Pepper the robot gets a job at Pizza Hut

Pizza Hut Asia and MasterCard are partnering to bring Pepper, SoftBank's somewhat creepy humanoid robot to restaurants by the end of 2016. If all goes as planned, Pepper will be able to take and process entire customer orders. This marks the first commerce application for Pepper, according to MasterCard.

It starts with an innocent, friendly hello. From there, MasterCard holders can pair their account with Pepper by using the MasterPass wallet app or scanning a QR code on the tablet attached to Pepper's chest. Pepper will help Pizza Hut visitors make menu selections with personalized recommendations and special offers. Fear not! Pepper's not here to judge your calorie intake. Pepper just wants to make sure you don't forget about the joys of stuffed-crust pizza or miss out on any specials that are valid during your visit.

Throughout this process, the robot makes hand gestures and speaks in a friendly voice to put people at ease, just like in the interaction below.

And this customer certainly seems relaxed around Pepper. Look, she even pets the thing's head. That's a little weird and not something you'd do to a living, breathing server, but it's not every day that you get to ask a robot for some pizza and wings.

When it comes time to pay the bill, Pepper is equipped to handle that as well. Customers must authorize the payment to go through, but once they do, it's all completed in a matter of seconds — and everything happens in MasterPass, so it's also secure. The whole idea here is that this experience offers something more than tapping away on a tablet or kiosk attached to the table.

Pepper's getting a fresh set of skills that go beyond helping you obtain bread sticks. At Google I/O last week, it was announced that there'll be an Android SDK for the robot, and developer versions of Pepper will cost around $1,800 when they go on sale in July. IBM is also looking to bring SoftBank's humanoid bot some of Watson's smarts.

Source: The Verge

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Hyperloop to use sensor-embedded fiber for pods

Hyperloop Transportation Technologies has announced a new technology that's going to raise the hackles of Marvel's lawyers. The company, in collaboration with Slovakian materials firm c2i, has created a carbon fiber composite that'll cover the inside and outside of its capsules. The only issue is that some bright spark decided to call this wonder material Vibranium. As in the Wakandan rare earth metal that helps Captain America and Black Panther beat down their foes.

Unlike its fictional namesake, this Vibranium is embedded with a series of sensors that monitor stability, temperature and integrity. These sensors are intended to provide continuous feedback to HQ, so that if a pod gets damaged in transit, it'll be pulled from service as soon as it hits the dock. The company claims that the material is 10 times stronger than steel and weighs five times less than aluminum. The plan is that HTT's capsules will use two skins of vibranium the material -- one on the outside, and one to protect the passenger compartment.

One of the reasons that HTT is working with a Slovakian company is because it signed a deal in March to partner with the local government. It's currently researching the potential to build two Hyperloop routes that would unite Slovakia's capital city, Bratislava, with neighboring capital cities Vienna and Budapest. Given that the distances involved are reasonably small, this three-city loop would be an ideal testbed for the technology. 

Source: Engadget

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Kidobotikz-Summer Camp 2016

Summer may be a time to relax for those who are tired of studying, but learning is always beautiful. Kidobotikz linked up with The Hindu Young World again to inspire young minds to be part of an event that could nourish their future. The camp was filled with thousands of young keen energetic minds for the adventurous learning experience. The five-day camp, conducted across three different cities- Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad- primarily for children of age between 8 to 17, included activities for children in basic engineering, art, mathematics, language, team-building, and the like.

On the robotics session, the kids had a hands-on session for building a robot with different functionalities – making it trace a line, avoiding objects, preventing itself from falling off a table, and follow the light. The practical learning made the children easily understand advanced electrical, electronic and mechanical concepts. Apart from that, the kids also got the chance to see the working of All-Terrain Robot, Arm Robot, Walking Robot, etc.

The best part of this year’s summer session was – Kids helped other kids – the graduate students of Kidobotikz who are also of the same age group but more experienced in the tech skills were given the opportunity to learn more by helping other kids of their own age group to complete their practical sessions – this volunteering was definitely an inspiration to the 1000s of kids who got to see the technical knowledge of the bunch of graduates from Kidobotikz !

The kids, finally, did their own FIRST robot at the robotics session by Kidobotikz, which not only triggered their tech skills but also instilled their confidence, creativity, communication skills and teamwork. The summer was finally concluded with thousands of young minds walking out proudly with their own personal robot and a dream in their eyes to become a roboteer !

                                                   
                                     “Do something today that your future self will thank you for”

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Harvard's RoboBee now perches on overhanging surfaces to preserve power

Around the size of a paper-clip, the RoboBee is crafted from flat layers of laser-cut carbon fiber and weighs about 80 mg. Through a set of piezoelectric actuators it flaps gossamer-like plastic wings back and forth at 120 beats per second, but in its current form it is powered from an external source by way of a wire tether.

