Siddharth Mayya (University of Pennsylvania), Gennaro Notomista (CNRS Rennes), Roderich Gross (The University of Sheffield) and Vijay Kumar (University of Pennsylvania) were the organisers of this IEEE ICRA 2021 workshop aiming to identify and accelerate developments that help swarm robotics technology transition into the real world. Here we bring you the recordings of the session in case you missed it or would like to re-watch.
As the organisers describe, “in swarm robotics systems, coordinated behaviors emerge via local interactions among the robots as well as between robots and the environment. From Kilobots to Intel Aeros, the last decade has seen a rapid increase in the number of physically instantiated robot swarms. Such deployments can be broadly classified into two categories: in-laboratory swarms designed primarily as research aids, and industry-led efforts, especially in the entertainment and automated warehousing domains. In both of these categories, researchers have accumulated a vast amount of domain-specific knowledge, for example, regarding physical robot design, algorithm and software architecture design, human-swarm interfacing, and the practicalities of deployment.” The workshop brought together swarm roboticists from academia to industry to share their latest developments—from theory to real-world deployment. Enjoy the playlist with all the recordings below!
An innovative underwater robot known as Mesobot is providing researchers with deeper insight into the vast mid-ocean region known as the "twilight zone." Capable of tracking and recording high-resolution images of slow-moving and fragile zooplankton, gelatinous animals, and particles, Mesobot greatly expands scientists' ability to observe creatures in their mesopelagic habitat with minimal disturbance. This advance in engineering will enable greater understanding of the role these creatures play in transporting carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to the deep sea, as well as how commercial exploitation of twilight zone fisheries might affect the marine ecosystem.
Robots began handing out bottles of sacred water in Mecca this week in preparation for a socially distanced Hajj pilgrimage in Islam's holiest city, due to the coronavirus pandemic.
We've seen robots take to the air, dive beneath the waves and perform all sorts of maneuvers on land. Now, researchers at UC Santa Barbara and Georgia Institute of Technology are exploring a new frontier: The ground beneath our feet. Taking their cues from plants and animals that have evolved to navigate subterranean spaces, they've developed a fast, controllable soft robot that can burrow through sand. The technology not only enables new applications for fast, precise and minimally invasive movement underground, but also lays mechanical foundations for new types of robots.
A team of researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Germany and at the University of Boulder in Colorado in the US has found a new way to exploit the principles of spiders' joints to drive articulated robots without any bulky components and connectors, which weigh down the robot and reduce portability and speed. Their slender and lightweight simple structures impress by enabling a robot to jump 10 times its height. At the end of May, the team's work titled "Spider-inspired electrohydraulic actuators for fast, soft-actuated joints" was published in Advanced Science.
Servo drives have evolved far beyond the basic power amplifiers they once were. They can now be complex pieces of electronic equipment with dozens of additional features to expand upon and improve their motion control capabilities.
Four centuries and one year after the Mayflower departed from Plymouth, England, on a historic sea journey to America, another trailblazing vessel with the same name has set off to retrace the voyage.
A team of scientists at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) has developed millimeter-sized robots that can be controlled using magnetic fields to perform highly maneuverable and dexterous manipulations. This could pave the way to possible future applications in biomedicine and manufacturing.
Logistics is a constant race to deliver at fast speeds while maintaining a standard of impeccable accuracy at the lowest possible cost. The rise of intense competition makes next-generation applications essential for becoming a trendsetter in this industry.
Did you have the chance to attend the 2021 International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2021)? Here we bring you the papers that received an award this year in case you missed them. Congratulations to all the winners and finalists!
Best Paper Award in Automation
Automated Fabrication of the High-Fidelity Cellular Micro-Scaffold through Proportion-Corrective Control of the Photocuring Process.Xin Li, Huaping Wang, Qing Shi, JiaXin Liu, Zhanhua Xin, Xinyi Dong, Qiang Huang and Toshio Fukuda
“An essential and challenging use case solved and evaluated convincingly. This work brings to light the artisanal field that can gain a lot in terms of safety and worker’s health preservation through the use of collaborative robots. Simulation is used to design advanced control architectures, including virtual walls around the cutting-tool as well as adaptive damping that would account for the operator know-how and level of expertise.”
How to Select and Use Tools?: Active Perception of Target Objects Using Multimodal Deep Learning.Namiko Saito, Tetsuya Ogata, Satoshi Funabashi, Hiroki Mori and Shigeki Sugano
“Robots benefit from being able to select and use appropriate tools. This paper contributes to the advancement of robotics by focusing on tool-object-action relations. The proposed deep neural network model generates motions for tool selection and use. Results demonstrated for a relatively complex ingredient handling task have broader applications in robotics. The approach that relies on active perception and multimodal information fusion is an impactful contribution to cognitive robotics.”
