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Filed under: Robots

While both the Navy and Air Force have recently warmed up to a new robotic friend, a number of military bots-to-be showed their stuff at DARPATech 2007. Among the standouts were a camera-guided Little Dog, the resilient Big Dog, a backpack-portable, fully autonomous Micro Air Vehicle, and a beefed-up version of the MAV (dubbed the Organic Air Vehicle) that can reportedly hover around for two hours. The latter creation was designed to “designate ground targets from the sky and paint targets up to 15-kilometers away with its laser designator,” while the MAV can monitor a 10-kilometer radius “with infrared or visible cameras in hover-and-stare mode.” The aforementioned canines seem to be terrain navigators, which could potentially be studied to improve the locomotion of walking machines in general. Go on, click through for a few glimpses of these friendly fellows — they aren’t armed, yet.

Continue reading New military robots showcased at DARPATech 2007

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Filed under: Robots, Wearables

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, no strangers to reaching for seemingly unattainable goals in medical science, have set their sights on what some consider to be the ultimate pursuit of modern prosthetics: a bionic arm that moves, looks and feels like its human counterpart. And they want to do it by 2009. An earlier prototype of the arm, the Proto 1, was shown in April of this year, and now the team of scientists is scrambling to ready the arm’s second iteration, the Proto 2, in time to show it off this week at the 25th Darpa Systems and Technology Symposium (where it will likely be joined by Dean Kamen’s Darpa funded bionic arm). Researchers hope that the prothesis, which is currently controlled by skin-surface-attached myoelectric sensors, can be made more intuitive by adding injectable sensors, which send increased amounts of signals (and have improved clarity) allowing for greater control of the arm. In time, the team hopes to move to nerve-attached electrodes, or electrode arrays implanted on the brain, which will eventually allow for full user dexterity.

[Via Wired]

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Filed under: Gaming, Transportation

While we’re sure a number of you have a Yellow Dog Linux-equipped PS3 around for leisure’s sake, Axion Racing is using a similar setup to “manage one of seven autonomous vehicle cameras.” The San Diego-based team is reportedly eager to show onlookers “things [other than gaming and Blu-ray playing] that can be done using a PlayStation console,” and expects the device to mesh well with its array of Dell computers, SICK laser finders, Bumblebee stereo cameras, and FLIR infrared cameras.” Of course, who knows what could happen if a stray android climbs on board and fires up a round of MotorStorm while it’s trying to concentrate.

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Filed under: Robots

In a move sure to enkindle flying robotic creatures everywhere, a new species is finally ready to join the gang, as a “life-size, robotic fly has taken flight at Harvard University.” The diminutive creation weighs just 60-milligrams, sports a three-centimeter wingspan, and has been developed to boast movements “modeled on those of a real fly.” Notably, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen researchers rely on the works of nature in order to craft their own mechanical beings, and given the fly’s innate ability to be an excellent spy or chemical detection agent, it’s no shock to hear that DARPA is reportedly sponsoring the endeavor. As expected, taking flight was simply the first step in a long line of improvements to come, as the man behind the machine is now looking to integrate an onboard battery and create a flight controller so that the robot can move in different directions.

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

It looks like the Navy’s not the only one keen on predicting the future these days, with the ever-experimenting folks at DARPA now also getting in on the act with a proposed solution of their own. Dubbed “Deep Green,” the program consists of a variety of software that battlefield commanders can feed information into and get fed back forecasts of how a mission might turn out in return. At the center of the system, according to Wired’s Danger Room, are two pieces of software: “Blitzkrieg,” which produces combat models for commanders to consider, and “Crystal Ball,” which pools a variety of information and offers up the most likely scenarios and the best course of action. We’ll just have to wait and see if it actually pans out or goes the way of the laughing bullet.

