Service Robot Archives - ROBOPHILOSOPHY

June 29, 2024June 29, 2024

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).

November 12, 2023November 12, 2023

The First General-purpose Humanoid Robot

Starting from February 2024, the biped H1 from Unitree Robotics will be available at Generation Robots. It is “the most powerful and cost-effective humanoid robot on the market, measuring 1.80 meters, weighing 47 kilograms, and capable of walking at a speed of 5.5 km/h” (Generation Robots website). Until now, the Chinese company has been particularly noted for its quadrupeds, which are able to compete with the products of Boston Dynamics. Entry-level models like Go2 are unbeatably affordable, although it remains to be seen whether prices will increase after the initial surge. Unitree itself markets the H1 as the “First General-purpose Humanoid Robot”. The price is expected to be under 90,000 dollars. A video demonstrates how the robot moves confidently on two legs and remains stable even when attacked, without stumbling or falling (Image: DALL-E 3).

June 14, 2023June 14, 2023

AI-based Robots for the Disposal of Discarded Ammunition

The Robotics Innovation Center (RIC) at the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) in Bremen wants to clear the seabed of discarded ammunition in the North Sea and Baltic Sea. This was reported by the online magazine Golem on 14 June 2023. The researchers are using the autonomous underwater vehicle Cuttlefish, developed at DFKI, as a test platform. According to Golem, the robot has been equipped with two deep-sea-capable gripper systems. These are designed to enable flexible handling of objects under water, even difficult objects such as explosive devices. The AI-based control system allows the robot to change its buoyancy and centre of gravity during the dive. According to the online magazine, the AUV is equipped with numerous sensors such as cameras, sonars, laser scanners, and magnetometers. This is how it is supposed to approach an object without colliding with it. The system will certainly be effective – whether it is efficient remains to be seen.

January 20, 2023January 20, 2023

Atlas Finally has Hands

“Boston Dynamics just released the latest demo of its humanoid robot, Atlas. The robot could already run and jump over complex terrain thanks to its feet. Now, the robot has hands, per se. These rudimentary grippers give the robot new life. Suddenly, instead of being an agile pack mule, the Atlas becomes something closer to a human, with the ability to pick up and drop off anything it can grab independently.” (TechCrunch, January 18, 2023) This was reported by TechCrunch on January 18, 2023. Hands are actually very important for Atlas. The humanoid robot could now pick up or move heavy objects on a construction site. But it could also take care of trapped or injured animals in a nature park, freeing them or providing them with food and water. Such visions have been described by robot ethicist and machine ethicist Oliver Bendel for some time. A video released on January 18, 2023 shows the grippers picking up construction lumber and a nylon tool bag. “Next, the Atlas picks up a 2×8 and places it between two boxes to form a bridge. The Atlas then picks up a bag of tools and dashes over the bridge and through construction scaffolding. But the tool bag needs to go to the second level of the structure – something Atlas apparently realized and quickly throws the bag a considerable distance.” (TechCrunch, January 18, 2023) At the end of the video, Atlas does a somersault and then extends its hand – its brand new hand – triumphantly.

July 7, 2022July 7, 2022

Robots Dancing Like Bees

Robot-robot communication and interaction usually takes place via networks. Spoken language can also be used. In certain situations, however, these methods reach their limits. For example, during a rescue operation in disaster areas, communication via radio signals might not be possible. With this in mind, Kaustubh Joshi from the University of Maryland and Abhra Roy Chowdhury from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have developed an alternative approach. Their paper states: “This research presents a novel bio-inspired framework for two robots interacting together for a cooperative package delivery task with a human-in the-loop. It contributes to eliminating the need for network-based robot-robot interaction in constrained environments. An individual robot is instructed to move in specific shapes with a particular orientation at a certain speed for the other robot to infer using object detection (custom YOLOv4) and depth perception. The shape is identified by calculating the area occupied by the detected polygonal route. A metric for the area’s extent is calculated and empirically used to assign regions for specific shapes and gives an overall accuracy of 93.3% in simulations and 90% in a physical setup. Additionally, gestures are analyzed for their accuracy of intended direction, distance, and the target coordinates in the map. The system gives an average positional RMSE of 0.349 in simulation and 0.461 in a physical experiment.” (Abstract) The way of interaction and communication is reminiscent of the bee dance – and indeed this served as a model. The paper can be accessed via www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frobt.2022.915884/full.

May 10, 2022May 10, 2022

A Robot Among Penguins

British Filmmaker John Downer has created artificial monkeys, wolves, hippos, turtles, alligators, etc., to observe appropriate wildlife and obtain spectacular images. His well-known robots are very intricately designed and resemble the animals they mimic in almost every detail. It is not necessary to resort to such technically elaborate and artistically demanding means for all species. USA Today reports in a recent article about a robot called ECHO. “ECHO is a remote-controlled ground robot that silently spies on the emperor penguin colony in Atka Bay. The robot is being monitored by the Single Penguin Observation and Tracking observatory. Both the SPOT observatory, which is also remote-operated through a satellite link, and the ECHO robot capture photographs and videos of animal population in the Arctic.” (USA Today, May 6, 2022) ECHO does not resemble a penguin in any way. It is a yellow vehicle with four thick wheels. But as a video shows, the animals seem to have gotten used to it. It comes very close to them without scaring them. Wildlife monitoring using robots is becoming increasingly important, and obviously very different types are being considered.