Category Archives: Robotics

TALLINN, Estonia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The medium class Type-X Robotic Combat Vehicle by the European leading robotics and autonomous systems developer Milrem Robotics passed its initial mobility tests.

The Type-X will become an intelligent wingman to main battle tanks and infantry fighting vehicles and will be capable of taking on the most dangerous tasks and positions, resulting in lower lethality risks.

The Type-X will provide equal or overmatching firepower and tactical usage to a unit equipped with Infantry Fighting vehicles. It provides means to breach enemy defensive positions with minimal risk for own troops and replacing a lost RCV is purely a logistical nuance, said Kuldar Vrsi, CEO of Milrem Robotics.

The Type-X can be fitted with a cannon up to 50 mm. With up to a 30 mm cannon the RCV is airdroppable - the C-130J and the KC-390 can carry one, an A400M two and a C-17 five.

The vehicle will be equipped with intelligent functions such as follow-me, waypoint navigation and obstacle detection with Artificial Intelligence being part of the algorithms, Vrsi said. Also, our software developers have taken a totally new and innovative approach to allow remote controlled operations on higher speeds.

With a weight of 12 tons and efficient power management the vehicle has superior terrain capabilities. Its height of 2.2 m and a rear engine provide low visual and heat signature.

The Type-X is three to four times lighter and its cost significantly lower than that of a conventional IFV. It has been designed with intelligent predictive maintenance combined with a Health and Usage Monitoring System and Line Replacement Unit principle to ensure a low Through Lifecycle Cost and logistic footprint. Its hybrid powertrain and rubber tracks reduce lifecycle costs significantly.

To create the Type-X Milrem Robotics utilized its knowledge gained from developing its THeMIS Unmanned Ground Vehicle, intended to support dismounted troops, that has been acquired by ten countries, including seven NATO members: France, Norway, the UK, the US, Germany, the Netherlands and Estonia.

Milrem Robotics is the European leading robotics and autonomous systems developer with two offices in Estonia, one in Sweden and Finland and shortly one in the Netherlands.

The company leads a consortium that was awarded 30,6 MEUR from the European Commissions European Defence Industrial Development Programme (EDIDP) to develop a European standardized unmanned ground system.

Watch the Type-X video: https://youtu.be/34-NWYQ0L0c

Continued here:

Milrem Robotics Rolls out its New Type-X RCV - Business Wire

Here come the droids.

This year's all-digital CES is a tough one for everyone involved, but it may be even harder if you're a robot.

Robots can pique people's interest via the written word or videos, but there's nothing like showing people what you can do in person to really make a good first impression. And the robots you meet at CES never fail to impress.

I've been thrilled by robots ever since I was a little girl, and if I could go back and tell my younger self about the interactions I've had with robots on the Las Vegas show floor over the past few years, those stories would blow my tiny mind. I've played ping-pong and Cards Against Humanity with robots, I've been served pizza by one, and last year at CES I met a snoring Labrador puppy robot that was so realistic it made me want to take it home and love it like I do my cat.

CES 2021 is proving to be very different from previous years. With no opportunities to meet spectators on the show floor due to CES being staged as a virtual event, all of those robots ready to show the world what they can do are having to do so online. It doesn't mean we're any less excited to find out all about them -- but the impact is blunted by the fact that you're viewing their activities through a Zoom feed on your monitor.

Here are the robot friends we've met so far.

If 2020 taught us anything, it's that sanitation and hygiene are key to keeping people safe. It also showed us that there may be jobs that are better for us to hand over to technology to help humans stay safe.

With the COVID-19 pandemic still raging around the world, it's no surprise that this year at CES several companies are showing off robots that can sanitize surfaces.

One such droid is Coro-Bot, an "antivirus disinfection robot" created by Hills Engineering from South Korea. The robot has autonomous driving capabilities, allowing it to move independently around environments. It uses its flexible arms to identify the areas in need of cleaning, and sterilizes them using ultraviolet. It also contains an air circulator that it says kills airborne coronavirus and other viruses using a far-Infrared ceramic filter. It's easy to imagine robots such as these being used in hospitals and other environments in which it's imperative to ensure there's no sign of coronavirus.

