Category Archives: Robotics

The 19 students and one teacher at the Moose Pass School one of the smallest on the Kenai Peninsula arent the only ones roving around the schools three classrooms.

There are also robots.

Nine-year-old Maddy Aigeldinger holds a small Lego robot that sits no taller than three inches atop a pair of tiny blue wheels. She said each of their names: there's Ottie, the favorite, and then L5 and Bob the Destroyer, their testing robots.

Aigeldinger is one of the Moosebots the Moose Pass Schools Lego robotics team. The Moosebots design and build robots that they put to the test in annual competitions against schools across Alaska.

Although the Moose Pass school is tiny, its team still brings home trophies year after year. In 2021, Aigeldinger and her fellow Moosebots won the coveted Robot Design Challenge at the state-level competition. In the past, theyve competed internationally in the FIRST Lego League Challenge a global robotics and design competition for elementary and middle schoolers.

On the first day of robotics this year, students buzzed with excitement about getting back to work on their robots.

Wendy Bryden brought Lego robotics to the Moose Pass School eight years ago when her two sons, both passionate about robotics, were students.

Bryden didnt have any experience with robotics then.

I knew Legos, but I didnt know much about programming. Im a mom, Im not an engineer, she said.

But Bryden learned along with the kids. Today, she organizes Lego robotics competitions for the entire state of Alaska. And although her sons have since graduated, she still works with students in Moose Pass every week to design robots and build the Lego bridges and obstacles they interact with.

For the statewide competition last year, held remotely due to the pandemic, the Moosebots designed a device to stop boxes from getting damaged at the post office by dividing them by size. They even presented the device to the local postmaster.

Sometimes, Bryden said, the teams go on to get their designs patented

The theme for this years statewide competition is energy. Students are working on designing a water wheel, modeled after a historic Moose Pass landmark. Bryden said theyre also thinking about the Grant Lake hydroelectric project while they work with the theme.

She said local impact is one of the core values the FIRST Lego League highlights in its mission. Its a set of values the students know well.

Teamwork, inclusion, impact, fun, discovery, innovation, Ruby Boyle, one of the Moosebots, read off.

Sandra Barron, the teacher at Moose Pass, said an important part of life at Moose Pass is that every student is involved in everything.

She said when theres a school play, everyones in it. And when theres a robotics competition, everyone is involved. Boyle said thats a key part of their success.

Its really important, because youve gotta work together to make things, she said.

With fewer than 20 students from kindergarten to eighth grade, the Moose Pass School has always been a place where students across age groups work together on the same projects.

Bryden said grade level isnt important to students, which shes found to be a really great model for education. Thats been true during their robotics lessons, when she often has an older group of students mentoring younger ones.

I think thats such a huge part of this program, that the kids teach each other what they know, she said.

Bryden also hopes the program helps students improve their problem solving skills and that it maybe even kickstarts lifelong passions for engineering.

She said that was the case for her sons.

I think part of this definitely inspired both of my kids to think like engineers, and to potentially want to pursue that as a career, Bryden said.

Its true for some current Moosebots, as well but not all of them. While Ruby Boyle said engineering might be in her future, Maddy Aigeldinger said shes staying committed to her life-long dream of owning a donut shop.

The Moosebots will compete in the annual statewide FIRST Lego League competition this winter.

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Moosebots gear up for another year of robotics - kdll.org

SHENZHEN, China, Sept. 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --On August 31, UBTECHROBOTICSCORPLTD hosted a forum on "The Integration of the High Technology and the Elderly-care Service Industry " together with the launching of "The Global Strategy of Smart Elderly-care of UBTECHROBOTICSCORPLTD". Experts and professionals in the healthcare and elderly-care service industry came together to discuss the development and implementation of a technology-driven smart elderly-care system and shared the valuable experience and insights within the domain.

At the event, UBTECH announced its strategy of creating a smart elderly-care system with several sub-systems within specific elderly-care scenarios. They also launched several robotics products for the healthcare and elderly-care domain. In addition, UBTECH announced key strategic collaboration agreements with ChinaMerchantsHealthCare, Medical Care Service Company Inc (MCS) in Japan (A joint venture company to be established this month), and ChinaAcademyofTransportationSciencesGroup.

The forum on The Integration of the High Technology and the Elderly-care Service Industry and the launching event of The Global Strategy of Smart Elderly-care of UBTECH ROBOTICS CORP LTD

UBTECH combines intelligent robots and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology, coordinated by the UBTECH Smart Elderly-care Cloud-based Platform, for the aged group. The whole system provides nursing services for senior citizens living at home or in community centers. The cloud platform-based solution focuses on six key scenarios: services management, daily care management, security and heath monitoring, memory-loss prevention, emotional support and rehabilitation. The goal of the system is to create a comprehensive system with high reliability and security to provide the elderly a happy, healthy, and high-quality way of living.

