Walking robot tested in Finnish repository : Corporate

The ANYmal robot walks through Onkalo's underground tunnels (Image: Tapani Karjanlahti / Posiva)A four-legged robot designed for autonomous operation in challenging environments has been put through its paces at a depth of more than 400 metres in the tunnels of the Onkalo underground used nuclear fuel repository near Olkiluoto, Finland.A research team led by the Swiss robotics company ANYbotics visited Olkiluoto in June to test the functionality of its ANYmal robot in underground facilities. The test was organised by Euratom - the European Atomic Energy Community - together with Finnish radioactive waste management company Posiva Oy.‍The ANYmal robot has been under development for many years. The roots of the ANYbotics company go back to the Swiss Institute of Technology, EHT. A group of researchers from the educational institution built the first four-legged robot back in 2009, and ANYbotics was founded for the commercialisation of this technology in 2016.The ANYmal robot uses laser sensors and cameras to observe the environment and can locate its own position very precisely. By combining observation data with location data - such as a map or area scan data - it can plan its navigation route independently when necessary.Posiva said Onkalo offered a unique framework for the robot to move, noting that there are tunnels in other parts...

Read More........→October 30, 2023

New Carbon Fiber Batteries Could Form the Actual Framework of Cars and Airplanes

Artist impression of vehicle partly constructed with batteries made of carbon fibre composite stiff as aluminum – Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden / Henrik Sandsjö / SWNSCars and planes could soon be built from the world’s strongest batteries, thanks to a ground-breaking innovation from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden.Researchers detailed the advance of so-called massless energy storage—and a structural battery that could cut the weight of a laptop by 50%, make mobile phones as thin as a credit card, or increase the driving range of an EV by up to 70 percent on a single charge.Structural batteries are materials that, in addition to storing energy, can carry loads. Stiff, strong carbon fibers could store electrical energy chemically and, in this way, the battery material can become part of the actual construction material of a product.And, when cars, planes, ships, or computers are built from a material that functions as both a battery and a load-bearing structure, the weight and energy consumption are radically reduced.“We have succeeded in creating a battery made of carbon fibre composite that is as stiff as aluminum and energy-dense enough to be used commercially,” says Chalmers researcher Richa Chaudhary, the first author of a paper recently published in Advanced Materials. “Just like a human skeleton,...

Read More........→September 17, 2024

Sun's 'killer flare' won't end earth

Hindustan Times: For all the doomsayers predicting that the world will come to an end in 2012, at least one of the potential reasons for earth's destruction has been knocked off. US space agency NASA has said a gigantic solar 'killer flare' will not devastate earth. Many people have been worrying about the  gigantic 'killer flare' which could be hurled by the sun and finish off life on earth. But the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) says there simply isn't enough energy in the sun to send a killer fireball 93 million miles away. Given the fact that solar activity is currently ramping up its standard 11-year cycle, there is a belief that 2012 could be coinciding with such a flare. But this same solar cycle has occurred over the millennia. Anyone over the age of 11 has already lived through such a solar maximum with no harm. Besides, the next solar maximum is predicted to occur in late 2013 or early 2014, not 2012, according to a NASA statement. This is not to say that space weather can't affect our planet. The explosive heat of a solar flare can't reach our globe, but electromagnetic radiation and energetic particles can. Solar flares can temporarily affect signal transmission from, say, a Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite to earth causing it to be off by many...

Read More........→June 28, 2012