Category: To be used for Evil

Robots Are Getting Smarter

s-bot swarm-bot Ok, the title is a little misleading, its not that the robots themselves are getting smarter it’s that the programming is getting better.

A "swarm" of simple-minded robots that teams up to move an object too heavy for them to manage individually has been demonstrated by robotics researchers.
The robots cannot communicate and must act only on what they can see around them. They follow simple rules to fulfil their task – mimicking the way insects work together in a swarm.

See? Nothing to worry about, no robot revolt is on the horizon. Well, the horizon is a long way off at any rate. But I will say, let me be the first to welcome our new robot masters. Let their reign be long and benevolent.

Robot swarm works together to shift heavy objects – tech – 17 October 2006 – New Scientist Tech

Swarm-bots website 

Project Orion: Unpublished Documents

http://www.flickr.com/photos/xeni/sets/72157594329917915/

 

When I read the book Project Orion, I amazed to read that a nuclear powered craft could lift in one shot as much mass as small battleship! Imagine what mankind could do with such a vehicle. Moon, Mars, Pluto, the stars! Too bad it’s a bit on the messy side. Ok, very messy side. That radiation thing is a tough one to beat. Anyway, it turns out that many once classified drawings and documents are now de-classified. You can see them here as well as listen to a podcast about all of it.

[via boingboing] 

Project Orion: unpublished documents – a photoset on Flickr

Invisible UAV?

Aero Single Rotor UAVOk, not 100 % invisible but it’s just going to be a whirring blur if you happen to spot one. The craft is powered by two propellers at one end and uses just a half of a wing to fly. Huh? Half a wing? Talk about cutting costs… Lift is generated by having the plane spin around its center of mass that is in space back behind the wing and between the motors. This gives an impressive amount of control to the craft while making it very hard to see. When coupled with the VeraTech proprietary panoramic camera system this will provide video surveillance within 75 feet of a target. The system is very light, only four pounds for the two foot version.

I seem to remember seeing plans for a model airplane that used a half propeller and a counter weight on it. This was in some papers that my father had from back in the 40’s and 50’s. He was pretty big into model planes back then. I don’t remember why it was made like this, perhaps it was to get higher speeds on the old ‘U-control‘ planes.

[via new scientist] 

VeraTech Aero Single Rotor Phantom Sentinel

Superconducting Ring to Fling Satellites Into Space

 Launch ring This so reminds me to the high altitude research project that was dreamt up by Gerald Bull. Bull had this idea that he could build the gigantic gun that would shoot satellites into space like something out of a Jules Vern book.  He came close, he was able to loft a 330 pound round about 60 miles off the Earth. He was assassinated in 1990 after making some rather poor choices in the countries that he dealt with. Ah, he would have loved this concept. LaunchPoint Technologies has this idea would utilize a 1-1/4 mile superconducting ring to, over the course of several hours, accelerate a sled with a 22lb payload to a speed of 5 miles a second. The payload would then separate from the sled and be ‘fired’ through a tunnel that is angled 30 degrees up. The projectile would be moving at over 23 times the speed of sound at this point and the next stop would be low Earth orbit. The payload would only have to survive around 2000G but it’s pointed out that laser guided artillery rounds routinely survive forces of over 20,000G. So far it’s just a theoretical design but if it works it could bring the cost per pound to launch hardware into space down to Earth.

[via jwz] 

Huge ‘launch ring’ to fling satellites into orbit