Category Archives: Robotics

In October 2020, I wrote the following in my closing column on The Robots Are Coming:

[..] From the above, it seems that robots in horticulture are about much more than merely replacing a workforce that we currently do not have enough people for. Yes, robots will eventually take over part of this boring, repetitive work from humans. But the true value will rest with offering opportunities for new business models. For instance, data collected by robots that are already used in greenhouses for harvesting will have an important role to play in this!

The answer to the question How is the robot revolution changing our way of life? for horticulture will be that it offers opportunities that we cannot even imagine right now! What is clear, in the horticulture of the future people and robots (cobots) will work together more than ever [..]

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So how are those robots doing now a year later? In any event, you can see them popping up everywhere these days.

The report Strijd om agrarische robots barst los (Battle for agricultural robots erupts), published last year by the ABNAMRO Group, provides a large number of examples. This report is largely based on the use of robots in cattle breeding, arable farming and outdoor crops. Among the frontrunners is the company Lely, which is a global leader in the development of the milking robot. Meanwhile, they have also developed robots for various other parts of dairy farming.

We are mainly seeing systems for weeding in agriculture. H2L developed a sorting robot for tulip cultivation. Several robots are already being developed for fruit cultivation as well. A drone is used to pick apples and the company Bx recently showed a video on Linkedin of the robot dog Spot from Boston Dynamics walking through an apple orchard with a camera and sensors.

There is also a lot going on around this subject where greenhouse horticulture is concerned. Robots are being developed for picking tomatoes, various crop operations such as leaf pruning and pollination. Work is also being done on systems that can predict tomato) harvests and that can take measurements of crops. All these data and measurements are important for the grower to be able to manage their crop in the greenhouse as effectively as possible. A good number of companies are invested in this around the world. See, for example, the development map of greenhouse robotics.

Yet for the grower, it is not all that clear which robot they should buy. There is not yet one that is 100 %ready and can do all the work that people do. Still, it is essential that growers and tech developers start working together in order to take the final steps in developing a robot that can pick, count, detect and predict.

The World Horti Center in the Dutch city of Naaldwijk is organizing an event on November 24 and 25 on the theme of robotics and autonomous cultivation in greenhouse horticulture to help ensure that tech, horticulturalists and scientists can find each other. The themes Today and Tomorrow will be used to build and strengthen the ecosystem surrounding the development of horticultural robots. This will be done by presenting inspiring stories, examples from other sectors and by organizing matchmaking sessions between the various parties.

Would you like to be there? More information coming soon at: https://robocrops.tech/

About this column

In a weekly column, alternately written by Eveline van Zeeland, Eugene Franken, Helen Kardan, Katleen Gabriels, Carina Weijma, Bernd Maier-Leppla and Colinda de Beer,Innovation Origins tries to find out what the future will look like. These columnists, occasionally supplemented by guest bloggers, are all working on solutions in their own way on the problems of our time. So tomorrow will be good.Here are all the previous articles.

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How are robots doing in greenhouse horticulture? - Innovation Origins

Someday you may send a robot to attend a meeting for you. Its like youre there, only youre not.

Nimble avatar robotscollaborative mechanical systems that allow a human operator in one location to feel as if they are in another locationwill be the focus of an international competition that includes Northeasterns robotics team, among 37 clubs out of 150 around the world to advance to the semifinal stage of a $10 million competition.

Six members of the universitys team depart Boston on Monday for Miami, where they will compete head-to-head with clubs from Canada, Russia, Colombia, South Korea, and other nations from Sept. 11-13. The 20 best teams will share the $2 million prize. They move on to the finals in the fall of 2022 for a chance to win part of the $8 million purse.

Northeasterns team, led by mechanical and industrial engineering professor Peter Whitney, is comprised of Stephen Alt, who is pursuing a masters degree in computer science; Eric Schwarm, who is in his sixth year studying mechanical engineering; mechanical engineering graduate student Chunpeng Wang; computer engineering graduate student Rui Luo; and Tarik Kelestemur; who is pursuing a doctoral degree in robotics and machine learning.

Judges will be looking for robots to complete a wide range of tasks that involve social and physical interactions designed to mimic real-world scenarios, says Whitney. The tasks include attending a meeting, visiting a museum where the robots operator interacts physically with objects, and piecing together a puzzle.

All of the dimensions of human-to-human interaction are up for grabs, Whitney says.

