Category Archives: Robotics

Dr. Zhiliu Yang, a recent Ph.D. graduate in electrical and computer engineering at Clarkson University, along with his advisor, Dr. Chen Liu, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering presented their paper titled "TUPPer-Map: Temporal and Unified Panoptic Perception for 3D Metric-Semantic Mapping" at the 2021 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2021). The conference was held online from September 27 to October 1 this year.

The IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) is one of the largest and most impacting robotics research conferences worldwide. Established in 1988 and held annually, IROS provides an international forum for the international robotics research community to explore the frontier of science and technology in intelligent robots and smart machines.

To push autonomous driving applications and mobile robots towards the next level, metric-semantic scene understanding is one of the most critical abilities of intelligent agents. Relying on the advances in deep learning, 3D mapping techniques have been substantially improved. Meanwhile, the growing complexity of map building eagerly requires robot vision to be able to detect, segment, track and rebuild objects at a detailed instance level.

Traditionally, these perception problems are treated as separate tasks. Yang and Lius paper proposes TUPPer-Map, a metric-semantic mapping framework based on the unified panoptic segmentation and temporal data association. In contrast to the previous mapping methods, their framework integrates the data association stage into the holistic pixel-level segmentation stage in an end-to-end fashion, taking advantage of both intra-frame and inter-frame spatial and temporal knowledge. Firstly, they unify the two-branch instance segmentation network and semantic segmentation network into a single network by sharing the backbone net, maximizing the 2D panoptic segmentation performance. Next, they leverage geometric segmentation to refine the segments predicted via deep learning. Then, they design a novel deep learning-based data association module to track the object instances across different frames. Optical flow of consecutive frames and alignment of ROI (Region of Interest) candidates are learned to predict the frame-consistent instance label. At last, 2D semantics are integrated into 3D volume by TSDF ray-casting to build the final map. Their experimental results demonstrate the superiority of TUPPer-Map over existing semantic mapping methods. Overall, their work illustrates that using a learning-based data association strategy can enable a more unified perception network for 3D mapping.

Yang successfully defended his dissertation titled "Learning Geometry and Semantics via Deep Nets towards Global Localization and Mapping" and graduated with his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering in Summer 2021.

Click here for a one-minute video summary of the paper.

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Clarkson Grad Student Presents Paper at Top Robotics Conference Second Year In A Row - Clarkson University News

When it comes to automating the warehouse, buying the robots is just the beginning.

The urge to automate the warehouse these days is irresistible, and the reasons are many: intensifying consumer demands for fast turnaround on orders, higher costs of operation and the current labor shortage among them. But distribution managers would be making a mistake if they assumed that merely putting the robots into place will solve their operational issues. Theres the matter of how and where to implement the technology, and what role humans continue to play. Because like or not, they wont be disappearing from the warehouse anytime soon. On this episode, we hear from Jeff Christensen, vice president of product with Seegrid, about how to implement autonomous mobile robots into the warehouse, including tips on selling the concept both to workers on the warehouse floor and those in the executive suite. The message: Every successful automation project depends on more than the hardware. Hosted by Bob Bowman, Editor-in-Chief of SupplyChainBrain.

This episode is sponsored by Seegrid.

Show notes:

A blog post from Seegrid on AI & Robotics: Impacts on the Workplace.

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Podcast | Beyond the Robots: Keys to Successful Supply Chain Automation - SupplyChainBrain

Join gaming leaders online at GamesBeat Summit Next this upcoming November 9-10. Learn more about what comes next.

Sometimes its the obvious things that are overlooked. Why arent there pictures of women building robots on the internet? Or if they are there, why cant we find them when we search? I have spent years decades doing outreach activities, providing STEM opportunities, and doing women in robotics speaker or networking events. So Ive done a lot of image searches looking for a representative picture. I have scrolled through page after page of search results ranging from useless to downright insulting every single time.

Finally, I counted.

Above: Graph: Image search results via Google showing results of what comes up when the term woman building robot is searched.

Image Credit: Andra Keay

My impressions were correct. The majority of the images you find when you look for woman building robot are of female robots. This is not what happens if you search for building robot, or man building robot. Thats the insulting part, that this misrepresentation and misclassification hasnt been challenged or fixed. Sophia the robot, or the ScarJo bot, or a sexbot has a much greater impact on the internet than women doing real robotics. What if male roboticists were confronted with pictures of robotic dildos whenever they searched for images of their work?

Above: Example of image results from Andra Keays Google search for women building robots

Image Credit: Andra Keay

The number of women in the robotics industry is hard to gauge. Best estimates are 5% in most locations, perhaps 10% in some areas. It is slowly increasing, but then the robotics industry is also in a period of rapid growth and everyone is struggling to hire. To my mind, the biggest wasted opportunity for a young robotics company growing like Topsy is to depend on the friends of founders network when it leads to homogenous hiring practices. The sooner you incorporate diversity, the easier it will be for you to scale and attract talent.

For a larger robotics company, the biggest wasted opportunity is not fixing retention. Across the board in the tech industry, retention rates for women and underrepresented minorities are much worse than for pale males. That means that you are doing something wrong. Why not seriously address the complaints of the workers who leave you? Otherwise, youll never retain diverse hires, no matter how much money you throw at acquiring them.

