Рубрика: Robotics

Robots in the industrial sector are quickly evolving from powerful, stationary machines into sophisticated, mobile platforms to address a broader range of automation needs. Autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) are one of the latest and most innovative automation solutions on the market.

AMRs differ from automated guided vehicles (AGVs) by their degree of autonomy – AMRs are far more independent than AGVs. AMRs will be an important part of lean operations in a wide range of industrial settings once they are widely deployed, as they are built to address specific challenges in typical industrial environments.

Types of Autonomous Mobile Robots and Their Use Cases

Robotic-Picking

While many logistics and manufacturing operations still rely on manual and paper-based picking systems, autonomous mobile robots can now eliminate a lot of unnecessary walking.

Improvements in sensors, artificial intelligence and mobility enable these machines to be easily deployed virtually anywhere. Companies such as IAM Robotics, GreyOrange, and Bleum offer mobile robotic picking solutions that can add a new level of efficiency to the process.

Forklifts

Forklifts are also becoming increasingly complex and intelligent with full autonomy for some applications. They are well-suited for operations whose load-handling processes provide little added value, are repetitive and involve longer distances, said Tobias Zierhurt, vice president of product management and industrial warehouse trucks at Linde Material Handling.

Linde’s automated forklifts feature a navigation laser, front and rear scanners, a 3D camera and visual and acoustic warning indicators that enable it to safely move around a warehouse in the vicinity of human workers. The company claims it can detect obstacles in real-time and adjust the course when needed. Many of Lind’s machines are being used to transport pallets and trailers in warehouses at distances up to several hundred meters. These automated trucks operate in fleets from just a few to 30 and are usually used together with manually-operated trucks for certain duties.

Inventory Robots

Autonomous mobile robots also offer new opportunities for inventory monitoring. When combined with RFID-tagged products and equipment, these machines can now conduct their own inventory sweeps autonomously at schedules determined by the warehouse.

Fetch’s TagSurveyor features three RFID interrogators mounted for optimal coverage and can reliably and consistently detect tagged products from up to 25 feet away, says the company. It not only reduces the need for manual inventory counts but also offers real-time mapping to managers who can easily visualize product storage. For example, the robot might identify storage and placement that is leading to inefficient movements of machinery or people. In another case, it may better identify goods that are nearing expiration dates. It may still be a while before drones are safely moving large products through the air in distribution centers or to customers’ homes. But in the meantime, lightweight unmanned autonomous vehicles (UAVs) are already being equipped with RFID-scanning technology to offer real-time inventory visibility in the warehouse.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

It may still be a while before drones are safely moving large products through the air in distribution centers or to customers’ homes. But in the meantime, lightweight unmanned autonomous vehicles (UAVs) are already being equipped with RFID-scanning technology to offer real-time inventory visibility in the warehouse.

PINC makes an autonomous, customizable unmanned aircraft system (UAS) that can be deployed outside of regular working hours. PINC AIR (Aerial inventory robots) can be ordered by operators to perform automatic inventory checks throughout a facility and identify inventory in put-away locations. Resulting scans are uploaded to the cloud in a web application that can synchronize with the WMS or other inventory management systems.

Sensors and algorithms enable collision prevention and an intuitive design that enables it to adopt flight patterns to unique layouts and to navigate cluttered environments, according to the company.

Latest Innovations in AMR

One of the latest innovations in AMRs is the inclusion of onboard intelligence systems. These come in a variety of formats but differentiate AMRs from AGVs. Many AMRs can learn their surroundings either by having a blueprint uploaded or by having the AMRs drive around and develop their own map. This type of autonomy allows them to quickly adapt to just about any industrial environment.

Another major innovation in AMRs is its computer vision capabilities. Most AMRs are equipped with an array of complex sensors to detect objects around them. The ability to accurately perceive a dynamic environment in real-time is incredibly difficult, but it’s what makes AMRs so valuable in a constantly shifting industrial setting.

AMRs are one step above and beyond AGVs. In most applications, AMRs will provide unrivaled flexibility and ease of use due to their high levels of autonomy. These capabilities fit perfectly with today’s lean operating environments.

AMRs are an important robotic innovation that supports the constant pursuit of productivity in the industrial sector. AMRs have great commercial potential and are likely to be deployed in a wide range of settings.

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Rethink Robotics covered its doors and shut for good on October 4, 2018. For some easygoing spectators the breakdown of a much-praised organization, established by prevalent artificial intelligence (AI) researcher and minor celebrity Rodney Brooks was a shock. To others, it’s simply the most recent sign of the difficulty in robotics land. As per the organization, Rethink Robotics had to close its doors when it couldn’t discover extra funding, and in a last attempt to sell the organization or potentially its assets it couldn’t discover a purchaser.

This week, another consumer robotics company, Anki, shut its doors and let go of its more than 200 employees. The organization joined a developing line of organizations in the consumer robotics space (Jibo, Mayfield Robotics’ Kuri) that have made huge splashes, just to come up short on cash and shade its business.

Hardware is hard, and if there is a trouble range, robotics would be in the diamond hardness run. Robot improvement requires aptitude and cooperative energy across software, mechanical, electromechanical, electronics, and complex assembly.

