Robopocalypse #114

Drones:

Airbus drones will deliver to ships offshore first.

The Drone Racing League will air on NBC and Twitter.

Drones are the future of flying, even in airliners.

Harman has patented drones with speakers.

Koala spotting drones do a better job at counting the marsupials in the wild than people do.

An integrated battery in the wing greatly increases drone flight times.

Meet MetaFly.

The Drive took Sikorsky's self flying helicopter for a fly.

Quadcopters are being used to catch winged drones at sea.

Sikorsky's self flying helicopter hints at the future.

UPS is delivering medical supplies between hospitals via drone.

Self Driving Cars:

AAA states 75% of Americans are scared to ride in self driving cars.

Autonomous vehicles could be a boon or bust for the environment.

Self driving cars might hit darker skinned people more often than light. Yikes.  Or click bait?

Self driving car safety steps into the unknown.

Self driving shuttles are coming to New York and California.

How would hacked self driving cars affect New York traffic?

The complex problem of writing a driving test for self driving cars.

BMW and Daimler will collaborate on self driving car tech.

Designated Driver is the latest entrant into remotely driving cars.

Drive.ai may be looking for a buyer.

E/Nride demoed driving a delivery truck 1,200 miles away.

Ford's self driving cars may be headed to Texas.

German automakers are set to spend $60 billion on self driving and electric car tech.

GM is investing $300M in a Michigan autoplant for EV and autonomous cars.

GM is doubling the size of its Cruise self driving car division.

A new nighttime camera will improve the productivity of self driving trucks.

Nuro will start delivering groceries with its self driving cars in Houston.

Proterra's self driving buses will leave a place for the driver.

Stanford's latest self driving car prototype handles the unexpected better.

Tesla is being accused of shifting the goal posts on declaring its cars able to fully self drive and that 'full self drive' is not what you think it is.

Tesla has angered self driving car experts with its claims they are offering a truly self driving vehicle.

Some are countering back the experts are missing the point.

A dashcam showed a Tesla steering for a center lane divide again.

Tesla is suing a former employee that left and went to XiaoPeng Motors, a self driving company, for supposedly stealing 300k lines of Autopilot code.

Tesla is also suing Zoox.

Tesla has created an enhanced Summon mode.

Toyota has been testing if cameras can map cities for self driving cars.

Toyota will also test its self driving car tech in an Nvidia's virtual environment.

Trump apparently wants nothing to do with the 'crazy' self driving cars.

Uber will not face criminal charges for the death of the homeless woman in Arizona.  10 lessons from the lethal accident.  One year later, self driving cars soldier on.

USC is making self driving cars safer.

Volvo is testing two self driving buses in Singapore.

Waymo self driving cars will respond to police hand signals.

Waymo is selling its lidar tech.

Waymo is opening a servicing center in Phoenix for its self driving cars.

3d Printing:

Boeing has 3d printed a satellite antenna allowing for savings in material, time and cost.

Brown University has come up with a 3d printable hydrogel.

California State University researchers have been 3d printing ceramic/titanium matrix composites.

Chemists are trying to streamline 4d printable material technique development.

Cranfield University engineers have 3d printed large scale tungsten parts.

Finding "keyholes" in 3d printed metal.

LBNL researchers have been 3d printing liquid in liquids to create 3d fluidic devices.

Mexican researchers have been 3d printing alginate/hydrogels.

A scooter has been made with a 3d printed stainless steel.

Occular implants are being 3d printed.

The oil and gas industry is getting into 3d printing.

ProtoCAM has 3d printed spare parts for carpet looms from the 1930s.

Rutgers has developed a 4d printed material that changes strength based on temperature.

Scientists use light to print with multiple materials.

Singaporean researchers have been printing magnesium scaffolds for bone.

South Korea researchers have successfully 3d printed corneas.

South Korean researchers can 3d print cancerous tissue.

Turn your kids' drawings into 3d printed sculptures.

Scientists have developed an implantable, 3d printed material meant to be a scaffold for bone healing.

Robotics:

Boston Dynamics' Handle robot has been tested in the warehouse.

The Digit robot could be the future of delivery.

Fedex turned to the developer of the Segway for the development of a delivery robot.

A French airport is using robots to park cars.

A Kaiser Permamente doctor told a patient he was going to die via a telepresence robot.

The microorganism, Euglenia, could inspire soft robotics.

Microrobots with legs could walk inside the human body.

MIT's Cheetah bot can now do backflips.

MIT has developed a robotic arm that can pick up objects its never encountered before.

MIT also developed a robotic gripper that acts like a venus flytrap.

Mitsubishi has created an autonomous fire fighting bot.

Mountainview, California's library will be testing a book return robot developed by Google.

