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Tag: Robot

  • Robots in High Demand Thanks to Labor Shortage

    Robots in High Demand Thanks to Labor Shortage

    The robotics industry is experiencing massive growth as employers turn to robots to help offset labor shortages.

    The pandemic has led to fundamental shifts in the workforce. Many companies are still struggling to get employees to come back to the office, while others have embraced remote work entirely. Many others, especially in hospitality and retail, have struggled with labor shortages as people have simply not returned to those jobs.

    According to The Wall Street Journal and Business Insider, employers are increasingly turning to robots to pick up the slack. In the first quarter of 2022, robot orders saw a 40% increase, while orders were up 21% in 2021.

    “The robots are becoming easier to use,” Michael Cicco, Fanuc America CEO, told the Wall Street Journal. “Companies used to think that automation was too hard or too expensive to implement.”

    At WPN, we previously covered examples of robots saving restaurants, handling server positions owners were struggling to fill. With a record 11.5 million job openings available, and no end in sight to the labor shortage, it’s a safe bet the robot industry is just beginning to take off.

  • Amazon Reveals Astro, Its Home Robot

    Amazon Reveals Astro, Its Home Robot

    Amazon has revealed a new robot, dubbed Astro, designed to help out around the home.

    Amazon has been rumored to be working on a home robot for some time, one that builds on its Alexa line of home assistants. The company has now revealed Astro, its “vision for home robotics.”

    Astro is designed to perform a variety of tasks around the home, including monitoring, keeping in touch with family and bringing items from one room to another. Alexa Guard can help Astro monitor smoke alarms, carbon monoxide alarms or glass breaking, and then notify the homeowner via a phone alert.

    Amazon created Astro to display a “personality,” with the goal of being as helpful as possible. The robot will even hang out in areas where it can be most useful.

    “Astro’s personality not only helps it communicate intent and offer delightful experiences, but it also evokes emotions like empathy when people use the device,” writes Charlie Tritschler, Vice President of Products at Amazon. “In testing, we’ve been humbled by the number of people who said Astro’s personality made it feel like a part of their family, and that they would miss the device in their home after it was gone. That kind of connection is rare with consumer electronics, but we hope it will be commonplace with Astro and other future robots in the home.”

    Customers can sign up to be invited once Astro is available. The robot will cost $1,449.99, but will be available for $999.99 as part of the Day 1 Editions program when paired with a six-month Ring Protect Pro trial.

  • Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures Leads Investment in Ag Robots

    Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures Leads Investment in Ag Robots

    Breakthrough Energy Ventures has led a $53 million Series C investment round in Iron Ox, a leading agricultural robot company.

    Since retiring from Microsoft, Bill Gates has dedicated his time to a number of causes, including climate change. His Breakthrough Energy Ventures is a climate fund that encompasses a number of different organizations.

    Breakthrough Energy’s latest investment is in Iron Ox, a company that launched autonomous farming in 2018.

    Iron Ox, which launched autonomous farming in 2018, grows produce in proprietary greenhouses designed from the ground up to mitigate the environmental impacts of agriculture — a data-driven approach backed by plant science, robotics and artificial intelligence.

    The closed-loop system optimizes plant yield, expands growth cycles and maximizes crop quality. The result is delicious, nutritious, locally sourced fruits and vegetables that currently cost about the same as produce from conventional farms, with substantially lower environmental impacts.

    This round of $53 million brings total funding to $98 million.

    “World-class investors know that humanity’s most important pursuit is to reverse climate change. To get there, we can’t settle for incrementally more sustainable crops — and we can’t ask consumers to compromise on taste, convenience or value,” said Iron Ox CEO and Co-Founder Brandon Alexander. “We are applying technology to minimize the amount of land, water and energy needed to nourish a growing population. The team at Iron Ox will not stop until we achieve our long-term mission of making the produce sector carbon negative.”

  • Robots Are Saving Understaffed Restaurants

    Robots Are Saving Understaffed Restaurants

    Robots are helping restaurants deal with staff shortages, taking over some of the easier, but critical, day-to-day duties.

    Just days ago, we wrote about the impact robots are having on service industries, an area once thought to be safe from robots and automation. According to CNN, restaurants are one industry that is particularly benefiting.

    Espartaco Borga, owner of Dallas-based Latin restaurant La Duni, is renting robots for $15 a day. The robots have been a game-changer for Borga, who was struggling to meet the uptick in demand, with only a third of his staff returning after the pandemic slowdown. In spite of the smaller staff, Borga says their business was 50 to 100% higher than ever, including pre-pandemic levels.

