Monthly Archives: April 2020

From Archinect's active community of architecture students and professionals, firms, and schools, we have selected three practices and one university for our latest weekly highlight. Looking for a starting point in your job search? Take a closer look at these Archinect profiles to learn more about them and their current job opportunities.

If you are looking to join a truly global company with large-scale projects under the belt, schlaich bergermann partner could be the right match. From its offices in Stuttgart, Berlin, New York, So Paulo, Shanghai, and Paris, the firm strives to design structures that are lightweight, efficient, and innovative.

As one of Southern California's foremost institutions of higher learning, Woodbury School of Architecture operates as a network of hubs from the Los Angeles metro area through San Diego to Tijuana. The Making Complex at the school's Burbank Campus features state-of-the-art digital prototyping workspaces and labs, including robotics, virtual reality, material design, ceramics and casting, and more.

Multi-disciplinary firm AB design studio offers services in architecture, interior design, and urban planning. With offices in Santa Barbara and Los Angeles, the company aims for a holistic approach of environmental design and place-making to projects across a range of typologies.

Founded by seasoned design professionals Harry Bates and Paul Masi, East Hampton-based firm Bates Masi + Architects LLC impresses with a roster of stunning, mostly suburban residences that celebrate material, craft, and place.

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These four architectural employers offer everything from a cutting edge robotics lab through craftsmanship in design to innovative structures -...

One of the consequences of people being told to stay home to slow the spread of coronavirus is loneliness. And a collection of 13 robotics experts from around the world have a suggestion for how to solve that: a robot pal.

The innovation is just one of many mentioned in an open letter by the global contingent of robotics experts who suggest that the coronavirus pandemic should serve as a catalyst for the increased use and development of robots.

"Now the impact of COVID-19 may drive further research in robotics to address risks of infectious diseases," says the statement, published March 25 in Science Robotics magazine.

The statement aims to inspire more funding to develop these varieties of robots, many of which it became clear were needed during the 2015 Ebola crisis.

"[W]ithout sustained research efforts robots will, once again, not be ready for the next incident," says the statement. "By fostering a fusion of engineering and infectious disease professionals with dedicated funding we can be ready when (not if) the next pandemic arrives."

Here are some of the ways robots are being used and could be used in future pandemics.

One of the ways people can be infected with coronavirus is by touching a contaminated surface and then touching their face, as the virus can live on metal, glass or plastic surfaces for days. According to the scientists' statement,ultraviolet light has been shown to "be effective in reducing contamination" on surfaces in hospitals.

In fact, according to other experts, the intensity of UV light needed to kill coronavirus can be harmful to humans. But, the scientists say large and small autonomous or remote-controlled robots could be developed to locate and constantly sterilize frequently touched surfaces with ultraviolet light.

Fever is an overwhelmingly common symptom of COVID-19. Automated camera systems used in conjunction with thermal sensors and vision algorithms on autonomous or remotely operated robots could be used to monitor temperatures of patients in hospitals, the scientists say.

CNBC Make It previously reported on robots used in a field hospitala In Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. Beijing-based robotics company CloudMinds sent 14 robots to help with patient care, and one of those systemsmeasured people's temperatures as theyentered (video below).

While there will no doubt be privacy concerns with any tracking technology, the roboticists say combining existing security systems with facial recognition software could allow authorities to retrace the steps of patients who tested positive for COVID-19 and contact others who might be at risk, which is known as contact tracing.

Testing for coronavirus involves inserting a swab fairly deep into a patient's nasal cavity.

There are parts of the process that puts humans at risk of contracting the virus, including collecting the sample, handling the sample, transfering the sample to the test location and the test itself.

"During a major outbreak, a key challenge is a lack of qualified staff to swab patients and process test samples," the scientists say. "Automated or robot-assisted nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swabbing may speed up the process, reduce the risk of infection, and free up staff for other tasks."

