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Is your industry robot-proof?

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Is your industry robot-proof?
  • In every industry, robotic innovation is creating change — and giving us a clear look at the more automated future.
  • The data-driven era of robotics is upon us and powered by the convergence of both maturing data science and machine learning (ML)/AI technologies.

Robotic automation is coming to your workplace.

Palo Alto, California-based Tesla and its founder Elon Musk unveiled last month the concept for their Tesla Bot, a humanoid robot for “unsafe, repetitive or boring tasks.”

While the Tesla Bot project has caused a stir — with Musk previously denouncing artificial intelligence (AI)-driven robots as doomsday inventions — the humanoid would be only the latest machine in the long-standing history of robotics. A new era of robotic automation has loomed for decades since robotic arms first assisted manufacturing at factories.

The data-driven era of robotics is upon us and powered by the convergence of both maturing data science and machine learning (ML)/AI technologies. Together, they’re bringing to life robots and automation faster than many realise.

As robots are rolled out by tech pioneers, no industry is untouched. In every industry, robotic innovation is creating change — and giving us a clear look at our more automated future. 

Here are some examples:

Manufacturing

Chicago-based Formic is offering its version of the robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) model to manufacturers.

Clients pay a bundled hourly rate for robotic automation with no upfront costs. Formic works with robotics manufacturers and system integrators to deploy custom robotic solutions based on a client’s factory, processes and production application, the company says. 

The cost is typically 42 per cent less than a manufacturer pays in operating expenses for the same application.

The manufacturing robots can perform a range of jobs on a factory floor: material handling; inspection; welding; assembly; grinding; deburring; painting; and polishing.

Services

Chris Ehrlich, managing editor of Datamation.

Shenzhen, China-based Pudu Robotics developed its BellaBot, a delivery robot, for restaurants.

The vertical, alloy robot features a cat-like face with “dozens” of expressions, four trays, a visual/laser navigation system and 3D sensors, Pudu says. BellaBot is also designed for human-robot interactions that are initiated when a customer touches its head or ears.

An employee loads BellaBot’s trays with orders and verbally tells it where to deliver them, based on the setup on its user interface.

Retail

San Francisco-based Simbe Robotics is delivering Tally, its robot for inventory audits and analytics, to retailers.

The thin, vertical robot uses cameras and sensors to travel up and down store aisles several times a day during open hours, Simbe says. Tally captures on-shelf inventory data, such as position, price and promotion.

Tally can capture 15,000 to 30,000 products an hour, leaving and returning to a docking station on its own.

Healthcare

“Grace” is a humanoid robot medical assistant initially designed for elderly care.

Grace uses AI to “naturally and emotionally” engage patients for intuitive communication, cognitive stimulation and medical biodata, according to Awakening Health Ltd., which developed Grace.

The humanoid can, for instance, capture and catalogue a person’s life story, lead meditation exercises and offer companionship.

Awakening Health Ltd. is a joint venture between Tsuen Wan, Hong Kong-based Hanson Robotics and Los Angeles-based Singularity Studio.

Construction

University of Michigan researchers are leading a three-year project to develop “interactive robot assistants” that can learn from workers at construction sites by watching and listening — and then complete tasks.

The team has developed an experimental ML- and virtual reality (VR)-based system that allows a worker to show the construction robot a task, according to U-M. The robot then devises a motion plan to complete the task, which the worker can approve or adjust. The robot also remembers corrections for the next task.

The project is being led by a research team at the U-M College of Engineering and U-M Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, in collaboration with the University of Florida and Washington State University as well as construction industry partners. It is backed by the National Science Foundation.

Transportation

Boston-based Motional and San Francisco-based Lyft are expanding their validated robotaxi service in Las Vegas to multiple major US cities, starting in 2023.

The fleets of driverless vehicles will be based on a Hyundai vehicle platform and integrated with sensors, computers and software, according to Motional.

Motional and Lyft will also lay the “foundations” for more driverless fleets across the Lyft network.

Travel

Doha, Qatar-based Qatar Airways is using the Ultraviolet (UV) Cabin System by Charlotte, North Carolina-based Honeywell to advance its onboard hygiene measures.

The system is about the size of a beverage cart and features extendable UV arms that treat aircraft seats, surfaces and cabins without using cleaning chemicals, according to the airline.

Qatar Airways will use the Honeywell UV Cabin System as an additional step after manual disinfection.

The worker-led system can treat an aeroplane cabin in less than 10 minutes.

