HINGHAM, Mass. and CAESAREA, Israel, Nov. 26, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- XACT Robotics Ltd. today announced it will debut its first-to-market hands-free robotic technology at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) 2019 Annual Meeting in Chicago, IL on December 1 6, 2019. XACT Robotics will be exhibiting at booth #1650 located in the First-Time Exhibitor Pavilion where attendees will have access to:

Interactive demos of the XACT Robotics hands-free technologyFace time with Nahum Goldberg, MD, Ph.D. (Jerusalem, Israel) and Sebastian Flacke, MD, Ph.D. (Burlington, MA) sharing their early experiences with the XACT Robotic SystemIn addition, XACT was selected to present its robotic technology at the Innovation Theater, booth #4700, on Monday, December 3rd at 3 PM Central Standard Time (CST).

Ad StatisticsTimes Displayed: 8639Times Visited: 80

Founded by Harel Gadot, a renowned entrepreneur in the MedTech robotics space, XACT Robotics technology is based on research originally conducted at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology, by Prof. Moshe Shoham, founder of Mazor Robotics (acquired by Medtronic in 2018).

For the latest updates on XACT Robotics, follow the company on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

About XACT RoboticsFounded in 2013, XACT Robotics Ltd., is a privately held company with offices in Hingham, MA, and Caesarea, Israel. XACT Robotics is pioneering the first hands-free robotic system, combining image-based planning and navigation with instrument insertion and steering capabilities to democratize interventional medicine for multiple stakeholders including technologists, doctors, health system providers, payors and patients, delivering accurate, consistent and efficient results for percutaneous interventional radiology procedures.

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XACT Robotics debuts its robotic technology at RSNA - DOTmed HealthCare Business News

NAGOYA More and more unmanned cleaning robots are being used in Japan, mainly at public transportation facilities, amid severe labor shortages.

Faced with difficulties securing enough workers, Central Japan Railway Co. started using four robots this year to clean Nagoya Station and other locations, hoping that using the robots expected to cover most of the necessary cleaning work will help save on labor costs.

In the wee hours, automated robots scrub the floors at Nagoya Station with water. In February, two robots joined 50 human staff to perform cleaning work.

We can reduce the cost of hiring and training, a JR Central official said.

JR Central has also introduced cleaning robots at offices and commercial facilities.

In the half year from May, SoftBank Robotics Corp. put on the market over 1,000 units of a new type of carpet cleaning robot, reflecting rising demand for such robots for use at offices and hotels.

If the robot is guided once by hand along a cleaning route, it will memorize that route and clean the area automatically.

At Narita International Airport near Tokyo, over 10 cleaning robots have been introduced since November.

Ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Games, well make robots do work that cleaning staff do now so the staff can focus on work requiring more skills, an official at Narita International Airport Corp. said.

East Japan Railway Co., or JR East, has been using cleaning robots at major stations since 2016.

It looks difficult to switch fully to robots for cleaning work because cleaning some places, such as wall corners and braille blocks, still needs to be done by humans, said an official from JR East Environment Access Co., a cleaning unit of JR East. But the official was hopeful that future technological innovations would enable robots to do that work, too.

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Robots cleaning up at stations and airports in labor-hungry Japan - The Japan Times

Rampaging killer tyrant robots. In the movies, they keep subjecting humans to their own systems of oppression. My favorite is when they mechanize all human operations and sequester them in Matrix-like pods.

Cinematic simulations aside, these types of fears are held by eminent minds. In his final book, Brief Answers to the Big Questions, Stephen Hawking describes a futuristic scene where crookedly programmed robots hack into vital facilities and take over the world. Neil deGrasse Tyson and Elon Musk also share the apocalyptic fear, while Jeff Bezos expresses it with less intimidation. Theoretical physicist Michio Kaku thinks the threat of AI will materialize not for us, but for our grandkids. Once robots gain self-awareness, he says, realizing theyre indeed robots, they could pose some kind of intended threat against humanity. Fueling the dystopian vision is Kakus idea that humans will be genetically and cybernetically fused with robots at that point, a cinematically seductive Franken-entanglement sure to bewitch another generation of sci-fi addicts.

