Category Archives: Robotics

Robotics today has emerged as a distinct area and skill in engineering, combining the field of mechanical, electrical, computer science, programming, among others. It deals with the design, operation, construction and use of robots. With the progress of computer science and related research technologies, Robotics jobs in India are gaining more traction. However, while the job seems straightforward, the path to a career in robotics is more complex.

Fortunately, there are ample of best institutions and universities offering courses and certifications in Robotics. Here we list the best from the rest.

Location: Hyderabad

Description: IIITH, an autonomous university, founded as a not-for-profit public-private partnership (N-PPP) in 1998 and is the first IIIT in India under this model. The university offers a large variety of programmes undergraduate, post-graduate, Ph.D. alongside part-time programmes. IIITH has a Robotic Research Lab, aims to work on research problems and innovative projects that extend the state-of-the-art in robotics.

Intake Through: JEE Mains

Location: Kanpur

Description: IIT Kanpur has the Center for Robotics, which offers courses by faculty members from Aeronautical, Computer Science and Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering Departments.

Intake Through: GATE

Location: Allahabad

Description: IIIT Allahabad offers M.Tech. in Robotics through CCMT counseling based on the score obtained in GATE. Candidates for robotics to join in IIITA must complete B.E./ B.Tech. in the relevant stream.

Intake Through: GATE

Location: Manipal

Description: MIT offers a Bachelors and Masters program in engineering streams. The institute also offers an M. Tech programme in Industrial Automation and Robotics under its Mechatronics Department.

Intake Through: GATE and MU-OET

Location: Vadodara

Description: Parul University offers B.Tech. in Robotics and Automation under the department of Robotics and Automation. For this course, candidates must pass 10+2 in Science Stream with the mandatory subject and other subjects from a recognized Institute/Board with 45%.

Intake Through: GUJCET and JEE Main

Location: Gurugram

Description: Amity University offers an integrated B.Tech. + M.Tech. in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics. Eligible candidates need to appear for the Amity Joint Entrance Examination (Amity JEE). Additionally, JEE-Mains qualified candidates are exempted from Amity JEE.

Intake Through: Marks obtained in 10+2 and rank in Amity JEE/ JEE-Mains

Location: Hyderabad

Description: University College of Engineering, Osmania University offers M.E. in Automation and Robotics. Candidates must pass with 50% in graduation and the score obtained in Post Graduate Engineering Common Entrance Test (TS PGECET) or GATE score.

Intake Through: GATE

Location: Delhi

Description: Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University offers M. Tech. in Robotics and Automation Engineering. For this programme, candidates must complete B.Tech./B.E. in Computer Science/Computer Engineering / Computer Science and Engineering/Information Technology or equivalent with 60%.

Intake Through: IPU CET and GATE

Location: Mysore

Description: NIE Mysore offers M.Tech. in Industrial Automation and Robotics for 2 years full-time programme. Candidate must complete B.E./ B.Tech in relevant stream with 50%.

Intake Through: GATE and Karnataka PGCET

Location: Coimbatore

Description: PSG College of Technology (PSGCT), Coimbatore offers B.E. in Robotics and Automation Engineering under the department of Robotics and Automation Engineering. Candidates who have passed 10+2 (Academic) or its equivalent with 45% in Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry put together, will be eligible for this programme.

Intake Through: TNEA (Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions)

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Top 10 Robotics Institutes in India - Analytics Insight

CHEYENNE As teammates and coaches from Cheyennes Meadowlark Elementary looked on, their Lego robot slowly rolled forward and stacked blocks on top of each other.

Nice try! Keep going! said Sarah Holle, one of the coaches for the Meadowlark team, following one of the test runs.

Using their robot, the team was trying to find a new use for the old Cheyenne Regional Airport terminal. The teams idea?

We would change it into an aeronautical flight museum, said team member Jace Ketcham, 11.

Their project was in line with the City Shapers theme for the second annual Laramie County Robotics Scrimmage, which was hosted Saturday by Laramie County School District 1 at the administration building and Storey Gym.

