The Robotics World

Past Present Future

2013-12-10T18:01:00.000+01:00

Robots have been around for quite a while now. From their first appearances, to where they stand now, they have come a long way through technical developments. And, we are already getting used to the idea of them helping us. But to what extent? At what point can we see a robot in every household, not only helping us with day to day tasks, but also with more sophisticated issues. In many different companies, they are already dependent on robots. This is due to their newly found mobility. Just think of Amazon’s latest delivery, hovering robot and you will know what we are talking about.

From Nanobots to da Vinci surgical robots, each offers different and important business values that can be seen in logistics, the medical sector, space and the U.S. army. We have seen how robots are able to improve the driving abilities of the Bugatti Veyron or to drive a car completely on its own, thanks so artificial intelligence. The da Vinci surgical robot represents a new era in medical technology, as it helps to eliminate human error. The robots that have been developed by NASA have done a lot of research for us, which we could never have done on our own. And just as well, the U.S. army is helped by robots in places where no human being can go.

Humanoids are the group of robots that represent the most tangible and most typical human-machine interaction. Think back to R2D2 and then take a look at Asimo. The features of robots today are much more humanlike, as their faces resemble a human's. Their intelligence is so advanced that we are really starting to feel and treat them as human beings. The way they are able to recognize objects and persons, to react in different situations without any intervention, creates the opportunity to employ them in a wide range of activities: from serving a dinner in a restaurant to doing dangerous rescues in a nuclear plant. Together, we are approaching a new age of robot-human collaboration.

But of course we still have a long way to go. As many of the advanced robots are still in the beginning stages of development, small productions often come with big costs. Every new invention, every new step towards artificial intelligence presents new problems. Robots are dependent on the way we create and program them; that means that they are a product of the human mind, and therefore bound to human errors. Their mobility has already come a long way: Asimo can run up and down stairs and the Packbot can pick itself up. But still, they are a long way away from the movements and the mobility of a human being. Another constraint, that we as human beings also lack, is power. We need food and sleep, just as robots need to recharge their batteries. Hopefully over time, these limitations will be eliminated one by one. But, we are going to have to wait a little longer before we can send a robot to get our groceries, or let a robot bring goods from a distributor to a retail centre.

PackBot

2013-12-02T11:50:00.000+01:00

The PackBot is another invention that is highly valued by the U.S. army. It was introduced in Afghanistan in 2002. Since then there have been many new models. The one characteristic that stays constant is a special propulsion system, with aiding flippers that enables the robot to reach speeds up to 14 km/h (5.8 mph) and makes sure that it can make its way over rough terrain. Thanks to the flippers, that can move around 360 degrees it can even move itself in different positions. For example let’s say it has accidentally landed on its back, no problem, it can right itself. The flippers also make it possible to climb up a hill up to 60 degrees. Or what do you think about taking a ‘swim’ through water up to two meters deep or survive a fall from two meters height.

So basically the idea is that soldiers can toss the thing in a building and explore it, without risk. Besides its durability it is also very easy to transport, as it fits in a backpack and is quickly deployable. Everything about this robot is designed for easy use. That’s why it is so popular. It has been used in different locations and is for example the first robot that entered the Fukushima nuclear plant. Thanks to its GPS receiver, electronic compass, orientation and temperature sensors it can go to locations where it is deemed very dangerous for human beings.

There are four basic models, aimed at specific situations. First there is the PackBot Scout, the most basic configuration that is used for operations where lightweight and low-profile are required. Second version is the PackBot explorer, it carries an integrated payload which can be elevated and is equipped with cameras, a laser pointer, sensor and even a microphone. It works more or less like a head, so even though its small sizes, with this feature it is able peek over obstacles. The PackBot EOD gets its coolness from an OmniReach manipulator system. A what? It’s some sort of arm with a gripping hand that extends over two meters and is able to reach out for dangerous explosives. With its audio and visual sensors, combined with its low profile it is able to search under vehicles or for example inside sewers.

The latest PackBot 510 is everything combined, but even faster and it can drag larger objects, lifts more weights and is much stronger. It’s a real toy, as you are stearing it with a game-like controller, for faster training: you know how these guys are with video-games. Together with a 2-D or 3-D image of the robot available on the control unit it makes for easier operation in the field. The latest version is a real multi-tasker, it can do almost anything you can think of. It’s a soldier’s best friend, to name some features: explosives detection, emergency first response, building and route clearance. And the list goes on and on as you can customize it however you want. Do you want one for your home already?

For more specs take a look at iRobot's website

Cheetah-Bot

2013-11-29T22:00:00.000+01:00

All right, the cheetah-bot might not be as fast as the real life animal, nor does it look as gracious. But, it is the fastest legged robot in the world, surpassing an impressive 29 mph (46 km/h). Can you run at that speed? I didn't think so. Although it will take us much longer to imitate animal species like the cheetah, they are the inspiration for a lot of research and developmental robots.

