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DARPA wants modular chips for its killer robots
To add smarts to machines, you need to design circuits and chips, a time-consuming and costly business. The US military's skunkworks arm, DARPA, wants to change all that with its new "CHIPS" program. The goal is to put entire circuit boards on modular chiplets, then tile them together to make a device. That would allow feats like "identifying objects and actions in real-time video feeds, real-time language translation, and coordinating motion on-the-fly among swarms of fast-moving unmanned aerial vehicles," DARPA said in a blog post.
DARPA's AI-powered radio challenge is officially on
DARPA's done ironing out the details for its next Grand Challenge, which revolves around the development of AI-powered radios that work with each other to avoid wireless congestion. The contest will apparently be divided into three year-long phases, starting in 2017. Teams that make it through the preliminary phase will advance to the next stages, ending with a championship event in 2019. The team that comes out on top will take home a $2 million cash prize and could also get into a funded contract with the agency. Teams that finish second and third will get something out of the deal, as well, in the form of $1 million and $750,000 cash prizes, respectively.
DARPA's 'Virtual Eye' lets soldiers see around obstacles
Intel's virtual FreeD replay tech used in the NBA and other sports is cool, but it requires a lot of cameras and GPU horsepower. DARPA, the US military's science fiction arm, thinks the same technology could give soldiers and rescuers better situational awareness. Since there's no way personnel can lug all those computers and cameras into a battle or disaster, it worked with NVIDIA to create Virtual Eye. The system fuses two images into a live synthetic 3D scene using just a powerful laptop and a pair of cameras.
DARPA is building acoustic GPS for submarines and UUVs
For all the benefits that the Global Positioning System provides to landlubbers and surface ships, GPS signals can't penetrate seawater and therefore can't be used by oceangoing vehicles like submarines or UUVs. That's why DARPA is creating an acoustic navigation system, dubbed POSYDON (Positioning System for Deep Ocean Navigation), and has awarded the Draper group with its development contract.
DARPA wants your help tracking malicious hackers
If you're battling hackers, it's helpful to know who they actually are. Unfortunately, tracking down the culprits of an attack has always been difficult thanks to VPNs, TOR and other methods used to disguise the source of a digital assault. Now DARPA wants your help learning who these individuals or organizations are by extracting "behavioral and physical biometrics from a range of devices."
DARPA exhibit offers rare glimpse at a secretive agency
DARPA's has been responsible for countless advancements in cutting-edge technologies since its founding in 1958. During a conference call on Wednesday, DARPA's Deputy director Steve Walker announced that it is partnering with Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry to host a massive exhibit that documents the agency's six decades of accomplishments.
ICYMI: Bullet-stopping foam, all-terrain military car and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-659024{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-659024, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-659024{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-659024").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: Researchers developed a new kind of armor called composite metal foam that's stronger and lighter than the metals inside of it. DARPA is developing a military vehicle that should be able to travel over 95% of solid surfaces, and a Kickstarter project to explore the depths of the Yellowstone River has our attention, in light of the coral reef discovery outside of the Amazon River. Make sure you send this video to your diehard Apple watch friend. As always, please share any great tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
DARPA is developing smarter, faster armored vehicles
In response to ever-more dastardly IED technologies, America's personnel carriers have become lot more resilient over the past few decades. However the ability for armored transports like the MRAP to take a direct blast comes at the cost of their speed, maneuverability, fuel economy, development and construction costs. That's why DARPA has just awarded contracts to eight institutions for their help in developing a next-generation people mover that's lighter, faster, smarter and more nimble than today's trucks.
Facebook poaches Google's advanced technology lead
Facebook just scored a big coup in its longstanding rivalry with Google. The company has hired Regina Dugan, Google's Advanced Technology Technology and Projects leader (think Ara and Tango), to lead a new team at the soon-to-be-built Building 8. Just what the former DARPA leader be doing there isn't evident, but she tells Forbes that her group will rely on "ambitious R&D" to make "breakthrough" hardware that leans on Facebook's technological skills. It'll be in sync with the ambitious 10-year roadmap Facebook unveiled at F8 on April 12th. There, the long-term goals included getting people connected, developing artificial intelligence and fostering wearable tech like virtual reality.
US military wants vaccines that adapt to fight new viruses
Vaccines and other antiviral treatments have one overriding, seemingly inescapable problem: since viruses evolve, a solution that works today can be completely useless tomorrow. The researchers at DARPA are convinced this is a solvable problem, however. They've launched an INTERCEPT (Interfering and Co-Evolving Prevention and Therapy) program that aims to create therapies which adapt in sync with the viruses they're meant to thwart. It'll largely revolve around therapeutic interfering particles (TIPs), or tiny slices of protein-shelled DNA that infiltrate cells and compete with viruses for protein shells. Since the particles should be produced faster than viruses, you end up with loads of dud viruses that dramatically reduce the impact of any viral load. Think of it as watering down a stiff drink.
