Sunday, June 30, 2019

The Russians are Thinking About, Maybe, Someday Real Soon Now Starting to Plan Their First Nuclear Aircraft Carrier

The Russian Defense Ministry has started its work to draft the statement of objectives (SOO) for Russia’s advanced nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, a source in Russia’s defense industry told TASS on Wednesday.

"The SOO on the new aircraft carrier is now being created and has not yet been sent to the United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC)," the source said without speculating on when this work may be over. "The Defense Ministry and the Russian Navy Main Staff share the opinion that the new aircraft carrier should be nuclear-powered."

TASS has been unable to officially confirm the information at the time of the publication.

Earlier, a source in Russia’s shipbuilding industry told TASS that scientific and research work to design Russia’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier would begin in 2023.

Saturday, June 29, 2019

Robopocalypse Report #117

Drones:

AirPix has created a self drone.

Amazon's delivery drone has evolved into a tilt wing of sorts.

Amazon - the company with all the facial recognition software it is selling to police! - has patented surveillance as a service.

BMW's might get cleaned by drones some day.

Dutch scientists have created the world's smallest autonomous racing drone.

Extinction Rebellion is considering - at least claiming to - be considering shutting down Heathrow Airport with drones as a protest.  They are now stating they will wait until after summer - tourist season.

Flytech's Birdie UAV can become VTOL with an add-on.

Guam's coral reefs are being assessed by drone.

Harvard has made its Robobee pico drone take flight without a tether.  The whole pico drone weighs 256 mg.

Intentional fires are being studied by drone to improve models of how forest fires will spread.

Japan has banned flying a drone while drunk.

The ROTORWing UAV puts an interesting spin on a fixed wing VTOL UAV.

Singapore's airport was disrupted by drones for the second time in a week.

Telefonica has developed an autonomous drone for monitoring forest fires.

Uber will start delivering MacDonald's food via drone in San Diego this summer.

The Vector Scorpion transforms from a fixed wing UAV to a tricopter drone.

YOUBIONICS has created a nightmare inducing addition for UAVs: hands.

Self Driving Cars:

How close are self driving cars, really?

The shifting alliances of self driving cars make for interesting viewing.

To make self driving cars safer, look to how human brains recognize things.

A new study suggests self driving trucks won't wipe out trucker jobs.

How do you build a self driving car?  Forget about the car.

Apple is reportedly in talks to buy Drive.ai.  How this jives with the interest in buying Tesla is a little uncertain.

BMW unveiled a self driving car concept, the Vision M.

Boxbot wants to do autonomous deliveries.

Carnegie Mellon will collaborate with Ford's self driving car branch.

Daimler has a plan to get its self driving trucks on the road.

Domino's is planning on starting pizza delivery by self driving Nuro car in Houston.

EasyMile's self driving shuttles are supposed to be hitting campuses this year.

Florida is allowing fully driverless cars on its roads.

Ford will test its self driving cars in Detroit.

Lyft has completed 55,000 self driving rides in Las Vegas.

Self driving Nissan Leafs may be prowling Gongzhou, China soon.

Don't overestimate the semi in semi self driving cars.

Starsky Robotics' self driving truck has hit 55 mph.

Starsky is testing its fully automated semis on Florida's roads.

A Tesla Model 3 was sent driving without anyone in the latest, illegal stunt by a YouTuber.

A Tesla Model X accelerated out of the blue and nearly killed a pregnant woman.  Tesla is being sued.

A Tesla Model 3 driver was caught literally napping.

A driver is upset by Tesla's Autopilot and wants it regulated in this OpEd.

People keep spotting folks sleeping in their Teslas as the Teslas drive.

One of the reasons people may be overestimating the capabilities of Tesla's Autopilot might be the name.

Toyota and Softbank's self driving car venture, Monet, is getting more backing.

Uber and Volvo's latest self driving car has been unveiled.

Volvo's cabless self driving semi, the Vera, is moving loads in Sweden.

Volvo's vehicles use Nvidia tech.

Waymo is developing driverless cars with Renault and Nissan.

Waymo's self driving Jaguars are going to be field tested in Mountain View, California.

Waymo has hired former Anki staff.

Robotics:

Amazon 'cloned' a neighborhood to test its delivery robots.

