Combining soft robotics and space technology

Paul Glick, a Ph.D. student at the Jacobs School, got a unique chance to do hands-on at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
Glick, who works in the lab of mechanical engineering professor and roboticist Michael Tolley, got to design and carry out most of the experiments for an electrostatic gripper for flexible objects build by JPL and UC Berkeley engineers. The team presented their work at the IROS 2017 conference in late September in Vancouver.
Glick is part of the NASA Space Technology Research Fellowship program. He works to bring soft robotics to space technology. Here is a more detailed description of his research. 
Tolley's group will present some of their research at the Oct. 27 Contextual Robotics Forum here on the UC San Diego campus. 
Watch a video of the gripper that Glick ran experiments on in action:

Better hurricane monitoring with robotic swarms

When: 2:45 p.m. Sept. 28, 2017

Where: Santa Clara Convention Center, Expo Theater

Who:
Professor Thomas Bewley
Director
UCSD Flow Control & Coordinated Robotics Lab

Charles Bergan
VP of Engineering
Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

Talk webpage: http://www.robobusiness.com/conference/schedule/presented-by-qualcomm

More info:
While some robots take jobs, others save lives. The technology transfer underway from the cellphone industry into robotics has enabled a new class of low-cost robotic devices capable of providing advanced warning and tracking capabilities for major storms such as hurricanes Harvey and Irma. We will discuss a new proposal that uses cellphone technologies to build autonomous swarms of sensor-laden robots that will significantly improve our ability to estimate and forecast such extreme and dangerous atmospheric events.

Full press release about the research here: http://jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/news/news_releases/release.sfe?id=2102

 Simulation available here: http://flowcontrol.ucsd.edu/katrina.mp4

UC San Diego at RoboCup 2017

Darren Chen, a Ph.D. student in computer science at UC San Diego, had just landed in Japan when he saw ads in the subway for the competition he was going to take part in. "I realized it was a big deal," he said. He might even have panicked a little, he admitted.
In fact, the competition, called the RoboCup, brought more than 10,000 spectators and competitors to Nagoya, Japan at the end of July. The event, which is broadcast on Japanese TV, was celebrating its 20th anniversary. 
Chen was part of a team of Ph.D. students from the Contextual Robotics Institute here at the Jacobs School that was taking part in the event's RoboCup @ Home challenge. It was UC San Diego's first time taking part in the competition.
In the @ Home challenge, 10 universities from around the world compete to complete a series of tasks by programming and training a Toyota Human Support Robot. The UC San Diego team had to sort groceries and help a person carry grocery items.
 In addition, they faced a task to qualify. On the fly, they had to program the Toyota robot to autonomously navigate and map out a room without bumping into people and objects. The robot also had to be able to obey verbal commands in a noisy environment.
But the team's worst foe turned out to be the venue's WiFi. When 10,000 people were using the same radio band, it became difficult for the robot to communicate with other computers quickly.
The researchers enjoyed the experience of participating in the competition, and look forward to continuing to build assistive robots in the future.
In addition to Chen, the team working on the RoboCup @ Home challenge included   Angelique Taylor, Priyam Parashar  and Ruffin White as well master's student Jaskaran Virdi from the research groups of computer science professors Laurel Riek and Henrik Christensen. Christensen is the director of the Contextual Robotics Institute.
More info: http://jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/news/news_releases/release.sfe?id=2268

Two of the UC San Diego Ph.D. students taking part in the competition, as seen by the Toyota robot.

Darren Chen, center, and Angelique Taylor, right, are two Ph.D. students in the research group of Professor Laurel Riek. 

Taylor has some fun with the robots on exhibit at RoboCup.

Contextual Robotics Director testifies in Washington DC

Henrik Christensen, the director of the Contextual Robotics Institute at the Jacobs School, testified March 16 in front of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a bipartisan group that monitors and investigates the national security impllications of the bilateral trade and economic relationship between the United States and China.

The hearing's theme was "China's pursuit of next frontier tech: computing, robotics and biotechnology."  Christensen's testimony was part of a panel on military and industrial robotics. He was quoted on the topic of industrial robotics and China in a January story in The New York Times.

Below is a summary in tweets of Christensen's testimony:

1/ @UCSanDiego #robotics expert @hiskov testified @ US-China #economic& #security review commission on industrial & military #robots today

— UCSD Engineering (@UCSDJacobs) March 16, 2017

2/ @hiskov #Robotics is an industry tinvented and developed in the US. Today many industrial robots are made in Japan, Germany and China.

— UCSD Engineering (@UCSDJacobs) March 16, 2017

3/ @hiskov: Until 2013 US was the largest market for #industrialrobots. Today the Chinese market is 2.4 times larger than the US market.

— UCSD Engineering (@UCSDJacobs) March 16, 2017

4/ @hiskov The Chinese #robotics industry is only emerging. Most #robots sold in China are made by joint venture companies the norm there.

— UCSD Engineering (@UCSDJacobs) March 16, 2017

5/ @hiskov: China wants to the leader in #industrialrobotics. Growth in US is 9-13% in this area while it's more than 40%+ in China.

— UCSD Engineering (@UCSDJacobs) March 16, 2017

6/ Today many #robotics companies are investing in China rather than USA because that's is where the big opportunity is.

— UCSD Engineering (@UCSDJacobs) March 16, 2017

7/ But US #universities and #innovation ecosystem still attractive to college grads. So #robotics companies house R&D centers in US.

