Lifeboat Foundation

The fast-food retailer built the droid with Australian startup Marathon Robotics using a robot sourced from the military and its own technology, including Domino’s GPS tracking data.

DRU, which could spell the beginning of the end of the pizza delivery boy, has a sensory system that uses lasers to move around obstacles in its path to travel unassisted to a customer’s address.

The four-wheeled robotic unit travels up to speeds of 20km/h and is designed to cruise on footpaths, trails and bike paths.

Continue reading “Domino’s unveil ‘world’s first’ pizza delivery robot” »

Cute, but i think mainly a publicity stunt. You couldnt trust that thing to be by itself unless it was a really safe small town or nice suburb.

For a pizza chain, Domino’s actually has a pretty rich history of innovation. It’s embraced social media, created a one-click Easy Order button and even built a delivery car that has its own pizza oven. Now it’s looking at robots. More specifically: delivery robots. What you see here is DRU (Domino’s Robotic Unit), an autonomous delivery vehicle built in collaboration with Australian technology startup Marathon Targets that Domino’s says is the first of its kind. It’s filled with thousands of dollars worth of military robotics tech, but its covert mission has been to deliver fresh pizza to the residents of Queensland.

Continue reading “Domino’s has built an autonomous pizza delivery robot” »

By David McNally, ARL Public Affairs.

ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. (March 17, 2016) — The U.S. Army is moving ahead with research on potential new component-level technologies for future rotorcraft.

A team from the U.S. Army Research Laboratory completed the first-ever live-fire test of a rotor blade with individual blade control technology in mid-January.

Continue reading “Army researchers explore future rotorcraft technologies” »

If the Pentagon wanted them tomorrow, Lockheed is ready to provide laser weapons at the 30 KW level.

I know many test pilots that would drool for the chance to fly this.

The CEO of the aerospace company told reporters that development of the Hypersonic Test Vehicle is underway.

This is interesting; especially for us who have been engaged in the Cyber Security Warfare for a while. In the 90’s, the top hackers at the time got much of their training out of a known network ring of hackers in Denmark. In fact, they had an underground monthly magazine I believe it was called “Hacker 77” or something like that. Anyway, now Demark is setting up an academy to teach others to combat hackers.

The Danish security and intelligence service PET has announced plans to recruit talented IT nerds interested in helping the Danish state with its cyber espionage against foreign powers like terrorist organisations.

The agency has today launched a marketing campaign for what the media is calling a “hackers’ academy” with the slogan: “Have you got what it takes to become a member of a secret elite unit?”

Continue reading “Danish intelligence agency to start ‘hacker academy’ to fight cyber warfare” »

“Through Squad X, we want to vastly improve dismounted squad effectiveness in all domains by integrating new and existing technologies into systems that squads can bring with them,” said Maj. Christopher Orlowski, DARPA program manager. “The squad is the formation with the greatest potential for impact and innovation, while having the lowest barrier to entry for experimentation and system development. The lessons we learn and the technology we create could not only transform dismounted squads’ capabilities, but also eventually help all warfighters more intuitively understand and control their complex mission environments.”

Squad X intends to combine off-the-shelf technologies and new capabilities under development through DARPA’s Squad X Core Technologies (SXCT) program, which was launched specifically to develop novel technologies that Squad X could integrate into user-friendly systems. SXCT shares Squad X’s overarching goal of ensuring that Soldiers and Marines maintain uncontested tactical superiority over potential adversaries by exploring capabilities in four areas: precision engagement, non-kinetic engagement, squad sensing and squad autonomy. In an important step toward that goal, SXCT recently awarded Phase 1 contracts to nine organizations.

The U.S. Army, U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps have expressed interest in future Squad X capabilities and plan to support the experimentation efforts with testing in simulated operational environments as the program progresses.

CREECH AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. (AFNS) -
Remotely piloted aircraft don’t fly themselves as autonomous super machines. They also don’t require only a single pilot and sensor operator to function.

The RPA enterprise of MQ-1 Predators and MQ-9 Reapers is maintained or operated by Airmen from more than 30 Air Force career fields, each one playing a key role in supporting every combat air patrol. The patrols enable combatant commanders access to intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities at all times.

A combat air patrol is essentially having an aircraft in the air, providing joint combatant commanders with dominant ISR and real-time munitions capability. Today, the RPA enterprise flies a total of 60 CAPs in a 24-hour period requiring thousands of Airmen from pilots and sensor operators to maintainers, intelligence personnel and weather forecasters.

Continue reading “Piecing the puzzle together, RPAs provide crucial combat air patrol capabilities” »

Definitely needed.

The Army’s cyber chief is optimistic about an institutional change in thinking.