Bulldozers Guided by Drones are Helping Ease Japan's Labor Shortage

As reported by The Verge: Komatsu is the world’s second largest construction company, a venerable Japanese brand with 94 years of history that sells forklifts and bulldozers to customers around the globe. But in its home country, Komatsu has been struggling with an aging population, a trend that has left few young workers available to operate its machines.

As Japan ramps up new construction in preparation for hosting the 2020 Olympics, experts believe it will face a serious obstacle. "The labor shortage in the construction industry could reach a crisis level in the next few years," Martin Schulz, an economist at Fujitsu Research Institute in Tokyo, told Bloomberg.

To get around this problem, Komatsu has begun creating a new service it calls Smart Construction. A team of robotic vehicles scoops rock and pushes dirt without a human behind the wheel. They are guided in their work by a fleet of drones, which map the area in three dimensions and update the data in real time to track how the massive volumes of soil and cement are moving around the site.The drones are built by an American startup, Skycatch, and today it revealed that Komatsu is one of the principal investors in a new $25 million round of funding that the company plans on using for global expansion and R&D. The partnership will power an entirely new line of business for Komatsu: Instead of selling construction equipment to its customers, it can lease them out for a job, and use a staff of remote operators and autonomous vehicles to complete the work. One or two lightly trained humans are still required on site to take control if something goes wrong.

Before switching to drones, Komatsu had been experimenting with autonomous dump trucks, bulldozers, and excavators, but they lacked the ability to see and understand the environment around them with enough precision to be useful on their own. Komatsu would use teams of human surveyors to create extremely detailed maps of the job site, a process that left a lot of room for improvement. "Because the terrain survey could not be conducted with high accuracy, what results in many sites is a 20 to 30 percent margin of error in soil volume after the construction is complete," says Chikashi Shike, an executive with Komatsu’s Smart Construction division.With Skycatch drones, Komatsu says it has dramatically reduced that margin of error while dramatically cutting the time it takes to complete a sitemap. "With the former, traditional method, it takes about two weeks, on average, to survey a certain piece of land," says Kenishi Nishihara, a project manager with the Smart Construction division. "Meanwhile with Skycatch it can be completely down within one day, or even 30 minutes."

Skycatch is based in Silicon Valley, but has decided to focus its business almost entirely on Japan. "The regulations in the United States make it difficult to operate in a fully autonomous manner, and so that makes it tough to get the full value out of drones," says Skycatch CEO Christian Sanz. Of course, not every country is facing such dramatic labor shortages. "In Japan, there is a clear recognition, and appreciation, of the work these drones can do," says Sanz. "In other places, people are still cautious about collaborating with robots to do jobs that were typically handled by humans."

Unmanned System for Navy Boats Takes to the Water

As reported by GizMag: In the waters near Portsmouth Naval Base, a small black boat recently roared about with no one at the controls. It hadn't run amok after the pilot fell overboard, but was instead a demonstration of a new robotic system developed by ASV and BAE Systems. The technology package can be retrofitted to the Rigid Inflatable Boats (RIB) used by the Royal Navy (RN) to turn them into high-speed, autonomous, unmanned reconnaissance and surveillance platforms.

Even in an age of aircraft carriers and satellites, small boats are still vital Naval assets. The manned Pacific 24 RIB used by the RN aboard its Type 23 Frigates and Type 45 Destroyers will also be used by the Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers now under construction. They act as the eyes and ears of their parent ship by going where she cannot. Unfortunately, it's often dangerous work and the Royal Navy and other services are rather keen to find ways to send in the boats while the sailors stay home.

This is where the new autonomous demonstrator comes in. It's designed to not only to take the sailor out of the equation, but also to be retrofitted to the Pacific 24s already in service.

The unmanned system and its software were developed by Portchester, UK-based ASV Unmanned Marine Systems with BAE Systems helping to integrate the technology in the demonstrator. BAE Systems says the robotic boat can reach speeds of over 38 knots (44 mph, 70 km/h), and operate for up to 12 hours and up to 40 km (25 mi) from its ship. It can be controlled by either a conventional human pilot or a hand-held remote controller, or run completely autonomously.

For navigation and reconnaissance, the system uses a sensor suite that includes navigation radar, a 360-degree panoramic infrared camera array, and a laser range finder. These are backed up by complex algorithms developed by ASV.

