How to Teach Soft Robot Navigation

How to Teach Soft Robot Navigation How to Teach Soft Robot Navigation How to Teach Soft Robot NavigationPerception is a tricky thing. Humans use all their senses to learn about their location and the objects with which they interact. If one sense falterssay an eye or an earwe can still navigate our world. Now, a team of engineers at University of California, San Diego, is seeking to create networks of sensors that would give robots the same redundancy without simply duplicating existing sensors.This is especially important as robots become smarter and mora mobile. Today, most robots are still rigid and designed for just a handful of tasks. They contain sensors, particularly at the joints, to monitor and track their movements. This produces predictable, reliable movements, but if one sensor fails, the whole ordnungsprinzip crashes.Michael Tolley, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering who heads the Bioinspired Robotics and Design Lab at UC San Diego, wants to create a mor e redundant series of sensors by networking them together.Equally important, he wants to do this in soft robots that can use their senses to explore new and unpredictable environments more safely than their rigid cousins.Read more on Helpful RobotsRobots to the RescueIf a robot has to move around in the world, its not as simple as navigating a factory floor, Tolley explained. You want it to understand not just how it moves, but how other things are going to get around it.The team started with an under-utilized sense in the robotic arsenal touch.There is a lot of very valuable information in the sense of touch, Tolley said. So a big part of my labs work involves designing soft robots that are inherently less dangerous than rigid robots and that can be put in places where you wouldnt necessarily put a rigid manufacturing robot. The researchers goal is to build a ordnungsprinzip that can predict a robots movements without relying on external sensors. Image David Baillot / UC San DiegoSoft robots present a unique set of challenges, starting with something as simple as sensor placement. Tolleys robot resembles a human finger, if it were made out of a rubber-like polymer. It does not offer much in the way of structure there are no joints or other obvious places to place sensors.Tolley and his team saw this as a creative opportunity to look at perception in a different, almost playful, kind of way.Instead of running simulations to find the best places for the robots four strain sensors, his team placed them randomly. They then applied air pressure to the finger and the response from the four sensors was fed into a nerven betreffend network, a font of machine learning system based on connections between nodes (in this case, sensors), to record and process the movements.Researchers generally train neural networks, providing them with examples that they can match against their sensory input. UC San Diego engineers used a motion capture system to train the finger, then discarded it. This helped the robot learn how to react to different strain signals from the sensors.This enabled the team to predict forces applied to the finger as well as simple movements. Ultimately, they would like to develop models that predict the complex combination of forces and deformations of soft robots as they move. This cannot be done today. Better models would enable engineers to optimize sensor design, placement, and fabrication for future soft robots.In the meantime, the team has been learning how networked sensors behave.Their most important finding was that the robot could still perform even after one of the four sensors stopped working. This is because the system does not depend on sensors in specific locations to monitor a particular function.Instead, the neural network uses information from all the sensors in its network to complete a predictable movement. When a sensor fails, the network can still synthesize information, albeit with a little less accuracy.This concept is called graceful degradation and is found throughout nature. For example, the bodies of aging humans become weaker and stiffer, but they can still walk, though perhaps more slowly than they once did.Tolleys team has many more challenges ahead. Their biggest obstacle is that their soft finger robot does not have a mechanical skeleton to push or lift things. Instead, they use a pneumatic system to pressurize it and generate mechanical force. In order to build larger models to carry out real tasks, they will need some kind of structure to transfer force.With time, the team hopes to build out an entire system with hundreds of sensory components that feed into a neural network that uses touch plus vision and hearing to explore its environment.When we envision humans and robots working in the same place, thats where I see a soft robot being useful, Tolley said. In the operating room, in search and rescue situations, and even in homes, helping people with disabiliti es get around.The dream is still many years off from commercialization. But, for Tolley, recreating human perception is worth the hard work.In a way, were just trying to understand ourselves, he said. At some level, humans are really just very complicated machines.Cassie Kelly is an independent writer.

