Schlagwort-Archive: KIT

Geek Club and CircuitMess Launch a NASA-inspired DIY Perseverance Educational Space Rover Kit

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After a series of successful Kickstarter Campaigns, Geek Club and CircuitMess launch their most ambitious project yet – a NASA-approved AI-powered scale model Replica of the Perseverance Space Rover  

Zagreb, Croatia – October 31st, 2023. – Today, Geek Club and CircuitMess announced their Kickstarter space exploration campaign designed to teach children eleven and up about engineering, AI, and coding by assembling the iconic NASA Perseverance Space Rover, as well as a series of other NASA-inspired space vehicles.

This new space-themed line of DIY educational products was born out of both companies‘ shared vision to aim for the stars and to take their fans with them. The Kickstarter campaign starts today, October 31st, and will last for 35 days.

The collaboration was a logical union of the two companies. Both companies create educational STEM DIY kits that are targeted towards kids and adults. Both share the same mission: To make learning STEM skills easy and fun.

“For decades, the team and I have been crafting gadgets for geeks always inspired by space exploration,” says Nicolas Deladerrière, co-founder of Geek Club. “Inspired by Mars exploration, we’ve studied thousands of official documents and blueprints to craft an authentic Mars exploration experience. The product comes alive thanks to microchips, electromotors, and artificial intelligence. Imagine simulating your own Mars mission right from your desk!”

Geek Club is an American company that specializes in designing and producing DIY robotics kits that educate their users on soldering and electronics. They focus primarily on space exploration and robotics, all to make learning engineering skills easy and fun for kids, adults, and everyone in between.

“We have successfully delivered seven Kickstarter campaigns, raised more than 2.5 million dollars, and made hundreds of thousands of geeks all around the world extremely happy,” says Albert Gajšak, CEO of CircuitMess. “In a universe where space and technology are constantly growing, we’re here to ensure you’re never left behind.”

The new product line consists of five unique space-themed products:

  • 1. The Perseverance Space Rover Kit

This kit is designed to be an educational journey into programming, electronics, robotics, and AI. The model comes with four electromotors, six wheels, a control system with a dual-core Espressif ESP32 processor, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth connectivity, a sample collection arm based on the real thing with two servo motors, a Wi-Fi-connected remote controller, and support for programming in Python or via a Scratch-inspired drag-and-drop visual coding environment.

Alongside the Perseverance Space Rover, you’ll be able to get more iconic space vehicles:

  • 2. The Voyager: A DIY kit made as a tribute to NASA’s longest-lasting mission, which has been beaming back data for an incredible 45 years and counting.
  • 3. Juno: A solar-powered DIY kit celebrating the mission that gave us the most detailed and breathtaking images of Jupiter.
  • 4. Discovery: A DIY kit honoring the legendary space shuttle with 39 successful orbital flights under its belt.
  • 5. The Artemis Watch: A sleek, space-themed wrist gadget inspired by NASA’s upcoming Artemis space suit design. The watch is a programmable device equipped with an LCD display, Bluetooth, and a gyroscope.

The Perseverance Educational Space Rover Kit is available for pre-order now on Kickstarter, starting at $149.

No previous experience or knowledge is needed for assembling your very own space rover. The kit is designed for anyone aged 11+  and comes with detailed video instructions.

You can visit the Kickstarter page here.

Short interview with Roy, the founder of „The OffBits“

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Sebastian Trella from Robots-Blog had the opportunity to conduct a short interview with Roy Barazani from „the OffBits“.

Roy Barazani from „the OffBits“

·        Robots-Blog: Who are you and what is your job at the OffBits?

Roy: I am Roy Barazani – The OffBits founding father 

·        Robots-Blog: What inspired you to create the OffBits toy?

Roy: I guess I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of re-design. Even as a child I used to break my toys apart and try to rebuild them in new and different ways. Looking back, this allowed me to develop my imagination and ability to fantasize.

·        Robots-Blog: How did you come up with the name „the OffBits„?

