9 minute read
IN BRIEF
THE LATEST DESIGN AND ENGINEERING NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD
USING A ‘LOOMING EYE’ TO SAVE BIRDS
A TEAM OF SCIENTISTS from BirdLife International and the Estonian Ornithological Society has designed a ‘floating scarecrow’ that may help to stop vulnerable seabirds getting caught in fishing nets.
Known as a looming-eyes buoy (LEB), the device was developed in collaboration with engineers from Devon-based company Fishtek Marine, which develops and distributes innovative technical devices designed to minimise bycatch in commercial fisheries.
In a study conducted in Küdema Bay in Estonia, the LEB’s large, bright eyespots and looming movements were found to reduce the numbers of birds within 50 metres of the buoy by a quarter. Still in prototype phase, the buoy will be tested in small-scale fisheries, where it’s hoped that it will help stop thousands of seabirds from diving into gillnets each year.
‘The development of low-cost devices such as the loomingeyes buoy offers up simple, yet innovative, solutions to these conservation problems and so that everybody benefits,’ said Yann Rouxel, a project officer in BirdLife International’s marine programme and lead author of the study. ■
Steve Jobs
SCANNER CREATES DIGITAL TWINS
RESEARCHERS AT IMPERIAL College London have designed a cheap 3D scanner that can be used to photograph small animal specimens in meticulous detail. Called scAnt, the cocoon-shaped scanner could help researchers and museums to display, share, study and protect their physical specimens by creating digital 3D models, or ‘digital twins’.
The scanning process can be configured so that the scanner automatically moves the specimen, which is held in place on a pin that can rotate about two axes, so that its cameras capture the specimen from every angle. These images are then combined to create a 3D model of the specimen.
The scanner was built using a mixture of generic and 3D-printed components with a total cost of about £175. All of the relevant software and technical drawings are freely available, so anyone can build and operate one.
The researchers suggest that the new technology could help museums to create an immersive experience for virtual museum visitors and could also be adapted for use in largescale behavioural studies, particularly of insects that live in complex societies. ■
Bloodhound goes on display
BLOODHOUND, THE red-andwhite jet car that’s aiming to break the world land speed record, has gone on public display at Coventry Transport Museum, where it will sit alongside current record holders Thrust 2 and Thrust SSC. During testing in South Africa in 2019, the car reached a peak speed of 1,011 km/h. Bloodhound’s sponsorship team is currently raising the funds required to outfit the car with a Nammo monopropellant rocket and battery-powered fuel system, which the engineering team hopes will give the car a top speed in excess of 1,280 km/h, significantly greater than the speed of sound. ■
NEW ‘FLOATING POOL’ CONNECTS TWO BUILDINGS
COLORADO-BASED PLASTICS
company Reynolds Polymer Technology has created the world’s first ‘floating swimming pool’ in southwest London. Consisting of a solid 36-centimetre-thick piece of transparent acrylic that spans 25 metres between two buildings, the Sky Pool is part of the Embassy Gardens complex in Nine Elms.
Two 38-millimetre-diameter steel rods run under the pool and connect it to two steel tubs that reduce the load on the acrylic structure. The tubs are supported on bridge bearings, allowing the structure to move in any direction as the two buildings move.
The project took four years to complete, six months of which were spent exploring the concept and discussing design data and safety measures with Ecoworld Ballymore Group, the international property developers who oversee the Embassy Gardens project. ■
Third eye for ‘smartphone zombies’
A SOUTH KOREAN industrial designer has created a satirical solution to the problem of ‘smartphone zombies’ – phone users so engrossed in their screens that they risk walking into obstacles.
Paeng Min-wook’s ‘Third Eye’ device uses a gyro sensor to measure the angle of the wearer’s neck. When it senses that the user is looking down at their phone, it opens its translucent ‘eyelid’. An ultrasonic sensor then calculates the distance to any obstacles. If that distance drops below two metres, the device beeps to warn of impending danger. Both sensors are linked to an open-source single-board microcontroller and a battery pack.
‘By presenting this satirical solution, I hoped people would recognise the severity of their gadget addiction and look back at themselves,’ Paeng said. ■
NEW PARTNERSHIP TO DESIGN NEXT-GEN MOON ROVERS
GENERAL MOTORS AND
Lockheed Martin have entered into a partnership to design the next generation of lunar rovers or Lunar Terrain Vehicles (LTV). The LTVs will be designed for use on NASA’s Artemis missions, which aim to put astronauts on the moon by 2024.