Top Industries With the Most Job Losses

Top Industries With the Most Job LossesTop Industries With the Most Job LossesBuilding a career is challenging enough in the best of circumstances, but working in an industry that is in decline and losing jobs can make it even harder to advance. If you are just starting out in the work world or looking for acareer change, take the time to see which industries have better - and worse - qualifikation than others. Employment in a growth industry will provide more opportunities for promotion and job change during your career. While some United States industries are expanding, others are in decline. Shrinking industries traditionally hire fewer new workers andpay workers less than those in similar roles in thriving industries. Growth also varies by location. Some states have a much stronger jobs outlook than others. Even if you land a job in a contracting industry, layoffs will be more common, there will be fewer job opportunities, and job security will be much harder to come by. Therefor e it makes sense to factor in the prospective growth, stagnationordecline of agiven industry as you target your job search.For example, if you are interested in advertising sales, why not target leading online enterprises as opposed to print magazines? Top 16 Industries for Job Losses The U.S. governmentsBureau of Labor Statistics(BLS) studies trends in the economy and job market and makes projections regarding areas of job growth and losses. The latest set of projections predicts gains and losses through 2026, based on economic and job market trends. unterstellung are the industries that the BLS expects to experience the greatest job losses, with projected decreases through 2026 Wired Communication Carriers- 102,500The rise in the use of mobile phones and the decline in landline accounts have cut into business, even though traditional carriers are expanding into other products.Newspaper, Periodical, Book and Directory Publishers- 88,000Online and digital content is the preferre d source of information for most people, with print losing much of its market share.Postal Service- 80,700Increased use of email and digital advertising has decreased the flow of traditional mail. Most communications can be handled online rather than by postal mail, and private delivery services like UPS and FedEx have undercut the U.S. Postal Service. Printing and Related Support Services- 73,200Individuals and businesses are storing and sending documents digitally and avoiding the cost and storage concerns involved with printing paper.Apparel Manufacturing- 48,200Production has been outsourced to countries with cheaper labor costs, cutting U.S. manufacturing jobs.Textile Mills- 44,200Relocation of manufacturing to countries with less-expensive labor has led to a decline in the textile industry.Plastics Products Manufacturing- 43,700Environmental issues involved with disposal of plastics will driveemploymentdecline. Like other areas of manufacturing, production is likely to be offs hored. Semiconductor and Electronic Component Manufacturing- 37,700Globalization and production overseas will cause job losses.Navigational, Measuring and Control Instrument Manufacturing- 35,500Competition from overseas manufacturers has shrunk the U.S. market.Other Miscellaneous Manufacturing- 25,800A general drop in U.S. manufacturing jobs is due to the migration of jobs and product manufacturing overseas.Foundries- 25,100Requirements for investment have expanded and a trend towards mergers will limit prospects as the industry consolidates. Communications Equipment Manufacturing- 23,700Intense import competition from overseas companies will impact domestic manufacturers.Computer and Peripheral Equipment Manufacturing Excluding Digital Cameras- 23,100Consumers love their smartphones and often prefer handheld devices to other computer products, cutting back jobs.Rubber Product Manufacturing- 21,500Foreign competition and reduced prices for rubber products have constrained growth.Pu lp and Mills- 20,800Digitization has cut the demand for some types of paper. The remaining companies have merged and limited their workforces. Travel Arrangement and Reservation Services- 20,700Automated, online and do-it-yourself travel services are replacing travel and tour booking agencies. Declining Occupations Another way to identify some areas of employment with challenging job prospects is to review theBLS dataon the fastest-declining occupations. These jobs have fallen out of favor for a variety of reasons, including trends in theautomation of production, outsourcing to overseas markets (where labor is cheaper), enhancements in information technology that reduce the need for workers, theemergence of the gig economy, and an increase in part-time and freelance workers filling what were once full-time jobs. These are the fastest declining occupations through 2026, ranked by the percentage of jobs expected to be lost Locomotive Firers - 78.6%Respiratory Therapy Technicians -56.3%Parking Enforcement Workers -35.3%Word Processors and Typist -33.1%Watch Repairers -29.7%Electronic Equipment Repairers for Motor Vehicles -25.6%Foundry Mold and Coremakers -24%Pourers and Metal Casters -23.4%Computer Operators -22.8%Telephone Operators -22.6%Mine Shuttle Car Operators -21.9%Electromechanical Equipment Operators -21.4%Data Entry Keyers -21.2%Postmasters and Mail Superintendents -20.9%Electrical and Electronic Equipment Assemblers -20.8% Coil Winders, Tapers, Winders, and Finishers -20.7%Switchboard Operators including Answering Services -19.9%Prepress Technicians -19.9%Legal Secretaries -19.1%Photographic Process Workers -18.1%Executive Secretaries and Executive Administrative Assistants -17.4Engine and Other Machine Assemblers -17.2% The Best Industries for Jobs The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates thatjobs for the average occupation will increase by 7.4%between 2016 and 2026. Healthcare support occupations (23.6%) and healthcare practitioners and tec hnical occupations (15.3%) are projected to be among the fastest growing occupational groups. These are among the jobs in industries on the other side of the spectrum that are growing at a fast pace. Thetop 10 industrieshave high projected growth in employment opportunities, and many different types of jobs areavailable for those who are seeking career options. There are also jobs that are relatively safe from automation if youre interested in an occupation that is safe from robots.

Getting the Job

Getting the JobGetting the Job