They had to look out in the community for things that were an issue, said Julie Calkins, the districts science coordinator. They have to choose, as a team, what mission theyre going to accomplish, and then they have to figure out how theyre going to do that.

During the day, about 20 teams from local elementary schools participated in the First Lego League, which was divided into two competitions based on grade level.

Saturdays scrimmage served as a dress rehearsal for the State Robotic Competition next month in Casper, and Calkins said it helped the teams last year.

We had one of our elementary teams take second place overall in the state, and it qualified them for an international competition, Calkins said.

The team members from Meadowlark Elementary said the presentation aspect of the competition is important.

Its a little stressful, said Ketcham, to which his teammate, Vesper Seitz, quickly added, Very stressful.

Seitz, 11, said despite the stress, the competition becomes fun once it gets started.

Its a great opportunity to learn how to code because our world is very rapidly changing, and coding is becoming one of the new things, Seitz said.

Since kids are coding in class, Calkins said they should get a chance to use their skills in a fun, competitive setting.

Coding is another language, and the younger you are when you learn a language, the more proficient youre going to be at it later on, Calkins said. These kids are ready to code, they want to code, so why wouldnt you let them code?

Though kids have the desire to code, it still requires persistence. Jessice Freeman, a teacher and coach at Bain Elementary, said her schools students started coding last year as part of their curriculum, allowing them to develop some initial background knowledge.

Coding itself is challenging, Freeman said. It involves a lot of trial and error and a lot of patience and flexibility on their part, but I do feel like theyre getting to where they need to be.

While most teams had been working on their robots since the start of the school year, others were participating on short notice. Freeman said her team just started in October.

Everything just started way later than what we wouldve preferred it to start, Freeman said. Coming into this scrimmage, we felt a little bit behind where we needed to be, but watching how the kids stepped up this morning in front of the judges ... they did awesome.

Calkins said the competition has long-term effects, helping kids to thrive in college and beyond.

One of my favorite things I hear them say is, Now I know why we did that today in class. I get it. That will work here, Calkins said. How awesome is that to make our instruction applicable in their everyday life?

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Students put skills to the test in robotics competition - Wyoming Tribune

The robots are coming. To Westborough.

Amazon on Wednesday will announce a big expansion of its robotics operation, leasing 350,000 square feet at a shuttered drug manufacturing plant in the MetroWest town. The company plans to spend $40 million upgrading a former AstraZeneca facility, where it expects to add about 200 workers over the next few years, designing, building, and testing robotics equipment.

The move will further cement Bostons status as a robotics hub for the e-commerce giant, which bought North Readings Kiva Systems in 2012. That firms technology, which picks and sorts packages for faster delivery, has proved to be a key ingredient in the explosion of Amazons ever-more-automated logistics and distribution centers around the country, and the presence of whats now called Amazon Robotics in Greater Boston has grown to several hundred employees.

Amazons move to Westborough really validates the strength of the robotics cluster here, said Mike Kennealy, the state economic development secretary. It speaks volumes about the future of robotics in Massachusetts, to have a world-leading company double down on what theyve already done in North Reading.

Along with North Reading, Amazon Robotics already has a small office in Westborough with a few dozen workers. They will move to the old AstraZeneca plant on Otis Street off Route 9, next year, with the full plant set to open after renovations in 2021.

This will be a world-class facility where our teams can design, build, program, and ship our robots, all under the same roof, said Tye Brady, chief technologist at Amazon Robotics. This expansion will allow us to continue to innovate quickly and improve delivery speed for customers around the world.

Itll also bring new life to a white elephant of the MetroWest.

The vast plant, with its distinctive three-story glass pyramid, has sat empty for nearly three years since AstraZeneca moved out at the end of 2016. The facility was long Westboroughs biggest taxpayer, and at its peak employed more than 800 people making Pulmicort, a childrens asthma medication, until the drugmaker consolidated production elsewhere.

