On the 12th of October, the world will celebrate Ada Lovelace Day to honor the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). After a successful worldwide online celebration of Ada Lovelace Day last year, this year’s celebration returns with a stronger commitment to online inclusion. In Finding Ada (the main network supporting Ada Lovelace Day), there will be three free webinars that you can enjoy in the comfort of your own home. There will also be loads of events happening around the world, so you have a wide range of content to celebrate Ada Lovelace Day 2021!

Engineering – Solving Problems for Real People

Engineering is the science of problem solving, and we have some pretty big problems in front of us. So how are engineers tackling the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change? And how do they stay focused on the impact of their engineering solutions on people and communities?

In partnership with STEM Wana Trust, we invite you to join Renée Young, associate mechanical engineer at Beca, Victoria Clark, senior environmental engineer at Beca, Natasha Mudaliar, operations manager at Reliance Reinforcing, and Sujata Roy, system planning engineer at Transpower, for a fascinating conversation about the challenges and opportunities of engineering.

13:00 NZST, 12 Oct: Perfect for people in New Zealand, Australia, and the Americas. (Note for American audiences: This panel will be on Monday for you.)

Register here, and find out about the speakers here.

Fusing Tech & Art in Games

The Technical Artist is a new kind of role in the games industry, but the possibilities for those who create and merge art and technology is endless. So what is tech art? And how are tech artists pushing the boundaries and creating new experiences for players?

Ada Lovelace Day and Ukie’s #RaiseTheGame invite you to join tech artist Kristrun Fridriksdottir, Jodie Azhar, technical art director at Silver Rain Games, Emma Roseburgh from Avalanche Studios, and Laurène Hurlin from Pixel Toys for our tech art webinar.

13:00 BST, 12 Oct: Perfect for people in the UK, Europe, Africa, Middle East, India, for early birds in the Americas and night owls in AsiaPacific.

Register here, and find out about the speakers here.

The Science of Hypersleep

Hypersleep is a common theme in science fiction, but what does science have to say about putting humans into suspended animation? What can we learn from hibernating animals? What’s the difference between hibernation and sleep? What health impacts would extended hypersleep have?

Ada Lovelace Day and the Arthur C. Clarke Award invite you to join science fiction author Anne Charnock, Prof Gina Poe, an expert on the relationship between sleep and memory, Dr Anusha Shankar, who studies torpor in hummingbirds, and Prof Kelly Drew, who studies hibernation in squirrels, for a discussion of whether hypersleep in humans is possible.

19:00 BST, 12 Oct: Perfect for people in the UK, Europe, Africa, and the Americas.

Register here, and find out about the speakers here.

Other worldwide events

Apart from the three webinars above, many other organisations will hold their own events to celebrate the day. From a 24-hour global edit-a-thon (The Pankhurst Centre) to a digital theatre play (STEM on Stage) to an online machine learning breakfast (Square Women Engineers + Allies Australia), plus several talks and panel discussions like this one on how you can change the world with the help of physics (Founders4Schools), or this other one on inspiring women and girls in STEAM (Engine Shed), you have plenty of options to choose from.

For a full overview of international events, check out this website.

We also hope that you enjoy reading our annual list of women in robotics that you need to know that will be released on the day. Happy Ada Lovelace Day 2021!

On the 12th of October, the world will celebrate Ada Lovelace Day to honor the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). After a successful worldwide online celebration of Ada Lovelace Day last year, this year’s celebration returns with a stronger commitment to online inclusion. In Finding Ada (the main network supporting Ada Lovelace Day), there will be three free webinars that you can enjoy in the comfort of your own home. There will also be loads of events happening around the world, so you have a wide range of content to celebrate Ada Lovelace Day 2021!

Engineering – Solving Problems for Real People

Engineering is the science of problem solving, and we have some pretty big problems in front of us. So how are engineers tackling the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change? And how do they stay focused on the impact of their engineering solutions on people and communities?

In partnership with STEM Wana Trust, we invite you to join Renée Young, associate mechanical engineer at Beca, Victoria Clark, senior environmental engineer at Beca, Natasha Mudaliar, operations manager at Reliance Reinforcing, and Sujata Roy, system planning engineer at Transpower, for a fascinating conversation about the challenges and opportunities of engineering.

