Over time we have gotten used to machines assuming certain roles in society, but even at the dawn of the the age of robotics, some types of skilled labor still seem beyond their reach. After all, how does a machine wield a hammer and overcome the perpetual problem-solving involved in putting together a house or a high-rise? While we might be some ways off from watching buildings sprout out of the ground at the push of a button, flying robots are already carrying out surveying and mapping tasks on construction sites from the US to Japan. But leading researchers are adamant that when it comes to automating the building industry, these machines have more to offer.
The value of drones in construction, at least for the time being, is more or less tied to their ability to venture where humans and heavy machinery cannot. This dictates that the vehicles remain small, agile and with minimal payload, zipping around with onboard high-res cameras and relaying progress shots and aerial surveys to construction teams on the ground. This might sound like little more than a negligible cost-cutting, but drones are already forming an integral part of business operations for innovative construction firms the world over.
In Japan, an aging population has the construction industry turning to new technology to help build the infrastructure of the future. Leading the charge is the multinational machinery maker Komatsu which has just announced the launch of a new service called Smart Construction, aimed at helping fill Japan's void of a fit young workforce with cutting edge information and communication technologies. The service includes a a platform called KomConnect that will connect machinery and workers to the cloud to improve overall efficiency, artificial intelligence-assisted control for operating machinery and, of course, drones.
Komatsu has turned to San Francisco-based drone service provider Skycatch to put UAVs to use in its Smart Construction venture. Skycatch's vehicles will be deployed to conduct surveys and produce 3D models, culminating in live interactive maps of the job sites.
"The map comes to life on our dashboard, so to speak, and clients can do things like impose overlays of plans onto what’s actually been built, calculate volumetric measurements, and make annotations for themselves or to share with co-workers," Skycatch CEO Christian Sanz tells Gizmag.
In the view of Sanz, the potential of drones in construction is becoming too great to ignore.
"Right now, drone technology is providing a competitive edge to the companies who’ve successfully adopted it," he says. "They use their equipment and resources more efficiently, communicate better through accurate maps and data, and now have highly quantitative means of measuring their progress against their schedule. In the future, the construction industry will realize aggregate benefits such as a much better safety record and fewer projects that are completely late and off budget."
Though Komatsu prides itself on a history of technological innovation, it is far from the only construction company enlisting armies of flying robots. In all corners of the globe, firms are recognizing the aerial surveying potential of drones (a capability that has seen them used in applications as diverse as the hunting invasive plant species in Australia and warding off rhino poachers in Kenya.)
For the past three years, Siemens has been using drones to conduct surveying work above the Aspern Vienna Urban Lakeside project in Austria, one the largest urban development projects in Europe. Last month it unveiled a pilot project whereby aerial data collected by drones combines with image processing software to visualize energy losses across entire neighborhoods. The data is then presented as thermal maps, making it easier to identify which buildings could be renovated to be made more energy efficient.
Down under, Australian firm Soto Consulting Engineers are using drones to monitor heavy industry and mining sites, scoping out large concrete structures, boilers and skyline conveyers to identify hard-to-spot structural problems.
"The high-res cameras allow us to pinpoint corrosion and use that as part of our report," Jim Allan, Chief Operating Officer at Soto explains. "The main benefit is the cost saving. It alleviates the need for cages and harnesses and safety requirements are reduced."
And according to Rory San Miguel, founder of Australian startup Propeller Aerobotics, there are significant savings to be made. Much like Skycatch in the US, his company offers drone services to companies looking for cheaper, higher quality aerial data. His aim is to create a standardized mapping interface for the surveying industry so that companies can benefit from consistent, easily digestible data.
"There is a AU$4 billion surveying and mapping industry in Australia, which at the moment doesn't involve drones," he tells Gizmag. "Surveyors are using tools like LIDAR that are very expensive and work very slowly. If we have a drone take off and fly in a grid pattern, taking a photo every 20 m (65.6 ft), we can cover the entire site very quickly and build 3D renders with true absolute accuracy. Like Google Maps on steroids."
