutical companies began to meet states and citizens in court in 2019 to answer accusations that they misled doctors and the public in the marketing of opioid painkillers and fueled the opioid epidemic, efforts by states to address the crisis and more public education may be helping. A November 2019 Massachusetts Department of Public Health report shows a slight decrease in opioid-related overdose deaths since the height of the crisis in 2016, but substance abuse is still impacting many people across the state.

3. Local Literature Series Highlights Underrepresented Voices One of the first Transnational Literature talks of the year, recorded on Jan. 22 at the Brookline Booksmith in Brookline's Coolidge Corner, features three celebrated, Asian-American poets who share work about identity, representation, family, immigration and trauma.

Ocean Vuong, recently named a "MacArthur genius" by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and author of On Earth Were Briefly Gorgeous, reads drafts of new work that tackle personal and historic trauma. Jennifer Tseng, author of Not So Dear Jenny, weaves together letters from her immigrant father. Sally Wen Mao, author of Oculus, shares complicated tropes of depictions of Asian-American people in films and pop culture.

Their poetry gives perspectives that often go underrepresented in American media and literature. As Wen Mao explains while discussing the blockbuster movie "Crazy Rich Asians" and her poetry on Asian-American actresses, Its only when we dont get that one token film, when we get a multiplicity of stories, that we really have made any kind of progress.

The Brookline Booksmiths entire Transnational Literature Series highlights diverse voices and focuses on literature of migration, displacement, and works in translation.

4. The Soil Sponge Is The Answer To Reverse Global Warming, Microbiologist Says Walter Jehne, an Australian soil microbiologist, has spent his career studying the composition of soil and its function in relation to weather. Invited by the organization Biodiversity For A Liveable Climate in anticipation of news coverage of the September 2019 UN Climate Summit, Jehne shared his research and solutions to prevent further climate change with an audience in the Cambridge Public Library on Aug. 26.

With the help of an easel, colored markers and a giant pad of paper, he diagrams the simple science that occurs when trees and plants are rooted in healthy soil, and how more prairie and forest growth can combat global warming.

Its actually quite exquisite and beautiful, Jehne assured one man who asked for more details. ... If you've got a healthy soil, it's got about 1.1 grams per cc, in terms of density. Sixty percent of that is voids. You build healthy soil by adding nothing. Easy. Doesn't cost a thing.

While he talks, Jehne draws symbolic mineral particles on the page and connects them with a web of organic matter. His point: By opening up space in soil on this elemental level, it can absorb and hold a tremendous amount of water, thus absorbing more flooding, preventing drought and resisting forest fires. Heathy soil can support robust plant and tree systems of carbon consumption and respiration, Jehne explains, and that's what we need to bring down rising global temperatures. Promoting more growth of prairies and forests will get flooding, drought and forest fires under control.

What wont work in the climate change battles, Jehne points out, is to simply pay attention to reducing our carbon footprints. He reminds us that fossil fuels allow us to produce and deliver most of our food today. He asks if any one of us is willing to fall off the perch voluntarily and stop eating in order to use less fuel. Yes, fossil fuel reduction must happen, he agrees, and yes, we should recycle. But we should also consider how much of Earth can be reclaimed by allowing the planet to do what it does best.

5. Makers Of A Winning "BattleBot" Share Some Fails Artisans Asylum is a Somerville, Mass., maker space for local artists and builders. It is also home to Valkyrie, a fighting robot that stars on the Science Channels television show "BattleBots." On July 25, members of team Valkyrie spoke in a room packed with avid "BattleBots" fans, many of them children, detailing the nuts, bolts, motors and blades that make up the razor-sharp machine, composed of 55, 3D-printed parts and a series of interchangeable blades.

Leanne Cushing is the founder, captain and engineering lead of team Questionable Design, Valkyrie's combat robotics team. Speaking with teammates Brooks Willis and Alex Crease, "BattleBots" fans get a unique, behind-the-scenes look at robot building, tech failures, and the engineering that fuels the shows battles. Instead of focusing on the finished robot, the panel shares their process of optimization and encourages building work that fails early and fails often to learn from design mistakes. The discussion will inspire any creator and design thinker to start tinkering.

6. Tufts Professor Argues Immigration Isnt Overwhelming And Shouldn't Be Seen As A ThreatThere are approximately 260 million migrants worldwide today, according to the 2018 report from the UN's International Organization for Migration. Karen Jacobsen, the Henry J. Leir Professor in Global Migration at Tufts University and director of the Refugees and Forced Migration Program at the Tufts Feinstein International Center, began a WorldBoston panel discussion at the Boston Public Library on April 4, using data from the report to illustrate the big picture of human flow around the planet.

The United Nations defines migrants, she said, as people who left their own country to live elsewhere for more than one year, and not for tourism or business. That number makes up only 3 percent of the global population. The other 97 percent, she said, remain in their own countries.

She goes on to say that exceptional media coverage in 2015 of the refugee crisis stemming from Syria, while dire, focuses on a very small portion of those humans on the move. Of the 260 million migrants tallied worldwide, she said 24 million are refugees fleeing persecution or war.

