On June 23rd, NASA and partner Armadillo Aerospace tested the new Guidance Embedded Navigator Integration Environment (GENIE) for safely landing lunar spacecraft. It was hoped that it could “figure out the complex algorithms necessary to process volumes of data from the laser altimeter, GPS and inertial sensors, and quickly enough to steer the rocket engine [...]
Archive for the ‘government’ Category
NASA successfully tests autonomous lunar lander navigation system GENIE
Posted by Eric on July 7th, 2010
Logi Aerospace vying to build DARPA’s VTOL flying SUVs
Posted by Eric on July 2nd, 2010
Some of DARPA’s requirements for the vehicles: * flying/driving range of 250 miles * measure no more than 30 feet long by 8.5′ wide and 9′ high * perform vertical take-off and landing * carry four people * perform unmanned operations * and be easy enough to control that anyone who can drive a Humvee [...]
Posted in DARPA, defense, flying, government, military / law enforcement 
Tags: DARPA, flying car, suv, vtol 
2 Comments »Predator drones are now patrolling US/Mexico border
Posted by Eric on June 15th, 2010
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Posted in defense, flying, government, milestone, military / law enforcement Tags: aerial, border, drone, predator, uav, US No Comments »Robots socialize with world leaders in preparation for world domination
Posted by Eric on June 12th, 2010
Johannes Eisele, AFP/Getty Images Not really, but that headline grabs more attention than: “German Chancellor Angela Merkel shakes hands with remote-controlled space robot Justin’ at the International Aerospace Exhibition in Berlin on Tuesday” Read full article at [aolnews]
Robots in Combat: A True Revolution or Just Techno-Hype?
Posted by Eric on June 9th, 2010
An article at nationaldefensemagazine.org yesterday commented: P.W. Singer, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and author of the bestseller “Wired for War, recently spoke “…about the staggering rise in the deployment of robots on the battlefield. The U.S. military had only a handful of robots when it invaded Iraq. Now it operates 7,000 unmanned aircraft and more [...]
Posted in AI, DARPA, defense, ethics, flying, future, government, military / law enforcement, weapon Tags: combat, hype, military, revolution No Comments »OmniTread serpentine robot
Posted by Eric on June 8th, 2010
“The OmniTread Serpentine Robot developed under supervision of Prof. Dr. Johann Borenstein at the University of Michigan since 1998.” The OmniTread OT4 has obvious applications for search and rescue. Pictures, videos, Papers here.
Posted in DARPA, defense, government, military / law enforcement, research Tags: rescue, snake, treads No Comments »
It Begins – DARPA to Build Autonomous, Gun-Toting, Mortar-Loading Robots
Posted by Eric on May 1st, 2010
DARPA has launched an initiative to create autonamous robotic manipulators that mimic the arms, wrists, hands, and fingers of humans. DARPA’s ARM (Autonomous Robotic Manipulation) program will “enable military applications that should revolutionize the battlefield by making robots just as dextrous, resilient, and flexible as humans.” DARPA has partnered with Barrett Technology Inc and RE2 Inc for this [...]