The researchers behind the RoboBee imagine that one day swarms of the tiny robots will work together in search and rescue operations, to monitor crops and even carry out espionage missions. An ability to fly for longer would be very useful for these purposes, as it would for most drone applications, for that matter.

As the researchers work to develop an untethered RoboBee, they are looking at their creation from every angle to work out how to minimize its power requirements. This led them back to their original inspiration in nature, where creatures like bats, birds and butterflies will perch during flight to conserve energy.

Currently RoboBee can only perch on vertical and overhanging surfaces as the patch is fitted to its top surface, but researchers plan on tweaking the design so it can plant itself anywhere.

Source: Gizmag

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Rwanda's blood-delivering drones to service 20 hospitals this summer

It is said that constraint can breed innovation, and when it comes to delivering medical cargo by land in Rwanda, also known as the "Land of Thousand Hills," there are some serious limitations at play. To overcome the nation's challenging topography, the local government and US startup Zipline are launching a drone delivery service that will start dropping much-needed blood bags to 20 remote hospitals in the coming months.
              

     The lack of road infrastructure coupled with the mountainous landscape make servicing rural health centers in Rwanda a difficult proposition. Earlier in the year, the Government of Rwanda announced a partnership with Zipline to implement a drone delivery program that would make the country's hilly terrain a non-factor.

Zipline has now revealed a few new details about its plans to carry out this task. Dubbed Zip, the fixed-wing aircraft can fly at up to 100 km/h (62 mph) and will be launched into the air from medical warehouses to make hundreds of deliveries per day.

Doctors will send through their orders via phone or text message and warehouse workers then load up the drone with the blood bag or other necessary items. The team runs pre-flight tests and then Zip flies autonomously to the drop-off point, alerting the doctor on approach and deploying the package with a parachute attached, before returning to base for its next run.

The ultimate goal is to put every one of Rwanda's 11 million-plus residents within a 15 to 35 minute delivery time of any urgent medical product. The effort will begin by bringing blood products to 20 hospitals and health centers this Northern Hemispher summer.

Fixed-wing gliders are becoming a go-to tool for certain drone applications, such as environmental conservation, agriculture and surveillance. They lack the agility of consumer-focused quadcopter designs, but typically offer longer flight times, which makes them ideal for these kinds of application where maneuverability takes a back seat to range.

Without revealing how far its Zip drone can fly at a time, Zipline says its "unprecedented range" makes national-scale coverage possible from a single base.

Source: Gizmag

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WHY YOUR CHILD SHOULD START LEARNING ROBOTICS FROM YOUNG AGE

Yesterday’s future is today’s reality. The Future is secure for those who started constructing their foundation with the right idea and knowledge. Robotics is not just a piece of mechanism. It’s an art that exhibits logical possibilities of all fields of engineering connected with complex algorithms.

The concept of robotics is no more a science fiction. Robotics is getting implemented in all fields – right from agriculture to space exploration. And every big giant companies, such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, and many more are venturing deep into development of robots! 

These days education has become a means for discrimination - imposing ideas upon young minds instead of teaching them to think for themselves. However a faulty education system can do more harm than good in this respect. While the education system is already destroying the young minds; on other hand a lot of parents end up adding fuel to it. Books ! Books ! Books ! And when the child is done with it – what next? Neither do parents know nor does the child ! And finally, the child’s future will be a replica of another person’s advice !   Don’t let anyone make decision for the child. Parents should take a breath and just listen to their child’s dreams. How? There is a way !

Every kid should be introduced to practical learning and robotics is something that makes a child’s eye twinkle. Robotics – being a multidisciplinary field (Mechanical, Electronics, Programming and Algorithm), can help a child find his/her interest at a young age and thereby focus on it to become not just “Jack of all fields” but also “Master of One”. Skills such as critical thinking, decision making, public speaking, being able to work in a team and creative thinking are important for a student's life in the present and the future – and how good would it be if a child gains all this in a “fun” way? Robotics is not just about building and playing with robots but designing, programming, modifying and getting to the root of the problems and overcoming challenges. To ensure a child’s future – it has to be started Young and Early!

An advice to every parent: Explore the possibilities, make a choice, and encourage your kid to work actively towards their goal. Get excited.

Join your child in Kidobotikz – an ecosystem for young techies to get molded into young scientists!

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Reusable microbots make meal of toxic metals

 

Researchers have developed a tube-shaped microbot that offers a cheaper and more effective way of removing heavy metals than previous methods. The self-propelled microbots use an outer layer of graphene that binds to lead ions it comes in contact with. The scientists found that they can remove 95 percent of lead from polluted water in one hour, and once they have a full payload, they can be cleaned and reused multiple times.

