Important Innovations

  Multiple New, Money-Making Roles For Robots Source:  Robotazia Art, Fun and Waitstaff In Milton Keynes, UK, there is a uniquely innovative Sci-fi, robot themed restaurant Robotazia .  40 robots, all made from recycled material, are in residence and at work.  The robots serve as talking waiters and waitresses.  There is even a robot in charge of hand sanitizers.  Many of the robots are unique works of art created by artisans using recycled car parts, vacuums and makeup containers. Some examples include Mike Dyson, totally made from recycled Dyson vacuums. Sparky the robot, made of recycled metal parts, who serves as the customer Meeter and Greeter.   Audibot, which is made from recycled Audi parts and children's toy cars and much more. Sci Fi Robotics Robotazia is an innovative showcase of the versatility, usefulness, fun, entertainment and money-making value of robots.  It is designed to thrill adults and children about the potentialities and fascinating uses of emerging robots. 

  Grace - Robo Nurse For Senior Care                                             Source:  Hanson Robotics' Grace & Toyota's Gantry Robot Toyota's Gantry Robots To Assist Elderly in the Kitchen The global use of helper/service robots is dramatically on the rise.  According to the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), global sales of medical robots, before the pandemic hit, were up 28% between 2018 and 2019.  Now with the pandemic and the megatrend of telehealth and contactless care, the IFR is forecasting that the sale of medical robots will double during the next three years.  Good examples of emerging new health and elder care robots are Grace, a humanoid robot created by Hanson Robotics of Hong Kong and Gantry robot from Toyota. Grace Has Sensors, a Thermal Camera & Speaks 3 Languages Grace is a remarkable piece of robotic technology.  She speaks three languages:  English, Cantonese and Mandarin.  She is designed to assist elderly patients and is able to soc

  Robot Completes Outdoor Run in 53 Minutes                                      Source:  Oregon State University Cassie the Robot Makes Robotic History Cassie, a bipedal robot developed at Oregon State University, has made history by being the first robot to run a 5K race.  She finished the 3.1 mile course in 53 minutes, which is almost as good of a running time as that of the average human runner who can run the same distance in 30 to 40 minutes.  The technology and split second adjustments this feat took are considered major milestones in robotics. DARPA Funded Project Cassie was created by students in the University's Dynamic Robotics Lab under the guidance of Robotics Professor and Agility Robotics co-founder Jonathan Hurst.  To build Cassie they used biomechanics, existing robot control technologies and new machine learning tools.  Cassie is the first bipedal robot to use machine learning to control her run.  Agility Robotics produced Cassie.  The US Defense Department's

  Robots Using UV Light to Sanitize Aircraft                                                            Source: UVeya Test Trials Now Underway Swiss startup UVeya is testing its new robots armed with COVID-19 killing UV light on Swiss passenger planes at Zurich Airport.  The test trials are taking place onboard Embraer jets from Helvetic Airways.  Helvetic is a charter airline service, owned by Swiss billionaire Martin Ebner.  In 2020, Hevetic's business dropped 75% due to fears of flying because of COVID-19.  The hope is that the robot cleaners will reduce people's fear of flying as COVID continues to spread.  The target for the robot is the airline industry. Antidote to COVID on Planes One UVeya robot can disinfect a single aisle plane in thirteen minutes.  Larger planes take longer.  The company has produced three robot prototypes.  The robots are priced starting at $15,930.  They may enjoy a brisk business as governments around the world are requiring new measures to ensure

  AI Powered, Educational Robot Lessons in STEM, Languages and More ROYBI is an AI powered, robot teacher for kids 3 to 7 years old.  It is a Time Magazine Best Innovation winner.  The robotic educational instructor comes with over 500 free lessons, 73 free categories, age appropriate content and 40 free stories and songs.  ROYBI is particularly good at helping kids to learn a new language and STEM disciplines. Robot Toy Learning Tool ROYBI looks like a cute little alien toy but it offers powerful AI enabled learning tools.  The robot uses machine learning and customizes its lessons and responses to each child's unique style of learning.  The robot can even recognize the child's emotional reactions and provide content like a story or song that the child will particularly enjoy.  It is priced under $200.00 and is being distributed worldwide. ROYBI Now Speaks Mandarin Chinese ROYBI lists operating headquarters in San Jose, CA and Shenzhen, China.  The company calls ROYBI a virtua

  New Robot with AI Does the Housework for You                                             Source:  Samsung So Dexterous It Can Set a Dinner Table & Pour a Glass of Wine Samsung has unveiled a new robot Bot Handy designed to be very handy around the house and do chores.  The robot can set a dinner table, clean messy rooms or pour a glass of wine.  Samsung specifically designed this robot to be a very helpful Jeeves around the house. AI Enabled The robot is enabled by very advanced technology.  It uses AI to recognize and pickup objects.  It's able to calculate the right amount of force needed to grab and move objects.  It is capable of differentiating the material composition of a variety of household objects. Top Technology Bot Handy can make itself taller and smaller.  There's a display on the front that shows the robot's blinking eyes, which makes the robot more human.  It has a single robotic arm with hinges for dexterous movement in the fingers, wrist, hands, armpi

