Impact Lab – Page 327 – A Laboratory of the Future Human Experience

Robots

Researchers develop bone growth inspired ‘microrobots’ that can create their own bone

January 26, 2022

Inspired by the growth of bones in the skeleton, researchers at the universities of Linkoping in Sweden and Okayama in Japan have developed a combination of materials that can morph into various shapes before hardening.

Inspired by the growth of bones in the skeleton, researchers at the universities of Linkoping in Sweden and Okayama in Japan have developed a combination of materials that can morph into various shapes before hardening. The material is initially soft but later hardens through a bone development process that uses the same materials found in the skeleton.

When we are born, we have gaps in our skulls that are covered by pieces of soft connective tissue called fontanelles. It is thanks to fontanelles that our skulls can be deformed during birth and pass successfully through the birth canal. Post-birth, the fontanelle tissue gradually changes to hard bone. Now, researchers have combined materials that together resemble this natural process. “We want to use this for applications where materials need to have different properties at different points in time. Firstly, the material is soft and flexible, and it is then locked into place when it hardens. This material could be used in, for example, complicated bone fractures. It could also be used in microrobots – these soft microrobots could be injected into the body through a thin syringe, and then they would unfold and develop their own rigid bones”, says Edwin Jager, associate professor at the Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology (IFM) at Linkoping University.

The idea was hatched during a research visit in Japan when materials scientist Edwin Jager met Hiroshi Kamioka and Emilio Hara, who conduct research into bones. The Japanese researchers had discovered a kind of biomolecule that could stimulate bone growth under a short period of time. Would it be possible to combine this biomolecule with Jager’s materials research, to develop new materials with variable stiffness? In the study that followed, published in Advanced Materials, the researchers constructed a kind of simple “microrobot”, one which can assume different shapes and change stiffness. The researchers began with a gel material called alginate. On one side of the gel, a polymer material is grown. This material is electroactive, and it changes its volume when a low voltage is applied, causing the microrobot to bend in a specified direction.

Space Flight

Scientists Testing Hand-Held Bioprinting Technology That Can Create Bandages From Astronauts’ Own Skin

January 26, 2022

This is what Bioprint FirstAid looks like

Recently, a resupply mission by SpaceX to the ISS carried with it the handheld device to test it in microgravity.

Bioprint FirstAid is hand-held device
It uses astronauts’ own cells, infused inside a bio-ink
Missions in extreme habitats on Earth and in space may use this device

Extra-terrestrial living comes with a number of complications, but astronauts tackle those all the time aboard the International Space Station (ISS) in their endeavour to solve the many mysteries of the Universe. And scientists back home keep trying to find ways to make living on the ISS easier. One of the biggest problems astronauts face is the availability of healthcare tools and infrastructure. For instance, we have access to bandages on Earth for any minor injuries. On space stations, if astronauts get any flesh wound, there is little their colleagues could do. That is about to change.

Scientists are testing a technology that bioprint bandages using astronauts’ own cells. Recently, SpaceX launched its 24th commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) and it carried with it a handheld device called Bioprint FirstAid. The device holds cells from astronauts, infused inside a bio-ink. It will help put on a bandage on the injury site in near real-time. The bio-ink then mixes with two gels to create a covering similar to plaster.

Robots

Kawasaki demonstrates unmanned cargo transport system which combines an aircraft and a mobile wheeled robot

January 25, 2022

BY MAI TAO

Kawasaki Heavy Industries says it has successfully completed proof-of-concept (PoC) testing for an unmanned cargo transport system. Watch video below.

The system combines Kawasaki’s K-Racer-X1 prototype unmanned vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft and what is commonly described in the industry as an autonomous mobile robot, and which the company describes as a “delivery robot”.

Kawasaki says the PoC testing was conducted with the aim of helping to solve societal issues such as labor shortages in the logistics industry.

