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Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing (ARM) Institute Announces Nine New Technology Projects Focused on COVID-19 Recovery
Approximately $5M in Department of Defense funding dedicated to projects that advance the use of robotics to respond to current and future pandemics
September, 2020 – The ARM (Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing) Institute is pleased to announce the selection of nine technical projects that will be led by members of its national consortium to help with COVID-19 recovery. Special funding for this project call was provided by the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
The ARM Institute is the nation’s leading collaborative partnership focused on industrial robotics and workforce innovation. ARM and its 260+ member organizations from industry, academia and government advance transformative robotic technologies and education for both commercial and defense industrial base needs to grow U.S. manufacturing competitiveness and supply chain resilience.
These projects address the needs of the manufacturing industry and the Department of Defense (DoD) in response to the national emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The specific applications of the selected projects have been identified by the Department of Defense as areas of urgency, such as diagnostics, medical care, medical countermeasures, non-medical personal protective equipment (PPE), and other supplies. The projects are explicitly linked to COVID-19 mitigation, demonstrating an ability for the United States and the Department of Defense to prevent, prepare for, and respond to this and future pandemics.
“The selection of these 9 projects shows that the ARM member ecosystem is joining the fight against this pandemic by developing robotic–related capabilities to assist DoD and commercial Industries,” said Dr. Greg Hudas, the DoD Program Manager for the ARM Institute.
ARM plans to award close to $5M in funding, for a total contributed investment of approximately $8M across these 9 projects, briefly described below:
Project Title: Autonomous Robotic Spraying and Disinfection in Warehouses & Shipyards
Principal Investigator: Siemens Corporation Corporate Technologies
Project Team: FedEx Corporation, Yaskawa Motoman
Description: Logistics and support operations have played a vital role in supporting the nation by supplying medical supplies and essential goods to millions of Americans. To control the spread of COVID-19 in these facilities, more frequent and reliable disinfection is required. This project will develop an autonomous warehouse disinfection system that can automatically navigate, locate, and disinfect heavily touched surfaces and potentially contaminated areas. This process will minimize the human role in potentially harmful disinfecting procedures while reducing costs.
Project Title: Automation of Characterization and Evaluation (ACE) in PPE Manufacturing
Principal Investigator: Northeastern University
Project Team: Merrow Manufacturing
Description: The quality assurance procedures for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), such as facemasks, is labor intensive and time consuming. Sample testing of PPE has become a priority not only in manufacturing plants but also at medical centers. The national labs providing validation testing for PPE are reporting lead times up to 75 days due to lack of qualified technicians and overwhelming volume of new requests. This project aims to develop a robotic system to automate the quality assurance tests for PPE inspection, thus improving the performance, productivity, and efficiency of PPE manufacturing in the United States.
Project Title: Built-By-Bot: Customized Mask Assembly using Robots
Principal Investigator: Siemens Corporation Corporate Technologies
Project Team: Henderson Sewing Machine Corporation, Sewbo Inc, Bluewater Defense, Industrial Sewing and Innovation Center (ISAIC)
Description: The Center for Disease Control (CDC) has identified cloth masks as playing a vital role in slowing the spread of COVID-19, but the supply has not been able to keep up with the demand. Robotic sewing presents a technical challenge because it requires the manipulation of flexible materials, fine motor control, and precise part recognition. This project will build upon the outputs from other ARM projects to automate the robotic production of cloth face masks for personal protective equipment (PPE).
Project Title: Mobile Autonomous Industrial Disinfector (MAID)
Principal Investigator: Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Laboratories
Project Team: GrayMatter Robotics, Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), Lockheed Martin Rotary Mission Systems
Description: Due to the rapid transmutability of COVID-19, frequent surface disinfection is required for businesses and workspaces to operate safely. The current method of manual cleaning is not ideal because it puts another person into the space who could get sick or transmit the virus. This project will develop an autonomous mobile robot with a mounted collaborative multi-axis robotic arm capable of manipulating both a disinfection system and a sensor suite. The system will identify areas that need disinfecting, execute the disinfecting process, and keep records of the cleaning tasks completed.