Just as the cheetah has a flexible back when running, the cheetah bot does as well. Because the whole body moves fluidly when running, it is able to reach incredible speeds. The only limitation is that it is still attached to a hydraulic arm to keep balance. It cannot yet run independently and, as you can see in the movie, the robot really struggles with its balance. Unfortunately it is hard to get any more technical information on the cheetah bot, but actually that comes as no surprise is that the U.S. government is very interested in these types of innovations. Why? To obtain world dominance, prepare for an alien invasion, military advantage, who knows?

As the cheetah is so much faster than any human being, it presents a lot of possible applications in the field of war. It can outrun enemies and tackle them without any difficulty, just like an attack dog. But, dogs can be easily defended when they eventually catch up to you. With these robots you stand no chance. Running more than 29 mph? Snapping a robots neck? Enemy forces will have to find a whole new way to fight the U.S. army when similar robots come into play. That’s why these new robots are so valuable. And, as we know, many innovations in business originate from inventions used in the army, so maybe in the future we will be seeing more from the cheetah bot.

Drones

2013-11-27T20:13:00.000+01:00

" The evil eyes in the sky "

They are everywhere if you consider your privacy, they can see it all? What are they? Why are they up in the skies like UFO's? Who controls them?

These are some of the few questions that pop up in our mind every time we hear about drone strikes somewhere in the world. They are actually unmanned flying machines controlled remotely at a military base, mostly thousand of miles away. They are equipped for tactile missions and have equipments such as hi-resolution cameras and even missiles at times. They are a new breed of warriors employed in the battlefields today, actually almost all of the news agencies are mapped with news about some or the other drone strikes somewhere in the world.

But are these mean machine so really mean? Can they just be used as weapons of mass destruction?

The answer to the above questions is NO.Drones are capable of much much more. They can be used in various circumstances where human intervention on board an aircraft is actually dangerous or tedious. Such situations can be weather observation, surveillance for pattern recognition in agricultural fields, or perhaps even traffic monitoring to understand several factors for different studies.

They are much much more than Killers they were designed to be much more. It's their use that makes them deadly yet the power behind the technology is immense. They are the frontrunners of unmanned aircrafts which perhaps in the future could also be extended to totally autonomous machines to do things even out of the earths atmosphere...

Nanobots

2013-11-23T19:30:00.000+01:00

The next generation bots are coming... You can't see them, touch them or feel them around you but they would do things that would entirely change the course of perception of the human race. Imagine a chronic tumour in the human body in a place inaccessible even to the best of the medical terms. What is the cure?

Pop a pill containing these miracle workers which would be electronically programmed to target the tumour in a manner as quick as one can think without any risky procedures or long waits in the hospital. This is the future with bots being made at the nanoscale i.e. a nanometer scale which is equal to 19^-9 metres. So small as to be not even seen by the human eye yet so powerful to accomplish tasks through coordinated swarms.

Thought the creation of these minuscule is not very easy because of the fact of creation of motors, sensors and the matrix board for the controller, the size of lesser than even a nanometer and this is possible but not so very in the current period. These wonders have the power to work in a coordinated manner as a swarm to accomplish tasks not only in the medical field as mentioned above but they could be also used in emergency situations such as a war or on aircrafts to control in many real time features of the rudders for example.

These bots would enable us in the future to perform functions which today owing to the inability to create objects on such a scale factor are impossible.

The various approaches of formulation of these organisms are as follows:

1. Biochip

2. Nubots

3. Positional Nanoassembly

4. Bacteria Based

5. Open Technology

6. Nanorobot Race

These bots if implemented on this scale have tremendous potentials. They can even help us to decode the human genome on a much better scale as the DNA molecules are also at the same factor level. Though evidently they are of primary importance and are needed as soon as possible yet there is a lot to be learnt on the way before putting them into actual usage or over the production facility.

Aishwarya Tiwari

And they shall rise to protect the Human Race...

2013-11-20T20:22:00.001+01:00

Robots are able to traverse where humans dare not, into disaster areas, both natural and man-made. Governments, universities, and corporations across the globe have been investing significant resources in developing robots to deal with the repercussions of floods, mining collapses, oil spills, nuclear outbrakes, and other industrial and natural disasters since the 90's.

Robots, in essence, have no need of environmental comfort. Their chassis unite forged metallic alloys with synthesized polcarbonates that empower them to resist tremendous physical exposure to heat or steam (no air circulation), direct force or high frequency radiation, while being flexible enough to move around conveniently.

The limit of TID (total ionizing dose - deterioration of electric/electronic equipments because of temporally accumulated amount of radioactive exposure - absorbed dose [Gy]) for human workers is legally defined as 100 - 250 Milli-Sievert [mSv]. If the safety factor is set to 0.1 Gy, 50 [Gy] and 20 [Gy] (the admissible limit of a robot) are 20-50 times and 8-20 times larger the admissible limit of human workers respectively.

