Monthly Archives: August 2017

Letters From the World of Turtle Evolution – Scientific American (blog)

Posted: August 20, 2017 at 6:19 pm

Im currently deep in the world of turtles its because of the textbook. And long-time readers will know that I suffer from Turtle Guilt anyway and have long aimed to put things right. In view of both of these things combined with the fact that I feel the urge to produce a new Tet Zoo article here are some brief thoughts on turtles that I hope you find interesting. The world of turtle evolutionary history and phylogenetic research is rich and complex, so I thought it would be fun to throw out a small selection of interesting factoids, not to focus on one specialised area. Here we go

Whos on the stem, whos in the crown? If you know anything about the geological history of turtles, youll be aware that a few anatomically archaic Late Triassic and Early Jurassic turtles have been regarded as the oldest representatives of Cryptodira and Pleurodira, the two great turtle groups that exist today. Most notable among these are the Late Triassic Proterochersis (originally described as the oldest known pleurodire) and the Early Jurassic Kayentachelys (originally described as the oldest cryptodire). A Late Triassic pleurodire would mean that the common ancestor of crown turtles was in existence by this time.

But this has been challenged. In a study devoted to phylogenetic analysis of Mesozoic turtles, Joyce (2007) argued that these early turtles are outside the crown group (crown group = the clade that contains living species and all descendants of their most recent common ancestor), and that crown turtles did not, in fact, evolve until considerably later (the Late Jurassic). Joyce (2007) and, later, other authors (Sterli et al. 2013) went further, proposing that a large number of additional taxa among them the remarkable meiolaniids of the Cretaceous and Cenozoic, the fabled Kallokibotion of the Late Cretaceous of Romania and the diverse and abundant baenids of the Cretaceous and Paleogene were stem-turtles too, not archaic cryptodires as long thought. Thisreallocation of taxa and revised view of turtle history has been accepted by some turtle specialists but not by others, and these two schools of thought currently appear to be at an impasse.

You might be thinking that none of this matters much, and perhaps youd be right. But the proposal that those archaic turtle lineages are outside the crown has some important implications: meiolaniids, you see, persisted to relatively recent times, their youngest geological occurrence being from the Holocene of Vanuatuwhere theyve been dated to just c 3000 years ago. We only just missed them, and by missed them I mean that ancient members of our species hunted them to extinction. Had they persisted to the present, we would according to the model proposed by Joyce have especially archaic, early-diverging turtles still with us today, members of a lineage that originated far earlier in the Mesozoic than the other turtle lineages still present. A complication here is that if meiolaniids were still alive our definition of the turtle crown would be far more inclusive, since all or virtually all of those lineages outside the cryptodire-pleurodire clade would now be inside the crown.

Side-necked turtles once lived just about everywhere. Today, pleurodires the side-necked turtles are southern animals of Africa, Madagascar, South America and Australasia. But the fossil record shows that this is absolutely not reflective of their distribution in the past: they were effectively cosmopolitan, with species across North America, Europe and Asia. Most of these animals belonged to groups that are now wholly extinct, like the bothremydids: these were around from the Late Cretaceous until eitherthe Oligocene or Miocene (Lapparent de Broin & Werner 1998, Gaffney et al. 2006). But others belonged to groups that now have a more restricted distribution: Neochelys known from around 8 species that inhabited Europe during the Eocene is a member of Podocnemididae, a group only present today in South America and Madagascar.

Archelon is not the biggest turtle. It has often been said, or at best implied, that certain of the Late Cretaceous marine protostegids in particular the famous Archelon (Archelon! Archelon!, quoth Raquel Welch, 1966) were the biggest turtles ever. This hasnt been true for a while, even though those particular turtles sure were big. Nope, the biggest turtles of all are pleurodires, the record-holder being Stupendemys of the Upper Miocene and Pliocene of northern South America. This giant reached 3.3 m in carapace length and thus must have exceeded 5 m in total length. Incidentally, if youve been to the AMNH in New York and seen the Stupendemys on display there, note that its skull is not actually that of Stupendemys, its an enlarged replica of the skull of another sort of pleurodire: the very deep-faced Miocene podocnemidid Caninemys, named on account of its bulldog-like appearance (Meylan et al. 2009).

