Forster's Fact or Fiction, Robot Edtion 2.0
- Jan 5, 2015
- 4 min read
Will killer robots take over the world? You decide.
Russia Prepares Testing Of 'Killer Robots
Russia is preparing to test military robots in the Astrakhan region, an industrial outpost on the coast of the Caspian sea, about 1,500 kilometres (1,000 miles) south of Moscow. The testing is part of a defence ministry's initiative to deploy robots in protection of the intercontinental ballistic missile launch sites before 2020, according to The Moscow Times. The news come about one month after the Russian defence ministry approved an ambitious program that aims at creating advanced military robotics before 2025.
Click here for the rest of the story. Paul Havrey R.I.P.
Robot fish launched by U.S. navy
Navy officials in Virginia say they have completed tests on a new, underwater drone that is roughly the size and shape of a tuna. Known as GhostSwimmer, the 1.5-metre, 45-kilogram drone GhostSwimmer can operate autonomously or by remote control, via a 150-metre tether, at depths of up to 91 metres, according to the navy, and is quieter than a propeller-driven drone.
It has already been used to gather data on tides and weather conditions, and could also be used for surveillance missions, hull inspections and dealing with underwater mines, officials said.
Next-gen Thinking Biomimetic Robots Perform Surveillance, Energy Harvesting
Engineering researchers are closer to creating underwater robotic creatures with a brain of their own — besides behaving like the real thing. In the near future, it would not be too tall an order for the National University of Singapore (NUS) team to produce a swarm of autonomous tiny robotic sea turtles and fishes, for example, to perform hazardous missions, such as detecting nuclear wastes underwater or other tasks too dangerous for humans.
Associate Professor S K Panda says “We expect to invent robots capable of performing collaborative intervention missions three to five years down the road. What we plan to do in the near future is to develop robot fish with muscles which can undulate the way real fish do. For this, we need to develop special actuators. We also aim to develop central pattern generators which will enable the fish to respond to external stimuli so that it can make crucial decisions to complete a critical mission,” said Panda.
Army lab asks help building wing-flapping robot fly
Researchers at the U.S. Army are turning a clever robotic fly into an almost undetectable spy.
The robotic flies are – or will be – semi-autonomous robots that look like real bugs and fly using wings that flap without being controlled by a motor.
Instead, the wings are made from a material known as PZT that generates an electrical charge when it's deformed – and changes its own shape when electricity is applied to it.
Researchers at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) in Adelphi, Md. have already come up with one set of "insect-inspired" flying microbots designed to accompany soldiers in the field as remote-controlled scouts small enough to go anywhere and able to navigate on their own with or without GPS and to carry laser range finders, cameras, altimeters and other sensors able to send back critical information. Most are quadrotor fliers that use ultrasonic motors developed at the Army Research Lab that are as small as three millimeters in diameter.
Elon Musk Says Robots Could Be More Dangerous Than Nukes
Elon Musk’s Tweets
“Worth reading Superintelligence by Bostrom. We need to be super careful with AI. Potentially more dangerous than nukes.”
“Hope we're not just the biological boot loader for digital superintelligence. Unfortunately, that is increasingly probable”
Musk is talking about “Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies” by Nick Bostrom of the University of Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute. The book addresses the prospect of an artificial superintelligence that could feasibly be created in the next few decades. According to theorists, once the AI is able to make itself smarter, it would quickly surpass human intelligence.
Put another way by AI theorist Eliezer Yudkowsky of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute: “The AI does not love you, nor does it hate you, but you are made of atoms it can use for something else.”
More companies employing robots to do work that humans once did
At ten Amazon fulfillment centers across America, 15,000 robots scoot across the floor in perfect unison, locating and transporting heavy loads of goods and preparing them for delivery.
Professor Ken Goldberg of the University of California at Berkeley said the Kiva robots have impressed everyone in the field of robotics, but it’s unclear whether they’re good for workers.
Jerry Michalski, founder of the think tank Relationship Economy eXpedition
Michalski said he’s comforted by the fact that people still play a role in packing and checking boxes, but he questions whether automation will soon take over those packing jobs and keep moving up the chain.
Michalski said many tech companies view humans as a temporary inconvenience. He cites Amazon’s experimentation with drones for delivery, Google’s use of self-driving cars to eliminate transport services, and the already-on the-market robot Baxter robot that can be trained to pick up and move different objects.
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