Category Archives: Robotics

TROY, N.Y. The 5th Annual Bots Take Burgh VEX Robotics Competition is right around the corner

On Saturday, Jan. 25, in the Lansingburgh High School Gym as students from multiple school districts will gather for the 5th Annual Bots Take Burgh VEX Robotics Competition.

More than 50 school teams will be there for an action-packed day of competition, battling one other with robots created from VEX EDR robotics components.

Students compete in VEX Robotics Competition Tower Takeover, scoring goals with multi-colored cubes. Tower Takeover was developed by VEX Robotics, Inc. and the Robotics Education & Competition (REC) Foundation, leaders in educational and competitive robotics.

Bots Take Burgh is one in a series of tournaments supported by the REC Foundation and various national, regional and local sponsors.

Winners of the Lansingburgh competition earn a bid in the New York State Championships this March in Syracuse.

This year's competition is sponsored by Jimmys Pizza, U.W. Marx, Troy PBA, Troy Uniformed Firefighters Association, Lansingburgh Teachers Association, and Lansingburgh Board of Education.

The robotics competition season culminates in April with the top-performing local and state VEX Robotics Competition teams competing at VEX Worlds in Louisville, KY.

At the world competition, exemplary teams challenge top-ranked peers from over 30 countries, including Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, India, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, United Kingdom and the United States of America.

5th Annual Bots Take Burgh schedule:

Saturday, Jan. 25

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Lansingburgh to host 5th Annual Bots Take Burgh VEX Robotics Competition - Troy Record

Medtronic's acquisition of Israeli robotic surgical equipment maker Mazor Robotics is in the early innings of success, CEO Omar Ishrak told CNBC on Tuesday.

"It's only beginning to pay off," he said in a sit-down with Jim Cramer of "Mad Money" at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco. "We're delighted with the results that we're seeing and our spine business this last year ever since I've been here has had its strongest year, and the robot has played a big role in that."

Medtronic, the medical equipment company based in Ireland, paid out $1.64 billion in late 2018 for Mazor Robotics, which builds spine and brain surgical guidance systems for minimally invasive procedures. Medtronic bought out remaining interest in the firm after a 2016 partnership gave it an 11% share in Mazor.

Medtronic's spine division is within its Restorative Therapies Group, which includes brain, specialty and pain therapies. Revenue in the spine business improved 5.5% to $692 million in the quarter that ended in October. Medtronic also attributed growth in its brain therapies segment to robotics.

Ishrak, who is retiring as Medtronic chief in April, said the robotic-assisted guidance systems are being used in "most major centers" in the United States, but he did not go into details. At the health-care conference in San Francisco, Medtronic said it expects its minimally invasive therapies operations to grow by as much as 150 basis points in the 2022 fiscal year and by as much as 250 basis points by the 2023 fiscal year with the help of its robotic-assisted surgery platform.

The minimally invasive business is projected to reach $10.3 billion by the end of the 2023 fiscal year, up from about $8.5 billion last year, according to FactSet.

"The desire for that is pretty high, but most importantly what it does is it makes the procedures consistent" and "we're integrating it with other technologies, such as our navigation system and eventually our imaging system," Ishrak explained in the interview. "There's a spinal robot, we're also working on a general surgery robot, there's a cranial robot [and] there will be others."

Medtronic has focused on making acquisitions to shore up its minimally invasive and robotic surgery device business. The goal is to stave off growing competition in the cardiac and vascular space, where the company deals in stents and heart pumps.

When Ishrak retires at the end of the current fiscal year on April 27, he will retain his seat as chairman of the board and add the title of executive chairman of Medtronic. Since he took the helm of chief in June 2011, Medtronic stock has risen nearly 208% to date, from about $38 a share to $117.04 as of Tuesday's close. The company mandates that its executives retire at age 65.

Ishrak told Cramer his legacy is defined by the patient base of 75 million people served the prior fiscal year and the team that he worked with.

"When I started, the [patient] number was more like 20 million a year. So just watching that and the impact that has had on people is a huge thing, and I think the company's positioned to extend that further," he said.

