Lifeboat Foundation

As if the mere phrase “killer robots” weren’t scary enough, AI researchers and policy advocates have put together a video that combines present-tense AI and drone technologies with future-tense nightmares.

The disturbing seven-minute movie is being released to coincide with a pitch being made on Monday in Geneva during talks relating to the U.N. Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, or CCW.

And it is on Singles’ Day, automation, robots, AI and machine learning will be widely applied to all aspects of the annual shopping ritual, right from product selection to delivery.

This year’s November 11 shopping ritual will engage a recommendation algorithm, robots, and chatbots capable of understanding human emotion.

China’s heaviest cargo unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) AT200 prepares for its maiden flight in Neifu Airport in Pucheng, northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, Oct. 26, 2017. China’s heaviest cargo unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) completed its maiden flight in northwest China’s Shaanxi Province Thursday. With a maximum take-off weight of around 3.4 tonnes and a payload of 1.5 tonnes, the AT200 could be one of the world’s most powerful civilian UAVs. (Xinhua)

BEIJING, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) — China’s heaviest cargo unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) completed its maiden flight in northwest China’s Shaanxi Province Thursday.

The AT200 drone, jointly developed by several research institutes and companies, made a successful 26-minute maiden flight, according the Institute of Engineering Thermophysics.

Foot soldiers for years have watched as wars in the air have been transformed by the introduction of drones. Now ground troops are starting to enjoy some of the same benefits.

China has carried out a test flight of an unmanned aerial vehicle, or drone, that could provide rapid cargo delivery to remote islets in the South China Sea without airstrips, in Beijing’s latest move to secure its presence in the disputed waters.

The drone – built from a modified low-cost fixed-wing plane – can carry 1.5 tonnes of cargo and land on a runway of just 200 metres, according to the Institute of Engineering Thermophysics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, which led the project.

It can also use a dirt track or grass field for take off and landing at military facilities that do not have an airfield, the institute said on its website on Friday.

Continue reading “Could drone that can deliver cargo to islets in South China Sea secure presence in disputed waters?” »

Russia has become the first country in Europe to use a 3D printer to construct a real residential house. https://sptnkne.ws/fKYu

DARPA asked robot-developers for a way to let small infantry units deploy swarms of 250 or more robots in urban areas.

WASHINGTON — General Atomics is better known for building Predator combat drones and mining uranium than building spacecraft, but that could change as the company develops an interest in building defense-focused cubesats.

Also in the realm of possibility: using expertise from building railguns to design a large, electromagnetic cannon as a means to orbit small satellites.

Nick Bucci, vice president of missile defense and space systems for General Atomic’s Electromagnetic Systems Group, said the company has built 11 cubesats for the U.S. Army over the past seven years, and is gradually becoming more and more invested in space.

Continue reading “General Atomics ramping cubesat production, muses railgun smallsat launcher” »

Raytheon’s latest, craziest invention could keep troops safe from drone attacks.