Weekly Robotics #18 16 Dec 2018

1) DroneClash 2019 team registration is open.

DroneClash

INFO: DroneClash is an drone competition where the teams have to take out other team’s drones. The team registration will be open until 15th of January 2019 and the event will take place on 16th of March 2019. Want to have an idea how the vent looks like? Check out this DroneClash 2018 video.

2) New Class of Metamaterials Changes Physical Properties in Seconds.

IEEE

INFO: The above article describes a work being carried out by researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The researchers are creating structures that can change stifness in response to magnetic field. To achieve that a 3d printed mechanical metamaterial with hollow beam is created and a magnetorheological (MR) fluid that reacts to magnetic field is injected into the beams.

3) Industrial exoskeletons: new systems, improved technologies, increasing adoption.

The Robot Report

INFO: This article from The Robot Report is a summary of state of exoskeletons in the industry. The article covers an introduction to exoskeletons, adoption programmes and enabling technologies.

4) Centralized Collaborative Monocular SLAM for Robotic Teams.

ETH

INFO: ETH Zurich released a framework that acts as a centralized SLAM (Simultaneous Localisation And Mapping) for robot teams. The project is open source and can be accessed on (GitHub)[https://github.com/VIS4ROB-lab/ccm_slam].

5) ROS 2 Crystal Clemmys has been released.

ROS discourse

INFO: The 3rd official release of ROS 2 is now live. The release will be officially supported until December 2019.

6) Keeping Cool: Robotic Refueling Mission 3.

NASA

INFO: The Robotic Refueling Mission 3 (RRM3) will will test new methods for transferring and storing cryogenic fluids like liquid methane in space. Creating new methods for transferring and stroing fuels in space could be used for extending the life of satellites. The RRM3 module will demonstrate the first ever transfer of cryogenic propellant in orbit and test a number of robotics tools and vision systems needed for satellite refueling missions.

7) Publication of the week - AI Now (2018).

AI Now Institute

INFO: This annual report from AI Now institute discusses the social impact of Artificial Intelligence in such areas as surveillance (including facial and emotion recognition), automated decision systems, experimenting on society (the article covers the Uber and Tesla autopilot accidents). We’ve found the report to be very insightful, especially on socio-economic issues described (the report cites 230 sources). “Accounting for Hidden Labor in AI Systems” is the chapter that stood out for us as it is, among other things, discussing the work of labeling training data and reviewing flagged content by often poorly compensated workers.

Careers

0) Would you like to advertise an open position in a robotics related company?

https://weeklyrobotics.com/About

INFO: If you would like us to include your open position in the hiring section please feel free to send us an e-mail.

1) Aeolus Robotics (Various Countries and remote) - Various Positions.

Aeolus

INFO: Aeolus Robotics was founded to bring the first generation of household robot assistants into homes.

2) Greenzie (Atlanta, GA, US) - Robotics Software Developer.

Greenzie

INFO: Greenzie’s mission is to free humans from manual labor. We’re starting with the hardest tasks first - highly repetitive outdoor work in the green industry: lawn maintenance, turf mowing, landscaping.