Category Archives: Robotics

The company was unable to find enough financing to go into production and is now seeking a buyer for its technology.

Camera drone startup Lily Robotics filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday so it can conduct an orderly sale of its technology and pay refunds to customers.

The company netted 61,450 pre-orders for its drone cameras, generating about $38.4 million, according to court papers. But it announced last month that it had been unable to find enough financing to go into production.

As TechCrunch reports, Lily was one of the first autonomous AI-assisted camera drones ever announced, and was supposed to revolutionize the personal cameradrone industry. But in the time it took Lilyto ship, others drones like Hover hit the market, and DJI developedautonomous flight modes forthe Phantom and Inspire (and now Mavic),arguably the three best drones on the market.

In a bankruptcy court filing, Chief Restructuring Officer Curtis Solsvig said Lily was hoping for a competitive auction after already receiving indications of interest for its primary asset the intellectual property related to its flying drone with a waterproof camera from potential buyers.

The company is seeking a speedy sale process to avoid the potential loss of value to the [intellectual property] if it goes stale, Solsvig added.

Lily, which was founded in 2013 by two University of California, Berkeley, students, attracted investors including venture capitalists Spark Capital and SV Angel and celebrities Steve Aoki and Joe Montana.

The first drone shipment date had been scheduled for February 2016, but court papers say the high demand forced Lily to postpone deliveries until later in 2016. By the end of the year, it said the financial market had dried up, leaving the company to explore strategic alternatives such as a sale.

Lily said it has lined up a $3 million bankruptcy loan, subject to court approval, from Spark Capital.

Access to post-petition financing is necessary to enhance the debtors liquidity, provide necessary capital during the pendency of this Chapter 11 case, and provide customers, employees, and other interested parties confidence that the debtor has sufficient resources available to organize a successful sale process and be able to refund customers in an orderly manner, the company said.

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Drone Startup Lily Robotics Files Chapter 11 - CFO

Mitchell Middle School team "Robot Pandas" placed fifth overall Saturday at the state robotics competition at the Nordby Trades Center on the Mitchell Technical Institute campus. The fifth-place finish wasn't enough to send the team to the World Championship, but the team was given the Excellence Award for the middle school division, which grants the team a golden ticket to the World Championship April 19-25 in Louisville, Kentucky.

Prior to this, the Mitchell teams will participate in the U.S. Open Robotics Championships April 4-8 in Council Bluffs, Iowa, with more than 200 teams from around the country.

Results of the other four Mitchell teams are as follows: Kcreation placed 28th; Bolt ranked 14th; Mechatron placed 19th; and System Overlords took 22nd. Thirty-one teams from across the state competed in Saturday's competition.

The tournament champions were the Vermillion Area Robotics Club and Stevens High School. Stevens High School also earned the sportsmanship and judge's choice awards, while the Vermillion Area Robotics Club received the design award. Both teams qualified for the World Championship.

Harrisburg Schools received the excellence award for high school teams, also qualifying for the World Championship.

This year's "game" which is back-and-forth type challenge requires the students operating the robots to move game pieces, such as cubes and other objects over a fence. This could be done by tossing the objects over the fence, or underneath.

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Mitchell Middle School robotics team earns ticket to World Championship - Daily Republic

George Flumerfelt admits he was floored when he first watched a Robotics event in North Bay.

The CEO and President of the Redpath group initiallythought Robotics was only for nerds and intellects.

He doesnt think that anymore.

In fact,now the head of the mining contracting and engineering firm believes robotic teams may be developing future engineers.

Thats why Flumerfelt is a Platinum Sponsor for theFIRST Robotics district event that will take place at Nipissing University from April 6th to 8th.

We like to do things that benefit the youth in our community where its possible, said Flumerfelt.

In our business - mining contractors and engineers - there is a fairly high technology component to what we do and people who could have a future with our company or the mining industry in general so its a natural sponsorship for us.

Organizers of the event held a media launch Monday morning just in time for the competition season to start.

Three northeastern Ontario teams were at the launch at Nipissing University includingFIRST Team 4069 from Lo-Ellen Robotics in Sudbury, FIRST Team 4152, Hoya Robotics out of Huntsville, and the host FIRST Team 1305, Ice Cubed out of North Bay.