Two Hotels Are Being Used to Quarantine & Treat Patients Source:  Pepper on Duty at Robot Hotel for COVID Patients with Mild Symptoms Staffed by Robots, Doctors and Nurses For COVID patients with mild or no symptoms, Tokyo has opened two robot hotels to take the load off of hospitals.  The hotels are staffed by robots, doctors and nurses.  With a capacity to handle 2800 patient-guests, they are being used as an innovative means to quarantine and  treat COVID patients. Pepper and Company The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has taken charge of the two hotels.  Very popular humanoid robot Pepper is at the hotels to greet the arriving guests with positive messaging: "Let's bring our hearts together and get through this."  Cleaning robots are deployed to clean what the Japanese are calling "high risk red zones". Safer Than Home The Tokyo government feels it's safer for the mildly ill COVID patients to stay at the hotels, which are loaded with technolog

Rubion Strawberry Picking Robots Source:  Octinion's Rubion Robot Launched to Coincide with Wimbledon's Famous Berry Consumption Belgium based R&D company Octinion has developed the world's first strawberry picking robot.  Their Rubion robot relies on photonic sensors and a unique soft touch gripper to select and pick ripe strawberries as safely as a human.  They launched the Rubion, which has been five years under development, to coincide with the famous consumption of strawberries at Wimbledon.  They say it would take 14 of their robots less than 7 days to pick and package all of the strawberries needed for the Wimbledon crowds. Fully Autonomous, Spots Ripe Fruit and Picks The soft fruit picking robot navigates the strawberry plants, picks ripe ones and places them in containers.  It's equipped with photonic sensors that detect the light that bounces off ripe strawberries.  It has a patented, soft touch gripper that gently plucks the berries off

Ai-Da - Robot Artist Source:  Aiden Meller's Ai-Da Humanoid has 1st Solo Art Exhibit Next Week Humanoid robot artist Ai-Da has a sold out 1st, solo art exhibition in the UK next week.  Inventor and art gallery owner Aiden Meller have sold over a million pounds of her artwork.  This extraordinary piece of robotics is loaded with AI algorithms created by scientists at the University of Oxford and paints by sight with the cameras in her eyes.  For a great news blog, go to Important Innovations Collection: Ai-Da -- Robot Artist : Ai-Da's First Solo Art Exhibit Source:  Aiden Meller's Ai-Da Already a Sell-out Ai-Da has been described by her British in...

Flexible Robotic Fingers with Human Touch Source:  Cambridge Consultants' Hank Big Applications like eCommerce Cambridge Consultants, the UK's "breakthrough innovation consultants" have created Hank.  The new robot has flexible robotic fingers inspired by the human hand.  Hank is expected by the inventors to have a big application in eCommerce operations that are under pressure to deliver goods cheaply and quickly. Breakthrough Sensory System The robot can hold and grip delicate objects using just the right amount of pressure.  It does so by using a pioneering sensory system embedded in its pneumatic fingers.  The fingers are soft and controlled by airflow that can flex the fingers and apply force. Grand Challenge The company says Hank could prove very valuable in agriculture and warehouse automation.  For those sectors, as well as eCommerce, the development of robots able to pick up delicate, small and irregular objects has proved to be a "Grand Ch

World First in Medical Robotics Robotic Catheter Autonomously Navigates Inside the Body - Noninvasive Heart Valve Repair Bioengineers at Boston Children's Hospital have invented a robotic catheter that has autonomously navigated inside the body. It noninvasively repaired leaking heart valves on animal models.  This is a world first and may usher in brand new possibilities in the practice of medicine.  For a news blog, go to  Important Innovations Collection: 1st in Medical Robotics : Autonomous Robotic Navigation Inside the Body  Source:  Boston Children's Hospital Robotic Catheter Noninvasively Repairs Leaki...

New, Soft Robot that's Fast and Precise Source:  Harvard's SEAS Made Using Kirigami - Japanese Paper Craft Researchers at the Harvard John Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) have made a soft robot using Kirigami.  That's a Japanese paper craft that relies on cuts to change the material's properties.  As the robot stretches, the surface pops into a 3-dimensional surface.  It's able to grip the ground like a snake.  Their new soft robot is precise and fast. Harvard researchers call it Crawler. Potential for Robotic Smart Skins and Responsive Surfaces The robot's kirigami's shell pops up in a discontinuous manner.  The researchers say this kind of design control can be used to create smart skins and responsive surfaces with on-demand changes in texture and shape.  In essence, they control the pop-up and how the skin performs by the cuts and the curvature.  It's another in the rapidly accelerating advancements and innovations

New Innovation from MIT, DARPA and Harvard's Wyss Institute Source:  MIT Magic Ball Soft Robotic Gripper New Soft Gripper Robotic Hand The team from MIT, DARPA and Harvard's Wyss Institute have innovated a new piece of robotic soft gripping.  A technology that can pick up a tiny piece of broccoli to a much more heavy drone.  The soft, Magic Ball Robot gripper gently lifts objects up to 100 times its weight.  The concept that inspired the team comes from origami. Components Magic Ball is a soft, flexible cone structure with airtight skin and attached to a vacuum pump.  The cone flexes to fit around the object and the vacuum tightens it.  It's worked well in testing. Potential uses include packing and shipping.

