ROBOTICS

Bots: Brains vs. Brawn

For humans, overthinking is merely an inconvenience. For robots, it can put their sentient coworkers in harm's way. 

New research from MIT and Harvard aims to help robots streamline those pesky thoughts via custom computer chips. It’s called “robomorphic computing.” 

The problem

Think of robots as ninjas with a lag: Though their hardware allows them to move swiftly, complex scenarios—especially ones involving human-robot interaction—slow them down. 

Why the delay? A robot’s operational process typically involves three steps, per MIT News: gathering data about its environment, mapping that environment (and where it fits into it), and planning its actions accordingly.

• Since operating alongside humans is especially high-stakes, it requires extra computing power and time for a robot to work through those steps. 

Potential fix

The solution could be replacing off-the-shelf CPUs—the main ingredient of a robot’s “brain”—with custom-built, hyper-specialized chips. 

• This type of chip is a cousin of the graphics processing unit (GPU). It has a certain purpose and excels by focusing on that. 

How it works: The researchers’ system, designed by MIT grad Dr. Sabrina Neuman, can create a personalized hardware design for any robot. Armed with different inputs—for instance, limb layout and joint shape—the system uses mathematical matrices to determine what’s physically possible for the robot. 

• The goal: Ensure a bot saves its computing power for useful calculations rather than wasting energy considering impossible moves. 

Outside the lab

The chip that Neuman’s team programmed performed 8 times faster than an off-the-shelf CPU and 86 times faster than a GPU. While the research is still far from commercialization, Neuman told us it could have a number of industry applications in the future, including...

Retail and manufacturing: Faster processing could mean safer interactions with customers. It’s especially key in factories, where slow robot reaction time could easily lead to human injury. 

Medical and caregiving: Bots with a better understanding of their environment could help nurses lift patients from beds and wheelchairs more gently and safely. 

• For homebound individuals and elder care, this could also help robots navigate more complex scenarios (stairs, uneven backyard terrain, clutter on the floor).

Looking ahead: Neuman will present the research at an international conference in April, and upgraded bot brains across industries could be on the horizon. “It's very reasonable to expect this technology to roll out in the next 10 years, if not sooner,” she told us. 

AV

This One Caught Us by Surprise

One of President Trump’s final pardons this week: Anthony Levandowski, former Uber self-driving lead and prolific engineer who had been sentenced to 18 months in prison for stealing trade secrets from Google. 

The backstory

Levandowski has created a driverless motorcycle and participated in the DARPA Grand Challenge. He joined Google in 2007. He left what would become Waymo to form Otto, an autonomous trucking company, which Uber acqui-hired in 2016. 

• Levandowski was the central figure in Waymo v. Uber, a lawsuit focused on stolen self-driving trade secrets that the two parties quickly settled. Federal prosecutors also hit him with 33 counts of trade secret theft. He pled guilty to one count. 
• The judge on Levandowski’s case referred to it as “the biggest trade secret crime I have ever seen.” The judge also recommended prison time, saying a home confinement sentence would be “a green light to every future brilliant engineer to steal trade secrets.” 

So, what’s next? Lewandowski owes $179 million to Alphabet as part of his private arbitration with the company. Our guess is that, based on prominent tech figures who lobbied for his clemency, he could be taking his talents to the defense sector.

SPONSORED BY MONOGRAM

You Know the Drill

And yes, it does have to do with the giant robotic orthopedic drill in the above GIF. But it’s got more to do with investing in technology that is disrupting the joint replacement market. 

It’s called Monogram. It’s the orthopedic medicine making the very personal things (like your knees) even more personal (by scrapping one-size fits all medicine). 

And personally, we think it’s an investment you should look into. 

Why? Because by 2027, approximately 50% of all knee procedures will be robotic—compared to only 11% in 2019. 

So get ahead of this innovation and invest in the bees knees of orthopedic knees.

Learn more and invest in Monogram today. 

AR/VR

Apple Glass

Thanks to Bloomberg, Apple’s worst-kept secrets are its forays into face computers and electric automobiles. The business publication has the scoop on how mixed-reality R&D is coming along in Cupertino. 

• Technology: N301, Apple’s VR prototype, is a self-contained headset with a high-res display and superfast processor. 
• Strategy: Slated for a 2022 drop, the N301 will be quite niche and pricey. It won’t be a mass-market play, but an iterative step toward lightweight, full-feature AR specs (that project is codenamed N421). 
• Certainty: N301 seeing the light of day isn’t 100%. Apple may avoid commercializing VR and hold out for the N421, which could be revealed to the world as early as 2023. 

Checking in on Apple’s cross-valley rival 

While Apple reportedly has 1,000 engineers working on the N301 and N421, Facebook is building a new campus for its AR/VR teams with room for ~4,000 employees. 

FB has a vested interest and leadership position in mixed reality. Mark Zuckerberg has predicted breakthrough AR glasses could replace the phone and become the dominant tech platform later in the 2020s. 

BITS & BYTES

Stat: Microsoft purchased 900 acres of land in Mecklenburg County, VA, for moar data center.

Quote: "We are prepared to leverage our operations, information technology, and communications capabilities and expertise to assist your administration's vaccine efforts.”—Dave Clark, Amazon’s consumer head, in a letter to President Biden.

See: The new White House website runs on WordPress and has a dark mode option. It also has an Easter egg buried in the HTML code: "If you're reading this, we need your help building back better,” with a link to apply to the U.S. Digital Service. 

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WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• A first: American Robotics received FAA approval to fly automated drones without human operators on site.
• BlackRock may soon offer investments in bitcoin futures, according to regulatory filings. 
• LG is said to be mulling a sale of its mobile unit. 
• Honda and GM will collaborate on a self-driving service in Japan. 
• Google is under fire for locking another top AI ethicist out of her email account. 
• Elon tweeted that he will launch a carbon capture competition with $100 million in prize money.
• EVgo, a fast charging company, will SPAC. 

GOING PHISHING

Three of the following news stories are true, and one...we made up. Can you spot the odd one out?

1. Epic Games has hired its first lobbyists in DC. 
2. This head of state is the first to request that their salary be paid in bitcoin.  
3. The new NASA head says he’s running the space agency from his basement.
4. The Raspberry Pi Foundation launched a new microcontroller that costs…$4.

HUMANS AND MACHINES

If you didn’t see the Boston Dynamics video from the holidays, here it is. Also check out yesterday’s AP article about the (very extensive) behind-the-scenes legwork that went into making the video. 

ICYMI

Catch up on the top Emerging Tech Brew stories from the past few editions: 

• Industry updates: Cruise and Rivian 
• Q&A: Inside Waymo’s 2021 game plan 
• Intel’s roadmap to reinvention 

GOING PHISHING ANSWER

To our knowledge, no head of state has been asked to be paid in bitcoin.