Pilotless Passenger Plane Takes 500 Mile Test Flight In Commercial Airspace
Last month, a robot plane safely carried passengers 500 miles from England to Scotland and back again, the British consortium operating the plane revealed Monday.
Dubbed “the Flying Test Bed,” the plane is a normal 19-seat Jetstream—the kind a corporate executive might fly in—that was converted to fly autonomously.
The group behind the plane is Autonomous Systems Technology Related Airborne Evaluation and Assessment (Astraea), a business consortium funded by the British government and private businesses.
The test flight wasn’t completely autonomous—a human pilot onboard entered the cockpit to steer the plane through take-off, and then later the landing. The majority of the flight, however, that long tedium of maintaining a plane at cruising altitude, was in control of the remote pilot, with autonomous systems doing much of the actual flying.
While this was a test flight, it didn’t interrupt normal air traffic, and it’s 500-mile round-trip between Warton, England, and Inverness, Scotland, occurred in regular commercial airspace, shared with other airplanes.
Google Investing in Drone Autopilot Systems
Google’s venture capital arm announced yesterday that it is investing $10.7 million in a company that makes drone brains. The company, Airware, builds autopilots for unmanned aerial systems.
Because space and weight are at a premium on drones, especially small ones, Airware’s systems can get pretty tiny—one model weighs 32 grams, or about the same as a pocketful of coins.
Airware made news in January (under their previous name of Unmanned Innovations, Inc.) when a Kenyan wildlife conservation group purchased one of its drones to fly over a nature preserve and watch for poachers.
(via Google Bets $10.7 Million On Drone Intelligence | Popular Science)
Injectable Microbots, Steered by Magnets Deliver Drugs Exactly Where They’re Needed
Researchers from the Institute of Robotics in Zurich have recently developed an electromagnetically-controlled robot that can be delivered to the eye — by injection with a 23-gauge needle — and precisely positioned to sites where drug is needed.
…by coating the microbot with dye-containing nanospheres, the researchers have now repurposed the device to provide critical measurements of oxygen concentration in the eye to make quick diagnoses when vision unexpectedly fails. These new machines, and the apparatus which controls them, are part of a larger effort to deliver and control devices within several organ systems using remote power…
Steering is done by a device called the OctoMag control system (PDF). The OctoMag has three degrees of freedom (DOF) in positioning and two for pointing orientation. It is composed of eight DC-operated electromagnets arranged in a hemispherical configuration. It can create a maximum gradient of 1.5 Tesla per meter.
The microbots have a diameter less than 500um, and their length can be adjusted according to the size of drug reservoir needed. The researchers experimented with several materials for their microbot, but the best proved to be NdFeB (neodymium magnet). Most of the experiments thus far have been done in eyes from pigs or human cadavers.
(via Magnetically steerable, injectable microrobots could help treat blindness | ExtremeTech)
Military Drones to Police Civilians at Brazil World Cup. What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
iRobot announced today $7.2 million in contracts to provide Brazil with military PackBot robots for security at the 2014 World Cup.
…As part of the deal, Brazil will get 30 PackBot 510 units, which usually cost about $100,000 to $200,000 apiece. The contracts include services, spares, and associated equipment.
The camera-equipped, remote-operated robots can give users a close-up look at suspicious objects, or explore dangerous environments, while keeping operators safe from harm.
The PackBots will be working alongside thousands of soldiers deployed to each of the 12 host cities in Brazil. To spot troublemakers, Brazilian police will be equipped with facial-recognition camera glasses that reportedly can capture 400 facial images per second, storing them in a central database of up to 13 million faces.
The country reportedly purchased four Israeli-made drones to help with security for the FIFA Confederations Cup next month. It is spending $900 million to boost its security forces ahead of the World Cup, including surveillance equipment and helicopters, in a bid to make it “one of the most protected sports events in history.”
(via iRobot military bots to patrol 2014 World Cup in Brazil | Crave - CNET)
Humans Feel Empathy for Robots, Even When they’re not Humanoid
This finding comes from two separate studies carried out by the University of Duisburg Essen in Germany.
