Researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have devised a new robot used for explosive tests in the National Explosives Engineering Sciences Security (NEXESS) Center. The platform they chose as a base for their robot is iRobot Packbot 510 – a robot manufactured by the same company that created the Roomba vacuum-cleaning robot –… »
A group of researchers at Rice University decided to seek a different approach to their previous work in order to develop a high-capacity, durable and low-cost anode material with a great commercial potential for next-generation rechargeable lithium batteries. The newly devised method to use silicon as anode material can nearly triple the capacity of silicon-based… »
The University of Wyoming wanted a green design for its new Visual Arts Center that would incorporate the latest technology, provide a safe and healthy environment for all users promote interdisciplinary collaboration, and provide a welcoming gallery/lobby to encourage community outreach. The resulting building managed to achieve all those goals, while being sustainable and aiming… »
Over a year ago we reported about a smart lower-limb prosthetic developed by researchers at the Vanderbilt University, and they recently presented a powered exoskeleton that enables people with severe spinal cord injuries to perform tasks such as standing, walking, sitting and climbing stairs. Although these exoskeletons haven’t yet been approved for home use, their… »
Development of small flying machines able to patrol recon or search and rescue missions has been around for a while now. While small flying machines which use GPS in order to find their way to their destination are already common, there is a need for development of other systems which enable maneuvering around obstacles in… »
The Williams-York family lived in their ranch style home for 28 years before they decided to build their modern dream home with both passive and active solutions to increase its sustainability. The new Williams-York Residence in Leawood, Kansas has recently been awarded with LEED Platinum certification, the highest certification level from LEED for Homes by… »
Attempts 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… »
A 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… »
