Author: Pooja Kashyap

A CPD certified Fitness Trainer, Pooja also likes to spend time reading and blogging the latest research and discoveries in science and how technology is shaping the world. Besides writing, she enjoys reviewing books and taking interviews of creative/innovative people. Currently, she is located in Noida, India, where she actively participates in marathons as well. She is also on Twitter and LinkedIn.

10 Festo Robots Based on Their Biological Models: Biomimicry

Pooja Kashyap

Festo, a Germany based industrial control and automation company has been into research and development of bionics since more than two decades. It collaborated with renowned universities, institutes, development companies and private inventors across the globe and launched the Bionic Learning Network during 2006. And since then it has been delving into the subject and bringing about the best of biomimicry. Every time their new project gets into air, they prove how they are able to merge industrial automation, and combining electronics with pneumatics in new and efficient ways. Here…

Read More

New Laser Technology Allows for Controlling Lightning Strikes

Pooja Kashyap

Researchers at the University of Arizona and the University of Central Florida have created a technology that has an ability of beaming high-intensity lasers all the way through the layers of atmosphere hence crossing the limitations that it had before. The research is still in its testing phase but the optical scientists envision that it might steer lightning strikes away from human inhabited areas and buildings. Extending the laser beam Lasers undergo diffraction because of which it fades away after beaming some feet only. This phenomenon does not allow it…

Read More

Biomimicry: RoboClam Replicates Atlantic Razor Clam’s Dynamics

Pooja Kashyap

Biomimicry: RoboClam Replicates Atlantic Razor Clam’s Dynamics In order to understand the efficient workings of flora and fauna, scientists always try to emulate nature’s wisdom, to which they call biomimicry. In one such attempt, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have created RoboClam that digs itself into the soil to annihilate mines and to bury anchors. Atlantic razor clam (Ensis directus) has a stiff shell yet it is able to thrust itself through soil with a rate of 1cm/s. It’s been long since researchers were working upon the mechanism as…

Read More

Cybathlon 2016: The Championship for Robot-Assisted Parathletes

Pooja Kashyap

ETH Zurich in collaboration with the Swiss National Competence Center of Research in Robotics have attempted to take Paralympics to the next level by coalescing the conventional prosthetics with robotics. There has already been an incremental improvement with the equipments being employed by the players in the Paralympic Games including but not limited to prosthetic limbs and swimsuits. If we talk about the props like bows & arrows, cycles, wheels, we would agree that taking these equipments to the higher level of proficiency is not a difficult job than enhancing…

Read More

Virtual Environment gets converged with Real World: The Sulon Cortex

Pooja Kashyap

Running against the walls of the physical reality is one of the major huddles while being into the world of gaming in the virtual reality. Sulon Technologies, a Canadian based startup delved into the issue and pioneered a new spirit into the visual immersion system by their latest concept to which they call the Cortex.

Read More

Juxtaposing Living and the Nonliving Worlds Together: Materials Synthesis

Pooja Kashyap

So far, we have seen robots inspired from the best of biomimicry. Researchers have often looked upon nature to solve problems. At the same time, there are certain natural tendencies, which engineers are still trying to figure out the way towards artificially re-invention and one of them is ‘bone’. Bone is one of those natural materials that require no supervision, yet it fabricates material in response to environmental signals. In order to understand this phenomenon, researchers at the MIT, have tried to juxtapose living bacterial cells with non-living substance like…

Read More

Protean Electric’s Gearless, Direct-Drive System: An In-Wheel Motor Concept

Pooja Kashyap

Protean Electric, an automotive start-up is paving way towards revolutionizing electric cars with its in-wheel motor design. Beijing roads will first experience this radical technology. Like the EcoMotors, Protean Electric’s preferred the East Asia since the government is very supportive towards technology that evangelizes fuel efficiency and air quality. In-Wheel Motor Concept Generally, central motor in an electric vehicle is under bonnet that transmits power down to the rotating shaft, which further sends torque to the axels. But in the Protean system, small motors, which is responsible for creating power, is…