Robotic devices have been employed in response to multiple Radioactive disasters: Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and recently in Fukushima, Japan. In Fukushima, Packbots were used to measure radiation levels and take pictures safely (see video below). As for chemical and oil refinement disasters, robots have been vital in managing environmental damages. Clean-up robots, with huge, deployable arms, are able to analyze and collect chemical leakages within disaster areas.

Robots entering Fukushima Reactor Building for the very first time:

In the medical field, robots have been developed to identify, analyze, and combat terminal diseases, such as cancer. Nano-robots, robots scaled to 10^-9 meters, are being developed to access and cure malignant cells through magnetic field targeting. A big advantage of this robotic technology is that it targets only the infected cells, without damaging healthy tissue (like chemotherapy).

Robots are morevover used to explore active volcanos, which is just another example of how robots have extended humanity's learning horizons.

Robots exploring a Volcano:

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/video/nbcnews.com/49552226#49552226

Below (left), a Hurt Locker-like bomb-disabling robot is pictured. Another example of how robotics has extended humanity's practical reach without endangering human lives. All of these robots have broken down environmental barriers, allowing humans to access realms previously inaccessible. Now just imagine what barriers robots will be able to overcome in the future.

This tactical hazardous operations robot, also know as THOR, is considered to be the robotic disaster response challenge (DRC) robot, par excellence. It not only facilitates the accomplishment of certain milestones in the prevention of disasters, but also pushes the entire field of robotic technology to its utter limits. At the end of the challenge, THOR should be able to perform the following tasks:

Get into and drive a utility vehicle
Walk across a rubble field
Clear rubble blocking an entry
Open doors and enter a building
Climb a ship’s ladder
Manipulate a power tool to break through a wall
Locate and close a valve
Carry and connect a fire hose

The business value of this technology manifests in the increasingly growing market and research & development found in this area. It seem that this technology not only provides a pruduct with respect to social responsibility or business ethics, but also from a pure return on investment point of view it seems to be beneficial.

HUBO

2013-11-20T16:00:00.000+01:00

There is a constant deliberation amidst the Robotics community: can humanoid bots be really developed? If they can be, would they be capable of emulating human behavior or even perhaps match the competencies displayed by the human brain to some extent?

The answer to these questions can be further explored through the development of the first Android based humanoid bot by Professor Oh Jun-Ho, on behalf of Korea Advanced institute of science and technology, with the lower body of a bipedal frame, that of a robot, while keeping the head of a human(Albert Einstein in this case). The capabilities of this humanoid bot, though limited, include features such as independent eye movements on both the eyes, facial gestures, voice recognition and synthesis apart from movement freedom on more than 3 independent axes. There has also been a development of the HUBO 2 by the same organisation on similar scales as the upgraded version to HUBO also known as Albert HUBO.

The robot is specially known for its facial gestures which are closely matched to the more than 1000 facial gestures that the human face is capable of. Also another remarkable feature of this bot is the capability to produce a synthesized voice on the patterns of the voice of the famous physicist Albert Einstein. The bi-pedal frame is capable also of matching the human type walking movement though it is still at very slow speeds, which in turn are a remarkable feature for such a frame.

The technicalities of this bot are also a benchmark in this industry with various motors and special sensors put in place to monitor and to react to situations on real time basis. It uses two on-board PC104 processors and solid state drives for faster instruction processing power and retrieval. The left one can control the entire robot, taking care of functions such as walking and overall stabilization; the right one on the other hand is normally empty and one can load speech, vision, and navigation algorithms.

Such humanoid bots are a great leap in terms of human based interactions because such bots can be very readily deployed in the future in places of public interest to interact with live humans and perhaps provide more options and benchmarks in terms of the human-bot interaction in a more informal manner.

Atlas

2013-11-15T20:13:00.000+01:00

The advancements in technology have amazed everyone world wide, and the most astonishing developments over the past few years were in Atlas. Atlas are humanoid robots which are developed mainly to assist or carry out search and rescue tasks. Boston Dynamics, an American company, are developing the Atlas to assist The United States army.

The Atlas was developed from Boston Dynamics first version which was called Petman. The design are somehow identical in terms of the limbs (4 hydraulic limbs), material (Aluminium and Titanium), height (1.8 m) and weight (330 pounds). The vision system that is implemented in the Atlas is a laser rangefinder and stereo cameras.

Huge progress was made in the past 2 years, and with billions of dollars being funded to Boston Dynamics by the Unites States Defense Advanced Research Projects Team (DARPA), we are to expect these Robots to carry emergency services in search operations or even rescue. The Atlas is mainly being developed to carry out operations where humans can not survive due to the environment. Atlas is still in the beginning of the development stages as a lot of advancements and improvements are still needed to be made. One of the issues that they still face till now is that Atlas still falls down a lot, but by time more and more developments are improving its balance.

