Monthly Archives: March 2021

2021 Summer STEM Camps On-Site

TechPlayzone Summer STEM Camp will be held during the month of July onsite at Center Place and Fine Arts Center in Brandon for rising 2nd - 6th grade campers. Each week on-site camp topics include: coding, robotics, and Minecraft for Jr. engineers. Camps are Monday - Friday from 9am - 12noon for $150 per week. Campers rotate as small groups through Zones and enjoy drones, robotics, Minecraft, and game design each day. Covid-19 precautions are in place for camp for the safety of our students and staff.Staff members have documented processes for cleaning all equipment, chairs, and tables during our camps. Additionally, all campers and staff members will wear masks according to CDC guidelines.Register Today! TechPlayzone camp is where bright and creative kids play to learn.

Virtual camps are half day from 3pm - 5pm Monday-Friday.Minecraft Camp / Roblox - $150Game Design / Minecraft - $150Robotics Camp - $285- campers will receive a robot to keep.Register online today for Virtual camp in a 3D reality environment.

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The Manchester Machine Makerswon the Think Award at the Vermont FIRST Tech Challenge Championship against more than two dozen other teams in the robotic design, build and program competition.

The Manchester team, which formed in 2019, won the Think Award, which is one of the competition's seven judged awards that "primarily focuses on the team's use of math and science to drive its engineering design process," said Mike Cole, one of the team's coaches. The Manchester team took second place in the same category last year.

The Manchester team members joined other area students from the Bennington and Hoosick, N.Y., areas to competed in this year's Vermont FIRST Tech Challenge Championship, a competition that involves designing, building and programming robots to tackle scorable objectives.

The state championship, held electronically March 13, marked the culmination of a season that began this past September when the year's design challenge was unveiled and teams began meeting to conceptualize their robots, which in the competition are tasked with carrying out tasks both autonomously and with operator assistance. Teams consist of up to 10 students in 7th through 12th grade.

The Manchester team's members for the just-concluded season were Charlotte Ruley and Taylor Jarvis, both juniors at Burr and Burton Academy; Isaac Vernon, a ninth-grader at BBA; Aleks Rutins, an eighth-grader at The Dorset School; and Jason Giedja, a seventh-grader at Long Trail School. Meg Ruley was the team's other coach, and its mentors were Bob Ruley and Patty Rutins.

The team, a chartered 4-H Club by UVM Extension, recruits students in the Northshire and is open to new members. Its corporate sponsors are: Engineered Printing Solutions of Vermont, the Vermont Academy of Science and Engineering, PTC, GoBilda, REV Robotics, and TPW Real Estate.

In addition to the team-level award, team member Charlotte Ruley was selected by competition officials to represent the state as one of two "Dean's List Finalists" this season. The recognition means that Ruley is a candidate among other state and regional finalists for one of 10 Dean's List Award spots to be chosen by FIRST, the nonprofit that oversees the worldwide competition.

Cole said criteria for the individual award includes academic performance and evidence of personal commitment to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics as reflected by outreach to professionals in STEM-related fields, educators and other students.

Ruley, whose work this season for the Manchester team focused mainly on hardware design, said she and other team members met with other teams to seek and offer advice, and participated in an online show-and-tell event. Though participating in the competition is "the hardest thing I do," she said, the "gracious professionalism" and cooperative nature of the event makes it fun.

The number of Vermont teams in the competition this season more than doubled over the previous season, which Cole said could be attributed largely to a $40,000 grant from FIRST to Generator Makerspace, of Burlington, in partnership with UVM.

The teams from Bennington and Hoosick, N.Y. were among this new crop; both started to form in November, according to Chris Callahan, a coach of both teams and UVM professor.

Because of the coronavirus, leading up to the championship, the teams convened regularly as a group and in one-on-one, coach-and-student meetings through Zoom, Callahan said. It wasn't until February, weeks before the big event, that some team members met each other for the first time.

Callahan said that as an engineer he has been working on remote teams for more than two decades and that, in his view, the student teams being compelled to collaborate in a similar fashion served as a potentially useful lesson.

"This is what they will see in the workforce," he said.

In a statement, a spokesman for Engineered Printing Solutions, one of the Makers' sponsors, praised the team as "the manufacturers of tomorrow."

"We see in our own business that automation and robotics will increasingly dominate the manufacturing environment of tomorrow and indeed are already making tremendous inroads today," said marketing manager Peter Baldwin. "EPS remains committed to developing a 21st-century workforce right here in Vermont, as our growth as a company depends upon being able to draw from a qualified local labor pool."

The Manchester team worked remotely from November to early March before convening in person for a few days at the Manchester Village Courthouse, a meeting space made available by the town of Manchester.

As the team's prototype came together, the group found a way for team members to operate the robot from a remote location, said Cole, who added that, as far as he knew, the Makers were the only Vermont team to set up such a capability.

Both Callahan and Cole stressed that would-be participants don't need to be STEM wunderkinds to join one of the robotics teams.

The need for teams to recruit talent, fundraise and manage progress could make it appealing to kids interested in start-ups and entrepreneurism, Cole suggested, and the sports-like nature of the competition might appeal to athletes.

"There is room for growth in so many ways," said Callahan, who added that the project shouldn't be seen as "just 'the robot club'" but instead as a means of working on a team.

The Manchester team is holding a virtual open house at 1 p.m., Friday, April 2 to recruit new students to join the team. Students interested in registering for the event can visit tinyurl.com/mmm-questions.