Speaking of his successor, Geoff Martha, who currently heads the Restorative Therapies Group, Ishrak said, "I think if he can keep that, sustain it and grow it, that's all I need."

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Mazor Robotics $1.6 billion acquisition is 'beginning to pay off,' Medtronic CEO says - CNBC

Teddy Fitzsimons trains at the Winter Youth Olympic Games Lausanne 2020 on Jan. 14 in Lausanne, Switzerland.(Provided photo OIS/IOC)

For Teddy Fitzsimons, sport has been a passion since he could remember. He tried them all: wrestling, gymnastics, track, cross-country, baseball, football, lacrosse and soccer.

But it wasnt until his favorite sport wrestling was no longer an option that he found his new love. His high school didnt have a wrestling team during the winter, which left Fitzsimons looking for an activity to expend his energy.

Thats where skeleton comes into play.

I started skeleton as an accident, Fitzsimons said.

An accident in his mind, but maybe his mother always saw this happening. Skeleton is a family affair, as his mom was a skeleton athlete who competed on the world cup circuit some years ago. According to Fitzsimons, she would have made it to the Olympics, but her event was not included on the Olympic program.

My mom did skeleton so she kind of dangled the idea in front of me, Fitzsimons said. I went up to Lake Placid later that year and tried skeleton.

He attended a training camp, and a few months later, he returned to Lake Placid to slide for a week. After that, he made the team and was hooked on the adrenaline the sport brought.

Ill never forget the first time I tried skeleton, Fitzsimons said. It was absolutely terrifying. I remember I hit one wall and all the alerts in my body went up.

But when I finished the run, I was like, I have to do this again. I want to do this without it being terrifying. So I did it for about a week and finally I overcame my fears of the sport and it became really fun.

Fitzsimons has been hooked ever since. Though his passion for the sport is evident, Fitzsimons admitted that he does not get to the track as often as he would like. As a teenager living in Manhattan, making the trek to Lake Placid is not as easy for him as others.

Im out-experienced by most of the athletes, so Im really doing everything I can to get up to their level, Fitzsimons said.

Because his time on the track is less than his teammates and competitors, Fitzsimons, who has only been consistently sliding for one year, has turned to his passion for robotics to help give him an edge over others.

Robotics helps because it ties in with engineering, and I love to work on my sled, Fitzsimons said. Since Im not the strongest, fastest, biggest or have the most experience, what Im really focusing on is perfecting my sled. In my opinion, thats the best way I can really catch up to the people here. Connecting robotics and engineering helps.

Before coming to St. Moritz, Switzerland, to compete in the Winter Youth Olympic Games, Fitzsimons said there were three nights in a row while he was training in Lake Placid that he did not go to bed until three in the morning because he was tuning and adjusting his sled.

One item Fitzsimons has been working on lately is the structure of his saddle, which is the part of the sled that holds a riders body in place. The saddle had been irritating his ribs during some runs, so he turned to his passion for robotics to try to fix the issue.

Robotics is, in my opinion, problem solving, Fitzsimons said. When youre doing robotics, youre not looking at an instruction manual. Its the same thing with making your sled. Its trial and error, so youll adjust one thing about your sled, try it out the next day, and it might not work. So youll go back the next night, undo it and make another change. It teaches you the importance of working on your equipment.

For Fitzsimons, combining his passion for robotics and skeleton is a perfectly intertwined way to help give him an edge. While he self-admittingly is not the fastest athlete with the most experience, it is the burning desire to better his sled and himself so he can show the world what he is made of. He will get that chance on Monday, Jan. 20, when skeleton competes in St. Moritz.

I dont get pushed around much, and when people dont believe in me, thats really where I step up and believe in myself, he said.

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Fitzsimons connects love of robotics and skeleton | News, Sports, Jobs - The Adirondack Daily Enterprise

HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah (AFNS) --

Robotic media blasting used to strip paint from fighter aircraft such as the F-16 Fighting Falcon has been around at Hill Air Force Base for more than three decades. Now, the technology is being used for the first time to remove paint from the A-10 Thunderbolt II.

