The Calicut Diaries: Fond memoirs . . . .

It’s a warm tuesday morning and an evening has elapsed since the victorious contingent returned back to Chennai after a memorable journey! Their bags probably still remain unpacked, but so should be their spirits for it was an event that will talked about for a long time at Kidobotikz. While it would only be befitting if we write minstrels about such a performance, we are just sticking to writing a blog about it.

After a three day campaign at NIT-Calicut’s Tathva ‘16, the students belonging to the Kidobotikz community returned home with a string of victories. When the event draw to a close, Kidobotikzians had left a profound impact on everyone from the organizers to the students and the audience. 

The techfest was in very measure of the word, an extravaganza. Hosting 7 events related to electronics and electrical and about 7 events related to robotics alone, Tathva ‘16 was a cracker of an event with participants from across the country. These participants, most of whom were from esteemed institutions such as IITs, NITs and BITs faced fierce competition from a bunch of school students, our own Kidobotikzians. It is nothing less than a wonder that a bunch of school kids participated in a competed in an event hosted for college students and ran them all rout.

The event had a maze of events that were meant to test the knowledge and skills of students. Events such as Amazed, Collision Course, Death Race, Dirt Race, Accelero-Bot X, Circuit Race, Coil Gun, E-Racer were spaced over a span of two days. 

Some of these events had truly interesting themes. The ‘Amazed’ event which had Kidobotikzians grabbing all the three places was a truly challenging event to take part in. It required the participants to develop an autonomous line-maze solving robot which had to find its way out through mazes even as it followed the black lines. Another interesting event was the ‘League of Machines’ where six Kidobotikzians split the prizes for all the 3 places. Each of these events had quite an active participation and had several elimination rounds. Despite all this, Kidobotikzians dominated the leaderboards at all these events. This reiterated the deftness and planning in their preparation for the event. 

With the final tally standing at 15 prizes, one can truly surmise the fact that it was an out and out Kidobotikz show! 

The next stop for these marauding band of roboticists would be FTC for which preparation is underway. Along with the next KRG, which is tentatively expected to be held early next year, the academic year of these geeks is packed with action.

Happy Roboting!

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Unmanned Warrior puts the future of marine warfare to the test

What will the Royal Navy look like in 2036? This month's Unmanned Warrior 2016 exercise taking place off the West Coast of Scotland might provide some of the answers. The Navy's first ever large scale demonstration of marine robotic systems not only showcases new technology, but tests the ability of unmanned vehicles to work with one another as well as with conventional naval ships.

The brainchild of then First Sea Lord Admiral Zambellas in 2014, Unmanned Warrior is part of Joint Warrior – a tri-service exercise involving forces from Britain, NATO and allied nations. Including 5,700 personnel, 31 warships, and almost 70 aircraft, it's a major international effort to develop tactics and skills to deal with conflicts in the air, on the surface, underwater, and in amphibious operations.

Unmanned Warrior assesses the rapidly emerging autonomous and remote controlled technologies that could play a major part in wars of the future. With operations spread over the West Coast of Scotland and West Wales, Unmanned Warrior is playing host to over 50 aerial, surface and underwater Maritime Autonomous Systems (MAS) as they explore the areas of surveillance, intelligence-gathering, and mine countermeasures.

Unmanned Warrior is operating in four ranges: The Hebrides around Benbecula in the Western Isles and Stoneway to the north, the British Underwater Test and Evaluation Centre (BUTEC) at the Kyle of Lochalsh by Skye, and Applecross, where dummy minefields have been laid down.

The machines used in the exercise are a remarkable spectrum of aircraft, surface vessels, and underwater craft. The star of the show is the British Army's Watchkeeper Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) operated by the Royal Artillery 47th Regiment, which is not only part of the tests, but also provides support for ships heading for Joint Warrior.

Other aircraft include the hand-launchable Black Star winged drone, the Schiebel Camcopter S100 mini helicopter, the US Navy's NRQ 21 fixed wing UAV, the twin engined Sea Hunter, self-landing unmanned aerial vehicles, the Boeing ScanEagle with a new visual detection and ranging system, and the pilot-optional Leonardo Solo helicopter.

