Category Archives: Robotics

PRANAV PAPALI, COLUMNISTS 6:19 p.m. ET Feb. 16, 2017

The Tec Tigers meet weekly at Parkside High School to work on designing and building robots for competition.(Photo: submitted image)

Young people are a crucial element to building the community of Salisbury. To drive their success, programs involving STEM(science, technology, engineering, math) expose them to real-world applications.

The Wicomico County Robotics Team, the Tec Tigers, enables high school students to engineer a robot (tasked with completing certain actions) in addition to acquiring new skills in leadership, teamwork and programming.

It is a nonprofit after-school club dedicated to developing students into engineers. Three separate robotics programs are available to students, who may choose to compete in one of three platforms.

These programs award participating high school students with scholarships. This year, two of the programs are offering a total of $50 million in scholarships.

Colleges around the world have recognized the skills high school students acquire through FIRST robotics (the nonprofit organization that coordinates the robotics competitions).

READ MORE: Students time travel to learn about STEM

Each program presents the team with a different challenge.

For example, robots must complete tasks such as launching projectiles, hanging on bars, grasping objects and much more to score points in a match.

All three robotics programs require the team of students to create a computer model of the robot, program the robot and construct the robot. All teams are also required to record their progress in an engineering notebook.

By using the notebook, students are able to effectively use the design process, record the goals and accomplishments for each meeting, and include the progressive development of their robot through drawings and computer aided design, or CAD, models.

Mentors are present to advise and guide students during their engineering process; however, the teams are student-led.

The team was initially begun by two teachers who work at Parkside High School, David and Jenny Miles, in 2010, in response to a lack of STEMactivities available for high-schoolers in the area.

The Tec Tigers meet at Mr. Miles engineering classroom at Parkside. Each year, approximately 30 students join the Tec Tigers (most of whom are returning members).

READ MORE: UMES dedicates STEM education building

Since the establishment of the team, 94 percent of the teams alumni have attended college, 75 percent of whom are majoring or have majored in STEM-related programs.

We joined the Tec Tigers in 2016, so this is our first year as members. The team provides an outlet for us to embrace our passion for robotics, enriching us with new knowledge on a daily basis.

Not only does the Wicomico County Robotics Team help us to build our resumes, it primarily gives us exposure to the engineering field.

This is why the team is significant in developing the next generation of engineers and leaders.

Funds needed to maintain and supply the team are provided through grants, fundraising, and sponsors. Sponsors for the team include NASA, The Bank of Willards, Chesapeake Pediatric, Peninsula Allergy and Asthma, First Shore Federal Savings and Loan, and others.

In addition, our team members and mentors organize fundraisers throughout the year.

We would like to give a special thanks to all the mentors who guide the Tec Tigers: Tom Mader, Missy Mader, Franklin Reyes, Thomas Ayres, Kraig Ames, James Culp III, Holly Hatton, David Miles and Jenny Miles.

With more support from our community, we can keep the Tec Tigers thriving for many years to come.

Pranav Papali is a junior and Pritika Papali is a sophomore at Salisbury Christian School.

READ MORE: Cape robotics advances to world championships

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Robotics competition launches careers in tech - Delmarva Daily Times

An employee of the French Laboratory for Analysis and Architecture of Systems examines a hand of the Pyrene humanoid robot | Remy Gabalda/AFP via Getty Images

Parliament rejected demands for a basic income for workers who lose their jobs and a tax on robots.

By Joanna Plucinska

2/16/17, 1:57 PM CET

Updated 2/16/17, 4:43 PM CET

The European Parliament Thursday passed a controversial report on robotics, but deleted the demands for a basic income for workers who lose their jobs and a tax on robots.

The MEPs, however, supported a European agency for robotics and artificial intelligence, as well as a supplementary fund for victims in accidents in self-driving vehicles.

Mady Delvaux, the Socialists & Democrats member in the Legal Affairs Committee, drafted the document and was disappointed with the outcome.

Although I am pleased that the plenary adopted my report on robotics, I am also disappointed that the right-wing coalition of ALDE, EPP and ECR refused to take account of possible negative consequences on the job market, she said in a statement.

