{"title":"2024 IEEE RAS Award Recipients Announced","authors":"","doi":"10.1109/mra.2024.3388285","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/mra.2024.3388285","url":null,"abstract":"The IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS) recognizes and congratulates the following individuals for their outstanding accomplishments and service to RAS and to the robotics and automation community. They will be honored during an award ceremony to be held during the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2024) in May. Please join us in congratulating these outstanding recipients!","PeriodicalId":55019,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2024-06-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141524834","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"What Does the Hype About Humanoids Really Mean? [Industry Activities]","authors":"Andra Keay","doi":"10.1109/mra.2024.3388270","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/mra.2024.3388270","url":null,"abstract":"Jensen Huang chose humanoid robots as a showcase of his vision at NVIDIA Graphical Processing Unit (GPU) Technology Conference (GTC) 2024 (\u0000<xref ref-type=\"fig\" r xmlns:mml=\"http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML\" xmlns:xlink=\"http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink\">Figure 1</xref>\u0000), which might surprise those who believe that the commercialization of humanoids is still a long way off. However, there are at least 30 humanoid robot companies, as of the start of 2024, with pilots or customers or that are planning to commercialize by 2025.","PeriodicalId":55019,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2024-06-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141505387","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Standards Update: Robot Task Representation Standard and User Guide Development [Standards]","authors":"Patrick J. Martin","doi":"10.1109/mra.2024.3388271","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/mra.2024.3388271","url":null,"abstract":"Robotics and automation technology has experienced an incredible growth period in the past decade. The barrier for entry across many economic sectors has been reduced due to cheaper computing, sensing, and actuation coupled with advances in machine learning algorithms and open source tools. Many companies have sprouted up to create myriad components and robotic systems that solve different domain problems. However, managing the complexity of a robotic system is becoming more challenging as all of these hardware and software components lack standards to ensure that integration works smoothly. Several years ago, the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society established the Standing Committee for Standards Activities (SCSA; <uri xmlns:mml=\"http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML\" xmlns:xlink=\"http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink\">https://www.ieee-ras.org/industry-government/standards</uri>\u0000) to develop multiple standards that promote common definitions and measures that support the growing robotics and automation market.","PeriodicalId":55019,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2024-06-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141524838","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Run to the Source: The Effective Reproducibility of Robotics Code Repositories","authors":"Enric Cervera","doi":"10.1109/MRA.2023.3336470","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/MRA.2023.3336470","url":null,"abstract":"In recent years the robotics community has actively embraced the open paradigm, and research articles are commonly enriched with the inclusion of a source code repository of software. However, the reproducibility of such code is not straightforward, and it may become increasingly difficult with the evolution of software. There is a need for providing not only the source code but also an executable version with all of the necessary library dependencies. A solution based on software containers is presented in this article, with some unique advantages. First, the executable package is automatically generated from the last version of the source code; second, it is archived in the same cloud service that hosts the code repository; third, it integrates seamlessly with the development workflow of the research code; finally, it does not consume any local computing resources from the researcher. The executable code can then be downloaded and run by other users, with the only requirement being installing a specific software for running containers. This article presents the complete workflow, which is then applied to some illustrative examples of source code repositories of articles published at robotics conferences.","PeriodicalId":55019,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2024-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141407216","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Felix Wiebe, Shivesh Kumar, Lasse Shala, S. Vyas, M. Javadi, Frank Kirchner
{"title":"Open Source Dual-Purpose Acrobot and Pendubot Platform: Benchmarking Control Algorithms for Underactuated Robotics","authors":"Felix Wiebe, Shivesh Kumar, Lasse Shala, S. Vyas, M. Javadi, Frank Kirchner","doi":"10.1109/MRA.2023.3341257","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/MRA.2023.3341257","url":null,"abstract":"Recent interest in the control of underactuated robots has surged significantly due to the impressive athletic behaviors shown by robots developed by, e.g., Boston Dynamics (<uri>https://www.bostondynamics.com</uri>), Agility Robotics (<uri>https://agilityrobotics.com/robots</uri>), and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology <xref ref-type=\"bibr\" rid=\"ref1\">[1]</xref>. This gives rise to the need for canonical robotic hardware setups for studying underactuation and comparing learning and control algorithms for their performance and robustness. Similar to OpenAIGym <xref ref-type=\"bibr\" rid=\"ref2\">[2]</xref> and Stable Baselines <xref ref-type=\"bibr\" rid=\"ref3\">[3]</xref>, which provide simulated benchmarking environments and baselines for reinforcement learning algorithms, there is a need for benchmarking learning and control methods on real canonical hardware setups. To