• AI-powered drone continues to fly during tornadoes

    Most drones can only operate effectively in ideal weather conditions. However, in order for drones to be able to perform necessary tasks, such as delivering packages or airlifting injured drivers from a traffic accident, they must be able to adapt to wind conditions in real-time. A team of engineers from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have found a solution. They have developed 'Neural-Fly', a deep-learning method that can help drones cope with new and unknown wind conditions, allowing them to fly even in extreme events such as hurricanes. The five-pound drone can recalculate weather conditions around it five times per second, and adapt its path accordingly, as described in a study published in Science Robotics . “We can make sure that this drone can land under any weather…

  • ‘Smallest-ever’ robots are remote controlled using lasers

    The tiny crabs may just be half a millimetre wide, but they are capable of bending, twisting, crawling, walking, turning and even jumping. The team also developed millimetre-sized robots resembling inchworms, crickets and beetles. Although the research is exploratory at this point, the researchers believe their technology might bring the field closer to realizing micro-sized robots that can perform practical tasks inside tightly confined spaces. “Robotics is an exciting field of research, and the development of microscale robots is a fun topic for academic exploration,” said John A Rogers, who led the experimental work. Image credit: Northwestern University “You might imagine micro-robots as agents to repair or assemble small structures or machines in industry…

  • View from Brussels: Emerald green deal boosted

    The Celtic Interconnector has long been in the works . Since Brexit, the project has enjoyed a boost in political support, as it will be Ireland’s only physical power connection to an EU member state once it is completed. In terms of capacity, the cable will be able to handle 700 megawatts – roughly enough to power nearly half a million homes – and will also carry a fire-optic link that will improve communication services. Costing nearly €1 billion, the EU has met more than half the costs through its dedicated cross-border infrastructure fund. France and Ireland are picking up the rest of the bill. Michael Mahon from Ireland’s grid operator said: “This brings us one step closer to the many benefits this project will bring, including improving the security of electricity supply, helping…

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    E+T Magazine

  • Meta creates digital human model to develop better prosthetics

    Researchers at Meta's Artificial Intelligence Research Lab and the University of Twente's Neuromechanical Modelling and Engineering Lab in the Netherlands, have co-developed the open-source framework MyoSuite, which combines advanced musculoskeletal models with advanced artificial intelligence (AI) to create "digital humans" that mimic complex movements.  The AI-powered digital models in MyoSuite can build realistic musculoskeletal simulations as many as 4,000 times faster than current prosthetics. T he researchers claim that they can train the models to do certain complex motor movements, such as twirling a pen or rotating an arm.  Although the main goal of the tool is to model complex human movement to help develop prosthetics, it can also potentially be used for the design of new physical…

  • Mixing tyre rubber with bitumen can act as a ‘sun cream’ for roads

    Engineers at RMIT University in Australia have discovered a bitumen blend that is both UV-resistant and withstands traffic loads, with the potential to save governments millions on road maintenance annually. Roads are typically not designed with any sun protection, which makes them prone to cracking and eventually unsafe to drive on.  Incorporating recycled rubber not only offers sun protection but offers a sustainable way to recycle the material in many countries. “We found that the ageing trend is actually slowed down when you add crumb rubber, which is recycled from scrap tyres, into the top layer of a road,” said associate professor Filippo Giustozzi. “This acts so effectively as a sunscreen for roads that it actually makes the surface last twice as long as regular bitumen. “We…

  • Permeable pavements aim to protect Australia from flooding

    This year has already seen one of Australia's worst floods on record, in which 23 people died and thousands were left homeless. The damage bill of the disaster is expected to top $1.5bn (about £1.2bn). In addition to the impacts of climate change , increasing  urban development is contributing to the rise in flood risk. The building of impermeable road and sidewalk surfaces in cities often causes surface water to collect, with nowhere to drain. Overall, the cost of natural disasters is predicted to cost $33bn AUD (18.6bn) by 2050. University of South Australia (UniSA) engineers have proposed a solution, published in an article in the Sustainability journal: permeable pavements. Permeable pavements are used on many driveways, parking lots and low-traffic roads. Their porous surface allows…