The report passed 396-to-123, with 85 abstentions.

Continue reading here:

MEPs pass robotics report with key changes - POLITICO.eu

If youre building drones, personal delivery vehicles or robots that can perform surgery, a desk in acoworking community likeWeWork or RocketSpace probably wont be enough for you. Now, the city of Bostonhas opened a new facility just for robotics startups. The nonprofit hub, MassRobotics, is located at 12 Channel Street in Bostons Seaport Innovation District.

According to a press statement, MassRobotics facility includes labs and expensive equipment that startups need for testing and prototyping, like industrial-grade oscilloscopes, 3D printers, aeroelectronics and an enclosure for indoor drone testing.MassRobotics is leasing 15,000 square feet and will build out another 25,000 square feet in the building.Anofficial ribbon-cutting ceremony is to be held tomorrow, February 17th, with Bostons Mayor Marty Walsh.

According to MassRobotics hubco-founder Joyce Sidopoulos, MassRobotics isnt just about providing an innovation space for robotics companies, as important as that is. The initiative is aligned with other local efforts byMass Technology Leadership Council, a partner to MassRobotics,aimed at keeping tech talent in town, creating jobs or taking jobs at major employers, locally. Mass TLC has won a number of economic development and related grants to help ensure that New England remains a regional leader in the burgeoning robotics industry.

Artists rendering: MassRobotics, a coworking space exclusively for robotics startups in Boston.

Employersin the field of robotics with a significant presence in the greater Boston area range from large companies like General Dynamics, Draper and Amazon Robotics, to a huge number ofstartups like Locus Robotics,Soft Roboticsand Rise Robotics.Initial residents at MassRobotics alpha space include agriculture-focusedAmerican Robotics, urban mobility startupHurdler Motors, theAir Force Research Lab HMSS and the makers of robots used for inspections in the oil and gas industry,Square Robots.

Besides providing innovation space, MassRobotics and their partners MassTLC are connecting early-stage companieswith potential pilot customers, helping them find nearby sites where they canfly, float or otherwise test their robots, and providing workforce training to people who want to get jobs in advanced manufacturing.

Its true that you cant just work on a laptop in this field. You need space to build, learn, rearrange chips on a board, put it back in, run tests But thisinnovation hub willalso bring startups together, where hopefullyeveryone can help each other out. Were already seeing senior companies offer to mentor newcomers in the field, and we have heard from alist of robotics companies a mile long whowant to move in, Sidopoulos said.

Update: This post was editedto specifythat MassTLC and MassRobotics are operated separately.

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Boston's new hub, MassRobotics, is like a WeWork for robotics startups - TechCrunch

I have no idea what my Roomba is doing most of the time when it runs. Its vacuuming, I know that, but sometimes it just sits there for a little bit, or slowly swivels back and forth, or does something else that doesnt seem (strictly speaking) vacuuming related.This isnt as much of a problem for Roombas specifically, but for robotics in general, it can be: If robots are badat communicating whats going on with them, itll be harder for people to accept them in our daily lives.

One thing that lets humansinstantly grasp the abstract internal state of other humans is we look at each others faces. Now, as you can imagine,giving robots human faces can lead to other problems. The good news is were also hardwired to perform this intuitive abstract internal state reading trick on some other expressive living things, like dogs: When we look at a dogs tail, we get an indication of whether its happy or not. It turns out that we can do the same for robots, as long as you can give them a tail.

A few years ago, University of Manitoba undergraduate student Ashish Singh and professor James E. Young decided to investigate whether people could accurately interpret the feelings of a Roomba with an actuated, fluffy tail that it could wag like a dog. The Roomba doesnt have feelings, of course, but acting happy could mean that all systems are okay, while sad could communicate a problem andtired could mean a low battery state. In results published in 2013, they found out that it works:

Plus, your floor gets an extra dusting!

The useful component of emotional interfaces is in how easily, and quickly, people can interpret them,Young told us.As social beings, we are very experienced at quickly reading emotional states, which provide us coarse-grained insight into the state of others. And while he said theyinitially considered many alternatives, a dog-like tail seemed to be a nice, clear choiceeven people without dogs or cats may be able to read some tail motions, so we decided to formally investigate that.