The first study asked 40 participants to watch a video where a small dinosaur-shaped robot was either treated violently or affectionately. Their physiological arousal (heart rate, pupil dilation, perspiration) was measured while they watched the video, and they were asked for their emotional state after watching the videos. When the dinobot was treated violently, the participants felt worse and showed more physiological arousal.
The second study is slightly more objective: 14 participants were scanned using functional magnetic-resonance imaging (fMRI) while they watched videos of a human, robot, and inanimate object being treated affectionately and violently.
While the inanimate object did not trigger a neurological response, the affectionate human and robot videos both triggered similar responses in the limbic system — a region of the forebrain that contains the hippocampus, amygdala, and hypothalamus, which are involved in emotional and other autonomic nervous system (fight-or-flight) responses.
A similar response from the limbic system was seen in the abusive videos, but participants appeared to show more empathetic concern for humans than robots.
While these findings probably don’t come as a surprise… these two studies are exceptional because they objectively show our empathy for robots.
Human-robot interaction, or HRI, is a notoriously tricky field because we ourselves aren’t entirely clear on how we should interact with robots. While our neurological and physiological responses clearly show that we experience empathy for robots, the researchers would have got very different results if they had asked the participants if they felt sorry for the abused robots, because we’re not sure if we should feel sorry for robots.
(via Judgment Day looms: Researchers prove that humans feel empathy for robots | ExtremeTech)
SFX Designer Builds Rideable Two Ton Diesel Robot Hexapod, “World’s Biggest”
Denton, an animatronics and special-effects designer whose portfolio includes “Prometheus” and “Lost in Space” with company Micromagic Systems, has an interest in hexapods that goes way back.
Over the years, he has built a few miniature hexapods at Micromagic. Mantis is his first giant-sized model, the result of four years of research, development, design, and building, and is, Denton claims, the biggest operational hexapod in the world.
The thing comes in at 9.2 feet tall, weighing 2 tons. It’s powered by a 2.2-liter turbo diesel engine and is designed to take on any terrain.
(via Finally, a giant hexapod tank you can drive | Crave - CNET)
Scientists Use Dumb Micro-Bots to Study Ant Navigation, With Applications for Self-Driving Cars, Data Routing
The researchers experimented with a swarm of sugar-cube-size antlike robots called “Alices.” A camera followed the Alices’ movements and used a video projector above the robots to lay down trails of light marking where the robots had traveled — similar to the way real ants lay down chemical trails of pheromones.
The robots were programmed to follow light trails with a pair of light sensors, avoid obstacles and otherwise move forward, randomly changing the angle at which they moved every few seconds. The robots lacked more sophisticated navigation techniques.
At the beginning of the experiment, in which the branches of the maze had no light trail, the robots simply moved forward at random angles. If the robots detected a light trail, they would follow that path. This basic strategy naturally led the robots to choose the path that diverged least from their trajectory at each fork…
“The robots show that you don’t need complex cognitive processes to navigate these mazes,” Garnier said.
…”The principles that ants use to find shorter paths have actually been the basis of computer programs developed in the last 10 years to help decide what are the best paths for trucks to transport merchandise between cities, the so-called traveling salesman problem,” Garnier said. “One of the most efficient algorithms to solve this problem is directly inspired by the same logic studied in our work, and is also used by telecommunications companies to route packets of information between cell phones.”
DARPA Develops Robot With Hands Dextrous Enough to Use Tools, Change a Tire
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has a robot that can change a tire, picking up the tire, getting it off and on the (simulated) wheel and using the lug wrench. This may sound pretty simple, but the point isn’t the changing of the tire — it’s holding the tools.
Robots that can hold tools are a lot more versatile than those built for a specific task, because then they can adapt to doing whatever is asked of them — instead of a robot that only tightens nuts, it’s possible to ask one to pick up a screwdriver as well.
