Ground-Breaking Technology

"This is your robot captain speaking. We're beginning our descent, so I've turned on the Fasten Seatbelt sign..."

The jet approaching Reagan National Airport followed the complicated turns required for the prescribed route over the Potomac River, banking sharply left and right as it descended smoothly toward Runway 19. But the two pilots never touched the controls. The plane was being guided by the autopilot, which was taking its cues in three dimensions, from satellites in orbit.

Until now, an autopilot could only fly a plane in a straight line or around a gentle curve. But the one shown off [recently] by the Federal Aviation Administration was following a path as sinuous as the river beneath, a route that planes use to control noise when they approach the airport from the north. The problem is that pilots can follow a river only when they can see it, and when the clouds descend, National is sometimes closed to arrivals.

But now at National, and a handful of other airports around the country, autopilots can fly planes safely over terrain that no one on board can see, including around mountains. Use of the new system is expected to cut the number of times that airplanes have to divert because of weather, interruptions that cost an airline tens of thousands of dollars in refueling costs and schedule disruptions.

Meanwhile, on the ground...

A new robot can recognize the difference between a mirror image of itself and another robot that looks just like it.

This so-called mirror image cognition is based on artificial nerve cell groups built into the robot's computer brain that give it the ability to recognize itself and acknowledge others.

The ground-breaking technology could eventually lead to robots able to express emotions.

Under development by Junichi Takeno and a team of researchers at Meiji University in Japan, the robot represents a big step toward developing self-aware robots and in understanding and modeling human self-consciousness.

So, what happens when the self-aware robot is mated with the airline autopilot robot?

I wonder what MARIE would say about that.

Mike Treder

Tags: nanotechnology nanotech nano science technology ethics weblog blog