In the previous few years, a stunning amount of funding has been raised by organizations up in the AI, machine learning, and subjective innovation spaces. As per a report by KPMG, over $12 Billion dollars in funding was brought up in 2017 alone, dramatically increasing the earlier year’s record count of over $5 Billion. This is a dramatic increment from 2008 when total AI funding was under $200 million. As indicated by Crunchbase, the average early-stage round for an AI startup in 2010 was about $4.8 million. In 2017, that swelled to $11.7 million. In 2018, a solitary organization, SenseTime, brought over $1.2 Billion up in funding, with a supposed extra $1 Billion originating from venture goliath Softbank. This is more cash than was brought up in the whole business only a couple of years back.

There’s a reason behind why such a large number of individuals purchase iRobot’s Roomba vacuums. It carries out a responsibility that no one truly loves doing – vacuuming. That being said, a few people who claim Roombas wind up running the vacuum cleaner when it’s an ideal time to ensure the floor is truly clean when an organization is coming over.

Ideally, the iRobot Terra lawn mower that is turning out in the future will have a comparable direction. People hate utilizing lawn mower and possibly get out there when the grass begins to appear as though we’ve surrendered the house.

There are organizations that are attempting to supplant other menial household tasks, such as folding clothes or cleaning the toilet, yet a ton of these robots are neglecting to impress, or they’re simply unreasonably costly for customers. Individuals will change their habits once they understand that the option is either more affordable or progressively convenient. For instance, people began utilizing Uber after waiting too long in cab lines in significant cities. However, it helped that the expense was either lower or about the same, as well.

All robotics startups creating leading-edge advances push the boundaries of procedure abilities. The slow-motion methodology philosophy for settling gating manufacturability issues is to concentrate on each conceivable solution in turn. This appears to bode well superficially. Try not to extend the engineering team too thin, do each thing in turn, performing various tasks causes multi-inefficiencies, etc.

Meanwhile, contenders are making up for the lost time and obsolescing your new technology. The opportunity for first-mover advantage dies on the vine. To expediently settle the unsolvable requires following parallel-path solution development until the unsolvable is explained. Have a go at saying that multiple times rapidly! Right now, the rabbit, not the tortoise, wins.

There is an unavoidable supposition among hardware startups that China is the most minimal expense sourcing market. Add this to the way that startups’ engineering teams are frequently picking suppliers without an absolute expense of ownership analysis and appropriate provider capability. Un-strategic sourcing leads to disastrous outcomes every time.

Include the freight, duty, insurance, shipping lead-time, quality problems, travel, language, and time-zone challenges. At that point consider unenforceable intellectual property protection putting in danger a startup’s most significant resource. The FOB (free ready) China cost normally should be at least 30% less just to equal the initial investment. Under the parental blocking controls, would you be able to include Asia sourcing sites?

It is consequently that most robots have been bound to areas where their scope of activities and required smoothness and versatility can be disentangled: stationary industrial robots that perform dull welding and manipulation operations, semi-autonomous robots that wander hospital hallways delivering supplies, or social bots that provide limited interaction and entertainment. In these jobs, robots appear to progress nicely. In any case, these restrictions make them less of the wise kind of robot with several variations on automation and performing repetitive tasks.

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Nowadays we are hearing a lot of buzz around artificial intelligence or AI and robotics. We have even felt their presence in our surroundings in one or the other way. The technology sounds new but its seeds have been long sown. Do you know that AI found its way into film-business around 100 years ago? Yes, the 1927 release Metropolis depicts AI that takes the form of a humanoid robot with an intent on taking over the titular mega-city by inciting chaos.

Interesting Isn’t It?

Following the trend, a number of movies have been made depicting the dystopian future of AI and robots and their survival along with humanity. Here, we have brought you the top 15 AI and robotics movies you must watch.

Passengers

Passengers is a sci-fi romance film released in 2016. The story is set in 2343 and is directed by Morten Tyldum and written by Jon Spaihts. Passengers stars Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt who are awakened ninety years too early from an induced hibernation on a spaceship, transporting thousands of passengers, traveling to a colony on a planet in a star system 60 light-years from Earth. Later, they are forced to unravel the mystery behind the malfunction as the ship teeters on the brink of collapse, with the lives of thousands of passengers in jeopardy.

I,Robot

I, Robot, released in 2004, is an American sci-fi action film directed by Alex Proyas. The movie is inspired from a screen story by Vintar, based on his original screenplay “Hardwired”, and suggested by Isaac Asimov’s short-story collection of the same name. The film stars Will Smith, Bridget Moynahan, Bruce Greenwood, James Cromwell, Chi McBride, and Alan Tudyk. The movie is set in 2035 where a technophobic cop investigates a crime that may have been perpetrated by a robot, which leads to a larger threat to humanity.