What makes the Avatar XPrize different from other robotics competitions is that the judges, not the competing teams, put the mechanical systems through the paces. After an hour-long training period, the judges are the operators and they are the ones with whom the avatar interacts.

So we play no role in the competition, says Whitney. Its a little bit frightening to just have a one-hour period to train someone to use your system. And so that gives you kind of a sense of how easy-to-use your system needs to be.

He points out that some of the judges will be experts in robotics, while others will have extensive experience in other areas such as virtual reality or computer systems. And that makes it a big challenge for us to design our system, not just to be very functional for skilled operators, but it has to be very functional for newbie operators.

One of Northeasterns advantages heading into the competition is the frequent interactions between the hardware and software teams in the robotics lab at the Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex.

We have hardware and software all on the same floor and in the same lab, says Schwarm. We see each other every day and work with each other on everything.

Another plus is that students on the team come from multiple research groups that are proficient in different areas, adds Whitney.

For example, in electrical and computer engineering professor Hanu Singhs group, they have expertise in mobile systems that are reliable and can operate under adverse communication and network quality conditions. In professor Taskin Padirs group, they have strong knowledge of human-machine systems and system interface design.

And then in my group we have a focus on tactile technology that gives the operator the ability to have a fine sense of touch, says Whitney. No one part of the system is the most important part. They all work together.

Combining all of that proficiency and know-how gives rise to optimism that Northeasterns mechanical arm will foster the human-to-human interaction between the person operating the robot and the human recipients of that interaction.

Because thats what this competition is ultimately about, says Whitney. Its about human-to-human connection, not about human-to-robot connection.

For media inquiries, please contact media@northeastern.edu.

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The robotics team advances to the semifinals of a global competition - News@Northeastern

Sydney space startup HEO Robotics, has raised a seed round to launch its HEO Inspect product.

The raise was led by David Harding, founder and CEO of Winton Group. The size of the investment was not disclosed.

Angel investors Tim Parsons, Matt Ryall, Christian Thaler-Wolski and Phil Hayes-St Clair also backed the round, while existing HEO investors such as Solai Valliappan doubled-down on their holdings.

Its the first major investment for HEO Robotics, which is already profitable. The seed funding will allow the company to scale its services to help monitor an expected 40x increase in satellite numbers over the next decade.

HEO Robotics provides visual inspection services for satellites and space debris for their operators to monitor the condition of their space assets.

The company uses existing Earth observation satellites in orbit, using software to redirect the focus of those cameras to inspect other inspection cameras. The business currently has access to 25 satellites in various orbits for its monitoring.

The seed funding will be used to release HEO Inspect, which is currently live being used by customers in a private beta.

HEO Robotics was co-founded by aerospace and robotics engineers Dr William Crowe and Dr Hiranya Jayakody.

Crowe, who is the spacetech startups CEO, said the company believes in space sustainability so is using cameras that are already in space for the task rather than adding to the growing congestion above the Earth.

In-orbit inspection is an incredibly important part of keeping space sustainable, he said.

One of the easiest ways to reduce debris is to monitor existing spacecraft and either troubleshoot known issues or help predict future failures.

David Harding, a cybersecurity and deep tech investor, has nominated Joshua Kennedy-White join the HEO Robotics board.

I am pleased to have had the opportunity to back Founders Will and Hiranya and HEO Robotics, which looks to have considerable potential in the burgeoning commercial space industry, he said.

Read more here:

HEO Robotics lands seed round as it turns its focus to satellite inspection - Startup Daily

Innovative robotics and automation technology are helping organizations get more done, in less time and with limited facility space.

Warehousing, distribution centers and logistics companies are some of the organizations that are seeing big benefits with robotics.

According to the 2020 MHI Annual Industry Report, 67 percent of survey respondents said they believed robotics had the power to disrupt their industry and offer a competitive advantage for their organization.

Therefore, its no surprise that 39 percent of surveyed companies said theyve adopted robotics and automation. An additional 73 percent of those surveyed said they plan to add more robotics or start implementing robotics in the next five years.

Benefits of robotics and automation

Theres no doubt that robotics and automation can help organizations meet their mounting needs to standardize production and overcome challenges related to high staff turnover rates. With robotics, you can increase your facilitys outputs without expanding your physical footprint or facility size.

Robotics can help organizations with staffing challenges by offering the following:

-High staff turnover rates often mean added expenses in training and keeping a facility running at full capacity. Robotics can help reduce this fluctuation in staffing by offering a consistent and reliable work source.

