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Although Google's self-driving cars have yet to become anywhere close to mainstream — they're only approved in three states including California, Nevada and Florida — it's not difficult to ponder all the doors (no pun intended) driverless cars could bring for humanity, especially for disabled folk, who are blind or unfit for driving.
So far, Google's prototype self-driving cars have been of the Toyota Prius and Lexus RX450h variety, retrofitted with a gazillion sensors. But according to former Wall Street Journal reporter Jessica Lessin, who is launching a new technology publication, Google wants to build its own self-driving cars. The website reports Google's talks with major car companies have "failed to yield a partnership." Without any willing car partners, it may have to design and build its robotic dream car on its own.
Another option, Jessica Lessin reports, is Google may operate a "robo taxi" fleet, if it builds its own self-driving cars:
"One idea Google has been studying is how its vehicles could become part of robo-taxi systems in which a fleet of self-driving cars would pick up passengers and work commuters on demand, according to people familiar with the matter. Google believes that such systems could potentially reduce the need for people to own cars and reduce accidents."
One of the most common risks that dismounted Soldiers face in the field is injury from carrying their gear — often topping 100 pounds — for extended periods over rough terrain.
Heavy loads increase the likelihood of musculoskeletal injury and also exacerbate fatigue, which contributes to both acute and chronic injury and impedes Soldiers’ physical and cognitive abilities to perform mission-oriented tasks.
To help address these challenges, DARPA seeks performers for the last phase of its Warrior Web program.
Warrior Web aims to develop a soft, lightweight undersuit that would help reduce injuries and fatigue and improve Soldiers’ ability to efficiently perform their missions. The garment would protect injury-prone areas and promote efficient and safe movement over a wide range of activities (walking, running, jumping, crawling, etc.).
Comfortable, durable and washable, the garment would not interfere with body armor or other standard clothing and gear. DARPA seeks to create a working prototype that significantly boosts endurance, carrying capacity and overall Soldier effectiveness — all while using no more than 100 watts of power.
“Many of the individual technologies currently under development show real promise to reduce injury and fatigue and improve endurance,” said LTC Joseph Hitt, DARPA program manager for Warrior Web. “Now we’re aiming to combine them — and hopefully some new ones, too — into a single system that nearly every Soldier could wear and would provide decisive benefits under real-world conditions.”
DARPA has scheduled a Warrior Web Task B Proposers’ Day for potential performers on Thursday, Sept. 5, 2013. The Special Notice for the Proposers’ Day is available at http://go.usa.gov/jJjT and more information is available here. The Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for Warrior Web Task B is available at http://go.usa.gov/jJbR.
DARPA seeks proposals in the following technology areas:
Integrated advanced control systems across multiple joints
Materials, fabrics, structures, sensors, sensor interfaces and human factors associated with developing conforming, assistive wearable technologies
Technologies that significantly reduce the potential for acute or chronic injury of a wearer under typical warfighter mission profile situations
Technologies that increase physical capabilities and/or endurance of humans during activities such as running, lifting, climbing, carrying a load, marksmanship, etc.
Additional assistive wearable technologies for rehabilitation, physical therapy or those intended to help improve quality of life for the aging population
3D Robotics announces GPS-guided quadcopter for the massesAutonomous UAVs may be all the rage these days among professionals, but unfortunately a lot of the GPS-guided quadrotors on the market are a bit too complicated for the average consumer to control. 3D Robotics is aiming to inject a little more simplicity into the equation with its recently unveiled Iris. Billed as a ready-to-fly, fully-autonomous, user-friendly UAV, the Iris supports simple GPS controls through any computer, tablet, or smartphone.
Miguel Nicolelis is a man with a lot of pressure on his shoulders. Since claiming that he will build the robotic exoskeletal suit that enables a paraplegic to perform the opening kickoff during the next world cup, he has been scrambling to make good on his self-imposed mandate. By all measures, he has logged several important advances en route to that goal this year alone. The latest offering from his lab at Duke provides an important link into how an exoskeleton will be incorporated at the cortical level, into the so-called body schema. In other words, how the mind comes to perceive its new self.
The “rubber hand illusion” is a well-known phenomenon which illustrates how plastic our body schema can be. It is best experienced by visually substituting a mannequin arm for your own arm, and applying a physical stimulus like a stroke or prick, to both. In a matter of minutes, your perceptions and concerns begin to morph to what is going on at the mannequin arm. This happens to the point that your brain begins to identify closer with the fake arm. In support of this view, many psychologies like to point to several studies that have shown that the real arm decreases in temperature under these circumstances.
