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Bahamut

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Tests of Russia’s Avatar humanoid robot postponed till 3rd quarter of 2016
Science & Space
July 19, 2016, 15:34UTC+3
The robot is currently learning to drive a car
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Russia's deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin and first deputy defense minister Valery Gerasimov durin the robot's demonstration in the Research Institute for Precision Machine Engineering, 2015
© Mikhail Klimentyev/Russian presidential press service/TASS
MOSCOW, July 19. /TASS/. Tests of Russia’s humanoid robot Avatar, which is being developed by the Russian Advanced Research Foundation (ARF), have been postponed till the third quarter of this year, ARF Deputy Director General Vitaly Davydov told TASS in an interview.

"The work on this project has not yet been completed. The robot has not yet negotiated the required obstacle course. Several problems have emerged in the project implementation process due to which the tests have been postponed till a later date", he said.

According to him, the postponement of the tests that had initially been planned for late 2015, and then - for the spring of 2016, is caused by the ARF stance. "We ourselves have decided to complicate the "exam" requirements for Avatar," Davydov said.



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Now, he said, the robot is learning to drive a car. "The Fund’s laboratory personnel have practised this procedure on a test bench." The Avatar controlled the steering wheel, shifted the gears. The robot was also automatically identifying the roadway, roadside, road markings, bypassing obstacles", said the ARF deputy head.


Initially, a humanoid robot was developed in the interest of the Russian Emergencies Ministry, but later the designers decided that most of the rescue robot’s components could be used in the military sphere. The humanlike robot was demonstrated to Russian President Vladimir Putin in January 2015, during his visit to the TSNIITOCHMASH Central Scientific - Research Institute for Precision Machine Engineering, a Russian industrial design bureau. TSNIITOCHMASH is a major designer and producer of weapons for the Russian military and Interior Troops. The robot, controlled by an operator, rode a quad bike round a vehicle test track and also made five good shots on a target.



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http://tass.com/science/889295
 
Bahamut

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Roscosmos announces tender for creating space robots
Science & Space
August 31, 2016, 14:06UTC+3
Space robots will assist cosmonauts during their extravehicular activities
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© Stanislav Krasilnikov/TASS


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MOSCOW, August 31. /TASS/. Russia’s State Space Corporation, Roscosmos, has announced a tender to create space robots (Kosmorobot) that will assist cosmonauts during their extravehicular activities. The project’s contract price tag comes to 2.4 billion rubles ($36.78 million). This information has been published on the public procurement website.

According to the technical design assignment, the robots will have to carry out operations on the exterior of a spacecraft and assist the crew in spacewalks from the International Space Station (ISS). In addition, it is planned to carry out flight tests of the Kosmorobot (Space Robot) system as part of the ISS Science-Power Module (SPM, the launch planned for 2019).



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Kosmorobot’s development timeline for the prototypes is scheduled from September 2019 to November 2020. The space robot’s flight tests are planned at the final stage of the project - from December 2020 to November 2024.

The Kosmorobot project is included in Russia’s Federal Space Program for 2016-2025. The deadline to submit tender applications will be on September 20. The term of the contract is until November 2024.


The Federal Space Program’s previous draft, which was drawn up in 2014, provided for funding totaling 1.7 billion rubles ($26.05 million) to create elements and units, as well as prototypes for Kosmorobot and its flight tests on the ISS.



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http://tass.com/science/896770
 
Bahamut

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Russia to develop subsea robots for drilling operations in Arctic
Military & Defense
June 08, 2016, 21:08UTC+3
Russia plans to tap Arctic fields using marine robots, which will be part of under-ice and subsea drilling system
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© Rubin Design Bureau/TASS
MOSCOW, June 8. /TASS/. Russia’s Rubin Design Bureau is developing a preliminary design of unmanned submersibles to support construction and operation of drilling facilities in the Arctic Region, General Designer of Rubin Igor Vilnit told TASS on Wednesday.

