Daily Archives: March 7, 2017

TechCrunch

Meet Flippy, a burger-grilling robot from Miso Robotics and CaliBurger TechCrunch Miso Robotics CEO and co-founder David Zito said, We focus on using AI and automation to solve the high pain points in restaurants and food prep. That's the dull, dirty and dangerous work around the grill, the fryer, and other prep work like chopping ... Miso Robotics Unveils "Flippy" in CaliBurger Kitchen, Plans Worldwide RolloutYahoo Finance all 7 news articles »

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Meet Flippy, a burger-grilling robot from Miso Robotics and CaliBurger - TechCrunch

Stevens County made its mark in the FIRST (for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics world last weekend. Both Kettle Falls and Northport high schools have teams in the program.

Thirty teams from Oregon and Washington competed last Friday and Saturday in a game that involved robots collecting and shooting whiffle balls, collecting and placing gears, and climbing a rope.

Each match was played with competing three-team alliances, but the alliances changed from match to match in the qualification rounds. Strategies changed constantly based on each teams capabilities. Each team played in 12 of 60 qualification matches. Permanent alliance selections were made at the start of the quarterfinals, allowing the trio to work together through the higher levels of elimination.

Northport is in its second year of the FIRST program. NHS was in Saturdays winning alliance with teams from Spokane and Palouse. Being on a winning alliance automatically qualified the three robots to compete at the next level.

FIRST Robotics gives students and opportunity to learn and emulate real world career skills in a challenging and exciting way, pointed out Dave Glanville, lead coach for Northport. Every year I am amazed and surprised anew by the growth and development that my team members show.

Veteran Kettle Falls was paired with two teams from Spokane Valley. KFHS made it as far as the quarterfinals. Perhaps even better, though, was being recognized with the Engineering and Inspiration Award.

To be considered for this award, a team must show outstanding success in advancing respect and appreciation for engineering within a teams school and community.

Winning this merit-based award makes the Kettle Falls team eligible to compete against other teams in the District championship level Engineering Inspiration Award at Eastern Washington University. Their robot, however, still has to qualify based on points from two competitions.

Our team is on the young side, said KFHS Lead coach Naomi Edwards. But they are doing so much and learning how to take on leadership roles in this complex competition this year. I couldnt be more impressed with their growth this season.

Every FIRST team spends six weeks designing and building a robot to meet specifications and goals. Each of the 155 teams in the Pacific Northwest District compete at two of seven two-day District events. Eligibility for a teams robot to compete at the District Championships (At EWU April 6-8) is based on ranking points earned at their two competitions or being on a winning alliance.

The first of the seven weekends saw 70 teams competing within the District. Northports team is currently ranked 11th and Kettle Falls is 29th. Both teams will compete March 17-18 at Central Washington University (Ellensburg).

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Stevens County robotics team's excel in competition - Eastern Washington Statesmen Examiner

Photo: PAL Robotics TALOS humanoid robot from PAL Robotics.

If you are a roboticist and you want to work with humanoids but you dont want to build a robot from scratch, PAL Robotics would be happy to sell you one. The Spanish robot makeris introducing a new option that improves on its REEM humanoids: TALOS isa 32-degrees-of-freedom, 1.75-meter-tall, 100-kilogramrobotdesigned for dynamic walking, heavy lifting, and (eventually) assisting humans with all of those tasks that we really dont want to be doing.

PAL Robotics designed TALOS with the intention of having the robot work on physically demanding and accurate tasks performed under hostile or uncomfortable industrial settings, according to PAL CEO Francesco Ferro. This means that the robot is not justa research platformits going to start out in research, as many robots do, but PAL hopes it cantransition into doing useful tasks in the real world, a thing that humanoid robots in general arent known for.

Right out of the box (and we assume its a pretty big box), TALOS can walk at 3 km/h, it can handle traveling over irregular surfaces, and its battery can keep it running forup to 3 hours (depending on what the robot is doing). The robot is powered byROS (hooray!), and full EtherCAT communications allow its internal networks to run control loops in the kilohertz range. It has 7-DoF arms, each of which can lift an impressive 6 kilograms at full extension. Its modular and upgradeable in both hardware and software.

