Category Archives: Robotics

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Welcome to Episode 63 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 robotics innovator Esben stergaard, CEO of Reinvest Robotics and cofounder of Universal Robots. We discuss the potential impact of the pending EU AI Act and Machinery Directive. These directives are likely to impact the growth of AI startup in the EU and burden them with rules that will hamper innovation. Esben offers his thoughts about innovation and how successful robotics startups need a competitive playing field to be successful. Could this be the death of robotic and AI innovation in the EU? Listen in to learn more.

Heres a link to Esbens recent blog about the impact of the EU AI Act and Machinery Directive.

The approach of the current machinery directive is sufficient. The problem is with governance. We recommend focusing on ensuring that products on the market actually comply with the current EU law, not creating new regulations, said stergaard.

Steve and Mike also review the latest robotics news stories from the last week, including the following stories reported on The Robot Report:

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.

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Tell us what you think was the biggest or most interesting robotics news story of 2021? Leave us a voicemail.

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Esben stergaard: EU AI Act will stifle robotics innovation - Robot Report

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Hi, Im Melissa Griffen, Contributing Editor for Healthcare Packaging. Since the FDA released its current good manufacturing practices and 21st century initiative that includes promoting industry modernization, the majority of industriesincluding pharmahave gotten onboard the digitalization and Industry 4.0 train.

During the 2021 PDA/FDA Joint Regulatory Conference, three industry panelists and a U.S. FDA regulatory expert discussed various improvements that have come to the industry since the debut of the FDAs initiative.

James C. Weber, advisor IT in digital manufacturing at Eli Lilly and Company, addressed the benefits of adopting modern technology that Eli Lilly experienced through developing a Global Robotics Program and integrating biometric solutions, both of which furthered the companys digital plant aspirations.

Weber explained that along with the ergonomic and economic drivers, most players in pharma are pursuing some type of robotics program, which moved Eli Lilly to develop its own program. Efforts began in 2017 in establishing central staffing and funding with site experts developing solutions that ranged from automated logistics operations to automated cleaning, flexible aseptic filling, and more.

A specific robotic solution brought up by the two other industry panelists, Carl-Helmut Coulon, PhD and head of future manufacturing concepts at Invite GmbH, and David Wolton, engineering technology lead at Takeda, was autonomous mobile robots or AMRs. These robots work 24/7, do not host viruses or bacteria like humans, are cleaner overall, and are ideal for repetitive or manual tasks.

Coulon and Wolton further brought up a concern surrounding AMRs. These robots are commonly used for the delivery and removal of items, such as waste, consumables, and spare parts, but they are highly expensive assets, often resulting in a company having just one AMR that likely needs to traverse all parts of the facility including air locks. Getting through air locks is the biggest challenge keeping the use of AMRs from becoming widespread.

Wolton and Coulon concluded that a concept for validating automated cleaning of complex equipment taking into account environmental, equipment, and substance features needs to be developed and to do so, engineers and pharmacists must be connected through a working group to debate the topic and recommend a path forward.

Nicholas A. Violand, investigator and drug national expert at ORA, U.S. FDA stated that one of the primary contributors to contamination in drug manufacturing is the personnel, asserting that the greater the level of separation between personnel and operation the greater level of sterility assurance.

Microbiological contamination of drug products purporting to be sterile has continued to be a top 20 observed citation in the drug realm over the last decade according to FDA research, and is mainly caused by operators not following sanitation guidelines. A solution not as widespread as the FDA expected is the use of isolator technology.

Violand listed typical advantages of the closed isolator design, including it being fully closed, with personnel completely separated from aseptic operations; positive pressure with no interventions requiring open doors permitted; and decontamination occurring after initial line setup and any necessary open-door activities.

For more on biometrics benefits, next level opportunities in robotics and biometrics, and suggested solutions in AMR usage, check out the full story at the URL on screen. Thanks and see you next time on Take Five Video with Healthcare Packaging.