Giant tortoises were formerly widespread, and not just on islands. Today we associate giant tortoises with oceanic islands, most famously the Galpagos but also the Seychelles. If youre up to speed on recently extinct animals youll also be aware of the recently extinct Cylindraspis tortoises of the Mascarenes, and perhaps of the big tortoises that also once occurred on the Caribbean islands. The impression you get from these animals is that giant size in tortoises was an island thing, and that tortoises are only able to achieve giant size when evolving in isolation from continental predators. But the fossil record paints a different picture.

Giant tortoises those with a carapace length exceeding 70 cm were a widespread presence in continental habitats too, and in fact have been since the Oligocene at least. Taraschelon an Oligocene form from France reached c 80 cm in carapace length. The biggest tortoise of all Megalochelys atlas (carapace length 2.1 m, mass c 1000 kg) inhabited southern Asia between the Miocene and Pleistocene and lived alongside a typical assortment of big continental mammals, and similarly big tortoises (they may be additional specimens of Megalochelys) also inhabited eastern Europe during the Pliocene (Boev 2008). Another giant Cheirogaster was present in Greece during the Miocene, Pliocene and Pleistocene. Some Cheirogaster specimens exceed 1.5 m in carapace length; the skull alone can be 23 cm long. Europe was also home to several species of Titanochelon during the Miocene and Pliocene: this animal occurred from Portugal all the way to western Asia and seems to have had a carapace length of about 1.2 m. North America was home to Hesperotestudo during the Pleistocene, some species of which rivalled Galpagos giant tortoises in size. This brief listing is far from complete, but you get the point: there were really big, fully terrestrial tortoises in many continental environments during the Cenozoic.

Its also worth noting that giant continental tortoises still exist today: there are some big South American Chelonoidis species, and the very large Centrochelys and Stigmochelys species of Africa. Another assumption that these animals were limited to tropical, frost-free places is also challenged by the fossil record, since some of these very large tortoises (thinking here of the North American Hesperotestudo) appear to have been able to dig deep burrows and avoid the cold surface temperatures sometimes present in the places where they occurred (thanks to Mark Gelbart for this idea).

That will do for now. We will revisit turtles again soon. While on the subject of this group, my review of Olivier Rieppelnew book Turtles As Hopeful Monsters has recently been published (Naish 2017). For previous Tet Zoo turtle articles, see

Refs - -

Bakker, R. T. 1986. The Dinosaur Heresies. Penguin Books, London.

Boev, Z. 2008. First finds of giant land tortoises discovered in Bulgaria. Science News April 2008, 2-4.

Gaffney, E. S., Tong, H. & Meylan, P. A. 2006. Evolution of the side-necked turtles: the families Bothremydidae, Euraxemydidae, and Araripemydidae. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 300, 1-700.

Joyce, W. G. 2007. Phylogenetic relationships of Mesozoic turtles. Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History 48, 3-102.

Lapparent de Broin, F. de & Werner, C. 1998. New late Cretaceous turtles from the Western Desert, Egypt. Annales de Palontologie 84, 131-214.

Meylan, P. A., Gaffney, E. S. & Campos, D. de A. 2009. Caninemys, a new side-necked turtle (Pelomedusoides: Podocnemididae) from the Miocene of Brazil. American Museum Novitates 3639, 1-26.

Naish, D. 2017. Review of Turtles as Hopeful Monsters: Origins and Evolution. Palaeontologia ElectronicaVol. 20, Issue 2; 1R: 3p.

Sterli, J., de la Fuente, M. & Cerda, I. A. 2013. A new species of meiolaniform turtle and a revision of the Late Cretaceous Meiolaniformes of South America. Ameghiniana 50, 240-256.

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American lit, conservative thought and Trump – St. Augustine Record

Posted: at 6:18 pm

Bob Fliegel

St. Augustine

Remember Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau? Although most of us English majors met those two in American Lit 101, I hadnt given them much thought in the intervening 50-plus years. Until, that is, I had the following epiphany: They represent two pillars of modern American conservative thought.

Consider the thesis of what is arguably Emersons most famous work, his 1841 essay on Self-Reliance. Surely self-reliance is an admirable trait. How could it not be? Shouldnt we all be expected to strive, to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, to be self-made, to eschew the government dole?

Of course, the reality is that not everyone thrives under capitalism. Many falter and fail for any number of reasons. Some are unable to overcome physical or mental shortcomings, while others may see themselves as economically victimized by forces beyond their control. Still others are inept or just plain lazy.