The money wasted in talent acquisition when you have poor retention should instead be used to improve childcare, or flexible work hours, or support for affinity groups, or to fire the creep that everyone complains about, or restructure so that you increase the number of female and minority managers. The upper echelons are echoing with the absence of diversity.

On the plus side, the number of pictures of girls building robots has definitely increased in the last ten years. As my own children have grown, Ive seen more and more images showing girls building robots. But with two daughters now leaving college, Ive had to tell them that robotics is not one of the female-friendly career paths (if any of them are). Unless they are super passionate about it. Medicine, law, or data analytics might be better domains for their talents. As an industry, we cant afford to lose bright young women. We cant afford to lose talented older women. We cant afford to overlook minority hires. The robotics industry is entering exponential growth. Capital is in abundance, market opportunities are in abundance. Talent is scarce.

These days, Im focused on supporting professional women in the robotics community, industry, or academia. These are women who are doing critical research and building cutting-edge robots. What do solutions look like for them? Our wonderful annual Ada Lovelace Day list hosted on Robohub has increased the awareness of many new faces in robotics. But we have been forced to use profile pictures, primarily because thats what is available. Thats also the tradition for profile pieces about the work that women do in robotics. The focus is on the woman, not the woman building or programming, or testing the robot. That means that the images are not quite right as role models.

Above: Further examples from Andrea Keays image search results that better represented females in robotics

Image Credit: Andrea Keay

A real role model shows you the way forward. And that the future is in your hands. The Civil Rights activist Marian Wright Edelman said, You cant be what you cant see.

Above: A set of images from Andra Keays search results displaying the few good images found in the search more accurately representing women working in robotics.

Image Credit: andra keay

So Women in Robotics has launched a photo challenge. Our goal is to see more than 3 images of real women building robots in the top 100 search results. Our stretch goal is to see more images of women building robots than there are of female robots in the top 100 search results! Take great photos following these guidelines, hashtag your images #womeninrobotics #photochallenge #ibuildrobots, and upload them to Wikimedia with a creative commons license so that we can all use them. Well share them on the Women in Robotics organization website, too.

Above: Andra Keays guidelines for what makes a great, accurate, and realistic photo representing women in robotics.

Image Credit: andra keay

Hey, wed also love mentions of Women in Robotics in any citable fashion! Wikipedia wont let us have a page because we dont have third-party references, and sadly, the mention of our Ada Lovelace Day lists by other organizations have not credited us. We are now an official 501c3 organization, registered in the US, with the mission of supporting women and non-binary people who work in robotics, or who are interested in working in robotics.

Above: Additional details of the women in robotics photo challenge additional example and call for submission to photos@womeninrobotics.org.

Image Credit: andra keay

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then we can save a forests worth of outreach, diversity, and equity work, simply by showing people what women in robotics really do.

The rest is here:

A call for increased visual representation and diversity in robotics - VentureBeat

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Robotics to be designated as official school activity in W.Va. - Huntington Herald Dispatch

Margarita Chli is one of the few women who havesucceeded in the field of robotics in Switzerland. She advocates for more role models teachingthe subject and she also wants to show how robots can be beneficial for humans.

Writes about the impact of new technologies on society: are we aware of the revolution in progress and its consequences? Hobby: free thinking. Habit: asking too many questions.

More from this author| Italian Department

Margarita Chlis family inspired her to pursue a degree in computer engineering, but it was during her PhD in the UK that she became interested in robotic vision, which allows robots to see the world around them and process visual data through sensors, software and cameras. She now heads the Vision for Robotics Lab at the federal technology institute ETH Zurich.

The 37-year-old professor has not only found the ideal conditions for robotics research and innovation in Switzerland thanks to generous funding and numerous experts but also a second home, where the green hills and the lakes and rivers that fill up with bathers in summer remind her of her home island, Cyprus.

Chli is determined to get more women into robotics, a field which she believes will improve the quality of human life, be it through mobile robots in search and rescue missions or in personalised healthcare. SWI swissinfo.ch asked her about the challenges of studying and working in robotics and how researchers women and men alike could pave the wayin Switzerland.

Switzerland has less female researchers than other European countries. The proportion of female professors stands at 23% and is even lower in natural and technical sciences.

The Covid-19 pandemic seems to have further limited the scientific work of women: Swiss researchers recently analysedExternal link thousands of studies published between January 1, 2018 and May 31, 2021 and noticed that during the first wave of the pandemic women were listed less often as leading authors than in previous years. According to the authors of this research, one possible explanation was that female researchers struggled to reconcile work and family during the lockdowns and therefore published less articles than their male counterparts.

What can be done to reduce the gender gap and make science more inclusive? In its new series Women in Science, SWI swissinfo.ch is portraying successful female scientists, to inspire and encourage other women to enter the field.

SWI swissinfo.ch: Do you see more female students in robotics classes than you did a decade ago?

Margarita Chli: Unfortunately not. Its a sad story. When I first came to Switzerland, there were maybe two girls out of a total of fifty students. Its been ten years since my PhD and I cant say Ive seen much change in the female presence in classrooms. Perhaps this has to do with my path and the move from the UK to Switzerland. If Im honest, the situation in Switzerland is worse than in the UK in this respect.

I work in the mechanical engineering department, which traditionally doesnt attract many girls, but we hear all the time that the sector needs more women and that we need to do everything to get more female graduates. Its clear we need to do more to make our courses more attractive to girls. We are trying to figure out how to do that, but it takes a lot of patience because the fruits of what we sow today will only be seen in twenty years time.

