L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2022 www.italoamericano.org 22 L'Italo-Americano T h e I t a l i a n I n s t i t u t e o f Technology of Genoa was the o n l y I t a l i a n institution to participate in t h e g l o b a l r o b o t i c a v a t a r challenge Ana Avatar X- P r i z e , h e l d N o v . 4 - 5 i n Long Beach, California. At the Convention Center 17 teams, from 10 countries around the world and select- ed out of 99 teams, compet- ed for a cash prize pool of $8 million, provided by ANA (All Nippon Airways). The t e a m s f r o m I t a l y , w h i c h showed up with two robots, AlterEgo and iCub3, faced other teams from the US, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Singapore, and the rest of Europe (Germany, France, and Holland). The competition among teleoperated robots required them to perform daily life tasks communicated by the o r g a n i z e r s t o t h e f i n a l i s t teams only a few days before. F o r e a c h r o b o t , a p e r s o n from outside the team and unrelated to that technology h a d t o t e l e o p e r a t e t h e h u m a n o i d r e m o t e l y a n d complete the task within a maximum time of 25 min- utes, on a circuit about 45 meters long, that visually mimics the characteristics of Mars. During the competition, we of L'Italo-Americano m e t D a n i e l e P u c c i , I I T researcher and leader of the iCub3 team, and Manuel Catalano, Soft Robotics for H u m a n C o o p e r a t i o n a n d R e h a b i l i t a t i o n a t I I T Genoa. M a n u e l , y o u a r e returning to California after your 2016 experi- e n c e w i t h D A R P A i n Pomona. What is the dif- ference between these two competitions? The one in Pomona was a challenge in a post-apoca- lypse scenario. Here, the big difference is that the opera- tor will not physically see the robot, but will have to guide it and move through space relying only on the VR visor it will be wearing. In the first phase, the robot will have to orient itself, walk and stand without support, find a lever, apply the necessary force to operate it, and open a door; in the second phase, it will be necessary to use objects and tools, with the operator through the robot having to recognize their mass and size, even sorting them by weight; in the final phase, a drill will have to be used to d r i l l h o l e s a n d r e c o g n i z e some objects, different in shape, color, and material, without being able to look at them but only using touch. What kind of robot is AlterEgo? A l t e r E g o i s a s e m i - a n t h r o p o m o r p h i c r o b o t equipped with a humanoid upper body and a mobile p l a t f o r m o n t w o w h e e l s . Using visors and joysticks, the operator can see through the robot's eyes and use its body. Compared with iCub3, which mimics the human hand, AlterEgo, while hav- i n g t h e s a m e n u m b e r o f phalanges, is more simpli- f i e d . i C u b l o o k s t o t h e future, it is a kind of mobile laboratory, while AlterEgo is designed and made to be accessible in the short term and therefore more ready to operate in the world. D a n i e l e , w h a t f e a - t u r e s a r e e s s e n t i a l i n t h i s c o m p e t i t i o n a n d what is the biggest chal- lenge? The winning team will be the one that can best inte- grate various emerging tech- nologies to develop a physi- cal avatar robotic system. With it, the operator can see, hear and interact with the environment remotely, hav- ing the feeling of actually being there to complete a task in the shortest time. One of the challenges is that we will not be the ones to t e l e g u i d e t h e r o b o t , b u t t h e r e w i l l b e j u d g e s . T h e judges will then wear our t e c h n o l o g y - o u r s m a r t c l o t h e s , c a l l e d i F e e l , a n d c o m m e r c i a l v i s o r s - a n d command the robot remote- ly, without our intervention. The word sounds very futuristic, but what is t h e e x a c t m e a n i n g o f "avatar" ? Avatar means a tool that allows us to create a surro- gate. An avatar can be either digital or physical. When we talk about digital avatars, we are talking about virtual rep- resentations. On the other hand, when we talk about p h y s i c a l a v a t a r s , w e a r e talking about a tool that can operate in the real environ- ment and tries to emulate the movement and percep- tions of an operator who is remotely tracking it. The robot is able to reproduce t h e c o m m a n d s t h a t t h e operator gives it remotely through the system called tele-existence, which uses c o m m o n o p t i c a l f i b e r . Through these commands, the robot then has the abili- ty to move in space, manip- ulate objects, perceive stim- uli, and interact verbally and physically with people and the environment. On a practical level, then, what kind of inter- action is there? We can imagine that an operator moves an arm and its physical avatar, which w i l l b e i n a n o t h e r p l a c e , similarly moves an arm. In the same way, if the robot p e r c e i v e s s o m e t h i n g (through sight, hearing, or touch), those perceptions m u s t b e r e p o r t e d t o t h e o p e r a t o r . T h e r e f o r e , t h e r o b o t i n q u e s t i o n i s equipped with legs, making i t m o r e a g i l e t h a n o t h e r wheeled robots; it has sen- s o r i z e d h a n d s c a p a b l e o f grasping objects, and also sensorized skin covering its arms. It is capable of trans- f e r r i n g s e n s a t i o n s t o t h e human operator. In addi- tion, iCub3's face has mov- ing cameras instead of eyes to look around, microphones i n i t s e a r s , a n d s p e a k e r s behind its mouth to receive and transmit voice signals. In a commercial con- text, what are the uses of this type of humanoid? There are two new robots that will take advantage of t h e k n o w l e d g e g a i n e d through iCub3. The first is called ergoCub, where "ergo" stands for ergonomics: the goal is to make a collabora- tive robot for hospital and industrial environments. It will be a robot that can lift large weights and allow us to offload our biomechanical risk. The other robot will be a more dynamic and robust evolution of the iCub3. SILVIA GIUDICI The iCub3 robot (Photo courtesy of Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia) Two Italian robots in the World Avatar Challenge LIFE PEOPLE PLACES HERITAGE TRADITIONS

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