Monthly Archives: February 2017

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Intuition Robotics raised $6 million for its ElliQ elder care assistant robot TechCrunch Intuition Robotics, maker of elder care assistant ElliQ, announced today that it has raised $6 million in funding from iRobot and equity crowdfunding platform OurCrowd. With the funding, the Jerusalem-based company plans to open an office in the Bay ... OurCrowd & iRobot Invest in Intuition RoboticsCrowdfund Insider AI startup coming to Silicon Valley with robot companion for elderlySilicon Valley Business Journal Intuition Robotics Raises $6M in Total FundingFinSMEs (blog) The Times of Israel all 5 news articles »

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Intuition Robotics raised $6 million for its ElliQ elder care assistant robot - TechCrunch

A new nonprofit organization called the Milwaukee Robotics Coalition is launching on Feb. 25.

The group is dedicated to supporting science, technology, engineering, art and math (STEAM) education initiatives.

The MRC Launch Party, which isfree and open to the public, will be held at the 42 Lounge at 326 E. Mason St. from 6:30 pm. to 9 p.m.

MRC is an all-volunteer organization that intends to raise money and provide resources for local school robotics teams. The group is also planning to eventually develop a robotics innovation facility and create a professional network of volunteers to get involved with STEAM initiatives.

The MRCs primary focus after its launch will be to get local schools involved in the FIRST Robotics Competition, which is an international league of high school robotics teams who build and program robots to play certain games in tournaments.

The Alliance for Science & Technology Research in Americas 2016 survey indicated that nearly 30 percent of students more than 1.6 million say they would like to pursue STEM in their futures. Active participation in robotics is a great way to get them involved at an early age, said MRC Board PresidentPaul Jutrzonka. Were looking forward to a fun and informational night as the Milwaukee Robotics Coalition makes its presence known and begins its work with individuals, businesses and organizations throughout the area.

The launch party on Feb. 25 will give those interested in learning more about the nonprofit and its mission a chance to meet with MRC board members.

Those interested in learning more about the MRC are encouraged to visit the groups website and Facebook page.

A new nonprofit organization called the Milwaukee Robotics Coalition is launching on Feb. 25.

The group is dedicated to supporting science, technology, engineering, art and math (STEAM) education initiatives.

The MRC Launch Party, which isfree and open to the public, will be held at the 42 Lounge at 326 E. Mason St. from 6:30 pm. to 9 p.m.

MRC is an all-volunteer organization that intends to raise money and provide resources for local school robotics teams. The group is also planning to eventually develop a robotics innovation facility and create a professional network of volunteers to get involved with STEAM initiatives.

The MRCs primary focus after its launch will be to get local schools involved in the FIRST Robotics Competition, which is an international league of high school robotics teams who build and program robots to play certain games in tournaments.

The Alliance for Science & Technology Research in Americas 2016 survey indicated that nearly 30 percent of students more than 1.6 million say they would like to pursue STEM in their futures. Active participation in robotics is a great way to get them involved at an early age, said MRC Board PresidentPaul Jutrzonka. Were looking forward to a fun and informational night as the Milwaukee Robotics Coalition makes its presence known and begins its work with individuals, businesses and organizations throughout the area.

The launch party on Feb. 25 will give those interested in learning more about the nonprofit and its mission a chance to meet with MRC board members.

Those interested in learning more about the MRC are encouraged to visit the groups website and Facebook page.

See original here:

New nonprofit organization, Milwaukee Robotics Coalition, to launch - BizTimes.com (Milwaukee)

Members of the Richmond High School robotics team are staying busy this winter as they prepare to face off with area schools at this years district competitions.

The team, which comprises nearly two dozen members, is set to take part in the 2017 FIRST Robotics district competitions this spring. Events are set to take place March 17 and 18 at Waterford High School and April 7 and 8 at Marysville High School.

If the team gains enough success and earns enough points at the district level, it will be able to attend the state and world competitions later this year.

