Drones
Pluggable Social Artificial Intelligence for Enabling Human-Agent Teaming
van Diggelen, J., Barnhoorn, J. S., Peeters, M. M. M., van Staal, W., Stolk, M. L., van der Vecht, B., van der Waa, J., Schraagen, J. M.
As intelligent systems are increasingly capable of performing their tasks without the n eed for continuous human input, direction, or supervision, new human - machine interaction concepts are needed. A promising approac h to this end is human - agent teaming, which envisions a novel interaction form where humans and machines behave as equal team partners . This paper presents an overview of the current state of the art in human - agent teaming, including the analysis of human - agent teams on five dimensions; a framework describing important teaming functionalities; a technical architecture, called SAIL, supporting social human - agent teaming through the modular implementation of the human - agent teaming functionalities; a technica l implementation of the architecture; and a proof - of - concept prototype created with the framework and architecture. We conclude this paper with a reflection on where we stand and a glance into the future showing the way forward .
Robot Wars and Skynet: Is Sci-Fi Becoming Our Reality?
ROBOT WARS AND SKYNET: IS SCI-FI BECOMING OUR REALITY? โ PART 1 My Interest In Robotics And Nanotechnology, US Military UAVs/Drones And Robotic Vehicles, The Civilian Casualties Controversy, DARPA, The Darpa Urban Challenge, Roboticist William L. Whittaker, The Lunar X Prize Competition, The Positive And Negative Contributions Of Modern Technology, Wicked Heart Of Man, George W. Bush And Illegal Invasion Of Iraq, Destruction Wrought In Iraq, Americans And Body Bags, American Casualties From The Iraq War, DARPA's Aim: Protect People On The Battlefield, Remote Killing And Robots On The Battlefield Are The Wave Of The Future, Masters Of Science Fiction: Jerry Was A Man, Future Wars Fought with Automated Machines, Secret Robot Wars With No More Accountability To The Public, Callous American Public, America Was Founded On War, America Survives And Expands Her Empire Through War And Shrewd Economic Policies, Government Propaganda Machines And Malleable Gullible Public, Shock And Awe Wars, Are AI-Enabled Robot Wars In Our Future?, Current Advancements In Robotics, "Terminator" Movies And SkyNet, Will Artificial Intelligence Become A Threat?, Huge Investment in AI By The U.S. Military, The Joint Artificial Intelligence Center And Super Soldiers, Warnings From Stephen Hawking And Elon Musk, Go Down Fighting ROBOT WARS AND SKYNET: IS SCI-FI BECOMING OUR REALITY? โ PART 2
Damage from Iran-linked drone attack on Saudi oil facility captured in satellite images
Hudson Institute senior fellow Michael Pregent says he believes without a doubt that Iran was involved in the attacks on Saudi oil facilities. Saudi oil sites attacked on Saturday -- in a drone assault linked to Iran -- were seen to have sustained damage after satellite images released Sunday captured char marks and smoke billowing from the world's largest oil processing facility. The weekend attack ignited huge fires at Saudi Aramco's Abqaiq oil processing facility and interrupted about 5.7 million barrels of crude oil production -- over 5 percent of the world's daily supply. U.S. satellite images appeared to show approximately 17 points of impact on key infrastructure at the site after the attack. While Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels have since claimed responsibility for the attack, the U.S. has accused Iran of launching the assault.
Attack on Saudi oil sites raises risks amid U.S.-Iran tensions; Mike Pompeo already blames Tehran
DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES โ A weekend drone attack on Saudi Arabia that cut into global energy supplies and halved the kingdom's oil production threatened Sunday to fuel a regional crisis, as Iran denied U.S. allegations it launched the assault and tensions remained high over Tehran's collapsing nuclear deal. Iran called the U.S. claims "maximum lies," while a commander in its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard reiterated its forces could strike U.S. military bases across the Mideast with their arsenal of ballistic missiles. A prominent U.S. senator suggested striking Iranian oil refineries in response to the assault, claimed by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels, on Saudi Arabia's largest oil processing facility. "Because of the tension and sensitive situation, our region is like a powder keg," warned Guard Brig. "When these contacts come too close, when forces come into contact with one another, it is possible a conflict happens because of a misunderstanding."