Young added that one of the goals of the project was exploring the notion ofperipheral awareness.With a dog tail that projects a robots state, you could be preparing dinner and just see the robot going by from the corner of your eye, he said. That would let you quickly know how the robot is doing, whereas a screen would probably requiretraining to understandand sound would be intrusive.

When they started, the researchers werent sure how readily people would be able to read emotions from a robot with a tail, and it wasnt clear how consistent this would be across a diverse group of people (if at all).Results of the study showed that people have no trouble reliably reading emotional states from a robotic tail. The researchers checked to see whether study participants had pets of their own, and it turned out not to make a difference at all: Whether or not you are (or ever have been) a dog owner, you can still understand what different kinds of tail wagging mean.

The results were so consistent, in fact, that the researchers were able to create a set of design guidelines that formally map out exactly what tail motions youd use to communicate. Want your robot to express disdain? Thats a continuous vertical wag at medium speed. Want it to seemed overwhelmed? Trysome high speed circular wagging.From awed to modest to joyful to astonished, there are specific tail motions that a robot can use to communicate.Any current robot that works with people, including factory transport robots, emerging domestic robots, even collocated utility robots such as the PackBot, could benefit from this,Young said.

After the tailed Roombaproject,Youngs group haslooked at how a tail might work on a humanoid robot, and it has also done more in-depth experiments with different varieties of robot communication, like how drones can alter their motion paths to show that theyre tired or excited. All of this research is available at the labs website linked below, along with guidelines for expression using a tail, just in case youre ready to add one to your robot.

[ A Dog Tail for Robots ] via [ University of Manitoba HCI Lab ]

Special thanks to@grok_ and @Straithe!

IEEE Spectrum's award-winning robotics blog, featuring news, articles, and videos on robots, humanoids, drones, automation, artificial intelligence, and more. Contact us:e.guizzo@ieee.org

Sign up for the Automaton newsletter and get biweekly updates about robotics, automation, and AI, all delivered directly to your inbox.

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Link:

Wagging Tails Help Robots Communicate With Humans - IEEE Spectrum

3Doodlers getting out ahead of Toy Fair with the release of a whole bunch of new products, including a handful of kits and a pair of pens that mark some big licensing deals for the New York-based startup.

The new devices dont represent new entirely products, so much as spinoffs of its existing lines, theflagship Create and the Start, a larger and safer version targeted at younger hands.

The Start Robotics Pen Set is the new focus of the latter, featuring an activity guide that takes young users through the process of connecting motors and blocks to create basic robotics. The pen will also be getting an architectural set that features illuminating wires for building iconic, light up buildings. A third Product Design, kit, meanwhile, is targeted at building smaller scale creations like clocks and wrist watches.

Having started out inventing robots at WobbleWorks, its quite a treat to be closing the circle with 3Doodler robot kits, CEOMax Bogue told Techcrunch. The increased importance of STEM in education means this is also an awesome time to be doing this helping kids learn and make.

The companys using its Create pen to launch a pair of high profile partnerships with CBS and Cartoon Network, bringing branded versions of the device with kits focused on designing different pieces of IP. The Star Trek branded device, which will be available, fittingly through Think Geek, comes with plans for drawing some Original Series designs, like the Enterprise, Spock ears and a phaser.

A PowerPuff Girls Create pen, meanwhile, features stencils with characters from the long running animated series. The company has also partnered with the National Trust for Historic Preservation to create designs based on classic architecture like Illinoiss Farnsworth House.

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3Doodler announces a robotics kit, Star Trek and Powerpuff Girls ... - TechCrunch

Updated / Thursday, 16 Feb 2017 16:03

RoboThespian, a life-size humanoid robot designed by Engineered Arts LTD, spoke about the future of robots at day two of Dublins Tech Summit.

The multilingual, interactive robot is designed to communicate in real time conversations with humans and was interviewed live for the first time at the summit today.

Joined on stage by Emmy Winning Veteran, CNN Anchor, Gina London , QuantumX & Bull in a China Shop Co- founder, Ben Jones and EMEA Lead at Cloud Native Apps and DevOps, Ed Hoppitt, RoboThespian, who was also referred to as George, said that the biggest question about technology is how we are going to function as a society and what do we choose for our future?"

