Tag Archives: robot
#439929 GITAI’s Autonomous Robot Arm Finds ...
Late last year, Japanese robotics startup GITAI sent their S1 robotic arm up to the International Space Station as part of a commercial airlock extension module to test out some useful space-based autonomy. Everything moves pretty slowly on the ISS, so it wasn't until last month that NASA astronauts installed the S1 arm and GITAI was able to put the system through its paces—or rather, sit in comfy chairs on Earth and watch the arm do most of its tasks by itself, because that's the dream, right?
The good news is that everything went well, and the arm did everything GITAI was hoping it would do. So what's next for commercial autonomous robotics in space? GITAI's CEO tells us what they're working on.
In this technology demonstration, the GITAI S1 autonomous space robot was installed inside the ISS Nanoracks Bishop Airlock and succeeded in executing two tasks: assembling structures and panels for In-Space Assembly (ISA), and operating switches & cables for Intra-Vehicular Activity (IVA).
One of the advantages of working in space is that it's a highly structured environment. Microgravity can be somewhat unpredictable, but you have a very good idea of the characteristics of objects (and even of lighting) because everything that's up there is excessively well defined. So, stuff like using a two-finger gripper for relatively high precision tasks is totally possible, because the variation that the system has to deal with is low. Of course, things can always go wrong, so GITAI also tested teleop procedures from Houston to make sure that having humans in the loop was also an effective way of completing tasks.
Since full autonomy is vastly more difficult than almost full autonomy, occasional teleop is probably going to be critical for space robots of all kinds. We spoke with GITAI CEO Sho Nakanose to learn more about their approach.
IEEE Spectrum: What do you think is the right amount of autonomy for robots working inside of the ISS?
Sho Nakanose: We believe that a combination of 95% autonomous control and 5% remote judgment and remote operation is the most efficient way to work. In this ISS demonstration, all the work was performed with 99% autonomous control and 1% remote decision making. However, in actual operations on the ISS, irregular tasks will occur that cannot be handled by autonomous control, and we believe that such irregular tasks should be handled by remote control from the ground, so we believe that the final ratio of about 5% remote judgment and remote control will be the most efficient.
GITAI will apply the general-purpose autonomous space robotics technology, know-how, and experience acquired through this tech demo to develop extra-vehicular robotics (EVR) that can execute docking, repair, and maintenance tasks for On-Orbit Servicing (OOS) or conduct various activities for lunar exploration and lunar base construction. -Sho Nakanose
I'm sure you did many tests with the system on the ground before sending it to the ISS. How was operating the robot on the ISS different from the testing you had done on Earth?
The biggest difference between experiments on the ground and on the ISS is the microgravity environment, but it was not that difficult to cope with. However, experiments on the ISS, which is an unknown environment that we have never been to before, are subject to a variety of unexpected situations that were extremely difficult to deal with, for example an unexpected communication breakdown occurred due to a failed thruster firing experiment on the Russian module. However, we were able to solve all the problems because the development team had carefully prepared for the irregularities in advance.
It looked like the robot was performing many tasks using equipment designed for humans. Do you think it would be better to design things like screws and control panels to make them easier for robots to see and operate?
Yes, I think so. Unlike the ISS that was built in the past, it is expected that humans and robots will cooperate to work together in the lunar orbiting space station Gateway and the lunar base that will be built in the future. Therefore, it is necessary to devise and implement an interface that is easy to use for both humans and robots. In 2019, GITAI received an order from JAXA to develop guidelines for an interface that is easy for both humans and robots to use on the ISS and Gateway.
What are you working on next?
We are planning to conduct an on-orbit extra-vehicular demonstration in 2023 and a lunar demonstration in 2025. We are also working on space robot development projects for several customers for which we have already received orders. Continue reading
Posted in Human Robots
#439920 Video Friday: Your Robot Dog
Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your friends at IEEE Spectrum robotics. We'll also be posting a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months; here's what we have so far (send us your events!):
ICRA 2022 – May 23-27, 2022 – Philadelphia, PA, USALet us know if you have suggestions for next week, and enjoy today's videos.
I don't know how much this little quadruped from DeepRobotics costs, but the video makes it look scarily close to a consumer product.
Jueying Lite2 is an intelligent quadruped robot independently developed by DeepRobotics. Based on advanced control algorithms, it has multiple motion modes such as walking, sliding, jumping, running, and back somersault. It has freely superimposed intelligent modules, capable of autonomous positioning and navigation, real-time obstacle avoidance, and visual recognition. It has a user-oriented design concept, with new functions such as voice interaction, sound source positioning, and safety and collision avoidance, giving users a better interactive experience and safety assurance.[ DeepRobotics ]
We hope that this video can assist the community in explaining what ROS is, who uses it, and why it is important to those unfamiliar with ROS.https://vimeo.com/639235111/9aa251fdb6
[ ROS.org ]
Boston Dynamics should know better than to post new videos on Fridays (as opposed to Thursday nights, when I put this post together every week), but if you missed this last week, here you go.
