Daily Archives: April 27, 2017

The 2015 play Uncanny Valley, in its Los Angeles-area premiere at International City Theatre, depicts the relationship between neuroscientist Claire (Susan Denaker) and Julian (Jacob Sidney), the sentient artificial life form she has created. (Photo by Steven Georges) 714 330-6105

As Act One comes to a close, Claire (Susan Denaker) teaches the newly ambulatory Julian (Jacob Sidney) to dance. (Photo by Steven Georges) 714 330-6105

Claire (Susan Denaker) is surprised by the much different Julian (Jacob Sidney) who shows up in the plays second act a flashy sharpster whos almost terrifyingly quick-thinking. (Photo by Steven Georges) 714 330-6105

The science of robotics may not quite be so advanced as to create an android like the Star Trek character Data, but as Uncanny Valley shows us, were probably a lot closer to that threshold than most of us realize.

Thomas Gibbons 2015 play takes us into a not-distant future world not unlike today, yet one where technology is on the verge of creating artificial life forms so startlingly human as to be able to blend in with mainstream society.

When that occurs, ethical issues are sure to follow, and thats what interests Gibbons, Uncanny Valley and International City Theatres Los Angeles-area premiere production.

The plays crux is the relationship between Claire (Susan Denaker), a neuroscientist whose career has been devoted to creating an intelligent, sentient non-biological humanoid being, and Julian (Jacob Sidney), the result of her latest efforts.

Julian starts out, in the opening scenes, as a head, neck and upper torso resting on a table but as Uncanny Valley proceeds, he gains more body parts until hes a fully functioning, ambulatory, autonomous being.

The nuts-and-bolts aspects of robotics are, as we learn, the least challenging to Claire. What concerns her more is whether Julian can be made to behave so similarly to people that those meeting him for the first time are unaware hes an artificial being.

The plays title refers to the observable effect people have when confronted by a robot that seems human: Theyre at first fascinated, but the more lifelike the humanoid becomes, at some point that eerie feeling of fascination turns into revulsion.

As Julians teacher, Claire explains what makes people individuals, what constitutes proper social behavior, and what humans consider normal in each other versus whats viewed as unacceptable.

At first endearingly stilted, Julian is taught how to approximate having feelings. At ICT, the teacher-student bond is moving; equally so are musings by Julian that have concerned humankind for centuries: Why have I been created? What is my purpose?

Once Uncanny gets us to accept Julian as a person in his own right, it tosses us a curveball: Hes been created for the purpose of being, in Julians words, a cup-holder for the mind, personality and memories of Julian Barber, a billionaire industrialist whose funding made possible the research, development and creation of the Julian robot.

Ailing from cancer, Barber has been harvested for the properties that make him an individual, with Julians matrix having been surrounded by the dying Barbers DNA.

Once we realize the Julian of Act Two is, in effect, a human-machine hybrid, we begin to see the kind of dark paths technology might soon pave, albeit unintentionally and we wonder how deep is the new Julians understanding of people and human nature.

Accordingly, Sidney paints the fully evolved Julian as an almost theatrically flashy sharpster witty, yes, but someone whose quick thinking is almost terrifying.

As Gibbons absorbing script and director caryn desais engrossing staging show, the interactions of people and their artificial living creations are just as complex and riddled with uncertainty as human relationships even more so, given the ethical questions raised by the existence of autonomous, sentient artificial humans.

In impressively unpretentious fashion, Gibbons raises such issues and others of a more existential nature. Under desais creative hand, Uncanny Valley is something extraordinary, the type of theater ICT has always excelled at: Intelligent, intriguing, thought-provoking, exhilarating, and magnificently crafted.

Denaker shows us that while they run deep, Claires emotions are tempered by a wry sense of humor about herself and the world yet shes also the pure scientist who thinks, studies and observes 24/7, motivated by science itself while indifferent to any external financial or political agendas.

Sidney masterfully shows Julians astonishingly rapid growth and evolution from a newly conscious being to a perpetually curious student eager to soak up knowledge and understanding and, finally, so far past any point imagined or projected by his creators as to boggle the mind and chill the blood.

