Daily Archives: October 11, 2022

Earth materials in technology The National – The National

Posted: October 11, 2022 at 12:23 am

GEOSCIENCEMichael Uglo

By MICHAEL JOHN UGLOWELCOME all to our sixth lecture on the sciences of the earth.The sciences of the earth also involve living things of all sorts that contribute to the formation of the earth and its earth structures through geologic time.Hence working smarter in this time we call the technology age, we have to make greater use of what is available rather than letting it to the earth to allow the earths natural processes to take place through the lithification processes whereby once-living matter and non-living matter such as silts, shells, sediments and bones are turned into rocks.Materials in the living world are a major source of materials and resources that can be used applications to do with biogeotechnology or geobiotechnology in both the commutative and associative as well in their applications.For instance, in the biology of evolutionary applications, it is the huge area of biotechnology and genetic engineering that are a resource on the earth. Natural selection and genetic drift result in the species and populations of organisms and biodiversity seen on the planet earth both in the past for extinct life and in the present.

As a link, people have been doing artificial selections of organisms for so many years to contain the favourable characters of the organisms. There were cross-breedings done in plants to produce hybrid plants that produce good yields as well as producing plants that are drought-resistant and plants that can thrive in lengthy wet seasons and water-logged areas.Cross-breeding is also done in the rice plant as an example, to come up with the hybrid rice to grow in the dry ground instead of only water-logged areas and wetlands.The natural immunity to counter cancer is no longer effective. Cancers have evolved to decimate populations of organisms. Microbes such as bacteria, fungi and viruses have evolved to outpace the available effective drugs for their treatment. Soon microbes will become resistant to all the effective available drugs because they are continually evolving.In the field of agriculture, pests and weeds have become resistant to available pesticides and weedicides. The trend is continuing and the industry is going through a chemical treadmill to treat resistant weeds and pests.

Hence, understanding the evolutionary genetics at the molecular level in the nucleotides of the DNA and RNA is vital. Knowing how the genes programme the enzymes and proteins to produce parts of plants, animals and microbes will result in the understanding of the first-hand information on how the nitrogen bases and genes programme the synthesis of the organic polymers. This will also help in the understanding of the basis of genetic mutations and protein alterations to find a cure for cancer as well as the effective diagnosis of the problems arising in medicine, agriculture as well as in botany and other fields.For instance, in engineering an evolutionary computer-algorithm results in solving very complex and multi-faceted engineering problems. The algorithms programmed by man are not so multi-dimensional like the evolutionary algorithm in superiority.Materials found naturally on the earth are the rocks, soil, minerals and water. There are also metals and precious stones that are found on the earth such as gold, silver and gemstones. Other important materials are diamonds which are allotropes of carbon just like graphite and the fullerenes Buckminster as a resource base for carbon nanotubes.These materials become very important resources for life, agriculture, industry and technology.Specific areas have various resources of those earth materials. The rocks become a resource for construction work such as in buildings and roads. Materials such as sandstone, mud, soil, granite, limestone and marble are very important for civil works and engineering construction. For instance, marble can be quarried and cut at site for construction like a local resource.Caliche is a soft limestone material that can be used as a resource. It is found at the site of limestone bedrock as well as calcium carbonate soils. Caliche are collected and squashed to be mixed with cement for making building structures as well as structural walls.The rammed earth that is 30 per cent mud and 70 per cent sand is also made to be used for buildings and other structures in civil constructions and engineering. Like caliche, their porosity is very important for holding water and creating chemical bonds with the additives like the cement which are to be used as the structures of walls which adds the compression.

The caliche and rammed earth structures as well as stone products can be used as finishing characteristics of constructions. They can become good heat radiators or thermal bodies in winter. These structures can also be used for providing cool environments in summer. Further, these materials are fire-proof.At the sites of the clay soil, brick plants can be located to make and supply bricks for constructions. Bricks are made by conditioning and heating the clay or it is baked for uses such as structural tiles, roof tiles, pavers and floor tiles.The caliche block, rammed earth and stone with brick structures become very useful for structural constructions such as structural walls, road constructions as well as buildings.Soils are always tested in laboratories to see their structures for construction work. Some soils are not so suitable for constructions, especially soils with very high expansibility factor.s And example opf such soils is bentonite. AAll rocks and soil resources are good to use locally because these reduces the cost of transport. The material cost will come down because of the low transport costs. Also, non-renewable resources are to be used whereby the ecology of the site must not be affected with more extractions. They have to be used sustainably.My Prayer for PNG today is: I will proclaim to all your people, the wonders you have done for me. You are indeed a God of goodness, you draw me gently to your heartNext week: Physical events

