Monthly Archives: April 2022

The Beal City Robotics Team Gadget Agents continues on to compete in the State Championship after competing in their 2nd qualifying competition.

The qualifying competition previously occurred earlier in April at Walled Lake Central.

They made it to playoff matches as the 8th seed alliance captains and lost in the tiebreaker match in the quarter finals, Beal City Robotic Team coach Kathleen Rau said. It is noteworthy that they also earned the Quality Award at Walled Lake for the design, fabrication, and robust robot they built. Their robot didnt need to be repaired at all during this competition.

While this is an amazing achievement, their coach is most proud of them for their Gracious Professionalism in helping another team completely rebuild part of their robot after it broke during match play. Weve been there, we know what its like to struggle as a small, newer team, so our build team was more than happy to be able to help them, like other teams have helped us in the past. That type of cooperative, supportive, competition is what I love about FIRST.

The team is currently competing at Saginaw Valley State University from April 13-16 for the State Championship.

Going into the state competition they are ranked 98 out of 459 teams, with 79 ranking points, Rau said. Were looking forward to a great week of competition and having a lot of fun.

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Beal City Robotics Team competes at the State Championship - The Morning Sun

Competition is fierce at the 2022 Indiana VEX Robotics State Championship. (photo courtesy: Techpoint Foundation for Youth)

TechPoint Foundation for Youth has begun a campaign to expand its after-school State Robotics Initiative into classrooms to encourage an extra 1,000 Hoosier girls and children of color toward careers in tech. The foundation says SRI is its largest program, with 24,000 students already participating.

The program is designed to increase K-12 students interest in STEM subjects. Nine schools are currently using the foundations classroom robotics curriculum, VEX GO.

SRI is currently offered in elementary, middle and high schools and community centers around the state. The foundation says the program culminates with the largest VEX Robotics state championship in the country with over 270 teams competing at Lucas Oil Stadium.

We hope to launch the VEX GO program in an additional 10 schools in the coming year as a direct result of Mira gala fundraising, said Foundation President George Giltner.

Giltner says additional funding is required to meet the goal and will outline the potential success of the program at TechPoints annual Mira Awards on April 23. Giltner says he will seek a donation of $17,500 from the Best of Indiana tech crowd.

Bringing VEX GO into the classroom will let every student experience STEM Education through the robotics curriculum, rather than just those who self-select to join a robotics team, said Jamie Inskeep, the Foundations director of programs. It will help girls and students of color gain confidence and competence in STEM fields and let them see themselves working in STEM careers.

Donations can be made in advance of the awards event by clicking here.

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Campaign Launched to Expand Robotics Program - Inside INdiana Business

As labor shortages in the manufacturing industries continue to swell, the uptick in demand for robotics is expected to continue. Moreover, software intelligence is making robots more adaptable, further lowering barriers to adoption and allowing new users to begin automating more easily. The result is a world in which robotic technologies are becoming more ubiquitous than ever before.

"The pandemic accelerated far-reaching global mega trendsfrom labor shortages and supply chain uncertainty to the individualized consumer and growing pressures to operate sustainably and resilientlyleading new businesses to look to robotic automation, said Marc Segura, robotics division president at ABB. As technology opens new opportunities for meeting customer demands, new trends will continue to emerge that will further drive demand in areas where robots have traditionally not been used.

In particular, Segura identified three key trends that ABB expects to shape demands for industrial robots in 2022.

Trend 1: Electric Vehicles Will Bring Changes to Automotive Manufacturing

As tighter emissions regulations and fuel economy standards drive automotive manufacturers to decrease the production of internal combustion engine vehicles and pivot toward electric cars instead, automotive supply chains may be thrown for a loop. This is because electric vehicles require many components that internal combustion engine vehicles do not. Most notably, automotive companies will seek to bring the manufacturing of batteries as close to vehicle assembly as possible to meet sustainability requirements. This means new facilities will need to be built. According to Segura, these new facilities will most likely make significant use of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) to enable more modular and flexible production. Segura sees this shift occurring as automotive manufacturing attempts to become more responsive to rapidly changing demand.

Trend 2: E-Commerce Will Create More Demand for Flexible and Mobile Robots

With mass customization continuing to sweep over the consumer goods markets, companies need to find new ways to adapt their production lines and distribution processes to enable personalization in both manufacturing and delivery. Fulfilling these needs will require the adoption of more mobile, flexible, and intelligent robotic technologies.While automation has always been about productivity and quality ... the shifts were witnessing today [which are] the greatest in a generation mean that flexibility and simplicity are key to success, said Mark Segura, robotics division president at ABB.