The team's email address is ftc16221@gmail.com and its website is manchestermachinemakers.github.io.

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Manchester robotics team captures Think Award | Local News | manchesterjournal.com - The Manchester Journal

After losing thousands of jobs to the pandemic downturn, robotics and automation could slash hundreds of thousands more oil and gas jobs around the world and sharply reduce labor costs by 2030, according to Norwegian energy research firm Rystad Energy.

At least 20% of the jobs in drilling, operational support and maintenance could be automated in the next 10 years, Rystad said Monday, with U.S. employment needs reduced by more than 140,000 workers, according to the Houston Chronicle.

The industry has already seen significant job losses. Nearly 60,000 oil exploration and production jobs in Texas were lost in 2020, as the global pandemic caused an unprecedented oil crash. Nationally, the oil and gas industry lost an estimated 107,000 jobs during the pandemic, according to global consulting firm Deloitte.

The use of robots is already emerging as a low-cost alternative in the offshore industry, where they can stay underwater permanently and easily access places that are difficult to reach for submersibles remotely operated by humans.

But their use in inspection, maintenance and repairs is where robotics has gained the most traction in recent years. For example, the self-propelled robotics arms developed by Kongsberg Maritime and used by Norwegian operator Equinor can travel longer distances and carry out subsea maintenance and repair in confined spaces.

Drilling, which is costly work and involves dangerous tasks in challenging environments, also stands to be upended by robots. See the full story.

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Robots could replace 140,000 US oil and gas jobs over next 10 years - Greater Baton Rouge Business Report

AI-based robotics coming to a home near you.

For decades, a certain order structured the world of automation. Robots, most recently those powered by AI and Big Data, worked in factories, while humans enjoyed the benefits of their labor where we live and work. This traditional human/AI robotics divide will surely remain for some industries. No one is installing an industrial robot in their garage to build a caryet. But the human/robot gap may soon dwindle, if not collapse, all because of one robotics expert who loves wine and was housebound due to an illness.

That last sentence might have thrown you for a loop. What could being a wine lover, an oenophile, to use the technical term, have to do with accelerating technology? The short answer is well, everything, and it has been that way for at least 8,000 years. Incredible leaps in innovation have regularly occurred just because people tried to make better wine and keep it drinkable for longer.

Dont believe me? The Greeks developed the Amphora, the ubiquitous jar powering the ancient seaborne trading economy, in large part to transport wine. Meanwhile, the wine bottle as we know it today has its roots in first century A.D. Roman glass innovations were designed to (you guessed it) protect wine while showing it off to the world. This means the smartphone screens and computer monitors we all rely on owe their existence in some part to wine.

But the wine industrys relationship with tech isnt just something relegated to the ancient past. Winemakers around the world are embracing robotics and AI technology in similar ways to their industrial counterparts, replacing raw steel with soil and sunshine, and grapes for finished goods. Bordeaux-based winery Chteau Clerc Milon uses a vineyard robot to collect soil data and pitch in on weeding. Palmaz Vineyards in Napa Valley harnesses Big Data to produce the perfect bottle, and some Australian winemakers are using machine learning to manage inventory and prevent contamination.

But these are industrial applications like the familiar factory robotics and AI systems we all know. Crossing over to the home environmentlike so many technical innovations throughout historyis the result of a special person being placed in special circumstances. The person in this case is automation expert Mark Chaney, and the circumstance was his housebound recuperation from a serious illness.

Before this event, Chaney founded Calvary Robotics in 1994. For more than 25 years he has helped Fortune 500 and high-growth startups integrate robotics and AI into production lines. But several years before COVID-19 left many stuck in their house, Chaney found himself confined for six weeks as he recovered from a serious blood disorder. Despite strict orders from his doctor not to work, Chaney isnt the sort to relax and watch TV. Instead, he created inventions to bring robotics into the home. One of these proved so popular he built a company to market the idea, and WineCab was born.

A longtime wine aficionado, Chaney wanted to utilize his other passion for robotics. As a result, he generated a system for storing wine in perfect conditions and delivering the selected bottle on demand. This is accomplished by a state-of-the-art six-axis high-speed robotic arm, the first industrial-strength model intended for home use. Built using collaborative robotics technology, it can safely work around humans. (Even a small robot arm can pack a wallop capable of dropping Iron Mike, but collaborative robotics, combined with multiple cameras and safety sensors, keep WineCabs system safe.)

The first to see WineCab in action outside of Chaneys family were 20 guests who attended a party celebrating his recovery. Mesmerized by the robots fluid movements, they watched it deftly select a bottle and dispense it for the crowd. Some attendees compared what they saw to fine art. Actually, the system does a type of performance piece not typically found in the home.

To be sure, if inventively dispensing bottles of wine is all there is to WineCab, that may be where the discussion would enda high-tech wine vending machine doubling as an ingenious parlor trick. But the robot arm only scratches the surface of the system. WineCabs real power is the AI bringing the system to life.

As is often the case, necessity is the mother of invention. This was true for Chaney. A wine lover for years, he still had not developed a deep knowledge of this complicated subject. After enough friends had stumped him with their wine questions over the years, he resorted to printing laminated cards listing the bottles he owned. Also, recognizing how only a few well-heeled individuals could ever afford to have their own sommelier on personal staff, Chaney set out to equip his home wine system with an AI-powered virtual sommelier.

