The use of drones capable of deciding whether to kill humans is alarming critics.
Category: drones – Page 23
Watch ‘world’s most powerful’ humanoid robot withstand brutal kicks
The Chinese firm, Unitree, claims that its upgraded humanoid robot, “powertrain provides the highest level of speed, power, maneuverability and flexibility.”
Chinese robotic systems firm Unitree marks a groundbreaking development with the upgrade of its humanoid robot.
The robot, called H1, has also been billed as the ‘world’s most powerful general-purpose humanoid robot’ with its advanced “powertrain [which] provides the highest level of speed, power, maneuverability and flexibility,” claims Unitree’s website.
Situated in Hangzhou, just outside Shanghai, Unitree Robotics was established in 2017. The company’s mission is to democratize legged robotics, aspiring to make them as widespread and cost-effective as smartphones and drones are in contemporary times.
High-Power Fiber Lasers emerge as a Pioneering Technology
Optical scientists have found a new way to significantly increase the power of fibre lasers while maintaining their beam quality, making them a future key defence technology against low-cost drones and for use in other applications such as remote sensing.
Researchers from the University of South Australia (UniSA), the University of Adelaide (UoA) and Yale University have demonstrated the potential use of multimode optical fibre to scale up power in fibre lasers by three-to-nine times but without deteriorating the beam quality so that it can focus on distant targets.
The breakthrough is published in Nature Communications.
NASA’s nuclear-powered drone mission to Saturn’s moon now set for 2028
NASA’s maiden mission to explore Saturn’s moon, Titan, has progressed to the next phase of development.
If everything goes as planned, the launch of this car-sized nuclear-powered drone will take place in 2028.
The Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, will move to the final stages of design and development of the Dragonfly drone with NASA’s preliminary design approval.
The Military’s Big Bet on Artificial Intelligence
Number 4 Hamilton Place is a be-columned building in central London, home to the Royal Aeronautical Society and four floors of event space. In May, the early 20th-century Edwardian townhouse hosted a decidedly more modern meeting: Defense officials, contractors, and academics from around the world gathered to discuss the future of military air and space technology.
Things soon went awry. At that conference, Tucker Hamilton, chief of AI test and operations for the United States Air Force, seemed to describe a disturbing simulation in which an AI-enabled drone had been tasked with taking down missile sites. But when a human operator started interfering with that objective, he said, the drone killed its operator, and cut the communications system.
Hyperwar Ascendant: The Global Race For Autonomous Military Supremacy
In my 2015 exploration with General John R. Allen on the concept of Hyperwar, we recognized the potential of artificial intelligence to unalterably change the field of battle. Chief among the examples of autonomous systems were drone swarms, which are both a significant threat and a critical military capability. Today, Hyperwar seems to be the operative paradigm accepted by militaries the world over as a de facto reality. Indeed, the observe-orient-decide-act (OODA) loop is collapsing. Greater autonomy is being imbued in all manner of weapon systems and sensors. Work is ongoing to develop systems that further decrease reaction times and increase the mass of autonomous systems employed in conflict. This trend is highlighted potently by the U.S. Replicator initiative and China’s swift advancements in automated manufacturing and missile technologies.
The U.S. Replicator Initiative: A Commitment to Autonomous Warfare?
The Pentagon’s “Replicator” initiative is a strategic move to counter adversaries like China by rapidly producing “attritable autonomous systems” across multiple domains. Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks emphasized the need for platforms that are “small, smart, cheap, and many,” planning to produce thousands of such systems within 18 to 24 months. The Department of Defense, under this initiative, is developing smaller, more intelligent, and cost-effective platforms, a move that aligns with the creation of a Hyperwar environment.
Hydrogen-powered drones could fly longer, farther
Hydrogen is having a moment, thanks to Biden administration incentives to boost production — and that’s spurring development of hydrogen-powered transport, including drones.
Why it matters: Hydrogen-powered drones could potentially fly farther and carry bigger payloads than those relying on heavy electric batteries. That opens doors to new uses, like advanced logistics.
Driving the news: Israeli startup Heven Drones unveiled today two new hydrogen-powered drones that it says represent “a significant leap in endurance and precision.”
Pentagon steps on AI accelerator as age of lethal autonomy looms
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. (AP) — Artificial intelligence employed by the U.S. military has piloted pint-sized surveillance drones in special operations forces’ missions and helped Ukraine in its war against Russia. It tracks soldiers’ fitness, predicts when Air Force planes need maintenance and helps keep tabs on rivals in space.
Now, the Pentagon is intent on fielding multiple thousands of relatively inexpensive, expendable AI-enabled autonomous vehicles by 2026 to keep pace with China. The ambitious initiative — dubbed Replicator — seeks to “galvanize progress in the too-slow shift of U.S. military innovation to leverage platforms that are small, smart, cheap, and many,” Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks said in August.
While its funding is uncertain and details vague, Replicator is expected to accelerate hard decisions on what AI tech is mature and trustworthy enough to deploy — including on weaponized systems.
Airbus tests autonomous air-to-air refueling with AI-guided drones
The tests assessed the use of AI-based navigation sensors and enhanced algorithms for autonomous formation flight.
Airbus.
Following a first flight test earlier this year, this second flight test investigated the use of AI-based navigation sensors and enhanced algorithms for autonomous formation flight. “For the first time, we’ve tested the technologies for autonomous air-to-air refueling based on controlling and guiding multiple drones from the Multi Role Tanker Transport (MRTT) aircraft,” wrote Airbus in a post on X.