Engineering – Page 25

Agriculture, Ecological Products, Engineering, Green Friendly, Plant Life, Robotics, Robots, Science & Technology News

Tarzan the swinging robot could be the future of farming

May 5, 2017

Some farmers already use drones to monitor their crops, but a team of researchers from Georgia Tech have created a far more interesting alternative. Instead of designing yet another drone, they created a robot inspired by Kristen Bell’s favorite animal: the sloth. However, they named it “Tarzan” after the most recognizable character who moves by swinging from vine to vine.

Their machine was designed to move like the fictional jungle dweller. Tarzan will be able to swing over crops using its 3D-printed claws and parallel guy-wires stretched over fields. It will then take measurements and pictures of each plant with its built-in camera while suspended.
Continue reading… “Tarzan the swinging robot could be the future of farming”

Alternative Transportation, Architecture, Automation, Automobiles, Breakthrough Thinking, City Planning, cutting edge, Elon Musk, Engineering, Future, Latest News

Elon Musk’s boring tunnels don’t look boring at all

May 2, 2017

Elon Musk’s new Boring Company tunnels look pretty, well, not boring.

The company on Friday published an animated concept video on YouTube that shows how tunnels underneath a city could work. In the video, a car drives onto a metal platform that then lowers itself underground. The platform, with the car on top of it, speeds along at 124 mph, while other platforms carrying cars do the same. When the car reaches its destination, the platform lifts it back to the earth’s surface.

Continue reading… “Elon Musk’s boring tunnels don’t look boring at all”

Big Problems, Engineering, Ideas, Inventions, Nanotechnology

How long before we have self-healing smartphone screens?

April 30, 2017

“When I was young, my idol was Wolverine from the X-Men…He could save the world, but only because he could heal himself,” researcher Chao Wang recently said in a press release from the American Chemical Society (ACS). Wang began working on a self-healing material that could stitch itself back together after damage, and came up with a game-changing polymer.

The key to the the material’s crucial new powers? Chemical bonds. Check out this video.

Continue reading… “How long before we have self-healing smartphone screens?”

Automation, Economy, Engineering, Legalized marijuana, Robotics, Robots, Science & Technology News, Technological Unemployment

Marijuana ‘trimmigrants’ have the hardest job in the industry ― and they could soon be upstaged by robots

April 19, 2017

Every summer, tens of thousands of migrant workers swarm a remote area of Northern California — the marijuana-growing capital of the US — to find work as “trimmers” after the weed has been harvested.

Their job is to prune the fluffy, green buds with small pairs of scissors to clear them of leaves before they wind up on dispensary shelves or in dealers’ pockets.

The work is arduous and pays between $100 and $300 a day for 10 to 15 hours of labor on the black market, which generated 87% of pot sales in North America in 2016.

Continue reading… “Marijuana ‘trimmigrants’ have the hardest job in the industry ― and they could soon be upstaged by robots”

3D Printer, Architecture, Engineering, Future, Housing, Science & Technology News

The Jetsons’ world of 3D print

April 24, 2017

When I was a kid I always wondered about how cool it would be if we could live in the world of the popular American animated sitcom The Jetsons. The show aired from 1962 to 1963, but the cartoon was set 100 years in the future. As it sometimes turns out with sci-fi stories, the future becomes reality. The Jetsons featured 3D printing, tablets, holograms, smart watches, flying cars and other strange inventions. While the flying cars may not have become a reality quite yet – they are testing drones as a method of delivery – I used to love the Jetsons’ food replicator that could churn out anything from asparagus to stroganoff. This now is a reality with companies like Foodini and CojoJet making it possible to create delicious 3D-printed entrées and desserts with the press of a button.

Continue reading… “The Jetsons’ world of 3D print”

Alternative Transportation, Aviation, Engineering, Inventions, Science & Technology News

A UK entrepreneur takes flight by attaching miniature jet engines to his limbs

April 19, 2017

A YouTube collection of grainy video clips highlights the progress Gravity founder Richard Browning has made toward his outlandish dream over the past year. Each seems more terrifying than the last, with multiple jet engines attached to his limbs in various configurations, as he hovers a few feet from the ground.

The press material attached to the announcement heralds the oil trader turned entrepreneur as a real life Iron Man, but it’s hard to shake the feeling that you’re watching some sort of backyard mad scientist, a few moments away from the world’s most dangerous Jack Ass stunt. Browning acknowledges how downright alarming the footage of the Daedelus rig appears, but shakes off any notion that he’s actually in danger at any point during the three-and-a-half minute package.