In its Group Vision 2030, which describes the company’s future vision for 2030, Kawasaki specified three areas where it will focus its efforts:

A Safe and Secure Remotely-Connected Society
Near-Future Mobility
Energy and Environmental Solutions

Science & Technology News

THIS DEVICE TURNS AIR INTO PURE DRINKING WATER, PROVIDING 10 LITERS OF FRESH MINERAL WATER EACH DAY

January 25, 2022

BY NEHA MISTRY

What’s funny about the idea of progress is that it’s much more layered than we think. Sure, 30 years from now, we will have sent humans to Mars… but 30 years from now most cities will even be dealing with extreme climate change, polluted air, and scarcity of resources like running water. Sounds odd when you look at the whole picture, right? Well, we’re living in a world that’s on a path to change, and it may be prudent to stop taking things like drinking water for granted.

Meet Kara Pure, a water dispenser that basically turns air into drinking water. Designed by Cody Soodeen, Kara Pure wasn’t created in a void — Soodeen grew up in a town where the drinking water was contaminated by a strain of bacteria that had health implications for the people who consumed it. Unfit drinking water isn’t particularly rare nowadays, with groundwater tables either being infected/polluted, or being entirely depleted due to overconsumption and a lack of accounting for climate change. While Kara Pure is clearly built keeping a pretty inevitable future in mind, it’s important that Soodeen and other people like him perfect the technology now, rather than later.

Batteries

1,000-cycle lithium-sulfur battery could quintuple electric vehicle ranges

January 25, 2022

A diagram of the battery shows how lithium ions can return to the lithium electrode while the lithium polysulfides can’t get through the membrane separating the electrodes. In addition, spiky dendrites growing from the lithium electrode can’t short the battery by piercing the membrane and reaching the sulfur electrode.

by University of Michigan

A new biologically inspired battery membrane has enabled a battery with five times the capacity of the industry-standard lithium ion design to run for the thousand-plus cycles needed to power an electric car.

A network of aramid nanofibers, recycled from Kevlar, can enable lithium-sulfur batteries to overcome their Achilles heel of cycle life—the number of times it can be charged and discharged—a University of Michigan team has shown.

“There are a number of reports claiming several hundred cycles for lithium-sulfur batteries, but it is achieved at the expense of other parameters—capacity, charging rate, resilience and safety. The challenge nowadays is to make a battery that increases the cycling rate from the former 10 cycles to hundreds of cycles and satisfies multiple other requirements including cost,” said Nicholas Kotov, the Irving Langmuir Distinguished University Professor of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, who led the research.

“Biomimetic engineering of these batteries integrated two scales—molecular and nanoscale. For the first time, we integrated ionic selectivity of cell membranes and toughness of cartilage. Our integrated system approach enabled us to address the overarching challenges of lithium-sulfur batteries.”

New Inventions

Arizona-based startup has literally reinvented the wheel

January 24, 2022

Air suspension wheels for mining trucks and wheel loader.

By Nick Thomas

Global Air Cylinder Wheels (GACW), an Arizona-based startup, has literally reinvented the wheel. They developed a new type of wheel that ditches the need for pollutive rubber tires.

Many companies have tried to create new tire solutions, such as Tesla possibly moving toward airless tires on its Model 3, but none have succeeded so far.

The so-called Air Suspension Wheel (ASW) is the brainchild of serial inventor and structural dynamic engineer Dr. Zoltan Kemeny. The patented ASW is a mechanical wheel constructed mostly of steel with in-wheel pneumatic suspension through cylinders. It is both environmentally friendly as well as cost-efficient. The ASW is engineered to have the same lifespan as the vehicle it is mounted on. After that, unlike rubber tires, it can be reconditioned or can be completely recycled.

Science & Technology News, Space Flight

Why humans might need artificial gravity for future space travel

January 24, 2022

Astronauts are set to travel to Mars in the not-so-distant future. Some missions will result in people living in an extended period of microgravity.

The human body isn’t designed to handle this, so scientists are developing the best ways to mimic gravity on Earth on a spaceship.

So how will they do it?

Virtual Reality

3D virtual simulations assist in human heart implants, brain research

January 24, 2022

This technology platform, which was showcased by French technology company Dassault Systemes at the recently-concluded Consumer Electronics Show (CES), is christened the Living Heart.