The programme is still in its early stages as NASA hasn’t yet released its specifications for the vehicles beyond a desire for advanced LTVs that will allow astronauts to cover more distance and conduct a wider range of on-surface experimentation than the rovers on the Apollo missions. However, Lockheed Martin has already stated that it plans to make the vehicles capable of operating with or without a driver. ■
Rome’s Colosseum to get new retractable floor
THE ITALIAN GOVERNMENT
has approved plans for a remotecontrolled, retractable floor within the Colosseum arena in Rome.
Designed by architecture studio Labics and Fabio Fumagalli, and engineering firm Milan Ingegneria, the retractable floor will cover the whole arena, allowing visitors to stand within it. When retracted, the elaborate hypogeum – the complex of lifts that was used to bring animals and gladiators directly into the arena beneath the stage – will be exposed.
The floor will be made from carbonfibre slats finished in Accoya modified wood and will also feature a rainwatercollection system that will recover water for use in the Colosseum’s toilets. Retracting the floor will involve rotating the slats by 90° and then withdrawing them.
The floor is expected to be in place by 2023. ■
DESIGNING A GREEN TEXTILE INDUSTRY
A CONSORTIUM MADE up of key players in clothing design, recycling technologies and consumer behaviour in Denmark has launched a new project aimed at turning textile production into a circular industry.
Known as ReSuit (Recycling Technologies and Sustainable Textile Product Design), the £2.6million project will explore ways to help the textile industry get better at designing with recycling in mind, technologies that can ensure circularity for consumer textile waste and methods for motivating consumers to behave in ways that are more sustainable.
‘In this project, we are looking to get all textile waste in Denmark into a loop where it can become new textiles or raw materials for other products. If it succeeds, it can become a gamechanger,’ said Anders Lindhardt of the Danish Technological Institute, which is leading the project. ■
CARMAKER TO EXPAND
SUPERCAR MANUFACTURER
the Gordon Murray Group has announced plans to invest £300million over the next five years on expanding its operations.
The plans include substantial investment directed towards a ‘superlight’ R&D facility tasked with reducing the weight and complexity of the group’s vehicle architectures and manufacturing processes, as well as an increased focus on the design and engineering of electric vehicles.
‘The automotive future will be increasingly electrified and it’s essential that we design the world’s lightest, most efficient and advanced EVs,’ said company founder and chairman Gordon Murray (pictured left). ‘Advanced work is already under way, and we’ll be sharing more news on our exciting all-electric platform soon.’ ■
IBM DESIGNS FIRST 2-NANOMETRE CHIP
A BREAKTHROUGH IN
semiconductor design has enabled engineers at IBM to create the world’s first twonanometre computer chip. According to IBM, the 2nm chip, which boasts 50 billion transistors, is expected to achieve 45 per cent higher performance than the most advanced 7nm node chips. Mobile devices that use processors based on the chips could have up to four times more battery life. The chips would also enable faster internet access, quicker processing in applications, faster object detection and reaction time for self-driving cars, and reduced energy use by data centres, which currently account for one per cent of global energy use. However, it may take several years for 2nm processors to begin appearing in consumer devices. ■
World-first 5G virtual 3D modelling tech goes on trial
HYPERBAT, THE UK’S largest independent vehicle battery manufacturer, has unveiled details of a new trial of 5G virtual reality (VR) ‘digital twin’ technology. Working with a consortium of partners that includes BT, Ericsson, Dell, Qualcomm and NVIDIA, the company will use the new technology to enable teams working in different parts of the UK to connect, collaborate and interact using a virtual 3D engineering model.
Dispersed design, engineering and manufacturing teams will be able walk around and interact with a 3D life-size model in real time through a single self-contained VR device, without being constrained by a wired connection, using cloud-based mixed reality within computer-aided design software. The key enabler for the technology is the high-speed, low-latency and large data-handling capabilities of an Ericsson 5G mobile private network deployed by BT.
Results of the collaboration are expected to be released this summer. ■
STUDENTS GET FREE ACCESS TO DESIGN SOFTWARE
US INFRASTRUCTURE engineering software company Bentley Systems has launched a new education portal that allows students to register directly for access to some of its most popular software applications.
Built around Bentley’s existing education partnerships with universities and other educational institutions, the programme offers full free access to learning licenses of more than 40 of Bentley’s most popular applications, including ContextCapture, MicroStation, OpenRoads Designer and SYNCHRO. It’s open to students and teachers at a range of institutions, from secondary schools to universities.
‘We want to make the Bentley Education portal the place where students can go to learn about and become inspired to make infrastructure engineering their career choice,’ said Bentley Education vice president Vinayak Trivedi. ‘The goal of the program is to help students who are passionate about infrastructure to get a jump-start on a fulfilling career.’
The education portal recently went live in the UK, Australia, Singapore, Ireland and Lithuania, and the company plans to expand it into the Americas and India later this summer. ■
