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Category: transportation – Page 129

In a recent advance, researchers have created a novel battery charger that can support present and future generations of battery packs for EVs across a vast range of voltages: anything between 120 and 900 volts. The new tech is described in a study published in the September edition of theIEEE Transactions on Power Electronics.

These next-generation batteries will bring shorter charging times while also weighing less, which means that EVs can be ready to drive sooner and travel farther on a full charge. “However, charging these high-voltage batteries with existing chargers degrades the efficiency, due to operating at twice the rated voltage,” says Deepak Ronanki, an assistant professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, in Chennai, India, and an IEEE senior member who was involved in the study.

Ronanki and doctoral research scholar Harish Karneddi created a universal charger capable of supporting voltages between 120 and 900 V—something they say had not yet otherwise been achieved.

Ronanki and Karneddi’s battery charger is actually a two-stage charger, with a front-end boost-buck power factor correction (PFC) circuit followed by a reconfigurable DC-DC converter. As the term “boost-buck” suggests, the battery charger can boost the voltage when the battery voltage is greater than the input voltage and, conversely, buck the voltage when the battery voltage is less than the input voltage.

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The world’s first wind-powered cargo ship has set off on her maiden voyage, using her giant metal ‘wings’ to fly through the ocean.

The WindWings have been fitted onto Mitsubishi-owned Pyxis Ocean — chartered by Cargill — and was designed by a team of British Olympic sailors.

It’s been built by Yara Marine Tech, and the WindWings are expected to save up to 30 percent of shipping fuel on average.

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The report further says 40 percent of workers will need to polish their skills due to the implementation of AI.

Artificial intelligence (AI) won’t replace employees anytime soon. But people who use AI will replace people who don’t, said tech giant IBM in its report, which talks about the implications of AI in businesses.

Companies are rapidly introducing AI into their workings to free up their employees’ time so they can focus on issues that require their personalized attention. The thing about AI is that it will do exactly what you train it to do. So, the hyperboles around the latest technology snatching away people’s jobs and taking over humanity can calm down.

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Flexible polymers made with a new generation of the Nobel-winning “click chemistry” reaction find use in capacitors and other applications.

Society’s increasing demand for high-voltage electrical technologies – including pulsed power systems, cars, electrified aircraft, and renewable energy applications – requires a new generation of capacitors that store and deliver large amounts of energy under intense thermal and electrical conditions.

A new polymer-based device that efficiently handles record amounts of energy while withstanding extreme temperatures and electric fields has now been developed by researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and Scripps Research. The device is composed of materials synthesized via a next-generation version of the chemical reaction for which three scientists won the 2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

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DALLAS – As the world continues to adapt to the growing trend of Artificial Intelligence (AI), South Korean scientists have unveiled a humanoid robot capable of piloting an aircraft.

Named Pibot, the life-sized robot, measuring 160 cm tall and weighing in at 65 kg, is capable of gripping the controls, memorizing aircraft manuals, and even responding to emergency situations. It is fitted with multiple cameras capable of monitoring the aircraft’s systems and operational conditions.

Currently under development by the Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST), researchers utilized AI chatbots such as ChatGPT to create ways for PiBot to learn the pilot manuals for various aircraft. The robot can then be changed onto an alternative airframe by clicking the type. It can also memorize worldwide Jeppesen aeronautical navigation charts, an impossible task for its human equivalent.

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She uses Chat GPT to write computer code but says the applications are endless. “You need to cut what is not working in your company, go to the edges and start playing with this (AI) and see where it’s going to go. Because they’re predicting you either get on the AI train or you will be out of business in 10 years.”

RELATED: Ohio researchers predict the most critical job skills as AI gains traction

CEO of the KR Digital Agency Kendra Ramirez says businesses can use AI to do work they don’t want to. “HR: who likes writing job descriptions? Anyone? No, no one. Performance reviews: One gentleman, his team, he had 50 people he had to do quarterly performance reviews.”

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New, ground-breaking wind technology for the maritime industry has the potential to decarbonise large cargo vessels, which are currently responsible for about 2% of global emissions.

Pyxis Ocean retrofitted with WindWings setting sail for its maiden voyage, August 2023. Credit: Cargill.

Pyxis Ocean, a bulk carrier measuring 229 m (751 ft) in length, with gross tonnage of over 43,000 MTs, has begun its maiden voyage from China to Brazil. This is no ordinary cargo vessel, however, as it comes fitted with new “WindWings” designed to reduce reliance on fossil fuels.

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Researchers have developed a novel material using tiny organic crystals that convert light into a substantial mechanical force able to lift 10,000 times its own mass. Without the need for heat or electricity, the photomechanical material could one day drive wireless, remote-controlled systems that power robots and vehicles.

Photomechanical materials are designed to transform light directly into mechanical force. They result from a complex interplay between photochemistry, polymer chemistry, physics, mechanics, optics, and engineering. Photomechanical actuators, the part of a machine that helps achieve physical movements, are gaining popularity because external control can be achieved simply by manipulating light conditions.

Researchers from the University of Colorado, Boulder, have taken the next step in the development of photomechanical materials, creating a tiny organic crystal array that bends and lifts objects much heavier than itself.

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Led by the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) and backed by the UK government, FlyZero has concluded that green liquid hydrogen is the optimum fuel for zero-carbon emission flight and could power a midsize aircraft with 280 passengers from London to San Francisco directly, or from London to Auckland with just one stop.

FlyZero, the UK study into zero-carbon emission commercial air travel, has published its vision for a new generation of aircraft powered by liquid hydrogen, today Thursday 17th March.

The report “Our Vision for Zero-Carbon Emission Air Travel” marks the conclusion of a 12-month study which set out to consider the feasibility of zero-carbon emission aircraft. The project concludes aviation can achieve net zero 2050 through the development of both sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and green liquid hydrogen technologies.

To secure market share on new hydrogen-powered aircraft, UK companies must be ready to demonstrate technologies by 2025. This timescale is key for new zero-carbon emission aircraft to enter service by 2035 and to achieve the net zero 2050 target.

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