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Robotics, Biometrics, and Isolator Technology Are the Future of Pharma - Healthcare Packaging

Rahgooy was among the initial cohort of five students to join the program when it was established two years ago and was one of two students who transferred to UWF from Tulane University on the heels of Dr. Brent Venable, the programs founding director. Venable previously held a joint appointment as a professor of computer science at Tulane and research scientist at IHMC.

The graduation of our first doctoral student is an incredible milestone for the intelligent systems and robotics program, Venable said. Only two years after its establishment, our program is contributing to the highly skilled workforce in the intelligent systems field, which is a national priority with a high demand market. His graduation validates and motivates all of our students, as well as UWF and IHMC mentors, to continue pursuing our innovative and personalized approach to graduate education in intelligent systems and robotics.

Rahgooy was a second year doctoral student at Tulane University when Venable accepted the director role at UWF. He said it wasnt initially an easy decision to transfer, but three key factors played a role in convincing him to make the jump.

I really enjoyed working with Dr. Venable, as she is an extraordinary researcher and advisor and I knew that continuing to work with her would keep me on track for my future career, Rahgooy said. She told me about the IHMC community, which gives intelligent systems and robotics students access to world-class researchers. Finally, I knew the program would provide facilities for doctoral students that are essential for performing many machine learning and artificial intelligence tasks requiring the handling of big data.

The program centers on developing leading-edge software and hardware technology that combines human and machine elements to exploit their respective strengths and mitigate their respective weaknesses. It aligns with the Universitys strategic vision for research that impacts Northwest Floridas economic development and technology enterprise. The first of its kind in Florida and one of only a few in the nation, the program serves the manufacturing, health care, defense and other high-tech industries, providing critical support to high-demand career fields.

The doctorate in intelligent systems and robotics program provides students with individualized paths tailored to their interests. The program is comprised of foundational courses in robotics and artificial intelligence that address topics such as knowledge representation and reasoning, machine learning, computational methods in AI, basic hardware/software interaction and research methods.

Through the program, I worked with great researchers who helped me understand the whole research environment better, and who gave help and guidance about the choices I should make for my future, Rahgooy said. The financial support of the program allowed me to fully focus on research without any distractions, and I was always supported and encouraged by the department to participate in prestigious conferences both for presenting my work and as an attendee. This accelerated my progress, which resulted in several publications and presentations. Now at the end of my doctorate, I feel really proud of what Ive achieved and the kind of resume I was able to build in this program.

Since its establishment in Fall 2019, the program has grown to include 15 students from seven countries and 20 supervisors from IHMC and UWFs departments of intelligent systems and robotics, computer science and earth and environmental sciences. Venable said the cutting-edge research portfolio of investigated topics includes human-machine teaming, vision, robotics, natural language processing, cybersecurity, machine learning, cognitive systems, multi-agent systems and marine environmental sensing.

Our program allows the mentor-student team to tailor the coursework and research portfolio to specific interests pursued by each team, following the European style for doctorates and freeing them from the academic constraints typically involved in the vast majority of AI and robotics graduate programs in the United States, Venable said. This level of personalization facilitates collaboration with industry and a project-driven style of research.

Rahgooy earned a bachelors degree in computer engineering from the University of Isfahan in Iran, and a masters in artificial intelligence at Ferdowsi University in Mashdad, Iran, before beginning his doctoral studies in computer science at Tulane University. His research focus at UWF has been learning cognitive models of decision-making using machine learning.

His dissertation, titled Machine Learning Guided by Linguistic and Behavioral Knowledge discusses the data-driven methods hes developed for learning various cognitive models of decision making, along with his work to expand into problems with sequential settings such as reinforcement learning.

Rahgooy said the next step in his career is finding research positions in the intelligent systems and robotics industry to continue his efforts.

Working with Taher has been a true pleasure, Venable said. He is the ideal doctoral student, one to whom you throw an idea and he comes back with a paper. He features a rare combination of a theoretical clarity of thought and very strong algorithmic and coding skills. He has grown into a mature and independent expert in intelligent systems and I am looking forward to hearing about his future successes.

For more information about the intelligent systems and robotics doctoral program at UWF, visit uwf.edu/isr.