Huan Tan, Co-Chief Technology Officer, UBTECH ROBOTICS CORP LTD and General Manager, UBTECH Healthcare Business Unit, introduced the strategy and solutions for the smart elderly-care service

Huan Tan (Co-Chief Technology Officer, UBTECHROBOTICSCORPLTD and General Manager, UBTECH Healthcare Business Unit,), introduced how the company has been developing and integrating AI, robotics, and other high-tech approaches to improve the quality of life for our senior citizens. They apply this technology in the elderly-care industry to create new services, develop a new ecosystem, and generate substantially new values to the industry. The new services are brought by new technology, including the active interaction and companionship, autonomous navigation for uninterrupted and automated door-to-door care provider, the continuous monitoring of personal and environmental safety, precise evaluations, intervention plans, and rehabilitation exercises for the people with the cognitive, psychological and physical disabilities. The new ecosystem integrates robots and smart devices into an elderly-care service system that enables collaborative operations conducted by humans, robots, machines, devices, and IT infrastructure. These robots are regarded as intelligent service providers, a key innovation that can significantly improve the reliability and quality healthcare services for the elderly. Based on the new services and new ecosystem, new values are generated to the elderly-care service industry and the end-users with connected senior-care services in facilities, communities, and homes. The operations will be largely improved for the facilities and communities, whereas the senior people will receive some more precise, friendly, and active services, which bring high -quality lives than ever.

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A resident of a senior-care facility is performing personalized rehabilitation exercises with the help of UBTECH Walking Assist Robot - Wassi

The UBTECH Healthcare Business Unit showcased five innovative and powerful service robots: Walking Assist Robot-Wassi, Containerized Delivery Robot-DR, Smart Wheelchair Robot - PathFynder, Open Shelf Delivery Robot-OSDR and Companion Robot-Welli. These robots directly address the challenges of the increasing shortage of caregivers, the fast-growing global aging populations, and the increasing demand for high-quality healthcare services, together with other hardware and software components within the smart elderly-care ecosystem. Additionally, UBTECH debuted a cloud-based Intelligent Elderly-care Service Platform, a "Super Brain", that can coordinate services between service robots and IoT devices for the elderly-care service domain. These robots can operate safely in nursing homes, assisted living communities, hospitals, among other healthcare facilities, providing personalized services for senior citizens

A resident of a senior-care facility is experiencing the barrier-free travelling mobility service in a park, provided by UBTECH Smart Wheelchair Robot-PathFynder

To date, the integrated solution of UBTECH's smart elderly-care service and the portfolio of the products has already been deployed, continuously providing services on several sites, including hospitals, assisted living facilities, nursing homes, and retirement communities. UBTECH also officially announced a partnership with ChinaMerchantsHealthCare in Shenzhen, Xinkai Senior Care Facility in Shanghai,UniversityofHongKong-ShenzhenHospital and Taishan Sanatorium of Shandong Province.

At the launching ceremony of building the Ecological Community, UBTECH announced 12 partners, including the aforementioned ChinaMerchantsHealthCare, Medical Care Service Company Inc (MCS) in Japan, and ChinaAcademyofTransportationSciencesGroup, etc. The partners are from the elderly-care service providers, the operation owners of medical centers, and technology firms.

A resident at China Merchants Health Care in Shenzhen is interacting with the Companion Robot- Welli

Yanhong Wen, ChinaMerchantsHealthCareGeneralManager said ", through the cooperation of companies like UBTECH, we expect robots to provide critical services to the senior citizens, including the screening of health risk, continuous monitoring of the health, assessment and evaluations of medical plans, the early warning and intervention, the active and interactive companionship, and the cognitive and physical rehabilitation, etc." The two companies will continue to work together to build smart residential facilities to provide elderly-care services that meets the needs of the aging population in the community, to offer humanistic care, and to deliver comprehensive end-to-end service.

MCS Founder TakahashiSeiichi noted in a speech via remote video: "23 years ago, I started my first retirement facility in Japan. By 2017, we operated the largest number of dementia beds in Japan. Today, we operate a total of 322 healthcare facilities, including nursing homes and dementia treatment centers. Seven years ago, we opened a nursing home in Nantong, China, and subsequently launched new elderly care projects in other cities. Through the cooperation with UBTECH, we hope to combine the latest AI technology, intelligent robots and other products to transform the Chinese market." Grace Wang, Director of the MCS Group and the General Manager of MCS China, mentioned that the partnership will enable a smarter solution to provide services to the senior citizens, in 3 key areas: nursing and technology, digital transformation, and prevention.

YongLi,GeneralManageroftheChinaAcademyofTransportationSciencesGroup, said in his speech: "I look forward to working with UBTECH on the integration and innovation of the smart transportation and travelling, and creating a commercialized example model for the smart travelling in public handicap-accessible transportation hubs throughout China. "

The elderly-care service industry contributes over 20% of the GDP in developed countries, e.g., the European countries and the United States, compared with only 7% in China, representing a huge potential of the market. The size of the market in China is expected to reach 10.29 trillion Chinese Yuan (approx. $1.5 trillion USD) by 2022. By leveraging a comprehensive integration with the elderly-care industry, the high technology-driven elderly care services will help further improve the quality of life and wellness of all families, and benefit the country's aging population using innovative solutions.

Jian Zhou, the Founder, Chairman and CEO of UBTECH said, "We are committed to addressing the major challenges in communities of China, through our technological innovations, by delivering sustainable and real long-term values. In the elderly-care industry, we will leverage new and innovative AI-based solutions to better serve people and the communities, in which they reside, and accelerate the quality-focused growth of the intelligent healthcare sector."

