Category: Service Robotics

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A Cobot as Conductor of a Symphony

Cobots that dance with humans have been around for a long time. In 2016, the audience at Südpol Luzern witnessed dance and robot history being written by Huang Yi, a choreographer from Taiwan. Cobots that set the pace for humans, on the other hand, are not yet the order of the day. The Dresden Symphony Orchestra is about to perform the “Roboter.Sinfonie”. After a while, conductor Michael Helmrath will hand over to MAiRA Pro S, a product from NEURA Robotics. According to Deutschlandfunk, the machine’s three arms will be able to guide the orchestra, which is divided into groups, through the most complex passages independently of each other. This will break completely new musical ground. According to the Dresden Symphony Orchestra’s calendar, the concerts will take place on October 12 and 13, 2024 at the Europäisches Zentrum der Künste Hellerau (Image: NEURA Robotics).

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Robot Dog Neo Interferes With IoT Devices

According to a report by 404 Media on 22 July 2024, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has acquired and modified a dog-like robot called NEO. This robot, equipped with an antenna array, can overload home networks to disable Internet of Things (IoT) devices during law enforcement operations. Benjamine Huffman, director of the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers (FLETC), revealed the details at the 2024 Border Security Expo. NEO, a modified version of Ghost Robotics’ Vision 60 quadruped unmanned ground vehicle (Q-UGV), helps disable potentially dangerous smart home devices that could be used as booby traps. This development follows an incident in 2021 in which a suspect used a doorbell camera to spy on FBI agents and shot at them, killing two agents. The DHS has also created the ‘FLETC Smart House’ to train officers on how to deal with IoT devices that could be used against them. Robotic pets are becoming increasingly popular with homeland security agencies and police forces. Boston Dynamics’ Spot is used on patrols in New York City and Germany.

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Deadline for ICSR 2024 Extended Again

The deadline for the International Conference on Social Robotics 2024 (ICSR 2024) has been extended again. Experts in social robotics and related fields have until July 19 to submit their full papers. The prestigious event was last held in Florence (2022) and Qatar (2023). Now it enters its next round. The 16th edition will bring together researchers and practitioners working on human-robot interaction and the integration of social robots into our society. The title of the conference includes the addition “AI”. This is a clarification and demarcation that has to do with the fact that there will be two further formats with the name ICSR in 2024. ICSR’24 (ICSR + AI) will take place as a face-to-face conference in Odense, Denmark, from 23 to 26 October 2024. The theme of this year’s conference is “Empowering Humanity: The role of social and collaborative robotics in shaping our future”. The topics of the Call for Papers include “collaborative robots in service applications (in construction, agriculture, etc.)”, “Human-robot interaction and collaboration”, “Affective and cognitive sciences for socially interactive robots”, and “Context awareness, expectation, and intention understanding”. The general chairs are Oskar Palinko, University of Southern Denmark, and Leon Bodenhagen, University of Southern Denmark. More information is available at icsr2024.dk (Photo: Jacob Christensen).

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GXO Signs Agreement with Agility Robotics

“GXO Logistics, Inc. (NYSE: GXO), the world’s largest pure-play contract logistics provider, and Agility Robotics, creator of the leading bipedal Mobile Manipulation Robot (MMR) DigitⓇ, announced today that they have signed a multi-year agreement to begin deploying Digit in GXO’s logistics operations. This agreement, which follows a proof-of-concept pilot in late 2023, is both the industry’s first formal commercial deployment of humanoid robots and first Robots-as-a-Service (RaaS) deployment of humanoid robots.” (Press Release, 27 June 2024) This was announced by Agility Robotics in a press release dated June 27, 2024. “Digit is a multi-purpose, human-centric robot made for logistics work, and designed to work safely in human spaces and help with a variety of repetitive tasks. Agility Arc is designed to simplify the deployment lifecycle, from facility mapping and workflow definition to operational management and troubleshooting.” (Press Release, 27 June 2024) According to Oliver Bendel, Digit, Atlas, Figure 01, H1, G1, and other models can be seen as preliminary stages of universal robots. It is important to test them in closed or semi-open worlds such as factories before releasing them into open worlds (Photo: Agility Robotics).

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Why Animals Can (Still) Outrun Robots

In an article published in Science Robotics in April 2024, Samuel A. Burden and his co-authors explore the question of why animals can outrun robots. In their abstract they write: “Animals are much better at running than robots. The difference in performance arises in the important dimensions of agility, range, and robustness. To understand the underlying causes for this performance gap, we compare natural and artificial technologies in the five subsystems critical for running: power, frame, actuation, sensing, and control. With few exceptions, engineering technologies meet or exceed the performance of their biological counterparts. We conclude that biology’s advantage over engineering arises from better integration of subsystems, and we identify four fundamental obstacles that roboticists must overcome. Toward this goal, we highlight promising research directions that have outsized potential to help future running robots achieve animal-level performance.” (Abstract) The article was published at a time when the market for robotic four-legged friends is exploding. Spot, Unitree Go2 and many others can certainly compete with some animals when it comes to running. But when it comes to suppleness and elegance, further progress is still needed.