Patients can test positive for COVID-19 before they have symptoms. A blood test for antibodies (the protein produced when a pathogen is detected in the bloodstream that are used by the immune system), would enable testing before symptoms present, what the scientists called a "silent infection."

Robots that automate the process of drawing blood could reduce the risks to frontline medical personnel. Research is already being done on systems that use ultrasound imaging to identify veins in the forearm for blood draw.

Autonomous drones and ground robots can be used to deliver medicine to patients who have coronavirus.

Also in the field hospital in Wuhan, China, CloudMinds robots were used to deliver food, drink and medicine to patients.

People staying home to "flatten the curve" of the pandemic can mean less social interaction for some, "which may have a negative impact on mental health," the scientists say. "Social robots" would provide social stimulation and interactions, in addition to providing reminders to follow treatment regimens.

Developing a social robot is complicated, though. "This is a challenging area of development because social interactions require building and maintaining complex models of people, including their knowledge, beliefs, emotions, as well as the context and environment of the interaction," the scientists say.

Link:

COVID-19 pandemic proves the need for 'social robots,' 'robot avatars' and more, say experts - CNBC

Opinion: fromhospitals to shops and policing, the use of drones and robots to carry out critical services can save lives during an epidemic

By Boris Galkin, TCD

As the world is rocked by the coronavirus crisis, governments everywhere have come together with the same safety instructions: stay home and avoid close contact with other people. For many, this lifestyle change simply entails taking their workload home and balancing it with their domestic chores: bookkeeping while babysitting, coding while cooking.

But leaving the house is still a necessity for purchasing food and essentials, which carries a risk of infection. Even worse off are those people whose jobs cannot be taken home and who must be in contact with potentially sick individuals.

The good news is that possible solutions for many of these issues are just around the corner, as the crisis has given a boost to a number of emerging technologies. The last 10 years have seen a technological revolution occur in the robotics and autonomous vehicle sectors. Largely invisible to the layperson, this crisis has pushed the technology out of its niche into the public sphere like never before.

From CGTN, a Chinese hospital is using robots to deliver medicine

So how are robots and drones playing a key role in containing the spread of the Covid-19 virus - and what changes we can expect to see in Ireland in the near future?Among those most at risk of contracting the virus are healthcare personnel such as doctors and nurses, who spend prolonged periods of time in areas with potentially infectious patients. Recognising this, several hospitals in China have begun adopting autonomous robots for many of their day-to-day tasks, such as delivering foodand medicineto patients, as well as disinfecting the hospital environment.

In Singapore, doctors are using telemedicine robots to remotely interact with patients from a safe distance whenever possible. These robots take the form of electric carts carrying cameras, video monitors and health measurement equipment. The medical personnel using these devices have the opportunity to increase the frequency of their patient interactions without having to resort to wearing PPE such as gloves and masks, which are in short supply.

Another key service which is seeing a robotic transformation is the delivery sector. With individuals staying home, the demand for online shopping and home delivery has skyrocketed. This puts delivery staff in a difficult situation, as any contact with the end-client puts both parties at risk.

From New China TV, autonomous delivery robots delivering goods in Wuhan

While leaving packages on doorsteps is an option, Chinese company JD.com has a better idea. Already a big player in autonomous delivery systems, this company has used the quarantine conditions to push their autonomous ground vehicles from the lab to the street. Taking the form of miniature electric vans, JD.com's delivery robots are safely driving along Wuhans roads and carrying out the last-mile stage of package delivery (that is, the stage where a package is sent from the local storage hub to the clients address). Capable of piloting themselves around complicated road conditions day or night, these robots are reported to be making the majority of the companys medical deliveries at the time of writing.

Law enforcement has not been left behind by this technological trend. With the lockdown come new laws which need to be enforced, and police organisations around the world are turning to remotely-piloted tools. These devices most often take the form of commercially available drones carrying loudspeakers or other communication equipment. Using them, police officers are able to remotely patrol city streets and public areas, identify the locations of non-compliant individuals and directly engage them. Not only do these devices allow the police to maintain their physical distance when carrying out their patrols, but their speed allows the police to oversee much larger areas than what they could achieve from the ground.

