A robot designed to inspect storage tanks for the oil and gas industry was a hit at the Mohamed Bin Zayed International Robotics Challenge (MBZIRC) Exhibition and was recognized as the winner of the Best Innovative University Project of the Emirates Award 2020. 

Team PetroPremium, composed of Petroleum Engineering students Alanood Alburaiki, Anoud Alshukaili, and Mariam Alkatheeri, developed a robot with sensors and a webcam to scan oil storage tanks. The robot scans the tanks using spiral movements, analyzes the data, and then identifies corrosion spots in the tanks, helping ensure the safety and structural integrity of the tanks. 

“The idea came while we were discussing with Dr. Waleed Alameri (Assistant Professor of Petroleum Engineering) about MBZIRC 2020. He believed in us and his support, along with Dr. Hamad Karki, (Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering) who helped us reach this great achievement, which is winning the Emirates Award under the Best Innovative Student Project,” Anoud commented. 

“As the demand for oil and gas is increasing, resources are diminishing. The oil and gas industry is looking for more advanced technologies to increase productivity in a cost-effective manner. Therefore, our role as petroleum engineers is to innovate and help in developing the oil and gas sector in achieving our country’s vision. Robotics has the potential to positively impact the oil and gas industry. We’re planning to keep working on this project and implementing new technologies that will increase its efficiency,” Alanood said. 

“Through our participation in the MBZIRC, we have seen that the United Arab Emirates, under its wise leadership, has always supported vital projects that will help the country achieve its goals. We also received a great morale boost after we met His Highness Sheikh Hamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who praised our role as Emirati students in advancing scientific progress and expanding the perceptions of creativity and innovation. He also praised us as an example to follow and encouraged us to continue working on scientific investment,” she said. 

“It is also not surprising that we have received the full support of the Khalifa University administration and the educational staff. The University provides their students with innovative courses, competitions, and most importantly, access to their laboratories where students can work on their projects,” remarked Alanood. 

Dr. Waleed also commented: “Thank you Anoud, Alanood, and Mariam for such an excellent achievement. We are always here to help, serve and support our students at Khalifa University and I’m sure that this is not the end. We will develop the idea of the designed robot and one day will apply it in real projects.” 

“The Petroleum Engineering Department at Khalifa University was the main reason for us to continue with the project. This achievement is also directed to our beloved country and our families as well. We as graduate students are proud to reach this level of achievement during this pandemic. This is proof that nothing is impossible nowadays and we can turn what is impossible to possible by our determination and persistence,” Anoud added. 

Ara Maj Cruz
Creative Writer
6 June 2021

The post Student-designed Robot Wows at MBZIRC Exhibition, Wins Emirates Award 2020 appeared first on Khalifa University.

The dust may have settled in the Mohamed Bin Zayed International Robotics Challenge (MBZIRC) arena but the ingenuity and ambition demonstrated by the teams competing continues. Efforts are now being directed towards further research and development discussions as insights related to the 2020 challenges are prepared for publication in an upcoming special edition of the Journal of Field Robotics.

The Journal of Field Robotics special issue MBZIRC 2020 – Challenges in Autonomous Field Robotics – will be published in early 2021 and researchers involved in MBZIRC 2020 are encouraged to submit their work. Topics of interest include robotics in unstructured, dynamic environments, sensing and perception, machine learning, mechanical design, computer architectures, communication, planning, learning, and control.

“Robotics has the potential to have an impact that is as transformative as the Internet, with robotics technology poised to fuel a broad range of next-generation products and applications in a diverse array of fields,” explained Dr. Lakmal Seneviratne, Director of the Khalifa University Center for Autonomous Robotic Systems (KUCARS). “These include robot applications in disaster response, manufacturing, construction, healthcare and household chores. In the past few decades, robotic competitions have been a catalyst for accelerating technological advancements in robotics and autonomous systems.”

MBZIRC is a biennial robotics competition motivated by the technological challenges facing the next generation of robotics. Similar to other major competitions, MBZIRC 2020 provided an environment to foster innovation and technical excellence, while encouraging entertaining performance.

Robots and drones indeed have a bright future across multiple fields. They may be useful and entertaining to the hobbyist, but the recent MBZIRC hosted in Abu Dhabi proved their incredible potential in a broad range of diverse applications. But for autonomous robots and drones to be useful in tasks such as disaster zones or as first responders, they need to be able to move fast, far and without human oversight, often in environments where they can’t rely on external guidance systems like GPS.

