Weekly Robotics #77 10 Feb 2020

1) John Deere: Farm Software with Ryan Bergman.

SE Daily

INFO: In this SE Daily podcast episode Ryan Bergman, a software engineer at John Deere, talks about software for farming equipment and a whole infrastructure involved. This podcast episode is highly software development focused and puts lots of attention on the cloud part of Robotics. Many thanks to Artur for letting me know about this episode!

2) The Disengagement Myth.

Medium

INFO: A very good article by Kyle Vogt, a Co-Founder of Cruise, a self driving company, on disengagements that occur when a user takes over control of an autonomous car. What I found ingenious in the article is reconstructing the events in which a disengagement occured in simulation to see how the car would behave if the driver would not take over control. I’ll be looking forward to reading more about Cruise’s approach to self-driving. Many thanks to Illia for forwarding this article to me!

3) MakeSense: Automated Sensor Design for Proprioceptive Soft Robots.

YouTube (DisneyResearchHub)

INFO: In this video Disney Research proposes a computational method for augmenting soft robots with proprioceptive sensing capabilities drastically reducing the amount of soft strain sensors needed to correctly sense soft robot deformation.

4) Gundam Robot Repository.

GitHub

INFO: Do you remember the Gundam Robot from the previous issue? It looks like the above repository should have everything you need to simulate this robot yourself.

5) Nuro R2 Autonomous Delivery Vehicle Gets Green Light.

The Robot Report

INFO: “The Nuro R2 was granted an exemption by the U.S. Department of Transportation, allowing it to be tested on public roads without certain features of traditional, passenger-carrying vehicles”. Looking at the graphics included in the article this robot has all the sensors - we can find a LiDAR, multiple cameras creating 360 view around the robot, a thermal camera, radar and ultrasonic sensors.

6) Reconfigurable Robot Can Climb Up Its Own Track.

IEEE Spectrum

INFO: This “robot track” is one of the most interesting mechanical concepts I’ve seen in a while. I recommend watching the video presenting the robot in action.

7) Publication of the Week - How do you Architect your Robots? State of the Practice and Guidelines for ROS-based Systems (2020)(PDF).

GitHub

INFO: A very interesting publication for those of us using ROS that was shared by Ivano Malavolta on ROS Discourse. The paper contains some solid advice on developing ROS based systems.

1) Terabee Launches Its New Teraranger Evo Mini.

Terabee

INFO: The smallest and lightest addition to the TeraRanger Evo sensor family provides versatile performance and value for the money! Optimized for indoor distance sensing, Evo Mini offers ranging capabilities from just 3 cm up to 3.3 m! Easily switch from single-pixel and multi-pixel modes to adapt to your sensing needs. Evo Mini features a robust ABS enclosure for increased protection. Also, benefit from Arduino & Raspberry Pi sample codes and free ROS packages to get your robotic projects up and running in no time!

Careers

1) Saga Robotics (Lincoln, UK) - Various Positions.

INFO: Saga Robotics are developing robotic solutions for soft fruit production, and are involved in several exciting projects world wide, including Norway, UK, and USA.

2) Robust AI (Palo Alto, CA, US) - Various Positions.

INFO: Robust AI is Building the world’s first industrial grade cognitive engine.