Monthly Archives: July 2017

A group of teenage girls from Afghanistanwho had planned to cometo Washington, DC, for an international robotics competition won't be coming after all, after the US State Department denied their visas.

This opportunity would allow us to invent, design, and create things that could possibly allow our community, our lives, and us, the team memberswrote on their page ofthe FIRSTGlobal Challenge competitionwebsite. We want to make a difference and most breakthroughs in science, technology, and other industries normally start with the dream of a child to do something great. We want to be that child and pursue our dreams to make a difference in peoples lives."

The team of six had been working for months to build a robot that could complete a variety of engineering tasks, like providing access to clean drinking water.

Just getting this far had been a challenge. While other competitors received raw materials from the event organizer, the Afghan team had to improvise because the box sent from America had been held up for months amid concerns about terrorism, according to the Washington Post.

So being selected to come was a thrill. But it also meant enduring the US visa application process.

The girls had to make a 500-mile journey twice from their hometownof Herat, in western Afghanistan, to the USEmbassy in Kabul for an interview.

I can't tell you why exactly [their applications were denied], but I do know that a fair opportunity was given by the USState Department and embassy, said Joe Sestak, a former congressman and president of FIRST Global. We are saddened they won't be here.

The team was sponsored by Roya Mahboob, founder of Afghanistans Citadel software company, and the countrys first female tech CEO. Mahboob told Mashable the girls spent the day crying after finding out they wouldnt be able to travel.

"The first time [they were rejected] it was very difficult talking with the students," Mahboob said. "They're young and they were very upset.

Although the young women wont make it to the US, their robot is now on its way to participate in the competition. The team of six will tune in to the event via Skype, and a group of young Afghan-American women will represent them at the event.

The team from Afghanistan isn't alone in being rejected, according to Sestak. A team from Gambia was also denied entry, and will also participate via Skype.

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Afghanistan's all-girl robotics team can't get visas to come to the US - PRI

It all started with the Lego Robotics Competition which focused on using technology to assist nature. Itasca Countys 4-H Cobra Programming Robotics Team earned second place in their division at Regionals and took first place in robot design and programming. At Sectionals, the team took first place in the Head-to-Head and first place for innovative robot design.

For the project portion of the competition, the robotics team chose to help bees. Through their research, they discovered that native bees and other pollinators are at serious peril because of a lack of native plants to provide nutrition, habitat and pesticide-free places to rear their young. They learned from the University of Minnesota Bee Lab that habitat loss has had a devastating effect on native pollinators that rely on wild and semi-wild areas for forage. In Minnesotas increasingly altered landscape, we are seeing troubling declines in the diversity of both native flowering plants and our native pollinators. The Robotics team was surprised to learn that more than one-third of their food supply requires pollination and that the 400 species of Minnesota native bees as well as honey bees are vital to pollination of such crops as apple, cherry, blueberry, squash and many others.

One of the ways they chose to help the bees was by planting a native pollinator garden. Thanks to the support of the Grand Rapids Library and help from the Grand Rapids Public Works Department, the team was able to plant the garden on library grounds near the river walk. More than a dozen native, pesticide-free plants were donated from the pollinator gardens of Library Volunteer Coordinator, Bonnie Henriksen, and Itasca County Extension Master Gardeners Coby Bunna, Sue Roy and Bonny Siegford. Siegford created a garden plan and assisted the team with planting and mulching their flowering plants. The 4-Hers in the Itasca County Science and Robotics program will water, maintain, and care for the garden. The team members are looking forward to seeing their garden in bloom with a variety of pollinators harvesting nectar and pollen from native plants.

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Why did the Itasca County 4-H Robotics Team plant a pollinator garden at the library? - Herald Review

Welcome to First Click, a daily essay written by The Verge staff in which we opine on lives lived in the near future.

