Daily Archives: July 5, 2017

A team of Afghan girls who created a robot to compete in an event in the United States will have to watch it perform on the internet after they were refused visas.

The six-strong team of girls'from Herat had their robot selected to compete in the FIRST Global Challenge competition in Washington.

Joe Sestak, a US congressman who is president of the the competition, said: "I'm deeply saddened about the Afghan team not getting visas."

On the competition website a biography for the Afghan girls' team said: "As a dedicated group of students, mentors, and volunteers, we aim to transform the culture of our community and become some of the young leaders of science and technology."

Arrangements are being made for the girls to watch on Skype as their robot competes against other teams from around the world.

Afghanistan is not on the list of six predominantly Muslim countries named in President Donald Trump's temporary travel ban order.

But teams from Iran and Sudan, which are named in the order, were given visas. So was a "Team of Hope" made up of Syrian refugees.

The US State Department approved 112 business visas for Afghan visitors in May, much less than for Syria or Iran, according to latest figures.

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Afghan girls robotics team will have to watch competition on Skype after being refused US visas - Telegraph.co.uk

Another new entrant has joined the field of those offering self-driving tech to consumer carmakers but this one likely has a bit more experience than most. Virginia-based Torc Robotics has been working on autonomous vehicle tech since 2007, when it finished third in the DARPA Urban Challenge, and it has applied autonomy in a range of commercial, industrial and military applications.

Now Torc is setting its sights on the consumer car market, with a self-driving car project based on its decade of experience, with more than 1,000 miles logged of autonomous driving in recent tests using two modified Lexus RX vehicles. These have been active on roads since February 2017, driving in all weather conditions according to Torc, and equipped with Torcs in-house localization, mapping, navigation and object detection/tracking systems.

One of Torcs test vehicles performed a demonstration long-distance drive, making the 1,000 mile round trip from their Virginia HQ to Fords Piquette Avenue Plant in Detroit a symbolic debut voyage to the heart of U.S. car country and the birthplace of the original Model T.

Why now for the automotive push? Torc CEO Michael Fleming told me that the time is finally right, both in terms of the state of available technology, but also in terms of the appetite for autonomous products from consumer automakers which werent always as eager to develop and invest in self-driving.

What weve found is that were some other markets that were early adopters to this technology, and there wasnt a great deal of interest in the automotive industry coming out of the DARPA Challenge, explained Fleming. Google is really the early adopter of this technology, with some key folks from the Carnegie Mellon and Stanford teams from 10 years ago, and theyve done some great marketing, and theyve been on the forefront of this technology in the automotive space.

Fleming clearly gives Google a lot of credit in terms of its role popularizing autonomous driving and making it a more familiar, comfortable subject for public discussion. But I wondered if Googles own efforts to build a comprehensive self-driving system (now under Alphabets Waymo) might not inhibit Torcs ability to operate in the same market.

Our role is more of an enabler, Fleming said. We work with OEMs, tier 1s and tier 2s in the automotive space, taking our 10 years of experience and working with these organizations, outlining their road map moving forward. This is fairly new technology to a lot of the players in the automotive space, but this is something weve been doing every day for the last 10 years, and weve tried just about every combination of technology, so we knows what works and what doesnt work.

Torc can act as a sort of guide helping players new to the space navigate the hype that is omnipresent in autonomous driving tech, Fleming says. But in addition to roadmapping, Torc also aims to integrate its own platforms with those of clients and partners bringing commercially viable self-driving tech to market. In other words, it sees itself as one of a number of partners working together, which fits with the current model being embraced by most automotive OEs.

Fleming says we can expect to hear more from Torc on the autonomous car front in the coming months, including updates regarding its technology and partners. Its early days yet for its consumer automotive business, but it does possess a rare thing in the burgeoning market: experience.

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Torc Robotics unveils self-driving system for consumer cars - TechCrunch

UK Robotics Week 2017, which took place at the end of June, culminated in a showcase of some of the coolest robots from around the world.

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The parts for this prosthetic hand are manufactured by a company called Steeper in Leeds, England.

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Pistons activate the fingers so that the user can grip items.

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This robotic arm is being used to help rehabilitate stroke victims and to assist children with cerebral palsy.

