Breakthroughs and trends in the world of technology.
Biomimicry
Technological Leap
Nature is filled with interesting oddities, and many of them inspire roboticists. Take, for example, water striders, the bugs that not only skim along the surface of water but can also propel themselves into the air as if they were taking off from solid ground. Engineering researchers from Seoul National University and Harvard have now created a tiny, lightweight robot that can mimic water striders. The researchers had to first understand how the striders managed the feat. They pored over videos to analyze the insect’s mechanics. And each time they reached a hypothesis, they tested it using a robotic prototype. They learned that water striders’ legs are slightly curved at the tips and use a rotational movement to assist their launch from the water’s surface. They also learned that the bug maintains leg contact on water for as long as possible during the jump maneuver; it pushes down on the water but with a force that’s just above the threshold that would break the surface. Using that intel, researchers designed a robotic strider that can exert 16 times its body weight on the surface without breaking through. It leaps off the water using a catapult mechanism coupled with limited thrust. The key takeaway from this experiment is that researchers are learning how to make use of “physical intelligence,” the ability of insects to perform extreme types of locomotion without having deep cognitive skills. The goal is to design robots capable of complicated movements that don’t require complex controls or artificial intelligence. – Thomas K. Grose
©Thinkstock
Medical Technology
An End to Pin-Pricks
Millions of diabetes patients worldwide need to measure their glucose levels several times a day. For many, it’s a painful chore that requires them to prick a finger and squeeze blood onto a test strip that’s processed by a glucometer. Implanted sensors, which measure glucose constantly, need to be surgically replaced on a regular basis. But relief could be in sight. Researchers led by Gin Jose, a professor of functional materials at Britain’s Leeds University, have developed a non-invasive, laser-based device that can monitor the glucose levels in blood without having to penetrate the skin. The monitor uses a nano-engineered piece of silica glass containing ions that fluoresce in infrared light when hit by a low-level laser. When a person’s skin comes in contact with the glass, the fluorescence signal varies, depending on the concentration of glucose in the blood. The process takes just 30 seconds. A pilot clinical study indicated that the device has the potential to perform as well as conventional methods, although more trials and technical improvements will be needed before it can be approved for sale. Jose says he envisions two versions: a finger-touch monitor that resembles a PC mouse, and a wearable version that provides continuous monitoring. The next step, he says, would be a device that sends alerts to physicians, enabling them to profile how patients are managing their diabetes over time. – TG
©University of Leeds
Assistive Devices
Nature’s Way
Technologies blurring the distinction between human and machine are being developed at a furious pace. It sounds unnerving, but it may be good news for the disabled and amputees. This summer, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved an exoskeleton that lets paraplegics and quadriplegics walk on their own. Developed in part by Israeli engineer Amit Goffer – who was paralyzed from the neck down in a car accident – along with friends and colleagues, the ReWalk is pricey at $69,500 but works amazingly well. One woman completed the London Marathon with it. While prosthetic hands with sensors attached to the outside of residual limbs are not new, they’re limited to opening and closing. But University of Colorado researchers are developing sensors to better sense the electrical activity of all 18 forearm muscles and give prostheses more natural movements. A team at MIT, meanwhile, is working on a robotic extension of the human hand – basically two extra digits located next to the thumb and pinky that wearers can operate simply by moving their hand. And at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, engineers have developed 3-D-printed bio-bots made with flexible hydrogels and living skeletal muscle cells that can be activated with electric pulses. Such bio-bots are easily controlled and can be customized to do specific tasks. – TG
©Val, John & Claire, ReWalker
Project-Based Learning
The Harvard Brisket