Its just a ruin in a field now, but in 15th-century England, Boxley Abbey was a hotspot for the faithful. Pilgrims would travel from across the land to see a statue of Christ on the cross that was housed in the monastery and known as the Rood of Grace. On holy days, the Christ would come alive, with a contemporary account describing how the figure hypnotized crowds with its ability to:

shake and stirre the hands and feete, to nod the head, to rolle the eies, to wag the chaps, to bende the browes [] shewing a most milde, amiable, and smyling cheere and countenance. 1

During Henry VIIIs Dissolution of the Monasteries, when the riches of the Church were being confiscated in the name of religious conformity, the Rood was removed and its secrets laid bare. Inspectors discovered that protruding from Christs back was a mess of wire [and] old rotten sticks, which the monks had used to operate it from afar. The statue was taken to London and, during a sermon outside St Pauls Cathedral, broken into pieces by an angry crowd, to put an end its great idolatrie once and for all.

Stories like this are strange and familiar. They show that robots have been shocking society for far longer than we usually think. To us they seem a modern phenomenon, but for centuries, the rich and powerful have been building automata to amuse themselves and awe the masses. Sometimes, though, we forget about the strings that are being pulled.

Look at the news from last month that the police force of Dubai has hired its first robotic cop. The bot in question is about the size and shape of a human, but with wheels for legs, cameras for eyes, and a tablet embedded in the middle of its chest. During press events, the robot was pictured shaking hands and saluting dutifully. One officer commented: These kinds of robots can work 24/7. They won't ask you for leave, sick leave or maternity leave. It can work around the clock.

Its all rubbish of course. Dubais robot an off-the-shelf model built by Spains Pal Robotics wont be doing any real work. Its a tablet on wheels, designed to trundle around tourist centers and dole out directions. The same can be said of many other high-profile bots like Pepper, or various home hub robots. The work they do is usually just that of a mobile phone or a security camera. Occasionally, if theyre big enough, theyll knock over a child, just to break up the routine.

But as in 15th-century England, these particular robots are serving another, more important purpose. Historical accounts of the Rood of Grace are divided over whether or not pilgrims were actually fooled by the mechanical Christ. Did they believe they were witnessing a miracle, or were they just impressed by the technology and what it represented: the power and wealth of the Church.

the robots that will actually take our jobs are far less exciting

Similarly, although the practical uses of Dubais new robot are limited, as a symbol its potent. The government of the United Arab Emirates is currently pursuing its Vision 2021 strategy a plan to shift the countrys economy away from oil-dependence to a diverse mix of technologically advanced industries. Part of this involves embracing automation, from artificial intelligence to driverless cars and drones. And, yes, that will include robots working for the police, but they wont be humanoid because thats not practical. Theyll be like this CCTV-equipped self-driving car; one that Dubais police force is also testing just with less fanfare.

Many robots we see today are simply avatars of larger economic and technological forces. It is absolutely certain that in the years to come, the tools of automation (including the robots we dont see; hidden away in factories and warehouses) will destroy some jobs, create others, and dramatically reshape societies around the world. Whether or not governments can stop these changes harming workers is another question. Although lots of news coverage of robots and AI veers between wild apocalyptic predictions and a sort of bemused wonderment, we need to split the difference and consider the real, unexciting challenges ahead most of which will have political, not technological, solutions.

Just like the congregants in Boxley Abbey, the questions we should be asking when we see these marvels are: who is pulling the strings here, and what is it they want from us?

1The Restless Clock: A History of the Centuries-Long Argument Over What Makes Living Things Tick, Jessica Riskin

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Please ignore the robots - The Verge

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Robots have always been considered as futuristic. The reality is, they are entering the here-and-now in a significant and transformative way and nowhere more so than in the modern warehouse, as Simon Cooper of Dematic explains

Across all walks of life, robots, in the form of autonomous cars, drones and voice-activated artificial intelligence, are gaining public attention. Trials of autonomous cars have taken place in several major cities already, including London, and drones have been famously used by Amazon to deliver online orders. But robots are set to have a far wider influence on industry, logistics and retail enterprises.