Jacobsen aims, in her portion of the discussion, on global migration. She joins panelists Mary Truong, executive director of the Massachusetts Office For Refugees, and Jeffrey Thielman, president and CEO of the International Institute Of New England, to say that the problem of displaced people is not insurmountable, nor should it be seen as a threat.

We tend to think about refugees who come into our own country, she said, but the fact is that most of the refugees in the world are living in other countries and we should really be thinking about how we as a country can help those countries hosting those refugees.

For more frequent, bite-sized moments from panels and talks, follow the Forum Network on Facebook and Twitter.

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From Global Warming To Robots: 6 Local Public Talks From 2019 And Why They Matter - wgbh.org

Im a geek. And as a geek, I love my tech toys. But over time Ive noticed toys are becoming harder to understand.

Some modern toys resemble advanced devices. There are flying toys, walking toys, and roving toys. A number of these require configuring or connecting.

The line between toy, gadget and professional device is blurrier than ever, as manufacturers churn out products including drones for kids and plush toys with hidden nanny cams.

With such a variety of sophisticated, and sometimes over-engineered products, its clear manufacturers have upped their game.

But why is this happening?

The Price of Tech

Toys these days seem to be designed with two major components in mind. Its all about the smarts and rapid manufacture.

In modern toys, we see a considerable level of programmed intelligence. This can be used to control the toys actions, or have it respond to input to provide real time feedback and interaction making it appear smarter.

This is all made possible by the falling price of technology.

Once upon a time, placing a microcontroller (a single chip microprocessor) inside a toy was simply uneconomical.

These days, theyll only set you back a few dollars and allow significant computing power.

Microcontrollers are often WiFi and Bluetooth enabled, too. This allows connected toys to access a wide range of internet services, or be controlled by a smartphone.

Another boon for toy manufacturers has been the rise of prototype technologies, including 3D modelling, 3D printing, and low cost CNC (computer numerical control) milling.

These technologies allow the advanced modelling of toys, which can help design them to be tougher.

They also allow manufacturers to move beyond simple (outer) case designs and towards advanced multi-material devices, where the case of the toy forms an active part of the toys function.

Examples of this include hand grips (found on console controls and toys including Nerf Blasters), advanced surface textures, and internal structures which support shock absorption to protect internal components, such as wheel suspensions in toy cars.

Bot Helpers and Robot Dogs

Many recent advancements in toys are there to appease our admiration of automatons, or self operating machines.

The idea that an inanimate object is transcending its static world, or is thinking, is one of the magical elements that prompts us to attach emotions to toys.

And manufacturers know this, with some toys designed specifically to drive emotional attachment. My favourite example of this is roaming robots, such as the artificially intelligent Anki Vector.

With sensors and internet connectivity, the Vector drives around and interacts with its environment, as well as you. Its even integrated with Amazon Alexa.

Another sophisticated toy is Sonys Aibo. This robot pet shows how advanced robotics, microelectronics, actuators (which allow movement), sensors, and programming can be used to create a unique toy experience with emotional investment.

Screens Not Included

Toy manufacturers are also leveraging the rise of smartphones and portable computing.

Quadcopters (or drones) and other similar devices often dont need to include their own display in the remote control, as video can be beamed to an attached device.

Some toys even use smartphones as the only control interface (used to control the toy), usually via an app, saving manufacturers from having to provide what is arguably the most expensive part of the toy.

This means a smartphone becomes an inherent requirement, without which the toy cant be used.

It would be incredibly disappointing to buy a cool, new toy - only to realise you dont own the very expensive device required to use it.

My Toys Arent Spying on Me, Surely?

While spying may be the last thing you consider when buying a toy, there have been several reports of talking dolls recording in-home conversations.

There are similar concerns with smart-home assistants such as Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and Apples Siri, which store your voice recordings in the cloud.

These concerns might also be warranted with toys such as the Vector, and Aibo.

In fact, anything that has a microphone, camera or wireless connectivity can be considered a privacy concern.

Toys of the Future

Weve established toys are becoming more sophisticated, but does that mean theyre getting better?

Various reports indicate in 2020, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning will continue to be pervasive in our lives.

This means buying toys could become an even trickier task than it currently is. There are some factors shoppers can consider.

On the top of my list of concerns is the type and number of batteries a toy requires, and how to charge them.

If a device has in-built lithium batteries, can they be easily replaced? And if the toy is designed for outdoors, can it cope with the heat? Most lithium-ion batteries degrade quickly in hot environments.

And does the device require an additional screen or smartphone?

Its also worth being wary of what personal details are required to sign-up for a service associated with a toy - and if the toy can still function if its manufacturer should cease to exist, or the company should go bust.

And, as always, if youre considering an advanced, connected toy, make sure to prioritise your security and privacy.

Andrew Maxwell is a senior lecturer at University of Southern Queensland.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Robots, AI and Drones: When Did Toys Turn into Rocket Science? - Nextgov

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Coatings and Application Technologies Robotics Market Study: An Emerging Hint of Opportunity - Market Reports Observer

You've most likely seen or watched the impressive advances made in the robotics field in the past few decades. That said, robots are still a long shot away from performing day-to-day helpful tasks.