The first TALOS (named Pyrne) is already hard at work at the Laboratory for Analysis and Architecture Systems (LAAS-CNRS) in Toulouse, France:

Full-size humanoid robots are a tricky business, so we asked PAL Robotics what the story is behind TALOS:

We believe that our environment is tailored to us, humans, and as such, in the long term, we will need a robot that is able to adapt to our human environments. TALOS has been on our roadmap for a while and we are glad that we were able to work with LAAS-CNRS to have this first unit available and working already for research purposes. It has really proven to be a huge engineering challenge for us and we are very satisfied with the end result.

PAL Robotics hopes that within the next five years, TALOS will be working side by side with humans doing manipulation in industrial applications. Longer term, theres potential for working in search and rescue, or in other areas where its too dangerous to send humans. Its this kind of thing that TALOS is ideal for, and thats reflected in the costat something around 1 million, the best place for a robot like this is where a robot like this is the only safe option.

[ PAL Robotics ]

IEEE Spectrum's award-winning robotics blog, featuring news, articles, and videos on robots, humanoids, drones, automation, artificial intelligence, and more. Contact us:e.guizzo@ieee.org

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TALOS Humanoid Now Available from PAL Robotics - IEEE Spectrum

Real Human Tissue

With all the advances being made in robotics in terms of capabilities, it was only a matter of time before researchers took it one step further, making robots look more human.Thats what a pair of biomedical researchers at the University of Oxford are hoping to do, anyway.

In a report published in Science Robotics,Pierre-Alexis Mouthuyand Andrew Carr assert that the time has come to beginbuilding robots with real human tissue. Not just for looks, either: using humanoid robots would be ideal for advancing our understanding of muscle and tendon grafts, and refining the technologyused to develop them.

To engineer tissue, scientists use bioreactors filled with nutrients and chemicals that can grow sheets of cells. Cells in muscles and tendons, however, require the ability to be stretched and moved by the skeleton a mechanical component that bioreactors are unable to mimic.

Because humanoid robots are capable of mimicking human movement, they would prove an excellent tool. They can essentially serve as a humanoid-bioreactor system, and the tissuecould develop with a little structural help from the robots, more or less the same way it would on a human skeleton.

The ability of humanoids to freely interact with their environment and real objects could be an advantage compared with desktop bioreactors. This may provide more realistic stresses to tissue constructs and eventually achieve grafts with better functionality or with tailored properties, Mouthuy and Carr explain in Science Robotics.

In theory, a humanoid-bioreactor system can be built on top of the humanoid robot using muscles made with electroactive polymers. The developing muscles can essentially piggyback on the robot skeletons movement so the tissues get exercised.The robot skeleton wouldneed to be covered in soft, stretchable sensors so that it can closely monitor the development of the tissues.

In their research, Mouthuy and Carradd that [] in aging populations, musculoskeletal tissue disorders and injuries are a growing health, social, and economic burden. Pain and lack of mobility are common problems due to failure of tissues, such as tendon, ligament, bone, and cartilage. A promising repair strategy is to engineer tissue grafts.

This will lead to the creation of more clinically relevant musculoskeletal tissue grafts and, in particular, allow for personalized tissue graft development by matching the robots morphology and mechanics to the patients needs.

Following this method, its likely we will likely end up with a robot that looks like the Kenshiro robot developed in Tokyo, where its actuators closely copy human movements. In other words, a Terminator-like humanoid robot where a metal skeleton would be covered in human muscles, tendons, and skin.

The researchers assert that not only do we have the technology to make this happen, but that it likely will. Given that it would bescientifically relevant,and has numerous applications in regenerative medicine and other fields, it looks like we could be mingling with robot lookalikes sooner rather than later.

Excerpt from:

Scientists Are Building Humanoid Robots Using Skin Grafts - Futurism - Futurism

Both the George Washington and Tunstall high school robotics teams pushed through a challenging contest to earn high rankings during the first qualifying meet of the season, team coaches and players said.