    The solution was robots from American Robotech.

    “The very next day they showed up, they mapped the restaurant, and they assigned the tables numbers within 45 minutes,” Borga said. “After a day, the girl at the expo line was in love with this because her arm didn’t hurt after carrying 60 trays in a day.”

    Borga says the robots greet customers, deliver orders and even sing “Happy Birthday” to customers. He’s also not worried about concerns of robots taking jobs, since his whole problem sprang from no one wanting the jobs he had available. Even more, with the money he’s saving using the robots — at a mere $15 a day — he’s able to pay his remaining workers more.

    The robots are also a hit with customers.

    “They don’t even see them as what they are, which is a tablet on wheels,” he said. “They see them as part of the service experience because these robots have a personality, they can interact. If you touch them, they giggle and they tell you things.”

  • Amazon Launches Amazon Scout Development Center in Helsinki

    Amazon Launches Amazon Scout Development Center in Helsinki

    Amazon is launching a development center in Helsinki, Finland, in an effort to boost its autonomous delivery.

    Amazon Scout is the company’s autonomous delivery robot. The size of a small cooler, the robot traverses sidewalks, delivering packages in four US locations. Like many companies, Amazon is looking to expand this further and widen Scout’s usage.

    The company is launching a new development center aimed at supporting Scout and continuing its research and development. The new team will initially consist of two dozen engineers, although Amazon says the team will grow over time.

  • UVeya Using UV Light Robots to Disinfect Airplanes

    UVeya Using UV Light Robots to Disinfect Airplanes

    UVeya, a Swiss start-up, is testing robots that use ultraviolet (UV) light to disinfect airplanes, in an effort to make air travel safer.

    Few industries have felt the impact of the pandemic more than the airline industry. During a global pandemic, being in a confined space with recirculated air is the last thing many people want to do.

    UVeya is working on a way to improve the safety of airplane cabins by using robots to disinfect the cabins with UV light. The fully autonomous technology can disinfect a cabin in less than 10 minutes, with 99% efficacy against COVID-19.

    “This is a proven technology, it’s been used for over 50 years in hospitals and laboratories, it’s very efficient,” said UVeya co-founder Jodoc Elmiger, according to Reuters. “It doesn’t leave any trace or residue.”

    The company is currently testing its robots with “Dubai-based airport services company Dnata inside Embraer jets from Helvetic Airways, a charter airline owned by Swiss billionaire Martin Ebner.”

    UVeya hopes its tech will achieve widespread adoption, providing a safe, environmentally-friendly way of making air travel safer.

  • Drunk Roomba? iRobot May Not Have a Fix For Weeks

    A software update that made people’s Roombas act like they’re drunk may not be fixed for several more weeks.

    After updating to firmware 3.12.8, customers started reportingtheir Roombas behaving strangely. Some were wandering around like they were drunk, bumping into furniture, taking much longer than they should to clean an area, recharging several times more than necessary, not being able to go back to their charger and getting stuck in the middle of a room.

    iRobot reached out to The Verge and said some i7 and i9 robots were impacted, with a software update being responsible. The company is working on a new software patch that should fix the issue, but it’s only expected to roll out “over the next several weeks.”

    In the meantime, it looks like Roomba users will have to break out the old Hoover.

  • Robot Stock Analysts Outperform Humans

    Robot Stock Analysts Outperform Humans

    In further evidence robot domination may yet be in our future, a study has shown robot stock analysts outperform their human counterparts, leading to better investments.

    There has been a fair amount of hand-wringing about what role robots will play in the future, and whether mankind will be able to control a true artificial intelligence. World domination aside, the economic possibilities and threats robots pose are just beginning to be understood. While many have believed it would largely be physical jobs, such as manufacturing, that would be taken over by robots, recent studies have shown that high-paying, white collar jobs are also at risk.

    Now a study by Indiana University professors Braiden Coleman, Kenneth J. Merkley and Joseph Pacelli has demonstrated that robots even make better stock analysts than humans.