(via Robot Changes Tires So You Don’t Have To : Discovery News)
Turing Machine Made of Artificial Muscles Paves Way for Smart Prosthetics and Soft Robots
In the hierarchy of computing hardware, artificial muscle doesn’t really even register: it’s usually a target for action, not the perpetrator.
The University of Auckland has figured out a way to let those muscles play a more active role. Its prototype Turing machine uses a set of electroactive polymer muscles to push memory elements into place and squeeze piezoresistive switches, performing virtually any calculation through flexing.
The proof-of-concept computer won’t give silicon circuits any threat when it’s running at just 0.15Hz and takes up as much space as a mini fridge, but the hope is to dramatically speed up and shrink down future iterations to where there are advanced computers that occupy the same size as real muscles.
Researchers ultimately envision smart prosthetic limbs with near-natural reflexes, completely soft robots with complex gestures and even a switch from digital to analog computing for some tasks. Although we’re quite a distance away from any of those muscle-bound ideas becoming everyday realities, it’s good to at least see them on the horizon.
(via Turing machine built from artificial muscles may lead to smart prosthetics)
![DARPA’s “Augmented Cognition” Program Raises Ethical Problems for Neuroscientists
The Pentagon’s expanding work in neuroscience in recent years has focused on medical applications, like research to understand traumatic brain injury and on concepts intended to help the military fight wars more effectively, such as studying ways to keep soldiers’ brains alert even after days without sleep.
But under the rubric of “Augmented Cognition,” DARPA has also pursued a number of military technologies, like goggles that would monitor a soldier’s brain signals to pick up potential threats before the conscious mind is aware of them.
While some of the applications might be a generation away, or may never arrive, like mind-controlled drones, others, like the brain-monitoring goggles, are already in testing (though probably not ready for use in the field).
[This raises] questions from ethicists, who are pushing for the government to begin now to think about “neuro ethics.” In a 2012 article published last year in the journal Plos Biology, Jonathan Moreno, a professor of medical ethics, and Michael Tennison, a professor of neurology, argued that many neuroscientists don’t think about the contribution of their work to warfare, or consider the ethical implication of such work.
The question they raise is what choice future soldiers might have in such cognitively enhanced warfare. “If a warfighter is allowed no autonomous freedom to accept or decline an enhancement intervention, and the intervention in question is as invasive as remote brain control,” they write, “then the ethical implications are immense.”
(via Ten extraordinary Pentagon mind experiments | KurzweilAI)](http://24.media.tumblr.com/58911cd010851c6a343a8c9e850f9ae6/tumblr_mjplbuFPTt1qgpcs1o1_500.jpg)
DARPA’s “Augmented Cognition” Program Raises Ethical Problems for Neuroscientists
The Pentagon’s expanding work in neuroscience in recent years has focused on medical applications, like research to understand traumatic brain injury and on concepts intended to help the military fight wars more effectively, such as studying ways to keep soldiers’ brains alert even after days without sleep.
But under the rubric of “Augmented Cognition,” DARPA has also pursued a number of military technologies, like goggles that would monitor a soldier’s brain signals to pick up potential threats before the conscious mind is aware of them.
While some of the applications might be a generation away, or may never arrive, like mind-controlled drones, others, like the brain-monitoring goggles, are already in testing (though probably not ready for use in the field).
[This raises] questions from ethicists, who are pushing for the government to begin now to think about “neuro ethics.” In a 2012 article published last year in the journal Plos Biology, Jonathan Moreno, a professor of medical ethics, and Michael Tennison, a professor of neurology, argued that many neuroscientists don’t think about the contribution of their work to warfare, or consider the ethical implication of such work.
The question they raise is what choice future soldiers might have in such cognitively enhanced warfare. “If a warfighter is allowed no autonomous freedom to accept or decline an enhancement intervention, and the intervention in question is as invasive as remote brain control,” they write, “then the ethical implications are immense.”
(via Ten extraordinary Pentagon mind experiments | KurzweilAI)