Tesshi Nakagawas scenic design gives the production a quasi-futuristic look, and Kim DeShazo attires Denaker and Sidney in similarly monochromatic tones of black, white and silver, so that Claire and Julian are, in effect, gleaming, product-of-science mirrors of one another.

Avoiding everything facile, Gibbons brilliant play blurs the lines between man and machine and has us pondering the nature and purpose of all conscious life forms.

When: Through May 7. 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays Where: Beverly ONeil Theater, Long Beach Performing Arts Center, 330 East Seaside Way, Long Beach Tickets: $47-$49 Length: 1 hour, 50 minutes Suitability: Adults, teens and older kids Information: 562-436-4610, InternationalCityTheatre.com

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'Uncanny Valley' takes us to the near future of robotics - OCRegister

LOUISVILLE, Ky., April 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --The Robotics Education & Competition (REC) Foundation and VEX Robotics are thrilled to announce the elementary school through college winners of the 2017 VEX Robotics World Championship. Student-led teams fromCanada, China, New Zealand, Singapore and the United States were awarded top honors this week in each of the following programs: the VEX IQ Challenge Elementary School World Championship, the VEX IQ Challenge Middle School World Championship, the VEX Robotics Competition Middle School World Championship, the VEX Robotics Competition High School World Championship, and the VEX U World Championship for university students.

"The VEX Robotics World Championship is an exciting ride from start to finish. It's truly inspiring to witness the hard work and dedication of these teams, who competed all year to get an invitation to Louisville," said Paul Copioli, president of VEX Robotics. "We're thrilled to see students from Canada, China, New Zealand, Singapore and the United States excelling in STEM as they proudly take home World Champion titles for their outstanding performance, teamwork and sportsmanship."

The 2017 VEX Robotics World Champions and Excellence Award Winners are as follows:

VEX Robotics World Champions

VEX Robotics Competition Middle School World Champions

VEX Robotics Competition High School World Champions

VEX Robotics Competition Robot Skills Award

VEX Robotics Competition Excellence Award

VEX U World Champions

VEX U Robot Skills Award

VEX U Excellence Award

VEX IQ Challenge Elementary School World Champions

VEX IQ Challenge Middle School World Champions

VEX IQ Challenge Robot Skills

VEX IQ Challenge Excellence Award

This year's VEX Robotics World Championship hosted 1,400 teams from over 30 nations worldwide. The week-long competition is a celebration of STEM education, the year-long work of each student-led robotics team, and diversity in the high-tech field of competitive robotics.

"While competition is at the heart of the VEX Robotics World Championship, our time in Louisville is meant to unite the global STEM community. Each year attendees, teams and event volunteers all have the pleasure of experiencing the magic of robotics through the fantastic work of these students and their instructors," said Jason Morrella, president of the REC Foundation. "As we celebrate our 10-year anniversary, we're humbled to see the exponential growth of the program, and honored to be working with the Northrop Grumman Foundation, VEX Robotics and all our amazing partners to host another successful world championship."

The VEX Robotics World Championship kicked off at the Kentucky Exposition Center on Thursday, April 20 with an Opening Ceremony and the Parade of Nations. A week of head-to-head matches followed, concluding with the Finals and the Closing Award Ceremonies on Tuesday, April 25.

The VEX Robotics World Championship is comprised of five programs:VEX IQ Challenge Elementary School World Championship(ages 8-10),VEX IQ Challenge Middle School World Championship(ages 11-14),VEX Robotics Competition Middle School World Championship(ages 11-14),VEX Robotics Competition High School World Championship(ages 14-18) andVEX U(ages 18+).

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The event is presented by the REC Foundation and the Northrop Grumman Foundation, and is sponsored by Autodesk, Chevron, Dell EMC, NASA, Google, Texas Instruments, HEXBUG, Robomatter, Rack Solutions and Innovation First International. For more information, please visit http://www.vexworlds.com.