A research team from the National University of Singapore's (NUS) Faculty of Engineering has created efficient artificial, or "robotic" muscles, which could carry a weight 80 times its own and able to extend to five times its original length when carrying the load – a first in robotics. The team's invention will pave the way for the constructing of life-like robots with superhuman strength and ability
If you were starting a robotics company, what would you build a robot to do? You could build one to master a particular form of motion, to prove a point. Or you could build one to perform a task that’s impossible for a human to perform, such as explore under the ocean. You’d end up with something sexy but expensive and only useful to a handful of institutions. And unless you had a contract with a well-funded national military, you’d probably be out of business pretty fast.
Harvest Automation has built a robot to do something that’s neither difficult nor sexy: move potted plants around in nurseries and greenhouses. It’s a task the Boston-based company decided to tackle with its first robot, dubbed Harvey, not because humans can’t do it, but because they don’t.
“It’s often very difficult strenuous work, and increasingly it’s harder and harder to find people to do that work,” Harvest Automation CEO John Kawola told Singularity Hub.
Dash 'origami' robot lets you build your own insect buddy | Cutting Edge - CNET NewsYour own personal robot minion is pretty close to going into production. Dash Robotics has just launched a crowdfunding campaign to put insect-inspired robot kits into the hands of the masses. The Dash bots are cute and affordable.
Dash comes as a flat sheet. You fold and assemble it, like a robotic version of origami. It includes the necessary motor and electronics to make the little beastie run. It takes about an hour to do the assembly, no soldering required.
There are quite a few features packed into the robot, including a gyroscope, light sensor, LEDS, and a micro-USB connector. Controlling Dash requires an iOS device that supports Bluetooth 4.0. The team is planning to offer an Android app, but there are no guarantees at this point.
Drones in China deliver packages, even a birthday cake | Cutting Edge - CNET NewsIn China, robots can cook and serve food while serenading customers, are being built into a "million robot army" to revolutionize manufacturing, and are a cornerstone of youth education. So it would make sense that in the Chinese city of Dongguang aerial drones are now delivering packages.
Spotted in the city -- located in the southern province of Guangdong with a population of roughly 8 million -- by a Weibo user who posted the photos on the Chinese social network, the drones are eight-rotor helicopters, or octocoptors, operated by the delivery service SF Express, whose logo was conveniently plastered on the side of the drone. The company admitted to running trials of the service after media reports picked up on the photos.
Because it is only in the testing phase, SF Express drones are not in widespread deployment, yet. However, it's estimated by Chinese media reports that the octocoptor can fly roughly 328 feet in the air, deliver packages within two meters of customers, and withstand a load of approximately 6.5 pounds.
Farmers can now get a birds-eye view of their fields – in full HD – thanks to Michigan State University landing its first drone.
MSU researchers are using its first unmanned aerial vehicle to help farmers maximize yields by improving nitrogen and water management and reducing environmental impact such as nitrate leaching or nitrous oxide emissions.
For this initiative, MSU's UAV measures how crops react to stress, such as drought, nutrients deficiency or pests. The drone flies over the field documenting the field's status *– down to centimeters. The portrait gives farmers details on the current health of their crops.
Somewhere deep in the Australian outback there are massive robots operating a mine. Each of them weighs 210 metric tons and has a voracious appetite for, er, carrying stuff. You see, the robots are dump trucks — and they could kick the crap out of Audi and Google's self-driving cars.
As part of Australia's mine of the future, the dump trucks make up the Autonomous Hauling System (AHS), and are capable of navigating their surroundings and delivering rock to on-site processing machinery. How they navigate their surroundings can be preset and altered by off-site human operators, similar to how military drones function.
There aren’t many names that can stir the public’s interest simply by announcing their intent to enter a race. Some can’t be ignored due to sheer size and resources — the Microsofts and Googles of the world — but others get by on a narrower but highly prestigious track record, such as the Valves and the Amazons. In terms of hardware, Tesla Motors definitely falls into the latter category; in just a decade it has built a worldwide auto competitor and the first plug-in to excite enthusiasts as a car, rather than as an electric car. Though new, Tesla has definitely acquired the air of an elite contender.