encourage reproducibility in robotics and artificial intelligence research, these hardware setups should be affordable and easy to manufacture with off-the-shelf components, and the accompanying software should be open source. Acrobots and pendubots are classical textbook examples of canonical underactuated systems with strong nonlinear dynamics, and their swing-up and upright balancing is considered a challenging control problem, especially on real hardware.","PeriodicalId":55019,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2024-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141415788","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"New RAS Standards Working Groups Soliciting Broader Participation [Standards]","authors":"Stephen Balakirsky, Paulo Gonçalves, Lei Yang","doi":"10.1109/mra.2024.3354014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/mra.2024.3354014","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":55019,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2024-03-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140166039","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Progress Toward Athletic Intelligence [From the Editor’s Desk]","authors":"Yi Guo","doi":"10.1109/mra.2024.3353538","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/mra.2024.3353538","url":null,"abstract":"We have witnessed extraordinary advancements in generative artificial intelligence (AI) in 2023. Whether it’s composing essays or generating pictures based on written descriptions, it appears that machines could eventually achieve general intelligence matching, even exceeding humans on some tasks. But those tasks do not include robotic ones yet, which require physical skills and the integration of perception and actuation. A breakthrough was made in robotics in that an autonomous system won against human world champions in first-person-view drone racing <xref ref-type=\"bibr\" r xmlns:mml=\"http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML\" xmlns:xlink=\"http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink\">[1]</xref>\u0000. Using an innovative hybrid learning-based method, the robot’s onboard perception system translated high-dimensional visual and inertial information to low-dimensional representation, and a control policy was trained that integrated perception and control commands. The autonomous system achieved the fastest race time against three drone-racing world champions. The progress is encouraging, and we hope to see more autonomous robots that can reach human-level abilities and even compete against humans in sports (such as soccer or tennis) and other desirable tasks (such as cooking or folding clothes).","PeriodicalId":55019,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2024-03-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140169358","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Elizabeth Fields, Chloe Ho, Min Jie Kim, Zixuan Wu, Brian Plancher
{"title":"Underrepresentation of Women in Robotics Research [Women in Engineering]","authors":"Elizabeth Fields, Chloe Ho, Min Jie Kim, Zixuan Wu, Brian Plancher","doi":"10.1109/mra.2024.3352439","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/mra.2024.3352439","url":null,"abstract":"Computer science (CS) and engineering research both have large and well-documented gender diversity gaps <xref ref-type=\"bibr\" r xmlns:mml=\"http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML\" xmlns:xlink=\"http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink\">[1]</xref>\u0000, <xref ref-type=\"bibr\" r xmlns:mml=\"http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML\" xmlns:xlink=\"http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink\">[2]</xref>\u0000, <xref ref-type=\"bibr\" r xmlns:mml=\"http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML\" xmlns:xlink=\"http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink\">[3]</xref>\u0000. In fact, previous studies have reported that the overall CS female author ratio (FAR) is only in the range of 16%–26% <xref ref-type=\"bibr\" r xmlns:mml=\"http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML\" xmlns:xlink=\"http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink\">[1]</xref>\u0000, <xref ref-type=\"bibr\" r xmlns:mml=\"http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML\" xmlns:xlink=\"http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink\">[3]</xref>\u0000, <xref ref-type=\"bibr\" r xmlns:mml=\"http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML\" xmlns:xlink=\"http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink\">[4]</xref>\u0000. As shown in <xref ref-type=\"table\" r xmlns:mml=\"http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML\" xmlns:xlink=\"http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink\">Table 1</xref>\u0000, recent evidence shows that this number varies significantly among CS subfields, ranging from as high as 42% in CS education to as low as 8% in theory and algorithms <xref ref-type=\"bibr\" r xmlns:mml=\"http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML\" xmlns:xlink=\"http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink\">[1]</xref>\u0000, <xref ref-type=\"bibr\" r xmlns:mml=\"http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML\" xmlns:xlink=\"http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink\">[4]</xref>\u0000. Furthermore, while recent work has shown that the diversity in conference leadership has increased substantially over recent years <xref ref-type=\"bibr\" r xmlns:mml=\"http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML\" xmlns:xlink=\"http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink\">[5]</xref> and that the state of gender diversity in marine robotics ranges from 7% to 44% across various countries in Europe <xref ref-type=\"bibr\" r xmlns:mml=\"http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML\" xmlns:xlink=\"http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink\">[6]</xref>\u0000, there has not been a comprehensive study analyzing the current state of gender diversity across the broader overall field of robotics.","PeriodicalId":55019,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2024-03-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140166064","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}