Now playing: Watch this: LG shows Cloi UV germ fighting bot at CES 2021

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LG has been working on a similar robot, which it plans to unveil at CES, that radiates ultraviolet light to disinfect high-touch, high-traffic areas. Again, the robot can move autonomously, navigating around furniture to clean the entire room. It's designed for hospitality, education, corporate, retail and restaurant venues, as well as transportation.

"Whether it's hotel guests, students in classrooms or patrons of restaurants and other businesses, they can rest assured that the LG autonomous UV robot will help reduce their exposure to harmful bacteria and germs," Michael Kosla, vice president of LG Business Solutions USA, said in a statement.

Like LG, Ubtech every year shows off new robots at CES, and this year it brought its own sanitizing robot to the show. The Adibot robotic system includes two robots -- the larger Adibot-A and the smaller mobile Adibot-S -- which both use UV to disinfect surfaces. Ubtech has already announced pricing for the two droids, which cost $40,000 and $20,000, respectively.

Now playing: Watch this: Ubtech Adibot is a UVC-wielding robot that disinfects...

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If you've been keeping an eye on the robotics world, you might have already spied Moxie around over the past year. This friendly-faced teal robot made by startup Embodied was recently announced as one of Time's best inventions of 2020. Plus, it was listed as a CES 2021 Innovation Award Honoree.

This companion robot helps children build social, emotional and cognitive skills through everyday play-based learning and the delivery of educational content. Better still, it's built with input from educators and child development experts, and Embodied has been outspoken about taking security extremely seriously. If you've been struggling with home schooling very little ones this year, Moxie might be just the thing you've been looking for to lend a hand.

Moxie is the home-school helper you've been hoping for.

From Japan, Yukai Engineering always brings the fun to CES with its cute home robots -- one of which is famously a cushion with a robotic tail. This year at the show, the company is introducing the Petit Qoobo, an identical but smaller sibling to its much-enjoyed animated cushion, along with an updated version of its Bocco Emo emotional home companion robot.

Also from Japan will be Vanguard Industries, and we have high hopes that the company will use the opportunity to introduce its adorable AI pet robot Moflin to the world.

Sort of like a little gray guinea pig, this is the closest thing we've seen to a robot that looks appropriate for anyone aged newborn or older. (It's dinky with some really soft-looking floof going on.) Each Moflin develops an individual personality over time and can express emotion through movement and sound. This is one robot we're really sad not to be meeting in person.

Meet Moflin.

With robot vacuum cleaners a mainstay at tech shows and in many people's homes around the world, it's not surprising that robots designed to lend a hand at home are appearing on the big stage at CES 2021.

At its press conference Monday, Samsung showed off theBot Care and Bot Handy, the first of which is a kind of personal assistant that monitors your health and the second of which will lend a hand with pouring you a glass of wine or emptying the dishwasher. Samsung'sJetBot 90 AI is a next-level robot vac, which comes with a self-emptying dustpan and Lidar for navigation.

Now playing: Watch this: Samsung debuts Handy robot for household chores at CES...

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Some robots are tricky to categorize -- are they genuinely helpful, or just good fun? Looking at San Diego-based Moorebot's Scout robot, the answer seems to be: it depends who has control of it. Looking like a palm-size remote-control car, Scout is both a toy and a tool.

Some robots are cute, but this is a tough boi.

The tiny robot can monitor your house with its autonomous patrolling function, two-way radio and night-vision capabilities -- making it an ideal prop for a new Home Alone film. But kids and adults alike can also build their own applications for Scout, giving it an educational edge.

One of the biggest names in agriculture, John Deere has been a big presence in recent years at CES by bringing its iconic and eye-catching green machinery to the show floor. This year, the company has been given a CES Innovation Award for the robotic capabilities of its X Series combine harvesters. With cameras that allow farmers to see directly inside grain tanks, computer vision, autonomous driving capabilities and in-field machine-to-machine communication, the X Series must be among the biggest robots to ever win the award. The company is already giving select reporters a virtual experience of its CES wares.