Enter social Darwinism. In that view, the survival of the fittest extends beyond Darwins theories of natural selection to a similar premise of socio-economic survival. Some of us will succeed.

Some of us will not. Theres a putative fairness to this being allowed to play out without government intercession. Why should the less able be given a leg up? Is a level playing field an inalienable right? Are unequal outcomes always prima facie evidence of unequal opportunity?

Add Thoreaus essay Civil Disobedience of 1849, in which he endorsed the Jeffersonian notion that government is best which governs least, and you have the conservatives rejection of a.) government intrusion and overreach and b.) assistance programs they regard as only fostering continued dependence on government largesse.

Ronald Reagans compassion for the truly needy notwithstanding, conservatives have remained skeptical about that truly part. Although they extol the virtues of voluntary assistance to the disadvantaged, they certainly dont feel the same way about involuntary taxation to help those who cant fend for themselves. In fact, many believe program abuses have become so numerous as to warrant throwing that truly needy baby out with the bath water of welfare cheats.

President Trump does not appear to exemplify either of these two major conservative tenets. More precisely, his transactional approach to governance does not seem to be at all grounded in the thinking of their historical advocates.

The odds of his being even minimally conversant about the contributions of a Thoreau, an Emerson, or a conservative progenitor like Edmund Burke, are low indeed. No doubt his supporters would call that contention elitist. So be it. They would, of course, be wrong.

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How can I keep my employees from jumping ship? – New York Post

Posted: at 6:18 pm

I am the owner of a thriving small company. I make an extreme effort to support my employees, yet no matter how much I do, I rarely trust their loyalty. They tell me how happy they are and how grateful for learning so much, but then jump ship, chasing a shinier fish. Loyalty and building a place in a company is a thing of the past, it seems. Whats a small business owner to do?

Good help is hard to find is a common refrain, particularly from small business owners. Generally, I agree with that, which is why, when you are one of the good help you have a lot of leverage and employers are best-served to do what they can to retain such talent. Its harder for small business owners because of the limited career potential. It is your business, after all, not theirs, so if you are hiring people who have higher career aspirations than what you can provide, its unrealistic to expect them to stick around. Not everyone is a career climber, though, so maybe you need to hire more wisely. Find people who are looking for a steady job with good pay, benefits and a pleasant place to work. Youll have a better chance of retaining your staff.

I went through a 360-degree evaluation where my staff, peers and bosses filled out an anonymous evaluation about me, my traits, my performance, etc. I am mortified by the results. Our workplace is very competitive, and I am sure my peers sabotaged me because they want my job. I also dont think its fair that it is anonymous. How do I handle this and discuss it with my boss?

Someone needs a little more help than just a 360 evaluation! Before you go popping off about how the deck was stacked against you and the results are the forces of workplace Darwinism, you might want to dial back there a bit and take a long, hard look in the mirror. Usually there is a certified survey professional who sits with the individual and goes through the results and strategies for dealing with the feedback. Do that! Because unless you do work in a vipers den, chances are you have some things to work on. The fact that your employer invested time and money in this process usually means he or she sees something positive in you worth developing. Seize on that and go from there.

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Futures Tour: A charade of mediocre athletes play-acting as tennis pros – Economic Times

Posted: at 6:18 pm

By David Waldstein

A German of Chilean descent, an American with Russian parentage, a Pole and a Dutchman were arguing in English on a red clay tennis court on the outskirts of Prague.

As much as that may sound like the setup to a joke, it was just a moment in time on the International Tennis Federations Futures Tour, the lowest level of professional mens tennis, where thousands toil in relative obscurity with little hope of ever joining the sports elite.

The four men had disputed several previous calls in a contentious doubles match, and the German player, Laslo Urrutia Fuentes, fumed when Sander Groen, his Dutch opponent, fired an overhead slam directly at him as he stood defenceless at the net.

Urrutia called Groen arrogant and cocky, and the argument raged for several minutes, with Groen cartoonishly aping Urrutias movements. Another day on the tour, Urrutia said with a shrug a few hours later.

The scene was made even more absurd because Groen is 49, a curious age for a player on a tour named Futures. The tour was established to help young players navigate their way from the juniors to the top level of the professional ranks, the ATP Tour. Theoretically, players should know by their mid-20s whether they can make it as pros. But many just seem to keep playing.

With professional tournaments aplenty in roughly 75 countries, and no age restrictions, thousands of players enter hundreds of tournaments each year, despite the offer of very little prize money. Such conditions create fertile grounds for stagnation, frustration, petulant behaviour and match fixing.

