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Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Engineering and Applied Science recently revealed that they have given robots the ability to have superhuman vision. Why would they do that?
When the inevitable robot uprising occurs and we are forced to submit to the machines’ every whim, we will have no one to blame but ourselves. After all, if it weren’t for us doing things like this, giving them autonomy, and the abilities to run, drive, and arm themselves, who else can we blame?
Of course, all of these technological robot advancements are being done in the name of some altruistic reason. At least that is what the scientists keep telling us.
In this case, robots were given something called PanoRadar. PanoRadar, according to the scientists at Penn, is “a novel RF imaging system that brings RF resolution close to that of LiDAR, while providing resilience against conditions challenging for optical signals.”
Their reasons for doing this is to assist with tasks such as healthcare and warehouse management and search and rescue missions. Plus, PanoRadar, as the researchers state in a press release, is “resilient to fog and other challenging conditions.”
“The system maintains precise tracking through smoke and can even map spaces with glass walls,” the scientists added.
PanoRadar is a sensor that operates like a lighthouse that sweeps its beam in a circle to scan the entire horizon. The system consists of a rotating vertical array of antennas that scans its surroundings. As they rotate, these antennas send out radio waves and listen for their reflections from the environment, much like how a lighthouse’s beam reveals the presence of ships and coastal features.
“These new capabilities, combined with high-resolution 3D images of the surroundings, open up a multitude of applications that were traditionally only possible with cameras,” the researchers wrote.
So now, should someone, or some thing, decide to do so, we could have autonomous robots that self-heal, arm themselves, can run, drive and fly, can fool computers into thinking they are human, make larger versions of themselves, and can see better than us in fog and smoke. What could possibly go wrong?