/ News
Robots scan ships' hulls for mines
Human divers - and dolphins - could have a reprieve from searching out mines attached to ships' hulls, thanks to a new algorithm from MIT.
In the last few years, Navy scientists have been engineeringrobots for minesweeping and other underwater missions, but these haven't been accurate enough to reliably find mines that can be just ten centimeters across.
"A mine this small may not sink the vessel or cause loss of life, but if it bends the shaft, or damages the bearing, you still have a big problem," says ssistant mechanical engineering professor Franz Hover.
"The ability to ensure that the bottom of the boat doesn’t have a mine attached to it is really critical to vessel security today."
He and his team have now designed algorithms that, they say, vastly improve robots’ navigation and feature-detecting capabilities, distinguishing mines from structures such as propellers and shafts.
"It’s not enough to just view it from a safe distance," says Hover. "The vehicle has to go in and fly through the propellers and the rudders, trying to sweep everything, usually with short-range sensors that have a limited field of view."
First, the researchers programmed the Hovering Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (HAUV) to approach a ship’s hull from a safe 10-meter distance, swimming in a square around the structure. The vehicle’s sonarcamera emits signals that boomerang back as the robot makes its way around the ship; the researchers process the sonar signals into a grainy point cloud. At such a low resolution, Hover says one can clearly make out a ship’s large propeller, though not an iPod-sized mine.
Next, the researchers programmed the robot to swim closer to the ship, navigating around the structure based on a mesh model produced by applying computer-graphics algorithms to the sonar data.
The idea, Hover says, is for the robot to cover every point in the mesh; and with each point spaced 10 centimeters apart, this is narrow enough to detect a small mine.
A common approach in robotic inspection is to have the the robot sweep over the structure in lines, as if it were mowing a lawn. But the researchers came up with a more efficient approach, using optimization algorithms to program the robot to sweep across the structures while taking into account their complicated 3-D shapes.
The team's tested its algorithms in the field, creating underwater models of two vessels: the Curtiss, a 183-meter military support ship in San Diego, and the Seneca, an 82-meter cutter in Boston. It's planning tests this month in Boston Harbor.
"The goal is to be competitive with divers in speed and efficiency, covering every square inch of a ship," says graduate student Brendan Englot. "We think we’re close."
Source: http://www.tgdaily.com/trendwatch-features/64744-robots-scan-ships-hulls-for-mines
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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