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Future factories let workers build a car from home
Machines that can be controlled over the internet open up the possibility of factory workers joining the home-working revolution
THE factories of the future will look very different from those today, with not a person in sight. Instead, workers will log into robot-assisted manufacturing "cells" to make what they want from the comfort of their own home. You won't even need to be employed by the factory: people on online social networks will be able to log in and set laser cutters and 3D printers to work, bashing out gadgets to order.
That's the vision of Goran Putnik, an engineer at the University of Minho in Guimarães, Portugal. The "cloud manufacturing" notion he is pioneering aims to extend telecommuting to those with jobs in factories. It will also take the "maker" movement, in which people band together to tinker with electronics, and make it professional.
White-collar workers have been able to telecommute for some time because the jobs they do – such as freelance writing and translation – essentially involve creating and transmitting digital bits. In roles like manufacturing, however, the revolution has been slower. "Some companies like car parts makers in South Korea are monitoring manufacturing operations remotely – but none are controlling such machines remotely," says Putnik.
That could soon change. Faster internet, better quality video links and telepresent control interfaces mean manufacturing-at-a-distance is no longer so out of reach. The technologies are already being researched, says Lynne McGregor, lead technologist at the UK government's Technology Strategy Board (TSB).
For instance, the TSB is part-funding a £1.5 million project in which the Ford Motor Company and Autodesk, a firm that designs 3D software, will work out how to feed sensor data from machinery back to augmented reality user interfaces. "That could easily be used for remote manufacturing," she says.
Putnik's team set up a manufacturing "cell" in their lab containing an internet-connected machine tool. Then, 2350 kilometres away in Serbia, Vesna Spasojevic-Brkic asked 68 of her engineering students at the University of Belgrade to log on and try to control the machine.
It worked surprisingly well: they successfully uploaded a design program, controlled the machine and cut foam test pieces with it – even pressing the tool's emergency shutdown button when danger loomed. The students tested multiple user interfaces and found that the best ones filled their PC screen, maximising their view of the machine, with control buttons overlaid on the video. This suggests that projecting remote control interfaces onto a wall could give the most convincing experience.
Cloud manufacturing could put power in the hands of professional makers, says Putnik, letting them sell their skills worldwide. Groups of people could collaborate on social networks too, to agree designs and get products made. And companies could hire skilled operators to manufacture goods on demand. "The idea here is to completely democratise manufacturing," Putnik says.
Iain Todd at the University of Sheffield, UK, likes the idea but sees an obvious risk. "The owners of these very expensive manufacturing facilities will have to have nerves of steel to let unknown people many miles away use their kit over the internet."
This article appeared in print under the headline "Make a car from your sofa"
Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21929334.600-future-factories-let-workers-build-a-car-from-home.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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