Today's Top Story

The Robot Report’s database now has over 1,250 robotics links in the following directories:

... Industrial robot manufacturers
... Service robots for gov & corp use
... Service robots for personal use
... Ancillary businesses
... Start-up companies
... Educational & research facilities

In addition to the news briefs shown below, the archive has two years of additional items. Plus in-depth articles and opinion on the Everything-Robotic blog.

Review of AUVSI Unmanned Systems 2010 Denver Conference & Exhibition

... 450 exhibitors; 392,000 sq ft; 5,500 attendees; mostly defense and security people attended because that’s what the show was all about.
... Speakers from USAF, Navy, DoD, DARPA - generals, admirals and Henrik Christensen, GA Tech professor and lead proponent of an American roadmap for robotics (including unmanned systems of all types; not just military/security).

Upcoming Robotic Events

... TAROS 2010 Conference Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems, August 31-September 2, Plymouth, UK
... Ro-Man 2010 Symposium in Robot and Human Interaction, September 12-15, Viareggio, IT
... EmTech@MIT 2010, a 3-day conference spotlighting and explaining the most important emerging technologies, September 21-23, MIT Campus, Cambridge, MA
... Robotic Industries Assoc. offering three Webinars: Food Robotics; Career Opportunities in Robotics; and How Robots Help American Companies Compete in a Global Economy.

Sense, think and act: news about artificial intelligence

... NY Times interviews Bina48:
    Q: What’s it like to be a robot?
    A: Well, I have never been anything else.
... “Many countries face pressure on their healthcare systems. To alleviate this pressure, ‘self care’ is often prescribed with the use of new, assistive technologies. Social robotics is a research area where psychology, robot technology and artificial intelligence are combined, aiming for robots that are able to function in cooperation with humans in social settings.” The EU has funded the ALIZ-E project to coordinate efforts between research institutes, companies and end users toward this end. Korea and Japan also have similar programs.
... Italian researchers develop robot programming by demonstration, learning by imitation and human-robot interaction.
... A full-page op-ed piece in the NY Times described the state of the art in AI and robotics got a lot of attention.
... Another op-ed piece, in PCWorld, also reports on the state of AI: The hardest thing about artificial intelligence (AI) is keeping your imagination in check.

$5 Billion UAV/Drones industry in the news and setting new records

... QinetiQ’s solar-powered Zephyr UAV, which charges during the day and operates from batteries, sets new world record for length of unmanned flight (two weeks).
... In the UK, a new UAS evaluation center has opened for UAS trials and testing involving air traffic management and airspace changes.
... Boeing demonstrates new Phantom Eye UAS which begins flight tests later this year. It will stay aloft at 65,000 feet for up to four days.
... Insitu signs agreement to provide integration research to FAA as part of enabling UAS in America’s airspace.
... Read Dwight Eisenhower’s warning about military-industrial complex - 49 years ago - still applicable today.
... ASDReports, a paid-for market research forecast for the UAV market, predicts $71 billion will be spent on UAVs in the next 10 years.

China and Iran Make News With Humanoid Robots

... Iran displays, but gives no further information about, new humanoid robot Surena 2 developed at Tehran University.
... China concludes First International Humanoid Robotics Olympics at Harbin University of Technology. Robots performed gymnastics, track and field and also domestic chores and medical care. Teams from China, America, South Korea, Germany and Japan participated.

Robots in healthcare proliferating

... Each week there are stories about the application of robotics in healthcare or of a hospital bringing onboard robotic processes.  Here are the most recent stories:
... Robots will be used to transport clinical waste and dirty linen, deliver food and dispense drugs at the new Forth Valley Royal Hospital in Ireland.
... Robots will improve safety and efficiency by dispensing pills and dosages into plastic bags and affixing them with barcodes at the Bumrungrad International Hospital in Bangkok.
... New robotic tugs move locked medicine trays around Sinai Hospital in Baltimore.

1 million years of independent living this decade is goal of iRobot’s new eldercare unit

... In a just-released TEDMED video, iRobot CEO Colin Angle describes “informal caregiving” and their new eldercare business unit.
... Goal is to add 1 million years of independent living in next decade by providing robots that assist with medical compliance, provide monitoring and enable physical interactions.

Adept Technology Acquires MobileRobots

... Adept Technology, with $50 million in sales of SCARA, parallel and other fixed-position robots, adds a complete line of AGV and autonomous mobile bases with the acquisition of MobileRobots.
... “Our companies are very compatible,” Jeanne Dietsch, CEO of $5 million in sales MobileRobots, said. “This is definitely a ‘more than a sum of its parts’ sort of merger.”

It Had To Happen: Tokyo Couple Married by Robot

... Japanese couple decided to use the robot as they are both connected with the robot business.
... Kokoro’s i-Fairy receptionist robot was used.