SWI: When you chose this career, did you know it would be an obstacle course?

M.C.: I come from a family where gender never mattered in studies and work. So it was a real shock when I realised that there were only three girls out of a hundred students in my computer science course. Thats when I started thinking that maybe something was wrong.

SWI: How could women be encouraged to enrol in science courses?

M.C.: I think a good strategy is to increase the number of female professors in order to create role models. We need to encourage girls in every possible way, putting more women in power, promoting discussion and creating more opportunities for confrontation. In this way, perhaps we will succeed in moving, inch by inch, this great rock that history has placed in the path of many women.

SWI: Have you ever felt discriminated against?

M.C: Of course, who has never felt discriminated against? I am not a heroine, everyone has their own stories and barriers to break down. You can be discriminated against because of religion, because of where you come from, because of the colour of your skin. You have to be able to let everything slide past and move towards your goal.

To be successful, it is important to know how to listen to yourself. Perhaps men know how to do that better. My advice is: dont listen to the chatter that undermines your path. And if you think you are doing the right thing, dont stop, keep working towards your goal. If someone thinks you are where you are because you are a woman, dont care about it. Sooner or later you will prove these people wrong. The same advice also applies to men. We have to get rid of gender stereotypes.

SWI: Do you feel inspired by what you do?

M.C.: Absolutely. I think I have one of the most beautiful jobs in the world. I work with motivated people, brilliant minds who want to make an impact on society. But its the daily work with students and the satisfaction of seeing them progress on their journey that fulfils me the most.

The idea of contributing even slightly to improving the quality of life and changing the common view of robotics is a very important driver in my work.

Robots are still negatively associated with surveillance and the military. People are afraid of automation and what it can do. It's true that it can cause a lot of damage. But instead of just focusing on that aspect, you should look at all the benefits it can bring.

SWI: How do you raise awareness of the benefits of robotics?

M.C.: Every time I give a lecture, I try to show the other side of robotics, the good side. I talk about the contribution we are trying to make in areas such as search and rescue in the event of alpine avalanches or earthquakes, or the monitoring of anomalies in factories.

Last summer, whole areas of Greece suffered from fires. A friend of mine asked me if we could do something with drones to monitor these areas. Unfortunately, we are still so far behind in research to be able to do that. But this shows how much robotics could do to improve our lives.

SWI: Switzerland decided to break off discussions with the European Union on the framework agreement, which means that the country will not be associated with key research programmes such as Horizon Europe. Does this affect your work?

M.C.: Yes, of course, its a heavy blow for Swiss research. In the past I have worked on European projects while there were sanctions in place against Switzerland. Despite this, Swiss institutions had done everything they could to make life easier for us researchers.

Living in a rich country like Switzerland, where the government funds research, helps to heal the wound. But it will be important to continue to collaborate with European institutions, there is a lot to gain. And as a wealthy country, Switzerland has the responsibility and the duty not only to take but also to give.

SWI: What contribution would you like to make to robotics?

M.C.: Someone once made me reflect on the fact that my career path was not accessible to women 20 years ago. This is a big responsibility, but also a very exciting opportunity. My dream is to become a good role model and inspiration, someone who attracts both young men and women to the world of science because: I would like to become like her. I would like to show everyone what robotics can do for our society and add my contribution to make it better. But who, after all, dreams of anything different?

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'I try to show the other side of robotics, the good side' - swissinfo.ch

If a robotone day helps you make breakfast or change a diaper, there's a good chance PickNik Roboticshad a hand in it.

The Boulder, Colorado-based company develops software thatmakes robotssmarter, allowing them tomake better decisions and perform tasks moreintelligently.

Hardware is the easy part when it comes to robotics. "There are a lot of companies thathave been providing decent robot arms for a couple of decades now," says PickNik founder and CEO Dave Coleman. "The real challenge is making them smarter."

Tackling this difficult problem has mined a huge business opportunity.PickNik earned $2.2 million in revenue in 2020, giving it a three-yeargrowth rate of 966 percent and helping it land atNo. 505 on this year's Inc. 5000 list. Coleman says the company'sclients have included NASA, Google, Amazon, androbotics upstarts like Kindred and Plus One Robotics.

Coleman interned at robotics startup Willow Garage back in 2010. The young company employedmany of the industry's brightest minds:Early staffers went on to found companies likeSavioke, which makes bots for the hotel industry, and Zipline, a manufacturer of drones meant todeliver blood and other medical supplies to remote areas.

"That was really the starting point of my whole career," says Coleman, "being surrounded by all these amazing roboticists."

During his time at Willow Garage, Coleman worked on creatingopen-sourcesoftware that poweredrobotic arms. After the company folded in 2014, he continued developingthe platform, earning money by consulting for clients on how to use it in conjunction with their robots. Demand was so great that he decided to form a business based on the software the following year.

Picking up toys is less of a chore when you live with a PickNik-powered robot. Photographs by Ross Mantle

When combined with PickNik's platform,a robotic arm that previously used to, say,pick up and put down components in factories suddenly is able to better negotiateits environment. Abot can be trained toavoid humans or make decisions about whichpieces of equipment to move and which to leave alone.For the company's various clients, PickNik's software helps machinesefficiently and safely perform a variety of tasks likepicking fruits and vegetables, prepping meals, assisting with surgeries, and working on underwater oil and gas rigs.