So through monitoring and aerial mapping, drones are proving indispensable for forward-thinking companies looking stay one step ahead. By negating the need for expensive and heavy-duty safety equipment the robots are saving time and money, while also delivering precise information more reliably than is otherwise possible. But are drones capable of contributing more to construction than just gathering data?
Back in 2011, a team of roboticists from ETH Zürich's Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control offered a glimpse of what might be possible. The researchers presented a 6-meter (20 ft) tall tower constructed from 1,500 polystyrene bricks, every one of which neatly assembled without any assistance from a human hand. One by one, a fleet of flying robots dropped the pieces into place, guided by mathematical algorithms that took digital design data and translated it into flight paths.
In the time since, the team has continued to work on improving aerial construction and overcoming weaknesses such as payload capacity. Federico Augugliaro, a researcher at the Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control, says that no longer are the vehicles seen merely as passive onlookers capturing information about an environment, but are engaging with that environment in a meaningful way through manipulation, construction and the way they interact with humans.
"Unlike cranes, drones have the ability to reach any point in space," says Agugliaro. "To have drones work close to humans on a construction site, however, their size has to be kept rather small. This limits the amount of payload they can carry and the amount of construction material that can be moved around."
The team is looking to more than just software and controllers to dictate the drone's movement, and are developing techniques that enable humans to reposition the drones with their hands.
"For the situations when drones and people will work closely together, some sort of compliant behavior on the drone side is desirable, both for safety reasons and convenience," says Agugliaro. "For example, instead of using a remote to pilot the drone, one can simply push the drone away."
At the same time, the team is partnering with ETH Zürich Chair of Architecture and Digital Fabrication to investigate the kinds of structures drones might be capable of building.
"Aerial robots are generic and can be equipped with different tools to transport and manipulate material in different ways, but a key subject hereby is weight," Ammar Mirjan, a researcher at the Chair of Architecture and Digital Fabrication, tells Gizmag. "This motivates the investigation into lightweight construction systems. We are particularly interested in the fabrication of tensile structures such as cable-net structures and three-dimensional suspension structures that could not be built with other fabrications methods."
In Mirjan's view, a drone has a unique set of attributes that sets it apart from conventional construction machinery. The most obvious being that they are capable of flight, but also that they aren't limited to working in the one area and can access spaces that simply aren't accessible otherwise. This could see them carry out construction in hard-to-reach places like between buildings or sites without access to streets. Furthermore, they have the ability interact and collaborate on structures that cannot be built by single machines (like cranes that are limited to individual tasks) and can also move through and around materials during the process.
"Since it will be difficult to imitate existing construction processes because the tools are so radically different, it is likely that the conditions of how things are designed and built will be altered and hence resulting in new forms of architectural materialization," says Ammar. "History suggests that new tools and technologies often shift existing processes. Drones in construction will enable architectural materialization in ways we cannot imagine."
So while architectural practices may be adapted to suit the capabilities of drones in the future – optimizing a system by which they can work productively with lightweight materials is one way of overcoming the payload problem – it's not the only way researchers are approaching this dilemma.
In February of 2012, Indian roboticist Dr Vijay Kumar delivered a TED Talk revealing the work of his engineering team at the University of Pennsylvania robotics lab. He presented a video demonstrating a fleet of robots flying in tight, centimeter-perfect formations, requiring them to calculate control commands 100 times per second to avoid crashing into one another. Banding together to form neat squares, rolling figure eights and various other patterns, the choreography on show certainly made for an impressive spectacle, but held more value than was reflected by the wows in the audience. As explained by Kumar, with an ability to fly in effect as one solid shape, it follows that the strength and carrying capacity of the drones multiplies.
Among the research currently underway at the Vijay Kumar Lab at the University of Pennsylvania is a project called "Cooperative Manipulation and Transport." This seeks to solve the problem of how autonomous robots can be made to work together to move large payloads by looking to nature. The team draws inspiration from ants and the way they collaborate to transport items of food much larger than the individual ants themselves. Kumar tells us that since his presentation in 2012, his team has improved the system in two ways. The first is the use of sensors, such as cameras, to determine the position of the neighboring robot, negating the need for communication between vehicles. The second is an ability to enroll larger numbers of small, ant-like robots in cooperative tasks. "Now theoretically, we can do hundreds," he says.