Like its human counterpart, WineCabs virtual sommelier can suggest food pairings for wine and make personalized recommendations based on your tastes. How? Well, believe it or not, wine is a perfect application of AI and Big Data. A human expert working in a restaurant may be able to build food pairings based on 100 labels, but can they handle 10,000? Probably not.

WineCabs system, on the other hand, can track data on 600,000 labelsand countingdrawn from their partners at Delectable, an app for oenophiles. This makes sense. One of AIs greatest strengths is its ability to discern meaningful patterns from vast amounts of data. This information is also helpful to humans in key ways. The system presents a wide range of content for each bottle, educating owners as their collection grows.

In spite of such benefits, WineCabs domestic entre forces us to consider the biggest problem with robotics and AI. Will these innovations replace people? In the manufacturing world, thought leaders are trying to figure out how AI-powered robots and humans can collaborate in a positive sum game.

Already, the supersonic business jet company Aerion Supersonic uses machine learning for digital twinning, what might be thought of as an AI-driven sandbox environment for designing and testing applications that would cost fortunes in the real world. As Tom Vice, Aerions President/CEO explained to me, Im opposed to machines replacing humans. We look for opportunities to create synergies between machines and humans. In the end, we want to improve peoples lives through advancements in our technology.

Meanwhile, in the home environment, Chaney believes WineCab can improve peoples lives without costing wine industry jobs. Even better, WineCab offers to bring owners in closer contact with local wine experts. There is a disconnect in most communities between sommeliers and wine lovers, says Chaney. Most people will use a sommeliers services in a restaurant, but never at home. Were changing that completely. We dont hope to replace the sommelier. We hope to build stronger relationships that never existed before.

In this way, human experts will constantly be interacting with WineCabs virtual sommelier, a program led by Master Sommelier Virginia Phillip, a young woman leading the future of wine. Chaney also believes WineCab will provide humanistic benefits for owners, not just the wine community. As he explains, Traditionally, a host may leave a gathering for 15 minutes to search the cellar for the perfect bottle. Because of WineCab, this process can happen in front of the gathering. It can even become a conversation point instead of a waiting game.

Ultimately, Chaney views WineCab as the best way to introduce AI-powered robotics to the home. And like Vice, he believes these tools can brighten humanitys future, not hinder it. He envisions a day in which the elderly and/or those homebound by illness (as he once was) will be served by better technology. What if AI-powered robots could help humans fight isolation and depression? And not just that, he asks. What if tech could improve the lives of our most vulnerable people?

Witnessing WineCabs growing impact reveals just how much AI and robotics are poised to become part of our daily lives. No matter what form this crossover from industry to home takes, one thing is clear: the days of this technology applying only to the factory (or in the vineyard) are numbered. Its now up to us to find that harmonious synergy between machine and mankind.

Read more from the original source:

AI And Robotics Are Finally Ready For Your Home (and I Dont Mean The Roomba) - Forbes

Make-A-Wish Colorado recently teamed up with Arrow Electronics to make a 17-pound, cutting-edge robot that would fulfill a Colorado teens wish.

SEDALIA, Colo. (CBS4) What better place to meet a dragon than at the Cherokee Castle in Sedalia? The wish starts with a virtual reality experience for Belle Cress and some of her family members. The 14-year-old is a cancer survivor.

She was diagnosed with osteosarcoma. Its a rare bone cancer, said Amber Borata, Cresss mom.

Cresss diagnosis came on the heels of her brothers battle with the same cancer. Belle went through several surgeries, and 10 months of intense chemotherapy.

I dont really remember much about the cancer, Cress told CBS4.

It was really tough. And she doesnt really remember a lot of that just because she was feeling so sick most of the time, Borata explained.

The light at the end of the tunnel was Belles wish.

Excited like a feeling that I cant really explain in my chest sort of nervous.. excited, Cress said of the moments before meeting her new pet dragon.

Then the reveal: Cress saw the dragon that she had in her imagination come to life.

Ive loved dragons ever since I can remember, she said.

Make-A-Wish Colorado partnered with Arrow Electronics, who then brought Its Alive Labs into the project, to create a cutting-edge social robot, a newly emerging realm of technology.

What we try to do and what everybody involved in this project tried to do is bring Belles imagination to life and I think weve done that, said Scott Dishong, President & CEO of Make-A-Wish Colorado. All of our wishes are intended to bring hope.

What she wanted in the form of a dragon was a pet, a friend, a companion, and theres a whole emerging category of technology called social robots. They can do a variety of things. They can do things for you, they can help you remind you of things, they can handle some of your communications, maybe even get things for you. And in this case they can be used to make you feel better, said Joe Verrengia, Director of Corporate Social Responsibility for Arrow Electronics.

Just rubbing the chin, or the head, or the nose, petting its rump a little bit, that will give you those different reactions, Victoria Pea said as she demonstrated how the dragon interacts. Pea is the project manager for Arrow Electronics.

The dragon wags his tail, stands up, spreads his wings, makes noises, and even eats special food. Hell even sit down when he gets tired.

Honestly, at the beginning of this, we were wondering if it could be a fire-breathing dragon. Obviously with electronics, its not the best idea, Pea explained.

The body was 3D printed. Each of the scales was individual glued in place. There are 25 motors and several electronic boards that bring the dragon to life. Its a marvel of electrical and mechanical engineering, not to mention artistry.

