Essential linkage: Quantum entanglement? Autonomous robotic systems? Wireless tactical warfare? Oh yeah, DARPA's on it.
DARPA, or US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, gets up to some cool shit. These are the guys that come up with cool new military toys like unmanned drones, wearable combat-grade computer systems and more. There's also the DARPA remote vehicle challenge, which universities from all over the world enter and try to win by building robotic vehicles that can handle any driving surface. But for all that you think you might know about what DARPA's up to... it's just scratching the surface.
Last week the Agency released a 57 page report detailing some of its top strategic research programs, and it makes for some crazy reading. But if that's to much of a slog, Network World has an excellent article that breaks down the projects into bite-size chunks:
DARPA's Quantum Entanglement Science and Technology (QuEST) program is creating new quantum information science technologies, focusing on loss of information due to quantum decoherence, limited communication distance due to signal attenuation, protocols, and larger numbers of quantum bits (Qubits) and their entanglement. Key among the program's challenges is integrating improved single- and entangled-photon and electron sources and detectors into quantum computation and communication networks. Defense applications include highly secure communications, algorithms for optimization in logistics, highly precise measurements of time and position on the earth and in space, and new image and signal processing methods for target tracking.
Is it just me, or is the term 'quantum entanglement' just plain sexy? Anyway, this stuff is fascinating reading, and since most of this tech is destined to trickle down into civilian applications eventually, it pays to be ahead of the curve.
Issue: 133 | February, 2012