Video: Jacobs School computer scientist talks about the future of health care robotics

 UC San Diego computer scientist Laurel Riek wants to put a robot in someone's home for six months.
"We want to build robots that can adapt to learn from and change with a person, not only throughout the week, but throughout the day," she says in this video for the journal Communications of the ACM.
Riek is the author of a review article titled Healthcare Robotics in the journal's November 2017 issue.
The full text of the article is available here: https://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2017/11/222171-healthcare-robotics/fulltext
She is a professor of computer science at the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego and a faculty member of the campus' Contextual Robotics Institute.
Her research goal is to enable robots to robustly solve problems in dynamically- changing human environments. Riek is particularly focused on problems in real-world, safety-critical healthcare environments, such as hospitals, homes and clinics. Her work tackles the fundamental and applied problems that make complex, real-world perception and interaction in these spaces so challenging for robots. Riek’s work draws on techniques from the fields of computer vision, machine learning, non-linear dynamics, and human factors to enable robots to autonomously perceive, respond, and adapt to people in the real world.  

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.

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.

Cute or creepy, this robot helped researchers figure out why babies smile

Whether you think it's creepy or cute, there is no denying that Diego-san, a toddler-like robot developed at the Qualcomm Institute here at UC San Diego, became a media darling this past week. The robot was part of a study where researchers tried to figure out why babies smile.
They programmed Diego-san to behave like the babies they studied and had him interact with undergraduate students. The study is part of an effort funded by the National Science Foundation to use robots to better understand human development. It gives developmental psychologists a tool for studying non-verbal children and adults, such as those with autism.
But for a lot of media outlets, it was all about the robot. IEEE Spectrum generously described Diego-san as "slightly uncanny." Other outlets were less charitable. Engadget,   the San Diego Union-Tribune and New York Magazine found the robot creepy. Motherboard was probably the most aggravated and called Diego-san horrifying.
Below is a video of the robot in action so you can make up your mind for yourself.
The full press release about the study is here.
Javier Movellan, one of the study's co-authors, will present related work on Oct. 30 at the Contextual Robotics Forum here at the Jacobs School.

Soft robots developed by Jacobs School engineers featured on SciShow

So Hank Green, brother of "Fault in Our Stars" and "Paper Towns" author John Green, just featured one of the robots designed by Jacobs School roboticist Michael Tolley. 
He developed with colleagues at Harvard the first robot with a 3D-printed body that transitions from a rigid core to a soft exterior. The robot made its debut in Science on July 10.

"We believe that bringing together soft and rigid materials will help create a new generation of fast, agile robots that are more robust and adaptable than their predecessors and can safely work side by side with humans,” Tolley said at the time in our press release. 
The idea of blending soft and hard materials into the robot’s body came from nature, Tolley said. For example, certain species of mussels have a foot that starts out soft and then becomes rigid at the point where it makes contact with rocks. “In nature, complexity has a very low cost,” Tolley said. “Using new manufacturing techniques like 3D printing, we’re trying to translate this to robotics.”

And indeed, Green featured the robot as part of a segment on biomimetics.
Enjoy the whole show, or fast-forward to the four-minute mark, where Green starts talking about Tolley's robot. 

Tolley and his students will be presenting some of their robotics work here on campus on October 30 at the Contextual Robotics Forum.  (UC San Diego alumni can register for half price.)
 

Robot developed by UCSD Robotics and toymaker WowWee available to preorder

MiPosaur, a robot born of the collaboration between toymaker WowWee and the UCSD Robotics research group, is now available to pre-order on Amazon.com.
MiPosaur is a self-balancing robotic dinosaur and responds to hand gestures as well as commands made via a smart phone app. I can follow a ball, dance and, of course, roar.
See MiPosaur in actoin here:

Squishy robot that jumps is in the media spotlight

It's been compared to a frog, called "extremely cute" and "a bouncing bot." A robot designed by engineers at Harvard University and the University of California, San Diego, became a media darling this week. The robot is the first of its kind with a 3D-printed body that transitions from hard at the core to soft on the outside. It also is capable of more than 30 untethered jumps.
Below are some of the videos it starred in this week: And many more...

The 10 Laws of Robotics--according to one of our alums

Nick Morozovsky with SkySweeper, one of the robots he developed and 3D printed while a Ph.D. student in the UCSD Robotics lab.

When Nick Morozovsky, a Ph.D. student in robotics here at the Jacobs School, was writing his dissertation, he realized his experiences had led him to compile a list of laws that roboticists would need to abide by to survive in grad school, and beyond. 
Morozovsky is speaking from experience. During his time working in the UCSD Coordinated Roboticcs lab, he developed and built several robots, including Switchblade, a rover that could balance on its threads, and SkySweeper, which could glide along cables and was 3D printed. He also worked on MiP, the first-ever self-balancing robot, which was developed by UCSD Robotics and toymaker WowWee. 