The 2020 Olympics in Japan will have robots deployed to help visitors.

Robot camel jockeys are real...

Robots have been developed that act as 'cells' and do not require central control for certain behaviours.  A predecessor to "gray goo?"

A robotic leg learned walk without any prior knowledge.

Using robots to control weeds...autonomously.

Robots are finally learning to run.

Sandia National Labs is using robots to decommission munitions.

Spider silk might be possible to use for robot muscles.

In Switzerland, robots built a house that generates more power than it consumes.

University of Washington researchers developed a robot capable of using a fork.

The US put a record number of robots to work in 2018.

An autonomous UUV is being used to map where phytoplankton is.

Veo Robotics has developed sensors so robots can safely work beside people in factories.

A new fuel cell developed in Washington University at St Louis will greatly extend the range of autonomous robots, drones and UUVs.

A UUV sneaks up on fish.

A Wired writer used haptic feedback gloves and other tech to teleoperate a robot in London, 3,000 miles away.

Cyborgism:

Columbia engineers have directly translated brain signals into speech.

Will cyborgs be made of melanin?

Facebook wants to build a brain reading machine.

Software bots:

ACM awarded the Turing Award to three 'fathers' of the current AI revolution.

40% of startups in Europe that claim to be using AI in their products are not.

How intelligent is AI?

Avatars are getting to be more...advanced.

The $100 BeagleBone board is designed to facilitate the development of "AI" projects.

China is catching up to America in AI research.

Dry.io wants to 'democratize' software development with the use of software bots.

Ebay is using software bots to find similar looking items to buy for its consumers.

Facebook is readying bots to combat revenge porn.

Facebook is vowing better bots to detect terrorist videos.

Google has developed a machine learning bot that can use your data without slurping it up.

Google's Duplex can make restaurant reservations in 43 US states.

Google's DeepMind can predict wind patterns the day before.

Google's Stadia uses a software bot to change the game art in real time.

Bill Gates talked to Google employees about using AI to analyze the unborn for healthcare improvements.

Huwei has big plans to break the US grip on leadership in developing "AI" and software bots.

IBM has a software bot that conducts a blood test to detect Alzheimer's.

McDonald's bought a software bot company and will use their software to update their drive thru menus.

MIT has developed a new algorithm that has vastly increased the speed of neural network learning.

Microsoft has created a software bot to match patients with medical trials.

Microsoft has launched an AI business school.

How does a neural net work?

Neural nets are being used to analyze proteins.

Nvidia's latest bots can take a 2d sketch to create a realistic landscape picture.

To compete with Google, OpenAI seeks investors.

A group at Politecnico di Milano as developed a new circuit to accelerate AI work.

Could software bots and satellites predict volcanic eruptions?

Software bots are being used in conservation biology.

Software bots can monitor twitter for security vulnerabilities.

Software bots used to generate images are doing so with fewer labels.

A software bot has been developed in Taiwan to fact check conversations in real time and interrupt those conversations.

A software bot might be able to pick out the best shade makeup for women.

Can software bots help solve quantum mechanics problems?

Software bots have become better gamers than people are.

Software bots still have a different uncanny valley to cross: voices.

Software bots are "shockingly good" at science.

Will software bots be able to tell when someone is about to die?

Software bots for medicine have a place but have long been predicted.

Software bots need data from people to learn.  Some are upset about this.  Children do the same thing, fwiw.

Using machine learning software bots to predict brackets in March Madness is insanely competitive, too.

Stanford has unveiled an AI institute.

Time Warner has signed an algorithm for a record deal.  Wait.  What?!

Automata:

Automation threatens 1.5 million jobs in Britain.

Employment has fallen in jobs that can be easily automated.

The MGM in Las Vegas is considering replacing workers with automation, including robots.

Pepsico is laying off LOTS of people while automating.

Robots that are faster than the workers demoralizes the workers.

Self designing robots?

META:

Will 3d printing and customization of manufacturing kill off warehouses?

Can we build ethics into automated systems?

Some are arguing the 'moral machine' is not a valid starting point for making policy for self driving cars.

People can be more cooperative if they program robots than if they are doing the task themselves.

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is excited by the robopocalypse in her South by Southwest interview.

Will machines own us in the robopocalypse?

Some people are starting to think AI could make better decisions than politicians.

Terminator Times #2

UAVs/Drones:

South Korea and Israel are collaborating on a VTOL drone.

Finland has starting patrolling its border with Russia with drones.

Iran's own Shahed-129 UCAV is conducting air strikes in Syria.  Or maybe not.

Turkey's Anka UAV has had its first maiden flight.

The British have confirmed, after lots of back and forth on the validity of the purchase, of the acquisition of the Zephyr 8 high altitude UAV.

