Professor Alonzo Kelly of Carnegie Mellon University: The Road to Commercialization of Robotics | CCF-GAIR
Editor's note: On August 12th and 13th, 2016, Lei Feng Network held an unprecedented "Global Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Summit (CCF-GAIR)" in Shenzhen, which was researched by the National Engineering Research Center (NREC) of Carnegie Mellon University. Professor Alonzo Kelly, the director, summarized the 20-year research and development of robots and analyzed the road to the commercialization of robots. Lei Feng Network (search "Lei Feng Net" public concern) will elaborately edit the content of the speech and video, and will be released gradually in the near future. Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a world-renowned private top research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It has the world's leading robotics technology. The software that guides NASA's Mars rover and Cadillac's anti-collision system were all started at Carnegie Mellon University. The Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University was established in 1979 to conduct basic and applied research in robotics-related industries. Alonzo Kelly, a member of the Robotics Institute, introduced the development of robotics in the United States. At the beginning we wanted to be our own mobile robot and it was challenging in the last century, so we cooperated with the agricultural company. The company's cooperation in agriculture took about 10 years, and 10 years later it took 20 years to develop the product. We all know that in fact, universities do not directly produce robots, but robots also occupy a very important position in the market. Therefore, we must carry out commercialized transformations to help companies better produce robots in order to facilitate better use. . A typical workflow for Carnegie Mellon University Robotics: At the beginning, the robotics college and research institute were responsible for the development work. They needed to master the knowledge, master the innovations, and educate and publish related papers. There were a series of concepts among them. In the EC stage, product testing will be performed on the development, integration, and reliability of the product. The Robotics Academy will focus on its production and after-sales services, and will need to consider the source of funding. Kelly said that during the project, they discovered that there are many patent applications to consider when creating an overall packaged solution. Therefore, they consulted some companies to provide them with professional consulting services, so that they realize that the product should be applied for protection of its patents and intellectual property at the research stage before it is listed or commercialized. Carnegie Mellon University is located in the area of ​​Facebook and Apple's industrial chain, but it is uniquely talented but the brain drain is very severe. Kelly said that it is not easy to recruit engineers in the field of robotics. It is not easy for students graduating from college to want them to stay. He found that the huge challenges that many companies face are from employees. Everyone needs a very sophisticated pool of talent. Many of the businesses around Pittsburgh rely on cooperation with universities. In the past 10 years, many companies that Carnegie Mellon has worked with have become big companies or have been acquired by big companies. Before that, what Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Research Institute developed was not what companies needed for them. Companies did not have the ability to research and develop robots. Including other universities, it is difficult to apply their R&D results. Do not know what companies need, so the commercialization of robot R & D results can not be transformed. In 1995, Carnegie Mellon University set up a National Engineering Research Center to better connect robotics products. Now there are about 115 people in the team, and each year spent about 300 million US dollars on research and development. Sixty-seven percent of the team are students at Carnegie Mellon University, 14% are scientists, and the remaining 12% are managers. Most managers are experts in robotics, and they operate commercialized together with engineers and students in universities. Kelly explained that there are many kinds of cooperation relationships between customers. Some users need technical authorization. Some want not only technology, but also want to put into production. Some need us to be an incubator to help companies introduce third-party resources and provide them with Equipment or investor. But if you want to keep all your supply chains in your own hands, you must have two steps, production and R&D. The National Engineering Research Center must first examine feasibility and the second must look at sustainability. At the same time, their innovation is also related to a lot of intellectual property protection. Over the past decade or so, NREC has produced more than 600 invention patents. They can also help companies apply for invention patents . At present, NREC's invention patents include planning, navigation, and drawing. Today, most of the software work is done automatically by the machine. If you want to build a fully automated system, you need 1.35 million codes. This includes simulation, control, planning, cruising, and other parts. The cost of each coding is 650 US dollars, so the final cost of NREC is 1.35 million US dollars. In fact, building an automated system requires high costs, so NREC will also cooperate with several companies, and companies are willing to cooperate with universities. On the one hand, it can reduce costs, and on the other hand it can also reduce the government’s waste of funds. More than 30% of NREC's projects are supported by the government, so they will authorize and help companies to apply for government funding. It is sometimes difficult for universities and companies to make business contracts. The university has its own management system, but companies want to make high profits; universities want to keep their R&D secrets, and companies need to master these R&D mechanisms. NREC needs to subdivide all the systems to help universities and companies sign agreements to determine exactly which part of the intellectual property they need. Kelly talked about licensing issues. Under normal circumstances, in the United States, we directly conduct research and development ourselves, so if universities cooperate with companies, we will authorize them. For companies, they do not need to buy patents directly, so the cost is lower and the profits may be higher. University profits mainly consist of licensing fees and copyright fees. Of course, everyone now has various guesses and predictions about robots. Some people think that robots should be cheaper, and some people think that robots should run faster. To give an example, the left side is mainly supported by the government. We spent 40 million US dollars and built such a robot out of thin air for 7 years. The middle project was done from 2008 to 2015 and it took five years. The project on the right only spent 2 million US dollars, and it will be ready in 1 year. Therefore, it is cheaper to cooperate with companies in the production of industrial robots. This NREC model allows users to better operate the robot, and companies can better position the organization department when doing robot-related projects. For example, the center that is set up as a device is often more sensitive to cost; if you are a software provider, you must think of more data analysis and processing. It is not easy to handle the current relationship between universities and enterprises. Kelly believes that strengthening the cooperation between school and enterprise research is very good, the cost is controllable, and it is worthy of cooperation from the perspective of knowledge system and project development. This may not be the same as other people's perspective. Our NREC is to apply the research results of the robot to business. Film Cutting Machine,Skycut Mobile Screen Protector Film Cutter,Full Transparent Screen Protector,Tpu Screen Protector Cuttable Shenzhen TUOLI Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. , https://www.hydrogelprotectors.com
Problems in Robotics Institute
Engineering Research Center established to connect companies and universities