A brisket, a cut of beef from a cow’s lower chest, is one tough hunk of meat. To make it tasty and tender, it’s best when rubbed with spices and cooked in a smoker, with heat from burning charcoal and wood, for 12 to 15 hours at a constant low heat. This kind of barbecuing tends to be based more on art than science. When Kevin “Kit” Parker, a professor of bioengineering at Harvard, went to a cooking competition in Memphis, he was dismayed to see the jury-rigged contraptions used to smoke briskets and saw a need for some science-based engineering. So he challenged students in his Engineering Problem Solving and Design course to come up with a better smoker. He also got posh kitchenware company Williams-Sonoma to be the course’s client and to provide the design specs and 220 pounds of meat. The students put in more than 880 hours smoking meat, and that’s not counting the countless hours of research, designing, and coursework they also clocked. Weekend smoking shifts began at 3 a.m., often in snowy, freezing conditions. The students also reverse-engineered the top smoker on the market, the $1,200 Big Green Egg, to find its weaknesses. In the end, the Harvard Smoker was made of ceramic, weighed 300 pounds, and had an hourglass shape to keep the internal heat evenly spread across the meat. A computer keeps internal oxygen supplies at correct levels, and temperature changes are sent to a smartphone app. The final cook-off was a success, with a local chef and a Williams-Sonoma executive giving the students’ brisket top scores. And the company tells the New York Times it’s interested in commercializing the smoker. – TG
©Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer
Virtual Reality
No Pain, No Game
Gamers are not particularly known for exerting themselves physically, except perhaps those who still use Wii exercise games. So Hyve, a German design company, is developing a virtual-reality game called Icaros that’s also a home gym. Users essentially lie on the contraption – as if they were flying like Superman – put the VR goggles on, and control the game with two handles. They are then transported into one of myriad virtual worlds, including the Amazon, the deep seas, outer space, mountain ranges – even a roller coaster. Every time they swoop or dive or turn, the machine forces their bodies to move as if they were truly making those maneuvers. A steep dive pulls at their chest and shoulder muscles; sharp left and right turns exercise their abs and lower back muscles. Overall, Icaros exercises the body’s core muscles. It’s still in prototype mode, but Hyve demonstrated Icaros at a tech show in Berlin a few months ago, and the folks who tried it were surprised at how strenuous a workout it delivered. Hyve says it hopes to sell Icaros at a price that’s similar to standard workout machines. Get your game face on. – TG
©HYVE
Manufacturing
Going Dry
Slag is a waste byproduct of steel-making. Some 60 percent of the world’s slag, or 330 million tons, is produced in China each year. Some of it is dumped, and some is used for making cement. Slag for cement, however, has to be granulated, and the wet granulation processes now used require vast amounts of water and can end up polluting groundwater in the area. A cleaner, greener solution may be at hand, however. Australian researchers at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) have spent 10 years developing dry slag granulation, or DSG. The technology is affixed to a blast furnace and it spins molten slag, turning it into droplets that are solidified by blasts of cold air piped into the chamber. No water is used, so the risk of polluting groundwater is nil. The resulting glassy slag is excellent for cement-making. And manufacturing cement with dry slag produces much less of the greenhouse gases typically emitted by traditional production methods. CSIRO earlier this year signed an agreement with China’s MCC Equipment Research and Design Corporation to demonstrate DSG technology at an industrial scale. If it’s successful, MCC will market DSG across China, and eventually worldwide. – Chris Pritchard
©CSIRO, Australia
Agricultural Technology
Fertile Landscape
Agtech is hotter than a Kansas wheat field in early August. One recent report said that venture capitalists poured $2.06 billion into agricultural-oriented tech start-ups during the first six months of the year, or nearly the total amount invested in all of 2014. Lance Donny, founder of OnFarm Systems, an agtech start-up, claimed at a recent Internet of Things conference that sensors, cloud computing, and the mining of massive data sets have the potential to help keep the world’s rapidly growing population fed by transforming agriculture so it is more productive and uses land, water, and fertilizer more efficiently. At Texas A&M University, researchers are developing drones that will use sensors to collect data to help farmers make optimal use of resources, including water, insecticides, and fertilizers. Data collected by the airborne