AI

AI R&D is Booming, But General Intelligence is Still Out of Reach (theverge.com) 96

The AI world is booming in a range of metrics covering research, education, and technical achievements, according to AI Index report -- an annual rundown of machine learning data points now in its third year. From a news writeup, which outlines some of the more interesting and pertinent points: AI research is rocketing. Between 1998 and 2018, there's been a 300 percent increase in the publication of peer-reviewed papers on AI. Attendance at conferences has also surged; the biggest, NeurIPS, is expecting 13,500 attendees this year, up 800 percent from 2012.
AI education is equally popular. Enrollment in machine learning courses in universities and online continues to rise. Numbers are hard to summarize, but one good indicator is that AI is now the most popular specialization for computer science graduates in North America. Over 21 percent of CS PhDs choose to specialize in AI, which is more than double the second-most popular discipline: security / information assurance.
The US is still the global leader in AI by most metrics. Although China publishes more AI papers than any other nation, work produced in the US has a greater impact, with US authors cited 40 percent more than the global average. The US also puts the most money into private AI investment (a shade under $12 billion compared to China in second place globally with $6.8 billion) and files many more AI patents than any other country (with three times more than the number two nation, Japan).
AI algorithms are becoming faster and cheaper to train. Research means nothing unless it's accessible, so this data point is particularly welcome. The AI Index team noted that the time needed to train a machine vision algorithm on a popular dataset (ImageNet) fell from around three hours in October 2017 to just 88 seconds in July 2019. Costs also fell, from thousands of dollars to double-digit figures.
Self-driving cars received more private investment than any AI field. Just under 10 percent of global private investment went into autonomous vehicles, around $7.7 billion. That was followed by medical research and facial recognition (both attracting $4.7 billion), while the fastest-growing industrial AI fields were less flashy: robot process automation ($1 billion investment in 2018) and supply chain management (over $500 million).

Robotics

Will Robots Wipe Out Wall Street's Highest-Paying Jobs? (bloomberg.com) 71

An anonymous reader quotes Bloomberg: Robots have replaced thousands of routine jobs on Wall Street. Now, they're coming for higher-ups.

That's the contention of Marcos Lopez de Prado, a Cornell University professor and the former head of machine learning at AQR Capital Management LLC, who testified in Washington on Friday about the impact of artificial intelligence on capital markets and jobs. The use of algorithms in electronic markets has automated the jobs of tens of thousands of execution traders worldwide, and it's also displaced people who model prices and risk or build investment portfolios, he said.

"Financial machine learning creates a number of challenges for the 6.14 million people employed in the finance and insurance industry, many of whom will lose their jobs -- not necessarily because they are replaced by machines, but because they are not trained to work alongside algorithms," Lopez de Prado told the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services.

Japan

Fukushima Melted Fuel Removal Begins 2021, End State Unknown (go.com) 113

Japan's economy and industry ministry said Monday that it will start removing melted fuel from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in 2021. The milestone step of debris removal is considered the most difficult part of cleaning up the crisis-hit facility. ABC News reports: Nearly nine years after [the Fukushima nuclear power plant was wrecked by a massive earthquake and tsunami], the decommissioning of the plant, where three reactors melted, remains largely an uncertainty. The revised road map, to be formally approved later this month, lacks details on how the complex should look at the end but maintains a 30- to 40-year target to finish.

By far the toughest challenge is to remove the 800 tons of nuclear fuel in the three reactors that melted, fell from the cores and hardened at the bottom of their primary containment vessels. In the past two years, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), has made progress in gathering details mainly from two of the three reactors. In February, a small telescopic robot sent inside Unit 2 showed that small pieces of debris can come off and be lifted out. The milestone step of debris removal is scheduled to begin at Unit 2 by the end of 2021. [...] TEPCO started removing the fuel rods from the Unit 3 pool in April 2019 and aims to get all 566 removed by March 2021. Removal of the rods from Units 1 and 2 is to begin in 2023. By 2031, TEPCO also plans to remove thousands at two other units that survived the tsunami to be stored in dry casks on the compound. More than 6,300 fuel rods were in six reactor cooling pools at the time of the accident, and only the Unit 4 pool has been emptied.
"Japan has yet to develop a plan to dispose of the highly radioactive waste that will come out of the reactors," the report adds. "Under the road map, the government and TEPCO will compile a plan sometime after the first decade of debris removal ending in 2031."

