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Researchers from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne have designed a “cheetah-cub” robot that is roughly size of a house cat and can move quickly over uneven surfaces. Lightweight, agile, and fast, the catbot is able to run a full seven times its own body length in a second.
The goal for the cheetah-cub was to create an easy-to control platform, with a focus on locomotion--the rhythm and mechanics of how it moves. The legs were designed to be fast and stable, which work well for tough terrain and research missions. Modeled after mammalian animals' three-segment legs, the cheetah-cub has springs embedded within its agile legs. The springs act as tendons, and small motors called actuators are the robot's muscles, converting energy into movement.
In the future, researchers hope that this swift, self-stabilizing platform will prove useful for creating a team of rescue bots that can effectively work in rough, diverse terrain after catastrophes, where rescue bots with wheels or treads struggle or get stuck.
Diabetes patients often receive their diagnosis after a series of glucose-related blood tests in hospital settings, and then have to monitor their condition daily through expensive, invasive methods. But what if diabetes could be diagnosed and monitored through cheaper, noninvasive methods? Chemists at the University of Pittsburgh have demonstrated a sensor technology that could significantly simplify the diagnosis and monitoring of diabetes through breath analysis alone. Their findings were published in the latest issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS). This is the Drupal Base
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a method for tracking the locations of multiple individuals in complex, indoor settings using a network of video cameras, creating something similar to the fictional Marauder's Map used by Harry Potter to track comings and goings at the Hogwarts School. The method was able to automatically follow the movements of 13 people within a nursing home, even though individuals sometimes slipped out of view of the cameras. These automated tracking techniques also would be useful in airports, public facilities and other areas where security is a concern.
Researchers move closer to low-cost, implantable electronics. Aiding organ transplants to be first application of new technology. New technology under development at The Ohio State University is paving the way for low-cost electronic devices that work in direct contact with living tissue inside the body. The first planned use of the technology is a sensor that will detect the very early stages of organ transplant rejection.
Naturally occurring microscopic organisms could cut emissions. Biofilters containing naturally occurring microscopic organisms that live on methane gas could help reduce hard-to-manage greenhouse gas emissions in the petroleum, forest and agriculture industries. University of Calgary researchers plan to deploy and test inexpensive "methane biofilters" to reduce low-volume methane emissions at oil and gas field sites, landfills/sludge lagoons, livestock feedlots, forest industry landfills and oilsands operations.
In a jaw-dropping feat of engineering, electronics turn a person's thoughts into commands for a robot. Using a brain-computer interface technology pioneered by University of Minnesota biomedical engineering professor Bin He, several young people have learned to use their thoughts to steer a flying robot around a gym, making it turn, rise, dip, and even sail through a ring.
The technology may someday allow people robbed of speech and mobility by neurodegenerative diseases to regain function by controlling artificial limbs, wheelchairs, or other devices. And it's completely noninvasive: Brain waves (EEG) are picked up by the electrodes of an EEG cap on the scalp, not a chip implanted in the brain.
A USF researcher is part of a team that determined life-producing phosphorus was carried to Earth by meteorites. Scientists may not know for certain whether life exists in outer space, but new research from a team of scientists led by a University of South Florida astrobiologist now shows that one key element that produced life on Earth was carried here on meteorites. In an article published in the new edition of the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences, USF Assistant Professor of Geology Matthew Pasek and researchers from the University of Washington and the Edinburg Centre for Carbon Innovation, revealed new findings that explain how the reactive phosphorus that was an essential component for creating the earliest life forms came to Earth. The scientists found that during the Hadean and Archean eons – the first of the four principal eons of the Earth’s earliest history – the heavy bombardment of meteorites provided reactive phosphorus that when released in water could be incorporated into prebiotic molecules. The scientists documented the phosphorus in early Archean limestone, showing it was abundant some 3.5 billion years ago. The scientists concluded that the meteorites delivered phosphorus in minerals that are not seen on the surface of the Earth, and these minerals corroded in water to release phosphorus in a form seen only on the early Earth.
In a move to offset ocean acidification, scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), California, have discovered a new technique to remove and store atmospheric carbon dioxide while generating carbon-negative hydrogen that produces alkalinity. The team demonstrated, at a laboratory scale, a system that uses the acidity normally produced in saline water electrolysis to accelerate silicate mineral dissolution while producing hydrogen fuel and other gases. The resulting electrolyte solution was shown to be significantly elevated in hydroxide concentration that in turn proved strongly absorptive and retentive of atmospheric carbon dioxide.
Researchers at the University of Washington have successfully created a prototype of a system that uses Wi-Fi — and only Wi-Fi — to detect gestures. Called "WiSee," the system cleverly measures the Doppler shifts created by human movement on regular Wi-Fi signals. That means that the system doesn't require line of sight for gesture detection and, the researchers claim, it could work with off-the-shelf Wi-Fi systems.
What sets WiSee apart is that it's able to detect gestures in the next room, and the prototype was tested in a two-bedroom apartment to prove it. A Wi-Fi base station with multiple antennas and MIMO support would be able to distinguish between multiple humans.