Roy: The OFFBITS started out by playing with random parts I found in my toolbox while working on an exercise before starting my design studies in college. Suddenly I found I had made a little robot! I kept this idea with me during my studies, and for my final project built a whole city of them made from recycled parts. It was really well received and I knew I had a great idea in my hands. It took a few years of development and testing in Maker Faire events and boutique design stores and now I finally feel they are ready for the world.

·        Robots-Blog: Do you have a lot to do with robots in your job/everyday life?

Roy: Yes, I love robots and I have collected robots for years!

·        Robots-Blog: How did sustainability factor into the creation of the OffBits?

Roy: I see The OFFBITS as a new way of playing with toys, an “open-source” platform with no rules, so each creation can be as unique as the one who built it. I love the way people can take the original design and then make something completely different. Also, the fact it is made of components we all have around us means there are no cost or availability limits to what people can do with them.

Offbits are a sustainable and eco-friendly educational toy that encourages zero-waste principles and practices through a fun and interactive experience. It’s a great way to bring awareness and inspire positive actions in preserving the environment.

We don’t think you need many toys, but what you do choose should be made to last.

The possibilities are endless with The Offbits, you can create anything from a simple robot to a complex model while using sustainable materials and reducing waste.

·        Robots-Blog: And which is your favorite robot from the OffBits?

Roy: I love all my robots family!

·        Robots-Blog: Can you tell us about any challenges you faced while designing the OffBits?

Roy: From a design perspective, working with standard hardware components brought many unique challenges. For example, choosing the right mix of bits in the kits (both functionally and aesthetically) required a lot of trial-and-error type work, and then of course there is the issue of connecting parts that weren’t designed to fit together.

·        Robots-Blog: How do you envision the OffBits evolving in education fields?

Roy: This is a S.T.E.A.M toy helping young minds grow in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math. The OffBits toys encourage the development of fine motor skills, spatial reasoning, problem-solving, and imaginative play.

The hands-on building process allows users to learn about robotics and engineering concepts in a fun and interactive way. The step-by-step instructions for building and programming the Offbits kits, making it easy for users of all ages to understand the principles behind the technology.

The OffBits offer educational resources such as workshops, online tutorials, and educational material that could help kids to learn about sustainable practices and technologies.


· Robots-Blog: What can you tell us about your community?

Roy: The Offbits community feature allows users to share their creations and ideas, providing inspiration and a sense of collaboration. The Offbits users have challenges for every level. When they create, share and pass the challenge they can earn tokens for their future purchases.

 Stephanie @stem_with_stephanie

Cherry Tart: The Interactive & LEGO-compatible crafting Nature-Inspired robot kit for kids & adults to innovate

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Inspired by Nature, Crafted by You

Are you ready to add a little spark of creativity and innovation to your life? Look no further than Cherry Tart – the first crafty sound-activated, bio-inspired building block kit for kids and adults. We believe that learning and fun should go hand in hand. And with Cherry Tart, that’s exactly what you’ll get.

Introduction

The Cherry Tart crafty series are designed to spark creativity and imagination with a hands-on STEM robot kit for future innovators. A combination of colorful LEGO-compatible building blocks with customizable skins creates a joyful and creative challenge for kids & adults. This kit provides nature’s beauty, enjoyment of design and building, and art. Cherry Tart crafty kit is a LEGO®-compatible and coverable building block that offers an innovative sound activation method to make your nature-inspired projects interactive and livelier.

With this kit, you can create your own interactive, nature-inspired projects that come to life through sound activation. Whether you’re a seasoned robot builder or just starting out, Cherry Tart offers something for everyone.

Crafty robot kit benefits

The Cherry Tart crafty kit is not only LEGO®-compatible but also coverable with a wide range of foldable and customizable skins that allow for personal expression. You can cover your model with printed skins or paint and decorate your own skin. The result is an elegant conversation piece that’s a tasteful addition to any home, or maybe just to impress your friends and family.