Whether the fears are just products of busy imaginations and automation or are apocalyptically accurate depends on various factors and, I think, whether AI and robots are automated with high emotional quotients (EQs). Emotively programming robots makes perfect ethical and fiscal sense. Robots are designed to do human work. They usually cobot alongside humans, and as Facebooks Chief AI Scientist, Yann LeCun, has pointed out, were not going to have a ton of intelligence without emotions anyway. Its even comforting to think that consumers are paying to control the programming direction of AI with their needs and wants and businesses should heed that call. Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft and other major tech companies have already begun, and McKinsey reports that the number of jobs related to developing and deploying new technologies, including AI- and automation-related jobs, will grow to 20 to 50 million globally by 2030.

Have no fear. By tooling AI with high EQ under the same rules that have been prescribed in ethics and wartime, AI and robotics products will sell better, because they will coalesce with human wants and needs. Its an approach that my business associates and I take and I think all business leaders should adopt as well.

Asimov And Aristotle

Coupling Isaac Asimovs Laws of Robotics with Aristotles virtue ethics builds a rational foundation for AI and robotic behavior. Asimovs three laws state that robots must not injure but aid humans, must obey human directives that don't conflict with the first law and must protect themselves, except when doing so conflicts with the first two laws. Virtue ethics is Aristotles ethical system of emphasizing and exercising the classic virtues. Its the first normative system of ethics established and exercised continuously in the West and is still taught in university courses today.

Whether AI is programmed to mine data for commerce or robots are developed for military use, if the products arent solely manufactured to aid, I believe they should expressly be forbidden.

The 2012 Directive

Like Hawking, deGrasse Tyson, Musk and Bezos, ex-Google engineer Laura Nolan also fears killer robots, and, like them, not without reason. Despite the Department of Defenses 2012 3000.09 Directive that established ethical navigation rules for autonomous and semi-autonomous systems, martial technology, in awful times, has destroyed lives. The directive states that vehicles shall be designed to allow commanders and operators to exercise appropriate levels of human judgment over the use of force. Additionally, these cobotic vehicles can be used to select and crush targets with the exception of selecting humans as targets. Even though this is the mandate, we have seen mistakes, and the challenge of keeping the tech safe from cyberattacks will always be paramount.

Nolan says, There could be large-scale accidents because these things will start to behave in unexpected ways, perhaps stoking the same robot self-awareness projection as Kaku. Nolan should place the directive at the heart of the campaign to block killer robots, and businesses can and should, together with Asimovs laws and Aristotles virtue ethics, use it as a foundation for programming. Doing so will help aid some of the practical and emotional needs the consumer nation is experiencing today.

The Robot Story

Understanding the robot story could help facilitate more confidence. Way before Norbert Wiener published his seminal book on cybernetics in 1948, the ancient imagination was already familiar with robots. In the 10th century B.C.E., artificer Yen Shih purportedly presented King Mu with an automaton, and Homer populated his tales with mythic automata servants that appeased the gods while cybernetic statues teased Athenians on their way to the agora. History reveals that robots are created with the singular purpose to assist humans, not replace or trounce them like they do in Blade Runner. If we keep one lens on history, we see that the reasons to furnish AI with EQ tech are organic.

AI platforms will keep entering the market, and all of them will seek to aid humanity, especially in areas with close robot-human contact. Nova reports American seniors will need 3.5 million additional healthcare workers by 2030. Given that one-on-one support is often unaffordable, robots may become suitable human replacements. Ironically, the demographic that is criticized the most for not embracing change will likely be the front-line adopters of robotic technology. Thus, the time to program AI applications with high EQs is now.

Prometheus created man. Victor Frankenstein created monster. The next fear is what the monster will create. At the shaky heart lies a phobia of change, but I believe automation unease will be eclipsed by the assets of AI and robotics. Value is the marauder of unctuous fears. DXC Technology reports, Using robotics enables us to spend more time on value-adding activity for our clients, rather than data entry and manipulation. Robotics saves. If AI and robotics applications mirror human needs and are built with EQ steeped in ethics, these inevitable machines could scale faster and maybe even help save the world rather than destroy it.

Link:

Can High-EQ Robots Save The World? - Forbes

The South Florida Science Center & Aquarium was recently awarded a $100,000 grant through the Stiles-Nicholson Foundation to help increase STEM education for Palm Beach County students, galvanizing the community around a common goal to expand local FIRST robotics programs.