Project Title: Rapid PPE Production through Automation & Robotics (RAPPAR)
Principal Investigator: Siemens Corporation Corporate Technologies
Project Team: Henderson Sewing Machine Company, Yaskawa Motoman, HomTex Inc
Description: The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed critical vulnerabilities in the global health care supply chain. At the beginning of the pandemic, U.S manufactures were unable to meet the significant demand for Personal Protective Equipment, resulting in shortfalls and long lead times. This project will improve existing automated mask production in the US by including robotic automatic visual inspection, picking-and-sorting, and end-of-line packing and palletizing.
Project Title: Autonomous Mobile Capability for Room Disinfecting Robots
Principal Investigator: QinetiQ North America
Project Team: MassRobotics
Description: Schools, offices, military bases, and manufacturing floors need to be disinfected between shifts to minimize the spread of COVID-19. The Decon–X (DX1) disinfecting system has proven its effectiveness in Europe, but currently lacks the mobility and autonomy to disinfect spaces without an operator. An automated solution is required to ensure workers return to a COVID-free environment each day. This project is aimed at adding mobile autonomous capabilities to the DX1 room disinfection system to automate the consecutive treatment of multiple rooms and spaces within workplaces. The addition of mobility and autonomous navigation to the DX1 will enable the robot to move from room to room and perform a series of treatments with little to no human intervention.
Project Title: Rapid Robotic Diagnostic Kit Discovery
Principal Investigator: Siemens Corporation Corporate Technologies
Project Team: Maxim BioMedical Inc, Siemens Healthineers
Description: While many tests for COVID-19 have been developed, the U.S still has not reached the scale necessary for effective management and control. COVID-19 Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests have long turnaround times (2-3 days for lab results). Rapid development of COVID-19 Lateral Flow Assay (LFA) tests would dramatically aid the United States’ efforts towards large-scale testing for current and future pandemics. LFA test strip evaluation requires at least two technicians – one to run the assay and one to interpret results using analyzers that image and quantify individual strips. This project will develop a solution utilizing advanced vision systems and flexible robots to accelerate LFA test development by automating LFA test-strip evaluation.
Project Title: Swarm Robotics for Large Structure Manufacturing
Principal Investigator: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Project Team: Air Structures American Technologies Inc
Description: COVID-19 has highlighted the urgent need to rapidly deploy negative pressure spaces. These air supported structures are rapidly deployable with performance advantages over traditional tents, and are ideal for use as expeditionary hospitals, quarantine facilities, housing, and other disaster relief or military applications. Production of these structures is labor-intensive but can be expedited with the development of robotic technology to aid manufacturing personnel with moving and manipulating heavy, flexible materials. This project aims to solve the problem of moving and manipulating a large, heavy, flexible material over a large area by developing a fleet of self-aware, human-directed robotic platforms to take on the hard work of moving the material around the production floor. This manufacturing technology will help team member Air Structures American Technology Inc (ASATI) produce a “hospital in a shipping container” that can be set up in a parking lot with a crew of 8-10 and a forklift in only 72 hours. ASATI will be able to reduce cost and manufacturing lead times of these critical structures through the implementation of this development.
Project Title: Robotic Application of Anti-Microbial Copper Coatings
Principal Investigator: Siemens Corporation Corporate Technologies
Project Team: VRC Metals System
Description: Copper-coated surfaces rapidly kill coronaviruses like COVID-19, but these have not been widely manufactured due to low demand. However, the pandemic has highlighted the need for self-disinfecting surfaces. Robotic cold spraying of copper will enable rapid production to meet the new demand. Wide adoption of copper-coated surfaces will reduce the spread of COVID-19 without the need for frequent cleaning. The robotic application of copper coating will improve the manufacturability of these parts. This project will develop a robotic anti-microbial copper application system (cold spray), integrating a scanner and developing an automated path generation and QA tools to apply the copper coating to components like a doorknob, hospital bench, cart, handrail, etc.