I asked for a dragon because I wanted something that would be as close to a real dragon as possible, Cress said.

Im pretty she shes in love with it, her mom added.

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Make-A-Wish Teams Up With Arrow Electronics Robotics Team, Brings Teens Vision Of Imaginary Dragon To Life - CBS Denver

If a pandemic wiped out mankind, would robots still enter competitions?

We havent reached those points yet (smart robots organizing their own society or human extinction), but COVID-19 did kill last years First Robotics Competition (FRC).

Just three days before the big event in 2020, organizers were forced to pull the plug. The pandemic had arrived and the country shut down.

They basically dropped it and all of our work for that year was lost, said the robotics team captain. A Rowley resident, he transferred to Ipswich specially in his junior year just so he could compete in First Robotics.

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Now in its 30th year, FRC was founded by Dean Kamen, the inventor of Segway. Almost 4,000 teams with 97,000 students compete. Most are from America but dozens of other countries are represented.

The competitions values are gracious professionalism which embraces the competition inherent in the program, but rejects trash talk and chest-thumping, according to Wikipedia.

Another value is coopertition where teams can cooperate and compete at the same time.The goal of the program is to inspire students to be science and technology leaders, it added.

This year, the pandemic is still with us and its still not safe to hold large competitions in enclosed spaces. So FRC organizers have issued a modified challenge: High school students have to build a robot as they always do. The difference this time is that they have to video their bot at work and send the movie along.

Team coach and robotics teacher Ethan Powers said students received instructions in the new year on what they had to do. Tests included timed trials around a measured course and throwing objects through a hoop 8.5 feet off the ground.

With a submission date of April 8, its getting down to the wire in the music room at Ipswich High School. The robotics club moved there from one of the hallways they are using and found their times improved. It had nothing to do with acoustics and everything to do with flooring. The music room carpet had better traction than linoleum tiles and results improved on the timed trials.

The team has different groups with diverse responsibilities such as programming, mechanics and electronics. There is even a business sub-team that goes out to find sponsorship for what is an expensive build. Analog Devices, Institution for Savings, Tedfords and DJ Fabricators all helped there.

Although assisted by volunteers Dan Boone and David Platt, Powers said the coaches are white glove. That means they are not supposed to build or program or touch any equipment. All of the work must be done by the students.

Taking the robot through its paces last week, sophomore and operator Pia Stewart used two joysticks to guide the machine around a 15-by-30-foot course. She has to drive the robot around a pre-defined path without touching any cones. There is a five-second penalty for doing that, she explained.

Stewart said she drove one course 30 times before she got a good-enough score. You just progressively get better because you are doing it so often, she noted.

In addition to their coaches, the students have other advisors, Couvelon said. Every now and then an alum comes by and catches up with the team, he noted.

One of the them was Peyton Fitzgerald, now an engineering student Northeastern. Student Abi Dixon said he offered this advice: Slow is smooth and smooth is fast. In other words, get the driving and course right before trying to do it fast.

Stewart said she wants to be a mechanical or aerspace engineer and credited First Robotics with developing her skills. It has definitely helped me grow my passion and make me realize how much I love engineering, she said.

Dixon, a sophomore, said she also has designs on a career in the field. She also operates the robot and has worked on mechanics and early design concepts using CAD, she said. She would like to study mechanical or biotechnical engineering.

Caralyn Conrad is strategy lead for the team. That entails stuff like scouting at competitions, but my role is obviously different due to the pandemic, she said.

If I were to say what I do in a nutshell, it would be troubleshooting roadblocks to team safety and efficiency and creating systems to fix problems. In addition, Ialso do quite a bit of mechanical work on the robot itself, and Im currently heading a project to createa team tool cart to store everything we need to work on the robot, all in one place, she said.

Senior Ian Maher said he has been on the team throughout high school. I showed up as an eighth grader and everybody was very confused, he said. Powers said eighth grade students are now sometimes allowed on the team.

Because of Covid, the team doesnt spend as much time working on its robot as it would in a normal year, Powers said. They work from 2:30 p.m. to 6 p.m., four days a week. There is no access to the building on Wednesdays or weekends, he noted.

He said the team has 20 to 25 members but of them, 10 to 15 are really serious and dedicated.

Boone, a retired engineer, expressed admiration for the students and their work ethic. When I think back to when I was that age, I didnt have my stuff together the same way, he laughed.

Meanwhile, the deadline draws near. Last week, the team was happy with one of its course times but still had plenty of work ahead of it. We think were in good shape now, Powers laughed, but I promise you on April 7

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Robotics team adapts to new competition rules - The Local Ne.ws

Robotic surgery systems are used in thousands of hospitals around the world. A decade ago they were clunky machines built to assist with routine procedures. Today, theyre capable of conducting end-to-end surgeries without human aid.

Recent leaps in the field of deep learning have made difficult tasks such as surgery, electronics assembly, and piloting a fighter jet relatively simple. It might take a decade to train a human in all the necessary medical knowledge required for them to perform brain surgery. And that cost is the same for each subsequent human surgeon thereafter. It takes about the same investment for every human surgeon.

But AI is different. The initial investment to create a robotic surgery device might be large, but that all changes once youve produced a working model. Instead of 8-12 years to create a human specialist, factories can be built to produce AI surgeons en masse. Over time, the cost of maintaining and operating a surgical machine one capable of working 24/7/365 without drawing a paycheck would likely become trivial versus maintaining a human surgical staff.