Read more at: Robot knows who wants one for the road(Phys.org) —JAMES has a head that is actually a tablet. JAMES is an efficient waiter yet only has one arm. JAMES can read your body language to know you want a drink without your saying a word. Perhaps the biggest surprise of all, however, is that the EU is funding this project. JAMES stands for The Joint Action in Multimodal Embodied Systems. The project started in 2011 and continues until January. Actually, its research and results will be helpful for scientists to know how robots can assist people in meaningful ways. Beyond rescue missions, intelligence-gathering and warfare, robots may be useful partners in daily life. JAMES offers interesting cues as to what can be accomplished in robot-human interactions.
A robot that picks ripe strawberries as the farmer sleeps was unveiled in Japan on Wednesday, with its developer saying it could cut workloads by two-thirds.
The device, which can gather a piece of fruit every eight seconds, uses three cameras to determine which strawberries are ready to pick before darting out an arm and snipping them into its basket.
The two-metre (6ft 6ins) robot moves on rails between rows of strawberries, which are usually grown in elevated planters in greenhouses in Japan.
(Phys.org) —This week German automaker Mercedes-Benz put the world on alert to its latest ride control technology in an entertainment-focused ad effort starring chickens, not luxury sedans. The result is that many bloggers are talking a lot about the chickens. The ad promoting the new 2014 S-class cars breaks the auto industry advertising mold, in a move to a viral ad-inducing stare at an animal curiosity. In this instance, the chickens are intended as metaphor for the feature called Magic Ride Control. This involves a stabilized ride that has been compared to a magic carpet ride. The ad, though, had no signs of royal carriages on wheels racing on empty highways or pulling up to opera houses.
In 2011, when an MIT senior named John Romanishin proposed a new design for modular robots to his robotics professor, Daniela Rus, she said, “That can’t be done.”
Two years later, Rus showed her colleague Hod Lipson, a robotics researcher at Cornell University, a video of prototype robots, based on Romanishin’s design, in action. “That can’t be done,” Lipson said.
A notional combat suit for a future U.S. Armuy soldier. U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) believes that innovation between industry can accelerate the introduction of leap-forward capabilities embodied in a tactical combat outfit for a future soldier. U.S. Army photo by Conrad Johnson, RDECOM Public Affairs
Few Requests for Information (RFIs) are accompanied by the U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) Senior Enlisted Advisor, Command Sgt. Maj. Chris Faris, almost simultaneously saying, “there is no one industry that can build that.” But that was the case for the RFI solicitation for the Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit (TALOS), released on May 15. SOCOM is seeking technology demonstration submissions from research and development (R&D) organizations, private industry, individuals, government labs, and academia for inclusion in SOCOM experimentation events. According to the RFI, SOCOM sees these experimentation events as part of an effort “to accelerate the delivery of innovative capabilities to the SOF warfighter.”
BBC News - Ford car takes control of steering to avoid collisionsA car that takes control of the steering wheel when it detects the risk of a collision is being tested at a research facility in Germany.
Ford said the Obstacle Avoidance system first warned the driver of danger and then took charge if they did not react.
The firm said the equipment had been fitted to one of its vehicles as part of a project involving other carmakers and suppliers.
One analyst said it was a staging post on the route to "driverless cars".
The system scans up to 200m (650ft) ahead by using three radars, a number of ultrasonic sensors and a camera, which are all installed in the vehicle.
An additional built-in display shows a warning sign and sounds a chime. Then, if necessary, it applies the brakes, scans for a gap in the road ahead, and steers to avoid a crash.
Ford car takes control of steering to avoid collisions
BBC News - Ford car takes control of steering to avoid collisionsA car that takes control of the steering wheel when it detects the risk of a collision is being tested at a research facility in Germany.
Ford said the Obstacle Avoidance system first warned the driver of danger and then took charge if they did not react.
The firm said the equipment had been fitted to one of its vehicles as part of a project involving other carmakers and suppliers.
One analyst said it was a staging post on the route to "driverless cars".
The system scans up to 200m (650ft) ahead by using three radars, a number of ultrasonic sensors and a camera, which are all installed in the vehicle.
An additional built-in display shows a warning sign and sounds a chime. Then, if necessary, it applies the brakes, scans for a gap in the road ahead, and steers to avoid a crash.
Toyota rolling out near-autonomous cars in five years | Cutting Edge - CNET NewsThe race towards autonomous vehicles appears to be picking up steam. Nissan set 2020 as the year it would put autonomous cars on the road, and now Toyota lays out specifics on autonomous car technologies it will put into production "in the mid-2010s", according to a press release.
Toyota calls its core autonomous car technology Automated Highway Driving Assist (AHDA), noting that it consists of two new features, Cooperative-adaptive Cruise Control and Lane Trace Control.