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UWF Intelligent Systems and Robotics program celebrates first Ph.D. graduate - University of West Florida Newsroom - UWF Newsroom

The recent applications of robotics in agriculture are paving a way for a bright future for the farmers.

The global population is predicted to reach 9 billion by 2025. With a dramatic rise on the way, it is time for the countries to think of new ways to feed their people. However, it is not simple. As the population moves from rural to urban grounds and no one is coming forward to take care of next-generation farming, now is the right time to infuse disruptive technologies like artificial intelligence and robotics in agriculture. Already robotics has invaded many commercial spaces like customer service, manufacturing, shipping, and transportation. Fortunately, the agriculture sector is next in line to adopt technology for a major transition. But why robotics out of all the technologies? Because it can fill the gap between manpower needs and production needs. The agriculture sector is undergoing a high-tech revolution as primary producers increasingly turn to robotics to meet multiple challenges. Already the United States, Australia, Japan, and European nations are embracing robotics to weed out production challenges. The future of robotics in agriculture is anticipated to rise drastically in the coming years.

Sowing seeds is the basic process to begin farming. Traditionally, farmers have been sprinkling seeds using their hands. When modern machinery came to effect, farmers used broadcast spreader attacked to a tracker to sprinkle them. Although the process got simple, these attached features threw a large proportion of seeds around the field, making a complete waste of it. Thankfully, autonomous precision seeding is here to help. With a combination of robotics and geomapping, the mechanism can place the seeds exactly where it needs to be for good growth.

Robots are well known for replacing humans with repetitive tasks. That is what they do at harvesting and picking. Harvesting is monotonous work that has to be done in order to reap useful food products. To relieve humans from these tedious tasks, robots are taking over the process. While planting and reaping basic food grains like wheat and barley can be done easily by robots, others like fruit and vegetable harvesting need multi-talented robots.

While spraying pesticide repellent on the plants, most of the content ends up ruining the soil. Although the ground is constantly ploughed to change its texture, there is less chance for the future plantation to escape the chemicals. It is also harmful to the environment. Therefore, farmers are using micro-spraying robots to narrow down the impacts. With futuristic computer vision technology, micro-spraying robots can detect weeds and then spray a targeted drop of herbicide onto them.

Nursery planting is a go-to option for plan lovers. By planting the needed crops at home, we can get vegetables and fruits for our day-to-day usage. However, it is quite hectic to groom and water them on regular basis. This is where the robotic automation process gives its best. Robotic process automation takes care of all the nursery planting works including watering at regular intervals and plucking the vegetables or fruits when it is ripe.

Weeds are the biggest enemies to farmers. Removing their notorious unwanted growth is both time-consuming and difficult. That is why farmers are now using robotics to counter the challenge. Autonomous robots, powered with computer vision technology, are capable of exactly identifying the weeds and yanking them out before they could spread further.

Knowing the state of the plants and the condition of the soil is as important as watering them. But a normal soil or plant analysis takes many days as the farmer has to collect samples and share them with researchers to get the results. However, the process is simplified, thanks to LiDAR-powered robots. They collect data on plants health, physiology, and stress response and use it to improve the condition.

Drones are not really new to farming. Since the 1980s, drones were used to capture aerial photography of fields. Even when modern drones, powered with artificial intelligence, made their debut, agriculture was one of the primary industries that took the lead to full-fledgedly implement it. Today, drones are used to capture 3D imaging, map-building, and crop monitoring.

Agricultural autonomous robot is the most recent development that hit robotics in agriculture perspective. With various features and extraordinary technology onboard, these robots can multi-task. They can do everything starting from cloud seeding, planting seeds, doing weed control, harvesting, environmental monitoring, and soil analysis. It can take care of end-to-end agriculture processes and replace tough manual tasks with machinery.

Climate change and the approaching water scarcity in the world is very real. Therefore, saving water, by all means, is at the core of farming. Unfortunately, irrigation and fertilizing processes use a lot of water and most of it goes unused. To combat this challenge, robot-assisted precision irrigation emerges as a solution to reduce water wastage by targeting specific plants.