When it comes to overcoming the payload limitations of drones with a view to using them in construction, Kumar believes having them work together is the best way forward. While scaling the vehicles up could render them capable of moving heavy materials like girders and beams, this will also make them more cumbersome and sacrifice one of their key strengths: agility.
"Making individuals more powerful or stronger is possible, although this would make this large, unwieldy, heavy and awkward, especially when there might be need to maneuver in tight spaces and or adapt to differently sized payloads," he says. "This is why we prefer the small, modular solution. It is not only bio-inspired and elegant, it is also more practical and economical."
In Europe, a consortium of robotics professors from across the continent have come together to put this thinking into action. The Aerial Robotics Cooperative Assembly System (ARCAS) project is aimed at taking cooperative robot flight and using it to build real world structures. First though, it must establish solid scientific grounding for real world deployment of a flying robot workforce, and like other research efforts, is creating and solving new problems as it goes through the process.
"By using the cooperative control techniques we are developing in the ARCAS project, it will be possible to share the weight of the carried structures over a platoon of robots, hence further increasing the overall payload capacity," says Professor Vincenzo Lippiello from the University of Naples Federico II and one of the ARCAS researchers.
But Lippiello says this brings on another set of challenges, including designing control laws that take into account the destabilizing effect of having several drones hold onto the same object in the air and how sensing capabilities might be best integrated.
Another hurdle that the ARCAS project is working on overcoming is determining the ideal payload for the drones, a predicament that pretty well seems to hang over all researchers working in this area. Its first prototype tested indoors had a payload capacity of 6 kg (13.22 lb), the second saw this increased to 9 kg (20 lb) per vehicle. An upcoming prototype drone will have a total payload of between 15 and 20 kg (33 and 44 lb). It does say, however, that external factors could bring about advances in the carrying capacity.
"It is true that technological limitations exist and are mainly linked to the power to weight ratio of the current batteries," says Lippiello. "But the recent improvements of battery technology, mainly related to the cellular business, have also generated benefits for the drones performance in terms of autonomy and or payload."
So the value of drones in construction in terms of aerial mapping and surveying is pretty well established, if not yet entirely realized by the industry. As successful firms such as Komatsu, Siemens and Soto Engineering continue to lead the way, it seems logical that there will be more to follow, especially when we consider that the technology is only becoming cheaper and its benefits harder to ignore.
But for actually building the structures themselves? The general line of thinking among the experts we've spoken to for this story is that the technology is at least five to ten years away. But it appears that if it does come to fruition, it will come with its share of limitations. Drones as construction machines may spawn a new niche in architectural design just as the team at ETH Zürich anticipate, or they may cooperate to make light work of moving heavy materials, but even then it seems they will only amount to a technology that complements the construction industry, rather than truly disrupts it.
What we also know is there will need to be a serious economic case to get the drones out of the lab and onto construction sites. Delivery drones were unheard of until Amazon came along and professed that they had the potential to turn its business model on its head, and now here we are, with the technology more or less there and pilots projects being carried out all around the world. For flying robots to form part of construction sites of the future, their capabilities will need to align with the private interests behind them. This might involve scenarios where it is just not cost effective or physically possible to put human workers on the job.
"It's likely to be somewhere where labor is prohibitively expensive, or workers cannot go there," imagines Dr Kumar. "Think of us colonizing Mars. The first things that build for us there will be robots."
So if you think that using drones in construction is a pretty out of this world idea, in the end, you may just be proven right.