About the Robotics Education & Competition FoundationThe REC Foundation seeks to increase student interest and involvement in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by engaging students in hands-on, sustainable and affordable curriculum-based robotics engineering programs across the U.S. and internationally. The REC Foundation develops partnerships with K-12 education, higher education, government, industry, and the non-profit community to achieve this work. For more information, please visit http://www.RoboticsEducation.org or for details on upcoming events, please visitwww.RobotEvents.com.

About VEX Robotics VEX Robotics is a leading provider of educational and competitive robotics products to schools, universities and robotics teams around the world. Their VEX IQ and VEX EDR product lines span elementary, middle, and high schools with accessible, scalable, and affordable robotics solutions. Beyond science and engineering principles, a VEX Robotics project encourages teamwork, leadership and problem solving among groups. It allows educators to easily customize projects to meet the level of students' abilities as they inspire & prepare the STEM problem-solvers of tomorrow.

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/vex-robotics-world-championship-crowns-2017-winners-300446176.html

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VEX Robotics World Championship Crowns 2017 Winners - Yahoo Finance

Over 210 elementary, middle, and high school teams have registered to compete in the final Regional Autonomous Robotics Circuit (RARC) competition of the 2016-2017 school year this Saturday, April 29, 2017, at the Bossier Civic Center.

Public, charter, and private schools as well as homeschool and afterschool programs in Bienville, Bossier, Caddo, Natchitoches, Sabine, and Webster Parishes and Miller County, Arkansas will be represented.

RARC is a series of three cyber and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) competitions for students in grades 3-12. The competitions build upon one another and allow teams to showcase their STEM and 21st Century skills by competing against other teams within their division. Liberal arts lessons are also integrated to provide a context for the content.

The theme for the 2016-2017 RARC competitions is Powering the Future. The challenges require teams to autonomously navigate a newly discovered, uncharted island with their robots and learn about energy resources. Competition 3 also includes a mystery challenge that will be revealed to the teams during the event.

Elementary school teams will compete in the morning beginning at 8:00 a.m. and will receive their awards at approximately 11:30 a.m. The middle and high school divisions will begin at 12:00 p.m. with winners announced at approximately 3:45 p.m. In addition to trophies for Competition 3, technology awards for the 2016-2017 grand champions in each division will also be awarded. The competition is open to the public and media.

The competitions are sponsored by the Cyber Innovation Centers National Integrated Cyber Education Research Center (NICERC), the City of Bossier City, Bossier Parish Schools, Caddo Parish Schools, and Sci-Port: Louisianas Science Center. To learn more about RARC, please visit http://nicerc.org/rarc/ or http://www.facebook.com/CIC.NICERC.

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Final school robotics competition set for Saturday - Bossier Press-Tribune Online

Photo: Science Robotics This construction robot can make you a foam igloo in 13.5 hours flat.

Construction seems like an industry that, were I still living in Silicon Valley, I would be tempted to call ripe for disruption. Researchers at the MIT Media Lab agree, pointing out in a paper just published in Science Robotics that construction relies on traditional fabrication technologies that are dangerous, slow, and energy-intensive. Hey, sounds like a job for some robots, right?

The Media Labs paper introduces the Digital Construction Platform (DCP), which is an automated construction system capable of customized on-site fabrication of architectural-scale structures. In other words, its arobot arm that uses additive construction techniques to build large structuressafely, quickly, and even (in some cases) renewably.

Some of the most interesting robots weve seen over recent years have used additive manufacturing to build small-scale structures, or even build themselves. Large-scale robotic construction has also been an area of active research, but none of the concepts or prototypes have really panned out. There have been bricklaying robots, gantry robots that can 3D print buildings out of concrete, and even drones that build walls by transporting one brick at a time. The most practical of these solutions are probably the gantry-based 3D printers, but the big disadvantage of them is that they work best if you set them up somewhere and let them churn out prefabricated buildings.

