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Showing posts from June, 2018

Artificial Blood

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Artificial Red Blood Cells - Washington University School of Medicine Innovation Life Saver From artificial hearts to prosthetic limbs, we've managed to replace many parts of the human body.  But blood seemed beyond our reach.  Now at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Allan Doctor, MD is developing artificial red blood cells.  They will serve as a blood substitute and bridging therapy that might keep severely injured people alive until they get to a hospital. Trauma Trauma is the leading cause of death in the US for those under 46 years old.  About 30,000 of those deaths could be prevented in those patients with severe bleeding from trauma. Nanotech Blood The Washington University research team is developing a freeze-dried, powdered blood substitute.  It's called ErythroMer and it's comprised of nano-scale, synthetic red blood cells that can deliver oxygen throughout the body. Time and Life Saving Medical Innovation F...

Where's Your Jet Pack?

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Up, Up and Away With the intense global R&D underway to bring the first flying car to market, I wondered what the status of jet packs is.  They were all the rage earlier in this decade  Turns out, they're still around but haven't matured technologically for widespread commercialization...yet.  They are one of the most difficult and complex pieces of flying equipment to engineer.  They also remain dangerous to fly. New Takeoffs with Jet Pack Man Nick Macomber is known as the Jet Pack Man.  He and his jet pack opened the London Olympics, flew over bridges in Ireland and have flown as part of innovation conferences in China.  His company Go Fast Sports & Jet Pack International predicts an upcoming renaissance in jet packing.  They've created a prototype with a turbine based platform that's capable of flying 30 minutes.  That could open up the possibility of commuting to work or school by jetpack. Weight to Thrust Ratio Challenge With...

Jaguar's Electric Boat Breaks World Speed Record

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Electric Boat that Almost Flies Jaguar just broke another speed record.  Not for racing cars.  This one is for their electric boat.  It just happened in late June, shattering the world electric speed record for boat racing.  The electric boat is the Jaguar Vector. The racing happened on Coniston Water, the third largest lake in the English Lake District. The Jaguar V makes eco-friendly, green, clean electric water craft look good for waterways and the environment. Jaguar Vector Racing The Jaguar Vector has a V20E electric engine.  Electricity provides all the boat's electric power and powers the motor and control systems.  The Jaguar V smashed a previous world record of 76.8 mph set a few years ago. The Jaguar V reached and sustained 88.6 mph for 8 miles.  The boat was designed and built by Jaguar Vector and their racing partner Williams Advanced Engineering. Next Race Lap  Jaguar has a strong vision concerning the importance of electric c...

Hyperloop Gets Real

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Get Ready for the Ride of Your Life Thanks to the combination of Elon Musk's concept and Sir Richard Branson's investment, the hyperloop is nearing reality. The hyperloop is a pod placed inside a vacuum-sealed tube.  By levitating the pod, friction is dramatically reduced which allows exponentially increased speed.  This technology combination allows for possible speeds of 700-800 miles per hour. Global Hyperloop Competition Entrepreneurs globally are attempting to duplicate Elon Musk's vision of hyperloop travel. A Spanish company Zeleros says their hyperloop system is capable of 745 mph.  This will allow travel from Madrid to Paris in about an hour, rather than 12 hours drive time.  There are at least ten hyperloop concept routes around the world conducting feasibility studies. They include some in the UK, US, India, Canada and Mexico. Hyperloop Standout in the Fast Lane The one hyperloop route that is ahead of the pact is the one between Pittsburgh, Co...

Robot Lawn Mowers

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Robot, Cut My Lawn Source:  Husqvarna Mowers Robo Mowers Powered by Batteries - No Gas It's at the top of my robotic wish list.  A robot lawn mower.  No astronomical bills and upselling from lawn service companies.  Just a nicely cut lawn and no hassles.  Innovation seems to be knocking at the front door with news on robotic mowers. Green Robots at the Cutting Edge There's a slew of new robot mowers.  Models include Worx Landroid for smaller lawns, Honda that cuts and feeds lawns, Robomow for all-purpose mowing and Husqvarna that's loaded with cell & GPS tech.  These mowers aren't cheap.  Prices range from $1000 to $3500. They're powered by rechargeable batteries so they're quiet.  You pay more for online enhancements. And, if your lawn is loaded with trees and hills, your robot mower is going to be a lot more expensive. Grass Vacuums Robot mowers look a lot like big robot vacuums such as iRobot's Roomba. They roam a...

