HKSTP APAC Innovation Summit 2015 - Robotic

The flagship innovation conference of Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTPC) named “APAC Innovation Summit 2015 – Robotics” was held from 24th -25th June 2015. Before the summit, I took a photo with my colleague Mr. Nathan Liu in front of the banner.

In the beginning, our chairman Mrs Fanny Law gave welcome speech to all participants. She said the mission of HKSTP was connecting different stakeholder and robotic would be one of new industries to be focused. Hong Kong is a good living laboratory to develop and test of different systematic technologies.

Mr. Johann Wong (Deputy Commissioner, Innovation and Technology Commission, HKSAR) gave an opening remark. He hoped Hong Kong was able to contribute in “Made in China 2025” and joining Robotic community included Health Care, Entertainment and Logistic Industry.

Then group photo with guest was taken.

The first speaker was Mr. Nury Vittachi (Journalist) and his topic named “Introduction”. Mr. Nury Vittachi introduced the story of robot and claimed that more than 50% of movies described robots in negative way. However, it could help many human being in future.

The second speaker was Prof. Homayoon Kazerooni (University of California at Berkeley) and he presented a topic entitled “Phoenix”. Phoenix is the latest exoskeleton from Kaz Lab for personal and home use. Firstly, Prof. Kazerooni briefed different robot related movies such as Alien, The Edge of Tomorrow, Ironman, District 9, etc.

Then Prof. Kazerooni analyzed that Back and Knee injuries were ranked as the number 1 and 2 workplace injuries from US Department of Labor. He use the diagram to classify the difficult of job performed by Disabled, Elderly, Practitioner, Workers and Soldiers.

Finally, Prof. Kazerooni introduced different Excoskeleton tools included “Trunk Support Excoskeleton”, “Leg Support Excoskeleton” and “Complete Exoskeleton”.

The third speaker was Prof. Robert Riener (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich) and his presentation was “Cybathlon: Benchmarking assistive robotic devices”. The Cybathlon is an international championship for racing pilots with disabilities (i.e., parathletes) who are using advanced robotic technologies that provide assistance for daily life activities. Firstly, Prof. Riener demonstrated the use of C-Leg Otto Bock.

Then Prof. Riener introduced “Powered Exoskeleton Race” included Powered Arm Prosthesis Race and Brain-Computer-Interface Race.

Prof. Gordon Cheng (Technische Universität München) was fifth speaker and his topic named “From neuroscience to robotic innovations”. His talk was highlight key robotic systems that had been taken from neuroscience. He said there were three areas of challenges such as Society, Science (Advancing our understanding of human sciences) and Engineering (Improving and bettering technological developments).

Then Prof. Cheng demonstrated his researches in the Institute for Cognitive Systems (ICS) included “Humanoid Balancing, Posture and Locomotion Control” (Diagram below), “Tasks and Skills Transfer”, “Tools for the body”, “Ball Swapping Task”, etc.

The Biological Motivation for an Artificial Skin was introduced. The following diagram used to compare biological skin cell and artificial skin cell. Each artificial skin cell contained different sensors.

Prof. Dario Floreano (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) was sixth speaker and his presentation entitled “Bio-inspired autonomous drones: From research to business”. His research was to simulate flying insect vision such as compound eyes.

Then Prof. Floreano demonstrated the 10-gram indoor microflyer which could perform obstacle avoidance and altitude control.

Prof. Floreano also explained the curved artificial compound eye. Moreover, another research was to develop adaptive morphology flyer like bird’s arm.

The last speaker in the morning session was Mr. Marc Papageorge (Spec Sensors) and his presentation was “Measurement of outdoor air quality using drones”. Firstly, Mr. Papageorge briefed “What gas sensors can do” including Health, Consumer, Safety, Security, Medical, Environmental, Commercial, Industrial and Automotive.

He said air quality for health, Safety and Security needed precise measurement which required by US EPA such as CO, NO2, SO2 and Ozone, etc. For consumer & medical devices, the breath analysis should include Alcohol (EtOH), Asthma (NO), Bad Breath (VSC’s/Sulphur) and Metabolic Rate (Ketones), etc. The six criteria pollutants for gases and particle size were showed in following diagram.

Finally, Mr. Papageorge used video to demonstrate how drone carried the sensor for monitoring CO.

After lunch, the discussion panel theme named “Hong Kong and the Fourth Industrial Revolution”. Prof. Norman Tien (HKU) was the moderator (Right). The panel members were Prof. Ning Xi (Michigan State University), Mr. Cristian Fanucci (Comau Robotics) and Mr. Kay Matzner (Fraunhofer Gesellschaft (IFF)) (Start from Left).

Mr. Kay Matzner said Industry 4.0 was Internet of Manufacturing included Big Data, Robot and IoT in Germany. He also said the key problem in China was data security loss. However, Hong Kong had advantage on data security. Nevertheless, Robotic could support high salary such as Hong Kong and Germany.
Prof. Ning Xi said Robot Connectivity would be the future. Big data analysis added into the physical world needed tools which were robotic. Moreover, robotic was very hot topic in China. He added one of advantages in Hong Kong was multi-culture.

 

Then Prof. Ning Xi (Michigan State University) presented his topic named “Ultra robots: Applications and challenges”.

He analyzed the robotics development in 3 dimension and the challenges were from Ultra Robots and Automation. Some research reviews were discussed such as “Super Media Enabled Internet-based Telerobotic Operations”, “Internet Based Tele-Diagnostics”, “Car Seat Tele Inspection System”, “Natural Language Control of Robotic Systems”, “Bio-inspired Design for Mobile Sensor Network”, and “Nano Manufacturing”.

Some demonstration booths were located outside. CityU’s one was collaborated with Prof. Ning Xi for developing Nanorobotic platform for fabrication of nanodevices.

HKU’s robot was also here.

(Remark: I haven’t attended the whole day summit because of other business at the same time.)

Reference:
HKSTP - http://www.hkstp.org
APAC Innovation Summit - http://www.apacinnosummit.net/aboutus