    “First, Robo-Analysts collectively produce a more balanced distribution of buy, hold, and sell recommendations than do human analysts, which suggests that they are less subject to behavioral biases and conflicts of interest,” reads the study abstract. “Second, consistent with automation facilitating a greater scale of research production, Robo-Analysts revise their reports more frequently than human analysts and also adopt different production processes. Their revisions rely less on earnings announcements, and more on the large, volumes of data released in firms’ annual reports. Third, Robo-Analysts’ reports exhibit weaker short-window return reactions, suggesting that investors do not trade on their signals. Importantly, portfolios formed based on the buy recommendations of Robo-Analysts appear to outperform those of human analysts, suggesting that their buy calls are more profitable. Overall, our results suggest that Robo-Analysts are a valuable, alternative information intermediary to traditional sell-side analysts.”

    The study is a fascinating read on the potential of robots to help revolutionize another industry, and especially one that many may not think of as a candidate for robot takeover.

  • Walmart Announces Alphabot—Autonomous Carts That Speed Up Online Orders

    Walmart Announces Alphabot—Autonomous Carts That Speed Up Online Orders

    Walmart has just announced the first of its kind technology aimed at speeding up online grocery orders.

    The Alphabot system was created specifically for Walmart by Alert Innovation and is set to help Walmart launch its first pilot program in their Salem, New Hampshire supercenter.

    Alphabot is designed as a high-speed automation system that significantly speeds up the process of collecting and preparing an online grocery order. The systems uses autonomous carts to retrieve the items and send them to workstations where associates “pick, assemble and deliver orders to the customers,” as well as check the final order for accuracy.

    As part of the Salem store’s re-grand opening, “a 20,000-square-foot extension connected to the store houses the new system and will serve as a dedicated grocery pickup point with drive-thru lanes for customers. When completed, automated mobile carts will retrieve ordered items – stored warehouse-style in this new space – then deliver them to our associates at one of four pick stations.”

    According to the company, “the vast majority of grocery products we offer in-store will be fulfilled through this system, though our personal shoppers will still handpick produce and other fresh items.”

    Walmart plans to have Alphabot running by the end of the year and hopes to roll it out across the U.S.

     

  • CES 2020: Samsung Unveils Rolling Robot ‘Ballie’

    CES 2020: Samsung Unveils Rolling Robot ‘Ballie’

    It’s not quite BB-8, but Samsung may have unveiled the next best thing in a rolling robot named “Ballie.”

    According to Engadget, Ballie is designed to be an assistant, essentially running a smart home. The robot “has a ‘mobile interface’ that looks for ways to improve your life as your needs change using its built-in AI.”

    In a YouTube video the company posted, Ballie acts as a household manager, opening shades, triggering a woman’s alarm clock, assisting her with her workout, turning the TV on for the dog once she leaves, sending her a video feed of the dog happily watching TV, playing with the dog and even summoning the robot vacuum when the dog makes a mess.

    One gets the impression from watching the video that if you imagined a butler, managing almost every aspect of running a home, as a little yellow ball…you would have Ballie. While Samsung has not announced when Ballie will be available or how much it will cost, the company will likely have a major hit on its hands.

    https://youtu.be/Xwi_U-g3wA0

  • Get Ready For A Robot Delivery Man: Digit The Robot Hits The Market

    Get Ready For A Robot Delivery Man: Digit The Robot Hits The Market

    Agility Robotics is bringing its two-legged robot Digit to the market, and Ford is the first buyer, according to TechCrunch.

    Ford sees Digit as a way of dealing with the last 50 feet of a delivery. With self-driving delivery vehicles being approved in various markets, and expanding to others, there’s still the problem of getting a package from the vehicle to the door. Digit, which can lift packages up to 40 pounds, may be the perfect solution. With its two-legged form, it’s well-suited to climbing stairs and dealing with other obstacles. The latest model can even balance on foot if necessary.

    Ford has been involved in the research project with Agility for some time. In combination with Ford’s work with self-driving vehicles, this made the automotive company the perfect first customer for Agility.

    “As online retailing continues growing, we believe robots will help our commercial customers build stronger businesses by making deliveries more efficient and affordable for all of us.” Ford CTO Ken Washington said in a statement TechCrunch acquired. “We learned a lot this year working with Agility, now we can accelerate our exploratory work with commercial Digit robots.”

  • What was your favourite robot from the classic series?

    The news has everyone reminiscing about Sir Killalot’s wildly inappropriate Eurosmut club banger and and all those amazing machines – but which is your favourite?

  • Bionic Man Brought To Life With Artificial Parts

    Bionic man, previously a term that was only associated with science fiction, has now become a reality. The term was made popular in the 1970s with the help of a popular television show called The Six Million Dollar Man. The series chronicled the adventures of Steve Austin, a former astronaut whose body was rebuilt using artificial parts, after he nearly died. After being rebuilt, the character gained superhuman strength and speed, enabling him to become a very important secret operative, and solve high profile crimes.

