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Alternative Transportation, Science & Technology News

Bird-Shaped Flying Car Phractyl Macrobat Is a Bonkers, Idealistic Take on Air Mobility

December 17, 2021

eVTOLs haven’t “arrived” yet, despite earlier predictions that man will be enjoying personal flight no later than 2020. The latest estimates claim that UAMs (Urban Air Mobility solutions) will go into production within a decade, but it will still be another while before they go mainstream.

By Elena Gorgan

The upside to the extended wait is that it allows for more time to perfect battery technology which, in turn, will offer Phractyl the chance to finalize the design on the most bonkers and idealistic aircraft ever. As the “most genius”artist on the face of the planet would say (*Kanye West): OF ALL TIME.

This is Macrobat, an all-electric PAV (Personal Aerial Vehicle) like no other before. You could call it a flying-car birdoplane, and the people behind it, a team of researchers and designers from Africa, would probably appreciate it. Introduced in mid-November (hat tip to Interesting Engineering), it is now raising funds toward further developing the study and building a first functional prototype.

Phractyl, the name of the startup, stands for the PHRontier for Agile Complex Technology sYstem evoLution. Macrobat was named so because “bats are the only mammals that can fly, and the Macrobat facilitates the flight of another type of mammal (badum-tish),” as the description on the official website reads. As you can see, the people behind the project have a very healthy sense of humor, which probably helps when it comes to selling an idea as bonkers as this.

Driverless cars

Mercedes beats Tesla to hands-free driving on highways

December 16, 2021

Decision paves the way for the automaker to offer the Level 3 system globally

DAIMLER

Drive Pilot will be an option for the S-Class and EQS models from around the middle of next year.

Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz won regulatory approval to deploy a hands-free driving system in Germany ahead of Tesla, gaining an edge in the race to offer higher levels of automation in one of the world’s most competitive car markets.

The automaker got the go-ahead to sell its Drive Pilot package for use on stretches of the country’s Autobahn network at a speed of up to 60 kph (37 mph).

The system was approved for Level 3 autonomous driving, a notch higher than Tesla’s Level 2 Autopilot system, and will allow a drivers to take their hands off the wheel in slow-moving traffic.

Robots

Swiss delivery robot walks, drives, stands, but doesn’t fly (yet)

December 16, 2021

By Bruce Crumley

A major Swiss update of a previously developed robot has yielded a car, quadruped, humanoid delivery vehicle that may rival aerial drones in getting goods to destinations – apart from the flying trick, that is.

Initially trotted out as the ANYmal in 2018, the new, wheel-outfitted iteration was rolled out recently as the Swiss-Mile Robot, whose driving, climbing, and standing capacities make it a tough delivery vehicle competitor to autonomous cars and aerial drones. Those development improvements were the work of the Swiss Mile, which adopted the bot concept from creator ANYbotics. Named for the distance the machine can cover in an hour (13.8 miles), the upgraded Swiss Mile robot can operate for 90 minutes on a single charge, and reach transport speeds of up to 14 mph.

Children, Science & Technology News

India says nationwide birthrates drop below key ‘replacement rate’

December 16, 2021

Children play at a waterlogged street near a residential area after heavy monsoon rainfall in Chennai, India, on Nov. 12.

By Gerry Shih

India’s population growth is losing steam as the average number of children born crossed below a key threshold, according to newly released data from a government survey.

India’s most recent National Family Health Survey, which is conducted every five years by the Health Ministry, was released Wednesday and showed the total fertility rate (TFR) across India dropping to 2.0 in 2019-2021, compared with 2.2 in 2015-2016. A country with a TFR of 2.1, known as the replacement rate, would maintain a stable population over time; a lower TFR means the population would decrease in the absence of other factors, such as immigration.

The figures were hailed as a heartening signal by government officials and researchers in a country that is expected to overtake China to become the world’s most populous sometime this decade. Since the mid-20th century, Indian leaders have tried to curb high birthrates, which are often reversely correlated with women’s welfare metrics and economic progress. A burgeoning population is seen, in the longer term, as a hurdle to development and a driver of environmental degradation and greenhouse gas emissions.