All the MBZIRC 2020 challenges were developed to push the technological and application boundaries in robotics, focusing on fast, autonomous navigation in complex environments to complete a task. While remote controlled robots and drones would face enough challenge in this arena, the most important part of MBZIRC is the autonomous completion of tasks. This autonomy is one of the biggest challenges facing robotics development.

“The enabling technologies for next generation robotic applications include robots working more autonomously in dynamic, unstructured environments, while collaborating and interacting with other robots and humans,” explained Dr. Seneviratne. “MBZIRC 2020 focused on some of these enabling technologies, by providing a demanding set of benchmark robotics challenges, and attracted some of the best international teams.”

While solving real world problems, MBZIRC encourages innovation in robotics, AI, and materials; all major components that must be addressed as robots and drones can become increasingly potent tools to improve safety and security. Robotics competitions are the ultimate catalyst to accelerating development as teams compete to push the boundaries.

The challenges and innovations required to compete have attracted the attention of the prestigious Journal of Field Robotics, highlighting the impact MBZIRC has on inspiring solutions to some of the most pressing challenges in robotics.

Jade Sterling
Science Writer
15 October 2020

The post MBZIRC inspiring solutions to important robotics challenges with special journal edition appeared first on Khalifa University.

MBZIRC 2020 Reiterates Relevance to Future Smart City Solutions in ‘Security and Defence’, ‘Construction and Infrastructure’, and ‘Fire-Fighting and Emergency Response’

The Mohamed Bin Zayed International Robotics Challenge (MBZIRC) 2020, the second edition of the prestigious biennial international competition, drew to a successful conclusion in Abu Dhabi, reiterating its relevance to future smart city solutions including security and defense, construction and infrastructure, as well as fire-fighting and emergency response.

The three-day Challenge witnessed the participation of 32 teams from 17 countries, selected out of 134 teams that had originally applied to compete, while gathering a large assembly of more than 400 robotics and artificial intelligence experts at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Center (ADNEC) from 23-25 February. MBZIRC 2020 was supported by Tawazun Economic Council, and Abu Dhabi Police, while EDGE was the advanced technology partner.

The Challenge was immediately followed by the first-ever two-day MBZIRC Symposium, offering the teams an opportunity to learn about each other’s UAVs and UGVs, and showcase the projects directly to industry representatives, in order to further increase interest and raise awareness, while facilitating opportunities for research collaborations.

Dr Arif Sultan Al Hammadi, Steering Committee General Co-Chair for MBZIRC 2020, said: “The intensely exciting MBZIRC 2020 and its successful conclusion, comprehensively illustrated the pivotal role of Khalifa University in furthering innovation in robotics and artificial intelligence. The competition adequately highlighted the role of UAVs and UGVs in a smart city’s vital areas such as security, infrastructure and emergency.”

Dr Al Hammadi added: “We thank the UAE leadership for their consistent support to Khalifa University and all our research and academic-related endeavors, encouraging the university to widen the industry-academia-government collaborations to drive innovation in science, technology and engineering fields. We thank the sponsors, panel of judges and everyone who contributed to the success of the second edition, as we look forward to the next edition of MBZIRC.”

Shahab Issa Abushahab, Chief Strategy Officer, Tawazun Economic Council, said: “We are proud of the notable results of the second edition of MBZIRC, and extend our appreciation to all stakeholders for making the challenge a home for cutting-edge technology and innovation. Our support for MBZIRC 2020 is aligned with Tawazun’s mandate to support technology and innovation and create opportunities for the young generation to contribute towards building a diversified economy in the UAE, driven by innovation and creativity. At Tawazun, we continually invest in the creative ideas of our people and promote a strong culture of innovation to achieve a competitive position for our country in advanced high-tech industries.”

There were four iconic challenges – Challenge 1, Challenge 2, Challenge 3 and the triathlon Grand Challenge – to test advanced embodied AI technical skills. The Czech Technical University-University of Pennsylvania-NYU team, the Grand Challenge winner, demonstrated exemplary skills in safety, construction automation and fire-fighting.

