There are wonderful UAV products available for use by police, rescue, fire, drug and border patrol (as well as for commercial purposes such as research, exploration, imaging, survey, mapping, spraying, etc.), yet there are no regulations that enable those products to fly. If you have the time and energy, here are the key people at…
Big Wind Machines
Recently I had occaision to discuss the merits of wind power with a colleague. In particular there is a controversy between horizontal axis wind turbines, the giant propeller driven systems you see in advertisements, and vertical wind, which does not have much presence in the marketplace. The premise is that horizontal systems can take advantage […]
Optimism: a conversation with Henrik Christensen
Henrik is Director of Robotics and Intelligent Machines at GA Tech. He is a significant player in promoting the Roadmap for US Robotics having done the same tasks in the EU. We discussed the pitfalls of robotic surgeries, new Japanese, Korean and EU products pending FDA approval and the need for training simulators. There’s a…
New, Brighter, Sharper LED Signage
STMicroelectronics recently announced a new series of highly accurate LED drivers with automatic power saving, enabling electronic signage such as road signs, advertising, stadium displays, battery or solar-powered signs and similar equipment to deliver better, high-resolution viewing by ensuring consistent brightness across the viewing area. The brightness of an LED is closely related to the […]
Some North American Robotics Manufacturers Are Rebounding
Orders from life sciences customers are up 14% through September and orders from food and consumer goods customers are up 12% says Robotics Industry Association Statistics Committee. Steep declines in auto and auto OEMs, and most other non-auto robotics customers also reflected in same report.
Chips, Chips, Chips
Semiconductor manufacturing is still a little bit like magic. It’s hard to imagine packing millions of transistor into tiny spaces and creating cellphones, computers, flat screen television, digital cameras, CD players and so forth. And the industry keeps pumping out the innovations. And there are so many technologies, all focused on solving application problems but […]
Power Supplies Target Medical Applications
A new digitally controlled 300W TDK-Lambda power supply, designed specifically for medical applications, is now available from RS Components. With a 4kVAC reinforced input to output isolation and other specifications such as an output-to-ground isolation of 1500VAC, the EFE300M meets the rigorous international safety standards of IEC 60601-1 for medical equipment, making it suitable for […]
ARMY Robots Need Little to No Help
According to ArmyTimes.com, the Army plans within 18 months to field robots that will do some tasks without direct human control, such as finding explosives and transporting equipment. The robots will turn corners, clear dangerous areas, capture images with a “persistent stare” and beam them back, and follow convoys without being tele-operated as they are […]
Defining Green Jobs
The American Solar Energy Society (ASEA) reported a staggering forecast of “37 million jobs resulting from Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency in the US by 2030”. That’s pretty exciting stuff. In fact, the numbers are so big, I had to get a closer look. 37 Million new jobs would certainly fix things in this, or […]
Motors are Strategic Technology
The 2007 Department of Commerce Census data is just now being released (how’s that for government efficiency?) and the good news is that the sector of the economy that manufactures electric motors and generators, a lot of which is used in industry for motion control applications, was up over 2002. The increase in total revenue […]
MIT researchers develop Affective Intelligent Driving Agent
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.