PickNik's platform is hardwareagnostic, so it can be used with off-the-shelfarms as well as custom-built ones. That's proven beneficial to the company, helpingensure itcan work with clients in a wide variety of industries from manufacturing to farming.The 30-employee startupstill offers open-sourcesoftware, but italso has a premium offeringthat includes additional functionality, more customization, and support from its employees.

"How can someone who doesn't have a computer science degree or an engineering degree successfully control a robot and do all sorts of cool stuff with it?" says Coleman. "That's what our product offering does."

PickNik hasn't taken any venture capital, though it has won grants from State of Colorado, NASA, and other grant-givers.The company is working with NASAona robotic vehicle that could be used tounload cargo and perform other tasks in the new space station. Coleman says that not taking venture capitalhas allowed PickNikto test the waters in excitingmarkets -- like space -- without having topromise massive returns to investors.

"We're having fun," says Coleman."As long as we make money, we're happy, even if this isn't aunicorn company."

The way things are going, though,it might become one anyway.

Originally posted here:

This Startup Is Tackling One of the Biggest Challenges in Robotics - Inc.

Register today for next weeks Robot Roundtable, taking place on Wednesday, November 3 from 12PM 1PM ET. During this online event, representatives from Shunk, Techman Robot, and Maxbyte Advanced Robotics Centre will discuss the future of robotics and assess the impacts and opportunities available with robotics and AI.

Our lineup of panelists will include:

Thomas Reek, VP of Sales: Automation, SCHUNK, has more than 25 years of workpiece gripping and handling experience. He graduated from NC State University with a BSEE in Electrical Engineering and began his career with SCHUNK in 1994 as an applications engineer in the early years of the company's launch into the USA.

Reek's career has continued to grow and evolve at SCHUNK: he served as director of sales for the Eastern states before being promoted to his current role of vice president of sales for the entire USA. Today, Tom leads a team of motivated professional territory sales managers dedicated to serving customers and making SCHUNK the recognized leader in workpiece handling technology.

Gerardo Paniagua, Senior Application Engineer, Techman Robot has several years devoted to the field of data analysis and machine learning. Motivated and organized, Gerardo has professional experience consulting automation projects with cobots for business-driven solutions in smart applications such as artificial intelligence for defect identification, applied 3D vision, palletizing, data communication, and more.

Click here to learn more and register today! Cant participate on the day of the event? No problem. Each registered attendee will also receive a link to the recording, which will be sent within 7-10 business days after the event.

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Are you thinking about transitioning to robotic automation? - Today's Medical Developments

Monday said it has partnered with two Indian startups to test 5G-based solutions on aerial traffic management and motion capture system.

To conduct the trials, Vi has partnered with startups - Vizzbee Robotics Solution and Tweek Labs, the company said in the statement.

We are conducting 5G trials to identify a range of India specific use cases that can accelerate the achievement of smart cities, smart enterprises and smart citizens, Abhijit Kishore, chief operating officer, Vodafone Idea, said in the statement.

Tweek Labs will test a full-bodied motion capture suit using 5G technology, that can be an effective solution for sports training as it helps monitor performance of athletes.

These trials come at a time when Vi along with rivals Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio are preparing to participate in the upcoming 5G auctions. The airwaves will bring in the next generation of technology for subscribers.

Read more here:

Vi partners with startups Vizzbee Robotics Solution and Tweek Labs for 5G trials - Economic Times