Scientists in Japan have created a new material that can be shaped into complex, conductive 3-D structures. A newly developed resin is highly suited to making microscopic electrodes and, apparently, rabbits. A new resin material that can be molded into complex, highly conductive 3-D structures with features just a few microns across has been developed by Tokyo Institute of Technology and C-MET, Inc. Combined with state-of-the-art micro-sculpting techniques, the new resin holds promise for making customized electrodes for fuel cells or batteries, or biosensor interfaces for medical uses. The research team, which includes physicists and chemists from Yokohama National University, presents its results in a paper just published in the Optical Society’s (OSA) open-access journal. “One of the most promising applications is 3-D microelectrodes that could interface with the brain,” says Yuya Daicho, graduate student at Yokohama National University and lead author of the paper. The Japanese team created bacterium-sized Stanford Bunny, a commonly used 3D modeling shape, using a 3D printer and a resin containing Resorcinol Diglycidyl Ether (RDGE).
An avatar system that enables people with schizophrenia to control the voice of their hallucinations is being developed by researchers at UCL with support from the Wellcome Trust. The computer-based system could provide quick and effective therapy that is far more successful than current pharmaceutical treatments, helping to reduce the frequency and severity of episodes of schizophrenia. The first stage in the therapy is for the patient to create a computer-based avatar, by choosing the face and voice of the entity they believe is talking to them. The system then synchronises the avatar’s lips with its speech, enabling a therapist to speak to the patient through the avatar in real time.
Duke University engineers have developed a novel method for producing clean hydrogen, which could prove essential to weaning society off of fossil fuels and their environmental implications. While hydrogen is ubiquitous in the environment, producing and collecting molecular hydrogen for transportation and industrial uses is expensive and complicated. Just as importantly, a byproduct of most current methods of producing hydrogen is carbon monoxide, which is toxic to humans and animals. The Duke engineers, using a new catalytic approach, have shown in the laboratory that they can reduce carbon monoxide levels to nearly zero in the presence of hydrogen and the harmless byproducts of carbon dioxide and water. They also demonstrated that they could produce hydrogen by reforming fuel at much lower temperatures than conventional methods, which makes it a more practical option. Catalysts are agents added to promote chemical reactions. In this case, the catalysts were nanoparticle combinations of gold and iron oxide (rust), but not in the traditional sense. Current methods depend on gold nanoparticles' ability to drive the process as the sole catalyst, while the Duke researchers made both the iron oxide and the gold the focus of the catalytic process.
Utilizing the popular KUKA youBots, scientists from MIT devised a strategy whereby these robots would assemble modern and affordable Scandinavian styled IKEA furniture using a “geometric reasoning system” and a “symbolic planner” to figure out how a bunch of parts should be attached to one another, simultaneously keeping in mind that all screw holes should be used and that no parts should be left behind. Surprisingly, the IkeaBot worked on a fully autonomous basis, and the entire assembly took just a matter of 10 minutes. Moreover, the robot wasn’t shown any cryptic printed diagrams to help it in the building-maneuver.
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The black uniformity of photovoltaic (PV) cells is an increasingly common sight on the rooftops of European buildings. They are a sign of our growing desire for renewable energy, but their appearance has not been welcomed in regions where traditional tiling is valued. In Italy, which is famous for its terracotta rooftops, Wegaplast SpA has answered the problem with a plastic roof tile with integrated PV cells which is colored to match traditional ceramic tiles. The tile is the same size as a normal tile and can be integrated seamlessly into new or existing roofs.
The basic idea was to make the solar cell 'disappear' on the roof, so it does not disturb the aesthetic of villages with black solar cells, but instead it is integrated into the shape and color of existing tiles.
The potential energy available via solar power might seem limitless on a sunny summer day, but all that energy has to be stored for it to be truly useful. If you see a solar panel on a rooftop, in a large-scale array, or even on a parking meter, a bulky battery or supercapacitor is hidden just out of sight, receiving energy from the panel through power lines. However, that's a storage method that doesn't scale well for solar-powered devices with no space for a battery pack. In a quest for a smaller, more self-sustaining solar power source, a UW-Madison electrical engineer has proposed a design for solar panels that can simultaneously generate power from sunlight and store power reserves for later, all within a single device.
The final design allows for a standard-size solar cell that can simultaneously power a device and store energy for later use, creating a closed-loop system for small-scale applications of solar energy. "We can have some energy set aside locally, right in the panel, so that when you need it, you can get it," says Hongrui Jiang, a Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of electrical and computer engineering at UW-Madison.
Researchers make breakthroughs in manufacturing copolymer block thin film. Think about windows coated with transparent film that absorbs harmful ultraviolet sunrays and uses them to generate electricity. Consider a water filtration membrane that blocks viruses and other microorganisms from water, or an electric car battery that incorporates a coating to give it extra long life between charges.
The self-assembled copolymer block film that makes it all possible is now being fabricated with intricately organized nanostructures, giving them multiple functions and flexibility on a macroscale level never before seen.