Read More

Microplasma Transistors for Smartphones and Nuclear Environment

Pooja Kashyap

Researchers at the University of Utah have created one of the most minuscule plasma transistors that can resist soaring temperatures and ionizing radiation that could be seen in a nuclear reactor. The engineers envision that such transistors would: 1) Facilitate taking and collecting X-rays in war zones by high-end cellular phones 2) Integrated within equipments to gauge air quality in the actual time 3) Plasma based bot could be sent into the nuclear reactor for certain assignments Like beavers, the transistors perform the most important work in the field of…

Read More

Gamification is More Than Just Points & Badges: Lord of the Rings

Pooja Kashyap

Recently, I watched Lord of the Rings, second time of course but consciously with a different angle. This time, I translated Frodo Baggins journey in terms Gamification strategy. By introducing the gaming element in the movie, I discovered that the trilogy became all the more interesting and innovative so I thought of penning down my insights and if I’m wrong anywhere please free to rebut my point(s), I’d be of great help, thanks. Introduction to the world of Gamification: Task assigned Frodo Baggins is having a good time at his…

Read More

Graphene Photodetectors Will Now Offer Thermal Vision

Pooja Kashyap

By harvesting the optical capabilities of graphene, researchers at the University of Michigan were able to create infrared contact lens morphed out of the carbon material. Graphene is merely 1-atom thick that makes its absorb nearly 2.3% of light that strikes it, which of course is extremely less especially for generating an electric potential and hence makes it far away from operating as an infrared sensor. Therefore, the researchers devised an innovative technique to resolve this issue. In place of gauging lost electrons by incoming light, they augmented the current…

Read More

Humans Might Welcome The New Robot Overlords: An Obedience Study

Pooja Kashyap

How would it feel working under a ‘robo boss’, constantly pecking on top of the head, reminding the amount of work that is still left. Many would feel frustrated and might leave but there would be some, who might like to finish the task without questioning. In an interesting experiment, performed by the Human-Computer Interaction Lab at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada, revealed the responses that were received by working under a robotic supervisor. Task that was assigned to humans was extremely monotonous which of course became boring…

Read More

Planet X and Nemesis Myth Debunked: WISE Survey

Pooja Kashyap

In an attempt to find the reasons, which led to the wobbly effect of Uranus’s orbit, researchers discovered other planets like Neptune and Pluto but there was no Planet X anywhere. Similarly, the hunt for Sun like star, Nemesis, which they claim might have wiped out the age of dinosaurs completely, is still a far-fetched dream. It’s been an effort of more than two centuries and now the researchers want to draw line to reach a conclusion.  Kevin Luhman an astronomer at the University of Pennsylvania asserted that there are no such…

Read More

10 Reasons Why I love Working at a Startup

Pooja Kashyap

I had been a part of a startup for almost seven years and in these seven years I never thought of joining any other venture neither did the work culture of any MNC attracted me. After taking a gap of 1 year, which also happens to be a sabbatical, I still have the same fresh feeling for startups as it was before, taking the leave that is. I guess being in the startup crew is something like being into a serious relationship and this is one of the main factor,…

Read More

HyQ: The Most Versatile Quadruped Robot

Pooja Kashyap

With its first launch, HyQ, the brainchild of Italian Institute of Technology had already conquered how to manipulate the terrains. Now the quadruped robot has resurrected but with more tricks than before. Claudio Semini, the lead researcher claimed that the ‘second coming’ of HyQ is sodden with wide variety of motion skills that would help the bot in facing the dynamically changing terrain. Initially, the bot was designed in terms of reactive behavior, the mode that helped it from recovering from huddles but this time, the focus is kept on making…

Read More

IVRE: Human Machine Virtual Collaborative Systems

Pooja Kashyap

Getting work done through robots is no more a challenging task, with the continuous progression in technology, more and more machines are being designed keeping in mind the safety factor which still reigns supreme when interacting with a machine. Yet we are too far from two equally important aspects, which if conquered, might thoroughly revolutionize robotics, and they are – consciousness and self-awareness. In an attempt to reach fluency in human-robot interactions, researchers at the Johns Hopkins’ Computational and Interactive Robotics Laboratory have come up with a simulated setting, which…

Read More