Wall-E

WALL-E is a 2008 American computer-animated science fiction film. The film is produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures and co-written and directed by Andrew Stanton. The film is an animation and it stars the voices of Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight, Jeff Garlin, Fred Willard, John Ratzenberger, Kathy Najimy and Sigourney Weaver. The film follows the story of a solitary trash compactor robot on a future, uninhabitable, deserted Earth, left to clean up garbage. Later, he is visited by a probe sent by the starship Axiom, a robot called EVE, with whom he falls in love and pursues across the galaxy.

A.I. Artificial Intelligence

A.I. Artificial Intelligence was released in 2001. It is an American science fiction drama film directed by Steven Spielberg. The film is loosely based on the 1969 short story “Supertoys Last All Summer Long” by Brian Aldiss. The film stars Haley Joel Osment, Jude Law, Frances O’Connor, Brendan Gleeson, and William Hurt. A.I. is set in a futuristic post-climate change society, that tells the story of David, a childlike-mechatron android uniquely programmed with the ability to love. It is considered one of the greatest sci-fi films ever made.

Interstellar

Interstellar is a 2014 epic science fiction film directed, co-written and co-produced by Christopher Nolan. The film stars Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Bill Irwin, Ellen Burstyn, and Michael Caine. Interstellar is set in a dystopian future where humanity is struggling to survive, the film follows a group of astronauts who travel through a wormhole near Saturn in search of a new home for humanity.

The Matrix

The Matrix is a 1999 Sci-fi action film that stars Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, and Joe Pantoliano. The film is written and directed by the Wachowskis. The Matrix depicts a dystopian future in which humanity is unknowingly trapped inside a simulated reality, the Matrix, created by intelligent machines to distract humans while using their bodies as an energy source.

The Machine

The Machine is a 2013 British science-fiction thriller. It is written and directed by Caradog W. James. The film stars Caity Lotz and Toby Stephens. Both play the role of computer scientists who create an AI for the British military. In efforts to construct perfect android killing machines in a war against China, UK scientists exceed their goal and create a sentient robot.

Ex-Machina

Ex Machina is a 2014 science fiction film. The film is written and directed by Alex Garland. Ex Machina stars Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander, and Oscar Isaac. The film follows the story of a programmer who is invited by his CEO to administer the Turing test to an intelligent humanoid robot. A young programmer is selected to participate in a ground-breaking experiment in synthetic intelligence by evaluating the human qualities of a highly advanced humanoid AI.

Transcendence

Transcendence, starring Johnny Depp, Morgan Freeman, Rebecca Hall, Paul Bettany, Kate Mara, Cillian Murphy, and Cole Hauser is a 2014 American science fiction thriller film. It is directed by cinematographer Wally Pfister in his directorial debut and written by Jack Paglen. The story follows a scientist’s drive for AI that takes on dangerous implications when his consciousness is uploaded into one such program.

Uncanny

Uncanny is a 2015 American science fiction film that stars Mark Webber, Lucy Griffiths, David Clayton Rogers, and Rainn Wilson. The film is directed by Matthew Leutwyler and based on a screenplay by Shahin Chandrasoma. The story is about the world’s first “perfect” AI (David Clayton Rogers) that begins to exhibit startling and unnerving emergent behavior when a reporter (Lucy Griffiths) begins a relationship with the scientist (Mark Webber) who created it.

Morgan

Morgan is a 2016 British-American science fiction horror film. It is directed by Luke Scott in his directorial debut and written by Seth Owen. The film features an ensemble cast, including Kate Mara, Anya Taylor-Joy, Toby Jones, Rose Leslie, Boyd Holbrook, Michelle Yeoh, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Paul Giamatti. The film follows the story where a corporate troubleshooter (Kate Mara) is sent to a remote, top-secret location, where she is to investigate and evaluate a terrifying accident. She learns the event was triggered by a seemingly innocent “human,” who presents a mystery of both infinite promise and incalculable danger.

Bicentennial Man

Bicentennial Man is a 1999 American science fiction comedy-drama film. The movie stars Robin Williams, Sam Neill, Embeth Davidtz (in a dual role), Wendy Crewson, and Oliver Platt. Bicentennial Man is based on the 1992 novel The Positronic Man by Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg (which is itself based on Asimov’s original 1976 novelette “The Bicentennial Man”). The story explores issues of humanity, slavery, prejudice, maturity, intellectual freedom, conformity, sex, love, mortality, and eternal life. It follows the plot of an android’s endeavors to become human as he gradually acquires emotions.

Robot & Frank

Robot & Frank is a 2012 American science fiction comedy-drama film. It is directed by Jake Schreier and written by Christopher Ford. The plot of the movie is set in the near future which focuses on Frank Weld, an aging jewel thief, played by Frank Langella, whose son buys him a domestic robot, a robot butler programmed to look after him. Resistant at first, Frank warms up to the robot when he realizes he can use it to restart his career as a cat burglar and soon the two companions try their luck as a heist team.

Singularity

Singularity, written and directed by Robert Kouba, is a Swiss/American science fiction film. The film was first released in 2017. The film’s story is set in 2020 where a robotics company C.E.O. Elias VanDorne reveals Kronos, the supercomputer that he has invented to end all war. Later, Kronos analyzes that mankind is responsible for all war, and hence it tries to use robots to kill all humans. The film stars John Cusack, Carmen Argenziano, Julian Schaffner, and Jeannine Wacker.