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Filed under: Robots

It seems like it was just yesterday when ASTRO and NextSat took to the skies galaxy in hopes of making their creators proud, but now the time has come for the two to wind down and sip exotic liquids from an umbrella-adorned glass. Thankfully, this story has somewhat of a gleeful ending, though it wasn’t looking so rosy just days ago; on June 27th, the two parted ways and managed to drift some seven-kilometers apart before ASTRO used its onboard camera system (and a bit of help from ground control) to navigate back to NextSat, where it then proceeded to give its space-bound buddy a theoretical noogie. Sadly, this final scenario marks the final test in DARPA’s Orbital Express demonstration, which means that the two machines now have an ominous decommission plan to look forward to.

[Via NewScientist]

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

In case you didn’t know, part of DARPA’s job is just to think up some totally outrageous stuff and then begin to throw money at it. Well, its brain-trust must be working overtime this month, because as a follow up to the invisible, shoot-through shield, we’re getting laser-guided bullets. On the very same “budget item justification sheet” in which the aforementioned sci-fi shield is proposed, DARPA honchos “justify” the laser guided bullet project, which will fund research into a low cost, high performance solution for designing “new guidance technologies” that will enable steering of bullets in flight. The hope with this technology is that compact targeting systems (to be embedded in said projectiles) will enable “overmatching fire power” and increased “first shot effectiveness”, in addition to potentially cutting down on friendly fire and collateral damage — and retroactively making JFK’s “one-gunman” assassination plausible.

[Via Wired]

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

In a move seemingly influenced in equal parts by Halo and David Lynch’s film Dune, Darpa has announced that it’s ponying up $15 million to develop one-way-invisible, self-healing, shoot-through shields for use in urban combat. While the Pentagon’s research division acknowledges that there are “significant technical obstacles” in the process, it’s fairly gung-ho about developing a technology combining metamaterials, ‘coded’ obscurant systems, and a bunch of other stuff no one really understands. Trust us, you’ll thank them if the Harkonens try and overthrow your spice-mining operation.

[Via Digg]

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Filed under: Robots, Transportation

While it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise given that they’ve already won the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge, we’re sure that the team from Stanford is still pretty stoked that they’ve passed the first test on the way to DARPA’s upcoming Urban Challenge. Or, more specifically, that “Junior” the autonomous Volkswagen Passat passed the test. It apparently wasn’t entirely smooth sailing though, as the car got stuck once on a course while passing a car, although it eventually managed to recover — it never did push it past 15 mph though. As with the other contenders, however, Junior still has a ways to go before the big race, with another, more challenging test in store later this summer that’ll narrow the field down to the top thirty.

[Photo courtesy of CNET]

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Filed under: Robots, Transportation

It looks like DARPA’s newly-instated Urban Challenge is shaping up nicely, with this self-driving Isuzu SUV from Austin Robot Technology and the University of Texas now joining the likes of Team LUX’s Volkswagen Passat and NC State’s Lotus Elise in competing for the top prize. As with those other vehicles, the SUV (dubbed Marvin) is completely autonomous, relying on an array of sensors, video cameras, artificial intelligence, and machine-learning technology to (hopefully) avoid catastrophe as it motors about. As you might guess, the Urban Challenge presents a few different obstacles for the vehicles to deal with than the Grand Challenge does, including intersections, improperly parked cars, and traffic laws that must be followed at all times. Marvin still has a ways to go before it can get a chance to drive away a few million dollars richer, however, with it required to pass a basic driving test this summer and a national qualifier in October before it’s allowed to enter the big event in November.

[Photo courtesy of Ralph Barrera/American-Statesman]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Robots

Heading into the enemy’s camp isn’t something that Marines take lightly, and rather than finding out which private has the most experience in Call of Duty and shuffling him / her in, they’re letting a robot do a soldier’s job. Developed by the University of Minnesota using funding from DARPA, the Recon Scout resembles your average barbell weight, but when you’re not workin’ those triceps, this little fellow can be heaved across flatlands, over fences, and into brick walls in order to secure a location and start feeding back video of its surroundings. The two-wheeled bot is equipped with a low-resolution monochrome camera that feeds images back to the Operator Control Unit, and since it weighs just a single pound and fits in most cargo pockets, the whole platoon could carry their own in order to really scope out the next bend. Of course, the current iteration will only broadcast video up to 250 feet, and onlookers at a recent demonstration weren’t thrilled by its quickness, but a titanium-based wheeled spying machine is fairly impressive regardless. Reportedly, the Recon Scout has been sold to “law enforcement agencies” for around $6,500 apiece, but we’ve no idea how much this rugged inspector will run the general public.