FIRST Robotics, an international high school robotics competition, challenges high school teams coached by mentors to build robots that are able to complete tasks within a game. Because the challenge is different each year, teams must build new robots, encouraging them to be innovative and learn new skills.

The mission of FIRST Robotics is to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders by engaging them in exciting mentor-based programs that build science, engineering and technology skills, that inspire innovation and that foster well-rounded life capabilities including self-confidence, communication and leadership, the organizations website states.

Students have just six weeks to design, build and program the robots. Participating can be expensive, so teams must fundraise during the non-competition season and come up with a business plan, reaching out to the community to gain support.

On Jan. 7, the team at Richmond High School received the name of this years game: FIRST Steamworks. The steampunk-themed challenge is based on steam and focuses on powering an airship.

This is the first year humans will be on the field with their robots.

Robots built by the team or alliance as it is called in competition can shoot fuel, consisting of small yellow balls, into a boiler and put gears on pedestals to turn rotors, said Nicholas Matthes, a third-year member of the Richmond team. By shooting the fuel into the boiler, it earns points and kPa, or kilopascals, for the alliance. The kilopascals are steam to prepare the airship for takeoff.

Every rotor that is turning by putting gears together earns 50 points, he added. If robots are hanging by a rope off of the airship at the end of the round, the alliance gains another 50-point bonus.

Matthes, a junior at Richmond High who currently serves on the team as a co-mechanical lead, said the squad has continued to grow and improve since he joined in 2015.

To see the team grow as much as it has is tremendous, he said. Were now at 22 members and striving further and further.

For more information about FIRST Robotics, visit firstinspires.org.

Emily Pauling is an editorial assistant at The Voice. She can be contacted at 586-273-6200 or epauling@digitalfirstmedia.com.

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Richmond robotics team gears up for districts - New Baltimore Voice Newspapers

Three Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart students sit in the corner of a classroom discussing a metal device about the size of a milk crate.

The girls, members of the school's Robotics Club, are taking part in the Illinois State Championship at Elgin Community College on Feb. 25. Today, they are figuring how to make their robot shoot a ball through a hoop or up a ramp.

Nearby, two more club members are planning a workshop for visiting students from St. Malachy School in Chicago that will instruct the students on how to design and program a robot.

The Robotics Club at Woodlands Academy in Lake Forest has been growing. Just two years ago it only had five or six consistent members. This year it us up to 21 members, said club moderator and physics teacher John Denman.

"I think they have a lot more STEM-focused classes here," said Genevieve Makowski. "And I bugged some of my friends to join."

Club member Elizabeth Bartusiak said the nature of the group has changed, making it more appealing to new members.

"It's more about bringing in members who have no experience about robotics," she said.

Designing, programming and constructing robots is largely a process of learning from your past mistakes.

"My whole four years has been trial and error," Bartusiak said. "One failed idea takes us to our next successful idea."

For the state competition, students are tasked with creating a robot that will lift a ball 30 inches above the floor.

"We had some other designs," Makowski said. "A tube that would launch balls to go through hoops. That was a design that wouldn't work. We tried to do a rack and pinion. It wouldn't slide."

With the increasing size of the club, students have broken into five committees. Members are focused on building, programming, community outreach, engineering and budgeting.

"The most specialized thing is programming," Makowski said. "You need to understand the coding. Building would be the second most complicated. It's pushing things together and trying to make it work."

Makowski said she joined the club two years ago both because it seemed fun and several of her friends were joining. Bartusiak, a four-year member, was considering a career in the science and technology field and wanted to explore robotics.

Mariana Noble joined the club this year for a different reason.

"Robotics to me has always been a kind of male-dominated field," said Noble, 14. "I've always been interested in bringing women into science and STEM."

"It's still male dominated but it's been getting diversified," Denman said. "One of our Woodlands alums works at a downstate power plan as a nuclear physicist. A lot of Woodlands girls go into medical fields or other science or engineering fields."

