Category Archives: Robotics

People often ask me about the real-life potential for inhumane, merciless systems like Hal 9000 or the Terminator to destroy our society.

Growing up in Belgium and away from Hollywood, my initial impressions of robots were not so violent. In retrospect, my early positive affiliations with robots likely fueled my drive to build machines to make our everyday lives more enjoyable. Robots working alongside humans to manage day-to-day mundane tasks was a world I wanted to help create.

Now, many years later, after emigrating to the United States, finishing my PhD under Andrew Ng, starting the Berkeley Robot Learning Lab, and co-founding Covariant, Im convinced that robots are becoming sophisticated enough to be the allies and helpful teammates that I hoped for as a child.

Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) are leading to the emergence of a new class of robot. These are machines that go beyond the traditional bots running preprogrammed motions; these are robots that can see, learn, think, and react to their surroundings.

While we may not personally witness or interact with robots directly in our daily lives, there will be a day over the next five years in which our households and workplaces are dependent upon the role of robots to run smoothly. Here are a few standout examples, drawn from some of my guests on The Robot Brains Podcast.

After spending months in Africa and South America talking to medical and disaster relief providers, Keenan Wyrobek foresaw how AI-powered drone technology could make a positive impact. He started Zipline, which provides drones to handle important and dangerous deliveries. Now shipping one ton of products a day, the company is helping communities in need by using robots to accomplish critical deliveries (theyre even delivering in parts of the US).

Recycling is one of the most important activities we can do for a healthier planet. However, its a massive undertaking. Consider that each human being produces almost 5 lbs of waste a day and there are 7.8 billion of us. The real challenge comes in with second sortingthe separation process applied once the easy-to-sort materials have been filtered. Matanya Horowitz sat down with me to explain how AMP Robotics helps facilities across the globe save and reuse valuable materials that are worth billions of dollars but were traditionally lost to landfills.

Marc Segura of ABB, a robotics firm started in 1988, shared real stories from warehouses across the globe in which robots are managing jobs that have high-accident rates or long-term health consequences for humans. With robots that are strong enough to lift one-ton cars with just one arm, and other robots that can build delicate computer chips (a task that can cause long-term vision impairments for a person), there are a whole range of machines handling tasks not fit for humans.

Long before covid-19 started calling our attention to the overworked nature of being a healthcare worker, Andrea Thomas of Diligent Robotsnoticed the issue. She spoke with me about the inspiration for designing Moxi, a nurse helper. Now being used in Dallas hospitals, the robots help clinical staff with tasks that dont involve interacting with patients. Nurses have reported lowered stress levels as mundane errands like supply stocking is automatically handled. Moxi is even adding a bit of cheer to patients days as well.

Picking and sorting the harvest is the most time-sensitive and time-consuming task on a farm. Getting it right can make a massive difference to the crops return. I got the chance to speak with AppHarvests Josh Lessing, who built the worlds first cross-crop AI, Virgo, that learned how to pick all different types of produce. Virgo can switch between vastly different shapes, densities, and growth scenarios, meaning one day it can pick tomatoes, the next cucumbers, and after that, strawberries. Virgo currently operates at the AppHarvest greenhouses in Kentucky to grow non-GMO, chemical-free produce.

Collaborating with software-driven co-workers is no longer the future; its now. Perhaps youve already seen some examples. Youll be seeing a lot more in the decade to come.

Pieter Abbeel is the director of the Berkeley Robot Learning Lab and a co-founder of Covariant, an AI robotics firm. Subscribe to his podcast wherever you like to listen.

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UC Berkeley's Pieter Abbeel on how robots will change the world - Quartz

RE2 Robotics, a developer of intelligent mobile manipulation systems, has agreed a developmental partnership with JLG Industries, part of the Oshkosh group and a manufacturer of mobile elevating work platforms and telehandlers.

The collaboration of these two companies is intended to advance the integration of robotics with access equipment.