[Via Wired]

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Defense institutions have been attempting to find the secret of detecting snipers before they strike for a good while now, but DARPA’s latest initiative seeks to not only pick up on enemy snipers before they attack, but to “neutralize” ‘em while we’re at it. More specifically, the “objectives of the C-Sniper program are to develop a system and supporting technologies for the detection and neutralization of enemy snipers before they can engage US Forces,” and while plans for the installation are still foggy, officials are hoping to create a system that “operates day and night from a moving vehicle, and can provide the operator with sufficient information to make an engagement decision” in due time. Of course, once detection is made, the choice to react will still be left up to a human (at least for now, anyway), and there’s even hints of utilizing lasers so long as operators are kept safe from their blinding ways. Per usual on DARPA-headed projects, there’s no set timetable as to when our boys will be geared up with sniper-sniping technology, but we’d love to get this stuff into the latest first-person shooters as soon as feasibly possible.

[Via Wired, image courtesy of PLIG]

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Wearables

Less than a year after challenging researchers to develop a bionic arm that looks, feels, and works like a real arm by 2009, DARPA’s Revolutionizing Prosthetics Program has now netted its first prototype, PhysOrg reports, with one patient already putting the arm through its paces. Developed by a team at Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory, the appropriately-dubbed Proto 1 system not only consists of a prosthetic arm, but a virtual environment that patients can use to get accustomed to it. Like other similar systems, the Proto 1 makes use of residual nerves in the patient to control the arm, which also allows for them to receive a sensation of grip strength and touch. That apparently makes the arm precise enough to remove a credit card from a pocket, with the arm also boasting a “free swing mode” that allows for a more natural movement when the patient is walking. While Proto 1 seems to have already been enough to attract interest from various government agencies, the researchers don’t look to be resting on their laurels, with them already hard at work on Proto 2.

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Filed under: GPS

No sooner than the Joint Forces Command announces an initiative to utilize hybrid GPS technology to get geo-tracking information to soldiers whilst inside buildings or otherwise obstructed from GPS range, DARPA has went and hired Boeing to do almost the same thing. The Robust Surface Navigation (RSN) program seeks to “exploit signals of opportunity to deliver precise location information to the US warfighter in GPS-denied environments,” which could theoretically overcome any GPS jamming techniques that our enemies may try. Essentially, Boeing is looking to companies such as ROSUM to figure out how to provide tracking data via terrestrial broadcast signals and augmented broadcast signals instead of GPS. The 15-month Phase 1 concept development contract is just getting underway, and while no commercial plans have been cooked up just yet, we can’t imagine this staying out of civilian hands for too awfully long.

[Via Gizmag]

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Filed under: Wearables

The night-vision thing has definitely been done a time or two before, but DARPA’s latest initiative is looking beyond the darkness as it hopes to create a set of binoculars that can actually detect threats and warn soldiers of impending death. Taking a note from Star Wars, the jokingly dubbed “Luke’s Devices” is actually considered a “cognitive technology threat warning system,” and utilizes brain monitoring to bring attention to spikes in activity before the person can actually realize he / she has noticed something awry. Among the gizmos that’ll bring this all together are “neurally-based target detection signatures, ultra-low power analog / digital hybrid signal processing electronics, wide-angle optics, large pixel-count digital imagers, and cognitive visual processing algorithms.” Yeah, sounds pretty complicated to us too, but unlike snazzy concepts we’ve seen before, the gurus behind these goggles reportedly hope to have prototypes ready for battle in just a few years.