"The algorithms we’re developing with BAE Systems allow the boat to perform complex missions and navigate through waters avoiding collisions," says Dan Hook, Managing Director for ASV. "This gives it the flexibility and sophistication to operate in a number of different tactical roles, whether it’s patrolling areas of interest, providing surveillance and reconnaissance ahead of manned missions, or protecting larger ships in the fleet."

According to BAE Systems, the demonstration opens the way to the next phase of development, which will see the creation of the sensor suite and it's integration into the parent ship combat management system.

"This technology delivers an extremely robust and fast-moving unmanned boat that is able to perform a number of surveillance and reconnaissance roles, even when operating at high speed or in choppy water," says Les Gregory, Product and Training Services Director at BAE Systems. "BAE Systems has a wealth of experience in the development and integration of unmanned systems. The successful demonstration highlights the enhanced capability this technology offers. While other programs are primarily designed for larger, slower boats to tackle mine counter-measure scenarios, this system provides an extremely maneuverable multi-role vessel."

The video below introduces the new autonomous system.

Stanford Turns a DeLorean Into a Drifting, Driverless Car

As reported by Engadget: This isn't from some weird movie franchise mashup entitled Back to the Future IV: Stanford Drift. No, Stanford's Revs Center simply decided to experiment on an old DeLorean, giving it the ability to fly drift all on its own. The car, which the team decided to called MARTY (Multiple Actuator Research Test bed for Yaw control) as an homage to B2F, was heavily modified and modernized. DeLoreans are old cars, and they found that it had severe limitations: for instance, it was understeering, so they had to equip it with a power steering motor and rack.

As for why they wanted to design a driverless car that's good at drifting in the first place, well, Revs Center director Chris Gerdes told Wired: "We think automated vehicles should be able to execute any maneuver within the physical limits of the vehicle to get out of harm's way." In other words, they believe autonomous cars should be able to drift if it means saving the passenger's life. If the idea of a drifting DeLorean sounds weird, just watch the team do some perfectly executed donuts in the video below.

NASA Launches Website Hosting Stunning, Regularly Updated Earth Imagery

As reported by GizMag: NASA has launched a new website allowing the public to view images snapped by its Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) satellite. The service will provide multiple shots of stunning Earth imagery seven days a week, mere hours after capture.

DSCOVR is operated through a partnership between NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the US Air Force, with a mission to monitor space weather emanating from the Sun, and serve as a form of early warning system for potentially harmful events.

DSCOVR will also make use of its position relative to Earth to keep track of daily variations in our planet's atmospheric and surface health. The images uploaded to the website are captured by the probe's Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC), an advanced camera with an effective resolution ranging from 6.2 - 9.4 miles (10 - 15 km).

The orbiter is able to regularly capture Earth's disk fully bathed in sunlight thanks to its presence at what is known as the L1 Lagrange point, a special orbital position about one million miles out from our planet that places the probe in a near constant position suspended between the Earth and Sun.

Images featured on the website are captured roughly 12 – 36 hours prior to release, and feature a simple graphic to the top left of the page informing users of the relative positions and distances of the DSCOVR satellite and our Sun. The page also displays a globe highlighting the landmasses that are in view.

Archived images will be accessible by searching for the subject's capture date and the continents displayed in the image.

With the website operational, NASA will provide a regular stream of images to the public at a rate of at least a dozen per day, representing the most comprehensive and unified full-Earth viewing service ever launched.

Open Garden's 'FireChat' in Tahiti to Create a Mesh Network that Eliminates the Need for Wireless Carriers

As reported by Venture Beat: If you’ve dreamed of a mobile world where you don’t need AT&T or Verizon Wireless, then you might consider a vacation to Tahiti.

Open Garden, makers of the mobile app FireChat, have announced a partnership with local leaders that will turn the French Polynesian island of Tahiti into a post-carrier paradise. FireChat is a peer-to-peer wireless networking app that relays calls and messages through phones by creating a mesh network that doesn’t require the traditional cell network to send messages.

Under the terms of the new project, residents of the island will be able to communicate with each other without needing a data plan or other kind of connection to the Internet.

“We are very grateful for the opportunity to work on the Smart Tahiti project spearheaded by STN and with the City of Arue,” Christophe Daligault, chief marketing officer of Open Garden, said in a statement. “Our technology alleviates the dependency on traditional infrastructure and enables communities to create their own free communication networks that are disaster-proof.”

