Information briefs for the week check out Ziggy, a cell EV charging robotic, for all these instances when stationary charging is inconvenient; then an enormous robotic that climbs large wind generators by copying the way in which a Koala climbs timber, then to Taiwan the place a UGV scours sewers in quest of mosquito breeding grounds, then to a different astounding first for ChatGPT: constructing a robotic; and eventually, a light-weight 3-lbs., exosuit to tackle all kinds of chores, even when solely to cut back drained legs on the workplace or climbing mountain trails.
Cellular EV charging robots
Electrical Car (EV) charging stations are proliferating by the tens of 1000’s as a way to accommodate the anticipated hundreds of thousands of 
EVs (40% of complete passenger automobile gross sales) anticipated by 2030. For essentially the most half, EV charging stations are stationary. Drivers must again right into a station, get out and manually insert the charging plug.
For a lot of, such an EV charging expertise might be troublesome, harmful, and even unattainable. Specifically, these with everlasting or non permanent bodily disabilities, pregnant ladies, and the aged are susceptible to have issues recharging. Then too, there’s the infuriating expertise of underdeveloped EV infrastructure the place there’s by no means an obtainable charger.
Enter Ziggy, a robotic, cell EV charging station “that is designed to dwell in parking areas, the place drivers can summon it by an app to return cost their car,” says Automobile & Driver.
Startup, LA-based EV Secure Cost, started improvement of Ziggy in 2019, with the cell items scheduled for delivery in late 2023.
“Roughly the scale of a fridge, Ziggy is a battery on wheels that may be capable of autonomously navigate parking areas to order drivers’ spots and cost their automobiles. And naturally, it is bought adverts on it.”
Koalas, robots, and wind farms
How about nature-inspiring know-how? Northern Spain’s Navarre-based KoalaLifter has developed an enormous robotic crane that mimics the way in which a koala climbs a tree. The koala’s distinctive strategy of wrapping its limbs round a tree after which hoisting itself up is 
used to maneuver the appropriately named KoalaLifter up into wind generators to both construct, substitute components or restore the enormous buildings.
Yearly, greater than 18 000 new wind generators are put in and round 20 000 upkeep operations are carried out. The EU-funded KoalaLifter, with its autonomous, self-climbing functionality, is “nearly unbiased of tower peak, weight to be lifted, and wind pace limits.”
“KoalaLifter System,” says the corporate, “is a disruptive lifting gadget that makes use of friction collars to embrace the Wind Turbine Generator (WTG) tower to make doable an autonomous, self-climbing functionality, eliminating the necessity for high-tonnage cranes.”
The system operates with out staff near the masses, is transported by truck, and desires just one operator to place the system for its climb.
Taiwan’s mosquito-hunting UGV
Led by Wei-Liang Liu, an investigator with Taiwan’s Nationwide Mosquito-Borne Illnesses Management Analysis Heart, researchers designed an unmanned floor car (UGV) to scour cracks and crevices deep within the sewers of Kaohsiung Metropolis, a serious metropolis (1.7 million) within the 
south of Taiwan.
Dengue fever, yellow fever, and the Zika virus lurk underground, are born to a number of mosquito species there, after which come up into Kaohsiung Metropolis to transmit viruses to the final inhabitants.
To get rid of the underground breeding areas would, say authorities, put an enormous crimp within the metropolis’s mosquito inhabitants and the dengue virus devastation that afflicts the town.
The UGV has confirmed to be a extremely efficient mosquito hunter.
“Researchers mixed a crawling robotic, wire-controlled cable automobile and real-time monitoring system into an unmanned floor car system (UGV) that may take high-resolution, real-time pictures of areas inside sewers.”
The system is yearly deployed from Might to August in 5 administrative districts in Kaohsiung Metropolis, explicit emphasis is given to coated roadside sewer ditches.
And it labored! The UGV robotic hunter helped dramatically drop the town’s mosquito inhabitants by almost 70 %.
A double first-ever for ChatGPT and robots
ChatGPT not solely designed a crop-picking robotic, but additionally specified for which crop it ought to be constructed!
Researchers at EPFL (Swiss technical college) and TU Delft (Netherlands) have collaborated with ChatGPT-3 to design a robotic, which turned out to be a cell harvesting robotic with an arm for tomato choosing.
It’s attending to be that ChatGPT, and generative AI generally, know no bounds as to being influencers of different industries and know-how. And just lately it was given an opportunity to influence the design of robots.
A bunch of roboticists picked agriculture and ChatGPT urged tomato choosing due to its excessive financial worth. “We needed ChatGPT to design not only a robotic, however one that’s really helpful,” stated Cosimo Della Santina, assistant professor, and Ph.D. pupil Francesco Stella, each from TU Delft (Netherlands).
With a international tomato market of $200 billion yearly, it seems to be very very similar to ChatGPT picked effectively.
This might get fascinating. Nature Machine Intelligence is out with an article the place the roboticists state: “We present that giant language fashions (LLMs), similar to ChatGPT, can information the robotic design course of, on each the conceptual and technical stage, and we suggest new human–AI co-design methods and their societal implications.”
That’s an absolute bombshell!
As an example, may ChatGPT reconceptualize and redesign cobot welding or robotic palletizing? Appears to be like like we’ll quickly see.
For now, ChatGPT has shocked nearly everybody by designing an agricultural robotic…and to everybody’s amazement, it specified which crop for it to choose.
The researchers, intent on using ChatGPT for his or her design and construct, additionally needed to discover the various levels of cooperation between people and Massive Language Fashions (LLM), of which ChatGPT is one.
And as an additional bonus, ChatGPT urged a new-age gripper comprised of silicone or rubber to keep away from crushing tomatoes.
Okay, now let’s see how effectively it sells. Perhaps ChatGPT is aware of.
Off-the-rack, ready-to-wear robots!
Because the evolution of exoskeletons (additionally known as wearable robots) progresses, the {hardware} retains cutting down whereas the number of potential use instances continues to rise.
The cumbersome, heavy-duty body for supporting paralysis sufferers is pointless for office assistant gear like that used for unloading vehicles or pallets filled with heavy instances and likewise as coaching outfits that allow athletes to extend energy and endurance.
Evermore light-weight exosuits at the moment are dashing into {the marketplace} to tackle all kinds of chores, even when solely to cut back drained legs on the workplace or climbing mountain trails.
One such beginner is Korea’s WIRobotics (based in 2021) which is out with a one-size-fits-all “ultralight, strolling help, wearable robotic” named WIM.
“Whereas wearable robots to this point have been primarily used within the office, WIM is predicted to develop into a wearable robotic for on a regular basis life for most people,” introduced the brand new robotic maker.
Co-CEO Lee Yeon-baek stated, “WIM would be the first product of such wearable mobility, though weight, measurement, portability and utilization time had been challenges to beat to ensure that present wearable robots to enter the residing and dealing areas of extraordinary folks.”
WIM, says the corporate’s web site, “weighs just one.4 kg (3 lbs.) and has a compact measurement, so it’s simple to hold and might be hooked up and indifferent inside 30 seconds. Whereas sporting it, it’s doable not solely to carry out numerous duties similar to driving, but additionally to sit down or lie all the way down to take a break.”
The corporate’s different co-CEO Kim Yong-jae added: “WIM not solely collects the wearer’s posture and movement info, but additionally analyzes the wearer’s energy and steadiness info, and selects a mode based mostly on the information to selectively change strolling posture, effectivity, and energy.”