"Experts say a 30- to 40-year completion target for the decommissioning is too optimistic. Some have raised doubts if removing all of the melted fuel is doable and suggest an approach like Chernobyl -- contain the reactors and wait until radioactivity naturally decreases."
Businesses

World's Most-Isolated City Lures NASA Talent in Hunt for Resources Tech (bloomberg.com) 17

It was a video of a waving robot that attracted NASA to the world's most isolated city. Engineers at Woodside Petroleum Ltd. in Perth, Australia, were just "messing around" teaching a toy robot to wave when they filmed it, Chief Technology Officer Shaun Gregory told a conference recently, but NASA liked what it saw. From a report: The U.S. space agency got in touch, and the two are now studying how to use robot technology to tackle problems in remote and difficult locations. This sort of collaboration represents exactly what Australia's largest state is trying to achieve. With some of the world's biggest resource companies operating in the region, the state aims to become a hot spot for developing technology to help miners and oil explorers cut costs and boost efficiency. "Western Australia has the opportunity to cement a place as the world's epicenter of resources technology and innovation," Mike Henry, the incoming chief executive officer of mining giant BHP Group, said at the inaugural Resources Technology Showcase in Perth last week. "Whether its autonomous haulage, robotics, drones, big data or artificial intelligence, we're changing the way we work."
NASA

NASA Spacecraft Unraveling Sun's Mysteries as it Spirals Closer To Our Star (theverge.com) 30

In August of last year, NASA sent a spacecraft hurtling toward the inner Solar System, with the aim of getting some answers about the mysterious star at the center of our cosmic neighborhood. Now more than a year later, that tiny robot has started to decode some of the mysteries surrounding our Sun's behavior, after venturing closer to our parent star than any human-made object has before. From a report: That spacecraft is NASA's Parker Solar Probe, a car-sized vehicle designed to withstand temperatures of more then 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit. Its various instruments are protected by an extra hardy heat shield, designed to keep the spacecraft relatively cool as it gets near our balmy host star. Already, the Parker Solar Probe has gotten up close and personal with the Sun, coming within 15 million miles of the star -- closer than Mercury and any other spacecraft sent to the Sun before. "We got into the record books already," Adam Szabo, the mission scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center for Parker Solar Probe, tells The Verge.

Before the spacecraft's launch, researchers were particularly interested in learning more about what's coming out of the Sun. Energetic particles and plasma are continuously streaming from the Sun at all times -- a phenomena that's been dubbed solar wind. This highly energized material makes its way to Earth, causing the dazzling display of the aurora borealis. If we get too much of this stuff, it can sometimes muck up our spacecraft in orbit and even mess with our electric grid. There's still a lot we don't know about solar wind, such as what is accelerating this material so much that it can break free from the Sun. Learning the origins of the wind could help us better predict how it will impact us here on Earth.

AI

Amazon Proposes a Home Robot that Asks You Questions When It's Confused (venturebeat.com) 30

An anonymous reader shares a report: AI models invariably encounter ambiguous situations that they struggle to respond to with instructions alone. That's problematic for autonomous agents tasked with, say, navigating an apartment, because they run the risk of becoming stuck when presented with several paths. To solve this, researchers at Amazon's Alexa AI division developed a framework that endows agents with the ability to ask for help in certain situations. Using what's called a model-confusion-based method, the agents ask questions based on their level of confusion as determined by a predefined confidence threshold, which the researchers claim boosts the agents' success by at least 15%.

"Consider the situation in which you want a robot assistant to get your wallet on the bed ... with two doors in the scene and an instruction that only tells it to walk through the doorway," wrote the team in a preprint paper describing their work. "In this situation, it is clearly difficult for the robot to know exactly through which door to enter. If, however, the robot is able to discuss the situation with the user, the situational ambiguity can be resolved." The team's framework employs two agent models: Model Confusion, which mimics human user behavior under confusion, and Action Space Augmentation, a more sophisticated algorithm that automatically learns to ask only necessary questions at the right time during navigation. Human interaction data is used to fine-tune the second model further so that it becomes familiar with the environment.