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CULINARY THRILL SEEKING Proceed with caution. It’s hotter than blazes season. – Port Arthur News – The Port Arthur News

Posted: at 12:23 am

Published 7:47 am Monday, October 10, 2022

Does your fall dcor feature sunflowers, burlap and orange leaves? Or super-scary-creepy things for All Hallows Eve?

We do things differently. Ive got a bunch of shiny discarded CDs making beautiful rainbows as they spin from a magnolia tree. Its a fall tradition that seems to amuse and get compliments from neighbors walking their dogs.

On the inside, its a different story. Sugar skulls in the Dia De Los Muertos tradition adorn my house from candles and towels to salt and pepper shakers. People give me these colorful pieces of Mexican heritage.

Thats how I got hot sauce in a skull jar. My original intent was to go through the store-bought stuff so I could always make my own and keep it in the jar.

Spooky right?

Its a warning to others: I like it hot. I usually go red, but Ive gone green of late.

One hot green version: Simply cut up fresh jalapenos and run them through the blender with garlic and a little vinegar. The green stuff can be mixed in to yogurt to cool it down.Play around with that. Have fun. Dont be scared.

Monkeys and Sea Creatures Laid-back monkeys, skulls and sea creatures announce some tasty canned beverages that will take you into the season. No reason to say goodbye to island flavors in our mild winter area.

Osena is spiked coconut water cocktail as close as a pop of the top Lush Dragon Fruit, Exotic Pineapple and Pure Original are smooth flavors that allow you 100 calories of beachy feeling. The electrolytes just come naturally. Cute little monkeys are sharing a coconut drink with straws on the label. Try @drinkosena on social media.

Our friends at Fire Dept. Coffee have always meant businesses. The skull in a fire hat just calls me in for some adventure. Now Nitro-Charged Shellback Espresso with a dual-trident armed sea king is taking no prisoners.

Theres no alcohol in Spirit-Infused Irish Coffee and Nitro Latte is right in there with the new cans that arent for novice coffee drinkers. Its in good fun and based on the concept our fire fighters need to stay alert. Read atfiredeptcoffee.com how efforts help those hurt on the job.

Soil to shelf and not sketchy I truly enjoyed a meal of Chi, which is fake meat to haters. To Culinary Thrill Seekers looking for new flavors and some healthy fun, I say give this 100 percent plant-based meat a go.

It impressed a guest who found the good texture and flavor familiar. He guessed that nuts played a role in the good texture. I served it with tortilla and beans and we all felt good about our choices.

It cooks in 4 minutes and the box says theres No Sketchy Stuff like genetic engineering and artificial flavors or dyes. I cant wait to see how a box ofCHI-rizo upgrades my next Taco Tuesday. Italian Herb comes after that. Join in the fun fromchifoods.us.

Pork Yeah! Its Plants.

Darragh Doiron is a Port Arthur area foodie looking for her one sweater she pulls out each of our brief autumn seasons. Share your foodie finds with her atdarraghcastillo@icloud.com.

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Give legal rights to animals, trees and rivers, say experts – The Guardian

Posted: at 12:23 am

Granting legal rights and protections to non-human entities such as animals, trees and rivers is essential if countries are to tackle climate breakdown and biodiversity loss, experts have said.

The authors of a report titled Law in the Emerging Bio Age say legal frameworks have a key part to play in governing human interactions with the environment and biotechnology.

Ecuador and Bolivia have already enshrined rights for the natural world, while there is a campaign to make ecocide a prosecutable offence at the international criminal court. The report for the Law Society, the professional body for solicitors in England and Wales, explores how the relationship between humans and mother earth might be recalibrated in the future.

Dr Wendy Schultz, a futurist and report co-author, said: There is a growing understanding that something very different has to be done if our children are going to have a planet to live on that is in any way pleasant, much less survivable, so this is an expanding trend. Is it happening as fast as any of us would want? Possibly not, which is why its important to get the word out.