This award is an addition to a recent $50,000 STEM Equity Community Innovation Grant received by the Palm Beach County School District from FIRST, the worlds leading youth-serving nonprofit advancing STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education.

Working collaboratively, the Palm Beach County School District, the South Florida Science Center & Aquarium and Green Mouse Academy have already begun to implement an innovative FIRST Lego League program expansion for students from pre-K through grade four, which will provide robotics equipment labs, curriculum, certified training and ongoing job-embedded coaching for teachers and afterschool programs at multiple local elementary schools, allowing 750 more students and 12 elementary schools to discover hands-on, STEM robotics through project-based learning as they research and explore a real-world challenge.

This years FIRST global robotics theme challenges students to imagine and create a building that solves a problem and makes life easier, happier or more connected, and then use Lego robotics to design and program their Boomtown Build.

At the Science Center, we want to open every mind to science, and we are grateful to our partner organizations for making this happen, and we are proud to be a host for this incredible program, said Kate Arrizza, CEO of the Science Center.

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) continues to grow in Palm Beach County, engaging more than 3,000 students annually through age-appropriate afterschool learning opportunities and local competition teams. Leadership and support from the local community is a key reason that Palm Beach County was selected to receive this highly competitive grant, joining eight other winning communities from more than 270 applicants nationwide.

With the generous local funding received from the Stiles-Nicholson Foundation and the leadership support of the South Florida Science Center and of the school districts Department of Teaching & Learning K-12 STEM Team, we expect to see a significant impact on the local community, and we hope to see this project serve as a model emulated throughout the country, said Shane Vander Kooi, president of Green Mouse Academy.

The project seeks to test several innovations designed to engage more students, teachers and schools. It also seeks to bridge applied learning experiences that occur informally at community locations, like the South Florida Science Center, with formal classroom instruction provided during the school day.

According to the latest 2018 PISA report on international student assessment, the United States ranked 18th out of 77 nations in science literacy and China ranked #1. We can do better, said David Nicholson, founder of the Stiles-Nicholson Foundation. We need to encourage more students to pursue STEM careers. FIRST Robotics is fun, project-based learning, which motivates youngsters to learn more about science and consider it as a career. The FIRST Lego League program stimulates excitement, engagement and team-building while teaching students the needed skill sets of tomorrow.

A key aim of this grant is to support communities with underserved and underrepresented students and help them develop new, innovative approaches to tackle the education gap. Over the long-term, this will not only address the STEM education needs of students but develop a local pipeline of talent and help position the future community workforce for success.

We need kids of all backgrounds, capabilities and social circumstances to contribute to innovation and participate in addressing the worlds toughest challenges, said Donald E. Bossi, president of FIRST. We hope that these resources enable underserved and underrepresented students to realize their full potential and have the self-confidence to do anything they set their mind to.

The mission of the South Florida Science Center & Aquarium is to open every mind to science and in addition to its fresh and saltwater aquarium and new Fisher Family Science Trail, the indoor/outdoor venue features more than 100 hands-on educational exhibits, a digital planetarium, conservation research station, Florida exhibit hall, the pre-K focused Discovery Center, an interactive Everglades exhibit and the 18-hole Conservation Course an outdoor putting course with science-focused education stations. The newest addition includes a $2.5 million permanent exhibit, Journey Through the Human Brain and features the most advanced neuroscience research and technology in the world.

The South Florida Science Center and Aquarium is located at 4801 Dreher Trail North in West Palm Beach. For more information, call (561) 832-1988 or visit http://www.sfsciencecenter.org.

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Science Center Grant Will Expand FIRST Robotics Program - Town-Crier

The development of robotic technology and artificial intelligence (AI) is increasing at a rapid pace. Where once, robots were experimental lab-based creations that were a little shaky on their feet. They are now ready to come into our home to help us with our lives.

Dont think that you will never need a robot in your home or life? Think back to a time (not that long ago) when you used a camera to take photos, a personal CD player for music and wrote to or rang people to stay in touch. Do you still carry all three devices, or are you one the estimated 5 billion smartphone users worldwide? The point is that technology is already very much part of our daily lives so the leap to robots becoming indispensable family members is not so huge a leap.

