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Submission + - The making of sci-fi Robot Overlords - nice robot VFX (robohub.org)

Submitted by Hallie Siegel
Hallie Siegel writes: Ever wonder how they make robots look so awesomely real in movies? Visual effects expert Graham Edwards goes behind the scenes with the makers of Robot Overlords to take you through the development of the robots in this movie, from script development and sketches, to filming and post FX. Really cool to see how these robots come to life.

Submission + - Robot swarm behaviour suggests forgetting may be important to cultural evolution (robohub.org)

Submitted by Hallie Siegel
Hallie Siegel writes: Do robots have culture? Can we learn about human cultural evolution by studying how group behaviour in robots evolves? Researchers in the Artificial Culture Project are trying to do just that. Prof. Alan Winfield from the Bristol Robotics Lab discusses his latest research on modelling the process by which cultural memes develop in robots when they pass learned behaviours to other robots in their group. Some interesting findings that suggest imitation noise (ie. when the behaviour isn't learned perfectly) and forgetfulness (i.e. when the robot has only limited memory of the behaviours it is trying to imitate) lead to stronger cultural memes in the robot behaviour.

Submission + - More warehouse robots coming to market as Softbank invests $20M in Fetch (robohub.org)

Submitted by Hallie Siegel
Hallie Siegel writes: Japanese Softbank just injected $20M in funding to Fetch Robotics, a Silicon Valley company that is developing robotic solutions for warehouse and logistics. This is one of the first warehouse systems that is coming to market since Kiva (Kiva Systems was bought by Amazon in 2012 for $775USD million). (Softbank is also invested in Aldebaran Robotics, producing the Pepper robot — a social humanoid robot that is scheduled to make its debut in Nestle stores later this year as a sales and marketing assistant.) The warehouse and logistics market is a nice fit for robotics — you can also read about some of the other competing systems that are being developed here: http://robohub.org/competing-r...

Submission + - Do robots need passports? International trade considerations (robohub.org) 1

Submitted by Hallie Siegel
Hallie Siegel writes: With countries evolving different regulations over robotic devices, law prof. Anupam Chander looks into whether robots crossing borders will need passports, and what the role of international trade law should be in regulating the flow of these devices. Fascinating discussion on what happens when technology like robots crosses over international borders, as part of this year's We Robot conference in Seattle.

Submission + - Robotic assistive devices for independent living (robohub.org)

Submitted by Hallie Siegel
Hallie Siegel writes: Kavita Krishnaswamy has extreme physical disabilities that severely limit her mobility. She also has drive and a keen mind. I met her last month at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), where she attended via BEAM. In this article, Kavita shares her Phd research to develop robotic assistive devices that give independence to people with severe disabilities. Interesting work on the need for "multi-modal" interfaces — ie. interfaces that allow the users to interact with the assistive device in different ways, including speech recognition and brain-computer interface.

Submission + - Japan looks to distributed control theory to manage energy market deregulation (robohub.org) 1

Submitted by Hallie Siegel
Hallie Siegel writes: Japan’s power industry is currently centralized, but it aims to deregulate by around 2020. Coupled with this major structural market change, the expansion of thermal, nuclear and renewable power generation will place additional demands on the management of the country’s energy market. Researchers from the Namerikawa lab at Keio University are working with control engineers, power engineers and economists to designing mechanical and control algorithms that can manage this large-scale problem.

Submission + - Drought and desertification: How robots might help (robohub.org) 1

Submitted by Hallie Siegel
Hallie Siegel writes: Groundwater levels in California’s Central Valley are down to historic lows and reservoirs have been depleted following four consecutive years of severe drought in the state. California is set to introduce water rationing in the coming weeks, and though the new rationing rules will focus on urban areas and not farms for the time being, they serve as a warning bell to farmers who will inevitably need to adapt to the effects of climate change on food production. John Payne argues that long term solutions are needed to help make agriculture drought resistant and looks at some of the ways that robotics might help.

