Robotics

The agriculture industry has hit a turning point. Faced with a massive labor crunch and environmental instability, aggressive technology deployments are no longer an option for outliers in the sector, but a necessary and critical element in the success of the farm. 
Enabling the transformation are a host of new developers, but also legacy companies with deep roots in agriculture. Smart technology from companies like John Deere, for example, is helping farmers to produce more with less and create more successful crops, all while having a smaller impact on the land and environment. In contrast to prevailing wisdom that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, John Deere is employing AI and machine learning in its equipment to identify and enable needed actions at a scope and speed beyond human capacity, automating farming actions through smart robotics to enable consistent and precise actions at large scale, and providing precise, geospatial intelligence generated with machine technology and coupled with cloud-stored data to enable sustainable farming. 
In other words, it’s like farming with technologies that might be more commonly associated with NASA than a tractor company. I caught up with Dr. Cristian Dima, Lead of Advanced Algorithms, John Deere Intelligent Solutions Group, to discuss the changes underway in the farming sector and what we can expect going forward.
GN: Can you chart the trajectory of robotics and AI on the farm? Where were the first utilizations and how has that grown?
Dr. Dima: Most industries are either trying to figure out how to implement AI or have just started to do it – but the agriculture industry is the minority. Few realize that farming has long been one of the most high-tech spaces, and one that can shed light on how tech will look in other industries in the future. Advanced automation systems have been on farms for decades, helping farmers operate with a level of precision and consistency that couldn’t be achieved alone. 
As we’ve ushered in the digital era, the agriculture industry continues to be pushed to figure out how to help farmers feed a growing population on less land and with a shrinking labor pool. This is why advanced technologies like robotics and AI are so critical. They enable farmers to automate tasks that require extreme precision and consistency, in the face of rapidly-changing variables, such as weather conditions. The technology is truly an extension to the farmer’s own senses, enabling them to make better decisions by detecting and responding to conditions in the field that farmers may not have spotted themselves. 
Our recently released X9 combine series is a great example of how this advanced technology is making a difference for farmers today. This combine is highly automated and uses multiple state-of-the-art AI-based systems to help farmers harvest crops more efficiently as it drives through the field.
GN: What kinds of efficiencies can robotics bring to agricultural operations? Is it just about saving manpower, or are there greater efficiencies at stake?
Dr. Dima: The agriculture industry is experiencing a shortage of skilled labor. Statistics show that 58 million fewer people were employed in agriculture in 2019 when compared to 2005 – that’s an 11 percent decrease. Advanced technology equipped in machines makes it easier for less skilled operators to handle the tasks at hand.  
Agriculture is one of the most unpredictable industries, but technology helps mitigate the challenges brought on by that to deliver greater consistency at scale for farmers.  
In the past, agriculture practices were typically handled at the field level: entire fields were planted, treated and harvested in the exact same way, despite the fact that conditions can vary between different sections of the field. Technology is now enabling farmers to manage each section of the farm based on its unique conditions and needs. 
A good example of this in action is the spraying of herbicides, which had traditionally been done at the same rate across the whole field. Thanks to a combination of computer vision, machine learning and robotics technology, spraying no longer has to be a one-size-fits all task. Our See and Spray technology, which we’re testing today, possesses precise robotics capabilities that ensures herbicide is only applied to areas where weeds are present. This decreases the amount of herbicides used, resulting in lower costs and increased sustainability since they are only used where necessary.