Robots In The Home

Lets start with robots in the home. You might already have a handy robot hoover to help you keep the house free from dust and debris but there are even more helpful robots that can do so much more.

These range from information giving kitchen robots like Mykie to the super impressive robotic limbs known as Moley. Mykie is the smaller of the two, an information giver which can look up recipes and project videos to assist you in the kitchen. Moley goes not just one step but a few steps further. Moley is a robotic kitchen that will cook you a delicious meal and then - and this may be the best bit - Moley will clean up after itself.

Ever felt like you could do with an extra pair of hands? You may have your wish come true sooner than you expect. Robots are now able to help you with mundane chores like folding clothes, cleaning windows, mopping and fetching items from around the home. There are even personal assistant robots or Smart assistants that may just become the side-kick you have always dreamed of explains John Alvarez, a blogger at Britstudent and 1day2write.

Health Robots

Perhaps one of the biggest impacts that robots will have on our lives is our health. There are already a number of health service robots on the market. These include humanoids, robots that have physical human features, like Romeo. Romeo could revolutionize the lives of our elderly family members. Designed to assist those who have lost their autonomy, Romeo helps in a way that restores independence to a degree. Romeo is practical and will help to open doors, remind you to take your medications and write grocery lists. Romeo can also make conversation and suggest games that you can play together. Could Romeo be the missing link in our aging societies where loneliness has become an epidemic?

A smaller, but also impressive, option for health is Pillo the pint-sized healthcare assistant. A brilliant addition to a healthy lifestyle, Pillo not only monitors but also dispenses medication. Pillo can also help you keep track of your food intake, making healthy eating that bit easier in a busy life.

Encouraging more movement for improved health whilst also being incredibly useful are Pepper and Gita Bot. The latter looks like a large plastic drum with a tyre on either side. Look closer and you will see that Gita can, in fact, open up to carry 40lbs of shopping or schoolbooks or luggage for example. What is special about Gita is that the robot is designed to follow you as you walk. Making it easier to build a little exercise into your day without the strain of carrying heavy loads yourself.

Pepper is a little more sophisticated. Ever been to the gym and not really known what to do or decided to slack off earlier and hit the jacuzzi? Pepper is the personal trainer robot of your dreams. Pepper has been proven to improve the results of people taking the Couch to 5km challenge. By monitoring your heart rate and offering words of support and encouragement, Pepper will get you up and running - literally!

Delivery Robots

Outside of the home, robots are being tested in more areas of busy towns and cities. Amazon has been open for a while about plans to use drones as part of its delivery service. Look up in certain areas of the UK and US and you might just spot them testing delivery drones near you says Martha Cross, a tech writer at Writemyx and Nextcousework.

Closer to the ground, on sidewalks in Berkley, California, you might spot small four-wheeled delivery bots called Kiwibots zipping around the town delivering piping hot burritos to hungry students. These arent the only robots on campus either. In August 2019, Starship Technologies deployed thousands of their four-wheeled delivery robots to campuses around the US.

With services robots already offering convenient solutions for busy lives, it is easy to see how they will become common staples of our homes and lives in the very near future.

______________________________________________________________________________

Michael Dehoyos is a marketing guru who regularly contributes to Phd Kingdom and Academic britsamong others. Michaels strategic marketing approach is much sought after by companies looking to break through the noise and get their brands known. He also writes for Origin Writings service blog.

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Service Robots Are Coming To Your Door - Robotics Tomorrow

HILLSBOROUGH, NJ A first year rookie robotics team of sixth graders from Hillsborough won first place in the North NJ Regional Championship for First Lego League Robotics for their research project called Griggstown Causeway Traffic Management.

Team RoboWarriors is made up of students from Auten Rd Intermediate School including: Ahaan Chhabria, Aneesh Natu, Ashay Hajarnis, Khoi Hoang, Rohaan Shah and Shane Khurana. They are coached by first time rookie coaches.

FIRST Lego League (FLL) is a Robotics Program for kids 9 to 14 years where teams across the globe complete in four areas including: robot design, robot mission/game; core values of the league like teamwork, innovation, and discovery; and research project where the topic varies every year.

This year the topic for the competition was to identify a problem in your community, research it, find a solution and share it.

Their research research project "Griggstown Causeway Traffic Management" identified the one lane bridge traffic issue as a major problem faced by Hillsborough Township and neighboring communities.

The team did a survey of the community to identify pain points, they developed a traffic management solution using traffic lights, sensors, automation and cameras. They shared this solution and received feedback from professionals in the field.

Qualifying completions were held across the state in November in different cities. RoboWarriors competed in the BoroBlast qualifier that Hillsborough High School hosts every year.

Twenty-four teams competed at the qualifier event where Team RoboWarriors won first place for their research project. They were one of the five teams and the only one from Hillsborough to qualify for the North NJ Regional Championship held Dec. 14 and 15 at Mt Olive High School.

This is where RoboWarriors won the first place award for the research project among 80 teams at this championship.

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Hillsborough Robotics Team Wins 1st Place In Championship - Hillsborough, NJ Patch

The robot uprising forged in the Terminator movies is one step closer to reality.

On Thursday, Toyota debuted its new, upgraded humanoid robot, the T-HR3, which is controlled remotely by someone wearing a headset and wiring on their arms. Toyota claims that in the future, this machine, which is smoother, lighter and easier to use than past models, could be used to perform surgery in a distant place where a doctor cannot travel. It also might allow people to feel like theyre participating in events they cant actually attend, according to the Associated Press.

That same day, it was announced that Swiss researchers developed a light, quick robotic bug called the DEAnsect, which can withstand several whacks from a flyswatter and can survive being stepped on by a shoe. The miniature robot was designed with dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs), artificial muscles, a microcontroller for a brain and photodiodes as eyes. The bug, which weighs less than a gram, can carry five times its weight, recognize black-and-white patterns and follow lines drawn on the ground.

This technique opens up new possibilities for the broad use of DEAs in robotics, for swarms of intelligent robotic insects, for inspection or remote repairs, or even for gaining a deeper understanding of insect colonies by sending a robot to live amongst them, Herbert Shea, a member of the research team with cole Polytechnique Fdrale de Lausanne, told SiliconRepublic.

As if swarms of robotic bugs werent scary enough Shea said eventually they will be able to talk to themselves. Were currently working on an untethered and entirely soft version with Stanford University. In the longer term, we plan to fit new sensors and emitters to the insects so they can communicate directly with one another.

These are just two of the latest creations from mad scientists. Here are more bots some with eerily prescient automated intelligence that is being created behind closed doors.

The Bot Dog that can open doors

This four-legged creature which looks as unsettling as the killer robot dogs from Black Mirror, was developed by the secretive company Boston Dynamics a private firm that was bought by Google parent company Alphabet but sold to WeWork parent SoftBank Group in 2017. While Spot was initially used for research, Boston Dynamics announced in September that it will start selling the dog which can run, unlock and open doors, pick itself up, operate in a variety of weather and challenging terrain and even dance to select early customers. Fun times.

Atlas: The parkour robot

This humanoid robot is also brought to us by the kind folks at Boston Dynamics. Atlas can run, jump, do backflips and actually perform parkour stunts. As the companys YouTube account notes, the control software uses the whole body including legs, arms and torso, to marshal the energy and strength for jumping over the log and leaping up the steps without breaking its pace. Some claim Atlas could be useful in wars, and it is reminiscent of the early bots featured in The Terminator.

RiSE: The Climbing Robot.

Boston Dynamics, Stanford University, Carnegie Mellon University, UC Berkeley and Lewis & Clark University all collaborated to build this bioinspired climbing robot that looks like a clunky scorpion and has no problem crawling up trees, poles, stucco and brick.

The WildCat

This Boston Dynamics robot, roughly the size of a miniature horse, is a four-legged robot being developed to run fast on all types of terrain, according to the companys YouTube page. The WildCat, so far, has run at about 19 mph on flat terrain using bounding and galloping gaits, according to the company. An earlier, smaller version, called The Cheetah, has achieved speeds of almost 30 mph.