Each of the winners in the Challenge categories had individually displayed their drones’ performance, stamping their authority in integrating machine learning algorithms. Challenge 1 tested the UAVs and UGVs in autonomously tracking, capturing and neutralizing intruder drones, while Challenge 2 was a test of skills in construction automation and robot-based 3D printing of large structures. Challenge 3 assessed how a team of UAVs and a UGV collaborate to autonomously extinguish a series of simulated fires in an urban high-rise building.

Keeping in line with the UAE leadership’s objective towards capacity building, the young Emirati team Al Nokhba, performed strongly in the MBZIRC 2020 categories, emerging among some of the most prestigious universities and research centers worldwide.

The criteria the judges looked for in each team’s performance included robust perception and tracking of dynamic objects in 3D, sensing and avoiding obstacles, GPS-denied navigation in indoor-outdoor environments, physical interactions, complex mobile manipulations, and air-to-surface collaboration.

The MBZIRC 2020 was officiated by an elite panel of judges that included globally-renowned scholars and eminent researchers in robotics and artificial intelligence from some of the top universities and research labs in the world. The international judges were supported by over 10 judges from among Khalifa University faculty, as well as arena managers and scorers.

Clarence Michael
News Writer
27 February 2020

The post US$5-Million Mohamed Bin Zayed International Robotics Challenge 2020 Successfully Concludes in Abu Dhabi appeared first on Khalifa University.

Elite Networking Event Gathers MBZIRC 2020 Teams and Industry Representatives to Discuss Role of Competitions in Advancing Future Innovations

The first-ever Mohamed Bin Zayed International Robotics Challenge (MBZIRC) Symposium got under way in Abu Dhabi today with more than 400 international robotics and artificial intelligence experts in attendance, discussing the role of competitions in advancing future innovations.

The two-day symposium (26-27 February) at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Center (ADNEC) offers the MBZIRC 2020 teams an opportunity to showcase their projects directly to industry representatives, in order to further increase interest and raise awareness, while facilitating opportunities for research collaborations.

A plenary discussion by the MBZIRC organizing committee, jury members and the international teams is scheduled to focus on current challenges in robotics development and recommendations for future robotics competitions. They also evaluated to what extent competitions such as MBZIRC 2020 help foster research and innovation robotics and artificial intelligence.

Dr. Oussama Khatib, Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Department of Computer Science, Stanford University, spoke about ‘Robotic Divers for Oceanic Discovery’, while Dr. Paolo Dario, Professor of Biomedical Robotics and Director of The BioRobotics Institute of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (SSSA), shared his perspectives on ‘Frontiers of Biorobotics and Bionics Science and Engineering’

Dr. Tamim Asfour, Institute for Anthropomatics and Robotics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany, focused on Engineering Humanoids with Motion Intelligence’, while Dr. Rainer Bischoff (Robotic Industry), Chair of the Department of Analytical Biochemistry, University of Groningen, offered his views on ‘From Challenges to Innovation in Robot-Based Automation’.

Dr. Jianwei Zhang, Professor and Head of Technical Aspects of Multimodal Systems (TAMS), Department of Informatics, University of Hamburg, spoke about ‘Cross-Modal Learning of Intelligent Robot Systems’. There were also special sessions on cooperative robotics and aerial robotics.

Leading robotics experts presenting at the symposium include Dr. Pedro Lima, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) – University of Lisbon; Dr. Marcello Ang, Associate Professor Department of Mechanical Engineering National University of Singapore; and Dr. Ronald Arkin (Robotic Colonies), Regents’ Professor, Director of Mobile Robot Laboratory, Georgia Tech.

Dr. Rachid Alami, Senior Scientist (Directeur de Recherche) at French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), will also speak at the symposium.

Participating teams and other robotics experts presented papers at the symposium that included an engaging, and informative lineup of invited talks, presentations, and workshops seeking to foster innovation and research excellence in robotics and artificial intelligence.

Clarence Michael
News Writer
26 February 2020

The post First-Ever MBZIRC Symposium Opens in Abu Dhabi with More Than 400 International Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Experts appeared first on Khalifa University.

Czech Technical University-University of Pennsylvania-NYU Team Wins MBZIRC 2020 Grand Challenge

H.E. Dr. Mugheer Khamis Al Khaili, Member of the Executive Council, and Chairman of Department of Community Development, today honored the Grand Challenge winners Czech Technical University-University of Pennsylvania-NYU team and winners of the three Challenge categories at the three-day US$5-million Mohamed Bin Zayed International Robotics Challenge (MBZIRC 2020) that concluded in Abu Dhabi, organizers Khalifa University of Science and Technology announced today.