Robotics

FedEx Warned Not To 'Invade' New York City With Sidewalk Robots (cnn.com) 49

"FedEx delivery robots invade New York City streets," read one newspaper's headline, describing the six-wheeled "SameDay" bots that the company is testing in four cities.

But this week New York City told them they're not welcome, CNN reports: The delivery robot, called Roxo, is not actually being tested in New York, but was visiting the city for a special event, a FedEx spokesperson told CNN. Nevertherless, lawyers for the New York City Department of Transportation delivered a cease-and-desist letter to FedEx on Monday, warning that the robots were violating multiple traffic provisions... Motor vehicles are not permitted to operate on New York City sidewalks, and no motor vehicles may be operated without "having at least one hand" on the the steering mechanism any time the vehicle is moving, according to the letter.

"FedEx's robots wouldn't just undercut the jobs of hardworking New Yorkers -- they would be a danger on our crowded streets," Will Baskin-Gerwitz, Mayor Bill De Blasio's deputy press secretary, told CNN.

Robotics

US Police Already Using 'Spot' Robot From Boston Dynamics In the Real World (gizmodo.com) 36

Massachusetts State Police (MSP) has been quietly testing ways to use the four-legged Boston Dynamics robot known as Spot, according to new documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts. And while Spot isn't equipped with a weapon just yet, the documents provide a terrifying peek at our RoboCop future. Gizmodo reports: The Spot robot, which was officially made available for lease to businesses last month, has been in use by MSP since at least April 2019 and has engaged in at least two police "incidents," though it's not clear what those incidents may have been. It's also not clear whether the robots were being operated by a human controller or how much autonomous action the robots are allowed. MSP did not respond to Gizmodo's emails on Monday morning.

The newly obtained documents, first reported by Ally Jarmanning at WBUR in Boston, include emails and contracts that shed some light on how police departments of the future may use robots to engage suspects without putting human police in harm's way. In one document written by Lt. Robert G. Schumaker robots are described as an "invaluable component of tactical operations" that are vital to support the state's "Homeland Security Strategy." [...] The question that remains is whether the American public will simply accept robocops as our reality now. Unfortunately, it seems like we may not have any choice in the matter -- especially when the only way that we can learn about this new robot-police partnership is through records requests by the ACLU. And even then, we're still largely in the dark about how these things will be used.

Robotics

Ask Slashdot: When Robots Are Ultra-Lifelike Will It Be Murder To Switch One Off? (newscientist.com) 226

An anonymous reader writes: "HELLO, I'm Scout. Want to play?" My daughter has a toy dog that yaps and comes out with a few stock phrases. When it gets too annoying, I don't hesitate to turn it off. I sometimes think about "losing" Scout, or even "accidentally" breaking it, acts that would be cruel to my daughter but not to the dog. But for how much longer will this be true? Technology is getting better all the time. What will it mean if we can create a robot that is considered alive? If I find myself annoyed by such a robot, would it be wrong to turn it off? Would that be the same as killing it? The answer isn't obvious. Many people already regard robots more sensitively than I do. At Kofukuji temple near Tokyo, Japan, Buddhist priests conduct services for "dead" Aibo robot dogs. In Japan, inanimate objects are considered to have a spirit or soul, so it makes sense for Aibos to be commemorated in this way. Such sentiments aren't confined to Japan, however. Julie Carpenter, a roboticist in San Francisco has written about bomb disposal soldiers who form strong attachments to their robots, naming them and even sleeping curled up next to them in their Humvees. "I know soldiers have written to military robot manufacturers requesting they fix and return the same robot because it's part of their team," she says.
Businesses

Mozilla's Annual Buyer's Guide Rates Amazon and Google Security Cameras 'Very Creepy' (which.co.uk) 40

"Be Smart. Shop Safe," warns Mozilla's annual buyer's guide for secure connected products. Based on their conversations with developers and dozens of privacy experts, they've awarded smiley faces with different expressions to rate products from "Not Creepy" up to "Super Creepy".