Denman takes a hands-off approach as club adviser. At the beginning of a meeting earlier this month, he made a few announcements then left the club members to it.

The club usually meets twice a week during lunch, although it's been meeting more often to prepare for the state competition.

The school budgets money for the club and Motorola Solutions also has awarded a grant to the group. The fathers of two club members work there, Denman said, and the company has supplied an electrical engineer as a mentor.

For more information about the Robotics Club at Woodlands Academy, check out their Instagram account.

mlawton@pioneerlocal.com

@reporterdude

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Robotics club at Woodlands Academy encourages careers in STEM - Chicago Tribune

Four West Ridge Middle School seventh-graders are going to the U.S. Robotics Championship for VEX robotics in Council Bluff, Iowa, in April after their team Over the Hedge mentored by parent Larry Knipp and robotics coach Jason Spodick won a regional competition at Hill Country Middle School on Jan. 28.

Both Hill Country and West Ridge fielded other teams in the competition, but only the one composed of Mitchell Knipp, Kusal Pedarla, Major Ritchie and Raghav Sharma advanced.

The winning team learn robotics every day from Coach Spodick, and they also practice about six hours a week in Sharmas garage, which includes a rudimentary practice field. Together they designed, developed and programmed their VEX EDR robot.

We have about 120 kids in six robotics classes, Spodick said. All of these boys have been in them at West Ridge.

Students can take this elective once, but teams like Over the Hedge continue building and practicing on their own with the help of parent mentors.

Twenty-six teams competed, and Over the Hedge scored winning points when their robot lifted many yellow stars that look like jacks and threw them over a fence, clearing the field of play. Extra points were earned for the high hang, each time their robot lifted itself a foot off the ground by attaching to a single post during the competition.

Larry Knipp proudly said many teams were unable to do this trick.

Team members said they made many adjustments to their robot before it was ready to compete, because they realized it could be easily tipped over. After their changes, the robot was stabilized and up to the challenge.

Sharma said it took the team between three to four months to build the robot. He pointed out that the design evolves over time. Since their robot is made of metal, the team can strategically cut parts down to a size they need.

I like the adventure in building the robot, testing new ideas to see where we might want to go, Sharma said. The fun is in using it.

Though Sharma loves building robots, his goal for now is to be a great soccer player.

Knipp noted that a key was planning ahead.

The team started designing in September for the competition in January, Knipp said.

Knipp and teammate Kusal Pedarla, are thinking of engineering careers.

Ritchie says, for now, he wants to be a mechanic.

Knipp said of the win, his greatest pleasure was actually seeing something we made, accomplish something.

Im looking forward to seeing snow when we go to Iowa for the championship, Sharma said.

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West Ridge robotics team maneuvers into national championship - Austin American-Statesman

Future trends indicate that there will be a concentration on the collaboration of human and machine, simplified applications, and light-weight robots. We will also see an increased focus on modular robots and robotic systems, which will be marketed at exceptionally alluring prices.

Len Calderone for | RoboticsTomorrow

It is anticipated that our economy will need to generate about a million jobs a year just to keep up with future growth. Because of the digital revolution, many new jobs have been created, but they are not labor intensive. This is where robots come into play. As the economy expands, we will need both humans for the mental tasks, and robots to handle the tedious and dangerous work.

Automation is extending beyond factories and distribution centers. White collar jobs are starting to be replaced by artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence has already replaced various human jobs in music, journalism, teaching, research and other typical human careers. Attorneys are replacing paralegals with search engines, which are more efficient in finding topics than any human. Medical devices are assisting doctors in analyzing a patients symptoms with suggested solutions.

There will be a time when robots will make our goods and handle the services to support those goods. China is already aware that they do not have enough robots in the workforce. China is now the fastest growing and largest robotics market in the world, due mainly to an aging population, something that the U.S. is also facing. By next year, the robot population in China will explode. A third of all robots manufactured will be sold in China.