ABOUT ARM PROJECTS
ARM receives funding from the United States Department of Defense and other government agencies to manage programs that develop, demonstrate, and accelerate the early adoption of novel robotic technology and workforce development solutions to:
- Assert U.S. leadership in advanced robotics for manufacturing
- Empower American workers to be cost-competitive with low-wage workers abroad
- Lower the technical, operational, and economic barriers to adopt robotics technologies
- Aid in the creation of new jobs to secure U.S. national prosperity.
ARM works collaboratively with the government and Institute members to identify areas of need in robotics and workforce development. ARM projects require at least one industry organization participant on each project to ensure that the outputs are relevant, applicable, and impactful. The projects are selected by a team of ARM members and partners spanning government, industry, and academia. Only ARM members can participate in projects. Email [email protected] to learn about membership.
ARM Institute Annual Member Meeting
Join us October 13-15, 2020 for our Annual Member Meeting! Registration is free and open to ARM Members only. The Annual ARM Member Meeting is our cornerstone event and brings together representatives from across 260 member organizations for three days of high-energy engagement and information sharing. Spanning industry, government, and academia, our event highlights important solutions in robotics and workforce development to strengthen U.S. manufacturing for the defense and commercial industrial bases. Email [email protected] for more information.
robolink ReBeL robot vs. „I’m not a robot“ CAPTCHA
The Crafty Robot launches the most accessible telepresence robot ever
London, England – July 21st 2020 – The Crafty Robot today launches Smartipresence, a low cost telepresence robot that works with a smartphone, based on their Smartibot robotics platform. Created by product designer Ross Atkin, Smartipresence kits are available for pre-order on Kickstarter from £50 ($62).
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rossatkin/smartipresence-cardboard-telepresence-robot
Smartipresence builds on top of the existing Smartibot app-connected cardboard robot platform, adding extra components to create a dedicated telepresence robot. Slide a phone into the cradle, put the robot online then send a loved one a link to the pilot webpage allowing them to appear on-screen just like a video call, except they have the additional ability to move themselves around. Using controls on the pilot page your friends and family members can drive forward, backwards, left and right and they can tilt the phone to look up or down.
Smartipresence comes as a kit combining cleverly designed cardboard parts with re-usable electronics, allowing owners to build their own telepresence robots by hacking battery operated toys, using LEGO, radio controlled vehicles or 3D printers.
“It’s awful not being able to visit loved ones right now and I wanted to make something to help” explained Ross Atkin. “I thought telepresence might be useful, but not the robots designed for corporate environments that cost thousands. I realised that the Smartibot kit already had most of the parts you’d need to make a really accessible telepresence robot that would work in people’s homes. So I designed the extra cardboard parts to make the experience as good as it could be, and worked with Altrubots to put together the software. It’s turned out great. It’s not quite as good as actually being somewhere but it’s a whole lot better than a video call.”
As Smartipresence is an expansion for the Smartibot the kit, it also includes everything from the previous set, including parts to make the A.I. bot, Unicorn and Teabot. The kit includes 10 hours of telepresence using Smartipresence service with additional 10 hour usage codes available at £5 each. There are no accounts and the system collects no personal information from users.
The telepresence system has been created in partnership with Altrubots, creators of the ‘RC Everywhere’ system used in publicly controllable robots that perform helpful functions like trash collection.
John Stewart, Altrubots software lead, said “It’s amazing to be creating a world wide communication system that’s going to allow normal people to use robots to communicate, it’s the closest thing to Princess Lea coming out of the R2D2 that we’re going to get right now.”
