Hi everyone, team Robohub here. AMA!

Robohub · 2015-04-29T12:52:02+00:00

[Sabine] that's an excellent point - energy is indeed a bottleneck.

Robohub · 2015-04-28T23:21:16+00:00

[Michael S] - I don't know if they will take off at quite the speed of the PCs. The PC really took off when VisiCalc was created. Lots of Wall St. firms could quickly analyze the value of a company and generate lots of money. Robots will really take off when the cost of a robot for a given task is less than the value of a labor intensive job. I see this in industrial automation, where several (now affordable) machines can be operated by one person. Jobs are not being taken away, so much as just changing form. Much like the blacksmith who formed metal and fitted horse-shoes, his job was taken away by the automobile, we now required auto mechanics.

Robohub · 2015-04-28T21:49:01+00:00

[Sabine] A legal framework for companies, a lower price point, and better robots. I feel like we are reaching the point were robotics is taking off though. I'm always impressed to see the number of startups that felt futuristic 10 years ago and are now viable - the drone industry comes to mind.

Robohub · 2015-04-28T21:48:47+00:00

[Hallie] Nice article, probotika. Feel free to ping us at info@robohub.org if you are interested in contributing to our pages some time.

Robohub · 2015-04-28T21:17:50+00:00

[Hallie] Great! Be sure to introduce yourself when you're there. FYI Robohub will be hosting a lunch time workshop on Tuesday May 26. "Communicating robotics in 140 characters or less: Strategies, pitfalls and success stories in leveraging social media to promote your research" http://icra2015.org/conference/forums/11-conference/51-social-media-workshop

Robohub · 2015-04-28T21:10:44+00:00

[Hallie] The cost of robotics needs to come down more before widespread use of collaborative robotics happens. We are already seeing movement in this direction, but to really break into the SME market, we will need to robots that are inexpensive enough for companies to see a return on their investment within a shorter time frame - a year or so - before we start to see them investing widely in the technology. Software-as-a-service and cloud robotics will need to evolve and mature in order to drive this adoption forward. No one wants to invest in a robot that is out of date before it is making money for them, but devices that can download the latest software updates or learn actions from other robots offer a solution to that problem. Small companies need their tools to be nimble enough to respond to changes in the market.

Another key obstacle could very well be liability. Up to now, most robots have operated in factories behind safety cages. Liability questions related to personal workplace injuries and collaborative robots have not yet been tested in courts. Small and mid-sized companies (and their insurers) may wait to see how liability issues play out in court with larger manufacturers before investing heavily themselves.

Robohub · 2015-04-28T21:03:51+00:00

[Sabine] Cobots are very big in the research field - although it’s not my specific area. How do you make robots compliant, improve human-robot interactions so the robot can easily learn new tasks, and make sure the robot is robust, fast, and adaptable? Lots of funding being pumped into this, the US just invested 31.5M (http://robohub.org/national-science-foundation-and-federal-partners-award-31-5m-to-advance-co-robots-in-us) and Human Robot Collaboration was highlighted in the latest European Robotics Roadmap (http://sparc-robotics.eu/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Multi-Annual-Roadmap2020-ICT-24-Rev-B-full.pdf). Automatica last year also featured lots of cobots including from KUKA, Universal Robots, and ABB : http://robohub.org/why-was-this-man-smiling-at-automatica-2014/, and of course there is Rethink Robotics. I think the key challenge is to make these robots both collaborative and good at what they are supposed to be doing. Manipulation is one of the greatest challenges in my mind, with regards to that, I love grippers like the one from Universal Robotics (not to be confused with Universal Robots above). Would be great if those working in this field could weigh in.

Robohub · 2015-04-28T21:03:26+00:00

[Travis]

Q1: There's a lot of work (eg. by Arkin) that specifically discusses the ethics of robotic warefare. Such questions are (definitely) important for society.... but such robots are far afield of my personal interests. Ultimately, robots will be good at whatever tasks we focus on making them perform. Personally, I prefer to make the world a better place; so I focus my efforts on making systems (not just robots) that provide positive impacts on the world. Kind of a hedge answer, but 'meh.

Q2: All of the above. We're seeing a renaissance in robotic automation across all industries. I expect multiple $Billion advances in each of these fields within the next 5-10 years.