Robots do whatever they are told to do. They dont ask questions and dont have conscious and the scary thing is not what the robot can do but what the human makes them do, he said.

He added that Star Wars is a very accurate vision of the future it looks at the way the shape might be and how they (robots) might function.

Addressing the question from anchor Gina London about how robotics will affect humans in society, Ben Jones said that the assistance of robots is going to be huge.

It is going to take away some of the functional things maybe going to support me when I am older. but most importantly it is going to allow humans to be humans, he said.

From my point of view it is hard being the human in this world, it is tiring, and the assistance of robots will help to make being a human easier.

"The best way to approach the integration of robotics into our everyday lives is to embrace it and just use them where they make sense, said Ed Hoppitt.

if they could just fix the unexpected item in the bagging area for me that would be a massive step forward in robotics, he added.

While robotics is really 20-30 years away, according to Jones, RoboThespian said that we have to now make wise decisions going forward and we need to stop and think.

We also have to get people in government land to really take this serious so we are not caught short when some country thinks of these robots for military, said Gina London.

Robots are going to rule the world but we are the humans, we are the emotion and we have got to hold onto that. she said.

By Lauren Ennis

Fabian Bolin: 'Writing about cancer made the process a lot easier

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What has Robotics got in store for our future? - RTE.ie

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Team members make adjustments to their robot before the FTC FIRST Robotics state championship games which begin later this month.(Photo: Jessica Presinzano/NorthJersey.com)

WAYNE - Waynes robotics team will head to state championships in a few short weekswith their homemade robot ready to brave the vortex.

Each year the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition sports a different game for which students must design and build a custom robot in order to play. This years game, called velocity vortex tasks robots with pushing and tossing wiffle-like balls into goals for points on a 12-foot playing field. Robots must also activate beacons lining the field and can cap the rotating vortex with a large ball for a point bonus.

Last years game, Waynes first year of participation, also saw the teens to state championships, which is followed by a world championship. Last year amalfunction in their robot resulted in heartache for the team, but this year theyve resolved to make careful adjustments and perfect their robot with more time to spare.

"We're pretty confident," said Riya Patel.

The majority of the 10-person team are from Wayne Hills High School, however the team also includes a student from Wayne Valley High School, and two eighth graders from district middle schools.

Their mantra is use what weve learned in school, according to Sunny Patel, one of the teams captains.

CHS robotics alum's first bridge mentors students

Kinnelon robotics team looks to repeat last year's win

Team members counted courses in physics, math as well as auto CAD which help inform their robot design. Coach Robert Yost, Wayne Hills applied technology teacher previously served as a FIRST judge before beginning his own team in Wayne

In the back room of the workshop, senior Isabella Moran demonstrated how an idea can quickly become a prototype with the help of a laser cutter. Moran, a future engineer who also volunteers in the James Fallon Elementary School Lego Robotics program, said she often makes custom orders of keychains and other items for students on wood, acrylic and other materials using the machine.

Matt Riina, a junior, said the teams use of the program Solid Works allows them to draft and quickly 3D print or laser cut design parts to prototype, while CAD lets students test weight and force thresholds on designed pieces. Students can even simulate their robot on a virtual FIRST playing field, said Riina.

The new technology in the classroom helps students turn out a prototype in a day, saving precious time, added robotics mentor and parent, Dax Patel.

These kids are incredible. They're our future; there's no question about it.

However, programming is equally important.

During the competition, the game will begin with a two-minute period where robot alliances will work off pre-programmed instructions, or move autonomously. During the final 30 seconds, teams can take direct control.

The Patriotsrobot is loaded with sensors, said Marlin Kalutota, including those which detect color, to check which beacons need to be switched, and range sensors for more accurate shooting and movement.

This year, the teams design has earned them four awards in local competitions, including best autonomous operation. The team was also presented certificates of commendation from Mayor Chris Vergano for their efforts in robotics as they head to the next stage of the competition.

"These kids are incredible. They're our future; there's no question about it," said Vergano.