GhostSwimmer drone

Jaws has nothing on this guy as robots are also invading the seas. Brought to us by the U.S. Navy and Boston Engineering, this underwater drone is the size of an albacore tuna but looks just like a shark. According to Wired, it can operate in water as shallow as 10 inches or dive down to 300 feet. It can be controlled remotely via a 500-foot tether, or swim independently.

Sophia the robot lady

And of course, theres Sophia. Developed by Hanson Robotics, this humanoid personifies our dreams for the future of AI. Sophia is simultaneously a human-crafted science fiction character depicting the future of AI and robotics, and a platform for advanced robotics and AI research, the company said. Sophia, who has been interviewed on The Tonight Show, Today and CNBC, is the worlds first robot citizen and the first robot Innovation Ambassador for the United Nations Development Programme. Sophia and her robot boyfriend, Han, like to debate the future of humanity.

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Meet the creepy robots poised to take over the world - New York Post

While Starsky Robotics says it remains committed to developing Level 4 autonomous vehicle technology, the companys over-the-road trucking fleet is not faring as well. Starsky recently decided to downsize the OTR fleet.

The 3-year-old startup is best known for its fully unmanned truck trip on a 9.4-mile stretch of public highway on the Florida Turnpike earlier this year. Less is known about Starskys small trucking fleet, founded in 2017 to generate revenue to fund its self-driving efforts.

In an email to drivers dated Dec. 4, Starsky stated that a significant downturn in rates the past few months caused the trucking company to operate at a loss.

The company also blamed increasing insurance premiums, equipment repairs and lease expenses as contributing to fourth-quarter losses in 2019.

These depressed market conditions and financial pressures have forced us to re-evaluate the size of our over-the-road trucking operations to remain viable, according to the email sent to truck drivers from Starskys operations team.

Starsky, headquartered in San Francisco, had 20 drivers and 33 power units, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration SAFER website.

Starsky co-founder Stefan Seltz-Axmacher declined to comment about how many trucks, if any, were hauling freight as of press time on Dec. 23.

Seltz-Axmacher also failed to address rumors about the financial health of the other side of Starskys operations and its recent plans to ramp up to 25 driverless trucks by 2020.

Since 2017, Starsky has raised more than $20 million in equity from investors like Trucks VC and Shasta Ventures.

Starsky has won plaudits for its commitment to innovation. It recently was named No. 12 on the FreightTech 25 list. It faces stiff competition from other self-driving startups like TuSimple, which has raised around $298 million in the last six rounds of funding. United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS) has a minority stake in TuSimples autonomous trucking operation.

Plus.ai has raised around $200 million in its last three rounds of funding, according to Crunchbase, and Ike has raised $52 million in Series A funding.

Just days before Thanksgiving, Stacey Sprowl, a former truck driver for Starsky Robotics, said she was at home in Oklahoma waiting to hear from her dispatcher about her next load when she received instructions to drive her tractor-trailer nearly 200 miles to Dallas and turn in her leased equipment.

After cleaning out her truck, she drove it to Dallas, and Starsky paid for her rental car to drive back home.

I was told we were going with new leasing companies for our equipment and I would be assigned a new truck and trailer on Dec. 2, Sprowl told FreightWaves. The following Monday and Tuesday came and went with no word about my new truck assignment, then on Wednesday I found out the company was downsizing and my services were no longer needed.

I was really upset it was the best place I had worked and they paid me 50 cents per mile if I hit a certain number of miles each month, which I always did, Sprowl said.

One vendor, who is owed more than $7,000 from Starsky, said the company always paid its invoices on time until just prior to its downsizing announcement regarding its trucking fleet.

I never had any problems before, but then just like that, they stopped communicating with me about my outstanding invoices, the vendor, who did not want to be named, told FreightWaves. The company relied on brokerage freight and leased all of its equipment, so I can see why they werent able to make a profit.

The company stressed that it isnt ceasing operations at this time and if freight conditions improve in early 2020, Starsky may reach out to drivers to determine their availability to return to work.

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Starsky Robotics downsizes over-the-road trucking fleet - FreightWaves

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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Global Surgical Robots for the Spine Market 2019 Interpretation and Benefit Growth Mazor Robotics, Intuitive Surgical, Medtech SA - Filmi Baba

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

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

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

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.

Read more from the original source:

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.

Go here to see the original:

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.

Here is the original post:

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