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Female Space Robot Learns to Move Like a Human
A space robot with a female form could someday join NASA's humanoid robot in helping human astronauts aboard the International Space Station.
Germany's AILA robot has a female figure, a head molded into the shape of a modern female hairstyle, and large, dark eyes — a different look compared with the broad-shouldered torso and space helmet head of NASA's Robonaut 2. But both robots could have the right stuff to show how humans and robotscan work together more efficiently in future space exploration.
"We must build systems that approach the capabilities of the people," said Dr. Frank Kirchner, director of the Robotics Innovation Center at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence and the Robotics Group at the University of Bremen.
The German Aerospace Center (DLR) recently agreed to invest $4.59 million (3.8 million euros) in a project designed to improve the software brains of AILA and similar space robots.
Human operators on the ground have controlled AILA using a specialized mouse and even Microsoft'smotion-tracking Kinect technology for the Xbox video game console. AILA has also shown how it can mimic a human operator's arm and hand movements and learn how to push buttons or flip switches on its own — necessary skills for working in Earth's orbiting space lab.
AILA's software learned to efficiently move its arms and hands by taking the recording of a human's motions, chopping the motions up into smaller segments, and then piecing the segments together to create its own new actions. That creates a library of behaviors for the robot to sample whenever it needs to do something new.
The Besman ("Behaviours for Mobile Manipulation") project is expected to run over the course of four years based on the German space agency funding. Eventually, it could create the robotic brains for the next generation of humanoid robots that could join the U.S. Robonaut 2 aboard the space station.
Such learning software could work in more than just humanoid robots — it could also guide spidery robots with many legs or other different forms. That means it could prove useful for a wide variety of space robots working inside or outside the space station, or even on the moon or Mars.
Source: http://www.space.com/16736-female-space-robot-human.html
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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”.