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//console.log("VIDEOHEIGHT: " + WVM.VIDEO_HEIGHT); //console.log("scrolltop " + $(window).scrollTop()); //only float if playing var isPlaying = WVM['player_state' + videoId]['IS_PLAYING'] || WVM['player_state' + videoId]['AD_IS_PLAYING']; if(isPlaying){ $('.vjs-loading-spinner').hide(); } var offsetFloatAd = 99999999; if(deviceName == 'desktop' && $('#float_anchor').length > 0){ offsetFloatAd = $('#float_anchor').offset().top - WVM.VIDEO_HEIGHT; //console.log("float anchor offset top " + offsetFloatAd); } if($(window).scrollTop() > offset && isPlaying && !WVM['player_state' + videoId]['CANCEL_FLOATING']){ $('#media-placeholder-' + videoId).height(WVM.CONTAINER_HEIGHT); $('#media-placeholder-' + videoId).css('display', 'block'); if(!WVM.IS_FLOATING){ changed = true; } WVM.IS_FLOATING = true; $('#media-container-' + videoId).addClass('floating-video'); var sWidth = window.innerWidth || document.documentElement.clientWidth; var sHeight = window.innerHeight || document.documentElement.clientHeight; if(sWidth > 900 && WADS.IS_STICKING){ $('#media-container-' + videoId).addClass('desktop-ad-is-sticky'); } else if(WADS.IS_STICKING){ if(!TOP_AD_VIEWED){ $('#media-container-' + videoId).addClass('mobile-ad-is-sticky'); }else{ $('#media-container-' + videoId).addClass('mobile-ad-is-sticky-noad'); } } else if(!WADS.IS_STICKING){ if(!TOP_AD_VIEWED){ $('#media-container-' + videoId).removeClass('desktop-ad-is-sticky'); }else{ $('#media-container-' + videoId).addClass('desktop-ad-is-sticky-noad'); } } //set right var sWidth = window.innerWidth || document.documentElement.clientWidth; var sHeight = window.innerHeight || document.documentElement.clientHeight; if(deviceName == 'desktop' || sWidth > 900){ var leftPos2 = $('aside').get(0).getBoundingClientRect().left; var leftPos = $('aside').offset().left ; $('#media-container-' + videoId).css('left', leftPos + "px"); var newWidth = Math.floor(sWidth / 3.5); $('#media-container-' + videoId).css('width', newWidth + "px"); } else{ $('#media-container-' + videoId).css('width', "100% !important"); $('#media-container-' + videoId + ' .now-playing-container').css('display', 'block'); $('#media-container-' + videoId + ' .next-dropdown-accordion').css('display', 'block'); } //floating-video $('#media-container-' + videoId + " " + '.page-carousel-wrapper').hide(); setTimeout(function(){ var hWrapper = $('.floating-video .hlsvideo-wrapper').height(); var npWidth = $('.floating-video .now-playing-container').height(); var ndWidth = $('.floating-video .next-dropdown-header').height() + 20; var scrollerHeight = sHeight - (hWrapper + npWidth + ndWidth); scrollerHeight = 180; //scrollerHeight = parseInt(scrollerHeight * 0.5); if(WVM.device_name == 'desktop'){ $('#media-container-' + videoId + " " + " .mobile-list-videos").height(scrollerHeight); } }, 100); }else if($(window).scrollTop() 0){ var container = document.querySelector('#page-carousel-' + fullVideoId); imagesLoaded( container, function() { var screenWidth = window.innerWidth || document.documentElement.clientWidth; if(screenWidth > 850){ WVM.IS_DESKTOP = true; $('#page-carousel-' + fullVideoId + ' .page-carousel-lg-slides').css('display', 'block'); WVM['player_settings' + fullVideoId].slider = $('#page-carousel-' + fullVideoId).bxSlider({ maxSlides: 4, minSlides: 4, slideWidth: 305, infiniteLoop: false, hideControlOnEnd: true, useCSS: true, pager: false, slideMargin: 15, moveSlides: 1, nextText: '', prevText: '' }); }else{ WVM.IS_DESKTOP = false; $('.page-carousel-wrapper').css('display', 'block'); } }); } }; WVM.setupToggleButton = function(fullVideoId, player){ if($('.nextplay-switch-' + fullVideoId).length > 0){ new DG.OnOffSwitchAuto({ cls:'.nextplay-switch-' + fullVideoId, height: 24, trackColorOn:'#F9F9F9', trackColorOff:'#222', textColorOn: '#222', textColorOff: '#222', textOn:'On', textOff:'Off', listener:function(name, checked){ var theVal = 1; if(!checked){ theVal = 0; } $.ajax({ url: '/ajax/update_autoplay_video/', data: { autoplay_on: theVal }, type: 'POST', dataType: 'json', success: function(data) { WVM['player_settings' + fullVideoId]['autoplay'] = checked; }, error : function(){ console.log("Error loading video"); } }); } }); } }; WVM.setupAccordionButton = function(fullVideoId){ var deviceName = 'desktop'; $('#next-dropdown-accordion-button-' + fullVideoId).on('click', function(){ if($(this).find('i').hasClass('fa-chevron-up')){ //hide $(this).find('i').removeClass('fa-chevron-up'); $(this).find('i').addClass('fa-chevron-down'); if(deviceName == "desktop" && !$('#media-container-' + fullVideoId).hasClass('floating-video')){ $('#media-container-' + fullVideoId + " " + '.page-carousel-wrapper').slideUp(); $('#media-container-' + fullVideoId + " " + '.mobile-list-wrapper').hide(); }else{ $('#media-container-' + fullVideoId + " " + '.mobile-list-wrapper').slideUp(); $('#media-container-' + fullVideoId + " " + '.page-carousel-wrapper').hide(); } var currVideoId = WVM['player_state' + fullVideoId]['VIDEO_ID']; var nextVideoId = WVM.getNextPlaylistIndex(currVideoId); //playerId, mediaId, fieldName var myTitle = WVM.getPlaylistData(fullVideoId, nextVideoId, 'noprefixtitle'); //alert("Getting title " + myTitle); $('#video-slider-nexttitle' + fullVideoId).css('display', 'inline'); $('#video-slider-nexttitle' + fullVideoId).html(myTitle); }else{ //expand $(this).find('i').addClass('fa-chevron-up'); $(this).find('i').removeClass('fa-chevron-down'); $('#media-container-' + fullVideoId + " " + '.mobile-list-wrapper').css('display', 'block'); if(deviceName == "desktop" && !$('#media-container-' + fullVideoId).hasClass('floating-video')){ $('#media-container-' + fullVideoId + " " + '.page-carousel-wrapper').css('display', 'block'); $('#media-container-' + fullVideoId + " " + '.page-carousel-wrapper').slideDown(); $('#media-container-' + fullVideoId + " " + '.mobile-list-wrapper').hide(); if(!WVM.player_state169747['CAROUSEL_INIT']){ WVM.setupCarousel(fullVideoId); } }else{ $('#media-container-' + fullVideoId + " " + '.mobile-list-wrapper').slideDown(); $('#media-container-' + fullVideoId + " " + '.page-carousel-wrapper').hide(); if(!