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Category: robotics/AI – Page 2098

In 2022, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) collides with the smaller body of the Didymos binary asteroid system in an attempt to measurably shift its orbit.

ESA’s Hera mission, now under study, will examine the aftermath of this impact to help determine whether humans can deflect threatening asteroids.

Hera will also demonstrate the ability to operate at close proximity around a low-gravity asteroid with some on-board autonomy similar in scope to a self-driving car, going on to deploy Europe’s first deep-space CubeSats, and potentially also a micro-lander, to test out a new multi-point intersatellite link technology.

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All Nippon Airways’ parent company ANA Holdings has made a Y200 million ($1.8 million) investment in commercial space flight company PD Aerospace.

The equity infusion, via a third-party allotment, comes on top of a Y20.4 million investment that the company made in October 2016.

“ANA is excited about the future of transportation and how PD Aerospace’s space technology will play an integral role,” says Yoshiaki Tsuda, vice-president of ANA Digital Design Lab. “We are increasing our support to help expedite the project’s timeline of testing and launching an unmanned spacecraft to an altitude of 100km.”

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The technology could be used at airport security instead of fingerprinting and eye-scanning. It can successfully verify an individual simply by analysing the footstep 3D and time-based data.

The AI system, developed by researchers at University of Manchester in the UK and University of Madrid in Spain, correctly identified an individual almost 100 percent of the time, with just a 0.7 error rate.

Physical biometrics, such as fingerprints, facial recognition and retinal scans, are currently more commonly used for security purposes. However, so-called behavioural biometrics, such as gait recognition, also capture unique signatures delivered by a person’s natural behavioural and movement patterns.

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Advances in Deep Neural Networks

The third and the most critical factor in AI research in the advancement in deep learning and artificial neural networks.

Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) are replacing traditional Machine Learning models to evolve precise and accurate models. Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) brings the power of deep learning to computer vision. Some of the recent advancements in computer vision such as Single Shot Multibox Detector (SSD) and Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN) are revolutionizing image processing. For example, using some of these techniques, images and videos that are shot in low light and low resolution can be enhanced to HD quality. The ongoing research in computer vision will become the base for image processing in healthcare, defense, transportation and other domains.

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Throughout history, astronomers have used both optical and radio telescopes to see and hear the universe. Now, a new project will combine both kinds of telescopes to combine the two senses so that scientists can get a more complete look at the universe in real-time.

MeerLICHT — which is Dutch for “more light” — is a new, fully robotic telescope that uses a 65-centimeter main mirror and a 100-megapixel camera that was unveiled Friday near Sutherland, South Africa, which is a few hours northeast of Cape Town. What makes this telescope different is that it will be connected to MeerKAT, a radio telescope that consists of 64 dishes and located 125 miles away. Both telescopes will scan the Southern Sky in matching fields of view. The project will be the first of its kind and size to listen as well as see into space.

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