"While the variety of smart devices on offer is rapidly increasing, so are the number of products that pay no heed to even basic security measures..." notes the editor of Mozilla's Internet Health Report. "Now that more and more companies collect personal data about you, including audio and video of your family, and sensitive biometric and health information, like your heart rate and sleeping habits, it's worrying that more are not upfront about the privacy and security of their products."

Or, as The Next Web writes, "god bless Mozilla for having our lazy backs." And, well, if you're a user of any Ring cameras⦠we're sorry. Basically, there are five things that every product must do:

- Have automatic security updates, so they're protected against the newest threats

- Use encryption, meaning bad actors can't just snoop on your data

- Include a vulnerability management pathway, which makes reporting bugs easy and, well, possible

- Require users to change the default password (if applicable), because that makes devices far harder to access

- Privacy policies -- ones that relate to the product specifically, and aren't just generic

Doesn't seem too much to ask right...? Well, of the 76 devices Mozilla selected, 60 of them passed this test... And what devices didn't meet the criteria?

There were nine of them overall (including the Artie 3000 Coding Robot and the Wemo Wifi Smart Dimmer), but the real loser in this test is the Amazon-owned Ring. Three of the company's products (which is effectively all of their major devices) didn't meet Mozilla's criteria. Yes, that's right, the Ring Video Doorbell, Ring Indoor Cam, and Ring Security Cam all didn't meet minimum standards for security.... The main reasons for not meeting this criteria is due Ring's history with poor encryption policies, and vulnerability management.

To be fair, Nest Cam's Indoor and Outdoor Security Cameras and Google Home also fell into the "Very Creepy" category -- and so did Amazon's Echo smart speakers. (The Amazon Echo Show even made it into Mozilla's highest "Super Creepy" category, where the only other product was Facebook Portal.) But at least the Nest Hello Video doorbell only appears in Mozilla's "Somewhat Creepy" category.

"Just because something on your wishlist this year connects to the internet, doesn't mean you have to compromise on privacy and security..." warns the editor of Mozilla's Internet Health Report. And in addition, "Fitness trackers designed for kids as young as 4 years old, raise questions about what we are teaching our children about how much digital surveillance in their lives is normal." Going forward, they suggest that we push for better privacy regulations -- and that whenever we rate products on performance and price, we should also rate them on their privacy and security.

But in the meantime, as Mozilla explained on Twitter, "Friends don't let friends buy creepy gifts."
Privacy

This 'Robot Lawyer' Can Take the Mystery Out of License Agreements (theverge.com) 36

DoNotPay, the "robot lawyer" service that helps you contest parking tickets and even sue people, is launching a new tool to help customers understand license agreements. From a report: Called "Do Not Sign," the service is included with DoNotPay's monthly $3 subscription fee, and it lets users upload, scan, or copy and paste the URLs of any license agreements they'd like to check. The service uses machine learning to highlight clauses it thinks users need to know about, including options to opt out from data collection. It's available starting today, November 20th, on the web and via DoNotPay's app on iOS. Agreeing to lengthy license agreements is an almost weekly occurrence for many people, with modern smart devices forcing you to hit "agree" on every new contract. Do Not Sign isn't a replacement for a real lawyer, but it's better than accepting a license agreement sight unseen so you can start using a shiny new gadget, service, or app without delay.
Sci-Fi

'Sci-fi Makes You Stupid' Study Refuted by Scientists Behind Original Research (theguardian.com) 107

The authors of a 2017 study which found that reading science fiction "makes you stupid" have conducted a follow-up that found that it's only bad sci-fi that has this effect: a well-written slice of sci-fi will be read just as thoroughly as a literary story. From a report: Two years ago, Washington and Lee University professors Chris Gavaler and Dan Johnson published a paper in which they revealed that when readers were given a sci-fi story peopled by aliens and androids and set on a space ship, as opposed to a similar one set in reality, "the science fiction setting triggered poorer overall reading" and appeared to "predispose readers to a less effortful and comprehending mode of reading -- or what we might term non-literary reading." But after critics suggested that merely changing elements of a mainstream story into sci-fi tropes did not make for a quality story, Gavaler and Johnson decided to revisit the research. This time, 204 participants were given one of two stories to read: both were called "Ada" and were identical apart from one word, to provide the strictest possible control. The "literary" version begins: "My daughter is standing behind the bar, polishing a wine glass against a white cloth." The science-fiction variant begins: "My robot is standing behind the bar, polishing a wine glass against a white cloth."
Robotics

