Why 5G is Essential for AI, IoT, and Robotics

Hearing claims that 5G will change the world should not come as a shock, and appears to be more than just marketing hype. Why? Because the capability and capacity of the 5G technology can transform existing technologies in unimaginable ways.

With research suggesting that 5G is expecting to provide $12.3 trillion of global economic output, and support 22 million jobs around the world by 2035, the potential is huge. Not only will the technology support devices, but it can also transform lives.

In addition to mobile device technologies, we’re also seeing that artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and robotics sectors will be impacted by 5G. In this post, we will explore the potential of 5G in these sectors.

Autonomous cars

Smart cities

IoT technology

Robotics

AI

There’s a robot cat you can back on Kickstarter

There’s a robot cat you can back on Kickstarter

You may have heard of Aibo, Sony’s robot dog, but if a robot cat is what you’ve always wanted, you’re now able to back one on Kickstarter. In fact, it actually looks kind of cute.

MarsCat, made by Elephant Robotics, looks a lot like a cat, but it’s not realistic enough that you’ll be fooled into thinking it’s a replacement for a furry feline that might already wander around your house. But it seems as if Elephant Robotics is trying to give MarsCat a lot of cat-like mannerisms, and it can apparently do things like bat at toys, stretch its front two feet out, and even accept chin rubs! Aw

MarsCat comes in white, gray, ginger, and black, and it’s outfitted with six capacitive touch sensors, a 5MP camera in its nose to help it “see,” and is powered by a Raspberry Pi 3. Elephant Robotics tells The Verge that you’ll get between two to three hours of battery life with “constant interactions” and up to five hours for low usage, such as when MarsCat is lying down or sitting while still powered on.

Robotics and Artificial Intelligence in solar energy

Robotics and Artificial Intelligence in solar energy

A one of a kind opportunity exists to apply AI to a particular part of the clean energy value chain: materials. Materials fill in as the structure blocks of clean energy, for example, the solar cells that make up the photovoltaic panels found on rooftops. Enhancing the materials used to manufacture parts of clean energy is significant on the grounds that current materials are frequently lethal, non-earth rich, and require carbon-concentrated processing.

Without getting excessively technical, basically, the entire reason of AI is a machine emulating the human brain. The machine can learn and adjust to various situations, and as time passes, the machine gets smarter and responds diversely to accomplish better outcomes.

Utilizing AI along these lines can give producers an edge. Manufacturers will in general put resources into upgrading downstream production capacities, which has prompted a few AI applications in sensor innovations and process optimisation. Utilizing AI for upstream design purposes, nonetheless, is an undiscovered business opportunity that could decrease the time it takes to find new materials, opening up capital for deployment and commercialisation strategies.

Robotics Can Solve the Construction Skills Shortage If Handled Properly

Robotics Can Solve the Construction Skills Shortage If Handled Properly

The construction industry is in desperate need of an automated shake-up. With a serious skills shortage, limited resources, and outdated data collection practices, automation and robotics could save the industry from stagnation.

But digitization is coming for construction. Already robots are entering development sites, offering new capabilities that are humanly impossible, or simply providing the accuracy and continuity that are so crucial in the industry. Part one of this article will focus on robotics companies that are upgrading on-site capabilities to address the skills shortage that threatens to suffocate the construction industry.

Beyond digitization

Similar to the mining and oil and gas industries, construction has been sluggish when it comes to automation, although advanced technologies such as laser scanners and smart sensors are widely utilized on-site, and digitization is spreading through the industry.

Building robotic safety inspectors nabs Gecko Robotics $40 million

Building robotic safety inspectors nabs Gecko Robotics $40 million

Gecko Robotics has landed $40 million in financing as it looks to build an additional 40 robots over the next year to meet what the company sees as growing demand for its safety and infrastructure monitoring services.

“We are growing fast solving critical infrastructure problems that affect our lives, and can even save lives,” says Jake Loosararian, Gecko Robotics’ 28-year-old co-founder and chief executive officer, in a statement. “At our core, we are a robot-enabled software company that helps stop life-threatening catastrophes. We’ve developed a revolutionary way to use robots as an enabler to capture data for predictability of infrastructure; reducing failure, explosions, emissions and billions of dollars of loss each year.”

In the three years since its launch in 2016, Gecko Robotics has managed to grow from a small team of Pittsburgh robotics experts hailing from Carnegie Mellon. Indeed, the company has added more than 100 new employees. The hiring push has been largely around creating a team of qualified experts in particular market segments who can operate the robots that Gecko deploys to industrial work sites.