UBTECH has accumulated over 10 years of experience and expertise in AI and intelligent robotics technology. Throughout the ongoing journey, from the exploration of creating services for the seniors in 2017, establishing an R&D center in North America focusing on the healthcare sector in 2019 and a healthcare business unit in 2021 focusing on applying solutions in various elderly-care scenarios, to the releasing its global strategy for smart elderly-care in 2022, UBTECH has been a pioneer and leader in the smart healthcare sector. UBTECH is committed to the vision of transforming the healthcare industry and the sustainable development of the elderly-care economy with innovative technologies, together with the partners in the industry.

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UBTECH announces global debut of intelligent healthcare robots and solutions - Yahoo Finance

Agriculture hasn't fundamentally changed since World War II, when the era of huge scale and vast plenty began. But today's awareness of greenhouse gases, water conservation and food safety and stability call for a rethink. Silicon Valley startup IronOxsuggests moving crops indoors, tending them with robots and doing so under the watchful eyes of smart cameras to grow more and better with less worry that the food sustaining us is also slowly killing us.

A robot named Grover moves thousand-pound trays of plants to a photo bay for inspection, a robot called Ada can manipulate individual plants and a robot called Max dispenses just the right amount of water and nutrients to plants brought over based partly on what the cameras noticed.

Grover isn't doing back breaking labor as it has no back to break, even as it moves growing trays that can weigh up to 1,000 pounds. But even this is a new level of granularity in growing.

"We get a really high resolution scan of all the plants," says David Silver, the company's director of robotics. "This lets us make sure they're growing on track, predict how much we're going to have at harvest and see if an intervention is needed." Interventions can include water, nutrients, light, temperature and humidity -- all part of a closed loop thanks to IronOx growing strictly indoors.

The eight high resolution cameras mounted on this gantry allow plants to be quickly analyzed at a detailed level.

IronOx says the result of all this is "renewable food": Not only do crops deliver consistent quality and yield but residual irrigation water is reused as are any unconsumed nutrients in it. More importantly the company claims that just the right amount of fertilizer is applied in the first place, tightly controlling a farm input that is a major source of methane, perhaps the most potent greenhouse gas. "Fertilizer requires a lot of energy to produce and emits a lot of greenhouse gasses," says SIlver. "The total greenhouse gas emissions of world agriculture is comparable to world transportation. If we want to reduce greenhouse gasses, we have to look at the agriculture sector."

The IronOx growing center is in the foreground, the traditional farm in the background is what it would replace.

Numerous IronOx growing centers would result in much shorter transportation distances to market as well as tighter coupling to regional demand to reduce crop waste. The vision isn't hyperlocal in the current farm-to-table fashion, but regional, rather than moving produce via long distance rail, truck or air freight.

I was initially intrigued by IronOx's use of electrified robots, but by the end of my visit I was more impressed by their use of smart cameras and sensors to allow those robots to grow food better than humans can. Legions of human farmers will scoff and take umbrage at this, but IronOx says its AI is programmed with knowledge of the best human farming techniques. "That's how we train the system, with knowledge experts," says Silver, "you decouple action from mobility" by having robots move plants. This is done rather than having knowledgeable farmers transit vast fields using human eyes that, while uniquely savvy, are given to a lack of precision and repeatability that robotic hands and eyes don't.

Four camera pairs marry their captures to create a 3D rendering of each tray of plants as the Grover robot moves it around to get water, nutrients or different light based on what the above image reveals.

Human staff still harvest and pack IronOx produce, though I imagine that might also be automated at some point. This brings up the perennial question of whether every farm worker that robotics might displace can just move up the value chain to a more sophisticated job overseeing robots, a premise robotics companies always trot out but I find a bit hard to swallow. The workers who get displaced may not be the ones who benefit from new jobs that automation creates: "Workers who cancomplementthe new automation, and perform tasks beyond the abilities of machines, often enjoy rising compensation,"according to Professor Harry Holzer of Georgetown University. "However, workers performing similar tasks, for whom the machines cansubstitute, are left worse off."

This is not a challenge unique to IronOx, but each robotic facility I visit reminds me that we need a productive exit for the workers who will be substituted. That said, technological efficiency on farms is not news, already resulting in the most dramatic reduction of an employment sector in US history.

IronOx intends to actually be in the agriculture business rather than proving its tech and then licensing or white-labeling it. Its leafy greens, herbs and some berries can be found in manystores in Northern California, Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arkansas. I sampled a basket of IronOx strawberries that are headed to market soon and they reminded me of childhood -- as only a great berry can do. So far, the company's largest growing facility is in Texasthough the Silicon Valley location I visited will soon be significantly enlarged.

I find it important that the IronOx vision of farming echoes what I hear from the plant-based meat sector: Regional growing, lower cost inputs and renewable energy to power production will be key to delivering ultimate victory over conventional meat. IronOx isn't in the alt-meat business, but its techniques could be used to give plant-based proteins a tailwind.

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IronOx Shows Us the Farm of the Near Future, Staffed by Robots - CNET

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From robotic tire changers, to Amazons iRobot acquisition, to Hyundais new Boston Dynamics AI Institute, there was no shortage of exciting robotics news last month.

Here are the 10 most popular robotics stories on The Robot Report in August. Subscribe to The Robot Report Newsletter to stay updated on the robotics stories you need to know about.