Jorgen Pedersen, RE2s president and CEO, says: The future of work is here. Humans and robots are working more closely together, and the construction industry is no exception.

Our developmental partnership with JLG will enable us to apply our proven robotic technology to specific applications, including those that require working at height and repetitive lifting such as solar field construction.

We are excited to partner with JLG to bring industry-transforming innovations to the construction market.

Frank Nerenhausen, Oshkosh executive vice president and president, JLG Industries, says: While JLG has been leveraging and developing robotics in specific areas of our business for quite some time, our focus has shifted to developing and incorporating solutions that integrate with our lifts to help offset labor shortages and provide assistive technologies to a now 5-generation workforce.

The relationship with RE2 allows us to partner with an organization who has the same drive for excellence as JLG, enabling us to accelerate the integration of robotics across our product line to move the access industry forward.

Development efforts are underway between RE2 and JLG to integrate RE2 Sapien robotic arm technology, along with RE2 Detect and RE2 Intellect software, with a JLG aerial work platform to support the transfer, manipulation, and placement of photovoltaic modules for solar field construction.

JLG is supplying engineering support during the technology development phase of the project. Joint work is being completed on the mechanical and control system interface between the robotic arm and the lift.

Skilled workers will supervise the robotic solar field construction system, which uses computer vision to autonomously retrieve solar panels from a delivery vehicle and precisely place the panels onto a racking system. An onsite worker then follows to secure the panel.

The RE2 Sapien intelligent robotic arm offers a high strength-to-weight ratio, precise control, and human-like dexterity to place the burden of the heavy lifting on the robotic system.

This system is expected to significantly improve productivity and reduce the amount of time required to construct a solar field.

The resulting integration will provide the foundation for the robotic solar field construction system. This effort is in conjunction with RE2s program with the US Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office to develop a robotic system for the Outdoor Autonomous Manipulation of Photovoltaic Panels.

Nerenhausen says: Our work with RE2 Robotics is an excellent example of how we are driving progress with companies who are experts and leaders in their respective fields.

According to the companies, a concept machine is forthcoming, with demonstrations planned to gather additional feedback in the near future.

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RE2 Robotics partners with JLG Industries to build robotic elevation platforms - Robotics and Automation News

A fast-growing Pittsburgh tech startup wants to help the city solve its infrastructure problems. As residents know, its a mission that couldnt be fulfilled sooner.

Founded in 2021, Bloomfield-based startup Mach9 Roboticslaunched a new effort this week to use its integrated hardware and mapping software to provide bridge inspections and assessments in response to the collapse of the Fern Hollow Bridge last Friday. The Pittsburgh Bridge Initiative, as the company is calling it, will involve a concerted program to map, monitor and assess the approximately 450 bridges in the Pittsburgh region over the next year.

After meeting at Carnegie Mellon Universitys Robotics Institute, Mach9s three cofounders Alexander Baikovitz, Haowen Shi and Josh Spisak joined last springs batch of companies in the prestigious accelerator Y Combinator, which helps startups workshop their ideas and provides them with access to early funding. Mach9s support from Y Combinator, along with its first place win in last years CMU McGinnis Venture Competitionand investments from Tiger Global CapitalManagement, Soma Capital and 99Tartans put the nascent company on Technical.lysfirst-ever Pittsburgh RealLIST Startups last month.

As for the new focus on bridges with this initiative, this has been certainly a topic that has been critically on our mind ever since we started the company over a year ago, said Baikovitz, who is also the startups CEO. And really, the mission that we have is to develop technology to sense infrastructure failures.

Digital reconstruction of the Three Sisters and Sixteenth Street bridges created by Mach9 Robotics. (Courtesy image)

Not only does Mach9s technology monitor infrastructure like bridges more efficiently than human workers can, he said, it actually does it better. Using its signature mobile mapping devices called CUBEs which are equipped with ground penetrating radar, thermal cameras, LiDAR sensors and more, Mach9 collects information to map qualities of both surface and underground models of bridges that arent visible to the human eye.