However, there are still challenges ahead. Team members cited improving the steadiness of the robots extendable arm and improving the capacity and accuracy of its ball shooter as areas for improvement the team is focusing on in their last week-and-a-half of development before the team must box their robot for state competitions.

On average the shooter is fairly accurate, however 20 to 30 percent of the time it doesnt work out like that, said Sunny Patel.

When not preparing their own robot, students are performing outreach. The students recently toured district elementary schools to spread awareness of robotics and challenge the students to innovate to solve a problem and even penned a letter to the White House.

Email: presinzanoj@northjersey.com

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Wayne robotics team bound for state championships - NorthJersey.com

Jefferson County High School hosted a day-long tournament in its gym last Saturday without any display of jump shots or slam dunks. It was the VEX Robotics Competition where robots had all the special moves.

Two enthusiastic JCHS design teams put their robots skills against those of other regional competitors. One team received two important awards the sportsmanship award and the build award.

At first glance, the audience sees the robots perform assigned tasks and they cheer for their team, explained head judge and retired engineer Rich Miller. Theres a lot more to judging than that. Teams are judged for their documentation of design plans, interview skills, and project management. All the judges and team members turn in their vote for the sportsmanship award.

Miller lives in the Nashville area and travels all over East Tennessee for tournaments because robotics competitions becoming more popular. He decided to attend the JCHS event since it is the first time for the school to host a tournament, and they have only been involved in competitions for less than one year. He wants to encourage the budding engineers from the start.

We only know a few weeks before the competition what the game goals will be, said JCHS sophomore and team member Kelsie Adams. We had to put more rubber bands on our robot to get it to lift things, but it will be fine now.

The VEX Robotics Competitions current game is called Starstruck, and is played on a 12 foot by 12 foot VEX field with a dividing wall in the middle. Two alliances one red and one blue, composed of two teams each compete in matches consisting of a fifteen second autonomous period followed by one minute and forty-five seconds of driver-controlled play.

The object of the game is to attain a higher score than the opposing alliance by placing your stars and cubes (like bean bag cushions) in your zones.

This competition was a mixed tournament where middle school and high school teams are included. Miller says that the middle schools are definitely not at a disadvantage and have as good a chance for a win as the high schools. This turned out to be true on Saturday, as Johnson County Middle School received the highest award for excellence.

Some parents from other schools talked about the personal expense for the robots. JCHS covers this expense for their students with grant money.

We get the federal Carl Perkins Career and Technical Education Grant and also receive state funding from organizations such as Tennessee Valley Authority, said Career and Technical Education (CTE) Vice Principal John Cagle. We can spend this money on robots because it is part of our curriculum for engineering.

Alan Reece, the CTE teacher coordinating the event, served as part of the referee team. He teaches digital design, AP computer science, and serves as the student advisor for the Technology Club along with teacher John Williams. He says all the judges, referees, and time keepers are volunteers.

Our teams had fun and it was a great opportunity for networking since we are new at this, said Reece. The students can use their skills to find a variety of jobs as engineers, computer programmers, and robotics designers, to name a few.

Melanie Clark was there to support her son John, and their design team. She said the team started on their robot about two months ago and worked 10-hour days on the Thursday and Friday before the tournament when school was closed due to illness.

Since JCHS was hosting the competition, the teams also had to set up the VEX fields where the robots perform. JCHS owns two fields. Most schools in the state borrow the expensive VEX fields from other schools.

Winners of various categories in the VEX Robotics Competition were:

Excellence award, which includes team (robot) performance, documentation, and interview skills: Johnson County Middle School.

Tournament champions: the best performance of assigned tasks - Cornerstone Academy.

Build and design awards: based on engineering and documentation - Johnson County Middle School.

Judges award: Cornerstone Academy.

Build Award: Jefferson County High School.

Sportsmanship Award: Jefferson County High School.

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Engineering skills on display at Robotics event - The Standard Banner

The Denfeld Nation Automation team has worked on their creation for the FIRST LEGO robotic compeition for six weeks.

DULUTH, Minn. -The LEGO FIRST robotics competition is coming up in just a few weeks at the DECC and Duluth Denfeld revealed their big star at an open house.