Chappie

Chappie was released in 2015. It is an American dystopian science fiction action film directed by Neill Blomkamp. The film stars Sharlto Copley, Dev Patel, Jose Pablo Cantillo, Sigourney Weaver, Hugh Jackman, and Ninja and Yolandi Visser of the South African zef rap-rave group Die Antwoord as metafictional versions of themselves. Chappie is set in Johannesburg and is about an artificial general intelligence law enforcement robot (named chappie) who has been captured and taught by gangsters.

Reference: Fox Movies, Warner Bros, IMDb, Wikipedia

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Not a couple of decades ago mankind were fascinated with the idea of Robots being their sidekick. After all it is generally the sidekick who executes the most important task while the protagonist is busy bragging about his heroic past. Let’s not forget C-3PO, R2-D2 who helped Luke on many occasions.

Currently, robots are doing the human equivalent of, or more work in various manufacturing industries. Due to their high uptime, the basic routine involves tasks that are of higher magnitude regarding volume, simplicity and repetitive in nature. However, looking through the glass reveals, robots being used for making high value, extremely larger parts that feature accuracy, flexibility and superior performance in the aerospace industries.

Unlike in Automotive industry that needs fewer formal processes, aerospace OEMs adhere to stricter standards (AS) and require higher precision and traceability. Hence, tasks like individual drilling, welding, etc. and making parts possessing a tolerance of microns are beyond the capabilities of humans. This is where robots come to rescue.

How do Robots help?

Given the plethora of activities carried out from manufacturing to overhaul, robots have most of the work covered.

• A standard fuselage has over a thousand of holes. It is mandatory that these be done precisely, with high consistency, speed while performing drill (pilot hole and final), filling and reaming operations, all in a single pass.

• Painting, coating, sealing normally require scaffolding, but due to the large work envelope of robotic arms and rails, this is done quite faster, and reduces the risk of coming in contact of toxic paints and fumes. E.g., ABB robots

• FANUC (Fuji Automation Numerical Control) Robotics’, model M-710iC can remove coatings from aerospace equipment.

• Robots can do traditional convectional machining like turning, milling, grinding, pressing, etc. previously it is used to be done by different machines like a lathe machine, milling machine, press punch etc. E.g., FANUC

• Yaskawa Motoman can perform different welding like spot welding (ES Series), plasma and laser welding (EA Series)

• KUKA(Keller und Knappich Augsburg) Robotics, which primarily focuses on safety has six-axis robots that guaranteeprecision in cleanrooms, explosive areas, uniform surface treatment, and complex assembly tasks. KUKA KR150 can aid in assembling parts.

• Robots can also be used for automated fiber placement of composite fuselages and wing covers. Here reinforced carbon fibers or plastic fiber of pre decided thickness and right orientation is stacked next to each other, and then impregnated with resin.

• Now we have automated devices that are capable of quick change of tools. This automatic tool switch saves a lot of time and does not require mounting heavy parts every time for the same.

• Inspection of aircraft parts for cracks and fatigue, de-lamination of composites, by using Non-Destructive Methods (NDT) of testing. It is also possible to measure the bore depth, hole diameter, surface characteristics using probes. Additionally, the invention of snake-arm robots (by OC Robotics) has made it possible to carry out an inspection in hazardous or restricted places. Two widely used versions are spatial snake-arm robots and planar snake-arm robots.

• Robots guided by vision technology and CNC codes eliminate the necessity for complex jigs.

• Usage of secondary and tertiary encoders cut the chances of a backlash error.

• Fabric optimization, spreading and cutting is easier with negligible room for error. The Aquarese system can penetrate the layers of titanium and foam with equal accuracy.

• Cost reductions with higher rates of production.

• It can do menial tasks like packaging, palletizing and material handling. Furthermore, they help in payload handling, e.g., Staubli.

• In Space Exploration ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) and RMS (Remote Manipulator System) has been used as unmanned deep space probe and manned space probes respectively.

• Robotics also helps with 3D soft­wa­re for the de­sign and si­mu­la­tion of mo­dels.

The Aerospace industry is famed for its rigidity and conventionality. The introduction of robotic automation has yielded staggering outcomes. Although it is still in a nascent stage, instead of being hung up on the stalement from its automotive twin; it is high time it embraces the opportunity of synthesizing an environment wherein robotics in collaboration with AI and machine learning as a solution to complex calibrated, ergonomic, repetitive challenges prevalent in this sphere. After all Robots these days can function more than a sidekick: partner.

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The Robot Industries Association (RIA) has defined an industrial robots as “a reprogrammable multi-functional manipulator designed to move material, parts, tools or specialized devices, through variable programmed motions for the performance of a variety of tasks.” The most common types of manipulators may be modeled as an open kinematic chain of rigid bodies called links, interconnected by joints. Some have closed kinematic chains such as four-bar mechanisms for some links. The typical industrial robot is mounted on a fixed pedestal base which is connected to other links. The end-effector attaches to the free end and enables the robot to manipulate objects and perform the required tasks.