Her co-author, Dr Trish OFlynn, an interdisciplinary researcher who was previously the national lead for civil contingencies at the Local Government Association, said legal frameworks should be fit for a more than human future and developments such as genetic modification or engineering. This means covering everything from labradors to lab-grown brain tissue, rivers to robots.

We sometimes see ourselves as outside nature, that nature is something that we can manipulate, said OFlynn. But actually we are of nature, we are in nature, we are just another species. We happen to be at the top of the evolutionary tree in some ways, if you look at it in that linear kind of way, but actually the global ecosystem is much more powerful than we are. And I think thats beginning to come through in the way that we think about it.

An example of a right might be evolutionary development, where a species and individual is allowed to reach its full cognitive, emotional, social potential.

Such a right could apply to sows in intensive pig farming, calves taken away from their mothers and even pets, said OFlynn, adding: I say that as a dog lover. We do constrain their behaviour to suit us.

Developments in biotechnology also pose questions about the ethics of bringing back species from extinction or eradicating existing ones. Scientists are exploring reintroducing woolly mammoths and there has been discussion of wiping out mosquitoes, which carry malaria and other diseases.

The planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essential

We arent wise enough to manage all of these capabilities and to manage the ripple effects of decisions we make about our relationship with the living environment, said Schultz. Part of the issue is embedding some sort of framework for accountability and responsibility for the consequences of these things we do, and thats where law comes in.

The authors acknowledge potential resistance from very different traditions and beliefs in some western countries, compared with Ecuador and Bolivia, where rights to nature were granted under socialist governments and influenced by Indigenous beliefs (as was the 2019 ban on climbing Uluru in Australia).

Granting something that is culturally numinous rights just so you can preserve it gets us to a kind of valuation that, among other things, is a cultural shift away from the Judeo-Christian great chain of being dominion over nature, said Schultz. This is reconfiguring it to place us where we have always been and where we should be thinking of ourselves as belonging, as just a node in this greater web of life on the planet.

If that worldview can be enshrined in law, essentially granting personhood rights to the spirit of the river, the spirit of the trees or the spirit of the elephant, youre talking about enshrining a kind of neo-pantheism into 21st-century legal frameworks.

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How yeast DNA may help protect astronauts from cosmic radiation in space – EastMojo

Posted: at 12:23 am

Nuclear fusion reactions in the sun are the source of heat and light we receive on Earth. These reactions release a massive amount of cosmic radiation including x-rays and gamma rays and charged particles that can be harmful for any living organisms.

Life on Earth has been protected thanks to a magnetic field that forces charged particles to bounce from pole to pole as well as an atmosphere that filters harmful radiation.

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During space travel, however, it is a different situation. To find out what happens in a cell when travelling in outer space, scientists are sending bakers yeast to the moon as part of NASAs Artemis 1 mission.

Cosmic radiation can damage cell DNA, significantly increasing human risk of neurodegenerative disorders and fatal diseases, like cancer. Because the International Space Station (ISS) is located in one of two of Earths Van Allen radiation belts which provides a safe zone astronauts are not exposed too much. Astronauts in the ISS experience microgravity, however, which is another stress that can dramatically change cell physiology.

As NASA is planning to send astronauts to the moon, and later on to Mars, these environmental stresses become more challenging.

The most common strategy to protect astronauts from the negative effects of cosmic rays is to physically shield them using state-of-the-art materials.

Several studies show that hibernators are more resistant to high doses of radiation, and some scholars have suggested the use of synthetic or induced torpor during space missions to protect astronauts.

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Another way to protect life from cosmic rays is studying extremophiles organisms that can remarkably tolerate environmental stresses. Tardigrades, for instance, are micro-animals that have shown an astonishing resistance to a number of stresses, including harmful radiation. This unusual sturdiness stems from a class of proteins known as tardigrade-specific proteins.

Under the supervision of molecular biologist Corey Nislow, I use bakers yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, to study cosmic DNA damage stress. We are participating in NASAs Artemis 1 mission, where our collection of yeast cells will travel to the moon and back in the Orion spacecraft for 42 days.

This collection contains about 6,000 bar-coded strains of yeast, where in each strain, one gene is deleted. When exposed to the environment in space, those strains would begin to lag if deletion of a specific gene affects cell growth and replication.