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Tim Spencer
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In collaboration with Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Structural Durability and System Reliability, scientists from the University of Cambridge have now copied the colorful nanostructure of the opal. A synthetic material which mimics the brightest and most vivid colours in nature, and changes colour when twisted or stretched, has been developed by researchers at the University of Cambridge, and could have important applications in the security, textile and sensing industries. The Polymer Opal films change to green and blue when stretched, and to red when compressed. By layering tiny nanospheres onto stretchy fabric, scientists have created a material that changes colour when stretched. Called "polymer opal" by the team, the material mimics the multicoloured brilliance of an opal gemstone. Using ink made from synthetic photonic crystals and a printer that can modulate voltage, the team has figured out how to print shimmering, colour-changing patterns onto a stretch of flexible opal. The new printing method was described on 22 May in Advanced Engineering Materials.
Researchers develop a system that creates independent listening zones for the front and back seats. Researchers at the University of Southampton have developed a speaker system that creates multiple independent listening zones within a car. This means that the driver could listen to the satellite navigation system while backseat passengers watch a movie. The system uses the standard car loudspeakers at low frequencies combined with a set of small directional loudspeakers mounted to the headrests and an array of microphones. These work together to create different audio zones in the car without the need for headphones. Jordan Cheer, Research Fellow in Active Control at the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research at the university, says: "We've begun developing an audio reproduction system capable of producing independent listening zones in the front and rear seats of a car cabin."
Early Earth was not very hospitable when it came to jump starting life. In fact, new research shows that life on Earth may have come from out of this world.
Lawrence Livermore scientist Nir Goldman and University of Ontario Institute of Technology colleague Isaac Tamblyn (a former LLNL postdoc) found that icy comets that crashed into Earth millions of years ago could have produced life building organic compounds, including the building blocks of proteins and nucleobases pairs of DNA and RNA.
Comets contain a variety of simple molecules, such as water, ammonia, methanol and carbon dioxide, and an impact event with a planetary surface would provide an abundant supply of energy to drive chemical reactions. "Cometary impacts could result in the synthesis of prebiotic molecules without the need for other 'special' conditions, such as the presence of catalysts, UV radiation, or special pre-existing conditions on a planet," Goldman said. "This data is critical in understanding the role of impact events in the formation of life-building compounds both on early Earth and on other planets and in guiding future experimentation in these areas."
Print Shift is a print-on-demand magazine by Dezeen that explores the fast-changing world of 3D printing and analyses the way it is changing the worlds of architecture and design. The 60-page, advert-free publication explores advances in 3D printing across a range of topics including fashion, food, design, architecture and even medicine, weaponry and archaeology. Created by the Dezeen editorial team and produced with print-on-demand publisher Blurb, Print Shift is the result of extensive research into a field of technology that is developing at exhilarating speed.
DARPA released some new information about its ongoing research, showing off arms that amputees can control with their remaining nerve and muscle tissue, and that even communicate back with the wearer, restoring a sense of touch.
In a press release, DARPA writes that TMR is getting close to the performance of cortical, or brain, interfaces, and because installing them is less invasive, these "peripheral interfaces" have more potential for prosthetics over the next several years. TMR uses surgery to reroute signals from nerves that were severed during amputation to muscle tissue elsewhere, which then serves as an amplifier to control the artificial limb. The procedure made big news last year when Zac Vawter used a TMR-controlled bionic leg to climb the 103-story Willis Tower in Chicago.
In a move that would make the Alchemists of King Arthur’s time green with envy, scientists have unraveled the formula for turning liquid cement into liquid metal. Laser beams and an aerodynamic levitator help scientists melt cement into a metallic-glass material that can act as a semiconductor. It's not the same as turning lead into gold, but scientists at the Illinois-based Argonne National Laboratory and the Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute/SPring-8 have developed a method for turning cement into a liquid metal semiconductor. The process sounds like a mad scientist's invention. It involves equipment like an aerodynamic levitator and a carbon dioxide laser beam. The levitator uses gas pressure to keep the material out of contact with any container surfaces. The carbon dioxide laser beam can heat the material to 3,632 degrees Fahrenheit. The material in question is mayenite, a calcium aluminum oxide material that is part of alimuna cement. It was placed in the aerodynamic levitator and thoroughly cooked until it melted. It was then allowed to cool down into a glassy state. This method resulted in a material that traps electrons and allows for conduction, effectively turning cement into a semiconductor that behaves much like metal does. "This new material has lots of applications, including as thin-film resistors used in liquid-crystal displays, basically the flat panel computer monitor that you are probably reading this from at the moment," Argonne physicist Chris Benmore said Monday in a statement.
Researchers have created a new type of transparent electrode that might find uses in solar cells, flexible displays for computers and consumer electronics and future "optoelectronic" circuits for sensors and information processing.
Engineers combine layers of flexible materials into pressure sensors to create a wearable heart monitor thinner than a dollar bill. The skin-like device could one day provide doctors with a safer way to check the condition of a patient's heart. Researchers have developed a new type of wearable sensor that could greatly improve the accuracy and practicality of heart monitoring. Developed by Zhenan Bao, a professor of chemical engineering at Stanford University, the paper-thin, stamp-sized sensor is made with flexible organic materials and can be worn under an adhesive bandage on the wrist to monitor the pulse.
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