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Automated plant factory for the production of vaccines

By Damir Beciri
27 June 2013

fks-themaAlthough chicken-egg production presents a reliable method for vaccine production, in a global pandemic emergency, it takes too long and does not yield enough vaccine. A team of Fraunhofer Institute researchers from the USA has built up a Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) compliant plant factory which relies on molecular farming. Molecular farming is an easy,… »

Tech»

A small chip embeds seven devices which enable navigation without GPS

By Damir Beciri
13 April 2013

timu-michigan-pennyGlobal Positioning System (GPS) provides location and time information in as long as there is a clear line of sight from the measured position to four or more GPS satellites. While some places such as tunnels, some bridges, garages or canyons disallow GPS to function properly, interference or malfunction of GPS satellites could prove disastrous… »

Robotics»

UAV with depth perception able to manipulate objects

By Damir Beciri
9 December 2012

darpa-v-battWhile most of us can easily manipulate with everyday objects around us and place them at a desired place by using a series of judgments requiring vision, stability and careful movement, creating a robot able to perform a similar task is a bit of a challenge. A DARPA-funded research led to a hovering unmanned aerial… »

Bionics| Tech»

Increasing physical endurance with a smart suit under way

By Damir Beciri
21 July 2012

wyss-smart-suitDefense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has recently funded the researchers from Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University to develop a smart suit that could be used to improve physical endurance for soldiers in the field. Unlike exoskeletons we previously wrote about, the proposed suit will be made from soft and lightweight… »

Bionics| Robotics»

Robot Cheetah sets new land speed record for legged robots

By Damir Beciri
2 Comments7 March 2012

boston-dynamics-cheetahAs a part of DARPA’s Maximum Mobility and Manipulation (M3) program, with goal to create and demonstrate significant scientific and engineering advances in robot mobility and manipulation capabilities, engineers from Boston Dynamics developed Cheetah – a robot named after the animal it got inspired from that managed to beat the previous land speed record for… »

Bionics| Tech»

147000 CPUs are “as smart as a cat” – IBM Research simulates cat’s brain

By Damir Beciri
2 Comments19 November 2009

ibm-research-cognitive-computingAt SC 09, the supercomputing conference, IBM announced significant progress toward creating a computer system that simulates and emulates the brain’s abilities for sensation, perception, action, interaction and cognition, while rivaling the brain’s low power and energy consumption and compact size. The cognitive computing team, led by IBM Research, in collaboration with colleagues from Lawrence… »

Robotics»

iRobot’s shape-shifting blob robot takes its first “steps”

By Damir Beciri
2 Comments18 October 2009

blob-robot-from-irobotThe Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the U.S. Army Research Office awarded a multimillion-dollar contract to iRobot to create the flexible military robot. The maker of the Roomba and Scooba, along with University of Chicago researchers, develops the palm-size ChemBot as a mobile robot that can move over soft terrain and navigate through small… »

Bionics»

“Borg” insects – mini spies of the future?

By Rob Aid
12 May 2009

mems08_bti2.jpgInsects’ agility in flight is unmatched. It’s been an inspiration to many inventors as in inventing helicopters or other flying machines. Instead creating robots which resemble insects, a few groups of engineers decided to develop technology which controls insects. An unquestioned fact is that nature developed the insects far better than humans are trying to… »