Robotic "Pack Mule" Offers Military Support
The modern warrior may need 100 pounds or more of gear—a load that can cause fatigue and impair performance. To lighten the load, DARPA is developing a pack-mule-like robot that would be integrated with a squad of Marines or Army soldiers.
The Legged Squad Support System (LS3) will be able to carry 400 pounds on a 20-mile hike without refueling. Sensing technology will enable the LS3 to hear, see, and respond to commands. And it will be nimble enough to follow the squad through rugged terrain and will serve as a mobile auxiliary power source.
Source: DARPA (the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), www.darpa.mil.
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Resilience: Exploring the edge of new possibilities in the Anthropocene
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Headlines at 21st Century Tech for May 17, 2013
This is my last posting for the next few days. I will be taking my office apart so that we can move to our new apartment downtown next Tuesday. I will be unplugged and disconnected except by tablet. Expect me to be back in the saddle before the end of next week probably in time to provide you with some more headlines. In the interim these are the stories I share with you this week:
Colorado: the Alternative Transportation Mecca?
Today, literally thousands of alternative transportation vehicles are coming out of the woodwork and they nearly all have the same problem – no place to drive them. Most are banned from biking and hiking trails, and they are neither licensed, nor licensable, for use on the streets. I’d like to discuss some new possible solutions and why Colorado is poised to take the lead in the alternative transportation marketplace.
Googlenature
In a recent conference promoting not only their latest gizmos but their company's animating vision as well, Google executives declared they were working toward a future in which technology "disappears," "fades into the background," becomes more "intuitive and anticipatory." Commenting on this apparently "bizarre mission for a tech company," Bianca Bosker warns that their genial and enthusiastic promotional language masks Google's aspiration to omnipresence via invisibility, an effort to render us dependent and uncritical of their prevalence through its marketing as easy, intuitive, companionable.
