Category Archives: Robotics

The Pittsburgh Tech Report for August 15, 2017.

The national robotics education nonprofit Best Robotics is moving its headquarters to Pittsburgh.

Thousands of students participate in Best Robotics competitions annually, spending six weeks building robots with real world potential.

Every year there's an industry theme for the competition, said executive director Rosemary Mendel. Last year, it was agriculture; this year, it's fire and rescue.

The idea is to train the future tech workforce and get more kids excited about pursuing careers in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math.

Best Robotics was founded in Texas in 1993 and has since spread to 17 states so far. Since then, the organization has manned "virtual headquarters," said Mendel, but the two Pittsburgh-based employees Mendel and Director of Strategic Engagement Deb Elliott are currently looking for a co-working space in the city.

In total, Best Robotics has just five full-time staff members and more than 5,000 volunteers across the country.

Nonprofit organizations, colleges and universities partner with the program to create local hubs, which bring the curriculum to middle and high school students for free.

Mendel said that approach improves accessibility for under-represented groups.

Our national demographics run ahead of what you normally see in the participation of minorities, rural and urban students. We also run higher on the participation of girls, she said.

Pennsylvanias two hubs are located at Grove City College and Penn State DuBois, but Mendel said she hopes to expand the programs footprint in the state.

She said she even envisions a regional competition based in Pittsburgh. Pennsylvania students currently have to travel to Fargo, N.D. for regional competitions.

Pittsburgh is the technology city of the future, Mendel said. It just made sense to align ourselves in a community that has the same goals that we do.

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Robotics Education Nonprofit To Expand Footprint In PA - 90.5 WESA

If you are involved in the UK Robotics and Autonomous Systems (RAS) sector, wed love to hear from you. Please fill in this survey.

In January this year, the UK Government published a Green Paper on Building our Industrial Strategy (https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/611705/building-our-industrial-strategy-green-paper.pdf). In it is set an open door challenge to industry to come to the Government with proposals to transform and upgrade their sector through Sector Deals. Businesses rather than the Government are being encouraged to identify what companies need in order to enhance their competitiveness as a sector.

This is not about the Government providing additional funding; rather, it is an open call to business to organise behind strong leadership, like the automotive and aerospace sectors, to address shared challenges and opportunities.

Government is looking for businesses to collaborate with other stakeholders, such as universities and local leaders to produce a clear proposal for boosting the productivity of their sector, setting out detailed plans to address challenges such as:

To help provide evidence for the proposed Robotics Sector Deal, we would like to understand what activities are taking place in the UK that are in alignment with the existing RAS Strategy, and what new ones could be enabled by Government action. To this end we are reaching out to the UK RAS Community to collect this information. All you need to do is fill in this short survey.

When answering the questions, please endeavour to be specific and thorough. Your answers will not be publicly published, and will only be used to inform the proposed Sector Deal (and will therefore remain confidential between the RAS Special Interested Group Advisory Board and the Government).

Please feel free to give us more than one set of answers to this questionnaire. We will collate the answers and provide a high-level synthesis of them, rather than providing the details, so please dont worry about overwhelming Government with detail!

If you are not familiar with the way we use the terms Asset, Skills, Coordination, Clusters and Challenges, then please have a quick look at the RAS UK Strategy here.

Thanks very much for your help. Your input is greatly valued and will contribute to something that will be of huge benefit to our sector, as well as the wider community.

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UK robotics sector deal consultation your input needed - Robohub

BSMA News:

Regional school robotics teams, and others, will demonstrate their robots to the public 5-8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 25 at Robotics Night at the Bradbury Science Museum, 1350 Central Ave.

This free event is brought to you by the Bradbury Science Museum Association (BSMA) and generously supported by New Mexico Bank & Trust. Visitors will have an opportunity to see the robots used by organizations such as Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos County Police Department and University of New Mexico Los Alamos.

Ann Ollila, who works on the Mars Rover, also will be on hand to show a short movie on that planet-exploring bot. Have a question about Anns work? You could get an opportunity to ask it.

In addition to having an occasion to interact with some of the robots, those interested in starting a robotics teams at their schools will have a chance to learn more about what it takes to make that happen. Its not too early to start even at the elementary school level.

Participating student teams will be eligible for fun prizes and small cash awards to support their involvement in this activity.

A special Thanks goes out to Susannah Rousculp, and her sixth and seventh grade LEGO robotics team called the Quadrumaniacs, for helping pull this event together!