Robot choreography by Boston Dynamics and Monica Thomas.
[ Boston Dynamics ]
DeKonBot 2: for when you want things really, really, really, slowly clean.
[ Fraunhofer ]
Who needs Digit when Cassie is still hard at work!
[ Michigan Robotics ]
I am not making any sort of joke about sausage handling.
[ Soft Robotics ]
A squad of mini rovers traversed the simulated lunar soils of NASA Glenn's SLOPE (Simulated Lunar Operations) lab recently. The shoebox-sized rovers were tested to see if they could navigate the conditions of hard-to-reach places such as craters and caves on the Moon.
[ NASA Glenn ]
This little cyclocopter is cute, but I'm more excited for the teaser at the end of the video.
[ TAMU ]
Fourteen years ago, a team of engineering experts and Virginia Tech students competed in the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge and propelled Torc to success. We look forward to many more milestones as we work to commercialize autonomous trucks.
[ Torc ]
Blarg not more of this…
Show me the robot prepping those eggs and doing the plating, please.
[ Moley Robotics ]
ETH Zurich's unique non-profit project continues! From 25 to 27 October 2024, the third edition of the CYBATHLON will take place in a global format. To the original six disciplines, two more are added: a race using smart visual assistive technologies and a race using assistive robots. As a platform, CYBATHLON challenges teams from around the world to develop everyday assistive technologies for, and in collaboration with, people with disabilities.
[ Cybathlon ]
Will drone deliveries be a practical part of our future? We visit the test facilities of Wing to check out how their engineers and aircraft designers have developed a drone and drone fleet control system that is actually in operation today in parts of the world.
[ Tested ]
In our third Self-Driven Women event, Waymo engineering leads Allison Thackston, Shilpa Gulati, and Congcong Li talk about some of the toughest and most interesting problems in ML and robotics and how it enables building a scalable driving autonomous driving tech stack. They also discuss their respective career journeys, and answer live questions from the virtual audience.
[ Waymo ]
The Robotics and Automation Society Student Activities Committee (RAS SAC) is proud to present “Transition to a Career in Academia,” a panel with robotics thought leaders. This panel is intended for robotics students and engineers interested in learning more about careers in academia after earning their degree. The panel will be moderated by RAS SAC Co-Chair, Marwa ElDinwiny.
[ IEEE RAS ]
This week's CMU RI Seminar is from Siddharth Srivastava at Arizona State, on The Unusual Effectiveness of Abstractions for Assistive AI.
[ CMU RI ] Continue reading
Posted in Human Robots
#439916 This Restaurant Robot Fries Your Food to ...
Four and a half years ago, a robot named Flippy made its burger-cooking debut at a fast food restaurant called CaliBurger. The bot consisted of a cart on wheels with an extending arm, complete with a pneumatic pump that let the machine swap between tools: tongs, scrapers, and spatulas. Flippy’s main jobs were pulling raw patties from a stack and placing them on the grill, tracking each burger’s cook time and temperature, and transferring cooked burgers to a plate.
This initial iteration of the fast-food robot—or robotic kitchen assistant, as its creators called it—was so successful that a commercial version launched last year. Its maker Miso Robotics put Flippy on the market for $30,000, and the bot was no longer limited to just flipping burgers; the new and improved Flippy could cook 19 different foods, including chicken wings, onion rings, french fries, and the Impossible Burger. It got sleeker, too: rather than sitting on a wheeled cart, the new Flippy was a “robot on a rail,” with the rail located along the hood of restaurant stoves.
This week, Miso Robotics announced an even newer, more improved Flippy robot called Flippy 2 (hey, they’re consistent). Most of the updates and improvements on the new bot are based on feedback the company received from restaurant chain White Castle, the first big restaurant chain to go all-in on the original Flippy.
So how is Flippy 2 different? The new robot can do the work of an entire fry station without any human assistance, and can do more than double the number of food preparation tasks its older sibling could do, including filling, emptying, and returning fry baskets.
These capabilities have made the robot more independent, eliminating the need for a human employee to step in at the beginning or end of the cooking process. When foods are placed in fry bins, the robot’s AI vision identifies the food, picks it up, and cooks it in a fry basket designated for that food specifically (i.e., onion rings won’t be cooked in the same basket as fish sticks). When cooking is complete, Flippy 2 moves the ready-to-go items to a hot-holding area.
Miso Robotics says the new robot’s throughput is 30 percent higher than that of its predecessor, which adds up to around 60 baskets of fried food per hour. So much fried food. Luckily, Americans can’t get enough fried food, in general and especially as the pandemic drags on. Even more importantly, the current labor shortages we’re seeing mean restaurant chains can’t hire enough people to cook fried food, making automated tools like Flippy not only helpful, but necessary.
“Since Flippy’s inception, our goal has always been to provide a customizable solution that can function harmoniously with any kitchen and without disruption,” said Mike Bell, CEO of Miso Robotics. “Flippy 2 has more than 120 configurations built into its technology and is the only robotic fry station currently being produced at scale.”
