Monthly Archives: April 2021

04/07/2021 By Edwin L. Aguirre

The CAREER grant is the NSFs most prestigious award in support of early-career faculty who demonstrate strong potential to lead research breakthroughs in their organizations.

They are among the 36 scientists and engineers from 27 research institutions across the country selected by the Air Force for the recognition. Aside from UMass Lowell, the other awardees include researchers from Johns Hopkins University, Carnegie Mellon University, Stanford University, Virginia Tech, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of California San Diego.

Legged Robot Locomotion

Using her CAREER grant, Gu will draw upon dynamic modeling, state estimation, feedback control and theory of hybrid systems to advance the control theory of legged robots in order to realize and prove stable, legged locomotion on dynamic rigid surfaces that is, surfaces that move but do not deform.

Yan Gus NSF-funded research will help keep legged robots stable and upright while walking on nonstationary surfaces. Shown here is NASAs R5 Valkyrie humanoid robot.

Empowering legged robots with such new functionality will allow them to negotiate complex, dynamic human environments, which are very challenging for robots equipped with wheels or tracks, Gu explains.

This will enable them to assist in critical, high-risk situations such as fighting fire aboard ships as well as cleaning and disinfecting public transportation vehicles to contain the spread of infectious diseases such as COVID-19, she says.

Faster than the Speed of Sound

Maiarus YIP project focuses on ceramic matrix composite (CMC) materials, which consist of reinforcing ceramic fibers embedded in a ceramic matrix. They are used for high-temperature, high-strength applications, such as components for gas turbines and heat shields for hypersonic aircraft, missiles, rockets and spacecraft.

Maiaru will use experimentally validated process modeling to understand the mechanisms for the formation of residual stress induced by pyrolysis-infiltration-pyrolysis processes. Pyrolysis is the degradation of the ceramic at high temperatures in the absence of oxygen.

My goal is to establish a correlation between processing conditions, microstructure and mechanical performance of the composite, which currently is not clearly shown, she says. This work strongly supports ongoing research efforts at the Air Force Research Laboratory and NASAs Langley Research Center.

According to Maiaru, process modeling for CMCs manufactured through the pyrolysis-infiltration-pyrolysis cycle is a relatively undeveloped field.

This project will help enhance the performance of high-temperature composites, optimize their manufacturing process and lead to the discovery of new materials that would establish U.S. leadership in hypersonic applications, she says.

It has great potential for advancing materials research for extreme environments and for overcoming the costly and time-consuming trial-and-error design that is being used today.

Maiaru is currently working on process modeling of advanced composites for structural applications under the sponsorship of the NSF, NASA and the Air Force Research Laboratory.

See more here:

Engineering Profs' Robotics and Composite Materials Research Win $1M in Funding - UMass Lowell

For the first time in program history, the Mashpee Middle-High School robotics team has won the Southern New England VEX Robotics Championship.

With the victory on March 27, four members of the program earned a chance to compete in the Live Remote VEX Robotics World Championship beginning on May 14.

I was so proud of the kids, teacher and robotics coach Amanda Hough said. For six years of competing in VEX Robotics this was the goal. It was always to be able to control their own destiny, play well as a team and work together to achieve their goal.

Representing Mashpee at the world championship will be the sophomore duo of Sean Ware and Camden Perry, who call themselves team Out of Stock, and team Free Shipping, which is composed of their older brothersseniors Nathan Ware and Nathan Perry. All four qualified for virtual worlds last year as well. However, this is the first time since 2019 that Mashpee competed in the Southern New England Championship, as last years event was canceled due to COVID-19.

It was even more exciting than any other competition could have been. It was a return, a comeback, Nathan Perry said. The competitions last year were so different. To come back to our first big tournament, and to win it feels really good. Not only that its the first one back, but it could be the last one back.

The championship was vastly different than the type of matches Mashpee played in this season. In the fall, the team went to socially distant in-person events that were limited in capacity. As winter came, Mashpee participated in virtual competitions.