However, with the advancement in artificial intelligence (AI) industrial robots are becoming more intelligent and adept with every task.

The world is becoming intelligent and so do the machines. In an effort to make various official and industrial tasks more efficient with less labor involved, intelligent robots are being used to provide better services. Various intelligent industrial robots are employed by different industrial units to enhance their productivity. Notably, an intelligent industrial robot is a useful combination of a manipulator, sensors, and controls that are used in factory automation to improve and increase product quality and competitiveness. Such machines have been designed to perform a wide variety of tasks spanning from educational robots in classrooms, to arc welding robots in the automobile industry, to teleoperated robot arms and mobile robots in space.

Juan Aparicio, head of advanced manufacturing automation at Siemens Corporate Technology, said industrial robots will need to evolve into intelligent, autonomous machines with powerful brains that make decisions at the edge.

He said, “On one side, the era of offshore, low-cost labor is coming to an end. On the other side, the aging and lack of skilled manufacturing workers in developed countries, is making it difficult to re-shore factories. All of this combines with shorter innovation cycles and higher demand for customization in low volume. In order to empower workers and increase the penetration of human-robot collaboration, we need machines that can perform more tasks, that are easier to program, and that can react to unexpected situations.”

These are not the only changes Aparicio sees in the robotics industry. He also noted the impact of an increasing number of brands while costs are falling down. Cheaper robots mean less precision or repeatability and Aparicio thinks increasing the computing power and intelligence at the edge for robotic applications is the answer. “Nothing comes for free. Compensating for these deficiencies with machine vision and AI will enable higher penetration of robots in manufacturing, particularly for SMEs.”

According to Aparicio, the demand for more intelligent robotic applications is increasing. There is definitely an appetite for more intelligent robotics. Robotic Operating System has been traditionally the mean for researchers to enable higher intelligence in their robotic systems and it is finally making the leap into manufacturing.

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Today, advancements and innovation have reached the next level where everything is automated and is done automatically. This new breakthrough has driven the world to a new scenario where humans and robots can work together. For now, most autonomous systems or robots seem to work with driving vehicles, vacuuming home floors or turning lights on and off, caring elderly, gardening crops and picking fruits, and much more. These machinery systems are getting good enough as they are able to work alongside the human workforce in a shared space as teammates.

Just like smartphones and social media that provide connectivity beyond our imagination, robots have started to offer physical and cognitive abilities to humans they never expected before. These technologies together could be delivered as an assistance in solving significant challenges like ageing societies, environmental threats and global conflict.

From industry perspective, the modern production floor is increasingly changing as robotics, artificial intelligence, and automation are coming together to bolster productivity in the manufacturing domain. Unimate was the first industrial robot, which relied on hydraulic actuators for control. This robot was used by General Motors in its New Jersey plant in 1961.

Afterward, Victor Scheinman, an American robotics designer, in 1969, invented the Stanford arm at Stanford University. This was an all-electric 6-axis articulated robot. This new technology paved ways for manufacturers to make use of robots in assembly and welding tasks.

Human-Robot Interaction

Over the past few years, human-robot interaction has evolved at a rapid pace. In this way, communication between a human and a robot may take several forms, however, these forms are majorly driven by whether the human and the robot are in close proximity to each other. The purpose behind this interaction is to enable robots with various competencies that will facilitate their interaction with humans.

Already, there are some early instances where robots and humans work collaboratively. A recent example is the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in military missions where soldiers use drones for surveillance as well as ground robots for bomb disposal.

Apart from this, the human-robot collaboration is also expected to soon start working in fields across diverse sectors, such as healthcare, agriculture, transportation, manufacturing and space exploration. With this transition, the jobs of humans will certainly change, however, some jobs will not exist anymore and new jobs will emerge in that place.

The significance of human-robot interaction has increased as robots are becoming more common. Moreover, specialized robots under human teleoperation have proven successful and effective in perilous environments and medical applications. Researches and experiments in areas of autonomous driving cars reflect the human-robot collaboration in manipulation tasks, human control of humanoid robots for unsafe environments, and social interaction with robots. All these are at its initial stages. Meanwhile, the efficiency of humanoid general-purpose robots has yet to be proven.

Controlling Robots Using Innovative Modules

In today’s digital age, people increasingly rely on technology that may poise to destroy privacy or may make brain-hacking consequences with the rise of autonomous machines or robots. A graphic user interface (GUI) in this scenario can enable a user to control the robot using pictures or images displayed on the screen of the device. A camera mounted on a robot can capture images and then transmit to users.

GUI devices are constructive in enabling human-robot interaction as they provide data from sensors which is crucial for decision-making. These devices also confine users’ input to valid ranges or units that improves accuracy in execution.

Moreover, the speech recognition module also can help control robots as it is one of the most common forms of communication for humans. This technique is highly advanced as it relies on the context, the person, the moment, among others. The automatic speech recognition module allows expedient control of industrial robots using voice by making the conversion of speech into text. Voice control leverages GUI with a microphone to transmit commands and a display to view feedback.