The North Bay team has been gearing up the competitive season as they have been working on their new robot since January 7th.

This years competition theme is about steampunk, which is a genre of science fiction that has a historical setting and typically features steam-powered machinery rather than advanced technology.

Disney is involved withFIRST Robotics now and they are promoting the games and making them really colourful and fun and playful, stated organizer Nancy Dewar-Stenning.

So they have played up on the steampunk thing thats going on right now, so Steamworks is the name of the game and thats what they do. Theres an airship, its a complex game and its a lot of fun.

Ice Cubed team member Jessica Kelso is excited for the competitive season to begin.

Today is a day to celebrate the build season is over and competition season is beginning so hopefully we are ready, she said.

Kelso is also pumped knowing the big sponsors may be looking at future engineers during robotics competition.

A lot of our sponsors in general are just people who are involved in our team event so they get so excited about it and its just a giant gym full of nerds but nerds about all different things, she said.

The North Bay team will take part in its first robotics competition of the 2017 in Oshawa this weekend.

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Getting all steamed up about Robotics - BayToday

Followingnews thatUK robotics researchwill get a 17.3m pledge from government,Paul Canberra vice president EMEA at BMC Softwarecommented below on the need for a shift in debate when it comes to robotics in the workplace.

PaulCant, Vice President EMEA at BMC Software:

It is clear that robotics, automation and artificial intelligence are set to change many aspects of the traditional workplace, as this weekends pledge from the UK government reveals. As with any industrial revolution in history, we need to remember that whilst some jobs will be lost, new ones will be created if employers take tangible steps now to upskill their workforce and create a culture of innovation. It is encouraging to think that if a greater education onroboticscan be implemented at university level, then many of the scaremongering headlines we are seeing in the press can be muted.

From a workplace perspective, the true mark of responsive leadership today is in offering the training and a new workplace culture that can prepare people for the digital shift. Our recent research conducted with Opinion Life reveals that 88% of employees surveyed globally, feel that this responsibility lies firmly with their employer. Creating an environment where new innovations, skills and ideas can flourish will be the key for ensuing that humans and robotics can work side by side in the future.

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UK Robotics Research Gets 17.3m Pledge - ISBuzz News

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JANESVILLE, Wis. - Janesville Parker High School hosted a statewide Lego robotics championship Sunday, where 36 teams showed off their programming skills.

The program First Lego League is for students in fourth through eighth grades. This years theme, Animal Allies, asked students to build and program a Lego robot to complete animal-related tasks.

Teams also invented products to solve real-world problems. One groups project hit close to home for members.

Anvita and Anay Bansal, from Richmond Schools team, recently lost their cousin in India to dengue fever. Anvita explained that this is a viral infection caused by the Aedes mosquito.

Our whole team was really struck by [his death], Anvita said. We wanted to make sure this didnt happen to anybody else, so we decided to make preventing dengue our project for Lego League.

The team from Sussex, Wisconsin created a device to repel mosquitoes that may be carrying the deadly virus. The invention had rotating chambers filled with various essential oils. Their project even explained financial details about how to make this product affordable to those living in third world countries.

The six winning teams selected at the Wisconsin robotics championship will move on to the national level, with four teams advancing to the First Lego League world festival and two teams submitting their projects to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

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Lego robotics championship encourages students to solve real-world problems - Channel3000.com - WISC-TV3

by BY SAM HOISINGTON hoisington@couriernews.com The Courier Your Messenger For The River Valley

It's been over two weeks since their last robotics competition of the season, but members of the Russellville Junior High School (RJHS) robotics team are still hard at work on different projects in the school's engineering classroom.

Maybe it's a part of their routine now -- team members spend about two hours daily working on robotics-related projects during the season -- or maybe it's a genuine love of science and engineering being formed that keeps them hard at work.

The last competition went well enough, with the team placing second overall. The robotics team is made up exclusively of ninth-graders, and they were up against teams of older students from bigger schools, some of who had been involved in robotics since fifth grade in districts where that was an option.

Sylvia Woods, an engineering teacher at RJHS and the robotics club sponsor, said she was "very, very pleased" with the team's performance, pointing out that many of the team members are also involved in jazz band and the Quizbowl team, among other extracurricular activities.

Jake Hodges, team captain, had mixed feelings about placing second.