This trend will see the growth of lighter, smaller robotic applications, enabling the expansion of automation into new areas of warehousing and distribution operations. As artificial intelligence in robotics matures and learning robots become mainstream, expect to see these technologies deployed alongside AMR technologies, orchestrated and managed by intelligent software to provide enhanced flexibility, speed, and efficiency, Segura said.

Trend 3: Robots Use Will Expand Significantly, Requiring Worker Retraining

At smaller companies that are less-experienced with robot use, more affordable robots that feature collaborative functionality and intuitive programming will continue to proliferate. In particular, high-mix, low-volume manufacturers that use CNC machines to produce parts and components for other companies are drawn to collaborative robots because they can work directly alongside human employees to assist in tasks such as machine tending. Moreover, the advances in software intelligence that enable this adaptability and responsiveness could also help robots migrate into new environments such as construction, healthcare laboratories, restaurants, and retail establishments.

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ABB 2022 Industrial Robotics Predictions - Automation World

COLUMBIA Columbias robotics team, Army Ants Team 3792, is headed to the world championship in Houston because of their work toward diversity and inclusion.

The FIRST Championship is in Houston and set for April 20-23.

The team qualified by winning the Chairman's award in St. Louis, which celebrates outreach inclusive efforts. The captain, Luke Sabath, joined through outreach programs.

We want to make sure everybody gets the opportunity to do what we are doing, Sabath said. We want to make it accessible to everybody."

Sabath said it is rewarding being able to expose kids to robotics.

We work with underserved communities, Sabath said. We are the ones allowing them to develop these skills to help them in the future with STEM.

The team consists of 40 students from local high schools and homeschool. According to the teams website, the team is 47% students of color and 43% female and non-binary identifying students. All 40 team members can attend the event.

We allow everyone from the team to come because it is an awesome experience, Sabath said.

To tackle the financial aspect and make it more accessible for the team members, the team started a GoFundMe page.

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Some students will have classes or AP Tests, so they will not be able to come. But, for the ones that can, we want them to, Sabath said.

Zihao Zhou is vice captain and on the drive team where he operates the robot. Zhou said there are many benefits to having such a diverse team.

We try to make it everyone in the district can access the opportunity especially those who have traditionally felt that they are not as welcome in these environments, Zhou said.

Mentors help guide the students, but it is rare that mentors will be holding the robots.

Were able to get everything working without the help of professionals and improve based on what we did all by ourselves, Zhou said.

The Army Ants qualified for the competition the last four years, but due to COVID, the team was not able to attend in 2020 or 2021. Sabath said it feels good to be back.

In 2021, the full season was almost all online Sabath said. When we walked back into St. Louis, it was like Yes were back, we made it."

The teams robot created this year can shoot balls into a hoop and climb a wooden hanger.

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Columbia robotics team heads to world championship in Houston - KOMU 8

The proportion of airport equipment supply, product and services companies hiring for robotics related positions kept relatively steady in March 2022 compared with the equivalent month last year, with 8.8% of the companies included in our analysis recruiting for at least one such position.

This latest figure was higher than the 8.3% of companies who were hiring for robotics related jobs a year ago but a decrease compared to the figure of 16.9% in February 2022.

When it came to the rate of all job openings that were linked to robotics, related job postings dropped in March 2022, with 0.2% of newly posted job advertisements being linked to the topic.

This latest figure was the lowest monthly figure recorded in the past year and is the same as the 0.2% of newly advertised jobs that were linked to robotics in the equivalent month a year ago.

Robotics is one of the topics that GlobalData, from whom our data for this article is taken, have identified as being a key disruptive force facing companies in the coming years. Companies that excel and invest in these areas now are thought to be better prepared for the future business landscape and better equipped to survive unforeseen challenges.

Our analysis of the data shows that airport equipment supply, product and services companies are currently hiring for robotics jobs at a rate lower than the average for all companies within GlobalData's job analytics database. The average among all companies stood at 0.5% in March 2022.

GlobalData's job analytics database tracks the daily hiring patterns of thousands of companies across the world, drawing in jobs as they're posted and tagging them with additional layers of data on everything from the seniority of each position to whether a job is linked to wider industry trends.

