Monthly Archives: July 2017

The robotics industry is at an important crossroads. As machines play an increasingly important role in our work and home lives, a lot of difficult questions will need to be addressed, from proposed AI regulation, to automation-related job loss, to the level of control and autonomy we bestow upon our robotic counterparts.

Earlier this week, we were honored to host many of the greatest minds in the field on the MIT campus the birthplace of much of this robotic innovation. Industry and university leaders joined us at TC Sessions: Robotics, including Amazon Robotics Tye Brady, Disney Robotics Martin Buehler, MIT CSAIL director Daniela Rus, ABBs Sami Atiyaand all three iRobot cofounders, Colin Angle, Helen Grenier and Rodney Brooks.

Its impossible to cover all of the topics in such a broad and groundbreaking field over the course of a single-day event, but we did our best, from drones and Disney to household robotics and launching a commercially viable startup in the space. It was an amazing day full of great talks and incredible robot demos.

Thanks to everyone who helped us fill Kresge Auditorium on Monday, and for those who couldnt make it out to experience the robotics breakthroughs first-hand, heres the next best thing.

Daniela Rus, the head of MITs interdisciplinary CSAIL lab, demoed four of her teams most fascinating robotics projects. Rus stated that her passion is working toward a world where robots are pervasive in our lives, and the devices on-hand were a good demonstration of that breadth. In one demo, a robot is created on a 3D printer, hydraulics and all. In another, an origami robot folds itself into shape and goes to work powered by a magnet, while another, created from sausage casings, is designed to be ingested to help retrieve dangerous swallowed objects like batteries.

Investors Josh Wolfe of Lux Capital, Helen Zelman Boniske of Lemnos and Manish Kothari of SRI Ventures talk with Connie Loizos about how robotics startups can grab and keep their attention. The panel also discusses the robotics hype cycle and whetherweve reached a tipping point for VC interest in the category.

Sami Atiya from ABB spoke to Ron Miller from TechCrunch about the future of industrial robotics, including how many jobs they could realistically take, how data could make them smarter and the actual potential for a hacked robot.

Robots may be replacing humans in the workplace here and there, but its more likely that youll be working alongside a robot than training it to do your job. Devin Coldeweytalked about the challenges and opportunities of collaborative robots withClara Vu (VEO), Jerome Dubois (6 River Systems) and Holly Yanco (UMass Lowell).

As artificial intelligence and robots grow in sophistication, so too do the ethical conundrums associated with them. How can we design these systems so that they reflect the best of humanity and not our greatest flaws? Devin explored these questions withDavid Barrett (Olin), David Edelman (MIT) and Dr. Brian Pierce (DARPA).

Elaine Chen of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship moderated a discussion about robotics startups featuring Helen Greiner of CyPhy Works and Andy Wheeler of GV. The group discussed finding venture capital and the ways in which the space has evolved over the last couple of decades.

Amazons Tye Brady expressed his views on the state of the robotics industry and how to build the ideal robotic system. By using Star Wars R2-D2 as a comparison, he talked about how companies can build robots. TechCrunchs managing editor Matt Burns then pressed him on Amazons ultimate plan to replace the human workers in its warehouses with robots, which he ultimately claimed is not Amazons goal.

Greg Kumparak spoke to Deepu Talla (Nvidia, VP and General Manager of Intelligent Machines), Heather Ames (Neurala, co-founder and COO) and Brian Gerkey (Open Source Robotics Foundation, CEO) about building the robot brain. They chatted on the state of AI, on how more standardization might be needed moving forward to help robots from different companies communicate and where students and other new entrants into the field should focus to make the biggest impact. Heather Ames also announced a partnership with Motorola Solutions that will allow police to tap Neuralas machine learning algorithms to let their body cameras find missing children amongst crowds of people.

Buddy Michini of Airware, Andreas Raptopoulos of Matternet and Jan Stumpf of Intel spoke to hardware editor Brian Heater about the state of the industrial drone industry. The conversation covered the rapid rise of drones as a robotics platform both in research and among consumers, and the ways in which unmanned aircraft are becoming an increasingly popular tool for surveying and data collection. The conversation also touched upon the regulatory and other technological limitations in mainstreaming drones for various tasks and how the technology is being used to help underserved communities.

iRobot CEO Colin Angle joined hardware editor Brian Heater for a fireside chat about how his company became the commercial backbone of the Boston robotics community. Angle discussed the many trials and errors of launching a robotics startup and why the Roomba was the exact right device to cement the companys place as the leader in household robotics. The CEO also offered up advice for new students making the move from university research into a commercial market and discussed the importance of funding from departments like DARPA in helping robot companies stay afloat.