Thats not to say theres no place for human surgeons in the future. Well always need human experts capable of informing the next generation of machines. And there are some procedures that remain beyond the abilities of modern AI and robotics. But surgery, much like any other precision-based endeavor, lies well within the domain of modernAI.

Surgery is a specific skill and, for the most part, robots excel at automating tasks that require more precision than creativity. And thats exactly why robot surgeons are commonplace, but were likely decades away from a fully-functioning AI-powered nurse.

And this is exactly why AI didnt have a huge impact during the pandemic. When COVID-19 first hit, there was a lot of optimism that big tech would save the day with AI. The idea was that companies such as Google and Microsoft would come up with incredible contact-tracing mechanisms that would allow us to tailor medical responses at an extremely granular level. This, we collectively figured, would lead to a truncated pandemic.

We were wrong, but only because there wasnt really anything for AI to do. Where it could help, in aiding the rapid development of a vaccine, it did. But the vast majority of our problems in hospitals had to do with things a modern robot cant fix.

What we needed, during the last patient peak, were more human nurses and PPE for them. Robots cant look around and learn like a human, they have to be trained for exactly what theyll be doing. And thats just not possible during giant emergency situations where, for example, a hospitals floor plan changes to accommodate an increase in patients and massive quantities of new equipment is introduced.

Researchers at John Hopkins university recently conducted a study to determine what well need to do in order for robots to aid healthcare professionals during future pandemics. According to them, modern robots arent up to the task:

A big issue has been deployability and how quickly a non-expert user can customize a robot. For example, our ICU ventilator robot was designed for one kind of ventilator that pushes buttons. But some ventilators have knobs, so we need to be able to add a modality so that the robot can also manipulate knobs. Say you want one robot that can service multiple ventilators; then youd need a mobile robot with an arm attachment, and that robot could also do plenty of other useful jobs on the hospital floor.

Thats all well and fine when things are going perfectly. But what happens when the knob pops off or someone brings in a new kind of machine with toggles or a touch-screen? Humans have no problem adapting to these situations, but a robot would need an entirely new accessory and a training update to compensate.

In order for developers to create a nurse robot, theyd need to anticipate everything a nurse encounters on a daily basis. Good luck with that.

AI and machines can be adapted to perform certain tasks related to nursing, such as assisting with intake or recording and monitoring patients vital signs. But there isnt a machine in the world that can perform the day-to-day routine functions of a typical hospital staff nurse.

Nurses spend the majority of their time responding to real-time situations. In a given shift, a nurse interacts with patients, sets up and breaks down equipment, handles precision instruments, carries heavy objects through people-filled spaces, solves mysteries, keeps meticulous notes, and acts as a liaison between the medical staff and the general public.

We have the answer to most of those problems individually, but putting them together in a mobile unit is the problem.

That Boston Dynamics robot that does backflips, for example, could certainly navigate a hospital, carry things, and avoid causing injury or damage. But it has no way of knowing where a doctor might have accidentally left the chart it needs to update its logs, how to calm down a scared patient, or what to do if an immobile patient misses the bedpan.

Published March 30, 2021 17:58 UTC

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Why robots make great surgeons and crappy nurses - The Next Web

Even when the Covid-19 downturn is finally past us, operators will have to continue exploring new avenues for cost reductions to be better equipped to withstand future market declines. In a report that looked into the adoption of robotics across the petroleum industry, Rystad Energy found that existing solutions could replace hundreds of thousands of oil and gas jobs globally and reduce drilling labor costs by several billion dollars by 2030, if there is an industry push for such a transition.

One of the segments with much to gain from the adoption of robotics is drilling, as it is highly cost-intensive and involves carrying out dangerous tasks in challenging environments. Robotic solutions have already been introduced successfully in drilling operations, with companies such as Nabors at the development forefront.

Applying current supplier specs, which suggest that robotic drilling systems can potentially reduce the number of roughnecks required on a drilling rig by 20% to 30%, Rystad Energy estimates that such a reduction in both offshore and onshore drilling crews can bring cost savings of more than $7 billion in wages in the US alone, based on present wage levels.

Inspection, maintenance and repair (IMR) operations are also ideal for robotic operations and is the segment where adoption of robotics has gained the most traction among operators in recent years. This has so far mainly been limited to subsea IMR activities, but we are now starting to see IMR robotics solutions also being used for topsides.

Related Video: The Conditions Are Ripe for A Second Shale Boom

Overall, Rystad Energy believes that at least 20% of the jobs in segments such as drilling, operational support, and maintenance could in theory get automated in the next 10 years. Looking at the current staffing headcount of some key oil and gas producing countries, the US could reduce its staffing needs by over 140,000 employees and Russia by over 200,000 personnel. Canada, the UK, and Norway could shed between 20,000 and 30,000 jobs each.

Despite the huge potential of robotics, operators should be aware that these savings will be partially offset by the considerable investments required for the adoption of these solutions, which may vary depending on the cost structure and whether the robots are owned or leased, says Sumit Yadav, energy service analyst at Rystad Energy.