The 576th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron is upgrading its traditional manual media blast paint removal process by using new-generation robots to strip the paint from A-10s that come to the base for depot overhaul and maintenance.

All aircraft require regular exterior maintenance to protect their metal surfaces from corrosion due to moisture and the harsh environments in which they continually operate.

The process is expected to reduce the man-hours it takes to strip paint from the aircraft and increase safety by removing employees from the blasting atmosphere, resulting in measurable time and costs savings.

There are going to be across-the-board improvements including a dramatic reduction in exposure to a Hexavalent Chromium dust environment. This is perhaps the greatest benefit to the robotic system, said Tim Randolph, 576th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron director. Savings will also be seen with reduced operating time and less power consumption, as well as reduced costs in material. We really havent found a downside to this system.

James Gill, Corrosion Control flight chief for the 576th AMXS, said while the traditional manual media blast process is effective, its labor intensive, requiring teams of workers at least three full days to complete.

The new paint-removal process is accomplished by two robots, each with four hose attachments that move independently along both sides of the aircraft. In addition, the time to strip an A-10 is decreased from three days to 9-12 hours.

Compared to the manual paint-stripping method, the robots use half the amount of blast media at half of the air pressure, while removing an extremely precise thickness, uniformly, across the entire aircraft surface, Gill said. This translates into a process that is less stressful on the aircraft skins and saves money in media cost, while creating only half the waste stream.

In addition to the robotics process, a new laser-burn process is currently being tested and used on F-16s with proven success. However, the squadron is still maturing the process, and hopes to apply this process to the A-10s in the future.

By using new robotic technology, the squadron is expanding its capacity by adding capability.

Randolph said each of three processes have different capabilities and inherent limitations, but combined together, can reduce the total time an aircraft spends in depot maintenance and helps return it to the warfighter faster.

Continued here:

576th AMXS leverages robotic paint stripping technology on A-10 Lightn - Robins Rev Up

When it comes to standardisation and optimisation Oscar de Bok, CEO of DHL Supply Chain, highlights the need for flexible solutions when battling todays supply chains that continue to grow in complexity.

De Bok emphasises that with a large global company such as DHL, the importance of having a strategy that utilises digitalisation and collaborative robotics is crucial for enhancing value, and ensuring its workforce is unified and connected. Standardisation of our processes is how we improve and is therefore a very important part. It starts with having the best people, then having standardised processes around the globe, to then making our customers aware and want to grow with us. Because the more we grow with our customers, the more opportunities we can provide, notes de Bok.

DHL has recently come to the end of its 2020 strategy, but has long-term strategies that look to as far as 2050. DHL is currently driving its 2025 strategy that focuses on delivering excellence in a digital world, as part of its strategy the company plans to invest US$2.2bn into digitalisation and robotics.

The future is exciting. The future is about innovation and making sure we continuously improve. We believe to be truly innovative, an idea has to be rolled out throughout the entire organisation, says de Bok. To accelerate growth and drive disruption, we are not going to wait for customers to tell us what will happen tomorrow, we will tell our customers.

Flow is everything in a supply chain environment, comments Markus Voss, CIO and COO of DHL Supply Chain. When you look at supply chain and logistics, we are at the brink of a major disruption. It is exciting to be in this industry at this moment in time, because we can shape the future. Markus Kckelhaus, VP Innovation and Trend Research at DHL, also adds that in a McKinsey study it was highlighted that 60% of potential digitalisation revenue is coming from the supply chain industry. With this in mind, DHL has been striving to change their whole paradigm, investing in a central team to drive productisation of technologies relevant for all sites.

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We have identified the key characteristics of innovative technologies and how they fit into our 2,000 sites globally, says Voss, with this method DHL has developed a standardised and structured process that drives optimised innovation, right now, we have more than 2,000 initiatives which we feel are ready to be rolled out.

