Tesla recently released its Autopilot mode for its cars. It has a fundamentally different intellectual approach to autonomy than Google’s, and it’s superior. One of my backgrounds is robotics. I spent a year digging my way through PhD theses from robotics programs around the world as I worked on a startup … [continued]
Originally published on Planetsave. Drones are no longer known as mere weapons of war. At least, that’s how Google, Facebook, and other online giants like Amazon appear to be thinking. Google has just acquired Titan Aerospace, a promising solar-powered drone maker, as part of its plans to globalize wireless internet. … [continued]
The maintenance and inspection of wind turbines was never a topic I thought I would end up covering. It is definitely not the sexiest of news items ever to appear on CleanTechnica (though I defy you to find something unsexier than some of the regulatory pieces we’ve covered over the … [continued]
Researchers from Georgia Tech University are working along two parallel tracks to develop energy-efficient robots based on the teamwork of ants and the movement of snakes. Envisioned for use in developing search-and-rescue robots, the technology could also be adapted to swell the ranks of robots with green jobs, for example … [continued]
Science fiction has suggested artificial limbs stronger than biological counterparts. We are beginning to see this reality in present day research. Carbon-nanotube muscles can be 100 times stronger than the biological variety. Now they have been shown to twist 1000 times more than other materials and suggest a potential as strong as a commercial electric motor.
Forget the merely invisible, scientists at Columbia Engineering School have created a new material that behaves as if it doesn’t even exist, at least when it comes to light. The new material is a nanoscale structure that allows light to pass through as if it was traversing empty space. In very general terms, that means the light does not slow down or “bend” when it exits the material.
The waste management industry and robots are getting to know each other better, especially when it comes to the business of recycling.