The winning teams in all three categories – Challenge 1, 2, and 3 – also received awards from H.E. Dr. Mugheer Khamis Al Khaili at the ceremony that was attended by H.E. Eng. Awaidha Murshed Al Marar, Chairman of the Department of Energy, H.E. Mohammed Salem Al–Dhaheri, Director, National Rehabilitation Centre (NRC), H.E Mohammed Hamad Al Hameli, Undersecretary of the Abu Dhabi Department of Health, and His Excellency Hamad Salem Bin Kordous Al Ameri, Director General of the Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Charitable & Humanitarian Foundation.

Also present on the occasion were His Excellency Hussein Bin Ibrahim Al Hammadi, Steering Committee General Chair, MBZIRC 2020, Dr. Arif Sultan Al Hammadi, Steering Committee General Co-Chair, and His Excellency Dr. Mohammed Al Mualla, Steering Committee Member.

Others who attended the ceremony at Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Center (ADNEC) included high-ranking UAE government officials, Challenge partners, stakeholders from the academia, research, industry and government sectors, as well as all the MBZIRC 2020 participating team members.

The Czech Technical University-University of Pennsylvania-NYU team won the first position in the Grand Challenge. The University of Bonn team came second, while the combined team of Universidad Politecnica Madrid-Universidad Pablo Olvide Poznan University of Technology- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique won the third place.

The Beijing Institute of Technology topped Challenge 1 category with the Czech Technical University-University of Pennsylvania-NYU team and the University of Tokyo in the second and third places, respectively, while the Czech Technical University-University of Pennsylvania-NYU team won the Challenge 2 category with Nimbro (University of Bonn) and Technical University of Denmark in the second and third places. The Challenge 3 was won by University of Seville-Tecnico Lisboa-CATEC team, while the Technical University of Denmark and the University of New South Wales-Sydney tied for the second place.

The 32 participating teams, representing 19 countries, were shortlisted as finalists out of a total of 134 teams from across the globe that applied to compete in MBZIRC 2020.

Dr. Arif Sultan Al Hammadi said: “The second edition of MBZIRC has emphatically placed MBZIRC as one of the most prestigious competitions in robotics and artificial intelligence globally, while positioning Khalifa University as the leading higher education institution driving innovation in all areas of science, engineering, and newly-emerging technologies.”

Dr. Al Hammadi added: “Congratulations to all the winners of MBZIRC 2020, especially the Grand Challenge winner and winners of all three Challenge categories. However, all the participating teams deserve credit for their commitment, determination and perseverance during the competition, consistently raising the bar of excellence as displayed by various autonomous drones. Through this Challenge, we have witnessed how technology continues to evolve and we firmly believe the advancements demonstrated by these UAVs and UGVs will very soon become part of our everyday lives.”

A two-day MBZIRC Symposium begins tomorrow (26 February) at ADNEC and will feature leading experts in robotics and autonomous vehicles from 32 MBZIRC 2020 teams, other international robotics and artificial intelligence experts, as well as industry representatives, sharing their insights on the Challenge and other developments in the sector.

The MBZIRC teams will be given the opportunity to showcase their projects directly to industry representatives, in order to further increase interest and raise awareness, while facilitating opportunities for research collaborations.

Clarence Michael
News Writer
25 February 2020

The post US$5 Million MBZIRC 2020 Winners Awarded appeared first on Khalifa University.

Teams Representing Europe, North America, Asia, Australia and UAE to Compete in Four Iconic UAV and UGV-Related Challenges

Khalifa University of Science and Technology, organizers of the Mohamed Bin Zayed International Robotics Challenge (MBZIRC), has announced a total of 32 teams will be competing for honors at MBZIRC 2020, the second edition of the US$5-million biennial international robotics competition that will be held from 23-25 February in Abu Dhabi, in parallel with the Unmanned System Exhibition (UMEX) and Simulation & Training (SIMTEX) 2020.