Of course, articulated robots have been a common sight in automotive assembly plants for years, and to some extent, they are often seen within warehouses assembling pallet loads. But, the use of robotics for ecommerce order fulfilment is something new and is fast becoming a major focus of attention for the large retailers.

Robotics will soon become the key differentiator for retail businesses competing on cost-to-serve and speed of delivery for online orders. Many retailers are aiming for 15 minutes from click to ship an ambitious target that can only be achieved through the use of robots. Major retailers across the globe are actively engaged in seeking solutions to these challenges.

The interest in robotics is strong. A recent report published by Research and Markets found that worldwide sales of warehousing and logistics robots hit $1.9 billion in 2016 and predicts that the market will reach $22.4 billion by the end of 2021. In a separate study by analysts Tractica, worldwide shipments made by warehousing and logistics robots are set to rise from 40,000 units in 2016 to 620,000 units annually by 2021.

This growing interest in warehouse robotics is being fuelled, in the main, by the consumers continued preference to shop online, with the rising expectation for next day delivery. According to figures released in March 2017 by the UKs Office for National Statistics (ONS), shoppers spent an estimated 1bn a week online with UK retailers during February, 20.7% up on the same month last year accounting for 15.3% of all retail spending.

But, how will omnichannel retailers cope with this significant and continuing shift to online sales? Where will the labour force come from to match the rising demand for single order picking? In large ecommerce fulfilment centres many hundreds of people are already employed as pickers and packers and, in key areas, finding staff is becoming increasingly difficult, but many more will be needed if the trend to online continues as predicted.

Perennial fears over the loss of some manual warehouse tasks to robots could possibly stand in the way of a sensible solution to the problems of scale of demand and cost. A draft report to the European parliament, prepared by MEP Mady Delvaux in 2016, even raised the idea of a tax on robots. However, robots can increase the productivity of the existing labour force and would be invaluable in the boost to activity leading up to Christmas, when finding extra staff can be difficult.

Importantly, robotics and automation radically improve productivity and through these gains, businesses grow and develop, requiring more people to maintain systems and run the newly developed channels of growth. Thus, the overall prospect for jobs remains positive going forward, although some roles may change.

In the UK, there are some that believe finding labour for picking processes may become more difficult following the decision to leave the EU, making investment in robotic picking an even more compelling option. It seems likely that many retailers will choose to amortise the cost of automation over a longer time period, and so ensure operational efficiency and customer service, rather than be exposed to the possibility of being dependent upon a dwindling pool of labour, with the linked prospect of rising labour costs.

There is already evidence of a growing number of retail businesses with large manual operations looking to the viability of automated DCs that incorporate robotic systems. Even organisations that presently use paper pick lists are exploring automation.

Mixed case palletising and roll-cage building is becoming increasingly important for retailers, particularly grocers, as they look to store friendly sequencing to achieve greater efficiency with shelf replenishment at their retail outlets. Dematic have developed shuttle-based systems to deliver full cases of product in sequence to specially created robot handlers and these dedicated machines pick-and-place product in mixed case fashion to a pallet or roll-cage. In this type of operation it is critical that the storage and retrieval system supplying the robot is fast enough to handle the cases and intelligent enough to deliver the cases in the exact sequence.

Similarly, many retailers are asking for retail totes to be built up on pallets or dollies automatically by robot in a store friendly sequence. This is relatively straight forward, removing manual labour and using intelligent software to sequence and build the load in accordance to the planned layout of the retail store building the load in reverse drop sequence. When the dolly is wheeled down the aisle in the store, items are available in order, ready to be placed on the shelves.