These vehicles will be part of under-ice and subsea drilling system, Vilnit said.



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"Subsea vehicles developed as part of the project are planned to perform exploration and survey work on the soil and in depth of the ocean as required during the drilling facility construction and will support safety during its operation," he added.

A subsea robotized system for security of the Arctic sea and offshore areas is under development in Russia, Vilnit said


"An integrated robotized system intended for security of lengthy sea areas and continental shelf areas is at the proactive development phase," Vilnit said.

Russia plans to tap Arctic fields using marine robots, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said earlier.



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http://tass.com/defense/880933?_ga=2.165959421.271324204.1494931605-1524188969.1491146562
 
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In Tomsk, a robot cook is created that can cook hot dogs and candy floss
Press Releases
December 07, 2015, 15:59updated at:December 11, 2015, 15:59UTC+3
The authors of the idea believe that it will be popular among restaurant-keepers, primarily as a marketing tool to attract customers
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© EPA/ANDREW GOMBERT
TOMSK, December 7 /TASS/. A robot-cook, which is created by the programmers of the company-resident of the business incubator of Tomsk State University of Control Systems and Radioelectronics (TUSUR), will be able to replace workers of fast food restaurants in cooking hot dogs, candy floss and other foods, Alexey Goryachev, the author of the project, reported to TASS.

"For now there is the first test model. Its uniqueness is that now the robot-cook needs a special environment - a specially built kitchen. Our robot can work in any room - it is constructed for each customer separately. But intelligence is necessary to create authentic dishes. And until people create artificial intelligence, such a robot is only for fast food," said Goryachev.

The basis of the robot is tabletop, where it makes the necessary operations. The machine is equipped with two or three manipulators (if necessary, there can be more), each of which performs its operation. For example, it collects sandwiches or reels candy floss up the stick from the machine standing next to it.

"Each manipulator has its own algorithm. If we need the manipulators perform an action together, we just "reflect" the program. In the future we plan to create a technical vision system, which will make the robot "smarter" - for example, to find the fallen potato, what other robots can't do as well," the developer said.


The authors of the idea believe that the robot will be popular among restaurant-keepers, primarily as a marketing tool to attract customers. "It's great to see how the robot is preparing food for you" – said Goryachev.



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http://tass.com/press-releases/843392?_ga=2.165959421.271324204.1494931605-1524188969.1491146562
 
Bahamut

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5 legendary hidden treasures in Russia
May 13, 2017 KSENIA ZUBACHEVA, RBTH
Russian history is replete with promises of huge rewards for those who find hidden treasures.
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The ongoing renovation of buildings in Russia’s capital has brought many historic objects back to the public eye. One of the latest discoveries was made by archaeologists on May 10 when 10 silver coins were found inside an ivory chess bishop dating back to the 16th century. At that time the owner of these coins could have bought a flock of geese. Now the coins are most likely to end up in one of Moscow’s historical museums.

While such small and unique finds are quite common, there are more significant treasures that are hidden in some corners of Russia. They are obviously not that easy to find. Many treasure hunters have tried in vain to find these objects that would have made them very wealthy. Here is a look at just five of them.

The Library of Ivan the Terrible
Tsar Ivan The Terrible by Viktor Vasnetsov, 1897 / Tretyakov Gallery

One of the most legendary treasures of Russia’s capital, the Library of Ivan the Terrible (1548-1574) is lost and may have been concealed by the ruler himself. As the story goes, this collection of scripts and books gathered by Byzantine rulers was given as a dowry for Sophia Palaeologus, the niece of the last Byzantine Emperor, who married Russian Prince Ivan the Great (1462-1505) in 1472.

It is believed that the collection included the larger part of the Library of Constantinople saved from the Turks in 1453 and some manuscripts from the ancient Library of Alexandria. The library was kept in the Kremlin’s cellars to keep it safe from frequent fires, and later under Prince Vasili III (1505-1533) the books were translated into Russian.