Smartibot Technical Specs
| Kit contents | Hardware Features | Software Features |
| 1 x Smartibot Circuit Board3 x DC Motors + Gearboxes1 x 4AA Battery Box1 x Cardboard Smartipresence Parts1 x Cardboard A.I. Bot Parts1 x Cardboard Unicorn Parts1 x Cardboard Teabot Parts2 x Glass Marbles2 x ScrewdriversStainless Steel Fixings Rubber Bands | Robot can move forward and back, rotate and tilt the phone to look up or down NRF 52 series ARM Cortex-M4F based Bluetooth system-on-chip Espruino runtime USB/Bluetooth programming | Smartipresence system comprising pilot webapp and robot iOS app and webapp iOS and Android app for remote control mode and A.I. mode (YOLO A.I.) Programmable with JavaScript or code blocks from a web browser using Espruino |
Smartibot can be found on Kickstarter starting at £50 ($63) for a limited time.
CircuitMess STEM Box – Learn the skills of the future with electronic projects delivered to your doorstep
Technology has become an integral part of our lives, but just a small number of people on the planet actually have the tools, access, or knowledge to create new technology. CircuitMess is here to change that with the STEM Box .
CircuitMess STEM Box is a unique learning experience that will teach you the skills of the future. Autonomous driving, Sound synthesis, Voice Recognition, Wireless communication, Gaming, and Machine learning – these are just some of the topics you’ll learn about with STEM Box. Every three months, you’ll get a new interesting product based on a different topic delivered at your doorstep.
CircuitMess announced the following 6 products that will be a part of the STEM Box:
● Spencer – a codeable DIY voice assistant similar to Amazon Alexa that will show you the technology behind speech recognition and AI
● Jay-D – a DJ Mixtable that will teach you how sound synthesis works
● Wheelson – a DIY robot car that will show you how autonomous vehicles work
● ByteBoi – a build-it-yourself game console that will explain what video game engineering is and how microcomputers work
● Chatter – CircuitMess’s unique communication devices that will teach you about wireless communication
● Clockstar – a machine-learning -powered smartwatch
STEM Box’s Kickstarter campaign is launching on Monday, June 29th 2020 with a goal of 15.000,00 USD The estimated delivery date for the first STEM Box is November 2020. (Just in time for Christmas!)
Third Kickstarter project for a Croatian ed-tech startup
This is CircuitMess’s third crowdfunding campaign, following two very successful ones.
CircuitMess started with a Kickstarter campaign for MAKERbuino – a DIY game console. The first campaign raised more than $100,000, followed by a Kickstarter for MAKERphone – a DIY mobile phone that raised more than $300,000 in 2018.
Since then, CircuitMess has delivered more than 15,000 devices to customers all around the globe.
“We’ve figured out that our customers really like our work and want to learn even more. That’s why we decided to create the STEM Box. I am really proud of our Trustpilot page where we invite all of our customers to post honest and unfiltered reviews”, says Albert Gajšak, the CEO of CircuitMess.
About CircuitMess
CircuitMess is a technology startup founded in Karlovac, Croatia in 2017 by Albert Gajšak and Tomislav Car after a successful Kickstarter campaign for MAKERbuino.
Currently, CircuitMess is employing 15 young ambitious people and have recently moved to a new office in Croatia’s capital, Zagreb, in search for more smart people that will help them create new electronic products and bring technology to the crowd in a fun and interesting way.
Nabot by Ximpatico
Nabot is a programmable robot that can autonomously perform tasks such as sanitizing packages, mopping the floor, vacuuming, collecting small objects, and playing with pets. Nabot is both the robot to play with and a tool to explore the world of AI and coding. Nabot was previously marketed as a remote control robot but we upgraded it with artificial intelligence and a coding interface and turned it into a smart and autonomous robot. Nabot can introduce children to the coding concepts and make them interested in STEM fields. It can also be a great assistive technology for the disabled and elderly and help them with activities of daily living. That has been the topic of Ph.D. research of the founders.
How does it work?
Nabot’s coding interface consists of blocks, which users will drag, drop, and attach them together to write a code for Nabot. These coding blocks enable the user to move the robot forward/backward, rotate the robot left/right, move each of the joints individually or all together, create custom categories of objects and write code for when the robot detects an object from a certain category, mark/assign objects to one of these custom categories, create variables and use them in various math equations, and other basic programming logic blocks such as if, else, repeat, loop, while. There is also a more advanced Python API for hackers to program complicated and useful tasks.