This is where the X Lab enters. Run by Google's parent company, Alphabet, the X Lab is currently working on an experimental project that focuses on teaching robots how to perform useful tasks.

RELATED: GOOGLE UNDER INVESTIGATION BY ALPHABET FOR THEIR SEXUAL HARASSMENT HANDLING

In a blog post, general manager of the entire project, Hans Peter Brondmo, wrote that the company's engineers would now be focusing on creating robots that can interact with humans in meaningful ways, as well as perform handy tasks.

The first trick that the engineers from the X Lab have focused on is one that most humans don't wish to perform, which is sorting out trash.

Alphabet got their idea of creating a trash-sorting robot as the team noticed some of the recyclable or compostable trash placed in the wrong bins in their office. Unfortunately, a lot of this waste ends up in landfills, and can't be properly recycled.

So the engineers took the matter into their own hands and decided to teach robots to go through trash items, moving them from the wrong bins into the right ones.

In the traditional way of teaching robots new maneuvers, you would code the robot to recognize certain items and move them.

In X Lab's moving images below, you can see the robot improving its sorting ability starting from the image on the left to the right.

The X Lab wanted to try something novel. Instead of applying code, they decided to use simulation, reinforcement learning, and collaborative learning. This is how they did it:

Once the office was closed, virtual robots practiced sorting virtual rubbish into virtual bins in a virtual office. This was then taught to real robots doing the actual job. Then, what the daytime real robots learned would be passed on to the nighttime virtual robots, who adapted and practiced some more.

The outcome was impressive: these robots were able to learn the tasks at hand not through code, but through virtual learning and practice.

Moreover, their work was successful. The office waste contamination went from 20% down to under 5%.

So what's next for the robots? The team will keep developing them, and see if they can teach the robots to use their transferable skills in other useful tasks, without having to input any code.

The hope is to create robots that can properly assist with our daily complex tasks.

Original post:

Robotics Program Introduces the Everyday Trash-Sorting Robot - Interesting Engineering

Today, Alphabets X moonshot division (formerly known as Google X) unveiled the Everyday Robot project, whose goal is to develop a general-purpose learning robot. The idea is that its robots could use cameras and complex machine learning algorithms to see and learn from the world around them without needing to be coded for every individual movement.

The team is testing robots that can help out in workplace environments, though right now, these early robots are focused on learning how to sort trash. Heres what one of them looks like it reminds me of a very tall, one-armed Wall-E (ironic, given what the robots are tasked to do):

Heres a GIF of a robot actually sorting a recyclable can from a compost pile to a recycling pile. This is wild check out how the arm actually grasps the can:

The concept of grasping something comes pretty easily to most humans, but its a very challenging thing to teach a robot, and Everyday Robots robots get their practice in both the physical world and the virtual world. In a tour of Xs offices, Wired described how a playpen of nearly 30 of the robots (supervised by humans) spend their daytime hours sorting trash into trays for compost, landfill, and recycling. At night, Everyday Robot has virtual robots practice grabbing things in simulated buildings, according to Wired. That simulated data is then combined with the real world data, which is given to the robots in a system update every week or two.

With all that practice, X says the robots are actually getting pretty good at sorting, apparently putting less than 5 percent of trash in the wrong place (Xs humans put 20 percent of trash in the wrong pile, according to X).

That doesnt mean theyre remotely ready to replace human janitors, though. Wired observed one robot grasping thin air instead of the bowl in front of it, then attempting to put the bowl down. Another lost one of its finger during the demo. Engineers also told Wired that, at one point, some robots werent moving through a building because some types of light caused their sensors to hallucinate holes in the floor.

There are whole startups dedicated to the problem of teaching a robot how to grasp, such as Embodied Intelligence and the nonprofit OpenAI. And Google, also owned by Alphabet, has done research into grasping check out this 2016 video of some Google-made robot arms trying to grab differently-sized objects:

But progress is being made beyond the work X and Google are doing. For example, Boston Dynamics (formerly owned by Google) released this video in 2018 of its SpotMini robot grabbing a doorknob to open a door for a friend:

And research from Google from this March showed off a robot that could pick up objects and, over time, learn the best way to throw a specific shape:

Despite all this research, Google and Alphabet have a troubled history with robotics. Googles last serious attempt at robotics work started in 2013 in a division led by Android co-founder Andy Rubin. Though that division made some high-profile acquisitions, including Boston Dynamics, nothing concrete came from it, and Rubin departed from Google in 2014 following allegations of sexual harassment. Google is apparently dipping its toes back into robotics, though, based on a report from March of this year, and its new robots are also learning how to grab, but it seems Googles work is different from that of Everyday Robots.

Everyday Robot lead Hans Peter Brondmo told Wired that he hopes to one day make a robot that can assist the elderly. But he also acknowledged something like that might be a few years out so for now, it seems the robots will keep getting better at sorting trash.

Originally posted here:

Alphabet Xs new Everyday Robot project wants to build robots that can learn - The Verge

The Army recently picked a couple of new robots to help troops in the field.

One is a new heavy robot designed to help bomb technicians and another robotic mule to carry a squads load on dismounted patrols.

Both are some of a larger effort to bring robotics technology into nearly every area of Army operations.