$('#media-container-' + fullVideoId).hasClass('floating-video')){ if(!WVM.player_state169747['CAROUSEL_INIT']){ WVM.setupCarousel(fullVideoId); } } } $('#video-slider-nexttitle' + fullVideoId).css('display', 'none'); } }); var currVideoId = WVM['player_state' + fullVideoId]['VIDEO_ID']; //console.log("current Video " + currVideoId); var nextVideoId = WVM.getNextPlaylistIndex(currVideoId); var myTitle = WVM.getPlaylistData(fullVideoId, nextVideoId, 'noprefixtitle'); //console.log("setting title " + myTitle); $('#video-slider-nexttitle' + fullVideoId).css('display', 'inline'); $('#video-slider-nexttitle' + fullVideoId).html(myTitle); }; WVM.sendbeacon = function(action, nonInteraction, value, eventLabel) { var eventCategory = 'Video'; if (window.ga) { //console.log("sending action: " + action + " val: " + value + " label " + eventLabel); ga('send', 'event', { 'eventCategory': eventCategory, 'eventAction': action, 'eventLabel': eventLabel, 'eventValue': value, 'nonInteraction': nonInteraction }); } }; WVM.getNextPlaylistIndex = function(mediaId, returnArrayIndex){ var currId = null; if(mediaId == null){ return null; } for(var x =0; x 20){ if(fullDuration > 1 && ((fullDuration - fullCurrent) > 1) && !$('.vjs-loading-spinner').hasClass('badspinner')){ console.log("hiding spinner"); $('.vjs-loading-spinner').addClass('badspinner'); } } var duration_time = Math.floor(this.duration()); //this is a hack because the end video event is not firing... var current_time = Math.floor(this.currentTime()); if ( current_time > 0 && ( fullCurrent >= (fullDuration - 10) )){ var currId = playerState.VIDEO_ID; var newMediaId = WVM.getNextPlaylistIndex(currId); //if(playerSettings.autoplay_next && newMediaId){ if(newMediaId){ if('desktop' == "iphone" && playerState.AD_ERROR){ console.log("skipped timeupdate end"); }else{ WVM.load_video(newMediaId, true, playerState.ORIGINAL_ID); } } } if(!playerState.START_SENT){ WVM.sendbeacon('start', true, playerState.VIDEO_ID, playerState.VIDEO_TITLE); playerState.START_SENT = true; } var currentTime, duration, percent, percentPlayed, _i; currentTime = Math.round(this.currentTime()); duration = Math.round(this.duration()); percentPlayed = Math.round(currentTime / duration * 100); for (percent = _i = 0; _i = percent && __indexOf.call(playerState['PERCENTS_TRACKED'], percent) 0) { playerState['PERCENTS_TRACKED'].push(percent); } } } }); //player.off('ended'); player.on('ended', function(){ console.log("ended"); playerState.IS_PLAYING = false; WVM.sendbeacon("complete", true, playerState.VIDEO_ID, playerState.VIDEO_TITLE); var currId = playerState.VIDEO_ID; var newMediaId = WVM.getNextPlaylistIndex(currId); //if(playerSettings.autoplay_next && newMediaId){ if(newMediaId){ WVM.load_video(newMediaId, true, playerState.ORIGINAL_ID); }else{ console.log("Playlist complete (no more videos)"); } }); //player.off('adserror'); player.on('adserror', function(e){ //$('#ima-ad-container').remove(); WVM.lastAdRequest = new Date().getTime() / 1000; console.log(e); console.log("ads error"); var errMessage = e['data']['AdError']['l']; playerState.AD_IS_PLAYING = false; playerState.IS_PLAYING = false; // && errMessage == 'The VAST response document is empty.' if(!playerState.AD_ERROR){ var dTime = new Date().getTime(); WVM.firstPrerollTagUrl = WVM.getFirstPrerollUrl(); console.log("calling backup ad tag url: " + WVM.firstPrerollTagUrl); WVM.activePlayer.ima.changeAdTag(WVM.firstPrerollTagUrl + "?" + dTime); WVM.activePlayer.ima.requestAds(); //WVM.activePlayer.src({ // src: masterSrc, // type: 'video/mp4' //}); //WVM.firstPrerollTagUrl = ""; } playerState.AD_ERROR = true; }); //player.off('error'); player.on('error', function(event) { if (player.error().code === 4) { player.error(null); // clear out the old error player.options().sources.shift(); // drop the highest precedence source console.log("now doing src"); console.log(player.options().sources[0]); player.src(player.options().sources[0]); // retry return; } }); //player.off('volumechange'); player.on('volumechange', function(event) { console.log(event); var theHeight = $('#media-container-' + playerState.ORIGINAL_ID + ' .vjs-volume-level').css('height'); var cssVolume = 0; if(theHeight){ cssVolume = parseInt(theHeight.replace('%', '')); } var theVolume = player.volume(); if(theVolume > 0.0 || cssVolume > 0){ $('#media-container-' + playerState.ORIGINAL_ID + ' .mute-overlay').css('display', 'none'); }else{ $('#media-container-' + playerState.ORIGINAL_ID + ' .mute-overlay').css('display', 'block'); } }); WVM.reinitRawEvents(playerState.ORIGINAL_ID); setInterval(function(){ WVM.reinitRawEvents(playerState.ORIGINAL_ID); }, 2000); } if(!WVM.rawCompleteEvent){ WVM.rawCompleteEvent = function(e){ var playerState = WVM['player_state169747']; console.log("firing raw event due to all other events failing"); var currId = playerState.VIDEO_ID; var newMediaId = WVM.getNextPlaylistIndex(currId); //if(playerSettings.autoplay_next && newMediaId){ if(newMediaId){ WVM.load_video(newMediaId, true, playerState.ORIGINAL_ID); } }; } if(!WVM.rawTimeupdateEvent){ WVM.rawTimeupdateEvent = function(e){ var playerState = WVM['player_state169747']; var rawVideoElem = document.getElementById('html5-video-' + playerState['ORIGINAL_ID'] + '_html5_api'); var fullCurrent = rawVideoElem.currentTime * 1000; var fullDuration = rawVideoElem.duration * 1000; var current_time = Math.floor(rawVideoElem.currentTime); console.log("raw timeupdate: " + fullCurrent + " out of " + fullDuration); if ( current_time > 0 && ( fullCurrent >= (fullDuration - 50) )){ var currId = playerState.VIDEO_ID; var newMediaId = WVM.getNextPlaylistIndex(currId); if(newMediaId){ console.log("loading new video from rawtimeupdate"); WVM.load_video(newMediaId, true, playerState.ORIGINAL_ID); } } if(!$('.vjs-loading-spinner').hasClass('badspinner')){ $('.vjs-loading-spinner').addClass('badspinner') } }; } WVM.reinitRawEvents = function(playerId){ var playerState = WVM['player_state' + playerId]; var rawVideoElem = document.getElementById('html5-video-' + WVM['player_state' + playerId]['ORIGINAL_ID'] + '_html5_api'); //COMPLETE EENT if( WVM['player_state' + playerId].COMPLETE_EVENT){ rawVideoElem.removeEventListener('ended', WVM.rawCompleteEvent, false); } rawVideoElem.addEventListener('ended', WVM.rawCompleteEvent, false); //TIME UPDATE EVENT if( WVM['player_state' + playerId].TIMEUPDATE_EVENT){ rawVideoElem.removeEventListener('ended', WVM.rawTimeupdateEvent, false); } rawVideoElem.addEventListener('ended', WVM.rawTimeupdateEvent, false); WVM['player_state' + playerId].COMPLETE_EVENT = true; WVM['player_state' + playerId].TIMEUPDATE_EVENT = true; };