User’s privacy is our priority. Nabot does not send or store any information outside the user’s phone. All the processing is done on the phone and the application doesn’t even need an internet connection (except for logging in).
About Ximpatico
We are Ximpatico, a venture-backed startup based in the US with offices in San Jose, CA and Orlando, FL. Founders are a couple of Ph.D. graduates in computer science and engineering behind the state-of-the-art in AI and robotics. We developed a cutting-edge AI technology back in 2016 in our research lab.
Kickstarter campaign: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ximpatico/nabot-ai-trainable-and-programmable-robot?ref=brgm6n
Norby
In development for over 3 years, Norby is an interactive learning companion for kids aged 5+. He teaches English, Math & Coding through stories, games & puzzles.
Norby helps build confidence through positive feedback and encouragement whilst keeping kids emotionally engaged in learning. He delivers new content every week, lessons that are built to establish the fundamentals today while preparing kids for tomorrow.
His intelligence software is constantly adapting to the child’s interests and his lessons are all guided and self-paced. So kids feel comfortable and not under pressure.
Norby is currently available for pre-order and due to be released in late 2020.
Norby’s Specifications
Norby’s more than just a cute face, he’s got some fancy hardware under the hood too
- High-performance quad-core processor
- Full-color HD touch screen
- Secure Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
- High-resolution front camera
- Stereo speakers and microphone array
- High capacity Li-ion battery pack
- Motorized mechanical head movement
- Emotive RGB LED lights
- High capacity light, touch, proximity & motion sensory Li-ion battery pack
- Dimensions: 265mm (H) x 170mm (W) x 110mm (L)
- Weight: 900g
LittleBot Buddy 3D Printed Arduino Social Robot Launches on Kickstarter
LittleBot Buddy is the 9th robot to come from the Slant Concepts line of LittleBots STEM kits. This addition is the most personable of all. Buddy is an interactive robotics kit that is simple to build and designed to help kids get excited about creating a robotic companion.
Buddy is the culmination of nearly 2 years of work. LittleBots has been experimenting with variants of Buddy since the first LittleBots kits were released. They finally found a design that was both highly interactive and simple to build.
Buddy works by observing the world around him. When something changes he generates completely unique reactions, just as a living creature would do. He is completely spontaneous. This helps Buddy to maintain kid’s attention longer as they build and work with him.
The kit can be built in under an hour, does not require any soldering, and has fewer than 15 screws. This makes is simple to build even for the most inexperienced users.
The main chip is arduino and can be reprogrammed using standard or graphical programming tools, such as the Arduino IDE or Makeblock.
Adding to the uniqueness of Buddy is the fact that he is 3D Printed. LittleBots made this choice to both create a cleaner design with fewer parts and to invite kids to edit and build on the robot. “When the robot is 3D printed kids know they are allowed to 3D print more parts using the printer in a classroom,” stated Gabe Bentz, lead designer of the LittleBots Project.
All together Buddy is a very interactive robotics kits that is simple to get started with but packs a good amount of complexity into a simple little package.
The kit is currently available for preorders on Kickstarter and was 25% funded within it first 12 hours of going live. Preorders are expected to start shipping in December 2019.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/slantrobotics/littlebot-buddy
These guys turn puzzles into robots
ActivePuzzle is a robot-building game where blocks are puzzle pieces
TEL AVIV – February 26, 2019 – ActivePuzzle, an innovative technology company that develops imaginative and educational products for the early advancement of children, announced the release of the ActivePuzzle game, an interactive robotic puzzle for kids. Designed to harness children’s enjoyment of puzzles and robots, and turn it into constructive learning experiences, ActivePuzzle teaches kids STEM concepts, logic and problem-solving skills in an innovative method. Through puzzles and robots, kids maintain a sense of spatial and tactile awareness rather than the tunnel vision that accompanies standard 2D puzzles or video games.
“Technology should be taught in a language children understand,” said Meir Sela, the founder of ActivePuzzle. “I got together with a team of creative people who shared the same vision; we wanted to teach children technology using their own language, one that they learn before they even start talking… Puzzles!”
