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Bug-sized robots given ability to self-repair their wings after damage

The artificial muscles have been optimised so that the robot can better isolate defects and overcome minor damage, such as tiny holes in its actuators. A novel laser-repair method was also developed to help the robot recover from severe damage, such as a fire that scorches the device. Using their techniques, a damaged robot was able to maintain flight-level performance after one of its artificial muscles was jabbed by 10 needles, while the actuator was able to operate even after a large hole was burnt into it. The repair methods enabled a robot to keep flying even after the researchers cut off 20 per cent of its wing tip. This could make swarms of tiny robots better able to perform tasks in tough environments, such as conducting a search mission through a collapsing building or dense…

E+T Magazine in Biotechnology
Nigeria launches £559m fund to support young tech founders

Nigeria is looking to support its technology and creative industries with a new fund for young investors who struggle to raise capital in Africa's largest economy. The country's vice-president Yemi Osinbajo launched the fund under the Digital and Creative Enterprises Programme (DCEP) in the federal capital Abuja, the presidency said in a statement. "DCEP is a government initiative to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in the digital tech and creative industries and especially targeted at job creation," Osinbajo was quoted as saying at the launch of the fund. The initiative will target 15 to 35-year-olds. It will be supported by the government, which will provide $45m (£37m) while the private sector has pledged $271m (£225m). Of the latter, African Development Bank will put in…

E+T Magazine in Research and Innovation
Book interview: ‘The Smartness Mandate’ by Orit Halpern

“We call it a mandate,” says Dr Orit Halpern, “because we’re interested in how machine learning and artificial intelligence have become natural and necessary to the evolution of society. It’s when we decide a particular technology is essential to the way we live in a way it hasn’t always been.” As an example, the co-author of ‘The Smartness Mandate’ describes a scenario in which her overheated students instinctively resorted to the digital environment control system of the lecture room, when “they could have just opened the window. It’s now automatic to assume a computer-driven system will be more efficient.” During the past five decades, says Halpern, we have seen human intelligence redefined as computational. Halpern, who is Lighthouse Professor and chair of digital cultures and societal…

E+T Magazine
Placement of electric vehicle chargers could minimise energy grid stress

Most national plans to combat climate change include increasing the electrification of vehicles and the percentage of electricity generated from renewable sources. But some projections show that these trends might require costly new power plants to meet peak loads in the evening when cars are plugged in after the workday. This could also lead to overproduction of power from solar farms during the daytime which can waste valuable electricity-generation capacity. MIT researchers have found that it’s possible to mitigate or eliminate both these problems without the need for advanced technological systems of connected devices and real-time communications, which could add to costs and energy consumption. Instead, encouraging the placing of charging stations for EVs in strategic ways and setting…

E+T Magazine in Renewable Energy
UK will avoid a ‘technical recession’ in 2023, chancellor says

In his first full speech to Parliament, chancellor Jeremy Hunt said that the UK has "proved the doubters wrong" and confirmed that the country will not enter a technical recession in 2023. Announcing the Spring Budget, Hunt stressed predictions that inflation rates will fall from their 10.7 per cent high, reached in the final quarter of 2022, to 2.9 per cent by the end of 2023. The chancellor described this as a sign that the government's economic measures are "working". Despite his announcement, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) still forecast a contraction of 0.2 per cent this year. “We remain vigilant and will not hesitate to take whatever steps are necessary for economic stability," Hunt added. During his speech, Hunt announced a package of measures aimed at reducing…

E+T Magazine in Sustainable Development
China must rethink chip strategy in light of US sanctions

When it was founded in 2000, Grace Semiconductor aimed to build a chipmaking empire centred on Beijing but also make the most of political connections with the US. And with the son of former Chinese premier Jiang Zemin as one of its co-founders, the company was no stranger to forging geopolitical connections both inside and outside the country. It only took a couple of years for divorce proceedings to reveal a consultancy contract worth $2m over five years with Neil Bush, younger brother of the then US President, George W Bush. In the wake of the Chinese industrialisation and globalisation reforms introduced by Deng Xiaoping more than a decade earlier which resulted in manufacturing expanding rapidly, Grace saw it as a logical move. In the current climate, such a connection seems unthinkable…

E+T Magazine in Semiconductor Technology
Samsung to build £189.6bn semiconductor ‘mega cluster’