It is believed that the library was lost in the 16th century when Ivan the Terrible moved it to Alexandrovskaya Sloboda in the Vladimir Region. Since then, many archaeologists have been searching for the library in Sergiev Posad, Alexandrov, Vladimir Region, and other places formerly under the influence of the Tsar.

The treasures of Sigismund III Vasa
Sigismund III Vasa / Getty Images

Polish troops who invaded Russia in the beginning of 17th century collected everything valuable that they could find. They allegedly planned to transport the looted treasures to Warsaw for King Sigismund III, but the carriages did not even reach Smolensk, disappearing on the way.

Even though there was an instruction of where to find the lost goods (near a local saint’s barrow, in the area of the Khvorostyanka River), treasure hunters have not been able to find it, as the directions are not exactly clear.

Experts agree, however, that the treasure should be found somewhere near today’s Mozhaysk or Aprelevka in the Moscow Region.

Napoleon’s gold
"Napoleon Retreating from Moscow" (1927) by Jerzy Kossak (1900-1943). / RIA Novosti

In October 1812 when the French Emperor decided to flee Russia, his army was not planning to leave without trophies. They allegedly had two train wagonloads of valuables looted from the Kremlin and a collection of ancient weaponry. As they retreated under the risk of facing Russian troops in extreme weather conditions, Napoleon’s starving army had to abandon some of the treasures.

Some researchers believe that the valuables could be found in one of the lakes in the western part of the Smolensk Region. There were some attempts to search for this treasure in the beginning of 1960s.

A special search group was sent there but it ended unsuccessfully. Today this story remains extremely popular among treasure hunters in Russia.

Valuable cargo lost in Ussuri Bay
Ussuri Bay. Vladimir Sayapin / TASS

On Oct. 7, 1906 a cargo-passenger liner called Varyagin sank in the waters of the Ussuri Bay in today’s Primorye Territory. The tragedy itself would not have attracted much public attention had it not been for the events that followed.

The ship was owned by merchant Aleksei Semyonovich Varyagin and after it sank he asked the authorities for a compensation of 60,000 rubles (about $25,000 in today’s money) for an especially valuable cargo on board.

The governor of the territory refused, and in 1913 the former captain of the ship headed an expedition to the site of the tragedy. The group managed to find the liner but due to a lack of resources and funds they could not lift the cargo from the ship to the surface. Storms, the beginning of the First World War and the 1917 Revolution that followed prevented a new expedition from going there again.

Kolchak’s gold
Admiral Alexander Kolchak / Archive photo

As the story goes, during the Russian Civil War, the White Army declared Admiral Alexander Kolchak Supreme Ruler of the Russian state from 1918 to 1920. His position as the anti-communist leader was backed up with a large portion of Russian gold reserves estimated to have an overall worth of 650 million rubles (about $280 million in today’s money).

Kolchak moved it from Kazan to Siberia but some part of the valuable cargo was looted on the way, and the Admiral allegedly hid some of the money as well.

In 1921, following Kolchak’s death, it turned out that around 250 million rubles (about $108 million in today’s money) worth of Russian gold disappeared.

While some think that the treasures might be buried somewhere in Siberia, in Novosibirsk or places along the Trans-Siberian Railway, there are also accounts suggesting that it could be hidden somewhere in Altai.
 
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Mysterious poisonous rodents lived among Siberia’s dinosaurs
May 12, 2017 MARINA MOSKALENKO, SPECIAL TO RBTH
Russian paleontologists have discovered the remains of a new species of mammal. The herbivorous half-mouse, half-hamster with deadly poisonous spurs on its hind legs lived among the dinosaurs of the Jurassic period.
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The original owner of the tooth, which was found by scientists, disappeared from the face of the Earth in the early Cretaceous period. Source: Getty Images

Scientists from St. Petersburg and Tomsk universities have discovered the remains of the first herbivores among mammals in Siberia. The newly discovered species has been named Baidabatyr and resembled a modern-day mouse, looking like a cross between a hamster and a gerbil. According to researchers, the rodent was a plant eater, and lived among the dinosaurs during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.