My primary project at Nislow lab is genetically engineering yeast cells to make them express tardigrade-specific proteins. We can then study how those proteins can alter the physiology of cells and their resistance to environmental stresses most importantly radiation with the hope that such information would come in handy when scientists try to engineer mammals with these proteins.

When the mission is completed and we receive our samples back, using the barcodes, the number of each strain could be counted to identify genes and gene pathways essential for surviving damage induced by cosmic radiation.

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Yeast has long served as a model organism in DNA damage studies, which means there is solid background knowledge about the mechanisms in yeast that respond to DNA-damaging agents. Most of the yeast genes playing roles in DNA damage response have been well studied.

Despite the differences in genetic complexity between yeast and humans, the function of most genes involved in DNA replication and DNA damage response have remained so conserved between the two that we can obtain a great deal of information about human cells DNA damage response by studying yeast.

Furthermore, the simplicity of yeast cells compared to human cells (yeast has 6,000 genes while we have more than 20,000 genes) allows us to draw more solid conclusions.

And in yeast studies, it is possible to automate the whole process of feeding the cells and stopping their growth in an electronic apparatus the size of a shoe box, whereas culturing mammalian cells requires more room in the spacecraft and far more complex machinery.

Such studies are essential to understand how astronauts bodies can cope with long-term space missions, and to develop effective countermeasures. Once we identify the genes playing key roles in surviving cosmic radiation and microgravity, wed be able to look for drugs or treatments that could help boost the cells durability to withstand such stresses.

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We could then test them in other models (such as mice) before actually applying them to astronauts. This knowledge might also be potentially useful for growing plants beyond Earth.

Hamid Kian Gaikani, PhD Candidate, Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of British Columbia

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Also read | Why Chinas lukewarm support for Russia is likely to benefit Ukraine

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SoftBank Robotics America and Gausium Announce Partnership to Expand Automated Robotic Solutions Across the U.S. Market – PR Newswire

Posted: at 12:21 am

X1 serves indoor environments where there is a need for automated food service, including restaurants, hotels, cafes, and office buildings

The Scrubber 50 Pro's 4-in-1 solution will work alongside commercial cleaning teams scrubbing, sweeping, dust mopping, and sanitizing

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 10, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- SoftBank Robotics America (SBRA), the North American arm of the global leader in robotics solutions, and Gausium, a leading solutions provider of autonomous cleaning and service robots, today announced their partnership to deploy indoor automated robotic solutions to the U.S. market. The partnership will focus on helping companies successfully adopt, integrate, and scale robotic solutions within their organizations.

X1 and the Scrubber 50 Pro (S50) are the first two solutions being deployed to support companies struggling with labor shortages or entering the next phase of transforming the way work is done.

These collaborative robots work alongside employees to alleviate menial and repetitive tasks so employees can focus on higher-value responsibilities, resulting in a boost in efficiency, improved employee and customer satisfaction, streamlined operations, and reduced employee turnover.

X1, an autonomous food service solution for the hospitality industry, is equipped with three serving trays that can hold up to 30 kilograms. Its collision-free and spill-proof technology allows X1 to run food and beverages to several tables at a time, charting the most efficient path to tables or back to the kitchen while navigating customers, employees, furniture, and other robots. The robot's advanced shock mitigation mechanisms ensure a smooth and stable delivery experience of drinks or liquid dishes. In addition to assisting with food running, X1 also helps servers more efficiently bus tables so they can spend more time with customers and turn over tables quicker.

The partnership has successfully deployed its first fleet of X1's to The Hall On The Yard, a unique 12,250-square-foot full-service food hall featuring nine restaurants in Orlando, Florida.

Following the successful commercialization and deployment of Whiz, an autonomous vacuum cleaner, SBRA is expanding its portfolio of cleaning robots and deepening its commitment to a smarter, clean and healthier environment with the introduction of the S50 Pro. S50 Pro is a 4-in-1 scrubbing, sweeping, dust mopping, and sanitizing solution. S50 Pro can simultaneously clean and disinfect floors, automatically spot clean by detecting and removing stains before they spread, and can send messages to operators when it encounters large wastes that require additional cleaning support.

"Gausium's technology is at the forefront of commercial service robots. Their products are smart, safe, and simple, enabling customers to easily adopt them into their businesses," said Brady Watkins, President of SoftBank Robotics America. "To truly solve the labor shortage many industries are facing, we are helping companies go beyond adoption and focus on the integration and scaling of their technology to maximize the value our solutions offer."