Asimo

2013-11-14T19:39:00.000+01:00

Asimo, which stands for Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility, is not the first humanoid robot, but as his name predicts he has been the leader in a wide range of innovations. He made his first appearance in October 2000 and over the years it has been presented with several new features. Honda, its developer, wanted to provide the world with a robot that would add value to our society. So they invented a new type of robot, one not related to the business environment, that could help people in their daily life. That it is why Asimo is only 1.2 meters tall, so he can move around easily in spaces that are occupied by humans, but he can still reach for certain objects, like switches or doorknobs. His size also contributes to the fact that he has a very attractive appearance, almost human-like.

One of the technologies that also contribute to its human appearances is the Predicted Movement Control. Combined with the already existing technologies it makes him move with great flexibility and smoothness as you can see in the video. It results in an intelligent real-time flexible way of walking, easily making changes of direction, and responding to sudden movements. It is ably to steer clear from a person or, contrary, to approach someone to great him or her. Over the years his movements have become more and more stable, enabling him now to even run up to 3.7 mph, kicking a football, or running up and down stairs.

Recognizing moving objects, postures, gestures, sounds and faces are other features that make him resemble a human being. As it can interact with us, he really starts to grow on us, like a pet, or maybe like a real friend. Even though his two eyes are just cameras, they give him a actual face, and most importantly they make sure that he captures everything that happens around him, detecting movements of multiple objects or determining distance and direction. It can even follow us around, like a little dog. But you never have to clean up after him. Nor feed him, because he will know when his 51.8V lithium ion battery needs to be charged, and by himself he will return to his charger point. Also, thanks to its voice interpretation, it will listen to your voice commands as well as to gestures. The voice recognition will even allow him to distinguish several people, so it will know when you’re with friends and invite them to a cup of tea. Works better than a boyfriend.

Curiosity

2013-11-09T17:01:00.001+01:00

In 1971, the first attempt was made to land a rover on Mars. At the time, NASA experienced more failure than success. Of course by now we are finding more and more answers to the questions that continue to surround Mars. Rover development has made such technological strides since then. Each robot has specific capabilities, based on what NASA determines best suits the rover's mission. The long term goals that NASA has set for these rovers are to discover characteristics of Mars' climate, geology, and resources to determine if life has been, or could ever be, supported by the planet. Additionally they are preparing for human exploration of the planet.

The first two Mars rovers were launched in 1971 and were developed by Russia, but both attempts failed, as neither of them had a successful landing. On July 4, 1997, the American Mars Pathfinder landed and succeeded in doing some exploration until losing contact three months later. In 2003, the Beagle 2, Spirit and Opportunity were also launched. Up to this point, the Curiosity has been the most successful attempt to explore Mars. It was launched on November 26, 2011 and arrived to Mars on August 6, 2012. Today the rover is still operable and keeps on giving us new insights on the peculiarities of Mars.

Curiosity is doing different kinds of biological, geological and geochemical research, in addition to studying the planetary processes and surface radiation. Curiosity's goals are as follows: to determine whether Mars could have ever supported life, the role of water, the study of the climate and the geology of Mars and the prospects of human exploration. In order to achieve these goals the Mars rover has an impressive collection of tools. It not only has it got a wide range of different cameras installed, but it can also drill in the Martian soil to extract samples, which can be analyzed by the robot itself. As it has its own space laboratory installed, it is able to study the samples it took and send the information to earth.

Curiosity rover finds water in Martian soil

But it is not only the amazing technology that the Mars rover contains that makes it so special. The process it took to land it is also extraordinary. The rover travels in a spacecraft at enormous speed from earth to Mars and the challenge is to slow it down before touching the surface, without any human intervention. It takes 14 minutes for communication to travel to Earth, but the landing process only takes 7 minutes - from the moment the spacecraft reaches the Martian atmosphere to landing safely and soundly on the surface. Every step throughout this extremely sophisticated and every step of the very tense Entry Descent Landing process has to be pre-programmed. This takes 500.000 lines of COD3 programming with a zero margin for error.

The spacecraft is first slowed down by the atmosphere, but because the Martian atmosphere is much thinner that the one we have at earth, it is not enough. Therefor, NASA invented the biggest and strongest supersonic parachute ever made. This parachute is slowing the shuttle down to 200 mph, but it is still not enough. So during its decent, it gets rid of the heat shield needed for passing through the atmosphere, getting the rocket motors are ready to rock. The shuttle has to make a quick diversion to clear from the parachute that is being detached and in this maneuver it kills the remaining velocity. The radar will start looking for its predetermined spot to land and the moment of truth is drawing near. But the rocket motors can’t breach the surface. The rover will thus be lowered down by cables and land on its own ‘feet’. Than the cables are cut off and the shuttle is able to speed away to make sure it doesn't damage the precious rover. All of this happens without human intervention; everything is programmed. These are called the ‘7 minutes of terror’, in which we on earth are hoping no errors have been made during the years and years of preparation.

