Category Archives: Robotics

A year-long effort to establish a robotics program as an official 4-H club was rewarded this week.

A year-long effort to establish a robotics program as an official 4-H club was rewarded this week. Shari Graber, a White Pigeon resident who oversees the club, said she was informed Tuesday that the robotics club was approved as a 4-H activity, a status she had been pursuing since last year. A big step for us, a very exciting step, she said. The club started meeting in summer 2016 to prepare a robot for display at the St. Joseph County Grange Fair. The final project was an underwater robot that Graber said debuted very well and drew plenty of attention at the fair. Work centered on wire-cutting and stripping, water-proofing, engineering and other tasks, including determining the flow of electricity. The project, Graber said, involved a substantial amount of teamwork and also required knowledge of electronics, mechanics and programming. Every single member participated, which really pleased me and the success of it really united the group, Graber said. Were now in the process of putting robot guidelines into the fair book so there is a benchmark for judging. Future entries will be categorized in the fairs ribbon class, she said. The club is open to St. Joseph County residents ages 9-19. Beginning in April, members meet 6-8 p.m. the second and fourth Thursday each month at Centreville Elementary School. Graber said the club started with 11 members and now has 25. The growing number, she said, reflects the interest in like-minded students with an interest in the field of robotics. There are kids who are good at sports and thats what they do. There are kids in band and they are good at it, and thats what they pursue, Graber said. There are kids who are more engineering-minded, who are really interested in the technological side of things, and the robotics club is where they seem to shine. Graber earned qualifications to lead the club following a training session at Kettunen Center near Cadillac. Her interest in the program began when she lived elsewhere in Michigan and found herself driving her 8-year-old son an hour each way to a location in Fort Wayne, Ind. Graber found that, after moving to St. Joseph County, her son maintained an interest in the robotics program. Graber, however, decided she had had enough of the hour-long drives. The training took some time and, of course, it was a necessary step, she said. But it was worth it. The kids really enjoy this and I think the parents are happy that the only distance they have to travel is to Centreville once a month. The group currently is working on a robot using eight Lego Mindstorm EV3 core sets. Each kit costs more than $800 and assembly involves knowledge in touch and color sensors, speed, direction and sonar. It also will be programmed to talk and play music, Graber said. What it is is a simplified version of a robot that police, for example, would use to go into a house that might not be safe for a human to enter, Graber said. We have between now and September to perfect it. Graber said a robotics club is common in larger communities or bigger school districts. The larger districts and communities have the luxury of stronger funding, but the St. Joseph County club has a small but strong amount of financial support from residents and local businesses. Knowledge of designing robots is relevant in St. Joseph County, she said. Think about the robotics already in use for agriculture purposes milking, irrigating, soil testing, lots of things out in the fields, Graber said. Beyond that, think about how robotics are used industry right here in St. Joseph County. Im really excited about this club and its potential its exciting to see the kids taking such a strong interest in it. The Centreville-based group is called the CloverBOTS 4-H Club. BOTS is an acronym for Builders Of Technology and Science. The club is supported by Centreville Lions Club, United Way of St. Joseph County, St. Joseph County Youth Council, Meijer, Walmart, Western Diversified Plastics and TH Plastics. In addition to Graber, the club is overseen by Valerie Bungart and Kenton and Michele Kelley.

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News Focus: Club offers youth opportunity in robotics - Sturgis Journal

Luis Sentis will lead a session, A Developers Primer for Coding Human Behavior in Bots, at SXSW on Sunday, March 12, 2017.

Human-centered robotics hold a special place in the robotics field because they both mimic human sensing and cognitive behavior, and are designed to assist humans for safety and productivity. To explore human-centered robotics is to explore human beings and how we sense the world, analyze complex and often conflicting information, and act upon our findings, modifying perception, understanding, and action as new information is available.

Such machines could be of great practical benefit to humans on long space flights to Mars, for instance, or as human proxies in hazardous environments such as a chemical spill or even ordinary circumstances like education or elder care.

Obviously, creating human-centered robots poses many challenges in conception, design, and the hardware and software that support them. My own work in this burgeoning field focuses on designing high-performance series elastic actuators for robotic movements, embedded control systems, motion planning for dynamic locomotion, and real-time optimal control for human-centered robots.

Once we have a platform for human-centered robotics, and once we can create the hardware and software and the logic to drive them, we can turn to its real-world applications, which are many.