-As warehouses, logistics companies and distribution centers look to streamline operations, it often means increasing the weight of fulfillment carts. This puts added strain on workers and can lead to workers compensation claims and costly time off, lowering production. Robotics help streamlines product picking and packing activities without straining employees physically.

-Robotics can assist staff members with learning efficient routes through warehouses to pick and pack products. With artificial intelligence, robotics can map out a way to efficiently pick and pack products throughout a facility. This can offer heightened job satisfaction for workers that use cobots (collaborative robots) to assist them in their daily activities, allowing them to be more efficient.

But robotics offer more than just improved staffing and a reduction in fluctuations from staff turnover. Robotics can also help facilities do more with the same amount of space. Some ways robotics help with stronger outputs despite capacity limits include:

-Better inventory management allows your organization to automate the inventory process so you have to keep less on hand.

-Set aisle sizes based on robotic width and smart technology that tells machines when another robot is in an aisle. That way, you reduce the need for two-way traffic in an aisle so you can shrink the aisle size and make better use of the space.

-Reduction in need for additional workspaces, such as electronic scales, because its built into the robots system.

Maintenance for robotics and automation

But with robotics comes new requirements for the maintenance team.

Preventative maintenance becomes increasingly more important as keeping equipment up and running is crucial to your business operations.

If the robots fail regularly, you could experience worse staff turnover rates than you did without the technology as staff members get frustrated and tired of the loss in productivity. Your organizations agility and ability to respond quickly to requests become more important than ever as you begin to rely more heavily on robotics.

To add robotics to your warehouse, logistics or distribution center operations, you need a maintenance plan that includes:

-Condition monitoring: Prepare a dashboard that shows each robots condition and expected date for new parts to prevent breakdowns.

-Work order requests: Allow staff members to make a work order request and have a process for assigning those work orders to your maintenance team for fast service.

-Reporting: Run reports that help your maintenance team see how often each robot requires maintenance so you can project and anticipate that maintenance in the future to avoid costly breakdowns.

Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS) help warehouses, logistics companies and distribution centers operate efficiently while taking advantage of the competitive advantage robotics can offer.

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For more than 30 years, Eagle Technology Inc. has worked with various industries. The Mequon, Wisconsin-based company offers clients the ability to boost productivity, control costs and maintain compliance, all from its web and mobile-enabled CMMS software, Proteus MMX.

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ZEN AND THE ART OF COBOT MAINTENANCE - Global Trade Magazine

Investors looking for the best stock-market performance have been well-served for many years by focusing on companies using new technology to increase their sales quickly and steadily. The performance of the S&P 500 index has borne this out.

Below is a screen of 24 stocks held among five exchange-traded funds that focus on companies involved with robotics and automation booming technology for companies involved in many industries around the world.

For robotics and automation, here are five ETFs that take different approaches to playing innovation:

Heres some more information about the ETFs:

Heres a summary of total returns for the ETFs against the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY and the Invesco QQQ Trust QQQ, which tracks the Nasdaq-100 Index NDX :

All five of the automation and robotics ETFs have trailed the broad market this year. During 2020, ARKQ was a stellar performer in part because of its big bet on Tesla, which skyrocketed 743% for the year. ROBO has outperformed SPY for five years but underperformed QQQ for all periods.

The five ETFs together hold 251 stocks across 21 countries. Only two stocks Intuitive Surgical and Nvidia are held by all five. Only BOTZ doesnt own stocks in companies based in China.

China may be a special area of risk for years to come. Theres no way of knowing how much change will be brought about by Chinas regulatory crackdown affecting tech-related industries. Meanwhile, U.S. regulators actions as well as theconflictbetween U.S. and Chinese regulators over the availability of audit reports may affect investors holding shares of Chinese companies listed in the U.S.

Yet, as you will see, three Chinese tech giants held by some of these ETFs are highly regarded by Wall Street analysts.

For this screen, it is important to understand that in Wall Street parlance, there are two types of stock analyst. A buy-side analyst works for a money manager. A sell-side analyst works for a brokerage firm. They have different perspectives, and it might be best to rely on both, if possible. So the following screen starts by limiting the list to the 81 stocks held by at least two of the five ETFs described above.

Among those stocks, 70 are rated by at least five sell-side analysts polled by FactSet. Narrowing the list further, 24 of the 70 have at least 75% buy or equivalent ratings. Here they are, sorted by the 12-month upside potential implied by the consensus price targets.