Amoeba Energy has developed a soft robot for deliveries.

Autonomous 'roboats' may assemble water platforms as needed.

Boston Dynamics is preparing to launch its first commercial robot, Spot.

The creators of the social robot, Buddy - in something of a scandal - need more money to launch.

Carnegie Mellon has developed a wild robo fish that using a fluid for hydraulic driven motion and as electrical storage.

Dishcraft has a robodishwasing machine.

DJI has developed an educational robot for kids.

Facebook has released software to make robots easier to program.

Fieldworks Robotics demoed its first raspberry picking robot.

GEBCO-NF's USV won the XPrize for ocean mapping.

A Georgia Tech Slothbot gets outed to the public.

Ikea is working with startup Ori to make robotic furniture for small apartments.  Just imagine the assembly of that.

iRobot's latest bots cooperate to clean.

Lancaster University has created semi autonomous robots to help with decommissioning nuclear reactors.

University of Leeds is working on a miniature robot to check for diseases of the colon.

Microsubs might deliver drugs in the body one day.

MIT developed a sensor covered glove to help robots ID objects.

MIT also developed an algorithm to allow robots to predict where people will move next.

MIT also developed a robot that can detect what an object is by both sight and touch.

Meet the Movo Robot.

NASA's Astrobee robots are flying around in the International Space Station.


Nissan is testing a robot to weed rice paddies. 

Ocean Cleanup is testing its plastic cleaning robot.

A Purdue researcher is developing a smart phone app to allow average people to program robots.

Robotic surgery for throat cancer isn't any better than radiation therapy.

Are robots getting a little too good at how they move?  Some think so and are creeped out.

Imagine robot muscles powered by glucose.

Social robots can benefit hospitalized children.

Robots with a sense of "taste."

A robot has been designed with a software bot to pack boxes.

Shadow Robot Company demonstrated haptic feedback using a robotic hand.

3d Printing:

A 3d printer for human tissue is launching to the ISS.

Anisoprint is using basalt fibers for 3d printing of composites.

Boom Supersonic will be using 3d printed parts in their supersonic aircraft.

Chinese engineers are printing supercapacitors with graphene.

Columbia University researchers are 3d printing molds for hair follicles.

Scientists can now 3d print biological tissue without scaffolds.

Cyborgism:

An experimental prosthetic foot deals with uneven terrain.

A chip can upgrade your memory.

Software Bots:

The United States Congress is very unhappy about how big tech has turned loose the bots online.

True AI is hard.

AI researchers in China want to continue a global sharing culture.

The ACLU points out connected security cameras plus software bots is 1984 and then some.

Adobe created a software bot to detect when images have been manipulated.

Alexa and Siri were not built to deal with harassment.

Amazon's TextTract bot can read millions of pages of text in hours.

Experts are urging the EU to ban a social credit software bot like the Chinese have deployed.

Facebook has a photo realistic virtual sandbox running at 10k fps for AI work.

Google's DeepMind can thrash human players in Quake III capture the flag.

Google's AI Assistant is really a fraud.

Twitter has purchased a software bot company Fabula to fight fake news on its platform.

USC ISI has developed a new tool for detecting deepfakes and can do so 95% of the time.

Walmart is using software bots to watch for theft.

The World Economic Forum is developing rules for software bots.

Digital assistants might be able to tell if you are having a heart attack.  or an orgasm.  awesome.  not.

A software bot driven subreddit has been a thing for a while.

Software bots are being used to detect brain aneurysms.  

How software bots detect rare diseases.

Can software bots make decisions like people do?

Using software bots for genome research.

Can software bots detect Deep Fakes?

Using software bots for proteome research.

Training a single software bot can cost as much as 5 cars' lifetime carbon footprint.

Using echolocation, software bots can tell what you are doing.

A software bot generated face was used on linkedin by a spy.

Researchers have developed a software bot that generates your face from the sound of your voice.

Can software bots help with attribution of art to its proper creators (fake detection!)

Software bots can provide online legal help, but when will the legal profession allow it?

Software bots can ID which kissing bugs spread Chagas.

Software bots were used in quantum imaging experiments.

A new software bot allows you to generate deepfake videos with the person's voice by simply typing the words you want the person to say.

The power and limits of software bots and machine learning.