Examining the latest trends in robotics in new eBook

Examining the latest trends in robotics in new eBook

Mouser has published a new eBook in collaboration with TE Connectivity, highlighting new functions and applications in industrial robotics. In Solutions for Robots and Robot Control, engineers and subject matter experts from Mouser and TE provide in-depth articles on the newest robotics technologies in the manufacturing space. The eBook puts a special emphasis on the IIoT, providing the many ways in which robots are changing factories and warehouses.

With a rapidly growing demand for flexible production, robots are assisting manufacturers to maintain high quality while providing mass customisation. The new eBook explores some of the key technologies needed for industrial automation and IIoT, including high-performance connectivity, digital twinning, and collaborative robots.

AI-driven robots are making new materials, improving solar cells and other technologies

AI-driven robots are making new materials, improving solar cells and other technologies

He had asked her to refine a key material in solar cells to boost its electrical conductivity. But the number of potential tweaks was overwhelming, from spiking the recipe with traces of metals and other additives to varying the heating and drying times. "There are so many things you can go change, you can quickly go through 10 million [designs] you can test," Berlinguette says.

So he and colleagues outsourced the effort to a single-armed robot overseen by an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm. Dubbed Ada, the robot mixed different solutions, cast them in films, performed heat treatments and other processing steps, tested the films' conductivity, evaluated their microstructure, and logged the results. The AI interpreted each experiment and determined what to synthesize next. At a meeting of the Materials Research Society (MRS) here last week, Berlinguette reported that the system quickly homed in on a recipe and heating conditions that created defect-free films ideal for solar cells. "What used to take us 9 months now takes us 5 days," Berlinguette says.

Robotics Industry Growth Shifts from Fixed Automation to Mobile Systems

Robotics Industry Growth Shifts from Fixed Automation to Mobile Systems

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM — The robotics market is set to transform over the next 10 years, based on the comprehensive robotics tracker released by global tech market advisory firm, ABI Research.

ABI Research’s Commercial and Industrial Robotics market data report predicts there will be enormous growth across all subsectors, highlighted in a total market valuation of US$277 billion by 2030. That growth will not be distributed evenly, however. By 2022, the burgeoning mobile robotics space will start to overtake the traditional industrial robotics market. Currently, mobile autonomy is concentrated in material handling within the supply chain, but mobile robots are set to touch every sector of the global economy for a wide range of use-cases.

“Everyone talks about self-driving passenger vehicles, but mobile automation is far more developed in intralogistics for fulfillment and industry,” says Rian Whitton, senior analyst at ABI Research. “The automation of material handling will see huge segments of the global forklift, tow truck, and indoor vehicle market consumed by robotics vendors and OEMs that bring indoor autonomy.”

Robotics set for seismic change

The robotics market is set to transform over the next decade, based on the most comprehensive robotics tracker yet released by global tech market advisory firm, ABI Research.

There will be enormous growth across all sub-sectors, highlighted in a total market valuation of $277bn (~€250bn) by 2030. That growth will not be distributed evenly, however. By 2022, the burgeoning mobile robotics space will start to overtake the traditional industrial robotics market. Currently, mobile autonomy is concentrated in material handling within the supply chain, but mobile robots are set to touch every sector of the global economy for a wide range of use-cases.

Rian Whitton, Senior Analyst at ABI Research, said: “Everyone talks about self-driving passenger vehicles, but mobile automation is far more developed in intralogistics for fulfilment and industry. The automation of material handling will see huge segments of the global forklift, tow truck, and indoor vehicle market consumed by robotics vendors and OEMs that bring indoor autonomy.”

Robotic System for Deep Endovascular Instrument Guidance

Robotic System for Deep Endovascular Instrument Guidance

Researchers at the Polytechnique Montréal Nanorobotics Laboratory in Canada have developed a new method to guide endovascular instruments into complex vascular structures that were hitherto inaccessible to endovascular surgeons. The technique involves moving the patient and the endovascular instrument using a robotic platform within a magnetic field.

Endovascular surgery has enabled minimally invasive approaches for a huge array of surgical interventions. However, the technique is not without its challenges, and advancing a thin catheter through long and tortuous vasculature can be difficult, with the device potentially getting stuck. In fact, certain areas of the body are inaccessible to endovascular surgeons because of the complexity of their vasculature and the impossibility of advancing a catheter through it using conventional means.