More information about Mars Rovers on the NASA website

The Swarm

2013-11-03T22:50:00.000+01:00

An ant alone has enough strength to lift a weight that is 10 times its own, it does so to carry food from the place where it finds it to the nest. Imagine now a swarm of ants looking for food, together they have the power to coordinate and lift food that is proportionally big, and also the swarm enables the ant to hunt a prey that is too big for a single ant to hunt upon. This methodology of the swarm works not only at this micro level but also at a macro level where animals such as lions or hyenas hunt in groups to be more effective. Even the human species during the initial stages of development used to hunt in groups.

The swarm gives you the multitude of effects such as strength, intelligence and many others.

What if you could have a swarm of robots that could do the same work in a manner unapprehensive to a single robot. This is what Wiki says about swarm robotics:

"Swarm robotics is a new approach to the coordination of multirobot systems which consist of large numbers of mostly simple physicalrobots. It is supposed that a desired collective behavior emerges from the interactions between the robots and interactions of robots with the environment. This approach emerged on the field of artificial swarm intelligence, as well as the biological studies of insects, ants and other fields in nature, where swarm behaviour occurs."

The recent trends in robotics today is too get multiple robots to work together, but at the moment these parallel working robots don't work as desired because of collisions and noise effects. Some tasks are too tough for a robot to solve on its own and that is when the idea of the swarm kicks in. Basically the idea is to have multiple robots synchronized to add up in effectiveness, like the ants they work together side by side, distributing different tasks to reduce time and the amount of work. Not a moment they will block each others way, and everything looks like a well-oiled machine.

The algorithmic format in which a swarm is built, is too tedious to understand at this macro level. Yet to give you an idea how it works we will explain a bit of the basic terminology. The type of programs written for the swarm generally are designed in a manner to sequentially carry out a command and avoid the possibility of a deadlock. This is done by sensors used in the robot that can detect the robots in the proximity and then carry out the task by forming a group. The advantages of swarms are huge but the morphology in how to work coordinated as a swarm is still new, and the various sensors have their own range and the algorithms sometimes cannot capture the action that is to be carried out due to the numerous conditional branching.

Here is a video to give you a glimpse of what a swarm is capable of. Enjoy!!

Trusting a Robot…With Your LIFE

2013-10-29T19:56:00.000+01:00

I have been to my fair share of hospital emergency rooms, including one interesting trip to an ER in Seoul, South Korea (which is a story for another day). Luckily enough, these visits were usually minor and involved some level of stupidity on my end. For those of us who have been less fortunate, hospital visits have involved some sort of surgical procedure. From a routine outpatient podiatry procedure that lasts less than a half hour to a complex cardiothoracic surgery that takes multiple days and requires an inpatient stay of months, surgery can be scary, painful, and costly. The fact is that the patient must trust the doctor with his limb, his heart, or even his life. While surgeons are able to safely perform operations today that healthcare professionals could have only dreamed of twenty years ago, complications, pain, and suffering will continue to pervade the process of undergoing surgery no matter how advanced the field becomes. This is clearly evident, as all of us have at least known someone close to them who has had to have an operation. Surgery can save lives and, in other cases, can just as easily take them. The surgeon’s duty is to give their patients the best care, whether that means performing an operation or to advising against it and recommending alternative solutions. The patient’s duty is to decide if the doctor’s advice is sound and, if so, to trust it. Now, just imagine how hard it is to trust someone with your life. Now, do it again – but this time, imagine trusting a robot with this responsibility…..

In 2000, Intuitive Surgical, Inc. introduced the FDA approved da Vinci robotic surgical system. The system is composed of a surgeon’s console, fitted with a high-resolution viewing screen and an Endowrist system that reacts to the surgeon’s movements, and a patient side-cart, equipped with four robotic arms capable of emulating the surgeon’s movements almost exactly. Since 2000, over 1,400 da Vinci systems have been purchased and successfully employed in hospitals from the United States to Austria. At a price of around $2 Million, the da Vinci system represents an innovative, but expensive approach to surgical procedures. While the price may seem steep, sales have risen dramatically over the past few years and are expected to increase by 400% next year. So why are more and more hospitals around the world willing to pay so much for this system? For starters, the system allows surgeons to perform minimally invasive procedures with more accuracy and greater effectiveness. Rather than having to saw through someone’s mandible in order to reach a cancerous mass in the back of someone’s throat, this system is able to make a tiny incision in neck or even proceed directly down the throat in order to reach the same malignancy. This not only reduces the trauma levels inflicted to the patient, but also preserves tissue and dramatically reduces recovery time. This saves the patient and the hospital lofty costs associated with extended inpatient stays, increases patient satisfaction, and increases a hospitals’ brand in terms of innovativeness. No wonder hospitals are jumping at the chance to be the next institution to employ the da Vinci system in their surgical centers, right? From the sounds of it, I would trust this thing more than I would trust the Cleveland Browns to disappoint their fans (which is pretty much guaranteed).

