The European Commission is pressing the accelerator on investment in weapons and defense technologies. From a total 590 million invested between 2017 and 2020, Brussels has moved to a 7.3 billion ( 7.9 billion) package for the 2021 to 2027 period. This year alone, the European Defense Fund (EDF) has put 1.1 billion on the plate, divided into 34 calls for as many military-related research topics. From developing new drone models to sensors to increase radar capabilities. From systems to counter hypersonic missile attacks to enhancements in the analysis of images collected by satellites. From "smart weapons" to advanced communication technologies.

Text-to-image generative models have increasingly been used to assist designers during concept generation in various creative domains, such as graphic design, user interface design, and fashion design. However, their applications in engineering design remain limited due to the models' challenges in generating images of feasible designs concepts. To address this issue, this paper introduces a method that improves the design feasibility by prompting the generation with feasible CAD images. In this work, the usefulness of this method is investigated through a case study with a bike design task using an off-the-shelf text-to-image model, Stable Diffusion 2.1. A diverse set of bike designs are produced in seven different generation settings with varying CAD image prompting weights, and these designs are evaluated on their perceived feasibility and novelty. Results demonstrate that the CAD image prompting successfully helps text-to-image models like Stable Diffusion 2.1 create visibly more feasible design images. While a general tradeoff is observed between feasibility and novelty, when the prompting weight is kept low around 0.35, the design feasibility is significantly improved while its novelty remains on par with those generated by text prompts alone. The insights from this case study offer some guidelines for selecting the appropriate CAD image prompting weight for different stages of the engineering design process. When utilized effectively, our CAD image prompting method opens doors to a wider range of applications of text-to-image models in engineering design.

OPUS uses machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP) strategies to automatically create video games from textual descriptions. OPUS can automatically generate game mechanics, settings, and characters that complement the narrative by evaluating the text of a tale or game scenario. Both people and other AI agents may participate in the resultant game. Latent Labs introduces a new way to experience AI art with text to 360 image. Latent labs focus on the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP), so you can explore a new dimension of creativity.

As is well known, the number of robots will increase during the next ten years. The Boston Consulting Group expects that by 2025, robots will perform 25% of all labor-intensive tasks. This is due to cost-related and performance-related enhancements. The United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, and the United Kingdom will push robot adoption. The four leading industries are computer and electronic products, electrical equipment and appliances, transportation equipment, and machinery.

Mentions of artificial intelligence within the filings of companies in the aerospace and defence sector rose 332% between the first and second quarters of 2022. In total, the frequency of sentences related to artificial intelligence between July 2021 and June 2022 was 592% higher than in 2016 when GlobalData, from whom our data for this article is taken, first began to track the key issues referred to in company filings. When companies in the aerospace and defence sector publish annual and quarterly reports, ESG reports and other filings, GlobalData analyses the text and identifies individual sentences that relate to disruptive forces facing companies in the coming years. Artificial intelligence is one of these topics - companies that excel and invest in these areas are thought to be better prepared for the future business landscape and better equipped to survive unforeseen challenges. To assess whether artificial intelligence is featuring more in the summaries and strategies of companies in the aerospace and defence sector, two measures were calculated.

Researchers at Caltech have built a bipedal robot that combines walking with flying to create a new type of locomotion, making it exceptionally nimble and capable of complex movements. Part walking robot, part flying drone, the newly developed LEONARDO (short for LEgs ONboARD drOne, or LEO for short) can walk a slackline, hop, and even ride a skateboard. Developed by a team at Caltech's Center for Autonomous Systems and Technologies (CAST), LEO is the first robot that uses multi-joint legs and propeller-based thrusters to achieve a fine degree of control over its balance. A paper about the LEO robot was published online on October 6 and was featured on the October 2021 cover of Science Robotics. "We drew inspiration from nature. Think about the way birds are able to flap and hop to navigate telephone lines," says Soon-Jo Chung, corresponding author and Bren Professor of Aerospace and Control and Dynamical Systems.

Quadcopters these days are so precious. They take off and hover, taking pictures or whatever, and then land, recharge--and blah. If these drones were birds, they'd be prey. But the Stereotyped Nature-Inspired Aerial Grasper, or SNAG, would be their apex predator. This new quadcopter has legs, each loaded with four 3D-printed talons that lock around whatever makes contact with them, be it a branch to rest on or perhaps, someday, other drones flying where they're not supposed to.

The idea of a robot that can navigate a slackline, skateboard and fly might sound like a concept of science fiction. But such a bot is very much real, in the form of LEONARDO, or Legs Onboard Drone - a bipedal robot that has drone like thrusters for stability. Known as LEO for short, it was built from parts of robots and drones found around the lab by engineers from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. As well as improving stability when walking a tightrope, the propeller-based thrusters also allow the 2.5 foot tall bot to take to the air and fly. The team says that LEO could someday apply its conquest of land and air to robotic missions currently difficult for ground- or aerial-based robots and drones.

A two-legged robot inspired by birds can walk, skateboard, fly and balance on a slackline, which is like a loose tightrope. It could potentially become a new tool to monitor infrastructure in hard-to-reach environments. The robot, named LEONARDO by its creators at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and Northeastern University in Boston, is a human-like machine with knee, hip and ankle joints, but rotor blades for arms that give it upward thrust. LEONARDO is 75 centimetres tall, weighs 2.6 kilograms and walks at up to 20cm per second. It is "the first robot to achieve seamless integration of walking …

The Confederation of Laboratories for Artificial Intelligence Research in Europe (CLAIRE) taskforce on AI & COVID-19 supported the creation of a research group focused on AI-assisted diagnosis of COVID-19 pneumonia. The first results demonstrate the great potential of AI-assisted diagnostic imaging. Furthermore, the impact of the taskforce work is much larger, and it embraces the cross-fertilisation of artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC): a partnership with rocketing potential for many scientific domains. Through several initiatives aimed at improving the knowledge of COVID-19, containing its diffusion, and limiting its effects, CLAIRE's COVID-19 taskforce was able to organise 150 volunteer scientists, divided into seven groups covering different aspects of how AI could be used to tackle the pandemic. Emanuela Girardi, the co-coordinator of the CLAIRE taskforce on AI & COVID-19, supported the setup of a novel European group to study the diagnosis of COVID-19 pneumonia assisted by artificial intelligence.