"Well, it was equally satisfying and depressing," Hodges said. "It's our first year, so you know, a bunch of freshmen students coming and beating a bunch of engineering experts was pretty good, but then also the fact that we came in and got second place after months and months of hard work was kinda sad because we don't get to go any farther with it, but I'm proud of it overall."

Only the first-place team gets to advance to the statewide competition.

For a period of time, it may have looked like the team of dedicated newcomers might take first. Some unexpected trouble with the robot lost them a few rounds of the competition, though.

"We blew out one of our cortexes, which is the brain of the robot, so that stops everything from moving. We shorted it out so much, used it so much, it just fried up," Qui Nguyen, co-captain and main mechanic, said.

"We had to think up on the spot," Josue Mendoza, main electrician/mechanic, said, recalling the tension of the moment.

The team had to work together in that moment, using their different areas of expertise and working together as a team. Members of the team say that although they have different titles, everyone is viewed as important.

"All roles are equally important," Jaedon Enchelmayer, mechanic, said. Fellow teammate Alex Tanner, who primarily worked on documentation for the robot build, also chimed in to echo a similar sentiment.

"Overall, we're essentially equal to one another. We just have the roles we play," Tanner said.

The 13 team members all have different personalities, interests and aspirations. But many of them say they're interested in joining the robotics team when they move to the high school next year.

Woods has even bigger plans for them, though.

"One day these kids will put a robot on Mars -- I just know it," Woods said.

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RJHS robotics team finishes off season - Russellville Courier

SooToday has received an update from the Saults Jonathan Budau, Superior Heights physics teacher and local VEX Robotics Competition organizer, after the secondary school level provincial VEX Robotics Championships in St. Catharines.

Lone Wolf has done it. They are off to the World Championships for VEX Robotics.

Lone Wolf, a team of Korah students, was the top northern team.

In the exciting finals matchup, the Lone Wolf Alliance faced a powerhouse Alliance of the Lancebotics from Toronto, Team Winston from St. Catharines and Bramptons Viking Robotics B. However, Lone Wolfs squad was unstoppable, and fought hard to win, taking home the gold medal as the top Teamplay performance. This is the highest finish ever by a northern Ontario team at this level of competition, Budau wrote in an email to SooToday.

During the final awards presentations, Budau was given the Provincial Volunteer Of The Year award, in recognition for his efforts to create a district program that now has the largest per capita participation of any robotics program in Canada, and possibly the world.

To top off the evening awards, the Excellence Award for overall tournament winner in all performance and judging categories combined, and the highest award given at this event, was Lone Wolf Robotics, who now hold the title of top robotics team in Ontario, Budau reported.

Lone Wolf will join brothers Chase and Hunter Martel from Missarenda Consolidated Public School (in Missanabie), who earned a World Championships invitation in last weekends VEX IQ provincial elementary event, and will mark the first time that any northern team has earned a world invitation at either VEX robotics division.

The World VEX Championships will take place in Louisville, Kentucky from April 23 to 29.

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Korah team, two Missarenda brothers, off to World Robotics Competition - SooToday.com

From outside the Project Lead the Way suite at the Early College and Career Center, the hum of robots could be heard.

Its crunch time for all the Vex Robotics teams, and inside the suite, busy students work on their programs, tweak their robots, add new parts or practice a new strategy. Teams from Hardin Countys schools practice at EC3.

State competitions for Vex Robotics are a week away for the middle school teams and two weeks away for high-schoolers. The middle school contest is March 4 at EC3 in Elizabethtown. The high school competition is March 11 at Martha Layne Collins High School in Shelbyville.

Ten teams from Hardin County middle schools have qualified for state. At the high school level, 10 teams also have qualified. Teams from Hardin County have won state three consecutive times since the program started in 2013.

EC3 has been setting the pace for the state, said Jason Neagle, Project Lead The Way instructor for EC3. Our goal is to be good at the national and world level.

Neagle is aiming to win overall excellence in a robotics program. The first step, though, is to qualify for the Worlds competition in Louisville. To do that, Hardin County teams have to win at the state competition.

Weve set our goals high, Neagle said. We want to win excellence awards. Weve been knocking on the door for the past few years.

They hope to knock down the door this year, and hes optimistic about their chances.