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An Electric New Era for Atlas

In recent years, a large number of quadruped and bipedal robots have been created. Many of them were inspired by Spot and Atlas from Boston Dynamics. These, in turn, can be traced back to Sparko and Elektro, which became famous around 1940. Atlas paved the way for the so-called general-purpose or universal robots that are now conquering the market, from H1 to Figure 01. They are not yet truly universal, but they are getting there. In these dynamic and productive times, the company, which is part of the Hyundai Motor Group, announces the end of the hydraulic version of the humanoid robot. A post on LinkedIn from April 17, 2024 states: “Atlas has sparked our imagination, inspired new roboticists, and leapt over technical barriers. Now it’s time for our hydraulic Atlas robot to kick back and relax. Take a look at everything we’ve accomplished with the Atlas platform to date.” (Boston Dynamics, 17 April 2024) At the end of the video it says: “‘Til we meet again, Atlas.” This immediately raised hopes of a successor. In fact, Boston Dynamics presented an electric, extremely mobile version on its blog just a few hours later. The title of the article is: “An Electric New Era for Atlas” (Image: Boston Dynamics).

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A Robot Park in Switzerland

Robotics is booming, thanks in part to AI. Dozens of quadrupeds and bipeds are available, as well as numerous other social and service robots. After presenting the idea of a robot park several times since 2020, Prof. Dr. Oliver Bendel initiated the project “A Robot Park for Switzerland” in March 2024. The purpose of a robot park is to educate the public. Everyone should have the opportunity to interact and communicate with robots and to make up his or her own mind about them. The kick-off meeting took place at the School of Business FHNW on March 22, 2024. BIT student Susmy Chakkaith could be won over. She is developing a concept with maps and other visualizations. The robot park is to be located in Switzerland and will include 100-200 robots, both industrial and service robots. Social robots and four- and two-legged friends will play a special role. It will be based on an amusement park or a zoo. Technical, economic, and ethical aspects will play a role. In particular, the concept should convincingly demonstrate how procurement, operation, maintenance, repair, etc. can be guaranteed, not least for models from China or Japan. The entire infrastructure, including network connectivity, cloud computing, power supply, etc., is also relevant. A business model will be outlined and evaluated. The results will be available in August 2024 and will be made available to the public.

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We Need Robot Parks in Europe

In his talk “Ethische Dimensionen von Robotik in der Pflege” (“Ethical dimensions of robotics in care”) at the Federal Ministry of Health (BMG) on December 8, 2020, Prof. Dr. Oliver Bendel made the case for robot parks where people can encounter real robots. “You can also set up specific parks with robots in the care sector. Mind-controlled wheelchairs, exoskeletons, high-tech prostheses, etc. could also have their place there.” (own translation) In the 2021 study “Roboter, Empathie und Emotionen” (“Robots, empathy, and emotions”), the technology philosopher takes this idea further for Switzerland: “In order to bring people closer to machines and enable a critical assessment, direct contact should be promoted, for example with the help of robot parks.” There is also a need for “relevant further training for (non-specialist) scientists, journalists and politicians, whereby robot parks could also be used here” (“Roboter, Empathie und Emotionen”, own translation). In 2024, dozens of four-legged and two-legged robots as well as numerous other social robots and service robots will be available. Even advanced models will be affordable from 1000 to 2000 dollars. The time is ripe for robot parks, whether in Switzerland or Germany or anywhere else in Europe (Image: DALL-E 3).

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A Robot Boat to Clean the Rivers

Millions of tons of plastic waste float down polluted urban rivers and industrial waterways and into the world’s oceans every year. According to Microsoft, a Hong Kong-based startup has come up with a solution to help stem these devastating waste flows. “Open Ocean Engineering has developed Clearbot Neo – a sleek AI-enabled robotic boat that autonomously collects tons of floating garbage that otherwise would wash into the Pacific from the territory’s busy harbor.” (Deayton 2023) After a long period of development, its inventors plan to scale up and have fleets of Clearbot Neos cleaning up and protecting waters around the globe. The start-up’s efforts are commendable. However, polluted rivers and harbors are not the only problem. A large proportion of plastic waste comes from the fishing industry. This was proven last year by The Ocean Cleanup project. So there are several places to start: We need to avoid plastic waste. Fishing activities must be reduced. And rivers, lakes and oceans must be cleared of plastic waste (Image: DALL-E 3).

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Zulu and Charlie at Zurich Airport

According to an announcement on December 14, 2023, Zurich Airport is adding Zulu and Charlie to its 300-strong building cleaning team for test purposes. The two service robots are from LionsBot, a Singapore-based company (www.lionsbot.com) and belong to the LEOBOTS. Oliver Bendel writes in the Gabler Wirtschaftslexikon: “Cleaning robots are (partially) autonomous service robots for cleaning surfaces, objects and water sources. They usually have a tangible design and resemble flat cylinders or cuboids. … There are hardly any approaches among the cleaning robots that would turn them into social robots. However, some can communicate with the owners or operators, either by means of text and images on the display or by spoken language.” (own translation) … According to Zurich Airport, Zulu and Charlie can do more than just clean areas. “They can also interact with passengers. If you scan the QR code on the device, you can select questions that the robot will answer.” (Zurich Airport, December 14, 2023) It goes on to say: “Zulu and Charlie have various sensors. These can recognize outlines, but do not create video footage. The test phase of the devices will run until mid-February. The robots are autonomous and will clean the areas on their own after a short initial phase.” (Zurich Airport, December 14, 2023) Further information is available at www.flughafen-zuerich.ch/newsroom/en/flughafen-zuerich-ag-relies-on-robot-support/ (Photo: Zurich Airport).