Rockin Robot Bands

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Rock On On his latest album, Italian electronic music producer Leonardo Barbadora is using an all-robot orchestra.  The robots are capable of playing more than 50 acoustic instruments on command.  The instruments include the piano, percussion, wind instruments and the organ.  Barbadora controls the robot musicians from his laptop.  It's robotic innovation on a high note. Perfect Tuning - Human Sound What's intriguing is that Barbadora is using the robot orchestra to achieve a more "human" sound.  They're playing real instruments and provide a much richer sound than you get from digitally synthesized instruments.  His robot album is called Saxrobot.  It won't be finished and published until 2019. Robots and the Sound of Opera In late June, a robot named YuMi conducted a full orchestra successfully and to rave reviews.  It happened in Italy, the homeland of  Vivaldi, Verdi, Puccini, Respighi and so many other musical greats. ...

Laser Breakthrough

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Lasers on Active Military Duty Source:  Stock Image of Military Jets Laser Aircraft Repairs Engineers at RMIT University in Australia are developing laser technology to manufacture and repair steel and titanium parts for defense aircraft. The process sends metal powder into a laser beam, scans the powder across the surface and adds new material in a precise, web-like formation. It's basically a high tech welding process that makes or rebuilds metal parts layer by layer. The bonded metal has similar properties to the original metal and in some cases superior. Laser Tech Being Tested The process is being tested on defense aircraft in Australia.  The value could be two-fold: saving time and money.  Onsite repairs on military aircraft would save time as opposed to waiting for days for parts to be delivered from a warehouse.  Also it saves money as the part is fixed instead of being replaced. The RMIT researchers say that by enabling on-site production and re...

Flying Bikes

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BMW's Hover Bike Source:  BMW's Concept Flying Bike Vehicle BMW's Flying Bike It started as a toy.  A Lego, 603 piece kit to build a miniature motorcycle - the BMW R 1200 GS Adventure Bike. The kit was developed by teams from Lego and BMW.  BMW engineers were so intrigued by the results, they built the real deal - a flying motorcycle prototype that was showcased in 2017. Fast-Forward BMW engineers have been tweaking the prototype for months.  It's now morphing into a new model concept.  What we know about the concept vehicle is this.  It incorporates BMW Motorrad design with typical components such as a boxer engine and GS silhouette.  But engineers have modified the front rim to form a propeller.  It appears BMW is working toward commercialization of the flying bike.  There's no word on price or timing. C rowded Skies There's competition for air space.  Besides flying cars and drones, there are a number of prototype...

Hope for Spinal Cord Injuries

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Gene Therapy and Spinal Cord Injuries - New Research & New Hope from Kings College London Gene Therapy Reversing Spinal Cord Injuries Gene therapy, which is an experimental technique that uses genes to treat or prevent disease, shows promise in treating many ailments.  Those ailments include epilepsy, cancer, Parkinson's, osteoarthritis, asthma and much more.  Now researchers at Kings College London have shown that rats with spinal cord injuries can relearn skilled hand movements after receiving gene therapy.  The scientists believe the same will apply to humans. No Regenerative Treatment, Now Hope At this time, there are no regenerative treatments for spinal cord injuries.  Researchers are now testing a new gene therapy for regenerating damaged tissues in the spinal cord.  The new gene therapy can be switched on and off using antibiotics.  With this technique, it's now possible to treat large damaged areas with one injection and turn ...

