Impact Lab – Page 251 – A Laboratory of the Future Human Experience

Brain Sensor Implant Helps Paralysed Individuals Control An iPad Using Their Minds

November 12, 2022

Highlights

The device is called Synchron Switch and it converts the thoughts of people suffering from paralysis into action. It works with the help of a bunch of sensors dubbed Strentrode that is inserted into the top of the brain via a blood vessel and is controlled wirelessly with the help of a Synchron Switch that’s at the patient’s chest

Synchron, a New York-based company is working on a brain-computer interface (BCI) technology that allows patients to control iPhones and iPads hands-free, by simply using their minds, reveals a report by Semafor.

Robots

Avidbots Adds Intelligence to Automated Cleaning, Sees a Future With Multifunction Mobile Robots

November 11, 2022

Mobile robots can help alleviate worker shortages and turnover, as well as offer visibility and value, says Avidbots CTO Pablo Molina.

By Eugene Demaitre

The need to move materials, clean surfaces, and collect data in factories, warehouses, and other facilities has only grown. Despite fears of robots replacing workers who are scarce in many industries, most of the automation spreading today is meant to improve efficiency and safety. Avidbots Corp. is an example of a robotics supplier rising to the challenge with multifunction systems.

The Kitchener, Ontario-based company has designed, manufactured, sold, and serviced autonomous floor-cleaning robots since 2014. Its Neo 2 system combines artificial intelligence, cameras, sensors, and software to clean and provide data on where it cleaned.

Neo 2 users can create a custom cleaning plan, and the robot then monitors, measures, and reports on that cleaning, explained Pablo Molina, chief technology officer of Avidbots. He spoke with Robotics 24/7 about the autonomous mobile robot (AMR) market, where automation can be most useful, and his company’s plans.

Space

Caltech Researchers are Creating a Huge Satellite That Sends Solar Power Back to Earth

November 11, 2022

But as a whole, it is the size of roughly 1,700 football fields.

By Jace Dela Cruz

Solar power has been widely used all throughout the world as more countries opt for renewable sources of energy. However, there is a higher volume of solar energy in space where there is no day, night, and clouds that would limit us from harvesting power from the Sun.

Hence, a group of researchers from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) is building a huge satellite that can harvest solar energy and then wirelessly transmit it back to our planet. If the project proves successful, it could power a wide range of places in the world.

3D Printer

Human Tissue 3D Printer Headed to Space Station

November 11, 2022

A view of the BioFabrication Facility and its ADSEP counterpart.

We can print soft tissues on Earth but gravity is a problem.

WALLOPS ISLAND (VA) – Bioprinting human tissues for implantation in patients to treat injury or disease could be game-changing. However, it’s difficult to print soft tissues on Earth because gravity causes them to collapse under their own weight, and scaffolding is required to keep them upright. To remove this hurdle, researchers are going to the International Space Station (ISS).

When Northrop Grumman’s 18th Commercial Resupply Services (NG-18) mission launches to the ISS, it will carry an upgraded version of Redwire Space’s BioFabrication Facility (BFF), a 3D bioprinter capable of printing human tissue. The project, sponsored by the ISS National Laboratory, will pave the way for in-space bioprinting of tissues (and possibly organs) that could one day help patients back on Earth.

The materials needed to make prints using the BFF will follow on a subsequent flight, and the first tissue the bioprinter will produce is a human meniscus, a protective piece of cartilage between the bones in the knee.

Printed tissues could not only be implanted in patients but also used as models for drug discovery, providing new avenues to test therapeutics. “Using the BFF, we can create true tissue-like structures in a better way and larger than you can terrestrially,” said Rich Boling, a Redwire vice president. “We can also use the BFF to print organoids, which could be used to test drug efficacy and reduce the need for laboratory animals.”

Robots

Open-source fish robot starts collecting microplastics from local lakes in the UK

November 10, 2022

Researchers turn the public’s ideas into reality

By Ioanna Lykiardopoulou

A robot fish that collects microplastics from waterways has been turned from an idea into a working prototype. The design was brought to life after it won the University of Surrey’s public competition, the Natural Robotics Contest.