"SBRA is the right partner to bring our products to market throughout the U.S.," said Allen Zhang, Chief of Overseas Business of Gausium. "Their holistic customer support continues after the point of sale and ensures all adopters are receiving the expected return on experience and investment when utilizing our robots."

About SoftBank Robotics America

SoftBank Robotics America is the North American arm of SoftBank Robotics. SoftBank Robotics is driving technology forward by becoming a worldwide leader in robotics solutions. Rapidly expanding with offices in Tokyo, San Francisco, Boston, London, Paris, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Singapore, Sydney, Shanghai, and Hong Kong.

SoftBank Robotics is constantly exploring and commercializing robotics solutions that help make people's lives easier, safer, more connected, and more extraordinary. SoftBank Robotics' robots are used in more than 70 countries worldwide and we offer innovative applications relevant in the fields of retail, tourism, healthcare, finance, education, facilities management, cleaning, warehouse, and logistics. For more information on SoftBank Robotics America, please visit us.softbankrobotics.com.

About Gausium

Gausium (alias "Gaussian Robotics") is a leading smart solutions provider of AI-integrated autonomous service robots. Currently, Gausium's products and services include commercial floor cleaning robots, indoor delivery robots and supplementary accessories like docking stations, cloud platform and application software.

Founded in 2013, Gausium built its class-leading autonomous navigation based on advanced SLAM technology and integrated it into cleaning machines in 2017. It has since committed to providing total solutions of autonomous floor cleaning for extensive applications across industries and scenarios, and managed to set the industry benchmark with currently the world's most comprehensive commercial cleaning bot portfolio consisting of Vacuum 40, Scrubber 50, Scrubber 75 and Sweeper 111. In 2021 and 2022, Gausium launched its first autonomous delivery robot "X1" and the groundbreaking new cleaning product line "Phantas", marking the strategic expansion of its service robot ecosystem.

By 2021, Gausium's cleaning robots have been deployed in over 40 countries across 6 continents, recognized by thousands of satisfied customers with millions of autonomous operational hours accrued and billions of square meters covered.

With a vision to lead the smart digital transformation of the service sectors, Gausium will continue to bring more disruptive innovations to the world and empower more people to work smarter and lead happier lives with the products and services we provide.

Press Contact

SoftBank Robotics America [emailprotected]

SOURCE SoftBank Robotics America

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Dextrous Robotics creates robot to unload trucks: Here’s how it works – Commercial Appeal

Posted: at 12:21 am

The Dextrous Robotics lab in Crosstown Concourse looks like something out of a spy movie. The floor-length tinted windows reveal vague shadowy figures moving around inside, and the door is sealed with an electronic keypad next to it, no intercom.

From the outside you would never guess that the company makes robots for moving packages. But thats exactly what the DX-1, Dextrous main project, is for. The robot was made to help unload trucks and shipping containers with human-like dexterity.

CEO Evan Drumwright and his team found inspiration for the robot from an unlikely source.

We were inspired by human chopsticks to get this strategy of being able to select all these different objects and shapes, sizes, materials, weights, in all different kinds of environments,he said.

The DX-1 is slated for release in the spring of 2023. Dextrous is already in talks with several logistics companies about leasing the machine and implementing it in warehouses and distribution centers, though they were not at liberty to give specifics about which companies.

Drumwright, who has been working in robotics for more than 20 years, started Dextrous three years ago with the goal of developing robots that can do dangerous and physically demanding tasks currently done by humans. Now, he has built a robot that can perform these tasks withsuper-human speed and efficiency.

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In the pseudo-warehouse space at the back of the lab, the team has built a testing area for the robot filled with dozens of different-sized boxes. To the side of this area are several monitors and a keyboard that Chief Technology Officer Sam Zapolsky uses to control the robot.

Once Zapolsky fires it up, the DX-1 starts by scanning a package and building a digital 3-D model to estimate its dimensions, orientation and location. Then, it creates a plan of movements needed to lift and move the package and executes it using two thin, pointed arms, which Drumwright aptly calls "chopsticks."

Currently, the robot must be remotely operated by a person, but the plan is for it to become fully automated and capable of operating independently.

