The urbanization of drone warfare: policing surplus populations in the dronepolis

This paper explores the urbanization of drone warfare and the securitization of the “surplus population”. Defined as a bloc of humanity rendered as structurally unnecessary to a capital-intensive economy, the surplus population is an emerging target for the post-welfare security state. If we now live in an age of a permanent conflict with uncertain geographies, then it is at least partly fueled by this endemic crisis at the heart of the capitalist world system. Of key significance is the contradictory nature of the surplus population. The “security threat” generated by replacing masses of workers with nonhumans is increasingly managed by policing humans with robots, drones, and other apparatuses. In other words, the surplus population is both the outcome and target of contemporary capitalist technics. The emerging “dronification of state violence” across a post-9∕11 battlespace has seen police drones deployed to the urban spaces of cities in Europe and North America. The drone, with its ability to swarm in the streets of densely packed urban environments, crystallizes a more intimate and invasive form of state power. The project of an atmospheric, dronified form of policing not only embodies the technologization of state security but also entrenches the logic of a permanent, urbanized manhunt. The paper concludes by discussing the rise of the dronepolis: the city of the drone

Space station automation and robotics study. Operator-systems interface

This is the final report of a Space Station Automation and Robotics Planning Study, which was a joint project of the Boeing Aerospace Company, Boeing Commercial Airplane Company, and Boeing Computer Services Company. The study is in support of the Advanced Technology Advisory Committee established by NASA in accordance with a mandate by the U.S. Congress. Boeing support complements that provided to the NASA Contractor study team by four aerospace contractors, the Stanford Research Institute (SRI), and the California Space Institute. This study identifies automation and robotics (A&R) technologies that can be advanced by requirements levied by the Space Station Program. The methodology used in the study is to establish functional requirements for the operator system interface (OSI), establish the technologies needed to meet these requirements, and to forecast the availability of these technologies. The OSI would perform path planning, tracking and control, object recognition, fault detection and correction, and plan modifications in connection with extravehicular (EV) robot operations

Implications of the Google’s US 8,996,429 B1 Patent in Cloud Robotics-Based Therapeutic Researches

Intended for being informative to both legal and engineer communities, this chapter raises awareness on the implications of recent patents in the field of human-robot interaction (HRI) studies. Google patented the use of cloud robotics to create robot personality(-ies). The broad claims of the patent could hamper many HRI research projects in the field. One of the possible frustrated research lines is related to robotic therapies because the personalization of the robot accelerates the process of engagement, which is extremely beneficial for robotic cognitive therapies. This chapter presents, therefore, the scientific examination, description, and comparison of the Tufts University CEEO project “Data Analysis and Collection through Robotic Companions and LEGO® Engineering with Children on the Autism Spectrum project” and the US 8,996,429 B1 Patent on the Methods and Systems for Robot Personality Development of Google. Some remarks on ethical implications of the patent will close the chapter and open the discussion to both communities