At the beginning of the pandemic, many foresaw that Covid-19 would push us into quicker adoption of many technologies that were already on the horizon, with automation of repetitive tasks being high on the list. They were right, and we’ve been lucky to have tools like Zoom to keep us collaborating and Flippy to keep us eating fast food (to whatever extent you consider eating fast food an essential activity; I mean, you can’t cook every day). Now if only there was a tech fix for inflation and housing shortages…
Seeing as how there’ve been three different versions of Flippy rolled out in the last four and a half years, there are doubtless more iterations coming, each with new skills and improved technology. But the burger robot is just one of many new developments in automation of food preparation and delivery. Take this pizzeria in Paris: there are no humans involved in the cooking, ordering, or pick-up process at all. And just this week, IBM and McDonald’s announced a collaboration to create drive-through lanes run by AI.
So it may not be long before you can order a meal from one computer, have that meal cooked by another computer, then have it delivered to your home or waiting vehicle by a third—you guessed it—computer.
Image Credit: Miso Robotics Continue reading
Posted in Human Robots
#439897 Video Friday: Robot Halloween
Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your friends at IEEE Spectrum robotics. We'll also be posting a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months; here's what we have so far (send us your events!):
BARS 2021 – October 29, 2021 – Stanford, CA, USALet us know if you have suggestions for next week, and enjoy today's videos.
Happy Halloween from HEBI Robotics!
[ HEBI Robotics ]
Thanks, Kamal!
Happy Halloween from UCL's Robot Perception and Learning Lab!
[ UCL RPL ]
Thanks, Dimitrios!
Happy Halloween from Berkshire Grey!
[ Berkshire Grey ]
LOOK AT ITS LIL FEET
[ Paper ]
DOFEC (Discharging Of Fire Extinguishing Capsules) is a drone suitable for autonomously extinguishing fires from the exterior of buildings on above-ground floors using its onboard sensors. The system detects fire in thermal images and localizes it. After localizing, the UAV discharges an ampoule filled with a fire extinguishant from an onboard launcher and puts out the fire.
[ DOFEC ]
Engineering a robot to perform a variety of tasks in practically any environment requires rock-solid hardware that's seamlessly integrated with software systems. Agility engineers make this possible by engineering and designing Digit as an integrated system, then testing it in simulation before the robot's ever built. This holistic process ensures an end result that's truly mobile, versatile, and durable.
[ Agility Robotics ]
These aerial anti-drone systems a pretty cool to watch, but at the same time, they're usually only shown catching relatively tame drones. I want to see a chase!
[ Delft Dynamics ]
The cleverest bit in this video is the CPU installation at 1:20.
[ Kuka ]
Volvo Construction Equipment is proud to present Volvo LX03–an autonomous concept wheel loader that is breaking new grounds in smart, safe and sustainable construction solutions. This fully autonomous, battery-electric wheel loader prototype is pushing the boundaries of both technology and imagination.
[ Volvo ]
Sarcos Robotics is the world leader in the design, development, and deployment of highly mobile and dexterous robots that combine human intelligence, instinct, and judgment with robotic strength, endurance, and precision to augment worker performance.
[ Sarcos ]
From cyclists riding against the flow of traffic to nudging over to let another car pass on a narrow street, these are just a handful of typical yet dynamic events The Waymo Driver autonomously navigates San Francisco.
[ Waymo ]
I always found it a little weird that Aibo can be provided with food in a way that is completely separate from providing it with its charging dock.
[ Aibo ]
With these videos of robots working in warehouses, it's always interesting to spot the points where humans are still necessary. In the case of this potato packing plant, there's a robot that fills boxes and a robot that stacks boxes, but it looks like a human has to be between them to optimize the box packing and then fold the box top together.
[ Soft Robotics ]
The 2021 Bay Area Robotics Symposium (BARS) is streaming right here on Friday!
[ BARS ]
Talks from the Releasing Robots into the Wild workshop are now online; they're all good but here are two highlights:
[ Workshop ]
This is an interesting talk exploring self-repair; that is, an AI system understanding when it makes a mistake and then fixing it.
[ ACM ]
Professor Andrew Lippman will welcome Dr. Joaquin Quiñonero Candela in discussing “Responsible AI: A perspective from the trenches.” In this fireside chat, Prof. Lippman will discuss with Dr. Quiñonero-Candela the lessons he learned from 15 years building and deploying AI at massive scale, first at Microsoft and then at Facebook. The discussion will focus on some of the risks and difficult ethical tradeoffs that emerge as AI gains in power and pervasiveness.
[ MIT ] Continue reading
Posted in Human Robots
#439882 Robot umpires are coming to baseball. ...
Baseball fans know the bitter heartbreak of calls that don't go their way—especially, a ball that should've been a strike. And, with advances in technology including computer vision, artificial intelligence, and the ubiquity of Wi-Fi, it would be easier than ever for baseball officials to replace humans with robotic umpires. Continue reading
Posted in Human Robots