Nick was born outside of Melbourne, Australia, with a general curiosity that has drawn him to some distant (and very cold) places. Somewhere between enduring a winter in the Canadian Rockies and trekking through Chilean Patagonia, he graduated from university and pursued a career in journalism. He now writes for Gizmag, excited by tech and all forms of innovation, Melbourne's bizarre weather and curried egg sandwiches. All articles by Nick Lavars
Explore photos and videos for the Transition® and TF-X™ below. More information about each aircraft is available through the links at the left. Clicking on an image will open a larger version.
In the air, the Transition® is easy and fun to fly:
The Transition® flies near a marina on Lake Champlain with sail boats enjoying the weather on the lake.
The Transition® lets you fly over traffic, point-to-point between over 5,000 community airports around the U.S.
The Transition® makes a banking turn with its chase aircraft during testing in upstate New York.
The Transition® during a climb to altitude before undertaking maneuvers during a test flight.
Our ground support team snapped this photo of the Transition® from near the runway during a low approach.
The Transition® is the perfect 'weekend at the lake' getaway vehicle, letting you fly when the weather's nice and drive if it's not.
The first flight of the second generation Transition® prototype took place from Plattsburgh International Airport, in Plattsburgh, NY in March 2012.
The Transition® has undergone flight testing in a wide range of conditions, including this January 2013 deployment at Lawrence Municipal Airport in North Andover, MA.
Converting between modes in the Transition® is simple:
Converting from car to plane mode in the Transition® is as simple as putting down the top on a convertable and is done without leaving the cockpit.
The wings of the Transition® unfold electromechanically from inside the cockpit; shifting from propeller power to rear wheel drive is as simple as putting it in reverse.
On the ground, the Transition® is street legal, highway capable, and fits in a single car garage:
The Terrafugia Transition® fits in a standard construction single car garage.
The Transition® is fully street legal and is designed to meet all applicable Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.
The license plate on the Transition® is stowed against the bottom of the stabilator in flight but deploys automatically when the wings are folded.
When the weather is bad or marginal, in a Transition® you can just land and drive instead of taking an unnecessary risk in the air or getting stuck on the ground.
The Transition® runs on high octane unleaded automotive gasoline, which is cheaper and better for the environment than traditional aviation fuel.
Gate access already exists at most community airports; just drive the Transition® onto the field to deploy the wings and get ready to fly.
Extensive drive testing is conducted at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway to ensure the Transition® is ready for road use.
Using the turn signals is optional in the pattern in flight, but a must on the road. The Transition® also has brake and reverse lights just like a normal car.
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اتفاقات جالبی در حوزه علم در سال 2014 رخ داد اما یکی از بهترین چیزها در مورد علم این است که هر سال انسان چیزهای بیشتر یاد گرفته و بیشتر پیشرفت میکند.
ایسنا: اتفاقات جالبی در حوزه علم در سال 2014 رخ داد اما یکی از بهترین چیزها در مورد علم این است که هر سال انسان چیزهای بیشتر یاد گرفته و بیشتر پیشرفت میکند.
کریس هادفیلد، فضانورد بازنشسته کانادایی میگوید: «طی 100 سال ما از فیلمبرداری از برادران رایت به قرار دادن دوربینی بر روی قمر تیتان در فاصله 1.2 میلیارد کیلومتر زمین رسیدهایم.» در این گزارش به چند تغییردهنده احتمالی جهان که ممکن است در سال 2015 ظهور کنند، اشاره شده است.
1- موشکهای قابل استفاده مجدد تحت آزمایش اسپیسایکس میتوانند آینده سفر فضایی را دگرگون کنند
اگر انسان بتواند مستعمرهای در مریخ بسازد، به موشکهای فرودگری نیاز خواهد داشت که برای سفر بازگشت به زمین قابل استفاده مجدد باشند. همچنین چنین موشکهایی هزینههای سفرهای فضایی را بسیار کاهش خواهند داد.
درحالیکه موشک مرحله اول – انتها یا بزرگترین بخش موشک در پرتابهای خاص – هیچگاه برای استفاده مجدد بازیابی نشده بودند اما الون ماسک و شرکت اسپیسایکس قصد دارند امسال این رویه را تغییر دهند.