From ABC News, Madrid police are using drones tobroadcast messages during the coronavirus outbreak

While China has emerged as the leader in adopting these robotic tools, other countries are following closely. Ireland is currently lagging behind with this technology, due to a combination of economic and legislative issues. Current legislation prevents many of the applications of autonomous vehicles described above, particularly those used outdoors in public areas.

By law, autonomous or remotely piloted delivery vans are not permitted on Irish roads, and drones are heavily restricted in how they can use Irish airspace, even in the hands of the emergency services. Fortunately, the legislation on autonomous vehicles and drones is gradually changing to allow for more expanded use cases, such as food delivery in selected parts of the country.

The automation revolution was visible on the horizon for a while, but thiscrisis has suddenly brought it into full view

It is unlikely that we will see the technologies described above become adopted in Ireland during this current crisis, but the existing global trends unanimously point towards a near future where this technology is a daily part of our lives. Economists, scientists and tech experts worldwide are predicting that the virus will create an even greater demand for automating parts of the economy from the factory to the office.

When the virus outbreak comes to an end, the world will return to a new normal, with robots and autonomous devices appearing in various workplaces in increasing numbers. Working from home will become available to more people, while others will find aspects of their jobs taken over by machines, whether remotely piloted by the workers themselves or controlled by artificial intelligence. New business opportunities will emerge to cater to these automation demands, with new jobs created in the process. The automation revolution was visible on the horizon for a while, but thiscrisis has suddenly brought it into full view, and showed just how important the technology is for saving lives.

Boris Galkinis a PhD researcher atCONNECTinTrinity College Dublin

The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RT

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Meet the coronavirus drones and robots Coronavirus / 07 Apr - RTE.ie

Local grocers and big chains alike are deploying robots to clean floors, stock shelves and deliver groceries to shoppers during the coronavirus.

Grocers are searching for ways to reduce pressure on store workers and increase efficiency amid a surge of shoppers visiting stores and ordering online during the crisis. They believe robots and AI offer solutions that can help them bring down costs and improve store operations.

Theres strong interest in moving rapidly in this direction because everyone knows they need to raise their game to stay competitive and its ultimately more cost effective to automate than staff up, especially in todays labor market, said Bill Bishop, co-founder of retail and grocery consulting firm Brick Meets Click.

Experts say the crisis may speed up grocers use of robots in stores.

I strongly believe that the current health crisis will accelerate the adoption of robots in retail, said Steven Keith Platt, research director for the Retail Analytics Council and adjunct professor at Northwestern University. Short-term, this is to address health concerns of workers and customers, he said. In the long term, robots in stores will stock shelves and prepare food.

In Washington, DC,Broad Branch Markethas brought on 44-pound, six-wheel self-driving robots equipped with sensors and AI to ferry deliveries to customers in the area. Broad Branch has closed its stores to shoppers and shifted its operations to delivery and pick-up orders only during the crisis.

We have had them for a little over a week and they are very popular [with customers], said store co-owner Tracy Stannard.

Brain Corp., which supplies autonomous floor-scrubbing robots to grocers, said it saw a 13% jump in the usage of its robots at stores in March compared to a year ago. Grocers staying open during the crisis have shortened their hours to allow for deep cleaning overnight.

Walmart, the countrys largest retailer and private employer, will have Brain Corps self-driving robots in 1,860 of its more than 4,700 US stores by the end of the year. It will also have robots that scan shelf inventory at 1,000 stores and bots at 1,700 stores that automatically scan boxes as they come off delivery trucks and sort them by department onto conveyer belts by the end of the year.

During the crisis, Walmart has continued to roll out robots in stores, a spokesperson said.

The company said the smart assistants reduce the amount of time workers spend on repeatable, predictable and manual tasks in stores, allowing workers to switch to selling merchandise to shoppers and other customer service roles.