More than the actual agricultural works, sorting and packing demand a lot of human operators. In the fast-paced production space, the need for human laborers in packing is drastically increasing. Therefore, many farming companies are using sorting and packing robots to streamline the tasks at a high speed without breaking. With coordination capability and line tracking technology, these robots can fast-track the packing process.

The robotics revolution is evidently happening in front of our eyes. From autonomous vehicles to automated service bots, robots are taking over a larger place in our daily lives. Agriculture is the largest manufacturing sector across the globe that is in immense need of technology. Since the global food chain is under pressure due to population growth, climate change, political pressures after migration, population drift from rural to urban regions, and the demographics of aging people, now is the right time to implement robotics applications in farming. Robotics and autonomous systems are seen as an escape from the haunting reality. It also provides a substitute solution to critical food chain transformation. Fortunately, after realizing the condition of the food crisis, governments are also coming forward to jump into the bandwagon for agricultural robotics. With central authorities in the game, robotics in agriculture and farming including dairy farming is expected to reach new heights in the coming years.

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Top 10 Applications of Robotics in Agriculture and Farming - Analytics Insight

Robotics teaching jobs are increasing owing to advancements of the robotics field

Thousands of students are gaining huge interest in the lucrative field of robotics and have the desire to work with robots in the nearby future. Educational institutions are in dire need for recruiting robotics teachers for making robotics interesting for students. There are ample opportunities for teachers to put the focus on RPA teaching jobs for this global tech market. Robotics jobs in December are available for robotics vacancy to teach students to be aspiring robotics engineers, RPA engineers, robotics software engineers and many more. Lets explore some of the top robotics teaching jobs in December 2021 for teachers looking for robotics specialization in educational institutes.

Robotics Teacher for Primary Section at The Infinity School

Location:Greater Noida, India

Responsibilities:The robotics teacher should facilitate the learning process for students while planning and preparing lessons on robotics. It is necessary to provide timely feedback to students and advice on educational matters for prosperous career in the future. The teacher needs to utilize audio-visual technological devices like AV devices and projectors while ensuring the safe custody and optimum usage of robotics equipment.

Qualifications:The applicant should be a graduate in a technical field with sufficient knowledge of Phonics and the ability to teach first to third standards.

Click here to apply

Location: Pune, India

Responsibilities:The robotics teacher should focus on teaching and training robotics to students efficiently and in a friendly-manner

Qualifications:The robotics teacher should be a graduate or has completed postgraduate degree such as MS/M.Sc./M.Tech/MCA in any technical specialization, especially robotics. It is necessary to have a strong subject knowledge as well as expertise in teaching a robotics curriculum to students with one to five years of experience in robotics teaching job.

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Location: Ludhiana, India

Responsibilities:n/a

Qualifications:The robotics teacher should be a graduate with B.Ed or has completed M.Ed with sufficient knowledge of robotics and two to six years in robotics teaching job field.

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Location: Pune, India

Responsibilities:The robotics tutor should promote research and scientific approach through sessions while writing well-structured and detailed lesson plans for robotics subject. It is required to conduct surveys with students to discuss areas of interests in technology and work with product development team.

Qualifications:The applicant should have skills in coding and electronics, especially robotics with sufficient experience in the robotics teaching job.

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Location: Chattisgarh, India

Responsibilities:The robotics instructor needs to carry out activities of robotics students of classes one to ten while being an incharge of the technology LAB with the responsibility of taking care of materials available in the lab.

Qualifications:The robotics instructor should have a minimum of one year experience in the robotics teaching job.

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Location: Bengaluru, India

Responsibilities:The robotics teacher should teach the assigned STEM- robotic education in different schools currently at SB Patil Public School, Pune. It is needed to prepare proper lesson plans and worksheets for classes and have full responsibility of robotic kits for students. The robotics teacher is required to maintain an inventory of the kits and materials as per the rules and regulations of schools.

