Archive 09.06.2020

IMTS to continue to offer digital experiences to foster connections, networking and technical learning opportunities.

How can industrial equipment companies keep pace with the push to economize and modernize, to be more data-centric, and to provide safety and security in the face of constant innovation?

ICRA 2020, one of the main international robotics conferences, is happening online this year due to COVID-19. That means there is loads of free content you can view from home. It’s a great way to see what’s happening in the field straight from those pushing the state of the art.

Plenaries and Keynotes are being broadcast from June 1 to 15 at 1PM UTC on IEEE.TV. We’ve embedded all the talks below, and will keep updating throughout the conference. Check out the online programme for more great content, including workshops and tutorials.

Plenary Panel	Chair: Wolfram Burgard	Monday, June 1, 1PM UTC
Covid-19: How Can Roboticists Help? Ken Goldberg, UC Berkeley, Moderator	Robin Murphy, Texas A&M, USA Brad Nelson, ETH Zurich, CH Richard Voyles, Purdue, USA Kris Hauser, UIUC, USA Antonio Bicchi, I-RIM, Italian Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Machines Andra Keay, Silicon Valley Robotics, USA	Gangtie Zheng, Tsinghua U, PRC Ayanna Howard, Georgia Tech, USA Kirsten Thurow, CELISCA Rostock, Ge Helen Grenier, ASAALT, USA Howie Choset, CMU, USA Guang-Zhong Yang, Shanghai Jiao Tong U, PRC

Plenaries
Lydia E. Kavraki	Planning in Robotics and Beyond	Tuesday June 2, 1PM UTC
Yann LeCun	Self-Supervised Learning & World Models	Wednesday June 3, 1PM UTC
Jean-Paul Laumond	Geometry of Robot Motion: from the Rolling Car to the Rolling Man	Thursday June 4, 1PM UTC

Keynotes
Allison Okamura	Haptics for Humans in a Physically Distanced World	Monday June 8, 1PM UTC
Kerstin Dautenhahn	Human-Centred Social Robotics: Autonomy, Trust and Interaction Challenges	Tuesday June 9, 1PM UTC
Pieter Abbeel	Can Deep Reinforcement Learning from pixels be made as efficient as from state?	Wednesday June 10,  1PM UTC
Jaeheung Park	Compliant Whole-body Control for Real-World Interactions	Thursday June 11, 1PM UTC
Cordelia Schmid	Automatic Video Understanding	Friday June 12, 1PM UTC
Cyrill Stachniss	Robots in the Fields: Directions Towards Sustainable Crop Production	Monday June 15, 1PM UTC
Toby Walsh	How long before Killer Robots?	Tuesday June 16, 1PM UTC
Hajime Asama	Robot Technology for Super Resilience – Remote Technology for Response to Disasters, Accidents, and Pandemic	Wednesday June 17,  1PM UTC

Magnetic robot end-of-arm tooling are suitable for the automated pick-up and positioning of steel or other ferromagnetic objects. They can be switched on and off and have a threaded mounting hole for robots. Magnetic grippers are an efficient alternative for traditional robot grippers. Application in automated production lines and for robots and pick-and-place systems. Magnetic product handling reduces the duration and number of operations. Goudsmit Magnetics is driven by magnetism since 1959. See how it works: https://youtu.be/hcXJ98mXHZE

Magnetic robot end-of-arm tooling are suitable for the automated pick-up and positioning of steel or other ferromagnetic objects. They can be switched on and off and have a threaded mounting hole for robots. Magnetic grippers are an efficient alternative for traditional robot grippers. Application in automated production lines and for robots and pick-and-place systems. Magnetic product handling reduces the duration and number of operations. Goudsmit Magnetics is driven by magnetism since 1959.

Telepresence robots help university students learning remotely to feel more a part of the class, new research by Oregon State University suggests.

Mole-bot, a drilling biomimetic robot designed by KAIST, boasts a stout scapula, a waist inclinable on all sides, and powerful forelimbs. Most of all, the powerful torque from the expandable drilling bit mimicking the chiseling ability of a mole's front teeth highlights the best feature of the drilling robot.

Mole-bot, a drilling biomimetic robot designed by KAIST, boasts a stout scapula, a waist inclinable on all sides, and powerful forelimbs. Most of all, the powerful torque from the expandable drilling bit mimicking the chiseling ability of a mole's front teeth highlights the best feature of the drilling robot.

