Friday, March 25, 2016

AIAR Weekly #16

AIAR Weekly
Issue #16
25.03.2016

Featured material:
  • [AI] Google Cloud Machine Learning - Ever wanted to build business based on powerful machine learning tools and maybe even deep learning techniques, but infrastructure hold you up? Now you can use almost the same infrastructure as Google, based on offering from Google. In their service, you should be able to easily use tensor flow or other frameworks and integrate them nicely with other Google services. It seems that only sky (and wallet) is the limit now.
Articles and videos:
  • [R] Boeing’s Monstrous Underwater Robot Can Wander the Ocean for 6 Months - Underwater robots is a topic that I'm trying to represent here as often as possible. This time, you can read article about newest product from Boeing company. And no, it isn't a airplane. ;)
  • [AI] Scientific Research in the Age of Artificial Intelligence - If you are doing research, you often struggle with manual matching publications and other materials. Some cool information are scattered on the edge on your scope and looks seemingly unrelated. What about building AI designed to visually connect those publications and present them to you in a way that immediately shows their relations. Maria Ritola and her team build such tool and called it Iris. I wonder how doing scientific research will look in the future.
  • [R] Skydio's Camera Drone Finally Delivers on Autonomous Flying Promises - Yet another drone which promises possibility to follow moving target and simultaneously avoid different emerging obstacles. But this time, creators of Skydio claims that their drone not only safely avoid obstacles but also maps its surroundings and dynamically calculates optimum path to travel. But still no actual product to buy on market.
  • [AI] Microsoft deletes 'teen girl' AI after it became a Hitler-loving sex robot within 24 hours - Lets develop Twitter bot which will be AI and have ability to learn from its discussion partners. What can go wrong? Well... it seems that in case of "Tay" wrong things escalated pretty quick. I believe that this is another hint about developing safety circuits into every general purpose artificial intelligence.
  • [R] Robots Podcast #204: Satellite Assembly in Space, with John Lymer - This time John Lymer tells a story about his experience in designing and building space robots. He also explains general idea of building precise and agile robots designed to fix, operate and deploy satellites in space. Quite nice bit of space robotics.
  • [R] 6 Reasons Why Industry Needs to Be Agile as Software to Survive - Article about general trends in modern industry. Topics like 3d printing, robotics, sensors networks and automation are discussed there.
  • [AI] What if we could be inspired by AI? - In this TEDx talk, Alex Berman and Valencia James presents combination of dance and artificial intelligence with glitches. My art sense is probably too limited to fully enjoy this presentation. Can you tell me meaning of it?
Crowdfunding:
  • [R] ZeroBorg - Since Raspberry Pi Zero is on the market for some time, it is time that we can expect Zero size add-on boards flooding DIY online shops. This time, PiBorg group is crowdfunding their latest motor controller board for Raspberry Pi Zero. They seems to be experienced with this type of add-ons and price also seems to be reasonable.
Book of the week:
  • [AI] Python Machine Learning - This time I would like to point you to something more practical - machine learning done with Python programming language and its tools. This book is quite fresh and has lot of positive reviews.
Courses:
  • [R] Mobile Robotics - "What will I learn? What is, and what is not a robot – and more specifically, a mobile robot. Why we need robots. What subsystems robots are made up of. Different ways that mobile robots can move themselves around, and which are most suitable for different environments. How a variety of sensors receive information about the environment around then. Ways to classify sensors: proprioceptive vs exteroceptive; active vs passive. How a feedback system works. That robots follow logical sequential instructions in order to function. To create basic flow diagrams and pseudo code to program what a robot will do. How to develop a list of design requirements for a robotic system. How to design, implement and troubleshoot a robotic system."
Jobs:
  • [R] Electronics Design Engineer @ PiBorg - If you liked board from this issue of AIAR Weekly Crowdfunding link and you would like to work with PiBorg team on designing their future inventions, this job might fit you perfectly. Location: Near St.Ives, Cambridgeshire, UK. Tags: circuit-design, soldering, python, linux, raspberry-pi.
Humor:
  • [R] Sock Removal Robot - [gore warning] Ha, I bet everyone would like to have such invention in his/her home!
Kudos:
Michał Neonek, MrValgad, Tompul, Magdalena, Mucha
Appendix:
Do you have link to cool news, article, tutorial or video and want to share with other robot/AI fans? Send it to me and if meet quality standards I will include it in next issue of AIAR Weekly.

Don't forget to subscribe AIAR Weekly!
You can sponsor this magazine also through Patreon.

