We introduce a method that simultaneously learns to explore new large environments and to reconstruct them in 3D from color images only. This is closely related to the Next Best View problem (NBV), where one has to identify where to move the camera next to improve the coverage of an unknown scene. However, most of the current NBV methods rely on depth sensors, need 3D supervision and/or do not scale to large scenes. Our method requires only a color camera and no 3D supervision. It simultaneously learns in a self-supervised fashion to predict a "volume occupancy field" from color images and, from this field, to predict the NBV. Thanks to this approach, our method performs well on new scenes as it is not biased towards any training 3D data. We demonstrate this on a recent dataset made of various 3D scenes and show it performs even better than recent methods requiring a depth sensor, which is not a realistic assumption for outdoor scenes captured with a flying drone.

The Modular Automated Crop Array Online System (MACARONS) is an extensible, scalable, open hardware system for plant transport in automated horticulture systems such as vertical farms. It is specified to move trays of plants up to 1060mm x 630mm and 12.5kg at a rate of 100mm/s along the guide rails and 41.7mm/s up the lifts, such as between stations for monitoring and actuating plants. The cost for the construction of one grow unit of MACARONS is 144.96USD which equates to 128.85USD/m2 of grow area. The designs are released and meets the requirements of CERN-OSH-W, which includes step-by-step graphical build instructions and can be built by a typical technical person in one day at a cost of 1535.50USD. Integrated tests are included in the build instructions are used to validate against the specifications, and we report on a successful build. Through a simple analysis, we demonstrate that MACARONS can operate at a rate sufficient to automate tray loading/unloading, to reduce labour costs in a vertical farm.

Thanks to my discovery of The Great British Baking Show a few months ago and a subsequent trip to Paris, I've become rather obsessed with baking. And I'm not talking chocolate chip cookies and banana bread (though, those are classics). No, I'm talking pâte à choux, mille-feuille, French macarons, and brioche bread--intense, unnecessarily complicated baked goods that require a lot of patience and emphasis on technique. Whether you're trying to conquer obscure European pastries like me or you just want to perfect your favorite cookie recipes, there are several amazing smart products that can help you become a much better baker. You will need these 10 smart items in your kitchen if you're going to be the next Mary Berry.