Gill Pratt, CEO of the Toyota Research Center (TRI), joined TechCrunchs managing editor Matt Burns on stage to chat about TRIs work in building robots that assist the elderly. Pratt explained that this is a passion of Toyota and addresses a growing need to provided assistance and care to a quick-growing segment of the population. Burns later asked Pratt to comment on Elon Musks recent call to have the U.S. government regulate AI, saying the technology is the greatest threat to our civilization a notion not shared by Pratt.

Rodney Brooks of Rethink Robotics talks with Connie Loizos about his upcoming book, which he hopes will dispel talk of AI as an existential threat to mankind (along with a little requisite shade thrown Elon Musks way). The iRobot co-founder and former MIT CSAIL director also discusses the pain points of building a robotics startup and the ethics of autonomous vehicles.

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Watch all of the panels from TC Sessions: Robotics right here - TechCrunch

Six teenagers from a Burundi robotics team have been reported missing after an international competition in Washington and two of them were seen entering Canada, police said on Thursday.

The four males and two females were last seen late on Tuesday afternoon when the robotics contest ended at the FIRST Global Challenge, police said. Authorities issued missing persons photographs of the six on Wednesday.

Two of the Burundians - Audrey Mwamikazi, 17, and 16-year-old Don Ingabire - were spotted crossing the United States border into Canada, District of Columbia police spokeswoman Margarita Mikhaylova said.

"We don't have any indication of foul play and we're continuing to investigate this case," she said. Police said they did not have information about how they were spotted or the nature of the border crossing.

Canada's Border Services Agency said it could neither confirm nor deny that the pair entered Canada.

Teams of teenage students from more than 150 countries took part in the competition, which was designed to encourage careers in math and technology. An all-girl squad from Afghanistan drew worldwide media attention when President Donald Trump intervened after they were denied U.S. visas.

Burundi has long been plagued by civil war and other violence. Fighting has killed at least 700 people and forced 400,000 from their homes since April 2015 when President Pierre Nkurunziza said he would run for a third term in office.

The Burundi Embassy in Washington said by email that it did not know about the robotics contest or if a Burundian team was attending.

Competition organizer FIRST Global said in a statement that its president, Joe Sestak, made the first call to police about the missing competitors. The non-profit group learned on Tuesday night that the Burundi team's adult mentor had been unable to find them, it said.

The keys to the students' rooms at Trinity Washington University were left in the mentor's bag and their clothes had been taken from the rooms, the organization said.

"The security of the students is of paramount importance to FIRST Global," the statement said. It added that FIRST Global had provided safe transport to university dormitories and students were always supposed to be under the supervision of their mentor.

The other missing Burundians were named as Nice Munezero, 17; Kevin Sabumukiza, 17; Richard Irakoze, 18; and Aristide Irambona, 18. Police said the students had one-year visas.

Continue reading here:

Burundi teenage robotics team missing after competition in DC - CNBC

Lida Azizi, right, and other members of the Afghanistan team repair their robot during the competition. Jacquelyn Martin/AP hide caption

Lida Azizi, right, and other members of the Afghanistan team repair their robot during the competition.

The first international robotics competition for high schoolers made headlines before it even started and after the event was over as well.

First there was the story of the all-girl Afghanistan team, which was denied visas to attend for unknown reasons.

Then there was the post-competition story: All six teens on the Burundi team were reported missing on Wednesday, the day after the competition ended, with reports that two of them were headed to Canada.

At the last minute, the Afghan team did get visas. They waved their country's flag during the parade of nations at the event's opening ceremonies. And they showed off their robot. Like all the entries, it was designed to separate balls representing water particles and water contaminants, among other tasks.

So how did the Afghan team do?

"The girls did a good job in the competition," says Roya Mahboob. She's a tech entrepreneur from Afghanistan and the CEO of the Digital Citizen Fund, the nonprofit which sponsored the team.

"They did much better than many of the other countries, but of course we could still do better. We had less experience and practice," Mahboob says.

They ranked 114th out of 163 teams ahead of the U.S. and the United Kingdom teams.

And they didn't go home empty-handed. They did win an award for "courageous achievement" for showing a "can-do attitude' throughout the Challenge, even under difficult circumstances, or when things do not go as planned," according to First Global, the nonprofit that organized the event.

The other two "courageous achievement" winners were the teams from South Sudan and Oman.

The Afghan team was thrilled by the award: "They got so excited, they were very happy," Mahboob says.

Mexican billionaire and First Global founding member Ricardo Salinas announced during the competition that next year's international robotics competition will be held in Mexico City.

The Afghanistan team hopes to be back.