You Can Now Buy Pretend Food for Your $2,900 Sony Robot Dog (gizmodo.co.uk) 40

Gizmodo reports that Sony "will happily sell you make-believe virtual meals" for their robotic Aibo dog to unlock tricks, one of several new features added since its re-launch in 2017: The new feature that will appeal to most owners, however, is Aibo Food, which allows the robot to be virtually fed using augmented reality through the Aibo smartphone app. Meals can be purchased using coins, which are awarded to users through random actions like repeatedly using the Aibo app, or during special events. But once users runs out of coins, which is bound to quickly happen as they try out the new Aibo Food feature, they can either wait for more Sony handouts or purchase additional coins for a fee.

Sony points out that Aibo's performance and features aren't dependent on whether the dog is regularly fed -- it is, after all, just a robot. So hopefully the company won't change its mind down the line, making your pup act sluggish and distracted when you're not forking out for pretend food.... Of course, other complications arrive once you start feeding an animal, and the new software update also allows users to finally potty train their Aibos using a new mapping feature so the robot doesn't pretend-shit all over your house.

This appears to be a free feature, until Sony realises it can sell owners virtual poop bags.

There's also a new web-based API/developer program that lets you program the robot dog to perform custom actions -- and Aibo dogs now come equipped with some new patrol/security functionality.

"Using its facial recognition and room-mapping capabilities, Aibo will be able to patrol homes and locate various family members, providing reports on where everyone is, and helping owners track down specific people, according to Sony."
Robotics

Boeing Fires Its Fuselage-Assembling Robots, Goes Back To Using Humans (seattletimes.com) 100

schwit1 quotes the Seattle Times: After enduring a manufacturing mess that spanned six years and cost millions of dollars as it implemented a large-scale robotic system for automated assembly of the 777 fuselage, Boeing has abandoned the robots and will go back to relying more on its human machinists...

The technology was implemented gradually from 2015 inside a new building on the Everett site. But right from the start, the robots proved painful to set up and error-prone, producing damaged fuselages and others that were incompletely assembled and had to be finished by hand. "The Fuselage Automated Upright Build process is a horrible failure," one mechanic told The Seattle Times in 2016. Another called the system "a nightmare" that was snarling 777 production. Yet Boeing insisted then that these were teething pains that would pass... The automation has never delivered its promise of reduced hand labor and Boeing has had to maintain a substantial workforce of mechanics to finish the work of the robots. Because of the errors in the automation, that often took longer than if they had done it all by hand from the start...

It's taken six years to finally throw in the towel.

Yet the article also notes that Boeing will continue to use its highly-automated autonomous robotic systems on other parts of their 777 assembly process.
AI

Boston Dynamics CEO on the Company's Top 3 Robots, AI, and Viral Videos (venturebeat.com) 6

In a rare interview, Boston Dynamics CEO Marc Raibert talked about the three robots the company is currently focused on (today -- Spot, tomorrow -- Handle, and the future -- Atlas), its current customers, potential applications, AI, simulation, and of course those viral videos. An excerpt from the interview: "Today," for Raibert, refers to a time period that extends over the course of the next year or so. Spot is the "today" robot because it's already shipping to early adopters. In fact, it's only been shipping for about six weeks. Boston Dynamics wants Spot to be a platform -- Raibert has many times referred to it as "the Android of robots." Spot, which weighs about 60 pounds, "is not an end-use application robot," said Raibert. Users can add hardware payloads, and they can add software that interacts with Spot through its API. In fact, Raibert's main purpose in attending Web Summit was to inspire attendees to develop hardware and software for Spot. Boston Dynamics has an arm, spectrum radio, cameras, and lidars for Spot, but other companies are developing their own sensors. The "Spot" we're talking about is technically the SpotMini. It was renamed when it succeeded its older, bigger brother Spot. "The legacy Spot was a research project. We're really not doing anything with it at the moment. We just call it 'Spot' now; it's the product."