Agriculture

Moline, Illinois-based John Deere acquired Newark, California-based Bear Flag Robotics for $250 million to accelerate its development and delivery of autonomous tractors for farms.

Bear Flag’s AI system is installed onto the front end of John Deere tractors. Farmers can remotely “orchestrate” and monitor their fleet of autonomous tractors from a smartphone or tablet, Bear Flag says.

Customers are charged on a per-acre basis for automated work, such as tillage, that’s performed with a range of tractor implements.

Entertainment

Falmouth, England-based Engineered Arts created its RoboThesbian to be a “robot actor.”

RoboThespian features a range of expressive movements, speech and songs, Engineered Arts says. It can be animated to perform “however you wish.”

The humanoid robot can be used at theatres, trade shows and for live experiences.

Education

San Francisco-based SoftBank Robotics focuses on education with NAO, its robot teaching assistant.

NAO is programmable, fluent in 20 languages and built to learn and share knowledge, SoftBank says. It is also designed to be interactive and “friendly” with students of all ages.

The 58-cm-tall robot can, for instance, bring “lessons to life” and facilitate hands-on projects.

Government

Waltham, Massachusetts-based Boston Dynamics is targeting public safety as one of the markets for Spot, its agile mobile robot.

The four-legged, dog-like robot can carry and power up to 14 kg of inspection equipment, Boston Dynamics says.

Users can remotely drive Spot to inspect hazardous packages from afar and get “eyes on” dangerous situations.

Conclusion

The ability to automate repetitive tasks with RPA tools is having a significant impact on a variety of industries and organisations are looking for opportunities to reduce human contact wherever possible due to the rise in Covid-19. Automation will play a bigger role in the years to come.

  • Chris Ehrlich is the managing editor of Datamation.

UAE drops 11 places to rank 42nd globally in digital quality of life study

Mohammed Fahad
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UAE drops 11 places to rank 42nd globally in digital quality of life study
  • Country’s internet affordability index improved by 40% but its electronic security index decreased by 49%.
  • UAE’s electronic security is around 70% worse than the global average – it ranks 105th out of 110 in the world.
  • In internet affordability, UAE is only around 10% better than the global average, people have to work 3.5 minutes to afford the cheapest 1GB mobile data package.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has dropped down by 11 places since last year to rank 42nd, surpassed Saudi Arabia but fell behind Qatar, in the third edition of the Digital Quality of Life Index (DQL) 2021 study.

DQL index, conducted by Surfshark, a cybersecurity company, is calculated by looking at the impact of five core pillars – internet affordability, internet quality, e-infrastructure, e-security and e-government.

The UAE excels in three, specifically internet quality (ranks 2nd), e-government (13th), and e-infrastructure (20th) but displays comparatively low results in internet affordability (34th), and e-security (105th).

The country’s internet affordability index improved by 40 per cent but its electronic security index decreased by 49 per cent.

The UAE’s electronic security is around 70 per cent worse than the global average – it ranks 105th out of 110 in the world.

On the positive side, the country is one of the world’s leaders in internet quality, second behind South Korea.

Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, its mobile speed has improved by 143 per cent and is now 145.46Mbps.

The UAE shows mediocre results in internet affordability – it is only around 10 per cent better than the global average. 

In the internet affordability space, Denmark is ranked first globally, followed by Israel and Sri Lanka.

People in the Emirate have to work 3.5 minutes to afford the cheapest 1GB mobile data package.

For comparison, people in neighbouring Oman have to work 4 times less (54 s/month).

Denmark leads for second year

Vytautas Kaziukonis, CEO of Surfshark, said that digital opportunities have proved to be more important than ever during the Covid-19 crisis, stressing the importance for every country to ensure fully remote operational capacities for their economies.

“The index sets the basis for meaningful discussions about how digital advancement impacts a country’s prosperity and where improvements can be made,” he said.

In an all-around picture, 6 out of 10 countries holding the highest scores are located in Europe, following last year’s trend.

Denmark ranks first for the second year in a row and is closely followed by South Korea.

Finland ranks third, while Israel and the US round out the top five of 110 nations that were evaluated.

The bottom 5 countries are Ethiopia, Cambodia, Cameroon, Guatemala, and Angola.

Regionally, the US stands out as a country with the highest digital quality of life in the Americas, while South Korea takes the leading position in Asia.

Among countries in Africa, people in South Africa enjoy the highest quality of their digital lives whereas Australia leads in Oceania, outperforming New Zealand in various digital areas.