What you can build?

With Cherry Tart, you can create your own robot designs and program them to move, react to their environment, and even play games. The robot kit is easy to assemble and can be customized with your own crafts and materials, making it a great way to learn about robotics and unleash your creativity. Kids & adults can build sound-activated creatures. It actively involves the kids and encourages them to take physical action. Build the main model using LEGO-compatible building blocks. Select your favorite skin or paint your customized skin, take it out from the printed skin sheet, and snap them on your model. Turn the Cherry Core ON and select your desired mode. Surprised! The model comes to life. Change your model skin and try another one.

What’s Included?

Cherry Tart teaches kids and adults about robotics in a fun and engaging way. The kit includes everything you need to build your own robot and bring it to life, including a Cherry Core sound-activated microcontroller with a built-in rechargeable battery, a motor, LEGO®-compatible building blocks, and different printed and customizable skins.

Coming soon on Kickstarter

After running two successful Kickstarter campaigns, Cherry Tart is back with a new, amazing, affordable product. Back the Kickstarter campaign and be one of the first to get your hands on the Cherry Tart crafty series. This is a great opportunity to support an innovative, educational, and fun product that will spark your creativity and imagination. Let’s build something amazing together!

Further development of IDS NXT ocean: focus on user-friendliness and AI transparency

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All-in-one embedded vision platform with new tools and functions

(PresseBox) (Obersulm) At IDS, image processing with artificial intelligence does not just mean that AI runs directly on cameras and users also have enormous design options through vision apps. Rather, with the IDS NXT ocean embedded vision platform, customers receive all the necessary, coordinated tools and workflows to realise their own AI vision applications without prior knowledge and to run them directly on the IDS NXT industrial cameras. Now follows the next free software update for the AI package. In addition to the topic of user-friendliness, the focus is also on making artificial intelligence clear and comprehensible for the user.

An all-in-one system such as IDS NXT ocean, which has integrated computing power and artificial intelligence thanks to the „deep ocean core“ developed by IDS, is ideally suited for entry into AI Vision. It requires no prior knowledge of deep learning or camera programming. The current software update makes setting up, deploying and controlling the intelligent cameras in the IDS NXT cockpit even easier. For this purpose, among other things, an ROI editor is integrated with which users can freely draw the image areas to be evaluated and configure, save and reuse them as custom grids with many parameters. In addition, the new tools Attention Maps and Confusion Matrix illustrate how the AI works in the cameras and what decisions it makes. This helps to clarify the process and enables the user to evaluate the quality of a trained neural network and to improve it through targeted retraining. Data security also plays an important role in the industrial use of artificial intelligence. As of the current update, communication between IDS NXT cameras and system components can therefore be encrypted via HTTPS.

Just get started with the IDS NXT ocean Creative Kit

Anyone who wants to test the industrial-grade embedded vision platform IDS NXT ocean and evaluate its potential for their own applications should take a look at the IDS NXT ocean Creative Kit. It provides customers with all the components they need to create, train and run a neural network. In addition to an IDS NXT industrial camera with 1.6 MP Sony sensor, lens, cable and tripod adapter, the package includes six months‘ access to the AI training software IDS NXT lighthouse. Currently, IDS is offering the set in a special promotion at particularly favourable conditions. Promotion page: https://en.ids-imaging.com/ids-nxt-ocean-creative-kit.html.

Learn more: www.ids-nxt.com

Better gripping with intelligent picking robots

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Researchers from Germany and Canada work on new AI methods for picking robots.

 ISLANDIA, NY, July 7, 2021 — Production, warehouse, shipping – where goods are produced, stored, sorted or packed, picking also takes place. This means that several individual goods are removed from storage units such as boxes or cartons and reassembled. With the FLAIROP (Federated Learning for Robot Picking) project Festo and researchers from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), together with partners from Canada, want to make picking robots smarter using distributed AI methods. To do this, they are investigating how to use training data from multiple stations, from multiple plants, or even companies without requiring participants to hand over sensitive company data. 