Nevertheless, the next generation of robotics solutions is already emerging within subsea IMR in the form of perpetually underwater robotics solutions that offer significantly lower costs and better reach than a conventional remotely operated vehicle (ROV). While a conventional ROV needs to be sent down from the surface, these new systems can stay underwater permanently and easily access places that are difficult to reach for conventional ROVs, irrespective of the weather conditions. Related: Oil Markets Already Priced In An OPEC+ Output Cut Extension

A notable example is the self-propelled robotics arms unit Eelume, developed by Kongsberg Maritime and used by Norwegian operator Equinor. Owing to their snake-like design, the robotic arms have the flexibility and agility to transit over long distances and carry out subsea IMR activities such as visual inspection, cleaning, and operating valves and chokes in highly confined spaces.

Not all digitization and robotization translates into a reduction in manpower, however. For instance, Transocean has introduced wearable safety technology that alarms a crew member if they come too close to the drilling equipment. If the crew member still doesnt maintain a safe distance, the alarm will shut down the equipment.

Similarly, Diamond Offshore has launched the industrys first cybernetic blow-out preventer (BOP) service. The service named Sim-Stack makes a virtual replica of the BOP hydraulically and electrically to assess its overall health and regulatory compliance. The system provides much faster information on component failures, reducing downtime and improving safety, and can also be used to train personnel, according to the rig operator.

While the emergence of robotics in the oil and gas industry seems inevitable, we believe that full-scale adoption is still a few years away as the long-term reliability of robotics in complex 3D environments such as those found on offshore platforms is yet to be tested. Another challenge in the implementation of robotics is limited communication capabilities, especially between robotics units. If robots are to fully replace humans, it is imperative that these systems communicate seamlessly to unlock true value. The implementation of such communication systems is both complex and costly.

Finally, job cuts due to robotics are likely to be met with some resistance from labor organizations, and robotized work processes may also need to pass regulatory hurdles as authorities seek to ensure that the operational changes brought on by the new technology satisfy safety and environmental standards.

By Rystad Energy

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Robots Could Replace Hundreds Of Thousands Of Oil And Gas Jobs By 2030 - OilPrice.com

Boston Dynamics is a cutting-edge robotics company that's spent decades behind closed doors making robots that move in ways we've only seen in science fiction films. They occasionally release videos on YouTube of their life-like machines spinning, somersaulting or sprinting, which are greeted with fascination and fear. We've been trying, without any luck, to get into Boston Dynamics' workshop for years, and a few weeks ago they finally agreed to let us in. After working out strict COVID protocols, we went to Massachusetts to see how they make robots do the unimaginable.

From the outside, Boston Dynamics headquarters looks pretty normal. Inside, however. it's anything but. If Willy Wonka made robots, his workshop might look something like this. There are robots in corridors, offices and kennels. They trot and dance and whirl and the 200-or-so human roboticists, who build and often break them, barely bat an eye.

That is Atlas, the most human-looking robot they've ever made.

It's nearly 5 feet tall, 175 pounds, nd is programmed to run, leap and spin like an automated acrobat.

Marc Raibert, the founder and chairman of Boston Dynamics doesn't like to play favorites, but definitely has a soft spot for Atlas.

Marc Raibert: So here's a little bit of a jump.

Anderson Cooper: I mean, that's incredible. (LAUGH)

Atlas isn't doing all this on its own. Technician Bryan Hollingsworth is steering it with this remote control. But the robot's software allows it to make other key decisions autonomously.

Marc Raibert: So really the robot is

Anderson Cooper: That's incredible--

Marc Raibert: You know, doing all its own balance, all its own control. Bryan's just steering it, telling it what speed and direction. Its computers are-- adjusting how the legs are placed and what forces it's applying--

Marc Raibert: In order to keep it-- balanced.

Atlas balances with the help of sensors, as well as a gyroscope and three on-board computers. It was definitely built to be pushed around.

Marc Raibert: Good, push it a little bit more. It's just trying to keep its balance. Just like you will, if I push you. And you can push it in any direction, you can push it from the side. (LAUGH)

Making machines that can stay upright on their own and move through the world with the ease of an animal or human has been an obsession of Marc Raiberts' for 40 years.

Anderson Cooper: The space of time you've been working in is nothing compared to the time it's taken for animals and humans to develop.

Marc Raibert: Some people look at me and say, "Oh, Raibert, you've been stuck on this problem for 40 years." Animals are amazingly good, and people, at-- at what they do. You know, we're so agile. We're so versatile. We really haven't achieved what humans can do yet. But I think-- I think we can.

Raibert isn't making it easy for himself, he's given most of his robots legs.

Anderson Cooper: Why focus on, on legs? I would think wheels would be easier.

Marc Raibert: Yeah, wheels and tracks are great if you have a prepared surface like a road or even a dirt road. But people and animals can go anywhere on earth-- using their legs. And, so, that, you know, that was the inspiration.

Some of the first contraptions he built in the early 1980s bounced around on what looked like pogo sticks. They appeared in this documentary when Raibert was a pioneering professor of robotics and computer science at Carnegie Mellon. He founded Boston Dynamics in 1992, and with CEO Robert Playter has been working for decades to perfect how robots move.

They developed this robot, called Big Dog, for the military as well as a larger pack mule that could carry 400 pounds on its back. Experimenting with speed, they got this cheetah-like robot to run nearly 30 miles an hour.

None of these made it out of the prototype phase. But they did lead to this. It's called Spot. Boston Dynamics made it not knowing exactly how it would be used.

But the inspiration for it isn't hard to figure out.

Hannah Rossi: So Spot is a omni-directional robot. So I can go forwards and backwards.

Anderson Cooper: This is crazy. (LAUGH)

Robert Playter: This is the real benefit of legs. Legs give you that capability.