Spot can go up and down stairs by using obstacle detection cameras to see railings and steps. It also has an autonomous navigation system that lets it traverse a terrain. While Spot can be steered by a human, the computers onboard regulate the legs and balance. Spot travels at about 3 miles per hour, which is about human walking speed. It has cameras on its front, back, and sides that help it navigate, travel autonomously, and move omnidirectionally. It has different gaits (slow, walking, running, and even show-off), can turn in place, and has a "chicken head" mode. That last one means it can decouple the motion of its hand from its body, similar to how many animals can stabilize one part while the rest of the body moves.

Robotics

American Robots Lose Jobs To Asian Robots as Adidas Shifts Manufacturing (nypost.com) 85

Adidas plans to close high-tech "robot" factories in Germany and the United States that it launched to bring production closer to customers, saying Monday that deploying some of the technology in Asia would be "more economic and flexible." Reuters: The Adidas factories were part of a drive to meet demand for faster delivery of new styles to its major markets and to counter rising wages in Asia and higher shipping costs. It originally planned a global network of similar factories. The German sportswear company did not give details on why it was closing the facilities, which have proved expensive and where the technology has been difficult to extend to different products. Martin Shankland, Adidas' head of global operations, said the factories had helped the company improve its expertise in innovative manufacturing, but it aimed to apply what it had learned with its suppliers.
AI

Gartner Predictions Reveal How AI Will Change Our World (gartner.com) 47

Gartner research has announced 10 "strategic technology trends that will drive significant disruption and opportunity over the next 5 to 10 years." And the trends include "hyperautomation" -- applying advanced technologies like AI and machine learning to tasks "that once required humans," combining robotic process automation with intelligent business management software to provide "real-time, continuous intelligence about the organization...with a goal of increasingly AI-driven decision making."

They also predict "autonomous things," including drones, appliances, robots, and even ships, sometimes working in collaborative swarms, that "exploit AI to perform tasks usually done by humans." Trend #6 is "the empowered edge," where IoT devices become the foundation for "smart spaces" that move services and applications closer to where they're actually used, creating a world of smart buildings and city spaces. Plus, they're also predicting a movement from centralized public clouds to distributed public clouds which allow data centers to be located anywhere. ("This solves both technical issues like latency and also regulatory challenges like data sovereignty.")

Trend #10 looks at the possibility of AI-enhanced security solutions -- and AI-powered security threats -- as well as the need to provide security for our new AI-powered systems. But they also envision a trend that "replaces technology-literate people with people-literate technology" providing sophisticated "multiexperiences" though "multisensory and multitouchpoint interfaces like wearables and advanced computer sensors." They even predict "fully-scalable" blockchain by 2023, while also predicting its impact on the economy will be felt through integrations with "complementary technologies" like AI and IoT. ("For example, a car would be able to negotiate insurance prices directly with the insurance company based on data gathered by its sensors.")

Trend #3 is "Democratization of technology" (or "citizen access"), a prediction which includes "AI-driven development" of data science models for automated testing. And interestingly, trend #5 is transparency and traceability: The evolution of technology is creating a trust crisis. As consumers become more aware of how their data is being collected and used, organizations are also recognizing the increasing liability of storing and gathering the data. Additionally, AI and ML are increasingly used to make decisions in place of humans, evolving the trust crisis and driving the need for ideas like explainable AI and AI governance.

This trend requires a focus on six key elements of trust: Ethics, integrity, openness, accountability, competence and consistency.

Trend #4 even predicts humans will merge with technology. "[W]hat if scientists could augment the brain to increase memory storage, or implant a chip to decode neural patterns? What if exoskeletons became a standard uniform for autoworkers, enabling them to lift superhuman weights? What if doctors could implant sensors to track how drugs travel inside a body...?"
Earth

'Ocean Cleanup' Project Unveils New Solar-Powered Robot That Collects Plastic From Rivers (fastcompany.com) 27

Today the Ocean Cleanup unveiled its new "Interceptor" solar-powered robot to collect waste plastic from rivers before it can enter the ocean, Fast Company reports: The system was designed by the nonprofit The Ocean Cleanup, which spent the past four years secretly developing and testing the technology while it continued to work on its main project -- a device that can capture plastic trash once it's already in the ocean. The nonprofit unveiled the Interceptor at an event in Rotterdam today.