Robotic and RPA innovations DHL has currently implemented to standardise its processes and increase productivity and efficiency include, goods to person robots and follow me robots to assist with the picking and transporting of products to reduce the miles covered by associates. In addition, DHL has also implemented wrapping robots reducing physical work; wearable devices to replace traditional barcode readers and picking devices; autonomous forklifts for moving pallets in warehouses; Neo Avidbots (cleaning robots) reducing unsociable and repetitive tasks and Sawyer robots (robotic arms) to reduce repetitive packing tasks. Inside these innovations is intuitive software, developed by DHL and its partners, which Voss believes will help to drive efficiency when it comes to the adoption of innovative technology. Ultimately, DHL aims to substitute its manual and repetitive tasks that add limited value to the company and to its associates satisfaction, with algorithms and robotics to improve the flow within its warehouses.We want every site, customer and employee to feel that a digital supply chain is actually a reality and that we're driving this very hard, comments Voss.

When it comes to standardisation, Voss highlight that it is a double edged sword. Robotics and RPA is extremely important when it comes to standardising physical operations within warehousing and logistics, but equally in order to achieve this standardisation of warehouse operations, backend software needs to also be standardised in order to truly see the benefits. All the amazing innovations that you see in terms of robotics is nothing without the intelligence and the software that is driving the decision making and that is innovating robots to where we need them to be, says Voss. This industry has been known to be a cottage industry, with each side of an operation being slightly different and running on slightly different systems. With the advancement of innovative technology such as robotics and automation it is very clear that the more standardised you are the easier it is to drive innovation through your operations. We have been putting a lot of effort in the last five years into the standardisation of our backend systems so that all sites are running on the same software and processes, making it much easier to connect robotic platforms and other innovative technologies, concludes Voss.

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DHL: driving global standardisation of operations with Robotics - Supply Chain Digital - The Procurement & Supply Chain Platform

Isnt it time the robots helped out with snow removal?

As Minnesotans brace for another round of snowfall this weekend, a group of enterprising college students are preparing for the 10th annual Autonomous Snowplow Competition.

On Saturday, ten teams from seven universities in snowy locales will converge on the Dunwoody College of Technology campus to show off their snow-plowing robots. Its the first time the event is being held on Dunwoodys campus.

The robots are tasked with plowing snow with no direct human control. There are two rounds: First, the teams machines must plow a single I-shaped path on a Dunwoody parking lot. Then, the robots must plow two parallel paths. Judges will evaluate how each machine performed and select winners, who will receive a share of prize money to further develop their technology.

Dunwoody has three teams in the competition this year. Theyll face off against teams from the University of Minnesota, North Dakota State University, University of Michigan, Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, Lake Area Technical Institute in South Dakota, and Quebecs Laval University.

Dunwoody College student Hannah McCarthy, who participated in last years competition in Toronto, says her team has been working on their robot since September. This year, she says the team added a wobble stick limit switch, which tells the robot when to turn and when to back up. McCarthy is in her final semester for her associate's degree in automated systems and robotics.

The teams are permitted to use a range of navigation-aiding systems around the snow fields to help plow, according to the competitions rulebook.

The annual event is held by the nonprofit Institute of Navigation Inc. Saturdays event, which kicks off at 8 a.m., is free and open to the public.

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Here Come the (Snow-Fighting) Robots - Twin Cities Business Magazine

After a strong 2019 for Appian (NASDAQ:APPN) -- shares ended the year up 43%, although they had been up far more at one point -- the low-code software stock is showing some signs of strength again. It's just over a week into 2020, and Appian has surged 13% higher.

Wild swings in value over short periods of time are the norm for small stocks like Appian, but investors are always keen on a reason for the action. Often there are no answers, but this latest jump is likely tied to the news that the company recently made its first-ever acquisition: Robotic process automation (RPA) company Novayre Solutions, developer of the Jidoka RPA platform.

Low-code, RPA, automation platforms ... what is all this stuff? It may not exactly be an everyday topic for most, but all of these technologies are important tools for software developers and IT teams as the world goes digital.

Image source: Getty Images.

