The nonprofit ARM Institute said it intends to be a broker between robotics and manufacturing stakeholders. | Source: ARM Institute
The Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing, or ARM, Institute made two announcements today. The institute opened its latest project call, and it added employer capabilities to RoboticsCareer.org. The latest project call supports the ARM Institute’s effort to build a national repository for artificial intelligence-based manufacturing resources.
For now, the ARM Institute is calling this national repository the “AI Data Foundry” program. This project call is separate from the call it made last week to support American manufacturing and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD).
“This project call marks a key milestone in the ARM Institute’s work to make AI in robotics more accessible to manufacturers,” Dr. Chuck Brandt, chief technology officer of the ARM Institute, told The Robot Report. “The special topic areas outlined in the project call were identified by our partners as being critical to laying the foundation to help manufacturers leverage AI. We look forward to working with our members on impactful solutions in these areas.”
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ARM Institute targets barriers to AI adoption
The ARM Institute asserted that the lack of real, quality data to train AI models is a key barrier to adoption. “Democratized access to data and AI resources is critical to enabling further use of AI among manufacturers of all sizes,” said the Pittsburgh-based organization.
To address this, the institute is working to define, collect, and validate data for machine learning and dataset generation. It said the program will act as a repository of technical expertise, infrastructure, and resources. This will help create trusted advanced robotic AI systems for manufacturers to be used by its consortium, the DoD, and others.
The project call and its associated special topic areas and manufacturing areas of interest are focused on developing and demonstrating the viability of a national repository for AI-based manufacturing systems. It focused on the following objectives:
- Data collection and organization: The ARM Institute plans to define, collect, and organize data for machine learning across various robotics platforms, ensuring high-quality and relevant data sets.
- Data quality and trust: Projects must ensure the quality and trustworthiness of collected data through methods for automatic data cleansing and verification.
- Robotic AI manufacturing skills and models: Participants will develop robust AI robotic skills or skill frameworks to enhance the performance and agility of robotics for manufacturing.
- Transfer learning: Selected projects will use transfer learning methods to repurpose AI knowledge across different domains, reducing training time and resources.
While this project call is publicly available, organizations must join the ARM Institute’s consortium to submit a proposal.
RoboticsCareer.org adds employer capabilities
The ARM Institute said its latest RoboticsCareer.org capabilities will help employers and hiring manufacturers connect to qualified workers. The organization designed the site using input from more than 450 industry partner organizations.
RoboticsCareer.org supports students and workers throughout their full robotics journeys. The free site also connects hiring manufacturers to qualified job seekers, and helps schools and training programs engage with potential new students.
“As with all of our capabilities on RoboticsCareer.org, we built these new features using input from subject matter experts from across the ARM Institute consortium,” said Lisa Masciantonio, chief workforce officer at the ARM Institute. “RoboticsCareer.org plays a key role in helping our nation’s manufacturers navigate their workforce shortages and connect to the talent they need to enhance their competitiveness.”
“Around 8,000 individuals use RoboticsCareer.org each month, epitomizing the interest students and job seekers have in robotics,” she added. “RoboticsCareer.org is the key connection that shows students how these skills translate to an important and meaningful manufacturing career.”
The new employer-focused capabilities include:
- Enhanced talent database search functionality: Hiring employers can now search for talent based on job seekers’ skills, with an increased emphasis on the skills that an individual has applied in a professional setting. When the ARM Institute began building the new employer features, it said hiring managers and human resources representatives noted that a pain point with other sites was the inability to see which skills a candidate has applied in a professional setting.
- Automated e-mail notifications: Employers can now opt into regular e-mails that keep them updated on new candidates who match the skills they are seeking.
- Ability to identify graduates of endorsed training programs: ARM Institute Endorsement evaluates and endorses the nation’s most effective training programs for robotics careers in manufacturing. Employers can now see if a job candidate has graduated from an ARM Institute Endorsed Program on their profile.
In addition, the release includes new capabilities for job seekers and students, including:
- Profile preview: Job seekers can preview how their profile appears to employers.
- Ability to add the endorsement badge: Graduates of ARM Institute Endorsed training programs can now add the badge to their profiles to showcase to employers that their education was evaluated and endorsed by industry experts.
Access to these features and others all start with creating a free profile on RoboticsCareer.org. In 2024 alone, close to 100,000 individuals used iy to connect to jobs, training, internships, and other resources, an increase of 160% over the prior year.
The ARM Institute will host a webinar further exploring how to use these capabilities on Tuesday, March 18, at 1:00 p.m. ET.
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