Russian MiG Shoots Georgian Drone

Source: Wired Danger Room.

New Video of BigDog Quadruped Robot

Swarms of Transformer-style robots to be built

A £4.6 million project to create swarms of hundreds of autonomous, Transformer-style robots has been launched. Scientists aim to create a prototype team of self-organising, shape-changing mini robots that work as a team by 2013. The self-healing robots will be able to dock with each other, share energy and co-operate to maximise their abilities to achieve different tasks.

Source: Telegraph.

DARPA Building Plane that Flies for 5 years at a Time

The Defense Advanced Research Programs Agency (DARPA) will soon be awarding a contract to develop an unmanned aircraft called the Vulture that’s capable of flying for five years at a time without stopping, according to the aviation magazine Flight. Essentially, the Vulture is a satellite released into the atmosphere and not into space. But unlike satellites, the Vulture will have to maintain enough power to overcome the Earth’s gravitation pull.

Specifications for the Vulture include the ability to remain in flight for over five years at a time, while performing intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and communication missions. It must also be capable of carrying a 1,000-pound payload and withstand the heavy winds that occur at 60,000 to 90,000 feet - the altitude the Vulture is expected to remain in.

Source: OhMyGov.

Fly, Robot Fly

Flies have evolved complex mechanisms to regulate their flight, including performing intricate flapping and twisting wing movements, which the robotic fly does 120 times a second. A clamp holds the robot in place to keep it from escaping the camera’s lens. Photos: Robert Wood

Insects are capable of executing stunning aerial feats, including flying upside down, hovering and landing on walls and ceilings. Perhaps for this reason alone, they have inspired a whole suite of flying machines that share key properties with their arthropod forebears. But these robotic fliers are just beginning to conquer flight on the scale of insects. In March 2007, Robert Wood’s microrobotic fly proved it could generate enough thrust to lift off the ground on its own, becoming the first insect-size robot to fly.

Via IEEE Spectrum.

Sophisticated unmanned aircraft get big military bucks

The Army has awarded General Atomics an $18.6 million contract to continue developing an extended range/multi-purpose unmanned aerial vehicle.  The contract is but one of the extended range unmanned aircraft military planners are looking at for the next few years.  In addition, there is more than $500 million for unmanned aircraft systems in the fiscal 2008 war supplemental, which Congress has yet to act on, according to Aviation Week. 

First, the General Atomics contract is for the aircraft called the Sky Warrior.  The Sky Warrior is built upon the company’s highly successful Predator and I-GNAT ER airplanes. The aircraft, the first of which flew last year,  will perform long-endurance – over 40 hours aloft, surveillance, communications relay, and weapons delivery missions with double the weapons capacity of the Predator.

Via NetworkWorld.

UAV used to knock out cell-networks in “Palestinians Call Drones a Deadly Weapon” from AP.

Killer robots pose latest militant threat: expert

LONDON (Reuters) - Killer robots could become the weapon of choice for militants, a British expert said on Wednesday.

Noel Sharkey, professor of artificial intelligence and robotics at the University of Sheffield said he believed falling costs would soon make robots a realistic option for extremist groups.

Reuters via Wired Danger Room.

DARPA advances artificial intelligence program for air traffic control

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has approved the second phase of artificial intelligence technology that will help automate military air traffic control.  The Generalized Integrated Learning Architecture (GILA) system, developed by Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Technology Laboratories under a $22 million, 48-month contract, is intended to help the Air Force in particular keep airspace operating safely with increased air traffic and the advent of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and other airborne weapons. 

Source: NetWorkWorld. See also “Robot Wars” from The Engineer Online.

Darpa Pursues Neuroscience To Enhance Analyst, Soldier Performance

In a summary of her programs at the annual DarpaTech conference in 2005, Kruse spelled out the importance of the work: “The operational environment will continue to become more crowded with information, so it is clear that our war fighters must be able to manage complex situations with faster, more accurate and more concentrated cognitive capabilities. This means that issues such as cognitive overload, fatigue and decision-making under stress are fast becoming crucial factors in performance.”

The latest project Kruse has been working on is the Neurotechnology for Intelligence Analysts (NIA) program. This effort builds on an earlier one titled Augmentated Cognition, or AugCog. One of the leading contractors on both efforts has been Honeywell.

Source: Aviation Week.

Israel Eyes Thinking Machines to Fight ‘Doomsday’ Missile Strikes

Israel has been hit in recent years by thousands and thousands of rockets, mortar shells, and missiles.  And that could be just a preview of the onslaught Iran may one day unleash. So Israeli military leaders have begun early planning for a new, robotic defense system, armed with enough artificial intelligence that it “could take over completely” from flesh-and-blood operators.   ”It will be designed for… autonomous operations,’ Brig. Gen. Daniel Milo, commander of Israel’s air defense forces, tells Defense News‘ Barbara Opall-Rome.  And in the event of a “doomsday” strike, Opall-Rome notes, the system could handle “attacks that exceed physiological limits of human command.”

Via Wired Danger Room.