Qualifications:n/a

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Robotics Vacancy: Top Robotics Teaching Jobs to Apply in December 2021 - Analytics Insight

UK robotics firm Engineered Arts has offered a sneak peek at its new humanoid robot ahead of a full reveal next year, and the preview is as incredible as it is unsettling. Ameca is presented as "the world's most advanced human-shaped robot," and a brief look at this "future face of robotics" suggests it might just live up to this claim.

Engineering Arts is building Ameca to offer a platform for robotics technologies, looking to offer the ideal human-like vehicle for the development of human-like artificial intelligence. Its hardware and software are modular so customers will be able to secure just a head, or an arm, for example, depending on the application.

Part of the package is human-like facial expressions, which the firm hopes will enable Ameca to quickly build rapport with anyone, bridging the gap between humans and the digital world. The robot calls to mind Sophia, the humanoid robot granted citizenship rights to Saudi Arabia in 2017, who proceeded to answer questions from journalists in a press conference and later featured on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

The videos offering a first look at Ameca show the robot appearing to wake up, loosen its joints and look in amazement at the world around it. The expressions and gestures are incredibly natural and, at first glance, seem more lifelike than those of Sophia, though its worth nothing a 40-second preview is much different to a wide-ranging press conference or appearance on late night television.

We should get a better idea of Ameca's true capabilities when Engineered Arts debuts the robot at CES in Las Vegas in January. In the meantime, try not to freak out.

Ameca Humanoid Robot AI Platform

Source: Engineered Arts

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Ameca, "the future face of robotics," is as freaky as you'd expect - New Atlas

BRISTOL, Conn., Dec. 6, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --MOVIA Robotics, Inc.is pleased to be expanding its work in social emotional learning as they launch their TheraPal Progress Tracker, TheraPal Home, and TheraPal Clinical Assist Aides for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and other Intellectual or Developmental Disabilities (IDD). These products were registered on October 9, 2021, with the FDA to support health care professionals in enhancing patient care. MOVIA is a Connecticut-based collaborative robotics company that builds systems and software to engage both neuro-diverse and neuro-typical children, as well as adults to aid in developing learning and collaboration skills.

MOVIA's TheraPal Progress Tracker, TheraPal Home and TheraPal Clinical Assist Aides will be the first of their kind to the market, further cementing MOVIA's mission, innovation, and dedication as an industry leader. By registering with the FDA, MOVIA's commitment to digital health will bring them a step closer in aiding more families with diverse economic and developmental needs, as well as put MOVIA on the path to serve more children, families and health care professionals.

With their commitment to digital health, MOVIA's goal is to bring their TheraPal Home and TheraPal Clinical Assist Aides into homes and clinicians' offices to be used by parents, therapists and other health professionals for the development and learning of exceptional individuals with neurodevelopmental or intellectual challenges. In today's digital era, where many with special needs are often underrepresented, MOVIA is closing the digital divide by providing interventions, information, and insight into the ecosystem of individuals with developmental delays.MOVIA's Robot-Assisted Intervention (RAI) provides a friendly and effective digital tool, leveraging Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) and other evidence-based methods along with gamification techniques, that allows children and older individuals to practice a large variety of life skills and confidence building activities to support their social and emotional development.

"We are focused on showing how robotics can improve the lives of individuals with autism and other special needs, and the launch of our TheraPal is the first step in our commitment to FDA digital health certification," says MOVIA Robotics CEO, Jean-Pierre Bolat.

MOVIA's fully configurable system offers well-designed modules for cognitive training, communication training and practice, and educational learning, as well as provides data for health care professionals to help in decision-making and to adjust professional therapies accordingly. The RAI assists the individual in understanding and practicing basic social skills such as making eye contact, building confidence, engaging in conversation, as well as with intellectual skills like reading comprehension, basic math and auditory processing learning. MOVIA's RAI also enables cognitive learning by playing games and activities focused on categories such as personal hygiene, physical activities, and nutrition.

