The UK’s development of an urban airport for flying cars and drones could inspire other nations to follow suit.
Category: drones – Page 28
Nanoscale defects and mechanical stress cause the failure of solid electrolytes.
A group of researchers has claimed to have found the cause of the recurring short-circuiting issues of lithium metal batteries with solid electrolytes. The team, which consists of members from Stanford University and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, aims to further the battery technology, which is lightweight, inflammable, energy-dense, and offers quick-charge capabilities. Such a long-lasting solution can help to overcome the barriers when it comes to the adoption of electric vehicles around the world.
A study published on January 30 in the journal Nature Energy details different experiments on how nanoscale defects and mechanical stress cause solid electrolytes to fail.
According to the team, the issue was down to mechanical stress, which was induced while recharging the batteries. “Just modest indentation, bending or twisting of the batteries can cause nanoscopic issues in the materials to open and lithium to intrude into the solid electrolyte causing it to short circuit,” explained William Chueh, senior study author and an associate professor at Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability.
The possibility of dust or other impurities present at the manufacturing stage could also cause the batteries to malfunction.
AI that can make it seem as if you said something you didn’t.
In this How Nifty video, this new AI (artificial intelligence) called Flawless just broke the entire film industry… and more!
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With its state-of-the-art design, it provides endless possibilities for exploration and adventure!
A research team at the Chinese University in Hong Kong recently demonstrated that, despite giving off an aura of extraterrestrial technology to onlookers, it’s not out-of-this-world for objects to traverse between water and air in the blink of an eye.
Mirs-X-a revolutionary new quadcopter prototype.
Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Scientists and roboticists have long looked at nature for inspiration to develop new features for machines. In this case, researchers from Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland were inspired by bats and other animals that rely on echolocation to design a method that would give small robots that ability to navigate themselves — one that doesn’t need expensive hardware or components too large or too heavy for tiny machines. In fact, according to PopSci, the team only used the integrated audio hardware of an interactive puck robot and built an audio extension deck using cheap mic and speakers for a tiny flying drone that can fit in the palm of your hand.
The system works just like bat echolocation. It was designed to emit sounds across frequencies, which a robot’s microphone then picks up as they bounce off walls. An algorithm the team created then goes to work to analyze sound waves and create a map with the room’s dimensions.
In a paper published in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, the researchers said existing “algorithms for active echolocation are less developed and often rely on hardware requirements that are out of reach for small robots.” They also said their “method is model-based, runs in real time and requires no prior calibration or training.” Their solution could give small machines the capability to be sent on search-and-rescue missions or to previously uncharted locations that bigger robots wouldn’t be able to reach. And since the system only needs onboard audio equipment or cheap additional hardware, it has a wide range of potential applications.
Gravitilab.
The firm, called Gravitilab, flew its specially-modified LOUIS UAV quadcopter to an altitude of 2,000 feet (600 meters) before purposefully dropping a capsule carrying scientific experiments.
A British startup has performed a first-of-its-kind microgravity experiment using a drone.
The company, called Gravitilab, flew its adapted quadcopter to an altitude of 2,000 feet (600 meters), where it dropped a specially designed capsule carrying scientific experiments.
Social media company and Snapchat maker Snap has for years defined itself as a “camera company,” despite its failures to turn its photo-and-video recording glasses known as Spectacles into a mass-market product and, more recently, its decision to kill off its camera-equipped drone. But that hasn’t stopped the company from envisioning a future where AR glasses are a commonly used device, and one, as the company revealed on Tuesday’s fourth-quarter earnings call, that will eventually be powered by AI technology.
Investors wanted to get a sense of how Snap was thinking about the latest developments in AI — particularly in buzzy areas like generative A.I. which has benefitted from advances in algorithms, language models, and the increased processing power available to run the necessary calculations. One pointed to the AI image generator Midjourney’s bot for Discord, as an example of how AI could lead to increased user engagement within an app.
Snap CEO Evan Spiegel agreed that, in the near term, there were a lot of opportunities to use generative AI to make Snap’s camera more powerful. However, he noted that further down the road, AI would be critical to the growth of augmented reality, including AR glasses.
MIT lincoln laboratory and US-based sharrow marine have proposed unique toroidal propellers that could revolutionize aerial + marine sectors.
The DEIMOS laser weapon is seen here in illustration, capable in the near future of knocking a drone, ordinance, aircraft and even missiles out of the sky.
It is the economics of laser weapon systems that makes this type of ordinance so attractive. At the moment various vendors like Lockheed Martin, and Raytheon are building 50 Kilowatt laser weapons. But there is no determining limit on the strength. The U.S. Department of Defense estimates a 100 Kilowatt laser could easily handle a drone, a small boat, a shell fired by artillery, and even a mortar. For a cruise missile, the estimate is a 300 Kilowatt laser, and for a ballistic missile or hypersonic weapon, a 1 Megawatt laser. Lockheed Martin is already testing a 300 Kilowatt version of DEIMOS.
The US Navy is looking at 100 Kilowatt versions of DEIMOS for its ships and looks like it will replace arming vessels with rail gun technology which now appears to be considered obsolete. Rail guns were high-speed ordinance systems designed to knock down incoming cruise missiles but when costs are compared the laser has the technology beat.
Lockheed Martin’s version performs in any atmospheric condition. Combined with target tracking radar the laser can be pointed at a target with precision even when travelling at hypersonic speeds.