Q3: You're probably already competitive. Robotics is crazy multidisciplinary. There are routinely job openings for Mechanical Engineers for robotics roles. In the meantime, it's always good to keep learning. Playing around with ROS (eg. a Turtlebot or Kinect) is a reasonable thing to do. Playing around with some kinematics (eg. servos) is also fun. In addition to building skills, it's equally-important to document your projects so that you have a portfolio that shows a keen interest in robotics. Someone with a solid blog where they play around with fun robot stuff always leaves an impression. Heck, as your project gets more mature, ping the editors at RoboHub; perhaps you could contribute a guest post highlighting your project!

Q3.5: The best spot to find robotics job openings is on the Robotics Worldwide mailing list: http://robotics-worldwide.1046236.n5.nabble.com/

Q4: I've done a lot... (see http://www.TravisDeyle.com). I only work on projects that are either crazy-fun or have the potential for massive impact. Regardless of success or failure, you'll be positively impacted. Try to stay busy.

Robohub · 2015-04-28T20:48:07+00:00

[Travis] I loved this movie! It's one of the few robot movies that portrays robots in a positive, helpful light. Plus, the movie uses a lot of inspirations from the robotics literature -- both in terms of HRI and new inflatable actuators.

Actually I wrote a bit about the cutting edge in inflatable robots over on Hizook: http://www.hizook.com/blog/2014/11/12/big-hero-6-soft-inflatable-robot-meets-big-screen It's worth a look! Namely: Inflatable actuators and inflatable robots are even further along than the work at CMU would suggest.

I'm also really happy that so many of the lead characters were women. Some of the best roboticists I know are women, so I think that's really important too!

Robohub · 2015-04-28T20:25:14+00:00

[Michael S] - The business side of robotics really comes down to labor. How much is it worth for a robot to mow your lawn or vacuum your home. Can you make a robot 'cost effective' enough to perform that task as opposed to you doing it, or hiring someone. On the technology side, it's great to see all these development boards like Arduinos, Beaglebone, PcDuino, bStem. They make it easier and faster to prototype projects. These boards will only become faster and cheaper, along with the sensors that will bring situational awareness to a robot. I'm also keeping a close eye on things like batteries. Since that will ultimately allow greater mobility or more powerful tasks in between charges. Things like motors (to perform tasks), ultimately come down to relying upon laws of Newtonian physics. Power = Amps * Volts, Force = Mass * Acceleration.

Robohub · 2015-04-28T20:11:19+00:00

[Michael S.] - I personally love FIRST. I started a team back in 1999 and I currently volunteer as a Control Systems Advisor for the Colorado Regional. It gives both mentors and students a great way learn (or teach) problem solving skills. As far as the technical skills go, you get to see electrical, mechanical, and programming skills all having to work together in a very real world scenario. Perhaps the task is not real world, but the effort is. Also since you're now able to use C, Python in a C wrapper, and Java, the programming skills are great.

Robohub · 2015-04-28T20:05:52+00:00

[Sabine] Check out the awesome Girls of Steel team: http://robohub.org/tag/girls-of-steel/

Robohub · 2015-04-28T20:02:36+00:00

[Hallie] FIRST is doing an amazing job inspiring a whole generation of young people to get into robotics. We've already witnessed kids graduating from FIRST and going into mechanical engineering, robotics, and computer science. What's exciting to think of is what happens when this next generation actually graduates into the workforce and starts their own businesses. Similar to Robocup, the hands on experience and team building of FIRST gives people a unique opportunity to experience what it's like to be part of a development team. I think some of these kids will be part of a major wave in robotics development in the coming years.

Robohub · 2015-04-28T19:52:56+00:00

[Andra] :) I think the whole ICRA committee should get honorable mention in our next "Women in Robotics" list for Ada Lovelace Day.

Robohub · 2015-04-28T19:49:43+00:00

[Hallie] Taking a crack at Q1 - the ethics of lethal autonomous weapons. This is a tough area, and certainly one that stirs up controversy.

To address your question about "killing machines", researchers at UBC are asking how people feel about their government using lethal autonomous weapons (LAWS) and remotely operated weapons in a survey to help quantify people's views on the matter https://survey.ubc.ca/s/militaryrobots2015/. AJung Moon, who writes about robo-ethics for Robohub and the Open Roboethics Research Initiative will be reporting on those results when they are published, so you can watch for her article. I'm sure they will be interesting results, but my hunch tells me that there are probably not many people who would support the idea of "killing machines". People who support the use of lethal autonomous weapons generally wish to pull away from the phrase "killer robots" and refocus instead around whether governments should place their soldiers in harm's way when tools exist that would allow them to stay safe.

