In this paper, we present an energy-conservation based control architecture for stable dynamic motion in quadruped robots. We model the robot as a Spring-loaded Inverted Pendulum (SLIP), a model well-suited to represent the bouncing motion characteristic of running gaits observed in various biological quadrupeds and bio-inspired robotic systems. The model permits leg-orientation control during flight and leg-length control during stance, a design choice inspired by natural quadruped behaviors and prevalent in robotic quadruped systems. Our control algorithm uses the reduced-order SLIP dynamics of the quadruped to track a stable parabolic spline during stance, which is calculated using the principle of energy conservation. Through simulations based on the design specifications of an actual quadruped robot, Ghost Robotics Minitaur, we demonstrate that our control algorithm generates stable bouncing gaits. Additionally, we illustrate the robustness of our controller by showcasing its ability to maintain stable bouncing even when faced with up to a 10% error in sensor measurements.

The backup Uber driver for a self-driving vehicle that killed a pedestrian in suburban Phoenix in 2018 pleaded guilty Friday to endangerment in the first deadly crash involving a fully autonomous car. Arizona state judge David Garbarino, who accepted the plea agreement, sentenced Rafaela Vasquez to three years of supervised probation for the crash that killed 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg. Vasquez, 49, told police that Herzberg "came out of nowhere" and that she didn't see Herzberg before hitting her on a darkened Tempe street on 18 March 2018. Vasquez had been charged with felony negligent homicide. The charge to which she pleaded could be reclassified as a misdemeanor if she completes probation. Authorities say Vasquez was streaming the television show The Voice on a phone and looking down in the moments before Uber's Volvo XC-90 SUV struck Herzberg, who was crossing with her bicycle.

Waymo starts limited trial of self-driving taxi service. The Uber driver behind the wheel during the first reported fatal collision involving a fully autonomous vehicle pleaded guilty to endangerment on Friday, and was sentenced to three years of supervised probation. In March of 2018, Elaine Herzberg was killed while walking her bike outside the lines of a crosswalk in suburban Phoenix. Driver Rafaela Vasquez, 49, was streaming a show on her phone and not watching the road at the moment of the fatal accident, authorities said. Video released by the Tempe Police Department from inside the Vasquez's Volvo XC90 SUV shows her looking down at the moment of the crash, during which the vehicle was moving at 40 miles per hour.

The Uber safety driver at the wheel during the first known fatal self-driving car crash involving a pedestrian has pleaded guilty to and been sentenced for an endangerment charge. Rafaela Vasquez will serve three years of probation for her role in the 2018 Tempe, Arizona collision that killed Elaine Herzberg while she was jaywalking at night. The sentence honors the prosecutors' demands and is stiffer than the six months the defense team requested. The prosecution maintained that Vasquez was ultimately responsible. While an autonomous car was involved, Vasquez was supposed to concentrate on the road and take over if necessary.

In context: Researchers are turning the creative world upside down, exploiting artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to turn many tasks into semi-autonomous processes. Nothing is safe from generative AI anymore, not even your local doctor's illegible writing. Years before OpenAI and other organizations started toying with AI to easily generate text, speech, artworks, malware, and videos, machine learning researcher Sean Vasquez was studying a 2013 paper by Google DeepMind's Alex Graves to create "handwriting synthesis" experiments. The experiment is available at Calligrapher.ai, which Hacker News recently rediscovered. The handwriting synthesis behind Calligrapher.ai

Educators across the U.S. are sounding the alarm over ChatGPT, an upstart artificial intelligence that can write term papers for students based on keywords without clear signs of plagiarism. "I have a lot of experience of students cheating, and I have to say ChatGPT allows for an unprecedented level of dishonesty," said Joy Kutaka-Kennedy, a member of the American Educational Research Association and education professor at National University. "Do we really want professionals serving us who cheated their way into their credentials?" Trey Vasquez, a special education professor at the University of Central Florida, recently tested the next-generation "chatbot" with a group of other professors and students. They asked it to summarize an academic article, create a computer program, and write two 400-word essays on the use and limits of AI in education.

Rafaela Vasquez liked to work nights, alone, buffered from a world she had her reasons to distrust. One Sunday night in March 2018, Uber assigned her the Scottsdale loop. She drove a gray Volvo SUV, rigged up with cameras and lidar sensors, through the company's garage, past the rows of identical cars, past a poster depicting a driver staring down at a cell phone that warned, "It Can Wait." The clock ticked past 9:15, and Vasquez reached the route's entry point. She flipped the Volvo into autonomous mode, and the car navigated itself through a blur of suburban Arizona, past auto dealers and Zorba's Adult Shop and the check-cashing place and McDonald's.

Autonomous vehicle design involves an almost incomprehensible combination of engineering tasks including sensor fusion, path planning, and predictive modeling of human behavior. But despite the best efforts to consider all possible real world outcomes, things can go awry. More than two and a half years ago, in Tempe, Arizona, an Uber "self-driving" car crashed into pedestrian Elaine Herzberg, killing her. In mid-September, the safety driver behind the wheel of that car, Rafaela Vasquez, was charged with negligent homicide. Uber's test vehicle was driving 39 mph when it struck Herzberg. Uber's sensors detected her six seconds before impact but determined that the object sensed was a false positive.

The safety driver behind the wheel of a self-driving Uber that struck and killed a woman in 2018 has been charged with a crime. Prosecutors in Maricopa County, Arizona, Tuesday said the driver, Rafaela Vasquez, has been indicted for criminal negligence. But Uber, her employer and the company that built the automated system involved in the fatal collision, won't face charges. The attorney for neighboring Yavapai County declined to prosecute Uber last year, writing in a letter that the office found "no basis for criminal liability." Yavapai County attorney Sheila Polk declined to elaborate on her decision.

Do you remember the 2018 Accident Case of Self Driving Uber Car? The car collided with a pedestrian and caused her death. Since then the scrutiny has raised at another level for the security of such autonomous vehicles. Many have claimed that rolling out self-driving cars in the road at this stage is extremely dangerous and criticized the autonomous tech development. However, considering a different angle from a general perspective, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said, "Had the vehicle operator been attentive, she would likely have had sufficient time to detect and react to the crossing pedestrian to avoid the crash or mitigate the impact."