IIT Bombay finds way to operate quantum computers at room temperature

Naushad K. Cherrayil
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IIT Bombay finds way to operate quantum computers at room temperature
  • Researches use pristine graphene to encode, process and store quantum information via valleytronics.
  • Quatum computers owned by Google, IBM and Microsoft have to be kept at ultra-low temperatures below -196.1°C, which makes them costly and impractical to operate.
  • Valleytronics at petahertz rates is possible, which exceeds modern computational speeds by a million times.

Researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay have found a way to use pristine graphene for encoding, processing and storing quantum information that can operate at room temperature. 

Quantum computers such as those at Google, IBM, or Microsoft are large, complex, and expensive and can only operate at ultra-low temperatures of nearly –200°C, thus making them very impractical for use on a large scale.

Quantum computers have recently become a hot-button topic because of their theoretical potential to outperform conventional computers by several orders of magnitude in terms of speed.

A quantum computer can achieve these feats because it encodes information in quantum bits rather than the binary “0” or “1” that regular electronics use. Quantum bits are superpositions of “0” and “1”, and can therefore take intermediate values, making computations much faster.

Gopal Dixit, Associate Professor Gopal Dixit at IIT Bombay.

Sadly, such quantum computation is not yet possible at room temperature; and existing computers, such as those owned by Google, IBM, and Microsoft, have to be kept at ultra-low temperatures below -196.1°C, which makes them costly and impractical to operate.

A team of scientists from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, and Max-Born Institut, Germany, have achieved a breakthrough in “valleytronics” that opens up the road to taking quantum computers all the way to room temperature operation.

Their findings, published in Optica, describe a way to perform valley operations in single-layer (one atom thick) or pristine graphene (carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal sheet structure), which was hitherto assumed to be impossible — atomically thin layers of graphene have electron valleys but, due to the material’s inherent symmetry, they were deemed useless for valley operations. 

Way to household quantum computers?

Aside from their charge, electrons have another parameter that can be manipulated: their “valley pseudospin,” which is the local minima in the energy bands of solids that can be occupied by electrons. By manipulating how many electrons occupy each of the valleys, quantum information can be encoded, processed, and stored at less restrictive temperatures. 

Led by Associate Professor Gopal Dixit from IIT Bombay, the team came up with a strategy to break graphene’s valley symmetry using light.

“By tailoring the polarisation of two beams of light according to graphene’s triangular lattice, we found it possible to break the symmetry between two neighbouring carbon atoms and exploit the electronic band structure in the regions close to the valleys, inducing valley polarisation,” he said.

In other words, this enables the use of graphene’s valleys to effectively “write” information. 

Dixit said the flashes of light can cause electrons to wiggle several hundred trillion times a second.

“In theory, this means valleytronics at petahertz rates is possible, which exceeds modern computational speeds by a million times. Our work could open the door to miniature, general-purpose quantum computers that can be used by regular people, much like laptops,” he said. 

Soon, quantum computers will cease to be a thing of wonder residing in large labs and have a place in the everyday household. 

Scientists at NTU Singapore invent technology to prevent Li-ion battery fires

Naushad K. Cherrayil
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Scientists at NTU Singapore invent technology to prevent Li-ion battery fires
  • The team inserted an additional “anti-short layer” on the separator, preventing any dendrite from reaching the cathode.
  • The anti-short layer is a common material used in battery manufacturing and can be easily integrated into the current separator manufacturing process, making it easy for companies to adopt and scale up.
  • The team will be further developing the technology and testing it on commercial standardised Li-ion battery cells, in partnership with interested companies.

Lithium (Li)-ion batteries occasionally catch fire and no one will forget about the Note7 smartphones in 2016.

These batteries have been in the headlines for many years and have caused fires in laptops, hoverboards, Tesla cars, smartphones and even in the electrical system of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner jumbo jet.

In most Li-ion battery fires, the cause is due to a build-up of lithium deposits known as dendrites (tiny wire-like tendrils) that cross the separator between the positive (cathode) and negative (anode) electrodes of the battery when it is being charged, causing a short-circuit leading to an uncontrolled chemical fire.

In a conventional lithium-ion battery, the positive electrode and negative electrode are kept apart by a separator. As the battery charges, the lithium dendrites grow from the negative electrode towards the positive side in the polyethene separator.

When the battery is charging, Li-ions are transferred from the cathode to the anode, and when discharging, the Li-ions move vice-versa

As batteries improved and engineers try to pack more power into a smaller package, the separator is taxed to its limit and causes a short circuit, one of the major ways that fires begin.