The BSMA is the nonprofit partner to the museum with the mission of providing Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education opportunities to the communities of northern New Mexico. The BSMA is not part of the museum or the Lab and does not receive funding from the museum or the Lab. The BSMA relies on grants, memberships, donations and proceeds from merchandise sales through the Gadgets Gift Shop located inside the museum. The gift shop is a 100 percent volunteer operation, so store hours vary depending on the availability of volunteers.

Visitwww.BradburyAssociation.orgfor store hours, to become a member, make a donation and find information about volunteering in the Gadgets Gift Shop.

Stop by Robotics Night at the Bradbury Science Museum before the Friday Summer Concert at Ashley Pond Park for fun with robotics teams of all kinds and their programmable friends.

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Robotics Night Returns To Bradbury Science Museum! - Los Alamos Daily Post

Blue Ocean Robotics Posted 08/14/2017

Blue Ocean Robotics opens Joint Venture office in Singapore and brings its We Create and Commercialize Robots business to the fast-moving and rapidly growing Asian market.

ODENSE, DENMARK - AUGUST 14 2017 - Blue Ocean Robotics announces the opening of Blue Ocean Robotics SEA (Southeast Asia) with base in Singapore, where the needs of a rapidly ageing society and a focused political initiative on market development, are driving demand for robotics. The establishment is motivated by the governments earmarked budget of SGD 450 million (USD 330 million) as part of The National Robotics Programme, to support the societal robotic scaleup and industry-level transformation from 2016 to 2019. From Singapore, the company will target the surrounding countries of Southeast Asia , whose 662 million population makes it the worlds third largest market (after China and India).

The Joint Venture will also be the vehicle for Blue Ocean Robotics to work with users and partners in China, the worlds second largest economy (annual growth rate ranging from 6 to 7%) which is fast shaping up to become a future leader in innovative technology and business models.

- Blue Ocean Robotics SEA is excited to bring not just new technology but a new partnership model to the market. We co-create robots in close partnership with end-users and market leading companies. Thus, we bring developers, researchers and businesses together, to bring innovative robot solutions to the market by utilizing living labs as test beds. Asia offers a large pool of investors looking for new growth businesses. It is key to these investors that the technology has been verified by the end user to solve a scalable need in the market. By bringing everyone together in the development process, we can contribute to better quality-of-life, productivity and work environment for users and workers alike in healthcare, education, manufacturing, agriculture, construction, offshore and logistics, says Peter Tan, CEO and Partner of Blue Ocean Robotics SEA.

Peter Tan will take the seat as CEO. Peter has more than 30 years of management and operations experience in automation and robotics from the manufacturing, telecommunications, transportation and healthcare sectors. In the position he brings in-depth knowledge of international business, having set up green-field operations in Suzhou (China) and managing markets in China, the rest of Asia, Europe and USA.

The second partner is C. L. Goh, who is the founder of MMI Systems, a leader in industrial test equipment and robotics automation in data storage. He is also investor and board member in several start-ups in robotics and life sciences. Chee Bin Tay, co-founder of AI4U, also joins Blue Ocean Robotics SEA as Director. Chee Bin Tay brings a proven track record and expertise in defence technology, an influential leadership role in future advanced material systems technologies, advanced ICT technologies and innovative transportation platforms. Chee Bin Tay is also investor and advisor to technology start-up companies in nano-materials, robotics and artificial intelligence.

- We are experiencing a great deal of interest in our RoBi-X partnership program from both private and public partners from the Southeast Asian region. On top of that we find it appealing that the Singaporean government funds a growth program, that will increase the development rate and demand in robotics over the coming years. Therefore, our mission in Singapore and Southeast Asia is first and foremost to team up with new partners from various markets and then together design, develop and commercialize a range of new generations of robots which will eventually lead to a portfolio of robotic spin-out companies to be located within the Singaporean tech community and to be on a steep growth curve for the benefit of the region and our business. We are also excited about having C.L. Goh, Peter Tan and Chee Bin Tay as our partners in Blue Ocean Robotics SEA. With this team to lead our activities in Southeast Asia we are well positioned to be successful, says Claus Risager, Rune K. Larsen and John Erland stergaard, Co-CEOs and Partners of the Blue Ocean Robotics Group and based in Denmark.