Around 500 top robotics experts from 32 international teams from Europe, North America, Asia, Australia and the UAE are preparing for the final leg of MBZIRC 2020 in which they will compete in four iconic robotics challenges that will test advanced embodied AI technical skills. The competition, to be held at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Center (ADNEC), will include three challenges and a triathlon type Grand Challenge. MBZIRC 2020 will be co-located with the 4th edition of Unmanned System Exhibition (UMEX) and the Simulation and Training Exhibition and Conference (SimTEX) at ADNEC.

Dr Arif Sultan Al Hammadi, Executive Vice-President, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, said: “Building on the success of the inaugural edition of MBZIRC held in 2017, the second edition of MBZIRC, one of the leading global robotics competitions, will bring a total of 32 teams to the UAE to display their advanced innovations in some key robotics technologies. These finalists represent top internationally-renowned academic and research institutions with well-established robotics labs. With such top league participants, we firmly believe MBZIRC 2020 will showcase the creative best in robotics and stand testimony to its reputation as a leading global robotics competition.”

MBZIRC consists of three individual challenges and a grand challenge. Challenge 1 will focus on drone safety, testing whether a team of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can autonomously track, capture and neutralize intruder UAVs.

Focused on construction automation and robot-based 3D printing of large structures, Challenge 2 will test how a team of UAVs and an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) can collaborate to autonomously locate, pick, transport and assemble different types of brick-shaped objects to build pre-defined structures, in an outdoor environment.

Motivated by the use of robots for urban firefighting, Challenge 3 will assess how a team of UAVs and a UGV will collaborate to autonomously extinguish a series of simulated fires in an urban high rise building. The Grand Challenge requires a team of robots (UAVs and UGVs) to compete in a triathlon type event, combining Challenges 1, 2 and 3.

These challenges will require participating teams to display their skills and technical advances in fast autonomous navigation in semi-structured, complex, and dynamic environments, with reduced visibility (smoke or hazy conditions) and minimal prior knowledge. They will also be challenged in robust perception and tracking dynamic objects in 3D, sensing and avoiding obstacles, GPS-denied navigation in indoor-outdoor environments, physical interactions, complex mobile manipulations, and air-surface collaboration.

Clarence Michael
News Writer
21 January 2020

The post 32 Teams to Vie for Honors at US$5-Million Mohamed Bin Zayed International Robotics Challenge 2020 from 23-25 February at ADNEC appeared first on Khalifa University.

Khalifa University will host the Mohamed Bin Zayed International Robotics Challenge (MBZIRC), one of the world’s largest and most prestigious robotics competitions, set to begin February 2020. The MBZIRC is an international biennial competition that selects over 20 robotics teams from top universities around the world to compete in Abu Dhabi during a 3-day event, where they will compete for USD 5 Million worth of total prize and team sponsorship.

MBZIRC encourages innovation and demands technical expertise as teams align their project plan to stringent reporting protocols in advance of a bold and yet practical competition. Particularly relevant to metropolises like Abu Dhabi, the challenges presented aim to advance robotics to resolve the real problems faced in smart cities. The ambitious competition attracts the brightest and most competent teams from leading academic institutions across the globe in an effort to solve real problems and make a lasting impact on people’s lives. Among the teams competing are two top 20 universities globally, with 21 countries taking part. Khalifa University is sponsoring 21 teams for a total amount of USD 3.5 million, and offering a prize fund for each challenge of AED 1,000,000.

Teams selected for the competition are tested in three major areas of relevance with practical impact in the future of smart cities, helping authorities around the world to further develop and capitalize upon the opportunities that unmanned vehicles present while mitigating the risks they create.

Challenge 1:

Drones flying too close to airports and military installations pose a risk to safety and security, a scenario that authorities have to contend with as technology evolves rapidly. In the first round of challenges, team unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) will track and intercept targets autonomously, simulating innovative ways to track and detain rogue drones in sensitive areas.

Challenge 2:

In rescue situations, autonomous vehicles must be able to manipulate objects in order to remove debris or assemble components into useful tools. The second round of challenges requires the teams’ unmanned aerial and ground vehicles to coordinate as they locate, collect, transport, and assemble different pieces into a pre-defined shape in an environment that simulates a real world disaster.

Challenge 3:

High-rise fires are a disturbing and prevalent prospect that authorities must contend with in modern cities. In the third challenge, the competing team drones will fight simulated fires without human input. The unmanned vehicles, aerial and ground based, will have to collaborate to identify threats and eliminate them.

