Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 462

The European Space Agency (ESA) and Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) have announced a partnership to launch a robotic space mission that will lift off by 2021. Both programs will share proposals and development duties equally, as each proposal must be signed by a lead investigator from Europe and in China.

Proposals are due in March, peer review begins in April, and mission selection is scheduled to occur before the end of the year.

"The goal of the present Call is to define a scientific space mission to be implemented by ESA and CAS as a cooperative endeavor between the European and Chinese scientific communities," the ESA recently said in a statement. "The mission selected as an outcome of the present Joint Call will follow a collaborative approach through all the phases: study, definition, implementation, operations and scientific exploitation."

Google is wanting to get back into space, where it is teaming up with SpaceX to join its Internet satellite venture. The Mountain View-based search giant has agreed to value SpaceX at over $10 billion, before it invests large sums of money into Elon Musk's space transportation business.

The total round of funding on SpaceX is said to be even bigger, with some very big names throwing their checks into the company. SpaceX wants to launch countless micro-satellites that would operate in low-orbit around Earth, with the company already in the early stages of development. Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX and real-life Tony Stark has said that this venture will end up providing cheap Internet for the entire world.

This project would eventually see wireless networks installed around Mars, when humans get to the point of colonizing the red planet. While satellite Internet is usually considered worse than most wired and fiber methods, it will bring Internet connectivity to parts of the world that wouldn't otherwise receive Internet connections.

The University of California, San Francisco Medical Center at Mission Bay officially opens on Sunday, February 1, and will make use of 25 autonomous robots. Each robot is pre-programmed with the hospital's floor plans, and can autonomously navigate the best route to get to assigned areas - taking supplies to and from labs, stock rooms, the pharmacy and kitchen.

The robot is unable to answer voice commands, but can say 70 different phrases to communicate with staff and visitors. Furthermore, it has 30 onboard infrared and sonar sensors, a laser and camera, providing better ability to avoid collisions.

"Tissue samples, blood samples need to get from point A to point B very fast," said Ken Goldberg, UC Berkeley professor of robotics, in a statement to CNET. "You can't afford to wait for someone to show up. The robot that never gets distracted, never stops for coffee, could be great for these critical deliveries."

A bit of a weird one for the world today: NASA has repurposed the the original processor that powered the first PlayStation from Sony in its probe sent to Pluto.

The MIPS R3000 CPU was the chip found in the original PlayStation, but NASA is using the CPU to control thrusters, guidance, and other systems in its probe to Pluto. The processor has been "radiation hardened" to survive the harsh elements of the sea of stars that we call space, too. The PlayStation may have used a 33MHz R3051 CPU, but the New Horizons spacecraft features a 12MHz Mongoose-V CPU.

An Imagination spokesman told Electronics Weekly: "It is found in workstations and servers designed by companies such as Evans & Sutherland, DEC, Silicon Graphics, Tandem Computers and Whitechapel Workstation. Most notably, it was the CPU chosen for the original PlayStation game console from Sony and is still being used by Toshiba in a range of microcontrollers". Seven years after it launched, the New Horizons spacecraft has "awoken" and is taking a look at Jupiter. It is a whopping 3.5 billion miles from the Sun, and should start orbiting the dwarf planet soon.

The US Army Research Laboratory is developing a new type of battery for the battlefield, with scientists testing different materials. Ideally, they want to create a battery that corrodes slower - if it all - and the rechargeable batteries have less charge/discharge cycles, while increasing stability during high-voltage scenarios.

Over the next few months, the ARL team wants to begin evaluations of larger battery cells from commercial manufacturers, so they are able to analyze safety and performance. If approved, the ARL will have created new batteries that are lighter and can last longer during use in tough environments.

"We help to develop new battery materials that are lighter and last longer for the Soldier, so he doesn't have to carry so many batteries," said Cynthia Lundgren, Chief of the Electrochemistry Branch of the Power and Energy Division in the Sensors and Electron Devices Directorate. "If we could raise the voltage of a single cell - energy density is a direct function of the voltage - we could make the battery lighter."

Artificial intelligence is developing at a rapid rate, and Elon Musk wants to make sure robots don't one day try to overtake mankind. The donated funds will be used to help support AI research activities, especially projects with a focus on non-threatening AI development.

"Here are all these leading AI researchers saying that AI safety is important," Musk recently said regarding AI. "I agree with them, so I'm today committing $10M to support research aimed at keeping AI beneficial for humanity."

Physicist Stephen Hawking joined Musk and signed an open letter that pledged AI would be developed in a productive, safe manner for humans. The Future of Life Institute published the open letter, which has generated great interest from tech and science industry leaders.

ShotSpotter technology is being used in areas with high levels of crime and gun violence, which helps law enforcement respond faster to gun shots. Using microphones located around "problem areas" of cities, the ShotSpotter system is able to provide instant locations of gunshots within 10 feet.

The use of the system allows police to investigate shootings that often times aren't reported after they occur. However, it is rather expensive to deploy, with costs ranging from $60,000 up to $100,000 per year per square mile.

"It helps us catching guys and it helps us with officer safety," said Orlando Cuevas, Camden County police chief, in a statement to CBS News. "Now these officers are not traveling blindly into an area where a gunshot is."

Duke University researchers have grown human skeletal muscles in a research lab, with the manufactured creation able to contract and respond like native tissue. It's possible the lab-created muscles can help with drug research and so researchers are better able to study diseases.

Researchers used human cells that progressed past stem cells but didn't reach full muscle tissue yet - and the myogenic precursors were allowed to form into muscle fibers located in a custom 3D scaffolding.

"One of our goals is to use this method to provide personalized medicine to patients," said Nenad Bursac, associate professor of biomedical engineering at Duke University, in a press statement. "We can take a biopsy from each patient, grow many new muscles to use as test samples and experiment to see which drugs would work best for each person."

It's hard to predict what will happen as robotics technology matures, and artificial intelligence software advances, but there is growing concern that robots could end up taking jobs from humans. In Germany and other European Union (EU) nations look to solve political problems, there is growing concern that robots - and not immigrants from other nations - could lead to a shrinking work force.

"What's fundamentally different is that (these advances) have the ability to affect a broader set of workers," said Jeremy Bowles, a researcher at the Bruegel Institute in Brussels, Belgium. Bowles believes humanoid robots will be able to carry out human tasks that could one day impact white-collar employees.

However, a counter-argument is that the rise of robotics will help spur the economy, as there will be additional opportunities for businesses. "Robotics is seen as a pivotal technology, which is not only going into robotics per se but into so many other branches and technologies," said Uwe Haas, secretary general of the European Union's robotics program. "It will create new jobs because [it will make] new businesses possible."

The NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has started testing its VolcanoBot 1 robot in Hawaii, sending it into inactive fissures located inside the active Kilauea volcano. The small two-wheeled robot is less than seven inches tall and around one foot long, with the ability to help researchers create 3D fissure maps.

"We don't know exactly how volcanoes erupt. We have models but they are all very, very simplified. This project aims to help make those models more realistic," said Carolyn Parcheta, JPL postdoctoral fellow.

NASA hopes to refine the VolcanoBot 1's abilities, which could be rolled out for future missions on planets and moons besides Earth. There is specific interest in exploring craters on the moon and Mars, with Earth-based experiments helping perfect hardware before sending them into space.