Most readers probably have only a passing acquaintance with human-centered robotics, so allow me to use this brief blog to introduce a few ideas about this topic and its challenges.

Humanoid and Human-Centered

Since perhaps the 1950s, television and the movies have often portrayed humanoid robotsrobots that take roughly human formentertaining us with how closely they mimic humans or by how far they fall short. Sometimes, in a dramatic plot turn, a humanoid robot becomes malevolent or uncontrollable by humans.

I prefer the term human-centered robot, because it most closely describes my field of endeavor: How to create a robot that is focused on assisting a human being; sometimes guided by a human, but also learning on its own what action or behavior would be most helpful to that human.

In my view, we do not yet have sufficient evidence to say that humanoid robots are most effective when interacting with humans. They may well be, but we do not have definitive data on the question.

However, it appears anecdotally true that humanoid robots fire the human imagination and that has its benefits. In addition to their portrayal in popular media, I have found that humanoid robots draw the most, well, human interest. Soon after creating one we named Dreamer in 2013, in the Human Centered Robotics Lab (HCRL) at the Cockrell School of Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, we generally received more attention from curious students, engineers, investors andwouldnt you know itmovie producers. (Dreamer eventually had a bit part in Transformers 4 in 2014.) If humanoid robots help draw attention and interest to human-centered robotics, so be it.

Applications and Productivity

The more important aspect of this field is how to create human-centered robotics that sense their surroundings and either respond to human directions or intuit what actions would best serve their human counterpart.

Ive mentioned the possible robotic applications of space travel, perhaps as a companion to astronauts on a space walk, as a human proxy in hazardous environments or as a caregiver to an elderly person. In each case, the notion of productivity is different.

If you think of productivity for robotics generally in a manufacturing setting, it can be measured in terms of hours of work performed and profits earned. But in a long space journey to Mars, productivity will be measured instead in terms of the astronauts enhanced safety and ability to accomplish difficult tasks. In a hazmat spill, productivity might be measured in terms of human lives saved. In elder care, how well did a robot perform in changing bandages or applying ointment to a sore, preserving the persons health?

Robot Knows Best

Another quest in human-centered robotics is to create the ability of a robot to not just predict human behavior, but to perform what I call intervention. Whatever its level of complexity, can we build a robot with logic that assesses a situation for optimal actions, whether directed by a human or not? This translates to a robots ability to say to itself, Well, the human is operating the system in such a way. We could do better if computationally I have a hypothesis about what would be best for the human and intervene with that particular behavior.

This ability requires pairing social cognitive theories with mathematics. And I have found that advances are possible for what I call self-efficacy, which is basically the self-confidence to achieve a certain behavior.

At this point, self-efficacy can be achieved in very simple scenarios. One potential application is to use a human-centered robot to motivate students to solve problems by sensing and reacting to students level of engagement, then producing an interaction that motivates the student and enhances learning. I hope to demonstrate this and give attendees a chance to code such behavior in a human-centered robot at SXSW.

Touch and Whole Body Sensing

One major way in which humans interact is through touch. We place a hand on a shoulder or grasp someones forearm to gain their attention. Robotsparticularly humanoid ones with mobilityare likely to be large and quick, so touch becomes an important element in the safety of their human counterparts. We do not want a robot that runs into an astronaut on a space walk or pins someone to a wall. Thus, we are developing what I call whole body sensing. Though some in this field are pursuing something known as sensory skin, at the HCRL we have taken a more economical approach to minimize the amount of electronics needed.

We use a distributed sensor array on the robots surface, but they number in the dozens, not the thousands employed in sensory skin. Instead, we combine different sensing modalities internal to the robot, such as accelerometers, which aid stabilization, and vibration sensors that enable the machine to triangulate information on whats happening in the immediate environment. This enables the robot to respond to human touch, but within the context of other information it is receiving from its environment. We call this whole-body contact awareness, a combination of internal and external sensing and awareness.

Spin-offs

I hope this mere glimpse into the world of human-centered robotics piques your curiosity. It may serve to attract those who wish to work in the field. But the general public should also understand that advances in this field will eventually make their way into human-centered robotics in our homes, our businesses, manufacturing, agriculture, smart cities, the Internet of Things, you name it. Well have systems somedaywe already do, with limited abilitiesto sense human behaviors and intervene to produce optimal conditions based on an understanding of whats best for the people involved in a particular situation.