By Shouvik Das

Physical design tests for such products can take 3-4 years. But virtual simulation models reduce the time to find the right design of an implant and subsequently test its strength and durability to just 3-4 months

Can the use of realistic 3D simulations of human organs like the heart and brain, transform medical care? Ganesh Sabat, chief executive officer of Mumbai-headquartered Sahajanand Medical Technologies–a cardiovascular implant manufacturer, believes it can.

An early user of virtual simulation technology in the country, the biggest advantage of this technology in the field of medical implant manufacturing is that it reduces the time to do an implant, according to Bapat. “Physical design tests for such products can take 3-4 years. But virtual simulation models reduce the time to find the right design of an implant and subsequently test its strength and durability to just 3-4 months,” he explained.

quantum computing

Researchers develop new method embedding atoms one-by-one to build quantum chip

January 23, 2022

The new technique paves way for the development of large-scale devices that are more affordable and reliable.

Written by Aimee Chanthadavong

A team of researchers have developed a new silicon construction technique that could potentially improve the affordability and reliability of building quantum computers.

The new technique — jointly developed by researchers from Australia’s University of Melbourne, University of New South Wales (UNSW) and RMIT, and Germany’s Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf and Leibniz Institute of Surface Engineering — involves precisely embedding single atoms one-by-one in silicon wafers.

According to the researchers, the technique, which has been published in an Advanced Materials paper, takes advantage of the precision of the atomic microscope, which has a sharp cantilever that “touches” the surface of a chip with a positioning accuracy of just half a nanometre, which is about the same space between atoms in a silicon crystal.

The researchers described how a tiny hole was drilled in the cantilever, so that when it was showered with phosphorous atoms, one would occasionally drop through the hole and embed in the silicon substrate.

A key aspect of this was knowing precisely when an atom was embedded in the substrate so the cantilever could move to the next precise position on the array.

drones

New Raytheon tech lets a single operator control 130 drones

January 23, 2022

By Bruce Crumley

A unit of Raytheon Technologies has not only developed a system allowing a single operator to control a swarm of 130 drones, but did so using off-the-shelf hardware and a focus on making the platform as easy to use as it is efficient.

Raytheon Intelligence and Space subsidiary Raytheon BBN created the tech permitting an individual or small group to operate 130 physical drones and 30 simulated UAVs in indoor and outdoor urban environments. The innovation was demonstrated at the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s fifth OFFensive Swarm-Enabled Tactics program, which showcases ways of deploying multiple drones in unified missions. The Raytheon BBN tech not only caught attention for its ability to enable one person to control over 100 craft at once, but also its simplified approach in doing that – and the capacity for fast, easy adaptation to new challenges.

The company began by using off-the-shelf hardware and software, then created in-house additions where any gaps arose. Reliance on widely accessible gear flowed from a major objective in the project: allowing everyday tech to ensure the final system was as familiar feeling and easy to use as it was effective in its operation.

Intentionally deprived of heavy-duty computing and intricate (and costly) sensor components, the project obliged researchers to come up with simple methods for planning and fulfilling what were often complex objectives. In doing so, the Raytheon BBN team conceived a scalable, modular, and decentralized system to manage a variety of immediate tasks and overall mission objectives, as well as a capacity to adapt to new ones in the future.

To make that possible, the group figured out a way for the system to determine how drones in a swarm should be individually assigned, then get them working together so wider mission targets can be fulfilled most effectively.

Batteries

This lithium-sulfur battery could quintuple electric vehicle ranges

January 23, 2022

By University of Michigan

A new biologically inspired battery membrane has enabled a battery with five times the capacity of the industry-standard lithium-ion design to run for the thousand-plus cycles needed to power an electric car.

A network of aramid nanofibers, recycled from Kevlar, can enable lithium-sulfur batteries to overcome their Achilles heel of cycle life—the number of times it can be charged and discharged—a University of Michigan team has shown.

“There are a number of reports claiming several hundred cycles for lithium-sulfur batteries, but it is achieved at the expense of other parameters—capacity, charging rate, resilience and safety.

The challenge nowadays is to make a battery that increases the cycling rate from the former 10 cycles to hundreds of cycles and satisfies multiple other requirements including cost,” said Nicholas Kotov, the Irving Langmuir Distinguished University Professor of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, who led the research.