5 Super Techie Things in Manufacturing
1. 24-Hour Solar Power System: Pass the Salt, Please!
What happens when you cross a concentrated solar power system with molten salt heat storage? Why, solar power for vampires, of course! Researchers at MIT are positioning their new solar power system as a lower-cost alternative to the choices that already exist. It’s a concept that could help improve small communities in a forward step towards the use of clean energy.
2. Hi-Tech Flying Drones: 3D Printed To Order
After 20 years of development, it seems 3D Printing is finally starting to hit a decent stride. Recently more than ever, it seems people are finding real and useful ways to employ it. Take this 3D-printed unmanned aircraft recently developed and launched by a team at the UK’s University of Southampton. Before 3D printing technology, custom drones like this would have cost too much to leave the engineers imagination. Now they could gofrom the drawing board to flight in a matter of days.
3. 3D Planes Are Cool. 3D Printers in Space are Cooler.
That’s right. 3D printing. In space. Imagine that the crew of the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission had a 3D printer create the parts needed to fix their ship. An article on Canadian Manufacturing suggests the whole ordeal might have been “considerably easier” if they had, and goes to talk about how we really are 3D printing in space today.
4. Sense Heightening Gloves
Here’s some amazing work of medical engineering genius – vibrating gloves that can increase your fingertips’ sense of touch. According to Wired, the gloves have been designed to slightly vibrate, effectively boosting the wearer’s fingertip sensitivity.The technique builds on prior research that has taught us adding some white noise can improve such things as; balance, sight, hearing and touch.
5. Smart Robot Learns to “Learn as You Go”
According to a recent PopSci article, a team of Japanese engineers and roboticists designed a robot with “a kind of self-replicating neural technology … that enables it not only to perform tasks but also to learn as it goes.” In other words, this new robot can essentially think about what it knows already and apply that learning to solve a new problem. When it realizes it doesn’t have the prior knowledge, it tells you so.
Article from www.yorksaw.com