  • Non-CO2 emissions cuts crucial to keep below 2°C warming

    Researchers from Duke University in the USA said that by focusing on reducing emissions of other atmospheric gases, as well as CO2, the rate of global warming could be cut in half by 2050. “Decarbonisation is crucial to meeting our long-term climate goals, but it’s not enough,” said study co-author Drew Shindell. “To slow warming in the near-term and reduce suffering from the ever-increasing heatwaves, droughts, superstorms and fires, we need to also reduce short-lived climate pollutants this decade.” The research shows that focusing efforts almost entirely on cutting CO2 emissions, as most governments currently do, can no longer prevent global temperatures from rising 1.5°C above pre-industrial times – a key aim of the Paris climate accord. Such a rise would substantially increase…

  • Upper-body mobility suit project to help people with neuromuscular diseases

    The University of Liverpool is a part of the project. Dr Farnaz Nickpour and her team at 'The Inclusionaries Lab' at the university will work with Duchenne UK and Spinal Muscular Atrophy UK (SMA UK) to develop the ‘SMART Suit’ – a first of its kind exoskeleton suit to help disabled teenagers and young people use their arms and upper body. The SMART Suit is an ambitious and innovative assistive technology design project with the potential to improve quality of life for a wide range of people living with neuromuscular diseases and disabilities. It aims to give people living with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) – a progressive muscle-wasting disease which typically affects young boys – and other progressive diseases back their strength, independence and dignity. Dr Nickpour, director of…

  • Tourism pollution in Wales assuaged with £26m funding

    Over one million tourists visit Wales every year. In 2021, the number of visitors from within the UK drastically increased, as people avoided travelling abroad due to the impact of COVID-19. In light of its popularity as a tourist destination, the Welsh government is taking steps to address the carbon footprint that the industry generates, as the country prepares for the summer holidays.  Last summer, social media platforms and news outlets were awash with pictures of overcrowding in popular destinations such as Snowdon, Yr Wyddfa, where there were daily queues to reach the summit. Globally, studies suggest that c arbon dioxide emissions from tourism could increase by more than 300 per cent by the end of the century if nothing is done to address this.  To tackle this challenge, the Welsh…

  • Energy price cap to rise in October as cost-of-living crisis worsens

    Ofgem chief executive Jonathan Brearley has told MPs the regulator is expecting an energy price cap in October “in the region of £2,800”. The energy regulator said it expects the cap to rise 42 per cent from its current level of £1,971. The news comes after Ofcom proposed to review the price cap every three months, instead of twice a year, in an attempt to bring down prices sooner. Last month, the cap increased by 54 per cent, from £1,277 in October 2021. “The price changes are genuinely a once-in-a-generation event not seen since the oil crisis in the 1970s,” Brearley told MPs on the BEIS Committee. Brearley warned that this increase in UK residents’ energy bills may double the number of people in fuel poverty - defined as households that spend over 10 per cent of their disposable income…

  • Graphyne, sister material to graphene, created in bulk for the first time

    Prior to the project by researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder, only a few fragments of graphyne had ever been produced despite decades of work and theorising. The CU Boulder team believes the material could open brand-new possibilities for electronics, optics and semiconducting material research. “The whole audience, the whole field, is really excited that this long-standing problem, or this imaginary material, is finally getting realised,” said Yiming Hu, lead author on the paper. Scientists have long been interested in the construction of new or novel carbon allotropes, or forms of carbon, because of carbon’s versatility in a wide range of applications. Using traditional chemistry methods, scientists have successfully created various allotropes over the years, including…

  • Ford trials geofencing technology to automatically control vehicle speed

    Ford is trialling an innovative geofencing technology - a type of virtual geographical boundary - where special rules can be set around specific locations. The company is hoping to be able to ensure that internet-connected vehicles automatically adhere to set speed limits in specific areas. By controlling vehicle speeds, the vehicle manufacturer aims to reduce the need for speed limit signs, as well as helping users avoid inadvertently breaching those limits.  In Europe, as many as 29 per cent of road fatalities are pedestrians and cyclists and many local authorities are s etting up 30km/h (approximately 20mph) zones to reduce the risk to pedestrians in urban areas, particularly around schools, hospitals and shopping areas.  “Geofencing can ensure speeds are reduced where, and even when…