sensors will be fed to computer programs that will relay it to a mobile device. Satellites can play a role, too. In drought-stricken California, state officials are working with NASA to create satellite-derived maps that monitor groundwater levels so that they can be better managed and not overused, especially in the state’s huge farming regions, according to Wired. The satellites beam interferometric synthetic aperture radar, or InSAR, at the ground. Changes in the radar waves that reflect back to the satellite can determine if and how much the ground is sinking, a way of measuring falling groundwater levels. Agtech isn’t just for farmers, either. Start-up Edyn began selling its Edyn Garden Sensor ($99) last May, after a Kickstarter crowd-funding round raised more than $384,000. It’s a solar powered device that monitors things like soil moisture, temperature, humidity, and light in home gardens and sends fertilizing and watering tips to gardeners’ iPhones. Want a green thumb? There’s an app for that Start-up. – TG
©Edyn
Materials
Extreme Protection
Evolution has allowed different species of shrimp to survive in a wide range of environments. The Pandalus platyceros, for instance, lives in shallow waters close to the ocean surface. Its cousin, Rimicaris exoculata, however, lives in waters 2,000 meters deep in hydrothermal vents where temperatures top 752 degrees F. Those evolutionary differences compelled researchers at Purdue University’s School of Aeronautics and Astronautics to study their exoskeletons using a number of lab tools, including scanning electron microscopy and electron diffraction spectroscopy, to reveal their structural secrets and chemical compositions. They hope the insights gained from the study will help them design new advanced composite materials that can withstand extreme conditions. Both exoskeletons have two key components: chitin, a protein; and calcite, a bone like material. The microstructure of the exoskeletons is the same: The chitin, calcite, and other components form a layered, spiraling helicoidal structure. But the density of the two differs greatly. The deep-sea shrimp’s outer armor is much more densely packed than the exoskeleton of its shallow-water relative. Nevertheless, the surface-water shrimp’s exoskeleton is 10 times as strong as the other’s. The harder exoskeleton of the shallow-water shrimp helps protect it from predators, while the deep-sea shrimp’s softer shell allows it to withstand boiling temperatures and strong water pressures. Despite having the same microstructure, one researcher notes, “they are completely different materials.”– TG
©Thinkstock
3-D Printing
Bridge to the Future
Amsterdam has numerous bridges crossing its canals but soon may add one of the most unusual, built entirely in the air by a robotic 3-D printer. The ambitious plan comes from MX3D, a start-up design company, which has developed a six-axis 3-D printer that can “draw” a steel structure in mid-air. If all goes according to plan, at some point next year the MX3D machine will print lines of molten metal – heated to 2,732 degrees F – in the air, starting on one side of the water and finishing on the opposite side. As it creates rail supports, the printer will inch along them, crossing the canal via the bridge it’s constructing. Dutch designer Joris Laarman, who launched the start-up, will design the bridge – which he describes as intricate and ornate – using bespoke Autodesk 3-D software. The software that runs the printer will also be complex: It will have to guide the machine to print lines that range from horizontal to vertical to spiraling. The goal of the bridge project, MX3D says, is “to show what our robots and software, engineers, craftsmen, and designers can do.” Completion is set for 2017. – TG
©MX3D
Solar Energy
Heat and Dust
The world’s third biggest emitter of greenhouse gases is India, mainly because it’s dependent on coal for power. It will need even more power in the future – not only to provide electricity to the 300 million Indians who still do without, but also to industrialize. So it’s looking for cleaner sources. Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants his country to become one of the world’s largest solar markets in less than 10 years. His goal is to construct 100 gigawatts of solar capacity by 2022, solar photovoltaic installations as well as plants using concentrated solar technology, according to Technology Review. Toward that goal, the Indian Institute of Science (IISC), as part of a project organized by the Solar Energy Research Institute for India and the United States, is operating a test array of solar-concentrating parabolic troughs coated in aluminum. The reflected sunlight heats water in pipes to 200 degrees Celsius, and the hot water is funneled to a heat exchanger powering a turbine that can produce 100 kilowatts of electricity. The test bed will also experiment with other fluids, including molten salt, as well as different reflective materials to determine which combination works best. As the magazine notes, India’s climates tend to be extreme, so IISC researchers also need to develop solar panels that can withstand not only sizzling temperatures and staggering humidity but also dust and . . . monkeys. The primates like to chew on electric cables. Attempts to repel them with an ultrasonic device only attracted more. – TG