After AstraZeneca left, Framinghams Atlantic Management bought the 66-acre campus for $6.5 million and has been marketing it since. The deal with Amazon will fill about three-quarters of the space in the existing building.

Atlantic also co-owns the former NECCO candy plant in Revere where Amazon last month announced plans for an enormous delivery station to improve next-day and same-day delivery in Greater Boston. Amazon is also planning a nearly 4-million-square-foot fulfillment center in North Andover and is also constructing a 17-story office building in the Seaport District that will eventually employ about 2,000 tech workers. Thats on top of roughly 4,000 people already working for Amazon in Massachusetts today.

Amazon said it chose Westborough in part because of its ability to draw workers from across the state, along the Massachusetts Turnpike to the west and along Interstate-495 to both the north and south. The company will not seek tax incentives from either the state or the town.

Governor Charlie Baker touted the move as further validation of the states talented workforce and strong knowledge economy.

Massachusetts is home to a nation-leading innovation economy with a highly educated and skilled workforce, Baker said in a statement. We are proud of the life-changing research and high quality of life that attracts leading companies to invest and grow here.

Jon Chesto can be reached at Jon.Chesto@globe.com.

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Amazon expanding robotics operation to Westborough - The Boston Globe

Two of the most well-known robotics companies have jointly opened a collaborative automation center in Barcelona, Spain.

Universal Robots, the maker of the best-selling collaborative robotic arms, and Mobile Industrial Robots, which makes mobile robots for warehouses, say the new facility will help promote collaborative automation in southern Europe.

Described as the first worldwide hub focusing on collaborative robotics, the center is located in 22@ district of Barcelona.

More than 150 people attended the recent launch event.

The new hub is 1,500 sq meters that are occupied by each companys different offices, plus a joint showroom where the latest technology and applications for cobots will be demonstrated. About 30 people work in the hub.

Conceived as an inspirational space to innovate in collaborative robotics and mobile robotics, the new site will also host training sessions and meetings for generating synergies between developers, distributors and manufacturers.

Founded in the city of Odense, Denmark, UR and MiR are the two largest and leading robotics companies in Odense. The two companies are now extending their presence in Barcelona as well.

In recent years, the Catalan capital has become a focal point in automation. According to the Agency for Competitiveness of the Government of Catalonia, nowadays there are a thousand foreign companies in technology sectors in Catalonia.

Matilde Villarroya, general director of industry for the Government of Catalonia, who attended the opening, said: Catalonia has the qualities that foreign companies value to invest in: a dynamic, diversified and internationalized economy with excellent infrastructure and an innovative business environment.

The project of UR and MiR is very relevant for the Catalan economy: Industrial robotics is a key factor in the transition to Industry 4.0 and plays a very important role for the society development.

According to Jrgen von Hollen, president of UR, the selection of the 22@ district of Barcelona as the place for the new hub responds to a strategic decision.

Hollen said: We have chosen Barcelona because it gives us access to qualified resources, ability to attract talent from around the world, a vibrant business activity and good infrastructure.

Thomas Visti, CEO of MiR, said: This collaborative robot hub will bring us even closer to the Southern European market and to letting us share the latest technologies.

This is a great opportunity for us, as this is a market of high potential, where we see continuously more companies in all types of industries that are interested in optimizing processes with collaborative robots to stay competitive.

Jens Kisling, Danish Ambassador for Spain and Andorra, said: The alliance between companies, academic institutions and the public sector developed a high level technological center in Odense, Denmark.

UR and MiR are two excellent representatives of that. Now the model has been exported to Barcelona, creating a collaborative robotics center for Southern Europe.

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Universal Robots and Mobile Industrial Robots open collaborative automation center in Spain - Robotics and Automation News

Listen to another podcast from the team at Robohub. More podcasts from them can be found here.