Grand Challenge:

The Grand Challenge is poised to test the teams’ dedication and ingenuity as the unmanned vehicles are put through the ringer while they compete in a triathlon that encompasses all of the challenges into one encompassing course. In successfully completing the challenges, the teams will have showcased their expertise in programming, machine learning, robotics, and overall engineering. The winners of the Grand Challenge will walk away with AED 2,000,000.

While solving real world problems, the competition encourages innovation in robotics, AI, and materials printing; all major components that must be addressed before drones can become more than recreational toys and actualized as potent tools to improve safety and security. Robotics has the potential to have an impact that is as transformative as the internet, and robotic competitions are the ultimate catalyst to accelerate its development. Pushing the boundaries in robotics, the MBZIRC 2020 competition is poised to be a thrilling and inspiring event for Abu Dhabi.

Jade Sterling
News and Features Writer
27 June 2019

The post MBZIRC: The World’s Preeminent Robotics Competition appeared first on Khalifa University.

The first progress reports from teams competing in the Mohamed Bin Zayed International Robotics Competition promise an exciting tournament in 2020

For autonomous drones to be useful in tasks such as disaster zones or as first responders, they will need to be able to fly fast, far and without human oversight, often in environments where they can’t rely on external guidance systems like GPS. It’s this autonomy that’s the biggest challenge facing the teams competing in the 2020 Mohamed Bin Zayed International Robotics Competition (MBIZRC), as their drones take on three intense challenges and a final grand challenge combining all three in a triathlon.

MBZIRC 2020 will be based on autonomous aerial and ground robots, carrying out navigation and manipulation tasks, in unstructured, outdoor and indoor environments. The challenges are motivated by pushing technological and application boundaries in robotics.

To follow the teams as they develop their entries, progress reports are submitted to the MBZIRC organizers, with the first reports showing great promise for the 2020 competition. Teams from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich) and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) are among many elite teams working hard in preparation for the challenges ahead.

How are teams preparing?

“After our successes at the inaugural 2017 MBZIRC, our team is leveraging our experience and in-house research results to revamp our team hardware, software and general approaches to achieve the best results,” said the KAIST team. “We are also leveraging our experiences in IROS Autonomous Drone Racing, where we have built a new drone that can detect the gates using machine learning and fly through them as fast as possible.”

Machine learning allows AI to train much faster than a traditional pilot. They say 10,000 hours of practice makes you an expert: a human would need five years of five eight-hour days a week. An autonomous drone can also fly more precisely by making subtle alterations to its flight path and use information from sensors that humans don’t have to work out its best route.

“We divide each challenge into a series of sub-problems,” explained the ETH Zurich team. “On the one hand, this allows us to delegate standalone projects to students, and on the other hand, we can profit from existing solutions for those sub-problems which we had tackled previously at our labs. Also, we can track which parts of the challenges we solved and which parts still need more work.”

This is where humans excel over drones—for now. Merging these sub-problems into one challenge is a human ability as people can sense the world, make decisions, and act on them in real-time, compared to autonomous drones which struggle to think this quickly.

“Our approach to the three challenges, as well as the grand challenge, focuses on robustness at all levels of the task executions,” said the team from the Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute. “Communication between the drones will be limited to high-level task information, such as task allocations, which block to place next, and how to divide the arena for exploration. The drones will also use sensory feedback to quickly detect when the contact state changes or when errors occur to react and recover accordingly.”

The next steps on the road to MBZIRC 2020

The first progress reports indicate that all teams are progressing well and are looking forward to exhibiting their achievements at the competition in 2020. Many of the teams explained that their next steps involve rigorous testing beyond simulations. The real world, where these autonomous drones will be expected to compete, can be an immensely noisy place, and many autonomous robots that excel in the lab struggle to translate that ability to a chaotic environment.

“Our students have already conducted significant work on each challenge. We have already developed and implemented a large number of algorithms and have tested the different components of each challenge in simulations and real-world experiments,” said the ETH Zurich team. “Now, we aim to improve each of them step by step and integrate them into a stable and robust system.”

“Our next steps will focus on the interaction controllers for performing the challenges,” said the CMU team. “At each stage, we will further optimize and edit the individual modules for speed and robustness to ultimately win the challenges.”