First let's talk low-code, Appian's bread-and-butter. The company operates a cloud-based low-code platform -- an environment where a software developer can build an application using pre-written lines of code. Instead of needing to redundantly write out commands line by line, many functions of a software application can be built in small chunks and stored for later use. Developers can then drag-and-drop that function into the new application they are working on presently. Think of low-code as similar to a set of manufacturing forms; no need to hand-build the same components over and over again when the whole process can be sped up with some old-fashioned automation.

Appian is adding RPA to the mix now, a different but adjacent field within the world of software. RPA is a virtual robot -- that is to say, a software-based robot, versus a physical one -- that can be programmed to interact with a piece of software just like a real-life human would. And why would an organization want to employ that? Many human interactions with software-based operational functions are repetitive and monotonous. Using the manufacturing analogy again, think of an assembly line worker pressing the same button over and over again all day. Why not employ a robot to liberate the human from such a soul-crushing task?

And that's the beauty of RPA. It saves organizations money by automating some parts of their digital workflow and frees people to perform higher-order functions. All sorts of industries can benefit, from financial services to healthcare to energy. Thus, when Appian integrates Jidoka into its platform, it is aiming to be a "one-stop-shop for automation."

Jidoka RPA, the platform that's the responsibility of the Novayre Solutions acquisition, is a tiny robotic process company -- although it's currently the highest-ranked RPA solution on Gartner's Peer Insights user review site. But how small? Appian said financial terms are not being disclosed, usually cryptic language for "not very much money."

Though details on how much Appian spent were not released, the use of cash is likely a good one since the company had just over $165 million sitting on its books at the end ofthird quarter 2019. Even if the company continues to run at a loss similar to what it has been this year (adjusted loss of $26.2 million through the first nine months of 2019), that's years of operating capital. Add in the fact that the company taps capital markets from time to time by issuing new stock, and there's no reason to worry Appian is headed for insolvency anytime soon.

Of course, issuing new stock dilutes existing shareholders, and generating profits isn't the top priority right now. Adding Jidoka could still be a good move nonetheless. Low-code software is expected to be an industry worth about $20 billion by the end of 2022, according to researcher Forrester, growing somewhere in the 40% to 50% range each year. Similarly, Forrester also thinks the RPA market will be about $12 billion by around the same time, also growing double-digits over the next few years. With those kinds of numbers, a wide range of vague and variable expectations is forgivable.

To put all that in perspective, Appian is on track to do just $265 million in sales in 2019 and is currently valued at $2.9 billion. It goes head-to-head against some much larger peers when trying to win customer low-code dollars, like Microsoft and salesforce.com, to name just two. If adding Jidoka to the mix has the desired effect, though, this small software automation platform's growth story is just getting started.

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Appian Gets Into Software Robotics With First-Ever Acquisition - The Motley Fool

What happens when you take cells from frog embryos and grow them into new organisms that were "evolved" by algorithms? You get something that researchers are calling the world's first "living machine."

Though the original stem cells came from frogs the African clawed frog, Xenopus laevis these so-called xenobots don't resemble any known amphibians. The tiny blobs measure only 0.04 inches (1 millimeter) wide and are made of living tissue that biologists assembled into bodies designed by computer models, according to a new study.

These mobile organisms can move independently and collectively, can self-heal wounds and survive for weeks at a time, and could potentially be used to transport medicines inside a patient's body, scientists recently reported.

Related: The 6 Strangest Robots Ever Created

"They're neither a traditional robot nor a known species of animal," study co-author Joshua Bongard, a computer scientist and robotics expert at the University of Vermont, said in a statement. "It's a new class of artifact: a living, programmable organism."

Algorithms shaped the evolution of the xenobots. They grew from skin and heart stem cells into tissue clumps of several hundred cells that moved in pulses generated by heart muscle tissue, said lead study author Sam Kriegman, a doctoral candidate studying evolutionary robotics in the University of Vermont's Department of Computer Science, in Burlington.

"There's no external control from a remote control or bioelectricity. This is an autonomous agent it's almost like a wind-up toy," Kriegman told Live Science.