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Notre Dame Professor Yasemin Ozkan-Aydin has spent fifteen years working in robotics, though despite the mechanical inclination, she takes much of her inspiration from nature- like how centipedes travel and how ants work together to complete tasks, using their legs.

But robots with legs have their own unique challenges.

According to Prof. Ozkan-Aydin As a product, there are lots of wheeled robots, and other stuff. But legged robots are not commercially available.

So, she opted to create her own, using convenient, modern technologies like 3-D printing and low-cost materials to create her own "swarm robots."

The idea here is to use the legged robots like a swarm.

These four-legged robots, which only cost about $200 in raw materials to produce, are able to navigate uneven terrain and work together to complete tasks. Ozkan-Aydin suggests they could be used in a wide variety of applications-- from search and rescue operations to gathering data for farmers to plant their crops.

She hopes that these robots can also be used as a learning tool.

Students can learn how to control the systems using a low-cost platform like that, she said.

But one major takeaway Ozkan-Aydin has on the project is she hopes that by developing these swarm robots on her own, she can inspire another generation of engineers in creating their own devices.

Robotics is growing, and now the age of the students is also decreasing. With availability of 3-D printers and materials, its a very growing area," she said.

And she is thankful for the opportunity and support given by the University of Notre Dame.

We have a growing robotics group here," she said "So people are very supportive of the research on the robots, and our Dean is also interested in this kind of research.

And she suggests that if anyone is looking for design inspiration: look to the natural world that surrounds them:

I suggest to people that if they want to work on robotics, to first look at biology, to see if they cant find some useful ideas.

More here:

Notre Dame professor develops swarm robots and hopes to inspire other creators - ABC 57 News

As AI-enabled robots in manufacturing facilities, power plants, warehouse and other industrial sites continue to expand in use, more potential use cases are constantly being identified by enterprises that are looking to solve their critical business problems.

In response, IBM and Boston Dynamics are partnering to bring IBM software and Boston Dynamics Spot robots together to find answers for customers who are dealing with challenging technology requirements at the edge and in a wide range of industrial settings.

The new collaboration between the two companies, which was announced Oct. 26 (Tuesday), will pair their technologies to focus on conducting data analysis at the edge that will be used to addressworker safety, optimize field operations and boost maintenance productivity across many industrial environments.

To fill these needs, IBM Consulting, in conjunction with AI and hybrid cloud innovations from IBM Research, is developing edge software applications to work with a variety of attachable payloads that are available for Boston Dynamics agile, mobile robot, which is called Spot. The payloads are essentially specialized modules that include a robotic arm, a pan-tilt-zoom camera, a thermal camera for analyzing temperatures during inspections, a LIDAR mapping module and attachable edge CPU or GPU modules.

Through the partnership, IBM and Boston Dynamics are essentially using the Spot walking robot as an intelligent roaming edge device and equipped with specialized software that can traverse stairs, rough topography and indoor or outdoor locations, giving operations staff the ability to remotely inspect and monitor equipment with dynamic sensing capabilities.