Robotics Highlight of Hannover Messe Trade Fair

... Smart boxes, meters and grids, laser technologies, digital factories, energy efficiencies and future application areas for industrial automation were the focus of the trade show.
... In spite of flight delays from volcanic ash, over 150,000 bussed and trained to attend.
... Highlight of show: Festo’s elephant trunk robotic arm designed to be an agile and delicate bionic handling assistant.

20,000 attend 19th Annual F.I.R.S.T. Competition in Atlanta

... Big crowds, intense competitors at F.I.R.S.T. Robotics Championship in Atlanta.  Click for photo enlargement.
... High School teams from Redondo Beach, CA, Milford, MI and South Windsor, CT formed the winning alliance from over 340 teams competing.

Y-T-D ROBO-STOX™ thru August, 2010

... Robo-Stox™ are showing signs of a trend: as auto industry recovers, so do the Korean and American companies involved; and as China, Korea and India continue to boom along, so do their robot companies.
... First half of 2010 revenues from North American robotics companies also saw gains “in non-automotive companies such as semiconductor, electronics, food & beverage, plastics & rubber, consumer goods and life sciences,” says a press release from the Robotic Industries Association.

NASA’s Global Hawk UAV Used to Track Hurricane Earl

... AF hand-me-down Global Hawks refurbished by NASA (previously reported on The Robot Report in April) being put to use flying above storms. It sits above the hurricane and peers into it using new NASA instruments measuring wind vectors and ocean surface winds, and creating a 3-D distribution of temperature, water vapor, and cloud liquid water. [At the top of the hurricane, wind flow is reversed, so instead of spiraling in from the center, the winds spiral out. A balance of wind flow between the top and bottom of a storm is what enables it to intensify from a cyclone—a closed area of rapid wind circulation—to a hurricane.]
... In other UAV news, Homeland Security announced a fourth Predator patroling US/Mexico border thereby enabling complete 24/7 coverage of border.

Notes from robotics research labs:

... U of Leeds ROV finds a deep channel that runs along floor of Black Sea.
... U of Leeds also going Pyramid exploring with remote cameras and robotic drills.
... Formula 1 simulator uses robotic arm to provide physical affect to the visual experience.
... Robonaut2 getting packaged for its trip to the Space Lab. Follow it on Twitter.
... Boston Dynamics, famous for its Bigdog, gets its two-legged Petman version up to 4.4 mph.
... Cornell’s 4-legged legs-only Ranger walks 14.3 miles on a single charge.
... Also from Cornell, put an infant in a baby seat strapped to a Wii board affixed to a mobile robot and what do you get? Baby mobility. They lean toward what they want. Particularly hopeful for disabled infants.

High-voltage transmission line maintenance robots emerge

... Three different efforts and products emerge to solve the problem of safely observing and maintaining high voltage transmission lines using robotics. Present methods range from humans crawling the lines, to helicopters flying close-by and scanning, to cars and jeeps with people and binoculars.
  1.  LineScout, a tele-operated obstacle crossing system developed by the Hydro-Quebec Research Institute (IREQ), is being tested on hard to maintain lines such as those that cross the St. Lawrence River.
  2.  Expliner, by HiBot of Japan, is being used by the Kansai Electric Power Company. HiBot says they can, with minor modifications, roll out Expliner bots to other countries.
  3.  America’s Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) is developing a more autonomous version customized to work on the PATH (Ohio’s Potomac-Appalachian Transmission Highline lines) but won’t be ready to do trial runs until 2014.

Finnish Cimcorp Oy Acquires Canadian RMT Robotics

... Both companies are leading providers of robotics for logistics automation.

Japanese-owned Yaskawa Motoman to build new facility in Ohio

... Japanese-owned Yaskawa America, the Motoman robot manufacturer, working with the State of Ohio, is building a new 300,000 sq ft office and production facility which will hire 250-300 new people. Wasn’t America the first robot manufacturer? Oh, that company moved to Japan. Now we have off-shore-owned sales, assembly and integration facilities.

AUTOMATICA 2010, Munich

... Read a review of the events and activities at AUTOMATICA 2010.
... Slide and video show of AUTOMATICA 2010.
... Alexander Verl, an inventor, entrepreneur, and researcher at Fraunhofer IPA, won this year’s IEEE/IFR Invention and Entrepreneurship Award (IERA) for outstanding achievement.  His invention transformed the QC, measurement and inspection process from a room full of cameras to flexible inline scanning measurement robots.
... Heinz-Dieter Schunk, CEO, Schunk GmbH, and Scott Deming, Director of the Advanced Machine Systems Group with Corning Inc., received this year’s Robotic Industries Association Engleberger Robotics Awards for their 25+ years of leadership and application respectively. 
... Both awards were presented Tuesday evening at the ISR-Robotik banquet in Munich.

Telepresence robots entering market

... Anybot finalizes their telepresence robot and announces shipping date and price: this fall at $15,000.
... Willow Garage builds 25 for experimentation prior to commercialization.
... InTouch Health already in 300 hospitals making rounds.