Increased use of robotics led to worker displacement in midwest

Increased use of robotics led to worker displacement in midwest

"Robot intensity," measured by the number of robots per number of workers, has more than doubled in the last decade to reach 1.81 robots for every 10,000 workers as of 2017, according to a study by The Century Foundation.

Robots are leading to the displacement of mostly young, less-educated, minority workers in midwestern states, the study found. Workers have largely found new jobs. The new jobs had reduced pay, but the study did not find evidence that an area's increased robot intensity coincided with a decline in its wages.

Nationally, the study found the use of robots can increase employment, noting there is little evidence the use of robotics will result in "widespread and crushing job displacement" as robotic intensity increases in census divisions outside of the Midwest.

Mechatronics and Robotics Courses Market Demands, Competitive Insights And Precise Outlook 2019-2025

Mechatronics and Robotics Courses Market Demands, Competitive Insights And Precise Outlook 2019-2025

The global Mechatronics and Robotics Courses market is carefully researched in the report while largely concentrating on top players and their business tactics, geographical expansion, market segments, competitive landscape, manufacturing, and pricing and cost structures. Each section of the research study is specially prepared to explore key aspects of the global Mechatronics and Robotics Courses market. For instance, the market dynamics section digs deep into the drivers, restraints, trends, and opportunities of the global Mechatronics and Robotics Courses Market. With qualitative and quantitative analysis, we help you with thorough and comprehensive research on the global Mechatronics and Robotics Courses market. We have also focused on SWOT, PESTLE, and Porter’s Five Forces analyses of the global Mechatronics and Robotics Courses market.

Technique helps robots find the front door

Technique helps robots find the front door

In the not too distant future, robots may be dispatched as last-mile delivery vehicles to drop your takeout order, package, or meal-kit subscription at your doorstep — if they can find the door.

Standard approaches for robotic navigation involve mapping an area ahead of time, then using algorithms to guide a robot toward a specific goal or GPS coordinate on the map. While this approach might make sense for exploring specific environments, such as the layout of a particular building or planned obstacle course, it can become unwieldy in the context of last-mile delivery.

Imagine, for instance, having to map in advance every single neighborhood within a robot’s delivery zone, including the configuration of each house within that neighborhood along with the specific coordinates of each house’s front door. Such a task can be difficult to scale to an entire city, particularly as the exteriors of houses often change with the seasons. Mapping every single house could also run into issues of security and privacy.

Surgical Robots Shine

Surgical stays hot

Surgical robot companies made a couple bits of news this week. In Post Falls, Idaho, Northwest Specialty Hospital announced it would be the first hospital in the Pacific Northwest to offer a combination of robotic technologies and automation for spinal surgery. For the hospital, it’s not just one robotic system – it’s the combination of systems, which include:

·         Two disinfection robots, including the Xenex LightStrike Robot, which uses xenon bulbs and ultraviolet light to kill pathogens in surgical suites; and the iSuite from Stryker Corporation, which uses voice automation, fluorescence imaging and other enhancements to improve surgical productivity and safety.

·         The ExcelsiusGPS Robotic Navigation platform from Globus Medical, which uses a robotic arm and navigation capabilities for precise trajectory alignment in spine surgery.

The Army developed A.I. to help robots understand context

A group of scientists have helped the U.S. Army develop artificial intelligence that will enable its robots understand context. The robot needs to understand environmental context, social context, and mission context so it can successfully work alongside human soldiers and this A.I. system will make that possible.

“The idea of integrating context to A.I. development is a difficult process,” Schaefer-Lay said. “Researchers tend to have very different ideas about what is meant by context and the best practices for integrating context into A.I. development.”

Schaefer-Lay explained that this development advances natural language communication, world model development, multi-modal communication and human-autonomy teaming in the field of robotics.

Quadruped Robots Can Climb Ladders

When we look at quadruped robots, it’s impossible not to compare them to quadruped animals like dogs and cats. Over the last several years, such robots have begun to approach the capabilities of their biological counterparts under just a few very specific situations, like walking without falling over. Biology provides a gold standard that robots are striving to reach, and it’s going to take us a very long time to make quadrupeds that can do everything that animals can.

The cool thing about robots, though, is that they don’t have to be constrained by biology, meaning that there’s always the potential for them to learn new behaviors that animals simply aren’t designed for. At IROS 2019 last week, we saw one such example, with a quadruped robot that’s able to climb vertical ladders.