13:00 NZST, 12 Oct: Perfect for people in New Zealand, Australia, and the Americas. (Note for American audiences: This panel will be on Monday for you.)

Register here, and find out about the speakers here.

Fusing Tech & Art in Games

The Technical Artist is a new kind of role in the games industry, but the possibilities for those who create and merge art and technology is endless. So what is tech art? And how are tech artists pushing the boundaries and creating new experiences for players?

Ada Lovelace Day and Ukie’s #RaiseTheGame invite you to join tech artist Kristrun Fridriksdottir, Jodie Azhar, technical art director at Silver Rain Games, Emma Roseburgh from Avalanche Studios, and Laurène Hurlin from Pixel Toys for our tech art webinar.

13:00 BST, 12 Oct: Perfect for people in the UK, Europe, Africa, Middle East, India, for early birds in the Americas and night owls in AsiaPacific.

Register here, and find out about the speakers here.

The Science of Hypersleep

Hypersleep is a common theme in science fiction, but what does science have to say about putting humans into suspended animation? What can we learn from hibernating animals? What’s the difference between hibernation and sleep? What health impacts would extended hypersleep have?

Ada Lovelace Day and the Arthur C. Clarke Award invite you to join science fiction author Anne Charnock, Prof Gina Poe, an expert on the relationship between sleep and memory, Dr Anusha Shankar, who studies torpor in hummingbirds, and Prof Kelly Drew, who studies hibernation in squirrels, for a discussion of whether hypersleep in humans is possible.

19:00 BST, 12 Oct: Perfect for people in the UK, Europe, Africa, and the Americas.

Register here, and find out about the speakers here.

Other worldwide events

Apart from the three webinars above, many other organisations will hold their own events to celebrate the day. From a 24-hour global edit-a-thon (The Pankhurst Centre) to a digital theatre play (STEM on Stage) to an online machine learning breakfast (Square Women Engineers + Allies Australia), plus several talks and panel discussions like this one on how you can change the world with the help of physics (Founders4Schools), or this other one on inspiring women and girls in STEAM (Engine Shed), you have plenty of options to choose from.

For a full overview of international events, check out this website.

We also hope that you enjoy reading our annual list of women in robotics that you need to know that will be released on the day. Happy Ada Lovelace Day 2021!

ROEQ has launched two new top modules and accompanying accessories designed to boost the payload and lifting capabilities of autonomous mobile robots from Mobile Industrial Robots (MiR). The new ROEQ TMS-C1500 allows MiR AMRs to transport up to 1500 kg for the first time.

Nissan's "intelligent factory" hardly has any human workers. The robots do the work, including welding and mounting. They do the paint jobs and inspect their own paint jobs.

When it comes to exploring complex and unknown environments such as forests, buildings or caves, drones are hard to beat. They are fast, agile and small, and they can carry sensors and payloads virtually everywhere. However, autonomous drones can hardly find their way through an unknown environment without a map. For the moment, expert human pilots are needed to release the full potential of drones.

“To master autonomous agile flight, you need to understand the environment in a split second to fly the drone along collision-free paths,” says Davide Scaramuzza, who leads the Robotics and Perception Group at the University of Zurich and the NCCR Robotics Rescue Robotics Grand Challenge. “This is very difficult both for humans and for machines. Expert human pilots can reach this level after years of perseverance and training. But machines still struggle.”

The AI algorithm learns to fly in the real world from a simulated expert

In a new study, Scaramuzza and his team have trained an autonomous quadrotor to fly through previously unseen environments such as forests, buildings, ruins and trains, keeping speeds of up to 40 km/h and without crashing into trees, walls or other obstacles. All this was achieved relying only on the quadrotor’s on-board cameras and computation.

The drone’s neural network learned to fly by watching a sort of “simulated expert” – an algorithm that flew a computer-generated drone through a simulated environment full of complex obstacles. At all times, the algorithm had complete information on the state of the quadrotor and readings from its sensors, and could rely on enough time and computational power to always find the best trajectory.