However, the Holy Grail in warehouse automation, and undoubtedly the most difficult challenge to date, is the use of robots for single item picking from a stock tote to an order tote. This is cutting edge technology and Dematic is actively engaged in developing robots for picking individual items, such as a bottle of shampoo or a tee shirt, from a stock tote and placing it to an order tote. Dematics RapidPick XT robotic picking system is leading this field and can consistently pick up to 1,200 items per hour with an uptime approaching 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The robot is fully articulated and equipped with a 2D/3D vision system.

It is the vision system and the gripper that are the two most highly complex aspects of this challenge. Dematic are trialing both gripper and vacuum technology to effect the pick and creating machines that are able to swap these hand pieces accordingly, depending on the characteristics of the items being picked.

Another robot that has just been developed by Dematics research unit in Grand Rapids is the Multishuttle ARM. This is a completely automated piece picking system that combines the Multishuttle donor tote buffer storage and conveyance system, a robotic arm, vision equipment, and warehouse control and order management systems to enable picking of individual items to batch or order totes. Multishuttle ARM replaces manual goods-to-person processes for order fulfilment operations.

There are many more exciting developments taking place regarding AGVs and robotics.

Robotic solutions have become viable only through recent advances in artificial intelligence. They are now far more cost-effective and are able to quickly identify, verify, pick-up and place single items at speed. These are complex problems that are being solved, here and now. Robots are no longer science fiction; they are fast becoming a very real part of the contemporary warehouse.

Simon Cooper is business solutions sales director for Dematic Northern Europe

About Dematic Dematic employs over 6,000 skilled logistics professionals to serve its customers globally, with engineering centers and manufacturing facilities located across the globe. Dematic has implemented more than 4,500 integrated systems for a customer base that includes small, medium and large companies doing business in a variety of market sectors. Headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Dematic is a member of KION Group, a global leader in industrial trucks, related services, and supply chain solutions.

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Robotics and the click-to-ship revolution - The Engineer

Another summer, another round of summer camps. For the last three years, Ive been enjoying teaching a variety of tech camps here in Atlanta. My students are typically 2nd to 7th graders, and Ive enjoyed teaching week-long camps such as Build Your Own Robot, 3D Design and Printing, and the big favorite, Minecraft Engineering. Just behind the Minecraft camp, however, is the Beginning Game Programming Camp. Ive now taught it three summers in a row, and it remains popular. Kids love games, and kids like the idea of learning to create their own games. Theyve got to start somewhere, and Scratch programming has consistently proven to be a great tool for introducing programming concepts and thought patterns.

Ive written previously about the DK workbooks that I use (you can read more about those workbooks here and here and here), and I always make a bunch of other books available as resources. I let the kids take the workbooks home when the camp is finished so they can share it with their parents and siblings. Each summer, Ive tried to improve on the curriculum, and this past week I got to take some camp upgrades for a test spin.

Last summer was the first time I introduced gamification to the game programming class. Each camper was provided a badge and a small checklist. As they worked through two workbooks and completed games/projects, they would level up. These checklists were taped to the whiteboard and provided a bit of incentive and competition to the students as they worked hard to reach Level 10. The problem I encountered was that many students didnt like the competition part some older students just moved more quickly through the levels, and the younger students tended to feel a bit overwhelmed. This time around, I instead provided each student with a small booklet and badge and allowed them to move around the nine games/projects and do the ones that interested them instead of a set list of consecutive projects. We took frequent breaks and I introduced them to other subjects related to programming (more on that in a moment).

Below you can see some photos of the badges and booklets. The students enjoyed taking the booklets home and showing their parents the progress they were making. My initials and a big checkmark brought a lot of smiles and I could see the sense of accomplishment each student received as they leveled up. I also awarded up to eight Achievement stickers to students when I saw them doing something useful or impressive; these included TEACH badges for explaining a concept to another student, DEBUG for successfully finding a bug on their own, and, the favorite, TEAMWORK for working together to solve a problem or find a unique way to do something.