Expressing technology ideas using puzzles makes ActivePuzzle the simplest robotics on earth. ActivePuzzle doesn’t rely on coding or computer screens — simply snap puzzle pieces together to form robots. That makes ActivePuzzle a great platform for invention and innovation. ActivePuzzle is easy to get the hang of — if you can build puzzles, you can create robots.
ActivePuzzle comes in two different sets:
∙ ActivePuzzle Invent ($145 US retail)
16 puzzle pieces included: LED, motor, buzzer, voltmeter, IR transmitter, light sensor, temperature sensor, proximity sensor, potentiometer, IR receiver, logic-not, logic-and, logic-or, insulator, wave and battery. Also included are one USB cable, one wheel and one propeller.
∙ ActivePuzzle Advanced ($175 US retail)
22 puzzle pieces included: LED, motor x2, buzzer, voltmeter, IR transmitter, light sensor, temperature sensor, proximity sensor x2, potentiometer, IR receiver, logic-not, logic-and, logic-or, insulator, wave, arduino, conductor, A2D and battery x2. Also included are one USB cable, two wheels and two propellers.
Each puzzle piece implements a certain function: the battery piece supplies electric power to the circuit, the proximity sensor “sees” objects, the motor drives a wheel or fan, etc. ActivePuzzle robots are based on the Braitenberg Vehicle principle: input pieces trigger adjacent output pieces. For instance, when a light sensor puzzle is connected to a motor puzzle, the motor will run faster as the light on the sensor gets more intense.
ActivePuzzle is for children aged 8+ and for those with young minds who want to build robots and to learn how they work. Additionally, educators can use ActivePuzzle to teach STEM: the game is very intuitive and simple to learn, and there are a large number of scientific and technological concepts that can be taught using ActivePuzzle. One important characteristic of ActivePuzzle is its being a gender-neutral game: the puzzle language makes girls feel natural and confident, and the game activities strengthen their self-efficacy.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/activepuzzle/activepuzzle
Say Hello to Armz, Gearbugs Corps.’s Latest Smart Toy Invention
NEWPORT BEACH, CALIF. (PRWEB) FEBRUARY 27, 2019
Gearbugs Corp. just announced that they are raising funds via Kickstarter to finish the development and production of Armz, a smart toy that can be customized to play various types of game modes. The company set out to raise $10,000 on Kickstarter to finish development and produce the first batch of their latest smart toy invention.
Armz is a new, smart toy that is designed to be highly customizable. The heart and soul of Armz is the Smart Core™ which contains the motors and mechanisms that allow it to move, speak, and light up. In addition to the Smart Core™, Armz also comes with five different arm attachments that can transform the core into a personalized toy.
Gearbugs Corp has also developed an app that will be available on both the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. By syncing the app to the Armz via bluetooth, players will be able to access multiple game modes that match one of the five attachments. The current lineup of game modes include the following: Remote Control Racing, Steering Wheel Racing, Sumo Wrestling, and Tank Battle.
While the gaming feature is one of the main features of Armz, it also meant to be much more than just a simple toy. When Armz is not out on the field for matches, it can be placed on its charging dock to serve as a mood lamp or night light. Users can also customize the voice of Armz with their own recording and program it to act as a virtual home assistant. Finally, a blockchain coding mode is also available to act as an educational tool to teach basic coding.
With all of the available features, Armz users are able to put their imagination to the test by referring to the blueprint on the application and creating their own side attachments via 3D printing technology. As users get more accustomed to Armz’s capabilities over time, people may find that there are certain attachments that are not yet available that may enhance the performance of Armz.
Armz is now available on Kickstarter with exclusive early bird prices starting at $95 (40% off retail value). After the campaign, Gearbugs Corps. anticipates manufacturing and delivery to be fulfilled by the end of August 2019. Any influencers or journalists interested in receiving a sample and reviewing Armz are encouraged to submit an inquiry through its Kickstarter page.