Imagine trying to get one of these into the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Another robot designed to support those working outdoors is Daesung's Hive Controller. This robot is all about honey extraction, removing honeycomb from a beehive -- usually a time-consuming process performed by two to five skilled individuals -- in around a minute. With bees at risk and honey achieving superfood status, any robot that helps the honey industry thrive is going to be well received by us.

Hive Controller makes extracting honey much quicker and easier.

Many industrial robots such as the ones described above are designed to perform ultra-specific tasks, but the Dual Arm Robotic System, aka DARS, from the Industrial Technology Research Institute in Taiwan is quite the opposite.

DARS has been given human-like arms and hands that can serve multiple applications in health care, professional services, smart manufacturing and hazardous environments without using specifically designed tools. Its high level of dexterity combined with its advanced machine learning capabilities mean the robot is able to do complex human tasks such as playing the piano.

Now playing: Watch this: This robot mimics human movements (and can even play...

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A virtual CES 2021 means we're missing out on meeting these cool robots in person - CNET

As a pedestrian, you're used to interacting with traffic, but you often rely on human interaction like hand gestures, eye contact and body language to navigate it safely. But as driverless vehicles edge closer to reality on public roads, humans are faced with something that's still foreign to the general population: reading the intentions of robots and communicating their own intentions to machines.

To better understand the communication between humans and automated robots, and ultimately build trust between pedestrians and driverless vehicles, Motional (a driverless vehicle company created by Hyundai Motor Group andAptiv) is adopting principles from a budding field known asExpressive Robotics-- the study of how robots can respond to a scenario in the same way that we expect a person might.

Paul Schmitt, Motional's Chief Engineer, and his team are researching the biological aspects of how humans interact with vehicles to make riders more comfortable with self-driving cars. By using VR, as well as taking cues from Disney's Principles of Animation, the team's goal is to make this human-robot interaction simple, familiar, and intuitive.

I reached out to Schmitt to help explain this emerging field and how our very human tendencies can help autonomous vehicles operate safer and with less awkwardness for the pedestrians that interact with them.

Can you explain what expressive robotics is as a field and why it's important for human-machine interactions in an increasingly automated world?

Sure, imagine this. As you're about to cross the street, you turn to see an approaching vehicle. There is something different about this vehicle. Maybe it isn't driving like other vehicles. Maybe it isn't behaving like other vehicles. And as it approaches, there is something else. The inside seems hollow somehow. Wait. The car is empty. There isn't anyone behind the wheel. How would you behave? What would you do? How would you feel?

For pedestrians to feel comfortable interacting with driverless cars, the car's behavior ideally aligns with the expectations. In other words, the car would signal its actions and intentions in ways that people intuitively understand.

To facilitate and optimize this human-car communication, Motional is developing and trialing principles from a budding field known as Expressive Robotics -- or more simply put, the study and practice of humanizing robots.

As a pedestrian, we are used to interacting with traffic, but many of us rely on human signals/interactions -- such as hand gestures, eye contact, body language, or the typical behavior of a human-driven car -- to navigate roads safely. Naturally, those human queues don't exist in a driverless car. A self-driving car would safely pull up to a cross walk, but the driver's seat would be empty. You wouldn't be able to make eye contact before crossing the street.

Now take this scenario and multiply it by the number of pedestrians a single driverless vehicle may encounter in a day, a week or a year. Then multiply that again by the dozens, then hundreds, then thousands -- then millions -- of driverless vehicles that are expected to be on the roads in our lifetime. It's an immense number of interactions for which pedestrians don't yet have a clear set of internalized instructions, and that's ultimately because we're asking humans to do something that's still foreign: communicate with robots.

At Motional, we're working to solve this. Our goal is to make driverless vehicles a safe, reliable, and accessible reality, and central to our mission is ensuring consumers understand how our vehicles fit into their communities, and feel safe in their presence. Ultimately, we're working to make this human-robot interactionsimple, familiar, and intuitive.