Here’s who will build the Army’s heavy common robot

WASHINGTON — The Army has chosen FLIR’s Kobra robot to serve as its heavy version of the Common Robotic System that will be used for explosive ordnance disposal and other heavy-duty jobs.

The production contract will run for a period of five years and could be worth up to $109 million.

The Army wanted its Common Robotic System-Heavy (CRS-H) to weigh up to 700 pounds and to carry a variety of sensors and payloads to support missions.

“The Kobra [unmanned ground vehicle] delivers unmatched strength, power and payload support in an easy-to-operate robot package,” according to a FLIR statement sent to Defense News.

Kobra has a lift capacity of 330 pounds and can stretch up to eleven-and-a-half feet to get at difficult-to-reach places, but it is also still nimble enough to climb jersey barriers and fit into the back of a standard utility vehicle, according to FLIR.

7 Key Robot Applications in Automotive Manufacturing

For more than 50 years, the automotive industry has been using robots in their assembly lines for a variety of manufacturing processes. Today, automakers are exploring the use of robotics in even more processes. Robots are more efficient, accurate, flexible, and dependable on these production lines. This technology has allowed the automotive industry to remain one of the most automated supply chains globally, and one of the largest users of robots.

With thousands of wires and parts in every vehicle, it takes a complex manufacturing process to get components to where they need to be. Here are several robotic applications that are crucial to an efficient assembly line:

1) Robotic Vision

2) Spot and arc welding

3) Assembly

4) Painting, sealing and coating

5) Machine tending and part transfer

6) Materials removal

7) Internal logistics

Watch MIT’s ‘mini cheetah’ robots frolic, fall, flip – and play soccer together

MIT’s Biomimetics Robotics department took a whole herd of its new ‘mini cheetah’ robots out for a group demonstration on campus recently – and the result is an adorable, impressive display of the current state of robotic technology in action.

The school’s students are seen coordinating the actions of 9 of the dog-sized robots running through a range of activities, including coordinated movements, doing flips, springing in slow motion from under piles of fall leaves, and even playing soccer.

The mini cheetah weights just 20 lbs, and its design was revealed for the first time earlier this year by a team of robot developers working at MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. The mini cheetah is a shrunk-down version of the Cheetah 3, a much larger and more expensive to produce robot that is far less light on its feet, and not quite so customizable.

The mini cheetah was designed for Lego-like assembly using off-the-shelf part, as well as durability and relative low cost. It can walk both right-side up, and upside down, and its most impressive ability just might be the way it can manage a full backflip from a stand-still. It can also run at a speed of up to 5 miles per hour.

International Conferences on Mechatronics and Robotics

About the Conference:

Larix International is delighted to welcome to the “International Conference on Mechatronics and Robotics”, scheduled in Dubai, UAE during February 26-27, 2020. The aim of Robotics 2020, the conference is to provide a platform for researchers, engineers, academics as well as industry professionals from all over the world to present their research results and development activities in the area of Mechatronics and Robotics Engineering. This Robotics conference 2020, provides opportunities for delegates to exchange new ideas and research findings in a face to face environment, to establish business or research relationships and to find global partners for future collaboration. The main discussion in the conference would be on advanced motion control, sensors/actuators, micro and nano-mechatronics, robotics and biomechatronics, intelligent control and AI in mechatronics and mechatronics education.

Why Robotics 2020:

The International Conference on Mechatronics and Robotics is a unique platform for academic and industrial Engineering experts in the world and is the flagship annual event. Your participation in Robotics 2020 will enable you to:

·        Hear plenary lectures by stellar speakers who are leading Engineering companies.

·        Meet invited speakers who are world leaders in their fields.

·        Present your scientific results to the most relevant audience either as a poster or oral presentations.

·        Get a global perspective of Robotics and Material Engineering.

·        Attend Networking events on the first day of the conference.

·        Participate in or visit the trade exhibition. Network with Robotics experts from academia and industry from 60+ countries.

·        Become Robotics 2020 sponsor and showcase your products.

·        Present products, services or activities offered by companies & scientific organizations.

·        Participate in “Highlight events” that focus on current challenges and controversies.

Target Audience:

·        Professors

·        Scientists

·        CEOs 

·        Directors

·        Co-Executives

·        Students

·        Research Scholars 

·        Robotics Industrialists

·        Robotic Programmers 

·        Surgeons