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's New Deep Diving Robot Photographer Source: WHOI's  Latest Deep Sea Explorer Bot - Mesobot Mesobot - the Very Quiet Robot that Records Deep Sea Creatures This is an exciting piece of robotic innovation from the distinguished research organization, The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on Cape Cod.  It's a deep sea diving autonomous robot called Mesobot that can explore and photograph very deep sea creatures at depths of thousands of feet with no noise to disturb them.  Its mission can last for 2 days with virtually no human interference. It has just been announced by WHOI.  For a great news blog on this, go to Important Innovations Collection: Mesobot, Woods Hole Oceanographic's New Robot : WHOI's New Deep Sea Photographer Source:  Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution  Mesobot Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHO...

Samsung's New Service Robots Source:  Samsung's Service Bots For Healthcare, Home and Retail Samsung recently unveiled a new set of service robots for health care, home and retail.  They are extraordinary technology.  Bot Care can take your blood pressure, breathing and heart rate.  Bot Air monitors the air quality in your home and if needed remedies it.  And Bot Retail is loaded with tech to assist customers.  Samsung's bots typify the rising tide of the robotic workforce.  For a great news blog go to  Important Innovations Collection: Samsung's Army of Service Bots : Healthcare, Home, Retail Source:  Samsung Bots at 2019 CES Bot Care Samsung recently introduced three new service robots at the 2019 ...

Skaterbot Source:  ETH Zurich Plays Ice Hockey Too - Ice Skating Machine Roboticists at ETH Zurich have created the world's first ice skating robot.  It can even play ice hockey with humans.  Its name is Skaterbot and it is an incredible learner. Moves on the Ice Lead researcher Prof. Stelian Coros of the Computational Robotics Lab at ETH says the only thing his team did was to inform the robot how one skate worked and behaved on ice.  They then told Skaterbot it was free to move in the direction of the blades.  The robot took that information and figured out on its own how to move and skate on ice. Quadruped This is a modular, quadruped robot.  Based on the information provided by the team, the robot determines where its legs need to be to stay balanced on the ice.  The researchers believe their robot has many potential uses for deliveries, helping people and search and rescue.  It's remarkable innovation - a skating machine that performs so well as an ice skate

China's Robot Ship World's 1st Robot Ship System for Advanced Weather and Atmospheric Monitoring over Oceans China has built the world's first robotic, semisubmersible boat to launch small sounding rockets to monitor the atmosphere over oceans.  The purpose is to gather meteorological data to provide more accurate weather forecasts.  For a news blog on this emerging robotic technology, go to Important Innovations Collection: China's Robot Ship : World's First Robotic Ship System For More Accurate Weather Predictions Source:  China's Robot Ship Launches Small Sounding …  and  amazon.com/author/ekane

MIT Robot Plays Jenga Source:  MIT Remarkable Robotics MIT's latest robot is being called a new kind of intelligent robot.  It uses vision and touch to play Jenga, which requires an understanding of the forces of physics such as push, pull and spatial arrangement.  Through machine learning, the  new robot has interactive perception and sophisticated manipulation.  For a great news story on this, go to Important Innovations Collection: Jenga Playing Robot : Highly Advanced, New Kind of Robot Courtesy:  MIT MIT Robot Has Interactive Perception & Sophisticated Manipulation to Play Jenga ...

Stanley Black & Decker's New Health Care Companion Smart Device Pria Stanley Black and Deckers is a distinguished tool and outdoor device company that is now moving into smart devices for patient care at home and in clinical environments.  It just unveiled Pria, a home health care and companion robot produced by its new STANLEY Healthcare division.  For a news blog on this, go to Important Innovations Collection: New Home Care Companion Robot from Stanley Black &... : Stanley Black & Decker's Pria Source:  Stanley Black & Decker's Pria Helper Robot Designed to Enhance Patient Lifest...

University of Utah Robotic Science Innovation Source: University of Utah's Robotic Grasp System- Precision (left), Power (right) Robot Grasping Planner System to Extend Robot Grasping Abilities Scientists at the University of Utah have just developed a new, supervised learning system to enable robots to grasp objects with delicate precision and/or power/strength.  The purpose is to greatly expand their functionality.  It's called a probabilistic grasp planner and it's new innovation for the development of robotics. Real Time Robot Planning Device The device is able to plan grasps in real-time.  The system models and plans high quality precision and strength grasps.  It allows the robot to learn the best grasping technique as it practices on different objects. So for instance, the power and strength needed to pick up and place heavy objects and the precision and delicate manipulation needed for smaller, fragile objects. Learning and Planning Grasp System for Ro