Hexapod robot moves in the right direction by controlling chaos.

Source: Scientific American

Given that robots generally lack muscles, they can't rely on muscle memory (the trick that allows our bodies to become familiar over time with movements such as walking or breathing) to help them more easily complete repetitive tasks. For autonomous robots, this can be a bit of a problem, since they may have to accommodate changing terrain in real time or risk getting stuck or losing their balance.
One way around this is to create a robot that can process information from a variety of sensors positioned near its "legs" and identify different patterns as it moves, a team of researchers report Sunday in Nature Physics. (Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group.)
Some scientists rely on small neural circuits called "central pattern generators" (CPG) to create walking robots that are aware of their surroundings. One of the challenges is that the robot typically needs a separate CPG for each leg in order to sense obstacles and take the appropriate action (such as stepping around a chair leg or over a rock).
Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience researcher Poramate Manoonpong and Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization researcher Marc Timme are leading a project that has created a six-legged robot with one CPG that can switch gaits depending upon the obstacles it encounters. The robot does this by manipulating the sensor inputs into periodic patterns (rather than chaotic ones) that determine its gait. In the future, the robot will also be equipped with a memory device that will enable it to complete movements even after the sensory input ceases to exist.
© Poramate Manoonpong and Marc Timme, University of Goettingen and Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization

Fleet of High-Tech Robot 'Gliders' to Explore Oceans.

Glider under water. (Credit: Holger v. Neuhoff, IFM-GEOMAR)

Source: ScienceDaily

--------------------------

ScienceDaily (Jan. 14, 2010) — The Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences (IFM-GEOMAR) in Kiel, Germany, recently obtained the biggest fleet of so-called gliders in Europe. These instruments can explore the oceans like sailplanes up to a depth of 1000 metres. In doing so they only consume as much energy as a bike light. In the next years up to ten of these high-tech instruments will take measurements to better understand many processes in the oceans. Currently scientists and technicians prepare the devices for their first mission as a 'swarm' in the tropical Atlantic.

They may look like mini-torpedoes, yet exclusively serve peaceful purposes. The payload of the two-metre-long yellow diving robots consists of modern electronics, sensors and high-performance batteries. With these devices the marine scientists can collect selective measurements from the ocean interior while staying ashore themselves. Moreover, the gliders not only transmit the data in real time, but they can be reached by the scientists via satellite telephone and programmed with new mission parameters.
As such the new robots represent an important supplement to previous marine sensor platforms.
"Ten year ago we started to explore the ocean systematically with profiling drifters. Today more than 3000 of these devices constantly provide data from the ocean interior," explains Professor Torsten Kanzow, oceanographer at IFM-GEOMAR. This highly successful programme has one major disadvantage: the pathways of the drifters cannot be controlled.
"The new gliders have no direct motor, either. But with their small wings they move forward like sailplanes under water," says Dr. Gerd Krahmann, a colleague of Professor Kanzow. In a zigzag movement, the glider cycles between a maximum depth of 1000 metres and the sea surface.
"By telephone we can 'talk' to the glider and upload a new course everytime it comes up," explains Krahmann. A glider can carry out autonomous missions for weeks or even months. Every glider is equipped with instruments to measure temperature, salinity, oxygen and chlorophyll content as well as the turbidity of the sea water.
The IFM-GEOMAR has been the first institute in Europe to be committed to the new technology. "We tested different devices and we had to learn the hard way, too," oceanographer Dr. Johannes Karstensen says. "This way we have been able to contribute to the glider development, and now we have gathered knowledge required for successful glider operations," he adds.
Within the context of a special investment IFM-GEOMAR was able to obtain six new gliders adding to a total of nine altogether, which is the biggest fleet of that kind in Europe. Manufacturer of the IFM-GEOMAR-gliders is the Teledyne Webb Research Inc. in the USA.
A very successful mission using a single glider took place between August and October 2009 in the Atlantic Ocean, south of the Cape Verde Islands. The robot carried out measurements along a more than 1000 kilometres long track autonomously, before it was recovered by the German research vessel METEOR. The data collected are accessible online at http://gliderweb.ifm-geomar.de/html/ifm03_depl05_frame.html.
Now, for the first time the scientists in Kiel prepare a whole fleet of gliders for a concerted mission. After final tests the robots will be released mid-March 2010 at about 60 nautical miles north-east of the Cape Verde Island of Sao Vicente. For two months they will investigate physical and biogeochemical quantities of the Atlantic Ocean around the oceanographic long-term observatory TENATSO.
Goals of the experiment lead jointly by Prof. Torsten Kanzow, Prof. Julie LaRoche (marine biology) and Prof. Arne Körtzinger (marine chemistry) are to get new insights into water circulation and stratification as well as their impact on chemical and biological processes. With the glider swarm the scientists can sample a complete "sea-volume" and not just a single point or a single cross-section in the ocean. The gliders will be remotely controlled from a control centre at the IFM-GEOMAR in Kiel.
"This technology enables us to observe the upper layers of the ocean much more effectively and thus much less expensive than previously," says Prof. Dr. Martin Visbeck, Deputy Director of the IFM-GEOMAR and Head of the research division Ocean Circulation and Climate Dynamics.

