Standup comedian Jon the Robot likes to tell his audiences that he does lots of auditions but has a hard time getting bookings.

Researchers at University of California, Yale University, Stanford University, University of Cambridge and Seoul National University have recently carried out a study reviewing recent efforts in the development of machine-learning-enhanced electronic skins. Their review paper, published in Science Robotics, outlines how these e-skins could aid the creation of soft robots with touch-like capabilities, while also delineating challenges that are currently preventing their large-scale deployment.

Justin R. Bessette, Manager of Technology at Parker LORD, Microstrain shares with us his thoughts on how Parker LORD is managing through the pandemic as well as insights into what the future of Robotics and Automation may be.

Roboticists at the University of California San Diego have developed an affordable, easy to use system to track the location of flexible surgical robots inside the human body. The system performs as well as current state of the art methods, but is much less expensive. Many current methods also require exposure to radiation, while this system does not.

* Please register at:
https://robotsinsurgeryandhealthcare.eventbrite.com

The COVID-19 pandemic is increasing global demand for robots that can 
assist in surgery and healthcare. This symposium focuses on recent 
advances and open problems in robot-assisted tele-surgery and 
tele-medicine and needs for new research and development. The online 
format will encourage active dialogue among faculty, students, 
professionals, and entrepreneurs.

Featuring:
Gary Guthart, CEO, Intuitive Surgical
Robin Murphy, Texas A&M
Pablo Garcia Kilroy, VP Research, Verb Surgical
Allison Okamura, Professor Stanford
David Noonan, Director of Research, Auris Surgical
Jaydev Desai, Director, Georgia Tech Center for Medical Robotics
Nicole Kernbaum, Principal Engineer, Seismic Powered Clothin
Monroe Kennedy III, Professor, Stanford

Presented by the University of California Center for Information 
Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) and the Banatao 
Institute “People and Robots” Initiative, SRI International, and 
Silicon Valley Robotics.

Schedule:

   *  09:30-10:00: Conversation with Robin Murphy, Texas A&M and Director of 
Robotics for Infectious Diseases, and Andra Keay, Director of Silicon 
Valley Robotics
   *  10:00-10:30: Conversation with Gary Guthart, CEO Intuitive Surgical 
and Ken Goldberg, Director of CITRIS People and Robots Initiative
   *  10:30-11:00: Conversation with Pablo Garcia Kilroy, VP Research 
Verb Surgical and Tom Low, Director of Robotics at SRI International
   *  11:00-11:15: Coffee Break
   *  11:15-11:45: Conversation with David Noonan, Director of Research, 
Auris Surgical and Nicole Kernbaum
   *  11:45-12:45: Keynote by Jaydev Desai, Director, Georgia Tech Center 
for Medical Robotics
   *  12:45-01:15: Conversation with Allison Okamura, Stanford and Monroe 
Kennedy III, Stanford

Manufacturing the Hand-Held in a plastic injection molding process makes it possible to offer a more stable and cost-effective alternative to 3D printing. Installing it is fast and very easy and it is compatible with most commercially available door handles (Ø 18 - 22 mm).

Robots can be made from soft materials, but the flexibility of such robots is limited by the inclusion of rigid sensors necessary for their control. Researchers created embedded sensors, to replace rigid sensors, that offer the same functionality but afford the robot greater flexibility. Soft robots can be more adaptable and resilient than more traditional rigid designs. The team used cutting-edge machine learning techniques to create their design.

A team of Italian researchers from the BioRobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna and Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn has developed a new and improved version of its Seabed Interaction Legged Vehicle for Exploration and Research (SILVER) with the SILVER2—a robot that can walk around on the seafloor taking video as it goes. In their paper published in the journal Science Robotics, the group describes the robot, its capabilities and how it might be used in research efforts.

There are three adaptations we are watching closely at Aethon since we believe they are a trend and may become more permanent. These adaptations will have a significant influence specifically on the use of automation and autonomous mobile robotics.

There are three adaptations we are watching closely at Aethon since we believe they are a trend and may become more permanent. These adaptations will have a significant influence specifically on the use of automation and autonomous mobile robotics.

The rolling hills of Mars or the moon are a long way from the nearest tow truck. That's why the next generation of exploration rovers will need to be good at climbing hills covered with loose material and avoiding entrapment on soft granular surfaces.

Their client needed a conveying solution integrated into their current facility. The over-sized product, an aircraft wing support beam, needed to be handled incredibly carefully to avoid product damage.

Their client needed a conveying solution integrated into their current facility. The over-sized product, an aircraft wing support beam, needed to be handled incredibly carefully to avoid product damage.

You can watch this seminar here at 1PM EST (10AM PST) on May 15th.

 Andrew Davison (Imperial College London)

Abstract: To enable the next generation of smart robots and devices which can truly interact with their environments, Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping (SLAM) will progressively develop into a general real-time geometric and semantic `Spatial AI’ perception capability. I will give many examples from our work on gradually increasing visual SLAM capability over the years. However, much research must still be done to achieve true Spatial AI performance. A key issue is how estimation and machine learning components can be used and trained together as we continue to search for the best long-term scene representations to enable intelligent interaction. Further, to enable the performance and efficiency required by real products, computer vision algorithms must be developed together with the sensors and processors which form full systems, and I will cover research on vision algorithms for non-standard visual sensors and graph-based computing architectures.

Biography: Andrew Davison is Professor of Robot Vision and Director of the Dyson Robotics Laboratory at Imperial College London. His long-term research focus is on SLAM (Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping) and its evolution towards general `Spatial AI’: computer vision algorithms which enable robots and other artificial devices to map, localise within and ultimately understand and interact with the 3D spaces around them. With his research group and collaborators he has consistently developed and demonstrated breakthrough systems, including MonoSLAM, KinectFusion, SLAM++ and CodeSLAM, and recent prizes include Best Paper at ECCV 2016 and Best Paper Honourable Mention at CVPR 2018. He has also had strong involvement in taking this technology into real applications, in particular through his work with Dyson on the design of the visual mapping system inside the Dyson 360 Eye robot vacuum cleaner and as co-founder of applied SLAM start-up SLAMcore. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2017.

Robotics Today Seminars

“Robotics Today – A series of technical talks” is a virtual robotics seminar series. The goal of the series is to bring the robotics community together during these challenging times. The seminars are scheduled on Fridays at 1PM EDT (10AM PDT) and are open to the public. The format of the seminar consists of a technical talk live captioned and streamed via Web and Twitter (@RoboticsSeminar), followed by an interactive discussion between the speaker and a panel of faculty, postdocs, and students that will moderate audience questions.

Stay up to date with upcoming seminars with the Robotics Today Google Calendar (or download the .ics file) and view past seminars on the Robotics Today Youtube Channel. And follow us on Twitter!

Upcoming Seminars

Seminars will be broadcast at 1PM EST (10AM PST) here.

22 May 2020: Leslie Kaelbling (MIT)

29 May 2020: Allison Okamura (Stanford)

12 June 2020: Anca Dragan (UC Berkeley)

Past Seminars

We’ll post links to the recorded seminars soon!

Organizers

Contact

Its compact, versatile design enables the system to map small, fragmented and narrow spaces as well as environments with many obstacles and uneven terrain.