Software bots are being used to personalize radiation therapy for cancer treatment.

A software bot is being used to capture players' strategies in an RNA based game.

Software bots are helping to understand how electrons behave.

Software bots are also helping predict heart attacks.

Software bots could be a game changer for Alzheimer's research.

Software bots could be used to study student brains so teachers could improve their courses.

Automata:

Inside an Amazon warehouse.

The British Antarctic Survey has an automated station that works through the winter.

Are robots job killers or coworkers?

Another study says automation will destroy another 20 million jobs and worsen inequality.

META:

The robopocalypse isn't coming for your job, management is.

Friday, June 28, 2019

Experiments Have Been Selected for Flight on the Chinese Space Station

Six experiments have been granted a place aboard to the future Chinese Space Station through a joint international cooperation initiative, with three more receiving conditional acceptance.

The results of the selection process were announced jointly Wednesday by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) on the sidelines of the 62nd session of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space in Vienna.

The UNOOSA-CMSA initiative received 42 applications from organizations in 27 countries following an Announcement of Opportunity issued in May 2018. The winning institutions are based in a wide range of countries, namely Belgium, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Kenya, the Netherlands, Norway, Mexico, Poland, Peru, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Spain and Switzerland.

Sunday, June 23, 2019

India is Planning its own Space Station

India plans to have its own space station in the future and conduct separate missions to study the Sun and Venus, it said on Thursday, as the nation moves to bolster its status as a leader in space technologies and inspire the young minds to take an interest in scientific fields.

India’s space agency said today that it will begin working on its space station following its first manned mission to space, called Gaganyaan (which means “space vehicle” in Sanskrit), in 2022 — just in time to commemorate 75 years of the country’s independence from Britain. The government has sanctioned Rs 10,000 crores ($1.5 billion) for the Gaganyaan mission, it was unveiled today.

“We have to sustain the Gaganyaan program after the launch of the human space mission. In this context, India is planning to have its own space station,” said Dr. Kailasavadivoo Sivan, chairman of Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). ISRO is India’s equivalent to NASA.

Saturday, June 22, 2019

Terminator Times #59

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (Drones):

Iran shot down an American MQ-4C Global Hawk/Triton UAV.  The US claimed the drone was in international waters.  This crisis rapidly escalated.  Trump didn't think Iran would have intentionally shot down the drone.  How to react to the Iranian attack is no small or simple thing.  The Iranians claim they warned the drone multiple times before opening fire.  The US was 10 minutes from launching an attack when Trump called it off.  This was the first successful shoot down of a Global Hawk or its derivatives.  This was the second drone shot down after several attempts.

The USAF is buying its COTS quad copters from Parrot, a French company.  is that the same as PSI?

A drone airbase in Niger built by the US is finished, but no flights have begun due to security concerns.

The US Air Force claims Iran tried to shoot down an American Reaper drone.

A USAF Reaper shot down by Yemen Houthi rebels with Iranian help.

Another Reaper was shot at by a MANPADS during the tanker attacks.

USAF Reapers participated in Red Flag for the first time.

The USAF AFL stated the XQ-58A Valkyrie has flown for a second time.

The USAF wants to buy 20 to 30 Kratos Valkyries.

The US Navy awarded Northrop another $66M contract for the BAMS-D program.

The US Navy awarded General Atomics $36.5M contract for services related to the Reaper.

Belarus is pursuing armed multirotor UAVs.

France awarded a $39M contract to BAe for a sensor pod for its Reapers.

France is qualing the SDT Patroller UAV.

Israel is losing market share when it comes to UAVs.

Jordan is selling its 6 Chinese-made CH-4B UAVs.

Malaysia will deploy its ScanEagles with its Navy.

Philippines is close to finalizing a $180M deal to buy Elbit drones.

The Russian Ohhotnik-B supposed did a high speed run with a hop, leaving the ground, but not truly flying.  First flight is supposed to be July or August.

A Russian firm has made a drone with a blinding/dazzling laser for security forces.

Did Russia spoof GPS lately to protect Putin from drones?

Russia is concerned about US drones being deployed to Poland.

Saudi Arabia may have been attacked again by drones.  The Houthi rebels claimed attacks on the Jizan and Abha airports.  And the Saudis are saying there was another attack.  The Saudis said the Abha attack was beaten back and 5 drones were shot down.  The Abha and Jizan airports were attacked again.  The drone attacks are almost daily now.