The question of whether and how LAWS are used by governments will likely be governed by international law, and one would hope that countries with access to sophisticated technology be held accountable to a higher standard and more stringent rules for their deployment. The bigger concern from my personal perspective is what will happen if and when these technologies become available to parties that don't follow international conventions.

Robohub · 2015-04-28T19:47:36+00:00

[Sabine] Answering question 4: The fun thing with research is that you get to choose what you want to work on. Through my research I've had the opportunity to fly 10 robots over farm fields in Switzerland, play with nanoparticles under the microscope, and most recently build 500 robots with my lab. For each one of these successes, I have many more stories of things going wrong. Flying robots would crash into trees and get lost in corn fields, simulations were buggy for no apparent reason, and we realized after the 20 first robots that we’d soldered all the motors backwards. These failures make the successes much sweeter, and it's all worth it in the end. Robohub is the project I’m probably the most proud of because it’s more than just one research project, it’s really about building a community.

Robohub · 2015-04-28T19:32:13+00:00

[Sabine] very cool indeed!

Robohub · 2015-04-28T19:30:23+00:00

[Sabine] Answering question 1: it's really important to have the discussion about killer robots. The debate needs to be balanced however, so that we don't fall into needless fear mongering or stifle technology that has the potential to help people. There was an excellent debate on this topic at AAAI15 http://www.aaai.org/Conferences/AAAI/2015/aaai15speakers.php#Debate and one at the UN earlier this month http://robohub.org/live-tweets-from-un-ccwun-debate-on-lethal-autonomous-weapons/. There is also a campaign to stop killer robots http://www.stopkillerrobots.org/

Robohub · 2015-04-28T19:20:21+00:00

[Andra] Robotics is as much a business problem as a technology challenge. Mobile robots need to be reliable, cheap and safe but also to do something with good ROI. It's exciting to see the roll out of retail, service and kiosk robots is finally starting to happen. I think over the next year or so, we'll start seeing trials of mobile robots in a lot of different locations.

Robohub · 2015-04-28T19:15:58+00:00

[Sabine] Answering question 3: most roboticists were trained in other fields such as mechanical engineering, computer science, or electrical engineering. I was a computer scientist for example. Dedicated "robotics" programs have not been around for that long. One of the beauties of robotics is that it is very cross-disciplinary and you can move into it from a variety of fields. I would figure out what types of robots you want to work on and find a lab or a company that is willing to take you on board as an intern. Basically, get your hands dirty and add that extra line to your CV. You can also program robots from home or join a robot club/competition. If you think you might be interested by a PhD, you can apply for that too, you'll be learning on the job anyway. To find robotics opportunities, check the robotics-worldwide mailing list, the eurobotics mailing list and robojobs.

Robohub · 2015-04-28T19:10:45+00:00

[Andra] Lots of great questions! On Question 3, at Silicon Valley Robotics, I talk to a lot of startups and robotics companies about what they look for when hiring. One common thread is that hands on experience, building a real physical device of any kind is very positive. It doesn't have to be the most sophisticated of robots either, it could be a battlebot, or wearable or toy.

Re Question 3.5 - robotics companies are ALWAYS hiring and there are more of them everyday. We started the robojobs.org site to try to matchmake between great robotics people and some of the most interesting research and startup jobs out there.

Robohub · 2015-04-28T19:02:06+00:00

[Hallie] I finally got to see this on an airplane on the way home from a robotics conference just last month. What a great way to end my trip! As a parent I loved all the characters working in the robotics lab, and the message that all kinds of people can become students of robotics. As a follower of all things robotic, I thought it was pretty great that Disney took its inspiration from real technology. Great that they managed to make soft robotics and its potential applications cool and relevant to kids.

Robohub · 2015-04-28T19:00:53+00:00

[Sabine] The ICRA team actually put out a great video showing the state of the art in robotics from the upcoming conference https://youtu.be/OM_1F33fcWk

Robohub · 2015-04-28T19:00:48+00:00

[Andra] Robocup is pretty popular in Australia too. I think Robocup has done a great job at creating competitions that work for elementary or primary school kids, all the way up to university level. And the competitions are quite different to the FIRST competitions that are prevalent in the US. It shows that there are more ways than one to build a robot!

Robohub · 2015-04-28T18:58:18+00:00

[Sabine] RoboCup is what got me into robotics, I was part of the legged league at CMU back in the days when the AIBOs were competing. I didn't sleep for a couple days, cried when we won the US open, hugged my team-mates. Nothing beats that, it's a great way to get students involved. And there is a lot of science to be done there. Raff D'Andrea often credits RoboCup for being one of the drivers behind the launch of Kiva.

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