Its a complete free-for-all at the lower levels of tennis, Kris Dent, the ITFs senior executive director of professional tennis, said in an interview this summer.

At best, the Futures Tour is a proving ground for elite prospects, a costly but potentially rewarding journey to fame. At worst, it is a cynical charade of mediocre athletes playacting as tennis pros, vulnerable to corruption.

That is why the ITF has decided to radically restructure the tour, beginning in 2019. It hopes to re-categorise about 90 percent of the players into a more streamlined amateur structure, leaving players like Urrutia with some hope that they can soldier on, at least until the Darwinism of the rankings system spits them out.

According to a recent ITF study, there were 14,000 nominally professional tennis players entering tournaments around the globe in 2013. But 6,000 of them, including many juniors, did not earn even $1. Given the costs of travel, coaching, conditioning, medical care and equipment, only 336 men and 253 women broke even; forget making a profit.

Thats quite astonishing for a sport that has almost $300 million in prize money, Dent said. These smaller tournaments have no TV, no sponsorships and no one paying any money to go see them, and they never will.

The plan is to funnel the top 750 men and 750 women into the Challenger Tour, where the total prize money at each tournament would equal $25,000 or more. Those would be the true professionals.

The remainder would play on the new Transition Tour, which would be restructured to favour promising young players through a new ranking system and to make it less costly. The ITF would continue to assess and possibly tweak the system to establish a major league and a minor league with a clear link between them.

The balancing act for the ITF is to continue to promote the sport globally so that there are still avenues to the top in places like Africa, Southeast Asia and South America.

It is not up to me to determine who makes it and who doesnt, Dent said. But we want a distinct majors and minors with a clear pathway to the top, a realistic transition from the juniors to the ATP and WTA tours. There is a large group that are semiprofessional, and I dont expect them to stay on the transition tour.

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Will Moroccan Schools Reintroduce Curriculum to Feature Human Evolutionary Theory? – Morocco World News

Posted: at 6:18 pm

By Amal Ben Hadda

Rabat The oldest Homo-sapiens discovered on June 2017 at JbelIrhoud near to Marrakech make unexpected adjustments in science. New hypotheses about human history are actually being considered and it is now believed that human beings have been around for more than 300,000 years.

While these new discoveries are shaking up the scientific community, we should ask ourselves why these theories of evolution are not being taught in Moroccan schools. Why is this scientific approach to revealing the origin of humanity not considered in the manuals programs?

From a religious perspective, some Muslim scholars support the study of human evolutionary theory. The different levels of human conception are mentioned in many verses in the Quran. However, the exegeses of these verses have been influenced by Talmudic interpretations of the Torah and have been accepted as authentic versions of the human genesis. As an example of this influence, there is the creation of woman from Adams rib. This version, interpreted from the Torah and resumed by mainstream Islamic exegeses, doesnt exist in the Quran.

In the original text of the Torah, the chapter Genesis shows in 1:27 that man and woman were conceived at the same level and no one is superior to another. However, this woman was diabolized by the patriarchal tradition. Only the version of the creation of woman from Adams rib named Eve is considered by the creationists as per the interpretations of the Genesis 2:23.

A neutral reinterpretation of the Quran is therefore necessary.The book Sharjarah Code Decoded by Imad Hassan discusses the conception of human beings as mentioned in the Quran away from the traditional beliefs.This work gives an interesting insight into how the Gods message could be manipulated by the interpretations of man. As Muslims, we should therefore accept scientific theories even if they seem to go against our beliefs.

Since science and religion coincide in the Moroccan classroom, human evolution as a scientific theory shouldnt be seen as a threat to the religious belief at school. Science class is a place to develop epistemological understanding and critical thinking.

It is important to note that human evolution isnt limited to the natural selection driver as per Darwinism. Intelligent design theory adds that the existence of an intelligent cause to explain empirically the complexity of the organisms instead of the law of chance. Conversely, radical Creationism is based on religious texts and suggests that human beings first came about through an incestuous relationship between siblings from a single couple and rejects any scientific finding against this belief.