The TheraPal product line, powered by MOVIA's proprietary software, assists neuro-diverse children with their Individualized Treatment Plan goals while providing metrics for assessment in every module. The TheraPal Progress Tracker is a medical device data system that is utilized as an assist tool for both the homecare individuals (including educators, consumer caregivers and parents) and clinicians to collect data during sessions with the robots to be used by therapists and other clinicians to monitor and assess an individual's progress. The collected data will be used for visualization and information purposes. With metrics on assessment objectives including verbalization, interpersonal coordination, reaction time, and gross or fine motor skills, MOVIA's TheraPal provides assessments of an individual's progress, free of social judgement, human error, or bias. The TheraPal Progress Tracker's launch introduces a medical device into the child's ecosystem that empowers clinicians and caregivers to integrate and better assess data about a child's progress.

MOVIA's RAI can positively help children to grow up happy, healthy, and to live a fulfilling and well-established social life. By taking measures and monitoring progress to address the child's needs, and by giving them well-rounded developmental experiences, MOVIA can accelerate a child's success along their unique path. Early intervention is important to change the trajectory of a child's development. These techniques are also effective when used later in life with neurodiverse adults.

About MOVIA Robotics, Inc.Founded by researcher and entrepreneur Timothy Gifford, in partnership with the University of Connecticut, MOVIA Robotics is a collaborative robotics company building systems, software and content to help people and robots work together. MOVIA's team of professionals are continually improving and expanding its library of lessons and activities along with the capabilities of the system to provide more topics and interaction techniques to improve the outcomes of the population it serves. MOVIA works collaboratively with research institutions and its customers to test and refine the RAI system to improve the efficacy and acceptance of its products. MOVIA's Robot-Assisted Instruction and Robot-Assisted Intervention systems help individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders and other special needs unlock the potential to learn and grow through unique interactive robotic technology. MOVIA Robotics builds systems to help these children remove barriers to learning, socializing, and adapting while facilitating a positive learning environment at school, at the clinic, and at home by dynamically leading them through activities using evidence-based prompting and instructional design. Backed by years of research and development, MOVIA's systems have been installed in schools, in clinics, and in homes worldwide. MOVIA's content is written by educators, therapists, and researchers and aligns with the highest standards for special education and therapeutic interventions. For additional information, please visit https://moviarobotics.com/

Press Contact:Eda Kalkay(212) 877-5551[emailprotected]

SOURCE MOVIA Robotics

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Movia Robotics, Inc. Launches Its TheraPal Digital Health Aide with FDA Registration - PRNewswire

Moffat County High Schools robotics team is gearing up for the start of its building and competition season.

In January, the team will receive its annual challenge that their robot must complete at regional competitions. Until then, students are putting together the basics to get ahead of the building rush between the challenges announcement and competition. Kristen Nichols, the adviser for the team, said that the seniors on the team this year were freshmen when the club was created, so this is a full-circle moment for them.

In January, theyll do the kickoff, and thats where they will reveal the game for the season, so you have a specific dollar amount and building requirements, and the kids have to build the robot and program it to compete, Nichols said. Im really excited to let the seniors have this final year, and now actually they know whats going on with the robot.

Nichols and the team were just two days away from leaving for the 2020 competition in Denver when COVID-19 lockdowns began and canceled the event. Last spring, the robotics team had the option to build and compete remotely by filming their robot completing the tasks. This year, Nichols said, should go as planned during a normal year.

Now that this years team has several seniors with years of experience under their belts, Nichols said they feel more prepared when competing against teams from larger, more experienced schools at the regional competition. Now that robotics is offered at the middle school and at the elementary level, Nichols said that theyll now have more students who have a basic understanding of robotics coming onto the team as freshmen.

Currently, the team is meeting twice each week to start on building the basics, but when the challenge is released, Nichols said that its common for them to meet almost every day for five hours per day. The bottom of the robot called the chassis is already built, and team members will build upward with whatever they need for the tasks.

Usually, that involves picking up and throwing balls into a basket or a hoop, but they wont be sure until the kickoff in January. They will have until March to get it completed, and the competition includes building restrictions on the machines dimensions.

In the kickoff, theyll tell us what the events are that were going to have to complete, senior Neveah Allen said. Based on that, we can start building how we see fit so that our robot can complete the challenges. Because were newer, we are at a slight disadvantage, but thankfully (competition organizers) accommodate for that. So they put spending limits for each team, so were not as disadvantaged.