What we see [CUBEs] doing is going out, collecting all of this relevant information, providing ways to process the information and find problems within it, Baikovitz said, and then empower the human inspectors and engineers and stakeholders so that they can make decisions based on the data.

Its no secret that infrastructure in the United States, and Pittsburgh, is failing. Since the collapse of the Fern Hollow Bridge, several local news outlets highlighted the 174 other bridges in the region with the same poor condition ratings. So, why the need for advanced technology to tell us something we already know?

What we really want to be able to distinguish between is the difference between poor infrastructure and infrastructure that needs to be able to be shut down, Baikovitz said. Right now, city and state governments might be so overwhelmed with the amount of infrastructure needing maintenance that they struggle to appropriately triage and prioritize the work needed. We dont necessarily think just adding sensing modalities is the only way to solve these types of problems, but we believe that there could be this chance that we can find something that a human just couldnt see and that can prevent incidents like this from happening again in the future.

Digitizing highway bridge infrastructure on the Pennsylvania 28 by Mach9 Robotics. (Courtesy image)

Currently, Mach9 doesnt have any formal partnerships with local government organizations in charge of infrastructure maintenance and repair. Baikovitz said a main focus of the first few months of this year will be in building up those relationships, as well as ones with other stakeholders like bridge inspectors and civil engineers. The key to Mach9s revenue model, he added, relies on providing stakeholders and relevant organizations with the actionable insights and data that the CUBEs collect.

As for whether or not a city with an already stretched infrastructure budget would be open to a deal with Mach9, Baikovitz compares the need for this data to the healthcare industry.

If you go to a doctors office and you get an X-ray or MRI, youre able to diagnose issues that you can actually track over time, he said, noting that the data these technologies provide enables medical professionals to take preventative action before a patients health issues become serious or terminal. And thats exactly what we see [as] the role of this technology. But in the infrastructure space, its being able to identify issues early enough so that you dont have to remediate an entire bridge, or exercise tons of capital to be able to solve a problem that could have been prevented.

Following a seed round of around $2.5 million in December, Baikovitz said Mach9 will use the capital to support new hiring across both technical and business development roles. Beyond the bridge initiative, Mach9 also has plans to assess applications for its technology in the utilities industry, as a potential way to address the high frequency of outages across the country every day.

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Mach9 Robotics' new Pittsburgh Bridge Initiative aims to triage infrastructure repair - Technical.ly

School of Computer Science

Location: LincolnSalary: From 51,799 per annumThis post is full time and permanent at 1.0 FTEClosing Date: Wednesday 02 March 2022Interview Date: Friday 25 March 2022Reference: COS219

The School of Computer Science seeks to appoint an Associate Professor with an established and sustained academic profile within Robotics and Autonomous Systems. The School of Computer Science is a key player in the continued success story of the University of Lincoln, the Modern University of the Year 2021 (awarded by the Times Good University Guide). It pursues a blend of fundamental, applied and interdisciplinary research, with current focus areas in Computer Vision, Machine Learning, Robotics and Autonomous Systems, and Human-Computer Interaction. The post holder is expected to contribute to the School's teaching activities and to develop their research portfolio, to include: acquiring external funding; supervising postdoctoral researchers and PhD students; publishing in the highest quality journals and conferences; strengthening industry partnerships and contributing to real-world applications with positive impacts; and conducting, directing and leading research to fulfil the Universitys ambition and strategic objectives.

Associate Professors are involved in university service beyond their School and College, demonstrating continuous academic attainment and achievement, providing academic leadership through active contribution to their discipline and enhancing the Universitys national and international reputation.

