Monday, January 13, 2020

B1 - Robotics - AI - 3D Printing - Future - Andrew Norris


Artificial Intelligence
For the last five or so years we have seen the rise in technology that automates tasks such as the Google home or Amazon Alexa and according to the article “Tech that will Invade our lives in 2020” there is a great possibility of those devices getting smarter. This translates to the devices being able to communicate with each other requiring less human interaction than before. This isn’t just a hypothetical 5 years down the road, but this could be seen in the next year. An example of this might be when it is dark out and you open the door the lights will automatically turn on. This requires more automated systems than ever. This is likely also going to work itself into the wearable technology we have such as smart watches, headphones and earbuds. The possibilities are endless.

Robotics
Robots and farming are typically not mentioned in the same sentence, but as the world continues to become more technologically advanced the farming industry is also experiencing massive technological advances. According to the article “How High Tech Is Transforming One of the Oldest Jobs: Farming” robots are being developed to automate the operation of farm equipment. This can also lead to optimization of rows of crops. Another aspect of robotics in farming is the collection of data and this can take place using robots that take samples of crops and analyze data such as the nutrients in the plant. As someone who grew up in a rural farming area this is fascinating, but I am curious to see the timeline of some of the advances, because often the farming community is slower to adapt to the growth in technology. Could this lead to a new “type” of farmer, one with a greater knowledge of technology than plants? Only time will tell.

3D Printing
Have you ever thought to yourself “how long does It take to build a boat?” I hadn’t previously, but according to the article “Giant 3D printers for making boats, bridges, buildings and rockets” the researchers at Maine University thought the process was too long, even with modern materials. They printed a patrol boat and when it comes to 3D printing there are endless possibilities. Some obstacles do exist in the form of materials and obviously the size of the object can’t be larger than the printer itself. Printing large metal objects is difficult due to impurities in the air when printing which could lead to inconsistent material properties or even an explosion. Overall the idea of 3d printing is on its way to expanding our view of what it can do. A space firm in Los Angeles is using a 3d printer to try to print a spaceship or the possibility of using a 3d printer to print a rocket when on the surface of Mars. There are endless possibilities.
Future
The future is hard to imagine, but I would guess that people also said that in the 1990’s and yet we still are consumed with what is next. In the health field everyone is hoping for a world without cancer, but as that is not the case yet one future application being worked on now is the use of AI to improve breast cancer screening. A UK based research group is working on just that and according to the article “Using AI to improve breast cancer screening” by looking at the last mammogram and comparing it in a model. This had wide success as there was a five percent decrease in false positive in the United States. Looking to the future the increase in efficiency in the screening process could be used in many different tests. This could lead to a better detection rate for many diseases.


Comments
Brian
When talking about BIM I never thought of it from an RFI standpoint and I think that was an interesting point. Having a central database would increase access to the information. Learning about this is very important because we will see this happen during our careers. It is a very insightful post.
Michael
Link –
I am very skeptical of this “optimized learning path” because how do we know it will actually work? I think you raised a great point about the social interaction aspect and that the end goal should be to increase the efficiency of the system already in place. This is very fascinating, and another thought I had was the possibility of pairing teacher with students using AI. Could that increase learning? I enjoyed reading your post.
Citations
Evernote shared notebook: (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.evernote.com/pub/aengineer/ae-510#st=p&x=AI&n=b15d7680-c04d-4bcc-9d21-8910d8ba54dd.
Evernote shared notebook: (n.d.). Retrieved January 13, 2020, from https://www.evernote.com/pub/aengineer/ae-510#st=p&x=robotics&n=947f870e-25a3-4b39-8626-76c314e867e7.
Evernote shared notebook: (n.d.). Retrieved January 13, 2020, from https://www.evernote.com/pub/aengineer/ae-510#st=p&x=3d%20printing&n=91966705-479d-40b8-b4db-6031a703cf2a.
Evernote shared notebook: (n.d.). Retrieved January 13, 2020, from https://www.evernote.com/pub/aengineer/ae-510#st=p&x=Future&n=46e3fbe8-ba71-441c-b0ef-6e4b5dafba07.

9 comments:

Isabel Brooks said...

I really like the article you found on 3D printing; it's pretty clear that 3D printing in a variety of ways is a new emerging technology but how well it works in large scale applications is still very questionable. It never occurred to me that printing large metal objects would be hindered simply by the impurities added from the air. I wonder if they could find a way to 3D print in a vaccuum? Probably not but who knows. I agree that with you that there are a lot of possibilities for 3D printing in the future, but I think its important efficiency and practicality are taken into account along the way.

Vishist said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Vishist said...

I agree with the article on artificial intelligence as I believe that AI technology plays a vital role in daily activity. We have started the usage of AI as its making our daily life activities much easier for the example you used to like opening the door and the lights are turned on automatically. Also like entering the house and the air conditioner is turned on automatically, As humans, we like to reduce the human workforce.

Jake Hall said...

Andrew, I think it is wild to think about printing bridges, boats, houses and more considering the time it takes to print an object that is the size of a fist. However, I am pretty certain we will see it happen in our lifetime. It is going to take a combination of robotics, AI and sensors to get there but I am sure it will happen.

Abigail Kryszan said...

Andrew,

The article about 3D printing provides some cool new options. I never would've considered 3D printing a boat. It appears that 3D printing is slowly but surely becoming the new norm, and not so much a niche industry anymore. Previously, I've only ever printed little things, like a little pinwheel. It's crazy to think that one day people might be sailing on a boat that was 3D printed.

cory said...

Andrew
I agree with your statement in your future section that more analytics type tasks will be taken over by computers as they can be programmed with the sum total of human knowledge and are therefor less likely to make a mistake in identifying cancer or noticing a trend. Another reason I agree is that people are by nature unreliable, where as machines do not have off days or hurry up because they want to get off work and go to the bar and therefor produce substandard results.

Andre Morris said...

I find your comment about how farmers are slower to the advancements in technology interesting. In my mind, farmers have been the group of people to most rapidly develop new technologies to make their processes easier. In comparison to industries with much more technology. They've been at the forefront of making processes like irrigating, bailing hay, and collecting milk/eggs more efficient. However I think the major difference is the difference in money in both industries. And I think that is what would hold farmers back from introducing things like robotics into their work.

Mika Awai said...

Andrew,

I found it fun to read your article about artificial intelligence, as most of us now have it incorporated into our lives in more ways than one. I always find it a bit funny when people don't want an "alexa" or "google home" because they think its just an easy way for the government to listen to them, when in reality we all have phones and computers that allow for the same thing. I also think there needs to be a line for AI because it is not all secure. If something should be tailored to a single person it can easily be changed by someone hacking a system. The technology behind it is amazing, but its not all figured out just yet.

Elvira-Marie Mikhael said...

Andrew,

I really liked the article about tech and farming. I never knew that automation had a place in the farming industry. It definitely makes sense from an optimization standpoint. Even though I would assume that you wouldn't be able to replace human farmers, I wonder if self-driving machinery could be created that would remove the need for farmers in the field entirely.