That's Robert Playter, the CEO, and Hannah Rossi, a technician who works on Spot.

Hannah Rossi: I'm not doing anything special to let it walk over those rocks. There you go.

The controls are easier to use than you might expect.

Anderson Cooper: Does it have to come in, straight on?

Hannah Rossi: You don't have to be perfect about it drive it close to wherever you want to go and the robot will do the rest.

Anderson Cooper: Wow. In some ways it's like driving a very sophisticated remote control car. What makes it different?

Robert Playter: Spot is really smart about its own locomotion. It deals with all the details about how to place my feet, what gait to use, how to manage my body so that all you have to tell it is the direction they go to.

And in some cases, you don't even have to do that. When signaled, Spot can take itself off its charging station and go for a walk on its own -- as long as it's pre-programmed with the route.

It uses five 3D cameras to map its surroundings and avoid obstacles.

Atlas has a similar technology, while we were talking in front of Atlas, this is how it saw us.

Marc Raibert: This is inside Atlas's brain. And it shows its perception system. So, what looks like a flashlight is really the data that's coming back from its cameras. And it-- you see the white-- rectangles, that means it's identifying a place that it could step. And then once it identifies it, it attaches those footsteps to it, and it says, "Okay, I'm gonna try and step there." And then it adjusts its mechanics so that it actually hits those places when it's-- running.

All of that happens in a matter of milliseconds.

Marc Raibert: And so it's gonna use that vision to adjust itself as it goes running over these blocks.

Atlas cost tens of millions of dollars to develop, but it's not for sale. It's used purely for research and development.

But Spot is on the market. More than 400 are out in the world. They sell for about $75,000 a piece, accessories cost extra. Some spots work at utility companies using mounted cameras to check on equipment. Others monitor construction sites and several police departments are trying them out to assist with investigations.

Anderson Cooper: Let's talk about the the fear factor, When you post a video of Atlas or Spot doing something, a ton of people are amazed by it and think it's great. And there's a lot of people who think this is terrifying.

Robert Playter: The rogue robot story is a powerful story. And it's been told for 100 years. But it's fiction. Robots don't have agency. They don't make up their own minds about what their tasks are. They operate within a narrow bound of their programming.

Anderson Cooper: It is easy to project human qualities onto these machines.

Robert Playter: I think people do attribute to our robots much more than they should. Because you know, they haven't seen machines move like this before. And so they-- they want to project intelligence and emotion onto that in ways that are fiction.

In other words, these robots still have a long way to go.

Anderson Cooper: I mean, it's not C3PO. It-- it's not-- a thinking--

Marc Raibert: Yeah. So let me tell you--

Anderson Cooper: Okay.

Marc Raibert: About that. There's a cognitive intelligence and an athletic intelligence. You know, cognitive intelligence is making plans, making decisions-- reasoning, and things like that.

Anderson Cooper: It's not doing that?

Marc Raibert: It's mostly doing athletic intelligence--

Anderson Cooper: Okay--

Marc Raibert: Which is managing its body, its posture, its energetics. If you told it to travel in a circle in the room it can go through the sequence of steps. But if you ask it to-- go find me a soda, it's-- it's not doing anything like that.

Just picking an item off the floor can sometimes be a struggle for Spot. Enabling it to open a door has taken years of programming and practice and a human has to tell it where the hinges are.

Kevin Blankespoor: Each time we add some new capability-- and we feel like we've got it to a decent point, that's when you push it to failure to figure out, you know, how good of a job you've really done.

Kevin Blankespoor is one of the lead engineers here, but at times, he prefers a very low-tech approach to testing robots.

Anderson Cooper: You're pretty tough on robots.

Kevin Blankespoor: We think of that as-- as just another way to push them out of the comfort zone.

Failure is a big part of the process. When trying something new, robots, like humans, don't get it right every time. There might be dozens of crashes for every one success.

Anderson Cooper: How often do you break a robot? (LAUGH)

Marc Raibert: We break them all the time. I mean, it's part of our culture. We have a motto, "Build it, break it, fix it."

To do that, Boston Dynamics has recruited roboticists with diverse backgrounds - there's plenty of Ph.D's, but also bike builders, and race car mechanics. Bill Washburn is part of that pit crew.

Anderson Cooper: They all look pretty dinged up.

Bill Washburn: Yeah.

Anderson Cooper: How often do these need to get repaired?

Bill Washburn: The biggest-- kinda failures for me are, like, the bottom part of the robot breaks off of the top part of the robot. (CHUCKLE) And it's like--

Anderson Cooper: That seems like a big-- big failure. (CHUCKLE)

Bill Washburn: And the hydraulic hoses are the only thing holding it together.

Recently, Raibert and his team decided to push their robots in a way they never had before.

Marc Raibert: We spent at least six months, maybe eight, just preparing for what we were gonna do. And then we started to get the technical teams working on the behavior.

The behavior was dancing. All their robots got in on the act. The movements were cutting edge, but the music and the Mashed Potato were definitely oldschool.

Anderson Cooper: There are some people who see that and say, "That can't be real."

Marc Raibert: Nothing's more gratifying than hearing that.

Anderson Cooper: What's the point in proving that the robot can do the Mashed Potato?

Marc Raibert: This process of, you know, doing new things with the robots lets you generate new tools, new approaches, new understanding of the problem-- that takes you forward. But, man, isn't it just fun?

