Not-So-Mysterious
Robot Plane
Some of the press
went into a tizzy over the
Air Force’s April 22nd
launch of the “mysterious”
and “secret” X37B space
plane, with some even
claiming that it’s a
prototype space weapon of
some kind. Apparently, they
didn’t know that the
shuttle-shaped UAV has
been around quite a while,
with its unpowered X40A
predecessor flying seven
successful missions in 2001.
The concept actually
originated with NASA in
1999, but was passed off
to DARPA in 2004 because
of funding problems. In
2006, the Air Force took
over the program and related expenses.
The X37’s general specs are readily available, so let us
just note that it is designed for space missions of up to 270
days, after which it will fly itself back to Vandenburg AFB.
As shown in the artist’s rendition, its present mission is to
go into orbit, deploy some solar panels, and run its systems
through their paces. Built by Boeing’s Phantom Works
division, the X37B is about 29 ft long with a wingspan of
just over 14 ft. It stands just over 9.5 ft tall and weighs
about 11,000 lb. This is pretty petite compared to the
shuttle’s 122 ft length and 78 ft wingspan, but it is
described as technologically “one generation beyond the
So, when is it going to touch down? “In all honesty, we
don’t know when it’s coming back for sure,” noted a
spokesman. “It depends on the progress we make with the
on-orbit experiments and the on-orbit demonstrations.”
Well, there you are. A mystery after all! Details on the X37
and practically everything else, are available at
www.af.mil/information/factsheets.
The USAF X37B, launched back in April.
TIGAL’s VoiceGP products allow you to
add speech capabilities to your designs.
Voice Development Kit
Meanwhile, back on Earth, if you are working on a bot
or virtually anything else that could use voice and speech
recognition capabilities, take a look at the new VoiceGP
product family from Austria’s TIGAL KG ( www.tigal.com).
According to the company, “The VoiceGP family includes all
the hardware and software required for easy and
cost-effective development and implementation of speech
synthesis and multi-language speaker-independent and
speaker-dependent speech recognition capabilities to
virtually any application.”
The product family consists of the VoiceGP module
and two development kits with bundled development
software. The VoiceGP module is based on Sensory’s
RSC-4128 mixed signal processor, and it’s capable of
running the latest Sensory FluentChip ™ core technology
libraries. The development kit includes the VoiceGP
module and a development board that can be powered
via USB,
batteries, or
an external
power supply.
The VoiceGP
DK, VoiceGP
DK-T2SI, and
VoiceGP module
are priced
(respectively)
at 149, 299,
and 45 Euros
(about $194,
$389, and $58
this week). SV
SERVO 07.2010 9