Reactive Human-To-Robot Handovers of Arbitrary Objects.Wei Yang, Chris Paxton, Arsalan Mousavian, Yu-Wei Chao, Maya Cakmak and Dieter Fox
“This paper presents a method combining realtime motion planning and grasp selection for object handover task from a human to a robot, with effective evaluation on a user study on 26 diverse household objects. The incremental contribution has been made for human robot interaction. Be great if the cost function of best grasp selection somehow involves robotic manipulation metric, eg., form closure.”
Soft Hybrid Aerial Vehicle Via Bistable Mechanism.Xuan Li, Jessica McWilliams, Minchen Li, Cynthia Sung and Chenfanfu Jiang
“This paper presents a novel morphing hybrid aerial vehicle with folding wings that exhibits both a quadrotor and a fixed wing modewithout requiring any extra actuation by leveraging the motion of a bistable mechanism at the center of the aircraft. A topology optimization method is developed to optimize the bistable mechanism and the folding wing. This work is an important contribution to design of hybrid aerial vehicles.”
Relational Graph Learning on Visual and Kinematics Embeddings for Accurate Gesture Recognition in Robotic Surgery.Yonghao Long, Jie Ying Wu, Bo Lu, Yueming Jin, Mathias Unberath, Yunhui Liu, Pheng Ann Heng and Qi Dou
“This paper presents a novel online multi-modal graph learning method to dynamically integrate complementary information in video and kinematics data from robotic systems, to achieve accurate surgical gesture recognition. The proposed method is validated on collected in-house dVRK datasets, shedding light on the general efficacy of their approach.”
Optimal Sequential Stochastic Deployment of Multiple Passenger Robots.Chris (Yu Hsuan) Lee, Graeme Best and Geoffrey Hollinger
“The paper presents rigorous results (well validated experimentally) and visionary ideas: the innovative idea of marsupial robots is very promising for the multi-robot systems community.”
StRETcH: A Soft to Resistive Elastic Tactile Hand. Carolyn Matl, Josephine Koe and Ruzena Bajcsy
“The committee was particularly impressed by the high level of novelty in this work with unique applications for tactile manipulation of soft objects. Both the paper and presentation provided a clear description of the problem solved, methods and contribution suitable for the general ICRA audience. Significant experimental validations made for a compelling record of the contribution.”
Interval-Based Visual-LiDAR Sensor Fusion.Raphael Voges and Bernardo Wagner
“The paper proposes to use interval analysis to propagate the error from the input sources to the fused information in a straightforward way. To show the applicability of our approach, the paper uses the fused information for dead reckoning. An evaluation using real data shows that the proposed approach localizes the robot in a guaranteed way.”
Compact Flat Fabric Pneumatic Artificial Muscle (ffPAM) for Soft Wearable Robotic Devices.Woojong Kim, Hyunkyu Park and Jung Kim
“This paper presents design and evaluation of a novel flat fabric pneumatic artificial muscle with embedded sensing. Experimental results clearly demonstrate that the innovative ffPAM is durable, compact, and has great potential to advance broader application of wearable service robots.”
Aerial Manipulator Pushing a Movable Structure Using a DOB-Based Robust Controller.Dongjae Lee, Hoseong Seo, Inkyu Jang,Seung Jae Lee and H. Jin Kim
“This paper provides a robust control approach that maintains UAV stability through manipulator contact forces during pushing. It contributes control design along with convincing experimental validation on manipulated objects of unknown size and dynamics. The approach provides practical utility for unmanned aerial manipulation with contact forces.”
Unsupervised Learning of Lidar Features for Use in a Probabilistic Trajectory Estimator.David Juny Yoon, Haowei Zhang, Mona Gridseth, Hugues Thomas and Timothy Barfoot
“The paper presents an unsupervised parameter learning approach in the context of Gaussian variational inference. The approach is innovative and sound. It has been well evaluated using open benchmark datasets. The paper has a broad impact on autonomous navigation.”
Extrinsic Contact Sensing with Relative-Motion Tracking from Distributed Tactile Measurements.Daolin Ma, Siyuan Dong, Alberto Rodriguez
“The paper makes a notable contribution to the important and re-emerging field of tactile perception by solving the problem of contact localization between an unknown object held by an imprecise grasp and the unknown environment with which it is in contact. This paper represents an excellent theory-to-practice exercise as the novel proposal of using extrinsic tactile array data to infer contact is verified with a new tactile sensor and real robotic manipulation in a simplified, but realistic environment. The authors also provide a robust and honest discussion of results, both positive and negative, for reader evaluation.”
