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Archive for the ‘transportation’ category: Page 299

May 17, 2019

Machine learning speeds modeling of experiments aimed at capturing fusion energy on Earth

Posted by in categories: nuclear energy, particle physics, robotics/AI, transportation

Machine learning (ML), a form of artificial intelligence that recognizes faces, understands language and navigates self-driving cars, can help bring to Earth the clean fusion energy that lights the sun and stars. Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) are using ML to create a model for rapid control of plasma—the state of matter composed of free electrons and atomic nuclei, or ions—that fuels fusion reactions.

The sun and most stars are giant balls of plasma that undergo constant reactions. Here on Earth, scientists must heat and control the plasma to cause the particles to fuse and release their energy. PPPL research shows that ML can facilitate such control.

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May 17, 2019

Triumph Is Building an Electric Motorcycle

Posted by in categories: sustainability, transportation

Just like Harley-Davidson and Ducati.

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May 17, 2019

The Amazing Ways The Ford Motor Company Uses Artificial Intelligence And Machine Learning

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, transportation

Ford Motor Company, ones of America’s oldest companies, uses artificial intelligence and machine learning in many ways from the supply chain to production to used car sales to self-driving vehicles. The company prioritizes technology, and this focus is one reason it’s leading the path to the future.

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May 17, 2019

This startup is planning a flying taxi service that costs about the same as normal taxis

Posted by in categories: mobile phones, transportation

A flying taxi that you can order through an app? This German company plans to make that a reality in the next six years.

Munich-based startup Lilium unveiled its five-seater electric air taxi prototype on Thursday. The Lilium Jet, which conducted its first flight earlier this month, is part of an app-based flying taxi service that the company expects will be “fully-operational in various cities around the world by 2025.”

The battery-powered jet is capable of traveling 300 kilometers (186 miles) in 60 minutes on a single charge, and will connect cities through a network of landing pads. Commuters will be able to book rides from their nearest landing pad through a smartphone app.

Continue reading “This startup is planning a flying taxi service that costs about the same as normal taxis” »

May 16, 2019

Entangled-photon gyroscope overcomes classical limit

Posted by in categories: quantum physics, transportation

Fiber optic gyroscopes, which measure the rotation and orientation of airplanes and other moving objects, are inherently limited in their precision when using ordinary classical light. In a new study, physicists have experimentally demonstrated for the first time that using entangled photons overcomes this classical limit, called the shot-noise limit, and achieves a level of precision that would not be possible with classical light.

The physicists, led by Matthias Fink and Rupert Ursin at the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Vienna Center for Quantum Science and Technology, have published a paper on the entanglement-enhanced fiber-optic gyroscope in a recent issue of the New Journal of Physics.

“We have demonstrated that the generation of entangled photons has reached a level of technical maturity that enables us to perform measurements with sub-shot noise accuracy in harsh environments,” Fink told Phys.org.

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May 15, 2019

AUDI’s new electric car will have autonomous vehicle capability and a roof that holds real plants

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, transportation

Apart from the AI tech implemented to take most of the effort out of driving in general, the AI: ME autonomous vehicle is completely electric and holds plants.

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May 15, 2019

Nawa’s carbon nanotube ultra-capacitors are going into mass production

Posted by in categories: energy, nanotechnology, transportation

Charging almost instantly and offering massive power density, Nawa’s innovative ultracapacitors are ready to make a mark across industries from automotive to power tools and aviation. And after raising more than US$10 million, this French company is going into mass production.

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May 13, 2019

NASA hands massive supersonic contract to Lockheed Martin, with one catch: No sonic boom

Posted by in category: transportation

Circa 2018


Lockheed Martin has won a nearly quarter-billion dollar NASA contract to develop a plane capable of supersonic speed without creating the deafening sonic boom that comes with breaking the sound barrier.

The cost-plus NASA contract, valued at $247.5 million, will allow the defense contractor’s secretive Skunk Works division to continue development of Lockheed Martin’s Quiet Supersonic Technology (or QueSST) aircraft. This is “NASA’s first X-plane in a generation,” a Lockheed Martin spokesperson told CNBC on Tuesday.

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May 13, 2019

Scientists bioengineer a cellular speedometer

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, transportation

An all-Princeton research team has identified bacteria that can detect the speed of flowing fluids.

Many kinds of cells can sense , just as our skin cells can feel the difference between a gentle breeze and a strong wind. But we depend on feeling the force involved, the push-back from the air against us. Without that push, we can’t distinguish speed; when the windows are closed, our skin can’t feel any difference in whether we are sitting in an office, a speeding car or a cruising airplane. But now, a team of Princeton researchers has now discovered that some bacteria can in fact detect the speed of flow regardless of the force. Their paper appears in the online journal Nature Microbiology.

“We have engineered bacteria to be speedometers,” said Zemer Gitai, Princeton’s Edwin Grant Conklin Professor of Biology and the senior author on the paper. “There’s an application here: We can actually use these bacteria as flow sensors. If you wanted to know the speed of something in real time, we can tell you.”

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May 13, 2019

NASA Is Working on Electric Planes Powered by Cryogenic Hydrogen

Posted by in categories: energy, transportation

To clean up the aviation industry, NASA-funded scientists are working to develop an all-electric aircraft powered by cryogenically-liquified hydrogen fuel.

The University of Illinois scientists behind the project nailed down $6 million over three years from NASA to develop the tech, according to a university-published press release — tech that could, if the project pans out, revolutionize the aviation industry.

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