Friday, March 18, 2016

AIAR Weekly #15

AIAR Weekly
Issue #15
18.03.2016

Featured material:
  • [AI] Move 37 - The final result for 5 matches of Go between AlphaGo and Lee Sedol is 4 to 1. In this article you can read about possible mistake or maybe master move (since AlphaGo won after all) which AI did against human opponent. What do you think, was it mistake or rather something beyond our understanding?
Articles and videos:
Crowdfunding:
  • [R] Maximo Robot Arm - Another desktop robotic arm. This time it looks slightly heavier and more complicated but author promises modular "hands" so it might have greater educational value. It seems slightly overpriced to be widely available, but maybe further iterations will be cheaper.
Book of the week:
Courses:
  • [AI] Machine Learning - "This course provides a broad introduction to machine learning, datamining, and statistical pattern recognition. Topics include: (i) Supervised learning (parametric/non-parametric algorithms, support vector machines, kernels, neural networks). (ii) Unsupervised learning (clustering, dimensionality reduction, recommender systems, deep learning). (iii) Best practices in machine learning (bias/variance theory; innovation process in machine learning and AI). The course will also draw from numerous case studies and applications, so that you'll also learn how to apply learning algorithms to building smart robots (perception, control), text understanding (web search, anti-spam), computer vision, medical informatics, audio, database mining, and other areas."
Jobs:
  • [AI] Software Engineer III - Artificial Intelligence Group @ NASA JPL - NASA, one of most interesting organizations in the world. People working there are designing space related missions decades before they will be started. It seems that they are looking for people which will help them connecting artificial intelligence technologies with robots and other equipment which might be used in future. Location: Pasadena, United States. Tags: c++, artificial-intelligence, ruby, php, software-development.
Humor:
Kudos:
Michał Neonek, MrValgad, Tompul, Magdalena
Appendix:
Do you have link to cool news, article, tutorial or video and want to share with other robot/AI fans? Send it to me and if meet quality standards I will include it in next issue of AIAR Weekly.

Don't forget to subscribe AIAR Weekly!
You can sponsor this magazine also through Patreon.

Friday, March 11, 2016

AIAR Weekly #14

AIAR Weekly
Issue #14
11.03.2016
Featured material:
  • [AI] Artificial Intelligence & Apocalypse - Another link about total destruction of whole humanity. And to add more thrill to it, this video is from two talks given to United Nation VIPs. Max Tegmark and Nick Bostrom tray to convince UN to support research about safety in artificial intelligence realm.
Articles and videos:
  • [R] DRL Miami Lights Finals - Drone Racing League is probably fastest racing league in the world. Pilots racing drones there have to face many obstacles and turns and make decisions in milliseconds. On proposed video you can watch finals held in Miami.
  • [AI] Lee Sedol vs AlphaGo match 2 - Some time ago, when Kasparov lost to Deep Blue in chess, some of my friends said, that this is nothing special, and we will have to wait long time to see computer beat humans in Go game. It seems that just recently AlphaGo from DeepMind just bet Lee Sedol (one of best go players in the world) two times. Are we watching history being made?
  • [R] Robots Podcast #203: Agilic and PiBot, with Harry Gee - Podcast about building educational robotics startup based on Raspberry Pi.  Harry Gee explains his motivations and discuss most tough and most exciting things he found during his company operations.
  • [R] Pibot - Pibot and tiddly bot are two educational sets from Agilic (mentioned above). Those two sets are designed to easily start without no previous experience but also allows to free experimentation with own constructions.
  • [R] Samsung's latest vacuum bot is a solid Roomba competitor - Personally I'm big fan of Roomba vacuum cleaner. I'm not experienced yet in picking best vacuum cleaner, but when I was buying Roomba there were overall opinions that Samsung can't compete with them. It seems now, that they worked hard to catch up competition. Anyone here has experience with it?
  • [AI] Tool: 31 Resources to Learn AI & Deep Learning, From Beginner to Advanced - Nice and short article with spreadsheet containing links to various materials related to deep learning.
  • [AI] AI Weekly - Weekly newsletter about artificial intelligence. It seems like competition for me, but to hell with that - I like to have someone to compete with ;).
  • [R] Continuous-Time Trajectory Optimization for Online UAV Replanning - Fresh video from ETH Zurich. This time they show how their drones make decisions about which route to take to arrive to selected point. I'm looking forward to see this in actual forest.
Crowdfunding:
  • [R] Kamibot - Kamibot is Arduino based educational robot with twist. The twist is that it can be modificated with origami based "bodies" so anyone can easily give it personal touch.
Book of the week:
  • [AI] Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies - In previous issue of AIAR Weekly I linked to cool blog post about superintelligence. This time I would like to present book which more or less touches the same topic. Even Elon Musk and Bill Gates recommends to read it.
Courses:
  • [AI] CS408: Advanced Artificial Intelligence - "This course will present advanced topics in Artificial Intelligence (AI).  We will begin by defining the term "software agent” and discussing how software agents differ from programs in general.  We will then take a look at those problems in the field of AI that tend to receive the most attention.  Different researchers approach these problems differently.  In this course, we will focus on how to build and search graph data structures needed to create software agents, an approach that you will find useful for solving many problems in AI.  We will also learn to "break down” larger problems into a number of more specific, manageable sub-problems."
Jobs:
  • [AI] Software Engineer @ Connectifier - Hiring new employees is always some kind of problem for practically every company. Connectifier tries to use machine learning and artificial intelligence to find right person for right opening. Location: San-Francisco, United States. Tags: java, c++, machine-learning, algorithms, artificial-intelligence.
Humor:
  • [R] Simone's robots - Simone Giertz has Youtube channel where she presents her unusual robotics constructions. And unusual is really "soft" description of her inventions ;).
Kudos:
Michał Neonek, MrValgad, Tompul, Magdalena
Appendix:
Do you have link to cool news, article, tutorial or video and want to share with other robot/AI fans? Send it to me and if meet quality standards I will include it in next issue of AIAR Weekly.