MIT Media LabsDigital Construction Platform (DCP), on the other hand, is mobile (with a top speed of 0.5 m/s) and self contained. Its battery powered (with a few solar panels on it and an option for more to be attached), so it can potentially run forever, or as long as you have sun. Otherwise, the DCP mimics much of the functionality of a 3D building printer: It has a long reach, giving it a maximum printable volume of 2,786 cubic meters. The robot itself is made out of two arms, modeled loosely on a human: Theres a big long arm with 4 degrees of freedom (DoF) that does all the gross motions, and one small, dexterous 6-DoF Kuka arm that takes care of fine motions like our hands and fingers would. Put it all together, and the total system cost comes to US$244,500, which is really not that bad.

The construction technique that the DCP uses is straightforward: Theres a sprayer at the end of the small arm that combines two chemicals into a liquid polyurethane foam that rapidly expands and hardens. You can program the DCP to print anything you like, but in the demo in the video above its whipping up a 14.6-meter-wide, 3.7-meter-tall hemispherical open dome at a rate of 1.728 cubic meters per hour, printing layeron top of layer. Rather than build the entire structure out of foam, the DCP is actually creating a concrete formwork: Two foam walls, one nested inside the other, with a space in the middle that you can pour concrete into to make a more permanent and resilient structure (or backfill it with dirt or anything else in a pinch), after dropping in plumbing and electrical and stuff. Leaving the foam in place after you do this just adds to the insulation of the resulting building. But even as-is, with just foam and no concrete, the structure is still strong enough for a well-fed grad student to play hopscotch on top of it:

Because the foam dries so quickly, it really is possible to make a dome out of it, since successive layers don't have to be directly on top of each other. They can even be offset by 90 degrees, enabling flat roofs or unsupported shelves and benches. When additional support is required, the researchers have been experimenting with autonomously embedding rebar, and also with chains that have been autonomously welded into rigid shapes, as shown in the concept below:

In order to be able to build on-demand structures anywhere, the DCP needs two things: power, and materials. Power is a hassle, but theres no real technological barrier, since (hypothetically) you can just add as many solar panels and batteries as necessary to keep the robot powered up and running. Building materials are a bit more of a challenge, because you cant easily make spray foam ingredients from scratch. Fortunately, spray foam isnt the only useful building material, even if it might be the most optimal one for these purposes. The researchers have also successfully done some preliminary experimentation with electro-sintered powdered glass, thermally deposited ice, and compressed earth containing gravel and hay fibers. Depending on where you want to build stuff, all of these materials are potentially available locally and in bulk.

This is a very compelling ideaas long as you supply sun and raw materials, these robots could built structures quickly, autonomously, and at very low cost, which are not three characteristics that you usually find together. The researchers have imagined several scenarios, including fabricating ice structures in polar environments and creating fractal structures out of sand in deserts to be later immersed in the ocean to provide coral reef habitat.

At this point, it seems as though robots like these would be most valuable after natural disasters or during refugee crises, when you need to be able to create an enormous amount of housing in low infrastructure areas very quickly and cheaply. Whether or not such robots will prove to be more practical than other solutions for rapid construction in the near term remains to be seen; as with many robotics applications, humans are still the cheapest and most efficient way to do things.

Toward site-specific and self-sufficient robotic fabrication on architectural scales, by Steven J. Keating, Julian C. Leland, Levi Cai, and Neri Oxman from the MIT Media Lab was published in Science Robotics.

[ Science Robotics ]

IEEE Spectrums award-winning robotics blog, featuring news, articles, and videos on robots, humanoids, drones, automation, artificial intelligence, and more. Contact us:e.guizzo@ieee.org

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Robotic Construction Platform Creates Large Buildings on Demand - IEEE Spectrum

China. Brazil. Australia.

Those are just a few countries Mill Valley and De Soto high school robotics students will compete against this week during the FIRST championship in St. Louis.

More than 600 teams will compete in the international competition this year.

The Jaguar team, which features students from both high schools, is only one of five Kansas teams participating.

The trip to St. Louis comes on the coattails of another big success: earning 9th out of 60 teams at the Greater Kansas City Regional Competition last month.