“We’re looking forward to this competition very much,” said Team KAIST. “We ranked fourth or fifth last time due to minor issues, and this time we hope to do better than last time. In the last competition, we found there are so many great teams all over the world that far exceeded our expectations. Therefore, this time, we are trying very hard to come up with a system that can not only fulfil the requirements, but fulfil it faster and better to get more points.”

Meanwhile, the competition organizers are following the teams’ progress with great anticipation.

“The Mohammed Bin Zayed International Robotics Competition is one of the most prestigious robotics competitions, reflected by its popularity and the number of teams participating,” said Dr. Lakmal Seneviratne, Technical Chair of the Organizing Committee and Director of the KU Center for Autonomous Robotic Systems (KUCARS). “These challenges are pushing the boundaries of autonomy in targeted applications with high societal impact and economic potential.”

Jade Sterling
News and Features Writer
25 August 2019

The post Following Progress Towards MBZIRC 2020 appeared first on Khalifa University.

Drones are big business. Countries around the world are pouring investment into this relatively nascent technology, hoping for revolutionary change across industries, particularly in construction.

While dozens of industries use drones, the fastest growing commercial adopters come from the construction industry. This is a major economic sector, plagued with inefficiencies and low productivity; robotics and automated systems have the potential to address these shortcomings. Drone use on the job site has skyrocketed, surging 239 percent, but usage stems mainly from project managers and superintendents bringing drones on board to help track projects and collect real-time data about progress.

There’s more potential here. Drones do more than help keep projects on track. They can also increase safety, save time and resources, fast-track surveying, and deliver accurate measurements. What if they could do the actual constructing too?

The construction industry is evolving rapidly, and with all the innovations and changes to traditional building comes the need for greater efficiency; drones could be the solution if they could work autonomously.

The second challenge of the Mohamed Bin Zayed International Robotics Challenge (MBZIRC) in 2020 will see a team of autonomous aerial and ground robots collaborate to locate, choose, transport, and assemble different objects to build pre-defined structures in an outdoor environment. This challenge is motivated by construction automation and autonomous robot-based 3D printing of large structures.

Robots have already found a spot in manufacturing, dealing with automated and cyclic tasks, and even 3D printed buildings are not new to Dubai. In 2016, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, opened a futuristic office with 3D printed elements. In 2019, the world’s largest 3D-printed two-story building opened in Dubai’s Warsan neighbourhood, its walls having been constructed in place using a massive 3D printer.

But success at this challenge requires more than programming the drone team with a building plan and letting them loose on a site. The teams, comprising unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and a single unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) must locate the brick-shaped objects, determine the type they need from the selection, transport their chosen object to the job site, and then assemble the objects into a pre-defined patterned structure.

“We divide each challenge into a series of sub-problems,” explained the ETH Zurich team. “Challenge 2 presents four sub-problems: path planning and exploration; brick detection; building task coordination; and brick manipulation.”

The path planning and exploration elements should come fairly naturally to the drones employed in this challenge. Since drones are generally small with high levels of maneuverability, they are being used more and more as an alternative to traditional vehicles. Using drones to transport goods aerially saves money and time, especially since drones do not have to adhere to traffic laws, which allows them to make deliveries in a fraction of the time, using a fraction of the resources. The tricky part comes in programming autonomy.

“Challenge 2 is a good showcase for cooperative robotics for construction,” said the KAIST team.

The drones must find their own way around the arena and identify the required building components one by one. The team drones require breakthroughs in mobile manipulation, perception, mobility over rough terrain, navigation control, multi-robot collaboration and—in the future—human-robot interaction.

A large ask, but as the 25 teams selected for MBZIRC 2020 Challenge 2 hail from some of the world’s top robotics labs, expectations are high for success.

The results of this challenge will go a long way in revolutionizing the construction industry. As construction companies look to robots as having the potential to achieve improvements in construction quality, efficiency, and safety, autonomous building robots could be sent further afield, with space research agencies seeking to build infrastructure without human intervention.

Jade Sterling
News and Features Writer
18 November 2019

The post Constructing the Future at the Mohamed Bin Zayed International Robotics Challenge 2020 appeared first on Khalifa University.