Teams at the Amazon Robotics and Advanced Technology labs in both Seattle, Washington, and northern Italy have begun diligently testing out new technology they hope will improve safety for employees by carrying out tasks such as transportation of carts, packages and totes through Amazon facilities.
Humanoid robots have the potential of assisting humans in a variety of settings, ranging from home environments to malls, schools and healthcare facilities. Some roboticists have been specifically investigating the potential of social robots as tools to offer care and companionship to the elderly population.
Normally, students and scientists walk here, but today a drone is flying through a corridor on TU Delft Campus. Seemingly effortlessly, it whizzes past and between a variety of obstacles: rubbish bins, stacked boxes and poles. But then suddenly a person appears, walking straight towards the drone in the same space. This is not a stationery object but an actual moving person. ‘This is much more difficult for the drone to process. Because how fast is someone moving and are they going to make unexpected movements?’ asks Javier Alonso-Mora. This goes well too. As the drone approaches the walker, it moves to the side and flies on. The flying robot completes the obstacle course without a hitch.
This experiment, conducted by Alonso-Mora and his colleagues, is a good reflection of their research field. They investigate mobile robots that move on wheels or fly through the air and take their surroundings into account – which is why they can move safely alongside us in a corridor, room or hallway.
The new generation of robots that we’re now developing work with people and other robots. Dr. Javier Alonso Mora
That’s something new. For decades, robots were mainly used in factories, where they were separated from people and could assemble cars in a screened-off area or put something on a conveyor belt, for example. ‘The new generation of robots that we’re now developing work with people and other robots. So they have to take into account how others behave. They deliver packages, for example, or cooperate by assembling or delivering something. Moreover, they’re not fixed but can move freely in space,’ he says.
Adapting at lightning speed
For this to work, it’s important that the robots always make the right decision. This is achieved based on models that the scientists, including Alonso-Mora, are currently developing. ‘They perceive their environment on the basis of these models. It helps them to complete a task safely,’ he says.
Humans are highly skilled at this. We’re masters at correctly predicting what will happen and avoiding other people in time or adjusting our route accordingly to avoid a collision if things don’t happen as predicted after all. Busy intersections in major cities are good examples. Cyclists, cars, pedestrians, scooters, trams and trucks weave in and out of each other. It looks chaotic, but usually goes smoothly. ‘This is more difficult for a robot. It has to constantly predict what action is safe. There are many potential outcomes, and the robot has to calculate the various permutations. That takes time. Humans, on the other hand, have so much experience that we can assess a situation at lightning speed and adapt immediately if necessary. Our models are trying to achieve the same with robots.’
It’s important that the robots that complete difficult tasks work as well and safely as possible. Dr. Javier Alonso Mora
An interesting example of Alonso-Mora’s research is the Harmony project he’s working on. Scientists are developing robots that help nurses, doctors and patients. For example, they bring food to patients in bed or medicine to nurses. ‘They need to calculate the best route and how to behave on the way. How do they safely navigate an area with a moving bed, a patient on crutches or a surgeon who’s in a hurry?’
Testing the robots in hospitals
Not only do the robots have to cover small distances, but they also have to open doors and plan a route. Moreover, it’s important that they understand whether their task needs to be carried out quickly or can wait a while. ‘So the robots have to process a great deal of information, and on top of that, they have to analyse their environment and work with people and other robots. We’ve just launched this international project, and our goal is to start using demonstration robots in hospitals in Switzerland and Sweden in three years’ time. We’re creating and testing the algorithm that will allow the robots to move safely.’
It’s no coincidence that Alonso-Mora is working on this particular project. He was already fascinated by robots as a young boy. ‘I used to love playing with Lego; I could spend hours building things with it. We’re now doing something similar with robots, but in a more complicated way, because they too consist of many different parts. I’m interested in whether we can make the robots of the future intelligent. As a child, I loved reading Isaac Asimov’s science fiction, which often featured robots. The novel I, Robot, which was made into a film starring Will Smith, is a good example. It’s fiction, of course, but increasingly we’re getting closer to robots that are smart and can work with us. Whether they’re autonomous cars, drones or robots moving around in hospitals. It’s important that the robots that complete difficult tasks work as well and safely as possible.’
Wings that can vary their shapes as freely as birds' wings could have advantages for small aircraft in built environments, a new study led by engineers at the University of Michigan suggests.