Looking at the numbers, the DX-1 averages 2,000 parcel picks per hour at maximum speed and lifts up to 100 pounds. In comparison, a human worker will average up to 300 with the use of a conveyance system, as a 2017 white paper from Westernacher Consulting found.

Dextrous' release comes as many large logistics companies, including FedEx, are investing more and more in robotics for various reasons including hiring shortages and to cut labor costs.

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However, Drumwright sees the DX-1 going beyond just the logistics industry. He said the technology could eventually be implemented in many different industries such as agriculture and manufacturing.

"These are things that people are essentially trading their physical effort for money, which is really not sustainable in the long-term because its just something thats going to be replaced by a machine,he said.

Niki Scheinberg is the FedEx and logistics reporter at The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached at monika.scheinberg@commercialappeal.com.

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Boston Dynamics and Other Robot Makers Pledge Not to Weaponize Their Robots – TechTheLead

Posted: at 12:21 am

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Peoples fear of a future where robotic dogs hunt us down while drones fly overhead have prompted several leading robotics companies to pledge not to weaponize their robots.

Axios reports that Boston Dynamics, the most famous robotics company and makers of Spot the Robot, have signed a pledge along with five other companies in order to assuage concerns over their products.

Along with Agility Robotics, ANYbotics, Clearpath Robotics, Open Robotics and Unitree Robotics, Boston Dynamics signed an open letter to the robotics industry and our communities, saying that General Purpose Robots Should Not Be Weaponized.

The full letter says that the companies will not weaponize their general-purpose robots, nor the software they develop for advanced robotics, and they will not support others to do so. In the pledge, they say they will review what their customers are buying robots for in order to prevent potential weaponization.

Also read: French Army Starts Testing Spot The Robot In Combat Training

We understand that our commitment alone is not enough to fully address these risks, and therefore we call on policymakers to work with us to promote safe use of these robots and to prohibit their misuse. We also call on every organization, developer, researcher, and user in the robotics community to make similar pledges not to build, authorize, support, or enable the attachment of weaponry to such robots. We are convinced that the benefits for humanity of these technologies strongly outweigh the risk of misuse, and we are excited about a bright future in which humans and robots work side by side to tackle some of the worlds challenges, says the Boston Dynamics letter, which you can read in its entirety on Axios.

Meanwhile, Oculus founder Palmer Luckeys new company, Anduril, just proudly announced the weaponization of their drones.

In the field of robotics, some people also got extremely creative, as is the case with the Russians who ordered a robot dog on AliExpress and strapped a submachine gun to it.

Also read: This App Lets People Control Spot the Robot Dog On A Rampage And Boston Dynamics Are Not Ok with It

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Video: This strange robotic arm has all the talents of a real human hand – Interesting Engineering

Posted: at 12:21 am

This way the creators of the robotic hand are able to generate the required pneumatic pressure (to move its different parts) without employing any heavy external air pumps. As the pressure inside the balloons changes, the mesh tubes contract or expand accordingly. Moreover, the robotic hand has a total of 36 artificial muscles.

Similar to the muscles of a normal human hand, the artificial muscles also have 27 degrees of freedom, meaning that the robot's thumbs and fingers can move, rotate, and hold just like the way their human counterparts do. The Clone Robotics team suggests that In the future, their artificial hand could be used as an appliance to perform various tasks in homes, factories, and laboratories, plus, it also has the potential to make humanoids more advance than ever.

Robotic arm holding a tennis ball.

The engineers at Clone Robotics didnt achieve success in creating the V15 robotic hand on their first attempt. Getting the hand work without air pumps was just one challenge. Initially, the hand weighed 18.3 lbs (8.3 kg), contained only 20 muscles, and could work for up to 5000 cycles. The engineers kept on improving their model until they were able to reduce its weight to 9.47 lbs (4.3 kgs).

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Sarcos Technology and Robotics Corporation Appoints Drew Hamer as Chief Financial Officer – Business Wire

Posted: at 12:21 am

SALT LAKE CITY--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sarcos Technology and Robotics Corporation (Sarcos) (NASDAQ: STRC and STRCW), a leading developer of highly dexterous robotic systems that enhance productivity, improve safety, and bring robots to unstructured and diverse environments, announces the appointment of Drew Hamer as chief financial officer.