In this episode, Lilly Clark interviews Nicholas Roy, Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT, about the Quest for Intelligence initiative and his research in robust robotics. Roy discusses how cognitive science pushes artificial intelligence, further pushing the capabilities of engineering tools and services, and speaks about the importance of explainable and ethical AI. He explains the challenges of capturing context and semantics in useful models of a system and designing unmanned aerial vehicles and robots which interact with humans.

Nicholas Roy

Nicholas Roy is the Bisplinghoff Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT and leads the Robust Robotics Group in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. He received a BS and MS from McGill University and a PhD from Carnegie Mellon University. His research interests span robotics, machine learning, planning and reasoning, and human-computer interaction.

A.I. Artificial IntelligenceMIT CSAILRobust Robotics

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Robohub Podcast - Robust Robotics and the Quest for Intelligence, with Nicholas Roy - Irish Tech News

In the current era, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, and a few other technologies are in the spotlight. However, robotics remains to be a major tech of the future as everything is becoming automated. Understanding this, there are some startups in the robotic sector that are aiming to deploy robots and cobots in an efficient way.

Heres a call out for those interested to participate, reserve your spot now.

The Dutch startup Smart Robotics combines robotics with AI to enable the fast and flexible deployment of robots. Established in 2015 by Mark Menting and Heico Sandee, Smart Robotics is a leading developer of intelligent, and robot-independent software for the fast development of collaborative robots and cobots.

The Dutch robotics startup just announced that it has secured a substantial investment in a round led by Dutch high-tech VC Innovation Industries and Mirai Creation Fund II, which is backed by Toyota Motor Corporation.

Smart Robotics will use this investment to accelerate the rollout of the companys palletising and item picking applications. Also, it will be used for the development of new software applications.

The AI-based software platform of Smart Robotics enables the fast deployment of cobots across industries such as FMCG, pharma, and e-commerce. With its software platform, the company configures the cobots easily so that there is no need to program any longer. This speeds up the process of setting up a cobot as it can be done within a few minutes. Also, it makes it possible to easily reconfigure the cobots as required.

We are excited to have Innovation Industries and Mirai on board as investors. Both parties bring valuable experience in scaling up a high-tech company to the table, said Mark Menting, Founder and Managing Director of Smart Robotics. This investment enables Smart Robotics to maintain its leadership position in cobot software.

Smart Robotics software platform deploys robotic solutions that are flexible, safe, smart, innovative, and user-friendly for logistics, packaging, e-commerce, pharma, and other industries. The startup also partners with distributors in order to scale its sales and delivery globally.

Main image picture credits: Smart Robotics

Stay tuned toSilicon Canalsfor more European technology news.

The two-day event takes place on November 14th and 15th in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

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This Dutch startup that speeds up the deployment of robots gets funded - Silicon Canals

Military robots have always been pretty dumb. The PackBot the US Army uses for inspections and bomb disposal, for example, has practically no onboard intelligence and is piloted by remote control. What the Army has long wanted instead are intelligent robot teammates that can follow orders without constant supervision.

That is now a step closer. The Armys research lab has developed software that lets robots understand verbal instructions, carry out a task, and report back. The potential rewards are tremendous. A robot that can understand commands and has a degree of machine intelligence would one day be able to go ahead of troops and check for IEDs or ambushes. It could also reduce the number of human soldiers needed on the ground.

Even self-driving cars dont have a high enough level of understanding to be able to follow instructions from another person and carry out a complex mission, says Nicholas Roy of MIT, who was part of the team behind the project. But our robot can do exactly that.

Roy has been working on the problem as part of the Robotics Collaborative Technology Alliance, a 10-year project led by the Army Research Laboratory (ARL). The project team included researchers from MIT and Carnegie Mellon working alongside government institutions like NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory and robotics firms such as Boston Dynamics. The program finished last month, with a series of events to show off what it had achieved. A number of robots were put through their paces, showing off their manipulation skills, mobility over obstacles, and ability to follow verbal instructions.