The Small Multipurpose Equipment Transport, formerly known as the Squad Multipurpose Equipment Transport, was selected in recent weeks following a process that began in 2017, according to an Army release.

The SMET, which will be produced by General Dynamic Land Systems, will include both unmanned and optionally manned capabilities with the capability of carrying 1,000 pounds, operating over a distance of 60 miles in a 72-hour period while also producing 3kw of power while stationary and 1kw while moving to charge or run equipment and batteries.

The program is aimed at taking the burden off soldiers by carrying water, ammunition, batteries and other heavy items needed to sustain a squad in remote environments.

But, the platform can also be tailored to specific missions such as running remote weapons stations, casualty evacuation and launching unmanned aerial systems or conducting reconnaissance.

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From November 2017 over the next 12 months, four company prototypes were evaluated by soldiers with the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, New York and 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky and Marine units from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

The Common Robotic System Heavy, or CRS-H, increases standoff for Explosive Ordnance Disposal soldiers with enhanced capabilities to detect, identify, access, render safe, exploit and dispose of heavy explosive ordnance, according to an Army release.

That heavy designation gives EOD techs more tools to deal with a wider range of options that go beyond Improvised Explosive Devices commonly encountered in recent years. It allows them to deal with vehicle-borne IEDs and Weapons of Mass Destruction items.

The CRS-H includes a camera, secure radios, radio relay to extent ranges in urban and complex terrain, a manipulator arm, cargo carrier rack and operational control unit.

The arm can lift more than 275 pounds near its chassis and 100 pounds when nearly fully extended. And the robot can move faster than 6 miles per hour, clear obstacles higher than 32 inches and run for 7 hours.

We develop equipment for Soldiers to use in demanding situations, and there is no substitute for their perspective in operating the system - their input is of utmost value, said Maj. James Alfaro, chief EOD capability developer, Sustainment Capability Development and Integration Directorate, Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.

The Army ran soldier touchpoints in late 2018 at Fort Leonard Wood, in May and June 2019 at an urban training complex at Fort Hood, Texas.

At the end of those periods, the Army selected the FLIR Systems company to produce the robot, which a goal of acquiring 248 robots at a price tag of $109 million beginning deliveries in the coming summer.

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Soldiers soon to see robotic mules and tougher bomb bots in the field - ArmyTimes.com

SEATTLE, Nov. 22, 2019 /PRNewswire/ --IntuitiveX (IX), a Seattle-based life sciences consultancy and incubator, collaborates with NavLab to create more IP in the surgical robotics space.

NavLab, a portfolio company of IntuitiveX, has built a large IP portfolio comprising of new surgical robotics patents. Recently, with support from legendary inventor John Cronin, they have received another patent issuance that has extensive claims on how surgical robots will learn via machine-learning and neural networks. Claims in the patent key in on how surgeons will teach the robot at each step of any surgical procedure.

"We conducted a series of white space analysis and IP landscaping to determine and maximize the patent coverage for this new robotics patent," said Simon Robinson, Chief IP Officer of IntuitiveX. "In an industry where technology moves quickly it is never a good idea to have an application pending for years. By filing in less than a year, the IX team proved critical here."

Surgical robots are enhancing surgical procedures by allowing for more precise and reproducible results for patients and empowering less invasive surgical techniques. The surgical workflow when using a robot involves software for planning and performing parts of a surgical procedure. This software will advance to improve safety, efficiency, and outcomes for patients using algorithms, neural networks, and machine-learning. Over time, as surgeons utilize the surgical robots, accompanying software will become smarter to further improve surgery.

"At this time, we're recognizing that several surgical workflow systems have been introduced and new robots are entering the space in various subspecialties like general surgery, orthopedic surgery and ENT. This new patent issuance, ensures that ultimately surgeons who utilize robots are the best teacher for these systems to help improve surgical workflow," said Justin Esterberg, CEO of NavLab

About IntuitiveX

IntuitiveX is a Seattle-based life science consulting firm and incubator. With a team comprised of life science entrepreneurs, physicians, investors, and innovators, we bring a combined 100+ years of experience in R&D, Clinical, IP Strategy, Prototyping, Product Development, and Commercialization. We catalyze medical innovation by identifying novel and timely ideas and applying our resources to make them possible. From initial concept to final commercialization, IntuitiveX has the in-house knowledge and network to meet the unique needs of the most innovative life science companies in the world. http://www.intuitive-x.com

Press Contact: info@intuitive-x.com

SOURCE IntuitiveX

https://www.intuitive-x.com

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IntuitiveX and NavLab Co-Create Robotics IP Family to Improve Existing Surgical Robotics Solutions within the Life Sciences Space - PRNewswire

Alphabet, the parent company of Google, is getting back into robotics after a first attempt several years ago fizzled. But this time the company wants to create robots with minds of their own.

The company's R&D lab, known as X, announced theEveryday Robot Projecton Thursday, describing its efforts to build a new breed of robots infused with artificial intelligence. The goal is a robot that can be "taught" how do to something, rather than needing to be programmed by humans ahead of time to perform a chore.

"It's possible for robots to learn how to perform new tasks in the real world just through practice, rather than having engineers 'hand code' every new task, exception, or improvement," Hans Peter Brondmo, Alphabet X's "Chief Robot Whisperer", wrote in a blog post announcing the news Thursday.

