The US Navy plans to deploy 150 artificial intelligence-powered'ghost ships' across the seven seas by 2045, which means one in three of its warships will be an uncrewed robotic warship. These AI-powered ships will be smaller and cheaper to operate because they do not require life-support systems and can be piloted remotely, and the technology could be the answer to the military's recruitment nightmare – the Navy is at 89 percent of its goal for the fiscal year ending in September. The expansion was announced in the'Chief of Naval Operations Navigation Plan 2022' report that states the military branch is expanding its fleet to ensure it controls most of the seas and compete with the opposition, specifically China. The development also includes more than 350 manned ships and approximately 3,000 aircraft, which is a dramatic increase from the just 75 new ships added to the regime over the past two decades. The Navy currently operates 300 warships.

The United States Navy is developing robot submarine which will be controlled by Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems – with the ability to potentially kill without explicit human input. The project is named as'CLAWS' by the US Navy; however, very little information has been released about it. According to a report by New Scientist, the project is described as an'autonomous undersea weapon system' and carried out by the Office of Naval Research. Details of this killer-submersible were revealed as part of the 2020 budget documents which also disclosed its AI system name. Since this project is a'top secret', only a few details have been released including the fact that it will use sensors and algorithms to perform the complex missions on their own.

The US Navy is developing a robot submarine that is controlled by artificial intelligence that could kill without human control or input. The project is being run by the Office of Naval Research and has been described as an'autonomous undersea weapon system' according to a report by New Scientist. Details of the killer submersible were made available as part of the 2020 budget documents, which also revealed it has been named CLAWS by the US Navy. Very few details about the'top secret' project have been revealed beyond the fact it will use sensors and algorithms to carry out complex missions on its own. It's expected CLAWS will be installed on the new Orca class robot submarines that have 12 torpedo tubes and are being developed for the Navy by Boeing.

The US Navy is quietly developing armed robot submarines controlled by onboard artificial intelligence. The vessels could potentially kill without explicit human control. The Office of Naval Research is carrying out the project, known as CLAWS, which it describes in budget documents as an autonomous undersea weapon system for clandestine use. CLAWS will "increase mission areas into kinetic effects", say the documents – military-speak for destroying things.

Despite having lived in close proximity to it for hundreds of thousands of years, humanity has yet to explore even a fraction of the Earth's ocean. We have more thoroughly mapped the surfaces of moon and Mars than we have the seafloor. National Geographic and OpenROV hope to change that next year with the Science Exploration Education (SEE) initiative. The organizations are teaming up to give away 1,000 remotely operated underwater drones to any research organization or citizen scientist who wants one (and, obviously, asks while there are still some in stock). "One of the limiting factors for understanding the ocean is the risks, costs, and accessibility issues of experiencing these underwater ecosystems," David Lang, co-founder of OpenROV, said in a statement.

Spanish treasure fleets that traversed the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas and back were a 16th-century invention as important as free two-day shipping. Organized 70 years after Columbus's first voyage, the fleet was made up of several specialized ships with one primary goal: Exploiting the riches of the New World as efficiently as possible. The San José, the largest galleon and the flagship of one group of Spanish ships that started sailing in the 16th century, was big and -- thanks to 62 bronze cannons engraved with dolphins -- deadly enough to deter or destroy ships, whether pirates or rival nations. On June 8, 1708, during the War of the Spanish Succession, the San José's gunpowder ignited during a battle with British ships, sending 600 sailors to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean -- along with gold, silver and emeralds from mines in Peru, a total haul valued at some $17 billion in today's dollars. It stands as one of the most expensive maritime losses in history.

Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your non-flexible 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. Friend o' the blog Markus Waibel sent us this video of the craziest ETH Zurich Flying Machine Arena project (so far): the monocopter, which has one prop and nothing else. We're told that Markus bet that this thing could only work in theory, and lost: This video introduces the monospinner, the mechanically simplest controllable flying machine in existence.