How is Motional drawing on the field to make human/car interactions more seamless.

Over the last year, Motional has researched real pedestrians in thousands of interactions with autonomous vehicles using VR. During testing, participants are immersed in a realistic world, an intersection with both human-driven and driverless cars on the road. The pedestrian is simply asked to cross the street when comfortable, then this is repeated for a variety of scenarios. Each scenario is crafted from Expressive Robotics principles and consists of a vehicle expressing its intent to stop (or not) via expressive (human inspired) motions, lights, and/or sounds. Then we ask participants to rate how they felt about each encounter.

Our initial results suggest that pedestrians respond positively when driverless vehicles exhibit expressive braking and early stopping -- and we are researching the effectiveness of these and other methods over repeated exposure. We plan to take the most promising signals -- the signals that allow a driverless car to most clearly communicate with a pedestrian -- and incorporate them into our future Motional vehicle designs.

We did find a few surprises from the research. We found that the number of conservative pedestrians outnumbered aggressive. Since the participants were drawn from an urban environment, we expected more aggressive. For some pedestrians, vehicle distance seems to be the key decision factor. For others, it is vehicle speed. And for a smaller population, it is driver awareness interaction. But perhaps most surprising is how many participants didn't notice the driver's absence. While participants weren't told that the study involved AVs, cues for the AVs were clear (or so we felt): the vehicle outside had the AV sensor-laden look and on the inside the driver seat was empty.

How did Disney's Principles of Animation become a resource and how has it been used in your efforts?

To help us achieve the goal of simple, familiar, and intuitive communication of AV intent, we found inspiration in, believe it or not, computer animation. Specifically, we found a well spring within the Disney Principles of Animation. These were first described inThe Illusion of Lifeand are used by Pixar and countless other animation studios to breathe life into inanimate wireframe models. Richard Williams's book,The Animator's Survival Kit, was also a source of inspiration. We were surprised at how applicable many of the principles could directly be applied to robotics, even robots without a recognizable human form (e.g., torso, heads, arms, etc.).

We utilized a few of these principles within the virtual reality environment in crafting several of the expressive autonomous vehicle behaviors. Examples include expressive braking, expressive stance ("nose dip" and "tail raise"), expressive engine sounds, expressive braking sounds.

How do you envision vehicles organically communicating with pedestrians and what will it take to get there?

Our vision is that autonomous vehicles will interact with pedestrians and all other humans in ways that are simple, familiar, and intuitive.

We think a successful approach is to draw cues from everyday objects and integrate them into AVs. Rather than move like robots, the vehicles will move, not robotically, but in ways that are familiar and predictable. Rather than ding, the vehicles' sounds will be directional and illustrative.

Expressive robotics for driverless vehicles, then, must be an intersection of these two paradigms: designing technology that communicates its awareness, perception, and intended action specifically for human passengers and pedestrians.

As Laura Major, Motional's CTO, notes in her book,What to Expect When You're Expecting Robots, robots of the future will be social machines. For vehicles to work in our communities, the vehicles must work with humans.

As we plan for a future where driverless vehicles are part of our everyday lives, this research is critical in helping the technology enter our lives comfortably, safely, and efficiently.

This vision is bigger than one company. Indeed, it is bigger than our industry. More research is needed from our academic community in this area. This is why we are publishing our research results to share our findings, raise awareness, and spark more ideas.

We've been able to move the driverless industry from the realm of science fiction to where we are today, and to continue on our path to a driverless reality, we must continue to include our pedestrians, passengers, and communities on that journey.

Read more:

Expressive robotics is breathing "life" into machines - ZDNet

New York, Dec. 30, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Food Robotics Market by Type, Payload, Function, Application and Region - Trends & Forecast to 2026" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p05123130/?utm_source=GNW

By type, articulated segment is projected to dominate the market during the forecast period.

With the outbreak of a pandemic, the manufacturing sector is increasingly investing in automated technologies, which is projected to drive the adoption of food robotics solutions in the market.Articulated robots have a wide variety of payload capacities.