Amelia Seim, also a senior, was on the team as a freshman during the teams first year. She said that local mentors such as engineers from Tri-State and other community members have helped build the foundation for the team.

A really big thing for us (freshman year) was trying to get the robot to move, Seim said. With the mentors weve had, theyve helped us a lot to understand the basics. Without that, we wouldnt even be where we are right now.

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MoCo Robo gets ready for big season of robotics competition - Craig Press

Serve Robotics has raised $13m to accelerate its path to commercial scale

Serve Robotics, an autonomous sidewalk delivery robot company, has closed on a $13m seed funding round, which included big investors: Uber; Delivery Hero-backed DX Ventures; 7-Ventures LLC, 7-Elevens corporate venture arm, and Wavemaker Labs, among others.

New funding will help accelerate the scaling of the companys robotic platform, support geographic expansion, and drive continued product development. Within the next two to three years, the company would like to see its robots in every major US city.

Serve Robotics has had an interesting journey

Serve Robotics was founded in 2017 as a robotics division of Postmates. The company designs, develops and operates zero-emissions rovers that serve people in public spaces.

They are about a meter-high, with colorful, LED-laden exteriors that conceal a suite of sensors including RGB cameras, sonar, time-of-flight sensors, GPS, and lidar. The control panel, which sits off to the side, contains a Help button and a video chat display as well as a touchscreen panel. A top hatch conceals a cargo compartment that is unlocked with a phone app or a passcode.

Serve Robotics delivery robots have completed tens of thousands of contactless deliveries in major US cities since their roll out in 2019, starting with food delivery. According to Postmates, the Serve robot could carry 50 pounds and travel 30 miles. In July 2020, Postmates was acquired by Uber.

The Serve Robotics previous funding round in March 2021, led by venture capital firm Neo, with participation from Uber amongst other investors, allowed the company to spin out of Postmates robotics division as an independent company.

Pandemic revealed the need for sustainable, self-driving delivery

The pandemic has boosted the emergence of companies developing delivery robots small enough to navigate crosswalks, sidewalks, and corporate campuses. Robots help minimize human-to-human contact and can also fill in when there is a shortage of delivery drivers.

Serve Robotics has a major advantage in this market, with Ubers backing and access to the companys existing delivery infrastructure. The company has already announced that it will be delivering food to UberEats customers in Los Angeles starting in 2022. Serve Robotics is also likely to get a major boost from its 7-Eleven partnership thanks to the chains large footprint and its 24-hour food and alcohol delivery service, 7Now.

Other examples of companies seizing the opportunities of this market include Yandex, partnering with Grubhub to provide university campus partners the ability to deploy robots on-site for faster deliveries. Kiwibot (which has linked up with Chick-fil-A) with its autonomous delivery robots delivers sanitary supplies, masks, antibacterial gels, and hygiene products in the communities of Berkeley, California and Denver, Colorado. Starship Technologies is now delivering food on 20 US campuses.

Delivery robots offer a chance to make short distances and small orders more profitable by eliminating labor costs associated with couriers. However, the search for delivery cost-saving extends beyond small robots; for example, Dominos is testing autonomous delivery cars with Nuro, while Chipotle has invested in the self-driving delivery company. About 50% of US restaurant operators said they plan to use automation technology to help fill labor gaps in the next two to three years. According to industry forecasts, driverless rovers like Serves will make up 85% of last-mile deliveries by 2025.

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Serve Robotics raises $13m from Uber and 7-Eleven to grow its sidewalk delivery fleet - Verdict Foodservice

Roboticists often copy nature, crafting humanoid robots for household chores, worm-style machines for crawling through tunnels and four-legged contraptions that look like cheetahs for running and leaping. But they usually design an animal-like robot body first and then train an AI to control it. In living creatures, though, the body and brain evolve together to tackle complex tasks. So some researchers are borrowing a page from natures playbook to design intelligent, adaptive robots.