The Denfeld Nation Automation team has worked on their robot for the last six weeks and theyre getting ready to put on the final touches. The team is made up of around thirty five students and they say theyre excited but nervous to start competition.

Its super satisfying but its also super stressful because we know we still want to do more on the robot and we still know that if we had just a little bit more time we could make it that much better, said design lead Matthew Johnston.

The team has named their robot gamma grandpa after one of the teams adult mentors. Students work on all aspects of the robot from wiring to coding to make it run.

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Denfeld Robotics Team Unveils Robot - FOX 21 Online

There are two options for controlling a robot inside of the human body: Either you try and build some sort of intricate and tiny robot submarine with self contained propulsion and navigation, which would be really really hard to do, or you just make the robot with a tiny bit of something that responds to magnetic fields, and control it externally with some big magnets. The latter approach is vastly less complicated, but it has one major drawback, which is that its very hard to manage multiple robots.

Heres the problem: Magnetic fields, being fields, arent easily constrained to specific areas. Realistically, if youre using something like a clinical MRI scanner to create a magnetic field, whatever gradient you give the field will affect everything inside of the MRI, whether youve got one single microbot or a vast swarm of them. If you want two different robots to do two different things, youre out of luck.

One potential way of getting around this is by making each of your robots slightly different, such that consistent control inputs have inconsistent effects on each robot. But for homogenous robots, its much more difficult. In a paper published today in Science Robotics, researchers from Philips, in Hamburg, Germany,describe a technique that can use magnetic fields to selectively actuate individual microbots, or individual components of a robot, even if theyre all made of the same stuff and located within the same field.

Please enjoy this utterly charming explanatory video from the researchers:

Coooool.

Heres how it works: The global magnetic field inside of the device has a hole in it, called a free field point (FFP), where multiple magnetic fields (each generated by a separate coil) meet up. Inside of the FFP, the magnetic field gradient is low. This doesnt help you move things, but it does help you not move things, because you can lock everything that isnt in the FFP in place by cranking up the field gradient. Then, you apply a gentle rotating magnetic field, which spins anything inside of the FFP and not locked down. By moving the FFP around, you can select which things are lockedand which things are free to rotate.

In this case, the lock is the screws being tilted sideways by the field such that they cant rotate, while the FFP is a region of zero tilt, meaning that the screws can rotate freely. The hardware used in this study was able to individually actuate screws as close together as 3 millimeters.

The researchers suggest a whole bunch of different ways in which this technique could be of practical, immediate use:

One class of applications is based on mechanisms driven by several screws that are controlled individually. In orthopedics, this could be implants, whose shape can be adapted to the healing process. In applications such as limb lengthening or early-onset scoliosis, a mechanism based on several controllable screws may offer higher flexibility in extendible prostheses or growth rods. In addition, the approach can be useful in microfluidics, where simple and tiny magnetic pumps and valves may be envisioned that can be individually actuated without an electrical or mechanical link.

Another class of applications is related to simple micromachines for local therapy delivery, such as remote-controlled drug release from a distribution of injectable magnetic micropills. Remotely switchable radioactive seeds are a special case of this class. Switchable seeds would enable the use of sources with longer half-life or higher dose rates because the radiation can be switched off after the desired dose has been applied. Besides, migrating seeds ending up too close to healthy tissue or sensitive organs could be switched off.

Using a helically slotted shield, directional seeds with remotely adjustable radiation direction could be built. These would allow further improvements in dose painting and sparing of healthy tissue. In addition, magnetic manipulation has been shown to be scalable to the micrometer regime. Using a catheter, seeds of this size could be discharged into the bloodstream of a tumor-feeding artery so that they are carried into the tumor and embolize small vessels. After localization via imaging, only seeds that ended up in the tumor would be activated remotely.

[ Paper ]

IEEE Spectrum's award-winning robotics blog, featuring news, articles, and videos on robots, humanoids, drones, automation, artificial intelligence, and more. Contact us:e.guizzo@ieee.org

Sign up for the Automaton newsletter and get biweekly updates about robotics, automation, and AI, all delivered directly to your inbox.

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Magnetic Control Could Help Robots Navigate Inside Your Body - IEEE Spectrum