Originally posted here:

How Did The Afghan All-Girl Team Do At The Robotics Competition? - NPR

Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) is hamstrung on a "psychological barrier" at 1,000 a share, an analyst arguedFriday as the stock toppled despite the robot surgeon-maker's sales and earnings beat late Thursday.

The numbers simply weren't good enough to pull the stock above 1,000, Evercore analyst Vijay Kumar said. In early trading on the stock market today, Intuitive Surgical stock fell 2.6%, near 946.40.

Shares have climbed by half this year, and closed in on the 1,000 mark Thursday, hitting a high at 974.66. Intuitive Surgical inched up after hours following its second-quarter earnings report.

"While a headline revenue, procedure and overall systems beat all pointed to 'life is good' for Intuitive Surgical, they key question for investors is whether these numbers were enough to drive the stock higher and potentially break through the 1,000 psychological barrier," Kumar said.

IBD'S TAKE:Intuitive Surgical is fending off robotics advances from Alphabet's (GOOGL) Google and Medtronic (MDT). How will it fare as offerings from those rivals come to fruition? Visit IBD Data Stories.

U.S. procedures a proxy for overall health of the company continued to be healthy, he wrote in a note to clients. That said, procedure guidance implies a slowdown in the second half of the year from the first half.

"Guidance of about 15% (growth) at the high end implies about 13% (growth) in the second half of the year vs. 17% seen in the first year," he wrote.

RBC analyst Brandon Henry doesn't see the same psychological barrier at 1,000.He upped his price target on Intuitive Surgical stock to 1,000 from 950. But her kept his sector perform rating on the stock.

Henry also increased his sales views for 2017 and 2018 to $3.03 billion and $3.38 billion, respectively, and calls for adjusted profits to come in at a respective $23.65 and $26.65 a share.

Meanwhile, Intuitive Surgical is working to maintain its lead in robotics and is aiming to have a lung biopsy system launched in 2019. It's facing robotics competition from the likes of Google parent Alphabet and Medtronic.

"While robotics competition is coming, Intuitive Surgical is making the necessary investments no expand its total addressable market and remain a premium player in the surgical robotics market," he wrote in a note to clients.

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11:34 AM ET Wall Street analysts Friday raised their price targets on Microsoft,...

The rest is here:

This Robotics Player Neared 1000, Then Toppled Here's Why - Investor's Business Daily

Founded in 1993, the organization's mission is to develop the nation's workforce by inspiring students to pursue majors and careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). BEST Robotics works closely with companies across industries to provide opportunities for students. Nearly 5,000 volunteers and mentors work with students through 45 licensed hubs.

"We're very excited to establish a headquarters here," said executive director Rosemary Mendel. "Our program will help prepare students for the growing number of STEM jobs throughout Western Pennsylvania and the Tristate region."

Mendel, a Western Pennsylvania native, said Pittsburgh's recognition as a top tech community and a top educator of STEM talent factored into the location decision. As part of its decision to locate here, she said BEST Robotics will bring a free STEM education and robotics competition to middle and high schools in the Pittsburgh region.

"BEST is committed to making STEM learning and careers accessible and inclusive, and we deliver on that commitment by making the program free to schools and students," said board president Todd Atkins. "Our focus is on expanding the program both regionally and nationally to provide access to alternative STEM education and to increase the pipeline of educated STEM professionals."

"Collaborating is an integral part of our program delivery," Mendel said. "BEST is fueled by volunteers, industry mentors, university outreach and corporate partnerships. I'm looking forward to working with local leaders to bring the program to students in our area."

Local educators active in the BEST Robotics program are excited by the decision.

"The BEST program encompasses learning beyond STEM and has had measurable impact among the students who participate," said Dr. Mike Bright, chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Grove City College.

"There are many individual stories of students who decided they could go to college or major in a STEM field based on their BEST participation," said Bright, a BEST board member and founder of the Wolverine BEST Hub at Grove City.

BEST Robotics students report an 88 percent increase in computer and technology aptitude because of their participation, and a 77 percent increase in their interest in STEM. Long-term tracking of student participants shows that nearly 50 percent later chose STEM-related college majors.

About BEST, Inc.

BEST Robotics, Inc. is a nonprofit organization that stands for Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology. Supported by volunteer educators, BEST provides schools with a free robotics design education program and competition with the goal of inspiring students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Each year, thousands of students from more than 850 high schools and middle schools nationwide participate in BEST Robotics regional competitions.

View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/national-robotics-education-nonprofit-picks-pittsburgh-as-headquarters-300492039.html

SOURCE BEST Robotics, Inc.

Excerpt from:

National Robotics Education Nonprofit Picks Pittsburgh As Headquarters - PR Newswire (press release)