This week Insilico Medicine announced the launch of Life Star - their AI powered 6th generation robotics lab for drug discovery. This state of the art lab is equipped with several types of autonomous guided vehicles (AGVs) and advanced imaging devices. The AGV robots are driven by AI and guided by radar. The robots - which are completely controlled by AI - connect all of the automation modules in the lab. Insilico's lab is different from every other lab because Life Star is a 6th generation lab, meaning it does not require any human intervention.

Abu Dhabi is to launch a dedicated artificial intelligence research centre to help cement the UAE's growing status as a global centre for technological innovation. The state-of-the-art complex will be central to the work of the capital's Technology Innovation Institute, which already is home to the Middle East's first quantum computer and to teams of researchers developing advanced materials, drones and robots for commercial use. The centre aims to bridge the gap between the research centre's seven labs and the spreading field of AI, providing oversight and technical know-how. Take, for example, an autonomous boat under development at TII's robotics lab, which is being designed to self-navigate to the site of an oil spill, send out dozens of robotic "fish" to assess the damage to marine life, all while sending information to drones hovering above to determine a course for clean-up. This scenario relies heavily on AI capabilities and is one of dozens of commercial projects being developed at TII's Masdar City campus.

Last Wednesday we started this series of posts showcasing the plenary and keynote talks from the IEEE/RSJ IROS2020 (International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems). This is a great opportunity to stay up to date with the latest robotics & AI research from top roboticists in the world. Bio: Frank Dellaert is a Professor in the School of Interactive Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology and a Research Scientist at Google AI. While on leave from Georgia Tech in 2016-2018, he served as Technical Project Lead at Facebook's Building 8 hardware division. Before that he was also Chief Scientist at Skydio, a startup founded by MIT grads to create intuitive interfaces for micro-aerial vehicles.

Over the years, Carnegie Mellon University has upgraded its famous snakebot to give it the ability to do things like climb sand dunes and grasp objects. With its latest iteration, you can now add swimming to that list. Work on the Hardened Underwater Modular Robot Snake (HUMRS) started in July 2020. The university's robotics lab began by adapting water-resistant modules it had used in the past to allow the robot to operate in less than ideal conditions. They then added a series of turbines and thrusters so that it could move underwater.

Monday morning, some of the world's top minds in robotics and machine learning were due to convene for a virtual, invite-only research workshop hosted by Google. Two academics invited didn't log on as scheduled: They withdrew to protest Google's treatment of two women who've said they were unjustly fired from the company's artificial intelligence research division. A third academic who previously received funding from Google took his own stand, saying he would no longer apply for its support. Although small in scale, the boycott illustrates some of the damage to Google's reputation from the acrimonious departures of Timnit Gebru and Margaret Mitchell, coleaders of a team working to make AI systems more ethical. The controversy has drawn new attention to the influence of tech companies on AI research, and has led researchers inside and outside of Google to ask whether it was distorting research into AI's impact on society.

A robotics lab is a hub of various technologies working together under the expertise of the human mind under a single roof. While anyone can make their own robotics lab, housing numerous robots in a room does not qualify as a robotics lab. In layman's terms to constitute an ideal robotics lab, one needs a perfect balance of hardware, software, design tools, and human resource. However, many people fail to understand this simple idea and, as a result, are often stressed when planning to build one. In short, the problem areas are lack of information resources and time to understand them.

A robotic exoskeleton developed by Korean car manufacturer Hyundai has helped a paraplegic sportsman walk over and hug his mother for the first time in 10 years. Korean para-athlete and pro-archer Jun-beom Park was confined to a wheelchair in 2008 after being involved in an accident as a school boy. He damaged his thoracic vertebrae – the small bones that form the spine – in an incident that left him unable to walk. Now, 11 years on, the archery star has taken his'second first steps' thanks to an'exoskeleton suit' developed by Hyundai Motors Robotics Lab in Seoul, South Korea. In a heartwarming video produced by Hyundai, Jun-beom, 28, is seen putting his weight on his legs to stand up from his wheelchair, aided by the Hyundai Medical Exoskeleton (H-MEX).

Facebook isn't often thought of as a robotics company, but new work being done in the social media giant's skunkworks AI lab is trying to prove otherwise. The company on Monday gave a detailed look into some of the projects being undertaken by its AI researchers at its Menlo Park, California-based headquarters, many of which are aimed at making robots smarter. Among the machines being developed are walking hexapods that resemble a spider, a robotic arm and a human-like hand complete with sensors to help it touch. Facebook has a dedicated team of AI researchers at its headquarters in Menlo Park, California that are tasked with testing out robots. The hope is that their learnings can be applied to other AI software in the company and make those systems smarter.

Google has teamed up with researchers from Princeton, Columbia and MIT to create TossingBot, which can learn how to pick up and toss various objects into the right containers on its own. During its first rodeo, the mechanical arm didn't know what to do with the pile of objects it was presented with. After 14 hours of trial and error and analyzing them with its overhead cameras, it was finally able to toss the right item into the right container 85 percent of the time. As the tech giant explains, programming a robot to properly grasp and toss specific objects -- a screwdriver, for instance, could land in different ways, based on where you hold it -- is incredibly difficult. By using machine learning, the robot will teach itself from experience instead, as well as adapt to new scenarios and learn on the fly.

Voice-enabled devices and AI were the innovations that everyone embraced over the past two years. In 2019, we see a broader landscape of changes come to the forefront. Some of these advancements are right around the corner, and others will take longer to develop into commercial products. However, each of these advancements provides insight into how our professional and personal lives will change. It's been years since we've had a new shape or material in the smartphone space, but that changed in the past two months.