GN: What scale of agriculture are robots and AI the best fit for? Are we ready for family farms powered by robots, or is that some way off?
Dr. Dima: At Deere, we have customers with farms of all sizes and because needs vary greatly, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to incorporating robotics technology. 
Robotics technology on large scale farms helps to solve many challenges, as illustrated in my previous answers. However, while not as common, we’re starting to see more and more cases of high-tech solutions moving towards smaller family farms. The dairy industry is a good example for how robotic technology can be successfully deployed – in 2016, the global milking robot market size was estimated to be close to $1 billion. Now, that market is projected to grow even more – by over $460 million by 2024. 
The common thread across all of this is that no matter the size of the farm or crop/output, technology isn’t going to be adopted just for the sake of it; it has to bring value to customers. We do see opportunities for farms of all sizes to adopt technology if it’s economically feasible and provides great value. 
GN: Are we seeing migration of industrial agricultural automation technology to consumer products? How will that change going forward?
Dr. Dima: As agriculture automation becomes commonplace, we will see scaled-down solutions make their way into smaller scale operations, such as gardening or even regular lawn maintenance. We’re seeing that interest today in the form of prototypes of robotic lawn mowers that can even help with weed control. 
GN: What does the future of farming look like with respect to robots and AI?
Dr. Dima: In the future, more and more tasks will continue to be automated. Equipment will continue to become smarter to help farmers tend to the needs of every square foot of the ground. More autonomy in each job means that farms of the future will be more economical and environmentally sustainable, which will help farmers produce the best possible results year after year.  More

A burger-flipping robot named Flippy, which is designed to hang upside down from a cook station in fast food kitchens, is now available globally for commercial customers, the bot’s maker announced today. Miso Robotics is hoping its Robot-on-a-Rail (ROAR) system will transform fast food, particularly with food prep challenges related to COVID-19 an ongoing problem.
The robot has undergone field trials in existing restaurants, including at select White Castle locations.
“We’re are incredibly excited to announce global commercial availability of Flippy ROAR,” said Mike Bell, CEO of Miso Robotics. “After we shared a sneak peek of the prototype in January, we’ve seen demand through the roof from operators, especially in light of COVID-19. Miso Robotics is confident that this demand will set us up for success and provide the automation the industry needs to not only recover but accelerate growth.”
Miso debuted its updated Flippy ROAR earlier this year to respond to a difficult challenge for those hoping to bring automation into existing kitchens. Namely, there isn’t much space around the stove or griddle, and human coworkers tend to need whatever space there is to maneuver. Miso’s engineers figured out a space-saving solution via an upside down rail installed under a standard kitchen hood. The design allows Flippy to move laterally across a work area while keeping all the equipment out of the way of human coworkers.
Fast food has been in the crosshairs of automation developers for the past few years, with the quick serve pizza sector taking a lead thanks to cooking and delivery innovations. Companies like McDonald’s have embraced automated kiosk-based ordering, and it’s a sure bet that automated food prep is close behind. The recent pandemic has only increased the likelihood of adoption as the restaurant industry looks to reopen and regrow. Miso Robotics is hoping to lure struggling businesses with attractive financing through TimePayments.
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Naturally Flippy’s hardware is just the tip of the spear. The real magic happens on the backend in ChefUI, Miso Robotics’ proprietary software, which assists kitchen workers with operational interactions and workflows via a 15.6″ touchscreen. ROAR automatically identifies food temperatures and predicts time remaining, which means radical workflow optimization without compromising food quality.
In addition to powerful image processing and depth perception from Intel RealSense technology, Flippy ROAR utilizes machine learning to optimize cooking strategies for 19 foods. Keeping with the times, those include the Impossible Burger.
Of note during the pandemic, the robot comes with NSF International (NSF) certification, ensuring health and cleanliness standards are incorporated into new product designs.  
“Certification to NSF/ANSI food equipment standards mean Flippy ROAR meets rigorous requirements for material safety, hygienic design and performance,” said Sara Risley, associate managing director of food equipment at NSF International. “The NSF mark signifies Miso Robotics’ commitment to health and safety – providing reassurance that the product can be easily cleaned to prevent foodborne illness and won’t leach harmful chemicals into food.” More

