Both Segments: Ralph Bond, Science/Tech Trends Correspondent.
Today I am keeping that passion alive by appearing each month on the Computer America Show as the team’s Science and Technology Trends Correspondent. Click the “Computer America Radio” tab to hear my appearances on the show, and access the show notes packed with lots of great information.
February 2019 show notes
Story 1: Robot valets may soon park cars at this London airport
Source: CNN Story by Rachel Metz
Link: https://bit.ly/2RszbDt
Travelers flying out of London’s Gatwick Airport may soon have a robot parking their car.
Later this year, the airport will test an autonomous robot that slides a large, slender bed beneath vehicles and totes them to spots in the lot.
The airport plans to experiment with this robot parking system in one of its long-term lots for three months, according to an application the airport filed with the Crawley Borough Council in December. The hope is that the autonomous system will enable the airport to pack many more cars in the same amount of lot space.
Gatwick Airport is the second-largest airport in the UK after London’s Heathrow Airport. About 46.1 million travelers passed through the airport in 2018.
The application said [they] will use robots from a Paris-based company called Stanley Robotics. According to its website, Stanley Robotics previously tested its parking robot, named Stan, in France at Charles De Gaulle Airport and Lyon Airport.
Neither Gatwick Airport nor Stanley Robotics returned requests for comment.
Gatwick Airport plans to cut 170 of the 2,350 self-parking spots that are currently in a lot to create 270 robot valet spots for the trial — effectively adding 100 spots, according to the application. Passengers will drive their cars into one of eight numbered cabins, confirm their parking reservation on a touch screen, and take their keys with them as they leave. Then, a robot will take the car to a spot in a secured lot.
The service will have access to users’ flight details; this way, a robot can also bring the car back to a cabin so it will be waiting for the person when they return.
The airport plans to start building for the robot valet parking experiment in April and complete it by August.
The construction process highlights the kinds of changes that need to be made so the parking lot doesn’t trip up the valet robots. This includes repairing cracks and “any defects that could affect the operation of the parking robots,” plus getting rid of light posts and “any other obstructions” in that area of the lot, the application said.
In May 2018, the airport briefly mentioned robot valets as one of many “emerging projects” in its annual investment plan.
The airport also noted that, if the trial goes well, it may eventually expand autonomous valet service to two other parking areas, where it could pack 8,500 robot-parked cars into what are currently 6,000 self-park spots.
Story 2: Honda’s exoskeleton is one (assisted) step closer to launch
Source: Slash Gear Story by: Chris Davies
Link: https://bit.ly/2ShRfV8
See video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdIypvNCcfQ
Honda’s Walking Assist Device, a partial exoskeleton to help those with difficulties moving unsupported, has been given the green-light for release by US regulators. The wearable robotic gadget was given Premarket Notification by the US FDA, after clinical trials helped demonstrate it can significantly help in rehabilitation.
It has not been a quick route to this point, mind. Honda began researching the Walking Assist Device all the way back in 1999, exploring bipedal robotic movements and their potential for human support. That research helped develop ASIMO, Honda’s humanoid robot, but continued in parallel with the exoskeleton too.
Rather than restore walking abilities to people who have completely lost the use of their legs, the Walking Assist Device instead aims to help those with gait deficits. Most commonly associated with the aftermath of a stroke, such conditions can make movement more tiring and slower.
Honda’s wearable straps onto the waist and around the legs. Sensors in the right and left sides track the position of the user’s hip joints, while motors in the leg sections help promote symmetrical walking patterns, as well as generally guiding movement. At the same time, progress of metrics like left-right symmetry, movable hip angle range, walking speed, and other gait parameters are logged and can be analyzed.
In the process, studies have shown, it also promotes neuromuscular recovery. Honda put the Walking Assist Device into a 2014 clinical trial in Chicago, where its efficacy in helping with post-stroke gait rehabilitation was made clear.
“The group using the Honda device not only made gains in step length, gait speed and symmetry, but also was able to do more in therapy,” Dr. Arun Jayaraman, PT, PhD, research scientist at the Shirley Ryan Ability Lab where the clinical trial took place, said of the wearable. “This was an added benefit, providing opportunity for greater improvement.”
What we haven’t seen, though, is a commercial launch. While Honda has begun leasing the device in Japan through rehabilitation clinics – where it’s said to be in use by around 250 facilities – it has not yet done so outside of the country. This FDA approval, though, would pave the way for just that.
If that all sounds too good to be true, here comes Honda itself to pour some cold water on the news. “Honda has yet to announce any business plans for the Walking Assist Device,” it’s at pains to point out, which means that despite the FDA premarket notification, there’s still no word on when – if ever – you might actually be able to strap on the exoskeleton yourself.
Story 3: NVIDIA’s new lab aims to develop robotic breakthroughs – Those who hate cleaning up after cooking will love one of its current projects: a kitchen robot.
Source: Engadget Story by Mariella Moon
Link: https://www.engadget.com/2019/01/12/nvidia-robotics-research-lab/?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000618
NVIDIA has opened a new lab in Seattle, and it’s meant to serve as home for all its robotics projects. Over 50 research scientists and students from the University of Washington will work in the facility under NVIDIA’s senior director of robotics research Dieter Fox. He explained that the lab will bring “together a collaborative, interdisciplinary team of experts in robot control and perception, computer vision, human-robot interaction and deep learning.”
