Engineers at the Italian Institute of Technology have developed a humanoid robot called iRonCub. Thanks to the installed jet pack it can fly like the comic book hero Iron Man.
Rapid development of robotics makes the designed machines more and more perfect and capable of more and more. Especially surprising are their motor skills, which can be best seen in Boston Dynamics’ flips and running machines.
Other companies are also wasting no time designing their own robots, and one of the more interesting projects was presented by the Italian Institute of Technology. It is a humanoid robot called iRonCub, which in theory can fly.
This is because the machine has a fully functional jetpack, which allows it to fly. Of course, for now, it is not able to do this on its own, as a system needs to be developed beforehand to ensure the safety of such a flight. As you can see in the video presented by the creators, the machine is stationary for now, although the jetpack is fully functional and can provide the necessary thrust to get off the ground.
For now, the road to the technology known from the Iron Man movie series is still a long way off. Engineers still have to overcome many obstacles, such as flight controls, before the machine can take to the air on its own and not end its journey at the nearest obstacle.
Lip reading is not an easy skill to learn. It is easier by knowing the context of the speech and the person’s pronunciation style. LipNet artificial intelligence system was developed by a team of specialists from the University of Oxford. This system has a dataset (GRID) consisting of 3-second clips showing people reading different sequences of words (faces are well lit, facing the camera, pronunciation correct).
How does the system translate its “knowledge” into practice?
A team of researchers used the dataset to train artificial intelligence to identify variation in oral shapes and link observed changes to meaning. AI analyzes all the material (not excerpts) to capture context. This is important because there are fewer lip arrangements than speech sounds (i.e., one lip arrangement may represent several sounds, but the system matches its “unknowns” to the context). In the testing phase, the system was able to identify 93.4 percent of the words. When people were asked to perform this task, they found that they were only able to recognize an average of 52.3 percent of the words!
Another team from the Department of Engineering at the Univeristy of Oxford, in collaboration with Google DeepMind, took on an even more difficult task. Instead of a “rigid” dataset – such as GRID – they used 100,000 video clips from BBC television as a base.
At the testing stage, the system developed by a team from Oxford and Google DeepMind was able to recognize 46.8 percent of words (using less well-lit recordings, situations in which the face is not in the center). In comparison – people identified only 12.4 percent of words.
Deaf people will certainly benefit from the new technology. The system will be useful in everyday situations (to read speech from video recorded without sound, to fill in the gaps when the voice of our interlocutor on Skype starts to disappear in the noise).
When we hear about news related to robots on the Internet, they usually arouse in us awe or laughter. Machines can surprise us with their amazing abilities or disappoint us with their awkwardness. The sight of a robot dog with a mounted sniper rifle, however, is something else entirely.
Ghost Robotics, a company that builds robots, has created a four-legged machine with a sniper rifle mounted on it. It was created in collaboration with weapons manufacturer SWORD International. Robot-dog was given the name Special Purpose Unmanned Rifle (SPUR) and a 6.5mm Creedmoor sniper rifle. This is the first machine from Ghost Robotic to be equipped with real weapons. Unarmed models called Q-UGVs are already in limited use by the United States Air Force.
The lethal machine was presented at an exhibition of the Association of the United States Army, an organization that works with the US military. However, we do not know many details about the capabilities of the machine. The creators only informed that the person operating the robot can remotely fire one bullet or empty the magazine. The weapon mounted on the machine has a silencer to make it difficult for the enemy to locate the place of the shot. SPUR can hit a target located at a distance of 1.2 km.
SPUR machines are not yet equipped by any army, but it seems to be only a matter of time. However, the consequences of using armed robots are difficult to predict. The chances of the world being dominated by them seem small, but there are many other threats.
Military interventions by world powers could become much more common when they do not involve risking the lives of their own citizens. Such robots could also make it easier for bloody dictators to maintain control over their populations. How will it all turn out? We’ll probably find out in 10-20 years.
Drones are unmanned aerial vehicles, steered remotely or automatically. They have become popular since the beginning of the 21st century, and now we can buy them in every hypermarket.
They are used not only for entertainment, but also for scientific, military, research and advertising purposes. Despite the benefits they can bring to our lives, there are also some contraindications.
The simplest drones cost several hundred zlotys. They enable us to record videos and take pictures from the air. More advanced drones carry parcels or help with monitoring. The history of these devices began in military laboratories, and the first applications were found on the battlefield. What is more – they changed the way of warfare, and now they find more and more new civilian applications.
Actual and future advancements
The availability of drones for customers and businesses has created a market that will continue to implement technological improvements in drones for the foreseeable future. Improvements will include size, form factor, energy storage, propulsion techniques, sensors, and the ability to leverage and integrate advanced computing capabilities. Collectively, these improvements will increase the range and overall capabilities of drones, making them both more lethal and more difficult to combat.
The positives that drones bring to our lives
Drones can make our lives easier in many areas. Here are some examples of the most common uses of drones:
Drones are used for film production and taking photos of events, documenting various actions, showing landscape attractions.
They are also used to assess the condition of the infrastructure, drones help with planning and pricing of repairs, based on detailed photos of steel structures, roofs, facades, wind turbines etc.
When it comes to crisis situations, drones are invaluable in assessing the effects of natural disasters and planning rescue operations (they help with searching of missing people), but above all, they are increasingly used in various types of rescue operations.
Drone can support the fight against smog. Drones can examine the level of air pollution and determine whether it was caused by burning garbage or permitted materials. Professional drones can create air quality maps, thanks to which residents can avoid smog.
They help in assessing the level of plant vegetation, which allows you to reduce production costs by up to 40% by reducing the amount of fertilizers and plant protection products. Also useful in estimating damage after natural disasters.
However, these are not all the applications of drones, the development of their technical capabilities means that the places where we meet unmanned aerial vehicles are growing and the use of their potential is surprising with innovation.
The negatives that drones bring to our lives
Examples of threats
Terrorist attacks
The ease of purchasing and control of drones, as well as the possibility to test invented tasks in advance, mean that small flying devices are already used by various criminal groups.
Scenarios of terrorist attacks using civilian drones are not only analyzed by the services of individual countries, but also physically tested.
A concrete example of a terrorist threat comes from Russia, for example. In 2018, during the World Cup, Russian security services detected plans for terrorist attacks. Terrorists were planning to attack foreign fans with drones. Seven different groups making such plans were tracked at the time.
Moreover, drones have been treated as a threat at airports for a long time. Terrorist groups and those acting alone are very interested in attacking civilian air traffic.
-Recognition of sensitive areas in terms of the security system of the site and infrastructure.
Drone failures
Despite the introduction of various systems and automation systems, there are still accidents involving unmanned aerial vehicles. Failures can be caused by internal (such as software or sensor error) or external factors (wild animals or other unmanned platforms).
To sum up
Drones bring many conveniences to people, we can save money and time with them. They are helpful in many areas but when in wrong hands, can cause a lot of damage. Rapid advances in drone technology and their growing capabilities will unfortunately provide terrorist groups with many new ways to spread fear.
A frightening application of drones is the distribution of chemical and biological agents, especially infectious diseases.
The advantage is on the attacker’s side. Terrorists have already started experimenting with using drones in their attacks – it would only take one high-profile attack for all terrorist groups to learn about this technology and start using it.