  • London’s oft-delayed £19bn Elizabeth line finally opens to the public

    Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said that benefits of the new line will extend beyond London and the South East with the whole country “reaping the rewards” of a potential multibillion-pound boost to the economy created by the major infrastructure project. The project has been in the making for a long time, with Crossrail being given an initial £14.8bn budget that slowly ballooned over time following repeated delays to stand at around £19bn. Nine new stations are opening in central London which will provide Elizabeth line services every five minutes from 06:30 until 23:00, Monday to Saturday. The new railway will also connect some of London’s major employment centres with outer boroughs and increase central London’s rail capacity by 10 per cent, the largest single increase in more than…

  • War in Ukraine is unbalancing the global energy market

    Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has thrown the global economy and progress towards net-zero into turmoil. It has been joined by a report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which says too many countries are moving too slowly to implement even the Glasgow Climate Pact Alok Sharma rescued in November 2021. As he said, in marking six months since COP26, there are now more post-invasion supply chain worries. Some further threaten food security. In May, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation estimated that 25m tonnes of Ukrainian grain could not be exported because of Russian port blockades and damaged infrastructure. It says famines are a risk, so western countries are looking to free up those supplies quickly. Major powers are also acting in broad unison to support…

  • UK scientists blocked from Horizon funding programme amid Brexit tensions

    The EU has blocked British scientists from accessing the world’s biggest research programme in the latest Brexit row.  The UK’s associate membership of the €95bn (£81bn) Horizon Europe programme was foreseen in the 2020 Brexit agreement. However, the EU has been delaying the UK’s membership as a response to Prime Minister Boris Johnson's threat to tear up the Northern Ireland Protocol, a vital part of the Brexit agreement that governs trade between the region and mainland Britain. Last week, VP of the European Commission, Maroš Šefčovič, said that the EU would respond “with all measures at its disposal” if the UK goes ahead with a bill to disapply elements of the protocol. An official letter seen by Politico stated the EU's intention to use the Horizon programme as a way of pressing the…

  • Google and UK Power Networks develop digital map of electricity cables

    Google's DeepMind and UK Power Networks want to transform the global utility industry with the creation of digital maps of electricity cables. Until now, no artificial intelligence (AI) software has been able to recognise hand-drawn straight lines and recreate them as fully interactive digital files. Google’s DeepMind promises to change that. The company's engineers have partnered with UK Power Networks, which delivers electricity across London, to use new image-recognition software to scan thousands of maps – some of which date back decades – and automatically remaster them into a digital format.  The team aims to create digital versions of maps covering more than 180,000km of electricity cables. Currently, utility firms have to manually scan maps of underground equipment in order to…

  • Offshore energy firms claim that windfall tax will damage investor confidence

    Chancellor Rishi Sunak is reportedly considering a windfall tax on offshore energy firms who have made huge profits in recent months due to sharp increases in the price of oil and gas. The money raised could then be used to help to help households struggling with soaring food and energy costs. But 31 companies working in the offshore energy supply chain have written an open letter to Sunak and Prime Minister Boris Johnson saying that such a move would amount to a “blunt short-term response which could undermine the levers to long-term solutions”. “Our companies, still recovering from the last downturn, today help support some 200,000 jobs and contribute billions to local economies across the UK. As an already fragile supply chain supporting these producers, any further risks to future activity…

  • London’s Elizabeth Line: inside the new Farringdon station

    Say hello to the Elizabeth Line, London’s latest tube extension which Andy Byford, Transport for London’s (TfL) commissioner, has said is “truly transformative and fully accessible”, and has “incredibly quick journey times” and “beautiful, spacious, modern surroundings”. In construction for over a decade, TfL has finally launched the passenger service which travels between 10 new London stations from Paddington to Abbey Wood. The service uses Class 345 trains, that traverse the new tunnels under central London, with 24 trains per hour currently operating. Farringdon, one of the ten newly built stations, is expected to be the UK’s busiest and became the first Crossrail station to be handed over to TfL back in March 2021. It connects the London Underground with Thameslink to provide links…