©Thinkstock
Prosthetics
Show Your Hand
Children with prosthetic limbs sometimes have problems with self-esteem and confidence. To help them regain it, designer Carlos Arturo Torres has developed Iko, a Lego-based prosthetic that allows kids from 3 to 12 to design and build their own robotic hands – in any shape, from a rocket ship to a backhoe to a claw. The Iko was Torres’s senior design project last year at the Umea Institute of Design in Sweden, and is based on work he began while serving an internship at Lego’s Future Lab, the toymaker’s R&D division. The artificial limb’s battery-powered base has a processor and sensors that detect muscle movement and send the signals to Iko’s working end. In his student paper, Torres wrote that he was guided by this question: “What if kids could make their own prosthetics and have fun at the same time?” Torres, who is now based at Chicago design studio IDEO, says he wants to have 10 to 15 working prototypes ready to donate to Cirec, a rehabilitation center in his hometown of Bogota, Colombia, in December. And Wired reports he’s talking to investors to start full-scale production of Iko by mid-2017. He’s also interested in working with other toymakers. In his overview, Torres says there’s no reason that Iko couldn’t be matched with modules of other toys, including Marvel superheroes or Nintendo games. – TG
©Carlos Arturo Torres Tovar
Educational Technology
D.I.Y. or Not at All
British kids, not unlike their American peers, may literally grow up with computers these days, but most of them have no idea how the machines work. So the British Broadcasting Corporation is starting a project to put pocket-sized, code-able computers into the hands of the nation’s 11- and 12-year-olds. The Micro:bit was created by the Beeb with the help of 29 partners, including Microsoft, Samsung, ARM, Lancaster University, and Technology Will Save Us, which sells do-it-yourself digital gadgets. The Micro:bit won’t do a thing unless it’s programmed to do so by its owner. But it can quickly be customized to create games, apps, or any other digital ideas a youngster may have. Technology Will Save Us designed the look, shape, and feel of the device – which resembles a credit card laden with 25 red LED lights. Wired reports that it comes boxed with batteries, croc clips, and banana plugs. The Micro:bit can be linked to other devices, like tablets, smartphones and cameras via Bluetooth. The BBC hopes it will help students learn to code and “unleash a new generation of digital makers, inventors and pioneers.” The broadcaster is also working with teachers to develop classroom lessons around it. – TG
©BBC
Self-Driving Vehicles
Discomfort Zone
Despite all the miles Google’s self-driving test cars have racked up, they still have not been truly subjected to the unpredictability and chaos of mean urban streets. So in July, the Michigan Department of Transportation opened MCity near the University of Michigan. It’s a 32-acre mock city that offers real-world simulations of unpredictable city traffic to carmakers and other companies that want to test the technologies that will be needed to make driverless cars a reality. The $10 million site includes four miles of roadways, including on-ramps, rail crossings, dirt roads, construction barriers, traffic circles, and even leafy overhangs that blot out GPS signals. It’s a public-private initiative. So far, 15 companies have paid to road test their technologies there. Major carmakers have, of course, signed on, including Ford, GM, Toyota, and Nissan. But MCity has also attracted insurance companies, telecoms, auto parts suppliers, and even Xerox. The office-supply company is testing imaging technologies that can scan and read license plates and decipher how many occupants a car is carrying. MCity also has a dedicated short range communications (DSRC) infrastructure in place. DSRC is a radio frequency that the federal government wants to become the standard for vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications. While MCity’s “downtown” uses facades that replicate buildings in nearby Ann Arbor, officials hope that within six years autonomous cars will be safely navigating the actual streets of that college town. – TG
©Thinkstock