Now, here’s the other side of the story. The surgical robot is not autonomous – it requires a surgeon who is not only comfortable performing the operation remotely, through a screen, but who is also capable of deftly maneuvering the Endowrist system well enough to make it react as if its his own hands. In theory, this is how it’s supposed to work. This requires hours and hours of training and even then, success is not guaranteed. In being detached from the patients’ tissue, the surgeon will obviously have less sensitivity. In some cases, this has resulted in mistakes that result in even bigger problems than the initial surgery was meant to correct. In addition, more and more cases are being reported as problematic as research begins to surface regarding the da Vinci’s outcomes. So far, only 245 problematic operations have been reported, according to the FDA. But, these problematic cases are self-reported and as a result are vastly underreported. While the da Vinci system is understandably an innovative approach to surgery in the 21^st century, it is far from a perfect machine. As I said before, every surgery involves some sort of risk. The question is whether or not this robot is able to minimize these risks effectively.

Brendan Cmolik

Logist-O-botics

2013-10-25T19:53:00.000+02:00

--> “The machine has no feelings, it feels no fear and no hope ... it operates according to the pure logic of probability. For this reason I assert that the robot perceives more accurately than man.”

MAX FRISCH, Homo Faber: A Report

Stop and pause for a moment… now imagine a world where no time is wasted, where efficiency's boundary is a near-infinite horizon and where people are able to focus on and think about problems that really matter. The truth is that modern logistics is not far away from this reality! Robots are put in to action to optimize operations, adding real and measurable business value to companies across industries around the world.

But do robots really offer any business value through improved logistics? And if so, why?

Lets delve deeper into the differences between mankind (the “traditional” workforce) and robots in order to assess what might work best for this job.

Psychological theories and studies conclude that humans filter what they perceive with a distinct bias formed through their previous experiences. There is this great book called “The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two” that basically deals with the boundaries of human perception and memory. It is often interpreted to argue that the number of objects an average human can hold in working memory at one particular point in time is 7 ± 2. Let me elucidate this through a practical example: Have a look around you (no matter where you currently are) and try to count all red objects in your surrounding (actually do it). When you’ve got your number, remember it. Now, without a single view, how many green objects have you noticed?

Exactly!

As you probably noticed it is way harder to recall all green objects in such a situation, because you primed to remember only the red objects, creating a biased experience. So I believe that we can all agree on the fact that human perception and working memory is at least to some extent limited. It is moreover not always given that, even if a soundly “programmed” human perception filter is used, this perception concludes in an accurate measurement. Humans sometimes make errors. It’s just human (humans get also tired. And human make even more errors when they’re tired).

This might happen:

or this:

We already know that robots are synthesized by hard- and software, containing all sorts of interconnected sensors. Hence, it should not be too hard for us to understand that robots perceive and react a lot more accurately than humans. Robotic sensors are only limited by their specs, and their specs are programmed to eliminate human bias. They store the amount of data that is provided by the hard drive; as much as it shall be. Although they are bounded to certain circumstances (perceiving just a small part on which they are programmed for), they are capable of doing a really great job at it. Just take a look at the following clips:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTDgrUT0J0U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLRfsTPPAcU&list=PLF9121E5DF17AFA99

Amazons next big INNOVATION for its logistics: "Prime-Air" drone for 30-minute deliveries! Your future Amazon packages could be delivered by a flying robot. Isn´t that impressive?! Have a look at this short clip:

Innovative robotic logistics solutions are aslo applied in other business fields... for instance, in car park systems (video below):

However, machines and robots are also limited in thier capabilities. They lack capabilities including - for instance - the ability to synthesize qualitative information to one big picture, generate emotions, imagination or intuition. Hence, humans are more versatile in thier way of working, a fact that gives them an advantage; especially for conceptual and strategic thinking. A key robotics groth area and trend is Intelligent Assis Devices (IAD) - operators manipulate a robot as though it were a bionic extension of thier own limbs with increased capabilities. This is robotics technology - not replacement for humans or robots but rather a new class of ergonomic assist devices that help humans in a wide array of ways (e.g. power assist, motion guidance, ine tracking and process automation. This hybrid conjunction might apear as the most benificial solution with respect to effectivness, quality, risk and cost.

One of the core challenges is to realize a sound human-technology-interaction (HTI), that narrows down to the design of hard- and software of robots. This demands a huge amount of psychological, proccess and organisational studies and therefore a lot of research & development.

Stay tuned for the next episode!

- Kimon Georgiou

Intelligent Cars

2013-10-23T19:00:00.000+02:00

Many have imagined the day that cars would be able to drive themselves and, the reality is, they're not far from it. The first car manufacturer to introduce these kind of features was the Toyota Motor Corporation. Their Lexus the Toyota Prius models were provided with an Intelligent Parking Assist System (IPAS), which allowed the cars to park on their own. The first IPAS's included parking sensors and reverse cameras. Now Toyota vehicles are available with reverse auto-aligning cameras, side mirror cameras and self-park systems.