Will Astro,Amazons underwhelming consumer robot, soon be able to clean floors? Probably not. But Amazon upped the ante in its consumer robotics game by announcing its acquiring iRobot, maker of the popular Roomba robot vacuum series, for about $1.7 billion. Amazon will acquire iRobot for $61 per share in an all-cash transaction, including iRobots net debt. Completion of the transaction is subject to customary closing conditions. Read More

GrayMatter Robotics announced that it has raised $20 million in Series A funding. The companys Scan&Sand system is a flexible robotic sander that can quickly adjust to objects with complex geometry. Scan&Sand works in high-mix, high-variety manufacturing facilities,and aims to increase productivity and enhance quality consistency while saving costs. The system stands out from typical robotic sanders that only work in mass production scenarios. Read More

Everyone wants to be innovative, but rarely is innovation a lightning strike of genius especially within the robotics industry. Instead, it is an intentional process and methodology. This process is refined and modified over time to enable an organizations ability to think creatively and execute effectively. This is particularly important when you are solving problems in robotics that have many variables and cannot be clearly defined. Read More

DHL is using robotics to support numerous warehousing and logistics tasks. DHL innovates its logistics workflow and the tools and technologies deployed in DHL distribution centers around the world, as the company continually improves its efficiency. Sally Miller, DHL Supply Chains chief information officer for North America, recently spoke toThe Robot Report about the types of robots the company uses and the innovation cycle it employs to find the most effective solutions. Read More

iRobot, the maker of the popular Roomba robot vacuum, is laying off 10% of its staff, or about 140 employees. The layoffs are part of a restructuring that iRobot said will save the company up to $10 million in 2022 and between $30-$40 million in 2023. iRobot announced the layoffs on August 5, 2022 in its Q2 earnings results. This was the same dayiRobot announced it was being acquired by Amazon for $1.7 billion. Read More

RBR50 2021 honoree Ottonomy.IO completed its seed round funding of $3.3M. Connetic Ventures, Deeptech fund pi Ventures, and Branded Hospitality Ventures participated in this round. The company also announced an updated version of its autonomous delivery robot called Ottobot 2.0. With the closing of the seed round,Ottonomy.IO has raised a total of $4.9M. The company has a wide range of investors across the hospitality sector. Read More

There have been significant layoffs atSeegrid, a Pittsburgh-based developer ofautonomous mobile robots(AMRs). Jim Rock, CEO of Seegrid, said about 90 employees were let go.The Robot Reporthas also seen multiple now-former employees post about the layoffs on LinkedIn. One of them said the layoffs were part of a company restructuring. Read More

A decade after Amazon made its first foray into robotics with its acquisition of Kiva Systems, the e-commerce giant isacquiring iRobot for $1.7 billion. While completion of the transaction is still subject to customary closing conditions, the deal expands Amazons already extensive robotics portfolio. Heres a look at the companys robotics acquisitions, some of its investments and its notable robots developed internally. Read More

Hyundai Motor Group (Hyundai) announced the launch of the Boston Dynamics AI Institute. Hyundai andBoston Dynamics are making an initial investment of more than $400 million to make fundamental advances in artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and intelligent machines. The institute will be led by Marc Raibert, founder of Boston Dynamics. Hyundai said the name of the institute could change after its corporate registration is complete. Read More

RoboTire announced that its installed and started operating its system at a Discount Tire in Fountain Hills, Arizona. The system can replace four tires on a passenger vehicle in less than 25 minutes. At the Discount Tire, the RoboTire System will remove, lift and install tire and wheel assemblies. RoboTire hopes that its system will reduce technician injuries that can be caused by repetitive heavy lifting. The system will be overseen by Discount Tires technicians, who will also provide pressure monitoring and balancing services. Read More

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Top 10 robotic stories of August 2022 - Robot Report

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RCBI's welding and robotics training center to be first tenant at ACF property - Huntington Herald Dispatch

The tedious task of loading and unloading parts into machines has long been a bread-and-butter application for cobots gaining significant traction in the industry. With its 1,750 mm (68.9 in) reach and 20kg payload (44.1 lbs.), the newUR20from Universal Robots greatly expands automation opportunities such as the ability to reach further into machines, tend several machines in the same cycle, and handle 25% heavier parts. Despite being URs heaviest robot, the UR20 is the lightest cobot in its class, weighing only 64kg (141.1 lbs.) making it both a versatile technical tool and a manual laborer.

More than half of all U.S. manufacturing tasks are automatable, a fact that businesses start to realize as they simply cannot fill open positions, says Universal Robots senior manager of applications development and strategic marketing, Joe Campbell. We are launching a redefined cobot that has been completely re-engineered from the ground up, focused on freeing up more manpower within a wide range of human-scale automation tasks.

At Universal RobotsIMTS booth 236949, attendees will experience first-hand what that looks like as the UR20 loads and unloads heavy workpieces into a machine fixture requiring a long reach. We have completely re-engineered the cobots field-serviceable joints, that deliver 30% more speed and torque within a closed capsule, says Universal Robots VP of innovation and strategy, Anders Beck, explaining how the UR20s base joint produces 700 Newton-meters of torque. This is more than a performance model Tesla produces on all of its wheels. Even with the increase in reach and torque, weve managed to retain the cobots 50 microns repeatability, while still using standard single-phase power.

Universal Robots also kept the intuitive user interface, pioneered by the company, while incorporating advanced software enhancements, giving users unprecedented motion control capabilities. The rapidly expandingUR+ ecosystemof third-party components and application kits, certified to be plug-and-play with UR cobots, also supports the UR20. At IMTS, UR+ partner SCHUNK, will launch the EGU universal parallel electric gripper with the ability to handle varying part dimensions. The new gripper integrates seamlessly with the new UR20through a URCap (software handshake between the peripheral and the robot arm).

