First self-driving vehicle produced for Volvo's public trial

The first car built to take part in Volvo's Drive Me trial has rolled off the production line in Torslanda, Sweden. Described by Volvo as "the world's most ambitious and advanced public autonomous driving experiment," Drive Me will see real people using fully autonomous cars on public roads.

Although the cars aren't scheduled to hit the road until next year, Volvo sees this as the beginning of the project, which will be run in Gothenburg with special "hands-off and feet-off" zones allowing for full autonomous use.

The carmaker has been at the forefront of the autonomous driving revolution, most recently in partnering with Uber to ferry passengers around in self-driving taxis and in trialing a self driving truck in an underground mine.

For the Drive Me trial, Volvo XC90 SUVs are being fitted with a variety of sensors, including LiDAR, radar and traditional cameras. The information from the source sensors is then brought together by a powerful computer that Volvo calls the Autonomous Driving Brain in a process called data fusion. The fused data is used to inform the actions that the cars take.

Volvo says that the Drive Me project differs from others in its customer-focused approach. By researching with real drivers in real-world situations, it hopes to gain insights that more controlled research approaches may not yield.

Subsequent to the Drive Me project getting underway at Gothenburg, another leg is planned for launch in London. Volvo says it is considering interest from cities in China too.

Volvo has high hopes for autonomous driving tech. It's already introducing semi-autonomous technologies to help with its aim for no-one to be seriously injured or killed in a new Volvo by the year 2020, and is looking to begin introducing fully autonomous cars commercially by around 2021.

Here's Volvo's run-down on the project:

Source: Volvo, New Atlas 

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Redefine hospitality with some inspired gadgets!

Do you get shy when guests come calling? Is your neighbour constantly goading about the new gadget he/she imported? 

How about getting them all impressed and mystified every time they land on your doorstep?

Well, the easy way would be to innovate something cool that pulls off a smart statement every time someone walks past the threshold!

If you have your Kidobotikz kits, it can be done easy peasy! You’ll probably have all the neighbours dropping in for Navaratri, delight them with some fun projects! 

Following are three fun “Kit-creatives” that you can make using your foundation and beginner level kits. 

1) Automatic Door Bell Using IR Sensor- F

You guests will be amazingly pleased if they found out that right at the moment they landed on your door, they found the calling bell missing but the bell rang anyways. Surprise them with this curious innovation. All you need is an IR Sensor and a Buzzer

Find out how to do it here: Automatic Door Bell Using IR Sensor-F

2) Foot Step Activated Door Bell-F

Imagine the bewilderment of the pizza guy at your doorstep when he finds out that as soon as he stepped onto the doormat he heard the bell go off. Part utilitarian part pranky, this will be a fun project to try out. 

Find out how to do it over here: Foot Step Activated Door Bell-F

3) Smart Door Opening System - F+B

You’ve probably been impressed by the automatic sliding doors at the mall and the airport. Chances are you’ve been through the doors again and again only to marvel at the doors that slide aside automatically on detecting your presence. How about giving the same kind of feel to people who visit your home? If your dad isn’t too pleased with your idea of drilling holes into the door, you can always try this experiment on the windows of your bedroom.

Find out how to do it over here: Smart Door Opening System - F+B

Pull off these projects this holiday season and be the toast of your neighbourhood. 

After all it’s, “Athithi Devo Bhava” ! !

Happy Roboting!

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Grasping drone brings new meaning to "armed aircraft"

It's no secret that flying drones are becoming increasingly useful, with most of their applications tending to involve either obtaining aerial video footage, or being loaded up with cargo by human ground crews. Imagine, however, if they could grab things. While we've already seen experimental "armed" drones, Japan's Prodrone has just unveiled a model that's actually in production.

