Page 13 - Winter 2025

Industry News

health. Moving at up to five metres per second it
can navigate challenging terrain and reach areas
that would typically be inaccessible for farmers and
conventional machinery and provide fast field-
wide data. Detailed maps of soil properties that are
relevant to farming decisions can be provided and
farmers can use the insights to manage land more
effectively, adapting to changes in soil conditions
as they occur rather than having to react weeks or
months later.
Reference: Miles, S., ‘Robotic Dog advises Farmers on healthy Soil’,
Electronic Specifier, 26th. November

FURTHER ADVANCES Automating Order Picking with AI and Robotics
A supermarket in Germany that is situated close to
IN ROBOTICS a frozen pizza manufacturer and needs a consistent
supply of pizzas has turned to artificial intelligence
to automatically pack the different types of pizzas.
The development followed a pilot with a 73-year-old
man who, despite receiving conventional treatment, Seventeen participants from two Fraunhofer
repeatedly froze up to ten times a day. Earlier Institutes, the Lamarr Institute for Machine Learning
research used human-in-the-loop optimisation to and Artificial Intelligence and employees from the
prove that a soft, wearable device could be used to
augment hip flexion and assist in swinging the leg
forward. This principle was extended such that it used
Harnessing Brain Function for Robot Navigation Colleague Professor Michael Milford adds:
cable-driven actuators and sensors and by using
One area of robotics that continues to pose “ Using sequences of images instead of single motion data algorithms were developed to estimate
challenges is navigation. AI-derived navigation images enabled an improvement of 41 per cent in the phase of the gait enabling assistive forces to be
systems are commonly used, but have significant place recognition accuracy, allowing the system generated in tandem with muscle movement.
computational and energy requirements. to adapt to appearance changes over time and
Reference: Gittins, C., ‘Soft wearable Robot tested for Parkinson’s
across different seasons and weather conditions”. Support’, Electronic Specifier, 4th. November
Now, a team at the Queensland University of
Technology has developed a novel place recognition Leader of the team, postdoctoral research fellow
algorithm that uses Spiking Neural Networks, artificial Somayeh Hussaini, concluded: Agriculture and Robotics combine to improve
neural networks that mimic how biological brains
“ This work can help pave the way for more efficient Soil Health
process information using brief, discrete signals.
and reliable navigation systems for autonomous
These networks are noted to be particularly suitable The University of Plymouth has joined with startup
robots in energy-constrained environments.
for neuromorphic hardware, that is to say computer robotics company Robotriks in a project to improve
Particularly exciting opportunities include domains
hardware that mimics biological neural systems soil health using a robotic dog.
like space exploration and disaster recovery,
so as to enable faster processing and significantly
where optimising energy efficiency and reducing Traditional soil testing usually requires labour-
reduced energy consumption.
response times are critical”. intensive processes, such as collecting samples with
The system uses small neural network modules Reference: Gittins, C, ‘Research harnesses Brain Function for Robot trowels, followed by laboratory analysis which can University of Bonn came together at a ‘hackathon’
to recognise specific places from images. These Navigation’, Electronic Specifier, 4th. December take weeks of months to deliver results. hosted by igus in Cologne to develop the ingenious
modules were combined into an ensemble, that is a solution.
The new robotic dog uses advanced gamma-
group of multiple spiking networks, to form a scalable
ray detection technology to scan soil for naturally Three interdisciplinary teams were challenged to
navigation system that can learn to navigate in large Wearable Robot provides Parkinson’s Support
occurring radiation levels to assess its overall program a robot to recognise the right products
environments.
Scientists at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of from voice instructions from employees, pick them
Dr. Tobias Fischer of the Queensland University of Engineering and Applied Sciences and at the Boston up and pack them into mixed packages. With the
Technology Centre for Robotics comments: Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Service aid of an igus ReBel robotic arm placed in front of a
have successfully tested a soft, wearable robot that conveyor belt on which were placed various pizzas,
“ Animals are remarkably adept at navigating
allows a person with Parkinson’s to walk without a webcam and an AI-based segmentation system
large, dynamic environments with amazing
freezing. (Segment Anything Model), the team developed a
efficiency and robustness. This work is a step
system that could identify the various objects on the
towards the goal of biologically inspired navigation Parkinson’s reportedly affects over 9 million people
conveyor belt and their position. A language model
systems that could one day compete with or even worldwide and freezing is a common symptom.
mapped the objects to the right products based on
surpass today’s more conventional approaches”. When freezing occurs the patient loses the ability to
the language instructions, and placed the products
move their feet mid-stride, causing stuttering steps
in the correct boxes by following the instructions of
that worsen until they eventually stop.
the language model.
The robotic garment is worn around the hips and
Alexander Zorn of the Fraunhofer Institute for
thighs and provides a push to the hips as the leg
Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems, states:
swings, so giving the person a longer stride.
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