The Japanese Ministry of Defense recently unveiled this new flying surveillance drone, which it says will be deployed to disaster areas such as volcanic eruptions and landslides. While my Japanese is shaky (and by that, I mean non-existent), judging from the translation of the caption at YouTube, it looks like operators can program this robot [...]
Posts under ‘Military and Defense’
iRobot’s 710 Warrior demonstrates impressive mobility
iRobot, a company perhaps best known for their line of Roomba robotic vacuum cleaners, also produces several military robots that are used for activities ranging from simple surveillance to bomb disposal. The biggest and baddest military bot, the 710 Warrior, is not only rugged and strong (capable of carrying up to 150 pounds), but also [...]
Raytheon’s XOS 2 “closest thing we have… to the ‘Iron Man’ suit”
Yesterday defense contractor Raytheon released the above video for the latest iteration of their XOS 2 exoskeleton, which coincides with the home release of Iron Man 2. The XOS 2 is designed to help military personnel personnel by lightening their loads and assisting with lifting heavy objects, like armaments. A Raytheon spokesman said he expects [...]
If iCub learns to use a rifle, we’re in trouble
This video of humanoid robot iCub learning to accurately shoot a bow and arrow is interesting – the robot is evaluating each missed shot, and then making adjustments to improve its aim. It takes it eight tries to finally hit the target. The learning algorithm, called ARCHER (Augmented Reward Chained Regression) algorithm, was developed and [...]
New powered exoskeletons to assist military, disabled
Despite similar concepts and design, two new robotic exoskeletons designed to assist humans are intended for very different audiences and very different purposes. The first is designed to enhance a person’s strength while preserving mobility. The second is designed to provide mobility to those in which it has been severely restricted. HULC, or Human Universal [...]
The ultimate in portable bomb disposal robots
Today the British Ministry of Defense unveiled a new bomb disposal robot called a “Dragon Runner” that breaks new ground in portability – the system is a mere 14 pounds and small enough to fit in a backpack. Despite its small size, however, it sounds remarkably capable: The sophisticated robot is manoeuvred over tough terrain [...]
DARPA researching cameras that have “visual intelligence”
This week DARPA announced its “Mind’s Eye Program,” an effort to research visual intelligence in machines. More specifically, it will serve to not only enable cameras to recognize objects (an ability some machines are already capable of) but determine interactions between objects it sees, and then use this information to provide a “complete narrative of [...]
U.S. Military calls for robot medics
According to a posting on the U.S. Department of Defense’s Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer page, the Pentagon is looking for a new robot capable of extracting wounded soldiers from the battlefield with “minimal intervention” from traditional medics. The posting emphasizes the need for an autonomous system in order to “reduce or eliminate [...]
Israel unveils world’s largest unmanned aerial vehicle
Yesterday the Israeli Air Force (IAF) took the wraps off a new unmanned aerial vehicle the size of a Boeing 737, which is capable of staying in the air for up to 20 hours. The “super drone,” known as “Eitan” (Hebrew for “strong”) is also able to take off and land automatically. While most news [...]
Marine Corps successfully tests unmanned, nearly autonomous helicopter
When fighting in rough, difficult-to-traverse terrain (such as that found across much of Afghanistan), the military relies on helicopters to quickly deliver weapons and ammunition to soldiers on the battlefield. Unfortunately, manned helicopters are expensive and make attractive targets for enemy fire. Enter the K-MAX Unmanned Multi-Mission Helicopter, a drone that passed a test devised [...]