This is the first annual National Robotics Week. How are you going to celebrate?

It’s time to celebrate! This is the first annual National Robotics Week in the US. From April 10th through the 18th there will be events across the country demonstrating the nation’s prominence in the robotics industry as well as encouraging students to join the field. RoboCup is having its US Open tournament in Maine, Botfest is underway in Massachusetts, Botball tournaments are gearing up in California, and many more exhibitions are scheduled including dozens of open houses in top robotic research institutions all over the US. You can see a full list of NRW events on their calendar or  even announce robotic events in your own area. Don’t miss the opportunity, folks, National Robotics Week comes just once a year!

NRW is sponsored by iRobot, FIRST, Adept Technology, MIT, Stanford, UPenn, Carnegie Melon, and dozens of other universities and institutions. It was only recently signed into law in March of this year, but developers have really done their best to get it up to speed quickly. Besides the events, NRW also provides learning tools via their website to encourage students to take an active interest in robotics. These tools include iRobot’s SPARK and WebQuest, as well as online scavenger hunts for high school and middle school students.

According to the website, the purpose of National Robotics Week is to:

• Celebrate the US as a leader in robotics technology development
• Educate the public about how robotics technology impacts society, both now and in the future
• Advocate for increased funding for robotics technology research and development
• Inspire students of all ages to pursue careers in robotics and other Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math-related fields

For those looking towards the Singularity, these goals represent real ways in which the holiday could affect how technology accelerates in the near future. NRW has the potential to take US culture, which already is fairly interested in robotics, and excite it towards investment; not just financially, but personally. A growing base of students with interest and expertise in robotics will be necessary as we try to build the next generation in amazing technology. So go out and celebrate. In whatever wacky way you deem best.

[image credits: National Robotics Week]
[source: National Robotics Week]

Adept Quattro - world's fastest packaging robot.

Watch out Flexpicker, there’s a new quick draw robot in town. According to the latest press release from Adept Technology(NASDAQ: ADEP) their new Quattro s650 is the fastest packing robot ever built. Working at over 300 cycles per minute, this new bot sorts, stacks, and places product like a mad man. Check out the video from BotJunkie after the break.

The secret to Quattro’s success is its four arms, one more than Flexpicker, which allow it to move precisely under higher accelerations. It also has a higher load capacity (>2kg) and slightly better range of motion in all three dimensions. Hopefully we won’t see a race to increase arms on industrial robots they way we’ve seen blades added to razors (though the use of “quattro” implies a “cinque”). Still, there’s no doubt that Adept’s pursuit of increasing speed and accuracy isn’t going to stop and is likely to push its competitors towards the same end. Quattro is the fastest, but for how long?

I don’t know if it’s as cost efficient as other industrial robots, but Quattro sure looks impressive. Watch the way it sorts irregular shaped chocolates into a box at 1:05, or the pure speed it displays at 1:32 – this isn’t sped up, it’s in real time! As a competitive nod to Flexpicker, Quattro even takes on pancakes at 1:28.

If moving food around on conveyor belts doesn’t do it for you, the following video shows off Quattro’s metallic balls. With customary agility, the robot precisely moves steel spheres on a tray as it moves. Not a useful skill perhaps, but it’s a great demonstration. Make sure you watch around 1:06 to hear Quattro’s whip-like speed. And is it just me, or does the segment around 3:00 remind you of a certain android’s knife trick?

The automated workforce is no longer a science fiction dream, it’s a manufacturing reality. While bots like Flexpicker and Quattro can vie for the “fastest packaging machine in the world” award, the important thing is that they’ve already surpassed human agility and precision. I’m sure there are many such jobs that these bots can’t perform yet (chick sexing, musical instrument construction, etc)but just give them time. In the meantime, hats off to Adept for upping the ante in industrial robots. Quattro has the title for now, I can’t wait to see what the next challenger can do.

[photo and video credit: Adept Technologies, BotJunkie]