The flexibility of articulated robots to be used for a variety of functions in the food industry is projected to drive its growth in the food robotics market. By application, beverage segment is projected to dominate the market during the forecast period.

The increasing demand for packaged beverages is one of the key reasons driving the growth of robots in beverage industry.The beverage industry includes the use of robotics in alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverage production.

Robotics are increasingly used for packaging and repackaging function for application in beverages. This is projected to drive the adoption of robots in the beverage sector, further driving the market growth.

The Asia Pacific region is projected to record the highest growth rate during the forecast period.Owing to the large production of RTE food products and increasing investments in the food processing industry in countries such as India in the Asia Pacific region, the growth of food robotics market is projected to be the fastest. The growing demand for higher production capacities, availability of technology, and government initiatives, are some of the major reasons for the growth of food robotics market in Asia Pacific region.The food robotics market is segmented region-wise, with a detailed analysis of each region. These regions include Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, South America and Rest of the World including South Africa, the Middle East and other countries in Africa.

Break-up of Primaries By Value Chain: Supply-side 59% and Demand-side - 41% By Designation: CXO 31%, Managers - 24%, and Executives - 45% By Region: Europe - 29%, North America - 24%, APAC- 32%, RoW- 15%

Leading players profiled in this report include the following: ABB Group (Switzerland) KUKA AG (Germany) Fanuc Corporation (Japan) Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. (Japan) Rockwell Automation Inc. (U.S.) Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (Japan) Yasakawa Electric Corporation (Japan) Denso Corporation (Japan) Nachi-Fujikoshi Corporation (Japan) OMRON Corporation (Japan) Universal Robots A/S (Denmark) Staubli International AG (Switzerland) Bastian Solutions LLC (U.S.) Schunk GmbH (Germany) Asic Robotics AG (Switzerland) Mayekawa Mfg. Co. Ltd. (Japan) Apex Automation & Robotics (Australia) Aurotek Corporation (Taiwan) Ellison Technologies Inc. (U.S.) Fuji Robotics (Japan), and Moley Robotics (U.K.)

Research CoverageThis report segments the food robotics market based on type, payload, function, application and region. In terms of insights, this research report focuses on various levels of analysescompetitive landscape, pricing insights, end-use analysis, and company profileswhich together comprise and discuss the basic views on the emerging & high-growth segments of the food robotics market, high-growth regions, countries, industry trends, drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges.

Reasons to buy this report To get a comprehensive overview of the food robotics market To gain wide-ranging information about the top players in this industry, their product portfolio details, and the key strategies adopted by them To gain insights about the major countries/regions, in which the food robotics market is flourishingRead the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05123130/?utm_source=GNW

About ReportlinkerReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.

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The global food robotics market size is estimated to be valued at USD 1.9 billion in 2020 and projected to reach USD 4.0 billion by 2026, recording a...

Army researchers are looking to add muscle tissue to robot platforms, giving them never before seen mobility and agility.

The effort by scientists with the Armys Combat Capabilities Development Command, Army Research Laboratory and Duke University and the University of North Carolina is looking first at adding muscle to legged robot joints rather than using actuators, according to an Army Research Laboratory statement.

The combined muscle and robot echoes a line from the 1991 film, Terminator 2: Judgement Day when the T-1000 character explains what he is to the young protagonist John Connor shortly after they meet.

Connor: You are a Terminator, right?

T-1000: Yes, Cyberdyne Systems Model 101.

Connor: Youre really real. I mean, like a machine underneath but sort of alive outside?

T-1000: Im a cybernetic organism, living tissue over a metal endoskeleton.

While the early Army research makes no mention of cyborgs, scientists do note the advantages of muscle tissue as compared to robotics components currently in use.

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Though impressive in their own right, todays robots are deployed to serve a limited purpose then are retrieved some minutes later, said Dean Culver, a research scientist at the laboratory. ARL wants robots to be versatile teammates capable of going anywhere Soldiers can and more, adapting to the needs of any given situation.

