Better tactile capabilities, not just vision, will let robots grasp any object.
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Perfect; I actually was thinking about robots as personal trainers and sparring partners for boxers. I love boxing as a workout and had thought about having a robot as a sparring partner as well as my weight/ strength training.
BTW — another concept is to build into the weight training machines AI technology to assist users. Think about if the machine sensors that the users’ muscle is about to strain that the machine takes the weight off or lightens the weight on the user of the equipment. And, if the machine senses that the person is about to have an heart attack, etc. that the equipment contacts 911, etc.
Trials of a prototype robot for sports therapy have just begun in Singapore, to create a high quality and repeatable treatment routine to improve sports recovery, reducing reliance on trained therapists.
The robot named Emma, short for Expert Manipulative Massage Automation, has already treated 50 patients in trials including professional athletes for conditions ranging from tennis elbows, stiff neck and shoulders, to lower back pain.
Emma is a robotic arm that comes with a 3D stereoscopic camera and a custom made 3D-printed massage tip. It uses sensors and diagnostic functions to measure the response of a patient and the stiffness of a particular muscle or tendon. The detailed diagnostics are analysed and uploaded to the cloud so the patient’s recovery can be closely monitored over time.
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Researchers at Case Western Reserve University have combined tissues from a sea slug with flexible 3D printed components to build “biohybrid” robots that crawl like sea turtles on the beach.
A muscle from the slug’s mouth provides the movement, which is currently controlled by an external electrical field. However, future iterations of the device will include ganglia, bundles of neurons and nerves that normally conduct signals to the muscle as the slug feeds, as an organic controller.
The researchers also manipulated collagen from the slug’s skin to build an organic scaffold to be tested in new versions of the robot.
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The warning from QuintessenceLabs’ CTO John Leisoboer is stark. “When sufficiently powerful quantum computers become generally available,” he says, “it’s guaranteed to break all existing cryptographic systems that we know of.”
In other words, he adds, “Everything that we’re doing today will be broken.”
It’s a sentiment echoed by Google’s Chrome security software engineer Matt Braithwaite who wrote in a blog post earlier this month that “a hypothetical, future quantum computer would be able to retrospectively decrypt any internet communication that was recorded today”.
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DARPA’s newest Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV) can travel on the high seas at speeds up to 27 knots for months on end without a single crew member.
The 39.62m ACTUV can be remote-controlled, but its primary use is as an autonomous vessel that can operate safely near manned ships and accommodate all weather conditions. No crew means greater safety for potentially dangerous missions like countermining and submarine tracking.
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The researchers have found a way a hacker can create sub-millimeter defects between printed layers that can create fatigue in the product.
Tags: 3D printer cyber security technology.
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Large Earth-orbiting greenhouses will someday likely be as commonplace as peanut acreage on Georgia’s coastal plains.
Low-Earth orbit (LEO) would hardly appear to be the best place to take up farming. But both NASA and the burgeoning commercial space industry are already planning for a time when in addition to on-orbit space hotels and new research stations, there will also be Earth-orbiting greenhouses. Such structures will provide a horn of plenty for growing numbers of LEO residents and astronauts venturing beyond Earth orbit to the Moon, Mars or even the Main Asteroid Belt.
The initial case for LEO agriculture would be to feed a growing population of space-dwellers — either using a greenhouse that remained permanently attached to the LEO habitat, or a greenhouse that was free-flying and uncrewed.
Here are five reasons why Earth-orbiting space greenhouses make sense.
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