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Blue Ocean Robotics - Robotics Online (press release)

Monongahela resident Rich Pantaleo, 30, is a modern-day Renaissance man. Rich Pantaleos photo of the old Donora-Webster Bridge A photo of Weirton Steel by Rich Pantaleo

Photo courtesy of Rich Pantaleo

Courtesy of Rich Pantaleo

While Rich Pantaleo studied mechanical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, one of the electives he chose was a class in photography. He also joined the robotics club.

Together, the class and club paved the way for his current dual career owner of a photography enterprise and a robotics engineer for National Robotics Engineering Center, a research facility in Pittsburghs Lawrenceville neighborhood owned by CMU.

Hired shortly after graduating, Pantaleo, 30, has worked on some interesting robotics projects. One took him to South Africa for three weeks, where he was part of a team trying to develop a robotics system for mapping an underground platinum mining operation. Part of that effort also took him to Croatia, where he worked with a mining company to turn a remote-controlled dozer into a fully automated one.

Another trip, this time to California, had him work in the strawberry fields designing a robotic plant sorting system. Another project had him design a sensor pod for the remote measurement of steel slabs for a steel mill in Illinois.

Rich Pantaleos photo of the old Donora-Webster Bridge

For the military, he worked on a team that created a robotic wheel that enables vehicles to move through a wide variety of terrain swamp, desert, and dirt and paved roads. Currently, hes engrossed in a project for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to improve the survivability of military vehicles.

Traditionally, the answer to improved survivability was to add more armor, but in this age of advanced weaponry that is not always practical, he said. Instead, were working on a robotic shield that can move in front of an incoming ordnance.

Pantaleo said he always loved making things with his hands, which is why he likes robotics for its hands-on attributes. As a child, his maternal grandfather, George Karabin, a master carpenter for Donora Lumber Co., taught him how to use hand tools. This eventually led to his woodworking interests, which initially saw him making serving trays for family as Christmas gifts.

A photo of Weirton Steel by Rich Pantaleo

For the last 10 years, hes been turning out furniture (end and coffee tables, lamps, a clock case and serving trays) at his Monongahela home workshop that he gives to friends as wedding presents.

In addition to his work and furniture-making, he is now focusing on photography.

I started taking photos in high school with a digital camera at a time when I was an avid rail fan, he said. I saw awesome rail photos on the internet, wondered if I could do the same and drove around taking photos of locomotives.

A breakthrough moment came about when he enrolled in a black-and-white photo class at CMU.

There, I performed the rites of passage of photography: shooting on an SLR, developing my own film, making my own prints from negatives and working long nights in the darkroom, he writes on his photography website, http://www.monvalleyphotoworks.com. It let me see that photography could be an art form.

Pantaleo put his photographic endeavors on hold after the end of the photography class, partly because he no longer had access to the darkroom, partly because he was too involved with his engineering studies. But in 2012, with his student loans paid off, he invested in a new digital camera and resumed his picture-taking passion with a focus on the old industrial sites of the Mon Valley.

A rocking cat crafted by Rich Pantaleo

Photo courtesy of Rich Pantaleo

On his website, which he promotes through social media sites like Facebook, Instagram and Flickr, he sells prints of images hes taken from Greene County north to Pittsburgh. At the moment, he has between 800 and 900 photos for sale and also publishes an annual Mon Valley-themed calendar.

In the last couple of years, hes gone back to shooting on film rather than digitally and said hes fallen in love with the work he gets on medium format film.

I now take fewer photos, but the results are better, he said.

Theres yet another side to Pantaleos multifaceted interests, one he attributes to his father, Rich, a retired instrumental music teacher for Ringgold School District. His father encouraged all three of his children to play an instrument, and his childhood home was full of music.

Kate plays the flute, Regina plays the clarinet and I play trumpet and piano, Pantaleo said. In two annual concerts at Ringgold Middle School, Regina and I play in the Greater Monongahela Area Community Band, which my dad directs. I also play trumpet during the summer for Too Many Tubas at nursing homes and church festivals.

A wine rack built by Rich Pantaleo

Courtesy of Rich Pantaleo

Putting his piano talents to the test, he also plays electric keyboard for the Indie rock band, Good Ship Gibraltar, at gigs in and around Pittsburgh. As if all his interests arent enough to fill up his appointment book to the max, he has another project he hopes to start on soon.

Ive been thinking of publishing a photo coffee table book on the coal mines of our region, he said. But I havent yet been able to work out the publication details.

