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Category: robotics/AI – Page 1655

I just read an incredible post about Transhumanism by Francesco Neo Amati, CM of Transhumanism: The Future of Humanity.

What an excellent representation of how pragmatic and collaborative our community can be. People like Francesco Neo Amati are the reason why I call myself a Transhumanist…

“Community Announcement:

The following will address the purpose of our community as outlined in the Pinned Post and to dispel common misconceptions of Transhumanism by clarifying what it is and what it isn’t.

I have no desire in being a ‘leader’ in the Transhumanism community. I merely hope to be and remain a credible educator/resource, passionate advocate, and a voice of reason for the movement.

Continue reading “Stephen Langevin” | >

Easy Aerial claims its Albatross UAS is a tethered machine that has an unbreachable data connection.

Drone startup Easy Aerial has launched a new unmanned aerial system (UAS), called Albatross, a tethered device with unlimited flight time and an unbreachable data connection.

The drone hexacopter can carry an 8.5 lb payload capacity with three hardpoints, two on the side that can carry up to 4 lb and the bottom hardpoint that can carry payloads of up to 8 lb. The side payload stations feature standard mounting as well as Picatinny rails that support a wide range of applications such as floodlights, communications relays, loudspeakers and cyber-related and other commercial and military electronic systems. The bottom hardpoint is designed for gimbaled cameras or large ISR loads such as radar or communication jammers.

Because of these features, the system works in applications such as commercial, public safety, firefighting, military, border patrol, perimeter, and infrastructure overwatch and surveillance operations.

Continue reading “Autonomous drone carries an 8 lb payload and unlimited flight time” | >

Once running at full capacity by the end of next year, its creators say, the facility will be able to generate a ton of food. Produce can be harvested up to 15 times a year without needing any soil or daylight.

Automated robots will be used to both plant seeds and check in on them later as well.

Nordic Harvest envisions that other massive facilities like it could have a major impact on the global fresh food supply. In fact, vertical farms covering an area of 20 soccer fields could grow enough greens for the entirety of Denmark, the startup argues, as reported by Fast Company.

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A joint study led by City University of Hong Kong (CityU) has built an ultralow-power consumption artificial visual system to mimic the human brain, which successfully performed data-intensive cognitive tasks. Their experiment results could provide a promising device system for the next generation of artificial intelligence (AI) applications.

The research team is led by Professor Johnny Chung-yin Ho, Associate Head and Professor of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) at CityU. Their findings have been published in the scientific journal Science Advances, titled “Artificial visual system enabled by quasi-two-dimensional electron gases in oxide superlattice .”

As the advances in semiconductor technologies used in digital computing are showing signs of stagnation, neuromorphic (brain-like) computing systems have been regarded as one alternative. Scientists have been trying to develop the next generation of advanced AI computers, which could be as lightweight, energy-efficient and adaptable as the human brain.

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It’s not a stretch to say that stretchable sensors could change the way soft robots function and feel. In fact, they will be able to feel quite a lot.

Cornell researchers have created a fiber-optic sensor that combines low-cost LEDs and dyes, resulting in a stretchable “skin” that detects deformations such as pressure, bending and strain. This sensor could give soft robotic systems – and anyone using augmented reality technology – the ability to feel the same rich, tactile sensations that mammals depend on to navigate the natural world.

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Charles Darwin’s landmark opus “On the Origin of the Species” ends with a beautiful summary of his theory of evolution: “There is a grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.” In fact, scientists now know that most species that have ever existed are extinct.

This has, on the whole, been roughly balanced by the origination of new ones over Earth’s history, with a few major temporary imbalances scientists call extinction events. Scientists have long believed that mass extinctions create productive periods of evolution, or “radiations,” a model called “creative destruction.” A new study led by scientists affiliated with the Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) at Tokyo Institute of Technology used machine learning to examine the co-occurrence of fossil species and found that radiations and extinctions are rarely connected, and thus mass extinctions likely rarely cause radiations of a comparable scale.

Creative destruction is central to classic concepts of evolution. It seems clear that there are periods in which many species suddenly disappear, and many new species suddenly appear. However, radiations of a comparable scale to the mass extinctions, which this study, therefore, calls the mass radiations, have received far less analysis than extinction events. This study compared the impacts of both extinction and radiation across the period for which fossils are available, the so-called Phanerozoic Eon. The Phanerozoic (from the Greek meaning “apparent life”), represents the most recent ~ 550-million-year period of Earth’s total ~4.5 billion-year history, and is significant to palaeontologists: Before this period, most of the organisms that existed were microbes that didn’t easily form fossils, so the prior evolutionary record is hard to observe.

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