The South Korea-based chipmaker expects to invest 300 trillion won (£189bn) over the next 20 years to build five chipmaking plants near Seoul. The semiconductor "mega cluster", as the company has called it, would open in 2042. The project was been framed within South Korea's ambitions to become one of the leading suppliers of silicon ships. The cluster aims to attract 150 other companies producing materials and components or designing high-tech chips, according to South Korea’s ministry of trade, industry and energy. The cluster is destined for Yongin, south of Seoul in Gyeonggi Province, where both SK hynix and Samsung have a presence. According to President Seok-Yeol Yoon, it would be the "world's largest" chipmaking facility. "The mega cluster will be the key base of our semiconductor…

E+T Magazine in Semiconductor Technology
Charging an EV from pole to pole

By the time they reach ninety degrees south, Chris and Julie Ramsey will have driven over 27,000km (17,000 miles) through 14 countries across three continents. In exploration terms, such journeys would normally barely register with purists who still rate Sir Ranulph Fiennes’ 1979-82 Transglobe longitudinal circumnavigation as the benchmark. But when the history of 21st-century adventure is written, the Ramseys’ Pole to Pole Electric Vehicle Expedition (P2PEV) could merit a chapter of its own. Not so much because the husband-and-wife team will become the first to drive from the Magnetic North Pole to the Geographical South Pole, but because they will be undertaking the journey in an all-electric vehicle (EV). When they set off in their modified Nissan Ariya e-4ORCE from their departure point…

E+T Magazine
Fast, silent and smooth - electric revolution hits the water

Outside the rarefied and highly specialised world of top-of-the-range racing yachts, the world of leisure boating has, until recently, been slow to innovate. After a three-year Covid-induced hiatus, Boot Düsseldorf (Düsseldorf International Boat Show) opened to the public in late January 2023. One of the largest exhibitions of its kind in the world, over 1,700 exhibitors showcase their latest designs to the trade and well-heeled clients. From super-yachts to sailboats, many new vessels were on show. Most exhibitors were displaying incremental improvements, but Swedish company Candela went back to basics and presented a completely redesigned powerboat and won out at the Oscars of the boat world in the powerboat class. Unlike many other designers at the show, who were displaying prototypes…

E+T Magazine in Marine Transport
UK urged to ‘transform’ 11 ports to support floating offshore wind boom

A report by the Global Wind Energy Council's (GWEC) Floating Offshore Wind Taskforce contains a series of recommendations which could see 34 gigawatts (GW) of floating wind installed in UK waters by 2040 if “decisive action” is taken by the government. Ministers have so far set a target to install just 5GW by 2030, despite plans to fully decarbonise electricity generation by 2035. The UK currently has the biggest project pipeline in the world of 37GW of floating wind technology, around one-fifth of the global pipeline. Floating wind farms can be built in deeper waters, further from the coast, where wind speeds are even higher. To enable the UK to scale up, the report recommends developing ports as soon as possible by investing £4bn to ensure they are ready for mass floating wind deployment…

E+T Magazine in Renewable Energy
Optimised propeller design cuts noise pollution from electric aircraft

Electric aviation typically has to battle with the dilemma that the more energy-efficient an electric aircraft is, the noisier it gets. Electrification is seen as a way to reduce emissions from aviation in the future, but due to the challenges posed by longer ranges, interest is chiefly focused on electric propeller planes covering shorter distances. Propellers connected to electric motors are considered the most efficient propulsion system for regional and domestic flights but often create a lot of noise pollution. This noise not only disturbs air passengers but also those on the ground, as electric aircraft will need to fly at relatively low altitudes, with noise disturbance reaching residential areas and animal life. “We can see that the more blades a propeller has, the lower the…

E+T Magazine in Research and Innovation
Book review: ‘The Soviet Century’ by Karl Schlögel

Among all the 18 chapters and 60-odd subchapters of this formidable volume, there’s one section conspicuous by its absence – the Soviet Union’s ongoing aggression against Ukraine. Before you rush in to correct me that it was not the Soviet Union but Russia that brutally invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022, let me assure you that this isn’t a Freudian (or any other) slip on my part. My ‘mistake’ is deliberate - having spent 35 years of my life in that very ‘USSR’ I have good reason to assert that modern Russia is a logical successor and a legitimate heir of the Soviet Union, differing only in its somewhat diminished territory as well as its official name. The country that so treacherously and so unnecessarily attacked its ‘brotherly’ fellow-Slavic neighbour, remains in essence the same totalitarian…

