Tag: futuretech

PIBOT will be the next Flying Captain: Humanoid Learns to Fly Real Airplanes

Pooja Kashyap

Last week, we talked about NAO, the humanoid learning to steer wheels and now we have a similar humanoid that is learning to fly real planes. PIBOT is the name of the small and affordable humanoid that is ready to take off our expectations into the skies. PIBOT has been fabricated to operate a toned down, simulated aircraft cockpit. The intelligent synthetic creature is able to make out and use the entire controls comprising of buttons and switches present in the cockpit of a light aircraft that is especially designed…

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Google’s First Quantum Computer: A Combination of D-Wave and Universal Gate-Model

Pooja Kashyap

Quantum logic gate based on qubits is what most of the quantum computing labs is working on to make the product a reality. However, these labs show no or less confidence in companies like D-Wave, the Canadian based that came out with world’s first commercially available quantum computer functioning on 128-qubit chipset, in 2011. Lately, in an interesting turn of events, Google went a step ahead by hiring a team of researchers for building their initial Google quantum computer using quantum annealing as per the D-Wave approach than the conventional…

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GoCart, the Food Delivery Bot: Service Robot for Elderly and Health Care Industry

Pooja Kashyap

Slowly and steadily, robots are replacing labor in nearly all sectors some envision it as a threat while others think that it will make the human lives more convenient. There is no doubt that these machines would directly improve productivity and efficiency especially in service sector. Thinking on the same lines, manufactures are working across nations in developing service-oriented bots, first came James the Barman, followed by SaviOne the butler bot and now South Korea-based Yujin Robot has come up with GoCart, a meal-transport machine especially designed to function in…

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NAO will Drive its Own BMW Sports Car: Humanoid Learns to Steer

Pooja Kashyap

Autonomous vehicles are the machines capable of steering by itself, a concept that we are still trying to converge on the line of safety of passengers. Now what if an external machine comes and steer away a vehicle that is designed for humans?  Robots LAB, San Francisco based distributor of educational robots, have led to the creation of this imagination, they have come forward with a tiny tot humanoid Nao along with a BMW Z4 Electric sports car. Nao is capable of steering the car independently. The vehicle is equipped…

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The Electrolyzer Project: A Promising Technology to Hydrogen Energy Storage

Pooja Kashyap

In order to solve the impending world’s problem for renewable energy, Germany is becoming more and more dependent on wind & solar power. Currently, the nation has come up with 20 more projects involving storing energy by creating water splitters, the process is known as Electrolysis.

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Photonic Circuits to replace Electronic Circuits: New Quantum Technology

Pooja Kashyap

Photonic circuits would soon be replacing electronic circuits in the near future of quantum circuits. Since a decade, researchers across the globe were working towards developing quantum circuits but circuits based on light had its limitations however, researchers at the Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen have been successful in bringing about the probability.

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Waste Tire Rubber to replace Graphite Anodes: Battery Technology

Pooja Kashyap

Shredded scrap car tires have already find their way by means of recycling into the field of construction, floor mats, shoe soles and rubberized asphalt road material. Now, they would be morphing into another innovative role by becoming an integral part of hybrid and electric cars. Researchers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory are trying to resurrect life from the discarded used tires in form of carbon material that would be used for lithium-ion battery anodes. Conventionally graphite, a natural carbon material, is the basic building block for lithium anodes.

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Supersonic Submarine glides from Shanghai to San Francisco in 100 minutes: Supercavitation Technology

Pooja Kashyap

Researchers at the Harbin Institute of Technology, China are attempting to create a supersonic submarine, which they envision would cruise through transatlantic underwater in not more than two hours. Li Fengchen one of the lead researchers claimed that they are developing an air bubble that would assist in gliding at very high speeds underwater. One of the main problems with conventional submarines is the friction produced by water, which is far more than flying through air, and so the force renders the machine incapable of peddling at high speed. Supercavitation…

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Graphene Sheet morphs into Droplets: A Serendipitous Discovery

Pooja Kashyap

Graphene does not stop surprising researchers with its limitations when it comes to application in fields like electronics, energy storage and energy generation. The list does not end here, now the wonder material looks promising in domain of medical sciences as well. During routine tests, Monash University’s researchers discovered that sheets of graphene oxide morph into liquid crystal droplets on its own accord. With its new avatar, the graphene droplets have find a promising place in delivery of drugs and disease detection, claimed the researchers.

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Reconstructing Audio from Infinitesimal Vibrations: Algorithm recovers Sounds from Objects

Pooja Kashyap

In an extraordinary way of recovering speech from vibrations of things like potted plant and potato chips bag, researchers at MIT, Microsoft and Adobe have created an algo that can decipher audio signal by analyzing the object’s infinitesimal vibrations. Upon performing experiment on detecting vibrations of a potato-chip bag, the researchers were able to reach a good precision with respect to speech. The bag was being photographed by a high quality camera with a distance of 15 feet installed in a soundproof glass-room.

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New Spray-on Solar Cells: Thin-film Photovoltaic Technology

Pooja Kashyap

In an interesting way, a group of researchers at the University of Sheffield was able to develop perovskite solar cells with the help of spray-painting process. Although the process is not new but using perovskite as a spraying material is being employed for the first time. Sheffield’s experts from the department of Physics and Biological Engineering have already used the spray-painting process to fabricate solar cells but the material used was organic semiconductors. In 2012, the researchers were able to successfully demonstrate the efficiency of photovoltaics based on organometal halide…

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Building 3D Products in Space: Printing the Metals of the Future

Pooja Kashyap

One of the major drawbacks of 3D printing is its lack of ability to use varied types of materials in printing a particular product. The same inability has been hindering 3D printing in space travel as well, where at times, situation demands fabrication of certain parts from several different materials. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) space scientists in collaboration with researchers from Caltech and Penn State University have been working closely to resolve this problem of bringing 3D printing closer to space travel. They developed a process that allowed for…

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Flexible and Enduring Rechargeable Battery: Reshaping landscape for Wearable Devices

Pooja Kashyap

In an effort to reshape the battery landscape, Imprint Energy, a California based startup is fabricating flexible and rechargeable batteries, which can be printed using the very common industrial screen printers. The firm envisions to market the ultrathin zinc based polymer batteries to wearable electronics manufacturers and pitch the same in medical field, robotics and military for environmental sensors and smart labels.

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DARPA’s Guided Bullets: Revolutionizing Rifle Accuracy or Developing Tools for RoboSoldiers

Pooja Kashyap

In an interesting ammunition research development program, DARPA has come about with a technology that could change mid flight direction of bullet only to hit the target down. Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance program under DARPA brought about the first live-fire tests showing the in-flight guidance of .50-caliber bullets. EXACTO is able to demonstrate the maneuvering of bullet’s direction while it’s in mid flight only to counter balance the aim that is being set by the sniper. Agency released the following video depicting the test flight of 0.50-caliber bullets that were…

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US military to develop a Reusable Unmanned Spacecraft: The Experimental Spaceplane project

Pooja Kashyap

The US military is looking forward to create an affordable and efficient robotic space plane that has an ability of embarking payloads directly into the orbit. DARPA has already granted the design contract to three firms namely, Boeing, Masten Space Systems and Northrop Grumman. For the initial stage of the Experimental Spaceplane project, also called the XS-1, the firms have collaborated with similar other aerospace companies. For instance, Boeing is working with Blue Origin, Masten is teaming up with XCOR Aerospace and Northrop Grumman is collaborating with the Virgin Galactic.…

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