Today, we have smart thermostats that learn our preferences for heating and cooling our homes. Tomorrow, we may have human-centered robotic systems that optimize our cities.

Luis Sentis is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Texas (UT) at Austin. He also leads UT Austins Human Centered Robotics Laboratory and is co-founder of Apptronik Systems Inc., a contractor for NASA's Johnson Space Center.

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The Future of Human-Centered Robotics - Electronic Design

TACOMA, Wash. -- Hundreds of extremely smart teenagers and their robots will invade the Tacoma Convention Center for the First Tech Challenge Super Regionals this weekend.

The First Tech Challenge is a robotic competition where teams are given the task to design, build, program and operate robots.

"Our robot is doing a challenge that is worldwide," said Robert Winton. "Everyone is competing in the same game."

This season, the teams were issued their challenge in August of 2016.

Their goal was to design a robot that can scoop up whiffle balls and shoot them through a hoop, and also lift a yoga ball into a basket.

"It is an obstacle course mixed with basketball, in that we are shooting things, but also hopefully go for the dunk at the end," said Winton.

Winton, a senior at Seattle Academy, is part of team 2658 Tesseract who began building their robot last September.

"Our robot is a n 18 by 18 by 18-inch robot," said Winton. "We spent weeks brainstorming and doing prototypes out of cardboard and other material just to see if will work and if it is efficient."

Seattle Academy began their robotics club 7 years ago under the guidance of Chemistry teacher Gabe Cronin who has watched his program grow.

"It is hard to explain how proud we are," said Cronin. "When I think about the stuff on the robots, those are kid made decisions and kid constructed work and that is what we are going for."

The hard work paid off last month during the state championship, when Seattle Academy won part of the 1st place in alliance for Washington.

"It is extremely hard, it can be frustrating at times especially when thing so not work," said Winton. "It is a really challenging process, because there are so many things that can go wrong, but it is real cool when it all comes together at the end."

This weekend, Seattle Academy will compete head to head against more than 70 high schools from 13 states at the Super Regionals. The top teams advance to the First Championships in Houston in April.

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Robotics super regionals invade Tacoma this weekend - KOMO News

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MOORE, Okla. -Our world is changing fast with advances in technology and robots are a big part of that change

From building the cars we drive to helping police, robots make our lives easier. But designing and making them requires a lot of brain power and hard work.

At Moore West Junior High the Tiger robotics club is busy working on creating their own robots.

Theyre learning problem solving, creative intuition, and theyre learning to project manage and get along with others. And develop those skills that they can actually use in a career today, said Donna Haworth, Robotics Coach.

The kids must design, program and then built a robot for competition.

They start in a start box and they have 60 seconds to move the hexballs that are on the board to scoring position, said Haworth.

As for the students, they love the work and find it anything but robotic.

We can express ourselves through robots. And build and learn about robots, and STEM projects, said Cheyanne Sutton, Moore West 7th grader.

But more than helping them develop those STEM skills, students are having their minds open to the possibilities of what robots can really do.

As my STEM project is, its cerebral palsy. With robots helping toddlers and babieshelp develop those muscle coordination skills, said Camden Miller, Moore west 7th grader.

Principal Jeni Dutton says The robotics program is a highlight of our school. These students are really truly the geniuses who walk these hallways and solve problems. Theyre resourceful and they know it.

McDonald's has partnered with KFOR for this spotlight series of 'What's Right With Our Schools' and presented a check of $600 to the school.

If you have an idea of a program to highlight please click here and send us a short note.

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Oklahoma students programming their future with robotics - kfor.com

A group of students worked late last week in Windsor to solve an odd problem: How to get through airport security with a robot and its jumble of wires, batteries and motors connected to a cellphone.

The students four in high school and one middle school together make up Windsor-based Black Diamonds Robotics. This past month, the team and its robot simply designated Black Diamond Robotics No. 9899 took first place at the state's FIRST Tech Challenge.

That means these kids built, programmed and piloted a robot against 59 other teams from across Colorado in a high-stakes arena challenge and came out on top.

The team's victory at the state competition earned them a chance to compete this weekend in the FTC West Super-Regional Championship in Tacoma, Wash. If they do well enough there, they'll advance to international-level competition.

Getting a robot through airport security is just one of the many challenges they've faced together as a team. The students essentially worked as engineers to design and create a robot to solve this year's challenge. Robots in this competition had to be capable of picking up plastic balls of the correct color, launching the balls into a goal a few feet off the ground and moving a yoga ball.

Building Colorado's top robot took hundreds of hours from each team member, said Joshua Rohrbaugh, a sophomore at Liberty Common High School in Fort Collins.

In competition, the robots compete head-to-head in teams of two. Each team can remotely pilot their machine for part of the challenge, but rules require the robot to compete on its own for a round, operating solely on the team's programming.

Just getting the robot to drive in a straight line can be challenging, said Joshua Rohrbaugh's brother, David Rohrbaugh, a senior at Liberty Common and the team's software specialist.

The 30-pound plastic and metal robot functions well without a remote control. Everyone on the team agrees No. 9899's autonomous operation is one of its strengths. However, there were a lot of bugs to find and fix in the programming code, David admitted.

His dad, John Rohrbaugh, helped.

John and his fellow coach, Tom Schmerge both engineers spend a lot of time with the team. They enjoy it. John gets to explore engineering and teach his trade to his sons. Schmerge's daughter, Aubrey, a junior at Windsor High School, is on the team, too. She's the robot's pilot, and does much of the team's fabrication work.

Brecken and Kayden Housden a freshman at Windsor High and seventh-grader at Windsor Middle School, respectively round out the team. They're the newest additions, so they do a little of everything to help and learn where they can.

Black Diamond Robotics isn't affiliated with a school. The team operates out of Schmerge's garage in south Windsor.

Tom and John have put in just as many hours as each of the kids at least 300, they estimate.

"I think that creates a wonderful parent-child connection," said John's wife, Janelle Rohrbaugh. "It's our family hobby."

After a bit more work and collaboration, the Black Diamond Robotics team sussed out another solution on the airport dilemma: a wooden, wheeled box to carry No. 9899 through the airport.

It took a bit of work, but the team managed to get airport security and the airline to let them gate-check the robot. That way, the students and their coaches could explain to airport security what their collection of wires, motors and metal is: a solution.

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Windsor-based Black Diamond Robotics prepares for tech championship - Greeley Tribune

About 10 years ago, computer scientist Matanya Horowitz became intrigued at how far robotics had come within some industries and he started thinking about its potential in recycling, particularly for recognizing and sorting materials. Horowitz postulated that intelligent systems could have a huge impact if they could be designed to identify any material in a waste stream and pull it out.

But there were unique challenges to address within the recycling niche, and Horowitz went to work to troubleshoot them. After years of tweaking, the proprietary technology he created under the Denver-based company, AMP Robotics, is running in several material recovery facilities (MRFs). The robotic system, called the AMP Cortex Robotic Sorter, has the attention of several stakeholders, including the Closed Loop Foundation and a federal government agency.

Horowitz says the automated system cuts sorting costs by 50 percent. But the smart technologys main sell is that not only does it recognize any material coming into a MRF today, it shows potential to be able to identify virtually any item it has yet to encounter.

Early on, a main problem in developing automated sorting was that there was no vision system that could look into the waste stream and identify multiple, specific materials or their location on a conveyor belt.

To this day, with optical sorters materials must be physically separated before they are scanned. And optical sorters require their own special belts.

AMPs robot can detect unseparated materials and it can be installed on existing conveyor belts while.

And while most individual optical sorters can identify one material, one of AMPs robot can pick multiple materials. In essence, the system detects a materials location on the conveyor belt; the robot moves to intercept it, its then picked using grippers.

AMPs robotic sorter leverages a concept from the field of robotics called deep learning, which relies on algorithms to automatically perform various tasks, such as identifying examples of various materials.

We have applied this deep learning concept to recycling. You show the system individual examples, and it has the ability to learn what is unique about them, Horowitz says. For instance, PET is shiny, and we can program the system to look for shininess. It can learn to pick up on labels or cap colors. And it can figure out different combinations of featuresfor instance shapes and the specific shininess of aluminum.

The AMP team started its lab-based research early in 2015 with a National Science Foundation grant. The company has since completed projects in several recycling facilities under confidential agreements.

The Closed Loop Foundation has gotten behind AMPs efforts to lead innovation in the recycling space. It has awarded the company a grant and also invested in the technology through its venture fund.

AMP Robotics has developed a catalytic technology that we expect will drastically reduce contamination and increase yields at MRFs, thereby improving MRF profitability, says Ron Gonen, managing partner of Closed Loop Partners.