Those first, legged applications are likely to include platforms similar to the existing Army Legged Locomotion and Movement Adaptation robot, or LLAMA and the Marine Corps Legged Squad Support System, or LS3, according to the statement.

They main goal is to get legged robots, which have certain utilities in rough terrain, better stability in on uneven, cluttered surfaces.

For example, one criticism that soldiers testing a wheeled robotic combat vehicle in rifle platoon maneuvers at Fort Benning, Georgia, in November had was its difficulty in working alongside soldiers in dense vegetation during dismounted operations.

One obstacle that faces ground-based robots today is an inability to instantly adjust or adapt to unstable terrain, Culver said. Muscle actuation, though certainly not solely responsible for it, is a big contributor to animals ability to navigate uneven and unreliable terrain.

The same is true for winged creatures who can reconfigure their shape to move in tight spaces, such as among tree branches, Culver said.

The research isnt without precedent. In 2014, teams at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign built the first self-propelled, microscopic, biohybrid robots powered by beating cardiac muscle cells that were derived from rats, according to the National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center.

Similarly, Army scientists look to grow muscle cells and tissue for the robots for the robot biohybrid work instead of extracting it from living organisms.

Muscle tissue is outstanding at producing a specific amount of mechanical power at a given moment, and its versatility is unrivaled in robotic actuation today, Culver said.

To make the muscles work with various sizes of joints, existing methods include creating a sort of type of gel with the muscle cells inside, Ritu Raman, a mechanical engineer who works in biohybrid design, told Science Focus Magazine in October.

That gel is then molded to the shape needed for the muscular action on the robot.

Then, because the cells are alive, when they go through this process, theyre sensing and responding to their environment, Raman said.

Read more:

Not quite the Terminator, but 'muscle-bound' robots are coming for the Army, Marines - ArmyTimes.com

Date: 12/07/2020Writer: Tiffany Acosta, 575-646-3929, tfrank@nmsu.edu Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Google+

More than 80 middle- and high-school students from across New Mexico and El Paso, Texas, gathered virtually for the 2020 NM Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology Robotics competition Nov. 21. While the COVID-19 pandemic affected the BEST competition, the 20-year event, hosted by New Mexico State Universitys College of Engineering, continued.

The BEST competition engages middle- and high-school students with engineering and technology concepts and skills through participation in a robotics design challenge. Typically teams receive a kit of parts and electronics to design and build remote-controlled robots to accomplish a specific task. This year in Outbreak Online, teams designed and built their robotics prototypes using MATLAB, a software program used by professional engineers and rarely taught until higher education. Students simulated their driver-controlled and autonomous robots on a 3D virtual field. Students still maintained an engineering notebook, prepared marketing presentations and displayed their robot in an exhibit, virtually.

Winners of the 2020 Outbreak competition include Chaparral Middle School from Chaparral, New Mexico, Arrowhead Early College High School from Las Cruces, School of Dreams Academy from Los Lunas, New Mexico, and Franklin High School and William D. Slider Middle School from El Paso, Texas. The winning teams advanced to the virtual regional competition held Dec. 7-11.

BEST Robotics is one of the few robotics competitions in the country that takes students through the entire engineering design process, said STEM Program Manager Clara Welles. While the theme of each game changes annually, the experience is one that mirrors real-world engineering projects, and this year is no different. The students learn project management, engineering design, marketing, prototype development using digital software, as well as virtual collaboration. Even in a virtual setting, these students have learned skills that are critical for success in the real world.

This year, Outbreak: Adjusting to the Threat challenged middle- and high-school student teams to help slow the spread of a virus. The competition highlighted the real-world issue of disease control, giving participants an opportunity to apply their knowledge and experience to a subject effecting the entire world and to an industry that so desperately needs advancements in technology.

It is amazing that many of the BEST Robotics competitions have been so applicable to New Mexicos economy, and the direct experiences of New Mexico students, Welles said. Our STEM outreach efforts are important for meeting the workforce needs of our state, and competitions like BEST create a pivotal link in the pipeline.

