Technology

The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory’s Manufacturing Technologies Division has showcased a new a robotic system for aircraft maintenance. The Advanced Automation for Agile Aerospace Applications or A5 robot uses sensor feedback to perform factory work in localized environments, Wright-Patterson AF Base said Thursday. The robot weighs 22,000 pounds and is expected to reduce the …

The White House has created a select committee on artificial intelligence that will operate as part of the National Science and Technology Council. The establishment of the new committee comes as the Trump administration makes AI as a research-and-development priority and works to maintain the country’s technological leadership, the White …

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration‘s National Weather Service has adopted a system to automatically launch weather balloons from a facility in Alaska. NOAA said Monday the service also launched an initiative to demonstrate autolaunchers after completing a nearly two-year field test of the technology in Kodiak. The agency aims to …

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has picked research teams that will develop new machine learning methods designed to enable artificial intelligence systems to adapt to new changes and implement previous knowledge and skills to new situations. DARPA said Thursday teams from the University of California in Irvine, Tufts University and …

The Securities and Exchange Commission has introduced a new online search tool to help investors make safe and informed investment decisions and avoid financial scams. SEC said Wednesday the SEC Action Lookup for Individuals or SALI is designed to identify registered and unregistered individuals who previously faced disciplinary or SEC …

The Energy Department has chosen five Nanoscale Science Research Centers to submit proposals to study quantum computing and information processing methods through a potential three-year, $30 million initiative. DOE said Wednesday it will provide up to $10 million in grants per year on a competitive basis to help the NSRCs …

The U.S. Air Force is seeking ideas from industry and academic professionals on how to secure temporary, fixed and mobile assets as part of the military branch’s AFWERX Fusion Challenge. USAF said Tuesday the challenge represents an open innovation platform for the service branch to collaborate with potential non-military partners in areas …

The U.S. Army will possibly conduct a demonstration in late summer or early fall this year that involves launching an autonomous aircraft from a rotary-wing platform, Defense News reported Tuesday. The service plans to deploy Area-I’s Air-Launched, Tube-Integrated Unmanned System or ALTIUS from a UH-60 Black Hawk aircraft to provide …

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has introduced an initiative that aims to facilitate federal technology transfer in an effort to accelerate the transition of new products to market, build up the U.S. economy and support national security efforts. NIST said Tuesday it launched the Return on Investment initiative …

The Defense Department could be the first user of self-driving vehicles that run on artificial intelligence platforms in support of logistics operations, Bloomberg reported Monday. “We’re going to have self-driving vehicles in theater for the Army before we’ll have self-driving cars on the streets,” Michael Griffin, defense undersecretary for research …