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Military eyes new robotic vision system

disclaimer: image is for illustration purposes only
by Staff Writers
Washington (UPI) Jan 25, 2008
Researchers say the military may employ small robots equipped with advanced three-dimensional vision technology in as little as a year.

The U.S. military plans to use three-dimensional flash laser radar-, or ladar-, equipped robots to explore chemically contaminated areas and researchers see the technology reaching the consumer markets shortly thereafter, the Christian Science Monitor reported Friday.

Current vision technology requires large transportation mediums but ladar allows for much smaller machines.

One researcher hails the program as "one of the holy grails of robotics" to employ advanced vision technology on small systems.

Systems in place now stall on many pedestrian-avoidance trials, but the flash ladar uses radar feed-back technology to produce a 3-D image in a field as wide as one kilometer almost instantaneously.

The program is a joint venture between iRobot, which makes the automated vacuum cleaner Roomba, and Advanced Scientific Concepts.

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Eurofighter Typhoon Logs Over 35,000 Flying Hours
Hallbergmoos, Germany (SPX) Jan 25, 2008
The combined fleet of 135 in-service Eurofighter Typhoons and seven Flight Test aircraft has accumulated over 35,000 flying hours by the end of December 2007. Since introduction into service in Spring 2004, the five customer Air Forces, including, since Summer 2007, Austria have achieved 30,650 flying hours. An amazing 50 % of this amount were flown in 2007, demonstrating the tremendous growth of the in-service fleet.







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