An updated policy tweaks wording in a bid to dispel confusion.
Did you think the Pentagon had a hard rule against using lethal autonomous weapons? It doesn’t. But it does have hoops to jump through before such a weapon might be deployed—and, as of Wednesday, a revised policy intended to clear up confusion.
The biggest change in the Defense Department’s new version of its 2012 doctrine on lethal autonomous weapons is a clearer statement that it is possible to build and deploy them safely and ethically but not without a lot of oversight Read More
Tag Archives: Robotics
Machine Learning AI Has Beat Chess, but Now It’s Close to Beating Physics-Based Sports Games as Well
A machine learning-based AI called Nexto is so supremely good at Rocket League even top tier players are having trouble in online matches.
Artificial intelligence has already beaten chess. Hell, the most sophisticated AI systems have a very good chance against top players in the incredibly complicated game of Go.
But, in the uber-complicated car-based soccer game of Rocket League, can an AI do a boosted 360 aerial bicycle kick power shot from the midline? Can it pinch a ball off the side ramp so precisely it sails into the goal at 90 MPH? No, at least not yet, but AI can apparently dribble like a madman. It can fake out legitimately skilled players and score goals by flicking the ball off the hood and into the net. Read More
Krispy Kreme CEO: Robots will start frosting and filling doughnuts ‘within the next 18 months’
Krispy Kreme (DNUT) is aiming to cut time in its doughnut production line through automation.
“Probably within the next 18 months, you’ll see some automation starting to go into the frosting, the filling, the sprinkles, and even the packaging,” Krispy Kreme CEO Mike Tattersfield told Yahoo Finance.
… The addition of robots is part of an effort to maximize the fresh hub and spoke model opportunity in the United States, and increase points of access to deliver-fresh-daily (DFD) to grocery stories, convenience stores, quick-serve restaurants, and other locations. With this model, customers can get full-sized doughnuts produced that day, locally, without going to a Krispy Kreme location. Read More
San Francisco police can now use robots to kill
The killer robot discussion is no longer strictly the domain of ‘RoboCop’
Last week, we talked about killer robots. That piece was inspired by a proposal that would allow San Francisco police to use robots for killing “when risk of loss of life to members of the public or officers is imminent and outweighs any other force option available to SFPD.” Last night, that proposal passed the city’s board of supervisors with an 8-3 vote.
he language was included in a new “Law Enforcement Equipment Policy” filed by the San Francisco Police Department in response to California Assembly Bill 481, which requires a written inventory of the military equipment utilized by law enforcement. The document submitted to the board of supervisors includes — among other things — the Lenco BearCat armored vehicle, flash-bang grenades and 15 submachine guns. Read More
Google and Renault are creating a ‘software-defined vehicle’
The new vehicle will feature the best of Google’s Cloud technology with Renault’s car expertise
In 2018, Google partnered with Renault Group to bring Android-powered infotainment systems to cars. The two companies are now building on this partnership to design and deliver the digital architecture for a more complex concept, a “software-defined vehicle” (SDV).
This partnership has a twofold goal of creating both in-vehicle software and cloud software to enable the SDV platform and a Digital Twin, according to the release. Read More
Chinese EV maker Xpeng debuts most advanced semi-autonomous driving system to rival Tesla
- Xpeng took the wraps off XNGP, its latest advanced driver-assistance system. The software enables the car to carry out some driving functions automatically but requires a driver behind the wheel.
- The company said XNGP will roll out later this year in certain cities in China and it will be available with the G9 Max, its top-spec sport utility vehicle.
- Xpeng said in a press release that XNGP is the final step “before full autonomous driving is realized.” XNGP is Xpeng’s answer to Tesla’s Autopilot. Read More
#robotics
Meet Ai-Da, the First Robot to Speak Before U.K. Parliament
The robot answered questions about technology, art and consciousness
Earlier this week, a robot artist spoke in front of the British Parliament for the first time in history.
With a sleek black bob and bangs, a bright orange shirt, denim overalls, robotic arms and a humanoid face, the robot, named Ai-Da, answered questions on Tuesday from the House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee. The purpose of the session was to discuss technology’s role in art. Read More
Growth in AI and robotics research accelerates
It may not be unusual for burgeoning areas of science, especially those related to rapid technological changes in society, to take off quickly, but even by these standards the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has been impressive. Together with robotics, AI is representing an increasingly significant portion of research volume at various levels, as these charts show.
The number of AI and robotics papers published in the 82 high-quality science journals in the Nature Index (Count) has been rising year-on-year — so rapidly that it resembles an exponential growth curve. A similar increase is also happening more generally in journals and proceedings not included in the Nature Index, as is shown by data from the Dimensions database of research publications. Read More
DSRC vs. C-V2X for Safety Applications
For the past several years, DSRC has been the only V2X technology available. After a long period of multiple large-scale field tests, DSRC based V2X went into production in Japan in 2015 and in the US in 2017 in selected vehicle models. In 2019, VW released its Golf 8 with DSRC based V2X, making Europe’s most popular car the first mass market vehicle with V2X.
The more recent C-V2X technology has the same purpose of direct communication link between vehicles. C-V2X is defined by 3GPP based on cellular modem technology, leading to fundamentally different non-interoperable access layer with DSRC. Aside from that, the two technologies are addressing identical use-cases and having identical network, security and application layers. Read More
Amazon Halts Tests of Scout Home-Delivery Robots
The team behind the Scout program is being disbanded and reassigned to new jobs, according to Bloomberg.
Amazon has halted testing of its Scout home-delivery robots as it cuts costs in the wake of slowing sales, according to a Bloomberg report.
Amazon spokesperson Alisa Carroll told Bloomberg that the team working on its Scout robots was being disbanded and would be offered new jobs at Amazon. Citing a “person familiar with the situation,” Bloomberg reported that work on the project had already been halted. Read More
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