In the latest example, evolutionary roboticists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have created a virtual environment where algorithms can design and improve both a soft robots physical form and its controller so they evolve concurrently. Within this digital space, called Evolution Gym, algorithms can develop robots for more than 30 different tasks, including carrying and pushing blocks, doing backflips, scaling barriers and climbing up shafts. When the M.I.T. researchers used their own algorithms in the program, for every single assignment, the software developed a more effective robot than a human did.

The future goal is to take any task and say, Design me an optimal robot to complete this task, says Jagdeep Bhatia, an undergraduate student at M.I.T.s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, who led the work. He presented the research at the Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems on December 9.

The Evolution Gym relies on two algorithms that bounce results back and forth. First, a design-optimization algorithm generates a bunch of random robot designs, Bhatia says. The algorithm creates each soft robot by combining up to 100 individual building blocks, which can be rigid or flexible and can move vertically or horizontally. Then these patchwork designs go to the control-optimization algorithm, which generates a brain for each robot that will enable it to perform a given task. This controller computes when and how much each block should be activatedfor example, how far and how frequently a horizontal-moving block actuatesso that they all work together to move the robot as needed. Next, the various bot designs try an assigned task in the Evolution Gym while the control-optimization algorithm measures how well they perform and returns the scores to the design algorithm.

Enter evolutionary principles. The design algorithm throws out unfit configurations, keeps the most fit designs, mutates them a little bit and sees if they perform even better, Bhatia says. This goes on, with robots passing from the design algorithm to the controller algorithm to testing in the Evolution Gym environment and back again to the design algorithm until the system converges on the highest score. The process results in the best combination of design and controlor body and brainto do the task.

Often, the process leads to familiar shapes. For the climbing task, the winning design evolved two arms and two legs that help it shinny up a shaft like an ape. The best carrying bot looks like a mix between a puppy and a squishy shopping cart. But in most cases, the results are unexpected. Instead of resembling a real animal or a device a human would design, they look like something a toddler might have built with blocks.

Bhatias favorite resulted from a task in which the robot had to slip under randomly spaced tiles, then drag an object across the top of those tiles while still underneath them. For this job, the simulator designed a bot that unfolded itself once under the tiles and then slowly wiggled along to push the object above. It is a perfect example of the body and brain working together to act intelligently.

That is the beauty of evolutionary robotics, says Josh Bongard of the University of Vermont, who was not involved in the work. Copying robot body plans from nature often does not work, he says, because dogs and humans evolved to fill very different environmental niches from those we try to introduce our humanoid or canine bots into. Aviation is a good example, Bongard explains. Early pioneers tried to make machines with flapping wings, but those prototypes failed, he adds. Only when we built non-bird-like machines did we get them to fly. Similarly, robot bodies produced by evolutionary algorithms often look strange but seem to work well at given tasks.

Others have attempted to co-design virtual robot bodies and brains, Bhatia says, but they have focused on simple tasks such as walking and jumping. One of the strongest points of our work is the number of tasks and number of unique tasks we developed, he says.

Evolution Gym is open-source: Bhatias team created it to provide a benchmark platform where any researcher can design and test their own algorithms and compare approaches. In previous work, groups have typically developed their own virtual environments for such assessments. The new digital space gives researchers a common baseline to measure how well various algorithms stack up. That allows people to measure progressand thats really important, says Agrim Gupta, a computer science Ph.D. student, who conducts similar research at Stanford University. He recently published a paper on how intelligence not only can be attained through evolution but can also be developed from experience. Bongard concurs, saying that the new M.I.T. simulator will allow the field of evolutionary robotics to move forward faster by clarifying which ways of evolving robots work better than others.

Such assessments are necessary because the robots designed by evolutionary algorithms do not always work. The M.I.T. algorithms, for instance, could not successfully design robots for catching and lifting. This shows there is a lot more work to do in designing truly intelligent robots, Bhatia says, making a standard platform such as Evolution Gym even more important to collectively advance the development of robot design. As he puts it, We are enabling the development of more intelligent AI algorithms to be able to create real-life smart robots in the future.

Read more from the original source:

Evolution Gym Sculpts Novel Robot Bodies and Brains - Scientific American