At a handful of Schnucks Markets stores in the Midwest, Tally, an autonomous robot, scans shelves to alert employees when products are out of stock or labeled incorrectly, said Brad Bogolea, CEO of Simbe Robotics, which developed the robot.

This massive surge in demand was a major shock to most retailers inventory counts, said Bogolea. The robot has been helping workers restock items on shelves by giving them real-time data on which items are out, he said.

Grocers are also looking to take the process for picking customers online grocery orders out of store aisles. Workers manually picking, bagging and delivering is costly for grocers, and employees picking orders can clog up aisles.

Albertsons, Stop & Shop and other grocers are testing small automated micro-fulfillment centers in the backs of their own stores that are dedicated to fulfilling deliveries and pickups. At two stores, Albertsons is using robots to prepare customers orders, which it says speeds up the picking process.

Takeoff Technologies, one of the companies that has created these mini-warehouses, has seen a double-digit increase in orders since the crisis began.

Robots handle a majority of the leg-work when fulfilling orders, meaning there is limited contact with grocery items, said Jose Aguerrevere, CEO of Takeoff Technologies. The process is well suited for social distancing.

Some fear that this type automation, however, will lead to the disappearance of low-wage jobs.

There are more than 15 million retail workers in America today, and lower-skilled jobs in the industry such as cashiers and clerks are among those vulnerable to technology advances. In the retail industry, margin pressure has made automation a requirement, not a choice, according toMcKinsey. Automation will disproportionately disrupt retail.

TheBrookings Institutionsaid in a report last month that any coronavirus-related recession is likely to bring about a spike in labor-replacing automation.

Automation happens in bursts, concentrated especially in bad times such as in the wake of economic shocks, when humans become relatively more expensive as firms revenues rapidly decline, the Brookings Institution said in its report.

Original post:

Grocery stores nationwide deploying robots to reduce pressure on workers during COVID-19 pandemic - KTLA

Five girls in Afghanistan, aged between 14 and 17, have joined the fight against the coronavirus, designing a cheap ventilator that runs off the motor of a Toyota Corolla.

The all-female robotics team, aptly named the Afghan Dreamers, has long been more accomplished than average teenagers.

Tech entrepreneur Roya Mahboob founded the trail-blazing programme in the Afghani city of Herat, selecting young girls from high schools across the country, usually aged 14 or 15, for the programme.

It was a passion project for Ms Mahboob, a serial entrepreneur who became one of Afghanistans first female chief executives at 23, established a non-profit organisation to help young women to build digital literacy, and has since been named one of Time Magazines 100 most influential people.

Participants are selected for the Dreamers based on their entrance exam for the 9th and 10th grades, and the very best of them then get to join the national team the Afghan Girls Robotics Team for international competitions. There are about 50 participants in the Dreamers, and they stay in the programme for about two years.

In 2017, the national team made international headlines when their US visas were rejected not long before they were due to travel to an international robotics competition in Washington, DC. After individual appeals to the US Embassy in Kabul failed, the group took to social media to air their grievances. The teams' plight received international attention, and led to US President Donald Trump intervening on their behalf.

The Afghan Girls Robotics Team returned from that competition with a silver medal for courageous achievement won by their ball-sorting robot, designed to distinguish between contaminated and clean water.

Upon their return home, the girls were not only heroes, but inspiration for women seeking higher education in Afghanistan, where about 40 per cent of women are literate.

In the years since, that robotics team has graduated, and another has come to the fore. But Ms Mahboob has remained, spearheading a movement to tackle inequality with education.

"The only thing that we all want to do is help our people and our community. We will do anything to help them," she tells The National.

"I work with the girls, but mostly to co-ordinate. They are the real heroes."

Ms Mahboob now splits her time between New York and Kabul. She is currently in Afghanistan, initially to oversee the Brite conference (Building Resilience through Innovation, Technology and Entrepreneurship) another brainchild of hers which is due to take place in Kabul this June.

