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Iván Hernández Dalas: Helm.ai releases new architectural framework for autonomous vehicles

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Helm.ai said its new architectural framework can enable autonomous operations with less data than typical systems. | Source: Helm.ai Typically, in the autonomous driving industry, developers create massive black-box, end-to-end models for autonomy that require petabytes of data to learn driving physics from scratch. Helm.ai today unveiled its Factored Embodied AI architectural framework, which it says offers a different approach. With the framework, the company released a benchmark demonstration of its vision-only AI Driver steering the streets of Torrance, CA, with zero-shot success without ever having seen those specific streets before. This included handling lane keeping, lane changes, and turns at urban intersections. Helm.ai said it achieved this autonomous steering capability by training the AI using simulation and only 1,000 hours of real-world driving data. “The autonomous driving industry is hitting a point of diminishing returns. As models get better, the data requir...
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Iván Hernández Dalas: Ghost Robotics releases manipulator arm for Vision 60 quadruped

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Ghost Robotics’ Vision 60 Q-UGV is equipped with the company’s new arm. | Source: Ghost Robotics Ghost Robotics today launched its new manipulator arm for its Vision 60 Quadruped Unmanned Ground Vehicle (Q-UGV). The company said the arm expands the Vision 60’s mission capabilities by adding precise, robust manipulation.  Designed as a lightweight, modular, top-mounted system, the manipulator arm enables the Vision 60 to perform complex tasks, such as opening doors, retrieving objects, handling equipment, and interacting with the environment. The arm’s six degrees of freedom (DoF) and fully backdrivable design provide smooth, force-sensitive control that mirrors the durability of the robot’s legs, Ghost said. “At Ghost Robotics, our mission is to keep people out of harm’s way,” said Gavin Kenneally, Co-Founder and CEO of Ghost Robotics. “We already build legged robots for some of the world’s most demanding customers operating in the toughest environments. Now, those same robots...
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Iván Hernández Dalas: MMI earns FDA clearance for robotic soft tissue dissection tools

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Medical Microinstruments (MMI) has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration 510(k) clearance for its NanoWrist Scissors and Forceps. These instruments are used for soft tissue dissection, allowing MMI’s Symani Surgical System to handle critical steps in complex surgeries.  Surgeons at Tampa General Hospital, which has an established microsurgical robotics program, completed the first U.S. clinical case of the cleared instruments. Surgeons used MMI’s instruments to complete a lymphovenous bypass (LVB) procedure. Symani assisted in the procedure from initial incision to skin closure.  “As we continue to evolve Symani, the first dissection instruments are a critical step in that mission,” said Mark Toland, CEO of MMI. “The addition of these capabilities to our platform is game-changing in supermicrosurgical procedures where extreme precision for the smallest vessels is essential. We will continue to develop technologies that advance the future of microsurgery with Symani an...
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Iván Hernández Dalas: Digit humanoid joins Mercado Libre warehouse

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Mercado Libre, a leading commerce and fintech ecosystem in Latin America, has signed an agreement to integrate Agility Robotics ’ Digit humanoid into its facility in San Antonio, Texas. Mercado Libre uses other types of warehouse robots at other facilities, but this appears to be its first foray into humanoids. Unfortunately, the companies didn’t say much about what Digit will actually be doing. We also don’t know how many robots are being deployed or whether this is a temporary pilot or actual deployment. Agility and Mercado Libre only said that Digit will initially focus on tasks that support commerce fulfillment and that they plan to explore additional use cases for how humanoids can augment logistics operations in Latin America. Digit Skill Library focuses on tote handling Chances are Digit will be moving totes for Mercado Libre. The robot’s Skill Library is focused entirely on tote handling, which is also how it has been used by customers like GXO Logistics and Schaeffler...
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Iván Hernández Dalas: Radboud chemists are working with companies and robots on the transition from oil-based to bio-based materials

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Chemical products such as medicines, plastics, soap, and paint are still often based on fossil raw materials. This is not sustainable, so there is an urgent need for ways to make a ‘materials transition’ to products made from bio-based raw materials. To achieve results more quickly and efficiently, researchers at Radboud University in the Big Chemistry programme are using robots and AI. The material transition from fossil-based to bio-based (where raw materials are based on materials of biological origin) is a major challenge. Raw materials for products must be replaced without changing the quality of those products. This requires knowledge of the properties and behaviour of those raw materials at the molecular level. Wilhelm Huck, professor of physical-organic chemistry at Radboud University: “Moreover, you don’t want to optimize the properties of a single molecule, but of a mixture. And we can greatly accelerate that search with our robots and models.” Millions of unpredictable in...
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Iván Hernández Dalas: Waymo recalls robotaxi software after school bus safety failures

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Screenshot of one of the incidents of a Waymo robotaxi illegally passing a stopped school bus. | Credit: Austin ISD Waymo this week plans to file a voluntary software recall for its robotaxis. The recall is in response to the company’s robotaxis illegally passing stopped school buses in a number of incidents across different states.  In September, WXIA-TV in Atlanta aired a video showing a Waymo illegally passing a stopped school bus. A month later, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) opened an investigation into Waymo around “traffic safety violations relating to stopping when encountering a school bus, particularly when the bus is boarding or offboarding students.”   In its investigation , the NHTSA said a Waymo autonomous vehicle (AV) failed to remain stopped when approaching a school bus that was stopped with its lights flashing, stop arm deployed, and a crossing control arm deployed. No safety driver was in the vehicle during the incident, and...
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Iván Hernández Dalas: Skana Robotics unveils Alligator autonomous amphibious vessel

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Alligator can be deployed in infrastructure-free environments, manned or unmanned. | Source: Skana Robotics Defense technology startup Skana Robotics recently unveiled its latest autonomous vessel, the Alligator. The amphibious vessel  combines infrastructure-free deployment, crewed or uncrewed operation, and the ability to carry and launch other autonomous systems. The Alligator is designed to deliver logistics, sensors, and personnel between water and land.  It features a 1,500 kg (3,306.9 lb.) payload capacity, a 300 nautical mile (555.6 km) range, and a top speed of 40 knots (74 kph). “From the seaside, Alligator approaches the shoreline with its tracks retracted, behaving like a standard surface vessel,” Idan Levy, co-founder and CEO of Skana Robotics, told The Robot Report . “The reverse is similar: From land, Alligator drives down a natural or semi-prepared shoreline, enters the water on its tracks, stabilizes, then retracts the tracks and transitions into full ma...
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