New self-healing coating for aluminum developed to replace chromates

By Damir Beciri
28 October 2012

molybdate-based-aluminum-coatingAttempts to replace chromate coatings with non-toxic coatings have been underway since the 1980s. The awareness on effects of chromates was brought to the forefront in 1993 by the real-life incident involving Erin Brokovich and depicted in the movie released in 2000 of the same name. A research team at the University of Nevada, Reno... »

PaR-PaR – a biology-friendly robot programming language

By Damir Beciri
26 October 2012

hillson-group-1A collaboration between U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) resulted with a project named Programming a Robot (PaR-PaR) – a simple high-level, biology-friendly, robot-programming language that allows easier robot training. PaR-PaR could provide the researchers with ways to train the liquid-handling robots with greater ease... »

Kondo Kagaku KHR-3HV humanoid kit robot

By Damir Beciri
23 October 2012

kondo-kagaku-khr-3hv-robot-1Back in June 13th 2009, during their 5th Anniversary, Kondo Kagaku released the KHR-3HV humanoid kit robot. Although it’s been a while since they released the robot, its abilities and price make it ideal for hobbyists as well for use in advanced educational purposes. Hence, we decided to publish an article about this great humanoid... »

PRIMER V4 – a steel wire crossing robot

By Damir Beciri
23 October 2012

primer-v4Japanese robotics researcher Masahiko Yamaguchi, who represents himself as Dr. Guero in other robotics projects, modified a Kondo KHR-3HV hobby kit robot and created a robot dubbed PRIMER V4. This two-legged hobby-kit robot was modified in a way that allows it to balance and cross over a 4-mm (0.16-inch) thick and 1 meter (3 feet)... »

Green architecture – 25 York Street (Telus House Toronto)

By Damir Beciri
21 October 2012

25-york-street-telus-house-toronto-1Although it represents an office building whose sustainability in general is sometimes questionable, the 25 York Street (Telus House Toronto) still serves as an example how office buildings can be improved in order to conserve resources and provide healthier working environment. Located on the northeast corner of York Street and Bremner Boulevard in downtown Toronto,... »

Butterfly wings biomimicry for dirt free coated surfaces

By Damir Beciri
One Comment19 October 2012

yang-advanced-functional-materials-dropAside the technology being used to generate the energy from the sun, the efficiency of solar panels also depends on the cleanliness of the panels. Moisture and dust debris piled up on their surface require time consuming and costly maintenance, however, a group of researchers from the University of Pennsylvania used bio-inspiration to develop a... »

Two types of artificial cornea being developed

By Damir Beciri
18 October 2012

fraunhofer-artificial-cornea-gives-the-gift-of-visionBlindness is often caused by corneal diseases which are usually treated with a corneal transplant, but in many cases this is not possible and donor corneas are often hard to come by. In order to solve this problem, a group of researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research (Fraunhofer IAP) is developing two... »