Universal Robots recently posted arobust 30% growthacross the first two quarters of 2022 compared to the first half of 2021. A significant contributor to URs growth is OEMs that now increasingly incorporate UR cobots into full solutions, a sales channel that grew 39% year-over-year. At IMTS, UR has invited several OEM and UR+ partners to its booth, including Vectis Automation, Hirebotics, VersaBuilt Robotics, Robotiq, Kane Robotics, PCC Robotics, and Mid Atlantic Machinery.

For fabricators, Vectis Automation will demo the water-cooled version of itsCobot Welding Tool, delivering heavy duty welds along with the VectisCobot Plasma Cutting Toolthat enables complex cuts on high-mix 3D parts and tubes for a fraction of the cost of existing 3D shape cutting automation. Hirebotics will showcase itsCobot Welderwith a rotary positioner to demonstrate how the system can communicate with positioners to weld parts that aren't possible with just the cobot. ThePress Brake Operator Packagefrom Mid Atlantic Machinery showcases a UR10e on a modular parts cart with a machine tool interface and a zone safety scanner that ensures shop safety.

New innovative ways for cobots to interact with CNCs will be highlighted by Robotiqs newMachine Tending Solutionthat emulates the machine operator with no need to modify or alter the machine controls. Since it is non-intrusive, the new Robotiq solution will work with any brand of CNC. VersaBuilts UR+ certifiedMill Automation Systemwith a MultiGrip automation work-holding will allow machinists to easily add any new CNC parts that can be held with a vise.PCC Roboticswill demonstrate an efficient machine cell setup as a UR10e equipped with OnRobots dual3FG15 grippermounted on EasyRoboticsProFeederfeeds parts to an air vise.

For a finishing touch, Kane Robotics will show theGRIT XL-X robotic systemthat is ideal for sanding, grinding and finishing, including customized programming and robust data solutions.

Attendees looking to use cobots for automation tasks but unsure where to begin or how to program, are invited to attendfree hands-on training sessionsinside McCormick Place at IMTS, each session tailored a specific application taught by certified UR product trainers. Our cobots will be in more than 20 other booths at the show as well, each showcasing different ways to incorporate cobots into machining applications, says URs Joe Campbell. Were looking forward to meet every IMTS attendee no matter where theyre at in their automation journey.

About Universal Robots

Universal Robots aims to empower change in the way work is done using its leading-edge robotics platform. Since introducing the worlds first commercially viable collaborative robot (cobot) in 2008, UR has developed a product portfolio including the UR3e, UR5e, UR10e, UR16e, and UR20 reflecting a range of reaches and payloads. Each model is supported by a wide selection of end-effectors, software, accessories and application kits in the UR+ ecosystem. This allows the cobots to be used across a wide range of industries and means that they can be redeployed across diverse tasks. The company, which is part of Teradyne Inc., is headquartered in Odense, Denmark, and has offices in the USA, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, the Czech Republic, Romania, Turkey, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Mexico. Universal Robots has installed over 50,000 cobots worldwide. For more information, please visitwww.universal-robots.comor read our blog atblog.universal-robots.com.

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Universal Robots' New UR20 Collaborative Robot Makes U.S. Debut at IMTS 2022, Expanding Cobot Automation in Machining Industry | RoboticsTomorrow -...

Don Felipe plows the land manually. He uses a shovel to dig and covers the furrows with another tool. He plants corn on his land in the community of Tocopa, near Lake Titicaca, more than 100 kilometers from the city of El Alto. He works hard under the Altiplano sun. It would be a typical story of a farmer in rural Bolivia, were it not for the fact that Don Felipe lost both hands and part of his forearms 45 years ago in a dynamite accident.

Last year, Don Felipes story came to the attention of Roly Mamani, 32, who went to visit him with a view to giving him his hands back. He carried some sample prostheses in his backpack to calculate the dimensions and promised to create a custom-made pair of hands for him. Several weeks later, Mamani gave the 70-year-old back his limbs limbs he had lost in his 30s. Don Felipe could be seen grinning from ear to ear as he tested his brand-new prostheses by lifting a glass of Coca-Cola.

An electronics wizard, Mamani says that, as far as hes concerned, technology is the closest thing he knows to magic. As a maker, he realized there was a lack of solutions for people with motor disabilities, especially those without financial resources, in his country. Now, for the past four years, with his Robotics Creators venture, he has been addressing this lack in health technology with the creation of integral bionic systems and prosthetic limbs for people in Bolivia and beyond.

An electronics engineer, Mamani first took an interest in robotics when he was six and in love with LEDs and curious about how a light turns on. His interest was also driven by his desire to have more toys. This interest led him to establish his company together with his brother Juan Carlos, a physiotherapist, with the aim of helping people who have lost a limb or lost mobility in an existing one. He began creating animatronics, moving on to combat, educational and competitive robots, but he was aware that this did not go as far as he would like.

I realized that if we didnt bring this knowledge to a point that could really make a difference, it didnt make much sense, says Mamani, who welcomed EL PAS to his workshop in Achocalla, a small community 15 kilometers away from the bustle of the Bolivian capital. When I was in college, I often wondered why there were no solutions in our country in this field. Based on the experience and knowledge we gained, my brother and I have dared to provide a solution for a person with a transradial amputation using 3D printing.

