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TECHNOLOGYSPOTLIGHT
An end to clumsy robots A
way of ‘teaching’ robots to pick up unfamiliar objects without dropping or breaking them has been developed by researchers at the University of Birmingham. The research paves the way for robots to be used in more flexible ways and in more complex environments. These could include manufacturing and packaging industries where a wide variety of different tasks have to be undertaken, and especially where humans and robots need to be able to work together. “Current robot manipulation relies on the robot knowing the exact shape of the object,” explains Jeremy Wyatt, Professor of Robotics and Artificial Intelligence at the University. “If you put that robot into an unstructured environment, for example if it is trying to pick up an object amongst clutter, or an object for which it doesn’t already have an exact model, it will struggle. “The programming we have developed allows the robot to assess the object and generate around 1000 different grasp options in about five seconds. That means the robot is able to make choices in real time about the best grasp for the object it has been told to pick up and it doesn’t need to be continually retrained each time the object changes.” Visit: www.birmingham.ac.uk
Advances in technology across industry
Bauhaus Luftfahrt unveils ‘Propulsive Fuselage’ concept
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this year’s international Berlin Air Show Bauhaus Luftfahrt presented the concept study of a so-called ‘Propulsive Fuselage’. The centrepiece of the concept is a special engine design which is fully integrated into the aircraft’s tapered rear fuselage. The latter is encircled by the so-called ‘Fuselage Fan’ powered by a gas turbine in the tail cone. The main advantage of this ‘distributed’ propulsion architecture is the effective ingestion of the so-called ‘Boundary Layer’ in order to re-energise its decelerated airflow in close proximity to the fuselage and to re-accelerate its wake to free-stream velocity. In doing so, the ‘Fuselage Fan’ compensates for a significant percentage of the fuselage’s viscous drag. Due to the reduced thrust demand, propulsive efficiency may be increased, and the concept’s two conventional engines producing the largest part of the overall thrust could be scaled down in order to reduce weight and drag. Initial studies conducted by Bauhaus Luftfahrt indicated that, despite the additional engine, the ‘Propulsive Fuselage’ concept could, through cascade effects, enable fuel savings of up to 10% over and above projected technology improvements targeting the year 2035. www.bauhaus-luftfahrt.net
Strong-as-steel fibre made from wood cellulose
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esearchers at Stockholm’s KTH Royal Institute of Technology have developed a way to make biodegradable cellulose fibres that are stronger than steel or aluminium when weight is taken into account. The technique draws on the cellulose fibres that make up a tree. Each single fibre is composed of as many as 40 million smaller fibres, or ‘fibrils’. While these fibrils have been separated from each other before, the KTH researchers and their collaborators in Germany succeeded in doing what no one else has. Fredrik Lundell, one of the researchers, says 22 Industry Europe
the team bound these fibrils together into filaments as strong as the original fibre in the tree. “We have taken out fibrils from natural cellulose fibres,” Lundell says. “Then we have assembled fibrils again into very strong filament. It is about 10 to 20 microns thick, much like a strand of hair.” The research offers potential for creating natural clothing textiles based on wood instead of cotton, or even replacing fiberglass in cars, trucks and boats. Lundell says that that unlike existing processes for making strands of cellulose, such as rayon, their composition process is environ-
mentally friendly and sustainable. The only other ingredient in the process is sodium chloride for binding the fibrils together. Visit: www.kth.se