The idea is that they are able to work with people more effectivelynot unlike a military dog. The dog is a perfect example of what were aiming for in terms of teaming with humans, says project leader Stuart Young. Like a dog, the robot can take verbal instructions and interpret gestures. But it can also be controlled via a tablet and return data in the form of maps and images so the operator can see exactly what is behind the building, for example.

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The team used a hybrid approach to help robots make sense of the world around them. Deep learning is particularly good at image recognition, so algorithms similar to those Google uses to recognize objects in photos let the robots identify buildings, vegetation, vehicles, and people. Senior ARL roboticist Ethan Stump says that as well as identifying whole objects, a robot running the software can recognize key points like the headlights and wheels of a car, helping them work out the cars exact position and orientation.

Once it has used deep learning to identify an object, the robot uses a knowledge base to pull out more detailed information that helps it carry out its orders. For example,when it identifies an object as a car, it consults a list of facts relating to cars: a car is a vehicle, it has wheels and an engine, and so on. These facts need to be hand-coded and are time consuming to compile, however, and Stump says the team is looking into ways to streamline this. (Others are looking at similar challenges: DARPAs Machine Common Sense (MCS) program is combining deep learning with a knowledge-base-centered approach so a robot can learn and show something like human judgment.)

Young gives the example of the command Go behind the farthest truck on the left. As well as recognizing objects and their locations, the robot has to decipher behind and left, which depend on where the speaker is standing, facing, and pointing. Its hard-coded knowledge of the environment gives it further conceptual clues as to how to carry out its task.

The robot can also ask questions to deal with ambiguity. If it is told to go behind the building, it might come back with: You mean the building on the right?

We have integrated basic forms of all of the pieces needed to enable acting as a teammate, says Stump. The robot can make maps, label objects in those maps, interpret and execute simple commands with respect to those objects, and ask for clarification when there is ambiguity in the command.

When it came to the final event, a four-wheeled Husky robot was used to demonstrate how well the software allowed robots to understand instructions. Two of the three demonstrations went off perfectly. The robot had to be rebooted during the third when its navigation system locked up.

We did overhear the comment that if the robot hadnt failed, it would have seemed like the demo was canned, so I think there was an appreciation that we were showing a system actually doing something, says Stump.

As with military dogs, Young says, trust is the key to getting robots and humans to work together. Soldiers will need to learn the robots capabilities and limitations, and at the same time, the machine will learn the units language and procedures.

But two other big challenges remain. First, the robot is currently too slow for practical use. Second, it needs to be far more resilient. All AI systems can go wrong, but military robots have to be reliable in life-and-death situations. These challenges will be tackled in a follow-on ARL program.

The Armys work could have an impact in the wider world, the team believes. If autonomous robots can cope with complex real-world environments, work alongside humans, and take spoken instruction, they will have a myriad of uses, from industry and agriculture to the domestic front. However, the military involvement in the project raises concerns for roboticists such as Oren Etzioni, CEO of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence.

Current AI and robotics systems are brittle and prone to misunderstandingthink Alexa or Siri, says Etzioni. So if we put them in the battlefield, I sure hope we dont give them any destructive capabilities.

Etzioni cites a number of issues associated with autonomous military robots, such as what happens when a robot makes a mistake or is hacked. He also wonders whether robots intended to save lives might make conflict more likely. Im opposed to autonomous robo-soldiers until we have a strong understanding of these issues, he says.

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The US Army is creating robots that can follow orders - MIT Technology Review

MIT has developed a navigation method that is designed to help delivery robots find the front door of an address. (See video below.)

Standard approaches for robotic navigation involve mapping an area ahead of time, then using algorithms to guide a robot toward a specific goal or GPS coordinate on the map.

MIT says that, while this approach might make sense for exploring specific environments, such as the layout of a particular building or planned obstacle course, this method can become unwieldy in the context of last-mile delivery.

MIT engineers have developed a navigation method that does not require mapping an area in advance.

Instead, their approach enables a robot to use clues in its environment to plan out a route to its destination, which can be described in general semantic terms, such as front door or garage, rather than as coordinates on a map.

