DARPA’s Autonomous Robotic Manipulation (ARM) program, which was announced back in 2010, aims to build a robot that can do a variety of manipulation tasks with minimum operator input. One of the toughest tasks for the hardware team is developing a reliable and low-cost hand for the robot. iRobot and researchers at Harvard and Yale appear to have come up with a solution.

Their hand that you see above has fingers capable of surviving hits from a baseball bat and that can lift 50 pounds as you will see in the video. From a basketball to a pin, its three fingers can pick up a variety of objects. And it costs just $3,000. In comparison, the average cost of a military-grade robot hand in 2010 was around US$50,000.

But a lot of research and development is still left in the ARM program. While the hardware team will focus on building a complete robot, many others will be working on AI software which will require some serious work.

The software system must enable the GFE (Government Furnished Equipment; i.e. the robot) to perform the Challenge Tasks following a high-level script with no operator intervention. For example, the operator would issue a command such as “Throw Ball.” That command would in turn decompose into a sequence of lower-level tasks, such as “find ball,” “grasp ball,” “re-grasp ball, cock arm, and throw”.

Check out the video below to see the hand in action. It’s not creepy like an earlier DARPA product.

[Source]

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We’re hearing that the announcement will come as early as next month and it is being proposed as a ten-year project to learn everything we possibly can about the human brain. The project will cost billions of dollars, to be sure, but it should yield some fascinating discoveries that can be applied to the understanding and treatment of conditions like Alzheimer’s, autism and schizophrenia. It’ll also help to create all kinds of jobs and, hopefully, result in some growth in the market too. It’s a win-win-win if it turns out anything like the human genome project. That cost $3.8 billion dollars and it “returned its investment over 100-fold.” And let’s not forget about all the invaluable research.

Combined with ongoing research like what we’ve seen with superpowered Terminator-vision lab rats, there are literally no limits to what this 10-year project may be able to yield. The human brain is remarkably complex, so it’s pretty safe to say that we’ve only begun to scratch the surface. The project involves not only scientists and government agencies like DARPA, but they are also “planning meetings” with companies like Google, Qualcomm and Microsoft. Perhaps the next-gen Google Glass could be a neural implant?

[Source]

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DARPA has a couple of new LS3 (Legged Squad Support System) robots to show off in a new video. The design clearly looks like it was somewhat bovine-inspired, although the part where the “head” would be almost looks like it was partially decapitated. The main purpose of the LS3 is to serve as a pack mule, “carrying heavy gear for troops over rugged, varying terrain.” Wheels and treads simply can’t transverse this kind of terrain the same way that legs can.

What’s cool is that the military personnel won’t need to control the LS3 bot at all, because it can work mostly autonomously; it can be programmed to “follow the leader,” so to speak, as well as respond to verbal and visual commands as needed. The new version has reduced noise (about one-tenth as loud as the original) and a top speed of about 7mph (11.3km/h) over flat surfaces. Even if it falls over, the LS3 can get itself back on its feet.

Dubbed “Big Dog” by builder Boston Dynamics, the DARPA LS3 prototype bots can be viewed in the video below. I can see how this would be great for remote camping trips too, though most people probably don’t have a DARPA-esque budget.

[Source]

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While most of us are content with cameras capable of anywhere from 8-20MP lens or so, the military isn’t. Scientists at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency are working on something much better and higher-powered than anything imaginable right now.

The high-powered scopes and cameras they are working on are proposed to have capabilities that are 2000x more powerful than anything out there right now. A recent test of such a test camera was able to read signs and license plates from up to 270 yards away even. And we though that Nokia’s 41MP smartphone was impressive.

This test made use of a camera that was capable of 1GB, compromised of 100 micro-cameras to get to that point. The camera technology itself was powered by the AWARE program, in conjunction with Duke University. Impressive right? DARPA thinks they can do even better, with their long-term goal being to shoot up to a 50-gigapixel camera. Obviously they understand this won’t happen overnight and are incrementally working their way towards their goal, with the next step expected to be the design of a 10GP camera.

This ultra-high sensors might be overkill for the average person, but for the military, it can mean better snipers, better reconnaissance and improved spyplanes. Sure puts your favorite P&S or DSLR camera to shame though, doesn’t it?