On display this week at the InterDrone show in Las Vegas, the PD6B-AW-ARM is described by Prodrone as "the world's first dual robot arm large-format drone." Built around the airframe of the company's existing PD6B-AW model, it features two remotely-operated 5-axis robotic arms that can grasp, carry and release a payload of up to 10 kg (22 lb). Algorithms in its onboard software allow it retain stability as its center of gravity shifts while lifting objects.

Powered by two 22.2v/16,000mAh batteries, the weatherproof drone itself has a flight time of up to 30 minutes per charge, a maximum forward speed of 60 km/h (37 mph), and a maximum operating altitude of 5,000 m (16,404 ft).

Along with the obvious grasping and carrying of cargo, the company's suggested uses for the PD6B-AW-ARM also include attaching or joining items, cutting cables, flicking switches, delivering lifesaving buoys, or retrieving hazardous materials. As can be seen in the video below, the arms additionally allow the aircraft to perch on precarious surfaces such as railings.

Source: New Atlas,  Prodrone

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Formal Vs. Informal learning: Which side should one lean upon?

What is the best way of undergoing Education? This is a question that is as old as mankind itself.

Well, if one has to think there are two major ways of educating one’s self.

The first would be the ubiquitous formal education. This would be enrolling oneself to the various existing institutions of learning. Formal education is classroom-based where the instruction would be through teachers, faculty what have you. 

Informal education, on the other hand, would encompass every learning activity that happens outside the classroom. These could be after-school programs, community-based organizations, museums, libraries, or at home. Perhaps an even more pronounced example of this form of learning would be learning through the internet. 

With the advent of internet based learning opportunities, there’s been a constant upheaval among the defenders of the two camps. 

On one side, we have educators who say yay for formal education and nay for informal education, while on the other side we have people who feel that formal education has outlived its utility in the information age where every bit of learning as important as the ones that are a part of the regular curriculum.

The debate over these two forms of education has always remained high pitched. So, where is the middle ground?

Well if there is a middle ground, it lies where the best attributes of these two forms of education are taken into consideration.

Formal education while having the disciplined structure that is required for sustained learning tends to miss out on the variety that informal learning can offer. Teachers need to meet educational standards and stick to a specified curriculum, which can make it difficult for them to incorporate nontraditional content. 

Informal education on the other hand incentivizes learning with the pleasure of satisfaction. It gives the freedom to learner and he or she is free to learn it the way they see it. But, more often than not a student or candidate who wishes to learn online tends to get disoriented on what he/she should actually be learning; a learning experience that is just fun but not of relevance.

How can this be overcome? 

Well, the most logical way to do the same would be to bring together elements of fun from informal learning to the disciplined aspects of formal education.

Does such a system exist? Can it be practical? Will it be of relevance to the current scenario of high intense STEM learning?

Yes, it will be. We at Kidobotikz have been promoting a confluence between the facets of formal and informal learning through our online platform. We’ve incorporated the elements of gamification into some serious concepts of robotics to bring about a curriculum that makes STEM learning a fun activity

Happy Roboting!

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Atlas robot pulls off a delicate balancing act

Having previously shown off impressive capabilities dealing with uneven ground and being pushed around, the humanoid Atlas robot built by Boston Dynamics has now demonstrated the ability to balance unaided on the edge of a plywood board less than an inch thick.

Relying on a control algorithm developed by the Florida Institute for Human & Machine Cognition (IHMC), the Atlas robot looks shaky in parts but manages to balance on the edge for about 22 seconds before falling off. IMHC admits this was a lucky run and that the robot isn't usually able to maintain its balance for that long.

IMHC also points out that the robot only uses onboard sensors and its shakiness is due to "poor state estimation", which is essentially the robot's ability to estimate its position, orientation and velocity so it knows where its various bits and pieces are and where they're going.

IMHC has previously put the 6.1-ft (1.9-m) tall Atlas robot to work vacuuming and doing some light housework around the lab after it finished competing in the 2015 DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC) finals. Maybe a turn at tightrope walking is in its future.