Such a “simulated expert” could not be used outside of simulation, but its data were used to teach the neural network how to predict the best trajectory based only on the data from the sensors. This is a considerable advantage over existing systems, which first use sensor data to create a map of the environment and then plan trajectories within the map – two steps that require time and make it impossible to fly at high-speeds.

No exact replica of the real world needed

After being trained in simulation, the system was tested in the real world, where it was able to fly in a variety of environments without collisions at speeds of up to 40 km/h. “While humans require years to train, the AI, leveraging high-performance simulators, can reach comparable navigation abilities much faster, basically overnight,” says Antonio Loquercio, a PhD student and co-author of the paper. “Interestingly these simulators do not need to be an exact replica of the real world. If using the right approach, even simplistic simulators are sufficient,” adds Elia Kaufmann, another PhD student and co-author.

The applications are not limited to quadrotors. The researchers explain that the same approach could be useful for improving the performance of autonomous cars, or could even open the door to a new way of training AI systems for operations in domains where collecting data is difficult or impossible, for example on other planets.

According to the researchers, the next steps will be to make the drone improve from experience, as well as to develop faster sensors that can provide more information about the environment in a smaller amount of time – thus allowing drones to fly safely even at speeds above 40 km/h.

Literature

• Learning High-speed Flight in the Wild. Antonio Loquercio, Elia Kaufmann, René Ranftl, Matthias Müller, Vladlen Koltun and Davide Scaramuzza. Science Robotics, October 6, 2021. DOI: 10.1126/scirobotics.abg5810

An open-source version of the paper can be found here.

Media contacts

Prof. Dr. Davide Scaramuzza – Robotics and Perception Group
Department of Informatics
University of Zurich
Phone +41 44 635 24 09
E-mail: sdavide@ifi.uzh.ch

Antonio Loquercio – Robotics and Perception Group
Department of Informatics
University of Zurich
Phone +41 44 635 43 73
E-mail: loquercio@ifi.uzh.ch

Elia Kaufmann – Robotics and Perception Group
Institut für Informatik
Universität Zürich
Tel. +41 44 635 43 73
E-Mail: ekaufmann@ifi.uzh.ch

Media Relations University of Zurich
Phone +41 44 634 44 67
E-mail: mediarelations@kommunikation.uzh.ch

Capital investments in advanced manufacturing environments require careful consideration, especially if that investment is for a new process or technology. If you are looking at investing in OLP here are some things to consider about the potential return on investment (ROI).

Researchers at the University of Zurich have developed a new approach to autonomously fly quadrotors through unknown, complex environments at high speeds using only on-board sensing and computation. The new approach could be useful in emergencies, on construction sites or for security applications.

A mathematical explanation of the Swapping Assignments Between Views (SWAV) paper.

Researchers at Caltech have built a bipedal robot that combines walking with flying to create a new type of locomotion, making it exceptionally nimble and capable of complex movements.

Over the past few decades, roboticists have designed a variety of robots to assist humans. These include robots that could assist the elderly and serve as companions to improve their wellbeing and quality of life.

Industrial Dampers cushion vibrations in machines. In order to fulfill this task perfectly, there are a large number of different types. To find the right variant for your own application, the load cases should be examined in detail.

Singapore has trialled patrol robots that blast warnings at people engaging in "undesirable social behaviour", adding to an arsenal of surveillance technology in the tightly controlled city-state that is fuelling privacy concerns.

In this episode, Audrow Nash interviews Adrian Macneil, Co-founder and CEO of Foxglove. Foxglove makes Foxglove Studio, an open source visualization and debugging tool for robotics. Adrian speaks about the origin of Foxglove, Foxglove’s business model, web and robotics, and gives advice to those interested in getting more involved in robotics.

Episode links

• Download the episode
• Adrian Macneil’s LinkedIn
• Foxglove’s website

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When implementing mobile robotics solutions in a facility, it’s important to consider strategies for ensuring stability, seamless interaction with people, accurate detection of obstacles, and set up a successful emergency evacuation plan.

Imagine a team of autonomous drones equipped with advanced sensing equipment, searching for smoke as they fly high above the Sierra Nevada mountains. Once they spot a wildfire, these leader robots relay directions to a swarm of firefighting drones that speed to the site of the blaze.