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Monongahela robotics engineer finds time for trio of diverse pursuits - Observer-Reporter

The battle lines were drawn and robots were ready to fight

GREAT DAY: Harry Thorpe, Archie Williams, Declan Prior, Caleb Cunning and Majd Elkheir, from Stannies, and Jade Turner, Taylor Kleinschafer and Katherine Blackburn.

THE battle lines were drawn androbots were ready to fight.

This was just part of the fun of a robotics tour currently underway at primary schools in Bathurst.

Year 10 students at St Stanislaus College were at Holy Family School on Friday, working with students in Years 5 and 6and introducing them to robotics.

Shane Thurston, head teacher of TAS and computers at Stannies, said it was the first time the workshops had been held at a primary school level.

He said the idea was to introduce robotics at an earlier level, and garner an interest in the students. He said learning robotics was great for problem solving as the students learn about making programs and coding.

During the workshops, which were led by the Year 10 Stannies boys,students were able to programrobots to dance, battle and also complete a line following where they had tofollow a track.

Mr Thurston said Stannies hope to take the the roboticstourto other Catholic primary school in the city including the Assumption, Cathedral and St Phil's.

He said the primary school students really loved the workshops.

You can hear them yelling and laughing, and pulling their hair out in frustration when the robot isnt doing what it should, he laughed.

But they are really enjoying it.

Katherine Blackburnfrom Holy Family School said it was fun getting the robots to try and destroy one another.

They could do really cool tricks, she said.

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Primary school kids learn about robotics and love it - Western Advocate

High school students develop tech skills in summer robotics internship

By Brian Zahn, bzahn@newhavenregister.com @brizahn on Twitter

Photo: Brian Zahn / Hearst Connecticut Media

ESUMS student George Shelton demonstrates driving the Yo(unity) Bot 3.0 from an app on his phone.

ESUMS student George Shelton demonstrates driving the Yo(unity) Bot 3.0 from an app on his phone.

New Haven high schoolers develop tech skills in summer robotics internship

NEW HAVEN >> Following five grueling weeks of developing a cost-effective robotics kit, 15 aspiring entrepreneurs presented and defended their product before investors.

Later this month, they return to high school.

Fifteen New Haven Public Schools students with an interest in engineering got this chance to be entrepreneurs as they were selected to partake in a paid internship program sponsored by the Connecticut Pre-Engineering Program, with financial backing by Liberty Bank. The interns, challenged to develop inexpensive robotics kits for middle school students, were compensated with $1,000 for the five weeks.

Each of the kits had to be acquirable for less than $55, the interns were told, with all the mechanical structures and electrical components needed to build a robot. One of the four teams, a public relations team, was also tasked with developing a manual for middle school students on how to use the kit.

What we want to see is an excitement and passion for STEM, said Sade Owoye, a project manager for CPEP.

Mikayla Osumah, a rising senior at Engineering and Science University Magnet School, said it was indeed her passion for STEM that led her to the internship. She said things clicked into place for her when she built a drone for a class project, and she began to realize several possibilities that could be explored through manufacturing and engineering.

Didacus Oparaocha, a teacher who leads and coaches the interns through the program, said he sees a direct benefit for the students, most of whom come from low-income families.

One of the main goals is poverty elevation, he said. I believe STEM is an answer to solving poverty.

As an employee at Sikorsky Aircraft, Oparaocha said he wants the students to have an even higher quality of life than he has, after moving from Nigeria to Italy and then to Michigan and Connecticut.

The CPEP staff said the program is meant to give students relevant work experience to prepare for careers.

We believe if you give students an opportunity for a real work opportunity, showing up every day on time and dressed professionally, it gives them chances to succeed as entrepreneurs, said Kathy Ciullo, CPEP chief financial officer and director of operations. Were trying to give them provable hands-on opportunities.

One of those opportunities was preparing a presentation during which they would ask CPEP Executive Director David Beam for the funding to carry out the robotics kit project.

Further, in addition to developing a prototype for an affordable robotics kit and considering the costs of materials and labor, students were made to practice communicating and explaining their work.

Were taking the proper steps to be professional, said ESUMS rising senior Donavon Chisolm.

Rising ESUMS senior George Shelton called it an internship you can take further in life.

Shelton said he would like to pursue electrical engineering and automation after he graduates from high school.

District officials said they believe the program offers practical applications for lessons taught in the classroom.