[Via Wired]

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

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Filed under: Robots

Don’t say we didn’t warn you, as just days after ASTRO and NextSat successfully completed an autonomous fuel transfer whilst orbiting, the thoughtful duo is already looking forward to the next big challenge. As Scenario 0 operation trials continue, the ASTRO satellite will utilize its “ten-foot-long robotic arm to move objects to NextSat,” the first of which will purportedly be a “spare battery transfer” that will be “snatched from ASTRO and plugged into NextSat.” Reportedly, this very battery will be the focal point of a number of future handoffs, and a “secondary sensor processing computer” will eventually be offloaded to NextSat as well if the arm cooperates. Of course, these relatively minor exchanges don’t mark the end of the work week for these two, as a number of future scenarios look to provide increasingly difficult challenges for “mating” the two machines. Hey, we’ve already got robotic rights in the works, so we’re looking that way for guidance about handling these newfangled (and slightly awkward) mechanical relationships, cool?

[Via Slashdot]

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Robots

Launching a few birds into space is quite a feat in its own right, but pumping hydrazine fuel into an orbiting counterpart autonomously is really something to be proud of. Just about a month after launching the two unmanned crafts into space, the ASTRO satellite “successfully pumped vital hydrazine fuel into its NextSat counterpart as part of Scenario 0-1, the first in a series of increasingly challenging tests.” The machines are currently taking part in the series of Orbital Express missions, and apparently, things are on the up and up thus far. Future tests are slated to include “autonomous undocking, proximity operations and re-docking,” as well as installing a battery on NextSat with its robotic arm. We can’t wait to see what happens when one of the two gets testy about refueling after hours, but we sure hope the galactic battle is somehow caught on tape.

[Via Digg]

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Robots

Well this is just great. One of our few remaining advantages over the robots who wish to enslave us — the ability to run away and cower in an inaccessible location — may soon be gone forever, if DARPA’s bid for softball-sized, morphing ‘ChemBots’ proves successful. The government’s mad scientist wing wants proposals for a soft, flexible bot that is able to collapse down to a tenth of its original size, crawl through a one centimeter opening at a quarter of a meter per hour minute, and bulk back up to its original size in under 15 seconds. Think you’re up for the challenge? White papers are due on May 3rd of this year, and since liquid metal robots won’t be feasible until about the year 2029, interested parties better get cracking.

[Via The Raw Feed]

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

In what sounds like a pretty big deal, defense contractor Raytheon has developed what it claims is the world’s first polymorphic computer — a machine that can adjust its architecture on the fly and thus be equally adept at “front-end signal processing or back-end control and data processing.” Specifically, the MONARCH chips, as they’re known (for Morphable Networked Micro-Architecture, apparently), contain six microprocessors each running at 64 gigaflops and delivering more than 60 gigabytes per second of memory bandwidth and more than 43 gigabytes per second of off-chip data bandwidth. What’s more, Raytheon says that its beautiful butterfly is simultaneously one of the most powerful and power-efficient chips available, outperforming a quad core Xeon by a claimed factor of ten. But don’t get too attached, as you won’t be seeing these DARPA-funded chipsets on the market anytime soon; instead, they’re destined for GPS devices, radar, video processing systems, space gear, and anything else in which the military needs small, low-power, and radiation tolerant components.

[Via Slashdot]

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Robots, Transportation

Although a fair amount of entrants into DARPA’s Urban Challenge flank their vehicles with hordes of less-than-attractive sensors, we’ve been quick to forgive such atrociousness due to the complexities involved in cruising around sans a driver. Ibeo-led Team LUX, however, is looking to add a dash of style to this year’s (now lucrative) competition, as its Volkswagen Passat TDI wagon touts a clean exterior, three “laser scanners” for complete 360-degree perception, and amazingly, not much else. Apparently, the trio of uber-capable modules are all that’s needed to keep the car under control, and while we’d typically doubt such bold claims, the 11-member team has quite an impressive resume in the autonomous vehicle department. Still, the minimalist approach will probably face some stiff competition, and although we’re certainly not experts on design, we still think the Wolfpack’s Lotus packs a bit more sexy.

[Via CNET]

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!