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Robotics hiring levels in the airport industry rose in March 2022 - Airport Technology

Meet Reggie, Spotbot robotic dog that calls Central High School home

Central High School was only one of two schools in the country to receive this robot dog designed by Boston Dynamics.

Michael Clevenger, Louisville Courier Journal

Reggie is not an average dog.

Central High School's "newest mascot," according to Jefferson County Public Schools,doesn't have fur, but itcan complete math equations. Itdoesn't have a tail, but soon it'll have a crane. It can't bark, but itcan hold a can.

Central is now just one of two schools in the country to own a Spotbota four-legged robot that can walk and sit, but also makea 3D mapof theschool and perform other tasks.

The robot is named Reggie and was designed by Boston Dynamics Engineering. It came with a $77,000 price tag, which was paid with federal grant funds, according toChristopher Brown, one of the coaches of the Louisville Centrons Robotics Team.

Reggie gives Central's STEM students a unique opportunity to develop programming and coding skills as the school's robotics team competes at events.

"The cool thing about this is it gives our kids an opportunity to just be above where everybody else is and have everybody catch up to them," Brown said.

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The robotic dog can create3D scale maps, using its camera to track locations in front of it. It can survey an area while being controlled from another location. It can report dataand even complete difficult math equations.

Of course, it's a dog, too it doesn't have fur, but Reggie can sit, run and act out other canine behavior.

The school is waiting for a mechanical arm that will be attached to the robot dog. That $60,000 addition willl be acquired on a loan from the company to help Central develop a robotics curriculum that other schools can later use. This add-on will help Reggie perform more tricks, like pickingup objects.

These tricks were put on displayin a recentSamuel Adams commercialshown on Super Bowl Sunday, where the Spotbotwas featured holding cans of beer.

Brown said amid an ongoing labor shortage, robots like Reggie can help supply the demand for workers and help businesses.

Brown, who has taught at Central for 15 years, said his students will tour other schools and businesses to showcase the robot's skills and the work done by the robotics team.

Students like Bismah Rana, Gia Patel, and Jayel Boyd plan to showcase this work on their college applications. They are all juniors at Central and helped with Reggie's coding and programming as part of a team of more than a dozen students.

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Cyber engineering students will travel to Boston this month and tour the Boston Dynamics headquarters, along withHarvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They will meet the engineers that work with the Spotbotwhile they're in the city, Brown said.

There are somestereotypes of the West End, Brown said, that he hopes the robotics team's work can help put to rest.

"Central High School is a great place to be, it's a great place to teach, is a great place to work," he said. "To have this opportunity for our kids is amazing."

Reach Ana Roco lvarez Brez at abrinez@gannett.com; follow her on Twitter at @SoyAnaAlvarez

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'This will put them ahead of the game': New robotic dog gives JCPS school rare opportunity - Courier Journal

ALBANY The Albany High School robotics team and their bot got a festive send-off at the National Grid headquarters in downtown Albany on Wednesday ahead of their trip to Houston.

The Falcons team and their creation, "Rein," are headed to the three-day FIRST Robotics World Championship at the end of May.

National Grid directors congratulated the students and presented the team with a $35,000 check and a cake at Wednesday's event.

After winning the regional competition, the club had less than a month to figure out travel and hotel costs not to mention how to transport a 120-pound robot across the country. Shipping it was too risky given the unpredictability of postal delivery.

Between National Grid, community donations and funds from the school district, the team raised nearly $100,000, more than double their $46,500 fundraising goal, in a week.

High school senior Alison Powell's parents volunteered to drive the team's creation on a pickup truck from Albany to Houston.

"Having it driven down is the best way to ensure that it makes it there in one piece and it's functional for the competition," Powell said.

Jacob Ennis, a National Grid gas field operations supervisor, has mentored the robotics team for the last eight years.

"I thought they would make it," Ennis said. "Albany High is always kind of scrappy when it comes to funding for the team and we always find a way to pull it out."

Rein pulled off some fancy maneuvers for the National Grid staff Wednesday. Its 360-degree swerve drive technology enables Rein to move faster and smoother in any direction in comparison to the tank-style robots the team has built in previous years. LED lights flash red, blue, and green to let the operator know how many balls it is holding.

Rein tossed balls into a trash can. At the upcoming competition, the robot will shoot balls into a net that is 8 feet tall.