Kenneth Mathews, the school districts math curriculum supervisor, said he believes the interest in the program among students is tenfold its capacity.

The skills theyve learned will serve them throughout their lives, Mathews said. Many have shaped what they want to pursue in college.

After asking the interns approximately a dozen questions on the skills theyve learned from five weeks of work such as about whether any challenge is too difficult for them to overcome, about the value of teamwork or about whether a career can be fun were a few examples Beam said he has worked with engineers at all different levels, and he is certain all of them could have benefited from the type of early job training offered by the program CPEP has to offer.

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New Haven high schoolers develop tech skills in summer robotics internship - New Haven Register

Investopedia

Robotics ETF Hits Illustrious Milestone Investopedia Sometimes, an exchange-traded fund (ETF) focused on a narrow or highly specialized investment theme, also known as niche ETF, proves its doubters wrong. That is certainly true of the ROBO Global Robotics and Automation Index ETF (ROBO. ROBO, The First Robotics & Automation ETF, Hits $1 Billion in Assets Under ManagementRobotics Tomorrow (press release) TAL Manufacturing launches 'Robo Whiz' for robotics educationWeb India 123 all 5 news articles »

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Robotics ETF Hits Illustrious Milestone - Investopedia

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In 2015, a poll of 200 senior corporate executives conducted by the National Robotics Education Foundation identified robotics as a major source of jobs for the United States. Indeed, some 81% of respondents agreed that robotics was the top area of job growth for the nation. Not that this should come as a surprise: as the demand for smart factories and automation increases, so does the need for robots.

According to Nearshore Americas, smart factories are expected to add $500 billion to the global economy in 2017. In a survey conducted by technology consulting firm Capgemini, more than half of the respondents claimed to have invested $100 million or more into smart factory initiatives over the last five years. The study concludes that at least 21% of manufacturing plants will become smart factories by 2022. This is especially true in areas of labor shortage like the U.S. and Western Europe.

The Kuka Official Robotics Education (KORE) certificate program offers professionals and students the opportunity not only to become certified in operating Kuka robots, but also to learn robotic engineering principles.

All of this will result in the addition of more robots to manufacturing sites. Over the past seven years, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports that companies added 136,748 robots to factory floors. But while the conclusion of many is to assume that jobs are disappearing due to automation, the opposite is proving true. The BLS also determined that while robots were being added to factories, 894,000 new manufacturing jobs were also created as a result of automation. According to the book What to Do When Machines Do Everything by Malcom Frank, Paul Roehrig, and Ben Pring, 19 million jobs will be lost due to automation over the next 10 to 15 yearsbut 19 million new jobs will be created due to automation.

In other words, the job market for robotic engineers is at a prime. For the engineer either in school or already working, there are numerous resources available for educating yourself in the world of robotics. Take advantage of them, and crest the next wave of jobs in automation.

The lack of robot education in high schools and universities is creating a large gap of skilled laborers for the future of automation. FANUC CERT program brings robot certification to all levels of education, including high schools, colleges, and vocational schools.

In April of this year, the Association for Advancing Automation (A3) published awhite paper concluding that 80% of manufacturers report a labor shortage of skilled applications for production positions. This may result in the U.S. losing a staggering 11% of annual earnings. However, the addition of new automation technologies allows companies to increase productivity and create higher quality products. This allows them to grow their business and add jobs.

The distinction that has to be made is that while robots will automate tasks, they will not automate complete jobs. In the white paper from A3, it was noted that robots have been increasing labor productivity at the same rate as the steam engine: 0.35% annually. Amazon is a key example of how robots add jobs. In 2012, the online shopping giant acquired Kiva Systems, which became Amazon Robotics. By 2014, Amazon Robotics employed 45,000 full-time employees. Three years later, that number had doubled to 90,000, and the company is striving to break the 100,000 mark.

Machine Design recent reported that Amazon has launched 30,000 robots into service in conjunction with 230,000 employees across its fulfillment centers. The Kiva robots have led to higher efficiencies that have resulted in increased growth. Another example of growth due to automation and robotics is in the automotive industry. General Motors grew U.S. jobs from 80,000 to 105,000 from 2012 to 2016. This increase in jobs coincided with the addition of approximately 10,000 robot applications in GM plants.

The robotic engineer job market will grow between now and 2024. The BLS reports that robotics engineers, as part of the mechanical engineering field, will increase by 5% by 2024. The median annual wage for robotic engineers was $83,590 in 2015. If the rate of machines being added to factories remains consistent, then the number of skilled technicians needed to program, operate, and maintain those robots will also increase.