این شرکت در روز 20 دی 93 با موفقیت توانست موشکی را مستقیما از ارتفاع حدود 80 کیلومتری بر روی یک کشتی در اقیانوس فرود آورد اما به دلیل برخورد سختی که با آن داشت، دیگر قابل استفاده نیست. اما سازندگان همچنان این تجربه را دارای پتانسیل خوب برای موفقیتهای آینده میدانند و قصد دارند در طول سال جاری چندین پرتاب و فرود متعاقب را بر روی پلتفرمهای دریایی انجام دهند.
ماسک در اخبار دیگر اظهار کرده بود که شرکت اسپیسایکس امیدوار است برنامههای سیستم انتقال مریخ را که کاملا متفاوت از سیستمهای فالکون و دراگون است، معرفی کنند.
2- اولین نسخه از ربات C-3PO در فوریه به فروش میرسد
شرکت ژاپنی Softbank فروش ربات انساننمای «فلفل» خود را که توسط شرکت فرانسوی Aldebaran Robotics ساخته شده، آغاز خواهد کرد. فلفل از موتور حسی برخوردار بوده که از هوش مصنوعی برای کمک به یادگیری احوالات انسان از طریق سرنخهای چهره و تجربیات قبلی استفاده میکند و همچنین به راحتی به زبانهای ژاپنی، انگلیسی، اسپانیایی و فرانسوی را صحبت میکند.
اگرچه این ربات بیشتر به عنوان یک همراه تا یک یاور طراحی شده و برای مثال توانایی بهتری در خواندن دستورالعملها نسبت به استفاده از ابزار برای پخت غذا دارد، در طول زمان با افزوده شدن ابزارها و قابلیتهای جدید از تواناییهای بیشتری برخوردار خواهد شد.
3- اطلاعات بیشتری در مورد جهان نامرئی که آینه جهان ماست، بدست خواهیم آورد
برخورددهنده بزرگ هادرونی در ماه مارس پس از دو سال وقفه روشن خواهد شد و ذرات را با دو برابر قدرت بیشتر از قبل به هم خواهد کوبید. کسی نمیداند چه دانشی از این طریق بدست خواهد آمد اما یکی از احتمالات شامل کشف ذرات مرتبط با ماده تاریک است.
همچنین، وجود یا غیاب ذرات خاص میتواند نظریه ابرتقارن را ثبت یا رد کند که بر اساس آن یک جهان آینه جهان ما وجود دارد که از ذرات نامرئی دارای جرم ساخته شده و با آنچه قابل مشاهده بوده، مرتبط است.
4- بخشهایی از نظریه نسبت اینشتین بسته به کشف یا عدم کشف امواج گرانشی، اثبات یا رد خواهد شد
اگر فیزیک همانطور که اینشتین میگوید کار کند، باید امواج گرانشی در حال حرکت در فضا-زمان وجود داشته باشد. دو آزمایش در سال 2015 به ارائه بینش بهتر از این امواج خواهند پرداخت.
در ماه ژوئیه، فضاپیمای رهیاب لیسا برای آزمایش فناوری یک رصدخانه فضایی امواج گرانشی پرتاب خواهد شد.
بر روی زمین نیز حساسترین آشکارسازهای موج گرانشی ساختهشده تاکنون موسوم به آشکارسازهای پیشرفته لیگو (LIGO) روشن خواهند شد.
5- نزدیکترین رصد از پلوتو و سرس انجام خواهد شد
ماموریت نیوهورایزنز (New Horizons) که در ژانویه 2006 و هشت ماه قبل از آنکه پلوتو سیاره نامیده شود، به فضا پرتاب شده بود، در ژوئیه پس از طی یک سفر پنج میلیارد کیلومتری به این سیاره کوتوله خواهد رسید.
این ماموریت به ثبت تصاویری از سطح و بزرگترین قمر آن، شارون، پرداخته و سپس برای کمربند کوییپر به مسیر خود ادامه خواهد داد.