E+T Magazine in History of Engineering
Meta to lay off 10,000 employees in fresh round of cuts

The latest losses are the second round of swingeing job cuts in less than six months, after the firm laid off 11,000 employees in November 2022. Representing roughly 13 per cent of its global work force, Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg justified the cuts by saying that 2023 would be a “year of efficiency” for the firm. At its peak last year, Meta had 87,000 full-time employees. The forthcoming round of layoffs will affect its recruiting team this week, with a restructuring of its tech and business groups to come in April and May, Zuckerberg said in a memo. The next couple of months will also see restructuring plans focused on “flattening” the organisation, cancelling lower priority projects, and reducing its hiring rates. He also talked about improving organisational efficiency…

E+T Magazine
Hands-on review: Vactidy Blitz V8 cordless vacuum cleaner

A(nother) new Chinese brand of home electronics launches, with a company name apparently based on a portmanteau word intended to encapsulate the core functionality of its products, kind of like a headphone company calling itself EarsMusic. As it turns out, Vactidy is actually a sub-brand of the more established parent company Proscenic, a number of whose own-brand vacuum cleaners we have previously enjoyed. Not that there's an awful lot to distinguish Vactidy products from those of Proscenic. Vactidy's Nimble T6 robot vacuum cleaner, for example, looks an awful lot like Proscenic's 850T robot vacuum cleaner and its cordless stick vacuums also clearly share design genes. Image credit: Vactidy With a name as specific as Vactidy, at least, we have to assume it's…

E+T Magazine
UK has its ‘fingers in its ears’ on green investment, think thank says

The UK must learn "urgent lessons" to avoid losing the global green race, according to the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR). The think tank has noted what it perceives as the government's "unwillingness to invest" in its industrial strategy. The IPPR has called on the UK to put in place policies similar to those of the US and the EU in order to remain competitive in the renewables industry. “The UK is in urgent need of renewal," IPPR said. “The country faces a series of challenges from stagnation and inequality, risks to national and energy security, to the climate and nature crises. Together they threaten to undermine the UK’s path to a sustainable economic future. “While our international competitors are deploying public investment and using industrial strategy to take…

E+T Magazine in Renewable Energy
US, UK and Australia will build nuclear submarines to ‘keep oceans free’

The UK, US and Australia will work together “keeping our oceans free” with a new generation of nuclear-powered attack submarines, the three nations have announced, in what was perceived as an effort to counter China's maritime power. The pact will allow Australia to build nuclear-powered submarines for the first time, using technology provided by the US and designs by British experts. As part of the agreement, the UK will also build next-generation submarines, which are expected to be in operation for the Royal Navy by the late 2030s. The boats will replace the UK’s seven Astute-class subs, although the government has not specified how many will be ordered. The submarines have been described as the "largest, most advanced and most powerful attack submarines ever operated by the Royal…

E+T Magazine in Nuclear Power
Smart homes offer solutions for seniors aging in place

The luxury apartment has a collection of devices to die for. The smart lights, plugs, blinds and smarter coffee maker are voice-activated by Alexa on an Amazon Echo Show and linked up to the Withings bed sensor via an If This Then That app. “When you go to bed at night and it feels your weight going on the sensor, it will turn the lights off for you,” explains Kerry Stack, research and innovation lead at ExtraCare. “In the morning, when you get out of bed, the coffee machine will switch on and the lights will come on. By the time you come back from the bathroom, your coffee is brewed, and the blinds are open.” Welcome to the innovation apartment at Solihull Village, the latest development to be opened by The ExtraCare Charitable Trust, which describes itself as the UK’s leading not-for…

E+T Magazine in Electromagnetic Devices
Shutdown of two nuclear power stations delayed until 2026

Heysham 1 and Hartlepool nuclear power stations (pictured) are now expected to close in March 2026 – two years later than previously forecast. The extensions are expected to add 6TWh to Centrica’s electricity generation volumes between 2024 and 2026 which equates to around 70 per cent of Centrica’s total nuclear volumes in 2022, the company said in a regulatory announcement to investors. The extension comes amid turbulence and high prices in the gas and power markets following the invasion of Ukraine. The plants have a combined capacity of 2.3 gigawatts and currently provide around 5 per cent of Britain’s power supply. Hartlepool, which has been generating energy since 1983, was originally expected to shut down in 2009 but was given permission by the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate…