The conflict between science and religion has a long history. The book Islams Quantum Question: Reconciling Muslim Tradition and Modern Science by Nidhal Guessoum explains the discord between religious beliefs and science on the one hand and between Muslim tradition and Islam on the other hand.However, the Muslim world is unfortunately more interested in the so called Al-Ijaz Al Ilmi commonly translated as Scientific miracles of the Quran.This belief system presents religious texts as miracles by misusing scientific discoveries and sometimes by improvising inconsistent argumentation.

In Morocco, mentalities are beginning to change. The seminarabout Scientific Miracles in the Quran and Sunnah, taken at the University of Fes in April 2017, demonstrates that Moroccan students are aware of scientific methods and do not just blindly believe religious arguments.

Scientific research is recommended by Islam and should be a top priority for Muslims. As the Quran encourages reasoning and rational thinking, there should be no controversy in teaching scientific theories in Moroccan schools. The curriculum in Morocco needs to adjust to accommodate the latest scientific updates so that Moroccan students have the opportunity to learn about them.

The question remains: will the Moroccan oldest Human find a place in the Moroccan schools manuals? Will these new scientific discoveries be a turning point for science in Morocco?

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent any institution or entity.

Morocco World News. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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Leaders Of Top Robotics And AI Companies Call For Ban On Killer Robots – HuffPost

Posted: at 6:18 pm

Founders of AI/robotics companies, including Elon Musk (Tesla, SpaceX, OpenAI) and Mustafa Suleyman (Googles DeepMind), call for autonomous weapons ban, as UN delays negotiations.

Leaders from AI and robotics companies around the world have released an open letter calling on the United Nations to ban autonomous weapons, often referred to as killer robots.

Founders and CEOs of nearly 100 companies from 26 countries signed the letter, which warns:

In December, 123 member nations of the UN had agreed to move forward with formal discussions about autonomous weapons, with 19 members already calling for an outright ban. However, the next stage of discussions, which were originally scheduled to begin on August 21 -- the release date of the open letter -- were postponed because a small number of nations hadnt paid their fees.

The letter was organized and announced by Toby Walsh, a prominent AI researcher at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. In an email, he noted that, sadly, the UN didn't begin today its formal deliberations around lethal autonomous weapons.

The open letter included such signatories as:

In reference to the signatories, the press release for the letter added, Their companies employ tens of thousands of researchers, roboticists and engineers, are worth billions of dollars and cover the globe from North to South, East to West: Australia, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, UK, United Arab Emirates and USA.

Bengio explained why he signed, saying, the use of AI in autonomous weapons hurts my sense of ethics. He added that the development of autonomous weapons would be likely to lead to a very dangerous escalation, and that it would hurt the further development of AI's good applications. He concluded his statement to FLI saying that this is a matter that needs to be handled by the international community, similarly to what has been done in the past for some other morally wrong weapons (biological, chemical, nuclear).

Stuart Russell, another of the worlds preeminent AI researchers and founder of Bayesian Logic Inc., added:

Ryan Gariepy, founder & CTO of Clearpath Robotics was the first to sign the letter. For the press release, he noted, "Autonomous weapons systems are on the cusp of development right now and have a very real potential to cause significant harm to innocent people along with global instability."

The open letter ends with similar concerns. It states:

The letter was announced in Melbourne, Australia at the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI), which draws many of the worlds top artificial intelligence researchers. Two years ago, at the last IJCAI meeting, Walsh released another open letter, which called on countries to avoid engaging in an AI arms race. To date, that previous letter has been signed by over 20,000 people, including over 3,100 AI/robotics researchers.

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5 Passive Cooling Alternatives Using Robotics and Smart Materials – ArchDaily

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5 Passive Cooling Alternatives Using Robotics and Smart Materials

The IAAC (Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia) has developed a series of advanced materials and systems for air conditioning and passive ventilation, allowing homes to reduce interior temperatures up to 5 degrees lower while saving the electricity consumption caused by the traditional air-conditioning. The systems are made from long-lifespan materials, which lower the costs of maintenance in the long-term and can be used as low-cost alternative building technologies.

The projects highlightedare the Breathing Skin, Hydroceramics, Hydromembrane, Morphluid and Soft Robotics - all developed by students of the IAAC's Digital Matter Intelligent Constructions (conducted by Areti Markopoulou). The passive air-conditioning of spaces is investigated using a combination of new materials that mimic organic processes, adaptive structures and Robotics that help regulate temperature and create sustainable micro climates.

