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Clawed drone grabs prey on the fly just like an eagle
AS IF being eyes in the sky weren't enough, drones are now getting arms and legs, too. With their newfound limbs they are learning to grab objects in mid-flight or even change a light bulb.
Inspired by the way a bald eagle swoops down to seize a fish from the water with its claws, Justin Thomas and colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia have developed a fast-acting, talon-like gripper for a small unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
When the team studied the eagle's behaviour, they noticed that the bird employed a useful trick to buy more time to grab its prey. The eagle would sweep its legs and claws backwards as its talons closed on a fish, so there was no need to slow down.
The team have mimicked the eagle's strategy by attaching a 3D-printed, three-fingered claw to a 10-centimetre-long motorised leg. With the appendage fixed below its centre of mass, the drone can snatch a stationary object as it flies by.
Meanwhile, at Drexel University, also in Philadelphia, Christopher Korpela is developing flight stability software for rotor-driven drones with arms. This will allow UAVs with limbs to carry a burden without the added mass making them fall out of the air.
To get around the problem, Korpela and colleagues are designing the software so the drone can reposition the load in flight to achieve better control – something birds do naturally. "We are trying to compensate for the reactions the vehicle undergoes when it tries to open a door, for example," he says.
His aim is to allow a quad-rotor UAV to help out with tasks like bridge repair, pruning trees, fetching medication, using hand tools or even changing a light bulb. "A UAV with arms could perform the same tasks as a ground robot, but with a three-dimensional workspace," Korpela told New Scientist.
He will present the software in May at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Karlsruhe, Germany.
It will be a while before flying robots with arms and legs find their way into wider use, though. "We still have a long way to go to develop aircraft capable of safely interacting with people or the environment," says Korpela.
This article appeared in print under the headline "Drone makes like an eagle to snatch quarry on the fly"
Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21729085.900-clawed-drone-grabs-prey-on-the-fly-just-like-an-eagle.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”.
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