For example, if a robot is instructed to deliver a package to someones front door, it might start on the road and see a driveway, which it has been trained to recognize as likely to lead toward a sidewalk, which in turn is likely to lead to the front door.

MIT says the new technique can greatly reduce the time a robot spends exploring a property before identifying its target, and it doesnt rely on maps of specific residences.

Michael Everett, a graduate student in MITs Department of Mechanical Engineering, says: We wouldnt want to have to make a map of every building that wed need to visit.

With this technique, we hope to drop a robot at the end of any driveway and have it find a door.

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MIT develops navigation method to help delivery robots find the front door - Robotics and Automation News

Now Boston Dynamics nimble four-legged robot, Spot, is available for companies to lease to carry out various real-world jobs, a sign of just how common interactions between humans and machines have become in recent years.

And while Spot is versatile and robust, its what society thinks of as a traditional robot, a mix of metal and hard plastic.

Many researchers are convinced that soft robots capable of safe physical interaction with people for example, providing in-home assistance by gripping and moving objects will join hard robots to populate the future.

Soft robotics and wearable computers, both technologies that are safe for human interaction, will demand new types of materials that are soft and stretchable and perform a wide variety of functions.

My colleagues and I at the Soft Machines Lab at Carnegie Mellon University develop these multifunctional materials.

Along with collaborators, weve recently developed one such material that uniquely combines the properties of metals, soft rubbers and shape memory materials.

These soft multifunctional materials, as we call them, conduct electricity, detect damage and heal themselves. They also can sense touch and change their shape and stiffness in response to electrical stimulation, like an artificial muscle.

In many ways, its what the pioneering researchers Kaushik Bhattacharya and Richard James described: the material is the machine.

Also read Watch: Boston Dynamics say robots not evil as Spot humanoids go viral

This idea that the material is the machine can be captured in the concept of embodied intelligence. This term is usually used to describe a system of materials that are interconnected, like tendons in the knee.

When running, tendons can stretch and relax to adapt each time the foot strikes the ground, without the need for any neural control.

Its also possible to think of embodied intelligence in a single material one that can sense, process and respond to its environment without embedded electronic devices like sensors and processing units.

A simple example is rubber. At the molecular level, rubber contains strings of molecules that are coiled up and linked together.

Stretching or compressing rubber moves and uncoils the strings, but their links force the rubber to bounce back to its original position without permanently deforming. The ability for rubber to know its original shape is contained within the material structure.

Since engineered materials of the future that are suitable for human-machine interaction will require multifunctionality, researchers have tried to build new levels of embodied intelligence beyond just stretching into materials like rubber. Recently, my coworkers created self-healing circuits embedded in rubber.

They started by dispersing micro-scale liquid metal droplets wrapped in an electrically insulating skin throughout silicone rubber. In its original state, the skins thin metal oxide layer prevents the metal droplets from conducting electricity.

However, if the metal-embedded rubber is subjected to enough force, the droplets will rupture and coalesce to form electrically conductive pathways.

Any electrical lines printed in that rubber become self-healing. In a separate study, they showed that the mechanism for self-healing could also be used to detect damage.

New electrical lines form in the areas that are damaged. If an electrical signal gets through, that indicates the damage.

The combination of liquid metal and rubber gave the material a new route to sense and process its environment that is, a new form of embodied intelligence.

The rearrangement of the liquid metal allows the material to know when damage has occurred because of an electrical response.

Shape memory is another example of embodied intelligence in materials. It means materials can reversibly change to a prescribed form.

Shape memory materials are good candidates for linear motion in soft robotics, able to move back and forth like your bicep muscle. But they also offer unique and complex shape-changing capabilities.

For example, two groups of materials scientists recently demonstrated how a class of materials could reversibly transform from a flat rubber-like sheet into a 3-D topographical map of a face.

Its a feat that would be difficult with traditional motors and gears, but its simple for this class of materials due to the materials embodied intelligence.