Facades and light structures like Hydroceramics, Breathing Skin or Hydromembrane have been developed by the IAAC during recent years. By creating a series of systems that act like a second skin in buildings, IAAC transforms a buildings thermoregulation to imitate the human body -transpiring water to regulate the temperature.

Hydroceramics is a faade system made of clay and hydrogel panels capable of cooling building interiors up to 5 degrees. Hydrogel capsules have the capacity to absorb up to 500 times their own weight in water to create a construction system that "breathes" through evaporation and perspiration.

Unlike Hydroceramics, parallel inventions Hydromembrane and Breathing Skin are based on compounds made with fine membranes and intelligent fabrics for buildings that act as a second "respiratory" skin for constructions capable of self-regulating the humidity and climate of indoor and outdoor spaces.

Each system uses materials that have a high capacity of water absorption, which is later released by evaporation - creating a cooling effect in warm environments. As an example, Breathing Skin absorbs up to 300 times its volume in water in a relatively short period of time thanks to the presence of superabsorbent polymer called sodium polyacrylate.

IAAC has also designed more alternatives that focus on structures and applied robotics in the new bioclimatic architecture. Morphluid or Soft Robotics (SORO) are created as passive shading systems using "live roofs" that regulate the amount of light and heat entering the spaces.

Soft Robotics is a lightweight and sensitive robotic shading device that attempts to create microclimate by controlling sunlight, ventilation and temperature to humidify the atmosphere. This robotic prototype adopts different sizes and shapes as the artificial "sunflowers" that project shade the moment its integrated liquid element is evaporated by the heat of the sun.

Morphluid is also based on the transition of liquids as an activator that modulates the roof and adjusts the environment by means of shading. Morphluid integrates two water tanks into a movable structure (a roof, a window) that tilts when the water in one of the tanks evaporates, allowing shade to continuously project and refresh the environment.

The IAAC academic director and project manager, Areti Markopoulou, highlights "the potential of advanced systems and materials to help us have the most pleasant temperature in our homes through more sustainable buildings that breathe and behave the living things and interact with their environment." Markopoulou Also highlighted the importance of this innovation to energy saving, since "passive air-conditioning materials and systems are based on principles of physics such as evaporation to cool spaces."

To learn more about eachproject, check out the gallery below:

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5 Passive Cooling Alternatives Using Robotics and Smart Materials - ArchDaily

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This 3D-printed robotic arm is built for sign language – TechCrunch

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While we usually see robotics applied to industrial or research applications, there are plenty of ways they could help in everyday life as well: an autonomous guide for blind people, for instance, or a kitchen bot that helps disabled folks cook. Or and this one is real a robot arm that can perform rudimentary sign language.

Its part of a masters thesis from grad students at the University of Antwerp who wanted to address the needs of the deaf and hearing impaired. In classrooms, courts and at home, these people often need interpreters who arent always available.

Their solution is Antwerps Sign Language Actuating Node, or ASLAN. Its a robotic hand and forearm that can perform sign language letters and numbers. It was designed from scratch and built from 25 3D-printed parts, with 16 servos controlled by an Arduino board. Its taught gestures using a special glove, and the team is looking into recognizing them through a webcam as well.

Right now, its just the one hand so obviously two-hand gestures and the cues from facial expressions that enrich sign language arent possible yet. But a second coordinating hand and an emotive robotic face are the next two projects the team aims to tackle.

The idea is not to replace interpreters, whose nuance can hardly be replicated, but to make sure that there is always an option for anyone worldwide who requires sign language service. It also could be used to help teach sign language a robot doesnt get tired of repeating a gesture for you to learn.

Why not just use a virtual hand? Good question. An app or even a speech-to-text program would accomplish many of the same things. But its hard to think less of the ASLAN project; taking an assistive technology off the screen and putting it in the real world, where it can be interacted with, viewed from many angles, and otherwise share the physical space of the people it helps, is a commendable goal.

ASLAN was created by Guy Fierens, Stijn Huys and Jasper Slaets. Its still in prototype form, but once its finalized the designs will be open sourced.

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The Robots Will Be Soft and Cuddly and Heal Their Own Wounds … – WIRED

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Seppe Terryn/Science Robotics

Poke a hole in a human and something remarkable happens. First of all, you go to jail. But meanwhile, the wound heals itself, filling in the missing tissue and protecting itself from infection. Poke a hole in a robot , however, and prepare for a long night of repairs. The machines may be stronger than us, but theyre missing out on a vital superpower.