Anderson Cooper: But, I mean, it's-- it costs a lotta money. It took 18 months of your time.

Marc Raibert: I think it was worth it. (LAUGHTER)

Whether it'll be worth it to Boston Dynamics' new owners is less clear.

The South Korean carmaker, Hyundai, has agreed to buy a majority stake for more than a billion dollars. It'll be Boston Dynamics' third owner in eight years. There's pressure to turn their research into revenue.

And Boston Dynamics hopes this new robot will help. It's called Stretch and it's due to go on sale next year. This is the first time they've shown it publically.

Kevin Blankespoor: Warehouses is really the next frontier for robotics.

Stretch may not be that exciting to look at, but it's built with a definite purpose in mind. It's got a seven-foot arm and they say it can move 800 boxes an hour in a warehouse and work for up to 16 hours without a break. Unlike many industrial robots that sit in one place, stretch is designed to move around.

Kevin Blankespoor: You can drive it around with a joystick. And at times, that's the easiest way to get it set up. But once it's ready to go in a truck and unload it, you hit go and from there on it's autonomous. And it'll keep finding boxes and moving 'em until it's all the way through.

Robert Playter: This generation of robots is gonna be different. They're gonna work amongst us. They're gonna work next to us-- in ways where we help them but they also take some of the burden from us.

Anderson Cooper: The more robots are integrated into the workforce, the more jobs would be taken away.

Robert Playter: At the same time, you're creating a new industry. We envision a job-- we-- we-- we like to call the robot wrangler. He'll launch and manage five to 10 robots at a time and sort of-- keep them all working.

Anderson Cooper: Is there a robot you've always dreamt of making (LAUGH) that you haven't been able to do yet?

Marc Raibert: A car with an active suspension essentially legs like w-- like a roller skating robot. And a robot like that, you know, could go anywhere on earth. That's one thing that maybe we'll do at some point. But, you know, really, the sky's the limit. There's-- there's all kinds of things we can and will do.

As with so many things Boston Dynamics does. It's hard to imagine how that would work, but then again, who'd have thought a bunch of metal machines would one day show us all how to do the Mashed Potato.

Produced by Nichole Marks. Associate producer, David M. Levine. Broadcast associate, Annabelle Hanflig. Edited by Sean Kelly.

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Boston Dynamics: Inside the workshop where robots of the future are being built - 60 Minutes - CBS News

Hundreds of thousands of oil and gas jobs globally could be replaced by robots, according to a new report from Rystad Energy.

The oil and gas consulting firm said that the positions could be filled using existing technology, saving billions of dollars on reduced labour costs by 2030.

Drilling is one area that could see enormous savings. The process is both highly labour intensive and, especially in offshore environments, dangerous.

In addition, Rystad noted that inspection, maintenance, and repair (IMR) operations had much to gain from replacing human workers with robots.

Currently, numerous companies offer subsea remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) for offshore work, saving divers from having to work in particularly treacherous conditions. However, the use of drones has become more common in recent years, being used to inspect the outside of rigs as well as offshore wind farms.

By applying current supplier specs, Rystad Energy estimated that robotic drilling systems can potentially reduce the number of workers required on a drilling rig, or in operational support, and maintenance, by 20-30%.

Figures for 2019 estimated that over 30,000 people are currently directly employed in the UKs offshore oil and gas industry, with indirect and induced employment bringing the total up to 269,000. As such, Rystad believes the UK could potentially shed 20,000-30,000 jobs over the next decade, with the majority coming from support roles.

Despite the huge potential of robotics, operators should be aware that these savings will be partially offset by the considerable investments required for the adoption of these solutions, which may vary depending on the cost structure and whether the robots are owned or leased, said Rystad Energy Energy Service Analyst Sumit Yadav.

While existing technology could be used to replace jobs, next-generation robotics solutions offer considerable savings on operating costs. One example is perpetually underwater robotics solutions, which would replace conventional ROVs, which need to surface. This would save time and money on having to hire a vessel to operate topside during operations.

While many of the new robotics solutions will replace human operators, technology is available to support and protect staff. Rystad pointed to wearable safety technology from Transocean that alarms crew if they come too close to drilling equipment.

However, Rystad noted that the long-term reliability of robotics in complex environments common in the energy industry has yet to be tested, meaning that full-scale adoption is still years away. Furthermore, introducing regulations needed to ensure robots can operate safely, both with humans and with each other, will cause further delays.

For oil and gas staff, the energy transition away from fossil fuels towards renewable energy is putting further pressure on the industry. While many oil and gas workers have skills transferrable to the renewables sector, many robotics solutions in oil and gas can also apply to renewables.

Since the 2014 crash, oil prices have struggled for years to return to previous highs around the $100-mark. Having taken a historic dive into the negatives in spring last year, oil prices remain stubbornly in the $40-60 band as the pandemic depresses economic activity.

As such, many oil and gas companies, especially upstream and services companies, have found their margins tightened and costs needing cut. Replacing expensive human staff with robots provides an obvious way of reducing expenses.

The role of robotics in the energy industry will be a key area of discussion at the upcoming Digital Energy 2021 Virtual Summit on April 22nd.

Hear from leading experts from across the energy industry and explore the crucial issues.

Register your free place now at: https://www.digitalenergysummit.com/

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Robots Could Replace Thousands of North Sea Oil and Gas Jobs - DIGIT.FYI