A sea full of robots! And more Middle East AI News
Carrington Malin
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Welcome to Middle East AI News!
Here's this week's Middle East AI News! This week's stories include Aramco’s new low carbon R&D centre at KAUST; Aerodyne Group’s plans to open a second international headquarters in Malaysia’s former Expo 2020 pavilion; and a new urban mobility exhibit at Dubai’s Museum of the Future.
Meanwhile, IDC revealed at GBM’s recent event that 37%?of organizations in the UAE plan to significantly increase their AI spending over the next 12-18 months; and MEED ranks Saudi Arabia and the UAE as joint leaders in its new Digital Transformation Index.
My featured story is about the growing number of unmanned vessels and marine robots being used by the governments, industry and the military in the Middle East. Organisations all over the region are investing in unmanned surface vessels, unmanned underwater vessels and marine robotics. Scroll down to read my article below.
My interview of the week is Bloomberg Technology's Emily Chang interviewing the now famous Google Engineer Blake Lemoine?about his claims about Google's LaMDA being a sentient AI. A must watch!
Scroll down for these stories and much more!
Have a question or want to share your own perspective? Please do leave a comment or send me a message. I'd love to hear from you!
/Carrington
Middle East AI News – 30-Jun-22
[Sorry, no audio version this week!]
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A sea full of robots!
Earlier this year the U.S. Navy organised IMX 2022, the largest unmanned systems maritime exercise in the world, bringing together conventional forces with more than 80 unmanned systems from 10 countries in the 5th Fleet's area of operations. The military exercise was a watershed moment for naval defence, with unmanned systems taking part alongside conventional forces from sixty U.S. partner nations.
IMX was not only significant because it brought so much focus to the growing role of unmanned systems in the navy, but also since it trialed so many different types of system above and below the water, integrated with naval operations. Taking place across 6.5 million square kilometres of ocean (2.5m sq. miles) - including the Arabian Gulf, Arabian Sea, the Red Sea, Gulf of Oman and off the east coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean - the marine exercise employed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), unmanned surface vessels (USVs), unmanned underwater vessels (UUVs) and hybrid surface / undersea vessels.
However, the growing role of unmanned and autonomous vessels in the Middle East is not restricted to the military. USVs, UUVs and hybrid unmanned vessels are also now being used by civil defence, the energy sector, ports authorities, university research centres and various governments in the Arabian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman and the Red Sea.
Sea ports across the Middle East are using unmanned systems for maritime inspections, above and below the water, for freight container handling and port security.?
#Oman 's Public Authority for Special Economic Zones and Free Zones (OPAZ) has conducted a number of drone and robotic vehicle trials in the Special Economic Zone at Duqm (SEZAD) . Trials included underwater surveying and inspection in collaboration with Omani firm Greenbird 3D . In the north of the country, Sohar Port is the first port to incorporate underwater drones into its port infrastructure monitoring system. The port's drones can also be fitted with robotic arms, allowing them to collect water and seabed samples for testing.
In the #UAE , DP World - which leverages a wide range of autonomous systems, on an off the water - uses autonomous security boats for surveillance at Jebel Ali Port, Mina Rashid and Mina Al Hamriya in #Dubai . Meanwhile, Dubai Customs uses Syaj, a remote-controlled mini-submarine fitted with a high definition camera, to inspect wooden trading dhows entering the Dubai Creek and identify potential drug smugglers.
Most other ports in the region are looking to USVs and UUVs to provide them with additional coverage and lower costs. Abu Dhabi Ports signed an MoU with Canadian naval architects Robert Allan in 2020 to develop the world’s first fully unmanned autonomous commercial tug boats. And, it almost goes without saying that, Oxagon, NEOM 's floating port city planned for #Saudi Arabia's West coast can be expected to be an intensive user of unmanned systems and autonomous robotics above, on, and below the water.
The energy sector is another industry that is a fast-growing user of unmanned and autonomous systems. ADNOC , in #AbuDhabi , and Saudi Aramco are both using a variety of remote controlled and robotic vessels for inspections of offshore oil rigs, service vessels and ships. Offshore rigs must be taken out of service every five years for underwater safety inspections and so, according to ADNOC, underwater remote controlled vehicles (ROVs) reduce downtime, operational risks to employees and contractors, and can cut associated costs by up to 68 percent.