This event took place at Hopkinton High School and consisted of 40 teams, including 26 from Massachusetts. Only teams from Massachusetts could attend in-person due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.

The in-person teams competed in a game called Change Up. In this game, the teams of two are paired up with another team so that four total robots are in the ring, two per side. The games objective is to take different-colored balls and to place them in a tube. The scoring is fluid and can change until the round is over, as teams can un-score the other side.

In a game like this with many moving parts, having a good strategy and a solid alliance is key.

Working as sister teams, even beyond the strategical component of it, we sort of built the robotics together. We know how each others robot works. Knowing those strengths and weaknesses is really helpful, Nathan Perry said about pairing up with his brothers team.

At the championship, five qualifying matches were played among 18 different teams. In these qualifying matches, the team one is paired with is totally random and teams have to play the hand they are dealt. After the qualifying matches, teams are seeded based on results. Out of Stock finished second overall with a 5-0 record, and Free Shipping finished fifth with a 4-1 record. The Aviators, another team from Mashpee, led by Katrina Mayen and Jamie Hughes, also finished 4-1 before getting knocked out in the quarterfinals.

After the qualifiers, the team that came in first can choose the team it wishes to partner up with for the elimination matches.

Thanks to Out of Stocks high seed, they were able to scoop up their brothers for the playoff matches.

The advantage of having your sister team in your alliance is that we had a lot of time to prepare and practice, Sean said.

Going into those elimination matches to try and take home the title, the strategy really gets intense. Fortunately, by aligning with a team from your own organization, you have time to practice. We have set strategies for how we are going to take down teams, Nathan Ware said.

But what if they were not able to team up?

We were pretty confident to get into the top rank, Nathan Ware said.

The plan was sort of to come up with a plan, Nathan Perry added, referring to if things did not work out.

In the quarterfinals and semifinals, the Mashpee brothers cruised to victories, outscoring their opponents by a combined 66-12.

However, in the finals they knew they had a tougher matchup.

Nathan Ware said that in the final matchup they faced off against a team from Hopkinton and a team from Milton. He said they were actually friends with those two teams, as the robotics community is small.

Another interesting wrinkle to this tournament compared to prior years was the need to accommodate social distancing. Only the driver of the robot is allowed to stand next to the ring. This means the other teammate needs to stand at least six feet away. Sean and Nathan Ware are the drivers for their teams, meaning the Perrys could not be on top of the action.

It was really fun, but we were kind of separated from the Wares because we werent the ones driving and had to stand six feet back, Camden said. It was like, Ooh, I know that they know what to do, but I hope they do it.

Theres only so much we can do to coach them. Standing back is sort of just an excitement, waiting and hoping they can do what they need to do, Nathan Perry said.

To win the championship, the finals were best two out of three. Mashpee did what it needed to do, winning 20-12 and 19-14.

It was probably the most fun we had. Playing against your friends for the win was really exciting and a fun way to end the year in southern New England, Nathan Ware said.

Although it was unspoken, the boys all agreed that competing in such a big event had pressure to it. On top of the pressure to compete and perform, Sean and Camden had an additional pressure: to make sure they did their part in what could potentially be their older brothers last tournament.

We didnt talk about it that much, but we all agreed this is the last big one we have so we have to make it worth it. It was a lot of pressure, but we felt really good after all our practice, Sean said.

Despite the added pressure, the Wares and the Perrys agreed that getting to compete alongside their siblings made the event even more special.

I think its awesome, Nathan Ware said. Those teams they have their friends to compete with and its a fun thing, but these are things that we are going to remember as a family and go back and talk about for years to come.

Its really cool to stand alongside not only your teammates and your friends, but your family and its cool to win as an intertwined family, Nathan Perry said. It feels closer. It feels like it has more weight to it because it means so much to us.

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Mashpee Robotics Team Wins Southern New England Championship - CapeNews.net

According to Rick Faulk, CEO of warehouse robotics firm Locus Robotics, there is about 20 billion square feet of warehouse space around the world. An additional 3 billion square feet will be built in the next few years. And yet, 95% of that space is completely unautomated.