I think we did great, much better than we originally thought we were going to do, said Tunstall build and drive captain Mindy Duenas.

Tunstall and GW both participated in the FIRST For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology Chesapeake districts Southwest Virginia event Saturday and Sunday in Blacksburg, competing against dozens of teams from Virginia, Washington and Maryland. The Tunstall Trojans finished the qualifying round ranked second and GWs Team Talon finished 14th.

Both teams also competed in the tournament phase. GW bowed out in the quarterfinals while Tunstall was able to advance to the semifinals, eventually losing to the No. 1 seed in a close match.

During each match, alliances made up of three teams use their robots to complete several objectives. This year the objectives are steampunk-themed, so the robots load fuel balls into a boiler and carry plastic gears up a rope system with the goal of powering a steam vehicle.

Team Talon coach Daniel Waters said he was very proud of his teams first performance of the season.

It was good, Waters said. We kept it really close.

During qualifying, GW also was part of the alliance that set the event high score of 360 points.

Tunstall coach Edward Sherlock whose team is competing in its second year said the robot excelled at the gear placing objective.

It was a strong climber, and thats worth 50 points at the end, Sherlock said.

Team Talon also scored points by winning the Gracious Professionalism Award, which is given to the team that displays qualities like teamwork, effective collaboration and positive attitudes. The award is determined by judges conversations with fellow alliance teams and event personnel.

That award shows you are willing to work together. Waters said. Thats kind of the ethos of FIRST.

The Trojans and Team Talon next will head to the second qualifying event on March 24-26 in Glen Allen. If the teams qualify, they will be able to attend the championship event on April 5-8 at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Waters said about 60 teams will qualify for the championship, based on a rankings system which takes into account awards, wins and losses, tournament placement and other factors. Currently, Team Talon is ranked 14th and the Trojans are ranked 18th.

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Dan River Region robotics teams take to the field - GoDanRiver.com

Johnson County robotics team to...

MOUNTAIN CITY, Tenn. - After winning a state title, the Johnson County Middle School robotics team is the only one from a public school in Tennessee to qualify for the world tournament.

It is coming up next month, and tonight, News 5's Kristi O'Connor finds out how the team has become more than just an after school program for this group of 7th and 8th graders.

The Johnson County Middle School Robotoics team will head to the 2017 VEX World Robotics Tournament for the first time in school history. They will be judged in four areas including the robot design, their performance on the field, the engineering and design journal and their interviews with the judges.

In the VEX State Tournament this weekend, the team of 7th and 8th graders excelled in all four categories, qualifying them for World.

It is Johnson County's only second year having a robotics team. Their instructor Susan Quave started the program off of two grants and donations, but it has quickly grown.

They started working Tuesdays and Thursday after school, but now they work four sometimes five nights a week for several hours.

"They are the hardest working team," Quave said.

The students designed the robot from scratch. It took them about ten months before they were ready for competition.

While they have been very successful this season, Quave says it is more than just trophies and competitions. She says many of her students now want to make a career out of engineering and robotics. She hopes to make robotics part of the curriculum eventually.

"I personally want to be an aerospace engineer and grow up to work at NASA. I think this will help greatly," Student Isaac Brown said.

"Almost daily there's a new technology that helps make life simpler and there has to be programmers and engineers to do that," Student Robert Coffey said.

The robotics team is still short on travel and hotel expenses. They hope to raise the money before the World Tournament on April 19, which is in Louisville. If you would like to donate, you can make checks out to the Johnson County Middle School Robotics Team.

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Johnson County Middle School robotics team makes school history ... - WCYB

WPI News

A Long History with FIRST Robotics Competition WPI News WPI was the first university in the country to offer a bachelor's degree in robotics engineering, and once enrolled undergraduate and inventor Dean Kamen, founder of For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, or FIRST. So it's no ...

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A Long History with FIRST Robotics Competition - WPI News

Ghost Roboticsa leader in fast and lightweight direct-drive legged robotsannounced recently that its Minitaur model has been updated with advanced reactive behaviors for navigating grass, rock, sand, snow and ice fields, urban objects and debris, and vertical terrain.

