Where Innovation Meets Imagination
DW.com: Orders for German industrial goods have increased sharply, according to a report on the Deutsche Welle website.
Domestic demand incrased 6.7 per cent while foreign orders were up 3.9 per cent.
The higher demand for capital goods contrasts with business morale in Germany, which DW.com says fell in January.
Inquisitr.com: Scientists at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, are developing a new method of chemical analysis which stands to be 10,000 times more sensitive than tests currently used on the Mars Curiosity Rover.
Man walks into a coffee bar and says, “Waiter, coffee, black, no sugar.”
How anyone can drink coffee without milk, cream or sugar is beyond our understanding of human taste buds, but anyway…
A robot barista would not be making such judgments, and would serve up the coffee just as the man who walked into the bar had ordered it.
It might take a few years, but sooner or later, you will be served some drink or food somewhere by a robot. [Read more…] about Heard the one about the robot barista?
A company called Mecademic is showcasing what it claims is the world’s smallest and most accurate six-axis robot.
The Meca500 is small enough to fit into a briefcase and its makers claim that the tiny robotic arm has a repeatability of just 5 microns, or 5 millionths of a metre.
The Montreal, Canada-based Mecademic was founded by Jonathan Coulombe, who is the CEO. His co-founder was Ilian Bonev (pictured, with one of the company’s tiny robots). [Read more…] about Mecademic showcases ‘world’s smallest, most accurate’ 6-axis robot
ZF teams up with Nvidia on artificial intelligence system for autonomous cars, trucks and industrial applications
ZF says its ProAI system for automated driving is built on high-performance Nvidia Drive PX 2 AI computing platform, and will enable vehicles to “see, think, and act”.
ZF is one of the world’s largest automotive suppliers and a global leader in active and passive safety technology, and has been working with Nvidia to develop artificial intelligence systems for the transportation industry for some time.
The two companies are looking at various sectors, including:
The ZF ProAI for highway automated driving is ZF’s first system developed using Nvidia AI technology. [Read more…] about ZF unveils AI driving system which could be used for forklift trucks, while Toyota adopts the fuel cell
Woodside Energy and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration have launched a new collaboration program under which the Australian independent oil and gas company will develop applications for Nasa’s Robonaut in its own operations.
Under the partnership Nasa will loan Woodside an Anthropomorphic Robonaut System for a 60-month deployment in Perth. Together the two organisations will explore how the robotic technology could be used to improve safety, reliability and efficiency in the high-risk and remote environments where Woodside operates.
Woodside will contribute its advanced cognitive science technology, being developed in its Western Australian operations, and Nasa will share its expertise in Robonauts that are already being used for simple, repetitive, or especially dangerous tasks in places such as the International Space Station. [Read more…] about Woodside Energy to train Nasa’s Robonaut to work in oil and gas industry
Scientists have made a breakthrough in understanding how different compartments (or organelles) of human cells interact.
Organelles are the functional units of a cell. Like organs in a body, they perform specialised functions. To allow survival of the cell, organelles have to interact and cooperate. How this is mediated and regulated in the cell is an important and challenging question in cell biology. [Read more…] about Breakthrough by Exeter cell biologists
David Atkins, projects director at Cressall Resistors, explains why design is essential not only in art, but also in industry, especially when designing equipment such as power resistors for demanding environments like oil and gas
One of the most popular works of Renaissance sculpture is Michelangelo’s David, a piece that has become synonymous with human strength and beauty.
Despite its seemingly perfect proportions, a basic design flaw of the statue has recently been brought to light.
Recurring micro-fractures in the ankles might cause the statue to collapse under its own weight. [Read more…] about Braking resistors that will not break
A team of researchers from Los Alamos National Laboratory and Curtin University in Australia developed a theoretical model to forecast the fundamental chemical reactions involving molecular hydrogen (H2), which after many decades and attempts by scientists had remained largely unpredicted and unsolved
“Chemical reactions are the basis of life so predicting what happens during these reactions is of great importance to science and has major implications in innovation, industry and medicine,” said Mark Zammit, a post-doctorate fellow in the Physics and Chemistry of Materials group at Los Alamos National Laboratory. “Our model is the first to very accurately calculate the probability of fundamental electron-molecular hydrogen reactions.” [Read more…] about New model predicts once-mysterious chemical reactions
Geoff Turner, product lifecycle management consultant at Design Rule, examines the value of getting the BoM right in the early stages of a project
The creation of a bill of materials, or BoM, is a fundamental part of product development. However, manufacturers are often unsure at what stage of the product development the BoM comes in.
Best practice dictates that the BoM needs to travel fluently through the different development stages, evolving and changing as products are designed, built and eventually, circulated.
In today’s complex manufacturing environment, a bill of materials can include a set of hundreds – or even thousands – of separate items. [Read more…] about Where is the bill of materials? Getting things right first time with PLM and BoM
