Thursday, March 03, 2016

Robopocalypse Report #76

Drones:

Where do the terminators' hunter killers start and kids' toys end?  Apparently, commercial drones are too dangerous to allow into Gaza according to the Israelis.

AT&T and Intel have teamed up to expand the capabilities of drones.

Some fool claims to have flown a commercial drone around Area 51.

Drones smaller than 2 kg may be excluded from the FAA registration.

The Canadians and French are collaborating on developing fuel cells for long endurance UAV flights.

There's a new IR camera equipped drone for search and rescue.

There is a new drone detection system being built that will expose what drone pilots are going too close to airports.

Australia is using drones for shark and beach patrols.

States are getting ready to pass laws banning armed drones.

DJI has greatly upgraded their Phantom 4 drone.

Police drones can be easily hacked, at least the current generation.

Self Driving Cars:

Michigan is trying to compete with California for testing self driving cars.

The European Union wants self driving cars to come faster.

Driverless cars may increase reliance on roads in Britain.

Using applied linguistics to get self driving cars to cooperate better.

Will self driving cars increase or decrease carbon emissions?  This has been argued it will be an improvement for the environment in the past.  Now, some are arguing that may not be the case.  Automated vehicles might actually be worse.

One of Google's self driving cars hit a bus recently.  There were no injuries and the bus was going 15 mph and the car was going 2 mph.  Google says it has partial responsibility for the accident.

Google is designing everything about its self driving cars.

Self driving cars might be the end of parking spaces.

There might be no win scenarios self driving cars will have to contend with.

Here are some of the issues we are just starting to address with self driving cars.

What self driving cars could learn from autonomous industrial trucks.

75% of drivers would NOT feel safe riding in a self driving car according to AAA (pdf).

Goodyear is proposing spherical tires for self driving cars to allow for sideways driving.

There may be different paths to self driving cars.

3d Printing:

Rice University has modified a laser cutter into being a 3d laser sintering printer.

The 3d printing elephant in the room has finally shown itself: a shop opened up on ebay selling someone else's 3d printable figures.  This was in violation of the license the designs were released under.  The designer isn't happy.  The folks who run the store rolled their eyes at the whole thing.  Makerbot, the owner of the site where the designs were originally uploaded, is also rather unhappy.

3d printing sometimes can get overblown: now some are wondering if 3d printed food can feed the world.  o.O

Here's a video on the recent successes in 3d printing human tissue.

3d printed dressing are storming NYC fashion.

The sound of 3d printers could be a cyber security threat.

Robotics:



Boston Dynamics unveiled its next gen Atlas Robot.




Here's a 3d printed robo lawn mower.

IBEX, a British robotics company, as developed a tracked robot for use in agricultural in hilly terrain.

Sony is pushing an Amazon Echo equivalent, with a few more bells and whistles.

Autonomous underwater vehicles are being developed and get profiled again.

Starship Technologies' delivery bot gets profiled again.

Volvo's trash collector bot, ROARY, gets profiled.

Anime is inspiring robots in Japan.  If it starts emulating Bubblegum Crisis, then I'll get worried.

In emergencies, should you trust a robot?

Made in Space, Northrop & Oceaneering Space Systems are teaming up to build a robot for use in space with a 3d printer.

Watch the robo glow worm go.

Software bots:



Google has launched DeepMind Health in partnership with Britain's National Health Service.

Google's DeepMind has produced a software bot able to ID many photos locations where they were taken with just the content of the photo to go by.

A 19 year old has written a free website in Britain with a software bot designed to appeal parking tickets.  Apparently, it has saved over $3 million worth on tickets for drivers.  How long until something similar happens in the States?

Facebook just donated state of the art hardware for European AI researchers.

Amazon has updated its Alexa software.

Philosophy & Economics:

2040, a world where everyone has a robot according to Kurzweil.  So take with a grain of salt.  He still hasn't caught onto the idea Moore's Law is dead.

Hawking says its not the technology of the Robopocalypse that's scary, but rather what we will do when we get it.  Will we end up with a Maurer-esque techno feudalism?  Or worse?  Or everyone never wants for anything?

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