The Robotics Creators workshop is located in an area surrounded by eucalyptus trees, a lagoon and gentle, rolling hills. People come to this secluded space from different areas of La Paz, but also from very remote rural areas and even from abroad. Mamani estimates that, in the four years since they set up, they have been able to help more than 200 families. Among his patients are children, young people, adults, senior citizens and even pets a field he calls furry bionics. The greatest reward is to see a person smile again, to see a mother cry seeing her child given a new opportunity, he says. These are things that money can never buy; they are experiences that fill your life with good energy.

Speaking at Robotics Creators, a space full of animatronic figures such as an Iron Man armor to scale, dinosaurs and rescued robot toys, Mamani says that to get to this point in his venture he also went through difficulties, ranging from not having large-scale 3D printers to not owning an industrial scanner. Other challenges were not having experience in anatomical design and also having to learn how to interact with disabled people. First, they have to heal psychologically so that later they can help us to bring about a positive result, Mamani says. Everything takes time. Earlier, we were dealing with simpler problems, but subsequently we have had people with disarticulations of their entire shoulder, and these are more complex situations that require more experience.

According to 2019 data from the Unified National Registry System of Persons with Disabilities, there are 95,884 disabled people in Bolivia, 38% of whom have physical-motor disabilities. According to the 2021 report entitled Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Latin America and the Caribbean: A Path to Sustainable Development, the rate in rural areas is twice that of urban areas 15.9% against 8.7%. This disproportionate number of disabled people in the countryside is a global phenomenon and is possibly due to less accessible preventive healthcare and treatment, and higher rates of poverty.

Mamani is aware that working with technology requires money, and most of those who come to Robotics Creators are people of limited means. A person who loses a limb is someone who is usually exposed to dangerous work because they have no choice, he says. Sometimes they want to earn a little more and cant get a safe job. Often an accident happens, and life takes a turn for the worse.

On account of this, the solutions manufactured in Achocalla do not cost more than a high-end cell phone. In many cases, the patient is asked to pay just 50% of expenses; they assume the cost of materials, while the labor is assumed by Mamani and his team.

A conventional prosthesis can start at $5,000, a mechanical prosthesis $10,000 and, then, its $16,000 and upwards for a bionic prosthesis, says Mamani. That is really a lot of money for the people we work with. We have worked out how to make prostheses in the most affordable and efficient way possible. There are people who come from rural areas to the workshop asking for help without being able to speak Spanish. In those cases, we see if we have the materials and we make the donation directly without charging them a penny.

Mamanis company makes up some of the shortfall with the work they do in other areas such as the rental and creation of animatronics, and educational and combat robots, as well as design and 3D printing services. However, importing components to improve their projects can be complicated due to the economic factor and the lack of government support.

Despite these limitations, the 3D printers at Robotics Creators work tirelessly to create biomechanical prostheses that only require elbow movement to be activated; they also create the robotic type, with internal integrated circuits and a battery, which makes use of a sensor that works on motor skills for those who have no elbow movement. The raw material is made from plastic and its derivatives, which are also biodegradable, says Mamani. So, we are taking care of the planet when the prostheses are discarded.

But Mamanis real dream has not yet come to fruition. In the future, he and his team want to build a bionic rehabilitation center with the capacity to develop robotic exoskeletons for people with paralysis: I believe that beyond simply studying and having a career, we also need to make a contribution to life, says Mamani. There are those who believe that making robots is not a real job when, in fact, there are miracles that can be done with technology.

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The robotics whiz who is giving limbs back to the disabled - EL PAS USA

September 23, 2062, is still forty years away, but its an important historical date. One hundred years before, on September 23, 1962, the Jetsons premiered on ABC television. The Jetsons imagined a world one hundred years into the future, a time with flying cars and robot servants. How closely the future will resemble the ideas of the early 60s is still a wait and see, but some of the innovations that existed in the imaginations of Jetsons writers are taking place today.

Sports arenas and venues are not unfamiliar with using automation systems technology to reduce concession lines and get fans back in their seats faster. But are robotic servers the next evolutionary step? TechFoundry LLC Consultant Tod Caflisch says the staffing shortages and the need to cut costs seen in retail and other consumer-facing industries affect sports and entertainment, too, leading to the exploration of robotics and other automated systems to reduce the burden.

Theres a platform called TendedBar thats already been successfully used in a number of arenas and events, Caflisch says. Basically, its a contactless point of sale device for cocktails and mixed drinks. An App utilizing facial recognition and biometrics verifies age and allows for order and payment. There is also an automated bartender robot called BRILLO, who can mix drinks and make small talk.

Another example of robot automation transforming the restaurant industry that could also make an impact in sports venues is Flippy. Flippy is a robot hamburger flipper and the worlds first autonomous robotic kitchen assistant. Developed by Miso Robotics, an AI and robotics startup focused on the restaurant industry, Flippy is a machine-learning robot that helps chefs with food prep, grilling, frying, and final assembly in commercial kitchens. Flippy 2 launched earlier this summer, and Sippy, the worlds first POS-integrated beverage dispenser and sealer, is poised to launch before the end of 2022.

But how close is the world coming to an actual house-optimized robot, like Rosie the Robot from the Jetsons? Closer than one might imagine. Elon Musk is nearing completion of a prototype for the first functioning humanoid robot, which could debut as early as the end of this coming September. No matter the form these innovations take, they are starting to pop up around stadiums. Caflisch says, Check it out. The next time you go out to the arena or stadium for a game or a concert, and see, because I think youre going to be catching more of that.

