AG-600 amphibious flying boat

AG600 https://t.co/Z9QRmtFp3g pic.twitter.com/TsS5mB4EDf

— dafeng cao (@xinfengcao) October 30, 2016

2016 ZhuHai AirShow

An Autonomous Robot Contest: "Overcoming Obstacle 2016"

Hu Yu, Qian Xiaohu via Weibo

Teli

Teli, an autonomous, self-navigating vehicle system on a Toyota Land Cruiser body, was built by the Beijing Institute of Technology and is optimized for off-road travel, compared to the Google Car's urban and highways mission.

"Overcoming Obstacle 2016" is a competition supported by China's military, akin to the U.S. military's DARPA Grand Challenges. The month-long contest ended on October 18th in Beijing, with several finalists in each of the five categories.

The first group, Category A, involved highly autonomous cars. The finalists included modified from civilian SUVs, alongside a tracked vehicle, "SMART 1", from the Military Institute of Transportation.

Hu Yu, Qian Xiaohu via Weibo

SMART 1 UGV

The SMART 1 unmanned ground vehicle, built by the Military Institute of Transport, may have its basis in earlier Chinese autonomous robot experiments that used old armored vehicles. This chassis appears to be from an airborne fighting vehicle.

Hu Yu, Qian Xiaohu via Weibo

Desert Wolf

Desert Wolf, using a 4x4 chassis from the QL-550, an armored recon vehicle, is another 2016 finalist for the all-terrain category.

Category B was all-terrain autonomous vehicles. The finalists included two 4x4 robots built from military recon vehicles (by the China Academy of Sciences, and the National University of Defense Technology's Desert Wolf).

China News

Category C

Category C, small, personal, and urban task robots, included several entries from civilian entities.

Category C involved small, tracked robots, designed for tasks like urban reconnaissance and bomb disposal. Beijing Motors and Qingdao Hi Tech Corporation were among the five finalists.

Hu Yu, Qian Xiaohu via Weibo

Run 1

Norinco, China's top defense manufacturer of armored vehicles and munitions, entered the Run 1 quadruped robot into the legged robot category.

Hu Yu, Qian Xiaohu via Weibo

Iron Horse

Team Siyuan, from Beijing Jiaotong University, provided this multi-legged robot with Klann linkage-style legs (each of its four feet is made of two pairs of interconnected legs), offering exceptional stability on rough mountainous terrain.

Category D's legged robots provided some of the most interesting Overcoming Obstacle 2016 entries. The three finalists included two "Da Gou" quadruped robots from Shandong University and NORINCO, and the Iron Horse, a 'crab walker' from Beijing Jiaotong University, which had pivot-jointed Klann linkage legs to provide greater stability and simplicity. It bears some resemblance to Chinese research on a many-legged, auto-cannon-armed design disclosed in 2014.

China News

Sino MULE

The "Sino MULE", developed by the 5th Department of Armored Engineering Institute, has six independently articulated wheels to roll across difficult terrain while carrying heavy loads.

Hu Yu, Qian Xiaohu via Weibo

Robot train

These modular robots can be attached as a convoy, and can be programmed and order on autonomous tasks, like following designated persons and vehicles,

Category E was robot cargo trucks. One finalist was a 6x6 truck from 5th Department of Armored Engineering Institute with independently articulated wheels, like similar to the MULE robot. Another 6x6 robot truck built by the Beijing Institute of Mechanical Research was seen carrying a simulated load. Sunward Equipment provided another finalist, consisting of two four-wheeled robots attached to each other, as a sort of robotic road-bound train.

Hu Yu, Qian Xiaohu via Weibo

North Spirit

Beijing Institute of Mechanic's North Spirit 6x6 robot is built for carrying large payloads (relative to its size) quickly over rough terrain.

The vivid display at "Overcoming Obstacle 2016" is a good reminder that China's research in military robotics continues to grow, and in a widening range of fields. Other areas to watch include bringing in advanced intelligence (another field in which China is becoming a world leader), swarming unmanned systems, and unmanned-manned pairings. Popular Science    
   

Y-20 Aircraft

Y-20 is the largest military aircraft currently in production. It has a payload capacity of 66 tons and a range of 7,800 kilometers. The aircraft made its first flight in 2013

   

 

Model of Y-20 at Zhuhai, a sign that WS-20 engined for Y-20 is coming soon.

Bird view of the Zhuhai Air Show  

 

‘Mysterious dragon’ filmed flying through Chinese mountains

A video showing a ‘dragon’ flying across a mountain range in China has left netizens bickering over whether the footage is real or fake.

Uploaded by YouTuber ApexTV, the five-minute clip has been viewed almost 200,000 times and apparently shows the mythical beast flying over an unnamed mountain range somewhere near the border between China and Laos.

 
 Giphy

Dragons are seen as a majestic creature in China’s folklore and the footage has captivated many, but some viewers have disputed whether the animal is a dragon or a flying dinosaur.

In the video, a person asks viewers if they think the creature is a “dragon or pterodactyl,” in reference to pterosaurs – flying reptiles believed to have become extinct 66 million years ago.


 Giphy

YouTube commenter Li Zeng has been convinced the video is fake. “It’s a cell phone device camera, so it’s pan focused and can’t focus on particular object,” they wrote.
Another user, who believes the footage forms part of a conspiracy theory, speculated if the dragon was in fact a drone. “I’ve read some articles about how scientists and engineers have combined knowledge and discovered the natural movement and aerodynamics of a bird so perhaps they have tried to replicate it on a machine,” s6ef4enko wrote.


Another Dragons

Dragons from the TV series ‘Game of Thrones’

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The Scale Of Aircraft Carrier Maintenance Is Ridiculous

Person, for scale, on the stairs. (Photo Credits: Daily Documentary/YouTube)




With a 134 foot beam, that’s the ship’s widest point at the waterline, the Nimitz pushes about 97,000 tons of water out of its way with propellors the size of suburban houses.

Salt water loves metal, but metal does not like salt. (Photo credit: Daily Documentary/YouTube)
One of the jet wing-sized rudders comes out of the vessel like a giant’s door hinge, and has to be completely sand-blasted and repainted before going back into service.

Man, this is frustrating when the chain fits in your hand! foxtrotalpha.jalopnik
Just putting a chain together is a laughably massive project when that chain has to hoist a 30 ton anchor into the air.
 
Nimitz sailing.


The Nimitz, deployed in 1975, is the oldest U.S. Navy aircraft carrier in service today. Just keeping a small boat alive in salt water that long takes some work, but when the ship is over 1,000 feet long the scale of maintained projects is just incredible.

This clip from the show Dry Dock takes us through just a few elements of a year-long maintenance regiment that the U.S.S. Nimitz was put through a few years ago before returning to duty. When it is active, the ship is home to over 3,000 servicemen and women and some 60 aircraft.

Aside from the very large and significant task of maintaining the Nimitz’s pair of nuclear reactors and of course cleaning the aircraft-catching cables, a lot of these chores are the same things your uncle dreads when he pulls is boat out of its slip for the winter and gets to work replacing things the ocean has eaten.

The sheer size and weight of everything on this vessel is just awesome to see. Gives you some good perspective on what this equipment is really like up close, and just how hard a Navy mechanic’s job can be. foxtrotalpha.jalopnik