/ News
DARPA LS3 quadruped plays follow the leader through mud puddles and more
DARPA's robotic pack mule, the Legged Squad Support System (or LS3 for short) is now following orders and its master, going where no robot has gone before. In a recently published video, the impressive quadruped robot developed by Boston Dynamics climbs up and down hills, scrambles over logs, bobs and weaves through woods, and even takes an impromptu dip in a bog. Once outside the obstacle-ridden forest the LS3 picks up the pace with a somewhat inelegant gallop that betrays its mechanical nature.
Boston Dynamics' founder, Marc Raibert, has been described as the rock star of the robotics world. He made a name for himself at MIT, where he worked on some pretty amazing legged robots – some of which appeared in the background of a scene in the film adaptation of Michael Crichton'sRising Sun. Now his company is working on the follow-up to BigDog, a robot which hardly requires an introduction after its videos went viral a few years back.
According to DARPA "the Army has identified physical overburden as one of its top five science and technology challenges". Enter the LS3, nicknamed AlphaDog, designed to carry a squad's 400 pounds (181 kg) of gear for up to 20 miles (32 km) without stopping.
The LS3 produces ten times less noise than BigDog and features some other tweaks - like a barrel-shaped body - which allows it to easily roll over should it fall on its back or side. You can see just how effective this is in the latest video, when it accidentally stumbles and rolls down the side of a hill. It even lands on its feet despite falling into a fairly deep mud puddle.
Other improvements are demonstrated as well; it understands specific verbal commands and hand gestures, allowing soldiers to order the robot around in various situations. Its sensors also allow it to follow a leader even through a fairly dense, obstacle-ridden environment. A brief section in the video shows us the world from its perspective – a blocky facsimile similar to that of Google's driverless cars – which is accurate enough for the LS3 to find its way through the foliage. DARPA says it's smart enough to find its way to a designated GPS coordinate.
The LS3 quadruped's sensors give it a detailed real-time view of its surroundings, allowing it to navigate densely packed foliage
In more structured environments like urban areas, the LS3 is able to move much more quickly, revving up to a solid 7 mph (11.2 kph) trot. And despite relatively tight corridors, it knows when it can squeeze in with little room to spare. It's currently being tested at a military base, but next year it'll join a squad as part of the Marine Corps Advanced Warfighting Experiment.
If you're wondering how Marc Raibert earned his rock star status, let the following video speak for itself.
Source: DARPA via IEEE Spectrum
Source: http://www.gizmag.com/darpa-ls3-quadruped-robot-boston-dynamics/25521/
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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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