The successful candidate will be part of the Lincoln Centre for Autonomous Systems (L-CAS), the College of Sciences cross-disciplinary research centre in robotics. It is internationally recognised for its contributions in perception, learning, decision-making, control and interaction capabilities of autonomous robotic systems, in application domains including agri-food, healthcare, transportation, logistics, nuclear robotics, space and service robotics. L-CAS is among the fastest-growing robotics groups in the UK, a member of the UKRAS network, and a partner in many collaborative research projects; with funding from UK Research Councils (EPSRC and BBSRC), InnovateUK and EU Research Programmes, among others. It provides a highly dynamic, inter-disciplinary research environment, with extensive collaboration opportunities, many robotic platforms (wheeled, humanoid, robotic arms, manipulators, swarms, etc), and established support infrastructures.

We specifically welcome applications to establish new areas of research that complement our existing specialisms, such as (but not limited to): robotic manipulation and grasping; mobile manipulation; fleet robotics; robot learning; soft robotics; and haptics. The postholder will be part of the leadership team of L-CAS, with independence and support to take their team towards world-leading research contributions and new opportunities.

The University is committed to building a culturally diverse institution, where all staff and students can flourish and feel valued for their contribution and individuality. We welcome talented people, whatever their background, to work and study here. All appointments are made on merit. We particularly encourage applications from suitably qualified female academics, as they are currently under-represented in positions within the School.

If you would like to know more about this opportunity, please contact Prof Simon Parsons, Head of the School of Computer Science atsparsons@lincoln.ac.uk.

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Associate Professor in Robotics job with UNIVERSITY OF LINCOLN | 280191 - Times Higher Education (THE)

Bolk, a maker of bowl-making robotic canteen, announced today that is has raised 4 million in new funding.

Founded in 2020, the French startup is using the capital to build prototypes which it has already started to deploy around Paris and surrounding areas.

The Bolk canteen bot, which is reminiscent of Chowbotics Sally robot, takes up 2 square meters of floor space and can produce up to 60 meals an hour. The Bolk is completely autonomous and can make a variety of foods, using a mix of sweet, savory, cold or hot ingredients that can make up to 300 total combinations.

The company supplies food ingredients to each robot. Ingredients are pre-cooked in local kitchens in Paris, and Bolk re-stocks each robot twice a week, on Monday and Wednesday.

The company plans to expand in 2022, looking to deploy up to 40 Bolk-bots around France. The initial rollout will be into corporate offices, but the company also has plans to explore other potential venues such as public spaces or retail environments.

The company was founded by Nicolas Jeanne, who like many in this space point to a mission of democratizing fresh food through the use of robotics.

The catering sector is constantly evolving and we are building a new self-service food experience, offering companies and their staff a daily menu of delicious and eco-responsible meals at the best possible prices; meals that are made to order and produced in 45 seconds flat, therefore ultra-fresh, said Jeanne.

You can get a sneak peek at the Bolk in the video below.

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Meet Bolk, a Robotic Bowl Food Canteen Company That Just Raised 4M - The Spoon

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Welcome to Episode 68 of The Robot Report Podcast, which brings conversations with robotics innovators straight to you. Join us each week for discussions with leading roboticists, innovative robotics companies, and other key members of the robotics community.

In todays episode, Steve and Mike interview Adrian Macneil, co-founder and CEO of Calif.-based startup Foxglove, discusses open source visualization and debugging tool for robotics. He discusses the companys spin-out from autonomous driving company Cruise, how its solutions differ from RViz, challenges of robotics development and the keys to running his startup. Foxglove recently raised $3.7 million in Seed funding.

We also discuss some of the more interesting new stories that happened prior to recording the podcast. That includes how robots helped build the James Webb telescope, an improved Pepper humanoid that never came to light, and the potential fallout of the $40 billion deal between NVIDIA and Arm.

Links from the show this week:

If you would like to be a guest on an upcoming episode of the podcast, or if you have recommendations for future guests or segment ideas, contact Steve Crowe or Mike Oitzman.

For sponsorship opportunities of The Robot Report Podcast, contact Courtney Nagle for more information.

We want your feedback:

Tell us what you think are the most interesting robotics trends that will impact us in 2022? Leave us a voicemail.