[ source ]

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Remember that project proposed by BTE-Dan? Remember how he wanted to make a real life version of the USS Enterprise from Star Trek, drawing up all the necessary plans to do so? Thanks to some new DARPA funding, that dream could soon become a reality.

Sort of. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has just received $500,000 in seed money from the Dorothy Jemison Foundation for Excellence to form 100 Year Starship (100YSS). The goal of this non-governmental initiative is to facilitate human interstellar flight within the next 100 years. The independent organization works with experts across many fields–like scientists and engineers, as well as artists and entertainers–to achieve this goal.

To be fair, half a million dollars isn’t going to do much. The “proposed” Gen1 Enterprise is estimated to cost somewhere in the neighborhood of one billion dollars. We also have to realize that Voyager 1 is only just about to become the first manmade object to leave our solar system and it has taken the probe 35 years to get to the heliosphere. To have a starship capable of transporting humans that far for that long, let alone beyond our solar system, is quite the ambitious task indeed. Voyager 1, if it maintains its current pace of 3.6AU (about 334 million miles) per year would take another 75,000 years to reach Proxima Centauri, our next closest star.

As an aside, the Gen1 Enterprise is intended for intrastellar (within our solar system) missions, whereas the DARPA funding is more about going much, much further. Either way, I’m sure Neil deGrasse Tyson approves of this badass idea. We just have to come up with the other $999,500,000… and well, the tech and innovation to do it.

[Source]

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As you will see in the video below, the DARPA Cheetah robot comes with four pointy legs, which by the way appear to be sharp and could be used to stab you to death, and it can do 18 miles an hour. That’s 5 miles faster than the fastest legged robot.

In case you are thinking about a comparison, Olympic champion Usain Bolt can sprint at around 23MPH. That means two things: It’s difficult to beat Mr. Bolt even if we are on cycles, and the DARPA Cheetah is capable of chasing you down.

According to DARPA, “The robot’s movements are designed to mimic those of fast-running animals in nature. The robot increases its stride and running speed by flexing and un-flexing its back on each step, much as an actual cheetah does”.

So, it runs like an actual cheetah. What will happen if they decide to program it to hunt like one? That will be one frightening killing machine. DARPA hasn’t announced what they are planning to do with the new product. For now, it is just meant to freak everyone out. And if they add a head to it, the robot won’t appear to be running backwards.

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Since a lot of people worry about how much space junk is circling the Earth at any given time, some have found a way to at least make that junk useful.

How? You may ask. Well, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has proposed the Phoenix program. This is basically a space project that scours for usable parts from dead satellites in orbit and then attaches those parts to newly-arriving satellites.

There are currently over 100 decommissioned satellites in geosynchronous orbit around the earth, and, depending on their condition, they contain perfectly usable parts worth of a total of as much as $300 billion. Since the antennas are expensive to make and heavy to put in space, DARPA is particularly interested in recycling those.

Phoenix would work with an unmanned spacecraft which would be launched into orbit, locate PODS and extract a number of nanosatellites and store them aboard itself. Then, it would go to the “graveyard orbit”, locate specific satellites and attach the nanosatellites to the antenna. A human operator on Earth would then proceed to use its manipulator arms to remove the antenna. Sounds like some competition could arise where other Space agencies will build recon programs to harvest this space junk for their own satellite developments. There really is no jurisdiction in space now is there?

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We’ve seen what IBM can do when it comes to computers. IBM’s artificial intelligence computer system, Watson, beat record-holders Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter in a human-versus-machine match-up on Jeopardy that asserted Watson’s potential as supreme computer overlord. And showed off what IBM can do when it comes to AI.

To take it one step further, IBM is working on a new class of computer chips that are designed to imitate the human brain’s abilities for perception, action and cognition. The chips’ processing power is similar to that of Watson. IBM hopes to use these chips in “cognitive computers.” These computers would learn through experience instead of being programmed. Just like the human brain.

“Imagine traffic lights that can integrate sights, sounds and smells and flag unsafe intersections before disaster happens,” said Dharmendra Modha, the project leader for IBM Research. “Or imagine cognitive co-processors that turn servers, laptops, tablets and phones into machines that can interact better with their environments.”