The Syrian army claims to have downed a drone near the Hama airport.

Taiwan has obtained Honeywell engines for its Teng Yun UAV.

Taiwan is going to spend $2.5 billion developing suicide drones.

The UAE has been cleared to buy the RQ-21A.

Ukraine's upgraded Spectator UAV has entered service.

AeroVironment bought Pulse Aerospace.

Collins Aerospace worked with Sikorsky to develop a triply redundant fly by wire autonomous flight solution.

IAI has launched the Tactical Heron UAV product.

Insitu got a contract from the US DOD to provide 34 ScanEagle UAVs to Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, and Vietnam

General Atomics has integrated a new EO/IR imaging system with the SkyGuardian UAV.

Kratos has ten different jet powered UAV projects underway.

InstantEye has launched its extended range Mark 3 drone.

Leonardo is launching a new drone to compete with the Predator and launching ISR as a service.

Lockheed has unveiled the Condor UAV.

Mikoyan is developing a Loyal Wingman.

Schiebel is tackling icy conditions on its S-100 camcopter.

Sikorsky has unveiled it tested the Optionally Piloted Vehicle technology on the UH-60A Blackhawk.

UVision unveiled new HERO suicide drones.

Unmanned Ground Vehicles (Bolos, Ogres and Terminators, oh my!):

The US Army has is planning on the ATLAS automated turret being tested soon.

The US Army is looking at a 30mm cannon in the turret of the Robotic Combat Vehicle - Medium.

Watch this armed Israeli bot shoot on a target range.

Milrem's Themis gets exercised in an armed fashion.

Unmanned Surface Vehicles (Ro-boats):

The Zumwalt class destroyers will be tasked as part of an experimental squadron to test out USVs.

Can the US Navy handle unmanned ships?

The US Navy sent a report to Congress on the USVs.  The purpose of those systems (and UUVs) is to tackle China.

Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (robo subs):

BAE is buying the technology of a US UUV company.

Hunting Ingalls is helping build the unmanned ships and subs of the future, including the Orca.

Exoskeletons:

The US Special Forces is shutting down the Talos powered armor program and spinning out individual components.  The parts being kept are transitioning to the HEO effort.

3d Printing:

GE has 3d printed parts for the General Dynamics entrant for the Ground Combat Vehicle competition.

Software Bots:

Thales has bought an American "AI" company.

A software bot is helping with V-22 maintenance.

META:

The US Army is exploring manned-umanned teaming.

The US Army is buying over 9,000 drones and moving ahead with supply carrying UGVs.

Friday, June 21, 2019

NASA IG has Concerns About the Europa Missions

Despite early-stage robust funding, NASA is facing serious management and schedule challenges in its ambitious Europa Clipper program that will send an orbiter and lander to Jupiter’s ice covered moon beginning in 2023.

“Specifically, NASA’s aggressive development schedule, a stringent conflict of interest process during instrument selection, and an insufficient evaluation of cost and schedule estimates has increased project integration challenges and led the Agency to accept instrument cost proposals subsequently found to be far too optimistic,” the audit found.

“Moreover, Clipper has had to compete with at least four other major JPL-managed projects for critical personnel resources, causing concern that the project may not have a sufficient workforce with the required skills at critical periods in its development cycle,” the report said.

The audit also noted that the Europa program’s biggest backer, John Culberson, no longer chairs the House appropriations subcommittee. The Republican Congressman from Texas was defeated in his reelection bid last year.

Sunday, June 16, 2019

US House of Rep Armed Services Committee Voted to Create US Space Corps Within the USAF

The House Armed Services Committee voted to establish a United States Space Corps within the Department of the Air Force. The vote came in the overnight hours Thursday. The committee began its markup of the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act Wednesday morning. After a nearly 21-hour session, the committee passed the NDAA 33-24.

The Space Corps amendment was offered by the HASC Strategic Forces subcommittee leaders Chairman Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) and Ranking Member Mike Rogers (R-Ala.). The proposal is similar to what the committee proposed in the 2018 NDAA, including the name of the new space service, U.S. Space Corps, rather than the Trump administration’s preferred name, U.S. Space Force.