Other teams in the Afghan Dreamers have been working on big projects too, after all. One team was developing a device to help farmers with saffron picking. Another was building drones and robots to work in the mining sector.

But with cities under increasing lockdown in the country and the conference postponed, Ms Mahboob has turned her attention to ventilators.

"We don't know what's going to happen here in two or there weeks so we want to be prepared," she says.

Cases of Covid-19 are accelerating in Afghanistan. The first was reported in Herat, the country's third most populous city, on February 24. That number has since increased to 337, with seven deaths. But authorities fear it could get much worse and with a compromised health system and an insufficient number of ventilators, the authorities face a race against the clock.

Which is why, when the governor of Herat put out a public plea for more ventilators, five young women answered the call.

This team consists of five Dreamers aged between 14 and 17; captain Somaya Faruqi, Dyana Wahbzadeh, Folernace Poya, Ellaham Mansori and Nahid Rahimi. Ms Mahboob has been working with them for about a year.

They are currently working with two prototypes. One is a gear-based system based on a design from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US. The other uses parts from a Toyota Corolla.

The key to this MIT ventilator alternative was devising a mechanical system to operate the hand-operated plastic pouch, or Ambu bag, which hospitals have on hand in large quantities. An Ambu bag is designed to be operated by hand, by squeezing the bag, which pumps air into a patient's lungs. The mechanic version would cost about $200 to make. A company from Texas has now offered to help provide advice for the design and to connect them with others who can help them bring the concept to fruition.

For the other ventilator, the Toyota Corolla motor was used as it runs off a battery and is easily sourced in the country. And it costs just $300 to make.

Both needed to be made with local materials, Ms Mahboob says. That proved a challenge for the girls, as did working with a gear-based device, rather than their usual technological or robotic designs.

"The idea of these machines is that we use them for emergency cases, when there are no professional ventilators. The thing in Afghanistan is, we don't have enough ventilators, but that's the case for many other countries, even Italy or New York.

"If we don't have access to anything professional we can use these ones."

As cities across the country shut down, working on the designs became increasingly challenging, Ms Mahboob says. The girls' parents were concerned about them being out of the house as the pandemic raged on, but they were usually able to work together for a couple of hours a day.

"It's very difficult for the girls to come together in one place. The shops are closed, so we have to call so many people to open the shop someone who knows someone, who can open the store to get that part."

The team was still fine-tuning both designs, and working with doctors to test them.

However, since a new governor of Herat took over a few days ago, Ms Mahboob doesn't know what the immediate future of her designs is. She hopes the new governor will look favourably on their work.

"We want to make sure that the government and the community are excited about technology," she says.

"There are other focuses for government money to be spent, but in order to compete and prosper in the 21st century, all countries must be able to access the highest technology that's transforming our world.

"If these girls have access to the opportunity or the tools, their lives can be changed. But not only their lives, they can change their community, too."

Updated: April 9, 2020 09:00 PM

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The all-female robotics team in Afghanistan who made a cheap ventilator out of Toyota parts - The National

What was it about the 1970s that promoted suffering for ones art? In Rhythm 0 (1974), Marina Abramovi stood next to a table loaded with items ranging from a rose to a gun, and let the audience desecrate her with them. Tehching Hsieh took a two-storey leap for Jump Piece (1973) and broke his ankles. Chris Burden somehow lived to the age of 69, despite in the same curious decade getting a friend to shoot him, cramming himself into a locker for five days and nailing himself onto a Volkswagen Beetle. For Eleanor Antins 1972 work Carving a Traditional Sculpture, the artist crash-dieted for 45 days and documented her decline.

Stelarcs series of 25 Body Suspensions also began in that decade, when the singularly named performance artist lived in Japan. Before one such flesh-hook suspension, at Tokyos Komai Gallery, he additionally stitched his lips and eyelids shut for a week. Since then, he has continued to use his body he calls it the body as a medium, subjecting it to surgical construction, liposuction, implanting, sensory deprivation and internal probing with recording devices.