DARPA christens its anti-submarine drone ship 'Sea Hunter'
DARPA's Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV) has a brand new and less tongue twisty name: Sea Hunter. The agency made the announcement at the drone ship's christening in Portland, following a series of speed tests conducted these past few days. Now that DARPA Director Arati Prabhakar is done smashing a bottle over its bow, it's ready to begin a battery of tests to be held within the next two years. The military has to make sure the 132-foot self-driving ship can evade other marine vessels using its radar and cameras, among other things, before it can officially deploy it.
DARPA helps drones avoid mid-air collisions
Some of the latest consumer drones, such as the DJI Phantom 4, come with an obstacle avoidance system. They're designed for stationary and slow-moving objects, however, like trees and cyclists, rather than aircraft ripping through the sky at 550mph. That poses a problem if we ever want manned and unmanned aircraft playing nicely in the sky. To help, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is working on a new sense-and-avoid (SAA) system. The group recently conducted its first test flight, demonstrating that a shoebox-sized prototype can effectively detect and track a Cessna 172G aircraft approaching from different angles.
DARPA starts speed testing its submarine-hunting drone ship
DARPA's 130-foot unmanned ship is almost ready to take on rogue submarines. Its christening isn't slated to take place until April 7th, but it's now in the water near its construction site in Portland, Oregon -- the agency has even begun conducting speed tests. The drone called ACTUV or Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel has successfully reached the top speed its creators were expecting (31mph) during the preliminary tests. It was, however, designed to do much more than traverse the oceans at 31mph. ACTUV has the capability to use long/short-range sonar to detect foreign submarines, even stealthy diesel electric ones that don't make noise.
DARPA's reusable unmanned 'gremlin' planes are a go
Four aerospace and security corporations will attempt to make DARPA's "gremlins program" dream a reality. The Department of Defense division has joined forces with its frequent collaborator Lockheed Martin, Dynetics of Alabama, as well as Composite Engineering and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems of California. Dan Patt, the program manager, said these four contractors are "exploring different, innovative approaches" to create a system of reusable unmanned vehicles (called gremlins) that can launch from bigger aircraft, such as bombers and cargo planes.
ICYMI: A space-based full service stop, bat drone and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-426380{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-426380, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-426380{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-426380").style.display="none";}catch(e){} Today on In Case You Missed It: DARPA's own AAA satellite service to service satellites orbiting Earth could launch in about five years, if all the testing goes as planned. A new drone is based on the form of a bat and the resemblance is uncanny. And Google is helping robotic graspers learn hand-eye coordination by giving them new objects to pick up. If you've followed along with some of the 3D-printed prosthetics we've done stories on, you'll want to see this glitter shooting, darling girl. And as always, please share any great tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
DARPA's next challenge could lead to AI-powered radios
So far, the solutions to wireless spectrum crunches have involved either offering relatively untapped airwaves or reusing frequencies that were previously assigned to something else. However, DARPA knows this can't go on forever -- and it's looking for help to devise a clever way around the problem. The military research agency has launched a new Grand Challenge that will have teams develop artificial intelligence-powered radios that cooperate with each other to avoid wireless congestion. Rather than force devices to use narrow frequency ranges regardless of how crowded they may be, DARPA would like to see those gadgets negotiate frequency sharing whenever they need it.
ICYMI: Brain injury gadget, DARPA future plane and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-363435{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-363435, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-363435{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-363435").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: Samsung has jumped on the preventing-brain-injury bandwagon, developing a brainBAND to light up to indicate the severity of a hit in contact sports. Meanwhile, DARPA is designing a new airplane that is a blend between a fixed aircraft and a helicopter. And NASA is about to begin using inflatable modules at the International Space Station, in case that's something humans can set up on the surface of Mars. We hit on a number of big stories this week, but you will definitely impress your friends if you know what happened to Microsoft's AI chat bot within 24 hours. As always, please share any great tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
DARPA thinks it has the solution to satellite longevity
The government's mad science wing has an eye on lowering the cost and extending the lifespan of the geosynchronous Earth orbit satellites that follow our planet during its rotation. DARPA has proposed a system dubbed Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites (RSGS if you're a fan of brevity) that'd essentially act as a lifeline for the satellites up above us. The program is still in its infancy but would "radically lower the risk and cost of operating in GEO," according to the firm.
DARPA's 'Improv' initiative crowdsources solutions to DIY terrorists
The quality gap between technology available to the Department of Defense and regular citizens is rapidly shrinking -- just look at UAVs. While that's a good thing for hobbyists, it also enables terrorists (either external or home-grown) to craft increasingly sophisticated devices and weapons, like IEDs, which is why DARPA launched its "Improv" initiative on Thursday.
DARPA unveils its next VTOL aircraft concept
DARPA announced on Thursday that it had awarded the Phase 2 design contract for its unmanned VTOL X-Plane concept to Aurora Flight Sciences (AFS). VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) planes, like the current generation of V-22 Osprey or F-35B Lightning II, have to trade off between a number of mission requirements including flight speed versus range or fuel efficiency versus power. With the X-Plane, DARPA hopes to have it all and make this VTOL platform more functional on the battlefield.