Like the Marine Corps, the Space Corps would be led by a four-star Commandant who would be a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Saturday, June 15, 2019

Paleolithic Papers #30

Genus Homo:

Using archaeomegnetism to investigate Late Paleolithic cave occupation in Israel.

Residents of the Qesem Cave in Israel from 400,000 years ago recycled stone tools.

The characteristics of the Manot Cave in Israel gets examined.

H. sapiens:

Ancient alcohol was found in Israel from before the end of the Pleistocene.

How diverse were the cultures of the Upper Paleolithic in the Zagros Mountains of Iran?

There appears to have been an unknown population in modern day Oman during the Pleistocene.

What was the environment like in southern Levant during the last glacial cycle?

Modern humans may have dispersed through Asia in the Late Pleistocene through multiple routes.

A new population of ancient siberians from 31kya has been found.

H. neanderthalensis:

Neandertals seem to have split from modern humans further back in time than the genes suggest.

The ancestors of Neandertals and Denisovans interbred with yet another ancient hominin population before they mixed it up with modern humans.

A jaw from a Neandertal from Regourdou, France shows the individual ate what appears to be typical foods for human hunter gatherers in a temperate forest based on the microwear analysis.

An odd preprint paper questions whether or not the introgression of Neandertals into modern humans was as much as previously thought.

H. erectus:

A new site at Madigou in China dates from 1.2 million years ago and contains stone tools.

Genus Australopithecus:

A. anamensis:

The verbatral morphology of A. anamensis appears to be more derived than A. afarensis.

A. afarensis:

The comparison of diets of pigs from Africa and australopithecines is examined and conclusions hominin diet diversification had not happened by the end of A. afarensis.

META:

The first metacarpal gets compared between different hominins and Great Apes.

Did our ancestor's ability to ingest alcohol lead to the evolution of people?  So wonders the Drunken Monkey Hypothesis.

A gene has been found that helps humans deal with high sugar diets.

Modern humans might be unique in our hearing capabilities.

Western Galilee's environment from the Late Middle and Upper Pleistocene gets examined.

Friday, June 14, 2019

NASA Gives an Update on its Gateway Station Habitat Module Prototyping



Even as NASA’s plans for the Lunar Gateway evolve, the space agency is continuing work on developing a habitat for the crew that will use the facility as an orbiting base for the study of the Moon.

Sunday, June 09, 2019

Does India Need its own Space Force?

India is setting up a military space agency called the Defence Space agency (DSA) that’s expected to command of all the space assets of India’s army, navy and air force.

For nearly the last decade, a debate has taken place in India highlighting the need to establish a Space Command to address military needs. For all these years, India has had a Military Space Cell, a tri-service organization under the aegis of the Integrated Defence Services, or IDS. Formation of this organization was announced on June 10 2008, by the then-defense minister.

The idea of DSA was mooted a few years back, possibly with a view to make an incremental increase in the space-related defense infrastructure. Hence, instead of having a Space Command headed by a three-star general, it was thought suitable to create a DSA headed by a two-star general. All these structures had a relevance when India was not a military power with anti-satellite (ASAT) capability. However, now that India successfully conducted its March 27 ASAT, can DSA take India’s military space agenda further, or there is a need to establish a separate ecosystem for this?

Saturday, June 08, 2019

Pondering the Precambrian #28

Proterozoic:

NeoProterozoic:

Ediacaran:

A cyanobacteria normally associated with the Phanerozoic has been found in Ediacaran deposits in China.

There was a significant shift in what the limiting nutrients were across the Ediacaran/Cambrian boundary.

How did the black shales form across the Ediacaran/Cambrian boundary?

Was the Sao Francisco Basin a restricted basin during the Ediacaran?

A section in China appears to be a record of the late Ediacaran glaciations, showing a cold, dry climate.

The Cathayasian block was attached to Gondwana since 630 million years ago.

The fate of an inland sea from during the Neoproterozoic gets discussed.

Evidence of the Milkanovich cycles is preserved in Ediacaran deposits.

Tubular fossils from the Weng'an Biota are algae, not metazoans.

Weng'an Biota also provides examples of preserved encysting of eukaryotes.

Cryogenian:

Could the banded iron formations of the Cryogenian be related to ocean acidification?