Hypersonic Times - Boeing's Hypersonic Jet

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Unveiling of World's 1st Hypersonic Passenger Jet Design Boeing's prototype rendering unveiled today is the world's first look at comercial hypersonic design and what the jet will look like.  The design enables the speed and the speed is awesome. Travel Times Boeing's hyper-speed passenger jet can fly from New York to London in 2 hours versus the current 7 hours.  Or how about LA to Japan in 3 hours, versus 11 hours.  The design plan is for the jet to fly at Mach 5 or 3800 miles per hour, much faster than its predecessor The Concorde at 1,354 mph. No Speed Competition With speeds of Mach 5, Boeing's hypersonic jet has no current competition.  The closest competitor is Aerion Corporation.  It's high speed passenger plane is expected to reach 1.5 Mach.  But, there are many global players working on their design concepts and looking to win the hypersonic flight race. Hypersonic To-Do List Much work need to be done before the high-speed passenger j...

Nuke Power Future: No Carbon, Small, Smart

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 Nuclear Power's Future Source:  Stock Image of Nuclear Power Plant Nukes:  Smart, Small, No Carbon Emissions First the facts about nuclear technology: Nuclear power plants produce 11% of world electricity.   Nuke plants generate 1/3 of the world's low carbon electricity.  They cut CO² emissions by 2 gigatons per year which equals taking 400 million cars off the roads. The Director of the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) Yukiya Amano argues that to secure sufficient energy and cut average global temperature increases by 2० centigrade a year, the world need to make more use of nuclear energy.  He added, in a summer 2018 meeting in Paris, nuclear science, technology and nuclear power are important in meeting global development needs. Most Promising Emerging Nuclear Tech:  Small, Smart Nuclear Plants  In the case of nuclear power plants, perhaps smaller is better.  There's a global push for small, medium sized and modu...

When Cars Fly - Henry Ford

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PAL-V's Liberty is Ready In 1927, Henry Ford said:  "Mark my words.  A combination airplane and motor car is coming.  You may smile, but it will come."  Talk about a futurist!  He was right on, off  by about 90 years, but the time is now. The Liberty:  Ready for Production, Take-off and Driving This is a second hot prototype flying car we wanted to focus on.  It's the creation of the Netherlands based company PAL-V.  Called The Liberty, the developers claim it's production ready, making it a global first.  And they say it's "Licensed to Thrill". Distinctive Design As you can see in the artist's rendering, the Liberty has a design that's different from other flying car prototypes.  It looks like a helicopter.  And, in fact, there's a center mounted rotor blade on top.  The big deal is that it's production ready.  All it awaits is full certification, which it expects in 2019.  The company says it...

Mean Flying-Driving Machine

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"Classiest" Flying Car AeroMobil 4.0 Fossbytes Review calls this vehicle the world's classiest flying car.  AeroMobil, a Slovakia based company, has had it under development for a number of years.  They call it a "roadable aircraft" and a flying car.  With the AeroMobil 4.0, it's a high flying combo. It's being showcased at global Auto Shows and is set for production in 2020. Electric VTOLWith Umph AeroMobil 4.0 is in the testing phase right now.  What's intriguing is that it delivers "efficient" intra-city travel up to 621 miles, which is more than double what most electric VTOL(Vertical Take-Off and Landing) passenger drone concepts deliver. The company says it has an innovative combustion engine with highly advanced aerospace and automotive technology to achieve every efficiency, speed and range over other electric VTOL's. Highly Advanced Electric, Solar & CombustionTechnologies The vehicle uses a hybrid electric moto...

e-skin, a Human Touch

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Johns Hopkins' Breakthrough Electronic Skin Imagine a prosthetic limb that can have a sense of feeling.  Scientists at Johns Hopkins University have created e-skin or electronic skin.  It's made of fabric and rubber-laced with sensors to mimic nerve endings. For the person using a prosthetic hand, e-dermis recreates a sense of touch.  It also recreates a sense of pain by sensing stimuli and sending impulses back to the peripheral nerves.  The pain function is very important because it protects the user from injury and the prosthetic limb from damage.  Providing that important functionality of touch is a significant tech breakthrough. Based On Biology Human skin contains a complex network of receptors that relay a variety of sensations to the brain. The researchers used the network as a biological template for their work.  They made a sensor that goes over the fingertips of a prosthetic hand and acts like the person's own skin would with receptors ...