The contest, which ran in the summer of 2022, invited the public to submit an idea for a bio-inspired robot that could help the world.

An international panel of judges chose the robot fish concept designed by student Eleanor Mackintosh because it could help reduce the amount of plastic pollution in water. The winning design was subsequently turned into a functioning prototype.

The robotics panelists and researchers, led by Dr. Robert Siddall, turned Mackintosh’s design into a 3D-printed prototype about the size of a salmon.

Named “Gillbert,” the device consists of a flooded head unit and a watertight tail unit. Thanks to a set of gills on its sides and a fine mesh in between them that can sieve about two-millimeter particles, the robotic fish filters the water and keeps the microplastics inside its container as it swims.

Cancer

Revolutionary new cancer treatment uses light to kill tumors

November 10, 2022

By Joshua Hawkins

Researchers have managed to create a cancer-killing patch that turns light into heat and “cooks” cancer cells until they die. The patch, which researchers first detailed in a paper published in Advanced Functional Materials, can heat up melanoma cells and kill them. It’s a treatment that kills the cancerous cells but leaves the other cells around it unharmed.

Finding new ways to treat cancer effectively has been at the top of scientists’ and medical professionals’ goals for the past decade. And we’ve come up with some very innovative ways to treat cancer. From this cancer-killing patch to cancer-killing viruses, and even a radioactive gel that can kill cancerous cells all offer great ways to fight these deadly diseases.

The treatment relies heavily on a procedure called surgical resection. This is a common treatment for skin melanoma, but it can also lead to postoperative recurrence. That then calls for even more surgery, as well as possibly chemotherapy. With a cancer-killing patch, though, the doctors could focus the treatment more directly on the cancerous cells.

Google

Google’s new AI Test Kitchen demos will let you build cities and create monsters

November 10, 2022

By Nickolas Diaz

Google is bringing new AI advancements to its AI Test Kitchen for user feedback and testing.
Researchers have worked on a way for users to create a long form video based on text along with text-to-image technology.
Using its AI model AudioLM, users can provide a piece of audio to this program which can then generate its own version.
Through its research, Google is looking to bring AI-powered generative models into the lives of creators and artists.

According to Google’s Keyword post, one of the ways it’s taking AI research is in the direction of allowing people to be more expressive by using words to create videos and imagery.

Robotics

AMP Robotics in Denver, Colorado, has raised $91m to boost the development of its artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics technologies for the waste and recycling industry.

November 8, 2022

The Series C financing was led by Congruent Ventures and Wellington Management as well as new and existing investors including Blue Earth Capital, Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners (SIP), Tao Capital Partners, XN, Sequoia Capital, GV, Range Ventures, and Valor Equity Partners. This new round of funding follows a $55 million Series B financing led by XN in January 2021.

AMP’s proprietary technology applies computer vision and deep learning to identify and recover plastics, cardboard, paper, cans, cartons, and many other containers and packaging types reclaimed for raw material processing. The company’s AI platform, AMP Neuron, has recognized more than 50 billion objects in real-world conditions, making it the largest known dataset of recyclable materials for machine learning.

“Advancements in robotics and automation are accelerating the transformation of traditional infrastructure, and AMP is seeking to reshape the waste and recycling industries,” said Michael DeLucia, sector lead for Climate Investing, Wellington Management. “By bringing digital intelligence to the recycling industry, AMP can sort waste streams and extract additional value beyond what is otherwise possible.”

AMP will use the latest funding to scale its business operations while continuing its international expansion from the US.

Alternative Transportation

Watch Xpeng VTOL Flying Electric Car Successfully Complete First Flight

November 8, 2022

It’s a massive 2-ton vehicle with a huge drone strapped to the roof that just successfully completed its maiden flight.