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Open-source visualization and debugging for robotics - Robot Report

LYNN HAVEN, Fla. (WMBB) A Bay County youth robotics team is headed to the state title competition.

The Galactic Squirrels Robotics team members were runners-up in the First Tech Challenge (FTC) AeroCoast league championship this past weekend.

The team designed, created, and programmed a robot to pick up an object then place it on a specific target.

This is the second time the team has gone to state, but it will be their first time in person.

COVID forced organizers to stage last years event virtually.

It feels wonderful for us, team member T. Carson Kelly said. We put a lot of hours in. Many weekends competing, practicing, getting everything ready as well as over the past few years honing our skills. Our coders learning how to code, learning new stuff so that way we can bring the next season even better.

The team needs to raise three-thousand dollars in the next month to pay for the trip to state costs.

For a link to their GoFundMe account, click here.

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Beep Boop! Youth robotics team headed to state competition - WMBB - mypanhandle.com

ELMHURST Students at St. Bartholomew Catholic Academy became the teachers on Monday, Jan. 31, when Bishop Robert Brennan toured their classes at the start of Catholic Schools Week 2022.

The SBCA Robotics Team dubbed The Sharp Blades demonstrated their skills in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) by applying them to a real-world issue: pollution caused by cargo ship traffic in New York Harbor.

The team described how alternative fuels and mechanical applications can be used to help restore the harbors ecosystems. Eighth-grader Jesson Thagoo and seventh-grader Mauricio Sosa operated small, motorized Lego robots to simulate more efficient and environmentally friendly ways to unload cargo. The Sharp Blades will compete with these robots in February in the FIRST Lego League (FLL) Queens Qualifiers Robotics Competition.

There were a couple of small glitches in their demonstration, prompting the students to concede, Its a work in progress. Still, Bishop Brennan was fascinated by the team members ingenuity.

This is amazing, he told them. And Im glad to see its a work in progress. Id rather see that so that later we can see how you will overcome the problem. Im really proud of you.

Bishop Brennan talked about Catholic education and his commitment to it before he was even installed in November to lead the Diocese of Brooklyn. He said he was eager to meet students, faculty, administrators, and parents at diocesan schools throughout the week.

For more than 50 years, the annual Catholic Schools Week has highlighted how Catholic education benefits children nationwide in learning about their faith, academics, and service to humanity.

Ive had the chance to visit a couple of schools along the way, Bishop Brennan said before touring St. Bartholomew. But now Im excited to be able to dedicate this week in a very intense way to visiting schools.

From the moment I arrived at this school, I could see how impressive it is, like so many of our schools, he added. I met a number of parents and I get a sense of their profound appreciation for what the school does for their children, and also for some of the support that is given through the Futures in Education program scholarships. It really, really makes a difference.

Father Rick Beuther, pastor of St. Bartholomews Parish, called SBCA a place of mission, where parents sacrifice to send their children, and where that sacrifice pays off in how the students are guided in their Catholic faith, and in the knowledge of important subjects, such as STEM.

Danielle Tuble and Nicholas Borja, both 8th graders, said their Catholic faith is reinforced by science.

Its really cool because, you think that science and religion arent alike, theyre not together, Tuble said, When, in fact, there are things that do correlate.

What happens, Borja added, is that science actually makes religion look a lot more detailed, and a lot more planned. Like with DNA its really complicated and super precise. And its in every cell. It just makes you think about how God programmed us.

Father Beuther estimated that about 5,000 parishioners attend Mass at St. Bartholomew each Sunday, adding that about 70% are from countries throughout Latin America, and 30% are from Asian nations. The schools kindergarten through 8th-grade enrollment reflects those demographics, he said.

Most of our parents here in the academy were not born here in this country, Father Beuther said. I would say a lot of our families are undocumented, some are Dreamers, on the way there, but theyre all first-generation who believe in the Church. And they believe in the Church community.

SBCA Principal Denise Gonzalez estimated that about 65% of the 162 students come from undocumented families. She said 70 of these families receive scholarships from the diocese.