With five days to level up, there was no pressure and I allowed students to take their workbooks home to continue their progress. Level 10 could only be achieved by creating their own unique game, and all the students were successful in finishing a game by Friday. I awarded a lot of TEAMWORK and DEBUG achievements but also quite a few RESEARCH and UPGRADE badges.

I mentioned earlier that, during the Scratch Game Programming camp, I introduced the students to program-related topics. One of those topics was robot programming. Kids are fascinated by robots (adults, too), and its an easy thing to hand a student who might be hesitant to learn programming a small robot like the Edison and ask him to drag some blocks on the screen to program the little robot to drive a loop around his chair.

I was fortunate this week to have an Edison to show the kids. This little robot has studs on it so LEGO blocks can be attached, but I was much more impressed with the new tool thats being released shortly called EdBlocks. EdBlocks is a browser-based tool that lets the user drop pre-coded blocks on the screen and string them together to create more complex instruction sets. I was able to use EdBlocks to get a few of the younger campers a bit more confident with the drag-and-drop Scratch block programming. Whats interesting is that EdBlocks is based on the Scratch tool, and some of the blocks (especially the looping-style blocks) shared a color scheme with their Scratch counterparts. The visual similarities, in my opinion, made it much easier for my younger programmers to feel at home once they dove into Scratch.

The only problem I had was that they didnt want to leave the Edison and start learning Scratch. They had the robot doing zig-zag patterns out in the hallway and beeping away at obstructions. The kids were so engaged that Im seriously consider creating an entire camp that revolves around the inexpensive Edison robot. I was provided with eight sample lessons, but the final (and FREE) resource pack will include 23 lessons and a teacher compendium!

And speaking of new camps, my next camp (a new one titled More Game Programming) will be up and running in a few weeks, and Ive got another absolutely incredible resource from DK. Each camper will be given a copy (to take home when the camp is done) of the brand new Coding Projects in Python. Ive read through the book, done most of the projects, and Im blown away by what a great resource this is for a younger audience.

This is a much lengthier book, coming in at 224 pages. Just as with the workbooks, this book is filled with colorful graphics, useful sidebars, Expert Tips, and much more. The book offers up over 15 different games and projects to code in Python, and its the layout of this book and the unique way it teaches the reader to code with Python that convinced me to offer the camp. With well-defined step numbers, the layout makes it easy for students to not accidentally jump ahead and skip over something important. This is a big dealmany coding books are just paragraph after paragraph after paragraph with code snippets tossed in, and Ive found that kids can often get lost easily in the maze. These projects are spread out and not rushedstudents have plenty of graphics to explore that explain key concepts and the sidebars are engaging. My oldest son has enjoyed the book (going into 5th grader) and I have no doubt the 3rd to 5th graders who will be taking the camp will find the projects fun. Even better, however, is the fact that they will get some solid experience with coding using a text-based language instead of a visual tool like Scratch.

Coding Projects in Python just came out, so I am fortunate to be able to have copies for each student. If youve got a student at home during the summer who is bored or needing a challenge, this is the book for him or her. And because Python is free to download and install, theres nothing else to buy. (It will run on both Mac and PC.)

All in all, Im keeping some kids busy this summer with lots of fun and interesting tools. From the Edison robot to Scratch programming to coding in Python, Im enjoy seeing the look of satisfaction on these kids faces as they learn new skills and have many Ah-hah! moments. Whether youre teaching your own camps or just have a kid or two at home during the summer and are looking for some ideas, these books and programming tools and robots are a sure-fire way to keep reading skills and brains sharp.

Note: Id like to thank DK and Team Edison/Microbric for providing review copies of the Python book and the Edison robot and EdBlocks tutorials.

James Floyd Kelly is a full-time writer. His latest three books are Digital Engineering with Minecraft, Tinkercad for Beginners and The Ultimate iPad. Learn more by visiting his website http://jamesfloydkelly.com

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Summer of Coding and Robotics - GeekDad (blog)