Yet when we meet for coffee in Melbourne, Stelarc says, I am the least tormented person youll probably ever meet. His practice is not about exploring what the body is capable of, but rather about understanding its limitations. Stelarc sees the body as an object among other objects, to be assembled as part of a greater structure. And, he adds, he doesnt get a kick out of pain. I would scream and shout in the dentists chair as much as anyone would, he says.

Stelarc was born Stelios Arcadiou in 1946 in Cyprus and raised in Sunshine, Melbourne. Initially, he was going to study architecture at Melbourne University, before realising he was more interested in the architecture of the body and switching to art school.

Now in his 70s, Stelarc has engineered a new work for the 2020 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art with its theme of Monster Theatres. Reclining Stickman taps into his interest in prosthetics, robotics, cybernetics biotechnology and virtual reality, which began when he moved to Japan as a young man and became fascinated by its hi-tech culture.

The 9m robot has rubber muscles and can be operated by Stelarc, using pneumatic joysticks, when he sits in it. It can also be choreographed remotely by the public, at any time of day, from anywhere in the world, by using the interface on his website. The Art Gallery of South Australia is working to move the exhibition online during the gallerys Covid-19 closure, but this is one work that was ahead of the curve. Like curator Leigh Robb says: At a time when we are physically distanced, Stelarcs robot offers moments of intimacy with art and technology.

Back in the mid-70s, Stelarc had intended his very first flesh-hook suspension to be in Adelaide, at the Experimental Art Foundation, but it turned into a melodrama that shaped his way of working from that moment onwards.

The media found out what was going to happen and there was an outcry, he says. There were comments from doctors saying that this was self-harm, that it might cause a fatality. Thirty minutes before the performance, the foundation withdrew their support, and then the accusation in the media was that the whole thing had been a stunt and hadnt really been going to happen.

Ever since, his more controversial performances have been unadvertised and are usually only performed in front of those who helped build the installation.

As the director of the Alternate Anatomies Lab at Perths Curtin University, Stelarc has overseen many research projects that tie in to his interests, including Ambidextrous Arm a prototype arm with a manipulator that is double-jointed, allowing it to be both a left hand and a right hand that could benefit amputees.

His friend, Neuromancer author William Gibson, wrote of Stelarcs work: I associate it with da Vincis ornithopter, eccentric 19th-century velocipedes, and Victorian schemes for electroplating the dead though not retrograde in any way. Instead, it seems timeless moments of the purest technologically induced cognitive disjunction.

I ask Stelarc if he thinks hes doing a service to science by demonstrating what can be done without the constraints of ethics boards, risk assessment and other red tape.

I dont think realistically that artists meaningfully contribute to science, he says. Im very sceptical of this kind of mashing together which is now becoming more and more a genre of artistic practice because the methodologies of scientific research and artistic actions are totally different ... You dont want a situation where artists do bad research and scientists make bad art.

Another of his ongoing projects is Ear on Arm, and he sportingly rolls up his sleeve in the cafe to show me. It took Stelarc 10 years to find three surgeons willing to form the ear on his left forearm. Its made out of cartilage grown from his tissue and stem cells, shaped into a scaffold, then implanted. He had originally wanted to put the ear on his head, next to his actual ear. But, you know, no surgeon would do it.

Originally, the ear was to have a microphone embedded in it that would transmit the noises around Stelarc to an internet portal, allowing others to eavesdrop. He might even whisper things into his own forearm for them to hear. But the site became infected when wires were introduced, and, as he says, I almost lost an arm for an ear. He was hospitalised for a week and put on industrial-strength antibiotics for six months.

Whats interesting about any art project is the slippage that occurs between intention and actual outcome, he says cheerfully. Ive always admitted that Ive made a career out of being a failure nothing I imagine turns out the way I expected it to.

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The artist with the remote-controlled robotic body: 'Ive made a career out of being a failure' - The Guardian