Biologists fed a computer constraints for the autonomous xenobots, such as the maximum muscle power of their tissues, and how they might move through a watery environment. Then, the algorithm produced generations of the tiny organisms. The best-performing bots would "reproduce" inside the algorithm. And just as evolution works in the natural world, the least successful forms would be deleted by the computer program.

"Eventually, it was able to give us designs that actually were transferable to real cells. That was a breakthrough," Kriegman said.

The study authors then brought these designs to life, piecing stem cells together to form self-powered 3D shapes designed by the evolution algorithm. Skin cells held the xenobots together, and the beating of heart tissue in specific parts of their "bodies" propelled the 'bots through water in a petri dish for days, and even weeks at a stretch, without needing additional nutrients, according to the study. The 'bots were even able to repair significant damage, said Kriegman.

"We cut the living robot almost in half, and its cells automatically zippered its body back up," he said.

"We can imagine many useful applications of these living robots that other machines can't do," said study co-author Michael Levin, director of theCenter for Regenerative and Developmental Biologyat Tufts University in Massachusetts. These might include targeting toxic spills or radioactive contamination, collecting marine microplastics or even excavating plaque from human arteries, Levin said in a statement.

Creations that blur the line between robots and living organisms are popular subjects in science fiction; think of the killer machines in the "Terminator" movies or the replicants from the world of "Blade Runner." The prospect of so-called living robots and using technology to create living organisms understandably raises concerns for some, said Levin.

"That fear is not unreasonable," Levin said. "When we start to mess around with complex systems that we don't understand, we're going to get unintended consequences."

Nevertheless, building on simple organic forms like the xenobots could also lead to beneficial discoveries, he added.

"If humanity is going to survive into the future, we need to better understand how complex properties, somehow, emerge from simple rules," Levin said.

The findings were published online Jan. 13 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Originally published on Live Science.

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World's First 'Living Machine' Created Using Frog Cells and Artificial Intelligence - Livescience.com

At the International Robot Exhibition in Tokyo, one of the world's largest trade shows for ... [+] industrial and service robots.

Imagine the future. In your home, you have robots that take your dirty clothes and clean them for you, automatically managing all the details like detergent, water temperature, and drying time. There is another robot that knows when you leave, turning down the heat to save energy while youre gone, then turning it on again right before you get home. At work, you use a robot to safely climb hundreds of feet into the air in seconds. And on your drive back, a robot carefully monitors your surroundings, controlling your cars engine to keep you moving at a safe, efficient speed.

If youre like many people, this future is now. Smart washers and dryers actively monitor their loads, ensuring clothes are clean with minimal human input. Thermostats turn on and off the flow of natural gas, heating oil, or electricity to achieve your desired temperature, and can follow programmed or learned schedules to keep you comfortable while saving energy. Elevators automatically control powerful motors to smoothly lift the elevator car, and can even arrange stops to maximize efficiency. And adaptive cruise control uses radar and other sensors to drive your car at a set speed while maintaining a safe distance from other vehicles.

But these things arent really robots, right? Not so fast. While these devices might seem commonplace, they actually share the same features that define more advanced robots, and, in fact, that is exactly what they are. To paraphrase the IEEE, a robot is a device that:

Many machines qualify as robots even if they at first seem simple. Robots work by moving through a ... [+] cycle of sensing and action until an objective is achieved. Usually the objective is defined by a person.

An elevators objective is to safely reach a given floor; it senses things like drum rotation and cable length; and it takes action by varying the electrical current and consequently the speed of its hoisting motors. A dryers objective is to dry clothes; it senses the temperature and moisture level of the laundry; and it takes action by varying the speed it spins and the temperature of its air blower. In fact, each of these robots in turn depend on other robotic modules embedded within them. For example, elevator doors use infrared beams to detect obstructions when they are about to close, and dryers use thermostats to maintain the correct air temperature.

These same principles apply equally to the more advanced robots that usually spring to mind. A welding robots goal is to follow the weld paths required by the parts in process; its sensors may include cameras, infrared beams, and the position and torque of each joint; and its outputs include gas flow to the welding torch and the currents to each of its arm motors. A self-driving car is a robot, too. Its goal is to safely reach a destination while abiding by the local traffic laws; its sensors include things like cameras, lidar, radar, sonar, wheel speed, and GPS; and its outputs are the throttle, brakes, and steering angle of the front wheels.