The Baidabatyr may have survived for a long time alongside carnivorous dinosaurs because it was very prolific and led a nocturnal life, just like modern-day rodents. In addition, their hind legs had poisonous spurs to protect against predators.




Why Russia is the homeland of the elephant


Russian researchers were digging near the Bolshoi Kemchug River in Krasnoyarsk Territory (more than 2,000 miles from Moscow), originally looking for the remains of Mesozoic mammals: symmetrodonts, which are the size of martens; docodonts, which are primitive mammals with an elongated snout; and triconodonts - ancient reptiles that are forerunners of lizards.

In addition to the remains of early Cretaceous vertebrates, paleontologists then found a 2-mm long tooth, which belonged to an unknown animal from a group of multituberculates that are named for the multiple tubercles on their teeth.

Researchers named the mammal Baidabatyr, ("baida" comes from the word "baidarka," the Russian word for "kayak"), because the excavation site could only be reached by kayak. "Batyr" is derived from "bogatyr," which is a Russian folklore character that translates as "knight" or "warrior."

Despite the fact that the Baidabatyr resembles modern rodents, it’s not a direct ancestor of hamsters, rats or mice because all representatives of the multituberculates died out in the Paleogene period about 20-25 million years ago. The original owner of the tooth, which was found by scientists, disappeared from the face of the Earth in the early Cretaceous period.

"The multituberculates died out completely, and at present there are no groups of modern mammals that trace their ancestry from them," said Stepan Ivantsov of Tomsk University’s Laboratory of the Mesozoic and Cenozoic Continental Ecosystem, and who took part in the research.

The remains of multituberculates have been found in North America and Asia, but this is the first time they’ve been discovered in Siberia. "The find is of great importance and confirms that multituberculates lived in the southeast of Western Siberia," said Ivantsov.

Scientists hope the discovery will shed light on the course of evolution in Western Siberia where mammals and amphibians were practically unchanged for several tens of millions of years.

Baidabatyr's tooth is now stored in the Tomsk University science collection, and Ivantsov said that if researchers find other remains of multituberculates in Siberia, they’ll continue to study this group of ancient animals.
 
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Russian tycoon and telecom executive back “better-than-Google” face recognition

16 May '17
Russian start-up NtechLab, which creates “algorithms as intelligent as humans and as efficient as machines,” has raised $1.5m, East-West Digital News reported.

Led by Impulse VC, a venture fund which is reportedly affiliated to Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, the funding round has also involved such individual investors as Alexander Povorotov, a top executive at mobile operator Tele2 Russia.

However, the operator itself is not involved in the deal, Mr. Povorotov specified.

The details of the transaction have not been disclosed, but Vedomosti has learned that the new investors will receive a minority stake in the company.

Launched in 2015 in Moscow by Artem Kuharenko, NtechLab has developed FindFace, an application which is presented as “the world’s most accurate facial recognition technology for face detection, verification and identification.”

The FindFace technology is built on deep learning and a neural network-based architecture. In November 2015, NTechLab won the MegaFace Benchmark, a world championship in face recognition organized by the University of Washington. The challenge was to recognize the largest number of people in a database of more than a million photos. With a recognition accuracy rate of 73.3%, the Russian start-up bypassed more than 100 competitors, including Google with its program FaceNet.

So far, the app has been integrated with Twitter, allowing its users to find a random person’s page in social network after taking a photo of him in the street.

The FindFace app has also been made available to the police, the military, intelligence services, ministries and large corporations in several Middle-Eastern and Asian countries.

In Russia, it is integrated with the leading local social network Vkontakte (VK).
 
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