NM BEST participants often pursue engineering and other STEM-related fields at universities across the state. The program is offered at no cost to participating schools thanks to financial support provided by Sandia National Labs, Chevron and El Paso Electric Company.

More here:

NMSU hosted virtual robotics competition, winning teams advance to regional event - New Mexico State University NewsCenter

The FIRST robotics community will move full speed ahead with its team-based robotics programs this season, although the experience might look slightly different because of the pandemic.

We had to make a bunch of modifications, especially for the younger age groups, said Mark Giordono, vice-president of development with FIRST.

FIRST Lego League already started its season this fall with teams either meeting in-person or remotely depending on the status of their school districts, according to Giordono.

The FIRST Robotics program for high school students will kick off next month and will operate in a similar fashion, he said. There will be tons of remote collaboration taking place, said Giordono, adding each team will decide how to make the situation work for them, and then share their success with the rest of the FIRST community.

We always help each other out. There is a strong culture of collaboration, said Christine Miska, founder of her own FIRST team and BAE Systems engineer director.

The FIRST programs are even more critical this year, according to Miska, who said that during a time when remote learning has become the norm, providing students with another opportunity to collaborate with their peers and become a part of a team is vitally important.

One of the main objectives of FIRST is to work together as a unified team to solve problems. The pandemic is simply another challenge these teams must face and overcome, and they are doing it seamlessly, said Miska.

On Monday, FIRST announced that BAE Systems is now one of its new strategic partners. To date, the company has donated more than $9 million to FIRST teams and events, and provided thousands of hours of employee volunteerism while also granting $40,000 in scholarships to FIRST students each year and sponsoring hundreds of FIRST teams across the nation.

We have seen kids transform from super shy to confidently presenting as part of a team up in front of a large group, said Miska, stressing FIRST is so much more than just robots.

It inspires students through collaboration, critical thinking and creativity, Tom Arseneault, president and CEO at BAE Systems, Inc., said in a statement. That is why BAE Systems is a proud partner of FIRST, and why our employees are strong supporters of the students who will carry these leadership experiences with them for the rest of their lives.

FIRST also exposes children to STEM fields at an early age, helping to build their confidence and, possibly, create future engineers, operators or technicians, explained Miska.

Giordono agreed, adding BAE Systems has been working with FIRST for the past 25 years, working tirelessly to help support FIRSTs programs, mission and overall success.

Continue reading here:

FIRST Robotics program set to kick off in January, with BAE Systems providing support - The Union Leader

Ive been helping the local high schools FIRST Robotics team for a decade, although not technically theyve got real engineers. I write and put together the kids parody musical as part of their fund-raising night, and they are much better than youre thinking right now.

COVID-19 has, of course, upended the whole program, which has gone global since Dean Kamen started it in a New Hampshire gym in 1992, and Im not sure whats happening this year. Very sad: Tons of geeky kids itching to get their hands on gears, belts, wheels and software are stranded!

So I enjoyed a story in the Valley News (read it here) about a local FIRST Robotics team helping doctors make telepresence robots for patients. The idea is pretty simple: Put an iPad with camera at eye level atop a tall stick and have it drive around on a remote-controlled stand. Lots of them exist in various forms, and the pandemic has boosted their use.

But the devils in the details, such as how to attach things.

One of my students came up with the idea to use magnets, said James Cole-Henry, a mechanical engineer at Lebanon-based Fujifilm Dimatix who is also head coach for the Grasshoppers, the FIRST robotics team at the Hartford Area Career Technical Center. I was a little embarrassed. At work Im like Mr. Magnet.

But wait, you say, wouldnt a magnet mess up the iPad? Youll have to read the story to see the answer.

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How to make one of those iPad telepresence robots? Magnets! - Concord Monitor

Finally, the ultimate kitchen gadget you never knew you wanted is here but it will cost you about the same as the average UK house.

For those stumped as to what to buy the super-rich person in their lives this Christmas, how about a fully robotic kitchen that promises to whip up a choice of up to 5,000 recipes at the press of a button?