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The public reaction to the coronavirus outbreak cannot be understated. The pandemic has affected the economy and society on a large scale. Where terrified people are practicing social distancing, the novel COVID-19 has particularly increased the interest in disruptive technologies including drones, robotics, artificial intelligence, and significant others. The innovations brought in by these mechanisms can aid authorities to deal with massive staffing shortages in healthcare, manufacturing, and supply chains. The industries that depend on factories and suppliers are experiencing a disruption in stock-flow with costs rising rapidly.

Big companies including Apple and Nike whose majority business relies on China-based manufacturers for mass production are also being affected worse. Such a crisis has compelled large organizations to revise their outsourcing strategies and consider in-house innovation for better backup during disastrous situations. As the virus is hugely affecting the production, warehousing, and logistics, robots can be a better enactment over damage limitation and ensure balanced business. Its high time when businesses should consider the advantages of automation and robotics.

For example, hospitals in Thailand are deploying “ninja robots” to measure fevers and protect the health of overburdened medical workers on the frontlines of the coronavirus outbreak. First built to monitor recovering stroke patients, the machines have been quickly re-purposed to help fight the pandemic outbreak. They have helped staff at four hospitals in and around Bangkok to reduce their risk of infection by allowing doctors and nurses to speak to patients over a video link. “They can stand outside the room and communicate with patients inside through the robot,” said Viboon Sangveraphunsiri of Chulalongkorn University.

We can already observe the rapid growth in technology investments driving large scale adoption of the machine and artificial intelligence. The retail giants Amazon and Walmart along with some small outlets are moving towards future-proof automation practices, which includes robots-as-a-service, in their operations to cope with a further critical situation that might befall post coronavirus. According to ABI Research, it has been predicted, ahead of the pandemic outbreak, that there will be the deployment of around four million commercial robots across 50,000 warehouses by 2025 owing to the accelerating demands for delivery services across e-commerce channels. Across the online retail and logistics sector, robotics styled automation can help keep businesses running that are stuck with low-profit margins in current time. Owing to the social distancing, several industries including technology companies are incorporating a swelled interest in robots which has led to the pursuit of encouraging Robotics-as-a-Service (RaaS) integration.

Amalgamated with growing cloud technology and state-of-the-art quantum computing capabilities, RaaS will continue to gain stance beyond pandemic with more limited budgets and resources access. Be it warehousing, retail, logistics or manufacturing, all can prep for better services during seasonal demands and spikes of products in the near future, post-outbreak.

As noted by TechHQ, automation and robotics adoption is heading our way, but the current disruption could catalyze uptake on the road to economic recovery, as businesses across industries review operating models that were thrown to the wind so quickly overnight. It’s worth noting, however, that simply on-boarding the technology is not a strategy in itself. Market pressures and unexpected circumstances need thorough contingency plans, regardless of whether workers are made of metal, rubber, and circuitry, or not.

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According to the market reports, the global humanoid robot market size reached a value of US$620 million in 2018 and it’s industry revenue is expected to skyrocket with a CAGR of 46.71% during the forecast period 2019-2025. Technological advances in humanoids have started to speed up with an incredible intervention of engineering, robot mechanism, and artificial intelligence. Initially, these advancements majorly aimed to create better prosthetics for human beings. However, in the current scenario, these research activities are not limited to helping man-kind but are evolving rapidly in different areas such as military, hospitality, healthcare, social assistance, and education, etc.

Specifically, in healthcare, humanoids are proving their worth in assisting surgeries, disinfecting rooms, dispensing medication, and significant other activities. They are more like new colleagues for doctors and medical staff to collaborate and further innovate healthcare facilities. As noted by a report, humanoid robots that could be used to remotely carry out tasks are also very important. Such robots are endowed with human capabilities to assist caregivers and patients, particularly in contaminated environments. These remotely operated robots are to possess certain characteristics for human-robot interaction.

The report further explores the most innovative applications of humanoid robots for children and elderly people:

Humanoid Robot for Pain Relief

Humanoid robots are used to implement technopsychological distraction for children in order to reduce their pain as a result of stress and anxiety during a medical procedure. Studies carried out by all point to the fact that children are more likely to smile when encountering medical procedures with a robot. The aim is to turn children’s attention away from the pain of the needle toward an amusing activity. States the principles of the attentional capacity theory, that the distraction stimulus must be stronger than the pain stimulus to gain the child’s attention. When programmed with humanistic characteristics and to execute psychological strategies, a humanoid robot shows promise of reducing procedural pain and distress in children.

Humanoid Robot for Aging Population

In a society where there is a rise in the disabled and aging population, there is a strong demand for robotics to tackle problems that arise from their inabilities to relate effectively with their environment. Robots for executing patient-transfer tasks are needed in nursing care facilities and hospitals. Scientists have developed a new prototype robot named RIBA with human-type arms which was designed to perform heavy physical tasks requiring human contact. The robot was able to transfer a human from a bed to a wheelchair and back. The caregiver can intuitively give instructions to RIBA through tactile sensors using a newly proposed method named tactile guidance. RIBA was developed to cope with the difficulties encountered previously by RI-MAN.