We are going through an industrial revolution, and it is accelerating. In the next few years, around 1.4 million industrial robots will be entering service in factories around the world. In the high-revenue automotive sector, global investments in industrial robots increased by a record-breaking 43 percent in just one year. The international market value for robotic systems is now about $32 billion. In the race for automation in manufacturing, the European Union is currently one of the global frontrunners with 65 percent of the EU countries having an above-average number of industrial robots per 10,000 employees. Still, the strongest growth for robots will be found in China with 40 percent of the worldwide market volume of industrial robots will be sold there alone in 2019. (World Robot Statistics, issued by the International Federation of Robotics).

There doesnt seem to be a shortage of industrial robots, as the number of robots deployed worldwide will increase to around 2.6 million units by 2019. 70 percent of the industrial robots are presently working in the automotive, electronics, metal and machinery industries.

At present, the U.S. is the fourth largest single market for industrial robots in the world. Within the U.S., Canada and Mexico, newly installed industrial robots rose by 17 percent. The U.S. accounts for three-quarters of all units sold at a 5 percent growth. The demand in Canada rose by 49 percent, while Mexico grew by 119 percent. If the economic situation can last, we might see an average annual growth of 5 to 10 percent in sales of robots from 2017 to 2019. Right now, NAFTA is on an unsteady course, so these figures might change.

HIT Robot Group, a Chinese company associated with the Harbin Institute of Technology, created an automated production line for lithium ion batteries that appears to be one giant robot. Robotic vehicles carry components between several manufacturing machines. The only place where you can find humans is inside a control room in the center. HIT estimates the new factory could reduce human labor by as much as 85 percent while manufacturing 150,000 batteries a day.

Patents for robotics and autonomous systems have jumped double-digit year-on-year for the last three years. According to a report published by the UK Intellectual Property Office, the number of global published patents for these technologies increased 9 percent of all of the global patents with Japan, Germany and the U.S. accounting for most of the patents.

In North America, robot orders were up 10 percent in 2016 compared to 2015, according to the Robotics Industry Association. 34,606 robots were ordered in North America with a total market value of $1.9 billion. For the fourth quarter, robot orders hit 10,621 valued at $561 million, up 21 percent from a year ago, which is a good indicator for 2017. The global industrial robotics market is expected to reach $79.58 billion by 2022, growing at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 11.92% between 2016 and 2022.

The food and consumer goods industries ordered 32% more robots in 2016 than the previous year with food safety inspections, packaging, picking, handling and palletizing being among the highest applications for these robots.

Capping its most successful year in history, the robotics, vision and motion control industries are preparing to come together for Automate 2017, North Americas largest automation exhibition and conference April 3-6 in Chicago. Over 300 exhibitors and a record 20,000 attendees are expected to gather.

How will the robot manufacturers keep up? Venture capital investments in robotics technology start-ups are on the rise. Capital investments by U.S. venture capital firms escalated to about $172 million. This increase in investments is an especially meaningful signal that the robotics industry could see an accelerated growth as these VC-backed companies grow. It provides a window into the future as to what the investment community believes will be promising and profitable.

The robotic industry is booming in China, there are thousands of local robotic companies jumping into the market, manufacturing both industrial robots and service robots. China is not only a large supplier of low-wage workers, but also a source of high technology with robotics manufacturing being one of the hottest trends. The Robot Report and the research team at Robo-STOX have been able to identify 194 companies that make or are directly involved in making robots in China.

Future trends indicate that there will be a concentration on the collaboration of human and machine, simplified applications, and light-weight robots. We will also see an increased focus on modular robots and robotic systems, which will be marketed at exceptionally alluring prices.

The request for industrial robots will also be driven by an assortment of factors, which include the processing of new materials, energy efficiency, and improved automation concepts.

The one thing that is certain is that the manufacturers of robots are building an army of robots ready to step in and handle the tasks of the future.

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Are there enough robots? - Robotics Tomorrow (press release)