Archive 12.06.2023

How MuZero, AlphaZero, and AlphaDev are optimizing the computing ecosystem that powers our world of devices.

Modern-day society relies intrinsically on automated systems and artificial intelligence. It is embedded into our daily routines and shows no signs of slowing, in fact use of robotic and automated assistance is ever-increasing.

If you missed the 2023 edition of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation in London, here we bring you the video digests that were made each of the main days of the conference. Enjoy!

Tuesday 30th May

Wednesday 31st May

Thursday 1st June

Claire chatted to Sara Bernardini from Royal Holloway University of London all about decision-making, reconfigurable robots, and oceanography.

Sara Bernardini is a Professor of AI at Royal Holloway University of London, the Principal Research Scientist in AI and Data Science at the National Oceanography Centre and a Fellow at the Alan Turing Institute. Her research in decision-making for autonomous systems lies at the intersection of AI, cognitive robotics, and mathematical optimisation. Most of her work focuses on planning for single-agent and multi-agent systems to enable them to act intelligently in real time despite resource and environmental constraints, noisy or faulty sensors, imperfect abilities and extreme conditions.

A team of material scientists and electronic engineers at MIT, has developed a way to create magnetic soft robots by combining fiber-based fabrication systems with mechanical and magnetic programming methods to provide locomotion under unidirectional magnetic fields. In their paper published in the journal Advanced Materials, the group describes how they overcame problems faced by others attempting to create magnetically controlled soft robots and outline the design of the robots they created.

In recent years, roboticists have created a growing number of autonomous systems based on different structures and designs. Among these are modular robots, which are composed of different elements or "modules" that can be reconfigured to carry out specific tasks more effectively.

Different people tend to have unique needs and preferences—particularly when it comes to cleaning or tidying up. Home robots, especially robots designed to help humans with house chores, should ideally be able to complete tasks in ways that account for these individual preferences.

One application for which robot arms are well suited is using a kind of deburring tool as a cutting instrument when working with relatively soft materials like plastics and composites.

Poems, essays and even books—is there anything the open AI platform ChatGPT can't handle? These new AI developments have inspired researchers at TU Delft and the Swiss technical university EPFL to dig a little deeper: For instance, can ChatGPT also design a robot? And is this a good thing for the design process, or are there risks? The researchers published their findings in Nature Machine Intelligence.

This easy-to-make sponge-jamming device can help stiff robots handle delicate items carefully by mimicking the nuanced touch, or variable stiffness, of a human.

Robots can skip, jump and do somersaults, but they’re too rigid to hold an egg easily. Variable-stiffness devices are potential solutions for contact compliance on hard robots to reduce damage, or for improving the load capacity of soft robots.

This study, published at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2023, shows that variable stiffness can be achieved by a silicone sponge.

Lead author Tianqi Yue from Bristol’s Department of Engineering Mathematics explained: “Stiffness, also known as softness, is important in contact scenarios.

“Robotic arms are too rigid so they cannot make such a soft human-like grasp on delicate objects, for example, an egg.

“What makes humans different from robotic arms is that we have soft tissues enclosing rigid bones, which act as a natural mitigating mechanism.

“In this paper, we managed to develop a soft device with variable stiffness, to be mounted on the end robotic arm for making the robot-object contact safe.”

Robot sponge in action. Video Credit: Tianqi Yue.

Silicone sponge is a cheap and easy-to-fabricate material. It is a porous elastomer just like the cleaning sponge used in everyday tasks.

By squeezing the sponge, the sponge stiffens which is why it can be transformed into a variable-stiffness device.

This device could be used in industrial robots in scenarios including gripping jellies, eggs and other fragile substances. It can also be used in service robots to make human-robot interaction safer.

Mr Yue added: “We managed to use a sponge to make a cheap and nimble but effective device that can help robots achieve soft contact with objects. The great potential comes from its low cost and light weight.

“We believe this silicone-sponge based variable-stiffness device will provide a novel solution in industry and healthcare, for example, tunable-stiffness requirement on robotic polishing and ultrasound imaging.”

The team will now look at making the device achieve variable stiffness in multiple directions, including rotation.

Paper: “A Silicone-sponge-based Variable-stiffness Device” by Tianqi Yue at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2023.

New algorithms will transform the foundations of computing

A simple sponge has improved how robots grasp, scientists from the University of Bristol have found.   

New algorithms will transform the foundations of computing

-Automate 2023 set record attendance with more than 30,000 registrants -Automate is heading to Chicago in 2024 and will return to Detroit in 2025

If the OEM uses well-designed, proven components, the mobile platform will provide many years of service, handling cumbersome, heavy loads efficiently with minimal downtime for maintenance.