Story Source:
Adapted from materials provided by Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences (IFM-GEOMAR), via AlphaGalileo.

Modified Mobile Phone Runs on Coca-Cola.

A modified Nokia cell phone that runs on Coca-Cola could run up to four times longer than a phone with a lithium ion battery. Image credit: Daizi Zheng.

Source: Physorg.com

---------------------------

Daizi Zheng, a Chinese developer who is currently based in London, has modified a Nokia cell phone to run on Coca-Cola or any other sugary solution.

Zheng says the modified phone can run three or four times longer on a single charge than a phone using a conventional lithium ion battery, and can also be fully biodegradable.

As Zheng explains, a sugar-powered phone could potentially offer a much more environmentally friendly power source than lithium ion batteries. The new phone's bio battery, which basically acts as a fuel cell, uses enzymes as the catalyst to generate electricity from carbohydrates.
The phone can run for several hours, and produces water and carbon dioxide as the battery runs down. The phone can then be emptied out and refilled with more Coca-Cola.
Zheng designed the phone as a client project for Nokia, but there's no word on whether the company plans to incorporate the concept into future products.
"It brings a whole new perception to batteries and afternoon tea," Zheng wrote on her project's website.

More information: www.daizizheng.com

Samsung's new flash chips for mobile devices.

Samsung 32GB microSD memory card

Source: Physorg.com

------------------------

Samsung Electronics has announced two new flash chip storage devices for mobiles: a removable 32-Gbyte micro SD (secure digital) card and a 64-Gbyte moviNAND flash memory module. Both are based on Samsung's own 30 nanometer class 32-Gbyte NAND flash memory chips, which use lithography technology that allows much more storage in a smaller unit.

The removable SD flash card is only 1 mm thick and 0.7 mm high and will come into production in February. The card comprises a card controller and eight 30-micron thick stacked chips. Samsung says it is the highest capacity microSD ready for production. Users will be able to insert the 32-Gbyte micro SD card into their phone or other device via the built-in micro SD slot.
The 64-Gbyte flash chip is 1.4 mm thick and consists of sixteen stacked chips and a storage controller. This moviNAND embedded memory module has been in commercial production since December last year and will be the first to reach the marketplace. It doubles the memory of current memory modules such as that in the latest Apple iPhone.
Higher capacity devices such as Samsung's new offerings will allow mobile devices such as smartphones and media players to have increased memory, and demand for more memory is expected to increase as the market for mobile devices and the applications they run continues to grow. Executive President of Memory Marketing for Samsung, Dong-Soo Jun, said the new memory solutions will bring the storage capacity of computers to mobile devices.
The expected cost of the two new high-density storage devices has not been released.

Self-assembling solar panels a step closer.