The latest gaits adapt reactively to unstructured environments to maintain balance, ascend steep inclines up to 35, climb up to 15cm curb-sized steps, crouch to fit under crawl spaces as low as 27cm, and operate at variable speeds and turning rates. Minitaurs high-force capabilities enable it to leap up to 40cm onto ledges and across gaps of up to 80cm. Its high control bandwidth allows it to actively balance on two legs, and its high speed operation allows its legs to navigate challenging environments rapidly, whilst reacting to unexpected contact.

Our primary focus since releasing the Minitaur late last year has been expanding its behaviors to traverse a wide range of terrains and real-world operating scenarios, saidGavin Kenneally, and Avik De, Co-founders of Ghost Robotics. In a short time, we have shown that legged robots not only have superior baseline mobility over wheels and tracks in a variety of environments and terrains, but also exhibit a diverse set of behaviors that allow them to easily overcome natural obstacles. We are excited to push the envelope with future capabilities, improved hardware, as well as integrated sensing and autonomy.

Ghost Robotics is designing next-generation legged robots that they claim are superior to wheeled and tracked autonomous vehicles in real-world field applications. They are also attempting to substantially reduce costs to drive adoption and scalable deployments. Whilst a commercial version of the Ghost Minitaur robot is slated for delivery in the future, the current development platform is in high demand, and has been shipped to many top robotics researchers worldwide (Carnegie Mellon, University of Pennsylvania, University of Washington, U.S. Army Research Labs and Google) for use in a broad range of research and commercialization initiatives.

We are pleased with our R&D progress towards commercializing the Ghost Minitaur to prove legged robots can surpass the performance of wheel and track UGVs, while keeping the cost model low to support volume adoptionwhich is certainly not the case with existing bipedal and quadrupedal robot vendors, saidJiren Parikh, Ghost Robotics, CEO.

In the coming quarters, the company plans to demonstrate further improvements in mobility, built-in manipulation capabilities, integration with more sensors, built-in autonomy for operation with reduced human intervention, as well as increased mechanical robustness and durability for operation in harsh environments. Watch this space.

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Leg over wheels: Ghost robotics' Minitaur proves legged capabilities over difficult terrain - Robohub

WINDHAM, N.H. The Lawrence High School Gearheadz robotics team won the Motorola-sponsored Quality Award at the Granite State District's FIRST robotics competition at Windham High School this past weekend.

Forty teams from across New England competed over two days at the competition. This year, teams were required to design and build robots over the course of six weeks that could fetch and deliver oversized gears, shoot balls and climb a rope.

The Gearheadz are not resting on their laurels. They have their second competition at Reading High School from March 18-19, said Art Rousmaniere, lead mentor for the team.

Methuen holds Democratic caucus

METHUEN The Methuen Democratic City Committee will host a caucus for registered Democrats in the city on Saturday, March 11.

The caucus is to elect delegates and alternates to the 2017 Massachusetts Democratic Convention, which will be held on Saturday, June 3 at the Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell.

The event is open to the public and all are welcome. However, only Democrats registered or preregistered in the city of Methuen may vote for or be a candidate for delegate in the caucus. Any person who is not 18 years of age at the time of the caucus, but will be by Sept. 11, 2018, may preregister to vote with the city clerk's office.

Delegates will be divided equally between men and women, and all ballots will be written and secret. In the spirit of inclusion, youth, minorities, and people with disabilities who are not elected as delegates or alternates may apply to be add-on delegates, either at the caucus or online at http://www.massdems.org.

Registration for the caucus will open at 9:30 a.m. in the Great Hall at City Hall, 41 Pleasant St. Registration will close at 10 a.m. and the caucus will begin.

For more information on the caucus or the committee, contact Chairwoman Jessica Finocchiaro at methuendems@gmail.com or by phone at 978-566-1786, or visit http://www.facebook.com/MethuenDems.

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Lawrence robotics team wins award - Eagle-Tribune