The robots can learn by observing human demonstrations and by "shared experiences," the company said.

The X group said the robots were still years away from being available. But it described a vision of consumer robots capable of operating autonomously in homes and offices.

"This team's moonshot is to see if it's possible to make robots as helpful to people in the physical world as computers are now in the virtual world," the company said.

Alphabet has been testing the robots with simple tasks, like sorting garbage into landfill, compost, and recycling piles. Robots learned how to perform these tasks with a combination of simulation, reinforcement, and collaborative learning, according to Google. The company says that its success at this task proves that robots can learn new tasks in the real world through practice.

"Our next challenge is to see if we can take what the robot learned in this task and apply that learning to another task without rebuilding the robot or writing a ton of code from scratch. This could prove to be impossible, but we'll give it a shot," Brondmo wrote.

This isn't the first time Google hasbet on roboticsas the future of tech. In 2013, Google bought several top robotics companies, including Boston Dynamics, but the project was scrapped after two years and many of the acquired companies have been spun off. Now, Google seems to be picking up where it left off in a quest to build household robots.

This project could eventually be in direct competition withAmazon'sconsumer robot. The company is reportedly working on a robot codenamed "Vesta" that would act as a mobile version of theAlexavoice assistant.

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Google's Parent Company Alphabet Introduced a New Project Aimed at Developing A.I.-Enabled Robots That Learn on Their Own - Inc.

On Nov.9, Coach Lane Crosby packed her car with nine students, drove to Carolina Forest and had her students competed in the Grand Strand Qualifying Tournament, a competition apart of South Carolina first LEGO league.

The league holds these competitions to support the development of students with interest in engineering and science through STEM and robotics activities.

After months of hard work and practice, the Georgetown School of Arts & Science Robotics Team were ready to show-off their skills as they competed in their first competition of the year.

At Ten Oaks Middle School, teams displayed their research and demonstrate their Core Values at the 2019 League City Shaper.

Core Values that included discovery, teamwork, fairness, integrity, innovation, respect, impact, cooperation and mostly importantly fun.

Each team was given a challenge this year in order for them to demonstrate their unique innovation skill with LEGO robotics.

This years challenge was to create a robot that could help a blind person shop for groceries around the store.

Georgetowns team, named the Angry Nerds, students spoke with Food Lion employees, robotics experts Brian Anderson and people with visual impairments who shop at Food Lion to find the best solution to the problem.

What they came up with was a technologically solution, to put object detection devices on the front of grocery carts and create a map of the store on an existing app.

Coach Crosby helped navigate the kids research as they not only had to make and program the robot but make sure the missions were successful.

They had to design a robot and program the robot and thats was the third area. In the fourth area, they have to run the missions on this board Crosby said referring to the robotics board. In the championship, the team has to score a certain amount of points to be considered to move onward in the championship. She says that coaches arent with them as they present their project to judges and how they design and use it and answer judges questions. Six of the nine students were rookies but Crosby said they quickly got the hang of things. She said that the setting is different in most classrooms in which most of the students had to use STEM and teamwork to solve a problem.

I am really proud of these guys Crosby said Theyve really learned a lot in a short period of time and Im really thrilled the way they work together as a team.

Not only did they build the device but also shared their idea with the manager of Food Lion, two people with visual impairments and the SC Commission for the blind. Annika, one of the middle schoolers, help build the teams robot as part of the programming team.

We did good on a lot of things,Annika recalled But our robot was kind of acting up a bit. It was definitely a fun experience.

Crosby is proud of her students balance of the project, robot design, robot game and core values.

Although they did not win the champions award, Angry Nerds took home the Core Values Award giving them enough points to qualify for the state competition.

The team will be moving forward to the SC East State Regional competition at Cane Bay High School on December 14.

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'Angry Nerds' help the blind shop in robotics competition - South Strand news

Rutherford county students recently participated in the 2019 Music City BEST Robotics Competition where Rutherford County students made up nearly half of the competition.

Lipscomb University hosted the competition of 14 teams, of which six were from competing from Rutherford County.

The teams competed in a variety of categories such as BEST Exhibit Design and Construction, BEST Engineering Design and BEST Rookie team.

The six schools that participated were Blackman Middle, Christiana Middle, Rockvale Middle, Rocky Fork Middle, Stewarts Creek Middle and Thurman Francis Arts Academy.

Of the six teams competing many of them took home multiple awards including the highest honor for 1st place BEST Award for invitation to the regional tournament at Auburn University this award went to Stewarts Creek Middle.

Stewarts Creek Middle School team will travel to Auburn University for the South BEST Regional Competition in Auburn, Alabama.

A complete list of schools and their awards:

By KEAIRA LOLOW, Rutherford County Schools

Link:

Six Rutherford schools compete in Robotics competition - Murfreesboro Voice

Ariona Dowhitt, left, and Fawn Reese, right, look on as their teams robot goes about its various tasks. (Eric Stone/KRBD)

LEGOs are some of the most popular toys in the world. For most, theyre a fun way to build models and let the imagination run wild. But in Ketchikan, some students are using the Danish toy to learn about robotics, teamwork and sportsmanship.