Submission + - Should robots make life/death decisions? UN to debate lethal autonomous weapons (robohub.org)

Submitted by Hallie Siegel
Hallie Siegel writes: Should robots be allowed to make life and death decisions? This will be the topic of heated debate at the United Nations (UN) Palais des Nations in Geneva next week (April 13-17th, 2015). As part of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), experts from all over the world will gather to discuss “questions related to emerging technologies in the area of lethal autonomous weapons systems.” The Open Roboethics Research Initiative will be presenting public views at the debate.

Submission + - Focusing on tech alone, you miss how autonomous driving will change society (robohub.org)

Submitted by Hallie Siegel
Hallie Siegel writes: The way that consumers interact with and operate cars will transform most functions in commuting, travel, communications, car ownership, and many other as-yet unknown ways. Dieter Zetsche, chairman of Daimler and head of Mercedes-Benz Cars, said at this year’s CES in Las Vegas: “Anyone who focuses solely on the technology has not yet grasped how autonomous driving will change our society.” Robotics watcher Frank Tobe writes about how imagination is overtaking the ethics debate around autonomous cars.

Submission + - Europe agrees on regulatory drone framework to move industry forward (robohub.org)

Submitted by Hallie Siegel
Hallie Siegel writes: There is not a week that goes by where regulation isn’t a hot topic when it comes to drones. But for any regulated industry where technology is advancing greater than new rules can be agreed upon, it will undoubtedly cause a few headaches. This week closes with a very positive announcement from European stakeholders on the future of drones. During a two-day conference in Riga, the European aviation community found broad agreement on the main principles to guide the regulatory framework to allow RPAS (Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems) operations throughout Europe from 2016 onwards. Story by Ben Fisher.

Submission + - Robots modeled on ancient fish help researchers study origins of extinct species (robohub.org)

Submitted by Hallie Siegel
Hallie Siegel writes: Hypotheses about the evolution of traits in ancient species are difficult to test, as the animals have often been extinct for thousands or millions of years. In this article, researchers at Vassar College describe how a population of physical, free-swimming robots modeled after ancient fish evolved vertebrae under selection pressures for predator avoidance and foraging ability, showing how evolutionary robotics can be used to help biologists test hypotheses about extinct animals.

Submission + - Ocean-going robot fleet completes fish tracking mission (robohub.org)

Submitted by Hallie Siegel
Hallie Siegel writes: The second phase of an ambitious project to gather valuable information on ocean processes and marine life using a fleet of innovative marine robots has just reached its conclusion. Co-ordinated by the National Oceanography Centre (NOC), the Exploring Ocean Fronts project took place off southwest England and saw the largest deployment of robotic vehicles ever attempted in UK water. The marine robot patrols successfully located tagged fish and tracked the movements of individual fish over several days by re-locating them.

Submission + - Kiva Systems co-founder says drone delivery could be as low as 20 cents/package (robohub.org)

Submitted by Hallie Siegel
Hallie Siegel writes: A year ago, Amazon announced its plans for Prime Air — a drone delivery service. Recently Amazon has been posting job ads, saying they are looking for drone pilots. Whatever the regulatory issues, is drone delivery financially feasible?

ETH Zurich professor Raffaello D’Andrea thinks it is economically feasible to deliver small packages by drone. D’Andrea is responsible for the Flying Machine Arena (“a space where flying robots live and learn”) and is co-founder of Kiva Systems, the company acquired by Amazon for US$ 775 million in cash that innovated the robotic fulfillment system that Amazon is now implementing in many of its warehouse facilities.

Submission + - Low cost ground robot chassis that can traverse challenging obstacles (robohub.org)

Submitted by Hallie Siegel
Hallie Siegel writes: In order for a robot to be useful in our world, it must be able to traverse unpredictable obstacles, including stairs. But currently available robot chassis tend to be either too small or extremely expensive, and most platform kits cannot leave a controlled environment – a huge problem for makers who want to get outside the lab or workshop. This has been an extremely hard problem for roboticists to solve, but the Ground Drone Project wants to change all that with its low cost ground robot chassis. Check out this innovative design.

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