Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Robopocalypse Report #14: If the Terminator Walks in the Woods...

The Robopocalypse Report normally starts with the buzzwords of the robopocalypse, the drones.  However, today something pretty impressive came across the feeds.  Atlas, Boston Dynamics' Proto Terminator, went for a walk.  In the woods.   So let's start there.


Skip to 00:43 to see.  Here's an article to accompany.  Some people find it creepy.

 Now back to our photogenic Kardashians of the Robopocalypse, the drones.

Bezos has come out to state he sees drones being crazy common for deliveries.  Some have twisted it to say more so than mail trucks and are less than happy about it.  The mail truck is likely to be replaced.  A bot can or will be able to drive to the mailbox and drop off 24/7, 365 with little concern about overtime. 

Some are wondering if we will pick privacy or convenience when it comes to drones.  I don't think its that simple.


Boeing has patented the concept of a drone which turns into a submarine.  Considering what Sandia National Labs has been working on, I'm not sure this ought to be patentable.

Nevada researchers have been exploring whether or not drones can be useful for firefighting.  behind a paywall, sorry. 


Europeans have successfully developed the software for drones to land without the use of GPS.

The market for drones is expected to grow from $4 billion annually today to $14 billion over the next decade.

In the military side of the looming Robopocalypse, the Russians are finally embracing drones for artillery spotting with their own, smaller drones; the US MDA is looking to try the Airborne Laser again on a drone (I made the mistake of commenting)...which sounds a bit like the FD Avenger I wrote up and not too different for use than the 20 year old Raptor/Talon program they attempted but with a laser instead of missiles; and the Pentagon is planning on having 90 drones in the air at a time by 2019 while still retiring the Predator.

On to the self driving cars, some are wondering whether or not self driving cars can actually replace people.

On the other hand, drive sharing - like through Uber - has dramatically impacted the incidences of drunk driving in San Francisco.  You have to wonder what it would be like if inexpensive robo cabs were everywhere.


Auro Robotics unveiled their self driving campus shuttle prototype.

Those nefarious Koreans and Germans have developed a brain computer interface for exoskeletons.



The Australians have developed a passive exoskeleton for helping with soldiers' heavy loads.



The University of Bristol along with NTT have created a new photonic chip.  They are, of course, claiming a breakthrough.  Been hearing that for 25 years, too.

IBM claims to have a 'brain inspired' non von Neumann architecture chip called TrueNorth which can simulate "1 million programmable spiking neurons and 256 million configurable synapses." 

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