Until now. Researchers at Belgiums Vrije Universiteit Brussel report this week in Science Robotics that theyve developed a squishy, self-healing robot. Cut it open, apply heat, let it cool down again, and the wound heals itself. While self-healing materials are nothing new, their application in so-called soft robotics a relatively new kind of pliable machine that uses pneumatics or hydraulics to movecould be big. Think Terminator-style robots that automatically heal bullet wounds. OK, maybe dont think of that.

Seppe Terryn, Science Robotics

To build their squishbot, the researchers crafted an elastomer, a elastic variety of polymer. Its network of microscopic chains are held together by something called a Diels-Alder reaction , which is temperature-sensitive. So these bonds break when you heat them and reform as they cool. On the microscopic level, there is enough mobility to seal the gap, says electromechanical engineer Seppe Terryn , lead author on the paper. And then if we decrease the temperature again the entire network will be formed again. Think of melting down a cube of Jell-O, then putting it back in the fridgethe difference being that this polymer goes back to its original shape and strength after injury. Also, its more expensive and less tasty.

Now, of course itd be ideal if the soft robot could heal itself without the application of heat, but in a way theres an advantage here. This means also that we can do the healing in a controlled way, says Terryn. So in the long term, the robots can decide when is the best time to start the healing and start heating up.

That, though, would require that the robot knows its injured. So what the team is working on next is a material loaded with sensors that could tell exactly where a wound opens up, then deploy targeted heat to the area to heal it. The robot could even start preemptively healing if it detects microcuts from normal wear and tear.

Seppe Terryn, Science Robotics

This system, then, very much mimics the way an animal seals up a wound. That's opposed to other self-healing materials already out there which, for instance, use embedded microcapsules to release healing agents. (These are better for rigid structures like glass, not floppy robots. That and they don't need temperature changes to work.) What Terryn and his team are doing instead is adapting an existing technology. "They're taking these Diels-Alder polymers that have been shown before to have reversible covalent bonds and making use of them in these very biomimetic applications," says North Dakota State University's Michael Kessler, who also works in self-healing materials.

In addition to this system needing heat to work, another downside is that the healing isnt wildly efficient. The main concern with the material proposed in this paper is the time and the heating required for healing, says roboticist Pietro Valdastri of the University of Leeds. Depending on the application, 40 minutes at 80 degrees centigrade plus cooling time can be too long to wait.

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But thats now. Self-healing will only get better from here, and surely will be essential for soft robots, which today are typically made of fabrics like polyester. After all, the whole point of a robot soft is it can interact with humans without killing them and pick up squishy objects like tomatoes.

That and they pack well: A four-foot-long soft robot arm can deflate and ship in far less space than a traditional robot arm. And thats important because soft robots are going places. Having a robot that doesn't need to be pulled out for repair, says roboticist Jon Pompa of soft robot outfit Pneubotics , if you could identify some failure modes and have the materials of the robot do some kind of self-repairing stuff, that would be a really excellent argument why to use them in extreme environments.

For instance, if you pack a soft robot in a rocket and fire it to Mars to do some construction ahead of human habitation, youre screwed if it springs a leak and deflates mid-mission. But what Terryns team has shown is that you could theoretically have an injured soft robot deflate itself and heat up to repair the wound. That would save you a lot of money and heartache.

So get ready to see a lot more soft robots and, at some point, soft robots you can stab without getting in trouble. Sorry, I'm still thinking about Terminator .

Originally posted here:

The Robots Will Be Soft and Cuddly and Heal Their Own Wounds ... - WIRED

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Business Showcase : Fastbrick Robotics – Irish Tech News

Posted: at 6:18 pm

By@SimonCocking

Describe the company the elevator pitch

Fastbrick Robotics Limited (ASX:FBR) is an Australian robotic technology company developing and commercialising digital construction technology solutions.

Fastbrick Robotics revolutionary bricklaying machine, the Hadrian X, represents the first application of our underlying intellectual property portfolio.

The Hadrian X is a globally patented 3D robotic bricklaying system, and marks the transition of automated machinery from the secure and controlled nature of indoor factories and laboratories to the dynamically stabilised robots (DSR) that operate outdoors in uncontrolled environments.

Fastbrick Robotics is committed to improving the safety, speed, accuracy, cost and waste management in the global construction industry through utilising the worlds latest innovations in mobile robotic technology.

How are you different?