Although the most sophisticated military and commercial drones cost millions of dollars, small drones for hobbyists are now very inexpensive and widely available. Most people purchasing a drone have no nefarious masterplan in mind: they’re enchanted by the use of a drone for a unique photographic perspective, smooth video footage, or even racing. Essentially, they’re a fun toy in many cases.

Beyond entertainment purposes, however, this technology has a big future. While the market for consumer drones may still be in its infancy (despite a lowered price point), drones can be used by farmers to save time scouting their crops to maximize their yield; for unmanned delivery; to enhance sports TV coverage; and aid in military surveillance and civil security.

But as useful and entertaining as drones may be, these flying gadgets can also be put to less friendly purposes. After all, the machine abides by the will of the person controlling it. Hence, drones are being used to smuggle contraband into prisons, evaluate security measures and operations of potential targets for robbery or terrorism, and just cause disruptions in busy places.

Gatwick Airport near London, England, hit the headlines in December 2018, when hundreds of flights were cancelled following reports of drone sightings close to the runway. The reports caused major disruption, affecting approximately 140,000 passengers and 1,000 flights during the Christmas period. During the incident, the Ministry of Defense deployed the Royal Air Force (RAF) Regiment to counter the drone as it disturbed the airspace around the airport for almost 36 hours, disappearing and reappearing to prevent any airplanes from landing or taking off right in the heart of a busy travel period.

Although it is illegal to fly a drone within one kilometer of an airport in the United Kingdom, it’s hardly difficult for a drone pilot to flout those rules — a one kilometer search radius affords plenty of opportunity to evade detection — evidenced by the frequency of drone infringements on airspace.

For this reason, there have been several near misses with drones coming within a few feet of commercial aircraft — the British Airline Pilots Association reported there were over 100 near misses in 2018 in the UK alone. After the incidents at Gatwick Airport in December 2018, the industry isn’t taking any chances. While this wasn’t the first time an airport has been closed due to illegal drone activity, it may well be the most infamous and most expensive with airlines losing revenue of USD64.5 million and incurring the costs of providing passenger accommodations due to missed and delayed flights.

The United Kingdom isn’t the only country suffering drone misuse—Dubai airport was among the first in the world to experience drone activity closing runways when in 2015, the flights were halted for 55 minutes. In 2016, three more incidents occurred and then February 2019 saw a further 30-minute closure as another drone strayed into the airport’s airspace. According to the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority, the cost of closing an airport can be AED3.6 million—per minute. Strict drone licensing, registration, training and stiff penalties have been introduced, with airport authorities in the UK approaching Dubai for advice on how to deal with drone incursions in the future.

Gatwick airport faced heavy criticism for its failure to capture or disable the drone and the RAF suffered similar backlash for its use of an alternative system to the Drone Dome, a counter unmanned air system (C-UAS) used by the British and US special forces in counter terrorism missions. Companies and militaries are investigating technologies that can apprehend drones or render them incapable of causing damage, but the fact remains, there is no completely reliable method of taking down an intruder drone.

The first challenge of the Mohamed Bin Zayed International Robotics Challenge (MBZIRC) in 2020 deals precisely with this issue as a team of UAVs must autonomously track and interact with intruder UAVs, to ultimately capture and neutralize the intruders.

All the MBZIRC 2020 challenges were developed to push the technological and application boundaries in robotics, focusing on fast, autonomous navigation in complex environments to complete a task. Challenge 1 puts this speed and autonomy to the test, with the UAVs needing to use robust perception to track dynamic objects and then capture the intruders.

While traditional piloted UAVs would face enough challenge in this arena, the most important part of MBZIRC is the autonomous completion of tasks. The team of UAVs must avoid accidental collisions, remain in the challenge arena and maintain contact between themselves, while identifying, tracking, and devising a plan to apprehend the intruder drone. They will need target detection algorithms for both long-range and short-range identification, depth sensing systems and tracking technology, along with a gripper to grab the intruder when they get close enough.

A large ask, but as the 25 teams selected for MBZIRC 2020 Challenge 1 hail from some of the world’s top robotics labs, expectations are high for success.

The results of this challenge will go a long way in developing systems that can be utilized by airports around the world to intercept intruder drones and avoid a repeat of the incident at Gatwick Airport.

Jade Sterling
News and Feature Writer
16 September 2019

The post MBZIRC Challenge 1: Capture Intruder Drones appeared first on Khalifa University.