One craft of particular interest is the Blue Bear Blackstart fixed wing UAV, which is being used as a communications link to mission control in the Command and Control centers. The latter are mostly a collection of undistinguished white ISO containers built for portability, but they can handle data feeds from 40 different systems at once.

One of these centers is aboard the support ship MV Northern River, which did double duty as the target of a "pirate attack." Watchkeeper helped foil this mock attack before going on to catch a "smuggler" by following him as he drove off after collecting stolen goods from an accomplice on the beach.

In addition to the flying drones, Unmanned Warrior also hosts a fleet of robotic surface boats and submersibles. There's the Pacific 950, a Rigid Inflatable Boat (RIB) equipped with a remote control kit, thermal imaging and all-around vision, so it can act as a watchdog for ships at anchor or making slow passages through harbors. Then there's the Maritime Autonomy Surface Testbed (MAST) for evaluating new robotic technologies, and the Hydrographic Survey, which is using Sea Gliders and Wave Gliders to study the sea bottom and monitor salinity, temperature, and how these change with depth.

For the minehunting challenge, actual Royal Navy minehunter ships were used as they tested the Remus 100 and Remus 600 robotic submersibles with advanced sonar for seeking out dummy mines. In addition, the Remus are designed to be lightweight and easily customizable, so they can be quickly adapted to different tasks. In addition, the challenge tested unmanned surface minesweepers, such as the Atlas ARCIMIS.

"The technologies demonstrated in Unmanned Warrior have the potential to fundamentally change the future of Royal Navy operations just as the advent of steam propulsion or submarines did," says Royal Navy Fleet Robotics Officer Commander Peter Pipkin. "This is a chance to take a great leap forward in Maritime Systems – not to take people out of the loop, but to enhance everything they do, extending our reach and efficiency using intelligent robotics at sea."

The Royal Navy video below discusses the importance of the event.

Source: New Atlas, Royal Navy

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Autonomous tricycles could form the basis of urban taxi systems

Self-driving cars, trucks and buses might get the bulk of the headlines, but a team at the University of Washington Bothell (UWB) is developing a smaller kind of autonomous vehicle. With the aim of providing a relatively inexpensive alternative to owning an autonomous car, the team is creating a self-driving trike that may even open up the possibility of an automated ride-sharing network, like a bike version of Uber's or NuTonomy's proposed services.

The team, headed up by Tyler Folsom, has been experimenting with fitting autonomous systems into tricycle frames and this work culminated in August with a test that saw a bright orange recumbent trike drive itself in a circle. That modest command, entered via remote control, demonstrated the vehicle's ability to stop, start and turn itself to reach a destination, but Folsom says it's just a "baby step" on the way to deeper autonomy.

"I'm trying to shift the talk about self-driving cars to self-driving bicycles and making sure bicycles are part of the automation equation," says Folsom.

The outcome of that equation, the team hopes, is to eventually produce autonomous vehicles that are much lighter and more environmentally friendly than self-driving cars. With a targeted price tag of around US$10,000, ideally they'd be cheap enough to replace the family car or current public transport options. To keep that price down, the team is trying to maximize the efficiency of the electronics driving the trikes.

"We're using things much less powerful than a smartphone," says Folsom. "Part of the concept is that you don't have to spend as much money as the big car companies are spending. My contention is you don't need all that much processing power to make autonomy happen."

Reducing the required computational power may be easier to achieve if human error is removed from the picture by setting up a better autonomous infrastructure, which is a goal Folsom has been vocal about for years with his Elcano Project. Along with dedicated lanes for autonomous vehicles, he puts forward the idea of renewable energy-powered self-driving taxi systems, possibly with a fleet of velomobiles like Organic Transit's ELF, which could ferry people around cities without impacting too heavily on the environment.