Hamer is a proven finance executive with over twenty-five years of financial leadership at public and pre-public technology companies. Hamer joins Sarcos from Velodyne Lidar, where he played a central role in fund raising from strategic investors and guided the company through a public offering. In recognition of his financial leadership at Velodyne Lidar, Hamer was a finalist for the 2021 Bay Area CFO of the Year Award.

Hamer will be responsible for Sarcos financial functions including forecasting, budgeting, accounting, audit, treasury, and corporate finance. Hamer will be part of the executive leadership team and will report directly to the chief executive officer.

Were thrilled to welcome Drew to the Sarcos family, said Kiva Allgood, president and CEO, Sarcos. Drews operational and strategic financial expertise is critical as we commercialize our suite of highly dexterous robotic systems and software platforms.

Im excited to join Sarcos at this critical juncture in its growth, said Hamer. I look forward to working with the team to capture the incredible opportunity for robotics in unstructured environments.

Hamer is also a board member of Lightjump Acquisition Corporation (NASDAQ: LJAQ).

Sarcos would like to thank Steve Hansen for his hard work and contributions over the last few years.

For more information on Sarcos and its award-winning product portfolio, please visit http://www.sarcos.com.

About Sarcos Technology and Robotics Corporation

Sarcos Technology and Robotics Corporation (NASDAQ: STRC and STRCW) is a leader in industrial robotic systems that augment human performance by combining human intelligence with the strength, endurance, and precision of robotic platforms delivering dexterous robotic solutions for unstructured environments. Sarcos mobile robotic systems include a fleet of teleoperated solutions including the Guardian XT, Sapien 6M, and Sapien Sea Class. The Guardian XO, a full body powered exoskeleton, enhances worker performance by increasing lift capacity while reducing strain to the body. Sarcos supervised autonomy platform delivers computer vision and autonomy software for robust situational awareness and insight. Sarcos has two locations, Salt Lake City, Utah and Pittsburgh, PA. Shares of Sarcos trade on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol STRC and the companys stock was added to the Russell 2000 index in 2022. For more information, please visit http://www.sarcos.com.

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How robotic honeybees and hives could help the species fight back – MIT Technology Review

Posted: at 12:21 am

Schmickl, who now leads the Artificial Life Lab at the University of Graz in Austria, wasnt wrong. Studies in various parts of the world have since found that insect populations are declining or changing. After working in the field of swarm robotics for several yearsusing nature to inspire robotsSchmickl decided to flip his work around and design robots to help nature, a concept he calls ecosystem hacking.

Hes focusing on bees. Honeybees and other pollinators face habitat loss, pesticide exposure, and other challenges, and Schmickl believes that coming to their aid could help strengthen entire ecosystems. Already, some companies offer augmented beehives that monitor conditions inside, or even robotically tend the bees. Now Schmickl and his colleagues want to go a step further and use technology to manipulate the insects behavior.

Speaking to the swarm

Schmickls team is building prototype hives as part of a European Unionfunded project called Hiveopolis. One of the groups hives resembles a stylized tree trunk, similar to a hollow tree where honeybees might nest in nature. In an effort to use sustainable materials, that hive is made from 3D-printed clay and from fungus grown on recycled coffee grounds, Schmickl says.

The prototype hives are outfitted with sensors and cameras as well as devices that can create vibration inside the hive and adjust temperature or air flow. Such tools could ultimately direct the bees traffic patterns: Schmickls experiments have shown that vibration slows the bees down, while moving air encourages them to walk away.

Hiveopolis collaborator Tim Landgraf, a professor of artificial and collective intelligence at Freie Universitt Berlin in Germany, is working on another kind of tool for these hives: a robotic dancing bee.

When real honeybees return from foraging, they perform a distinctive waggle dance that communicates the location of the food. Other bees join in the foragers dances, and when enough bees are doing the same dance, theyll fly out to find the food. Its a sort of opinion polling process, Schmickl says.

In earlier research, Landgraf built a robot that could perform a waggle dance so convincing that other bees followed itand, at least sometimes, flew in the direction the robot suggested. Now hes getting ready to test an improved version of the waggle robot and find out whether it can guide honeybees to a food source. The robot doesnt look very bee-like to a human eye. Its body is simply a small, flexible tube with a fluttering wing. But its connected to a motor outside the hive that can steer and shimmy it across the hives dance floor.

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How robotic honeybees and hives could help the species fight back - MIT Technology Review

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