The Universal Robots Academy teaches you how to set up and program its collaborative robots online in six module training courses.

For the young engineering student looking to enter robotics, there are key areas of study that one should focus on to obtain the appropriate education. Robotics is truly an interdisciplinary career which combines several fields of engineering, including mechanical engineering, computer programming, and electrical engineering. According to Robotiq, a manufacturer of end effectors for collaborative robots (cobots), the core subjects for those at the high school level are mathematics and physics. These core areas of study make up the foundation of many robotic courses. If the student has the opportunity at the high school level, they should also take courses computing, programming, design, and extracurricular engineering electives like machine shop and manufacturing classes.

At the university level, many educational institutions offer a robotics major as its own independent field of study. However, since the field of robotics is one under constant change, many professionals reach the robotic industry through different avenues. In the Robotiq guidelines, it is possible to break down the robotic field into three key areas:

According to GradSchoolHub.com, the top 10 universities with grad school programs in robotics are as follows:

NASA has alist of robotics programs at universities across the U.S.:

Robotic education in STEM is growing. In 2015, the government offered in $100 million in federal grants to support the growing workforce. The plan was to offer schools with the resources to introduce robotic education into the classroom, as well as to provide training and certification for those looking to enter the field.

The Nanodegree Robotic Program from Udacity is the first of its kind. It offers remote robot education sponsored by major companies, including Bosch and iRobot.

In recent years, many robotic companies have realized the need to create their own certification programs to help foster robot education. Several of them have created universities and training programs for professionals to become certified in their robotic platforms.

For the engineer looking to get started in robots, the number one resource is the Robotic Industries Association, an associated society of the Association for Advancing Automation. At its website, one will find a plethora of resources to help get started or advance their robotic education. You will also find a listing of safety standards, webinars, upcoming events, and integrator certification training. For those looking to get started, theBeginner's Guide is a good place to start:

Universal Robots is one of the major seller of collaborative robots. If youve attended any technical conference in recent years, youll have seen many of them gracing the booths of automation companies. Universal Robots has its own education platform, the Universal Robot Academy. The module breaks down into six easy learning modules:

This is the advantage of cobots. Since they have safety features built-in and operate in controlled environment, the learning curve is quickerone does not need to determine safety zones, light curtains, or cages.

For larger industrial robots, companies like Kuka and FANUC both offer certification programs.Kuka offers the Kuka Official Robotics Education (KORE) certificate program. The program is designed to be offered in high schools, community colleges, universities, and vocational schools. The program will teach basic robot programming and operation skills, centering around project-based activities that mimic real-world manufacturing.

FANUC Certified Education for Advanced Automation offers high schools, colleges, and universities training in automation techniques. TheFANUC CERT training not only offers education in robotics but also in CNC machining and robotic drilling. Both of these programs are also available to engineering professionals at certified training locations.

Lastly, for those that cannot reach a training location, there are several online courses that provide robotic training. One that is sponsored by the likes of Bosch, Kuka, iRobot, and Lockheed Martin, is the training offered by Udacity, the online education platform. Udacity is a new online learning platform that aims to bring affordable education to the internet. The education is created by educational professionals and sponsored by major companies in the industry. The Nanodegree Program offers a robotic education with hands-on projects in simulated environments. The course itself is a two 3-month terms and will provide instruction in kinematics, perception of objects, controls, and deep learning for robotics.

The resources of robotic education are on the risejust like the robot machines fueling the next wave of automation.

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As the world of robotic automation continues to grow, so too will the number of automation jobs. - Machine Design

The 100,000 orange robots that glide through Amazon warehouses and the thousands of Amazonians who build, program and use them are part of the evolving relationship between humans and their tools that awakens new possibilities but also new fears.

NORTH READING, Mass. Every day is graduation day at Amazon Robotics.

Heres where the more than 100,000 orange robots that glide along the floors of various Amazon warehouses are made, and taught their first steps.

Here they practice their first pirouettes. And heavy lifting too, as they twirl while hauling fabric shelves filled with cinder blocks.

And finally once theyve been given the green light by their makers about 38 robots assemble in a tight four-row formation and in orderly fashion wheel themselves up onto pallets that will be shipped to one of the 25 Amazon warehouses that employ automatons.

Amazon staffers call it the graduation ceremony, and it takes place several times a day.