"The big thing for me is the effect this could have on global warming," says Folsom. "If we can push transportation in this direction – very light vehicles – it's a major win for the environment. I want to have the technology that lets people make that choice if we decide, yes, by the way, survival would be a nice thing."

The project, which involves over 20 people, has received a $75,000 grant from Amazon Catalyst.

The team describes their work in the video below.

Source: New Atlas, University of Washington Bothell

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The Calicut diaries: Kidobotikzians@Tathva '16 (Contd....)

What word has two ‘O’s and an ‘R’ in it? You are thinking of the word “Robot”. Nope, we are talking of the other word- “Hooray”!

Yes, “Hooray” it was!

The bandwagon of roboticists at NIT-C have finished their campaign and are now retiring to the stables!

Yep. It was the third and final day of the tour of Kidobotikzians to Tathva ‘16. The event, which was conducted ever so wonderfully by the college, was a wonderful experience for the students, their accompanying faculty and the visitors too. Especially considering the fact Kidobotikzians revelled in an event that was for the standard of Graduates! 

All efforts put by Kidobotikzians up until the event paid off in full measure as they are returning home tonight with a string of trophies- each a hard earned, hard fought and wonderfully cherished victory!

The third day began with a great deal of promise with a string of interesting events lined up. Today being the third and final day, many of the events of the previous days had their final rounds that were held today. And Kidobotikzians, on their virtue of being seasoned roboticists dominated most of these events. The final results tally did no justice to the average of these young roboticists. To think of it that school going young students travelled to a college fest and participated in it with much success against the best of college students from across the nation is quite an accomplishment. A major credit to all this goes to the students and their faculty who spent many an hours helping students understand the concepts of robotics to a degree of professionalism that these kids know the concepts at the back of their hands. A lot of credit is also owed to the parents who have been a constant support to the wishes of these young students and who help them try such interesting activities as a part of their personal development.

As we sign off, our bunch of roboteers are already gearing up for the next big event- FTC. With detailed planning and preparation underway, Kidobotikzians are expected to work wonders at every major event henceforth! 

Click here for the photos of the event: Facebook Album

Happy Roboting!

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Robotic arm gives quadriplegic man a new sense of touch

In 2012, quadriplegic Jan Scheuermann used her own thoughts to control a robotic arm and feed herself a chocolate bar thanks to a system developed by researchers from the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). Now, the same team has recreated the physical feeling of touch through a robotic hand, allowing a quadriplegic man to feel "his" fingers and hand for the first time in 10 years.

After first demonstrating their robotic arm in 2012, the team continued to improve the technology to extend the functional utility of the hand so that it approached the agility of a natural human limb. But although regaining movement is important, how objects feel in our hands also plays a crucial role, creating a feedback loop that allows us to adjust our grip and motion as required. Through further development of the robotic arm and brain computer interface (BCI), the Pitt-UPMC team was able to give 28-year-old Nathan Copeland, who was paralyzed in a car accident in 2004, the sensation of touch again.

Like Scheuermann's procedure, the arm was wired directly into Copeland's brain, allowing him to control it with the same kind of thought commands anyone would normally use. The difference in this case was that the electrical signals from the arm were transmitted through four tiny microelectric arrays implanted into the regions of the brain associated with feeling in individual fingers and the palm. The end result was the ability to feel pressure and how strong it was, although so far he hasn't been able to distinguish between different temperatures.

"I can feel just about every finger — it's a really weird sensation," explains Copeland, about a month after surgery. "Sometimes it feels electrical and sometimes it's pressure, but for the most part, I can tell most of the fingers with definite precision. It feels like my fingers are getting touched or pushed."

As far as the research and technology has come, the Pitt-UPMC team acknowledges that there's still a long way to go on the road to eventually developing a system that moves and feels like the real thing. It's possible because the brain still remembers how to control the limbs – the injury just disrupts the connection between them.

"The most important result in this study is that microstimulation of sensory cortex can elicit natural sensation instead of tingling," says Andrew B. Schwartz, co-author of the study. "This stimulation is safe, and the evoked sensations are stable over months. There is still a lot of research that needs to be carried out to better understand the stimulation patterns needed to help patients make better movements."