There are several potential applications for the brain chips, including a sensor that could be placed in a grocery store and could read sights, smells and temperatures and would give an alert when it’s time to replace the wilted lettuce. Even better, the chips could be used in a system that monitors the world’s water supply by measuring things like temperature, pressure, wave height and acoustics, and then could give a warning when the computer thinks a tsunami is likely.

The first two prototype chips contain no biological components. Both chips have 256 artificial neurons, with one core containing 262,144 programmable synapses, and the other containing 65,536 learning synapses. So far, the chips have been able to complete navigation, machine vision, pattern recognition, associative memory and classification. The team hopes to eventually develop a one-square-centimeter chip with the equivalent of 1 million neurons and 10 billion synapses.

The project is called SyNAPSE (Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics), and Phases 0 through 1 have already been completed. DARPA has given the project $21 million in funding for Phase 2.

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First, a bit of background. That Falcon HTV-2 is an unmanned aircraft capable of speeds up to Mach 22; that’s equivalent to a mind-blasting 16,700 miles per hour. That means that it could fly from New York to Los Angeles in just 12 minutes, reaching any other point on the planet in under an hour. If you want fast, it doesn’t get much faster than this.

This isn’t the first time that they’ve flown a Falcon HTV-2 either. The first test flight was back in April, but the craft last just nine minutes before crashing. The scientists think that it may have overheated. They made some adjustments in preparation for today’s flight and, well, it lasted the same nine minutes. Back to the drawing board?

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Mankind has managed to one-up nature once again with a 19g robotic unmanned hummingbird capable of precision flight, hovering and espionage.

AeroVironment, the California company behind the largest, highest and longest-flying unmanned aircraft, is now grabbing for new records with their Nano Hummingbird. With two flapping wings and no tail, the tiny craft can fly forward at speed and hover with the utmost control while carrying its own energy source, motor, communications systems and a video camera payload.

“The historic achievement made by the Nano Hummingbird is an example of the leading-edge innovations introduced and deployed almost routinely by the AeroVironment UAS team,” said Tom Herring, AV senior vice president and general manager of Unmanned Aircraft Systems. “From the battle-proven Raven, Wasp and Puma small UAS to the tiny Nano Hummingbird to Global Observer, the largest, highest and longest flying UAS, AeroVironment continues to define the future of unmanned aircraft systems.”

With a wingspan of 6.5 inches and less weight than a stack of nine dimes, the Unmanned Aircraft System can fly in any direction: It can ascend, descend, hover directly to either side, fly forward or backwards, rotate either way and even do an aerial backwards.

The craft was built as part of Phase II, a contract assigned to AeroVironment by DARPA, for their Nano Air Vehicle program. To meet all of the criteria of the contract, the craft was required to demonstrate several abilities, including:

• Precision hover flight within a virtual two-meter diameter sphere for one minute.
• Hover stability in a wind gust flight which required the aircraft to hover and tolerate a two-meter per second (five mph) wind gust from the side, without drifting downwind more than one meter.
• A continuous hover endurance of eight minutes with no external power source.
• Fly and demonstrate controlled, transition flight from hover to 11 mph (17.7 km/h) fast forward flight and back to hover flight.
• Flying from outdoors to indoors, and back outdoors through a normal-size doorway.
• Flying indoors ‘heads-down’ where the pilot operates the aircraft only looking at the live video image stream from the aircraft, without looking at or hearing the aircraft directly.
• Fly the aircraft in hover and fast forward flight with bird-shaped body and bird-shaped wings.

The Nano Hummingbird not only fulfilled all of these objectives, but according to AeroVironment, exceeded many of them.

“The success of the Nano Hummingbird was highly dependent on the intense combination of creative, scientific, and artistic problem-solving skills from the many AV team members, aided by a philosophy of continuous learning, which we feel was only possible due to the unique R&D environment here at AV,” said Matt Keennon, AV’s project manager and principal investigator on the NAV project.

Though it may seem like little more than a neat toy, the remote-controlled craft has potential in a wide variety of applications in defense and security. Why risk poking your head around the corner when you could fly a tiny, very-difficult-to-shoot camera around to see what lies ahead?

[via AeroVironment, PR]

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