Warehouse automation has rapidly accelerated in recent years, and the COVID-19 pandemic has quickened that pace, but there is a lot of room to grow, and plenty of automation solutions still to be developed.

It all has to be automated. Its a massive market and COVID has put a huge spike in demand and the [associated] challenges, Faulk told Modern Shipper. COVID has accelerated a lot of the trends that have been [growing] in the market in the last few years.

Statista reported the global warehouse automation market is expected to reach $15.59 billion this year, growing steadily to $30.15 billion by 2026. As recently as 2016, it was $9.95 billion. With so much space to grow, it can be surprising to learn that 10% of U.S. warehouses were using some form of automated technology by 2016.

Warehouse costs, especially labor, continue to rise. The average nonsupervisory warehouse worker made $18.52 per hour in February, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data. Add in supervisory positions, and the average wage jumped to $22.41 per hour, up from $18.60 in 2016. Preliminary BLS data for March reported 14.1 million people working in warehouse and storage operations. In March 2016, there were 9 million.

According to BLS data, cumulative wages for warehouse operations have grown 88.7% in five years, so its no wonder more warehouse operators and shippers are looking for automation tools. Besides costs, there is another impact driving automation.

Theres this thing that everyone is dealing with, which is the Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) effect, and theyve raised expectations so high, the only way to compete is through automation, , Faulk said

COVID drove Locus Robotics business in the past year, with Faulk saying some accounts have grown more than 100%. Volume peaks are also changing from previous years, Faulk said.

The peaks are becoming steeper. We just went through a holiday peak a few months ago, and those peaks that we saw became even steeper because no one wanted to travel and ordered everything online, he said. What were finding is along with the inbound orders exploding, returns are exploding as well, which is happening on the back end.

Theres this thing that everyone is dealing with, which is the Amazon effect, and theyve raised expectations so high, the only way to compete is through automation.

The growth in the on-demand economy has also hurt warehouse staffing, Faulk said, noting that many typical warehouse workers have turned to gig economy jobs working for Uber, Instacart and Lyft. In addition, more warehouses are being built in clusters near existing facilities, but the local labor pools in those areas are not expanding.

Locus Robotics offers warehouse picking robots called LocusBots that work alongside workers to ensure accuracy and speed in picking operations. The bots transport bins, which lowers worker fatigue and increases productivity. Faulk said the companys solutions will double the efficiency of a human, so that cost to pick will be cut by 50%.

If you double the efficiency of a human, you can ship twice the product out of that building, he said, noting ancillary benefits such as lower training costs, lower building costs as space is optimized, and improved on-time performance, which can reduce late delivery fees and improve freight spend.

We have designed our solution so its easy to deploy, easy to manage, increases productivity and reduces error rates, Faulk said. The robots can communicate in more than a dozen languages, he added, reducing language barriers common in warehouses.

Locus said its robots pick with 95% accuracy. Each item is scanned and an image of the correct item is also displayed on an iPad for a visual check.

Currently, most Locus Robotics deployments are in large warehouses, but Faulk said more conversations are taking place with potential customers looking to deploy the technology in microfulfillment centers that are growing in popularity for e-commerce brands.

As for the future of warehouse automation, Faulk said to keep an eye on visualization of data and predictive analytics.

When we deploy a solution in a warehouse, we will go into the warehouse and well mount 25 monitors in that building and display all the data [for workers and managers to see in real time], he said.

Analytics are also helping managers identify where labor needs to be assigned, and to do it in real time by displaying the information on monitors. More managers are using wearables as well to give them access to the data wherever they are in the building, which speeds decision-making.

Locus Robotics solutions are also open API tools, which allows them to integrate with other systems in facilities seamlessly.

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Humans, robots and warehouses: Maximizing productivity, lowering costs - FreightWaves

April 9, 2021

Engineers and scientists can envision a future of increasingly productive interactions between humans and robots. At present, however, they also see obstacles to achieving dependably harmonious working relationships with robotic technologies.

