U.S. Army orders robotic assistant

Stratom announced Monday the U.S. Army has awarded the company a contract to develop a personnel safety system for Robotic Combat Vehicle-Light (RCV-L).

As noted by the company, the future robotic system will provide 360-degree sensor coverage and a computer system that leverages machine learning to intelligently identify objects close to the vehicle.

The system, known as the Perimeter Safety for Autonomous Vehicles (P-SAV), will include newly developed ROS2-based software to communicate the appropriate information to the RCV’s operator and its computer system to execute appropriate behaviors.

Source: U.S. Army orders robotic assistant

QinetiQ inks $45 million prototyping deal with US Army

WASHINGTON — The American branch of British defense firm QinetiQ has won a contract worth up to $45 million to support the U.S. Army’s C5ISR Center, the company announced Monday in a news release.

The deal follows QinetiQ’s announcement that it plans to acquire software provider Avantus Federal by year’s end — “an important step in the execution of QinetiQ’s five-year ambitions to expand our presence in the US,” QinetiQ CEO Steve Wadey said Friday in a statement about the purchase.

Source: QinetiQ inks $45 million prototyping deal with US Army

United Airlines places deposit for 100 flying taxis from Archer Aviation 

Archer Aviation Inc. (NYSE:ACHR) announced a $10M pre-delivery payment from United Airlines (NASDAQ:UAL) for 100 electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft.The deposit follows a purchase agreement inked in 2021 and adds to visible interest among airline operators in eVTOL aircraft. Indeed, in July air taxi company Vertical Aerospace (EVTL) reached an agreement with American Airlines Group (AAL) for 50 aircraft.

Source: United Airlines places deposit for 100 flying taxis from Archer Aviation | Seeking Alpha

Amazon to acquire Bedford’s iRobot in $1.7B deal 

The popular cleaning robot Roomba is going to be an Amazon.com Inc (Nasdaq: AMZN) product. The e-commerce-giant announced on Friday it signed an agreement to buy Bedford-based Roomba maker iRobot Corp. (Nasdaq: IRBT) in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $1.7 billion, including iRobot’s net debt.

Source: Amazon to acquire Bedford’s iRobot in $1.7B deal – Boston Business Journal

Leidos to develop medium-sized unmanned underwater vehicle and sensors for maritime environmental sensing

WASHINGTON – Unmanned systems designers at Leidos Inc. in Reston, Va., will design a medium-sized unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) for marine environmental sensing and counter-mine warfare under terms of a $12 million contract announced Thursday. Officials of the U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington are asking Leidos to design the Medium Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (MUUV) for torpedo tube-launched environmental sensing mission and maritime expeditionary mine countermeasures. This contract has options that could extend through 2032 and increase its value to $358.5 million.

Source: Leidos to develop medium-sized unmanned underwater vehicle and sensors for maritime environmental sensing | Military Aerospace

Lockheed, Pentagon near $30B deal for F-35 fighter jets 

The U.S. Department of Defense is nearing a “handshake agreement” with Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) for ~375 F-35 fighter jets over three years, Reuters reported on Monday. Talks had bogged down in recent weeks over data rights, but a Monday meeting in Washington could lead to a deal on both a price range and quantity, according to the report, which also said if an agreement is reached, finalized pricing would not be locked in for several weeks if not months, but an ultimate total value is ~$30B.

Source: Lockheed, Pentagon near $30B deal for F-35 fighter jets – Reuters (NYSE:LMT) | Seeking Alpha

L3Harris inks deal for $700M missile tracking space development program 

L3Harris Technologies (NYSE:LHX) has been awarded a contract to build the Space Development Agency’s (or SDA) Tranche 1 Tracking Layer satellite program to serve as “eyes in the sky” detecting, identifying and tracking advanced missile threats.

Source: L3Harris inks deal for $700M missile tracking space development program (NYSE:LHX) | Seeking Alpha

GE’s reveals names, logos for its 3 future businesses 

General Electric Co. has unveiled the names and logos of the three separate businesses the company plans to create by 2024.The new GE (NYSE: GE) businesses will focus on health care, energy and aviation. Unsurprisingly, GE’s healthcare business and GE’s aviation business will be known as GE HealthCare and GE Aerospace. GE’s energy portfolio, which now includes renewable energy, power, digital and energy financial services, will be grouped under the name GE Vernova.

Source: GE’s reveals names, logos for its 3 future businesses – Boston Business Journal

Bose plans to close Boston Landing office 

Framingham-based Bose Corp. plans to exit the Boston office it opened four years ago, at the Boston Landing campus in Brighton developed by New Balance’s real estate arm. The consumer electronics company has listed nearly 130,000 square feet of space at 80 Guest St. as available for sublease. The 10-story building has over 200,000 square feet of office and lab space.

Source: Bose plans to close Boston Landing office – Boston Business Journal

I just bought a Nvidia RTX 3070 for MSRP because the GPU shortage is over

For nearly two years, you’ve had to be incredibly lucky, skilled, or patient to get an Nvidia or AMD graphics card at MSRP. We’ve liveblogged and livetweeted that hell of trying to buy a GPU online, fighting against an army of bots to navigate the buggy websites of retailers who didn’t have enough reason to care.

But, yesterday, I did the unthinkable. I saddled up to Best Buy’s website eight hours after the retailer’s weekly drop and bought an RTX 3070 Ti Founders Edition for its $599 MSRP.

I had a $499 RTX 3070 Founders Edition in my cart, too. And those finds weren’t a fluke: both of those GPUs were still available when we checked back this morning. The 3070 FE is still there as I type these words. So is the 3070 Ti. AMD.com currently has the Radeon RX 6750 XT, 6900 XT, and 6950 XT in stock for MSRP, too.

Source: I just bought a Nvidia RTX 3070 for MSRP because the GPU shortage is over – The Verge

NASA’s Webb Delivers Deepest Infrared Image of Universe Yet

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has produced the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe to date. Known as Webb’s First Deep Field, this image of galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 is overflowing with detail. Thousands of galaxies – including the faintest objects ever observed in the infrared – have appeared in Webb’s view for the first time. This slice of the vast universe covers a patch of sky approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length by someone on the ground.

Source: NASA’s Webb Delivers Deepest Infrared Image of Universe Yet | NASA

The Life Story of the EV battery 

For months now, I have been drowning in my search to find an electric vehicle (EV). Weighing options. Living with car shortages. The batteries on these are huge. I got consumed with the question: How can the world sustain everyone driving an EV? Here is what I discovered about these batteries.

Source: The Life Story of the EV battery – EE Times Asia