The University of Manchester is leading a consortium to investigate advanced technologies, including robotics and artificial intelligence, for the operation and maintenance of offshore windfarms. The remote inspection and asset management of offshore wind farms and their connection to the shore is an industry which will be worth up to £2 billion annually by 2025 in the UK alone. Eighty to ninety percent of the cost of offshore operation and maintenance according to the Crown Estate is generated by the need to get site access - in essence get engineers and technicians to remote sites to evaluate a problem and decide what action to undertake. Such inspection takes place in a remote and hazardous environment and requires highly trained personnel of which there is likely to be a shortage in coming years. The £5m project will investigate the use of advanced sensing, robotics, virtual reality models and artificial intelligence to reduce maintenance cost and effort.

The world of data and analytics has been transformed over the last few years, providing a broad range of technologies to hold and analyse data. It has been a challenge to keep up-to-date with new concepts from NoSQL, to machine learning, to Internet of things and blockchain. The Little Bee series of books were created by IBM to provide an easy introduction to these concepts and many more in any easy and fun format. They will not make you into an expert, but they will highlight the key concepts, advantages and application areas. The books are available online and, if you are based in the UK, you can order physical copies to enjoy.

Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics 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. Communication with a robot using brain activity from a human collaborator could provide a direct and fast feedback loop that is easy and natural for the human, thereby enabling a wide variety of intuitive interaction tasks. This paper explores the application of EEG-measured error-related potentials (ErrPs) to closed-loop robotic control.

A rendering of startup automaker NIO's Eve, an automated, electric wagon coming to the U.S. in 2020 (NIO) NIO, a well-funded Shanghai-based automotive startup with operations in Silicon Valley and Europe, intends to sell its first autonomous electric car in the U.S. by 2020. The young company faces lots of competition in a global race to create game-changing 21st-century vehicles. Padmasree Warrior, NIO's U.S. CEO, showed off the Eve, a sleek, wagon-style model in a presentation webcast from SXSW in Austin, Texas. Despite a string of high-production value videos that underscored NIO's commitment to zero-pollution, stylish, AI-enabled cars, few specifics about Eve – which bears a resemblance to fellow startup Faraday Future's FF 91 electric crossover – were revealed during the press conference. Electric range wasn't discussed, though a technical spec sheet provided by the company indicates a target driving range of about 600 miles per charge.

Microsoft has become the latest technology giant to respond to WikiLeaks' release of 8,761 documents allegedly detailing the CIA's spying methods. The files forming the enormous Vault 7 release claim that the agency was able to exploit zero-day vulnerabilities in Windows, which it used to secretly monitor users. Microsoft has encouraged customers to update to the latest version of its desktop operating system, saying that most of the vulnerabilities allegedly used by the CIA have already been patched. The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session A man looks at an exhibit entitled'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Electrification Guru Dr. Wolfgang Ziebart talks about the electric Jaguar I-PACE concept SUV before it was unveiled before the Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California, U.S The Jaguar I-PACE Concept car is the start of a new era for Jaguar. Japan's On-Art Corp's CEO Kazuya Kanemaru poses with his company's eight metre tall dinosaur-shaped mechanical suit robot'TRX03' and other robots during a demonstration in Tokyo, Japan Japan's On-Art Corp's eight metre tall dinosaur-shaped mechanical suit robot'TRX03' performs during its unveiling in Tokyo, Japan Singulato Motors co-founder and CEO Shen Haiyin poses in his company's concept car Tigercar P0 at a workshop in Beijing, China A picture shows Singulato Motors' concept car Tigercar P0 at a workshop in Beijing, China Connected company president Shigeki Tomoyama addresses a press briefing as he elaborates on Toyota's "connected strategy" in Tokyo.

InMyBag, a new recovery service for mobile professionals that protects mobile devices from loss, theft and damage, has formed a long-term partnership with Featurespace, the leading Adaptive Behavioural Analytics fraud prevention company, to support the service to InMyBag members. The ARIC platform will be integrated into InMyBag's system to identify and block online fraud at both the point of application and claim -- all in real time. InMyBag provides its members with same-day replacement for devices such as laptops and phones, as well as enterprise-grade data recovery. Iain Harper, InMyBag CEO, commented: "We don't really see ourselves as an insurance company. We're a members' service for mobile professionals that protects the things that matter to them most -- their mobile devices."

In case you hadn't heard the good news, the Nintendo Switch is selling well. In many regions, it's the fastest selling console since the Wii. In others, like the US, it's even outsold that. In some places, like Spain, the Switch's launch is even bigger than the PS4's. While I don't want to diminish the fact that Nintendo is having a successful initial launch period here, what I can't stop thinking about is the idea that the Switch's good fortune may be less driven by people wanting the actual console, but rather people wanting to play The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild because the game is That.

Wetherspoon might have killed off the traditional pub and heralded the rise of the robots. Or it might just have saved it. The company has unleashed into the world its Order & Pay app – specifically made so that nobody will ever have to queue at the bar again. The way it works is simple enough: you tell it what your table you're at, what food or drink you want, and pay for it. Seconds or minutes later your request will arrive, served by one of the bar staff. But what it actually means isn't simple at all.

Stephen Hawking is concerned about the rise of artificial intelligence. Physicist Stephen Hawking may be a proponent of artificial intelligence, but he has also been outspoken about the potential challenges it creates. In a recent interview, he sounded a similar tone, and offered a solution that conservatives may find hard to accept. Speaking to The Times of London to commemorate being awarded the Honorary Freedom of the City of London, a title that was conferred on him on Monday, Professor Hawking expressed optimism for the future. He added, however, that he is concerned about artificial intelligence (AI), as well as other global threats.

The highly intelligent synthetic has been created to serve. The video claims that Walter is an artificial intelligence powered by AMD, Ryzen and Radeon. READ: 4 major spoilers we learned from the official "Alien: Covenant" trailer Fassbender will be playing not one but two roles in "Alien: Covenant." Apart from Walter, the 39-year-old actor will be reprising his role from "Prometheus" as the robot named David. The first movie made us distrust David so it's no surprise if fans are skeptical of Walter.