101–110 of 123 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
More like coerced, there is no option.
Vote for someone else? If people actually care, and it seems a great number do, it is possible to actually do something.
Interesting, military only gave ~$1M for such an ambitious project while Uber is burning billions a year and could easily afford this. My speculation is that this partnership is first and foremost an attempt to provide Uber with a patina of respectability for this attempt and access to military technical expertise. Uber just crashed and burned on self driving, something it desperately needs to quench its towering mon…
Just wanted to point out that a large chunk of technological innovation in the past century has roots in the military. Almost all communications protocols had origins in defense.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is a cooperative research and development agreement ("CRADA"), which is generally a technology sharing vehicle. Money flows from the non-federal party to the federal party on these agreements. Looks like ARL is matching the funds, so Uber is putting $500k on the CRADA and ARL will reciprocate with $500k in sole-source funding on an actual contracting vehicle. I'd be surprised if the $500k paid for anything more…
I have done multiple CRADAs and frankly believe they are the most underutilized tool in the tech industry, they're the intellectual equivalent of buying mining rights for $5/acre. The government has staggeringly interesting problems that need solving and sole access to some very interesting data, which they will happily share as long as you bring your own pick-axe and shovel. Go to federallabs.org and start shopping.…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have no clue about the stacked corotating rotors. How do they compensate for the yaw caused by the net torque? Stacked counter rotating rotor systems do exist. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coaxial_rotors
I think it's about loosing a rotor, not net torque. You need to keep the roll and pitch stable in an outage. Like that hexapod in the above link, if you lose one prop/motor/controller, you can increase power to other unit in the stack and decrease power to all the others, maintaining your stability while you descend and look for an emergency landing spot.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
More like coerced, there is no option.
Vote for someone else? If people actually care, and it seems a great number do, it is possible to actually do something.
Isn't it ironic whilst Google's engineers are mass protesting against military contracts, Uber already signed a whole bunch without any moral dilemma whatsover. Tells a lot about the company ethics there. On a separate note, could someone enlighten how stacked co-rotoring (moving towards the same direction) may make the aircraft silent and not noisier?
I find it ironic that western countries and their citizens are all kumbaya about the ethics of being a bully nation (militarily and socially) while our empires were built at the expense of those we exploited (colonialism for europeans, post WWII resource-grabs for US.) Everyone in the US forgets that the pollution and poor labor practices in China is the foundation that our buying power and consumption is based off o…
Isn't it ironic whilst Google's engineers are mass protesting against military contracts, Uber already signed a whole bunch without any moral dilemma whatsover. Tells a lot about the company ethics there. On a separate note, could someone enlighten how stacked co-rotoring (moving towards the same direction) may make the aircraft silent and not noisier?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have done multiple CRADAs and frankly believe they are the most underutilized tool in the tech industry, they're the intellectual equivalent of buying mining rights for $5/acre. The government has staggeringly interesting problems that need solving and sole access to some very interesting data, which they will happily share as long as you bring your own pick-axe and shovel. Go to federallabs.org and start shopping.…
That's super interesting. Would you be willing to share some of your background on this? I'm quite curious about this route.
There are tons of how-tos on line. Keywords are "CRADA", "technology transfer" (T2) and pick a noun or verb of your choice. Every federal department and agency has some sort of "T2" program with people who will even help write the CRADA for you. Commerce, Interior, HHS, all of them.
The key items are to write an effective statement of work and a budget. And understand these things are designed to accomodate big, enormous projects. Act of Congress scale projects. So, if you're going to think, you might as well think big. The paperwork is the same, big or small.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's super interesting. Would you be willing to share some of your background on this? I'm quite curious about this route.
It'll take 6 months to a year to get a CRADA written and signed. They're good for 5 years and can be amended. Budgets are generally side by side, transfer of funds doesn't work well. If you need people on site, working through a DoD staffing agency (e.g. Booz-Allen, one of the military medicine foundations, etc) is worth the overhead because they have the staffing experience. There are tons of how-tos on line. Keywor…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is a cooperative research and development agreement ("CRADA"), which is generally a technology sharing vehicle. Money flows from the non-federal party to the federal party on these agreements. Looks like ARL is matching the funds, so Uber is putting $500k on the CRADA and ARL will reciprocate with $500k in sole-source funding on an actual contracting vehicle. I'd be surprised if the $500k paid for anything more…
I have done multiple CRADAs and frankly believe they are the most underutilized tool in the tech industry, they're the intellectual equivalent of buying mining rights for $5/acre. The government has staggeringly interesting problems that need solving and sole access to some very interesting data, which they will happily share as long as you bring your own pick-axe and shovel. Go to federallabs.org and start shopping.…
they're the intellectual equivalent of buying mining rights for $5/acre ... The key is prospecting. You want to look around, get a good idea of how big a particular reserve is, and go for something big.
Could you elaborate on this a little or give an example?
As far as I understand CRADA is "cooperative R&D", so each side contributes to the R&D of some subject. Wikipedia says
"Private corporations participating in a CRADA are allowed to file for patent, and they retain patent rights on inventions developed by the CRADA. The government gets a license to the patents"
So if the govt already gets a license to the patents, and the tech has been developed with defense purposes in mind, how am I going to profit as a private company?