Its a little after midday on a gloomy Sunday at the Plaza mall in Ketchikan. People are milling about doing some Christmas shopping.

But in one corner of the mall, theres a table set up with LEGOs. Four teams of elementary and middle schoolers from Ketchikan and Prince of Wales Island are putting the finishing touches on miniature LEGO robots.

Their goal? Improving the city. Well, a miniature city.

You have to make a project on how to make the world better, said Ketchikan student Satcha Breese. Hes with DJ Mama, one of two teams from the mixed-grade charter school.

The theme for this years FIRST Lego League competition is City Shaper, and it challenges kids to think about how to improve their built environment. Part of that is an original model, and teams get bonus points for outfitting their building with things like toy solar panels or rooftop gardens.

Heres how it works: the teams build and program their robots to complete certain jobs moving their original creation and some other colored blocks to circles on the printed rubber mat, freeing up a stuck swing, even clearing a traffic jam.

Each obstacle has a different set of points, said Jacob Alguire, a math and science teacher at Ketchikan Charter School. He coaches the schools two teams, DJ Mama and the Dragon Knights.

Like the traffic jam right there with the gray base and the blue levers. You get 10 points by lifting that up and effectively clearing the traffic jam.

Referees add up the score at the end of the round. But they deduct points if team members touch their robots while they go about their tasks.

The robot is supposed to autonomously solve all of these missions, Alguire said.

Its a three-round competition, so if something doesnt go right the first time, the kids can go back and tweak their robot and its program.

The Dragon Knights made some changes before the second round, says team member Chandler Reeve.

We dragged our blocks way too far, so then we went back to our program and we change it to go, like, not really that far from now were going to see how that goes this time, Reeve said.

Of course, not everything always goes according to plan.

Coach Alguire says the Dragon Knights missed one crucial step before round two.

So they forgot to upload the program that they want, he explained. And right now theyre scrambling in the very last second, like you would in any type of sports show theyre trying to fix everything at the last minute and see if they can get it working before they go up on the table.

Over on DJ Mamas side of the table, team member Fawn Breese says the program is a great way for kids to learn sportsmanship and team problem-solving.

It teaches teamwork and how to not be mean to the other teams and that were all people and we have to work together, Breese said.

DJ Mamas teamwork paid off they ended up outscoring their competitors by 70 points.

Lori Ortiz helped organize todays tournament. She wants to see the program expand to other Ketchikan-area schools and communities throughout Southeast.

We actually have some of these resources ready to go, Ortiz said. We have some computers, we have the LEGO programming, and we have the robot brains and the LEGO pieces. We just really want to build up more teams.

The only thing organizers say they need? More adults to volunteer as coaches so they can expand the competition in the years to come.

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LEGO robotics competition puts students' problem-solving skills to the test - KRBD

ELKHART Students at the E3Roboticsx Center have received grant funding for their robotics teams as they work to enhance their skills in science and engineering.

Bayer Fund, a philanthropic arm of Bayer, recently awarded four one-time grants in the amount of $5,000 to support its participation in the FIRST Robotics program. The awards included FIRST Robotics Competition teams, $3,000; FIRST Technology Challenge teams, $1,000, FIRST Lego League teams, $500; and Junior FLL teams, $500.

The teams will use support from their Bayer Fund grant to participate in FIRST Robotics educational programs and competitions. FIRST enables teams of students to compete with others in building, designing and programming their own robots to perform preassigned tasks, giving students a chance to get involved with real-world engineering.

Students who participate in FIRST Robotics programming learn STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) skills and become experienced problem solvers, said Michelle Insco,senior manager, community engagement. Bayer Fund prioritizes the investment in hands-on learning experiences for students like those at the E3 Robotics Center to encourage their development into future scientists, engineers, and computer programmers.

Bayer Funds sponsorship of FIRST Robotics teams continues the nonprofits support of programs that improve STEM education. Over the past five years, Bayer Fund has contributed over $40 million to STEM outreach efforts.

The E3 Robotics Center is offering educational support for schools, teachers, coaches and mentors looking for STEM-based training (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). Our mission at E3 Robotics Center, Inc. is to provide youth robotics programs to students K-12 and to focus on Exploration, Education and Engagement for students and for the community as we move forward as a federally approved 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, executive director Brian Boehler says.

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Team receives funds for robotics competition - The Elkhart Truth

Image: X

A team of roboticists, computer scientists, researchers, makers and builders at X, Alphabets moonshot factory, announced the first results of its Everyday Robot Project, which aims to bring robots out of structured environments and into the dynamic, everyday environments of our homes and workplaces.

The teams project lead, Hans Peter Brondmo, shared details of the teams progress on a Medium blog post. For the past few years, the project team has been working to determine whether it was possible to create robots that could be helpful, affordable, and able to help people with everyday tasks. The teams experimental system is exploring three questions:

The Everyday Robot Project aims to see whether a general-purpose robot can be created to help people with tasks in unstructured environments. Image: X

Brondmo, in his blog post, said recent advances in machine learning, combined with sophisticated sensor technology and low-cost hardware, mean that we are much closer than ever to robots becoming mainstream.

