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.