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Flesh and Machines: How Robots Will Change Us
Antitechnologists may shudder at the story line, but readers interested in the astounding possibilities of the digital age will be fascinated by Brooks's vision of what is and what will be.
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Unmanned Submarines
U.S. Navy Joins the Party
 
Unmanned Submarines

CNN has a feature discussing underwater unmanned vehicles (UUV): Navy Accelerates Robot Submarine Plans. It mentions the interest of the U.S. government in unmanned warfare, due to the recent success in Afghanistan; the budget has been extended accordingly.

Technologically speaking, the interesting part lies in the control mechanism. In the air, humans can control the planes remotely by radio frequencies. However, this works nowhere near as well in the water, and only very low bandwidth communication is possible. This has forced the research to focus on autonomy, which makes them real robots! The subs in development at the moment can identify mines, recognise coast-lines, and return to the mother-sub. The plan is to extend the technology to have offensive capabilities -- by allowing them to fire torpedoes. Sounds a bit dangerous to me!

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Monday 18 March, 11:07
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