There is evidence of a less than complete snowball earth from China during the Marinoan Glaciation.

Cryogenian Period deposits of Datangpo Formation of China from the interglacial period between the Sturtian and Marinoan glaciations show a very stratified ocean.

The majority of the time, the NeoProterozoic oceans were anoxic and were supersaturated with dolomite.

Tonian:

Fungus fossils appear to have been found in Tonian (neoproterozoic) or Stenian (mesoproterozoic) deposits in Canada.

There appears to have been a paleorifting event during the Tonian of the Sao Francisco-Congo continent.

The Sognefjel complex appears to have formed in the Asgardian Sea during the early Tonian.

Did the Paleo-South China Ocean close during the Tonian?

MesoProterozoic:

The Eastern European Craton has a Mesoproterozoic signal.

The southern Grenville formation dates from Mesoproterozoic and is from purely Laurentian sources.

Reported stromatolites from a Stenian lake cannot be proven to be biogenic.

Paleoproterozoic:

600 million years of sedimentation is examined from the Paleoproterozoic of Lapland.

Statherian Period evolution of the Oolongbuluke terraine is explained.

In Brazil, the Sobreiro Formation appears to be from the Orosirian/Statherian boundary.

Archean:

There is evidence of retreating oceanic slab subduction from the NeoArchean of China.

Evidence from India suggests there was significant local variation in Archean ocean conditions.

The Caozhuang basin appears to be a case of sagduction.

Fossils from paleoarchean South Africa show bacteria dividing and they appear to be very similar to cyanobacteria Pleurocapsales.

Eoarchean stromatolites get examined.

Hadean:

Was the Earth covered in a lava ocean before Theia impacted and created the moon?

META:

What are the implications of a hotter mantle, but colder subduction during the Precambrian?

Sunday, June 02, 2019

China Remains on Course for 2020 Launch of Mars Missions

China remains on schedule to ready its first independent mission to Mars in time for a short launch window in mid-2020, according to a leading space official.

“Mars 2020 mission spacecraft is undergoing integration,” Wang Chi, director of the National Space Science Center (NSSC) in Beijing, told SpaceNews in a rare update on the mission.

Ambitiously, the mission consists of both an orbiter and a rover, with a total of 13 science payloads. The NSSC will be involved in integration of the instruments with the spacecraft.

The orbiter will be equipped with a high-resolution camera comparable to HiRise on board NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, a medium-resolution camera, subsurface radar, minearology spectrometer, neutral and energetic particle analyzers and a magnetometer.

The 240-kilogram solar-powered rover, nearly twice the mass of China’s Yutu lunar rovers, will carry a ground-penetrating radar, multispectral camera, a Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy instrument and payloads for detecting the climate and magnetic environment.

Saturday, June 01, 2019

Robopocalypse Report #116

Drones:

The US government went after Huwei and is now going after drone maker DJI warning the Chinese gov may have the data from the drones.

Alphabet (*cough*Google*cough*) will start offering drone deliveries in Helsinki starting next month.

Students at Ben-Gurion University in Israel have developed a drone that can land and drive like a car.

Caltech's Neural Lander can smoothly land quadcopters.

DJI drones will detect aircraft soon.

Drones are being sent into tornadoes to study them.

Japan is about to make drunk droning, flying a drone while intoxicated, illegal.

Purdue developing a hovering hummingbird drone.

USC has created Bee+, a four winged nano UAV.

This is the Volgi VTOL UAV.

Self Driving Cars:

Self driving cars will do more than drive you around.

In a bad sign for traffic improvements with self driving cars, Uber and Lyft are making traffic worse in San Francisco.  A study by Cambridge disputes my assertion though.

There is a robot race car club in northern California.

Aurora, the self driving car startup, bought lidar sensor company Blackmore.

Einride has started doing deliveries in Sweden with its self driving truck.

GM's Cruise division just got a $1 billion investment.

An MIT paper calls into question some of the assumptions of self driving car economics.

MIT is teaching self driving cars to navigate using just maps and signs, just like people do.

Nissan has a different opinion of lidar than does Musk.

Self driving wheel chairs are being tested.

A Tesla that was involved in a fatal crash had its autopilot engaged.  The safety of Tesla's Autopilot is being challenged.