For more advice from Morozovsky, you can attend an upcoming meetup of San Diego's Robotics Club at 6 p.m. March 17:

http://www.meetup.com/San-Diego-Robotics-Club/events/220104955/
You can also follow him on Twitter at @DrNickMo: https://twitter.com/DrNickMo

Nick’s Rules of Robotics

1. Never disassemble a working robot.

2. If it works the first time, you’re testing it wrong.

3. When in doubt, lubricate.

4. Never underestimate the estimation problem.

5. If specs for a part are listed differently in two places, they’re both wrong.

6. Glue, tape, and zip-ties are not engineering solutions (though they might work in a pinch).

7. Do not leave lithium polymer batteries charging unattended.

8. Always have a complete CAD model, including screws and fasteners, before constructing your robot.

9. Avoid using slip rings if at all possible.

10.  Always check polarity before plugging a component into a power source.

This robot designed by UC San Diego engineers won an Innovative Toy of the Year award

MiP, the little robot created in partnership between UCSD Robotics and toymaker WowWee, does it again! It received the Innovative Toy of the Year award this past week at the New York Toy Fair--the Oscars of the toy industry. The award recognizes "an outstanding toy that combines innovation and play value."

MiP, short for Mobile Inverted Pendulum, can balance itself and drive around on two wheels.  ``Its organic nature is particularly engaging: when it stands, it gently sways back and forth; when pushed, it takes a step back to regain its balance.  In a very real way, the dynamics of MiP mimic life,’’ said Professor Thomas Bewley, director of the Coordinated Robotics Lab at the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego, who worked closely with WowWee to bring MiP to market.

Users can play with MiP right out of the box in several engaging modes of play.  You can interact with MiP immediately using intuitive hand gestures.  Install the tray that MiP can carry and test your skill at stacking games.  Or, put a full soda can on MiP’s tray, and drive it to a friend across the room via Bluetooth and a free smart phone app.  And, of course, MiP can dance—either to the beat of its own (built-in) tunes, or to any tunes on the user’s smartphone or tablet.

More about MiP's origin story here. More info on MiP here. 

You can see MiP in action here http://youtu.be/i_zXARfIIcs

Some recent media coverage here and here. 

This robot won a Popular Science Best of What's New Award

 Congratulations to MiP--a partnership between researchers in the UCSD Coordinated Robotics Lab at the Jacobs School and toymaker WowWee--which won a Best of What's New award in the Entertainment category from Popular Science magazine. In this TV segment on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," the robot gives host Joe Scarborough a run for his money.
The magazine hails MiP as the first self-balancing consumer robot. It goes on to say:

The device uses a set of multi­axis gyroscopes and accelerometers to remain upright. It can respond to gesture commands, zip around corners, and carry small items such as a soda can, all while remaining vertical. The best part? Users can network up to eight MiPs together for synchronized movement. Robot dance party!

Much of the technology behind MiP's ability to balance on two wheels was developed here at the Jacobs School, lead by mechanical engineering professor Thomas Bewley.

More about MiP here and here.

As a side note, this is the second year that Nick Morozovsky, a Ph.D. student who just graduated from Bewley's lab, has a robot he worked on featured in Popular Science's Best of What's New. Last year, his robot SkySweeper won an award. "Being recognized two years in a row for the high-tech, but low-cost robots that we’ve been developing in the Coordinated Robotics Lab is awesome validation," Morozovsky said. "We have more robots in the pipeline that have the potential for an even bigger impact." Recruiters: heads-up: he is currently looking for a job!

 UPDATE: MiP  has been nominated for a People's Play Award. You can vote here!

MiP Meets Stan Lee

MiP, a robot designed by the UCSD Robotics Lab and toymaker WowWee, got to meet Stan Lee, the legendary creator of many Marvel Comics heroes, who is probably best know for his association with Spider-Man.
The robot was featured on The Real Stan Lee website, as part of a Q&A with Davin Sufer, WowWee's CTO.
But our favorite was this video of Stan Lee interacting with MiP.

MiP was on Big Bang Theory

Fans of the Big Bang Theory on CBS, you may want to watch this week's episode again. It was the most-watched prime-time show this past Monday, Oct. 20 in all demographics. And MiP, a toy robot designed by the UCSD Coordinated Lab and toymaker WowWee made an appearance in one key scene.
Remember that scene when Penny and Leonard are talking to Bernadette and Howard about finances? Look at the objects on the table. There is a MiP, right there. It's unclear whether the robot will be part of a plot in upcoming episodes. We'll keep watching.

Robot survives flames, being run over by a car

Michael Tolley, the Havard postdoc who is set to join the Jacobs School faculty in November, strikes again. Last month, Tolley was part of a team that created origami robots capable of folding onto themselves and moving. This month, he is the lead author on a paper that describes a soft robot capable of withstanding flames and walking through snow. The robot bounces back even after being run over by a car. In the video above, the robot is equipped with a camera and walks about a lab to find a hidden laptop.

More coverage in IEEE Spectrum and the New Scientist.

MiP the robot makes friends at Comic Con 2014

MiP, the toy robot created by the UCSD Coordinated Robotics Lab and toymaker WowWee, is at Comic Con 2014 this week and has been making some new friends. Pictures of the fun below.

More about MiP here and here. Want one? MiP is currently available at Best Buy and more broadly next month.

Watch this Jacobs School alum have a conversation with a PR2

 How do you spend your weekend if you're a Ph.D. student in the robotics program at the University of Washington? Well, if you're Justin Huang, the former president of TESC here at the Jacobs School, you hook up a chatterbot made by Pandorabots to a speech recognizer and synthesis and have a conversation with a PR2, the iconic robot designed as an R&D platform by Willow Garage.
Make sure you crank the volume all the way up so you can hear the robot's answers.
A big thanks to Justin, who allowed us to post this video.
Below is a picture of Justin with his new friend.