Once the product moved from the lab and was put to the test in MRFs there were hurdles to overcome. A big one was improving the ability to grip a wide variety of materials, which is still being fine-tuned. So far the system can handle multiple items in municipal solid waste streams, as well as e-waste and construction and demolition waste.

We have seen the technology work in the real-world conditions of a recycling facility, says Horowitz.

AMPs robotic system has been designed to recognize multiple materials and their features and to continually learn, which opens up potential opportunity to receive a whole spectrum of end of life products and materials, says Horowitz.

So, for instance, if a new piece of packaging comes down, our system may not recognize it at first, but once we learn what it does not recognize, we add that material or the materials feature to the learning algorithms, he says. Whats as exciting is that what will work at one facility can be applied to other facilities.

AMP Robotics is in active negotiations with a few MRFs interested in the technology, and hopes to roll its innovation to market in 2017.

The firmis not the only robotics solution on the market.

Finland-based ZenRobotics was founded in 2007. Its systems incorporate robotic sorters with sensors and arms for specific applications, such as construction and demoliton waste.

The ZenRobotics Recycler reclaims aw materials from waste with the help of advanced machine learning technology, sorting metal, wood and stone fractions. ZenRobotics Recycler uses multiple sensors (visible spectrum cameras, NIR, 3D laser scanners, haptic sensors, etc). to create a real-time analysis of the waste stream being currently processed. Based on the analysis, the system makes autonomous decisions on what objects to pick and how.

The ZenRobotics Recycler can separate large and heavy objects of up to 45 pounds. The robots gripper opens from to 20. Each robot arm has a 6.5-ft. by 6.5-ft. working area and can throw sorted objects into several waste chutes.

In 2016, ZenRobotics and ML Environmental LLC partnered to bring the ZenRobotics Recycler to the U.S. The technology was then introduced at WasteExpo in June.

In November, Recon Services Inc./973 Materials, announced it would be the first facility in the U.S. to install a ZenRobotics sorting line. It would be put in place at a C&D recycling facility.

Then there are tasks beyond sorting, such as disassembling iPhones, that are under exploration.

Meanwhile, Volvo Group is testing a Robot-based Autonomous Refuse handling (ROAR) system that would deploy robots as part of collections efforts. Instead of a team of human workers, Volvos robots will receive instructions from operating systems to do the heavy lifting and dumping. Drivers stay put, overseeing the controls.

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Are Robotics a Key to the Next Phase of Recycling? - waste360

The middle school team from Leominster that qualified for the VAX Robotics World Championship: From left, Sam Bartow, Maggie Cunningham (kneeling), Charlotte Weldon, Josh Iacoboni, Lucas Rabello and Andrew Fielo. SUBMITTED PHOTO Sam Bartow and Andrew Fielo drive, while Charlotte Weldon is in the coachs position and has just loaded the orange cube onto their robot during a qualifying match. SUBMITTED PHOTO The high school team that advanced to regionals last weekend: Caleb Weldon, Lucas Lanzdorf and Sam DeCarolis. SUBMITTED PHOTO

The Leominster Youth Robotics middle school team, officially known as Vex Team 549C Robo Mayhem, has qualified for the second straight year for the VEX Robotics World Championship, to be held in April.

The team made it to the semifinals in the regional championship, held Saturday, Feb. 25 in Framingham, and won the skills competition.

In its 10th year, the VEX Robotics World Championship will include about 1,400 student-led robotics teams from Asia, North America and Europe. It will be held April 19-25 in Louisville, Kentucky.

Robo Mayhem is raising money so team members Charlotte Weldon, Maggie Cunningham, Josh Iacoboni, Lucas Rabello, Sam Bartow and Andrew Fielo can travel to Kentucky. Donations may be made online at https://www.gofundme.com/RoboMayhem549c, or by mail to Leominster Youth Robotics, c/o Jim Cunningham, 24 Church St., Leominster, MA 01453. Checks should be made out to Leominster Youth Robotics.

In addition, one of the Leominster Youth Robotics high school teams, Vex Team 549K Kinetic Karbonites, advanced to the high school division regional tournament, held the weekend of March 4-5.

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Leominster Youth Robotics team again qualifies for worlds - Leominster Champion

EWEN, Mich. (WLUC) - The robotics team of the Ewen-Trout Creek School District will be heading to Escanaba for their FIRST Robotics competition.