Of course, consensus price targets (and recommendations) can change, and a 12-month target period is short for a long-term trend:

The prices and price targets are in local currencies where the shares are listed. The three Chinese companies on the list Baidu Inc. BIDU, Alibaba Group Holding Inc. BABA and JD.com Inc. JD area all listed on U.S. exchanges as American Depositary Receipts.

You can click on the tickers for more about each company.

Despite being held by all five robotics and automation ETFs, Intuitive Surgical didnt make the list because only eight of the 19 sell-side analysts polled by FactSet rate the shares a buy or the equivalent. The stock closed at $1,053.56 on Aug. 30, having risen 29% for 2021, and was trading ahead of the consensus price target of $1,032.71.

This list is merely a starting point for further research about companies involved with the long-term industrial shift to robotics and automation. If you see any investments of potential interest, you should form your own opinion about a funds strategy, or a companys strategy, and whether or not it is likely to remain competitive over the next decade.

Dont miss: 30 stocks that shined in the pandemic are still poised for huge growth through 2024

Jeff Reeves: Forget short-term stock-market fads and just buy these 5 rocketing tech stocks

Link:

These robotics and automation stocks could climb up to 68% in the next year - MarketWatch

This article comes to us courtesy ofEVANNEX, which makes and sells aftermarket Tesla accessories. The opinions expressed therein are not necessarily our own at InsideEVs, nor have we been paid byEVANNEXto publish these articles. We find the company's perspective as an aftermarket supplier of Tesla accessories interesting and are happy to share its content free of charge. Enjoy!

Posted onEVANNEX on September 02, 2021byCharles Morris

A gold rush attracts prospectors from near and far, and the invariable result is that some get rich quick, and some go home penniless. Theres one group that always does well, however: merchants who sell picks and shovels to the miners.

Above:FANUC Robot Assembly Demo for Elon Musk at Tesla(Flickr:Steve Jurvetson)

Electric vehicles are todays motherlode, and both legacy automakers and ambitious startups are investing massive sums in hopes of hitting pay dirt. Some of these will thrive (a certain California carmaker already has), and others will perish. At the moment, all are struggling with a shortage of semiconductors and other components, on top of a persistent pandemic. However, theres one industry segment thats doing very well indeed: factory equipment manufacturers that supply robots and other equipment for todays highly automated production processes. (EV journalists and suppliers of aftermarket accessories are also getting by, thank you.)

As Reuters reports, US manufacturing, in general, is enjoying a broad recovery from the corona crashnew orders rose from $362 million in April 2020 to almost $506 million in June 2021. The makers of robots and other factory automation technology have seen an even bigger surge, and demand is expected to keep climbing as a wave of new EVs goes into production over the next couple of years. Automakers have ordered manufacturing equipment for 37 EV models in North America alone, industry consultant Laurie Harbour told Reuters.

Im not sure its reached its climax yet. Theres still more to go, said Andrew Lloyd, Electromobility Segment Leader at Comau, a Stellantis-owned supplier of industrial robots. Over the next 18 to 24 months, theres going to be significant demand coming our way.

Automakers both old and new are putting money into EV factories. Automakers will invest over $37 billion in North American plants from 2019 to 2025, according to LMC Automotive, and a substantial amount of that is for EV-related projects.

This industry is the Wild, Wild West right now, John Kacsur, VP of Rockwell Automations automotive and tire segment, told Reuters. There is a mad race to get these new EV variants to market.

Theres still a pipeline with projects from new EV manufacturers, said Mathias Christen, a spokesman for paint shop equipment specialist Durr, which says its EV business grew by 65% last year. This is why we dont see the peak yet.

Manufacturing automation company Kuka (which suppliesrobots for Tesla, among others) says its order book swelled by 52% in the first half of 2021. We ran out of capacity for any additional work about a year and a half ago, Mike LaRose, CEO of Kukas auto group in the Americas, told Reuters. Everyones so busy, theres no floor space.

Automakers and battery builders need to order robots 18 months in advance, said Neil Dueweke, VP of Automotive at Fanuc America (also a Tesla supplier), which set a new sales record last year. We built a facility and have like 5,000 robots on shelves stacked 200 feet high, almost as far as the eye can see.