An armed American Predator UCAV crashed in Turkey.

The CEO of Northrop Grumman expresses the opinion that truly autonomous UCAVs have a long ways to go.

Unmanned Surface Vehicles:

Israel has developed an optionally manned boat called the Seagull for anti surface and anti submarine missions.

Unmanned Ground Vehicles: 

The US Army is working on self driving trucks for logistics use.  And a bit more on the subject.  This summer the US Army will be sending 175 self driving trucks in a convoy in Michigan to test out the technology on I69.

Some are getting a little worked up over Russia's work on robotic ground combat vehicles.  As are others.  Some, strangely one that is noted for hyping things, has suggested the hype is overblown.

iRobot is selling off its military division.

General:

The head of unmanned systems for the US Navy wants technology to be delivered faster and differently than in the past.

The US may need to invest more in robotics to fight Russia and China.

Robopocalypse has Come for ...Rubik's Cube Solvers?!

Robopocalypse Report #72: Those Crazy Germans

Drones:

German researchers tested landing a drone on a car going 47 mph.

There is now a drone to act like a scarecrow.

There is also a fire fighting drone.

Amazon has revealed how its drone delivery system will work.  Delivery by drone will take 30 minutes or less.  Here is a little bit more on Amazon's plans.

Raytheon is positioning its Coyote drone for many applications.

Cape has received FAA approval to use drones to record people skiing.

Sky Futures is going to be using drones to inspect oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico.

Are drones the future of search and rescue?

There is a new route planning software for drones in cluttered terrain.

Say hello, to the 'Internet of drones.'

Finmeccania claims to have a breakthrough in anti drone tech.

After a crash into power lines that cut electricity to 700 people, West Hollywood is cracking down on drones.

In Calgary, a man has been criminally charged for flying a drone near an airport.

Self Driving Cars:

MCity gets yet another profiling.

Ford is not just driving its self driving cars in snow, but in blizzard conditions.

Self driving cars may reduce pollution.

Are Robotaxis the answer to electric car's depreciation problem?

NY Times worries self driving cars may arrive before we are ready.

A Nissan Leaf that had been updated to be a self driving car by a startup crashed in San Francisco.

Japan is testing self driving cars as a way to keep the elderly mobile.

Some in Boston are fretting they are far behind in the self driving car business.

Robotics:

NASA is crowd sourcing for designs for its ISS bound bots.

Scientists have developed a 'squishy fingered' robot for coral sampling.

The M2000iA is claimed to be the world's biggest robot.

3d Printing:

3d scanning and printing helped recreate a sauropod dinosaur skeleton for a museum.

What lies ahead in 3d printing this next year.

3d knitting is coming for your shoes.

A campaign to start a 3d printed food cafe and catering service.

Graphene 3d Lab has developed a new magnetic filament for 3d printing.

Michigan Tech has developed a solar powered 3d printer.

There is a new ultrasonic deposition 3d printer that will allow creation of composites.

Yeast, of all things, can now be 3d printed.

There are now 3d micro printing techniques.

Will 3d printing have an impact on agriculture?

Puris has created the largest ever 3d printed titanium part, weighing in at 31 lbs.

The Bartlett School of Architecture is experimenting with 3d printed concrete.

Software bots:

Bots can now write political speeches.

There is now a holographic assistant.  Is this Cortana's great grandmother?

Software bots apparently cannot replace lawyers as yet.

You will be coddled: Amazon's Dash service automatically delivers items you run out of.  For now, it is printer ink, etc.  However, how long until it becomes milk, eggs and toilet paper?

Talla, an AI startup, is building bots for business.

Can bots be conscious?

Cyborgism:

There are now temporary implantable sensors that will melt away.

The Myo armband is now being used to control prosthetic arms.

The cell phone of the future may be implanted in your skull.

DARPA wants to revolutionize neural implants.

Philosophy and Economics:

FT worries about the Robopocalypse and how the US might come through just fine, but the rest of the world may not.   Could this be the end of convergence?

The conference at Davos is talking up the '4th Industrial Revolution' aka the Robopocalypse.

Mark Thoma, the economist, ponders the Robopocalypse.

CNBC also frets over the Robopocalypse claiming it will wipe out at least 5.1 million jobs.

Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking have been awarded Luddite of the Year for being afraid of AI.

Militaria:

CMU and Sikorsky teamed up to do a joint UAV/UGV demonstration using a Blachawk helicopter modified for unmanned flight and a CMU UGV robot for TARDEC.

Russia has tested flamethrower and grenade launcher equipped drones.

The Pentagon warns if any nation starts developing AI driven weapons, it will guarantee an arms race.