Ex-Google worker fears 'killer robots' could cause mass atrocities
A new generation of autonomous weapons or "killer robots" could accidentally start a war or cause mass atrocities, a former top Google software engineer has warned. Laura Nolan, who resigned from Google last year in protest at being sent to work on a project to dramatically enhance US military drone technology, has called for all AI killing machines not operated by humans to be banned. Nolan said killer robots not guided by human remote control should be outlawed by the same type of international treaty that bans chemical weapons. Unlike drones, which are controlled by military teams often thousands of miles away from where the flying weapon is being deployed, Nolan said killer robots have the potential to do "calamitous things that they were not originally programmed for". Nolan, who has joined the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots and has briefed UN diplomats in New York and Geneva over the dangers posed by autonomous weapons, said: "The likelihood of a disaster is in proportion to how many of these machines will be in a particular area at once. What you are looking at are possible atrocities and unlawful killings even under laws of warfare, especially if hundreds or thousands of these machines are deployed. "There could be large-scale accidents because these things will start to behave in unexpected ways.
Hummingbird robot using AI to go soon where drones can't
What can fly like a bird and hover like an insect? If drones had this combo, they would be able to maneuver better through collapsed buildings and other cluttered spaces to find trapped victims. Purdue University researchers have engineered flying robots that behave like hummingbirds, trained by machine learning algorithms based on various techniques the bird uses naturally every day. This means that after learning from a simulation, the robot "knows" how to move around on its own like a hummingbird would, such as discerning when to perform an escape maneuver. Artificial intelligence, combined with flexible flapping wings, also allows the robot to teach itself new tricks.
Defiant Iran blasts Pompeo's Saudi-attack accusations as 'blind and futile comments'
The attack comes after Iran exceeded their enriched uranium stockpile limit in the nuclear deal. An Iranian official responded Sunday after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pointed at the nation's government in Tehran following Saturday's drone attacks on Saudi Arabia oil facilities. "The Americans adopted the'maximum pressure' policy against Iran, which, due to its failure, is leaning towards'maximum lies'," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said, according to the Associated Press. On Saturday, Pompeo charged that Iran's government in Tehran ordered "nearly 100 attacks" on a Saudi refinery and oilfield, further alleging that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Zarif pretending "to engage in diplomacy." On Sunday, Mousavi dismissed Pompeo's remarks as "blind and futile comments."
U.S. accuses Iran in drone attack on Saudi Aramco plants
WASHINGTON โ U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday accused Iran of leading attacks on Saudi oil plants that cut the kingdom's output roughly in half, ruling out Yemeni involvement and denouncing Tehran for false diplomacy. Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi group claimed credit for Saturday's attacks on two plants at the heart of Saudi Arabia's oil industry, including the world's biggest petroleum processing facility. Pompeo, however, said on Twitter that there was no evidence the attacks came from Yemen. "Tehran is behind nearly 100 attacks on Saudi Arabia while Rouhani and Zarif pretend to engage in diplomacy," Pompeo said, referring to Iran's President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif. "Amid all the calls for de-escalation, Iran has now launched an unprecedented attack on the world's energy supply," he added.
A Review on IoT Deep Learning UAV Systems for Autonomous Obstacle Detection and Collision Avoidance
Advances in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones, offer unprecedented opportunities to boost a wide array of large-scale Internet of Things (IoT) applications. Nevertheless, UAV platforms still face important limitations mainly related to autonomy and weight that impact their remote sensing capabilities when capturing and processing the data required for developing autonomous and robust real-time obstacle detection and avoidance systems. In this regard, Deep Learning (DL) techniques have arisen as a promising alternative for improving real-time obstacle detection and collision avoidance for highly autonomous UAVs. This article reviews the most recent developments on DL Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs) and provides a detailed explanation on the main DL techniques. Moreover, the latest DL-UAV communication architectures are studied and their most common hardware is analyzed. Furthermore, this article enumerates the most relevant open challenges for current DL-UAV solutions, thus allowing future researchers to define a roadmap for devising the new generation affordable autonomous DL-UAV IoT solutions.
Two Major Saudi Oil Installations Hit by Drone Strike, and U.S. Blames Iran
Drone attacks claimed by Yemen's Houthi rebels struck two key oil installations inside Saudi Arabia on Saturday, damaging facilities that process the vast majority of the country's crude output and raising the risk of a disruption in world oil supplies. The attacks immediately escalated tensions in the Persian Gulf amid a standoff between the United States and Iran, even as key questions remained unanswered -- where the drones were launched from, and how the Houthis managed to hit facilities deep in Saudi territory, some 500 miles from Yemeni soil. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused Iran of being behind what he called "an unprecedented attack on the world's energy supply" and asserted that there was "no evidence the attacks came from Yemen." He did not, however, specify an alternative launch site, and the Saudis themselves refrained from pointing the finger directly at Iran. President Trump condemned the attack in a phone call with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and offered support for "Saudi Arabia's self defense," the White House said in a statement, adding that the United States "remains committed to ensuring global oil markets are stable and well supplied."