Augmented Reality Gets Real

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Your Living Room Thru Augmented Reality AR Forecast Beyond Games Thanks to Pokémon Go and "Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery", AR+ games are already a multi-billion dollar industry. But according to a forecast for 2025 from The Engineer, there's much more AR to come.  In 2025, Augmented Reality and digital eyewear will be in their heyday.  A new generation of digital displays and user interfaces will be in play and screens as we've known them will be phased out. Here's a summer of 2018 glimpse into the future of Augmented Reality, AR eyewear and a few breakthrough applications. Lumus - Another Example of Israeli Digital Vision Israeli-based Lumus is a global leader in augmented reality technology. They seem to be setting the pace. They've developed see-through, wearable displays on small frames, with wide fields of view and bright, transparent images.  The industry push is to make the digital eyewear as light and compact as possib...

Israeli Vision - AI Glasses

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Next G AI Glasses ICI Vision, based in Tel Aviv, has developed high tech eyewear for the visually impaired to better navigate their surroundings. The technology is cutting edge.  The eyeglasses combine Artificial Intelligence, HD cameras, computer vision and more to fill in the visual gaps of someone who has blind spots.  The images are projected into healthy parts of the retina.  It helps to eliminate blind-spots, clarify images and improves bad vision.  The company says "it's cutting edge tech restoring sight to the blind." Approved and Available in China and Australia The eyewear technology is patent pending in the US and EU.  It's now available in Australia and China.  The need for solutions to impaired vision is huge.  Globally, 253 million people are suffering with impaired vision.  That's a very significant fact because of the human impact.  80% of our learning, perceptions, cognition and activities are "mediated" through vision....

Clean Natural Gas Plants - Zero Carbon

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Tech for Zero-Carbon Natural Gas Generating Plants Source:  Texas Natural Gas Plant Green Natural Gas This could be a great Climate Changer.  Technology is being tested to generate emissions-free natural gas power plants.  A pilot program is underway in suburban Houston.  Net Power is behind the 50 megawatt plant project.  The company believes it can capture all the CO² and produce power as cheaply as standard natural gas facilities. Several MIT experts have stated the technology is well along in development. If it proves successful, it will be the world's first natural gas power plant that produces low cost electricity with zero atmospheric emissions, including CO². Natural Gas Pollution Natural gas is a primary global source of electricity.  32% of US electricity and 22% of world electricity is generated by it. It's cheap, plentiful but a big source of CO².  In fact, it accounts for 30% of the CO² emissions into the atmosphere from the US po...

Electric-free, Self-Powered Smart Sensors

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Self-Sustaining Smart Sensor Source:  NEU's Smart Sensor Detecting Air Pollution thru Infrared Wavelengths Zero Power Sensors Imaging a sensor that can lie on standby for years until triggered by infrared wavelengths, which it is built to detect. It could be used for detecting burglars, security threats, mobility, fire, fuel burning cars and much more.  Thanks to researchers at Northeastern University (NEU) in Boston, the next generation smart sensor uses the infrared wavelengths it is programmed to detect to power itself.  It's self-sustaining technological innovation that's green and environmentally clean.  NEU researchers have developed it for the US Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency DARPA.  They call it "Zero-Power Sensors". Detecting What's Not Visible The infrared light waves the sensor detects aren't visible to the human eye.  And, they are abundant from, for example people, fires, emissions and cars.  They're e...

Mind Reading Robots

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 MIT's Baxter Controlled by Brain Signals & Hand Gestures A Robot More Obedient Than My Dog Robotics is crossing another important threshold.  Humans controlling robots with hand gestures and brainwaves is now a reality at MIT. It's a significant tightening of human-robot interactions that's  a breakthrough. It prevents robots from making errors in real time. It happens through faint electrical brain signals and human gestures. Brain Waves By monitoring human brain activity with electrodes in a cap (as seen above), the MIT system picks up whether the human user notices the robot is making a mistake. Spotting a mistake sends off a slight electrical signal in the brain. That signal is turned into an algorithm and code that the robot understands.  You might say the robot is reading the human mind. Using an interface that measures muscle activity, humans can then make hand gestures to scroll through and select the right option for the robot to perform. The r...