S tudies show that the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 is readily destroyed when exposed to ultraviolet light and heat while on surfaces, such as countertops, chairs, walls and floors. This vulnerability sparked an idea in the mind of University of Virginia mechanical and aerospace engineering professor Tomonari Furukawa, who last year designed a roving robot to operate semi-autonomously in hazardous areas.

S tudies show that the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 is readily destroyed when exposed to ultraviolet light and heat while on surfaces, such as countertops, chairs, walls and floors. This vulnerability sparked an idea in the mind of University of Virginia mechanical and aerospace engineering professor Tomonari Furukawa, who last year designed a roving robot to operate semi-autonomously in hazardous areas.

Humanoid robots are gaining popularity as the human touch has to be reduced to prevent the virus from spreading. Hospitals in many parts of the world are using these robots for providing various services to COVID-19 patients.

Researchers at Konkuk University in South Korea recently created KUBeetle-S, a flying robot inspired by a species of horned beetle called Allomyrina dichotoma, which is among the largest insects on the planet. Allomyrina dichtoma weighs approximately 5 to 10 g and has a wing loading of 40 N/m2, which is remarkably high when compared to average insect wing loadings (typically around 8 N/m2).

An autonomous mobility system that works like a wheelchair without anyone pushing it is scuttling around a Tokyo airport to help with social distancing amid the coronavirus pandemic.

After a weak 2019, we originally expected the 2020 robot market to recover strongly, but COVID-19 changed the market revenue growth forecast from 4.8% to -3.6%. In the long run, the pandemic will accelerate existing trends for industrial automation

The development of systems for robot-assisted surgery is difficult, with the need to meet stringent clinical requirements, get regulator approvals, and keep costs under control. Today, Titan Medical Inc. announced an agreement with Medtronic PLC to advance the design and development of surgical robots. The onetime rivals also signed a licensing agreement regarding some of Titan’s intellectual property.

Under the agreement, both companies can develop robot-assisted surgical systems in their respective businesses, while Titan will receive a series of payments that reach $31 million in return for Medtronic’s license for the technologies. The payments will arrive as milestones are completed and verified.

Milestones include fundraising

A steering committee including representatives from Toronto-based Titan Medical and Dublin, Ireland-based Medtronic will oversee work toward achievement of the milestones. One of them is for Titan to raise an additional $18 million in capital within four months of the development start date, which is expected to occur this month.

Titan has also received from Medtronic a senior secured loan of $1.5 million that will be increased increased by an amount equal to certain legal expenses related to transactions and intellectual property with an interest rate of 8% per annum. The loan is repayable on June 4, 2023, or upon the earlier completion of the last milestone.

Until the loan is repaid, Medtronic may have one non-voting observer on Titan’s board of directors. Charles Federico, who has served as the company’s chairman since May 2019, and John Schellhorn, who has served as a director since June 2017, have decided to retire from Titan’s board. The board will consist of three members, including David McNally; John Barker, an independent director; and Stephen Randall, Titan’s chief financial officer, while a search for additional independent directors is conducted.

Titan Medical pays $10M for Medtronic surgical robot licenses

Under the terms of the separate agreement, Medtronic has licensed certain robot-assisted surgical technologies from Titan for an upfront payment of $10 million. Titan said it retains the rights to continue to develop and commercialize those technologies for its own business.

“These agreements with Medtronic will allow Titan to continue to develop its single-port robotic surgical technologies while sharing our expertise and technologies with Medtronic,” stated David McNally, president and CEO of Titan Medical. “We are very excited about the opportunity to continue Titan’s pioneering work to bring new single-port surgical options to the market.”

These agreements are between Medtronic and Titan Medical, which is not affiliated with Titan Spine, which Medtronic acquired in 2019. They are another step in Medtronic’s effort to break into the robot-assisted surgery space, which remains dominated by Intuitive Surgical and its da Vinci SP.

Medtronic completed a $1.7 billion purchase of Mazor Robotics in December 2018. A month later, the company launched its Mazor X Stealth robotic-assisted spinal surgical platform in the U.S. In September 2019, Medtronic unveiled its new Hugo system that is set to rival the da Vinci SP.

Editor’s note: For more about this and other medical device deals, visit our sibling site, MassDevice.

The post Titan Medical, Medtronic agree to cooperate on surgical robotics development appeared first on The Robot Report. Read More