Futurati Podcast, Science & Technology News

Futurati Podccast with Radhika Iyengar-Emens

December 15, 2021

Watch on Youtube

Listen on the Futurati Podcast website
Radhika Iyengar-Emens is a founding partner at StarChain Ventures, a venture studio focused on the disruptive potential of blockchain technology in combination with AI, ML, and IoT, as well as a noted expert on applications of the blockchain.

Related

Robots

AES launches ‘first-of-its-kind’, AI-driven solar installation robot

December 15, 2021

The robot will aid in construction by performing the lifting, placing and attachment of solar panels. Image: AES promotional video

By Sean Rai-Roche

Energy technology company AES has launched an artificially intelligent (AI) robot to support the construction of new solar projects.

The company said the “first-of-its-kind” machine will make it faster, more efficient and safer to construct new solar facilities.

The product of a multi-year innovation process, the robot, dubbed Atlas, was designed by AES and built in cooperation with Calvary Robotics as well as other third parties at Calvary’s New York headquarters.

AES teams will use Atlas as a tool in the construction of new solar projects. Atlas will support AES’ workforce by performing the heavy lifting, placing and attachment of solar modules, while adding new high-tech jobs, AES said.

“The… Atlas robot automates the construction of new solar resources, enabling a safer work environment, shorter project timelines and lower overall energy costs,” said Chris Shelton, AES senior vice president and chief product officer.

drones

Electric Sky developing beam to remotely power drone flights

December 15, 2021

By Bruce Crumley

Innovating startup Electric Sky is working on an energy transmitter to beam power to both single and swarms of drones in flight, and has now been backed by a grant from the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

Electric Sky, which has offices in Seattle and Midland, Texas, received $225,000 in funding from DARPA to develop its remote concept to power airborne drones. Over the six-month phase the grant covers, Electric Sky will focus primarily on adapting the system for use with swarms of UAVs at relatively short distances. Continuing work will then seek to expand those to longer-range, single-, and multi-craft operation.

That sequential road map may seem logical in creating most emerging technologies, but it seems to run counter to Electric Sky’s patent application, and executives’ description of the platform.

Other methods already being developed to power drones with remote, wireless tech – usually with lasers or microwaves – tend to get weaker the farther they travel from their source. By contrast, Electric Sky says its Whisper Beam innovation actually intensifies when it reaches its UAV target.

brain hacking

Human Brain Project: Researchers design artificial cerebellum that can learn to control a robot’s movement

December 14, 2021

The Robot used by the Applied Computational Neuroscience research group of the University of Granada.

Researchers at Human Brain Project partner University of Granada in Spain have designed a new artificial neural network that mimics the structure of the cerebellum, one of the evolutionarily older parts of the brain, which plays an important role in motor coordination. When linked to a robotic arm, their system learned to perform precise movements and interact with humans in different circumstances, surpassing performance of previous AI-based robotic steering systems. The results have been published in the journal Science Robotics.

It is the most biologically realistic and detailed model of the cerebellum to date capable of work in real-time, and replicates not only aspects of the structure, but also its adaptability and capacity to learn. By taking inspiration from the brain in this way, the scientists were able to solve one of the common technological challenges in robotics: Their cerebellar spiking neural network enables the robot to deal with so-called latency, or time delays, which is a central real-world problem for computational systems in robotics, especially during wireless or remote steering.

The research could also help to control new bio-inspired robots, which are equipped with elastic and flexible components that replicate the muscles and tendons of the human body. Such “co-bots” are safer for human interaction, but their flexibility makes it difficult to use classical control techniques.

Elon Musk, Science & Technology News

Elon Musk says Neuralink could start implanting chips in humans in 2022: People with severe spinal injuries would get the tech that the billionaire says could help them walk again

December 14, 2021

By STACY LIBERATORE

Elon Musk’s Neuralink is looking to start human trials of its brain chip in 2022
The news was shared by Musk on Monday while speaking during The Wall Street Journal CEO Council Summit
Musk said trials in monkeys have been successful, showing the chip is safe
Neuralink just needs FDA approval to start testing the chip in humans
People with severe spinal injuries would be the first to get the chip

Elon Musk claims his Neuralink, a brain-interface technology company, is less than a year away from implanting chips into human brains.

