Lifeboat Foundation

How intelligent can robots get?Robots are getting smarter, which means they are better able to execute our commands. A number of different companies worldwide focus their attention on creating robots but one company in particular is really taking the lead on this lofty goal: Google.

Giving a robotic assistant a broad-based understanding of how to be helpful at home or work isn’t easy. But Google researchers are making progress.

In Part 1 of this who-knows-how-many-parts-there-will-be mini-series, we focused on one of my favorite display technologies in the form of Nixie tubes. We also featured a photograph showing the main control room of an abandoned power plant in Hungary that—much like your humble narrator—was simply oozing with style.

In that photograph, you may have spotted another of my favorite display technologies—vintage analog meters—which I typically acquire at Hamfests and electronic flea markets. I really like the look and feel of these little beauties so long as they are of a certain age, thereby bestowing an air of gravitas upon the occasion of their use.

One of my ongoing hobby projects is what I call my Vetinari Clock, which is named after one of the characters from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. Lord Havelock Vetinari, who is the Lord Patrician in charge of the city-state of Ankh-Morpork, has a strange clock in his waiting-room. While it does keep completely accurate time overall, it sometimes ticks and tocks out of sync (for example, “tick, tock … ticktocktick, tock …”) and it occasionally misses a ‘tick’ or a ‘tock’ altogether. As a result, by the time Lord Vetinari’s visitors are finally granted an audience, their nerves are already frayed and frazzled.

The machine learning technique that taught notorious text generator GPT-3 to write can also help robots make sense of spoken commands.

The newly-found, three-mile-wide natural satellite orbits the 17-mile-wide asteroid Polymele, which is about 480 million miles from Earth.

Launched in 1977, the twin Voyager probes are NASA’s longest-operating mission and the only spacecraft ever to explore interstellar space.

This new invention is highly scalable since its raw materials are commercially available and easy to access.

A team of researchers from the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) College of Design and Engineering (CDE) has developed a self-charging electricity generation (MEG) device that generates electricity from air moisture, according to a press release by the institution.

Imagine being able to generate electricity by harnessing moisture in the air around you with just everyday items like sea salt and a piece of fabric, or even powering everyday electronics with a non-toxic battery that is as thin as paper. A team of researchers from the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) College of Design and Engineering (CDE) has developed a new moisture-driven electricity generation (MEG) device made of a thin layer of fabric — about 0.3 millimetres (mm) in thickness — sea salt, carbon ink, and a special water-absorbing gel.

Continue reading “NUS researchers invent self-charging, ultra-thin device that generates electricity from air moisture” »

His new prototype had 39 percent greater torque over a traditional motor.

A young engineer called Robert Sansone won the first prize, and winnings of $75,000, at this year’s Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), the world’s largest international high school STEM competition.

Continue reading “This 17-Year-Old Designed a Motor That Could Potentially Transform the Electric Car Industry” »