Weekly Robotics #287
The first feature in today’s issue made me think of datasets in robotics. Every so often, I feature some data-reach research that you can run with ROS or other methods. Getting to the point where you can record the data on your robot is probably the most time-consuming process and, in some cases, can take years. If you get a dataset, though, you can play, and what might have been a lengthy endeavor can be a weekend project. I might try this at one point! As usual, the publication of the week section is manned by Rodrigo.
Sponsored
Weekly Robotics is being developed thanks to the Patreon supporters and the following business sponsors:
Degradation Resilient LiDAR-Radar-Inertial Odometry
Researchers from the NTNU Autonomous Robots Lab created a system for LiDAR-Radar-Inertial fusion for odometry that shows very promising results in challenging environments like foggy conditions or a tunnel with not many features. The best thing about this work is that a dataset is available on GitHub.
Universal Manipulation Interface: In-The-Wild Robot Teaching Without In-The-Wild Robots
“We present Universal Manipulation Interface (UMI) – a data collection and policy learning framework that allows direct skill transfer from in-the-wild human demonstrations to deployable robot policies. UMI employs hand-held grippers coupled with careful interface design to enable portable, low-cost, and information-rich data collection for challenging bimanual and dynamic manipulation demonstrations”.
Considerations for a long-running Raspberry Pi
Here is a fascinating and relevant set of articles for anyone who wants to create a long-running system (isn’t it all of us, the people in the Robotics space?). The advice in this blog post is handy; one thing that never occurred to me is that disabling swaps on an SD card can increase longevity. It makes perfect sense if you think about it.
Systems Engineering Your Robotics Project
Tyler Weaver wrote another exciting blog post on how to communicate with a ROS-based system from the outside world (i.e., the Internet). Not surprisingly, the answer to this problem could lie in websockets.
Why are robotics companies so toxic?
Davide Faconti linked to this /r/robotics discussion on X the other day, and I found the conversation quite interesting. What are your experiences in this area?
Open Robotic Platform
“The ORP project aims to develop a user-friendly library of robotics parts. These parts adhere strictly to design guidelines and prioritize simplicity and minimalism […] The foundation of each ORP chassis and the entire project is the hole pattern. This pattern is a crucial aspect of the design. For every plate, there is a hole starting from the center, and holes are spread out across the entire plate at 20mm intervals in X and Y. Hole diameter must be exactly 3.5 mm”.
领英推荐
Kalman Filter Explained Simply
If you need to learn more about Kalman Filter (I just checked, and this is the 11th issue of this newsletter mentioning this filter), you might enjoy this blog post by William Franklin. If you liked this write-up, then I recommend checking the rest of the website, where you can find other interesting articles like Covariance Matrix Explained With Pictures or EKF Python Example.
How to test a Moon landing from Earth
If you have built moon landers before, you probably won’t learn much from this article; however, if you didn’t get a chance to build one yet, I recommend this high-level write-up by Jatan Mehta on what tools might come in handy in your preparations.
Generally AI
Roland Meertens, who is a member of our WR Slack channel and who made an exciting presentation on “Perception for Autonomous Cars” back when we were still doing online WR meetups, created a podcast series on AI that you might want to check out if you like a good nerdout!
Publication of the Week - RI Seminar: Michael Yip : Teaching a Robot to Perform Surgery
First of the year, Dr. Michael Yip presented the RI (robotics institute) seminar from CMU around his lab research on the use of robots in surgical procedures. The seminar covered several areas, including pose estimation and scene reconstruction, which can improve surgeons’ limited field of view and imprecise depth perception to enhance surgical precision. The presentation also highlighted the potential of using differentiable methods for simulation and rendering, which opened up a new realm of ideas.
Business
How robotics and AI helped Hippo Harvest land $21M to grow lettuce | TechCrunch
“Hippo Harvest recently raised a $21 million Series B on the back of its repurposed warehouse robots, TechCrunch has exclusively learned. What’s more, the round values the startup, post-money, at $145 million, according to PitchBook — a healthy step up from its previous $42 million valuation. The round was led by Standard Investments with participation from Congruent Ventures, Amazon Climate Pledge Fund, Hawthorne Food Ventures and Energy Impact Partners.”
Announcements
Announcing ROSCon 2024 in Odense, Denmark + Diversity Scholarships ??
Kimberly McGuire (Bitcraze): The website for ROSCon 2024 is now live, announcing the conference to be held in Odense, Denmark, from the 21st to the 23rd of October. The Diversity Scholarship program application is already open, a notable change from previous years, allowing recipients more time to plan travel and visas (Deadline the 16th of April). Anticipated to be the largest scholarship program yet, don’t miss this early opportunity to participate in the conference and explore the vibrant ROS community!
Events
For more robotic events, check out our event page.