Our families are very committed to their childrens education a Catholic, faith-based education, she said. And so they sacrifice, especially after the pandemic when they struggle economically. They still want to keep their children here.

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Catholic Schools Week Starts With Robotics Demonstration For Bishop Brennan - The Tablet Catholic Newspaper

Four days a week after school and on Saturdays, a group of students from Worthington Kilbourne and Thomas Worthington high schools make their way to a workshop at Kilbourne.

There, instead of playing sports or instruments or doing other extracurricular activities,they build robots.

The 43 students comprise Worbots 4145, a Worthington Schools robotics team that builds and programs robots to compete in annual international FIRST Robotics Competition events, which drawthousands ofrobotics teams and high schoolers from around the world.

"It's a lot of fun;it's pretty competitive,"said Tom Karns, a STEM teacher at Worthington Schools who has been running the program since it was founded a decade ago. "It's actually considered to be the sport of the mind."

One of the Worbots 4145 students is Owen Marano, a Kilbourne junior in his third year with the team. Marano is the fabrication lead who heads the development of the team's robots; he also serves asthe driver.

Ive learned so much about the whole building aspect of the robot, he said. Ive learned a lot about the engineering process that we focus heavily on.

We start with an initial designand move onto prototyping and final build. And we just test it further and try to keep improving. Its kind of helped me learn you can always continue to do better, and theres no one great solution.

Worbots 4145 was launched in 2012 with fewer than a dozen members and limited resources, according to its website, worbots4145.org.Since then, the group has increased in size and capabilities and has experienced success, having won the FIRST Buckeye regional event in 2018 and 2019.

This year, the team is lined up to compete at regional competitions at the California University of Pennsylvania from March 16-19, at the Cleveland State University Wolstein Center fromMarch 23-26and at the University of Illinois Chicago from April 6-9.

If the team performs well, it will compete in the world championship at the University of Houston in Texas from April 20-23.

Each competition takes place on a court where robots have to complete such feats as shooting oversized tennis balls into a large hub and traversing a set of metal barsakin to monkey bars on what is termed a hangar, according to a FIRST Robotics Youtube video describing the competition.

At each contest, three Worthington students are matched up with two teams of three students from other schools to create a nine-person team, and they then compete against another nine-person team on the playing field.

Its not easytheres about 60 teams at each event, Karns said. "You roll in there, and every game you play you play (is) with someone different. And whats interesting is the people you just played with, theyre on the other team the next time.

The students build and program Worbots robots, including a large, complicated build named Atlas that is programmed to shoot tennis balls into a bucket.

They includeTyler Zupfer, a senior at Thomas in his fourthyear with Worbots 4145 who serves as the assistant program lead.

Ive learned not only a lot of programming and software skills, but Ive also learned how a lot of the electrical and electrical mechanical aspects interface with a lot of that, he said.

The robots and the program itself arent cheap.

Karns said in the 2019 season, FIRST Robotics teams were permitted to spend up to $4,000 overall on their projects. That figure was increased to $5,000 in the 2020 season.

This year, Karns said, teams are permitted to spend up to $600 per individual part, but theres no limit to how much they can spend.

Theres where business outreach and corporate sponsorships come in.

Braylee Hsu, a junior at Thomas in her second year with Worbots 4145, works on business outreach and securing sponsorships for the team and works on such community outreach efforts as a food drive planned in the coming weeks.

Hsu said she has worked this year to acquire sponsorships fromATS Ohio andLake Shore Cryotronics.

Its taught me how to interact with other businesses, and how to reach out to these people, she said. And get to know my team and understand our strengths and weaknesses so I can communicate with others, This is what were doing, and this is how we can make our community better.'"

The work during their extracurricular time develops STEM and business skills for the students, Marano said.

And if all goes according to plan, theyll win more FIRST Robotics accolades this year to show their efforts, he said.