در ماه آوریل نیز کاوشگر داون ناسا به سرس خواهد رسید که بزرگترین سیارک در کمربند بین مریخ و مشتری است و تصور میشود در زیر پوسته خود از یخ آب برخوردار است.
6- بدترین شیوع ابولا متوقف خواهد شد
شیوع ابولا در گینه، لیبریا و سیرا لونا کاملا تحت کنترل درآمده است. آزمایشات دارویی در حال انجام بوده و کارآزماییهای بالینی واکسن بزودی آغاز خواهند شد. امید است این اخبار در کنار اقدامات ارتقایافته بهداشت عمومی بتواند تفاوت بارزی را در جهت توقف بدترین شیوع ابولا که تاکنون دیده شده، ایجاد کند.
7- سازمان فدرال هوانوردی آمریکا قوانین حریم هوایی برای پهپادها وضع خواهد کرد
کنگره آمریکا سازمان فدرال هوانوردی این کشور را موظف کرده که تا ماه سپتامبر راهی را برای ادغام پهپادها به حریم هوایی آمریکا پیدا کرده تا نه تنها انتقال بستههای پستی با آنها را به واقعیت تبدیل کنند، بلکه همچنین کاربردهای دیگری برای دانشمندان از جمله مشاهده حیات وحش، اولید نقشه و نظارت بر مناطق بیابانی داشته باشند. اگرچه نشانههایی وجود دارد که سازمان هوانوردی با وجود مقررات قانونی، به ضربالاجل تعیین شده نخواهد رسید.
8- جهان به توافقنامه جدیدی برای محدود کردن تاثیرات تغییر آبوهوایی خواهد رسید
زمینه برای یک توافقنامه بینالمللی در نشستهای سازمان ملل در پاریس که ماه دسامبر برگزار خواهند شد، به منظور تلاش و محدود کردن انتشارات گازهای گلخانه در آینده پیریزی شده است که از سال 2020 لازمالاجرا خواهد شد.
دو منتشرکننده بزرگ دیاکسیدکربن جهان یعنی چین و آمریکا در حال حاضر قراردادی را امضا کردهاند که این توافقنامه را سادهتر خواهد کرد. سوال موجود این است که با افزایش یافتن دیاکسیدکربن جوی به بیش از 400 بخش در بیشتر بخشهای نیمکره شمالی در اکثر اوقات سال، آیا هرگونه اقدامی میتواند کافی باشد؟
9- بررسی ژنوم کامل یک انسان 400 هزار ساله برای یادگیری بیشتر در مورد اصلاح نژاد گونههای انسانی
متخصصان ژنتیک انسانشناسی در تلاش برای تعیین توالی کل ژنوم بقایای یک انسان Sima de Los Huesos هستند که در غاری در شمال اسپانیا کشف شده است.
این کار بسیار مشکل بوده و هنوز مشخص نیست که آیا این کار امکانپذیر است یا خیر، اما این پروژه میتواند چیزهای بیشتری در مورد پیوند گونههای انسان باستانی و باقی ماندن نژاد کنونی انسان آموزش دهد.
10- درمان ایدز به واقعیت نزدیکتر خواهد شد
ایدز همچنان قاتل عفونی برجسته جهان محسوب میشود اما اقدامات مهمی که در زمینه تشخیص و درمان انجام شده به این معنی است که در نقطه عطفی در مبارزه علیه ویروس اچآیوی قرار داریم.
آزمایشگاههای تشخیصی به اندازه کولهپشتی قرار است وارد آفریقا شوند و داروهای جدید مانند Truvada میتوانند از ابتلای افراد به ایدز در جایگاه اول جلوگیری کنند.
همچنین اگرچه سالها تلاش دانشمندان برای تولید واکسن هنوز به نتیجه نرسیده، اما به گفته محققان، بینشهای جدید در مورد ساختار پروتئینهای خاص اچآیوی توانسته آنها را بیش از گذشته در مسیر تولید یک واکسن واقعی قرار دهد.