The hope is that the new network will help more people get connected to each other. But it will also provide a backup network in the event of some crisis that knocks out the island’s infrastructure.

Founded more than four years ago, Open Garden created FireChat to offer a different way for users to construct wireless networks. Users download the app, which then finds other nearby FireChat users via the phone’s Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Fully encrypted private and public messages and pictures can be sent via this mesh networking, hopping from one FireChat user to another until they’re delivered to the intended recipient.

This ability to connect without using telecom carriers has made the app incredibly popular among people who want greater privacy. During last year’s protests in Hong Kong, the app was downloaded hundreds of thousands of times and was credited with creating a communication system that local authorities couldn’t monitor or block.

A few months later, Open Garden raised $10.8 million to continue expanding the reach of FireChat. The app has become popular at large concerts and festivals. And the company also hopes to use it to bring networks to people in regions with little or no wireless network access.

This past summer, the app became popular with those attending the Burning Man Festival in Nevada.

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's Scott Darling: Electronic Logging Device Rule Coming

As reported by FleetOwner: Scott Darling, acting administrator for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), said the agency’s long awaited final rule mandating electronic logging devices (ELDs) for the trucking industry should be “out in the next several months” as it is in the “final stages” of approval at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

In a speech given here at the American Trucking Associations (ATA) annual Management Conference & Exhibition (MC&E), Darling also called upon the industry to help his agency weed out “unsafe” operators.

“We need to do everything we can to take unsafe carriers and drivers off the road,” he stressed. “They hurt our industry and our economy.”

Darling added that FMCSA is “doing its part” to try and help the industry solve itsgrowing driver shortage issue, expanding a program to grant qualified military veterans waivers so they can obtain a civilian commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs).

“We’ve expanded this program to all 50 states and the District of Columbia,” he said. “So far, more than 10,000 [veterans] have taken advantage of this waiver program.”

Darling also expects FMCSA to form more partnerships with a variety of industry “stakeholders” in the year ahead to keep improving the safety profile of the trucking industry.

“Remember: always think safety first at home and at work,” he said in closing.

Bill Graves, ATA’s president and CEO, saluted Darling for his work with the industry in his remarks.

“We appreciate the openness you bring to the office, the commitment of time you’ve given to our industry and our events and the rare quality – one which we’re unfortunately seeing less and less of in public service - of being able to disagree without being disagreeable,” Graves said.

“We share your goal – and the goal of FMCSA – to make America’s road safer for everyone,” he said. “And if the worst that can be said about us is that we have disagreements over whose idea will be safer than the others, then we’re not doing too bad.”

Tesla Autopilot Fail Videos Emerge, Because Nobody Likes to Listen

As reported by C|NET: It hasn't been a week, but already, fail videos of Tesla's new Autopilot software are popping up on YouTube. This is not unexpected, as the automaker's founder, Elon Musk, admitted that it's still technically in a beta-testing phase. Still, it has the potential to send the tech-averse into a frenzy, especially when the media gets involved. The only problem with this is that it's not the car's fault as much as it is the driver's.

Tesla made explicit mention, both during its press conference and afterwards on its website, that the driver should remain in control of the vehicle at all times. Yes, there are several videos (CNET's included) showing plenty of hands-off driving, but that was under the supervision of Tesla employees. The automaker's website spells it out explicitly: "Tesla Autopilot functions like the systems that airplane pilots use when conditions are clear. The driver is still responsible for, and ultimately in control of, the car."

If you look at the two videos below, you'll see why it's important to keep your hands on the steering wheel. Towards the end of the first video, the vehicle makes a strange dive to the side of the road, but the owner had his hands on the wheel, so he caught the car before it hit the curb. In the second video, the car appears to dive into oncoming traffic, being saved only when the driver's hands return to the wheel.

This flagrant disregard for the rules is what will doom semi-autonomous driving before it truly takes off. An accident will occur, the media will jump all over it, and everybody will ask if the technology is truly ready for the road. Trouble is, everybody is calling this "autonomous driving" when it still requires plenty of human intervention. A mixture of increased expectations and lowered defenses results in the trouble you saw above. That's why the system is called Autopilot -- it's used when conditions are ideal, and there's still a human to step in when needed.

Thus far, the videos seem to have no affect on Musk's plan to expand Autopilot to markets outside the United States, as evidenced in this tweet from earlier this morning.