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Written by:Charles Morris;Source:ReutersviaCarBuzz

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Robotics And Automation Providers See Huge Surge Thanks To EVs - InsideEVs

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Made for children from 7 to 14 years old, the Quarky AI learning companion teaches STEM skills in a fun way. Your child can learn about artificial intelligence and robotics with this gadget. In fact, this futuristic companion does so many things. It can be a gesture-controlled robot, follow commands, recognize objects, plan paths, and more. It helps children learn advanced concepts in a fun, hands-on, and engaging way. Use it with the connected and interactive online courses and live sessions thatll help kids learn to code. With a very portable size, its easy to take Quarky with you anywhere. And pair it up with your smartphone, tablet, or laptop on the go. Whether youre new to coding or an expert at it, youll love Quarky and can use Blocks or Python with it. Moreover, the plug-and-play interface offers a hassle-free setup so you can get going.

Read more from the original source:

Quarky AI learning companion lets kids play with artificial intelligence and robotics - Gadget Flow

The pandemic has changed the way many of us work, but the changing landscape of how we do our jobs is nothing new, right? Whether it's self-checkout at the grocery store or a bomb-detecting robot, the way we work is always evolving. So, what does the future look like? That is the focus of a new GBH TV series called Future of Work, which taps a diverse range of experts and workers to address critical questions about the changing nature of technology, education, the remote workplace and inequality. Executive producer and series creator Denise Dilanni joined Aaron Schachter on Morning Edition to discuss the project. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Schachter: The opening credits series has some clips that made me laugh but ring true. Someone says robots are coming to take my job. And I wonder if that's the gist of the series I always wonder if I'm going to be replaced by Max Headroom.

Dilanni: It is not the gist of the series; it is one underlying question. The series really asks a lot of questions of the day. And one of them is, what is the role of robotics, automation and even more pressingly, artificial intelligence in terms of how we make our livings and the future proofing of the American worker? I think we've been worried about the killer robots or the rise of the killer robots for decades, if not if not a generation or more. And in fact, what we find is robots in the form of cobots actually are helping to enhance work in many, many cases. So I don't think you should worry too much about robots coming for your job and not just yet.

Schachter: You mentioned the word future proofing. Can you explain what that is?

Dilanni: What we do in the series is try to really explore what is changing work and it's not just automation and robotics. It's things like globalization and the rise and fall of trade unions and labor unions and the offshoring of jobs and the attempts to re-shore jobs. Hour one looks at all of those factors that are driving what we think of as the new industrial revolution.

What we learn from a lot of our experts in the series in the old days, you'd go to school for 12 or 16 years, you'd graduate and get a job and ultimately you would retire. And that model no longer works for most American workers. These days, you go to school, you work, then you retrain, you reskill, you work. More education, more skills, more upskilling, and you may never retire. In terms of future proofing for ourselves and our children and our children's children, what are the types of skills that we all need as workers and how [do we] future proof that set of skills so you will be employable?

Schachter: There must be some evolution of this, right? It's not like you train for one job and all of a sudden that job no longer exists. Isn't there some sort of time frame of evolution?

Dilanni: It depends on your work sector, your industry sector. I think there are jobs that are really being disrupted very quickly. In the series, we tell a couple of historical stories to set the stage. One of them is the idea that when automation came in, [the assumption was that] bank tellers lost their jobs because they were replaced by ATMs. Well, what happened? A lot of bank tellers did lose their jobs, but then banking expanded, changed and morphed with other technologies and other business practices. And now there are other kinds of jobs in banking. So, we try very hard not to look at this as a zero-sum game.

What our experts say, and we talked to a couple of very important economists and thought leaders is, we will have jobs in the future, but we're not yet sure what jobs they might be.

Schachter: The production of the series started before the pandemic and continued right after everything was all shaken up. How did that change your focus as you were creating the series?

Dilanni: It was very challenging and daunting, although quite exciting. One thing we realized and you see throughout the three-hour series is that the pandemic was an accelerator of changes that already were afoot. For instance, before the pandemic, there was already a movement to separate work from the place of work. People were working, in many cases remotely, while the pandemic came like a hand grenade and blew that up. So instead of some few million people working remotely, we have 40 or 50 million white collar workers working remotely. It wasn't a new trend, but it was escalated profoundly by the pandemic. [Also,] a reliance on certain kinds of automation as people step back from certain kinds of work because the pandemic; certain companies began looking at other ways to accelerate adoption of automation.

Watch Future Of Work on GBH 2 at 10pm on Sept. 1, 8 and 15. Learn more about the series at Future of Work Panel Discussion on Sept. 8.