The word “exosuit” conjures images of Tony Stark or any of a growing number of powered exoskeleton products from companies like Ekso Bionics and Sarcos. I’m bullish on the future of such devices in applications like construction, but it’s another kind of exosuit, one that doesn’t rely on power, that’s likelier to enter the market in a significant way. 
These exosuits are unpowered and low-profile, relying on elastics and biomechanics to ease to strain in lightweight, low-cost assistive devices that (unlike the copper-infused garbage peddled on infomercials) actually work. 
A new article in the Nature journal Scientific Reports describes one such device designed to be worn under the clothes and promising reduced fatigue in lower back muscles on the order of 29-47 percent. The article, “Low-Profile Elastic Exosuit Reduces Back Muscle Fatigue,” comes from researchers at Vanderbilt University. Led by Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering Karl Zelik and recent Ph.D. graduate and primary author Erik Lamers, the researchers employed surface electromyography to measure changes in low back muscle fatigue in male and female participants to arrive at their findings.
“These findings show how exosuits could provide valuable back relief to frontline and essential workers who have been taking a physical toll and supporting all of us throughout this pandemic. What we learned has the potential to shape the biomechanical and industrial standards of future wearable technologies,” said Zelik, who holds secondary appointments in biomedical engineering and in physical medicine and rehabilitation.
The low-profile exosuit employs elastic to provide assistive forces in coordination with the extensor muscles of the lower back, which are subject to strain and pain during repetitive use. The device also relieves strain on the spine, greatly reducing the risk of inury. In one finding, a the act of holding a 35-pound weight (about the size of my increasingly-hard-to-hoist son) was made less tiring than holding a 24-pound weight (coincidentally, about the size of my much more packable daughter). 
“Wearables are going to change the way we work and live, and we want to improve safety, health and well-being for everyone. One of the critical challenges moving forward will be to ensure that all wearable technology is developed to serve and protect both women and men. We are thrilled that this research helped lead to the first commercial exosuit or exoskeleton designed with both male- and female-fits,” said, himself a former long jump and triple jump athlete.

The fascinating takeaway here is that the suit relies not on sophisticated sensing equipment and actuated joints, but a simple elastic band and a deeper understanding of how muscles like the lats, which manipulate the shoulder joint, are called on to take some of the strain when the main back extensor muscles tire. The suit’s elastic band kicks in during lifting in the same way.
“The lats act sort of like an exosuit. When a person’s low back muscles become over-strained and fatigued, they summon extra assistance from their lats to relieve this back strain and fatigue. The elastic bands in our exosuit work the same way to help sustain endurance and strength,” said Lamers, a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow who worked in Vanderbilt’s Center for Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology.
Zelik, a former collegiate athlete who competed in the long jump and triple jump, knows firsthand how intensive physical activity can fatigue the body. He also understands the importance of ensuring that the exosuit and its utility are built with inclusive design practices. “Wearables are going to change the way we work and live, and we want to improve safety, health and well-being for everyone. One of the critical challenges moving forward will be to ensure that all wearable technology is developed to serve and protect both women and men. We are thrilled that this research helped lead to the first commercial exosuit or exoskeleton designed with both male- and female-fits,” Zelik said.
The research, which may yield a pair of back-saving underwear in the future, was supported by Lamers’ NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and a Vanderbilt University Discovery Grant. Researchers Aaron Yang, an assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and two Vanderbilt undergraduates, Juliana Soltys and Keaton Scherpereel, collaborated on this study. More