11- واکسن تب دانگ در دسترس قرار خواهد گرفت
اگرچه تب دانگ همیشه مرگبار نیست، اما بیماری بسیار دردناکی است که نیمی از جمعیت جهان در خطر ابتلا به آن قرار دارند. همچنین این بیماری سالانه 20 هزار نفر را از بین برده و یکی از عوامل پیشتاز مرگ کودکان در کشورهای خاص به شمار میرود. اما واکسنی تولید شده که در برابر 60 درصد موارد عادی تب دانگ و 95.5 درصد گونه مرگبار و شدید این بیماری محافطت میکند.
این واکسن در نیمه دوم سال در دسترس قرار خواهد گرفت.
12- پروژههای پژوهشی بزرگ در زمینه هوش مصنوعی اولیم گامهای خود را برخواهند داشت.
با تولید هوش مصنوعی در سطوح انسانی، جهان دیگر مشابه قبل نخواهد بود و برخی دانشمندان بر این گمانند که زمان آن بزودی فرا خواهد رسید.
موسسه هوش مصنوعی آلن در سیاتل به برپایی یکی از سه برنامه آزمایشی هوش مصنوعی موسوم به پژوهشگر معنایی خواهد پرداخت که برای کمک به محققان در مواجهه با سیل تحقیقات جدیدی که به طور مداوم در جهان علمی منتشر میشوند، طراحی شده است.
علاوه بر آن، یک پژوهش جدید 100 ساله در مورد هوش مصنوعی به انتشار اولین گزارش خود در سال جاری خواهد پرداخت.
اواخر سال 2014، اریک هورویتز یک پژوهش 100 ساله را در دانشگاه استنفورد در مورد تاثیرات آینده هوش مصنوعی آغاز کرد. محققان اولین تحلیل خود در مورد حالت کنونی و آینده هوش مصنوعی را در اواخر سال 2015 منتشر خواهند کرد.
13- موسسات و پروژههای مرتبط با تحقیقات تغییردهنده جهان اولین گامهای خود را خواهند برداشت
در آمریکا، موسسه 100 میلیون دلاری علوم سلولی آلن برای نخستین بار به اجزای سازنده پایه حیات نگاه خواهد کرد.
در بریتانیا، موسسه ملی گرافن افتتاح خواهد شد و در آن به بررسی این ماده پرداخته خواهد شد که در نهایت میتواند همه چیز از فناوری سلول سوختی تا باتری و نیروی محاسباتی را دگرگون کند.
در فرانسه نیز تیمها به مونتاژ اجزا برای ساخت پروژه انرژی همجوشی Iter خواهند پرداخت که بزرگترین راکتور گرماهستهای ساخته شده تاکنون خواهد بود.
فیلمهای تخیلی هالیوود را به یاد بیاورید که در آن شهر پر است از خودروهایی که در حال پرواز برفراز ساختمانها هستند. شرکت تِرافوگیا که در ایالت بوستون آمریکا واقع شده، ادعا میکند در سال ۲۰۱۶ میلادی این رویا را به حقیقت تبدیل خواهد کرد. این شرکت تصمیم دارد اولین نسل تجاری از ماشینهای پرنده را وارد بازار کند. تِرافوگیا نام «ترنزیشن» را بر روی این خودرو پرنده قرار داده است.
تِرافوگیا در خصوص رانندگی با خودروهای پرنده چنین بیان میکند که در آینده افرادی که مجوز خلبانی خودروهای پرنده را داشته باشند، امکان پرواز با آنها را همچون رانندگی در جاده خواهند داشت. گواهینامهای که برای هدایت چنین پرندگانی ارائه میشود براساس قوانین پرواز جادهای تعریف خواهد شد. طراحی این خودروها به گونهای خواهد بود که پرواز با آنها را بسیار آسان میکند. همچنین این پرندگان از سوخت بدون سرب استاندارد که همه جا در دسترس است، استفاده میکنند.