The researchers used a class of materials known as liquid crystal elastomers, which are sometimes described as artificial muscles because they can extend and contract with the application of a stimulus like heat, light, or electricity.

By drawing inspiration from the liquid metal composite and the shape-morphing material, my colleagues and I recently created a soft composite with unprecedented multifunctionality.

It is soft and stretchable, and it can conduct heat and electricity. It can actively change its shape, unlike regular rubber. Since our composite easily conducts electricity, the shape-morphing can be activated electrically.

Since it is soft and deformable, it is also resilient to significant damage. Because it can conduct electricity, the composite can interface with traditional electronics and dynamically respond to touch.

Furthermore, our composite can heal itself and detect damage in a whole new way. Damage creates new electrically conductive lines that activate shape-morphing in the material. The composite responds by spontaneously contracting when punctured.

In the movie Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the shape-shifting android T-1000 can liquify; can change shape, color, and texture; is immune to mechanical damage; and displays superhuman strength.

Such a complex robot requires complex multifunctional materials. Now, materials that can sense, process and respond to their environment like these shape-morphing composites are starting to become a reality.

But unlike T-1000 these new materials arent a force for evil theyre paving the way for soft assistive devices like prosthetics, companion robots, remote exploration technologies, antennas that can change shape and plenty more applications that engineers havent even dreamed up yet.

Michael Ford, Postdoctoral Research Associate in Materials Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Soft robots of the future may depend on new materials that sense damage and self-heal - The South African

RND Automation, a provider of robotic packaging solutions, has integrated Epson Robots into its unique hydraulic valve assembly process. (See video below.)

RND is using the Epson T3 All-in-One and G3 SCARA robots, as well as the C8 compact 6-Axis robots in the process, and says it offers customers a fully customized and complete automation solution for demanding assembly operations at an affordable price.

RND, a Platinum level Epson AutomateElite System Integrator partner, incorporates the Epson SCARA and 6-Axis robots with rotary and linear indexers and machine vision for its Hydraulic Valve Assembly Machine, a turnkey solution for the most demanding assembly operations.

RND chose the Epson T3 All-in-One SCARA robot for its fast installation, low cost ($7,495) and all-in-one design, with a built-in controller, perfect for simple pick and place operations, and the G3 SCARA robot for its increased speeds and inertial loads for the more demanding stations.

The Epson C8 6-Axis robot was also selected for its SlimLine design perfect for applications with limited workspace.

With a compact wrist for efficient motion in tight spaces and a compact elbow for optimum workcell layout, the Epson C8 6-axis robot has a wide range of motion, so parts can be accessed from virtually any angle.

Sean Dotson, president and CEO, RND Automation, says: Leveraging the Epson robots precision and fast cycle time, our Hydraulic Valve Assembly Machine can produce one valve every 6 seconds solving our customers need to ramp up volume and improve product quality.

Also, due to the compact workcell design, our customer freed up a large amount of manual production floor space.

The Hydraulic Valve Assembly Machine is based on RNDs Modular Assembly Platform (MAP), which utilizes a linear motor puck technology to move the parts from station to station.

With the modular design, each station can carry out a new component assembly or inspection.

The Epson T3, G3 and C8 robots pick parts ranging from nuts, housings, and springs, to adjustment screws and hex bodies, assembling them into the awaiting pucks. A leak test is performed at the final station and finished valves are exited from the machine.

Gregg Brunnick, director of product management for Epson Robots, says: With 20 years of experience in industrial machinery design, RND is well equipped to provide customers with production-ready automated equipment that can help cut labor costs and improve quality and production rates.

The companys team of experienced engineers and designers make sure to set customers up with custom RND/Epson Robots solutions that are efficient, robust, and reliable.

Dotson adds: Epson offers excellent quality and technology at a competitive price.

The varied offering allows us to choose the right robot for the right solution. Our experience with Epson has been that the robots continue to work with next to no intervention from the operator and maintenance staff.

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RND Automation integrates Epson Robots into hydraulic valve assembly - Robotics and Automation News