Heavy metal pollutants, such as lead, cadmium, mercury and arsenic, are a persistent problem in industrial processes and their subsequent runoff. Besides battery and electronics manufacturing, mining and electroplating are especially guilty of generating hazardous levels of these toxic byproducts. The researchers have focused on lead removal initially as a proof-of-concept, since lead is a major waste water pollutant from the battery industry and others."These microbots could remove all contaminants that graphene can adsorb."

SOURCE: Gizmag.com

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DRONE CAN CAPTURE 360-DEGREE 3D VIDEO

 
Drones have given photographers and videographers the ability to capture shots that once required a helicopter pilot. The company's Janus 360 drone boasts two heads to carry a total of 10 cameras in order to capture obstruction-free, 360-degree 3D video for use in virtual reality content production.

"One of the major strengths of this model is the ability to shoot in the air at 360° without any elements of the drone, as each charge of the drone's battery pack will get you about 15 minutes of flight time. The package also comes equipped to capture 150 GB of images per flight and can stream live HD video to the ground.

The frame measures 500 x 500 x 400 mm (20 x 20 x 16 in) and weighs 600 g (1.3 lb). Pricing and availability have yet to be announced.

SOURCE: Gizmag

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KIdobotikz Robo-Game, April Edition 2016

 

When Chennai was warming up in the summer, Kidobotikz Robo- Games ended up adding more heat to it. 

Are you wondering if kids really understand robotics? Then you should visit KRG (a.k.a) Kidobotikz Robo-Games where you could find lots and lots of young, curious ad innovative minds march with their robots to be part of the tech society, and that’s where you could realize that the future of robotics is more grandeur in the young hands.

On 30^th of April, Kidobotikz organized its 8^th annual Robo games, with the most established, relevant range of games for school students. The event was filled with hundreds of keen young students. The event had seven enthralling games (i.e.) Project Expo, Autonomous & manually controlled Robo-Race, Autonomous & Manual Controlled Sumo Race. If you think you are hard to be surprised, then KRG is the place you will be looking for, where every corner of arena was filled with fun and surprises. 

Project Expo - KRG 16, April Edition

Techie out there, you should’ve peeked into the project expo, where participants showcased their ideas by building a prototype proving that technologies can build a better future making adults go speechless.
 

 Robo-Race - KRG 16, April Edition

 One could also hear noises a que that the robo-race had started. Where you could find the robots go wroom! Poof! Bam! Pow! Zap! on the track, because it was bumpy with the bridges, wedges, death wells, rotating platforms and many more surprise elements. The next stop was the Robo-Sumo. You could witness the robots fighting for its survival – two robots pushing each other; the one that stands alone won the match, which was being operated manually by the participants. The clash was wild but only inside the arena. 

Robo-Sumo - KRG 16, April Edition

KRG is not designed for winning or losing, it’s all about being part of a community where you could learn and improvise the tech-skills. To make the event more interesting, Kidobotikz surprised the participants with the “Royal Rumble” match. The one rule about the match was “There are no rules”. It was a last man (Oops, last robot) standing match, where all the robots joined the war on eliminating their opponents and it was top notch.  The winner of each event was awarded and other participants were recognized and appreciated for their effort. The overall champion was won by “Abhimanyu Sathish”. He accomplished first place in Robo-Race and second place in Robo- Sumo. 

OUR COMMUNITY

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ExoMars PROJECT TO SEND A ROVER TO MARS

Astronaut Tim Peake has taken control of a robotic rover on Earth while in orbit on board the International Space Station, driving it across a test area designed to look like Mars.The former Army test pilot used a console on board the ISS to remotely drive a prototype Mars Rover, called Bridget, around a dark sand-covered yard in Stevenage, Hertfordshire.

The test was designed to mimic what it would be like to use a robotic rover to explore a dark cave on the red planet, but midway through the test engineers had to come to his rescue after he hit a rock.

SOURCE: dailymail.co.uk

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SONY CONTACT LENS CAN RECORD WHAT YOU SEE

Although electronic devices are shrinking all the time, the idea of a smart contact lens still seems wildly ambitious. Now Sony has reached even further into the realm of the hypothetical and yanked out something that trumps all the efforts we have seen before. A patent filing by the Japanese company reveals its vision for a contact lens that not only records video and images with a simple blink, but manages to store them right there and then on the user's eyeballs.

Google, Samsung and a number of research groups have all made their plans for smart contact lenses public. The motivation behind these range from glucose monitoring to augmented to boosting vision through telescopic lenses. But one thing they have in common is that they are all early-stage prototypes or patented pipe dreams, with consumer-ready products seemingly still a ways off.

SOURCE: gizmag.com

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