The self assembly process made a device of 64,000 parts in 3 minutes. Image: Heiko O. Jacobs

Source: Physorg.com

---------------------------

Scientists Robert J. Knuesel and Heiko O. Jacobs of the University of Minnesota have developed a way to make tiny solar cells self-assemble.
The researchers had previously been unsuccessful in their attempts to make self-assembling electronic components. In large systems gravity can be used to drive self-assembly, and in nanoscale systems chemical processes can be used, but between the two scales, in the micrometer range, it is much more difficult.
To overcome the difficulties, Kneusel and Jacobs designed a flexible substrate of a thin layer of copper covered with propylene-terephthalate (PET). Regular depressions the same size as the "chiplets" were etched into the PET layer and then the sheet was dipped into a bath of molten solder, which coated the exposed copper in the etched depressions. Each chiplet consisted of a 20-60 µm silicon cube with one gold face. The silicon sides had a coating of hydrophobic (water-repelling) molecules, while the gold side had a hydrophilic (water-attracting) coating.
When the elements were placed in a container containing oil and water, they neatly arranged themselves in a sheet at the boundary between the liquids, with the gold side pointed down to the water layer. The substrate was then pulled slowly up through the boundary like a conveyor belt, and the elements neatly dropped in place in the depressions as the solder attracted the gold side. Accuracy was 98%. The assembly was covered with epoxy to keep the chiplets in place, and then a conducting electrode layer was added.
The device was able to assemble 62,000 elements, each of them thinner than a human hair, in only three minutes. The elimination of a dependency on gravity and sedimentation meant the chiplets could be reduced to below 100 micrometers in size. It was important to limit the assembly time to avoid oxidation of the surfaces, which would reduce surface energies and interfere with self-assembly. The water layer had to be acidic, at pH 2.0, and the temperature had to be kept at 95C to keep the solder molten.

The researchers think they can adapt their method to smaller components and larger assembled devices, and it could be used to cheaply and quickly assemble all kinds of high-quality electronic components on a wide range of flexible or inflexible substrates including plastics, semiconductors and metals. The assemblages could find uses in numerous applications such as solar cells, video displays and tiny semiconductors.

The use of this method in solar cell production would reduce the cost considerably since less silicon is needed, and it should also be possible to assemble solar chiplets into transparent, flexible materials, which would extend their range of uses.
The paper is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
More information: Self-assembly of microscopic chiplets at a liquid-liquid-solid interface forming a flexible segmented monocrystalline solar cell, Robert J. Knuesel and Heiko O. Jacobs, PNAS, DOI:10.1073/pnas.0909482107

No-Sweat Pressure Sensors.

The new pressure sensor works at temperatures of up to 250 degrees Celsius. (Credit: Copyright Fraunhofer IMS)

Source: ScienceDaily

------------------------

ScienceDaily (Jan. 13, 2010) — Microelectronic chips used to take pressure readings are very delicate. A new technology has been developed that makes pressure sensors more robust, enabling them to continue operating normally at temperatures up to 250 degrees Celsius.

The drill bit gradually burrows deeper into the earth, working its way through the rock. Meanwhile, dozens of sensors are busily engaged in tasks such as taking pressure readings and evaluating porosity. The conditions they face are extreme, with the sensors being required to withstand high temperatures and pressures as well as shocks and vibrations. The sensors send the data to the surface to help geologists with work such as searching for oil deposits.
Yet there is one major hurdle: on average, the pressure sensors can only withstand temperatures of between 80 and 125 degrees Celsius -- but at great depths the temperature is often significantly higher. The Fraunhofer Institute for Microelectronic Circuits and Systems IMS in Duisburg has come to the rescue, its researchers having developed a pressure sensor system that continues to function normally even at 250 degrees Celsius.
"The pressure sensors consist of two components that are located on a microelectronic chip or wafer," explains Dr. Hoc Khiem Trieu, department head at IMS. "The first component is the sensor itself, and the other component is the EEPROM." This is the element that stores all the readings together with the data required for calibration.
To enable the pressure sensor to function properly even at extremely high temperatures, the developers modified the wafer. While normal wafers tend to be made of monocrystalline silicon, the researchers chose silicon oxide for this application. "The additional oxide layer provides better electrical insulation," Trieu continues. "It prevents the leakage current that typically occurs at very high temperatures, which is the principal reason that conventional sensors fail when they reach a certain temperature."
The oxide layer enabled the researchers to improve the insulation of the memory component by three to four orders of magnitude. In theory, this should enable the pressure sensors to withstand temperatures of up to 350 degrees Celsius -- the researchers have provided practical proof of stability up to 250 degrees and are planning to conduct further studies at higher temperatures. In addition, the researchers are analyzing the prototypes of the pressure sensors in endurance tests.
There is a broad range of potential applications, with engineers hoping to use the high-temperature pressure sensors not only in the petrochemical environment, but also in automobile engines and geothermal applications.