Yu Tony Zhang, an assistant professor of computer science and engineering in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University, wants to remove those roadblocks. With support from a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, Yu Tony" Zhang, an assistant professor in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University, will work to boost our capabilities to collaborate with robotic technologies. Zhang foresees a world of productive possibilities springing from closer human-robot partnerships. Graphic courtesy of Shutterstock Download Full Image

Zhangs progress in research on reflective robotics has recently earned a2021 National Science FoundationFaculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) Awardto support his efforts to provide what he describes as an important stepping stone to successful human-robot teaming.

Reflective robotics is about formulating ways for humans and robots to better understand each other, focusing especially on humans understanding of robots. But to enable significantly more effective two-way communication and facilitate humans comprehension of robots will require a new way of thinking about how to develop robotic systems, Zhang said.

Not only do we need robots capable of performing more kinds of tasks, we want robots to have an awareness of humans expectations of robots and be able to accommodate humans in learning and decision-making, he said. So, this is a new paradigm for robotics research.

Yu Tony Zhangs expertise ranges from cognitive robotics, human-robot teaming, distributed robot systems and human-robot interaction to multi-agent systems, human-aware planning, multi-agent planning and automated planning.

Globally, the shift to embracing more robotic technologies necessitates educating people who will be the users and, in some cases, partners of advanced robotic systems.

But as robots become smarter and more skilled especially those equipped with ever more powerful artificial intelligence, or AI, technology some people are certain to be uncomfortable, if not actually fearful of them, Zhang said.

This is why a strong emphasis of the research will be on how to foster a kind of mutual understanding and a sense of being teammates that would build trust between humans and robots, he said.

Should that aspiration be realized, Zhang anticipates a world with many more roles for robots.

When AI is mature enough, I can foresee robotic technologies involved in more and more areas, he said. In manufacturing, in health care, in logistics of all kinds, in education and certainly in autonomous vehicles and other things that are part of our everyday lives.

CAREER awards support faculty members early in their careers whose works shows their potential to become research and education leaders in their fields who will contribute to fulfilling the NSFs mission to the nations interests.

Zhangs award will provide almost $570,000 over five years to fund research aimed at propelling the evolution of human-robot compatibility, an objective that will mean engaging in community outreach to boost public confidence in robotic technologies.

Increasing use of autonomous vehicles is one way robotics and artificial intelligence technologies will become more prevalent in our daily lives. One aspect of Yu Zhangs research is illustrated by this graphic depicting a driving scenario involving a barricade set up on a snow-covered road. It shows dramatic differences in the perception and reaction of the human driver and the way the vehicles advanced AI would assess the environment and choose an alternative course of action to the drivers instinctual response. Graphic courtesy of Yu Zhangs lab team.

A related educational aspect of the endeavor calls for him to make efforts to spark the interest of K12 students in the hope that some may join the next generations of researchers in robotics-related science and engineering fields.

We are still only in the first wave of robotics and AI that helps us in big, impactful ways, said Zhang, who teaches in the School of Computing, Informatics, and Decisions Systems Engineering, one of the six Fulton Schools.

The next waves will emerge if and when newer and more versatile kinds of robotics are able to connect with humans on more intuitive levels, he said.

Zhang sees potential for that progress being made not only in large robotic machinery and industrial systems, but in microrobots, nanorobots, biomechanical robots and robots with cutting-edge computing capabilities all of them highly teachable and, in turn, able to teach us.

In short, we would lay the foundation for a robot-integrated reality a reality, Zhang said, in which we will be all the better for having created.

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Better cognitive connection to robots promises path to progress - ASU Now

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Global Homecare Robotics Market Tendencies, Revenue Forecast and Interesting Opportunities from 2020 to 2025 KSU | The Sentinel Newspaper - KSU | The...

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Robotics in Travel and Tourism Market Growth Drivers, Demands, Business Opportunities, Size, share Global Industry Trends and Analysis by Top Leading...