Continued here:

The Factors Shaping The Future Of Work: 'It's Not Just Automation And Robotics' - wgbh.org

By Audrey McMichael, Dreadbot Reporter

Our Dexter Dread Bolts and Dreadbytes now have two full seasons under their belts in the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Tech Challenge.

In this rewarding activity, 7th and 8th-grade students are faced with a challenge where they compete with other Michigan teams to earn points. Teams compete at regional events in alliances consisting of two teams. Students have to be creative and sometimes think like engineers to design and build the robot their team uses in competition.

The challenge the teams faced last year was called Ultimate Goal. During the first 30 seconds of each short but intense match, robots were only permitted to use pre-programmed instructions prepared by the team; team members could only touch controllers after that time expired. Clever student-built robots worked to move swiveling pegs into the predetermined target zone and then placed rings on them. Rings were also used to score points by being shot by the robot into the goals on the far side of the field. The last part of the match (known as the end game) challenged robots to carry or place swiveling pegs back at the starting point or in specially designated portions of the playing field.

Even though the Covid-19 pandemic, the Dread Bolts and Dreadbytes continued to advance their knowledge in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) and made adjustments to keep everyone safe at this uncertain time. Students and mentors gathered on Zoom calls rather than in a build space and passed the robot from house to house. Team members said, Were thrilled to have a working robot and that we still learned a lot!

The Dread Bolts and Dreadbytes worked together with their teammates to create an outline of the different manipulators and parts the robot needed to complete the task such as chassis, loader, conveyor, and shooter. The students also divided their team members into roles and subteams that focused on tasks like build, software, and drive. While prototyping the bot and its manipulators, other students focused on brainstorming and strategizing. After prototyping, the students decided on a final idea and began building, wiring, and programming their competition robot.

As competition season approached, teams finished preparing their bot and packed everything needed for the matches. Competitions run throughout the day and are typically in a large school gym. Every team in the competition has its own stand/dugout and most teams have unique buttons you can collect as you meet other competitors. Although health precautions are still in place, these roboticists are now more excited than ever to work on the robot in person this year.

If you have any interest in joining (or know someone who should), the FIRST Robotics Challenge is for high school students (Dexter High School is home to team 3656, the Dreadbots), FIRST Tech Challenge team is for middle school students in the 7th and 8th grade, and FIRST Lego League has members from Kindergarten through 6th grade. Please email DexterDROIDProgram@gmail.com for further information regarding current and future teams along with volunteer opportunities for parents to be involved in the program.

Photo credits: Dexter Robotics Club

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Dexter's Middle School Robotics Teams Prepare for the Third Year of Competition - thesuntimesnews.com

It has long been known that making eye contact with a robot can be an unsettling experience. Scientists even have a name for the queasy feeling: the "uncanny valley".

Now, thanks to researchers in Italy, we also know it's more than just a feeling.

A team at the Istituto Italiano Di Tecnologia (IIT) in Genoa has shown how a robot's gaze can trick us into thinking we are socially interacting and slow our ability to make decisions.

"Gaze is an extremely important social signal that we employ on a day-to-day basis when interacting with others," said Professor Agnieszka Wykowska, lead author of the research published on Wednesday in the journal Science Robots.

"The question is whether the robot gaze will evoke very similar mechanisms in the human brain as another human's gaze would".

The team asked 40 volunteers to play a video game of "chicken" - where each player has to decide whether to allow a car to drive straight towards another car or to deviate to avoid a collision - against a humanoid robot sitting opposite them.

Between rounds, players had to look at the robot, which would sometimes look back and other times look away.

In each scenario, the scientists collected data on behaviour and neural activity via electroencephalography (EEG), which detects electrical activity in the brain.

"Our results show that, actually, the human brain processes the robot gaze as a social signal, and that signal has an impact on the way we're making decisions, on the strategies we deploy in the game and also on our responses," Wykowska said.

"The mutual gaze of the robot affected decisions by delaying them, so humans were much slower in making the decisions in the game".

The findings have implications on where and how humanoid robots are deployed in future.

"Once we understand when robots elicit social attunement, then we can decide in which sort of context this is desirable and beneficial for humans and in which context this should not occur," said Wykowska.

According to a report by the International Federation of Robotics, worldwide sales of professional service robots had already jumped 32 per cent to $11.2 billion (9.4 billion) between 2018 and 2019.

Original post:

Robots can trick us into thinking we are socially interacting and slow our reactions, scientists say - Euronews