The robotics sector globally has tremendous growth and presents significant opportunity for those with relevant intellectual property, and the underpinning technology that enables the Hadrian X associated with dynamic stabilisation, has widespread potential applications beyond robotic bricklaying.

While the Hadrian X is not the first robotic bricklaying machine, it is the first machine that is fully-automated from start to finish meaning that the entire brickwork of a house could potentially be completed in as little as 15 hours without the need for human intervention.

Fastbrick Robotics is pleased to have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: https://t.co/8swHPHlJ1c pic.twitter.com/JVKjmVDkpj

Fastbrick Robotics (@_Fastbrick) August 16, 2017

Why will the company/product do well?

Fastbrick Robotics has a suite of protected intellectual property that extends well beyond the Hadrian X bricklaying machine and we have hardly scratched the surface in exploring other possible markets and applications for this technology. We are therefore very excited by the unquantifiable potential for the company and its technology and about the additional applications and opportunities beyond the Hadrian X. Having said that, the delivery of the Hadrian X is certainly the companys priority at the moment.

The Hadrian X represents a quantum leap in digital construction technology and this breakthrough threatens to shake up one of the oldest and largest industries in the world, the construction industry. We know that the digital age of construction is here right now and that the use of robots outside factory walls for purposes including construction is also a reality right now. We intend to lead the charge in this emerging space of digital construction and also explore other markets and applications for our enabling technologies. While many people around the world once objected to automation and the use of robots in factories, so it is that this technology presents as disruption to markets such as construction. The prevalent use of robotics in factories today speaks for itself and we can not only see the same evolution happening with robots outside but we are leading the charge. Our dynamic stabilisation technology now makes this a reality.

People need houses and the world has a shortage of them along with bricklayers. With the valuable end prize of reducing cost, time, and waste while improving safety and accuracy in the building process, the world is watching this technology very closely as it threatens to shake up the way houses and other structures are built.

The industry and the market we are addressing with the Hadrian X is extremely large and the commercial prize is very big, and we are a long way ahead of any other company in terms of the technology we have developed. The potential applications for our enabling technology are potentially endless and we are currently exploring these as part of our broader company strategy.

With the market now closed, Fastbrick Robotics $FBR finishes a stellar day as one of the biggest movers on the @ASX. pic.twitter.com/KUDeqxAQjJ

Fastbrick Robotics (@_Fastbrick) August 16, 2017

Where are you based?

Perth, Western Australia.

When was the company launched?

Fastbrick Robotics was publicly listed on the ASX in November of 2015 via an oversubscribed reverse takeover, and subsequently raised AUD $5.75 million.

What have been your biggest wins to date?

At the end of 2016, we were named Western Australian Innovator of the Year. This success continued in 2017 when we won the Most Disruptive Technology category at the WAITTA INCITE Awards, and most recently when we announced an agreement with industry giant Caterpillar (see our website atwww.fbr.com.au), and when Caterpillar became a shareholder of Fastbrick Robotics Ltd as part of the same deal.

What type of people (market segment) are you trying to attract to your product?

Weve had a significant amount of interest from both individuals, companies and governments of countries around the world. As a result, we are still working through the details of a fully integrated market strategy that may now be influenced by our recent agreement with Caterpillar Inc.

Tell us about your team?

Our team is primarily made up of both mechanical and software engineers that have been working extremely hard to develop the underlying technology behind the Hadrian X. While we have a reasonably young team, our engineers represent the peak of innovation and have established themselves as leaders in their respective fields. The technical teams are led by founder/Executive Director/Chief Technical Officer Mark Pivac.

We also have a very strong commercial managerial team led by our Managing Director, Mike Pivac, who are leading the company towards the commercialisation of our technology and ensuring a secure and profitable future.

What are your long-term plans for your product/company?

The overall long-term plan is to cement our position as a global leader in the field of robotics, particularly in relation to digital construction solutions. However, our primary focus now is commercialising the Hadrian X and bringing this unique technology to the world.

How do people get in touch with you?

The best way to contact us is via the contact form on our website atwww.fbr.com.au. Alternatively, you can keep in contact with us through Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Facebook:www.facebook.com/fastbrickrobotics

Twitter:www.twitter.com/_Fastbrick

If you would like to have your company featured in the Irish Tech News Business Showcase, get in contact with us at [emailprotected] or on Twitter: @SimonCocking

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Business Showcase : Fastbrick Robotics - Irish Tech News

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