Its a proud-mama moment, an Amazon spokeswoman said, during the first visit to the facility by a reporter since the e-commerce giant bought the former Kiva Systems in 2012. So far this year the company has graduated about 55,000 robots.

These robots, and the thousands of Amazonians who build, program and use them, are laying out the next episode in a very old story the evolving relationship between humans and their tools.

From the sharp stones wielded by our early ancestors to the internet, every step along the way has awakened new possibilities, and new fears too.

Now, its the turn of robotics, a discipline that after decades of experimentation and recent big leaps in artificial intelligence has finally reached a maturity that allows mass deployment.

Were at an inflection point the ability of robots to be useful at a low-cost point, said Beth Marcus, a robotics expert and startup founder who recently joined Amazon Robotics as a senior principal technologist.

This latest wave of automation has spurred anxiety among scholars and policymakers. They warn it might contribute to a growing economic divide, in which workers with more education or the right skills reap the benefits of automation, while those with inadequate training are replaced by robots and increasingly left out of lucrative jobs.

Its not a novel concern: Spinning jennies, which revolutionized the weaving industry, sparked similar resistance in 19th century England. And in the 1960s, the U.S. government created a task force to study the impact of technology on livelihoods. If we understand it, if we plan for it, if we apply it well, automation will not be a job destroyer or a family displaced, President Lyndon Johnson said at the time.

History has shown that, over time, job losses in rapidly advancing sectors are offset by gains in other activities spurred by a growing economy.

That perspective doesnt quell contemporary concerns. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has proposed taxing robotsto pay for other jobs, such as teachers. Some scholars also seem to be losing faith in the old playbook.

Theres never been a worse time to be a worker with only ordinary skills and abilities to offer, because computers, robots and other digital technologies are acquiring these skills and abilities at an extraordinary rate, Massachusetts Institute of Technology professors Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee wrote in their 2014 book, The Second Machine Age.

In a recent report, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said that technology is contributing to the disappearance of middle-skill jobs, both in manufacturing and in clerical work, even though it helps create both highly skilled and low skilled positions.

Amazon is the modern poster child for automation, and not only because of the orange warehouse robots. Its machine-learning software lets the company predict customer behavior. New retail concepts, such as the Amazon Go convenience store in downtown Seattle, heavily rely on sensor technology in an effort to do away with the need for cashiers.

Amazon is also working hard to have drones deliver items to peoples homes, a move that may replace a lot of delivery drivers.

But automation certainly hasnt slowed down Amazons colossal appetite for people. The companys payroll expansion has long exceeded revenue growth: In the quarter ended last June, its workforce grew by 42 percent to 382,400 jobs, versus sales growth of 25 percent.

Its hard to say, in the case of Amazon, how many potential human jobs have gone to the robots, or inversely, how many new positions have been created to handle this new feature of working life.

But Amazon says that warehouses equipped with robotics typically see greater job creation with more full-time employees, due to the increased volume of orders these centers can handle.

Amazon also says automation has meant the creation of desirable, high-skilled jobs designing robots and teaching them how to do things, as well as middle-skilled jobs such as repairing the robots, or simply focusing on more sophisticated warehouse tasks while letting machines do the boring stuff.

Marcus says that there are plenty of tasks humans will monopolize for a long time.

There are many things humans do really well that we dont even understand yet, Marcus said.

Amazon Robotics facility, in suburban Boston, was first established by Kiva Systems, a company founded on the concept of flipping warehouse logistics around. Instead of having workers walk to products, it sought to bring items to the workers. The solution: flat, wheeled robots called drive units that navigate a warehouse by reading stickers on the floor, all while carrying merchandise on their back.

Amazon bought Kiva in 2012 for $775 million in cash and started introducing the robots into its warehouses in 2014.

Since then, the robotics facility stopped selling to other customers, while its orange robots, now in their fourth generation, have come to play an important part in Amazons operations. In fact, robotics seem to be more important to Amazons bottom line than to other tech giants also making big bets in the field, such as Google, experts say.

For Amazon, its mission critical, said Pedro Domingos, a machine-learning expert at the University of Washington.

Tye Brady, the chief technologist for Amazon Robotics, noted that the e-commerce behemoth is in a unique spot.

We have the ability, through our automation and our robotics, to change the real world by immediately deploying the most recent advances throughout the companys widespread footprint, he said in an interview.

