A.I./Robotics

Written by Daniel Ackerman Deep learning is everywhere. This branch of artificial intelligence curates your social media and serves your Google search results. Soon, deep learning could also check your vitals or set your thermostat. MIT researchers have developed a system that could bring deep learning neural networks to new — and much smaller —…

Southwest Research Institute has received a four-year, $7,239,342 contract from the U.S. Department of Defense’s Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) to develop air taxi technology to test the design capabilities of artificial intelligence-augmented design systems. The project is part of DARPA’s Symbiotic Design for Cyber Physical Systems program. Air taxis are short-range electric aircraft…

Researchers from Idaho National Laboratory have developed Crop Artificial Intelligence Quotient (Crop AIQ) to provide a vital function: agricultural performance assessments that allow land managers to make more informed decisions about how they grow plants for food, feed, fiber and fuel. The tool gives farmers the ability to generate an accurate yield map without having…

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has installed a state-of-the-art artificial intelligence (AI) accelerator from SambaNova Systems, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announced Monday, allowing researchers to more effectively combine AI and machine learning (ML) with complex scientific workloads. LLNL has begun integrating the new AI hardware, SambaNova Systems DataScale, into the NNSA’s Corona supercomputing…

Beyond Limits, an industrial and enterprise-grade AI technology company built for the most demanding sectors, and The Carnrite Group, a management consulting firm focused on the energy and industrials sectors, today announced a strategic alliance. Under the new multimillion-dollar revenue driving agreement, The Carnrite Group and Beyond Limits will provide strategic consulting services on the…

Machine-learning techniques, best known for teaching self-driving cars to stop at red lights, may soon help researchers around the world improve their control over the most complicated reaction known to science: nuclear fusion. Fusion reactions are typically hydrogen atoms heated to form a gaseous cloud called a plasma that releases energy as the particles bang…

Neural networks are a way of processing information that is used in both biological nervous systems and in artificial intelligence, or machine learning. Digital computers follow a von Neumann model, moving data from memory, performing clearly defined calculations on it, and then storing the resulting transformed data back in the memory. Neural networks on the…

Pixelmator Team, the Lithuanian company behind the photo editor Pixelmator Photo, has released a powerful tool that uses machine learning to enhance the quality of low-res photos. Designed specifically for the upcoming Apple iPad Air and presented during this year’s “Time Flies” Apple event, ML Super Resolution will become the first AI-powered image enlargement tool…

AppZen, an AI solution for modern finance teams, is launching Mastermind Analytics, a first of its kind analytics AI software that identifies spend risks and provides on-demand benchmarks. This gives finance teams visibility of behavior patterns and a valuable assessment of success or areas of improvement. AppZen is experiencing increased demand as CFOs lead digital…

FLIR Systems (NASDAQ: FLIR) today announced the results from recent automatic emergency braking (AEB) tests that examined how adding a thermal sensor and fusing the data with a radar, a visible sensor and a trained neural network can improve pedestrian detection from current AEB systems. Following positive proof-of-concept test results announced earlier this year, FLIR…

by Cornell University A Cornell University-led collaboration has created the first microscopic robots that incorporate semiconductor components, allowing them to be controlled – and made to walk – with standard electronic signals. These robots, roughly the size of paramecium, provide a template for building even more complex versions that utilize silicon-based intelligence, can be mass…

by University College London Extremely energy-efficient artificial intelligence is now closer to reality after a study by University College London researchers found a way to improve the accuracy of a brain-inspired computing system. The system, which uses memristors to create artificial neural networks, is at least 1,000 times more energy efficient than conventional transistor-based AI…

By Glenn Roberts Jr. U.S. Department of Energy awards announced in July will advance Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) R&D to develop a more effective and compact particle-beam system for cancer treatment, improve particle-beam performance using artificial intelligence, and develop a high-power, rapid-fire laser system for both tabletop and large-scale applications. In total, the…

By Brandie Jefferson If you want to enhance a locust to be used as a bomb-sniffing bug, there are a few technical challenges that need solving before sending it into the field. Is there some way to direct the locust — to tell it where to go to do its sniffing? And because the locusts…

By Stephanie G Seay Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers have developed artificial intelligence software for powder bed 3D printers that assesses the quality of parts in real time, without the need for expensive characterization equipment. The software, named Peregrine, supports the advanced manufacturing “digital thread” being developed at ORNL that collects and analyzes data through…

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, in conjunction with industry partner Sentient Science, are making the discovery and design of new materials — a notoriously time-consuming and costly process — significantly easier through the development of an artificial intelligence-based computer modeling framework. The research was awarded $150,000 through the DOE’s…

Establishing a sustainable presence on the Moon, preparing for crewed missions to Mars, exploring the cosmos, and innovating how society travels by air requires new technologies and software. Each year, through its Inventions and Contributions Board, NASA recognizes the efforts of its engineers, software developers and collaborative partners by awarding Invention of the Year and…

By Jennifer Chu Wouldn’t we all appreciate a little help around the house, especially if that help came in the form of a smart, adaptable, uncomplaining robot? Sure, there are the one-trick Roombas of the appliance world. But MIT engineers are envisioning robots more like home helpers, able to follow high-level, Alexa-type commands, such as…

Q-CTRL, a startup that applies the principles of control engineering to accelerate the development of quantum technology, today announced a global research and technology development partnership with  Advanced Navigation, a leader in AI-based navigational hardware. Q-CTRL and Advanced Navigation entered the partnership in early 2020 in support of their collaborative research and development in quantum-enabled sensing. The two…

By Heather Ferreyra Rice University’s Brown School of Engineering computer scientist Todd Treangen has received a C3.ai Digital Transformation Institute Award for computational biology research applying artificial intelligence (AI) models to COVID-19 mitigation. Treangen is developing novel bioinformatics algorithms and driving comparative genomic analyses to determine how SARS-CoV-2 is changing over time. C3.ai is a…

Written by Jennifer Chu, MIT News Office MIT engineers have designed a “brain-on-a-chip,” smaller than a piece of confetti, that is made from tens of thousands of artificial brain synapses known as memristors — silicon-based components that mimic the information-transmitting synapses in the human brain. The researchers borrowed from principles of metallurgy to fabricate each…

By Julie Chao   Farmers have enough worries – between bad weather, rising costs, and shifting market demands – without having to stress about the carbon footprint of their operations. But now a new set of projects by scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) could make agriculture both more sustainable and more profitable.…

Biorelate, a UK-based AI start up, is offering all researchers free use of Galactic, its cloud-based web tool, to support biomedical research while lab access is restricted around the world. Systematically analyzing the data available on targets, drugs and disease mechanisms from data repositories and academic papers takes researchers over a year on average. The…

By Kayla Wiles Roads always seem to need repairs. Luna Lu is giving concrete the ability to “talk” and even heal itself. Her lab at Purdue University is developing technology that would allow concrete-paved bridges and highways to reveal more accurately when they need repairs and to come equipped with materials that respond to potential…

Written by Rob Matheson, MIT News Office Artificial intelligence has become a focus of certain ethical concerns, but it also has some major sustainability issues. Last June, researchers at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst released a startling report estimating that the amount of power required for training and searching a certain neural network architecture…