The research was published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

Source: New Atlas, UPMC

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The Calicut diaries: Kidobotikzians@Tatva '16

A trip to the “God’s Own Country” is usually one that nobody affords to miss. All of us who’ve been there can relate to the beautiful beaches, the lovely shorelines and the wonderful weather. But when you also roboting into this mix, it becomes an experience for a lifetime . Thanks to NIT-Calicut’s Tatva ’16, Kidobotikzians are enjoying the very same thing at the moment!

A strong contingent of students belonging to the Kidobotikz student community are currently here at NIT Calicut taking part in what can be named a full on tech-extravaganza! Called Tatva ‘16, it is an annual tech festival. Featuring students from across the country, the two day event can be considered a tough event. As we come close to the end of the first of the two day event, we wanted to take a break from all the roboting action and tell you how our experience was. 

Being a tech fest, Tatva has an elaborate set of events for the best of geeks amongst us. To test their roboting skills and prove their mettle, Kidobotikzians had decided to take part in an event that is meant for college students. Yes, you read it right! Kidobotikzians are the only school students who are taking part in the event meant for colleges. And the story doesn’t end their. A few of them have actually bested their performance to take home a few prizes.

The first day of Tatva ‘16 began with some exceptional brouhaha thanks to the tough competition among the participating teams. As a matter of fact, the campaign was kickstarted on a winning note when Vishal Desh, who is a strong favourite at the event, took the honours for winning Accelero Botx. The contest which happened yesterday saw Vishal contest against some fierce opposition and emerge victorious.

Meanwhile, the itinerary for the second day, today, was jam packed with truly amazing events such as Dirt Race, Schwimmwagen, Collision Course and Death Race League of Machines. While the first two were events which involved the usage ATV robots, the latter two were events which were robotic battles. The star event for Kidobotikzians was Amazed where four students belonging to the community- Vishal Desh, Abhishek Shankar, Chitresh, S.Charan- won prizes. 

As we go into the third day, there are several more events in the fray and the Kidobotikzians are fresh from their exploits and the first two days. With still a lot of exciting events to be played out, one can expect the Kidobotikzians to bring back a lot of trophies.

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Robotic ALIAS puts Cessna Caravan through basic maneuvers

The ALIAS system, developed by DARPA, could cut down on crew requirements in military and civilian small aircraft by taking control with a robotic arm. Although it's still a ways off production, the system has been successfully demonstrated on a Cessna Caravan aircraft.

As aircraft have become more advanced, they've also become more difficult to understand. Pilots and crew need to undergo intensive training before being let loose in the latest aircraft, and even then they can be overwhelmed by the complexity of flight systems in an emergency.

According to DARPA, the Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System (ALIAS) could provide a solution. Rather than retrofitting old airplane fleets with complex, expensive automated flight systems, ALIAS has been designed as an adaptable drop-in solution to lighten the load on crews. Although it's all-new, the system has its roots in DARPA's previous work in automated systems and unmanned autonomous vehicles.

When it's completely up and running, ALIAS should be able to handle a complex military mission from takeoff to landing. It should also be able to deal with emergency situations in the air, essentially reducing the human pilot to a mission supervisor by letting the computer deal with minute-to-minute flying.

Having successfully tested the system on a Diamond DA-42 earlier this year, it was recently installed in a Cessna Caravan in an attempt to prove its versatility. It pulled off a set of basic in-flight maneuvers, with a human pilot sitting alongside. The team at Aurora is now working to install it into a Bell UH-1 helicopter.

"Demonstrating our automation system on the UH-1 and the Caravan will prove the viability of our system for both military and commercial applications," says John Wissler, Vice President of Research & Development at Aurora, which has been working on the project. "ALIAS enables the pilot to turn over core flight functions and direct their attention to non-flight related issues such as adverse weather, potential threats or even updating logistical plans."

Watch ALIAS flying the Cessna in the video below.

Source: New Atlas, Aurora

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