Audi’s latest self-drive/park feature is another testament to the automotive industry's application of innovative technologies. The Audi A7 is now capable of driving and parking itself.....remotely. Owners are now able to activate and recall their cars from the parking lot using their mobile devices. When you arrive to the mall, you literally stop in front of the entrance. Leave the car in the middle of the road. Click Park, using the application on your phone. Then the car will find the closet spot available - safely of course. When you leave the mall, click Pick Up on the application and you can expect your car to pick you up shortly.

If you thought Audi's remote driving system was impressive, Mercedes may blow you away. It's developing self-driving technology in its S-Class models. The car is capable of reaching any destination. It is able to keep a safe distance from cars, stop at traffic lights, slow down for pedestrians and stay in the center of the lane. Let's just say this car sounds safer than an abuelo behind the wheel. It may be hard to believe, but we are close to being able to read a book, have a meal or behind the wheel while arriving at the destination safely. While it may be hard for most of us to trust a car that basically controls itself, the video below shows you just how close we may be....to actually letting the car drive us.

The Bugatti Veyron

2013-10-20T18:22:00.000+02:00

“It’s like the Nissan GTR on LSD: it alters the way in which you perceive the world around you.”
-Angus Mackenzie.

It goes from standstill to 400 km/h in less than one minute. It has an average top speed of 408.47 km/h. It is faster than any other production car in the world. And that’s because it’s not just any production car: it is built out of technology and materials from outside of the automobile industry. To start, the front and rear frames are constructed from high-strength aircraft stained steal, welded in the same way as aircrafts are, taking from 80 to 90 hours to make one of these handcrafted parts. It’s produced by Heggeman Aerospace, a company involved in building jets and rockets, and who is also responsible for the car’s hydraulic rear wing. This wing is one of the features that make this car so special. It makes sure that at a speed from 220 km/h, it provides a down force of 3.425 newtons.

Oddly enough, this is not even its main function. If you are moving at these kinds of speed, you better have a good set of brakes. Although the carbon fibre C/SiC (reinforced silicon carbide) composite discs already make up of 2/3 of the breaking power, the other 1/3 is coming from the rear wing, set in an angle of 55°. To control the rear wing you need something unimaginably fast to measure the cars speed and changes in its speed. Here’s where the technology comes in. We are talking about a sensor unit that is actually the fastest piece in the car. It measures the time it takes a pulse of light to follow a wire, hit a magnet and reflect back as an ultrasonic sound wave. This information is then being sent to the car’s computer, which calculates how to react. When accelerating above 220 km/h, it will adjust into an angle of 15°, and when increasing into 370 km/h, it will even change into an angle of only 2°.

When making high speeds stops, the computer will put the wing in a 55° angle, in only four tenths of a second, so that the car brakes from 400km/h to standstill within a distance of 0.5 km and less than 10 seconds. To be more precise, the car can make stops from 200 km/h to a complete standstill in 2.2 seconds. So actually this car brakes faster than it accelerates (0 to 200 km/h in 2.5 seconds). Thus, the 4000 hp. needed to brake greatly exceeds its 1001 hp. of motive power.

If you’re not yet in love with this car, all it will take is one drive. In contrast with most supercars, driving, racing and handling this car is simple, even your granny can do it, all thanks to the car’s computer. It controls the traction, the stability, the rear wing, the heat production, and so on. This incredible piece of intelligence is essential to the extraordinary accomplishments of the Bugatti Veyron.

Seems like a dream come true

2013-10-16T19:00:00.000+02:00

In 1977, a man called George Lucas released a film about space, aliens and robots. Back then, it all seemed like a dream. Robots were simple toys for kids or tools for movies. They were nothing more than fictional characters. Today, there are robots in almost every aspect of our lives. We see robots in operating rooms doing non-invasive surgeries, or flying around the world while the pilot is lying down in his/her couch.

Nowadays, they have been introduced into most aspects of our lives, becoming a cost-effective solution to market problems. From talking robots to drones and whether you run a factory, are a farmer or in the military, companies are integrating robots into their daily lives to improve their business value. They reduce time and costs of the common business processes while increasing efficiency.

A study from the International Federation of Robotics says that the sales of industrial robots will increase by 2%, this year. The countries that will demand the largest number of robots are the United States, Brazil, South Korea, China, Southeast Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, and Turkey, while Japan's demand will be decreased because of their economic situation.

The IFR divides robotics into two categories: industrial and service. Within the service category, robots are divided into professional or personal use. In the past three years, the demand for automobile and electronic robots has increased. Also, the demand for medical robots or robots for military use has also seen a great increase in demand.

Thirty years ago, robots seemed a thing that we could only see and experience in dreams and fiction movies. Today, they are among us making our lives easier and helping us improve our business value and life expectancy. If this is what they do today, just imagine what they will be able to do in 10 or 20 years time.