A London-based robotics company on Sunday unveiled the worlds first robot kitchen, which it promises cooks from scratch and even cleans up afterwards without complaint.

The Moley Kitchen robot, brainchild of Russian mathematician and computer scientist Mark Oleynik, promises to make restaurant standard meals without its owner having to lift a finger or order a takeaway.

Its not cheap though: the robot costs a minimum of 248,000, roughly the same as the average UK house. Oleynik acknowledged the high cost, but claims there had been 1,205 qualified sales enquiries from people interested in buying one. He said the price was equivalent to a supercar or small yacht. The company hopes to introduce lower-priced models in the future.

What you are looking at here is the worlds first consumer robotic kitchen, Oleynik said as he launched the robot kitchen at the Gulf information technology exhibition in Dubai. Like all breakthrough technologies cars, televisions and computers it will appeal to enthusiasts, professionals and early adopters, and is priced accordingly.

We anticipate that our pricing will be reduced significantly over time with production volume, efficiencies and economies of scale.

The robot has been developed with the assistance of Tim Anderson, a culinary innovator and winner of the 2011 series of BBC MasterChef. Andersons cooking techniques were captured in 3D and translated into elegant digital movement using bespoke algorithms.

Anderson and fellow chefs Nicole Pisani and Andrew Clarke have created 30 dishes to showcase the systems capabilities at launch, with new recipes added every month. The company said that ultimately customers will be able to select from a digital menu of more than 5,000 choices, as well as having the option to record their own favourite dishes.

The technology features two robotic arms with fully articulated hands, developed in collaboration with world-leading German robotic company Schunk. Said to reliably reproduce the movements of human hands, they allow the robot to retrieve ingredients from the smart fridge, adjust hob temperature, use the sink to fill pans and pour, mix and plate up just as a human cook would.

And if youre worried about how much mess a mechanical cook can possibly make dont. The robot even cleans up after itself without complaint, Oleynik said.

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The robot kitchen that will make you dinner and wash up too - The Guardian

As the staff at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon was planning for an expected surge in COVID-19 cases last spring, some worried about delivering care for patients in isolation.

I hate the idea of having to minimize contact, but in certain circumstances thats the right thing to do, said Dr. Meredith MacMartin, medical director at the Jack Byrne Center for Palliative & Hospice Care.

Patients in isolation are already provided iPads on mobile stands so they can visit with family members virtually, or meet with their care team. But bringing tablets into patient rooms required at least one staffer wearing personal protective equipment.

Theres where the robots come into the picture.

MacMartin started talking to an engineer friend who put her in touch with James Cole-Henry, a mechanical engineer at Fujifilm Dimatix in Lebanon. He is coach of the Hartford Area Career and Technology Center FIRST Robotics Team #95, known as the Grasshoppers.

The Grasshoppers are composed of students from Hartford High School in Vermont as well as Hanover High School, Lebanon High School, Mascoma Regional High School and home-schoolers.

Cole-Henry and the Grasshoppers worked quickly to develop the robots, which can bring the iPad stands into the patient rooms, with minimal contact between the patient and staff.

This was an extremely fast product development cycle, just like the FIRST Robotics Competitions we participate in every year, Cole-Henry said.

Cole-Henry and the team worked through several prototypes before settling on the final design, a 26-inch by 19-inch, triangle-shaped robot operated by a remote control. The robot can move at a pace of 5 feet per second and features a magnet that attaches to the metal iPad stands.

Cole-Henry said part of the challenge for the team was to develop a robot that would not spread COVID-19. That meant a tight design with no gaps and no porous materials to trap germs.

The robot has to be able to be easily cleaned after each use, Cole-Henry said.

With the help of local businesses, the team was able to put together the robots for DHMC.

The Grasshoppers robot design, bill of materials, and code have all been left as open-source, meaning others can use the work done by this team. Dartmouth-Hitchcock is already planning to use the robot and iPad system throughout its health care network.

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DHMC deploys robots to help in COVID surge - The Union Leader