    As scientific breakthroughs continue to be made on an ongoing basis, there is no telling what we will be seeing produced next. Just recently, a team of engineers assembled a robot using organs, limbs, and other body parts that actually pays a close resemblance an real bionic man, much like in the television show. In other related extraordinary scientific discoveries recently, a real life lightsaber, was developed by scientists at MIT and Harvard. It is not quite the type of device that Luke Skywalker used yet, but who knows, maybe one day it will be turned into a weapon.

    The artificial “man” that was recently developed is being used as the subject of a Smithsonian Channel documentary. It will air on Sunday, October 20th at 9 p.m. and is called The Incredible Bionic Man. The parts that were used to make the bionic man came from 17 manufacturers around the world. Richard Walker, the managing director of Shadow Robot Co. and the lead robot scientist on the project, has said that the robot has about 60 to 70 percent of the function of a human. He is also about six-and-a-half feet tall and is able to step, sit and stand, with the help of a walking machine.

    Even though the bionic man is very advanced for what it is and the parts work very well, they are still a long way away from being used in humans. There are some key parts missing too, with no digestive system, liver or skin, and obviously lacks a brain. The parts donated in the bionic experiment were donated, costing roughtly $1 million. The bionic man is currently on display at the New York City Comic Con and after, he plans to head to the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

    Image via Youtube

  • MIT Now Has Their Own Super Fast Robot Cheetah

    In September of last year, Boston Dynamics introduced the world to a cheetah robot that you could never hope to outrun. With a max speed of 28.3 mph, the robot would even be able to catch a sprinting Usain Bolt. Now MIT has made their own robot cheetah that’s not quite as fast, but it’s fast enough to catch you.

    Of course, MIT’s cheetah isn’t just a carbon copy of last year’s robot from Boston Dynamics. The researchers have found that their robot can run much more efficiently by swapping out the pneumatics of the previous cheetah for motors. It may only be able to run at a speed of 13.7 mph at the moment, but it will be able to run for much longer periods of time. One day, it may also be able to carry its own battery.

    Let’s just hope MIT never decides to equip their robot with metal teeth and an insatiable bloodlust.

    [h/t: Engadget]

  • Scientists Outfit A Drone With A Claw, Because Why Not?

    Drones are not exactly frightening. The little quadcopters that we’ve seen delivering pizza and tacos are actually kind of cute as far as heartless robots go.

    Well, those cute little quadcopters have not been turned into heartless killers thanks to a simple additions by researchers at University of Pennsylvania’s GRASP Lab. They thought it would be a good idea to attach a claw onto the copter so that it can dive down and grab objects without ever slowing down. The maneuver was inspired by how eagles hunt by diving to grab prey.

    What’s terrifying about this particular robot is that it can grab objects while moving at three meters per second. If it ever becomes big enough, it could pick you up off the ground before you even realize you’ve been captured by the robotic equivalent of a pterodactyl.

    [h/t: NewScientist]

  • Prosthetic Arms Are Becoming Increasingly More Realistic

    Prosthetic limbs have come a long way over the years, but a lot of them still can’t replicate the precise motion that natural limbs perform on a daily basis. That’s quickly changing, however, as one company has already given Nigel Ackland, a 53-year-old who lost his arm six-years-ago, a prosthetic arm that functions just as well as any natural arm.

    The arm is called the bebionic 3, and it’s name is intentional. Sci-fi may have come up with the idea of a bionic man, but this arm just proves that sci-fi is now becoming a reality. It’s a triumph in and of itself that this latest prosthetic limb looks and behaves like the real deal, but the real accomplishment lies in how the arm can be programmed to move at the correct speed and strength for each individual.

    The arm has obviously made Ackland’s life better, but it’s the small things that really stand out. In the video, he makes his hand go into handshaking mode, and says that it’s what makes us human. That’s the point of this kind of technology – giving people their humanity back. You could argue that a person is no less of a human after losing a limb, but those who suffer through it would likely tell you that there is a feeling of loss. Getting that back may be physically gratifying, but it’s probably even more psychologically gratifying.

    It’s not perfect. There’s still obviously some limitations in place that prevent the bebionic3 from being as flexible as a natural hand, but it’s still amazing that we’ve come this far. The technology will only improve, and soon those with these prosthetic limbs will be moving their hands just as naturally as anybody else. In fact, they might even be better as their arms are stronger than any human arm could ever be.