The video below shows the robot's balancing act.

Source: New Atlas, IMHC

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Move along chaffeurs, the robots are here!

In the area of Retail chain, especially the food and household supplies market, robotics as a concept has made massive strides. The industry has reached a point of progress where it is prudent to look at not how robots will drive business transformation, but at how they are already doing so.

Most jobs in the retail industry which involved dexterity and careful human handling are now being taken over by robots; robots that can be described as sophisticated, smart and functional. But what they miss out in anthropomorphic appeal, they more than make up for it in their capabilities. 

In the past few years robots have become adept in adapting themselves to the retail environments and lend a helping hand to the workforce that works in tandem with them. 

When we say robots are helping out, we do not talk of robots that look like ancestors of C3-PO and walk around and talking part in errands. No, we are talking of the kind that is more like an R2; functional and built with purpose.

Following are some examples where robots have already begun to make their presence felt:

Fulfillment of deliveries in restaurants:

Robots like Pepper the robot have started appearing at restaurants all across the globe. These are now replacing manual labour in mundane tasks such as delivery of food entree’ to customers. This has helped the restaurant chains cut back on inefficiencies and help them enhance their customer service

Helping consumers in industrial scale super markets 

As recently as December, Lowe’s introduced a robotic assistant in its stores. Called the LoweBot, will be deployed to 11 stores to help guide home improvers to find items in store. This robot can speak multiple languages and help consumers their way around these stores.

Making sky the limit to cut back on delivery timelines.

When we talk about robots, we should also factor in the thousands of drones that buzz around the airspaces of major city. When industry majors like Domino’s collaborate with relatively unknowns to airdrop pizza boxes out of the sky, it only reiterates the role robotics have played in easing the lives of consumers and industry planners around the world.

All these drive home the fact that robots are becoming a ubiquitous component of our consumerism driven lives.

Happy Roboting!

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In an audacious attempt, PSLV parks 8 satellites in two different orbits.

In a first, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)'s PSLV C-35 rocket launched a total of eight satellites, into two different orbits.

ScatSAT-1 onboard PSLV C-35

The 371 kg SCATSAT-1, a satellite for weather-related studies, was placed in the polar sun synchronous orbit at an altitude of 730 km some 17 minutes after the rocket took off from Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota at 9.12 a.m.

About two hours later, the rocket placed two satellites from two educational institutions (PISAT and PRATHAM), three commercial payloads from Algeria (ALSAT-1B, 2B and 1N) and one each for Canada (NLS-19) and the United States (Pathfinder-1).

Announcing the successful launch of all the satellites from the Mission Control Centre, ISRO chairman A.S. Kiran Kumar said the Monday launch marked a "landmark day" in the history of ISRO.

The rocket was re-ignited twice during its flight to place the set of satellites in different orbits. Due to the re-ignition, the Monday's launch is by far the longest PSLV launch by ISRO.

ISRO said though it had launched several PSLV rockets in the past, this launch is "the first mission of PSLV in which it had launched its payloads into two different orbits," ISRO said.

The satellites include SCATSAT-1, a satellite for weather studies, IIT-Bombay’s PRATHAM and PISAT from PES University in Bengaluru.

SCATSAT-1, with a life of five years, would provide weather forecasting services through the generation of wind vector products, it said.

PRATHAM 

The 10 kg PRATHAM by IIT Bombay intends to estimate the total electron count with a resolution of 1km x 1km location grid and PISAT (5.25 kg) from PES University in Bengaluru intends to explore remote sensing applications.

Algeria's ALSAT-1B is an earth observation satellite (103 kg), ALSAT-2B a remote sensing satellite (117 kg) and ALSAT-1N (7 kg) a technology demonstrator. Canada's NLS-19 is a technology demonstration micro satellite (8 kg) and Pathfinder-1 is a commercial high resolution imaging micro satellite (44 kg).

Source: The Hindu

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