The chemicals inside the battery begin to heat up and can ignite or even explode when exposed to the oxygen in the air.

In a conventional lithium-ion battery, the positive electrode and negative electrode is kept apart by a separator. As the battery charges, the lithium dendrites grow from the negative electrode towards the positive side in the separator. Using NTU’s anti-short layer, the growth of the dendrites stops before they reach the electrode. It then acts as an interface on behalf of the negative electrode to exchange lithium-ions with the positive electrode, thus allowing the battery to function as per normal.

Even with an estimated failure rate of less than one-in-a-million, solving this problem would not only protect lives and property, it would also make it possible to use larger battery packs with more closely packed cells. 

Scientists from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore), have found a way to prevent internal short-circuits by inventing an additional “anti-short layer” on the separator, preventing any dendrite from reaching the cathode.

Global battery demand to soar

“We know that for a Li-ion battery to work, Li-ions must be able to travel between the positive and negative sides during charge and discharge cycles,” Professor Xu Zhichuan, who is also the Cluster Director of Energy Storage and Renewables & Low Carbon Generation: Solar, at the Energy Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N).

“However, the transfer of the Li-ions also means the formation of dendrites is inevitable for current commercial Li-ion batteries.”

Global battery demand is set to grow, with electric vehicles alone requiring up to 2,700 GWh worth of Li-ion batteries a year by 2030, equivalent to some 225 billion mobile phone batteries.

Instead of preventing the formation of dendrites, Professor Zhichuan and his research team from the School of Materials Science and Engineering decided to make use of their intrinsic properties by coating an additional layer of conductive material on the separator for these dendrites to connect with.

Once the dendrites make the connection they will not be able to continue their growth further, thus preventing them from ever reaching the other side.

Zhichuan’s team has tested their technology in the laboratory on over 50 cells with different Li-ion battery compositions and no short-circuits have been detected during the charging phase even when the battery cells are used beyond their lifecycle.

The anti-short layer is a common material used in battery manufacturing and can be easily integrated into the current separator manufacturing process, making it easy for companies to adopt and scale up.

Patent-pending technology

The team estimates that the cost increase after adopting this technology would be around five per cent more than the existing production cost of a Li-ion battery.

This technology is now patent-pending and is being commercialised by NTUitive, NTU’s innovation and enterprise company.

The NTU innovation has also gained the interest of several battery technology firms.

“This technology breakthrough is of significant interest to our business in electrifying e-mobility and stationary energy storage applications that are presently heavily dependent on Li-ion batteries,” Durapower Group’s Chief Executive Officer, Kelvin Lim, said.

Dr Avishek Kumar, CEO and Co-Founder of V-Flow Tech, an energy storage technology firm, said the invention solves the most critical puzzle of thermal runaway issue in Li-ion energy storage solutions and will prove to be one of the biggest enablers for mass adoption of Li-ion energy storage technology.

The team will be further developing the technology and testing it on commercial standardised Li-ion battery cells, in partnership with interested companies.

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iPhones to account for 77% of total 5G smartphone production in 2021

Naushad K. Cherrayil
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iPhones to account for 77% of total 5G smartphone production in 2021
  • iPhone production for 2021 is expected to increases by 15.6% year on year to reach 229.5m units.
  • New models to account for about 40% of Apple’s annual iPhone production.
  • Apple is expected to continue the aggressive pricing strategy that it adopted for last year’s models in order to attract smartphone buyers.

Apple’s iPhones are expected to account for about 77 per cent of the total annual production of 5G smartphones in 2021, making them the market leader in this segment and representing a drastic increase from 39 per cent in 2020.

According to research firm TrendForce, the tight supply of certain components due to complications resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic remains Apple’s primary production-related challenge but iPhone production will unlikely be drastically affected.

The tech giant’s iPhone production for 2021 is expected to increases by 15.6 per cent year on year to reach 229.5 million units.

Total smartphone production is expected to increase by 7.3 per cent to 135 billion compared to 1.25 billion last year.

The tech giant’s iPhone 13 models, which are to be launched on Tuesday, are expected to account for about 37-39 per cent of Apple’s annual iPhone production.

In view of the lacklustre sales performances of the iPhone 12 mini, the small form factor is expected to account for less than 10 per cent of total iPhone 13 production, since Apple will focus its sales efforts on the other three models.

Aggressive pricing strategy

TrendForce indicates that the global economy, markets, and personal incomes are all still experiencing the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has also led to price hikes for electronic components and transportation services, thereby compounding Apple’s difficulties in setting retail prices for the new iPhone models.