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Robotics is the Next Wave of Automation Systems for Stadiums and Arenas - MarketScale

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Michel Therin joins as Chairman of the Board of Directors and Mike Lobinsky as Independent Board Member

PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ganymed Robotics, a developer of computer vision algorithms and robotics technologies for orthopedic surgeons, announced it has appointed Michel Therin as Chairman of the Board of Directors and Mike Lobinsky as Independent Board Member.

Michel Therin brings over 30 years of leadership experience in the medtech industry. Recently, he served as President of Advanced Therapies at Siemens Healthineers where he was instrumental in the acquisition of Corindus Vascular Robotics for $1.1 bn. Previously, he was Global Vice President/General Manager, General Surgery at Medtronic group. During the 12 years he spent at Medtronic, he held a number of positions in the General Surgery, Abdominal Wall Surgery, Biosurgery and Sutures divisions. Prior to its acquisition by Medtronic, Michel was in charge of research and advanced technologies for the surgical division of Covidien. Aside of its role as Chairman of Ganymed, Michel also serves as a Member of the Board of Directors of Tissium, Keranova, SafeHeal, Affluent Medical and Betaglue Technologies.

Mike Lobinsky is an accomplished medical technology executive with more than 20 years of experience in the orthopedics and surgical robotics industry. He currently serves as President and CEO of iotaMotion. He served as CEO of EOS Imaging, which was acquired by Alphatec in 2021. Mike was previously Vice President of Robotics at Smith & Nephew, after their acquisition of Blue Belt Technologies, a surgical robotics company for orthopedics where he led the sales efforts from commercialization to exit. Earlier in his career, Mike built and managed sales and marketing teams at Stryker, Brainlab, and BioMedix.

Michel Therin said: Rarely have I seen in a medtech start-up the same combination of judgment, relevance and speed of execution. It has invented and validated radically new technologies at the core of the next surgical revolution: robotic assistance, artificial intelligence, and image-guidance. It is an honor to chair its Board and contribute to help the company, its stellar team and highly engaged KOLs execute on their ambitious vision.

Mike Lobinsky added: I am excited to join such a talented and visionary team. The innovative solutions developed by Ganymed Robotics have the potential to radically transform orthopedic surgery, and bring a new standard of care to the millions of patients worldwide in need of joint replacement.

Sophie Cahen, CEO and Cofounder of Ganymed Robotics, said: The arrival of Michel and Mike on our Board is terrific news as we are expanding our technology platform and preparing for commercialization. At such a strategic moment, their exceptional track record and deep knowledge of the medical device industry are an invaluable resource for the companys growth.

About Ganymed Robotics

Ganymed Robotics is a medical device company founded in 2018, developing the next generation of robotic assistance technologies for orthopedic surgery. The companys mission is to improve patient outcome, surgeon experience, and overall efficiency of care delivery for its target indications. Based in Paris, Ganymed Robotics currently employs 30 people who develop a proprietary technology platform combining computer vision, a branch of artificial intelligence, and mechatronics, in close collaboration with world-class clinicians and advisors. The first application is a robotic surgical assistant for knee arthroplasties, a common and fast-growing intervention associated with high dissatisfaction rates of above 20%. Ganymed Robotics intends to progressively deploy its technology to address several other orthopedics indications. Ganymed Robotics won national and international innovation awards, such as I-Lab, French Tech Emergence, Deep Tech Pioneer, EIT Health, Wilco, EIC Accelerator. For more information: http://www.ganymedrobotics.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220831005054/en/

Press contactStrategies & Image (S&I)Anne Rein+33 6 03 35 92 05[emailprotected]

Source: Ganymed Robotics

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Ganymed Robotics Appoints Michel Therin and Mike Lobinsky on its Board of Directors - StreetInsider.com

By Maciek Mysliwiec

Imagine the rover youve built is carrying out its mission on Mars, an average of 225 million kilometers from Earth. Unfortunately, the so-far smooth process is disrupted, and you have no way to send a repair team. It is also impossible to replace the broken component. You can give up, accept defeat and abort the mission. Or you can find a solution that may bring you closer to solving the problem by reprogramming your rover remotely.

In 2019, during the Mars InSight mission, NASA encountered a major problem: the probes drill that was supposed to explore the planets rock cover got stuck while drilling and couldnt be extricated. This blocked many of the landers functions. After many failed attempts, scientists decided to use a simple, though seemingly controversial solution. It was decided that Mars InSight would use a shovel that was on the other robotic arm and hit the arm with a drill to get it out of the trap. However, this meant that the rover had to be properly programmed to hit itself. No one had planned such a solution before, so developing the code required creativity and great accuracy. To make sure that the solution could work it was tested on Earth beforehand.

A similar solution was used in the Curiosity rover, which has already traversed the surface of the Red Planet for some time and whose wheel was damaged by hard obstacles. It was reprogrammed so that the damaged wheel drove purposely on a hard and sharp rock. All of this was done to protect the rovers electronics by removing a dangerous damaged piece of plastic from the wheel sheath. The threat of cutting through the rovers wiring by a sharp piece of composite has been eliminated. So, it can be seen that sending a probe into space is as important as sending an appropriate software, which must be flexible to many unforeseen circumstances.