THEY DON'T STOP

Thor Newsome, a seventh-grader at East Hardin Middle School, worked at building new arms for the teams robot at practice Wednesday. The new arms will act like a clamp and help the robot pick up more objects.

Thor and his team hope the change will help them earn more points, which could make a difference at the state competition. Their team, EHMS Vex A, currently is ranked third in the state.

A Vex competition has two parts: a head-to-head competition and a skills challenge. This year, robots are tasked with picking up yellow stars and soft-sided orange cubes and then throwing the objects over a 2-foot fence. The objects equal different points, with cubes having a higher value. The action takes place in a 12-by-12 arena.

Susan Hatfield, East Hardins Vex coach, wouldnt let them dismantle the robot until they built the new parts. After all, this is risky business, tweaking the robot so soon before a competition.

I told them not to mess up what youve got when you are third in state, Hatfield said.

East Hardin has three teams going to state, the most of any middle school in the district. Its Hatfields first year coaching the program.

Weve got a good team, she said. Kids spend hours programming. One kid stays up all night notebooking. They dont stop.

In a corner of the practice room, another team is working on programming their robot to be autonomous, meaning they will pick up objects and fling them over the fence without being controlled. Its a way to earn extra points, sixth-grader Gabi Sutherland said.

Near the end of their weekly practice, the teams robot could run on its own.

A TRADE-OFF

Tyler Sweckard and his team from John Hardin High School opted to make drastic changes to their robot this past week, switching up the motors.

Before, there were six motors in the robots chassis and four in the tower. This week, they took two motors from the chassis and put them in the tower. The change will give them more power but not as much speed.

Its a trade-off, said Sweckard, a senior.

Sweckard said it was stressful changing the robot so late in the season because he said the choice came down to efficiency. The new design will be more efficient.

On Thursday, the team had finished most of the work. All that was left to do was wiring and rewriting the robots programming.

Thats 4,000 lines of code I have to change, Sweckard said. Its going to be a late night for me.

Once the robot is put back together, the team will go back to practicing their driving skills. Sweckard said thats the best preparation for state.

Just practice, practice and more practice, he said. It never stops.

'ADD 30 TONS OF STRESS'

Andrew Schreacke dreams about robots, or rather the robot noise. He has nightmares about stripping gears.

Schreacke captains 6135W, the top team in the state. The Central Hardin High School junior also is the lead driver, meaning he controls the robot during competitions.

In January, the team was ranked No. 1 in the world. Theyve since dropped to No. 16, but Schreacke said knowing people in China and around the world were talking about his team was a great feeling.

I dont know if I can put it into words, he said.

Schreacke has come a long way in one year. Last year, his robot was incapacitated almost every match, so his was one of the bottom teams at EC3. He said he barely qualified for state the last two years.

Now, 6135Ws robot is the one to beat. He said theres added stress with their success.

Its as much as last year, but add 30 tons of stress, he said. This year, theres a constant battle to be the best.

In practice before state, Schreacke isnt tweaking the robot or writing new programs. Instead, hes working on new strategies for the skills challenge in which he tries to earn as many points as he can in 60 seconds. He said the new strategies should help rack up more points.

He estimated hes done the 60-second skills run 600 to 700 times.

But he doesnt mind the extra work or long hours. He wants to win.

We are raising the bar about what we think a Vex Robotics team should be, he said.

Katherine Knott can be reached at 270-505-1747 or kknott@thenewsenterprise.com.

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Local Vex Robotics teams ready for state - Elizabethtown News Enterprise

WPI News

The Robotics War on Cancer WPI News Some people design robots that can assemble circuit boards or vacuum your floor. Gregory Fischer, PhD (above), professor of mechanical engineering and robotics engineering and director of WPI's Automation and Interventional Medicine (AIM) Laboratory ...

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The Robotics War on Cancer - WPI News

Stars and Stripes

Soldier-turned-robotics-CEO has a special understanding of his product's need Stars and Stripes "These are small and narrow places, a very dangerous environment," the businessman said. Those missions prepared Abuhazira, 36, for his work as the chief executive of a Gaithersburg, Maryland, company called Roboteam. It sells high-tech robots capable ... and more »

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Soldier-turned-robotics-CEO has a special understanding of his product's need - Stars and Stripes