E+T Magazine in Nuclear Power
Motoring into the IE5 era for energy efficiency

Motors convert electrical energy into mechanical energy to drive parts. Today, they are ubiquitous, with estimates of over eight billion electric motors in use in the EU alone. They come in all sizes for use in homes, offices, factories, hospital equipment and factory equipment. They are estimated to account for over 50 per cent of global electricity consumption, and with rising fuel prices, energy-efficient operation has become an economic as well as an environmental issue. Making more energy-efficient motors available will contribute to reduced CO2 emissions and help countries achieve net-zero targets. Industrial motors are used to control torque and speed on conveyor belts, robotic arms, automated guided vehicles and in compressors to regulate the volume of air, gas or liquid running…

E+T Magazine in Sustainable Development
How the eVTOL industry overpromised on green

Last year, while moving through the hordes of people at the first Farnborough Air Show in four years, it quickly became clear that a certain genre of stand had stolen the show. Huge crowds gathered to sit in model cockpits or walk around the fuselages of retired prototypes. Their promises were radical – a greener way to fly and the potential for a zero-emission aviation industry. According to the marketing material at least, this had the potential to change everything. Electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft, or eVTOLs, represent a substantial leap forward in the aviation industry’s path to net zero. Due to limitations in battery technology, electrifying aircraft is no easy feat. The energy density of lithium-ion batteries is around 50 times less than that of jet fuel and thus makes…

E+T Magazine in Aerospace
Government aims to to ‘supercharge’ tech growth with 12 new investment zones

The government is expected to provide £80m over the next five years to each of the new investment zones. The funds can be directed towards tax relief for businesses, training and infrastructure. Officials said the Investment Zone plan is designed to accelerate research and development in the UK’s “most budding industries”. The announcement was made by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt on Monday, but he is expected to unveil more details in tomorrow’s Spring Statement . The project is a scaled-down version of a plan first designed under former Prime Minister, Liz Truss, and has been framed under Hunt's ambitions to turn the UK into “the next Silicon Valley “. "True levelling up must be about local wealth creation and local decision-making to unblock obstacles to regeneration," Hunt said in a statement…

E+T Magazine in Research and Innovation
Machine-learning system sorts compostable from conventional plastic waste

Compostable plastics, which are engineered to biodegrade under controlled conditions, have been increasing in popularity in recent years, but often look identical to conventional plastics and therefore get recycled incorrectly. Conventional plastic samples included PP and PET, often used for food containers and drinking bottles, as well as LDPE which is often used for plastic bags and packaging. Compostable plastic samples included PLA and PBAT, used for cup lids, tea bags and magazine wraps, as well as palm-leaf and sugarcane, both biomass-derived materials used to produce packaging. The samples were divided into a training set, used to build classification models, and a testing set, used to check accuracy. The researchers worked with different types of plastics measuring between 50mm…

E+T Magazine in Waste Management
Geothermal energy could provide electricity while capturing carbon emissions

Using Geothermal-Bioenergy and Carbon Capture and Sequestration (BECCS) as an energy source could positively impact the environment, new research has shown. Karan Titus, UC civil and natural resources engineering PhD student, has investigated this type of energy, and how it can be harnessed to remove carbon from the atmosphere. The BECCS process involves taking hot water from geothermal reservoirs and burning forestry waste to superheat it – generating electricity. The geothermal water is then injected back underground along with the CO 2 produced from the burning wood. “We are creating more clean, renewable energy, while indirectly removing CO 2 from the atmosphere," Titus said. “We can also generate significantly more renewable energy using this process when compared to traditional…

E+T Magazine in Fossil Fuels
UK risks ‘squandering’ its electric vehicle lead, industry body warns

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said that while almost every EV component is already built in UK plants, the capacity needs to be scaled up rapidly to secure the sector’s long-term future. The SMMT wants the government to shore up Britain’s ability to compete as other countries increase backing for their own automotive sectors. This includes initiatives such as the US' $370bn (£306bn) Inflation Reduction Act and the EU's Green Deal Industrial Plan. The SMMT has set out a blueprint, dubbed the 'Green Automotive Transformation' strategy, designed to position Britain as one of the world’s most competitive locations for advanced automotive manufacturing. The UK plans to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030, but MPs have warned that the government faces…

E+T Magazine in Automotive Engineering

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