Apple is expected to continue the aggressive pricing strategy that it adopted for last year’s models in order to attract smartphone buyers, raise its revenue from services via increased handset sales, and make up for the aggressive prices via increased service revenue.

Technical specifications:

The Pro model of the iPhone 13 is expected to include 1TB storage capacity as an optional upgrade.

Other improvements over previous models include the adoption of A15 processors manufactured with TSMC’s 5nm+ process technology.

All four iPhone 13 models will feature flexible AMOLED + On-cell designs for their display panels, while the Pro series will also feature a 120Hz refresh rate as well as LTPO technology for reduced power consumption.

Furthermore, all four models’ primary cameras will be equipped with sensor shift image stabilization. The Pro model, in particular, will have its ultra-wide camera upgraded to a 6P lens, with the addition of autofocus capability as well.

Much like the iPhone 12, LiDAR functionality is available only for the Pro model of the iPhone 13 lineup.

Lack of talent cited as biggest barrier to adoption of emerging technologies

Mohammed Fahad
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Lack of talent cited as biggest barrier to adoption of emerging technologies
  • 58% of respondents report either an increase or a plan to increase emerging technology investment in 2021, compared with 29% in 2020 despite talent challenges.
  • To allow the smooth movement of information between physical and virtual locations, organisations are investing heavily in creating a strong hybrid cloud base, supported by multi-cloud technologies.
  • In 2021, 64% of respondents reported that they have either increased or are planning to increase investments in security technologies, up from just 31% in 2020.
  • Organisations feel more comfortable directly deploying new technologies to accelerate growth, rather than relying on an extended observation period to develop the business case.

The talent shortage is cited as the most significant adoption barrier to 64 per cent of emerging technologies this year when compared with just four per cent last year, an industry expert said.

Yinuo Geng, Research Vice-President at Gartner, said that the ongoing push toward remote work and the acceleration of hiring plans in 2021 has exacerbated IT talent scarcity, especially for sourcing skills that enable cloud and edge, automation and continuous delivery.

In a survey on six technology domains – compute infrastructure and platform services, network, security, digital workplace, IT automation and storage and database, lack of talent availability was cited far more often than other barriers this year, such as implementation cost (29 per cent) or security risk (7 per cent).

IT executives cited talent availability as the main adoption risk factor for the majority of IT automation technologies (75 per cent) and nearly half of digital workplace technologies (41 per cent).

Of all the IT automation technologies profiled in the survey, Geng said that only 20 per cent of them have moved ahead in the adoption cycle since 2020.

“The issue of talent is to blame here,” she said.

Adoption of emerging technologies

Despite talent challenges, she said that infrastructure and operations (I&O) and other IT leaders have increased the adoption of emerging technologies to drive innovation as organisations begin to recover from the pandemic.

Across all technology domains, 58 per cent of respondents reported either an increase or a plan to increase emerging technology investment in 2021, compared with 29 per cent in 2020.

Furthermore, I&O functions have witnessed a reduction in deployment timelines, with all technologies in deployment expected to reach adoption within the next six to 18 months.

“This indicates that organisations feel more comfortable directly deploying new technologies to accelerate growth, rather than relying on an extended observation period to develop the business case,” Geng said.

In addition, a greater number of leaders (both inside and outside of the IT function) are influencing technology investment decisions this year, driving the trend of “democratised delivery.”

 In 2021, 82 per cent of IT leaders either agree or strongly agree that enterprise leaders outside of IT influence emerging technology adoption decisions across all technology domains evaluated.

Top priorities

According to the survey, resilience and improving critical IT infrastructure are top priorities among I&O and other IT leaders in 2021.

As a result, Geng said that they are prioritising cloud deployments and investments in security technologies.

To allow the smooth movement of information between physical and virtual locations, she said that organisations are investing heavily in creating a strong hybrid cloud base, supported by multi-cloud technologies.

Distributed cloud systems, cloud access security brokers (CASBs) and cloud enterprise resource planning (ERP) are among those reaching the deployment phase in 2021, with respondents stating that resilience is the primary investment driver for 63 per cent of these cloud technologies.

From 2020 to 2021, the number of security technologies in deployment rose sharply — from 15 per cent to 84 per cent of evaluated technologies.

In 2021, 64 per cent of respondents reported that they have either increased or are planning to increase investments in security technologies, up from just 31 per cent in 2020.

“I&O leaders who do not revise their infrastructure security strategy will face challenges due to the continued rise in the ransomware attack surface for enterprises,” Geng said.

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