Problems are mounting for Tesla.  Apple tried to buy Tesla is 2013 and with things looking grim at Tesla, may try again.

Betting on Uber is a bet on self driving cars.  It is the only way for them to be profitable.

USPS is experimenting with using self driving trucks.

Waymo's self driving cars are now available to pick you up in Phoenix via the Lyft app and hundreds have already used them.

3d Printing:

An Australian man has a 3d printed titanium replacement sternum.

The world's first 3d printed village is coming to Central America courtesy of Icon.

Bioprinting for bone regeneration with nanofibers.

3d printed guns are back and on the darkweb.

3d printed bathrooms...in a day.

Robots:

The Aqua2 robot is a amphibious spin off of a joint university development.

Brown University taught a robot to copy art and hand writing.

Columbia came up with a material so robots can use water?

Meet Eve r3.

Inside Facebook's new robotics lab.

Ford is using a self driving robot in its factories to free up workers' time.



Ford also wants to use a robot in conjunction with self driving vehicles to make deliveries.

Introducing the Heron USV.


Watch the HyQReal robot tow a passenger plane.

Meet Laikago.

MIT's Roboraise learns to lift objects by watching a persn.


NASA Langley is working on soft robots.

Watch the leech bot climb a wall.  Yeech.

A new micro robot has been developed that changes shape while swimming in a patient's circulatory system.

Put googly eyes on robots to make them less scary.

Soft robots can be made of warm, nice materials to make homes...cozy.

Stanford students built a robo dog and shared the code.

Software Bots:

The US gov is backing international standards on AI principles.

China ramped up the censor bots with the anniversary of Tiananmen Square.

CMU is trying to make AI seem less intrusive, even if it is really powerful.

Facebook's AI is being accused of generating terrorist content by a whistleblower.  It makes you wonder how instrumental they were in influencing things.

Facebook is categorizing your private posts using a software bot.

Facebook is using software bots to build disease prevention maps.

Google's Geoff Hinton explains the evolution of neural networks.

Google is training its speech recognition bots to be able to work with people with speech impediments.  

Google trained its software bot to predict lung cancer.

Many Google Duplex calls are really people.  This is starting to sound like a scam.

Microsoft's Cortana will eventually sound like a person.

Microsoft is also using software bots to improve your writing in Word.

Microsoft wants to use software bots to improve the application development cycle.

Microsoft trains bots to have realistic speech with minimal training.

MIT has a new software bot that is significantly better at IDing breast cancer from mammograms.

Nvidia's software bots are set to start chewing on UK medical scans.

Can all optical networks be used for neural networks?

ObEN is a company working on AI avatars.

Samsung's software bot can make Deep Fakes from single pictures, including the Mona Lisa.

A new software bot generates people from scratch, clothes, bodies, faces and all.

Software bots may be the entertainers of the future.

Software bots attempted to name race horses...

Software bot mistakes for imagine recognition might be due to human error than the bots making mistakes.

A software bot driven Salvador Dali is now live at a Florida museum.

Software bots are selecting scientific paper reviewers in China.

A new software bot can hack and take over wayward drones.

Software bots can predict the properties of porous materials.

Software bots used for psychiatry raise ethical questions.

Using software bots to study proteins.

Software bots vastly upscale Alzheimer's studies.

Software bots are being used in cyber defense.

Who is liable when a software bot loses a fortune?

Software bots meet Citizen Science.

Software bot translations helped Ebay boost sales by 10%.

A software bot may be "deciding" who gets suicide prevention...yikes.

Software bots can be used to customize training for people.

Software bots have found mutations in noncoding DNA apparently tied to autism.

Automata:

San Francisco has banned cashless stores like Amazon Go.

In the $2 trillion infrastructure bill in Congress, some are recommending investing in robots.

Amazon is using robots to replace workers in its warehouses.  They are not laying off workers, but replacing them through attrition.

Boeing is going to replace human inspectors with technology.

As factories are automated, the workers become coders.

The quest to develop sensors that can smell.

META:

Does universal basic income not work?

Tech companies are trying to shape the rules associated with "AI."

True AI may be rooted in the technologies of today.

Sensors inspired by spiders might help drones, self driving vehicles and robots in the future.

Can Inspector Gadget help us resist the temptation of transhumanism.