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Users manipulate the arm to play games and complete challenges, which help retrain links between brains and muscles.

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This shape-shifting metamorphic worker robot was designed by King's College London.

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It can change its form to navigate difficult or dangerous environments.

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One potential use: reconnaissance missions in disaster situations.

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Prosthetic hands are increasingly sophisticated. This one, created by Queen Mary University London, is made from soft materials.

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Each finger is controlled individually by air pressure and can mimic the movements of a human hand in real time.

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This is a robotic endoscope created by researchers at the University of Leeds.

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It's cheap, compact and portable and can be used by non-specialist medical staff to look for cancer in the stomach and esophagus.

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This is Lucie, one of several of her kind currently undergoing trials in offices around the UK.

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She's learning about human environments and activities as part of a project being run by the University of Leeds

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MiRo is an adorable companion robot designed by Consequential Robotics.

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It's affectionate and sweet, but can also provide vital help to elderly people in the home.

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As well as being able to detect falls, MiRo can remind people to take medicines.

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The most beautiful phone ever has one wildly annoying issue

The Samsung Galaxy S8's fast speeds and fantastic curved screen make it a top phone for 2017, but the annoying fingerprint reader could sour your experience.

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The coolest robots from UK Robotics Week 2017 - CNET

RICHMOND Some of the robots climb hills and others tell jokes.

Students at the Virginia Robotics and Cyber Academy used their new coding skills to program robots to do a variety of activities.

The five-day robotics academy, through the Career Pathways for Individuals with Disabilities, served 24 high school-age students from across Virginia. It took place at the Department for the Blind and Vision Impaired in Henrico County last Monday through Friday, serving students with disabilities ranging from blindness and low-vision to autism spectrum disorders and learning disabilities.

Christopher Freeman, a recent graduate of Meadowbrook High School in Chesterfield County, programmed his robot to perform stand-up comedy.

Freeman, who is interested in information technology as well as animation, said he knew nothing past basic Java coding prior to entering the academy.

They teach you step by step how to [make the robot], said Freeman, adding that he enjoyed the hands-on approach at the academy.

Students were selected to participate in the program based on their knowledge of math and science. However, students were not required to be competent in computer coding.

At a Friday celebration, instructors talked to parents about ways students can prepare for good jobs, while students showed off their robots.

Career Pathways for Individuals with Disabilities hosts academies throughout the year to help individuals from across Virginia gain experience in fields such as technology and manufacturing.

Virginia received a $4.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education in 2015 to help residents with disabilities gain skills and qualify for high-demand, high-quality jobs. It was one of four states to receive federal funding for the project. The others were Kentucky, Georgia and Nebraska.

The academies give the students a chance to see if they have the interest and aptitude in advanced manufacturing or information technologies, said Emily West, project manager for Career Pathways.

The five-year grant allowed the Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services to partner with the Department for the Blind and Vision Impaired to create the Career Pathways for Individuals with Disabilities.

The robotics academy curriculum was developed by the National Integrated Cyber Education Resource Center in Bossier City, Louisiana, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to create and distribute free cyber and engineering curricula to public schools across the country.

We are using content that was pulled from our high school material, said Charles Gardner, curriculum development specialist at the National Integrated Cyber Education Resource Center. These kids are learning exactly what their traditional high school peers are learning.

However, the format in which they learn differs from the standard. The material is presented in a less visual manner, relying more on motion and sound than sight.

We are hoping that the adaptations that we have made here for people with disabilities to participate can be generalized to other camps across the commonwealth so young people with disabilities can participate, said Raymond Hopkins, commissioner of the Virginia Department for the Blind and Vision Impaired.

Students use speech software, allowing them to listen to the computer to understand what is happening on the screen.

As a result of grant funding, students took their specifically designed computers, as well as the robots they created, home with them at the culmination of the academy.

Students created and programed each Gobot individually. The robots functions were mostly sound-based, so students could learn together during programming stages.

It has not just exceeded our expectations; it has exceeded their expectations, said Hopkins of the robot academy.

All the teachers and students are great, Freeman said. I would recommend [the academy] to anyone if I could.

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Virginia Robotics and Cyber Academy helps teens with disabilities gain technology skills - Roanoke Times

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