CES 2016: robots, copter and cars of the future

CES 2016 has shown that all the really important development of consumer electronics are taking place in the field of robotics, AI-systems and the design of unmanned vehicles. It is they who will determine the direction of technology development in the future.

Robots and all-all-all

As shown by the results of the exhibition, large corporations are seriously thinking about the problem of staff - in technology there has been a stalemate, to cope with which can only be due to the accumulation of more knowledge. This means that the time to cultivate engineers. A significant part of the exhibition occupied a variety of educational projects devoted to learning the basics of programming and robotics.

Mark LEGO, which presented its educational project for elementary school WeDo 2.0 - a set of microcontroller and 280 parts of everyone's favorite designer. The set will help students learn the basics of programming microcontrollers and other engineering sacraments, including mechanics and robotics. For a set of attached mobile application that greatly extends its capabilities in comparison with any other learning designers.

But Cerevo brought at CES 2016 one of the devices, the use of which seems rather dubious. Robot Tipron, Equipped with speakers and a projector so you can view video content anywhere in the home, driving them through the mobile app. Integrated sensors and the camera allow the robot to go around the obstacles and to find the ideal position for the work, and the projector is capable of projecting a three-meter distance image diagonal of 80 inches. However, built-in battery will last only two hours of battery life.

On the other hand, the exhibition demonstrated that the most amazing robots is not so relevant as a few years ago. Today nobody is surprised conversing or singing projects. Mankind willfully: it was the turn of robots that benefit. And there in the market is very, very small. Artificial intelligence is also very firmly entrenched in our lives, and cease to surprise, because today it can be found even in music videos of indie bandsNot to mention the processing of data.

Unmanned and manned... copter!

Another thing - the copter. They were presented a great variety: small and large, to entertainment and even for use as personal transport.

the most ambitious of all was Ehang 184. This giant with eight screws positioned as a personal transportation! Oktokopter (so called aircraft scheme with eight screw) is set in motion and has a Full passenger cabin. The device is fully automatic: you need to select a destination on a special plate, and quietly enjoy the flight. Strange vehicle battery will last for 20 minutes or 35 kilometers at an altitude of 3.5 km.

Interesting concept presented UAV developers. Their drone Fleye became copter safest of all. And no wonder, because its blade screws are fully protected plastic housing. Unfortunately, this reduces the flight characteristics, and Borg fly and can shoot video camera installed HD-10 minutes. But the gadget is equipped with radar and sensors for fully automatic filter, with a programmable computer or smartphone.

Another concept drone presented French company Parrot. Disco, Constructed according to the scheme of the flying wing. Due to such a decision, Disco has become a real "dolgolotom": the duration of its standard flight reaches half that is unattainable option for most commercial drones.

Another achievement of the CES may be called Lily. Copter takes off without operator involvement in follow-up mode, not afraid of water, has small dimensions and can travel at speeds up to 40 km / h at an altitude of up to 15 meters for 20 minutes. To start the drone enough to throw into the air. Excellent replacement action camera.

Something similar to him drone Hexo +, which is able to take off by yourself, sit down and fly using a huge set of ready-made algorithms only need to build a flight map and manage the built-in camera.

But the main event in the world of unmanned aerial vehicles should be called a demonstration collaborative develop Qualcomm, Tencent and Zero Tech - commercial drone YING on the Qualcomm Snapdragon platform Flight. Strictly speaking, in this case is interesting not so much the copter (stabilized records video with a resolution of 1 080r, transmits through the popular video services, is controlled from a smartphone), but the processor on which it is built. Snapdragon platform developed on the basis of Flight Snapdragon processor 801 specifically for consumer drones and robotic applications. The emergence of such a decision on such a major producer - a real breakthrough in robotics. And soon you can expect a real roller devices from a variety of developers that are compatible, that is important, at least in the software.

Cars of the future

Chevrolet Bolt, Faraday Future FFZERO1, BMW i Vision Future Interaction, Volkswagen BUDD-e…

Despite the existence of specialized automotive exhibitions, this year CES has become a platform for automakers to mass. And most of them presented a truly unique design.

The main and most beautiful gift to visitors of the exhibition was the hypercar from Faraday Future. FFZERO1 It has an electric motor with capacity of about 1000 horsepower. And it's not just the beauty: the electrical systems installed in the vehicle, are scalable and can be used in any other projects. Interestingly, the company is going to produce in the future, but not to sell electric cars. Yes it is. Do not sell, offer for subscription to use the car. Cheap, cheerful, but also from that of the future, which we did not manage to achieve by 2015.

A little more mundane, but no less significant was the release of General Motors. Company presented crossover Chevrolet Bolt EVWhich is able to travel 200 miles on a single battery charge. Of course, this is little compared to Etos... But Bolt will soon have to go to the free sale!

For electric cars - the future. And it has already come. But at CES 2016 it was presented and the other side of the future of the automotive industry - unmanned vehicles to suit every taste, color and size. So, Rinspeed presented universal concept car Etos: he is not afraid of the limitations that today imposes on unmanned car legislation of different countries. This car is equipped with a steering wheel, as opposed to the drone from Google, and makes it possible to use both a conventional car. Autopilot works like this: Automatic retracts the steering wheel and full control of the movement.

A little less beautiful, but much more significant were the presentation of the largest electronics manufacturers. The intention to start developing He stated Qualcomm's, which acquired Cambridge Silicon Radio company, so was able to expand its portfolio with new solutions in the field of Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GNSS and audio systems. This suggests a real opportunity to see the Chinese drone this year.

In addition, the exhibition was held at the presentation onboard supercomputer NVIDIA Drive PX 2 with the function of the autopilot. With it in vehicles is possible to realize the function of artificial intelligence. The platform is based on the two latest processors and Tegra two graphics chips on the architecture Pascal, which has resulted in "deep learning 24 trillion operations per second" (150 MacBook laptops Pro). The platform already includes computer vision algorithms that allows you to track objects on the road and train car. 12-sky cameras, lidar, radar and ultrasonic sensors can accurately assess the environment around the vehicle. The intention to use the Drive PX 2 has already informed the company Volvo.

Audiogigant Harman submitted at CES 2016 interesting cloud system for integration with navigation. In the words of the manufacturer, it is connected platform combines navigational data with other data: Instructions on the movement complements the traffic information received from the built-in and out clouds. The system is customizable and can analyze the data received from various sensors in the car: GPS, gyroscope, accelerometer, lidar, camera and others. The information is transmitted to the cloud server, the information received from different vehicles analyzed which with the help of in-depth technology training. Then from them is part of that is relevant to a particular vehicle at a particular moment, and is transmitted to the on-board computer that allows you to notify the driver of the possible obstacles, accidents, speed limits, traffic lights, difficult road conditions and even risky behavior of other vehicles in real time time. Also, these data can be communicated to the driver assistance system components (ADASIS).

But Kia presented sub-brand for release equipped with an autopilot Drive Wise cars. Corporation representatives, however, have made a declaration that their plans do not fully unmanned vehicles, at least until 2030. But first automation solutions in four Kia models will appear already in the summer of 2016, and will begin with the Soul EV is an electric vehicle.

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Against the background of these presentations, news about new faceless fitness tracker, smart phones, wireless technologies fade. Yet most of the media did not pay attention to the framework presented in CES 2016 breakthrough in robotics: a lot more memorable samozashnurovyvayuschiesya shoes.