The Future Is Here Today...Robots, Genetics, AI, Longevity, Singularity

Lockheed Martin’s Army Exoskeleton to Get More Power (Video)

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by Aaron Saenz on January 28th, 2010
HULC-exoskeleton

Lockheed's HULC exoskeleton is designed to help soldiers carry loads. It's shown here with an optional shoulder attachment for front lifts.

The future of the military may be robots, or it may be soldiers dressed up as robots. Global arms manufacturing Lockheed Martin negotiated a deal with Berkeley Bionics and is now actively developing their HULC exoskeleton for the US military. The Human Universal Load Carrier isn’t a full body suit, it’s designed to ease the stress of walking and allow users to carry weight over long distances without getting tired. The frame of the HULC will bear up to 200 lbs and still allow the user to run at 7 mph with 10 mph bursts. It is also flexible enough to allow squatting, crawling, or kneeing and can be unpacked or packed in about 30 seconds. HULC is an autonomous systems (not powered by cable) but its current Li-ion batteries only give it about 1 hour of run time (less for high-stress work). That’s why Lockheed recently announced it would have Protonex develop a 72 hour fuel cell style power supply for the HULC. What could that do for the average soldier in the field? It takes the HULC from an oddity to a fieldable platform. Watch the latest promotional video from Lockheed Martin after the break to give you an idea.

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US Military Drowning in Drone Data

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by Aaron Saenz on January 22nd, 2010
reaper drone

The Reaper Drone has ten cameras, and that's increasing to 30 soon. Just one of the reasons why the US Military is facing a rising tide of video footage that has to be analyzed.

In the future the face of the military may be a robotic one. For now, it’s all up to human eyes and brains to analyze the mountains of data that the US armed forces collect every day. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) like the Predator and Reaper are constantly flying through Iraqi and Afghani airspace, searching for roadside bombs, armed combatants, and unknown threats. According to the NY Times, the video collected by these drones has risen sharply in the last few years, with an increase of 300% from 2007 to 2008 alone. The amount of footage from 2008 would take 24 years to watch by a single human that never slept or blinked. Luckily, there are hundreds of young soldiers, mostly in the Air Force, who view each video as it comes in. Still, the increasing amounts of drone data lead me to wonder: how long will humans be used to review these videos?

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DARPA Gathering Minds for Flying Car Production

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by Aaron Saenz on January 6th, 2010
DARPA's starting work to develop a flying car. Yeee-HAW!

DARPA's starting work to develop a flying car. Yeee-HAW!

We live in an age of invention, my friends. DARPA, the research branch of the US Department of Defense, is hosting a workshop on January 14th for many of its developers. The topic: flying cars. That’s right, nearly fifty years after the debut of the Jetsons, we’re finally getting serious about getting people into the sky. DARPA is aiming to eventually have a prototype vehicle, to be named the Transformer or TX, which will spend the majority of its time traveling on land, but is capable of sustained flight. The proposed 1 to 4 passenger craft will need vertical take off and landing (VTOL) capabilities and be able to complete a mission on a single tank of fuel. Proponents hope that such a hybrid should help soldiers in the field avoid road side bombs and ambushes by giving drivers the ability to choose unique and dynamic paths to their destination. If the TX succeeds, it would pave the way for non-military commercial vehicles. In other words, pray that DARPA gets this done right, because it could mean flying cars for all of us.

Timetables for the TX production don’t seem to be in discussion yet. There’s certainly a lot of work to be done: development of enabling technologies, coordinating production across several contractors, and finally building a prototype. DARPA has provided a list of technologies that may be used: adaptive wing structures, ducted fan propulsion, lightweight composite materials, advanced flight control technology, hybrid electric drives, and advanced batteries. That list gives us some idea of what the TX may look like: a gas/electric rover with fold down (or other wise non-fixed) wings and fan propulsion. Definitely a cool concept.

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One Step Closer to Suspended Animation for Wounded Soldiers in 18 Months?

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by Aaron Saenz on December 22nd, 2009
Rushing wounded soldiers in MedEvac helicopters could become more successful if a suspended animation drug could extend the time they can survive.

Rushing wounded soldiers in MedEvac helicopters could become more successful if a suspended animation drug could extend the time they can survive.

It’s known as the golden hour. After a bullet wound or other massive trauma, soldiers in the field have about one hour to get intense medical attention. After that time, the chances of survival drop drastically. The research arm of US armed forces, DARPA, has long been interested in extending that golden window of opportunity to five or six hours, enough time to medevac someone from a remote location to a hospital. Earlier in December, DARPA announced that the Texas A&M Institute for Preclinical Studies (TIPS) would be receiving $9.9 million in funding to determine if previously successful suspended animation programs for rodents could work with pigs. According to Wired, the 15 person team lead by Dr. Matthew Miller hopes to have positive results in just 18 months. That sort of quick paced research could soon pave the way to preserve trauma victims the world over as they make their way to help.