The news comes from the billionaire himself during a live-streamed interview with The Wall Street Journal CEO Council Summit on Monday, when asked about plans for the company in 2022.

‘Neuralink’s working well in monkeys and we’re actually doing just a lot of testing and just confirming that it’s very safe and reliable and the Neuralink device can be removed safely,’ Musk said.

AI

How DeepMind’s AI Helped Crack Two Mathematical Puzzles That Stumped Humans for Decades

December 14, 2021

By Shelly Fan

With his telescope, Galileo gathered a vast trove of observations on celestial objects. With his mind, he found patterns in that universe of data, creating theories on motion and mechanics that paved the way for modern science.

Using AI, DeepMind just gave mathematicians a new telescope.

Working with two teams of mathematicians, DeepMind engineered an algorithmthat can look across different mathematical fields and spot connections that previously escaped the human mind. The AI doesn’t do all the work—when fed sufficient data, it finds patterns. These patterns are then passed on to human mathematicians to guide their intuition and creativity towards new laws of nature.

“I was not expecting to have some of my preconceptions turned on their head,” said Dr. Marc Lackenby at the University of Oxford, one of the scientists collaborating with DeepMind, to Nature, where the study was published.

The AI comes just a few months after DeepMind’s previous triumph in solving a 50-year-old challenge in biology. This is different. For the first time, machine learning is aiming at the core of mathematics—a science for spotting patterns that eventually leads to formally-proven ideas, or theorems, about how our world works. It also emphasized collaboration between machine and man in bridging observations to working theorems.

Medical Breakthrough

Yale researchers develop mRNA-based lyme disease vaccine

December 14, 2021

Yale researchers have developed an mRNA vaccine that targets the antigens found in tick saliva in order to alert individuals to tick bites as well as prevent the tick from feeding correctly, thereby reducing its ability to transmit pathogens.

By Cate Roser

Yale researchers have developed an mRNA vaccine against lyme disease that triggers an immune response at the site of a tick bite and provides partial protection against the disease-causing bacteria.

In a paper published on Nov. 17 in the Science Translational Medicine journal, scientists studied specific ticks called “Ixodes scapulari” that carry a lyme-disease-causing bacteria called “Borrelia burgdorferi.”According to Gunjan Arora, one of the co-first authors of the paper and an associate research scientist at the Yale School of Medicine, lyme disease is the fastest-growing vector-borne illness in the United States, with close to half a million people affected every year. Currently, there are no commercially available vaccines for lyme disease. This novel vaccine is unique in that it targets the vector of transmission, the tick, rather than the actual pathogen itself. “Lyme disease is the most common Tick–borne human illness in the United States, leaving an urgent need for either therapies or preventative strategies, such as a vaccine,” Jacqueline Mathias dos Santos, a co-first author on the paper and a postdoctoral associate at the School of Medicine, wrote in an email to the News. “Our vaccine is unique in that we don’t actually target the pathogen, we target the vector … instead. This strategy can work for Borrelia because it takes around 24 hours of tick feeding for the pathogen to be transmitted. This offers a unique opportunity to disrupt transmission. Additionally, by targeting the vector, we don’t expect this to drive resistance by the pathogen.”

Tesla

Tesla launches $1,900 Cyberquad for Kids

December 14, 2021

You can’t get the Cyberquad yet, but your kids can!

By Stan Schroeder

Remember when Elon Musk promised a Tesla ATV called Cyberquad? Well, the actual Cyberquad isn’t quite here, but Tesla quietly launched something similar: the Cyberquad for Kids (yes, that’s the official name).

The small, four-wheel ATV has a lithium-ion battery that gives it 15 miles of range and a top speed of 10 mph. It has a full steel frame, cushioned seat, adjustable suspension, rear disc brakes, and LED light bars on the front.

Visually, the Cyberquad for Kids looks pretty cool, and is probably a good indication of what the Cyberquad for grown-ups is going to look like when it finally launches (presumably alongside the upcoming Cybertruck). Tesla says it’s suitable for kids age 8 and up, with the maximum weight capacity being 150 lbs.