A landmark emergency waiver granted by the FAA has allowed Verizon to deploy industrial drones to inspect their critical infrastructure during the US wildfires, ensuring first responders have reliable communications for disaster response. The drones are made by a company called Percepto, which are currently operating beyond-line-of-sight for this emergency deployment.
The FAA granted Skyward, A Verizon company, a temporary waiver that allows company pilots to fly the Percepto Sparrow drone from their homes to inspect critical communications infrastructure near the Big Hollow wildfire in Washington. The waiver permits operations 24 hours a day, with less than 3 miles of visibility and no pilot or observer on site. This is the first time a Beyond the Visual Line Of Sight waiver has been granted that allows pilots to control the drone from home. 
The Sparrow drone platform is already able to land in high winds and in snow. Percepto recently incorporated a first-of-its-kind integral parachute into the Sparrow.
“At a moment when we are facing dangerous consequences of climate change and coping with a global pandemic, maintaining the Verizon Network has never been more important,” said Rima Qureshi, Chief Strategy Officer, Verizon. “Innovations in airborne technology have enhanced our ability to inspect our sites without putting engineers in harm’s way, and provide our first responders with reliable communications. We appreciate the FAA’s swift action in granting the waiver, which allows us to deploy a network-connected drone and provide critical services, safely and effectively.”
Desperate circumstances require desperate measures. Since September 9, the Big Hollow Fire in Washington has burned tens of thousands of acres and caused mandatory evacuation orders in the area. As the air quality was unsafe for humans, it was vital to ensure communication for first responders without putting staff in harm’s way.
Percepto, which we’ve followed at ZDNet, is a leading provider of autonomous drone-in-a-box solutions for monitoring and securing critical infrastructure and industrial sites. It specializes in rugged hardware and AI-based software that provides real-time insights for assessing risk in industrial inspection applications. The company claims the most deployed drone-in-a-box solution in the market.
During a season of apparent doom, with multiple natural disasters occurring throughout the United States, the ability to safely inspect sites that support critical communications for first responders has never been more important or necessary. The waiver was granted through the FAA’s expedited Special Governmental Interest process and applies to drone support operations for critical infrastructure that maintain communications for emergency responders. More

A company spun out of a prestigious university robotics lab is making a big leap in autonomous trucking. Locomation is claiming the world’s first autonomous truck purchase order from a Springfield, MO, company called Wilson Logistics.
The order will equip 1,120 trucks with Locomation’s convoy technology, which enables driverless trucks to follow a lead-truck piloted by a human, combining the best of autonomous technology with reliable human-in-the-loop driving protocols. The first units will be delivered in early 2022.
Trucking is considered one of the nearest horizons for on-road autonomy. A chronic shortage of qualified drivers coupled with safety issues throughout the industry make the sector ripe for autonomous intervention. Peterbilt is developing self-driving technology for its tractor-trailers, as are a number of startups, such as Embark. Tesla’s electric semi is slated for production in 2021.
“We understand the importance of autonomous vehicle technology to the future of Wilson Logistics, and choosing our AV partner has been a deliberate process,” explained Darrel Wilson, Founder and CEO of Wilson Logistics. “In Locomation we see the most viable path to safe, rapid, and broad commercialization and we’re proud to make this purchase commitment.” Wilson added “Locomation delivers both the technology and the implementation methods required to enable Wilson Logistics to realize our strategic plans for profitable growth through technology.”
Locomation’s inaugural product is the Autonomous Relay Convoy (ARCTM), which enables one driver to pilot a lead truck while a follower truck works in tandem via a fully autonomous driving system.The company was founded in 2018 by autonomy experts at Carnegie Mellon’s National Robotics Engineering Center and trucking industry veterans. The firm has collected a group of specialists in robotics and artificial intelligence along with trucking industry pros.
The agreement with Wilson follows a successful pilot that involved two Locomation trucks hauling Wilson Logistics trailers and freight on a 420 mile-long route from Portland, OR, to Nampa, ID. 
“Wilson Logistics is a leader in the industry with significant focus on driver quality of life, overall fleet safety and operational excellence. This purchase order is just the beginning of a significant leap toward autonomous technology for the entire trucking sector,” said Dr. Çetin Meriçli, CEO and Co-Founder of Locomation. “Wilson Logistics has been an excellent partner and their multi- year commitment to Locomation demonstrates the strong industry validation of our autonomous technology in freight transportation.” More

First responders have been busier than usual in 2020, but it’s not just the seemingly escalating quantity of emergencies that’s been difficult. In the grips of a pandemic, and with natural calamities ranging from fires in the west to devastating hurricanes in the east, the complexity of emergencies is growing, as has had the likelihood of fatal mistakes.
For first responders and dispatchers, this often means allocating resources and initiating relief actions without a full picture of the consequences or a full understanding of the risks involved.
Artificial Intelligence, advanced statistics, and machine learning can help untangle the dynamic variables of complex emergencies, and increasingly emergency dispatch and coordination is relying on these technologies to unify municipal and state response services.
A company called Hexagon, which is now working with several government agencies around the world, recently unveiled what it calls Smart Advisor, a system that mines operational data in real-time to fill blind spots and alert agencies to the potential onset of complex emergencies. A power grid failure during a heat wave in fire season can easily turn a relatively straightforward natural disaster into a complex emergency that requires coordination across multiple agencies and demands a careful consideration of available resources. Because interlocking events like these accelerate quickly and balloon in complexity, it’s difficult or impossible for human operators to adequately manage them. Disjointed agencies can even work at cross purposes without precise coordination.
“Complex emergencies can be devastating to communities and can greatly impact public safety agencies’ capacity and performance,” said Jack Williams, strategic product manager for Hexagon’s Safety & Infrastructure division. “The faster public safety agencies can detect and respond to complex events, the better they can contain the effects.” 
Germany’s Federal State of Rhineland-Palatinate recently selected Hexagon’s computer-aided dispatch and mobile public safety solutions to support state police, fire, and EMS agencies. The move to a unified system is meant to enhance collaboration and communication across agencies, enabling greater efficiency in response to more than 6,000 calls for service per day.
“More than 4 million citizens depend on our state’s police, fire and emergency medical technicians,” said Ralf Steinbrink, detective superintendent of the Rhineland-Palatinate state police and head the Central Command & Control Center Infrastructure program. “Hexagon’s fully integrated solutions will enable us to better collaborate and optimize our service to citizens.”
With states and municipalities suffering or expecting severe budget cuts due to lost tax revenue associated with COVID-19, the need to deploy resources efficiently is only growing. AI/ML may help where the need is greatest, the vital emergency response services that feel more a part of everyday life than ever.

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A company that makes an innovative rotary internal combustion engine just received a Phase I research grant from the U.S. Army to develop hybrid-electric propulsion for UAVs. The development underscores the central place the drones will play in modern warfare, as well as the fact that we’re going to see a lot of drone innovation in defense.
LiquidPiston, based in Connecticut, recently showcased its proprietary X-Engine in a successful parallel hybrid UAV demonstration using jet fuel. Just as small satellites are requiring a rethink to propulsion systems, the proliferation of UAVs in areas like defense are leading to development of novel new engine designs that drastically increase power efficiencies. 
The problem is that today’s power plants, whether electric or combustion-based, rely on decades-old technology, and it shows. Gasoline engines are inefficient, diesel engines are big and heavy, and electric power/batteries weigh a bunch compared to what they produce. These features present significant limitations to the range, payload, and efficiency current engines can achieve and increase operating costs. Nowhere are those limitations more apparent than in UAV, which require close attention be paid to the weight/power tradeoff.
“When we reimagined the rotary engine with the X-Engine, we knew it could be used to improve power generation in a number of different ways, given its high power-to-weight, efficiency, and ability to run on heavy fuel including Jet-A / JP8 fuel which the Army wants to use exclusively,” says Alec Shkolnik, CEO and co-founder of LiquidPiston.
The company’s rotary engines, which can be be made in 1hp up to 1000hp configurations, are up to 10x smaller and lighter than traditional diesel engines and increase efficiency by 30%. Since, like other rotary designs, the engines have only two primary moving parts, a shaft and rotor, size and vibration are kept to a minimum compared to other combustion engine designs. The company emphasizes that its rotary engines are not Wankel engines, which until now has been the only commercialized rotary engine design. Employing a roughly triangular rotor that is spun during a combustion cycle, a Wankel engine forms a seal with the outer case each of the three points of the triangular rotor. As the rotor spins, those seals are subjected to forces that cause them to wear.
LiquidPiston’s engine, on the other hand, uses an oval rotor that moves within a triangular housing. The required seals are mounted on the stationary housing and are lubricated directly, increasing wear life and durability.
LiquidPiston’s X-Engine also doubles as an efficient auxiliary power unit, which makes it attractive to the Army, where getting power to remote areas is a primary concern.
“Advanced power generation and alternative fuels are critical for the Army,” says Dr. William Cohen, Chief Technology Officer of the U.S. Army Assistant Secretary of the Army, “and we continuously seek new technologies that can materially improve our ability to execute national security missions. Reliable engine technologies that offer a wide range of sustainable applications, from UAVs to auxiliary power units for air and land vehicles, can increase endurance and lessen reliance on contested or extended supply lines.”
In a UAV application, the weight saved with such an engine might enable vertical takeoff and landing, which vastly increases use cases, as well longer flight times. More

