Greetings my fellow robot and automation nerds! Hope everyone had a wonderful week. Check out this week’s news, cool robot research, and other key topics you will want to stay aware of.
News of the Week
Why NASA is testing its Valkyrie humanoid in Australia (The Robot Report)
NASA’s Valkyrie robot has always fascinated me. He is the screen saver on my phone, so he has always been close to my heart. So it is great to see him getting sent down to Australia for testing his use on an offshore energy platform. Not only will this help NASA scientist and engineers get him ready for potential missions on the Moon or Mars, but give us insight on how legged / humanoid robots can be deployed on to remote worksites here on Planet Earth.
EU Countries See Robotics Sales Go Up From 2022, According to IFR Report (Robotics 24/7)
Europe continues to add to its industrial robot base, but with five countries out of the 27 EU members accounting for 70% of installs is it a good for the continent?
‘World’s first mass-produced’ humanoid robot to tackle labor shortages amid ageing population (Euronews)
It will be interesting to see how this new humanoid robot in China fares. While it is great to see a push to address the issues that come with an ageing population. The success of robots in elderly care has not been the best. One only has to look at the challenges robotics faced in logistics and having to deal with a diverse set of parcels, packages, and other items. Now apply that to all the diversity of us humans in not only body shapes but mental capacity. Picking different packages is a challenge, now throw into the mix “packages” that can move or change with the robot trying to move them.
ASTM International Launches New Subcommittee on Legged Robotics (ASTM)
With the continued growth of legged robots, be them 2- or 4-legged, the time to develop test & performance standards is very much here. The F45 Committee has launched this new subcommittee (F45.06) with the charter to build out a series of test standards that can help benchmark performance and provide insight into the capabilities of some of these platforms.
Humanoids ready to take first steps (The Robot Report)
Great article and list of all of the humanoid robots that are in development or already coming to market. With so many on the list, one has to wonder which ones have a future and which ones we will soon forget about. The push for humanoid robots make a lot of sense. As humans, we have a natural need to make things like us. The question will be if the technology is really here to make humanoid robotics a reality and not still something of science fiction.
Interesting Robot Research for the Week
Stiffness Change for Reconfiguration of Inflated Beam Robots (Stanford University)
Shelving, Stacking, Hanging: Relational Pose Diffusion for Multi-modal Rearrangement (NVIDA, MIT) Project Page Link
Training Robots How To Learn And Make Their Own Decisions On The Fly (University of Illinois)
Robot Workforce & Education News
ARM Institute Launches Job Matching Capabilities on RoboticsCareer.org
The ARM (Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing) Institute announced the addition of job matching functionality on its national workforce resource: RoboticsCareer.org. This new functionality connects workers and students to manufacturing jobs, apprenticeships, and internship opportunities that match specifically to their skills and goals. Job-matching is the latest development on RoboticsCareer.org that also includes a robust database of 16,700+ training programs for robotics careers in manufacturing, digital profile creation for students and job seekers, skills definition for robotics career pathways, and the ARM Institute’s Endorsement Program, which recognizes the nation’s most effective robotics training programs for advanced manufacturing.
360 Martys Heading To Capistrano Elementary Schools
In what marks the single biggest deal for Robotical since the company expanded into North America in 2021, 360 Martys – its trademark robot – have been rolled out in classrooms throughout the Capistrano Unified School District (CUSD) estate, which is the largest school district in Orange Country, California. Pupils in CUSD’s 32 elementary schools and two new state-of-the-art STEAM labs are now learning to code with Marty, an educational humanoid walking robot.
Robot Video Of The Week
Starship delivery robots and their new wireless charging stations
Robot Events Coming Up
Aug. 28-30 formnext forum (Austin, TX)
Sept. 11-14 FABTECH (Chicago, IL) I’M SPEAKING AT THIS ONE!!!
Oct. 1-5 IEEE - IROS (Detroit, MI)
Oct. 4-5 Autonomous Mobile Robots & Logistics Conference (Memphis, TN)
Oct. 9-11 International Robot Safety Conference (Pittsburgh, PA)
Oct. 18-20 ROSCon (New Orleans, LA)
Oct. 30 - Nov. 3 International Conf. on Advanced Manufacturing (Washington DC)