NVIDIA is hoping that the lab can give rise to the next-generation of robots that can work with humans in open-ended environments not designed specifically for them. In fact, one of its main projects right now is a kitchen helper machine, which is powered by NVIDIA’s Jetson platform and Titan GPUs and can function in an actual kitchen.
This “kitchen manipulator” relies on deep learning to detect and track specific objects based on its own simulation — it doesn’t need a map of the place beforehand and can quickly adapt to changes in its surroundings. It can even open and close doors and drawers to get objects and tools. Due to the everchanging nature of a kitchen, Fox sees it as the ideal location for testing. A robot that can deal with a dozen littered pans, spatulas and ingredients will likely be able to navigate other complex environments, after all.
Story 4: This tiny Bluetooth chip doesn’t need a battery because it harvests energy from the air – Amazon and Samsung are both investors, and a full release planned for 2020
Source: The Verge Story by Jon Porter
Link: https://bit.ly/2suUuKm
See video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=DvOAgJ-91no
The Internet of Things promises to connect billions of otherwise ordinary devices to the internet, but when each one needs to have its own battery, there’s a limit to how small or cheap they can become. A new paper-thin Bluetooth chip that’s able to operate entirely without a battery could be about to solve this problem. The postage stamp-sized chip from Wiliot is able to harvest energy from the ambient radio frequencies around us, such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and cellular signals, and use them to power a Bluetooth-equipped ARM processor that can be connected to a variety of sensors.
Wiliot says that the size of the Bluetooth chip, combined with the lack of any battery, means it can be produced cheaply and mounted on almost anything. The company gives several potential use cases for the technology. For example, it could be embedded in consumer products to provide easy access to a digital manual when the original paper version is long lost, or it could be put on a clothing label and used to communicate the optimal settings to a washing machine.
However, the fact that it can also be combined with sensors raises more interesting possibilities. In addition to tracking items through a supply chain, a temperature sensor could also report when items get either too hot or too cold. Elsewhere, a pressure sensor could detect when a food container is empty and automatically order a replacement, thereby making so-called smart fridges truly smart.
Although a recent $30 million financing round means that Wiliot now counts on both Amazon and Samsung as investors, it will still be another year before its sensor tags are widely available. Wiliot says that it hopes to offer them as part of a limited release in 2019 before making then widely available in 2020.
Story 5: Samsung is making 1TB storage chips for phones – Bound for the Galaxy S10?
Source: The Verge Story by Sam Byford
Link: https://bit.ly/2FYt5t6
Samsung has announced that it’ll start offering the world’s first 1TB eUFS (embedded Universal Flash Storage) solution for phone manufacturers, with mass production already underway. This means that phones will be able to have one terabyte of storage with a single flash memory chip.
Samsung memory marketing VP Cheol Choi says in a statement that the 1TB eUFS is “expected to play a critical role in bringing a more notebook-like user experience to the next generation of mobile devices.” It’s the same package size as Samsung’s previous 512GB unit and has read speeds of up to 1,000 megabytes a second; that’s 10 times the speed of a typical microSD card, according to Samsung.
Last year Samsung promoted the Galaxy Note 9 as “1 terabyte ready,” but that’s only if you insert a 512GB microSD card — the highest capacity currently available — into the 512GB model. Will Samsung use its own memory chip to release a proper 1TB phone in the near future? It’s not unlikely, with various rumors suggesting that the upcoming Galaxy S10 lineup will include a high-end model with 12GB of RAM and 1TB of storage.
Story 6: Surgeon in China used 5G network to operate remotely on animal
Source: Sky News Story by Andy Hayes
Link: https://bit.ly/2MibQmX
A doctor in China has become the first to perform remote control surgery over a super-fast 5G network.
The surgeon, who manipulated two robotic arms, was 30 miles from an operating theatre in Fujian province.
During the procedure, he removed a laboratory animal’s liver, the South China Morning Post reported.
The 5G system, which is said to be at least 10 times as fast as current networks, and perhaps even up to a hundred times, has a lag time of only 0.1 seconds.
That meant the delay between the surgeon’s movements, and the robot in the theatre, was short enough to avoid potentially dangerous mistakes.
In future, it is hoped such technology will enable surgeons to work remotely in war zones and disaster areas.
It will also allow specialists from large hospitals to assist more junior colleagues elsewhere.
Story 7: Mastering Jenga taught this robot real-world physics
Source: Engadget Story by Saqib Shah
Link: https://www.engadget.com/2019/01/31/jenga-robot-real-world-physics/?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000618
See video here: https://youtu.be/o1j_amoldMs
Artificial intelligence is already better than humans at video games, quiz shows and an ancient Chinese board game. Next up, the bots are coming for Jenga. In a newly-published paper, scientists from MIT describe how they taught a robot real-world physics and a practical sense of touch by unleashing it on the tricky tower-building game.