— UCSD Engineering (@UCSDJacobs) March 16, 2017

8/ @hiskov: It is still our opportunity to lose. #robotics #industrialrobotics #manufacturing /end.

— UCSD Engineering (@UCSDJacobs) March 16, 2017

More info on the Contextual Robotics Institute at UC San Diego here: http://jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/contextualrobotics/

Christensen's website here: http://www.hichristensen.net/

Shared Autonomy

A blog post by Henrik Christensen, Director, UC San Diego Contextual Robotics Institute. (The post originally appeared on Christensen's blog. Follow Christensen on Twitter: https://twitter.com/hiskov)

We are at present seeing a lot of interest in autonomous systems. A lot of automotive companies are talking about autonomous cars or driver-less cars. GM and Google demonstrated early systems. Google started out with automation of regular cars and has also presented a concept system for a car without a steering wheel [URL]. Tesla has a model where the driver is expected to take over [URL] when the autopilot cannot provide a robust solution. The sharing of autonomy between well understood contexts – that are handled automatically and human intervention for challenge situation is a version of shared autonomy, where humans and robots collaborate to achieve a mission objective.

Tele-operation of robots has existed for a long-time. Much of the early work was carried out in the  handling of radioactive material, where direct contact by people is not an option. These systems were all purely tele-operated. This is the same type of model we see applied to medical robots such as minimally invasive systems. The Intuitive Surgical System – Da Vinci [URL] is a great example of such a system. The objective is here minimization of trauma to the body.

For Aerospace Systems we have long known the auto-pilot which is a shared autonomy system. The pilots will typically handle take-off and landing, whereas cruise flight is handled by the auto-pilot. For Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) the pilots / operators are sitting on the ground and operating vehicles that may be airborne for as long as 36 hours. We are seeing similar applications for smaller UAVs for commercial and entertainment tasks. New commercial applications include building inspection and mapping of construction sites [URL]. For entertainment companies such as DJI [URL] build robots that are radio controlled. We are slowly seeing small functions such as level keeping or automation tracking of skiers which are examples of shared autonomy. The systems are launched and an objective is specified (tracker me, or maintain level) which is performed autonomously.

One of the biggest challenges in design systems with shared autonomy is to provide the operator with adequate context to allow them to take over as appropriate. A great example of a system that does this in an industrial context is the company Aethon [URL] out of Pittsburgh. They provide delivery robots for hospitals and other institutions. The objective is an autonomous system, but when a robot gets caught in an unusual situation such as a trashcan in the middle of a hallway, the robot requests assistance from a call center. The operator uses the on-board sensors to understand the problem and drive the robot out of the situation. If you are in a car taking over control is more of a challenge when you are driving 55 mph down the highway. It takes time to understand the challenge and to take over, which challenges the design of such systems with automatic takeover. How do we provide the driver with adequate information to take over control of the car? Or is this an appropriate model for shared control?

As we explore the shared control of systems with some functions performed autonomously and others carried out by an operator it is essential to consider the fluency of human-robot interaction, to consider the cognitive aspects of systems and to ensure that engineers use these models as an integral part of their systems design. On October 28, 2016, the University of California San Diego will host the annual Contextual Robotics Forum with the theme of “Shared Autonomy: New Directions in Human-Machine Interaction”. Join us for a day focused on the future of robotics and shared autonomy. You'll meet world-leaders in robotics and connect with the robotics ecosystem at UC San Diego and in the region at the technology showcase.

Over the next few years we will see tremendous progress on design of systems that off-load the operator but we will be challenged in doing this in a way that still allows the operator to intervene for challenge cases. So far few systems have managed to do this with a high degree of fluency. We need more research at the intersection of cognitive science, system engineering and robotics to fully leverage next generation systems with shared autonomy.

UCSD Robotics and BeagleBone Foundation unveil new board for robotics education at CES

Professor Thomas Bewley (left) at the Texas Instruments booth at CES 2016

The BeagleBoard.org Foundation and the UCSD Coordinated Robotics Lab are rolling out a new board for embedded robotics applications at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week.
The Beagle Board Blue is a new, low-cost, credit-card-sized Linux computer integrated with wireless communication, sensors for situational awareness, power electronics for battery management and motor control and breakouts for Pulse Width Modulation and bus communication for a host of industry-standard sensors and actuators.
The Blue will be featured in hardware kits for upcoming MOOCs about embedded control and robotics currently being developed by the UCSD Coordinated Robotics Lab, led by Professor Thomas Bewley.
The Blue and Bewley, as well as representatives from the BeagleBoard.org Foundation will be at the Texas Instruments booth at CES all week.

MiPosaur robot gets to meet Spiderman creator Stan Lee

MiPosaur, a robot created by toymaker WowWee in collaboration with the UCSD Robotics group got to spend some quality time with the Real Stan Lee, creator of Spiderman and many, many other heroes from the Marvel universe.

Lee featured the robot on his blog, http://www.therealstanlee.com/

We're quoting here:

The MiPosaur is a highly intelligent robotic creature with an incredible, evolving intelligence and personality. It can sense its own surroundings and environment, and Interact with them in a unique and lifelike way. MiPosaur comes with an interactive TrackBall equipped with BeaconSense™ technology; with it, the MiPosaur can chase the trackball, play with it, "smell" it like food, go for a walk, as well as alter its moods depending on the various interactions.  The MiPosaur is fully interactive with the WowWee MIP™ robot and a BLE enabled app, compatible with both iOS and Androidsmart devices, and features additional activities and games.

You can see MiPosaur in action here: