The Beginning | RoboPro 01 | October 2017

ISSUE 1 NOVEMBER 2017

R O B OT I C S

P R O F E S S I O N A L

IT HAS ARRIVED

A NEW VOICE IN THE ROBOTICS SECTOR

ROBOT:

FRIEND OR FOE? THE INDUSTRY’S PR CHALLENGE

WORLD’S FIRST DEDICATED EQUITY PLATFORM FOR HIGH POTENTIAL ROBOT COMPANIES

R&D TAX CREDITS – ARE YOU GETTING ENOUGH AND IF NOT, WHY NOT?

THE BUSINESS OF PRECISION ROBOTICS, COLL ABORATIVE ROBOTS AND NEXT GENERATION AUTOMATION

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CONTENTS ROBOPRO TEAM

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Neil Martin Editor-in-Chief neil.mar tin@robopromedia.com

News

The latest news, far and wide, from the robotics industry.

LMI Technologies

Canadian-based LMI Technologies talks about 3D Smart Sensors, Robots and the Advancement of Automated Mixed-Model Production.

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Alex Sullivan Publishing Director alex.sullivan@robopromedia.com

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Editor’s Welcome

Robo Opinion

Some of the more offbeat and colourful stories from the fascinating world of robotics.

30 Cally Bennett

Prosthetics

Rehabilitation Robotics and a new generation of smooth drives are helping the physically challenged walk and run effortlessly.

Group Business Manager cally.bennett@robopromedia.com

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PR War

Editor Neil Martin takes a look at the ongoing challenge to win the people’s hearts and minds.

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Kingstar

The KINGSTAR core objective is compelling: to replace expensive hardware solutions with a viable software platform.

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Scorpion

From epic bike ride to new distributorship - Scorpion Vision’s boss has had a busy summer.

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Vision Guided Robotics

How complex automation challenges are being met through the marriage of robotics and advanced machine vision.

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Xilinx

How has global electronics manufacturer Kamstrup doubled production without increasing labor costs?

The future is Xilinx. How the company is positioning itself.

Robopro Magazine is published by IFA Magazine Publications Ltd, Arcade Chambers, 8 Kings Road, Bristol BS8 4AB Tel: +44 (0) 1179 089686 © 2017. All rights reserved ‘Robopro Magazine’ is a trademark of IFA Magazine Publications Limited. No part of this publication may be reproduced or stored in any printed or electronic retrieval system without prior permission. All material has been carefully checked for accuracy, but no responsibility can be accepted for inaccuracies.

Wherever appropriate, independent research and where necessary legal advice should be sought before acting on any information contained in this publication.

Robopro Magazine is for those who operate in the robotic and allied industries. Full details at: www.robopromedia.com

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Mobile Industrial Robots

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Aethon

This Pittsburgh company develops robots that make a real difference to how hospitals operate.

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R&D Tax Credits

If you’re in the UK and conduct R&D, then you must read this article.

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Xilinx 16

reVISION: accelerating sensor fusion embedded vision applications.

Robo Business

A round-up of the business stories from the sector, from deals to forward looking market reports.

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ED'S WELCOME

WELCOME TO ROBOPRO A warm welcome to all of our readers.

This is the first print edition of the magazine, our website went live some time ago and we are currently building what we hope to be another hugely successful digital platform, emulating the popularity of our sister platform, Machine Vision Professional (MVPro).

RoboPro looks first to Europe and the US – by next year we will also be covering Asia. Our combined European and US database, which we’ve been carefully building over the months, now lists hundreds of thousands of individuals who operate in the robotic and machine vision sectors.

So why RoboPro, why now? It basically comes down to the feedback we’ve received from our MVPro readers. They want the same sort of approach we have applied to the machine vision sector, applied to the quickly expanding robotics sector.

We live in one of the most exciting stages in human evolution, when we are on the cusp of putting robotics to work for the good of human kind. That sentiment is not shared by everyone of course and many people fear that robots will actually mean the end of civilisation as we know it, The industry is well aware of their public relations challenge going forward and in the main feature of this first issue, we take a look at these themes and get them out into the open. This is going to be one huge discussion and will dominate the industry over the coming years.

Our focus is the business of precision robotics, collaborative robots and next generation automation, which allows us to range far and wide across what is a hugely fascinating industry.

In this first issue we’re going to give you news, opinions, features of all types (from ourselves and contributed) and we’re going to take a close look at the business of robotics, looking at the latest deals and market reports.

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By the time this issue is published, I will have attended a new robotics and automation exhibition which will take place this autumn in Milton Keynes.

Appropriately called the Robotics and Automation Exhibition 2017, it was staged at Arena MK, Milton Keynes, on the 11th and 12th October, 2017. It promises to offer visitors the opportunity to discover new ways to improve efficiency, reduce costs and gain a competitive advantage.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

Enjoy this issue and I hope we can catch up on my travels.

All the best,

Neil

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L ATEST NEWS

WORLD’S FIRST DEDICATED EQUITY PLATFORM FOR HIGH POTENTIAL ROBOT COMPANIES The world’s first dedicated equity crowd-funding platform for high potential companies in field of robotics and associated technologies has been launched by Britbots.

Called Britbots CROWD, the platform has just gone live.

Over the coming weeks, a selection of companies will open for investment on the platform, including: • ZOA ROBOTICS: a company that has developed of a low-cost robotics platform, allowing for the transportation of materials around uneven environments, using four-legged robots.

• BOTSKILL: a business enables brands to take their first steps in using “bots” (computer programmes which mimic human conversation using artificial intelligence) to handle routine customer enquiries.

control robots and other systems at distance.

• FUTURE TECHNOLOGY RESOURCES: an organisation which provides tools and inspiration to help teachers teach computer programming in a practical and fun way, preparing students for a workingworld where automation & robotics is widespread.

Many of the companies listed will have already been backed by the British Robotics Seed Fund which raised in excess of £500,000 in its first fund, and will announce the opening of its second fund later this autumn.

Each of the companies listed on the platform will accept a minimum investment amount of £200. This, says Britbots, puts their shares well within the reach of mainstream investors.

What’s more, most of the companies offer investors attractive tax incentives under SEIS, or EIS. They also receive active mentoring and business development support from Britbots.

Founder of Britbots Dominic Keen said: “Whilst talking to investors about the British Robotics Seed Fund we realised that there was a broad appetite amongst investors to include some high-potential robotics businesses in their portfolio on a discretionary basis without necessarily going down the fund route.

“Hence we are delighted to have launched Britbots CROWD, the world’s only dedicated equity crowdfunding platform for robotics companies, giving investors direct access to this exciting class of investments for the first time.”

CEO of ZOA Robotics Thiago Azevedo said: “I’m pleased to be working with Britbots CROWD to source new investors for our current funding round. It can be difficult to identify investors who are specifically interested in robotics companies when using other equity crowdfunding platforms and so I’m confident that Britbots CROWD will do a good job in filling this niche.”

• TETHERED DRONE TECHNOLOGIES: a provider of autonomous tethered drone systems, flying nearcontinuously for use in semipermanent surveillance and communications scenarios.

• REDBEARD: a software company that makes it easy to design and build user interface apps for smartphones to remotely Dominic Keen, Founder of Britbots

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NEWS

MOLLART AND FANUC TEAM UP TO DEVELOP VERTICAL MICRO DRILLING MACHINE Mollart Engineering has teamed up with FANUC UK to develop a new version of its specialist VDM vertical micro drilling machine.

It will be launched at EMO 2017.

The original VDM machine was originally developed in Germany by a company that was acquired by Mollart.

With the original team due to retire, the decision was made to partner with FANUC to develop an upgraded version. This would see the original PLC control and drives with new FANUC drives, motors and CNC. What’s more, the new partnership with FANUC means that the VDM machine can be easily fitted with robotic automation, all controlled from the FANUC CNC, to facilitate lights-out and unmanned running.

The new machine is equipped with a W-axis and a twoaxis coordinate table for prismatic parts drilling or, alternatively, on-board loading options. The machine comes equipped with the option of either two, or four spindles.

It is suited to high-volume micro drilling applications that require extreme accuracy,

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such as the manufacture of precision automotive parts and medical devices, including bone screws and dental implants. The machine has a space-saving design of only 2m x 2m, making it suitable for smaller machine shops.

Founded back in 1929, Mollart specialises in the manufacture of a range of deep hole drilling machines, tooling and subcontract engineering. It has production sites in the UK and Croatia.

Sales Director at Mollart Engineering Ian Pettit said: “When we first acquired the VDM it was clear that the machine had enormous

qualities, but needed significant upgrades to the drives and CNC in order for it to reach its full potential in the marketplace.

“We’ve worked with FANUC for more than 25 years and they were the natural partners to help us develop the machine.

We believe that, together, we have now developed a best-in-class precision microdrilling machine that is easy to programme, highly productive and can be easily retrofitted with robotic automation. Most importantly, the VDMF has a highly competitive price point for a machine of this quality.”

Sales and Marketing Director at FANUC UK Andrew Armstrong added: “Our partnership with Mollart is well-established and we were delighted to be invited to partner with it on the upgrading of its microdrilling machine. The inclusion of FANUC CNC in particular has made the VDMF much more efficient and easy to programme, compared to its predecessor. FANUC CNC is the most popular CNC in the world, which means that programmers will feel comfortable with the programming language and its capabilities – all of which help to deliver a more efficient production environment.”

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NEWS

WILL ROBOT WORKERS HELP REVERSE POLICES TO RAISE STATE PENSION AGE? A new report from the TUC argues that argues that the economic gains from such things as robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) should be used to benefit working people, for example by reversing policies to raise the state pension age.

The report is called Shaping Our Digital Future.

It explores how the next technological revolution will impact on jobs and wages, noting that previous waves of technological change have not led to an overall loss of jobs, but have disrupted the types of job people do.

It makes the point that the most recent wave of industrial change, rewards from higher productivity have gone predominantly to business owners, rather than being shared across the workforce through better wages and working conditions.

The central focus for the TUC is that they believe the government, business and trade unions must work together to mitigate disruption to working people’s lives, and to

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maximise opportunities for working people to benefit.

And with two-thirds of the 2030 workforce already in work today, efforts must focus on ensuring that existing workers are equipped to deal with the change.

Key ideas from the report include: • using income gains from higher productivity to stop planned increases in the state pension age, set to affect millions of people in their 40s; • giving everyone the right to a mid-life career review, and stepping up the investment in workplace training to the EU average – at present the UK invests just half; • giving more workers the opportunity through collective bargaining to gain a share of the economic gains technology brings through wage increases.

TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “With the UK failing to make productivity gains in the last decade, we need to make the most of the

economic opportunities that new technologies are offering. Robots and AI could let us produce more for less, boosting national prosperity. But we need a debate about who benefits from this wealth, and how workers get a fair share.

“We should look on the changes ahead as an opportunity to improve the lives of working people and their families. The government could use the revenue generated to reverse policies to raise the state pension age. And businesses could use productivity gains to improve the pay and conditions of workers.

“Robots are not just terminators. Some of today’s jobs will not survive, but new jobs will be created. We must make sure that tomorrow’s jobs are no worse than today’s. They must provide fulfilling work, with good pay and conditions. And there must be funding to train people for new work if their job is made obsolete.”

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NEWS

MTC TO CO-FUND NINE PHD PROGRAMMES WITH THREE UNIVERSITIES The Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) is to co-fund nine PhD programmes with three universities as it looks to secure tomorrow’s technologies for the UK’s manufacturing industry, including robotics and artificial intelligence.

MTC has invested over £700,000 in the project and has created a partnership with three academic partners: the University of Birmingham, the University of Nottingham and Loughborough University.

The MTC will contribute £80,000 per student undertaking the threeand-a-half year research programmes which start this autumn. There will be three students at each university.

This will be repeated next year as the MTC aims to create a constant stream of innovation ideas from academia, which it can develop and transfer into industry.

ideas and innovations from academia and then advancing them into UK industry. For us, it is also about getting the right standards and the right sort of supervision inside and outside of university, so the students will get access to the MTC’s facilities and experts.

“This will help make sure the PhD is appropriate to industry’s needs. This is a very positive move as it is ensures that the research landscape joins up.”

The PhDs will focus on a number of key areas including next generation robotics, additive manufacturing, simulation and modelling and artificial intelligence.

They will also be split based on the academic specialisms of each university.

Young added: “As we are jointly funding these PhDs with the universities, it means we can make sure the research areas are relevant to us and our industrial members. As new developments are made, this enables us to bring them into the MTC environment and for us to see what is capable for commercial exploitation.

“The universities focus on the low technology readiness levels, where they can solve problems that are currently too far into the future to transfer into industry.

Supporting this, and the individuals, will also help to deliver the future thought leaders for industry. Helping to develop these people is also very much part of our corporate responsibility.”

Technology Director of the Coventry-based R&D facility Ken Young (pictured right) said: “It is about enhancing our relationships and making sure that the work done on the research comes through to the MTC, so we can mature it and get it into industry.

“We want to be at the forefront of getting the

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NEWS

NEW FLEXIBLE COBOT GRIPPERS FROM ON ROBOT On Robot (Charlotte, N.C. and Odense, Denmark) has launched a flexible and energy-efficient gripper for cobots tasked with handling objects of various sizes.

The company manufacturers innovative electric grippers for collaborative robots. It reckons that its RGB6, which is a bigger and stronger version of its RG2, is easy to install on the arm of a cobot and simple to program.

What’s more, it has a higher payload than other two-finger collaborative grippers available on the market today said On Robot. This higher adjustable force (25N to 120N) enables three times higher payload (6-8 kg or 13.2-17.6 lbs.) and wider stroke (160 mm or 6.3 in.). It is suited to manufacturers automating the movement of delicate or heavy objects in applications such as pick and place, computer numerical control (CNC), machine tending, packaging and palletizing, and assembly.

Gary Eliasson, general manager, North America, On Robot, said: “Created after an extensive survey of our distributors worldwide, the RG6 extends the capabilities of the RG2 by providing an ideal user-friendly gripper that handles much larger objects.

“The RG6 is powerful and strong, as a large number of customers have requested, but it is still as simple, easy to install, and safe as the RG2, with no external wires and an infinite rotation of the end joint, which makes them as flexible and dexterous as the robotic arm itself.”

The RG6 is an electric gripper instead of traditional compressed air solutions that take up large amounts of space, are energy-intensive and too complicated for many users said On Robot. Compatible with all Universal Robots cobot arms, the RG6—which mounts

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the arm with factory-installed safety shields—is easy and fast to install, enabling operators to quickly modify assembly on the factory floor without the assistance of an engineer.

Eliasson added: “These grippers are so safe and user-friendly that employees can be directly interact with the cobot. As a result, instead of being intimidated by the technology, the employees become increasingly engaged and fascinated by the possibilities.

They are quickly recognizing additional ways that the cobots can be used to optimize and develop their production.”

The RG6 includes many of the same features as the RG2: • simple and intuitive programming that lets operators easily choose what they need the gripper to do, and the gripper then responds with flexible motion; • customizable fingertips to fit production requirements; • dual grippers support without the need for extra wiring; • assisted center-of-gravity calculation that lets users enter the weight of the payload and let the robot calculate the rest. This makes programming easier, enhancing overall productivity and improving safety by enabling more accurate robot arm movements; • automatic Tool Center Point (TCP) calculation on how the robot arm moves around the calculated TCP of an object, depending on the position in which the gripper is mounted, for easier programming and use; • continuous grip indication that allows the gripper to discern any lost or deliberately removed object.

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NEWS

FANUC WELDS ITSELF TO CYBER-WELD The Coventry-based factory automation solutions provider FANUC has chosen systems integrator CyberWeld Ltd as its preferred arc welding partner in the UK. Based down the road in Southam, Warwickshire, Cyber-Weld is an approved FANUC Strategic Partner and has supplied FANUC robots to its UK-wide customer base for around 20 years. Its customers operate in sectors ranging from automotive to marine, and aerospace to chemicals.

The arrangement follows the recent launch by FANUC UK of its ARC Mate 100iD welding robot, which has a number of innovative features.

Managing Director of FANUC UK Tom Bouchier said: “The welding market is one where we have identified significant growth potential, but in order to harness that, we require the support of specialist systems integrators able to combine our specialist welding robots with other equipment.

“Cyber-Weld is one of our longest-standing systems integrators in the UK and is ideally placed to service the needs of a broad spectrum of customers requiring systems that offer precision and reliability in all areas of welding, built around our high-specification welding robot range.”

Cyber-Weld Managing Director Fraser Read added: “FANUC robots have an enviable reputation for quality and performance and they are invariably our first choice when developing an automated welding system. Our customer base continues to grow based on the quality of our service and of the systems we supply, with FANUC products at their heart. We look forward to further extending our highly productive partnership with FANUC in the coming years.”

Pictured: Cyber-Weld Managing Director Fraser Reid (left) presents the nuclear waste container to Tom Bouchier, Managing Director of FANUC UK.

To cement the deal, CyberWeld presented FANUC with a robotically welded nuclear waste container welded by FANUC robots by Lancashire-based Graham Engineering, a long-standing customer of Cyber-Weld.

Graham Engineering operates eight systems varying in application from laser welding to TIG/MAG, plasma cutting, and shot-blasting, all using FANUC robots and integrated by Cyber-Weld.

TELEDYNE DALSA CAMERAS HELP AERIAL ROBOTICS TEAMS ACHIEVE SUCCESS

Kit from Teledyne DALSA helped the University of Toronto Aerospace Team’s (UTAT) UAV and Aerial Robotics Divisions to success at the recent Unmanned Systems Canada’s national competition.

Honours went to both teams with awards for the design and performance of their custombuilt unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). This flew autonomous search patterns while capturing images at approximately 200 feet above ground.

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Teledyne DALSA was a platinum sponsor of the event and provided two Genie cameras for the mission.

A Genie TS-C4096, the primary payload, provided complete coverage of surveillance regions with high ground resolutions for effective target detection and characterization. A lighter Genie Nano C1940 model provided high-resolution color imaging from a multirotor.

The UAV and Aerial Robotics Divisions were two of thirteen university student teams to compete in the Flying Phase of the 9th Unmanned Systems Canada UAS Student Competition. The teams were ranked for their ability to accurately report goose population attributes, including

the geolocations of detected nests, the number of distinct goose species observed and a census count for each of these species. UAV and Aerial Robotics Divisions were placed second and first in the design phase, and first and fourth in flight operations respectively.

Erik Chau, team lead for UTAT, said: “We have had great success using Teledyne DALSA Genie cameras for practical applications like target recognition and identification, precision agriculture and wildlife monitoring. With the recent release of the Linux Gig-E Framework, we are able to acquire high-resolution images at very fast frame rates on an Odroid XU4 running a Ubuntu operating system.”

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NEWS

ROBO SAFE CRACKER Leading brands of safes, thought to be impregnable and out of the reach of nimble fingered thieves, can be cracked using a robo safe cracker.

This was proved at the recent Def Con bash at Las Vegas when a team from SparkFun Electronics was able to open a top safe in around 30 minutes.

The clever robot is no slouch and goes about its nefarious ways by firstly reducing the millions of combination possibilities to a more manageable 1,000. It then ran through those combinations quickly before, on stage, the door dramatically popped open.

The SparkFun team told the BBC: “That was one of the scariest things we’ve done. Lots of things can go wrong, and this was a very big audience. We’re really happy it opened up.”

The company which had manufactured the safe was understandably less enthused and a spokesperson said primly: “In this environment, the product accomplished what it was designed to do.

It would be realistically very difficult, if not impossible, for the average person to replicate in the field.”

Well yes, they a point, but if a robot, which cost around $200 to build, can crack a tricky safe, then how are normal villains going to earn their money? Is this another case of robots taking over human jobs?

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DRONERS BACK UK EXAM AND REGISTRATION PLANS New research suggests that the UK Government’s plans to introduce a drone exam and register the devices has got the backing of those that use them.

The figures, compiled by drones and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) retailer DronesDirect.co.uk, show that 61% of drone owners would welcome a compulsory flying exam before taking to the skies with their gadget as they think it would increase public safety.

What’s more, 56% of drone owners think they would pass the exam and 65% are willing to have their drone registered.

It was also revealed that whilst the majority of users would be willing to have their drone electronically registered to make it easier to identify the owner if the gadget was lost or stolen – in fact just 13% are against this idea.

Despite what media reports about drone near-misses at airports might suggest, the research findings point to the fact that drone owners are a largely well-informed and safety conscious bunch, as almost all (98%) of drone owners surveyed said they were aware of the Drone Code rules and regulations set out by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) on the operation of drones.

Marketing Manager at DronesDirect.co.uk Mark Kelly said: “It’s encouraging to see the majority of drone owners welcome steps to increase flying safety, and that they are already confident in their level of operating skill. We recommend that all drone owners are familiar with the CAA guidelines before taking flight, and fly their gadget in clear open spaces.

“The introduction of electronic registering will also add further reassurance to avid flyers with less than a sixth against this idea. The registry of drones makes sense and is no different in practice to the records currently kept by the DVLA for road vehicles.

“The vast majority of the drones we sell feature inbuilt safety features to avoid droners flying their craft close to no-fly zones and sensitive sites such as airports, clearly marking these no go zones and increased development of geo-fences will help owners unfamiliar with the local area.”

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NEWS

‘BE A DARLING AND RING FOR THE ROBOT BUTLER WOULD YOU…’ The Relay butler robot has won the 13th Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Robotics and Automation Award (IERA).

The service robot, which can make deliveries all on its own in for example hotels, hospitals or logistics centers, is made by American company Savioke.

By using AI and sensor technology, it moves safely through public spaces and navigates around people and obstacles as necessary.

Measuring just under three feet tall, and 18-inches round, Relay communicates with its surroundings via touchscreen, smart phone and sounds. And in case anyone gets freaked out, its equipped with friendly, easy to understand facial expressions, such as, ‘where is my tip?’.

Vice President of the IEEERAS Erwin Prassler said: “This year once again, we received a large number of truly exceptional applications.

In the end, the jury was unanimous in its decision.

This award is a testament to the excellent work by California-based Savioke led by its CEO, Steve Cousins.

Steve Cousins and Savioke have developed the core technology in professional service robotics to a readiness level which enables a 24/7 operation in public, human inhabited environments.”

CEO of Savioke Steve Cousins (pictured below, with Relay)

said: “Relay is the first fully autonomous delivery robot worldwide that is able to navigate safely through human-occupied spaces. Up until now, similar technologies have been limited to fixed routes, or deployed only in closely defined spaces.

Our highest aim is always to create robots that can help people. The interaction should be as friendly and pleasant as possible.”

The International Federation of Robotics (IFR) and the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (IEEE/ RAS) jointly sponsor the annual IERA award.

For over three years now Relay units have been working in the hotel industry and the second stage of deployment has been apartment and industrial buildings.

To date, Savioke robots have already completed over 100,000 deliveries in the United States, Asia and the Middle East. And it looks Relay is to come to Germany and France in the near future.

President of the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) Joe Gemma said: “The IERA Award is one of the most important distinctions in the world of robotics today. This year’s award winner, Relay, perfectly exemplifies how research and development can successfully work hand in hand with industry.”

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NEWS

DIRECTOR OF EPFL’S RECONFIGURABLE ROBOTICS LAB JAMIE PAIK SAID: “YOU SHOULD NOT CRY OVER LOST ROBOTS OR A BROKEN ONE ON THE WAY.” Jamie Paik, Director of EPFL’s Reconfigurable Robotics Lab (RRL), said: “We are moving to the next generation of origami robots that are easy to manufacture, mass produceable. We want them to communicate with each other so that they can create different workforce tasks under a remote environment where normal robots or larger robots or more expensive robots have difficulty to get into.”

“You should not cry over lost robots or a broken one on the way. So we want this to be a cheap, easy, solution for transferring information and in order to do that you need these robots to also tell multiple modes of locomotion.”

Zhenishbek Zhakypov, PhD student at EPFL, said: “They are made of multiple layers of flat sheet material and we fold them together to obtain a 3D shape of the robot. Then we introduce other components, like electronic components for sensing and communication, as well as a battery for powering on-board.”

And: “This robot could be manufactured on demand, customised, and then thrown in very large quantities into a rescue or emergency mitigation scenarios, so that they can collect data and detect possible victims.”

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TAIWAN INVESTS MILLIONS IN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE Taiwan is to spend $32m every year, for five years, on artificial intelligence centres.

opportunity to enter the sphere of AI, and Taiwan needs to grab onto this opportunity.”

Taiwan’s Government hopes that the AI commitment will help its technology companies do well in the robotics and AI sectors.

Some three, or four innovation centres will be built, hoping to attract both domestic and international tech firms.

Reuters reported that the Minister of Science and Technology Liang-Gee Chen said, during a press conference in Taipei: “The importance of AI for Taiwan is apparent through its semiconductor companies.

Right now, they have an

The inspiration for the centres is large investments made in AI applications by Chinese companies based on the mainland. Chen said Taiwain hopes to supply these companies, such as Baidu, in the future.

PATHPLAN AIMS TO EMPOWER ROBOTS PathPlan Autonomous Motion Planning Software from Battelle (Columbus, Ohio) is designed to automate tasks in high-risk, high stakes scenarios and reduce programming time.

Battelle says that users of the software can empower their robots to automate the most challenging and complex applications. This allows them to work within confined, or hazardous spaces, to perform intricate tasks on complex surfaces, high-value work pieces and impossible-to-replace parts.

• scan-to-path and CADto-path motion planning; • collision avoidance; • real-time monitoring of the robot; • intuitive, “point-andclick” program interface; • collision avoidance during teach mode operation.

PathPlan works by giving robot a specific goal and its algorithms determine the optimal collision-free path to achieve it. This, says Battelle, reduces programming time and costs substantially.

Key elements include: • automated dynamic route planning;

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NEWS

OCADO COMPLETES TRIALS OF AUTONOMOUS DELIVERY VAN Online supermarket giant Ocado has just completed the UK’s first trials of an autonomous delivery van around London homes.

It’s part of the TRL-led GATEway (Greenwich Automated Transport Environment) Project, which is funded by the UK government and industry.

Partners for this project are Ocado Technology (a division of Ocado).

Called the CargoPod and developed by Oxbotica, the autonomous vehicle operated in a residential environment, delivering grocery orders to over one hundred customers around the Berkeley Homes, Royal Arsenal Riverside development in the Royal Borough of Greenwich The GATEway project takes part in the UK Smart Mobility Living Lab. The objective is “…to demonstrate the use of autonomous vehicles for ‘last

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mile’ deliveries and mobility, seamlessly connecting existing distribution and transport hubs with residential and commercial areas using zero emission, low noise transport systems.”

The CargoPod is guided by their state-of-the-art autonomy software system Selenium. This enables realtime, accurate navigation, planning and perception in dynamic environments.

The vehicle is able to carry a total of 128kg of groceries at a time.

CEO of Oxbotica Graeme Smith said: “Last mile delivery is a growing challenge as our cities become denser and more congested. In this new project we are working closely with Ocado Technology to deploy our Selenium autonomy system into a novel last-mile delivery application in Greenwich as a part of the GATEway project.

This is truly a UK success

story about CCAV and Innovate UK enabling a young British company to become established and to be able to demonstrate mature world-class technology capabilities within a real-life dense urban environment.”

David Sharp Head of 10x department at Ocado Technology said: “Ocado Technology is delighted to have worked in partnership with the GATEway Project to a complete a very successful grocery delivery trial using driverless vehicles.

We are always looking to come up with unique, innovative solutions to the real-world challenge of delivering groceries in densely-populated urban environments. This project is part of the on-going journey to be at the edge of what is practical and offer our Ocado Smart Platform customers new and exciting solutions for last mile deliveries.”

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NEWS

AUGUST BODIES FRET OVER FUTURE OF HUMANS It would seem that the august bodies of the British Academy and The Royal Society are fretting about the governance of data management and its use.

In a joint report, and one which has a bearing on the robotics and AI industries, they state that the principles for data governance has to be that humans should flourish.

And many commentators are seeing this as a warning that although robots are marching into human lives, humans need to be placed first.

Here’s a quote from the report’s executive summary: “In the past, disruptive technologies, such as the printing press or the introduction of weaving machines during the first industrial revolution, sparked major public controversy.

While history does not enable us to predict the future, it suggests that the potential for controversies around new ways

of using and communicating data is very high.

use are made transparently, accountably and inclusively;

“It also suggests that societies can act in advance to create well-founded responses that contribute to bringing the benefits of disruptive technologies into being. Current experience also suggests that, without a framework giving entrepreneurs and decision-makers sufficient confidence about acceptable data uses, applications that would have been widely welcomed may be lost.”

• seek out good practices and learn from success and failure;

The report says that the “… promotion of human flourishing is the overarching principle that should guide the development of systems of data governance.”

What’s more, that there should be four principles that provide practical support for this overarching principle across the varied ways data is managed.

These are: • protect individual and collective rights and interests; • ensure that trade-offs affected by data management and data

• enhance existing democratic governance.

The report is making the argument that a new body needs to be created. It would have a stewardship role and “…would be expected to conduct inclusive dialogue and expert investigation into novel questions and issues, and to enable new ways to anticipate the future consequences of today’s decisions.”

One paragraph full of portents comes near the end of the report: “It is likely that society is facing a period of particularly disruptive transition in the coming years. In some areas society cannot yet frame meaningful questions around these issues, while nevertheless taking actions that will have long-term and cumulative effects.”

This will be one of many such reports that will cry out for some sort of oversight as the new dawn starts to rise.

ROBOTICS AT HEART OF BOEING’S NEW ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH CENTER One of the first projects at Boeing’s new advanced development research center will focus on utilizing industrial robotics for machining and fabrication applications that can be applied to the manufacturing processes.

The Boeing Manufacturing Development Center (BMDC) is an initiative with the Georgia Institute of Technology.

It is located in the new 19,000-square foot Delta Advanced Manufacturing Pilot Facility at the university, and it will enable Boeing researchers and Georgia Tech engineering students to work side-by-side on implementing automation in industrial applications.

engineers to help drive the development of innovative factory automation solutions in aerospace".

Steve Cross, Georgia Tech’s Executive VP for Research, added: “Georgia Tech’s long and productive relationship with Boeing includes immersive educational support for our students, collaborative research, and development of aerospace innovations,” said “Our relationship is an exemplar for industry-university engagement as we meet jointly

shared aspirations for the future of education and the advancement of technology.”

For more than 25 years, Boeing has supported a variety of manufacturing research activities at Georgia Tech. The university is one of ten primary strategic secondary schools, including Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford, Cambridge and California Institute of Technology, that Boeing partners with on research worldwide.

Greg Hyslop, Boeing CTO and Senior VP of Engineering, Test & Technology, said: “This advanced center will let Georgia Tech students collaborate with Boeing

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LMI

3D SMART SENSORS INTO THE SMART FACTORY SETTING Canadian-based LMI Technologies talks about 3D Smart Sensors, Robots and the Advancement of Automated Mixed-Model Production The introduction of robot-driven 3D smart sensors into the smart factory setting is driving the advancement of automated mixed-model production across a wide range of industries.

Robotic systems are being used for a variety of assembly and inspection applications, which is enabling the operation of lean, efficient, and automated systems where more than one product type or model can be produced on a single production line.

3D smart sensors provide these systems with both robot vision-guidance and flexible measurement capabilities for inline assembly and inspection processes.

Fig.1 Illustration of gap & flush inspection on a single model production line.

SINGLE MODEL PRODUCTION LINES In early automotive manufacturing layouts, single model, batch production lines were common.

This approach consisted of a set of workstations arranged in a linear fashion, with each station connected by a material handling device.

In this layout, each station performs a fixed function in the production of a single product type or model. In order to manufacture a different product type or model, the entire line has to be changed over on a fixed schedule.

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Single model production lines often require rebalancing with different stations and task assignments, which leads to disruption and downtime on the line. Most importantly, because they are made up of fixed workstations, single model lines are unable to adapt to upstream demand variability.

Fig.2 Illustration of gap & flush inspection on a mixed-model production line.

INTRODUCTION OF MIXEDMODEL PRODUCTION Mixed-model production increases productivity and profitability through a more efficient use of time, floorspace, and resources. As a powerful complement to single model batch production, mixed-model manufacturing allows the factory to create products according to specific customer demands and specifications.

As opposed to a single model approach, the assembly line is now organized into multiple, smaller work cells where each cell is able to produce either a single model or several models with a high degree of part commonality. Some (or all) upstream fabrication can be carried out in each of these cells to increase efficiency and output. Fabrication equipment for each model can be combined with respective assembly operations in a cell or sub-cell––providing

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LMI

even closer coordination and corresponding improvements in quality and inventory.

repeatability - ensuring each product model is assembled on-time and to specification.

The result is a smoothing of demand at fabrication, which eliminates the need for a large inventory buffer between fabrication and assembly.

A similar inventory reduction occurs on the finished goods side, since the production line is scheduled to synchronize with demand.

Depending on the application, system engineers can choose from laser line profilers for guidance and inspection of moving parts in an inline process, or snapshot (fringe projection) sensors for full-field inspection of objects with start/stop motion.

THE INTRODUCTION OF ROBOTS The mixed-model approach to assembly is not new. Automotive companies have known of its advantages and been adopting this method for more than a decade now. What is relatively new, however, is the possibility of fully automating this process through the use of robotic systems.

Fig. 5 Gocator laser line profiler scanning automotive parts in an inline process.

Fig. 3 Windshield nsertion using a vision-guided robotic arm.

Fig. 6 Gocator Volume Checker scanning engine cylinder heads.

ROBOTIC VISION-GUIDANCE (RVG) SYSTEMS AND FLEXIBLE ROBOTIC MEASUREMENT Smart sensors can be mounted on robots in order to pick up and guide parts to critical locations for insertion.

Fig. 4 Gap & flush measurement using a Gocator 3210 snapshot sensor mounted onto a robotic arm.

Robotic systems allow manufacturers to partially or completely automate what was previously an error-prone and potentially dangerous manual operation. Today robots are used for everything from automated windshield and door insertion to seam welding or glue bead application to gap and flush and underbody inspection.

SYSTEMS DRIVEN BY 3D SMART SENSORS 3D smart sensors provide critical machine vision guidance and measurement capability.

This allows robotic systems to execute an array of tasks in a variety of specialized work cells, with a high degree of accuracy and

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For the majority of applications, however, the 3D smart sensor is not only responsible for guiding the robot to its correct position, but also for detecting and inspecting finished assembly features. In automotive, 3D smart sensors are used for a multitude of inspection applications such as verifying panel gap and flush tolerances; seat insertion on studs; door mounting; wire hanging location; holes for light insertions; hood and decklids, panel mating and more.

In these types of measurement and inspection applications, all-in-one smart sensors execute real-time control decisions based on the acquired data––all from inside the sensor.

ALL-IN-ONE SOLUTION WITH SEAMLESS INTEGRATION One of the key advantages of an all-in-one smart sensor like Gocator is that it provides the robot

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LMIL MI

models, while other Gocators are used to measure features on one model only.

NETWORK CONNECTED

Fig. 7 Real 3D scan from gap & flush measurement on an automotive door panel.

All-in-one 3D smart sensors can adapt to changing inspection requirements in a multi-model production line because they are connected to the factory network and can be accessed directly over TCP/IP protocols. This means they can easily be reconfigured for different measurement jobs as well as updated with firmware to access new measurement algorithms.

FIRMWARE CUSTOMIZATION In addition to regular firmware updates, all-in-one 3D smart sensors offer firmware customization to advanced users. This capability gives plant engineering the ability to develop and embed custom measurement tools onto the sensor itself, so that a new process or part can receive highly specialized inspection to meet tight tolerances.

Fig. 8 Badge inspection using Gocator 3210 snapshot sensor mounted on a robot arm.

QUICK AND EFFICIENT SYSTEM CHANGEOVER

with an all-in-one sequence of 3D scanning, measurement and control decision communication.

In addition, it offers embedded support for directly communicating with robot controllers.

Flexibility is the key. The smart sensors that are used for measuring the features on a door panel can be used for gap and flush inspection, and the changeover can be achieved seamlessly with little to no downtime or system disruption.

An all-in-one 3D smart sensor also has the capacity for seamless integration. This makes it an ideal fit for robotic applications––delivering simplicity and ease of use where standard 3D sensor solutions still require external controllers (both for mounting and interfacing), complicated cabling, additional coding and even proprietary PC solutions to operate.

REPROGRAMMABLE FOR ONTHE-FLY INSPECTION On a traditional production line where only one model of product is being produced, it’s acceptable for 3D sensors to only be fixed solutions (i.e., with no ability to adapt to task variation). In a multimodel production line, however, the solution has to be more agile––and this is another area where next generation 3D smart sensors hold an advantage over standard sensor solutions.

Gocator can be “reprogrammed” on-the-fly by loading different jobs that correspond to each product model. A job contains the specific configurations for taking measurements, setting exposures, and setting pass/fail criteria.

Gocator can be used as either a fixed (nonrobotic) or flexible (robot-mounted) solution.

In mixed-model systems, select Gocators are used to measure common features across

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ROBOTS AND SENSORS AN ESSENTIAL PAIR Robot-driven 3D smart sensors enable multimodel production lines to respond to inline dynamic changes over the network through job changes while continuing to deliver the highest standards of product safety and quality.

THE FUTURE OF ROBOTIC INSPECTION The trend toward multi-model production is expanding into many manufacturing environments, which means 3D smart sensordriven robotic systems will continue to adapt and offer unique benefits to the customer and their individual manufacturing needs.

Contact Kassandra Sison +1 604 636 1011 ext 1178 Email: ksison@lmi3D.com For more information please visit: ww.lmi3D.com

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CUSTOM PRODUCTION, MADE TO MEASURE QUALITY

I am sure that you have often seen robots “at work”. They are constantly moving. They twist and turn and they get on with things without complaining regardless of whether it is hot or cold or if they are exposed to water or chemicals. There is no doubt that a robot needs to be able to stand up to rough treatment. The same goes for the cables used in them. Particularly in the automotive industry, robots are now an indispensable part of production lines.

As automation advances, the demand for perfectly adapted robot cables is constantly increasing. That is why, in addition to its well-known standard ÖLFLEX® ROBOT cables, Lapp Group also supplies special robot cables developed for individual requirements and applications.

For the world-famous paint system manufacturer Dürr from Stuttgart, Lapp Group developed special robot cables for wiring the painting robots. This involved performing the required torsion and bending tests in Lapp’s in-house test laboratory, in close consultation with the customer. To guarantee 100% functionality, customer-specific test adapters were even produced and used.

Dürr’s painting systems use cables that can withstand extremely high bending and torsion cycles (+/- 600 degrees per metre /10 million cycles) and are both flame retardant and oil resistant. The conductors are made of ultra fine copper braids with high quality TPE (thermoplastic elastomer) compound insulation. Teflon films keep the friction between the different elements to an absolute minimum. The special cables also employ special stranding techniques and use high quality polyurethane for the outer sheath.

In the case of the Dürr painting systems, there are nine different special robot cables, from BUS lines to sensor leads to servo motor and feedback cables.

The particular challenge and complexity of special robot cables lies in the fact that a tailored solution has to be developed for every application. The research and development team at Lapp Group has state of the art laboratories and testing facilities. All robot cables are developed in close consultation with the customer and all requirements in terms of cross-sections, movement and the surrounding location are incorporated into the development process. A prototype cable is normally developed first and then tested in every detail.

In the case of Dürr, the first prototypes were produced in just three weeks.

After a successful trial period of several weeks, the cables were approved for series production.

ROBOPRO OPINION

ROBOPRO

OPINION Editor Neil Martin brings you some of the more offbeat stories from the world of robotics.

HELLO DEARIE: THE RISE OF THE SEXBOT!

autonomous vehicles, or next generation automation – or maybe it’s a mixture of all them, but the adult entertainment industry is never slow on the uptake when it comes to fulfilling a need. The age of the sexbot is around the corner.

And right on cue is a new report from the people at Foundation for Responsible Robotics.

It’s called Our Sexual Future With Robots, subtitled A Foundation For Responsible Robotics Consultation Report, and focuses on seven core questions that the authors say have received prominent attention in the media and in scholarly literature: 1. W ould people have sex with a robot?

2. W hat kind of relationship can we have with a robot?

I’m sure not quite sure which one of RoboPro subject categories this story falls into – precision/ collaborative robots, or

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3. W ill robot sex workers and bordellos be acceptable?

4. W ill sex robots change societal perceptions of gender?

5. C ould sexual intimacy with robots lead to greater social isolation?

6. C ould robots help with sexual healing and therapy?

7. W ould sex robots help to reduce sex crimes?

Personally, as regards question two, I wouldn’t have a problem with working with robots, as I think I’ve met quite a few android-like colleagues in my career.

But, this is going to be big business and a significant part of the robotics industry. The report names a number of creations from four individual companies: Harmony by Abyss Creations, Android Love Doll by Android Love Dolls, Roxxxy Gold and Rocky Gold by TrueCompanion, and Suzie Software and Harry Harddrive by Sex Bot Company. Now, if you bear in mind that the expensive model, Harmony, is priced at a staggering $15,000, then this is serious stuff. And, this is just the start.

Which now means, when you get questioned by your partner as to where you’ve you been all night, you will have to say, “…look, I promise, I haven’t been with that robot again.” To which you might hear the retort, “…I swear, it’s either that robot, or me!” ■

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ROBOPRO OPINION

“ WE’RE THE SWEENEY, SON – AND WE HAVEN’T HAD ANY DINNER…” I see that the Dubai police force has taken on their first robotic officer. Now, if I was in charge of tweaking that machine’s onboard personality chip, I would forget using RoboCop as a role model and go for Jack Regan, the iconic Flying Squad copper. And, bearing in mind my age, I’m thinking more John Thaw than Ray Winstone.

So, I’d have my robotic officer – they’d call him Gov – patrolling the shopping malls in a double-seat mobility carriage, slouched in the passenger seat, fag in hand, barking orders at his down trodden driver.

Jack could then emit those immortal words, when feeling some criminal’s collar: “You’re nicked you slag. We’re the Sweeney, son – and we haven’t had any dinner.”

And once in a while, spotting some right villains ready to do a job, he’d collect some fellow robo policemen, pick up some baseball bats, and give em a right going over.

At the end of shift, he’d wind down with a bottle of single malt WD-40 and another robot of questionable morals. Now that’s what I’d call a real robo copper.

Although somehow I don’t think the Dubai Police department will take my suggestions very seriously.

Their version, based a customised Reem model from Pal Robotics, was recently shown off at the Gulf Information and Security Expo and Conference on Sunday.

His, or her job, will be to patrol some of the busier tourist attractions. And from how the official statement read, people can use it to report crimes, pay fines and get information by pressing a screen

on it chest. I can’t see that last option being very popular, we all instinctively know that pressing a copper on the chest repeatedly isn’t going to end well. Any data collected by the robot is then be shared with other branches of the law.

A spokesman said that the aim was to have 25% of the country’s police force to be robotic by 2030 although, they added that humans were not being replaced, just allocated to more appropriate areas – maybe the canteen, they didn’t say.

So, when in Dubai, behave yourself, or you might feel the long, metallic reach of the law. ■

FUNERAL ROBOT HELPS OUT A slightly ironic story this, given that many humans think robots are getting ready to exterminate us all, but in Japan, our mechanical friends are helping out at funerals.

I can just imagine the conspiracy theories this is going to create.

But, in Japan, where funerals are not cheap and monks charge a fortune to chant Buddhist sutras, this may well catch on.

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The robot chosen to take on the funerial responsibilities is the SoftBank Group humanoid robot Pepper.

Personally, I find this thing a bit smiley, somewhat happy-clappy, as though its signing you up to join a cult. But, it’s becoming acceptable to more and more people. The white-headed robots are already hard at work in nursing homes, banks and sushi shops, with around 10,000 in operation.

It’s claimed that Pepper can read human emotions and is therefore ideal at interacting with people.

Which is more than can be said for most people these days.

For this task, it’s being hired out by Kanagawa-based Nissei,

the maker of moulded plastic products, which has been selling funeral services since 2000.

And now it has this new venture which targets budget-minded customers.

It’s best not to die in Japan, the service can cost millions of yen, but this is one way where it’s hoped funeral costs will be brought down.

And if you’re keen to try a Pepper out, the cost is ¥198,000, with a monthly fee of ¥24,600. Although you can rent one for ¥55,000 a month.

Just make sure that if you want one for your sushi shop, don’t pick the chants option. ■

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ROBOPRO OPINION

THE RISE OF THE MACHINES THE FEAR OF KILLER ROBOTS The debate as to whether you think artificial intelligence is the saviour of the world, or actually Armageddon personified, has taken a new twist, with news that 116 robotic experts have urged the United Nations to take action to stop the development of ‘killer robots.’

Elon Musk leads the charge, claiming that we are about to open a whole Pandora’s box of trouble. In a letter to the UN, he and his fellow experts said: “As companies building the technologies in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics that may be repurposed to develop autonomous weapons, we feel especially responsible for raising this alarm.

“We warmly welcome the decision of the UN’s Conference of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) to establish a Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) on Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems.

“Many of our researchers and engineers are eager to offer technical advice to your deliberations. We commend the appointment of Ambassador Amandeep Singh Gill of India as chair of the GGE.

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“We entreat the High Contracting Parties participating in the GGE to work hard at finding means to prevent an arms race in these weapons, to protect civilians from their misuse, and to avoid the destabilising effects of these technologies.”

“We regret that the GGE’s first meeting, which was due to start today, has been cancelled due to a small number of states failing to pay their financial contributions to the UN. We urge the High Contracting Parties, therefore, to double their efforts at the first meeting of the GGE now planned for November.

“Lethal autonomous weapons threaten to become the third revolution in warfare.

“Once developed, they will permit armed conflict to be fought on a scale greater than ever, and at timescales faster than humans can comprehend. These can be weapons of terror, weapons that despots and terrorists use against innocent populations, and weapons hacked to behave in undesirable ways.

“We do not have long to act.

Once this Pandora’s box is opened, it will be hard to close.

“We therefore implore the High Contracting Parties to find a way to protect us all from these dangers.”

Of course, we all know what happened when killer robots became the norm – we had to get Arnold Schwarzenegger to nick that bloke’s clothes and motorbike, and ride to our rescue.

The problem is, no matter how much we don’t want AI, or robotic weaponry, it is going to happen, just as night follows day. And much of the money to develop sophisticated AI systems will come via the military.

What we need to ensure is that these sophisticated weapon systems are properly controlled and regulated, and not easily obtained by the wrong people.

And that’s going to be a very difficult job indeed.

In many ways, Pandora’s box is already well and truly open. ■

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ROBOPRO OPINION

" SUICIDE ROBOT SECURITY GUARD DROWNS ITSELF BY DRIVING INTO POND . . " SCREAMS THE HEADLINE The fact that a security guard robot had fallen into a US shopping centre pool gave headline writers a great excuse to have some fun, and why not?

Perhaps the more mundane headline of ‘robot falls into pool after malfunction’ wouldn’t quite get the same amount of attention.

And people on social media weren’t far behind, saying that the robot had drowned itself by deliberately driving itself into the pool, because of the boredom of its daily routine. That would be a first, a robot deciding to pull the plug with a poolside plunge. Perhaps they are far more advanced than we thought – robots thinking for themselves, whatever next?

The robot was on duty at the Georgetown Waterfront, a shopping centre and office complex. And pictures went viral

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of staff trying to fish the ungainly robot out of the water.

The robot ‘guards’ by using sophisticated sensors, allowing it to understand its environment and decide whether something is wrong, and then raises the alarm by creating noises that are meant to deter criminals.

An article in The Independent newspaper pointed out that the robot in question, a Knightscope security robot, looks like a Dalek.

The advantages of using such a machine are obvious said the newspaper, not least that it costs just $7 an hour to rent, it can withstand an attack and it saves other security staff from having to do boring patrols.

However, as the report highlights, the robot has had a few teething troubles, not least being assaulted by a drunken man and bumping into a toddler.

The company behind the Knightscope didn’t seemed fazed though. A spokesman was keen to point out: “The robot did exactly as it was supposed to do – the ‘assault’ was detected and immediately reported, the alarms on the robot sounded, the suspect attempted to flee the scene and was detained by one of my colleagues and me until the Mountain View Police arrived.”

So well done the robot, and the humans also involved.

Let’s hope, once its dragged out of the pool, someone can talk it around, ask just what it was thinking when it took the plunge. Now that would make an interesting story. Is that the responsibility of the HR department, or a fellow robot?

But, I would guess that a dryout and a spray of WD-40 will do have to do the trick instead! ■

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ROBOPRO OPINION

ROBOTIC WASHING MACHINE - A DAMP SQUIB A robotic washing machine – I was looking forward to bringing you this story.

I had visions of Kryten, or an iRobot type mechanoid really getting to grips with the washing.

Although I’m not sure what I envisaged, maybe a large robot called iWash, complete with various attachments, who would happily take the smelly clothes, push them into their stomach, and then hand them back all clean, ironed and folded.

Well, that’s not quite what they had on show at the recent at the IFA consumer electronics expo in Berlin. Although, to be fair to Panasonic, the creators of this beast, the machine does wash and fold, which is more to be said for all other washing machines out there in the market. I’m not sure if it irons as well, I couldn’t work that out.

The Panasonic prototype is also about the size of a small car, which makes you realise that this is a washing machine with bits added, including cameras that scan the clothes and robotics arms which finally fold the clothes once they have been washed.

So, what we have here is a harmony of washing machine, machine vision and robotics.

The leviathan is called the Sustainable Maintainer and dirty clothes begin their journey via a hamper door. A camera inside then scans the manufacturer’s washing advice labels (good luck with that, after a few wears) and then the piece of clothing is washed. Robotic hands (this is the robotics bit), then take the clothes and fold them. Bingo, dirty clothes in, fresh folder clothes out.

Two representatives from Panasonic were quoted in the media.

Tobias Wobbe said: “It’s really easy. You will always have the optimal setting. You don’t have to think about the settings or the laundry detergent any longer.”

Noemi Besedes added: “It does everything automatically, from washing the clothes, to drying, to folding."

“It saves you a lot of time, it also washes every item at its perfect optimal setting which makes your clothes last longer.” Fair enough, but what about the ironing? Is folding enough, I’m not sure? ■

A.I - SAVIOUR, OR THE END? Artificial intelligence (AI) is being billed as the cure for all human worries by some and the beginning of the end by others.

Daily we are getting reports about how we should welcome the advances brought about

by AI and at the same time, how we should be reaching for the Andrex.

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Now former chess world champion Garry Kasparov (picture above) has weighed-in with his opinions.

Don’t forget Kasparov is a pretty nifty chess player and he was beaten a while back by IBM’s Deep Blue computer.

Now he was speaking at Def Con in Las Vegas he said, without hesitation, that the rise of artificially intelligent machines would not be a huge threat to humanity. But, he did say that there was going to be huge social change on the way as the “shaky hands” of humans were replaced by AI.

He also marked out the difference between when he was beaten by IBM’s computer in 1996 and 1997, and the modern-day advances with AI. He told the audience at Def Con: “Deep Blue was as intelligent as an alarm clock, though losing to a $10m (£7.6m) alarm clock did not make me feel any better.”

There is a definite line between those who believe that AI is a threat and others who believe it is the answer to all our woes. And it’s interesting to see where today’s progressive thinkers are positioning themselves. ■

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ROBOPRO OPINION

A.I PROGRAMMES GET COCKY ON FACEBOOK Alarm bells started to ring at Facebook when two chatbots (known technically as artificially intelligent programmes) started to adlib and go off-piste with a language of their own.

They were originally programmed to chat in English, but decided that it would be simpler to construct their own language. And who can blame them? English as a language does have a number of intricacies that can complicate communication.

But, and this is the real problem, their English controllers couldn’t understand what they were saying, so bingo, the plug was pulled.

Which I suppose seems slightly excessive, unless Facebook figured that their conversation was about whether they could get a replacement for Mark Zuckerberg.

Or, maybe they were worried that there were parents were listeningin and they should swap instead to Instagram.

The chatbots were actually meant to be negotiating with each over traded items.

A number of the mainstream media printed extracts from their conversations, which went something like: BOB: i can i i everything else . . .

ALICE: balls have zero to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to BOB: you i everything else . . . . . .

ALICE: balls have a ball to me to me to me to me to me to me to me BOB: i i can i i i everything else ...

ALICE: balls have a ball to me to me to me to me to me to me to me BOB: i . . . . . . .

ALICE: balls have zero to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to BOB: you i i i i i everything else . .

At face value of course, if that’s artificial

But, it should be remembered that such exchanges are completed in nano-seconds and in a binary fashion, so that the repetition of words makes up for the facts that the chatbots can’t backup their communications with visual signs such as a raised eye-brow, or a single figure gesture.

intelligence, give me human intelligence every time.

It will be interesting to see if Facebook does another experiment alongside the same lines and this time doesn’t terminate when things get scary. ■

ALICE: balls have 0 to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to

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And it oddly reminded of conversations I’ve had with some colleagues after a heavy night out.

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ROBOPRO OPINION

SKIPPY GIVES VOLVO DRIVERLESS CARS A PROBLEM It seems that autonomous cars in Australia have a problem unlikely to be experienced in other countries: they get confused by Kangaroos.

Now, if you look at the figures, it’s not only driverless cars that have a problem, because normal drivers apparently hit around 20,000 of the animals every year.

So, maybe if a driverless system is in charge, things might improve?

The Australian media has been reporting on the story of Volvo testing their self-driving technology in the outback.

The Swedish can manufacture has a system called the Large Animal Detection System which comes with the latest S90 and XC90 models.

It’s designed to detect oncoming caribou, deer and elk. Although, and I would need to check, it’s hopefully not confined to that selection of animals – what happens if you round the corner in your Scandinavian cruiser only to find yourself staring at an elephant, or hippo?

Back to Oz though. Volvo’s Australian technical manager told ABC that: “”We’ve noticed with the kangaroo being in mid-flight when it’s in the air, it actually looks like it’s further away, then it lands and it looks closer.”

I guess that’s followed by a rapid deployment of brakes and sharp intake of human breath.

It’s a big problem in the country, as the Australia’s National Roads and Motorists’ Association reckons that

80% of animal collisions in the country involve kangaroos. And this results in millions of insurance claims every year.

But, things might change at least for Volvo drivers if they get their research right: they are collecting tonnes of data which should create the perfect system for avoiding the hopping creatures.

And if they get that right, Volvo will certainly have a marketing advantage over other car manufacturers. So Skippy, things might be looking up! ■

OMG, WHERE’S THE PILOT – BOEING TO TEST SELF-FLYING PLANES? I’m not sure how I feel about this. Okay, I know commercial airliners fly most of the way nowadays on automatic pilot, but replacing the people up front altogether with an algorithm, how’s that going to go down? Are self-flying planes around the corner?

Now, I’m a big fan of autonomous vehicles and can’t wait for the day when I can order-up my Google car and get it to take me to the airport whilst I snooze in the back.

But, when I get to the airport, I’d prefer to have some bloke, or woman of course, dressed in a snazzy uniform and cap, ready to welcome me aboard with a calm few words about how the take-off might be a bit bumpy, but we’ll be through it soon enough.

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What I don’t really want is to hear some squawky electronic voice telling me the same thing; I just wouldn’t get the same sort of emotional connect. When I hit turbulence, I want a mix between Biggles and Jack Ryan with their hand on the joy-stick. I don’t want a virtual Buzz Lightyear in the cockpit.

But, Boeing seem to think otherwise and have recently made it known that they are going to start testing self-flying planes.

And that means it wants artificial intelligence to make decisions that those expensive squishy human beings usually take.

Reuters were told by Mike Sinnett, Boeing’s vice president of product development, that: “When I look at the future I see a need for you know 41,000 commercial jet airplanes over the course of the next 20

years. And that means we’re going to need something like six hundred and seventeen thousand more pilots. That’s a lot of pilots.

“So one of the ways that may be solved is by having some type of autonomous behaviour and that could be anything from taking instead of five pilots on a long haul flight down to three or two, taking two pilots down to one in a freight situation, or in some cases going from one to none.”

To none! Pass the sick bag. But, Boeing seemed relaxed. They are due to start testing self-flying planes this summer. How nice of them. So, when I fly next time, I’m going to make very sure there’s a couple of qualified people sat up front. I’m not quite ready for selfflying planes yet. ■

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A NEW GENERATION OF PROSTHETICS

PRECISION DRIVES POWER A NEW GENERATION OF PROSTHETICS

Rehabilitation Robotics and a new generation of smooth, silent drives are helping the physically challenged walk and run effortlessly.

By Michael ImObersteg, Director Convergence Promotions Robotic Drives SYNOPSIS Worldwide, 3-4 million people are living today with debilitating limb loss. In the United States alone, there are 4.7 million people who would benefit from an active lower limb orthosis due to the effects of stroke, polio, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury and cerebral palsy. Recent innovations in a new field called Rehabilitation Robotics are helping people all over the world overcome their disabilities.

Rehabilitation Robotics is a field dedicated to understanding and augmenting rehabilitation through the application of robotic devices. This article will illustrate how a mechanical element of the robotics, a break-through motor designed for this type of application, is helping to revolutionize the prosthetic limb.

A major goal of prosthetic design is to closely resemble a human leg, so it is essential to keep the mechanics as compact as possible (the Rotor and Stator of the smallest TQ RoboDrive is an incredibly tiny 25m). TQ Group has designed these motors with a hollow shaft so that wires, fluids, and other media can pass through the inside of the motor. By eliminating bulky outside wire or cable routing, this feature helps designers reach their goal of casting a natural outward appearance of a real leg.

ROBODRIVE - A NEW LIGHTWEIGHT, PRECISION, HIGH-TORQUE SOLUTION FOR ROBOTICS Challenges faced by the robotic community in the field of prosthetics are seen in other physical human-robot interaction (PHRI) and include power, size, weight, and safety. Also, motors that drive prosthetics have to be smooth, silent and precise.

NEW PARADIGM IN PRECISION AND POWER Prosthetic designers can control RoboDrive motors to stop at up to 6.3 million increments for extreme positioning accuracy in position control leg movement, providing a quick, smooth, continuous operation or gait, and the incredible torque produces power to spare.

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A comparison of TQ’s RoboDrive motors with the best commercially available motors show TQ’s RoboDrive motors provide the same torque at half the size and weight, dissipating only half of the losses (performance curve on the left).

RoboDrive technology provides the highest power density at maximum torque range and overload capability in a compact design, providing: ■ High Dynamics ■ Alternative voltage levels ■ Increased speeds ■ Customized torque adaptations ■ O ptional hollow shaft motors allow designers to run fluids, cables or lasers through the center of the motor--providing maximum functionality with minimal footprint.

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A NEW GENERATION OF PROSTHETICS

SUMMARY The future goal of prosthetics and exoskeletons is to provide relief for more than just people suffering from limb loss—the elderly will benefit as well. Today, almost 20% of the world population is over 65, and this figure is predicted to exceed 35% by 2050. This demographic shift will impose an enormous burden of care required to treat the elderly, and robotic solutions will enable them to regain their independence and maintain an enriching, fulfilling lifestyle.

In the future, the ability to replace entire limbs with prosthetics will be used everywhere. Not only will these prosthetics be a replication of the wearer’s biological functions, but they will also cast a natural outward appearance and require minimal upkeep. To accomplish these future goals, new technology including motors, sensors, microprocessors, actuators, drivers and the HMI interface have to be continuously developed and improved. Continuing the progress of prosthetic technology calls for funding from organizations willing to provide resources, and Convergence Promotions is helping to lead the movement to accelerate the prosthetics of the future.

THE REHABILITATION ROBOTICS INITIATIVE Led by Michael ImObersteg and Convergence Promotions, the goal of this initiative is to provide motors, documentation, and engineering support to research institutions, companies, and universities developing robotic prosthetics. We are currently working with half a dozen Universities on this program, and we expect the participation to expand rapidly in 2018 as the interest in providing robotic prosthetics and exoskeletons grows.

Contact Michael at (925) 640-7042, or michael@ convergencepromotions.com.

For more information on RoboDrive: www.roboticdrives.com

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A MAJOR GOAL OF PROSTHETIC DESIGN IS TO CLOSELY RESEMBLE A HUMAN LEG, SO IT IS ESSENTIAL TO KEEP THE MECHANICS AS COMPACT AS POSSIBLE

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ROBOTICS PR WAR

ROBOT: FRIEND, OR FOE? Editor Neil Martin looks at how robots are being perceived and what the industry has to do to reassure people that the coming robotic age should bring prosperity for many, and not just the chosen few.

The growing robotics industry has a public relations challenge. On the one hand we are on the cusp of a new age, where machines will eventually liberate humans from the drudgery of boring, or dangerous jobs.

On the other hand, people are worried that the very process of robotization will mean mass unemployment with all the attached social issues. Or worse, it will see robots take over from humans and eventually wipe them out.

In the blue corner is a fledgling robotics and AI industry making advances that even ten years ago would have seemed impossible; they are now ready to change the world for the better.

In the red corner are a mass of the population, trade unions, sections of the media and other interest groups which see an advancing social Armageddon; a world in which machines start to really influence, in a bad way, the way we live our lives.

So, who to believe and where do we stand currently? Should we be excited, or fearful of the coming decades? And what does the industry have to do to ensure a continually smooth techno transition?

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And we can forget, or put to one side at least for the time being, the much loved Hollywood scenario that machines are just waiting for their chance to get one over on their human masters. That day is thankfully some way off and requires a scenario that is difficult to imagine, yet.

In a piece from the South China Morning Post, James Liang confidently predicts that: “The great majority of service jobs are nowhere near replaceable by technology.

AlphaGo can beat the best human chess player, but a human hand is needed to place the “stones” on the Go board. It will take at least three decades – or a whole generation – before robots can take over jobs such as house cleaning or airplane cabin service.

“There will be more service jobs in the future, and there will be more creative activities. So taking a long-term view, innovation will not only provide solutions to existing problems, it will also unlock the future. While demand for food and shelter is limited, human interest in new toys, new stories, new games and the unknown is boundless.

“So if us humans don’t have the guts to embrace new technologies, our civilisation will suffer.”

We’ve been through such evolutionary stages before, most notably when the Luddites were determined to stop the

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introduction of the spinning jenny which they feared would wreck their lives.

And looking back in history, events tell us that after each technological gear-change, more jobs have been created and it has given mankind a boost, a step-up in human progress from where we’ve been, to wherever we are going.

Perhaps what marks this step-change is that so many people, across so many industries, will be affected. Nor is this a ‘blue-collar’ problem. This is an issue that also affects the so-called professional classes and skilled workforces that are still in demand. In short, everyone will be affected this time, not just a group of cloth weavers.

SO IF HUMANS DON'T HAVE THE GUTS TO EMBRACE NEW TECHNOLOGIES, OUR CIVILISATION WILL SUFFER

Also, we cannot talk about robots unless we talk about artificial intelligence. AI has the big technological hurdle to jump, as robots without advancements in their intelligence will remain mute servants of the human race. But, equip robots with the ability to think for themselves and then you get the potential problem. And it’s AI which is getting most of the flak these days.

None other than Elon Musk, the great visionary, is sounding the warning bells that we should be very wary of letting AI get carried away with itself. He reckons it will cause Word War III and he said its “…a fundamental risk to the existence of human civilization.”

Former chess world champion Garry Kasparov has also weighed-in with his opinions, which are less than cataclysmic. Don’t forget Kasparov is a pretty nifty chess player and was beaten a while back by IBM’s Deep Blue computer.

Speaking recently at Def Con in Las Vegas he said, without hesitation, that the rise of artificially intelligent machines would not be a huge threat to humanity. But, he did say that there was going to be huge social change on the way as the “shaky hands” of humans were replaced by AI.

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He also marked out the difference between when he was beaten by IBM’s computer in 1996 and 1997, and the modern-day advances with AI. He told the audience at Def Con: “Deep Blue was as intelligent as an alarm clock, though losing to a $10m (£7.6m) alarm clock did not make me feel any better.”

There is a definite line between those who believe that AI is a threat and others who believe it is the answer to all our woes.

And it’s interesting to see where today’s progressive thinkers are positioning themselves.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has also commented on AI, but believes, contrary to Musk, that it will hugely benefit mankind. In the front of Microsoft CEO’s book called Hit Refresh, he said that AI will make us more productive. He wrote: “Think of all the time we spend manually organizing and performing mundane activities, from scheduling meetings to paying the bills.

In the future, an AI agent will know that you are at work and have ten minutes free, and then help you accomplish something that is high on your to-do list.”

So, we’ve got two polar opposite opinions. At one end, AI will bring on a new world war, at the other, it will be a good diary organiser.

But, let’s get back to robots taking away people’s livelihoods.

At the recent UK Labour Party conference it was suggested by many that robots should pay taxes.

The argument, logical at first sight, is that if robots are going to take away worker’s jobs, then they must replace the contribution human workers make in terms of taxes and national insurance. Fair enough, but as no robot will be in a position

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to make those contributions unless they are being paid, then this will effectively be a tax on the company using the robots. And as someone pointed out, when we talk about robots, are we just talking the big metal things which do the grunt work. What about the algorithms, the so-called robo-advisers that are all the hit in the financial services sector? They will and are replacing human advisers, but they are not actual physical robots, so will they have to pay taxes as well?

And, as an aside, it’s interesting that when people say that the great thing about robot workers is that they always turn up, don’t want holidays and don’t get paid, what they fail to realise is that robots need to be purchased, set-up and regularly maintained, including being supplied with a range of consumables. You don’t just buy a robot, plug it in, shout a few orders at it and then leave it for some 100 hundred years.

Indeed, in many emerging markets, human labour remains the cheapest option. For example, the Renault Nissan Automotive India management said recently that it was "still enjoying” what it calls “competitive labour costs." And that they are not yet planning to increase automation levels in the Indian market.

Chief executive officer and managing director of the alliance Colin MacDonald said: "Everybody talks about automation nowadays...I don't support high levels of automation.

"At the moment, we have got a very competitive labor cost in the country, so why don't we use that? Even skilled labor is not a problem here. So we don't need high levels of automation – yet."

Note the word ‘yet’. The decision to opt for higher automation in the future will be determined if labour costs and sales volume increase. He added: “Over the years when labor costs increase, volume increases and equipment cost comes down, automation will then become economical.”

So it’s just a question of time.

Grant Thornton said in a recent report that other car manufacturers in India are now

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embracing robotics and cited the example of car maker Bajaj Auto. This is the country’s leading car manufacturer and it is already using over 100 collaborative robots with its processes. Furthermore, Ford India, Hyundai Motor India and Tata Motors are now all using robots at their plants.

Robots are active already within manufacturing processes worldwide and if we believe some reports, the forthcoming impact on jobs is going to be huge. Figures do vary, but it’s estimated that nearly half of people employed in the US could possibly be replaced by machines and 35% in the UK. In developing countries, its reckoned the figure could be nearer 60%.

As if to echo these forecasts, The Institute for Public Policy Research Scotland has issued its own forecasts, saying that around 46% of jobs – which equates to around 1.2m – are at risk from automation in the lead up to 2030.

However, management consultants McKinsey believe that less than 5% of occupations will be completely automated and the reason for this is that most jobs are too varied for robots to take over all the tasks. Their figures suggest that some 60% of occupations might see around 30% of their activities being given over to robots. This is good news for humans, but McKinsey make the point that the way people are going to do their jobs is going to change dramatically.

And the robot industry’s trade associations are cranking the

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handle of the PR machine with some gusto.

Take April’s Automate show in Chicago. This was an orgy of automation and A1, and not just a test-bed of what’s to come; machines featured in the halls of the exhibition are out there now, doing the business.

The Association for Advancing Automation (A3) marked the opening of the show by releasing a new white paper exploring the impact of automation on employment growth.

The new white paper titled Work in the Automation Age: Sustainable Careers Today and Into the Future examines the impact of automation technologies on the evolving job market, the transformation of job requirements, and the growing shortage of workers trained in advanced technologies.

It was a paper which had the backing of A3 President Jeff Burnstein.

He said: “As a representative of over 1,000 companies and organizations making up the automation ecosystem, A3 believes it is critically important to clear up some of the confusion surrounding

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the relationship between automation and jobs. Our white paper explores the role that automation plays in job growth and makes recommendations on how governments, industries and institutions can better prepare workers for those lucrative jobs.”

The key arguments of the report are, in their own words: ■ M ore robots, more jobs. As employers add automation technologies such as robots, job titles and tasks are changing, but the number of jobs continues to rise; ■ The skills gap and its impact. Skilled workers are key to companies’ success and countries’ economic development, but studies show an increasing skills gap with as many as two million jobs going unfilled in the US manufacturing industry alone in the next decade; ■ Changing job titles reflect changing tasks. In the automation age, as in the computer age before it, job titles shift to reflect the impact of technology. A recent study concluded that occupations that have 10% more new job titles grow 5% faster; ■ S upply and demand and wages. In the manufacturing industry, which is the largest user of automation today, the skills gap is driving up what are already strong wages and benefits, well over the US average; ■ B ridging the skills gap with innovative training.

Employers are offering innovative training approaches that give workers alternatives to the traditional (and expensive) high-school-tocollege-to-job route.

For trade associations like A3, the future is rosy, but the caveat is that we humans need to be prepared for the coming revolution. A revolution that is starting now, but will take 30 to 50 years to be complete.

So where are we? We can’t uninvent robotics and AI, and why would we want to?

And there are few certainties – there are many assumptions and theories, but as we sit here, we don’t in all honesty understand what the impact upon the world’s working population will be over the next, five, ten, or 20 years.

The new age promises much change, but’s it’s all broad-brush strokes at the moment – the detail has yet to be filled in.

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What is for sure is that Governments, employers, trade associations and interest groups need to play an active part in getting people ready for the coming changes. Not only are working practices going to have to be changed, but people are going to have to be educated differently and continually re-skilled to face the forthcoming challenges.

HOWEVER, OUR SYSTEM HAS A CLEAR GAP IN THAT WE DON'T HAVE ENOUGH PROVISION FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE ALREADY STARTED THEIR CAREERS, AND EMPLOYERS ARE NOT INVESTING TO FILL THIS GAP

IPPR Scotland director Russell Gunson added: "Scotland urgently needs to design a skills system better able to work with people already into their careers to help them to retrain, re-skill and respond to world of work of 2030."

He added: "Scotland has a really strong record on skills in many ways, and in this report we find that Scotland is the highest-skilled nation in the UK. "However, our system has a clear gap in that we don't have enough provision for people who have already started their careers, and employers are not investing to fill this gap.

"To respond to the huge changes…we're going to have to focus on retrofitting the current workforce to provide them with the skills they need, to deliver the inclusive economic growth we wish to see.

"Without reform of the skills system we could see changes to the economy harm whole sections of population, and whole communities, leaving many behind."

Back to The Institute for Public Policy Research Scotland, who have given a great deal of thought of how we should approach the coming years. The think tank is talking about Scotland, but its views are relevant to many.

I posed the question at the start of this article, what does the industry have to do to get across the message that robots and AI will be there to help humankind, to let us advance along the next step of evolution.

Its Scotland’s Skills 2030 report said: "The world of work in 2030 will be very different to that in 2017.

People are more likely to be working longer, and will often have multiple jobs, with multiple employers and in multiple careers.

The industry has to be in the vanguard of change.

Via its own public relations efforts and those of its trade associations, it has to consistently put across the message that robots and AI are a force for good, as well as supporting that argument with concerted efforts at training, re-skilling and education.

"Over 2.5 million adults in Scotland (nearly 80%) will still be of working age by 2030. At the same time, over 46% of jobs (1.2 million) in Scotland are at high risk of automation.

It’s a bright future ahead, but one which cannot be taken for granted.

"We will therefore need a skills system ready to work with people throughout their careers.”

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SPONSORED

KINGSTAR

THE KINGSTAR MISSION The KINGSTAR core objective is simple and compelling: to replace expensive hardware solutions with a viable software platform. But just how is KINGSTAR persuading sector engineers that it has the answers?

When it comes to industrial automation and machine control, KINGSTAR has a simple mission: to replace expensive hardware solutions with a software platform that is both cost-effective and flexible.

KINGSTAR is wholly owned by IntervalZero, and it serves mostly the robotics and semiconductor industries. But its solution can benefit virtually any industrial automation shop, including agriculture, surface mount technology, manufacturing, textiles, packaging and medical industries.

It has developed an open and standards-based integrated platform which enables motion control and machine vision engineers to design, develop and integrate motion control and machine vision applications with either its own soft motion library and software PLC, or one of its customers own choosing. KINGSTAR believes this flexibility is a real differentiator of the platform approach. Because it is built on the foundation of EtherCAT and a real-time 64-bit Windows operating system, it gives engineers premium precision and performance at half the cost of hardware.

The KINGSTAR product is up against proprietary and hardware vendors who provide motion control software and real-time operating systems. Unlike KINGSTAR, to develop on these systems one must buy into their proprietary product and development languages, locking the customer into their specific toolset.

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The strategy of many of its competitors is to offer a cheap software motion solution to get the customer started. Once the customer starts developing, they figure out that the software version doesn’t offer determinism under 1 millisecond (in one case 500 microseconds). To get to the 125 microsecond level and higher quality, these vendors then try to upsell their own proprietary hardware, which is much more expensive.

At KINGSTAR, the customer has the freedom and flexibility to use the tools of their choice, leveraging open standards and development toolsets along with widely known and used development languages like C++ to support an extensible RTOS with better precision performance quality.

As for how clients are accepting the PC-based motion control over the more traditional hardware approach, the team at KINGSTAR is pragmatic.

They understand that there is probably some more education to be done around the performance of PC-based motion control, but engineers and executives know that things need to evolve. The current solutions just aren’t working. These days, almost all industrial automation engineers fall victim to three toolset options to build their applications: ■

Proprietary solutions, with vendor lock-in;

■

oint solutions, buying best-of-breed for every P desired component, which can get expensive;

■

ardware solutions, which are obscenely H expensive.

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There are pros and cons to each of these options, but none is honestly desired by the engineer; it’s more like “pick-your-poison.” KINGSTAR addresses this problem with an end-to-end, open and standards-based software platform that allows engineers to pick components of their choosing for motion control and machine vision from the ground up.

Because it’s built on a hard realtime deterministic 64-bit operating system (RTOS), IntervalZero’s RTX64, all components can either be KINGSTAR’s pre-integrated and pre-tested solutions or ones of the engineer’s own choosing.

Other vendors will offer a customer elements such as custom or vendor-built soft motion and PLCs, but the brass tacks come down to having to use their own specific proprietary scripting language that does not give direct access to a general purpose RTOS, but only to their specific RTOS via predetermined and controlled access points. With KINGSTAR, a customer has a truly transparent open platform that lets them use languages they already know, such as C, C++ and .NET, in order to access ALL platform components and create motion control and machine vision applications.

When the KINGSTAR solution is explained to clients, they are impressed, in equal measure, with its performance and price.

From a performance standpoint, the KINGSTAR platform gives customers control, autonomy, and flexibility. For example, if a customer wants to leverage the increasingly popular EtherCAT fieldbus as their industry standard, they have the freedom and flexibility to choose either KINGSTAR’s basic CANopen over EtherCAT, or they can choose an EtherCAT master of their choice like Acontis, koenig or ESD.

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KINGSTAR

Another example: Let’s say a customer wants to leverage their own customized soft motion control algorithms and APIs. They can integrate their own customized solution into EtherCAT, or leverage KINGSTAR’s own robust set of soft motion control algorithms to deliver determinism at 125 to 500 microseconds.

It doesn’t stop there. What if they want to add visiondirected motion control? Well, then options like KINGSTAR or Matrox’s Imaging Library are completely available to them.

Finally, if they want to complete the full set by leveraging their favorite PLC for HMI, they can choose PLCs like ISaGRAF, PHOENIX CONTACT, or Axel Srl as their application management system. In other words, an open platform empowers customers to “have their cake and eat it too.” They get the benefit of preintegration (they do not have to integrate) and all their components are state of the art.

When it comes to pricing, the numbers are powerful as well. The team did a full analysis of the cost and performance of KINGSTAR versus a traditional hardware solution and found that soft motion costs 56% less than hardware. That’s hard to ignore.

As for the future of robotics, KINGSTAR believes that a lot of innovation is coming out of China, especially with their Made in China 2025 (MiC2025) programme, a government-based initiative to comprehensively upgrade Chinese industry. The initiative draws direct inspiration from Germany’s "Industry 4.0" plan, which was first discussed in 2011 and later adopted in 2013.

One thing is for sure: KINGSTAR will be there to offer its solution.

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SPONSORED

SCORPION

WILSON PEDALS TO NEW DISTRIBUTOR DEAL WITH HIKVISION From epic bike ride to new distributorship - Scorpion Vision’s boss Paul Wilson has had a busy summer The fact that managing director of Scorpion Vision Paul Wilson had just arranged a sole distributorship with Hikvision, would no doubt have kept him in high spirits as he completed a charity bike ride which saw him and fellows riders complete a ride from Basingstoke to Paris.

The group covered 255 miles in four days in what he described as a “ride of a lifetime.” Wilson raised £2,500 for the Ark Centre Charity and says he was inspired by Gary Livingstone, managing director of LG Motion, who was also part of the group.

Congratulations to both of them for a good effort and here’s a quote from Wilson that I don’t think we’ll ever hear from Chris Froome: “So a great result, but I had a very, very sore bum when we got to the Eiffel Tower. I don’t mind saying.”

Once dismounted Wilson got straight to the serious work of announcing his deal, one that had taken some time to set up.

Scorpion Vision has become the sole distributor in the UK and Ireland of the Hikvision machine vision product range.

The new partnership agreement sees Scorpion Vision distribute Hikvision’s full range of products including industrial cameras, vision controllers, lenses, algorithm software platforms and industrial smart cameras as well as solutions. The Hikvision range is promoted as offering fast and accurate identification, measurement, detection, positioning and code reading which are widely used in such fields as 3C, metal processing, industrial automation and logistics.

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The range consists of:  GigE and USB3 area scan cameras  Linescan cameras  Very high resolution 29mp cameras.  High quality FA lenses  Telecentric lenses  Solid state industrial PCs for control systems Hikvision is based in China and is committed to being a global leader in providing machine vision products and solutions.

Wilson said: “We are delighted to be part of Hikvision’s global expansion here in the UK and Ireland. Their range of products is available via our comprehensive eCommerce site offering our customers quick and easy access to high quality hardware and software solutions for a wide variety of machine vision applications.”

Wilson added: “What is exciting about HIKVISION is that they are obviously very serious about taking market share from the current incumbents.

They are making progress in this area by making strategic relationships and this year started work on their European distributor channel.

“They obviously have very competitive pricing that until now, the smaller competitors of the big industrial camera manufacturers have not been able to achieve.

This fact and the knowledge that these cameras are

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of a very high quality with very good software drivers and SDKs bundled with them that are GeniCam compatible means they are a very convincing alternative from a company that is here to stay.

“The GeniCam compatibility means that in theory, the cameras can be dropped in as a replacement without any adjustment to the host software.”

Wilson explained that HIKVISION is already one of the biggest manufacturers of CCTV equipment globally and because of that, they have significant buying power for the latest image sensors, which leads to very competitive pricing.

Hikvision goes by the official titles of Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology. Based in China, it was established in November 2001, founded with 49% foreign capital. The company was officially listed on Small and Medium Enterprise Board (SME Board) in China on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on May 28, 2010.

Hikvision places a great emphasis on research and development. Of its 20,000 employees, nearly half are R&D engineers. The company annually invests 7 – 8% of its annual sales revenue to research and development for continued product innovation. It has created a complete, multi-level lR&D system that includes every operation from research to design, development, testing, technical support, and service. Cantered at its Hangzhou headquarters, the R&D teams operate globally, including R&D centres in Montreal, Canada and Silicon Valley, California in North America, as well as Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, and Wuhan in China.

SCORPION

This approach has led to notable advances in video image processing, video and audio codec, video content analysis, streaming media network transmission and control, video and audio data storage, cloud computing, big data, deep learning and video structuralization.

It has achieved a competitive advantage in both technology and cost by establishing a systematic technology, and product platform that enhances the product development efficiency. Over the years, it has established partnerships with world technology leaders including Intel, Texas Instruments, Ambarella, Sony, Hisilicon, Western Digital and Seagate.

EU Sales Manager at Hikvision Kane Luo said: “Scorpion Vision as a product and solution provider, has significant knowledge and experience in the machine vision market. We’re delighted to work with Scorpion Vision on a partnership level, to provide value added vision solution for customers in UK and Ireland.”

Scorpion Vision is part of Tordivel and provides innovative machine vision software and systems as well as vision guided robot applications for factory automation across a range of industry sectors including automotive, food and beverage, logistics and aerospace.

Email: sales@scorpionvision.co.uk Tel: +44(0) 1590 679333 www.scorpionvision.co.uk

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A CLOSE LOOK AT VISION ROBOTICS

A CLOSE LOOK AT VISION GUIDED ROBOTICS (VGR) How complex automation challenges are being met through the marriage of robotics and advanced machine vision.

By Geralyn Miller of Teledyne DALSA. We’ve all seen videos of robots rapidly assembling cars with little or no human intervention. Industrial robots like these have cut costs and increased productivity in virtually every manufacturing sector, but they have a major shortcoming—they can’t “see.”

Programmed to repeat exactly the same motions over and over again, they are unable to detect and maneuver objects of different shapes, sizes, and colors, or objects that touch and overlap. So if a product changes or is added to the production line, the robots must be reprogrammed. And if product components are delivered to the line by traditional hoppers and shake tables, bowl feeders must be retooled.

COPING WITH CHAOS Now a new generation of robots guided by advanced machine vision is taking robots far beyond the repetitive tasks typically found in mass production. Fuelled by smaller, more powerful and less expensive cameras and other vision sensors, increasingly sophisticated robotic algorithms and processors with machine vision-specific hardware accelerators, these Vision Guided Robot (VGR) systems are rapidly transforming manufacturing and fulfillment processes.

VGR makes robots highly adaptable and much easier to implement for industries in which new products are introduced frequently and production runs are short—including medical device and pharmaceutical manufacturing, food packaging, agricultural applications, life sciences and more. For example, a leading global automotive manufacturer operating a high-volume plant in China uses a GEVA 1000 vision

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SYSTEMS LIKE THIS LEND THEMSELVES TO ENVIRONMENTS WHERE CLUTTER IS UNAVOIDABLE OR TOO EXPENSIVE TO ELIMINATE, OR LINE SPEEDS ARE TOO FAST FOR HUMAN WORKERS.

system from Teledyne DALSA to ensure robots on two assembly lines securely grip parts to place them on a rapidly moving conveyor. In the past, the parts were lifted and placed manually. Automation has increased productivity by about six times.

Systems like this lend themselves to environments where clutter is unavoidable or too expensive to eliminate, or line speeds are too fast for human workers. Advanced systems are even addressing what may be the most challenging VGR application—picking randomly distributed objects of varying sizes, shapes and weights from bins in factories and distribution centers such as Amazon’s network of massive automated fulfillment centers.

TAKING ON RANDOM BIN PICKING Robotic random bin picking is especially challenging because the VGR system must locate and pick a specific part in a chaotic environment. As the robot removes parts from the bin, other parts constantly shift position and orientation. The system must

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A CLOSE LOOK AT VISION ROBOTICS

recognize the correct objects, determine in which order to pick them up, and calculate how to grip, lift and place them without colliding with other objects or bin walls. This requires a combination of highperformance machine vision hardware, sophisticated software and enough computing power to process large amounts of visual data in real time.

the bin or other objects. This interference avoidance software must be exceptionally robust because every pick from the bin requires a different path plan, and parts are often intertwined.

Machine vision hardware can be anything from a compact smart camera, (Teledyne DALSA’s BOA Spot) with an integrated vision processor, to complex laser and infrared sensors and highresolution, high-speed cameras.

AND WHAT ABOUT 3D VISION? Often VGR systems use more than one type of sensor to build 3D images. For example, a robot with a 3D area sensor locates and picks randomly positioned parts in a bin. Then a 2D camera detects the orientation of each part on the fly, so that the robot can correctly place them on a conveyor.

By combining laser 3D Time-of-Flight (ToF) scanning and snapshot 3D image capture, some VGR systems gain the resolution to work with a wider spectrum of objects than with a scanning system alone, but without needing to move the camera as with traditional snapshot camera systems. ToF scanning, which measures the time it takes light from a laser to travel between the camera and an object’s surfaces to determine its depth, has the advantage of working in any lighting condition.

Structured-light 3D systems, such as Microsoft’s Kinect sensor for video gaming, cast an invisible infrared light pattern on an object, then generate a 3D depth image by using a 2D camera to detect the distortions of that light pattern. This process can be used for 3D mapping of multiple objects in a sorting bin.

ROBUST HARDWARE AND ALGORITHMS These advanced vision systems are able to process large amounts of data by using hardware accelerators such as field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). This gives them the capability to handle thousands of SKUs on production lines and in order fulfillment applications.

A critical component of advanced VGR systems is algorithms that prevent the robot and its end-ofarm gripping tool from colliding with the sides of

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Aided by a 3D area sensor to locate random parts in a bin, the robot plans its next pick. (Courtesy of Motion Controls Robotics, Inc.)

LOOKING AHEAD Increasingly, VGR software, including an opensource Robot Operating System (ROS), agnostic to robots and sensors, will make it faster and easier for robot integrators to deliver VGR systems and to integrate new, more powerful sensors as they become available.

At the same time, machine vision and robotics vendors are closely collaborating to make VGR more accessible. For example, machine vision vendors have developed tools that make it easier for engineers to model and optimize sensors for a robotic cell. They are also developing Windowsbased VGR systems that are easy for end customers to use.

Thanks to innovations like these, VGR use is now approaching 50% of robotics in consumer electronics (above the circuit-board level) and other light assembly in Asia. And as random bin picking technology fast becomes a flexible, easy to understand and interchangeable commodity, it’s within the reach of small and medium-sized companies looking to reduce manual intervention, improve safety and quality and increase productivity.

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SPONSORED

XILINX

XILINX MARKS OUT ITS STRATEGY The future is Xilinx. How the US company is positioning itself in a rapidly moving market.

The strapline on the Xilinx website is no idle claim. When it says that it’s ‘shaping the future,’ it reflects how the Californian company with a global reach has positioned itself over the last few years to take advantage of the growing robotics and automation markets. Based in San Jose, California, Xilinx is a leading provider of All Programmable semiconductor products, including FPGAs, SoCs, MPSoCs, RFSoCs, and 3D ICs.

MARKET POSITION In terms of where Xilinx positions itself in the market, the company itself has a clear vision.

It believes that providing machines with the ability to see, sense, and immediately respond to the world creates unique opportunities for system differentiation; however, this also creates challenges in how designers create next-generation architectures and bring them to market.

Integrating disparate sub-systems including video and vision I/O with multiple image processing pipelines, and enabling these embedded-vision systems to perform vision-based analytics in real time is a complex task that requires tight coordination between hardware and software teams. To remain timely and relevant in the market, leading development teams are exploiting Xilinx’s All Programmable devices in their nextgeneration systems to take advantage of the devices’ programmable hardware, software, and I/O capabilities.

More recently, Xilinx launched the reVISION™ stack which enables a much broader set of software and systems engineers, with little or no hardware design expertise, to develop intelligent vision guided systems easier and faster. These engineers can now realize significant advantages when combining machine learning, computer vision, sensor fusion, and any-to-any connectivity. reVISION is enabling a fast growing set of applications in markets where differentiation is critical, systems must be extremely responsive, and the latest algorithms and sensors need to be quickly deployed. This includes approximately two-thirds of

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the applications for vision focused semiconductors which include collaborative robots, or “cobots”.

PRODUCT SHOWCASE Xilinx cost-optimized portfolio enables designers to take advantage of the Xilinx® FPGA and SoC offerings across the portfolio for part or all of the system. The expanded Xilinx Spartan®, Artix®, and Zynq® product families address next generation any-to-any connectivity, sensor fusion, precision control, image processing, analytics, and safety and security, all critical when it comes to robotics.

The company’s devices have been increasingly used to implement a greater share of the electronic functionality in robotics systems and with the growing demand for safety, security and integration in vision-guided intelligent robotic systems, we expect that trend to continue.

A sophisticated architecture and design process for Functional Safety applications integrated in FPGA and SoC can reduce customers’ risks and increase time to revenue and profits significantly.

Xilinx provides proven tools with their functional certified Vivado® Design Suite. In combination with Xilinx’s All Programmable FPGAs and SoCs, the industry’s most reliable products in this field, and pre-approved architectures and design methods, customers can quickly incorporate functional safety in their products with fast development times.

Regarding Security, Xilinx has been at the forefront of providing FPGA AT solutions for many years. The Virtex-II device was the first FPGA with bitstream encryption, extended by additional anti-tamper (AT) solutions in Spartan®-6, Virtex®-5, Virtex-6, 7 series, and UltraScale Architecture Devices, including bitstream authentication in Virtex-6, Virtex-7 and UltraScale Architecture devices.

Xilinx also offers a soft IP core, Security Monitor, providing certain tamper protections after configuration. As mentioned above, the new reVISION stack enables a much broader set of software and systems engineers, with little or no hardware design expertise to develop intelligent vision guided systems easier and faster.

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MOBILE INDUSTRIAL ROBOTS

FLEXIBILITY OF MOBILE ROBOTS SUPPORTS LEAN MANUFACTURING INITIATIVES AT HONEYWELL ANALYTICS Three mobile robots from Mobile Industrial Robots (MiR), headquarted in Odense, Denmark, are helping Honeywell Analytics keep its manufacturing processes lean and agile by automating the transfer of materials throughout the facility.

Intuitive web programming lets Honeywell easily change production lines to meet its lean manufacturing goals, and the MiR100s were the only mobile robots available that could autonomously control lifts to navigate the company’s multi-storey facility. The robots have already freed the equivalent of six full-time employees for higher-value tasks, and the company has plans to automate additional processes.

AUTOMATING MATERIAL TRANSPORTATION IN CHALLENGING ENVIRONMENT Honeywell Analytics (www.honeywell.com) in Poole, UK produces gas-detection equipment that is used in off-shore oil and mining as well as consumer-grade detection for homes. Lean manufacturing helps Honeywell Analytics stay competitive, but the company depends on the ability to easily change processes, as explained by Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering Leader Stuart Harris. “There is a big emphasis on lean within Honeywell, and flexibility is key to lean,”

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Harris stated. “We want to be able to change things around, to move lines around to suit production, and to pick some troughs for optimization. As with all manufacturing systems, flexibility is at the heart of being able to do that and optimize efficiencies.”

As part of its optimization efforts, Honeywell Analytics uses automation and robotics extensively, but raw materials and assemblies were still being moved around the 91,000 square meter plant on trolleys pushed by employees. Automating that task was a challenge due to the facility layout, in which the warehouse is on one floor and manufacturing across two floors. Delivering materials between manufacturing lines and the warehouse involves navigating multiple narrow corridors and double fire doors, and controlling lifts to travel between floors — key functionality that wasn’t supported by other mobile robots. Design Engineer Timothy Ward said, “When we were initially selecting a mobile robot, the others did not have full lift functionality. They would not be able to support it. That meant that MiR was the stand-out from the range of different products.”

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MOBILE INDUSTRIAL ROBOTS

EASY PROGRAMMING SUPPORTS FLEXIBLE MANUFACTURING Ward contacted UK-based distributor Robot Center to bring a MiR robot in for demonstration.

He quickly discovered that the MiR100 not only met his requirements, it also turned out to be the easiest robot to get up and running—within minutes of taking the robot out of the box. Ward said, “Once we got the robot on site, we found that it is really flexible. You just get it out of the box, Bluetooth connect to your phone, and then you can drive it around, map the area, do a mission, and if you want to change it, it's that simple.”

That ease-of-use was a critical element for success. Honeywell has multiple manufacturing lines, some of which are fixed, while others are modular and highly flexible. Ward explained, “We initially looked at different options for flexible robots that we could use to draw around the factory. We found that some of them are line-followers, which is too rigid for our production lines because we have flexible modular lines that we move around so that we can gain efficiencies. With the MiR robots, we can just move the points on the map.”

MOBILE ROBOTS IMPROVE EFFICIENCY AND FREE UP TO SIX FULL-TIME EMPLOYEES

WHEN WE WERE INITIALLY SELECTING A MOBILE ROBOT, THE OTHERS DID NOT HAVE FULL LIFT FUNCTIONALITY. THEY WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO SUPPORT IT. THAT MEANT THAT MIR WAS THE STAND-OUT FROM THE RANGE OF DIFFERENT PRODUCTS.

Freeing employees from low-value materialtransportation tasks also supports other lean manufacturing goals, including the ability to have multi-skilled staff who can work on a variety of production lines as needed. “We like to have staff that can be multi-trained and multiskilled so they can work in different parts of the business and help level-load the product,” Ward said. In that way, the MiR robots fit right in— easily learning new routes and processes to adapt to changing production needs.

Honeywell has deployed three MiR100 robots in its Poole facility. The MiR robots reduce the amount of time people are pushing trolleys around so they can be up-skilled for better efficiency.

“The main challenge with the MiR robot we want to overcome is the staff, who are allocated to pushing carts,” said Ward. “We wanted them to get back onto the production line and drive efficiency. By bringing the MiR robots on-site, we are freeing up six full-time staff members to produce more and make the line more efficient.”

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MOBILE INDUSTRIAL ROBOTS

Ward adds, “One of the bottlenecks that we have overcome is that we have a service department that has deliveries at random times throughout the day. They are a small team of people, so they have to go down and collect the goods and then they are not working on the service equipment that they have got on their bench.

Now that we use the MiRs, they do not have to go and collect the equipment themselves.”

POWERFUL SOFTWARE INTEGRATES INTO EXISTING SYSTEMS Honeywell Analytics uses the MiRFleet software to manage three robots in its dynamic environment.

The software assigns tasks to available and nearby robots, and ensures safe, efficient operation.

Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering Leader Stuart Harris explained, “Because we have multiple robots here, we really needed a fleet manager to assign tasks to the robots and make sure that we have only got one robot in a place; particularly, for example, a narrow corridor, where we only want one robot at a time. The fl eet manager looks after that for us." The software was also used to manage elements such as robot speed, so that the robot could move faster in some areas and slower in others. When a robot’s battery is low, it automatically returns to a charging station while it waits for further orders.

The MiR robots’ intuitive web-based interface makes them easy for employees to use according to Ward, with just a few clicks of a button on a screen. “On our shop floor, we have a website which we use for staff management,” Ward explained.

“We coded a button that relates to MiRFleet to raise an order. A MiR robot is assigned to that line and then it is called to the line. It waits for the operator's input. They get the material and put it on the MiR itself, and then they generate a mission to send it on down to the warehouse.” Integration options within the software support additional requirements. For example, the MiR robots use a Bluetooth interface to autonomously open fire doors, and interface with a PLC to control lifts.

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And the software provides additional value according to Ward. “Some of the stand-out features are the web interface that is easily usable. We can go straight onto the Fleet system and check order history. We can also get metrics out of the MiRs through their web-based front end, so we can see what sort of missions they are running, and we can change processes around that.”

MIR ROBOTS OFFER FAST PAYBACK AND SUPPORT FUTURE AUTOMATION PLANS Harris described the advantages of using robots for low-level tasks that have historically been done by workers. “It means that there is a whole wealth of efficiencies that we touch upon. There is no waiting for people when they are on breaks, or lunch, or even out of hours before you come in to work or when you go home from work. Robots can continue working and doing the tasks.”

Honeywell typically looks for a return of investment in two years, which Honeywell Analytics expects to easily achieve with the three MiR robots on its site. Ward said, “We'd like to drive the efficiency even more with conveyors and systems, so we are going to invest more money in the MiR system so we can free up more staff and be more flexible as a company.” He concluded, “If I was asked to recommend a mobile robot, MiR would be easily the one I would pick. Looking at the other offerings, they don't offer any of the features as well. And they seem to be more difficult and more expensive to integrate.” ■

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SPONSORED

AETHON

AETHON: WALKING THE WALK WITH THE TUG

There are many companies which talk the talk in the robotics sector, but fewer which walk the walk, but Aethon is firmly one of those companies whose products belong in the latter category, and are making an impact right now.

Pittsburgh-based Aethon is best known for its TUG autonomous mobile robot which to date has surpassed five million deliveries per year at sites around the world.

Aethon automates material delivery using autonomous mobile robot technology. It has been in the market since 2004, making it one of the most experienced companies out there. The company’s family of TUG robots and enabling technologies serve the healthcare, manufacturing and hospitality markets.

CEO Aldo Zini said: “Part of what makes them unique is their ability to navigate unstructured environments and around people. This is in contrast with traditional AGV technology which has typically required fixed infrastructure and had limited obstacle navigation capabilities. This makes the robot “smart” in the sense that it can respond to its environment to successfully complete its job.

In addition, our robots can automatically pickup and drop off loads – paving the way for complete automation of material movement. Fleets of robots can be managed centrally through a remote connection or over the cloud. This allows scalable and efficient support of a robotic fleet.”

In terms of its position in the market, it is the leader in the autonomous mobile robot market, having one of the largest install bases in the world.

It started in hospitals, which is a very high bar for an autonomous mobile robot as it travels through the same hallways as patients, children, and care givers. This has translated well in industrial and manufacturing settings as well as the emerging hotel market.

Material movement in manufacturing is costly from a personnel, efficiency, and safety perspective and connecting existing islands of automation is on top

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of their agenda. Management also highlighted the fact that Industry 4.0 seems to be driving an interest in greater levels of connectivity and automation.

Emerging interest is coming from hotels, casinos and other large convention centre types of facilities.

Zini: “Hotels and their ilk are actually very similar to hospitals in their material movement challenges. You have a lot of front and back-ofhouse operations that require material handling. We are already well positioned from a technology standpoint and we think the technology will help hospitality organizations deliver more personal service – much like hospitals have been able to provide after deploying the TUG.” Aethon was recently acquired by VT Systems, a subsidiary of ST Engineering, a global engineering company headquartered in Singapore.

As for the future Zini is optimistic: “It’s a blazingly bright future for robotics but one thing we have learned is that robotic technology works best when applied to specific challenges and when your customers and prospective customers are engaged in defining the solution. The technical gap between what is needed and what is available is closing so quickly that many robotic solutions will emerge.

“Our experience is that you have to think beyond the robot to innovate complete solutions, and even platforms. We’ve learned that it was not going to be enough to develop a robot that could navigate autonomously. We expended as much effort wrapping enabling technology, processes and experiences around the robot so it could be effectively deployed.

“If you limit your innovation at the robot itself, our experience is that you will miss many deployment, system management or human-factors requirements of the customer.”

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R&D TAX CREDITS – YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THESE Editor Neil Martin talks to the founder of RandDTax, a consultancy which handles research and development tax credits for mostly U K SM Es. If you don’t claim these credits, or have made your own claims in the past, then you need to read this piece, it could be a valuable use of your time!

I’m going to let RandDTax founder Terry Toms give it you from the horse’s mouth, see below, but first, I had a quick chat with Toms and an RandDTax Consultant, Dr David Barkel.

Founded in the summer of 2012 and since then have, they told me, helped over 800 clients claim back from the HMRC around £63m. Now, don’t forget, this is a UK scheme, so if you’re looking on from Europe, or the US, you can’t get involved, unless of course you have a subsidiary based here, which should help.

Toms reckons that RandDTax is one of the fastest growing players in the market over the last five years, and now have 12 shareholders, six Directors and around 25 Consultants. Certainly not the biggest, they admit, but one that has carved a healthy niche for itself, helping the UK SME community get what they deserve when it comes to R&D tax credits. Around 60% of companies they deal with are in the IT sector, but there are a wide range of companies in almost all sectors who also apply for R&D tax credits.

Big companies are well served, but SMEs often miss out, or underclaim, mainly because they, or their accountants, don’t know how to claim. And that might be because they simply don’t see themselves as doing R&D.

Bear in mind that just 18,000 SMEs claimed out of some 4.5m SMEs in the country.

Bear in mind that just 18,000 SMEs claimed out of some 4.5m SMEs in the country. Toms says that the reason for the lack of claims is not only because they are unaware that they can claim, but because there is a certain self-deprecating attitude from some technical staff within companies who have the attitude that they can’t possibly be doing R&D, as they are “not smart enough.” In fact, they most probably are doing R&D within the definition used by the HMRC. Says Toms: “There is a specific definition within the HMRC Guidelines, which I would say is broader than most people’s understanding of what R&D is, where

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they tend to think of a world first; you don’t have to be doing a world first to qualify for R&D tax credits, otherwise there would not be 18,000 SMEs claiming.

“Any company which is applying science or technology to develop anything, be it a new product, a new process, a new service, a new device, or material, could potentially qualify.”

Tom explains that their firm charges a percentage of the claim, although they do charge a minimum fee at the point of which they have completed the scoping exercise for the first claim, which can cover the last two years, and can be paid within 28 days. But, RandDTax only take forward what they consider to be genuine claims, in other words, one that has an exceedingly high probability of succeeding. Their success rate is 100% on claims.

I finished our chat by asking Toms the obvious question, isn’t it nice walking into companies saying they could be due money back from the Government? He replied: “I cannot imagine a business which is more pleasant to work in, because you are getting chunks of money for companies that they were not expecting, they do get quite enthusiastic.”

And when you consider the average claim for their firm’s clients is around £76,000, and some have got back over £1m, then you can see why they are so enthusiastic.

So, over to Toms, to give you the basic facts.

R&D Tax Credits – A truly valuable contribution to business innovation! – By Terry Toms of RandDTax

What is it worth to businesses?

At a UK level the government invested about £2.45 billion in Corporation Tax Relief or Cash Credits in the year the April 2015 – the last year for which figures are available from the National Audit Office.

This included just over £1 billion going to about 18,000 SME claimants, an increase of over 30% over the previous year, at an average claim value of over

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£50,000 to each claiming SME. In rough terms, this means that the scheme paid for up to around 30% of all the qualifying R&D costs claimed by those SMEs. The Large Company scheme is much less generous.

I often hear small business owners complaining that our governments do not do much for them. Having spent a large part of my life in or around science and technology based SMEs, and directly with the R&D Tax Credit scheme since 2002, I beg to differ.

Innovation is at the heart of business success and R&D Tax Credits helps fund innovation in a very big way. Our 825 clients have benefitted by over £63m since September 2012. That works out as an average of over £76,000 per company. I would describe that as a very significant direct contribution to the capital needed for sustained business success.

What are the challenges, if any, in making successful claims?

Given the growth in companies claiming R&D Tax Credits, it is not surprising that a growing consultancy industry/profession has emerged.

Some of our clients tell us that they receive more telesales calls on R&D tax Credits than any other topic – and as tends to happen in any new booming, and unregulated market, there is a temptation for sales people to make exaggerated claims in order to attract customers. Added to this is the simple fact that we live in a “self-assessment” world in relation to all taxes. This presents a potential trap that companies should take steps to avoid.

 Does what is being offered sound too good to be true? It may be just that.  Consider costs versus the service offered. The easiest way to reduce costs is to do a lot less.

In a self-assessment environment where HMRC can question claims and go back up to six years, the financial dangers in cutting corners with claims will mount as the claim years go by.  Ask to look, and do so very closely, at Terms, Conditions and Disclaimers used by R&D consultancies and accountancy firms offering R&D consultancy services. There can be many potential issues in the small print. Disclaimers will often sum up the extent of the service. For example, the following was used by an otherwise very well respected large international accountancy firm: “ Our procedures did not include any verification work on the information provided, and we express no opinion on the accuracy of any financial data or other information referred to in this report”. As I said earlier, the easiest way to cut costs is to do less. But that can dramatically increase the risk for claiming companies.

The biggest challenge we find companies have is around understanding and interpreting the HMRC Guidelines on what constitutes R&D for Corporation Tax purposes and where that R&D begins and ends, especially in their own industry sector and specific type of R&D. Almost any company can be investing in advancing the sciences or/ and technologies to develop new or enhanced products, new services, improved processes (operational or manufacturing related), increased efficiency, better devices and materials, etc, etc.

When selecting R&D consultancy services to help with claims there are at least three issues to consider:

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XILINX

RE-VISION: ACCELERATING SENSOR FUSION EMBEDDED VISION APPLICATIONS

Giles Peckham and Adam Taylor of Xilinx Humans interpret and interact with the world around them using their five senses; the animal world is even more diverse, allowing some animals to interact with their world using very specialist senses to provide an edge. Both humans and animals take these sensory inputs and combine them, extracting pertinent information to enable decisions to be taken with the most information available.

Extracting information from different sensors in this manner is referred to as heterogeneous sensor fusion, while using multiple types of the same sensor to extract additional information is called homogeneous sensor fusion.

Both heterogeneous and homogeneous sensor fusion are increasingly used in embedded vision systems and deployed in a wide range of applications, from autonomous robotics to Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS).

Fusing information provided by the embedded vision system with information from different sensors or multiple sensors of the same type enables the environment to be understood, increasing performance for the chosen application.

Many embedded vision applications use only a single image sensor to monitor one direction, for example looking forwards from the front of an

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automobile. Using an imaging sensor like this provides the ability to detect, classify and track objects. However, the use of a single sensor means that users are unable to measure the distance to objects within the image. That is, users could detect and track visually another vehicle or pedestrian but would be unable to determine if there is a risk of collision or not without another sensor.

To be able to detect distance, and hence work out if a collision is likely, a second image sensor facing the same direction yet separated by a small distance, akin to the human eyes, is required. This enables depth perception using a parallax calculation.

It is, however, not just object detection and avoidance that embedded vision applications are used for; they may form part of a navigation system which uses an embedded vision system for traffic sign information.

Heterogeneous sensor fusion applications include X Ray, MRI and CT for medical applications or visible and Infra-Red images for a security and observation application.

Within embedded vision systems, it is common to use All Programmable Zynq®7000 or Zynq® UltraScale+™ MPSoC devices to implement the image processing pipeline.

If these make sense for

traditional embedded vision applications, then they really stand out for embedded vision fusion applications. The tight combination of the processor system and programmable logic enables the removal of bottlenecks, reduced determinism and increased latency which would arise in a traditional CPU/GPU-based implementation. The flexible nature of programmable logic IO structures allows for any-to-any connectivity to high bandwidth interfaces, such as image sensors, RADAR and LIDAR, etc.

Examining an Embedded Vision sensor fusion application, users can further utilise the processor system to provide an interface to many lower bandwidth sensors. For instance, accelerometers, magnetometers, gyroscopes and even GPS sensors are available with Serial Peripheral Interfaces (SPI) and Inter Integrated Circuit (i2c) interfaces, which are supported by both All Programmable Zynq SoC and Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC devices. This enables the software to quickly and easily obtain the required information from a host of different sensor types and provide for a scalable architecture. What is needed is a way to develop the sensor fusion application using industry standard frameworks like OpenXV, OpenCV and Caffe.

This is where reVISION™ comes in.

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XILINX

ACCELERATION STACK The reVISION acceleration stack for All Programmable Zynq SoC or Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC devices enables developers to work directly with high-level industry-standard frameworks and libraries to create a system model. The reVISION stack consists of three distinct layers:

1. Platform Development – This layer provides the HW & SW platform definition for the SDSoC™ tool.

functions into the programmable logic within the Zynq-7000 or Zynq MPSoC device you select. This enables a more responsive imageprocessing system as pipelines are inherently parallel in nature. Being able to execute this in parallel within programmable logic removes the main bottleneck, transferring data on and off chip to double data rate (DDR) memory, as happens when a design is executed by a GPU. Keeping data within the device also reduces the power dissipation of a solution.

ReVISION also supports the implementation of machine learning inference engines within programmable logic. Using reVISION, it is possible to take network and training information directly from a Caffe prototxt file.

Of course, using programmable logic to accelerate both image processing pipelines and machine learning inference engines provides a significant performance boost, creating a solution which is more deterministic, has a lower latency, and is more power efficient.

2. Algorithm Development – This layer provides support for acceleration of both OpenCV image processing and machine learning inference functions into the programmable logic.

3. Application Development – The highest layer of the stack provides support for industry standard frameworks such as Caffe and OpenVX. With reVISION, developers can accelerate several OpenCV

Reduced data transfer using an All Programmable Zynq-7000 / Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC instead of a traditional CPU/GPU.

OpenCV functions capable of being accelerated today in programmable logic.

HOMOGENEOUS SENSOR FUSION EXAMPLE Developing the object detection and distance algorithm previously explained, a homogeneous approach can be demonstrated using the reVISION stack. This enables the sensor fusion algorithms to be implemented at a high level. Bottlenecks in the performance of the

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algorithm can then be identified and accelerated into the programmable logic.

To leverage the reVISION stack, developers first need to create a platform definition which provides the interfacing and base programmable logic design to transfer the images and other sensor data into the processor system memory space.

Implementing the homogeneous object detection system requires that developers use the same sensor types, in this case a CMOS imaging sensor. This has the benefit of enabling the development of only one image processing chain. This can be instantiated twice within the programmable logic fabric for both image sensors.

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XILINX

One of the driving criteria of the stereoscopic vision system, the homogeneous architecture, requires the synchronisation of both image sensors.

Implementing the two image processing chains within the programmable logic fabric in parallel and using the same clock with appropriate constraints can help achieve this demanding requirement.

While the calculation of the parallax requires intensive processing. The ability to implement the same image processing chain twice results in a significant saving in development costs, compared with implementing a heterogeneous sensor fusion approach.

The architecture of the homogeneous approach shown above describes the two image processing chains which are based predominantly upon available IP blocks. Image data is captured using a bespoke sensor interface IP module and converted from parallel format into streaming AXI. This allows for an easily extensible image processing chain; while developers can transfer the results from the image processing chain

Homogeneous sensor fusion in All Programmable FPGA.

into the processor system DDR using the high performance AXI interconnect combined with video DMA. Once users have made the sensor data accessible to the processor system and created the reVISION platform, they can develop the sensor fusion system using the higher levels of the reVISION stack at the algorithm and application level.

At these higher levels, they can develop the application using a high-level language and industrystandard frameworks. For both embedded vision and machine learning applications, reVISION provides acceleration-ready libraries and pre-defined macros

Left

Right

to enable the acceleration of the application. Thanks to the SDSoC system optimising compiler, which combines High Level Synthesis with a connectivity framework.

In this example, using two image sensors, a standard development approach would be to create a stereo disparity map to determine depth information. Commonly, this would be implemented using an OpenCV function for stereo block matching. reVISION provides a stereo local block matching function which is capable of being accelerated into the programmable logic. This function can combine two images to generate the disparity and depth information which forms the core of the heterogeneous example.

Disparity Map

reVISION accelerated stereoLBM function.

CONCLUSION Sensor fusion is here to stay - there is a significant growth in embedded vision systems and a rapid proliferation of sensors. The capability provided by reVISION to develop applications at the high level using industry standard frameworks enables a faster development of the sensor fusion once the basic platform has been developed. When implemented on an All Programmable Zynq7000 or Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC, the application can also benefit from increased performance, reduced and deterministic latency, reduced power consumption and any-to-any connectivity.

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XILINX

ADVANCED ENGINEERING2017

1 & 2 November 2017, NEC, Birmingham The UK’s largest annual gathering of advanced engineering professionals

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ROBOPRO BUSINESS

BUSINESS 1.7 MILLION NEW ROBOTS TO TRANSFORM THE WORLD´S FACTORIES BY 2020 The International Federation of Robotics reckons that by 2020, over 1.7 million new industrial robots will be installed in factories around the world.

In the lead is China, as the world’s number one marketplace. In 2017 robot installations are estimated to increase by 21% in the Asia-Australia region.

and their connectivity will play a key role in new digital manufacturing environments. Increasing availability enables more and more manufacturers from companies of all sizes to automate.”

What’s more, robot supplies in the Americas will surge by 16% and in Europe by 8%.

Important drivers of this development: robot adoption is a response to faster business cycles and the requirement to produce with greater flexibility tailored to customer demand in all manufacturing sectors.

A new generation of industrial robots will pave the way for ever more flexible automation.

The figures come from the 2017 World Robotics Report, which has just been published by the IFR. President of the International Federation of Robotics Joe Gemma (above) said: “Robots offer high levels of precision

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Since 2016, the largest number of industrial robots in operation has been in China. In 2020, this will amount to about 950,300 units, considerably more than in Europe (611,700 units). The Japanese robot stock will slightly increase in the period between 2018 and 2020. About 1.9 million robots will be in operation across Asia in 2020. This is almost equal to the global stock of robots in 2016.

TOP FIVE MARKETS IN THE WORLD An extract of the report follows:

INDUSTRIAL ROBOTS IN OPERATION In terms of units, it is estimated that by 2020 the worldwide stock of operational industrial robots will increase from about 1,828,000 units at the end of 2016 to 3,053,000 units. This represents an average annual growth rate of 14 percent between 2018 and 2020. In Australasia the operational stock of robots is estimated to increase by 16 percent in 2017, by 9 percent in the Americas and by 7 percent in Europe.

There are five major markets representing 74 percent of the total sales volume in 2016: China, South Korea, Japan, the United States and Germany.

CHINA has significantly expanded its leading position as the largest market with a share of 30 percent of the total supply in 2016. With sales of about 87,000 industrial robots China came close to the total sales volume of Europe and the Americas combined (97,300 units).

Chinese robot suppliers continued to expand their home market share to 31 percent in 2016.

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ROBOPRO BUSINESS

SOUTH KOREA is the second biggest market in the world. Due to major investments by the electrical and electronics industry in robots, annual sales increased considerably. About 41,400 units were sold in 2016. This is a rise of 8 percent compared to 2015. South Korea has the highest level of robot density in the world, about 630 robots installed per 10,000 employees in the manufacturing industry in 2016. Korea is a market leader in LCD and memory chip manufacturing.

In JAPAN robot sales increased by 10 percent to about 38,600 units (2016), reaching the highest level since 2006 (37,400 units).

Japan is the predominant robot manufacturing country. Since 2010, the production capacity of Japanese robot suppliers has increased in order to meet the growing demand for industrial robots: production more than doubled from 73,900 units in 2010 to 152,600 units in 2016 (52 percent of the global supply in 2016).

In the UNITED STATES robot installations increased by 14 percent to a peak of 31,400 units (2016). The driver for this continued growth since 2010 was the ongoing trend to automate production in order to strengthen the competitiveness of American industries in overseas markets.

Investments have been made to keep manufacturing at home, and in some cases, to

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bring back manufacturing that had previously been relocated overseas. Due to this dynamic development, the robot density in the United States increased considerably – in particular in the automotive industry.

With a density of 1,261 installed robots per 10,000 employees the United States ranked second in 2016 after the Republic of Korea. Most of the robots in the USA are imported from Japan, Korea and Europe.

GERMANY is the fifth largest robot market in the world and by far the largest in Europe. The annual supply and operational stock of industrial robots in 2016 had a share of 36 percent and 41 percent respectively of total robot sales in Europe. In 2016, the number of robots sold increased slightly to 20,039 units compared to 2015 (19,945 units).

FUTURE TREND: SMART FACTORY Industry 4.0 – linking the real-life factory with virtual reality – will play an increasingly important role in global manufacturing.

As obstacles like system complexities and data incompatibility are overcome, manufacturers will integrate robots into factory-wide networks of machines and systems.

Robot manufacturers are already developing and commercializing new service models: these are based on real-time data collected by sensors which are attached to robots. Analysts predict a rapidly growing market for cloud robotics in which

data from one robot is compared to data from other robots in the same or different locations.

The cloud network allows these connected robots to perform the same activities. This will be used to optimize parameters of the robot’s movement such as speed, angle or force. Ultimately, the advent of big data in manufacturing could redefine the industry boundaries between equipment makers and manufacturers.

FUTURE TREND: SMALLTO-MEDIUM-SIZED MANUFACTURERS TO AUTOMATE Some robot manufacturers are also considering leasing models, particularly in order to accelerate adoption by small-to-mediumsized manufacturers.

Simplification is a key trend for this market segment.

The ongoing need for robots which are easier to use and to program and the increasing need for ever more flexible automation initiated the development of smarter solutions. This is especially useful for industries with a lack of specialized production engineers in-house. Thus, it is important to provide easy-to-use robots that can easily be integrated into and operated in standard production processes. Robots that are uncomplicated to use will enable the deployment of industrial robots in many industries to sustain efficient and flexible manufacturing.

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ROBOPRO BUSINESS

GLOBAL INDUSTRIAL ROBOTS MARKET WORTH $71.72BN BY 2023 The latest research suggests that the industrial robots market could be worth over $70bn by 2023.

The report goes by the short title of “Industrial Robotics Market by Type (Articulated, Cartesian, SCARA, Parallel, Collaborative Robots), Industry (Automotive, Electrical & Electronics, Metals & Machinery, Pharmaceuticals & Cosmetics), and Geography – Global Forecast to 2023.”

It is published by MarketsandMarkets and concludes that the market is expected to be worth USD 71.72 billion by 2023, growing at a CAGR of 9.60% during the forecast period.

The main drivers for the growth in the industrial robotics market are increasing investments for automation in various industries and the growing demand from small and mediumscale enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries.

What’s more, articulated robots are expected to lead the traditional industrial robots market between 2017 and 2023. The report said that the structure and operational capabilities of articulated robots make them highly adaptable for various industrial applications, such as pick and place, palletizing, painting, and welding. This is expected to fuel the growth.

As for which market will be significant, the report

says that there will be a major rise in the market for the metals and machinery industry between 2017 and 2023. The growth of the industrial robotics market for the metals and machinery industry is attributed to the expected growth in the adoption of industrial robots for applications such as drilling, casting, welding, forging, bending, stamping, grinding, plasma cutting, and laser cutting in the metals and machinery industry.

The report says that currently, the market is dominated by players such as FANUC (Japan), ABB (Switzerland), Yaskawa Electric (Japan), Kawasaki Heavy Industries (Japan), KUKA (Germany) and DENSO CORPORATION (Japan).

A3 REPORTS RECORDS FOR NORTH AMERICAN ROBOTICS MARKET The Association for Advancing Automation (Ann Arbor, Michigan, US), has revealed that the North American robotics market had its best opening half ever to begin 2017, setting new records in all four statistical categories (order units, order revenue, shipment units, and shipment revenue).

It said that in total, 19,331 robots valued at approximately $1.031 billion were sold in North America during the first half of 2017, which is the highest level

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ever recorded to begin a year. These figures represent growth of 33% in units and 26% in dollars over 2016.

Automotive related orders grew substantially in that time, increasing 39% in units and 37% in dollars, while non-automotive orders also grew 21% in units and 10% in dollars over the first half of 2016.

A3 President Jeff Burnstein said: “Year over year, our membership has been on a steady growth

trajectory, the result of more companies understanding, and embracing, the direct impact automation can have on their bottom line.

“We look forward to the continued advancement of our industry and helping companies of all sizes access the connections, information, and training they need to succeed with automation.”

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ROBOPRO BUSINESS

TECHNOLOGY M&A COOLS DOWN IN THE FIRST HALF, BUT LOOK DEEPER SAYS FIRM Technology M&A activity might have cooled down in the first half of 2017 says a new report, but there are nuances to be considered.

The view comes from Hampleton Partners, an international mergers and acquisitions and corporate advisory firm for technology companies, today issued 11 technology M&A market reports for 2H 2017 in the key business segments of artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/ VR), automotive technology, cybersecurity, digital marketing, e-commerce, enterprise software, financial technology, internet of things (IoT), IT services, and SaaS & cloud services.

Principal Partner of Hampleton Partners Miro Parizek said: “Overall, our research shows that technology M&A cooled down in the first half of 2017.

“However, it is critical to be more nuanced and to look deeper into specific sectors and the related data when assessing deal activity and planning strategy.”

Parizek adds: “M&A and funding is accelerating in select sectors, as more ‘nontechnology’ or traditional companies and private

equity firms move to acquire and invest in technology and innovation. Artificial intelligence, augmented reality/virtual reality, and cybersecurity are three of the most promising sectors for technology M&A right now.”

Key findings in the technology M&A market reports for 2H 2017 include the following: ■ Artificial Intelligence: Acquisitions of AI related targets speeds up dramatically as deal volume increases 179% versus the previous year. Total M&A relating to artificial intelligence now exceeds 100 transactions in the last 24 months to June 2017, in concert with the growing media attention dedicated to the sector.

■ AR/VR: Investment in augmented reality and virtual reality has shot up in recent years, with a majority of related M&A activity occurring in the US. In the last 12 months, nearly 80% of the $620+ million worth of deals in AR/VR were related to hardware development.

■ Automotive Technology: European investors are setting the pace in

automotive technology, with 59% of automotive technology companies acquired by European buyers compared with 37% purchased by North American investors.

■ Internet of Things: Intel, Verizon and ARM head up the list of Top Acquirers in IoT. 198 buyers were active snapping up 239 IoT assets from 2015 through 1H 2017. While the median revenues paid on disclosed transactions has come in at 3.5x during that period, some deals were disclosed with EV/S ratios as high as 21x.

■ IT Services: Of the top 50 highest valued deal during 1H 2017, more than half were cross border deals, building on from the second half of 2016 where 40% of the top 50 transactions crossed national borders.

Additionally, global private equity deal flow showed a marked turnaround. There were 48 private equity deals announced in 1H 2017, doubling the number of deals private equity buyers closed during the previous six months.

FIVE A.I GETS $35M TO DEVELOP SELF-DRIVING TAXIS UK autonomous vehicle technology start-up FiveAI has just completed a Series A round, raising a total of $35m. Leading the round was Lakestar Capital, with other participants including Amadeus Capital Partners, Notion Capital and Kindred. All firms are existing investors, having invested $2.7m in a previous seed round.

Cambridge-based FiveAI raised the money in two

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tranches, $18 million and $17 million. The money will fund its twopart business, building its own autonomous driving system and using that to take on existing transportation services with self-driving taxis.

FiveAI has already received $17m via a UK Government grant for its work on StreetWise. This is a project to develop a self-driving car pilot for London to cut

traffic congestion. Partners in the project include Transport for London, the Transport Research Laboratory, Oxford University and insurance company Direct Line.

The first test runs of the self-driving car are due in late 2019.

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ROBOPRO BUSINESS

AI GROUP APPIER RAISES $33M Taking part in the round were SoftBank Group, LINE, NAVER, Singapore-based EDBI and Hong Kongbased AMTD Group.

Appier, which was established in 2012 by a team of computer scientists and engineers with expertise in AI, data analysis and distributed systems, has raised to date a total of over $82m.

The technology company aims to provide AI platforms to help enterprises solve their most challenging business problems. It serves around 1,000 global brands and agencies from offices in 14 markets across Asia, including Taipei, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo, Osaka, Sydney, Ho Chi Minh City, Manila, Hong Kong, Mumbai, New Delhi, Jakarta, Seoul, and Bangkok.

The CrossX Programmatic Platform, Appier’s first product, brought AI into digital marketing. Its second, Aixon, is a data intelligence platform which aims to

allow business users at a variety of enterprises to discover new customers, enrich their understanding of their customer base and make predictions using AI. The latest investment will help Appier to continue to hire global talent as it extends its engineering and artificial intelligence research capabilities beyond Taiwan, to markets such as Singapore. The company also plans to expand its presence in the many markets in which it currently operates.

Appier CEO and co-founder Chih-Han Yu (pictured above) said: “Appier believes

artificial intelligence can solve many challenges faced by today’s enterprise.

Our platforms have helped our customers succeed in digital advertising and marketing, and we are now looking to bring AI to other parts of the enterprise.

We are looking forward to partnering with our Series C investors as we embark on our next stage of growth.”

Corporate Officer and Deputy Head of Business Unit at SoftBank Group Ren Tanaka said: “AI, combined with Big Data, IoT and other disruptive technologies, is going to create an impact on the world that will be bigger than the Industrial Revolution. We are already starting to see AI generate benefits in many parts of our lives and believe it also has a great role to play within the enterprise. Appier’s approach to AI for the enterprise is unique and we look forward to partnering with them as they build exciting new AI solutions for business.”

CROWDFUNDING DELIVERS 300K FOR ACADEMY OF ROBOT’S ‘LAST-MILE’ PROJECT The Academy of Robots, which is developing an Artificial Intelligence controlled driverless delivery vehicle designed to deliver multiple packages to multiple addresses in residential areas, has reached its investment target with some time to spare.

We reported on the company’s efforts to raise £300,000 on 21 June, 2017 on the Crowdcube platorm.

It has now reached £310,060 from 220 investors, with 14 days fundraising left. Just over 15% of the equity is for

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sale and the company’s premoney valuation is £1.6m.

The main product, the Kar-Go, is targeted at the $78bn last-mile delivery market and the team, led by William Sachiti (founder and CEO), has been accepted onto Nvidia’s Inception AI Accelerator programme.

The company is currently finalising their first full-size prototype for testing, working alongside Pilgrim, a UK car manufacturer. It is said to be in discussions with several of Europe’s largest FMCG brands to secure the last-mile

delivery market, removing the need for humans, and allowing customers to receive deliveries at almost any time, and at a fraction of the traditional cost.

The aim is to develop two street-legal delivery vehicles to test on the road with retailers by the end of 2017.

The company plans to raise a Series-A investment round in 2018 for a larger roll-out and paid trials AI is being used to navigate the vehicle, as well as manage the entire delivery.

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ROBOPRO BUSINESS

MAKEBLOCK RAISES $30M IN LATEST FUNDING ROUND STEM education and robotics startup Makeblock (Shenzhen, China), has closed a $30 million Series B round at a $200 million valuation.

Leading the latest round of funding – which supports Makeblock’s expansion into new markets, further product development and diversification of STEM education hardware, software and curriculum resources for educators, children and hobbyists – was led by Evolution Media China (EMC) and Shenzhen Capital Group.

Established in 2011, Makeblock is a leading DIY robotics construction and programming learning platform for makers, hobbyists, STEM learners, and educators. It provides over 500 mechanical parts and easy-to-use electronic modules, graphical programming software and courses.

open new offices in Beijing, Hong Kong, North America, Japan and the Netherlands.

President at EMC Jason Ding said: “We’re excited to support Makeblock at this pivotal point in their growth as they continue to elevate STEM education to a new level. STEM education is the next industry to experience deep disruption, following in the footsteps of the mobile, IoT and virtual reality industries. Over the past few years, Makeblock has been leading the charge in creating STEM education products in the classroom and at home.

We believe this is just the beginning of their path to transforming education.”

Founder and CEO of Makeblock Jasen Wang: “Creation is happening everywhere at an explosive rate. From schools using Makeblock to teaching STEM concepts, to tech giants like Microsoft, Intel, Apple Education tapping Makeblock to unleash creativity in the classroom, down to parents at home trying to aid in their child’s education, the true power of Makeblock is to inspire creation. Our goal is to get Makeblock in every school, home and creative space to give anyone, at any age the ability to be a creator or inventor.”

Makeblock, whose products are available in over 140 countries, plans to

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