Remote controlled submarines and underwater robotic vehicles are also being used for environmental research in the Arabian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman and the Red Sea.?
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) , one of the region's leading research institutions for oceanography and marine biology research has been using ROVs and robotics for collecting marine data for many years. The university has been collaborating with the AI lab team at Stanford University and Meka Robotics on developing a robitic diver that can be used as a robotic avatar. More recently, KAUST has partnered with Ocean Aero Inc , a manufacturer and service provider of ocean-going Autonomous Underwater and Surface Vehicles (AUSVs). Ocean Aero's 14.5 foot TRITON AUSVs will help KAUST extend the reach of its research in the Red Sea.
There are plenty of other ocean survey projects leveraging drones and robotics around the region. Oman's Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation (MoHERI), Sultan Qaboos University, the Swedish University of Gothenburg , and Omani company iLab Marine , are conducting a study on red tides using an unmanned surface vessel.?
Last year, the UAE's Ministry of Climate Change and Environment (MOCCAE) began a 17-week pilot study to integrate aerial and underwater data on marine habitats, collected using drones and underwater ROVs. There are multiple other research studies that have used underwater robotics or drones around the region, including projects by universities in the region and by universities from Europe, the UK and the USA.
The ongoing needs for underwater robots from universities and research centres, coupled with the demand from government, industry and defence has led to an increase in the number of technology research and development projects in the region.?
Aramco has developed a Shallow Water Inspection and Monitoring Robot (SWIM-R) over the past few years, which can complete pipeline inspections four times faster than human divers. The technology is now being commercialised via a partnership with RPD Innovations (RPDC), a Saudi company owned by the Public Investment Fund (PIF) .
KAUST's Integrated Ocean Processes (IOP) laboratory on Saudi Arabia's Red Sea coastline has a marine robotics programme that aims to develop smart, scalable, and adaptable systems to transform the ability of researchers to sustainably monitor and steward the Red Sea.?
Egypt's Underwater Robotics Technologies Center (an initiative of the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport ) has an industrial ROV project to develop a robot for the inspection of underwater pipelines, plus inspection and excavation of submerged archaeological sites.?
In the UAE, Khalifa University's Marine Robotics Facility has its own wave tank allowing the extensive and controlled testing of marine robotic vehicles both on the surface and underwater.?
In the private sector too, there is an increasing R&D focus on marine robotics, unmanned vessels and ocean-going autonomous systems.?
Most of the unmanned vessels being used for maritime projects are deployed for short periods under direct human supervision or remote control, and have a limited battery life. However, there are new categories of autonomous wave-powered, sail-powered and solar-powered robotic vessels being developed to extend the duration of operation and removing the need for close human supervision.
Saildrone , a wind- and solar-powered autonomous surface vessel designed to collect ocean data is capable of remaining operational at sea for up to 12 months. The USV is currently in use by the 5th Fleet in the Middle East. Another U.S. developer, Liquid Robotics builds a Wave Glider USV, powered by wave and solar energy, which is also able to operate for 12 months unattended. Another example would be Purdue University 's R&D project that is developing a highly maneuverable, low-cost underwater glider that operates silently, collecting data, for months at a time.
The U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet already building a fleet of full-time USVs to collect ocean data across the Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf. As the technologies develop, it's going to make more sense for other collectors of ocean data such as energy companies, research institutions and universities to have USVs and UUVs in operation for extended periods. There are also powerful arguments for security and law enforcement organisations to have USVs and UUVs in operation for extended periods.??
Every indication is that we are going to see more and more USVs and UUVs in permanent or semi-permanent use in the world's oceans, and the seas of the Middle East becoming increasingly popular testing environments.
Find out more about this story:
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More News!
Here's some more interesting news from the past week:
Digital Transformation
Education
Defence
#UAE #GCC - Unmanned systems and AI could help bridge the manpower gap in Arabian Gulf navies (AGSIW )
Drones
Finance
Industry 4.0
Healthcare
IoT
R&D
Robotics
Smart Cities
Urban Mobility
Interview of the week!
Watch: Google engineer Blake Lemoine talk to Bloomberg Technology
Google Engineer Blake Lemoine talks to Bloomberg TV 's Emily Chang about his claim that Google 's LaMDA (Language Model for Dialog Application) project is sentient, some of the experiments he conducted on LaMDA and why this is important for the AI ethics policy landscape.
Watch the video (10 mins)
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