Science & Technology News – Page 110

The first 3D-printed housing community in the US is being built in the California desert

March 31, 2021

Developers plan to build 15 3D-printed houses in Rancho Mirage, California.

(CNN)Developers in Southern California are building what they say will be the first 3D-printed zero net energy neighborhood in the United States.Palari Group said it plans to build 15 eco-friendly 3D-printed homes on a five-acre parcel of land in Rancho Mirage, an upscale community in the Coachella Valley, near Palm Springs.The 1,450 square foot, single-story homes will be made from a stone composite material that is strong, fire resistant, water resistant and termite proof, Palari Group founder and CEO Basil Starr told CNN.The homes will be made of modular panels that are printed out by their partner Mighty Buildings at a facility in Oakland and are assembled at the building site “kind of like Lego blocks,” Starr said.

Robots, Science & Technology News

REV-1 robot takes on snow for last-mile delivery

March 30, 2021

Refraction AI’s recent $4.2M raise helps deploy more practical robot

By Grace Sharkey

Refraction AI entered into the $80 billion robotics market in 2019 with a mission to bring a practical, economical and deployable robot to the last-mile delivery space.

While working at the University of Michigan’s Robotics Program, co-founders Matthew Johnson-Roberson and Ram Vasudevan noticed a gap in autonomous vehicle (AV) mobility: extreme weather conditions. The pair developed their“Goldilocks of autonomous vehicles,” REV-1, a last-mile delivery robot that could handle the harsh weather a majority of the country experiences.

In developing REV-1, Refraction AI discovered many last-mile AVs used a sensor system known as LiDAR, which was causing bottlenecks in deploying these vehicles into the real world.

LiDAR, an acronym for light detection and ranging, determines ranges with a laser by measuring the time for the reflected light to return to the receiver. These sensors are not able to recognize different human behavior, like a cyclist looking over his or her shoulder before changing lanes. They can find it difficult to register winter weather if not used in tangent with other sensor systems.

These LiDAR- based sensor systems also can be incredibly expensive, making the investment in AVs challenging for businesses that are looking for last-mile solutions.

Robots, Science & Technology News

Agility Robotics ‘Delivery Robot’ Knocks at Door to Bring Package, Avoiding Face-to-Face Interaction

March 30, 2021

By Isaiah Alonzo

However, that was not the case, and the Albany-based robotics company has only finished its prototypes now and is previewing it to the public, showing a highly-advanced form of robot available to man. Its designs resemble the stereotypical look of a “walking robot” whose purpose is to deliver packages on certain sci-fi films.

Having said this, the “Digit” robot is advanced for this generation, as it features what was initially seen only in fictional movies with the use of CGI, and not an actual prototype that is bulky or massive for its size. The robot’s size is near the fitting of a man that can sit on regular cars, particularly delivery vans, or be stowed with the packages behind.

Science & Technology News, Space

Airbus Becomes the Pioneer of the First Satellite Factory in Space

March 30, 2021

airbus premiered the first satellite factory in space

Airbus has been selected by the European Commission to study spacecraft production in space under the Horizon 2020 Program.

The PERIOD (PERASPERA In-Orbit Demonstration) project focuses on orbit satellite assembly and production. This € 3 million A / B1 phase contract will last two years to continue with a demonstrator in orbit.

The “Orbit Factory” that PERIOD will bring to life will lead the construction of main components such as antenna reflectors, assembly of spacecraft components and direct replacement of satellite payloads in space.

This will lead to the future production of large structures in orbit. Manufacturing in direct orbit will revolutionize how space systems are designed, built and operated. It has significant advantages over the traditional approach where everything is manufactured on Earth and then transported into space, because there will be no restrictions and launch requirements for products built in space. (Launcher mass and volume limitations, structural strength to withstand launch)

Electric Vehicles, Science & Technology News

This electric ‘urban sled’ is a model for a future of emission-free deliveries

March 29, 2021

BY ADELE PETERS

Rethinking the form factor of urban e-commerce.

In crowded cities, electric cargo bikes have some obvious advantages over typical delivery vans. They’re small enough to squeeze through traffic jams, so deliveries are faster. When they stop for deliveries, they’re less likely to block lanes and add to congestion. And they don’t add to pollution.

Most cargo bikes (technically, trikes) tested by shipping companies look fairly similar, with a rider in front and a box or two filled with deliveries in the back. But over the last couple of months, engineers at Polestar, the Volvo-owned electric car brand, have been experimenting with an even simpler vehicle for urban deliveries. Instead of a bike, it looks like a giant scooter. It’s made from lightweight aluminum and it can fit in a bike lane, but it can hold as much as 600 pounds.

AI, Science & Technology News

OpenAI’s Sam Altman: Artificial Intelligence will generate enough wealth to pay each adult $13,500 a year

March 29, 2021

Guests have their faces scanned at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai in August, 2019.Hector Retamal | AFP | Getty Images

By Catherine Clifford

Artificial intelligence will create so much wealth that every adult in the United States could be paid $13,500 per year from its windfall as soon as 10 years from now.

So says Sam Altman, co-founder and president of San Francisco-headquartered, artificial intelligence-focused nonprofit OpenAI.

“My work at OpenAI reminds me every day about the magnitude of the socioeconomic change that is coming sooner than most people believe,” Altman, who posted Tuesday. “Software that can think and learn will do more and more of the work that people now do.”