Continue reading… “A UK entrepreneur takes flight by attaching miniature jet engines to his limbs”

AI, Artificial Intelligence, Driverless vehicles, Economy, Engineering, Science & Technology News

Rolls-Royce charts course for autonomous shipping

April 18, 2017

The company has secured the grant from Tekes, the Finnish funding agency for innovation, which it plans to invest in an R&D centre in Turku, Finland.

Engineers at the site will carry out development projects focusing on land-based control centres and the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in remote and autonomous shipping.

There is still very little AI or machine learning used in the maritime industry, according to Sauli Eloranta, head of innovation and technology at Rolls-Royce Marine.

Continue reading… “Rolls-Royce charts course for autonomous shipping”

Animals, Biotech, Engineering, Science & Technology News, Science Fiction

A New Brain-Interface Device Lets You Control Animals With Your Thoughts

April 21, 2017

TURTLES AND YOUR THOUGHTS

A team of researchers from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) have developed technology that allows them to control the movement of turtles using human thought.

Think of it as a real life — but significantly scaled down — application of the 2009 blockbuster Avatar concept where humans control the body of an alien by remotely transferring human consciousness into another biological body. The team uses a brain-computer interface (BCI) that helps translate brain waves into commands that guide or control the movement of the turtle.

Continue reading… “A New Brain-Interface Device Lets You Control Animals With Your Thoughts”

Architecture, Artificial Intelligence, Engineering, Robotics, Robots, Science & Technology News

This bricklaying bot could be the architect of the future

April 17, 2017

If you want curves like this, you’ll need a robot. Designed by architects Archi-Union, the undulating exterior of the Chi She Gallery in Shanghai was made using an adapted car-manufacturing robot. “We used digital tools to transform geometry data to digital-fabrication data,” says Li Han, chief architectural designer at Archi-Union, who spent five years making the cyborg helper.

Continue reading… “This bricklaying bot could be the architect of the future”

Breakthrough Thinking, Business, Energy, Engineering, Hot Issues, Solar Energy, Solar Power

How graphene is going to transform the way we get power

April 15, 2017

Futurist Thomas Frey: In 2002, when Dr. Bor Jang, a little-known researcher in Akron, Ohio, filed his patent for graphene, few people had a clue as to how revolutionary it would be. Certainly not the people at the Nobel Foundation who forgot to check the patent registry and instead awarded the Nobel Prize for graphene to scientists Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov from the University of Manchester.

As the poster child for the emerging new super materials industry, graphene is a form of ultra thin carbon just one atom thick. If you can imagine something a million times thinner than a single sheet of paper, you get the picture.

Continue reading… “How graphene is going to transform the way we get power”

3D Printer, Architecture, Breakthrough Thinking, Business, Engineering, Futurist, Great New Product

Japan’s 3D Printed Pod Skyscrapers set to Revolutionize Highrise Living

April 15, 2017

Could the skyscraper of the future dispense homes like a vending machine?

Growing and adapting to Tokyo’s housing demand, this Pod Skyscraper is constantly under construction. Residents can order a ready-to-use modular dwelling manufactured by 3D printers on the top floor of the building, and then cranes lower it into place.

Continue reading… “Japan’s 3D Printed Pod Skyscrapers set to Revolutionize Highrise Living”

3D Printer, cutting edge, Engineering, Future, Science & Technology News

MIT’s Color-changing Robot ‘skin’ Was Inspired by the Golden Tortoise Beetle

April 7, 2017

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have created a 3D-printed robot “skin” capable of changing color according to the physical stimuli that it receives. The work was inspired by the so-called “goldbug,” a golden tortoise beetle, which changes color in the wild.

“I was googling online about two and a half years ago, looking for creatures that change their color, and found out about this beetle,” project leader, Subramanian Sundaram, an MIT graduate student in electrical engineering and computer science, told Digital Trends. “The golden tortoise beetle is incredibly interesting. One of the things it does is that, when it’s disturbed or scared, it drains out the fluid in its shell which is normally golden in color, but becomes a reddish-brown. I was interested by the idea that this beetle was able to respond to mechanical disturbances by changing the color and transparency of its outer shell. I thought we might be able to replicate that.”

Continue reading… “MIT’s Color-changing Robot ‘skin’ Was Inspired by the Golden Tortoise Beetle”