A Scientific Research Vault
Nature not only inspire poets, artists, painters but also engineers. In an attempt to simulate the locomotion of birds, researchers at Caltech have developed a bipedal robot that has a movement that is between walking and flying.
Dr. Guido de Croon is a Full Professor at Delft University of Technology Netherlands. Dr. Croon’s research interests focus on the bio-inspired robotics, micro air vehicles, vision-based navigation and swarm robotics.
Biomimicry is not only shaping sustainable designs but it’s also revolutionizing the robotic technology. Researchers today are picking up learning from animal and insect kingdom to develop locomotion and structures in their labs.
Researchers at the University of California San Diego have come up with an innovative approach in creating soft bot that is devoid of any electronics. Rather it is an air powered robot. All its controls and locomotion are done with the help of pressurized air.
An Italian team of researchers lead by Prof. Marco Fontana, in collaboration with the departments of Industrial Engineering of the Universities of Trento and Bologna, have created an Electrostatic Bellow Muscle (EBM) to fabricate efficient small-scale robots. The innovative robotic muscle has potential of powering itself for a long period of time beyond its preliminary charge.
We as humans have a huge legacy of evolution yet we always fall short in front of nature. Nature has its own rate of progression and it never fails.
Meet John A. Frye, a heavy-duty industrial designer for alternate realities from California, United States. We are fortunate enough that even in spite of his hectic schedule, John was able to squeeze in some time for this interview.
One of the most famous quotes from Interstellar ‘Mankind was born on Earth. It was never meant to die here”, throws light on the intrinsic fear that we all have. Fear of being extinct. Mankind wants to leave the planet Earth, thus escaping extinction. And this is the motif behind all missions of Mars.
Luca Floreanini is an industrial designer from Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italy. Since 1993, he has been collaborating with Italian and European companies in the ideation and development of new products. Glasses, furniture, espresso machines, bottles, hedge trimmers, scanners, shoes, motocross masks, pressure washers, food containers, lamps are some of areas where his mind dives into.
Flat solar panels dominate the world market when it comes to capture solar energy directly from the Sun. However, the flat design has a major limitation as it cannot keep track of sun’s apparent motion.
Autonomous, by far, has limited with the use of robotics or car but lately, the concept has encircled shopping carts as well. In the coming future, retail stores would offer “consumer has it all” experience by simply grabbing and going option.
Recently, we got the pleasure of having a virtual meet up with Drone and AI startup UVify’s, Head of Business Development, Robert Cheek. UVify’s new Draco drone was the main attraction at CES 2017. The startup has developed technologies that can provide drone racing to general public. For those who are interested, Draco is currently up for pre-order, at $499. Shipping is expected to start by the next quarter.
Let’s picture the word, “Robot”, immediately, we get a glimpse of self operating machines, with nuts-and-bolts as building blocks. These machines are permeating all sections of our society. Machine human relationship has crossed the realms of science fiction. In fact, machine learning has become one of the most interesting and sought-after science, sprouting artificial intelligence (AI).
Driverless cars are the future of private transportation, where crashes are rare occurrences. Raj Nair, Ford’s head of product development claimed that the year 2020 will mark autonomous vehicle at SAE Level 4 [1 step below full automation] into the mainstream auto market.
Future Bus is the new city bus coming straight from the vault of Mercedes-Benz. Unlike its previous autonomous semi-truck Actros that was targeted only for highways, CityPilot ridden technology bus is developed especially for an urban market. The German automaker has demonstrated that its self-driven bus is proficient enough of maneuvering through an urban environment stretching across a distance of 12-miles. It’s been nearly a decade since Mercedes-Benz has been working on automated driving technologies and the current CityPilot technology too is based on Actros Highway Pilot, the autonomous technology…