Brondmo said in order for this to happen, there needs to be a shift away from programming a robot, and teaching them instead:

For robots to be useful in everyday environments we need to move away from painstakingly coding them to do specific and structured tasks in exactly the right way at exactly the right time. We have concluded that you have to teach machines to perform helpful tasks; you cannot program them.

The teams first task was to see if a robot could learn how to sort waste from recyclables in their office. Image: X

The team chose a task (sorting waste from recyclables) that was complex enough to where the team wasnt sure whether it could be done, but not so difficult that it would take a year in order to determine whether it was possible.

In order to achieve this, the team used several machine learning techniques, including simulation, reinforcement learning, and collaborative learning, Brondmo reported. Each night, tens of thousands of virtual robots practice sorting the waste in a virtual office in our cloud simulator; we then move the training to real robots to refine their sorting ability, Brondmo wrote. This real-world training is then integrated back into the simulated training data and shared back with the rest of the robots so that the experience and learning of each robot is shared with them all.

Over the last few months, the robots sorted thousands of pieces of waste, reducing the offices waste contamination levels from 20% to less than 5%. Brondmo said the project showed they could create a robotic system that integrates the robots capabilities to do something generally useful, as well as prove that its possible for robots to learn how to perform new teasks in the real world through practice, rather than the programming for every new task.

Brondmo said the next challenge for the team is to see whether they can take what the robot learned from this task, and apply it to another task without rebuilding the robot or writing a ton of code from scratch. He admits that this could prove to be impossible, but well give it a shot.

The project team is promising more updates on its project page.

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The Everyday Robot Project Aims to Expand Usefulness of Robots - Robotics Business Review

From WCS InFocus

The combined Brentwood High and Brentwood Middle school Robotics Club achieved a first for the team in the 2019 Music City Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology (BEST) Tournament November 2.

This was the clubs fifth year competing in the BEST Tournament. They advanced to the semifinals for the first time in the clubs history. They also produced a perfectly scored engineering notebook that detailed the development process from brainstorming to production.

We improved last years performance in the field, said BHS Advanced Placement physics teacher Dr. Robert Marrero. We are confident we will do even better next year. These are exciting times for robotics.

The six-week competition is hosted by Lipscomb University. Each team must construct a robot using the provided kit. This year, the theme was Off the Grid. Teams were required to create a robot that could quickly repair downed power lines. Then they had to create a marketing presentation as well as an exhibit booth.

MORE SCHOOL NEWS

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Brentwood Middle, High Robotics Team Compete in BEST Tournament - Williamson Source

Last year, the White Pine County School District started a competitive VEX IQ robotics program at David E. Norman Elementary. Last years team included sixteen students, separated into four teams. This year, the program has expanded to include thirty students in grades 3-8 from McGill Elementary, DEN Elementary, and White Pine Middle School. The students are separated into 4 elementary-level teams and 4 middle school-level teams. The elementary teams, called the DENBots, are coached by Career and College Readiness specialist Caroline Murphree and the middle school teams, called the Electric Cougars, are coached by our new high school English teacher Deborah Nielson. The teams have competed and performed well in four tournaments so far this year.

In this years challenge, the student teams had to construct robots that are able move cubes and balls to scoring zones. The cubes are scored by either lifting them onto platforms or carrying them to color-coded scoring zones in the corners of the board. Balls are scored by putting them inside of or on top of the cubes. The competition is separated into the teamwork and skills challenges.

In the teamwork challenge, random pairs of teams have one minute to score as many points as possible. The teams with the highest average scores advance to a final round where the two teams who score the most points together become the teamwork champions.

In skills matches, teams drive by themselves and program their robots to score points autonomously. The scores from driving and programming are added together to give the total skills score and the highest scoring team is the skills champion.

The first annual White Pine VEX IQ Challenge Tournament was held in the DEN Gym on October 19th, attended only by local teams. At this tournament, the Buckin Engineers team (Michael Van Tassell, Guinevere Callender, and Carter Nielson) and Minotaur team (Tegan Ricci, Masson Blades, Caiden Castellano, and Camdon Weaver) were Teamwork Champions. Buckin Engineers also won the Excellence Award and the Skills Award. Wall-V (Samuel Sorensen and Mo Van Tassell) won the Design Award, Bots of Fire (Rebecca Murphree, Merissa Carson, Eva Sorensen, and Neah DeLaCerda) won the STEM Research Project Award, and Brainiacs (Duncan Hill, Jillian Bath, Chloe Hellmann, Jenny Nicolls, and Cecil Kunz) won the Judges Award.

On November 2, the Electric Cougars teams travelled to Farmington, Utah to compete in the Farmington VEX IQ Extravaganza. At the end of the qualification round, Buckin Engineers were in 2nd, Cobras (Crichton Swetich, Connor Hill, Caleb Hellmann, and Thomas Murphree) were in 9th, Wall-V were in 18th, and Bots of Fire were in 21st of 27 teams. Buckin Engineers, Cobras, and Wall-V all advanced to the finals round. Wall-V and their alliance partner, Team Tie Dye from Farmington, scored 40 points to finish in 8th place. The Cobras and their alliance partner, Disco DJs from Farmington, scored 34 points to finish in 9th place. The Buckin Engineers and their partner, RoboKnights B from Kaysville, scored 91 points to become the Teamwork Champions. Buckin Engineers also won the Design Award.