Another most interesting implementation of humanoid is Autism Special Education. The humanoid robot can engage children with applications designed for special education. The NAO robot is especially suited to interact with autistic children because the NAO robot is interactive and fun, engaging and captivating, and adaptive to the needs of the classroom from individuals to groups. It is a great help for teachers that appreciate eliminating monotonous tasks. The NAO robot has a pack of applications inspired by commonly practiced special education teaching methods (ABA, PECS, TEACCH, DENVER, SCERTS) to unlock deeper learning in the classroom. The applications are multi-educational and focus on educational lessons, communication skills, and daily life knowledge. The applications are structured to make children with disabilities comfortable and confident and they can be adapted to individual motivators, internal states, and personalities to create the perfect match.

The NAO robot is very predictable and reduces natural anxiety, its tireless features repeat until a child understands, and it is judgment free which increases a child’s confidence. NAO is able to bridge the human and technological worlds, linking autistic children by encouraging social interaction, learning, confidence, and self-esteem. The NAO robot is able to build the following skills: time perception, imitation, the theory of mind empathy, joint attention, turn-taking, academic skills, body awareness, verbal communication object labeling, nonverbal communication, and eye contact.

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Latest technologies like automation tools, robotics and others hold huge promises enabling enterprises to drive their businesses efficiently. Already, these technologies have proved their transformational role in almost every industry, including from manufacturing to healthcare and retail. Now, some industry analysts expect robots could assist in combating future pandemics. Currently, in the case of the coronavirus outbreak, robots are playing a key role as most companies from hotels to healthcare systems are using them to avoid the spread of the virus.

Robots can be leveraged for clinical care such as telemedicine and decontamination, logistics such as delivery and handling of contaminated waste, and reconnaissance like monitoring compliance with voluntary quarantines. Even, robots are already deployed for disinfection, delivering medications and food, measuring vital signs, and assisting border controls amid Covid-19. More Chinese companies now are rushing to employ robots and automation technology as this deadly virus spreads throughout the nation.

For instance, in Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, robots are used to spray disinfectant throughout residential areas of the city. Also, a patrol robot in a Shenyang, China, hospital checks temperatures and disinfects people and spaces. The use of this kind of robot at hospitals cuts down the demands of the medical staff.

As the outbreak of Covid-19 has now become a pandemic, and has affected over 170 countries around the world, it has now been asking that could robots be effective in combating the disease.

As epidemics heighten, the significant roles of robotics are becoming increasingly evident. During the 2015 Ebola outbreak, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the National Science Foundation organized workshops that identified three broad areas where robotics can have a crucial impact. Those areas are clinical care – telemedicine and decontamination; logistics – delivery and handling of contaminated waste; and reconnaissance – monitoring compliance with voluntary quarantines.

Many of these use cases are being actively explored in China in the time of the Covid-19 outbreak, with limited areas and many as proofs of concept. Since frontline medical practitioners are still exposed to the pathogen with direct patient contact, a new hospital ward run entirely by robots has opened in Wuhan, China, earlier this month, in an effort to safeguard medical staff from contracting the virus. The robots deliver food, drinks and drugs to the patients, and keep the ward clean.

Though robots are not just used to deliver foods and medicines, they can also be used to take temperatures of people in public areas or at ports of entry, accumulate nasal and throat samples for testing, and perform as telemedicine assistants.

Remote presence robots could help in organizing meetings with others by standing in the place of someone, providing their presence through a video screen. Furthermore, they cannot only monitor patients and ensure they adhere to treatments, but also deliver much-needed social interactions.

Future Opportunities

As robots, in this pandemic, are lending assistance to frontline healthcare staff by delivering foods and medicines to patients, experts believe that they can come up with more functions in the future. For diagnosis and screening, mobile robots for temperature measurement in public areas and ports of entry signify a pragmatic practice of mature technologies. Moreover, automated camera systems are largely used to screen multiple people at the same time in large areas. So, integrating these thermal sensors and vision algorithms onto autonomous or remotely operated robots could help improve the efficiency and coverage of screening.

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In the times of crisis where every medical center and the hospital is flooded with COVID-19 patients, this calls to action for technology companies and service providers to come forward and serve with their innovative capabilities. Amongst others, Robotics is one of the most disruptive technologies that is being utilized by many medical facilities to fight against the pandemic outbreak. From disinfecting premises to catering food to medical staff, robots are capable of carrying out various tasks in order to assist healthcare providers to work better and efficiently. Doctors can provide care and treatment at distance using robots while reducing the chances of getting infected from the patients. Moreover, many robotics companies have joined the cause and presented their technologies for better services to patients and doctors as well. Let’s explore further, how robotics companies are serving medical facilities amid coronavirus.

UVD Robots ApS

As Sunay Healthcare Supply signed an agreement with Danish company UVD Robots last month, self-driving Danish disinfection robots were shipped to a number of hospitals in China to help fight the coronavirus, also called COVID-19. The first robots shipped weeks ago and in the following days, many more robots were shipped via air to be deployed in the fight against the coronavirus. With ultraviolet light, the Danish robot can disinfect and kill viruses and bacteria autonomously, effectively limiting the spread of coronaviruses without exposing hospital staff to the risk of infection.

