INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Last week at UC Berkeley Zellerbach Hall, TechCrunch held its second TC Sessions: Robotics event
It was a full day of panels and demos, featuring the top minds in robotics, artificial intelligence and venture capital, along with some of
the most cutting-edge demonstrations around.
If you weren&t able to attend, though, no worries; we&ve got the full event recorded for
posterity, along with breakdowns of what you missed below.
Getting a Grip on Reality: Deep Learning and Robot Grasping
It turns out grasping
objects is really hard for a robot
According to Ken Goldberg, professor and chair of the Industrial Engineering and Operations Research Department, it about forces and torques
He and TechCrunch Editor-in-Chief Matthew Panzarino also discussed what Goldberg calls &fog robotics.& Goldberg differentiates it from
&cloud robotics& in that &you don&t want to do everything in the cloud because of latency issues and bandwidth limitations, quality of
service — and there are also very interesting issues about privacy and security with robotics.&
The Future of the Robot
Operating System
Fetch Robotics CEO Melonee Wise joined fellow Willow Garage ex-patsBrian Gerkey and Morgan Quigley to discuss Open
Robotics& Robot Operating System (ROS) efforts
The team is working to design and maintain an open and consistent framework for a broad range of different robotic systems.
Eyes,
Ears, and Data: Robot Sensors and GPUs
Nvidia vice president Deepu Talla discussed how the chipmaker is making a central play in the AI and
deep learning technologies that will drive robots, drones and autonomous vehicles of the future.
The Best Robots on Four
Legs
Boston Dynamics CEO Marc Raibert announced onstage that the company 66-pound SpotMini robot will be available for purchase by the
Yes, one day you, too, will be able to have a dog robot perform services for you at the office or home.
Old McDonald Needs a
Robot
Agriculture is one of the next major fields for robotics, and we brought together some of the top startups in the field.Dan Steere of
Abundant Robotics, Brandon Alexander of Iron Ox, Sébastien Boyer of FarmWise and Willy Pell of John Deere-owned Blue River Technology
joined us onstage to discuss the ways in which robotics, artificial intelligence and autonomous systems will transform farm work in fields
and orchards.
Teaching Robots New Tricks with AI
Pieter Abbeel is the Director ofthe UC Berkeley Robot Learning Lab and the
co-founder of AI software company,covariant.ai
In a broad ranging discussion, Abbeel described the techniques his lab is using to teach robots how to better interact in human settings
through repetition, simulation and learning from their own trial and error.
Can&t We All Just Get Along
Ayanna Howard of Georgia
Tech, Leila Takayama of UC Santa Cruz and Patrick Sobalvarro of Veo Robotics took part in an exploration of the ways in which humans and
robots can collaborate in work and home settings
Getting there is a mix of safety and education on both the humans& and robots& behalf.
Demos from 254 Lockdown, 1678 Citrus
Circuit, Pi Competition: Hercules
Robotics teams from BellarmineCollegePreparatory, Davis High School and Hercules High School took to the
stage before lunch time to show us what they have been working on
Each team built robots designed to tackle various tasks and the results are impressive.
Venture Investing in Robotics
Renata
Quintini of Lux Capital, Rob Coneybeer of Shasta Ventures and Chris Evdemon of Sinovation Ventures all discussed the excitement around
startups venturing into the robotics industry, but were also quite candid about the difficulty robotics founders face who are unfamiliar
with a particular industry that they hope could reshape their innovation.
Betting Big on Robotics
Andy Rubin has had a lifelong
fascination with robotics
In fact, it was his nickname during his time at Apple that gave the Android operating system its name
After a stint heading a robotics initiative at Google, Rubin is using his role as a co-founder of Playground Global to fund some of the
most fascinating robotics startups around
In a one-on-one discussion, Rubin talked about why robotics are a good long- and short-term investment, and why one particular long-legged
robot could be the future of package delivery.
From the Lab Bench to Term Sheet
This cute little robot fromMayfield Roboticscan
blink, play music, turn its head and recharge itself
It can also just stay put to take pictures of you and live-stream your daily life
Its name is Kuri and it can be your little buddy to always remind you that you never have to be alone.
Agility Robotics
demonstration of Cassie
Agility Robotics&bipedal humanoid robot was designed with bird legs in mind
But it wasn&t yet designed with arms
The company CTO Jonathan Hurst says those are to come
It&ll cost you $35,000 when it in full production mode
Custom deliveries started in August 2017 to a select few universities — University of Michigan, Harvard and Caltech, and Berkeley just
Although we didn&t see an example of this application, Cassie can apparently hold the body weight of a reasonably sized
human.
Autonomous Systems
Safety has long been the focus of the push toward self-driving systems
Recent news stories, however, have cast a pall on the technology, leading many to suggest that companies have pushed to introduce it too
quickly on public streets.Oliver Cameron of Voyage and Alex Rodrigues of Embark Trucks joined us to discuss these concerns and setbacks, as
well as how the self-driving industry moves forward from here.
Teaching Intelligent Machines
Nvidia is working to help developers
create robots and artificial intelligent systems
Vice president of Engineering Claire Delaunay discussed how the company is creating the tools to help democratize the creation of future
robotics.
The Future of Transportation
Chris Urmson has been in the self-driving car game for a long time
He joined Google self-driving car team in 2009, becoming head of the project four years later
These days, he the CEO of Aurora, a startup that has logged a lot of hours testing its own self-driving tech on the roads
Urmson discussed the safety concerns around the technology and how far out we are from self-driving ubiquity.
Demos of RoMeLa NABi
and ALPHRED
Humans are bipedal, so why is it so hard to replicate that in a robot, asks Dennis Hong, professor and founding director
ofRoMeLa(Robotics Mechanisms Library) of the Mechanical Aerospace Engineering Department at UCLA
One of the reasons he said is because the distance between the left and right legs creates a twisting movement that renders forward and
backward movement difficult
The resolution is to have them walk sideways
So the team developed NABi (non-anthropomorphic biped), a bipedal locomotion robot with no &feet& or &shins.& To extend the admittedly
limited functionality of NABi, the team then created ALPHRED (Autonomous Legged Personal Helper Robot with Enhanced Dynamics)
ALPHRED limbs, as the team calls them (¬ legs, not arms&), form to create multimodal locomotion, because of its multiple types of
formations.
Building Stronger Humans
The BackX, LegX and ShoulderX from SuitX serve to minimize the stress we humans tend to place
We saw the application of these modules onstage.But infinitely more impressive during the conversation with company co-founder Homayoon
Kazerooni was the application the audience saw of the company exoskeleton
Arash Bayatmakou fell from a balcony in 2012, which resulted in paralysis
He was told he would never walk again
Five years later, Arash connected with SuitX, and he has been working with a physical therapist to use the device to perform four functions:
stand, sit and walk forward and backward
You can follow his recoveryhere.