Connectivity Accelerating TeleMedicine

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A Life Saver Telemedicine Imagine being treated for an illness in your home without having to go to a doctor's office or hospital emergency room. That's the promise of telemedicine.  In 2019, the pervasiveness of connectivity is enabling distance medicine on the grand scale.  Telehealth/telemedicine provides medical access, treatment speed and can mean the difference between life and death.  It's a real life-saver of growing importance. Smart Phone, Smart RX By some estimates, 80% of Americans own smartphones;  75% have broadband.  According to The Cleveland Clinic, as a result of connectivity, distance health will be one of the top 10 Medical Innovations this year.  Their reasoning is the demand for distance medicine now has the global infrastructure to support and accelerate it. By the Medical Numbers The medical industry is buying into this. 90% of US health care executives say they're building telehealth systems 7 million US patients used te...

Feeding the World Robotically

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Food Fights The world is on a collision course pitting a growing population against dwindling food supplies.  It's an untenable equation.  By 2050, there will be 10 billion people on earth.  To feed them, 70% more food will need to be produced from the same land currently farmed.  The need for autonomous, high precision, high yield robot hands on the farm has never been more urgent. British Robots on the Farm - Earth Rovers & No Hands Hectare Farm There are two fascinating robotic farm programs underway in the United Kingdom.  One is a startup company called Earth Rover. The company's developing autonomous farming robots based on the same technology as in the ExoMars Rover.  The other program is the world's first, successful all robotic farm....the creation of roboticists and researchers at Harper Adams University in Shropshire, UK. Farming, Space Tech and Robots Coming Together ExoMars is a solar powered, robotic rover that will be launched t...

My Taxi Just Flew In

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Taxiing Above It All It's rush hour.  Traffic is at a standstill. Then, out of the sky, it's your flying taxi.  That's the promise of Pop.up Next.  There are numerous flying taxi projects underway such as the Chinese EHay, Volocopter and Uber's Elevate machine.  However, Pop.up Next has the backing of and is a collaboration among engineering greats Audi, Airbus and also the German government. Electric &Autonomous Flying-Driving Machine Pop.up Next is part car and part quadcopter.  It is electric powered and has autonomous technology. There are still many engineering challenges for Pop.up Next. But, the German government has approved testing the flying taxi in and around the German city of Ingolstadt, which is Audi's hometown. In a statement by the German Transport Ministry:  "Flying taxis aren't a vision any longer.  They can take us off into a new dimension of mobility." Pop.up and Let It Go As you can see in the prototype picture, P...

Gremlin Drones Launch

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Flying Aircraft Carrier with a Drone Payload Gremlins Launch The US Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency DARPA is building a flying aircraft carrier.  It's a transport and bomber style aircraft carrier capable of launching and recovering swarms of fighter, killer drones in mid-flight.  The flying aircraft carrier, which may itself be a drone, is a key component of the military's Gremlins drone program, a strategic part of future warfighting. The options for in-air, recovery of the drones include recovery bays on the carrier wings or recovering them in the cargo bay. Tests in 2019 Tests to demonstrate launch and recovery of swarms of drones from a C-130 will take place in 2019.  The first phase of determining the feasibility of the program ended successfully in March.  Second phase involves full scale test demonstrations.  Dynetics and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems are contracted and now designing prototype drones. The TERN Dro...

Robot Eye Surgeon

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Robots Restoring Human Eyesight   Robotic Eye Surgery - Oxford University Hospital My Surgeon is a Robot British surgeons have overseen a world first.  The world's first robotic operation inside the eye.  It occurred at Oxford University Hospital.  Professor Mac Laren, who directed the robotic surgery with a joy stick, hailed it as a vision of the future of eye surgery. 20-20 Vision Twelve patients were involved with the robotic surgery trial.  In the first part of the surgical trial, the robot was used to push membrane off the retina without damaging it.  The second phase of the trial will be how the robot can place a needle under the retina and inject fluid.  This could lead to gene therapy as a treatment for blindness. Robotic-Human Partnerships for Cures One patient Father William Beaver, a local priest in Oxford, had been experiencing distorted vision, which he described as looking through a hall of mirrors.  Following the pr...