I think it really helps the students and our team to prepare for whats ahead, Marano said. Around 90-95% of the kids that do our program go into engineering.

For more information on the Worbots team, go toworbots4145.org.

sborgna@thisweeknews.com

@ThisWeekSteve

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Worthington Schools students building skills for career and life on Worbots robotics team - The Columbus Dispatch

ST Robotics has been making robot arms for 30 years but the fact is robot arms are very limited in what they can do. They are basically machines that, once programmed do exactly the same thing over and over. They are versatile enough that the same robot can do a vast range of different tasks and moreover can be re-programmed to do a different task at any time. But we are moving to a world where robots need to make intelligent decisions about what to do based on what they see. Hence the need for machine learning, vision and AI.

AI and machine learning are often confused. Most AI works by comparing a complex input (like an image or a voice) with a data base of similar matches. These data take ages to build and label usually with 1000s of images used to compare. The input, ie a camera image, is then captured, usually with a box drawn around it. It is then compared to the huge database in layers of a neural network until a desired output is reached and a decision can be made. This is not quite the same as machine learning where the machine acquires its own data or changes what it has. The machine might be teaching itself from its experience of the real world or may be assisted by a human operator.

Steve Wozniak has dismissed AI as not coming near real intelligence. AI doesn't even have the intelligence of an ant; we are simply working at the limits of what computers can do. And while he is right ST Robotics and many other companies are now working at these limits to make robots that can actually make intelligent decisions about what they do and what to do next. Some are fairly simple, like the Roomba but there are autonomous AI powered robots that will mow your lawn. They don't have to be quick leave them to get on with it; come back later and it's done. And overnight too!

Autonomous AI lawnmowers

ST are developing autonomous robots for crop harvesting. We are currently working on a robot to harvest asparagus and are about to start a project for picking grapes. Both these systems need a vision system that can recognize the asparagus spears or bunches of grapes and harvest them the way a human being would do. This is a completely different approach from farm machines with rotating blades and so on pulled by tractors. Such techniques are unsuitable for delicate crops like asparagus that can only be picked by the human or robot hand.

Another example is the Dogtooth robot that picks strawberries. ST Robotics licensed the R12 robot arm to them to get them started. They are now going on to large scale production.

A Dogtooth strawberry picking 'team'.

Like ST's Asparacut the Dogtooth robots rely on sophisticated vision with multiple cameras.

Joseph Engelberger once dismissed vision as unnecessary, writing I don't expect to see a Ford coming down a Chrysler line (or something like that!). But such a repetitive product doesn't appear in the natural world. For example the ST Robotics GUS robot harvests living asparagus. Asparagus spears grow in random places; they can be tall, short, bent and different colors. The robot has got to recognize it for what it is, make decisions about quality and shape and know exactly where it is and where to cut it.Autonomous robots need to be self navigating (by definition). Dogtooth and others may use GPS. ST's approach is more like a space craft (I can't reveal how we do that due to IP confidentiality). It means our robot can navigate down between asparagus beds or rows of vines. Intelligent suspension keeps the robot level.

Concept drawing of ST Robotics robot chassis.

Agricultural robots can't use surroundings as a means of location. Back in 1989 we designed an autonomous robot that could find its way around a factory floor, building a map as it went along using ultrasonics and a flux-gate compass. Of course, factory machines don't change their shapes and are in fixed predictable positions; plants are not. Alas back then it was viewed as a crackpot idea and got no interest. (never invent something too soon!)

The ST platform is designed to harvest the way a human being harvests and can be adapted to any crop from asparagus to cannabis.

About ST Robotics

Manufacturer of low cost bench top robot arms with a unique approach to robotics. We have a range of robot arms for routine testing, manufacturing, sample handling, education and many others. Our robots are not only affordable but are incredibly easy to use - anyone can apply and program an ST robot regardless of experience or lack of it thanks to our acclaimed manuals and tutorials and unlimited free technical support.

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The Next Generation of Robots | RoboticsTomorrow - Robotics Tomorrow