Brady, who joined Amazon two years ago after a two-decades-long career in aerospace and robotics, said that in his ideal vision of the future, society might look a little bit like the original Star Wars movie, in which humans and robots coexisted happily, with the latter capably helping humans lead more purposeful lives. Our machines will allow us to focus on what we want, he said.

A few steps into the Amazon Robotics building, a small sign warns visitors in jest to please not feed the robots.

Some 500 employees work in the facility, mostly engineers and scientists, as well as technicians who assemble the robots. The hardware side is led by Parris Wellman.

As a kid he wanted to build cars, and went on to earn a mechanical-engineering degree at the University of Pennsylvania. There, studying under prominent roboticist Vijay Kumar, Wellman discovered robots. After a Ph.D. from Harvard and a few years in biotech and in medical devices, he joined Amazon Robotics, returning to what he calls his first love.

What he likes about the opportunity is that he can build something and deploy it en masse pretty quickly.

Another interesting aspect of the work, he said, is that the roboticists get plenty of feedback from the warehouse associates who will be dealing directly with the robots. For example, associates helped designers pick out the color of the new lightweight fabric shelves that the robots carry: yellow, because that makes it easier to see the items they carry.

And it was a maintenance worker at a warehouse who designed, and patented with Amazons help, a metal rod that staffers use to push inactive robots around the factory floor (its easier than picking up the 750-pound robots).

Innovation is not restricted to a particular set of people, Wellman said.

In addition to hardware engineers, the facility employs software developers who animate the drive units throughout the Amazon empire. People dont realize Amazon Robotics has a huge software stack, says Jill Sestini, a developer who was Kiva Systems 30th employee when she joined in 2006.

That software prowess got a huge boost after the Amazon acquisition because of the proprietary technology the new owner brought to the table, she said.

The current job of the Boston-area native who builds motorcycles as a hobby, and comes from a family of amateur craftspeople who made their own furniture is to oversee the interfaces that allow the robots to interact with humans more easily.

One of her projects: an app on a Fire tablet that lets warehouse workers without highly advanced computer skills control the drive units when they fail or an item falls in their path. Hundreds of tablet-toting warehouse workers across the 25 highly automated warehouses operated by Amazon now have that ability.

Brady, the Amazon Robotics chief technologist, says the roboticists efforts have brought a more than 50 percent increase in storage efficiency at the Amazon warehouses that employ robots. That means they can contain more items in a smaller space.

These warehouses are also where Amazon figures out how people and machines can work together as in a beautiful symphony, according to Brady.

One of these centers is in DuPont, Pierce County, a warehouse dedicated to mid-size and large items, where 500 humans work alongside hundreds of robots. There the automatons have the run of the core of the warehouse, a maze brimming with metal shelves stocked with merchandise.

They operate in a different space from the humans, who are mostly on the outskirts of the facility. But they work together in an elaborate, seemingly seamless dance.

The robots bring empty shelves out from the depths of the warehouse to a person who loads them with individual items unpacked from pallets as they arrive at the distribution center. The robot then races back into the interior of the facility, putting the shelf back in its place. The automatons can lift up to 3,000 pounds.

When an order comes in, a human operator in another part of the warehouse calls up an item from a computer. A robot will then wheel out the shelf containing the item, which the human will pick out and place on a conveyor belt.

The interaction with the robotic workforce has created new types of roles.

Barry Tormoehlen, a former electrician and conveyance mechanic, is one of a dozen people at DuPont who do preventive maintenance on the drive units, wipe them down every once in a while and fix them when needed.

Over time, Tormoehlen has learned to recognize the individual units, which each have a number and a maintenance history of their own. The collaboration between these robots and humans has created a local folklore.

Workers have painted some of the robots to give them personality: A robot with fiery flames on its sides is known as the devil drive. Another, decorated by warehouse workers in blue and yellow instead of the usual orange, is dubbed The Minion, after animated characters who have the same color pattern.

During a recent visit to the DuPont center, 29-year old Ashley Parks, a former medical assistant from Yelm, Thurston County, stowed newly arrived items of various shapes and sizes onto a shelf atop The Minion.

They kind of dance around you, she said of the automatons, adding that they make her more efficient in her job.

As for fears of one day losing her job to a machine, she seemed nonchalant. I dont think theyre going to take away our jobs, she said. They stay on their side, I stay on my side.

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Amazon's robots: job destroyers or dance partners? - The Seattle Times