Skip Snyder of IBM

If IBM was not part of the picture and you bought a Spot robot, you could use it for remote operations, Skip Snyder, a senior partner at IBM Consulting who leads the intelligent connected operations practice, told EnterpriseAI. If you were responsible for a substation, you could wake Spot up at the substation and have it move and see what it sees.

That could include, for example, an inspection of a bank of valves in a power plant and a subsequent recording of the valve readings, he said. And when those readings are combined with IBMs edge applications and the specialized payload modules, customers can gain even more insights, he added.

What we have done is we put on an edge payload that sits on the back of Spots, with performance criteria geared toward AI, said Snyder. Now, using the analytics aboard Spot, the robot can show what it sees, and customers can run the inferencing at the same time it is reading the valve readings on the bank of valves.

We can do the inferencing on the edge device to actually say, OK, at the rate that the pressure is increasing, we are going to be out of [the permitted pressure range] in about six hours, said Snyder. [A worker then needs to] create a work order and alert somebody and we can actually have Spot create a work order within an enterprise asset management system, including IBMs Maximo Application Suite.

One of the first pilot projects using the Spot robot and IBM applications is being conducted by the electric and gas utility, National Grid, which serves Massachusetts and New York. According to the partners, Spot is being used to conduct regularly-scheduled, autonomous inspections at National Grid sites. The integration of IBM advanced AI services gives National Grid new actionable intelligence by processing the data and enabling faster response times when a problem in a facility system is detected.

Currently under field testing is a near real-time inferencing capability that incorporates thermo-visual analysis from inspection data collected by the robot, according to the companies. The new analyses should be able to help identify hotspots and other problems with power station components that could cause serious equipment failures and power outages if left unrepaired. National Grid is planning to use edge data processing via the Spot robot to notify maintenance staff workers as soon as any defects are found so they can make repairs immediately, even as the robot continues its inspection rounds.

The sensing capabilities aboard the Spot robots can scale across multiple facility sites and across many types of equipment using IBM tools and expertise in edge, 5G, security and hybrid cloud, according to IBM and Boston Dynamics.

The first concepts bringing the two technologies together began this past January and were quickly seen as game-changing, said Snyder.

You stop and think about things from an internet of things (IoT) perspective where you can put sensors on all these assets [used by customers], he said. You can put cameras, vibration sensors, microphones on and you can put payloads together to bring all those sensors to multiple assets. The other benefit of it is it is freeing up people to do other higher value work.

Users can even shift among the sensors in a payload and get information across multiple areas at the same time, giving them more flexibility, said Snyder. It is being able to go in and look at a piece of equipment in in multiple ways.

The big differentiator between Spot and other robotic inspection devices is that Spot can go almost anywhere, he said. I am talking about assets that are spanning large campuses, and it is all outside where the temperatures are above 100 degrees or below zero. But Spot does not care either way and it can walk on whatever terrain happens to be out there.

Customers can use one Spot robot or multiple Spot robots, depending on their requirements and the sizes of their facilities.

Research and development are continuing with the technology and new features and capabilities will continue to be added over time, said Snyder.

Rob Enderle, analyst

Rob Enderle, principal analyst with Enderle Group, told EnterpriseAI that the partnership between IBM and Boston Dynamics to make this technology work is understandable.

We are rolling out the fourth industrial revolution, and no one company can do it all, said Enderle. Collaborations like this will be critical to assuring that the coming waves of technology do not also represent a growing danger to the humans that must work in and around these emerging technologies.

At the same time, the announcement showcases a critical step to the growing number of autonomous machines that it seems most are missing the need to update the related hardware, said Enderle. These robots, which will eventually be used in massive numbers, need to be maintained and updated to fix bugs, provide more advanced features and distribute training. IBM may be uniquely capable of providing the secure connections needed to capture data at scale to determine if patches and updates are necessary and help deliver those updates securely, so the robots are not compromised.

That, he said, could prevent some of the more troubling potential outcomes resulting from large numbers of robotic machines that are not patched rapidly enough to avoid catastrophic problems or are compromised by hackers wishing to do harm.

Lian Jye Su, analyst

Another analyst, Lian Jye Su of ABI Research, called today's edge analytics market an ecosystem play. To solve customer pain points, vendors must form partnerships to gain industrial expertise and deep operational knowledge, said Su. As the number of robots and drones proliferate, we expect to see more and more new use cases popping up in the future.

Su called the partnership between IBM and Boston Dynamics an exciting project that shows off Boston Dynamics active pace in deploying its Spot robots since the company was acquired by Hyundai.

As a quadruped, Spot is an excellent choice to operate in unstructured environments like manufacturing facilities, power plants, and warehouses, said Su. When coupled with IBMs expertise in data analytics and AI, this partnership should be very intriguing to end users who want to reduce the reliance on human workers while getting high ROI in their tech investments.

Autonomous mobile robots and drones have proven to be great tools to perform human-like tasks in hard-to-reach or hazardous areas, he added. I expect to see users demands to connect these robots to their internal software for data collection, monitoring and logging. As such, the industry will witness more collaboration between robotics hardware vendors and AI software vendors. Field applications will be an interesting area for Boston Dynamic and IBM, as more and more robotics are now deployed in agriculture, oil and gas, mining, seaports and more.

Related

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IBM, Boston Dynamics Using AI and Walking Robots to Rethink and Improve Industrial Monitoring - EnterpriseAI