IoT Today: Flying Taxi Company to Build Vertiports in Dubai, Humanoid Robots Poised to Join Astronauts in Space
The latest edition of IoT Today is here with the latest news in emerging technologies! Read about the flying taxi company set to build vertiports in Dubai, as well as NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration and Apptronik ’s talk at SXSW 2024 about the role humanoid robots could play in space exploration.?
Plus, find out about the self-driving bus service launching in the U.K., as well as Hugging Face ’s new robotics project being led by a Tesla scientist.?
Flying Taxi Company Agrees to Build Vertiports in Dubai, Abu Dhabi?
Archer Aviation and Falcon Aviation have agreed to develop a state-of-the-art vertiport for eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing) flights between Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
The vertiports are set for development at Falcon Heliport at Atlantis, the Palm in Dubai and the Marina Mall heliport in Abu Dhabi’s Corniche.
Vertiports are used for flying vehicles’ take off and landing, as well as to pick up and drop off passengers and have batteries charged or changed.?
Archer and Falcon Aviation plan to offer passenger service in Archer’s Midnight flying vehicle between the two Falcon vertiports. The journey, which typically takes two hours by car, would be only a 30-minute total trip by an eVTOL vehicle.
Humanoid Robots Poised to Join Astronauts in Space, NASA Says at SXSW 2024?
Humanoid robots could one day join astronauts in space, industry experts said Sunday at South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas.?
Shaun Azimi, lead of NASA’s dexterous robotics program and Jeff Cardenas, CEO of humanoid robotics company Apptronik, spoke at this year’s event about their companies’ collaboration to develop humanoid robots to relieve astronauts of dangerous tasks.
Speaking at the session, Azimi said humanoid robots could be a “game changer” for lunar missions, but that innovations from across the country would be needed to make it a reality.
"One day, maybe thousands of years from now there will be millions, maybe billions of humanoids that will be out there exploring the stars,” Cardenas said. “This is how we get there."?
The companies are currently developing Apptronik’s general purpose robot, Apollo, as an assistant to astronauts living either on space stations in orbit or even those located on Mars or the moon.?
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Self-Driving Bus Services Launching in UK City?
Britain’s first-ever autonomous city-center bus service will be operational within a matter of months.
The U.K. government-backed project will get under way in Sunderland, a city of around 345,000 people in the north-east of England.
The first of three Sunderland Advanced Mobility Shuttles has already arrived in the city, prior to the launch of the free passenger service.
The electric autonomous vehicles were developed by U.K. company Aurrigo, and will transport commuters on a three-mile route that links two key locations – the local university and Sunderland Royal Hospital – with the city’s Interchange bus station.
The project is considered a progression from the U.K.’s first autonomous public transit bus, launched in Scotland last year.
Tesla, Optimus Scientist Leads Hugging Face Robotics Project Launch?
Hugging Face, a startup providing open-source AI and machine learning tools for developers, is launching a robotics project led by former Tesla scientist Remi Cadene.
Cadene announced the news via a post on X, formerly Twitter.
“After 3 years at Tesla and Optimus, I am thrilled to announce that I joined Hugging Face to start an ambitious open robotics project!” Cadence wrote.
He added that the project is hiring engineers to build “real robots” in Paris.?
In a job listing for an Embodied Robotics Engineer, Hugging Face said the role will? “push the boundaries of what's possible in robotics and AI.”