Why Jenga? Because unlike purely cognitive games that rely on visual cues, such as chess or Go, Jenga “requires mastery of physical skills such as probing, pushing, pulling, placing and aligning pieces,” claims MIT’s Prof Alberto Rodriguez.
The robot (equipped with force sensors and cameras) immediately began prodding and poking the Jenga blocks using its two-pronged arm. It’s a task that looks easy on the surface but, as the game gets progressively harder, can cause a sweat-inducing panic in players.
Around 300 pushes down the line, the bot developed a physics model of the world. “The robot builds clusters and then learns models for each of these clusters, instead of learning a model that captures absolutely everything that could happen,” said the paper’s lead author, Nima Fazeli.
This practical approach differs from the norm, whereby scientists train a neural network by feeding it troves of data. And, as we’ve seen recently, researchers are even ditching real-world interactions and turning to virtual simulations to train larger droids.
For now, the robot is only playing by itself. Its creators claim its newfound dexterity marks a significant step forward for robotic manipulation of real-world objects. The breakthrough could result in industrial machines that are less clumsy. In the future, the same arm could move beyond miniature blocks to building cars and furniture in factories and warehouses.
Source: MIT News
Story 8: This bandage uses electrical zaps to heal wounds faster – The movements of a patient’s body power this setup
Source: Science News for Students Story by Ilima Loomis
Link: https://bit.ly/2RBNJka
One day, bandages could speed healing by zapping wounds with gentle bursts of electricity. They wouldn’t even need a battery pack. A patient’s own body movements would power the device. And such a system may not be that far off. Researchers have already produced a working prototype.
“We thought it might work, but we didn’t know how good it would be,” says Xudong Wang. “Then we saw the result and thought, ‘Wow! That’s really fascinating.” Wang is a materials scientist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He leads the group working on this new bandage.
His team has been developing a nanogenerator for many years. It uses body movements to generate electricity. These engineers were hoping to use the device to power wearable electronics. Then they realized it might be even more useful as medicine.
Scientists have known for decades that electricity can stimulate wounds to heal. For instance, electricity fosters cells on the skin’s surface to grow. This “electrotherapy” has relied on bulky devices that need a power source. That’s why it’s usually used only in hospitals for treating serious injuries.
The Wisconsin engineers have now created a bandage with small electrodes. “Our device is very simple,” Wang says. “It’s a flexible, wearable device.” Its electrodes connect to nanogenerators inside the bandage. Those nanogenerators turn movement into electricity. That power then travels through the electrodes into the skin as mild electrical pulses.
Wang’s group tested the bandage on more than 10 injured rats. As these “patients” breathed in and out, their wounds received tiny electrical shocks. Another group of injured rats served as controls. That means they received no treatment.
The wounds of rats in the control group took about two weeks to heal. Those on rats treated with the electrified bandages healed in just three days.
Wang’s team described its new findings online November 29, 2018 in the journal ACS Nano.
No pain, big gain
The new bandage not only is simple, flexible and wearable, but also gentle. Compared to the electrical stimulation delivered by hospital machines, these bandage gives a much smaller electrical pulse. That should help protect healthy tissue from being damaged by the zaps. In fact, Wang says: “Usually, you don’t even feel it.”
This is “a good first step toward an interesting and potentially promising approach to wound care,” says Tyler Ray. He says you might think of it as a “smart Band-Aid.” Ray is a mechanical engineer at the University of Hawaii at Manoa who had no role in creating the new system. He said he’d like to see the bandage tested on larger animals or people, and lots of them.
Wearable technology has been around for several years. Usually these are fairly stiff devices, like a Fitbit, Ray notes. Researchers across many fields are now working on building soft, flexible devices for people to wear on their skin.
Wang next wants to design a nanogenerator that’s even more sensitive. His goal is to build one that can generate electricity from the tiniest movements — like blood moving under your skin. That way, the bandage could be powered by something as small as someone’s pulse.
Story 9: Bell unveils the Air Taxi
Source: MSN Posting on January 9, 2019
Link: https://bit.ly/2SijfIj
See video here: https://twitter.com/i/status/1082443165158658048
Bell kicked off the official opening day of CES 2019 Tuesday by showing off the full-scale design of the Bell Nexus, an air taxi of the not-so-distant future.
Believe it or not, flying cars are right around the corner — not in the form of personal, family vehicles but rather as a ridesharing option. Uber has been putting some serious work into developing vertical-takeoff-and-landing air taxis, and on Tuesday, one of the first aircraft manufacturers that the company teamed up with to develop these VTOL vehicles debuted a complete model of a functional air taxi.
For the same conference last year, Bell displayed just the cabin design of the taxi, and for CES 2019, the design got some wings. The Bell aircraft, coined the Bell Nexus, is powered by a “hybrid-electric propulsion system,” which uses six tilting fans to manage takeoff.
Based on the cabin design on display last year, the taxi can potentially transport up to four passengers as well as offer them a fully integrated user experience including conference calling, news broadcasting, and even document sharing support. Otherwise, the interior space is allegedly quiet and relaxing.
Next year, the Uber and its partners intend to start demonstrator flights, and in 2023 aerial ridesharing for short, local trips will commercially begin.