Sources: IFR, HBR, The Business of Robotics

A look into the past, the present and the future...

2013-10-14T00:04:00.001+02:00

A look into the past, what the present is like and what the future has in store for us....

The world of Robots.... Its still the beginning of what we know.....

Robotic Beings Rule the World

2013-10-10T19:20:00.000+02:00

Robotic Beings Rule the World

No. Don’t worry - the humans aren’t dead…. yet. While obviously satirical, the New Zealand band, Flight of the Concords, does shed some light on the growing reliance of robotics in our daily lives and in the world of business. During the coming weeks we will explore robotics through multiple lenses, eventually painting a clearer picture of just how prevalent robots have become in various sectors, what types of value they add, and the consequences that accompany these innovations.

Robots have steadily infiltrated all types of businesses. From hospitals to military front lines to automotive production to the depths of the ocean – all these industries have implemented and realized the benefits of robotics. Surgeons are now able to perform life-saving operations from miles away, while reducing inpatient stays and unbearable levels of pain. Cars can now be assembled with accuracy and time efficiencies that near 99.999%. Drones have now replaced manned planes, allowing militaries to execute missions without leaving their bases. Undersea exploration has just begun to breach the extreme depths (over 10,000 meters) of the ocean using unmanned submarines, which are currently impossible to reach using crewed vessels. These are just a few brief examples of some of the contexts robots have been employed in, with great success. In most cases, robots have pushed the boundaries of what humans are capable of. Ultimately, robots have added value in uncountable ways, whether it is in business, scientific research, or in healthcare.

While this seems all well and good, others like the MIT scholar Andrew McAfee have stated that we may ultimately lose the “race against the machine.” Will there come a day when manual labor is replaced by machinery or when robotic beings really do “rule the world”. This is a highly debated and speculative topic, which, in all honesty needs to take place lest we lose sight of where robotics is going and where that puts mankind – tomorrow and hundreds of years down the line. For now, let’s just say that this blog is going to be an amazing journey through robotic applications and innovations in a variety of field and from a mixture of perspectives – Now, Robo-Boogie!

-Brendan Cmolik

Robots - The basic building blocks

2013-10-06T23:52:00.000+02:00

My title page contents

“Aimless extension of knowledge, however, which is what I think you really mean by the term curiosity, is merely inefficiency. I am designed to avoid inefficiency.” -R. Daneel Olivaw

To fire away here’s a video-clip of a much beloved movie.

Transformers - Yes these are Robots, very advanced Robots.

Robotics, for many of us, this is a funny term indeed. What comes to our mind if you think of a robot is an awkward looking creature; one who could do your day to day work, your most boring tasks or practically everything one can dream of. Is this image true or rather could it be true? Researchers have tried to answer this question and discussed it probably more than any other technical topic. Yet, we still haven’t reached our full expectations of the robotic future.

But what exactly are Robots?

There’s different ways of defining the concept. A theoretical description for example:
“A robot is a mechanical or virtual agent, usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by a computer program or electronic circuit.”[1] That’s a bit too theoretical, right? Let’s understand the concept of a Robot as a machine which simply reduces our work. So from ‘Can Openers’ to ‘Fans’ to even a ‘Locomotive’, these are all Robots, it’s only the function that varies.

Before we try to understand how the combination of mechanised parts, a chip and some algorithms are functioning together, let’s take a closer look at how the Robot is built and the basic nuances that will constitute that, what we actually call a "Robot".

The Robot is a machine that is characteristically defined by two major parts - the hardware and the software. Every business, when constructing a robot, have certain requirements for which the hardware and the software can be designed for. Let’s look at an example in this short video.

[1] ‘Robot’, Sunday 06-10-2013 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot

In this Robowars International video, we see how robots specifically compete with each other, using their strengths and weaknesses, to win the title. If we were to project this on the organisational setting the goal is to destroy competition and to advance. To get a fair example of how this specific designing works, let’s think of Razer in the video above, and think of all the possible we could attribute to him or straight to the point which mechanical instruments would you require to break a slab of Concrete, his competitor. These instruments would be what we call the hardware. As in this case the Robots are controlled manually, there’s no specific software related.

So forming the robot hardware profile, is very simple and consist only of two steps: first we take into account the requirements, secondly we put all the different hardware parts, which fulfil the requirements, together on one base. The software part however is a bit more complicated. Between all of our different hardware parts, there is always a chip (similar to the ones used in our computers) that connects the hardware with the software. On this chip we can find the programming that produces the electric motor signals that drive the robot. This programming is set in several languages, most of the Low Level, a most basic type of language that is fundamental to machines. So the robots don’t need a translation, such as they would need when using a language we find understandable.

Friends, we welcome you to the world of Mobile Robotics. We will take you on a journey showing various examples of Robots in an organisational setting, we will make you realise what they are doing for us through automation, and teach you that robots can do things that are practically impossible for the humans to do.

Aishwarya Tiwari