During the regionals last month, the students identified some weaknesses in the robot. Then the brakes malfunctioned and the tire treads wore out. But the new-and-improved Rein is ready to compete, they said.

"I have taken it apart and remade it more times than I can count," senior Dorothy Sperry said.

According to Robotics Club president Thor Hammer, coming up with the concept was a team effort.

"We all have a brainstorming day and collectively the entire team comes up with ideas for the robot and then we narrowed down the options," he said.

Albany Superintendent Kaweeda Adams thanked National Grid for the generous contribution and for its ongoing support for the Falcons team.

"Truly the inspiration for everything that we do, you are looking at it right here," Adams said Wednesday. "This is what motivates me every single day. These are the people who motivate me to get up at 4:30 every single morning and last well until midnight ... this is the group that will be our engineers, our mathematicians, our doctors. All of these things that they are learning here within this STEM program is what will help us in the future as a community."

It is the second time the award-wining robotics team has made it to the nationals.The Falcons won the regional contest in 2018 and participated in the national championships in Detroit a destination less cost-prohibitive because it did not require airfare.

Sophia Lucarelli, the club's treasurer, said arranging hotel and airfare and meals for 17 students was an ordeal, but thanks to the community's support, they pulled it off.

"Especially during senior year, you want to go out with a bang ... I'm just really looking forward to going to Houston and I'm so happy," Lucarelli said.

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Albany High robotics team gets grand send-off for championships - Times Union

Another robotics firm is coming to Pittsburgh.

San Antonio-based Plus One Robotics announced that it would expand into the Avenu: Meyran space in the Pittsburgh Innovation District in May. The news comes after another growing robotics company, Neuraville, also announced an expansion to the innovation district and after Avenu announced the opening of the new Meyran location last month.

Nearly a year ago, Plus One Robotics announced a $33 million Series B round to fund international expansion. The goal was to meet increased demand for computer vision software for robotics in industries relying on warehouses and logistics. Founded in 2016, the company also raised $8.3 million in a Series A round in 2018, putting its total funding so far over $40 million.

Pittsburgh Innovation District is home to not one but two of the top-100 colleges in the United States. Being close to other startups in the District, plus Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, was very important for us so we can situate ourselves in that high-energy, relevant, forward-looking and optimistic environment, said Bener Suay, senior developer for Plus One Robotics, in a statement. Our company is future-focused, industry-leading, and deeply knowledgeable in our field. We feel that these pillars are very much aligned with our neighbors in the Pittsburgh Innovation District.

Plus Ones software uses 3D and AI-powered perception tools to give robots increased coordination capabilities, including hand-eye coordination relevant to placement and sorting tasks required by warehouse and distribution center settings. Most recently, a press release noted, the company has branched into leveraging its software for depalletization capabilities, specifically looking to improve the computer vision for that feature using its Pittsburgh-based talent.

As someone with experience in material handling robots, I have a great deal of respect for Plus One Robotics. Having them come to Pittsburgh is a big deal and we welcome them to the community, Pittsburgh Robotics Network (PRN) Executive Director Joel Reed said. Pittsburgh is a world leader in research, innovation and commercial development for the robotics industry and is increasingly becoming the place to be if youre developing AI-driven autonomous and robotics solutions.

Plus Ones choice to expand to Pittsburgh next in its company journey also strengthens the conviction of Reed and PRNs claim last summer that the region is the robotics capital of the world. Its a sign that local business within that sector continues to grow beyond the realm of autonomous vehicles and leverage Pittsburghs robotics and AI expertise toward more commercial opportunities.

Suay and one of his colleagues, Senior Engineer Nick DePalma, said that the Pittsburgh Innovation District in particular will enable them to take advantage of all the benefits the city has to offer in robotics. With a growing number of businesses and access to CMU and Pitt, DePalm said he hopes Plus Ones new location will foster a sense of community with other innovators in Pittsburgh.

And it sounds like Plus One is here to stay. While it will continue development of its computer vision software for new applications, Suay said one of the first goals after the move is expanding the team.

Within the next 1-3 years, we hope to see our company grow its customer, application, and employee footprint, he said. We are working tirelessly on solving critical problems in warehouses and distribution centers. We hope to see our efforts scale, hire more talent, and augment our customers capacity to achieve more picks per day.

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Plus One Robotics expands to the Pittsburgh Innovation District with plans to grow here long term - Technical.ly