A developer of space-age propulsion systems for a new wave of small satellites is getting ready for an important production run. Orbion Space Technology, whose Hall-effect thrusters may soon be a key component of inexpensive small nanosatellites, will with a Blue Canyon Technologies (BCT), a developer of space technology, to manufacturing satellites for DARPA’s Blackjack satellite constellation program.
The purpose of the Blackjack satellite program is to explore the potential of an inexpensive geosynchronous satellite mesh made of nano satellites to replace current positioning satellites, which are considered highly vulnerable to attach.

National Security Space (NSS) assets, critical to U.S. warfighting capabilities, traditionally reside in geosynchronous orbit to deliver persistent overhead access to any point on the globe. In the increasingly contested space environment, these exquisite, costly, and monolithic systems have become vulnerable targets that would take years to replace if degraded or destroyed. DARPA’s Blackjack program aims to develop and demonstrate the critical elements for a global high-speed network in low Earth orbit (LEO) that provides the Department of Defense with highly connected, resilient, and persistent coverage.

Key components of the low Earth orbit system are size and cost. The launch costs for each satellite will be kept under $6 million, a fraction of what traditional satellite systems cost. A key feature in keeping costs low is the size of the systems, which can be as small as a basketball. 
As mobile computing has shrunk sensors and electronic components while driving costs, down, and in an age of privatized space travel, small, inexpensive satellites are now a reality. But propulsion of satellites in space, where they will have to adjust their position to maintain an appropriate orbit, continues to present challenges. That’s where Orbion comes in. 
“DARPA’s goal with Blackjack is to capitalize on commercial-sector space advances and use them for military utility,” explains Brad King, CEO, Orbion Space Technologies. “Orbion’s philosophy is to offer propulsion systems that are priced for commercial customers, but that retain the high-reliability required by government users, and this is a perfect fit for Blackjack. We’re excited to play a vital role in this program. Our mass manufacturing technique will offer economies of scale previously unavailable.”
As I’ve written, Orbion has developed a technology that may prove to be a crucial component of an emerging New Space industry, the first-ever Hall-effect plasma thrusters for small satellites, dubbed the Aurora system. Hall-effect plasma thrusters are a type of ion drive in which a propellant is accelerated by an electric field. The technology has been around since the 1960s, and Hall-effect thrusters were in use on Soviet satellites between 1972 and 1990. 
What’s new is the size of the thrusters, as well as the size of the satellites they power, which are variously dubbed smallsats, microsatellites, or nanosatellites. As components and sensing technology has gotten smaller, and with the diversity of computing and sensing components available off-the-shelf, this new breed of satellite is cheap to build and lightweight, further reducing payload costs. That’s opening up the possibility of launching communications and satellite arrays to companies and organizations that have never had that option.
The DARPA contract, awarded in June, gives Blue Canyon a $14.1 million to begin work on the first 4 satellites for the Blackjack program, which will be based on Blue Canyon’s X-SAT microsatellite bus. Orbion will provide onboard electric propulsion for the spacecraft with the Orbion Aurora Hall-effect thruster system for small satellites built and manufactured in the United States. 
Following this round of production, DARPA has an option to buy up to 20 Blue Canyon satellites for a total of $99.4 million, so the stakes are high for both companies. More