MIT researchers and designers are developing the Affective Intelligent Driving Agent (AIDA) – a new in-car personal robot that aims to change the way we interact with our car. The project is a collaboration between the Personal Robots Group at the MIT Media Lab, MIT’s SENSEable City Lab and the Volkswagen Group of America’s Electronics […]
Motors and Electronics
I have been involved in the motors and controls industry for quite some time. Most recently, I worked for a company exploring the possibilities that new generations of RISC based microcontrollers offer for lower cost and improved performance motor applications. This effort has caused me to review all the major motor segments, DC, AC, Brushless […]
Unmanned War Planes Making News
36 armed unmanned AF planes are flying over Afghanistan and Iraq 24 hours each and every day; hundreds of smaller UAV’s are also being flown by the Army, Marines and coalition countries, says Esquire Magazine’s November feature story. NPR’s Terry Grossman reports that the CIA has their own secret fleet, flown from facilities in VA,…
Pleo Returns – Fixes, downloads, sales and new site up and functioning
Innvo Labs Corp. (Hong Kong and Carson City, NV), is the new host/owner for Pleo dinosaurs. PleoWorld is the new website and there’s even a PleoWorld MySpace page. Sales now available through worldwide distributers except in the US where Innvo Labs’ PleoWorld Store will be the sole source until Amazon and other retailers use up…
Tax the Internet?
Tax the Internet? Once again government is looking for new ways to generate revenue. And it should come as no surprise that once again the topic of generating tax revenue from the Internet has come up. If the unemployment rate reflects the fact that 5 million Americans who were working a year ago, now are […]
Fascinating Inventions
Sensory-motor fusion system produces fastest robotic hands ever seen video from U of Tokyo Ishikawa Komuro Lab. Panasonic’s robotic bed transforms into a wheelchair. AV’s new spy hummingbird has mastered pitch, roll, yaw and altitude control and is ready for deployment. Kawasaki video shows welding robots used in new ways in shipbuilding. iRobot and Darpa…
Guitar Hero® Playing Robot
Minneapolis, MN — Banner Engineering Corp. partnered with a Minnesota West Community and Technical College engineering student and robotics instructor to develop a robot designed to play the Guitar Hero® video game—responding to each note as it appears onscreen. Pete Nikrin, who graduated from Minnesota West in 2008 and now works as a manufacturing engineer […]
Make the Right Design Moves with Mechatronics
By Mark D. Hinckley, Director-Mechatronics, SKF USA Inc. Many electro-mechanical systems can qualify as mechatronic systems. Don’t agree? Take a look at these application examples that demonstrate both the power and potential of mechatronics in action. Mechatronics integrates mechanical and electronic technologies with application-specific software to perform a particular task. Engineers who use mechatronic components […]
Increased Sensing Accuracy with Signal conditioning
By Brett Burger, National Instruments, Austin, TX Signal conditioning provides a distinct advantage because it enhances both performance and measurement accuracy. For many real-world applications, you must measure environmental or structural parameters, such as temperature or vibration, with sensors. These sensors, in turn, require signal conditioning before a data acquisition device can effectively and accurately […]
Hope For the Future
By Richard Comerford, Editor, Electronic Products One of the most frustrating things that we experience in our day-to-day existence is not being understood. As engineers, we’ve all run into people who have no idea what it is we actually do, and seem totally ignorant of the basic scientific principles and techniques we use every day. […]
Will Solar Make It?
Solar Power is here in a big way. It may not make the front pages of the paper, but it is huge. The rate of new installations is breathtaking. Large retailers like Target and Walmart are putting solar arrays on the roof of their stores to reduce energy costs over the long term. British Petroleum […]
Civilian Robots help police
Many, many stories like these: In Indianapolis, robot enters home, its four cameras quickly spied purp and, using onboard voice function, told him to come outside. In Florida, jurors watch video taken by robot showing events that led up to a murder.
Hoya Robot Produces 100 Firefighting Scouts for 50 Korean Firestations
Nissan’s collision-free driving system imitates schools of fish
Displayed this week at CEATEC Japan 2009 by Nissan Motor’s, the new EPORO robot cars provided an example of how near-term future cars will become collision-free by imitating schools of fish by moving in unison while communicating to avoid collision. EPORO works to (1) change direction without colliding; (2) travel side-by-side while keeping safe distances;…
$444 million flowing to non-defense robotic applications and research
National Science Foundation fiscal year awards for (FY) 2009 are $9.5 billion, which includes $3.0 billion provided through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Included were 663 awards totaling $443,449,185 for robotic-related research and applications development.
2008 Results from IFR: $11 billion service robots; $19 billion industrial
“Because the largest user group of industrial robots – car makers – will not return to high purchase volumes, robot manufacturers are putting effort into the handling and green power segments, with a wide range of new applications.”Klaus M. Paulus, Managing Director Sales, Automotive & Welding Systems, MOTOMAN robotic GmbH, Germany See ABB Robot's pancake…
Something New in Electric Motors
In the electric motor field, everyone generally accepts that integral horsepower motors are 3 phase. This is done to increase the amount of power that can be output from the motor. By putting three electrical phases in, staggered 120 degrees apart, it is possible to put more electrical power through the motor and get more […]
E-Gear Drive on All Electric Sedan
AUBURN HILLS, Mich., Sept. 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — BorgWarner announces another eGearDrive transmission application on the all-electric CODA sedan, scheduled for introduction in California in 2010. Ideally suited for full performance electric vehicles on either front-wheel drive or rear-wheel drive transverse driveline applications, the BorgWarner 31-03 eGearDrive(TM) single-speed transmission delivers high torque capacity, high efficiency, and […]