On November 9th the DENbots and the Electric Cougars both travelled to Lied STEM Academy in Las Vegas. At the end of the qualification round, Buckin Engineers were in 2nd, Wall-V in 5th, Brainiacs in 10th, Minotaur in 11th, Flying Unipiggies (Brindel Blades, Emery Balch, Catie Murphree, Breanna Nielson) in 15th, Nyan Weirdos (Kalli Ray, Tahlia Aquino, Kaleb Nielson, Landon Neilson) in 20th, Cobras in 22nd, and Bots of Fire in 25th of 38 teams. In the finals round, Flying Unipiggies and their alliance partner, Narwhals of Doom (an independent team from White Pine County), scored 40 points to finish in 5th place. Minotaur was disqualified due to a minor rule violation. Brainiacs, who were allied with C.O.L.T.S C from Canarelli Middle School in Las Vegas, scored 10 points to finish in 7th place. Wall-V was allied with Beeters from Engineering for Kids in Las Vegas and scored 71 points to finish 3rd. The Buckin Engineers and their alliance partner, 275A from Cram Middle School, scored 83 points to win the Teamwork Champions Award.

Finally, on November 16th, the teams competed at Green Valley High School in Henderson. After qualification, Minotaur was in 1st place, Buckin Engineers in 2nd, Cobras in 5th, Wall-V in 10th, Nyan Weirdos in 13th, Brainiacs in 17th, Bots of Fire in 19th, and Flying Unipiggies in 27th of 31 teams. In the final round, Wall-V and their partner, C.O.L.T.S G from Canarelli Middle School, scored 82 points to finish 2nd. The Cobras, who were allied with Robot Squad from Engineering for Kids, scored 41 points to finish 5th. The Buckin Engineers and Minotaur were allied together in the top seed scoring 86 points to become Teamwork Champions again!

Mrs. Murphree and Mrs. Nielson are excited about how well the teams are doing and are looking forward to a successful season this year with such a promising start. There are a few more regular tournaments in December and January. The Elementary State Championship and the Middle School Championship, which determine advancement to national and world-wide competitions, will take place in February.

We would like to thank Mt. Wheeler Power, Robinson Mine, Tesla, and the Robot Education Competition Foundation for sponsoring our program!

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White Pine Robotics teams off to a great start - Ely Daily Times

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The "Warehouse Robotics - Market Analysis, Trends, and Forecasts" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The Warehouse Robotics market worldwide is projected to grow by US$3.2 Billion, driven by a compounded growth of 11.6%.

Mobile, one of the segments analyzed and sized in this study, displays the potential to grow at over 12.7%. The shifting dynamics supporting this growth makes it critical for businesses in this space to keep abreast of the changing pulse of the market. Poised to reach over US$1.8 Billion by the year 2025, Mobile will bring in healthy gains adding significant momentum to global growth.

Representing the developed world, the United States will maintain a 10.2% growth momentum. Within Europe, which continues to remain an important element in the world economy, Germany will add over US$127.6 Million to the region's size and clout in the next 5 to 6 years. Over US$103.2 Million worth of projected demand in the region will come from the rest of the European markets.

In Japan, Mobile will reach a market size of US$69.8 Million by the close of the analysis period. As the world's second largest economy and the new game changer in global markets, China exhibits the potential to grow at 15% over the next couple of years and add approximately US$774.4 Million in terms of addressable opportunity for the picking by aspiring businesses and their astute leaders.

Presented in visually rich graphics are these and many more need-to-know quantitative data important in ensuring quality of strategy decisions, be it entry into new markets or allocation of resources within a portfolio. Several macroeconomic factors and internal market forces will shape growth and development of demand patterns in emerging countries in Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Middle East.

All research viewpoints presented are based on validated engagements from influencers in the market, whose opinions supersede all other research methodologies.

Competitors identified in this market include:

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/9nrrq9

Read more:

Analysis on the World's Warehouse Robotics Market, 2019-2025 - The United States Will Maintain a 10.2% Growth Momentum - ResearchAndMarkets.com -...

Just to let you know, if you buy something featured here, Mashable might earn an affiliate commission.Learn about STEM while having fun.

Image: dji

By StackCommerceMashable Shopping2019-11-23 10:00:00 UTC

As fun as it is to indulge in theories about robots taking over, it would be unwise for us to fear technology.

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4. Ryze Tech Tello Quadcopter Iron Man Edition Powered by DJI

The Iron Man edition of the DJI Tello Quadcopter is no different than the original from a mechanical standpoint. However, the Marvel collaboration comes dressed in Iron Man graphics and is accompanied by bespoke features: The Tello Hero App lets you complete immersive missions in the world of Tony Stark, and you can even program the drone to mimic the movements of the Iron Man suit.

Price: $129. Buy it here.

If you're looking for more deals on innovative products, you're in luck. Black Friday is around the corner so you can now get these top sellers at deep discounts.

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DJIs new line of STEM-focused drones and robots make great gifts - Mashable