“We are investigating how the most versatile training data possible from multiple locations can be used to develop more robust and efficient solutions using artificial intelligence algorithms than with data from just one robot,“ says Jonathan Auberle from the Institute of Material Handling and Logistics (IFL) at KIT. In the process, items are further processed by autonomous robots at several picking stations by means of gripping and transferring. At the various stations, the robots are trained with very different articles. At the end, they should be able to grasp articles from other stations that they have not yet learned about. „Through the approach of federated learning, we balance data diversity and data security in an industrial environment,“ says the expert.

Powerful algorithms for industry and logistics 4.0

Until now, federated learning has been used predominantly in the medical sector for image analysis, where the protection of patient data is a particularly high priority. Consequently, there is no exchange of training data such as images or grasp points for training the artificial neural network. Only pieces of stored knowledge – the local weights of the neural network that tell how strongly one neuron is connected to another – are transferred to a central server. There, the weights from all stations are collected and optimized using various criteria. Then the improved version is played back to the local stations and the process repeats. The goal is to develop new, more powerful algorithms for the robust use of artificial intelligence for industry and Logistics 4.0 while complying with data protection guidelines.

“In the FLAIROP research project, we are developing new ways for robots to learn from each other without sharing sensitive data and company secrets. This brings two major benefits: we protect our customers‘ data, and we gain speed because the robots can take over many tasks more quickly. In this way, the collaborative robots can, for example, support production workers with repetitive, heavy, and tiring tasks”, explains Jan Seyler, Head of Advanced Develop. Analytics and Control at Festo SE & Co. KG During the project, a total of four autonomous picking stations will be set up for training the robots: Two at the KIT Institute for Material Handling and Logistics (IFL) and two at the Festo SE company based in Esslingen am Neckar.

Start-up DarwinAI and University of Waterloo from Canada are further partners

“DarwinAI is thrilled to provide our Explainable (XAI) platform to the FLAIROP project and pleased to work with such esteemed Canadian and German academic organizations and our industry partner, Festo. We hope that our XAI technology will enable high-value human-in-the-loop processes for this exciting project, which represents an important facet of our offering alongside our novel approach to Federated Learning.  Having our roots in academic research, we are enthusiastic about this collaboration and the industrial benefits of our new approach for a range of manufacturing customers”, says Sheldon Fernandez, CEO, DarwinAI.

“The University of Waterloo is ecstatic to be working with Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and a global industrial automation leader like Festo to bring the next generation of trustworthy artificial intelligence to manufacturing.  By harnessing DarwinAI’s Explainable AI (XAI) and Federated Learning, we can enable AI solutions to help support factory workers in their daily production tasks to maximize efficiency, productivity, and safety”, says Dr. Alexander Wong, Co-director of the Vision and Image Processing Research Group, University of Waterloo, and Chief Scientist at DarwinAI.

About FLAIROP

The FLAIROP (Federated Learning for Robot Picking) project is a partnership between Canadian and German organizations. The Canadian project partners focus on object recognition through Deep Learning, Explainable AI, and optimization, while the German partners contribute their expertise in robotics, autonomous grasping through Deep Learning, and data security.

  • KIT-IFL: consortium leadership, development grasp determination, development automatic learning data generation.
  • KIT-AIFB: Development of Federated Learning Framework
  • Festo SE & Co. KG: development of picking stations, piloting in real warehouse logistics
  • University of Waterloo (Canada): Development object recognition
  • Darwin AI (Canada): Local and Global Network Optimization, Automated Generation of Network Structures

Visit www.festo.com/us for more information on Festo products and services.

About Festo

Festo is a leading manufacturer of pneumatic and electromechanical systems, components, and controls for process and industrial automation. For more than 40 years, Festo Corporation has continuously elevated the state of manufacturing with innovations and optimized motion control solutions that deliver higher performing, more profitable automated manufacturing and processing equipment.

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