پیش بینی ظهور خودروهای پرنده از گذشته وجود داشته و مطالب بسیاری در خصوص ویژگیهای آن بیان شده است که بیشتر شبیه به خیالپردازی است تا واقعیت! اما آیا ترنزیشن همان خودرو پرندهای است که انتظار آن را میکشیدیم؟ لازم است بدانید که علاوه بر داشتن گواهینامه خاص برای پرواز با این خودروها، شما باید از توان مالی بالایی برای خرید این پرندگان ۲۷۹٫۰۰۰ دلاری برخوردار باشید. این میزان هزینه از عهده بسیاری از مردم خارج است به همین دلیل تا همه گیر شدن این محصول راه بسیاری باقی است.
شرکت تِرافوگیا، ترنزیشن را یک آغاز برای خودروهای پرنده میداند. این شرکت پیش بینی کرده است که تا ۱۰ سال آینده نسل جدید این خودروها را با مدل TF-X ارائه کند. نسل جدید امکان هدایت اتوماتیک را برای مسافرانش پدید خواهد آورد. با تولید چنین خودروهایی که سرعتشان به ۲۰۰ مایل بر ساعت میرسد امکان جابجایی برای همه به هر مقصدی وجود خواهد داشت. مسئولین این شرکت ادعا میکنند که تا آن زمان راه حلی برای مشکل هزینه بالای این خودروها پیدا خواهند کرد. به نظر میرسد سادهترین راه حل، استفاده عمومی از این تکنولوژی جدید باشد. در این صورت هر فرد هزینهی سفری را که با این خودرو انجام میدهد را پرداخت خواهد کرد؛ چیزی شبیه به تاکسی امروزی!
هر چند ظهور چنین خودروهایی بسیار جالب و هیجان انگیز به نظر میرسد. اما باید تا آن زمان منتظر بمانیم و واقعیت را به چشم خود ببینیم.
نظر شما در خصوص آیندهی خودروهای پرنده چیست؟ این خودروها در آینده با چه چالشهایی روبرو خواهند بود؟
Even though the Aeros craft dwarfs the largest commercial airliners, it requires less net space on the ground than any plane because it doesn't need a runway The airship takes off and lands like a helicopter straight up and down. This is not a Blimp. It's a sort of flying Queen Mary 2 that could change the way you think about air travel..
It's the Aero craft, and when it's completed, it will ferry pampered passengers across continents and oceans as they stroll leisurely about the one-acre cabin or relax in their staterooms Unlike its dirigible ancestors, the Aero craft is not lighter than air It's 14 million cubic feet of helium hoist only two-thirds of the craft's weight. The rigid and surprisingly aerodynamic body, driven by huge rear-ward propellers, generates enough additional lift to keep the behemoth and its 400-ton payload aloft while cruising During takeoff and landing, six turbo-fan jet engines push the ship up or ease its descent. This two-football-fields-long airship is the brainchild of Igor Pasternak, whose privately funded California firm, Worldwide Aeros Corporation, is in the early stages of developing a prototype and expects to have one completed by 2010. Pasternak says several cruise ship companies have expressed interest in the project, and for good reason - the craft would have a range of several thousand miles, and, wit h an estimated top speed of 174 mph, could traverse the continental United States in about 18 hours. During the flight, passengers would view national landmarks just 8,000 feet below, or, if they weren't captivated by the view, the cavernous interior would easily accommodate such amenities as luxury staterooms, restaurants - - even a casino.
To minimize noise, the aft-mounted propellers will be electric, powered by a renewable source such as hydrogen fuel cells. A sophisticated buoyancy - management system will serve the same purpose as trim on an airplane, allowing for precise adjustments in flight dynamics to compensate for outside conditions and passenger movement. The automated system will draw outside air into compartments throughout the ship and compress it to manage onboard weight.
On a pressurized plane, windows like these would explode outward The Aero craft would not fly high enough to need pressurization). The company envisions a cargo-carrying version that could deliver a St ore's worth of merchandise from a centralized distribution center straight to a Wal -Mart parking lot, or, because the helium-filled craft will float, a year's worth of supplies to an offshore oil rig.
"You can land on the snow, you can land on the water, " Pasternak says " It's a new vision of what can be done in the air. "
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