There are many mammals that hibernate, from chipmunks to grizzly bears, and each is able to preserve its cells despite a drop in heart rate and available oxygen. DARPA has funded researchers like Matthew Andrews who investigated how certain pancreatic enzymes allow squirrels to hibernate. Mark Roth, another DARPA funds recipient, has experimented with using hydrogen sulfide on mice to restrict the cells reception of oxygen. Using this chemical treatment, Roth was able to get mice to live 6+ hours with only 60% of their blood (analogous to a bullet wound). The pig research at TIPS will focus on getting techniques such as these to work with a cardiovascular system closer to that of humans. Suspended animation is a tricky process, as cells “wake-up” there are free radicals and poor reactions in mitochondria to deal with. Despite the likely difficulties, Matthew Miller envisions a time when every soldier could go into the field armed with a syringe filled with a hibernation cocktail. By treating injured squad mates with the cocktail, a soldier could preserve their colleague for later treatment. When adapted into civilian use such a drug could serve as a vital tool for paramedics, or preserve organs for transplant. When perfected, we may see suspended animation become a vital tool in space exploration or chronic illness management. Let’s just hope that such treatments will keep our loved ones among the living…and not the living dead.

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Avatar Movie Thrills In London Premier, Portends Future

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by Keith Kleiner on December 16th, 2009
Avatar Movie an animation marvel?

Avatar Movie an animation marvel?

The Avatar Movie from renowned director James Cameron is set to open in theaters worldwide this week.  Cameron, creator of movie greats including Terminator, Aliens, and The Abyss, not to mention Titanic, the highest grossing film of all time, has not released a movie in 11 years.  Touting a more than $300 million budget, reportedly the most advanced special effects ever seen in movie making, and the prowess of Cameron himself, the hype for the Avatar movie would seem impossible to live up to.  Yet indications from last week’s premier of the film in London indicate that the movie just might live up to viewers’ lofty expectations after all.

Those who attended the London premier were reportedly raving about the stunning animation and overall wonder of Avatar’s fictional planet Pandora and its inhabitants.  Several viewers have noted a weak plot fraught with overused cliches,  yet the overall consensus seems to be that the impressive animation and vision of this film make it a must see movie destined for box office success.  For what its worth, Rottentomatoes has given the movie a respectable 84% rating.

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The Present and Future of Military – Talon Robot (Video)

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by Aaron Saenz on November 30th, 2009
Armed versions of the Talon robot can be remotely operated to assist (or replace) human troops in the field.

Armed versions of the Talon robot can be remotely operated to assist (or replace) human troops in the field.

Expendable. It’s a word that is rapidly disappearing from use when describing soldiers in the field. Instead, that label has fallen on the shoulders of the newest unit in armed forces: the robot. Drones, remote operated vehicles, automated turrets…the mechanization of war is rapidly spreading, and changing the face of the front line. War 2.0, the next generation of armed conflict, is going to be filled with many different robotic systems. One such system, the Talon platform, has already demonstrated its varied effectiveness in the field. Like an average grunt, the Talon robots are called on to perform a wide range of duties, from surveillance to armed combat. While it’s not the only successful robot series, the Talon platform demonstrates how versatile and attractive robotic warfare will be to the military leaders of tomorrow. We have a string of Talon videos below, make sure to check them out.

Back in 2000, during the US military action in Bosnia, some of the first Talon robots were deployed to help remove enemy explosives. Today, there are hundreds of the Talon Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) robots in Iraq and Afghanistan. In less than a decade, the Talon EOD has gone from trial runs to a mission critical role in the US military strategy. This rapid shift in the war paradigm is mirrored in the Predator drones and CRAM turrets which have a major presence in the region. It appears that the modern military’s response to asymmetric warfare is to adopt a different kind of asymmetry: ‘our’ robots versus ‘their’ humans. That’s a scary, remarkable, and game-changing shift in war.

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Video of Airplane Laser Hitting Truck!

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by Aaron Saenz on October 6th, 2009
That little white nub under the plane shoots truck-killing lasers.

The little white nub under the plane fires truck-killing lasers.


For those of us living in fear of a deadly truck uprising, Maximum Overdrive must have scared someone, we can finally rest easy knowing that Boeing [NYSE: BA] recently used a laser attached to a C130H aircraft to kill a pickup. Melting the hood of the truck was a significant step for the Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL), proving it could defeat ground based targets with high precision. The test took place on August 30th at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. Military lasers, besides looking really cool for science fiction junkies, also demonstrate that the rapid development of technology could have repercussions in international power politics. Check out the short but sweet video Boeing just released after the break.

While it seems inefficient at this stage, putting a hole in a truck with a laser is just a precursor to a different kind of warfare. We’ve discussed how advancements in robotic weaponry and drones are changing war, and a similar level of change may come from ultra-precise mid to long range weapons. An identified target could be hit from flight without the target being aware of the danger and with little to no collateral damage. Considering the recent record of conventional ordinance, that precision could mean sparing the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians.

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