The Jaguar robotics team last made it to the FIRST championship four years ago, which means all the students on this years team will be heading there for the first time.

Its great to make it this far, but its definitely nerve-wracking to compete against teams from around the world, said Jacob Tiehen, a Mill Valley senior. These are the best of the best.

Making it to any competition, much less the international one, isnt an easy feat.

Each year each robotics team is given six weeks to design, build and troubleshoot a robot to fit a specific game, one that usually involves the robot picking up and dropping objects.

Earlier this year, during that slotted time, it only took the Jaguars three weeks to build their robot; the rest of the time was spent perfecting it.

This year we had a lot of time to practice and that definitely played a part in our doing so well, said Taylor Barth, a Mill Valley senior, who is also president of the team. A lot of math, research, detail went into figuring an efficient design.

Tiehen told the Dispatch that ironing out all the fine details this year helped the team succeed.

It can be time-consuming and stressful, which gives us a lot of appreciation for engineers who design mechanisms for a living, he said. In the real world, you cant make big mistakes when youre building something.

The end result for the Jaguars was a sleek copper-colored robot the team affectionately calls Lightning McSteam, a nod to the competitions steampunk theme this year.

Photo by Victoria Wright/MVHS

Pictured is the teams robot, Lightning McSteam.

While going to the world championship is a big deal, robotics as a whole is much more than shiny trophies and snazzy robots, the students insist.

Its about friendship and leadership and teamwork.

Plus, there are many robotics team members who never even touch the robot.

The team includes graphic designers, social media aficionados, and artists.

Quinn Sheehan, a Mill Valley senior, helps handle the teams marketing, for instance.

I was never into engineering but I like the creative side of it, he said. I joined to make friends and experience positive energy and be around fun-loving people. Being in this group has made me realize engineering is pretty cool.

There are currently 45 students on the Jaguar team.

And surprisingly, theyre a tightknit group, despite their large size.

Well, for six weeks, we saw each other more than our own families, so we kind of have to be friends, joked Barth.

Her outgoing demeanor is a direct result of being on the robotics team.

Barth admits a few years ago, she was a very shy freshman.

Now, her teammates tease her that they cant get her to stop talking.

Barsh blushes at the jests.

Her story is a common one, however.

Gary Hannah, a mechanical engineer from Shawnee, said in the nine years he has mentored the Jaguar robotics team, he has seen several students blossom.

People with creative and mechanical minds tend to be more introverted, he said. Theyre not social butterflies. But by the second or third year in robotics, theyre surrounded by people just like them and they come out of their shell.

Hannah became the mentor of the team in 2008, when his son, Ryan joined.

After Ryan graduated, Hannah decided he wanted to stay.

Some people play golf, this is what I do, he said, with a grin. I get to hang out with fun people and watch them make robots. It doesnt get better than this.

He says Ryan, who lives in Utah, still keeps up with the team each year and watches each competition online.

Former Jaguar robotics member Sarah Soriano, a 2016 Mill Valley graduate, also keeps up with the team.

Soriano, who is majoring in industrial design at the University of Kansas, is also acting as a mentor this year.

She drove to Mill Valley High School every weekend during the six-week build season to offer the students guidance.

I love seeing how theyre doing and Im very proud of them, she said. The robot this year is one of my favorites.

She went to the international competition her freshman year, so she understands their excitement.

Her advice to the robotics kids?

Wear good shoes, she said, with a laugh. Youre going to be walking from building to building with that robot. Youre going to be on your feet for 12 hours.

The Jaguars are looking forward to that organized chaos.

Theyre especially eager to meet other teams and make friends with like-minded people from around the world.

And at the end of the day, theyre simply excited to do what they love.

I just like building things, said Jacob Howe, a Mill Valley freshman. I think its amazing to see things come to life, from start to finish.

To keep up with the Jaguar Robotics team or watch the world championship online, visit bluealliance.com.

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Robotics team heads to world championship - The Dispatch