By: Andrei Nedelea

The arrival of commercially viable flying cars has been erroneously foretold countless times before over the course of the last century, but in recent years, with the popularization of electric vehicles, the idea that we will travel around like the Jetsons in the foreseeable future seems to be gaining traction again. Companies dedicated to providing such a product are now popping up, and other companies like China’s Xpeng are also looking allocating resources for this.

They even created a separate company, Xpeng HT, with the sole focus of creating eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing) vehicles and now that company shared video of its prototype’s maiden flight during a larger Xpeng presentation in China. The final part of the video embedded at the start of the article is dedicated to the Xpeng AeroHT’s first flight – we get to see it drive out of a garage (or hangar), then it is weighed, revealing that it weighs just under 2 metric tons (4,400 pound), before firing up its eight large rotors and lifting off.

Robotics

Robotics company to introduce the world’s fastest shoe

November 8, 2022

Get to your destination in less than half the time with a 100 per cent increase in your walking speed

By MARLEY DICKINSON

A U.S. start-up, Shift Robotics of Pittsburgh, has launched a Kickstarter campaign for what they claim is the world’s fastest shoe. The “Moonwalker” apparently let you walk at the speed of a run while maneuvering stairs, through crowds, hills and even getting on public transit.

Late to work, and don’t want to run? The Moonwalkers will help you get to your destination in less than half the time it would normally take you to walk there with a 100 per cent increase in your walking speed. The shoes use artificial intelligence (AI) to measure your gait and react to how you walk, reaching the top speed of 12 km/h in a matter of seconds.

The shoes have two modes, lock and shift–and they only move when you do. This means you can go up and down stairs, step into mass transit, and confidently wait at the crosswalk while the AI switches modes using an algorithm to adapt to your walking gait and environment. The shoes have a hinge system that allows your foot to naturally bend at your toes, preserving your natural gait, mobility and balance.

Space Flight

Chinese Scientists Converted Lunar Soil Samples Into Rocket Fuel, Oxygen

November 7, 2022

Lunar soil collected from China’s Chang’e-5 moon mission display during an exhibition at the National Museum of China in Beijing on March 4, 2021.

By Margaret Davis

A team of researchers from the University of Science and Technology of China, Nanjing University, and China Academy of Space Technology said that they managed to convert actual lunar soil samples or regolith from the Chang’e mission into a source of rocket fuel and oxygen.

Futurism reports that the team found that the regolith samples can act as a catalyst to convert carbon dioxide and water from the bodies of astronauts and the environment into methane and oxygen. The discovery is a potential game-changer for future space exploration, ensuring the success of the mission by providing in-situ resources to fuel up their spacecraft for the return journey.

Space Flight

Want To Send A Parcel To The Moon? A Japanese Startup Is Working To Establish A Courier Service For Space- Technology News, Firstpost

November 7, 2022

By Amelia Podder

The race to be the first one in space, and then the Moon was a contest between mainly the USA and the Soviet Union. Today though, the race to be the first one to completely commercialise space travel and make it feasible for tourists is practically anybody’s race, including private players.

Thanks to a Japanese aeronautical research company, people on Earth can now send parcels and couriers to space. Image Credit: ISpace.

We have heard about space agencies and aeronautical firms partnering up to make the world’s first space hotel. Now, we have an up-and-coming startup from Japan that wants to establish a courier service in space. Want to send a parcel or an urgent document to someone in space? Well, in a few years, you can.

ISpace Inc., a Tokyo-based company, plans to launch a lunar lander by the end of this month, that will carry a variety of commercial and governmental payloads, including 2 rovers.

The goal of this firm is to establish a human population on the moon by 2040, but before then it wants to transform one of its modules on the moon as a courier and logistical lunar hub. The aim is to make money by transporting commercial products and research equipment up in space, on behalf of research institutes, private players, and certain government agencies.

ISpace’s first trip will test both the technological capabilities it has developed since its creation in 2010 and the trust of its investors. The Japan Times reported that a lot depends on its success, including the possibility of an IPO as early as this fiscal year and a chance to take a larger piece of space tourism and commercial logistics industry, which, Morgan Stanley predicts would triple to $1 trillion in two decades from 2020.