    [h/t: psfk]

  • Vote Now For the Robot Hall of Fame’s Next Inductees

    Vote Now For the Robot Hall of Fame’s Next Inductees

    Carnegie Mellon University has announced that it will allow the public to vote on the next inductees to the Robot Hall of Fame. The winners will be inducted in a ceremony taking place on October 23 at the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh. The ceremony is part of the RoboBusiness Leadership Summit, a conference and trade show for the robotics industry.

    This year’s nominees were selected by a group of 107 robotics experts, industry leaders, and “aficionados” chosen by the Robot Hall of Fame. Only half of the choice will be given to the public, however, with the other half coming from a survey of robotics experts. Voters can choose one robot in each of four categories: education & consumer, entertainment, industrial and service, and research.

    “The technology and art of robotics are advancing at an increasingly rapid rate and so the Robot Hall of Fame also must evolve,” said Shirley Saldamarco, Robot Hall of Fame director and faculty member at Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment Technology Center. “As more students, workers and consumers become accustomed to robots, it seems like a natural step to give the public a voice in selecting inductees.”

    The entertainment category contains robots that will be most recognizable to the public. This year, Johnny 5 from the Short Circuit movies, Rosie from The Jetsons, and WALL-E from the Pixar movie of the same name are up for the honor. The winner will join other fictional robots in the Robot Hall of Fame, including R2-D2, C-3PO, HAL 9000, and Lieutenant Commander Data of Star Trek: The Next Generation fame.

    The induction ceremony is open to the public and tickets can be purchased for a steep $99. Meanwhile, the voting continues until September 30th

  • This Robot Worm Looks Like A Chinese Finger Trap

    This Robot Worm Looks Like A Chinese Finger Trap

    There are multiple robots out there that can perform a variety of functions. Just yesterday, we saw a robot that can perform Jewish mourning rituals. If a robot can perform religious rites, surely it can also move like a worm. Researchers at MIT, Harvard and Seoul National University must have thought the exact same thing.

    Meet Meshworm, it’s a robot that’s encased in a “flexible, meshlike tube that makes up its body.” The inside of the robot is controlled by what the researchers call “artificial muscle” that’s made up of wire made from nickel and titanium. It moves by using heat to stretch and contract the wires. Here’s the meshworm in action:

    While I think the robot looks more like a Chinese finger trap, the scientists say the design is meant to mimic the lowly earthworm. They say that earthworms, snails and sea cucumbers move through a process called peristalsis. By that, they mean that the worm moves by “alternatively squeezing and stretching muscles along the length of their bodies.”

    What makes the Meshworm so unique, beyond its movement, is that its more resilient than a regular earthworm. You can step on Meshworm and it will keep on moving. The materials that make up the robot can’t be damaged so easily as they’re made of soft materials that are meant to bend under pressure.

    So what could Meshworm mean for the future of robotics? It would make robots more versatile and able to stand more damage than their counterparts. The scientists at MIT specifically mention these robots as being able to “explore hard-to-reach spaces and traverse bumpy terrain.”

    What may be the most interesting part about this robot is that the scientists say it’s showing signs of “body morphing capability.” For all the futurists terrified of a robot controlled future, this is where you start to get afraid. If a robot is suitably soft enough, it could potentially mold itself into any object. The robot might even be your next door neighbor – mild mannered Mr. Johnson. I bet you never thought he was a robot, but he never thought the cute caterpillar was a robot either until it was too late.

  • Meet Stony, The Robot Who Mourns So You Don’t Have To

    Meet Stony, The Robot Who Mourns So You Don’t Have To

    Having a loved one die on you is pretty much the worst thing imaginable. A close second would be the mourning period that some religions dictate must take place after the loved one has been buried. I would prefer to move on with my life and forget the pain, but some people just don’t have that option. If only there was an easier way.

    Well, there is a much easier way. The only catch is that this easy way only pertains to the Jewish faith. You see, the mourning ritual in Judaism lasts for 30 days after burial. During the first seven days, the mourner must tear their clothes and wear them every day as a sign of mourning. After that, a series of events occur from preparing meals to reciting prayers.

    Unfortunately, the robot can’t do any of that. The clothes tearing and meal preparation still falls on the actual people involved. What the robot can do is take care of the grave of the recently deceased. grave care is immensely important in many cultures, with Judaism being of them. The robot will patrol the grave and clean it with water. It will also lay stones and flowers on the headstone.

