ByHaldun
Bomb Squad Commanders Meeting 2014.08 is held
The Bomb Squad Commanders Meeting brought together various bomb squads, robot developers, and the NIST team to collaborate in expanding each other’s reach. This event was held from the 25th to the 29th of August. The purpose was to show bomb squads the importance of needing the “Standard Robot Test Methods” to score/train themselves to be better bomb technicians as well as introduce them to the various robots they may want to use during real world scenarios.
Robolit was tasked with the design and layout of the test methods to be shown as well as assisting in the fabrication and set-up of the event. Robolit was also asked to capture and record various robot tests through video and through data collection.
The event proved to be very successful in that a large percentage of bomb squads were responding with the desire to implement NIST’s robot test methods in their facilities. The overall goal was to create more applicable robots to real disasters by collecting the feedback of the bomb squads and adjusting the test methods to fit the issues they are running into most often in real scenarios.
ByHaldun
RoboCup WorldCup 2014 is held in Brasil
The RoboCup 2014 Finals was held in Joao Pessoa Brazil from July 21st to July 25th of 2014. This event brought together robotics leagues from around the world in a competition to determine the best team for the league they participated in. Each league had a number of participating teams at the college level. The event was designed to promote technological progress in the field of robotics by displaying first hand what designs were performing in what skill level.
Robolit participated in the design and implementation of the “Rescue Robot League”. This league created a disaster like scenario where robot teams scored points based on the number of “victims” they could find and identify. A referee and a judge ran the competition, at least one of which was provided by Robolit.
ByHaldun
ASTM E54.08 Homeland Security, Robotics Meeting is completed!
The biannual ASTM E54.08 Homeland Security, Operational Equipment, Robotics meeting was held at the NIST campus in Gaithersburg from May 28-30, 2014. The event brought together a rich collection of individuals from first responder community, robot vendors and standards administrators.
Robolit made two presentations at the event. Our team introduced a new robot design representation procedure to be adopted by the cache packaging standard. Robolit is tasked with the development of an extensible relational database and access interface for the standard test data. We demonstrated the very initial prototype on an online access interface and a database engine implementation.
ByHaldun
US Science and Technology Festival is completed.
As part of the NIST team Robolit participated the US Science and Technology Festival held in Washington, DC from April 26-28. This wonderful event aims to improve the science, engineering and technology education (STEM) in K-12 system. There was a huge attendance including defense contractors, government institutions, universities, high school, small businesses, and more. Various key technologies that will pave the way towards a more flexible educational infrastructure were represented. The most noteworthy presentations were by the 3D printer companies.
With the NIST team we dabuted the mini-arena (a.k.a. confined space tests)—a small scale version of standard test methods developed in the ASTM E54.08 Subcommittee. This setup combined with our group’s recent work on 3D printable robot kit we believe the mini-arena will establish an exciting new experimentation and learning environment for young roboticists with direct association with the RoboCup Rescue League and the NIST Standard Test Methods work.
ByHaldun
Koblenz Robot Test Facility is updated
Following RoboCup German Open, Robolit and NIST updated the robot testing facility in Koblenz Germany with the latest version of a “training set” designed to help robot operators score and practice against themselves to improve performance. While we recorded the scores of an expert operator to compare against operators in training.
ByHaldun
RoboCup Rescue League German Open has started
The German Open for RoboCup was held in Magdeburg Germany from April 1st to April 6th of 2014. The event was designed to allow college and high school level robotics teams to practice as well as earn their place at the RoboCup finals held later in 2014. The event consists of various leagues spanning simulation soccer competitions to legged full size robot games.
Our focus is on the Rescue League which aims to foster innovation in search and rescue robotics. Robolit along side of NIST participated in the design, set-up, and administration for the RoboCup German Open Rescue League. Tasked primarily with judging during the students runs.
ByHaldun
DARPA DRC event is successfully completed!
DARPA Robotics Challange Trials are held in Homestead Speedway in Florida from December 16-22, 2013. Robolit served in the operations groups as part of the NIST team that was tasked with the design and construction of the test stages for the event. Following a grueling three day setup all eight test stages and the expo area NIST test site are constructed. The competition was a great success where several teams demonstrated quite exceptional performance. More information, pictures and movies can be found at the Robolit Facebook page.
ByHaldun
Robolit is preparing to head over to DRC Tests in Florida
As part of our project with the National Institutes of Standard and Technology on Standard Test Methods for Robotic Systems, Robolit will be taking part in the DARPA Robotics Challange (DRC) tests. We will be overseeing the tests and provide evaluation support for the NIST team responsible of the challenge setup.
Seventeen teams from around the world will be participating in the DARPA Robotics Challange (DRC) Trials at Florida’s Homestead Miami Speedway, December 20-21, 2013. The Trials will provide a baseline on the current state of robotics and determine which teams will continue on to the DRC Finals in 2014 with continued DARPA funding. Competing in the 2014 Finals will lead to one team winning a $2 million prize.
ByHaldun
Dr. Komsuoglu has recevied patent US 8,564,144B1
Dr. Komsuoglu has received US patent US 8,564,144B1 titled “Light-Weight Human Generated Electricity” for the contributions in the project with the Lightning Packs LLC. This patent describes a mechanism and a method for producing electric energy from the naturally occurring motion of the human body in motion. An application of this technology is LP’s Load Carrying System (LCS)—a backpack that reduces the physical impact of heavy loads and produce electric energy up to 50W.
ByHaldun
Participation in Eurathlon 2013
Robolit joined NIST personnel at the euRathlon 2013 competition in Berchtesgaden, Germany. A continuation of the European Land Robotics Trials (ELROB), euRathlon is working with our collaborators at the German military to bring standardized test methods to their competition. This event heralds a new era in closer collaboration between the DHS-NIST-ASTM International Standard Test Methods for Response Robots project and the European robotics community.