This is only the second year the Ontonagon County school team has participated. The competition combines sport with hands-on training in science and technology. Students at the school only had six weeks to put together their remote-controlled robot and learn how to pilot it.

This year, the robots had to be designed relying on steam power, and the team is pretty confident in what they have been able to construct.

It does exactly what we want, perfectly, FIRST Robotics, Team 5989 member Gentry Brand said. I honestly do not think we'd change anything."

We took two of the three main tasks you can do and got them down to where we could do it, I would say, 99 percent of the time, FIRST Robotics, Team 5989 member Lucas Burrows said.

The Ewen-Trout Creek team, along with several other teams from across the state will take part in the competition March 16th. For more information on the competition, visit this website.

For the latest News, Weather and Sports, tune into your TV6 News and FOX UP News.

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Robotics teams set to compete next week - UpperMichigansSource.com

Cassie Mitch Bernards / Agility Robotics

Agility Robotics took another approach

"The outdoors is complicated, and you're always going to slip and fall and tumble," Shelton says. "You wouldn't think of designing a car to be wrecked 20 times a day, whereas that is a specific design goal for Cassie." It can also stand in place, crouch, and keep its balance on a gently rocking dock; in the future, Shelton says, Cassie will also sport little arms.

Agility Robotics is planning to use future generations of Cassie for tasks like telepresence, inspecting industrial sites, and curb-to-doorstep package delivery. Cassie wouldn't replace people, Shelton says, but work alongside them to take over tedious tasks like hoisting packages.

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"A big portion of their jobis scheduling pickups, dealing with customer service issues, and that's not something that's quite as easy to automate," Shelton says.

Cassie comes from a line of robots inspired by flightless birds, but its ostrich-like appearnce was a bit of a coincidence. "In the case of Cassie you start with a biological system, do some math and turn it back into a design, and get something back that looks physically what you started with," Shelton says.

Nature doesn't always provide the ideal blueprint for machines. Airplanes were inspired by birds, but don't flap their wings to fly. "If you want to build a better horse you do a bunch of math...and you turn it into an internal combustion engine powered car," Shelton says. "We're not all riding around in things that look horses."

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But sometimes, robots that share an unsettling resemblance with living creatures are the best tools to get the job done. These agile, legged robots will prove their mettle on mundane stairs and driveways and in dangerous sites inaccessible to wheeled or tracked robots.

"There's so many areas where we still have to send humans to do the work where we really don't want to have humans," Hutter says.

One day, we may be able to remove workers from harm's way, and instead send legged robots galloping into burning buildings, over rubble, and into sewers or sites steeped in nuclear waste. These robots are still learning to walk, but wherever people go, they will follow.

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These New Robots Look Freaky But Can Do Amazing Things - NBCNews.com

The idea for remote-controlled robots that drive trucks came to Stefan Seltz-Axmacher on a camping trip in Northern California.

I was talking to my friend about cool robots we can build, and I just pitched the idea, he said.

Now the 27-year-old co-founder of Starsky Robotics is heading one of a handful of startups looking at upending the long-haul trucking industry.

The 15-employee company already has raised $3.75 million, but unlike other startups such as the Uber-owned Otto that seek to eschew truck drivers completely, San Francisco-based Starsky Robotics wants humans steering big rigs, just not from behind the wheel.

Starsky outfits trucks with an add-on system that uses computers, radar and software to allow the vehicle to run autonomously on the highway, where there is much more predictability than on the streets. Then, once the big rig exits on to city streets, the remotely controlled robots take over.

Theres a very essential role for truckers to play in the economy, he said. What we are doing now is greatly increasing their productivity, so they can drive more trucks.

A shortage of drivers has plagued the industry, with one 2015 study from the American Trucking Associations estimating the shortage could grow to 175,000 by 2024.

With Seltz-Axmachers system, truckers wont be sitting inside a truck, but near a screen.

The core problem we are solving is that it is hard to get human beings to spend a month at a time in the truck, he said.

Last month, the company equipped a Freightliner and hauled 5,000 pounds of freight from Orlando to Fort Lauderdale. For 120 miles the truck ran humanless and then an additional 20 miles via remote control.

We are using people for what people are really good at, and that is complex tasks, high-level understanding and dealing with new variables, he said. And we are using artificial intelligence for what it is best at: boring repetitive tasks, staying in the lane and managing speed relative to other vehicles.

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Human-less trucks are here, courtesy of Bay Area robotics firm - Long Beach Press Telegram