While these robots may look more robot-y than a thermostat or an elevator, at the end of the day, they all function along the same core principles: receive objective, sense environment, act to achieve objective. And in fact, these principles are embodied in most of the mechanical and electronic systems that we rely on every day. As the old robotics joke goes, What do you call a useful robot? The answer: A machine.

So if the robots are already among us, then whats next? A few more robots, doing a few more things. The robots wont achieve sentience. They wont steal 40% of jobs. They wont take over the world and turn humans into batteries.In other words, the slow, steady march of technological progress will continue.

But thats not to say that were standing still: new sensors like lidar are giving robots the ability to perceive with more accuracy than ever before, and new ML-driven algorithms are helping robots take smarter, safer actions. And just as importantly, economic factors like the ongoing labor shortage and trade war with China are driving companies need for automation and efficiency gains. But at the end of the day, robots are just useful machines built by humans, for humans. And thats pretty cool.

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Its 2020: Where Are All The Robots? - Forbes

"Good morning. Welcome to British Airways. Where can I take you?" The crisp female voice might belong to any woman working for BA, but it's a robot cruising around London's Heathrow Airport. The carrier is trying out a pair of autonomous robots that can guide passengers around Terminal 5. It's one of the latest examples of increasing automation at airports including advanced intelligent machines that interact with passengers.

Terminal 5 is Heathrow's busiest, with some 32.8 million passengers on 210,723 flights in 2018. The following year, BA installed 80 automated bag-drop machines in the facility; it also has experimented with self-driving luggage vehicles. The carrier says automation in the terminal has reduced the number of lineups and made journeys faster and smoother.

To make the new robots more user-friendly, they've both been named Bill after Captain E. H. "Bill" Lawford, who flew the U.K.'s first international scheduled passenger flight, from Middlesex to Paris, in 1919.

"We are always looking for new and innovative ways to use automation to help our customers enjoy a faster and smoother journey through the airport and beyond," says Ricardo Vidal, head of innovation at BA. "These smart robots are the latest innovation allowing us to free up our people to deal with immediate issues and offer that one-on-one service we know our customers appreciate. In the future, I envisage a fleet of robots working side-by-side with our people, offering a truly seamless travel experience."

Robots at Heathrow Airport can communicate with passengers in multiple languages and can provide real-time flight information.

The pair of waist-high robots from London-based BotsAndUs can communicate with passengers in multiple languages and can provide real-time flight information. They can also guide people to service desks, oversized luggage check-in counters, self-service check-ins, bag drops, cafes and other facilities in the terminal. The machines are based on the company's Bo robot, which has an 11-inch display and sensors including 3D LIDAR, ultrasonic, infrared and vision. It can autonomously navigate and avoid obstacles and has a lithium-ion battery with eight hours of power on a full charge.

"Automation has already significantly changed how airports function, across all areas of operation from passenger services to luggage maneuvering, security and many more," says Andrei Danescu, co-founder and CEO of BotsAndUs. "What we see as a key next step is actually bringing all these together so they can communicate and collaborate with each other, offering a seamless and safe experience from the car park to boarding the flight."

Heathrow isn't the only airport trying to roll out robots. They've appeared at airports in places like LaGuardia, Munich and Seoul. Robots or autonomous machines are part of pilot projects at 40% of airlines and make up major programs at 14% of carriers, according to the 2019 Air Transport IT Insights survey, published by industry association SITA. It reported in 2018 that nearly half the world's airlines and almost a third of airports want to investigate robotics and automated vehicles in the next three years. Industry players are trying out various kinds of machines that serve different purposes.

Automation has already significantly changed how airports function, across all areas of operation from passenger services to luggage maneuvering, security and many more.