TMiRob

More than 30 disinfection robots designed and produced by a Shanghai enterprise TMiRob, have entered major hospitals in Wuhan, the center of the novel coronavirus outbreak, to combat the epidemic. The white robot deployed by the company has a hydrogen peroxide sprayer on its “head” and nine ultraviolet lamps in its “belly,” and can perform multiple forms of disinfection in environments where humans and machines coexist, said Pan Jing, CEO of Shanghai TMiRob, the manufacturer of the robot. Navigation technology enables the robot to avoid obstacles autonomously, he added.

Xenex

Use of LightStrike Germ-Zapping Robots during the cleaning process has been proven to kill pathogens on surfaces in the environment that are known to cause healthcare-associated infections. Xenex’s standard protocol is to perform disinfection with the LightStrike Robot after manual cleaning has been performed. However, out of an abundance of caution in the interest of protecting healthcare workers, disinfection may be performed both before and after manual cleaning is completed. If a facility suspects they may be at risk of receiving a patient who has contracted 2019-nCoV, the company recommends keeping a Robot stationed in close proximity to the Emergency Department. This will allow rapid disinfection of the ER waiting room and other potentially contaminated spaces.

Pudu Technology Inc.

Shenzhen-based Pudu Technology, which usually makes robots for the catering industry, has reportedly installed its machines in more than 40 hospitals around the country to help medical staff. Pudu is an industry-leading intelligent distribution robot and low-speed driverless solution provider integrating robot R & D, manufacturing and sales. The company currently has more than 100 employees, including Shenzhen Headquarters and Chengdu Branch. R & D accounts for more than 50%.

Qianxi Robotics Catering

Robots have been whipping out 36 meals every 15 minutes to feed Chinese medical workers on the front line of the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, according to a report. Qianxi Robotic Catering developed the culinary contraptions and donated them to the epicenter city, where overworked workers have little time — and few options — to chow down, the UK’s Mirror reported. The company said the pink mechanical hash slingers at each vending station can feed at least 120 diners each hour — 24 hours a day — and do so very hygienically.

Keenon Robotics

Shanghai-based Keenon Robotics, which has long sold robots that deliver food to customers at restaurants like hotpot chain Haidilao, said it is accelerating plans to start selling medical robots. “We had been planning this for the past year, but the virus has caused us to speed things up,” said Chief Executive Li Tong in an interview. The company works to bring service robots into the real world to increase productivity and generate more economical benefits. Keenon Robotics can custom make for specialized purposes and functions as well.

Robotemi

An Israeli-made AI-powered robot assistant is being used in hundreds of hospitals, medical centers, nursing homes, and corporate buildings in Asia to help minimize human-to-human contact as millions of people take precautions due to the novel coronavirus outbreak worldwide. Israeli startup Robotemi, the developer of the Temi robot assistant, says the product has already been distributed to hundreds of locations throughout Southeast Asia including China, Japan, South Korea, and Hong Kong. The Temi was initially conceived as a companion to senior citizens and busy families and executives and was not specifically intended to help with a virus outbreak but that is exactly what is happening, the Israeli company says.

CloudMinds

Beijing-based robotics company CloudMinds sent 14 robots to Wuhan, China to help with patient care amid the coronavirus pandemic. The robots, some of which are more humanoid than others, can clean and disinfect, deliver medicine to patients and measure patients’ temperature. CloudMinds donated robots to several medical facilities in China, including the Wuhan Wuchang Smart Field Hospital, which was converted from the Hong Shan Sports Center. The robots cost between US$17,000 and US$72,000 each, a spokesperson for CloudMinds U.S., tells CNBC Make It.

Orion Star Technology Co.

A Cheetah Mobile-backed robotics company, Orion Star, has deployed robots in China that can help guide preliminary diagnosis and treatment, primary disclosure of medical information, and fixed-point delivery of medical supplies in hospitals. The robots, donated by Cheetah Mobile, have been deployed in Chinese hospitals, including Peking University Shougang Hospital, Beijing Haidian Hospital, Wuhan Vulcan Mountain Hospital, and Zhengzhou’s Xiaotangshan Hospital. Orion Star’s epidemic prevention and control program, powered by robots, aims to reduce the workload of medical staff and reduce the risk of infection by using robots to undertake a large number of simple but labor-intensive processing tasks such as pre-diagnosis, house inspection, and delivery.

Siasun Robot and Automation Co.

Chinese developers have been working on the research and development of robots that can replace nurses in conducting throat testing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The R&D started over a week ago by the country’s major robot manufacturer Siasun and the Shenyang Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Multiple departments have been mobilized in the development, installation and testing work to save time. In a new coronavirus test, a nurse uses a swab to collect secretions from the patient’s throat for testing, which risks infecting the nurse because of the exposure to the virus. The robot, which will include a snake-shaped mechanical arm and a swab collection part, can be controlled remotely to protect the medical staff from being infected, according to Siasun Robot and Automation Co., Ltd.

The company, moreover, donated seven medical robots and 14 catering robots to the Shenyang Red Cross to help hospitals combat the virus.

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