Update on Gulf Oil Spill: Progress Report

... 24/7, 10 work heros of Gulf Oil Spill are, amongst others, Oceaneering‘s impressive ROVs.
... Philadelphia Inquirer has in-depth story on high-tech underwater activity.
... Interesting Gulf Oil Spill FAQ by Andrea Thompson at LiveScience.
... FUTURE: Energid and Seabed Rig have a prototype for exploration-seeking drilling areas, which was what BP was doing when the disaster occurred.  The rig is operated by sophisticated, intelligent robots that are controlled using software provided by Cambridge, MA Energid.  “The software was originally developed for NASA and the NSF for controlling complex robotic systems,” says Neil Tardella, COO of Energid, “We are leveraging this software to build the most intelligent rig of its kind.”  They will be demonstrating at ONS 2010 in Stavanger, Norway, August 24-27.

Hand-me-down Global Hawks put to use

... Air Force hand-me-down Global Hawks spruced up by NASA to perform scientific tasks not available from satellites and manned aircraft.
... Can fly 30 hours at 65,000 feet economically and completely autonomously.
... As Americans pull out of Iraq, more and more UAVs will be converted to scientific and commercial use.
... Click photo to see details.
... UPDATE: Big money still in Global Hawks: Northrop Grumman/Ratheon SAS awarded $50 million for sensor suite repair capability.

Kiplinger’s 8 robots that will change your life

... Kiplinger Report suggests the following eight areas of robotics that will become commonplace in the very near future:
  (1) Search and rescue; (2) food processing and handling; (3) guides and receptionists; (4) quality control; (5) exoskeletons; (6) couriers; (7) laundry processing; (8) mobile telepresence workstations.
... See article about Willow Garage and their telepresence robots.
... Also very likely to happen near-term are agricultural robots for monitoring, pruning, thinning and even picking produce.  CMU and the USDA are at the forefront of American activity, as is immigration policy, but it is a worldwide happening with breakthroughs in France, Australia, NZ and Israel frequently in the news.

Plethora of Military UAV Roadmaps but none for civilians

... All these roadmaps refer to civilian uses for UAVs—but they’re really talking about homeland security rather than commercial uses.
... The real civilian UAV roadmap is part of the robotics roadmap floundering in Congress and at the FAA.
... Here are links to some of the roadmaps: Air Force, Navy, Army, DoD, and Robotics Roadmap.
... And here’s a link to a colorful worldwide roundup of UAV proliferation.
... Barron Associates has small R&D project to develop collision avoidance methodologies.

Two new books on the entrepreneurial side of robotics

... There’s a chapter in Trade-Off by Kevin Maney where he describes how iRobot’s Roombas came to be and why they became such a success.  It offers the thesis that there is a “trade-off between the fidelity of an experience and its convenience—and it’s more like the invention of a feature that gives an edge to an age-old product.”
... Change, circumstance and ego all worked to build and then unwind America’s first robot manufacturer is described in a soon to be published book: Pity the Pioneer: The Rise and Fall of Unimation.  An excerpt is in Sept/Oct issue of Robot Magazine.
... Is America now sitting out the race for the future of robotics? Read BusinessWeek’s remarks about the clean energy sector and see the similarities.

Slow going for tele-robotic companies

... In spite of many positive stories - the two most recent from IEEE Spectrum and John Markoff of the NY Times - security, bureaucracy, undefined need, undocumented benefit(s) and alternative non-robotic methodologies (eg: telecom companies, Skype) seem to be the culprits holding back progress.
... Many start-ups but few success stories. InTouch Health, is one of the latter, with a noble effort to be the eyes, ears and voices of doctors who cannot be there in person but can almost be by using InTouch’s line of RP robots and a laptop control station.
... Fred Nikgohar of RoboDynamics gives his spin on why progress is slow-going - and he’s on his 3rd year of selling experiences. Very informative interview with Singularity Hub’s Aaron Saenz.

Adept and RMT Robotics on a golden road to the East

... Adept recently acquired MobileRobots which provides mobile robotic platforms to RMT Robotics and their ADAM line of mobile robots.
... Finnish Cimcorp’s recently acquired RMT Robotics announced that it now provides the ADAM line to a Korean integrator, Hanwha TechM who, in turn, is reselling them to a US battery manufacturer.
... Adept ships big order of parallel robots to Chinese integrator Austong Intelligent Robot Technology who is outfitting a Chinese dairy provider with the robots.

CBS News Sunday Morning Feature on Robots

... Daniel Siebert reported on how robotic technology is becoming more than just science fiction and is changing our lives on a daily basis.
... “Enthusiasm for robots on the battlefield, it seems, is only outpaced by the speed with which the military is acquiring them,” says the author of “Wired for War,” P.W. Singer.
... Read Dwight Eisenhower’s warning about military-industrial complex - 49 years ago - still applicable today.