Andrei Danescu

co-founder and CEO of BotsAndUs

The trend is expected to pick up momentum through the decade, especially as more robots are used for mundane tasks. By 2030, robots are expected to have replaced check-in processes, according to a report published this year by U.K.-based inventory management company Vero Solutions. More upcoming technologies, to improve the services in airports, are currently in testing and passengers will soon be seeing end-to-end transformations across the flying experience.

In Japan, a leading maker of factory automation robots, at least six airports have been or are planning robot trials. These include robots that can clean concourses and provide towing services at Narita Airport near Tokyo, which has seen a surge in travelers ahead of the Olympic Games in 2020.

Also serving the capital, Haneda Airport recently introduced 12 new cleaning robots in four models, and is also experimenting with self-driving buses. Osaka's Kansai International Airport has experimented with KATE, a mobile check-in kiosk developed by SITA that can automatically move to congested areas in an airport to reduce wait times.

Robots also being introduced outside Japan's large cities amid worker shortages and an aging population. In April 2019, Mt. Fuji Shizuoka Airport southwest of Tokyo launched Reborg-Z, a guiding and security robot with a 360-degree camera and a large display. It can tell passengers how to get around in Japanese, Chinese, Korean and English, and can use AI technology to recognize faces as well as signs of an emergency such as screaming. Reborg-Z also has fire and smoke sensors and can communicate with other Reborg-Z units as well as human security staff.

"We've received positive feedback from customers because our robots operate in a very stable manner," says Morihisa Shinya, a spokesman for ALSOK, whose robots can be seen patrolling in Tokyo office buildings and shopping malls. "Passengers have also reacted well and they're actually using the display on the robots to get information."

Japan's SoftBank, meanwhile, has been pushing humanoid robots as entertainers and guides. Thousands of units of its Pepper robot have been deployed in shops, banks and other facilities in Japan and abroad. It's also working at airport restaurants in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Montreal, chatting with prospective customers and suggesting dishes.

"Part of our goal with Pepper is to draw travelers into our restaurant to relax and unwind before their flights," says Lina Mizerek, a spokesperson for HMSHost, which runs the eateries. "Pepper adds an entertaining experience for our guests and has helped further increase foot traffic to the restaurant from travelers who otherwise may have gone straight to their gate."

Robots that serve passengers, however, aren't always the right fit for airlines or airports. Spencer is a humanoid guidance robot that took three years to develop and program, involving multiple European universities, France's Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. In a project co-funded by the European Commission, Dutch carrier KLM tried out Spencer in 2016, having it scan boarding passes and guide passengers to their departure gates. It didn't work out.

Pepper is a humanoid robot that can entertain and guide passengers at airports.

People still prefer human customer service over automation in nearly all aspects of air travel, according to a 2019 online survey of over 2,000 U.S. travelers by OAG, a global travel data provider. It found that "only 19% see value in interactive robots for concierge services and travel information."

There's a common misconception that AI systems can already understand and react to all situations, and passengers can be disappointed when robots can't fulfill their requests, notes Norm Rose, senior technology and corporate travel analyst at Phocuswright, a travel industry research firm. Successful implementation of robotics at airports will depend on the seamless and efficient transition from a robot to a human. Robots should also start with simple tasks.

"As we have seen across the technology landscape, automation is most effective when it augments human services or provides simple services that can replace the basic tasks of a human," says Rose. "If your job is to wait by the gate and direct people to the correct area, your job will be replaced."

Baggage loading and unloading is another task that could be automated, says Rose, pointing to a prototype box-handling robot from Boston Dynamics as an example. In a 2019 study predicting that robots will replace up to 20 million manufacturing jobs by 2030, analysis firm Oxford Economics cited airport baggage handling as an example of robots playing a greater role in the service economy. But although the technology is ready, the cost is prohibitivefor now.

"Robots will need to become more mainstream to drive the cost down to consider replacements of ground handlers," says Rose, adding that automation will change airport services in other ways. "If I have a complex ticket and the flight cancels, chances are I will still need a human agent, though providing that agent with AI supported technology to optimize the rebooking process, can be another example of AI applied to the travel experience, though not as sexy as a robot."

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Meet the robots that may be coming to an airport near you - CNBC