DARPA's Spiderman

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Z-Man Climbing System Z-Man Scaling Walls DARPA calls it the Z-Man program and it's developing advanced technology for the military to scale structures vertically just like Spiderman.  Scientists are creating biologically inspired climbing tools to enable warfighters to climb vertical walls, while carrying a full combat load, without any ropes or ladders.  It's a program inspired by nature that's designed to save precious time and lives.  This technology would also prove invaluable in other circumstances such as for first responders and firefighters. Climb like a Spider Small animals. spiders and geckos inspired this advanced research program.  They scale vertical surfaces using unique bio-complex systems.  Specifically strong reversible adhesion or "hook into surface asperities".  Z-man is building synthetic versions of these biological systems for humans as novel climbing aides. Climb Every Mountain Geckoskin has been developed.  It's a st...

Supercomputer on Steroids

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Summit - At the Top Fast, Smart and Peerless It's the world's fastest and smartest supercomputer.  Summit at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. And this machine with AI is a humbling experience.  It can calculate in 1 second what it would take us humans 6 billion years to do.  Summit gives the US leadership over previously top ranked China in the supercomputer neural network race.  By comparison, Summit can make 200 quadrillion - that's 200 with 15 zeros - calculations per second.  China's Sunway TaihuLight, which was the world's fastest supercomputer, can do 93,000 calculations per second.  There's no comparison! Very Different Computer Architecture Summit is an IBM AC922 that composed of 4608 computer servers, all comprising processors which are the brains of the computer.  But what's breakthrough is the computer is using the new Tensor Core in its graphics cards.  That enables warp speed, Artificial Intelligence and machine ...

Robot Blood Takers

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Medical Robots With Needles Researchers at Rutgers University have developed a robotic blood taking device.  It's designed to insert intravenous needles to draw blood and then analyze the samples.  At present there are about 2 billion blood tests per year in the US alone.  The tests are performed by individual practitioners and for the most part sent to a centralized lab for analysis.  There the samples undergo lab-intensive analysis.  It's a multi-billion dollar endeavor of medical importance but also a contributor to rising medical costs. Robotic Precision With the Rutgers robotic device, ultrasound imaging locates the blood vessel.  Then miniature robots place the needle in the targeted vessel, draw the blood, and finally analyze the sample.  With blood tests influencing 80% of medical decisions, robotic testing could considerably cut turnaround times.  Importantly, the robotic blood tests represent one-stop medical testing and elimina...

The TERN - Mean Drone Machine

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DARPA's Drone Plane for Every Military Vessel A Sea Bird Unlike Any Other The US Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency, DARPA's TERN is one of the most stunning autonomous aircraft projects to date.  From the artist's rendering, it looks like Darth Vader will emerge.  But it's under development and prototypes are already being tested. Northrup Grumman is leading the program.  GE has developed the engines.  What TERN is capable of doing and plans for its global utilization are breakthrough technology innovation. Gamechanger:  Launches and Lands on Small Vessels From virtually any naval vessel with a deck, TERN vertically takes off and lands like a helicopter and then transitions to a wing-born flight like an airplane on a mission.  It can carry a 600 pound payload and fly 600 miles to strike a target.  85% of the Navy's battle-force doesn't have enough room on its deck to carry much more than a helicopter for air support...

World's First Floating City

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Innovation Island for You The world's first floating city project is underway.  Non-profit think tank Seasteading Institute and the government of French Polynesia are spearheading the project.  They've signed an MOU and a deliberative launch process is now happening.  The floating city will be sited in waters off Tahiti.  It will be autonomous, with its own government and cryptocurrency, the Vargon. The host nation is French Polynesia. It will include residences, hotels, restaurants, offices, medical research facilities, aquaculture farms and a green powerplant. They're designing the island to foster innovation. Estimated project cost:  $167 million with construction expected to start in 2019. Island Adventure in Paradise: Environmentally Correct and No Politicians This is PayPal founder Peter Thiel's island adventure that started a dozen years ago and is now becoming a reality.  Thiel co-created Seasteading Institute and provided seed money fo...

