Information briefs for the week check out Ziggy, a cell EV charging robotic, for all these occasions when stationary charging is inconvenient; then an enormous robotic that climbs large wind generators by copying the way in which a Koala climbs bushes, 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.
Cell EV charging robots
Electrical Car (EV) charging stations are proliferating by the tens of hundreds in an effort to accommodate the anticipated tens of millions of 
EVs (40% of complete passenger automobile gross sales) anticipated by 2030. For probably 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 will be troublesome, harmful, and even not possible. Particularly, these with everlasting or short-term bodily disabilities, pregnant girls, and the aged are vulnerable to have issues recharging. Then too, there’s the infuriating expertise of underdeveloped EV infrastructure the place there’s by no means an accessible charger.
Enter Ziggy, a robotic, mobile EV charging station “that is designed to dwell in parking areas, the place drivers can summon it by way of an app to come back cost their automobile,” says Automotive & Driver.
Startup, LA-based EV Safe Charge, started improvement of Ziggy in 2019, with the cell items scheduled for delivery in late 2023.
“Roughly the dimensions of a fridge, Ziggy is a battery on wheels that can have the ability to autonomously navigate parking areas to order drivers’ spots and cost their vehicles. And naturally, it is bought adverts on it.”
Koalas, robots, and wind farms
How about nature-inspiring expertise? 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, exchange elements or restore the large constructions.
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 top, weight to be lifted, and wind velocity limits.”
“KoalaLifter System,” says the corporate, “is a disruptive lifting system that makes use of friction collars to embrace the Wind Turbine Generator (WTG) tower to make attainable an autonomous, self-climbing functionality, eliminating the necessity for high-tonnage cranes.”
The system operates with out employees 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 National Mosquito-Borne Diseases Control Research Center, researchers designed an unmanned floor automobile (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 overall inhabitants.
To eradicate the underground breeding areas would, say authorities, put a large 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 ground vehicle system (UGV) that may take high-resolution, real-time photos 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 nearly 70 percent.
A double first-ever for ChatGPT and robots
ChatGPT not solely designed a crop-picking robotic, but in addition specified for which crop it needs to be constructed!
Researchers at EPFL (Swiss technical university) 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 expertise. And not too long ago it was given an opportunity to affect the design of robots.
A group of roboticists picked agriculture and ChatGPT suggested tomato picking due to its excessive financial worth. « We wished ChatGPT to design not only a robotic, however one that’s really helpful,” stated Cosimo Della Santina, assistant professor, and Ph.D. scholar Francesco Stella, each from TU Delft (Netherlands).
With a global tomato market of $200 billion yearly, it seems to be very very like ChatGPT picked nicely.
This might get attention-grabbing. Nature Machine Intelligence is out with an article the place the roboticists state: “We present that enormous language fashions (LLMs), resembling ChatGPT, can information the robotic design course of, on each the conceptual and technical degree, and we suggest new human–AI co-design methods and their societal implications.”
That’s an absolute bombshell!
As an illustration, 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 wished 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 recommended a new-age gripper constituted of silicone or rubber to keep away from crushing tomatoes.
Okay, now let’s see how nicely it sells. Perhaps ChatGPT is aware of.
Off-the-rack, ready-to-wear robots!
As the evolution of exoskeletons (also called wearable robots) progresses, the {hardware} retains cutting down whereas the number of potential use circumstances continues to rise.
The cumbersome, heavy-duty body for supporting paralysis sufferers is pointless for office assistant gear like that used for unloading vans or pallets stuffed with heavy circumstances and likewise as coaching outfits that allow athletes to extend energy and endurance.
Evermore light-weight exosuits are actually 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 assist, wearable robotic” named WIM.
“Whereas wearable robots to this point have been primarily used within the office, WIM is predicted to turn into a wearable robotic for on a regular basis life for most of the people,” introduced the brand new robotic maker.
Co-CEO Lee Yeon-baek said, « WIM would be the first product of such wearable mobility, though weight, dimension, portability and utilization time have been challenges to beat to ensure that present wearable robots to enter the residing and dealing areas of extraordinary folks.”
WIM, says the company’s website, “weighs only one.4 kg (3 lbs.) and has a compact dimension, so it’s simple to hold and will be hooked up and indifferent inside 30 seconds. Whereas carrying it, it’s attainable not solely to carry out varied duties resembling driving, but in addition to take a seat 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 data, but in addition analyzes the wearer’s energy and stability data, and selects a mode primarily based on the info to selectively change strolling posture, effectivity, and energy.”