This is the same attitude required for the European Rover Challenge (ERC): a competition that requires its contestants to be flexible and creative with their software programming skills because the martian environment is harsh and something can always go wrong.

3-2-1-LETS GO!

In the remote formula at the European Rover Challenge, which is the biggest rover competition in Europe, teams will be tasked with remotely controlling and running their software on the rover, which will be waiting for commands on the biggest artificial Mars-yard in the world (located in Kielce, Poland). This approach will give all participants an equal chance to succeed. Each team approaches the competition with the same equipment: they will drive an identical rover, and they will have to demonstrate specific skills in software development, mission planning, risk management, teamwork, role division and task enforcement. Every team gets the same task and starts from the same place, having the same boundary conditions. There is no room for mistakes because, just like in the case of a real mission to Mars no one will fly there to fix the rover or save it from trouble, and there is no room for random actions similar to actual ESA or NASA missions, every move must be carefully planned, analyzed and tested.

Your software must be of the highest quality, even the smallest error can cause that rover programmed by you will be damaged and the mission will be terminated.

What is unique is that the ERC remote formula gives a chance to join the competition to the teams that have the competence but do not have specific resources to build their rover, or travel with it across the world to Poland. The winner of the competition will be the one who most reliably prepares the necessary software and demonstrates effectiveness in team management, reacting to critical situations and change management. There is an undeniable satisfaction in knowing that the code you have prepared interacts with the outside world. That your software makes the space hardware move and perform tasks. However, your software must be of the highest quality, even the smallest error can cause that rover programmed by you will be damaged and the mission will be terminated. You must be extremely careful and your code must be free of errors. Your work is as important as any other in the project. Each team member is the most important one. The success of the mission depends on the whole team says Dr. Krzysztof Walas, Main Judge of the Remote Maintenance Task.

THE SOFTWARE AND THE CHALLENGE

Leo Rover is a compact four-wheeled rover produced by the Kell Ideas Company, on which every team in the remote formula will operate. It is equipped with a special payload to implement autonomy and perform tasks together. Leo is a prototyping robot that runs on a Raspberry Pi computer the central unit of the rover. The LINUX (Ubuntu) system that the rover is set up with is running the ROS (Robot Operating System) and the software from the ERCs partner Freedom Robotics which allows easy remote control of the robot.

The ERC remote format consists of four tasks: Science, in which teams prepare and execute a simple science-driven exploration plan on the Mars-Yard; Navigation: in which Leo Rover is being navigated safely through Mars-Yard, visits all waypoints, and delivers dedicated probes to each of the waypoints; Maintenance: in which teams localize and turn off faulty elements of a device; Presentation, in which teams introduce themselves and present their projects in front of the jury.

The team has to be aware of what they can do and what is possible to do this is the most important task for teams in the ERC remote.

To prepare for launch, the team must first familiarize themselves with the rovers technical documentation and get access to software and a simulation environment to plan further steps in programming. From registration to the actual competition, crews will have the opportunity to take test drives 3 times to check the solutions they have prepared along the way.

by conducting the test drives, the organizers ensure that the competition is entered by groups that have well-thought-out mission concepts and have worked as a team. As Szymon Dzwonczyk, Head of the remote Jury Board says, the team has to be aware of what they can do and what is possible to do this is the most important task for teams in the ERC remote. Hardware can be created or adapted by preparing appropriate software. However, if you overestimate teams capabilities, you will lose.

At the beginning of the competition, each team can choose whether they want to upload their software or run the standard one delivered by the organizer. Later on, it will still be possible to upload additional software via the Internet, but this procedure will already be part of the task and will take up precious time. Uploading the software to the rover beforehand is, therefore, a safer option.

During the preparation for the competition, teams can test their concepts using a pre-configured simulation. This way, they can evaluate their software skills, operate the rover and analyze the differences between the simulated environment and real operation before each test drive.

This years test runs were held in June, July and in early August. There was an announcement about the teams which would have advanced to the competition finals on 911 September 2022.

Twenty-eight teams from around the world have registered for this years remote competition, out of 92 teams in total which wanted to attend ERC 2022 in an on-site or remote format. This includes teams from the UK, Colombia, India, Italy, Turkey, Germany, Egypt, Scotland, and Poland. Last years winner was a team from India DJS Antariksh, which will also compete this year to retain its title. Eleven teams have passed the qualification process and will compete in ERC remotely from their universities.

Anything can happen during the competition, from poor management decisions to software errors, to losing the rover (which means being unable to steer it), like in a real planetary mission. And the final evaluation is complex, as judges of the competition rate specific tasks differently. They evaluate the execution, the concept, the preparation, and teamwork. Possible penalties may be given for accidental better than planned solutions. Luck does not mean competence.

The final goal of competition such as the ERC is to allow teams to gain useful experiences but also to enhance their creativity, which is a fundamental component in solving unpredictable problems during space missions. Looking at previous editions of the European Rover Challenge and following the development of those who competed before, we can see that these first small steps were the test trials for their giant leap into the future.

Maciek Mysliwiec is a Social Media and communication specialist in space sector. Press Officer at European Rover Challenge. Works for Planet Partners and Space Technology Centre of AGH University of Science and Technology.

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#SpaceWatchGL Opinion: Save the Mission to Mars by Coding: Remote space robotics competition at the European Rover Challenge 2022 - SpaceWatch.Global