    The robot itself was built using a simple Roomba, the vacuum cleaner robot. The inventors, Itamar Shimshony and Zvika Markfeld, added a number of features to the Roomba including a robotic arm, water pump and an ultrasonic proximity sensor.

    The team originally was going add a video projector to the robot. It would shine video onto the tombstone. They also wanted to make the robot gradually lose its “mind” so that it would begin to run around in circles or placing stones in random places. The ideas never panned out, but it might be up for a later reboot.

    Stony is just a simple concept at this phase. As robotics become more diverse, we can expect to see them fulfilling this kind of role more often. People generally don’t want anything to do with the dead and leave the dirty work in the hands of somebody else. Who better to take care of the dead than a robot?

    [h/t: Make]

  • Stanford Scientist Trying To Hack Into Hawking’s Brain

    Stanford Scientist Trying To Hack Into Hawking’s Brain

    The desire to use robotics to help people regain mobility has been around for a few years now. Until recently the research has been moving along to help people regain mobility by implanting devices into people’s brains to pick up their electrical impulses and it has had varying degrees of success. Last month the announcement of a new arm that was completely controlled by a woman who had lost her ability to use her body was announced and it was amazing. DARPA implanted a device into her brain that allowed her to control the arm and take a drink from a cup. The joy in her face when it worked makes the money spent well worth it.

    Now a scientist by the name of Philip Low, a professor at Stanford and inventor of the iBrain, is working on a brain scanner that focuses on electrical activity and he tested it on Stephen Hawking. “We’d like to find a way to bypass his body, pretty much hack his brain,” said Prof Low.

    Hawking and Low described how the physicist had to learn to create patterns of impulses by imagining moving his hands and limbs. “This is very exciting for us because it allows us to have a window into the brain. We’re building technology that will allow humanity to have access to the human brain for the first time,” said Prof Low.

    This is all very exciting because this means that we could see fully controlled robots in the very near future. The iBrain device doesn’t need to be implanted into someones brain, it is a device that they wear. Last month the device was tested on Hawking and the results were good. “The emergence of such biomarkers opens the possibility to link intended movements to a library of words and convert them into speech, thus providing motor neurone sufferers with communication tools more dependent on the brain than on the body.”

    The hope is that a device like this that can read the brains intentions will one day be able to help a doctor prescribe the right doses of medicine, be used to help treat sleep disorders, depression and even autism.

  • Navy’s New Firefighting Robot Is Terminator-esque

    To help further improve future shipboard firefighting capability, scientists at the Naval Research Laboratory have formed an interdisciplinary team to develop a humanoid robot that could fight fires on the next generation of combatants. A humanoid-type robot was chosen because it was deemed best suited to operate within the confines of an environment that was designed for human mobility and offered opportunity for other potential warfighting applications within the Navy and Marine Corps.

    The Naval Research Laboratory’s Shipboard Autonomous Firefighting Robot (SAFFiR) is a humanoid-type robot being designed for shipboard firefighting. The firefighting robot, called the Shipboard Autonomous Firefighting Robot (SAFFiR), is being designed to move autonomously throughout the ship, interact with people, and fight fires, handling many of the dangerous firefighting tasks that are normally performed by humans. The humanoid robot should be able to maneuver well in the narrow passages and ladderways that are unique to a ship and challenging for most older, simpler robots to navigate.

    The robot is designed with enhanced multi-modal sensor technology for advanced navigation and a sensor suite that includes a camera, gas sensor, and stereo IR camera to enable it to see through smoke. Its upper body will be capable of manipulating fire suppressors and throwing propelled extinguishing agent technology (PEAT) grenades. It is battery powered that holds enough energy for 30 minutes of firefighting. Like a sure-footed sailor, the robot will also be capable of walking in all directions, balancing in sea conditions, and traversing obstacles.

    Another key element of the SAFFiR development is to allow damage control personnel and the robot to work cohesively as a team. Algorithms are being developed to allow autonomous mobility and decision making by the robot as a team member. To enable natural interaction with a human team leader, the robot will have multimodal interfaces that will enable the robot to track the focus of attention of the human team leader, as well as to allow the robot to understand and respond to gestures, such as pointing and hand signals. Where appropriate, natural language may also be incorporated, as well as other modes of communication and supervision.

    Researchers from Virginia Tech and University of Pennsylvania are also working with NRL on the project. They plan to test the firefighting robot in a realistic firefighting environment onboard the ex-USS Shadwell in late September 2013.