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MotionControl: News
Canadian smartARM wins Microsoft Imagine Cup ally. The team’s smartARM expects to close this gap with the device costing about $100. Outside of the monetary prize, the duo was awarded a mentoring session with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. https://imaginecup.microsoft.com
Beckhoff Canada names new managing director
Undergraduates Hamayal Choudhry from UOIT and Samin Khan from U of T demonstrating their smartARM prosthetic, which won the Imagine World Cup Finals this year.
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wo Canadian university students recently won the Microsoft Imagine World Cup with their smartARM invention – a robotic arm utilizing AI technology to help adjust it’s grip. Out of 3,000 submissions, 49 teams representing 33 countries competed for a $85,000 cash prize as well as a $50,000 Microsoft Azure grant. Ultimately it was Hamayal Choudhry, a second-year mechatronics student from the UOIT and Samin Khan, a third-year computer science student at the University of Toronto, who took first place. “If you just take, for instance, your hands and your arms, you don’t often realize just how pervasive they are to your physical, everyday inter-activity with the world,” Khan said during their final pitch to the judges. smartARM relies on a camera, embedded in the palm of the prosthetic, that calculates the necessary pressure and force needed to grip or rotate an object. For example, the camera discerns if a pen, apple or a key is to be grasped and adjusts the grip accordingly. The beauty of the design is that through machine learning, smartARM improves with the user over time, collecting and storing data through a cloud-based platform so that if they switch to a new model, all the prerequisite data is ready and available. Additionally, the smartARM comes with a 3D-printed forearm that activates the grip through the flexing of upper arm muscles. “It doesn’t activate the grip right away,” Choudhry mentioned. “It’s waiting for a cue from a muscle sensor.” Annalisa, a congenital amputee in Toronto, helped the team create the smartArm. Most prosthetics are cosmetic only, and provide little function, and robotic arms are simply cost prohibitive for the one million hand amputees globSeptember | 2018
Beckhoff Automation has promoted Calvin Wallace to the managing director position of Beckhoff Automation Canada, taking over for Joe Ottenhof, who will remain on the board of directors. As managing director, Wallace will oversee all operations at the company’s Mississauga headquarters, where administration, sales and marketing, customer service and technical services are managed. The facility also houses a customer training area and warehouse. “Calvin was the second employee I hired to work at Beckhoff Canada and has been with us since 2006,” said Ottenhof. “Since then, Calvin has maintained an impressive record of achievement without blemish and he is the most qualified person imaginable to lead Beckhoff Canada into our next phase of rapid business development.”
Calvin Wallace (left) has been named managing director of Beckhoff Automation Canada taking over from Joe Ottenhof (right) who is retiring.
Wallace has worked at Beckhoff for more than 12 years in sales management positions, initially focused on Southwestern Ontario, but has since spread out his responsibilities to include management of sales and application engineering activities across the country. “I am honored to take over for Joe, who has helped guide me professionally for over a decade at Beckhoff,” said Wallace. “Joe is beginning his retirement when our Canadian business is on its firmest financial footing ever – I am dedicated to keeping this extraordinary momentum going for our customers and employees in Canada.” www.design-engineering.com