A fleet of autonomous trucks is joining all the self-driving taxis and buses Singapore is testing on its streets. Toyota and Volkswagen subsidiary Scania will begin the first full-scale autonomous truck platooning trial in the country this month. For the next three years, the two companies will operate a fleet of trucks composed of three autonomous vehicles following a manned one to transport cargo between ports. Singapore's authorities organized the project, because aside from its desire to become the world's first smart city, it's also seeking to optimize road capacity. It's a relatively tiny city-state, after all, and the number of vehicles on its roads keep on growing along with its population.

Anti-virus software has a hard time keeping up. Piles of new viruses come out each week, so cybersecurity unicorn Cylance is taking what it claims to be a completely new approach: artificial intelligence that learns to recognize malicious code based on an analysis of viruses from the past. It calls the new product CylancePROTECT. In an AMA on Reddit today, the company's head of reseach, Jon Miller, wrote: "Cylance was the first AI built to statically analyze and convict malware pre-execution. We definitely didn't invent AI, but we were the first to use it this way to deliver pre-execution protection. Many other products have been using machine learning, it's just that it was used to support legacy methodologies of protection/detection, using ML to identify trends so static signatures could be built, which in a world where attackers are creating individual pieces of malware to avoid signatures, results in a severe lack of efficacy, thats the problem Cylance was built to solve."

The year 2016 witnessed amazing progress in the field of technology – from Internet of Things (IoT) and augmented/virtual reality going mainstream, to innovations like testing the first-ever reusable rocket. The IT industry also saw a number of advancements including the rise of Cloud and serverless computing and the growing implementation of DevOps that has redefined IT operations. In this article, we look at some of the major developments expected in the world of APM for the year ahead. Monitoring for IoT This past year saw the evolution of IoT – connecting different gadgets and machines we use to automate multiple tasks. This year could see continuing advances in IOT, consumers have adopted smart devices with ease; from wearables to home appliances, the innovators in the IT industry are exploring new areas of implementation.

Researchers are trying to distill smart transit philosophy into a machine-learning algorithm. Scientists hope their smart transit model will reveal a recipe for a smarter city, organized in way that relieves the congestion common on the mass transit systems of major cities. "Singapore needs an efficient transport system to support people's activities given the existing and planned infrastructure," project leader Christopher Monterola, a researcher at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research's Institute of High Performance Computing, explained in a news release. "To guide planners, we needed a model that could predict ridership under the regional centers plan." Like many cities, Singapore consists of a large central downtown, or an inner central business district, surrounded by less dense residential and industrial zones. With so many commuting in and out of the central business district at rush hour, the setup promotes congestion.

Watson is used in hospitals, banks and classrooms, but the company showed off its playful side for hundreds of early risers in the Bay Area. The system assigned workouts, powered the dance floor, created breakfast recipes, and pulled data from social media as an LED sun rose inside. Upon registering, participants used Watson's Personality Insights service to analyze their strongest personality traits based on tweets or a short survey. Each personality received a color -- purple for conscientious, red for outgoing and yellow for expressive. Dancers wore their colors to the event.

They are wise-cracking companions, able to communicate in more than six million languages. Others are bent on enslaving or destroying humanity, deeming themselves better, more rational caretakers of the Earth in light of our irrational behaviors. Pilot or garbage man, soldier or slave, hero or villain--robots have played every role imaginable in popular science fiction for nearly a century. In the 21st century, real-life robots inspired by their fictional counterparts are beginning to take starring roles in everyday life. Several companies, Google among them, are testing autonomous cars (unfortunately, there is no indication that they will be able to travel into the past or future anytime soon).

Apple Inc. is set to join the Partnership on AI, an artificial intelligence research group that includes Amazon.com Apple's admission into the group could be announced as soon as this week, according to people familiar with the situation. Representatives at Apple and the Partnership on AI declined to comment. When the nonprofit organization was announced in September, it anticipated gaining additional members. Apple, Twitter Inc., Intel Corp. and China's Baidu Inc. were among noticeable absentees at the time.

A week after President Donald Trump's inauguration, George Orwell's '1984' is the best-selling book on Amazon.com. The hearts of a thousand English teachers must be warmed as people flock to a novel published in 1949 for ways to think about their present moment. Orwell set his story in Oceania, one of three blocs or mega-states fighting over the globe in 1984. A week after President Donald Trump's inauguration, George Orwell's '1984' is the best-selling book on Amazon.com, as many are comparing it to today's America. Orwell could not have imagined the internet and its role in distributing alternative facts.

Moneycontrol Bureau HDFC Bank's interactive humanoid IRA (Intelligent Robotic Assistant) which has been deployed at their Kamla Mills branch in Mumbai will guide customers to the various counters. This includes cash deposit, foreign exchange, loans among others in the first phase. IRA's language of communication will be English in the first phase. Nitin Chugh, country head, digital banking at HDFC Bank said that based on the response of the customers, they will take a decision on IRA's deployment in other branches across the country. HDFC Bank has developed IRA in partnership with Asimov Robotics, a start-up based in Kochi.

Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robot videos, collected by your Automaton bloggers. We'll also be posting a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next two months; here's what we have so far (send us your events!): Let us know if you have suggestions for next week, and enjoy today's videos. Opportunity is 13 years old! The hydraulic high-power muscle has been developed by Suzumori Endo Robotics Laboratory at Tokyo Institute of Technology and Bridgestone Corporation as part of the Impulsing PAradigm Change through disruptive Technologies program (ImPACT) Tough Robotics Challenge which is an initiative of the Cabinet Office Council for Science, Technology and Innovation. The muscle is 15 mm in diameter and generates 700 kgf contraction force.