Seafaring Nuke Plants Russian Style

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Mobile Nuclear Plants  It's the world's first commercial, floating nuclear power plant.  21,500 metric ton Akademik Lomonosov is slowing making its way in a multi-stage trip across Russian waters.  It's controversial technological innovation to say the least. Some environmentalists call it the floating Chernobyl, Fukushima on ice and a nuclear nightmare. This is an important update on a blog we posted about a month ago.  The floating nuke is now at Murmansk where it's being loaded with nuclear fuel.  Next stage in the journey:  "sail" the Arctic Sea to Pevek sometime in 2019.  There, it will be moored and start providing electricity to Chukota and its 50,000 population.  That's its first mission. Mobile Nukes on Ice The rationale for the floating nuke is intriguing.  Mobile, transportable nuclear power plants that can get to remote areas of Russia's far east and north to service energy needs.  Its ocean going mobility enables it ...

High Flying Spies

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Secret Space Ship The US Air Force has a top secret space plane X-37B recently spotted by sky watchers over Edinburgh, Scotland and The Netherlands.  This would be the OTV's (Orbital Test Vehicle) 5th top secret mission. The big questions are: what's the mission and what's in the payload? What we do know is that the space plane was manufactured by Boeing and its technology is outstanding. Supersonic Robotic Orbiter The plane's speed is supersonic.  It flies 110 to 500 miles above the earth.  X-37B is unmanned and robotic.  We know it was launched late last year from NASA's Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral.  One of Elon Musk's SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets carried it into launch and orbit.  Its had more than 2000 days in orbit during its 5 missions.  Each mission is designed to break the previous endurance record. Secret Missions - Secret Payloads No one other than the USAF, NASA and possibly Elon Musk's SpaceX knows what X-37B's classif...

New AI - Seeing through Walls

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See-Through AI MIT's RF-Pose "See-thru AI" T he MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory is using an Artificial Intelligence based system to see what's going on behind closed doors, behind walls and in rooms behind rooms.  This AI ability to "see through" walls has been the stuff of science fiction.  But thanks to the power of machine intelligence, it's here. Loco-Motion AI  The project, as pictured above, is called RF-Pose. The tech is breakthrough.  The neural network analyzes the radio signals bouncing off the person's body as they move around and stop in enclosed rooms.  The AI builds a map with an active stick figure mirroring the person's live motions. Different AI Strokes This AI program is very different.  Usually neural networks are trained on massive sets of data.  In this case, the researchers had to train the AI to recognize radio signals bouncing off people. To do this, they used their wireless devices ...

Help Wanted: Robot Evangelist

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Preaching Bot SpotMini  Someone at Boston Dynamics has a great sense of humor.  The company, which is a robot R&D epicenter, just posted a job opening for a Robot Evangelist.  Seriously!  The evangelist's job is to sell the world on commercial uses of their animal inspired robots.  Robotic applications include commercial security, logistics and construction.  This move by Boston Dynamics underscores a big push for market-driven, money-making, widespread use of robotics across industries. Military Robots in Service Boston Dynamics' roots are deeply intertwined with DARPA, the US Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency.  DARPA's mission is to develop breakthrough technology that provides the US military overwhelming competitive advantages.  Over the years, DARPA has funded Boston Dynamics robotic programs with an estimated $150 million.  The investment is well worth it.  The company has created the world's fas...

Bat Bots At Your Service

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Wednesday Series: Robotic Innovation Addressing the World's Most Pressing Needs Flying service Bat Bots. Tiny aerial robots are being developed for multiple uses such as first responders at disaster scenes and to fetch objects for the elderly and hospital patients.  It's another example of life saving and life enhancing innovation addressing some of the world's pressing needs. Bat Bots Take Off The concept is elegantly simple.  Bats are marvelous flying machines.  Their agility and dexterity are unique.  For years, roboticists have tried and failed to create bat bots.  Until now.  Two separate research teams, the industrial automation company Festo and a combined group from NASA and California Institute of Technology, have launched bat bots. NASA-Caltech High Fliers Bat-like flight is the Holy Grail of robotics.  That's because of the wing/body complexity and the aerodynamic performance.  Bats have the most sophisticated wings ...