Coronavirus, Science & Technology News

Ultrasound Waves Shown to Kill Coronavirus in MIT Experiments

March 29, 2021

Advanced simulations showed that SARS-CoV-2’s spikes and shells are vulnerable to ultrasound.

By Chris Young

Shortly after COVID-19 lockdowns started to come into force almost exactly a year ago, a wave of novel engineering methods for breaking down the virus were proposed, including ultraviolet light-emitting robots and drones.

Now, researchers are turning to another approach with the same prefix: an MIT study shows that ultrasound waves at medical imaging frequencies can cause the virus shell and spikes to collapse and rupture in advanced simulations.

The spikes, the virus component that latches onto healthy cells, could be vulnerable to ultrasonic vibrations within the frequency used in medical diagnostic imaging, MIT researchers explain in a press statement.

In their simulations, researchers from the MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering modeled the virus’s mechanical response to vibrations rippling through its structure across a range of ultrasound frequencies.

They found that vibrations between 25 and 100 megahertz triggered the virus shell and spikes to collapse and start to rupture within a fraction of a second. The simulations showed that the virus would rupture in air and water at the same frequencies.

Medicine, Science & Technology News

‘Better treatments’: Government to fund psychedelic drugs trials to treat mental illness

March 29, 2021

Fungi containing psilocybin – otherwise known as magic mushrooms – will be part of government-funded trials into mental health treatments.

By Rob Harris

Clinical trials using magic mushrooms, ecstasy and other psychedelic drugs in potential breakthrough therapies for debilitating mental illnesses will be funded by the federal government as part of global efforts to advance innovative treatments.

There is growing international evidence showing substances such as ketamine, psilocybin and MDMA can successfully treat resistant mental illnesses, including depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, when used in a controlled environment and supported by psychiatric care.

Many standard treatments for illnesses, including addiction and eating disorders, can have varied efficacy and recovery rates and there have been few advances in novel pharmaceutical discoveries in recent years.

The Morrison government will on Wednesday launch a $15 million competitive grant round to kick-start Australian clinical trials of potential breakthrough combination therapies.

Energy, Science & Technology News

Newly Developed Circuit Could Create Clean Limitless Power from Graphene

March 29, 2021

A SAMPLE OF THE ENERGY-HARVESTING CHIP, STILL UNDER DEVELOPMENT.

by Alessandro Mascellino

University of Arkansas physicists have made progress in their development of circuits capable of capturing graphene’s thermal motion and converting it into an electrical current.

Talking on Short Talks From The Hill last month, Paul Thibado, professor of physics and lead researcher in the discovery, gave the public an update on its research. After spending three years on this project, Thibado’s team has now successfully developed a circuit capable of harvesting energy from graphene. Paul Thibado holding a box with sample energy-harvesting chips. Image used courtesy of the University of Arkansas.

Graphene is a material composed of a single layer of carbon atoms, in which the atoms are arranged in a honeycomb lattice structure.

“You can get graphene from graphite,” Thibado said in the podcast. “So if you take graphite, which is basically coal, and you kind of peel it, it’s very flaky, you thin it down. Eventually, you’ll get down to one atomic plane of graphite and that is graphene.”

Scientists first isolated graphene in 2004, but it was only during Thibado’s research that a single layer of the material was examined as a ‘sheet of atoms’.

“What’s very interesting is we [took] this single layer of graphene and we put it over a picture frame so that it’s freestanding in the middle of the frame, and it has very unique properties because it’s this sheet of atoms that never existed before,” Thibado explained.

Augmented Reality, Science & Technology News

Why Accenture lists ‘digital twins’ as top-five technology trend in 2021

March 25, 2021

By George Lawton

A digital twin technology is one that creates a virtual replication of a real-world entity, like a plane, manufacturing plant, or supply chain.

Manufacturing companies have increasingly used digital twin technologies to accelerate digital transformation initiatives for product development, and the tech has grown in popularity over the past five years as legacy manufacturers look for ways to keep up with innovative startups like Tesla.

The idea has been around since 2002, when it was coined by Michael Grieves, then a professor at the University of Detroit, to describe a new way of thinking about coordinating product lifecycle management. The concept stumbled along for many years, owing to limits around integrating processes and data across engineering, manufacturing, and quality teams. But it has begun picking up steam, thanks to improvements in data integration, AI, and the internet of things, which extend the benefits of digital transformation efforts into the physical world.

In 2019, Gartner suggested that 75% of organizations would be implementing digital twins within the next year. This year, Accenture has positioned digital twins as one of the top five strategic technology trends to watch in 2021. The reason is that businesses are finally figuring out how to scale these projects across a fleet of projects, rather than a single one-off, Accenture Technology Labs managing director Michael Biltz said.

3D Printer, Science & Technology News

3D printed plastic beams are stronger than steel

March 25, 2021

By Leonard Manson

Engineers at the Polytechnic University of Valencia, in Spain, developed plastic beams with 3D printing that are more resistant than those of steel and concrete. In addition to the high resistance, the creation also presents greater versatility. That’s because the beams are made in small blocks that are easy to transport and that are assembled on site – somewhat reminiscent of Lego blocks.

Its versatility makes it possible to install it even in places of difficult access. In fact, although they do not have metallic components, the plastic beams are reinforced with elements that provide rigidity to the structure. According to engineers, this factor generates numerous technical benefits.