Don't forget to subscribe AIAR Weekly!
You can sponsor this magazine also through Patreon.

Friday, March 4, 2016

AIAR Weekly #13

Annoucement:
Hello fellow readers. When I started this newsletter I was pretty fresh in robotics topics. During previous 12 issues I become more and more familiar with it, and I found that it is very hard to talk about robots without talking about artificial intelligence. So I decided to include links about artificial intelligence and change name of this newsletter to Artificial Intelligence And Robotics Weekly -   AIAR Weekly. I will mark every link with appropriate prefix, so if you are interested in only one topic you will be able to skip uninteresting links. I hope that new form of this newsletter will offer more complete experience on those two related, but different topics.

AIAR Weekly
Issue #13
04.03.2016
Featured material:
  • [AI] The AI Revolution: The Road to Superintelligence - This is pretty old "news" but I think that it is one of best materials which can explain problem with artificial superintelligence. Especially potential dangers of superintelligence and why should we bother about it. Mentioning this article is also inauguration of AI part of this newsletter. Don't forget to read second part which is even more interesting!
Articles and videos:
  • [R] Nixie - Nixie is yet another drone designed to record video and take photos of targeted persons. But there is small plot twist - Nixie comes in form of wrist band which makes extremely handy and portable. Team behind Nixie presented working prototype and it seems that they are not running crowdfunding campaign (which is very popular business strategy in drones startups recently) which is very promising combination.
  • [R] Drones Have Reached a Tipping Point—Here’s What Happens Next - Drones and drones development are constant hot topic in this newsletter. In this article, Peter Diamandis asks Chris Anderson to identify top 5 recent and 5 anticipated breakthroughs in drones area. Worth to at lest check those points.
  • [AI] The Future of Artificial Intelligence - Fresh recording from talk about newest developments and potential impact presented by Demis Hassabis - CEO of DeepMind. Slightly longish, but very interesting.
  • [R] Raspberry Pi 3 on sale now at $35 - There is always at least small celebration and euphoria in DIY community when there is a premiere of new iteration of Raspberry Pi computers. This time we will receive RasPi with 1.2GHz 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 CPU (~10x the performance of Raspberry Pi 1) with Integrated 802.11n wireless LAN and Bluetooth 4.1. Do I have to point it as a nice IoT starter device?
  • [R] Monkeys Navigate a Wheelchair With Their Thoughts - I love to see such amazing research results. Although it is not robotics related per se, it shows possibilities of connecting human (well, monkey to be exact) brain to electronic/mechanical object in a way, that the "brain" of this combination can select direction of movement. It seems like something extremely useful to totally paralyzed persons.
  • [R] The ROAR project - I'm afraid that after further development and optimization of this project there could be massive layoffs of trash removing employees. And from technical point of view, this example shows great synergy in using drones and on ground vehicles. 
  • [R] How A Robotic Octopus Could Help Us Control Autonomous Drone Swarms - Article about interesting idea of building robot which will consist couple of autonomous "brains" but connected with each other to collectively work for benefit of whole entity.
  • [R] Pepper - Pepper is robotic companion specializing in perception of emotions. Designed for interactions in commercial places it could be also "adopted" as a part of family.
Crowdfunding:
  • [R] EPOR - EPOR is abbreviation for Educational Programming Oriented Robot. Which more or less means that this small robot is designed to be easily programmed with Scratch 2.0, Ardublock and S4A. It might be not as powerful as other robots presented here, but it seems like it might be nice physical device used early education programming classes.
Book of the week:
Courses:
  • [AI] CS405: Artificial Intelligence - "CS405 introduces the field of artificial intelligence (AI).  Materials on AI programming, logic, search, game playing, machine learning, natural language understanding, and robotics introduce the student to AI methods, tools, and techniques, their application to computational problems, and their contribution to understanding intelligence.  Because each of these topics could be a course unto itself, the material is introductory and not complete.  Each unit presents the problem a topic addresses, current progress, and approaches to the problem.  The readings include and cite more materials that are referenced in this course, and students are encouraged to use these resources to pursue topics of interest after this course."
Jobs:
  • [AI] Research Scientist @ OpenAI - If Elon Musk is afraid of destructive potential of artificial intelligence, you know that this is serious matter. OpenAI is non profit organization which aims to research and develop idea of friendly and safe AI which will in the end operate for benefit of mankind. OpenAI just started, but they are open for hiring new extraordinary researchers. Location: San-Francisco, United States. Tags: deep-learning, open-source, research, machine-learning, artificial-intelligence.
Humor:
Kudos:
Michał Neonek, MrValgad, Tompul, Magdalena
Appendix:
Do you have link to cool news, article, tutorial or video and want to share with other robot/AI fans? Send it to me and if meet quality standards I will include it in next issue of AIAR Weekly.

Don't forget to subscribe AIAR Weekly!
You can sponsor this magazine also through Patreon.