Marco van der Hoeven

Ultimately, it’s about people, not technology. It has become clear again in 2020 that technology and innovation are not an end goal, but tools that are used to achieve a business or social goal. That is one of the recurring themes in the conversations we have had for Rocking Robots this year.

By unanimous vote of the Heads of Delegations of the Member States, ALLAI was accepted as Observer to the CAHAI, the Council of Europe’s Ad-hoc Committee on AI.

Although this international edition of Rocking Robots only started in the second half of this year, we covered quite a few trends and developments in AI, robotics and RPA in a short time. Video’s are a popular content-item on this platform, so in this post we share a few video’s that symbolize the current trends.

During a training flight, the US military experimented with AI takeover of systems in a jet fighter. According to a report in the Washington Post, AI took over both the navigation and sensors of a U2 spy plane during this flight.

Attempts at airborne retrieval of three unmanned air vehicles, nicknamed Gremlins, were just inches from success in DARPA’s latest flight test series that started on October 28. Each X-61A Gremlins Air Vehicle (GAV) flew for more than two hours, successfully validating all autonomous formation flying positions and safety features.

Nuro has become the first company to receive a permit to deploy autonomous vehicles on public streets from the California Department of Motor Vehicles. This permit will allow the vehicles to operate commercially on California roads in two counties near their headquarters in the Bay Area. The service will start with a fleet of Prius vehicles in fully autonomous mode, followed by the custom-designed electric R2 vehicles.

Scientists often look to nature for cues when designing robots – some robots mimic human hands while others simulate the actions of octopus arms or inchworms. Now, researchers in the University of Georgia College of Engineering have designed a new soft robotic gripper that draws inspiration from an unusual source: pole beans.

UiPath has submitted a draft registration statement on a confidential basis to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a proposed public offering of its Class A common stock. The number of shares of Class A common stock to be sold and the price range for the proposed offering have not yet been determined.

Flemish water treatment company Aquafin was faced with a lot of manual administrative processes. Working with Robonext they developed an RPA-robot which helps them reduce the workload with 90%.

The 2020 Award for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Robotics & Automation (IERA) goes to Photoneo’s high resolution MotionCam-3D. This 3D scanner captures quick moving objects and delivers the sharpest eyes in the world for industrial robots.