The ocean's plastic trash problem often starts in rivers: Every year, as much as 2.4 million metric tons of plastic flows from rivers to the sea, the nonprofit estimates. Most of that trash comes from rivers in Asia, in cities where recycling infrastructure is often inadequate. Around 1% of the world's rivers, or 1,000 rivers in total, are responsible for the majority of the trash entering the ocean...

The new technology is designed to anchor to a riverbed, out of the path of passing boats. Like the system that the nonprofit designed for the ocean, which uses a large barrier that blocks part of the river to collect plastic as it floats by, the Interceptor has a floating barrier that directs trash into the system. The device is positioned where the greatest amount of plastic flows, and another device can be placed farther down the river to catch trash that might escape the first Interceptor. A conveyor belt pulls the trash out of the water, and an autonomous system distributes it into dumpsters on a separate barge, sending an alert to local operators when the system is full and ready to be taken to a recycler. The system runs on solar power. In a typical day, it might extract as much as 50,000 kilograms of trash; depending on the currents, tides, and how much plastic is in a given river, The Ocean Cleanup estimates it could theoretically collect as much as 100,000 kilograms [220,462 pounds]...

Since it runs autonomously, it needs little human interaction and also doesn't require humans to sort through potentially dangerous debris collected from the water. It's designed to be mass-produced. The nonprofit aims to deploy it into all of the most polluting rivers in the next five years... "We project that we can remove 90% of floating ocean plastic by 2040, and to truly rid the world's oceans of plastic we must do two things: cleanup legacy plastic and stop it from entering the ocean," they wrote in a press release. "Both are necessary to achieve this mission..."

NASA

NASA Plans To Send Water-Hunting Robot To Moon Surface in 2022 (reuters.com) 18

NASA will send a golf cart-sized robot to the moon in 2022 to search for deposits of water below the surface, an effort to evaluate the vital resource ahead of a planned human return to the moon in 2024 to possibly use it for astronauts to drink and to make rocket fuel, the U.S. space agency said on Friday. From a report: The VIPER robot will drive for miles (km) on the dusty lunar surface to get a closer look at what NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine has touted for months: underground pockets of "hundreds of millions of tons of water ice" that could help turn the moon into a jumping-off point to Mars. "VIPER is going to assess where the water ice is. We're going to be able to characterize the water ice, and ultimately drill," Bridenstine said on Friday at the International Astronautical Congress in Washington. "Why is this important? Because water ice represents something significant. Life support." VIPER stands for Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover.
Science

Researchers Train Rats To Drive Tiny Cars (phys.org) 81

New submitter BytePusher shares a report from Phys.Org: U.S. scientists have reported successfully training a group of rodents to drive tiny cars in exchange for bits of Froot Loops cereal, and found that learning the task lowered their stress levels. Their study [published in the journal Behavioral Brain Research] not only demonstrates how sophisticated rat brains are, but could one day help in developing new non-pharmaceutical forms of treatment for mental illness, senior author Kelly Lambert of the University of Richmond told AFP on Wednesday. Lambert said she had long been interested in neuroplasticity -- how the brain changes in response to experience and challenges -- and particularly wanted to explore how well rats that were housed in more natural settings ("enriched environments") performed against those kept in labs.

She and colleagues modified a robot car kit by adding a clear plastic food container to form a driver compartment with an aluminum plate placed on the bottom. A copper wire was threaded horizontally across the cab to form three bars: left, center and right. When a rat placed itself on the aluminum floor and touched the wire, the circuit was complete and the car moved in the direction selected. Seventeen rats were trained over several months to drive around an arena 150 centimeters by 60 centimeters made of plexiglass. As she had suspected, Lambert found that the animals kept in stimuli-rich environments performed far better than their lab rat counterparts, but "it was actually quite shocking to me that they were so much better," she said.
"This makes me curious what the implications are for humans, their work environments, job performance and social mobility," writes BytePusher.

Slashdot Top Deals