  • View from India: Cloud is a strategic business imperative

    Digital transformation is the key reason for cloud integration into various sectors and companies. It is not just something fanciful for a handful of elite companies to latch on to. At a recent NASSCOM-EY webinar, Nitin Sawant, India cloud leader at EY, said that a survey conducted earlier in the year had revealed that companies rely on cloud for business transformation, rather than it being a cost reduction initiative. “Big organisations are joined by mid-size companies and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) which are also into cloud-based applications for collaboration, enterprise resource management (ERM), customer relationship management (CRM) and security,” he said. Cloud adoption is cutting across sectors. IT-ITes are joined by banking, financial services and insurance (BSFI) and…

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    E+T Magazine

  • Soft robots autonomously navigate mazes using ambient heat energy

    “These soft robots demonstrate a concept called ‘physical intelligence,’ meaning that structural design and smart materials are what allow the soft robot to navigate various situations, as opposed to computational intelligence,” said corresponding author of the study, Jie Yin. The soft robots are made of liquid crystal elastomers in the shape of a twisted ribbon, resembling translucent rotini. When the ribbon is placed on a surface that is at least 55°C, which is hotter than the ambient air, the portion of the ribbon touching the surface contracts, while the portion of the ribbon exposed to the air does not. This induces a rolling motion in the ribbon: the warmer the surface, the faster it rolls. “This has been done before with smooth-sided rods, but that shape has a drawback…

  • Drone transitions from air to water in less than a second

    A new drone design could pave the way for ultrafast transitions between air and water.  The robot, designed by scientists from Beihang University, Imperial College London and Empa, is capable of switching from an underwater drone to an aerial vehicle in less than one second. This capability could allow it to make great advances in biological and environmental monitoring in marine ecosystems, such as surveying ocean pollution in the open sea. The drone's suction disc was inspired by the remora fish – a family of species known for their adhesive discs, which help them catch a ride on marine creatures including whales and sharks. This enables the drone to hitchhike on wet or dry moving objects to significantly reduce its power consumption, the scientists have explained in a new study published…

  • Net-zero investments could ‘level up’ underperforming parts of the UK

    The Climate Change Committee has forecast that net-zero investment will need to rise from £13.5bn this year to £50bn by 2030 and that around 85 per cent of decarbonisation between 2020 and 2035 will involve low-carbon technologies, either alone or with behavioural change. While the UK is not yet a “green tech superpower”, the report states, it does have a comparative advantage over other advanced economies in several key technologies such as tidal power, offshore wind, and carbon capture and storage. The report finds that areas outside London and the South East also have the greatest potential for a green expansion of the economy, with the areas with the highest share of green patents being the Tees Valley and Durham, and Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. These areas underperform, productivity…

  • Neural network estimates forest height using satellite imagery

    A neural network could size up trees from satellite images, according to new research.  From environmental scientists to civil engineers and wood industry workers, there are many people who require accurate estimates of forest tree size. This information is vital for understanding how much atmospheric carbon dioxide the trees are capturing, whether there’s risk of them damaging power lines, and how much timber is available for logging. Currently, these estimates are obtained from satellite images as well as multiple cameras spanning several bands of infrared radiation, as drone technology is ineffective in large and hard to reach regions. However, this multispectral data is scarce and expensive to acquire. Researchers from Moscow-based research institute Skoltech may have found the perfect…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Clearview AI fined £7.5m for illegally collecting UK citizen's data

    Controversial facial-recognition firm Clearview AI received a multimillion-pound fine for building a database of more than 20 billion images without informing people or gaining their consent. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) found the company did not have a lawful reason for collecting people’s information and failed to adequately inform UK residents over the use of their personal data. As a result, Clearview AI has been fined £7,552,800 and ordered to delete all data gathered from people in the UK. Clearview AI first came under fire in 2020 after its database - built from scraping billions of publicly available images from social media - suffered a security breach. However, privacy advocates have long condemned the company's business model , based on allowing its clients to…

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