Story Source:
Adapted from materials provided by Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft.

RCA's Airenergy charger converts WiFi energy to electricity (VIDEO)

Source: Physorg.com

Airenergy is a gadget that can harvest free electricity from WiFi signals such as those from a wireless Internet connection, apparently with enough efficiency to make it practical for recharging devices such as mobile phones.

At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this week a RCA spokesman said they had been able to charge a BlackBerry from 30% charge to fully charged in around 90 minutes using only ambient WiFi signals as the power source, although it was unclear on whether the Airenergy battery was recharged in that time. The Airenergy recharging time depends on the proximity to the WiFi signal and the number of WiFi sources in the vicinity.
The RCA Airenergy unit converts the WiFi antenna signal to DC power to recharge its own internal lithium battery, so it automatically recharges itself whenever the device is anywhere near a WiFi hotspot. If you have a wireless network at home the Airenergy would recharge overnight virtually anywhere in your home. When you need to recharge your phone or other device you plug the Airenergy battery into the phone via USB to transfer the charge.

Harvesting electricity from signals in the air is not new, as anyone who ever built a crystal radio running only on the radio signals it received can testify, but until now no device has been able to harvest enough electricity to make it of practical use. In most modern cities WiFi signal hotspots abound, which might make the Airenergy device a viable option, although in rural areas WiFi sources are less widespread.
A USB charger costing around $40, and about the size of a phone, is expected to be released later this year, with a WiFi-harvesting battery around the same size and price as an OEM battery available shortly after.

Statistics Page

map counter



blog counter


flag counter

Introducing the Light Touch interactive projector.

Source: Physorg.com

---------------------------

UK-based company Light Blue Optics has introduced an extremely compact projector that converts any flat surface into an interactive touch video screen.

The Light Touch interactive projector is basically a hand-held computer that runs Windows CE and uses a proprietary holographic laser projection (HLP) system to project a virtual touch screen onto any flat surface. The image projected is only 15 lumens, but remains in focus even at long distances.
Holographic refers to the method Light Blue Optics uses to create two-dimensional images by transforming original images into sets of diffraction patterns that are shown on a micro-display and then illuminated by laser light. Diffraction patterns are used because of their high efficiency, since they direct light to where it is needed rather than indiscriminately.
Multiple diffraction patterns are calculated, with each producing a rough version on the image. The viewer's eye then separates the images from the noise and sees them as a clear video image that is always in focus, even when projected onto a curved surface. The lasers produce vivid and bright image colors, and the wide throw angle produces large (10-inch) images even close to the tiny projector.

The Light Touch system detects interactivity via an integrated infrared system that in effect transforms any surface into a touch screen, and this allows users to run the projector and control applications by touching the image. WiFi connectivity and Bluetooth technology are built-in to allow users to connect to the Internet for multimedia sharing and social networking via the projector.
The laser used in the Light Touch projector is a class 1, which means it is completely eye safe, and the projected images are WVGA (Wide Video Graphics Array), which produces a crisp, auto-focused image. The standard flash memory is 2 GB, but there is a micro SD card slot to upgrade to 32 GB storage. The battery life rating is for two hours.

The Light Touch projector, the first released product of Blue Light Optics, was demonstrated for the first time on 7 January at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

More information: Light Blue Optics website: http://lightblueoptics.com/products/light-touch/
© 2009 PhysOrg.com