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Satellite Surgery Robot Developed to Repair Satellites

Artificial satellites placed in orbits are used for a variety of purposes like communication, GPS, military applications, TV broadcasting, and so on.

No matter how much time and money has been spent on building these hi-tech devices, satellites are basically just machines, and constant use can damage any machine. Every year NASA is spending millions of dollars just for the maintenance of these satellites, but they have not found a feasible way to repair a damaged one. Till present, there was only one option left for the researchers –completely blow–off the satellite!!They could not find any other feasible method to repair it. They tried using manpower by sending them directly to the repair site. This turned out to be a bad idea, as they could not adapt themselves to the outer space characteristics.

NASA had to face a lot of criticism for blowing up satellites in outer space. Since a single satellite contains millions of electronic equipments, blowing them off would literally mean the disposal of e- waste all over the outer space. These toxic wastes could bring serious threats to humans by affecting the Earth’s atmosphere in the coming future.

A remotely operated robot could easily do the job but controlling of the robot will be a difficult task. Precise controlling of the robot is necessary, as things are different in outer space.

Engineers at John Hopkins University are known for designing robots for medical purposes. They have created various robots that were used in medical transplants and other complex surgeries. Currently they are working on a project in which a medical surgery robot called da Vinci console is transformed into a robot that can be used for repairing satellites.

A brief description of this robotic surgery project has been presented by two graduate students Tian Xia and Jonathan Bohren from John Hopkins’ Homewood campus . In this demonstration, researchers showed how the da Vinci console, which was used for the treatment of cancer was modified as a satellite-repairing robot. It consists of a 3D eyepiece by which the operator can remotely control the robot. By using the 3D eye piece the user gets a better vision which helps him to repair with ease .

It also includes a touch or haptic feedback to the operator. With the technology the user gets to know the exact amount of force, vibration or motion applied to the machine through computer stimulation.

This robot was successfully tested on 29th November 2011. The modified da Vinci console was used to control an Industrial robot at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre about 30 miles away . This test was successful and researchers concluded that they could use it in space mission too. The most challenging problem is that the satellites are travelling in an orbit and thus, prone to time delay for signal reception. Researchers may have used special algorithms to refine this problem. The robot can also be used for refueling satellites.

Make Airplane Invisible using Stealth Paint

Radar detection has always been the nightmare of military aircrafts. Once spotted in the radar zone, it is easy to destroy the aircraft in mid air by using anti-aircraft missiles.

Defense personnel’s across the world are investing billions to develop better stealth equipped aircrafts that will easily escape from radar eyes. The concept of stealth is applied on an aircraft by making changes in the aircraft design such that it deflects the radar beams instead of reflecting them. The aircraft design is such that there are no perpendicular sections in the body of the plane, so the radar beam never reflects back to the receiver. While making a stealth aircraft we have to compromise with one of its main factor – the engine power. Though reducing the engine power can reduce the heat signature, the speed of the aircraft will also be compromised. What if we could develop a better stealth technology without compromising the aircrafts’ speed? We are talking about a technology that will make any aircraft invisible for radars.

Researchers have invented a special nano tube paint to make any object ultra black. This concept is also used for making aircrafts invisible to radars.

Engineers of NASA developed carbon nano tubes, being the ‘blackest ‘known material for their space missions. Carbon nano tubes will absorb 99 percent of any light- ultraviolet, visible or infrared that strikes on it. The material is also known for its excellent electrical conductivity and high strength .Carbon nano tubes are tiny yet long tubular structures made of pure carbon. A professor from Michigan University L J Guo first realized that by applying the nano paint or the nano tube coating, the aircraft could absorb the radar waves there by making it virtually invisible.

The researchers implanted large volumes of nano tubes into various substances like silicon wafer. Nano tubes have to be planted in a particular manner to make its reflective index similar to surrounding air. After implantation, the light is absorbed without being scattered. A practical method to implant nano tubes on the surface of aircrafts has not been developed until now. Perfect results were obtained only when nano tubes were implanted in tiny particles under the influence of high temperature and pressure. Guo suggested that first, the nano tubes has to be implanted in tiny particles and then suspended in the paint for stealth aircrafts. Earlier, to prevent absorption and radioactive properties, a metallic mixture was added to black paint and then coated on the aircraft. However, this would add excess weight to the machine. Since nano tube has ultra black property and is denser, there is no need of any additives.

3D Transistors !!!

A transistor is the fundamental building block of all electronic devices.

A transistor can be defined as a device, which is used to amplify signals and power. Integrated circuits are used in making of chips inside electronic gadgets such as smart phones, laptops and so on. Researchers in Purdue and Harvard Universities have created a new type of transistor that will make the Integrated circuits more compact. This transistor is made from another material other than silicon and as the name suggest, a 3-D structure is given to the device compared to the conventional flat chips. Nano wires are used in these transistors instead of silicon so they will be more compact and more efficient. The nano wires used in this transistor are made from iridium gallium arsenide semiconductor.

Iridium-gallium-arsenide is replaced for silicon in this device. As they are elements from the 3rd and 5th group of the periodic table, they are collectively known as the III-V group semiconductors. These semiconductors are known to conduct electrons five times better than silicon. The mobility of this material is also known to be higher. All these characteristics have urged chip manufacturers to replace silicon with this semiconductor in the coming years.

The 3D transistor was made by a process termed ”top- down method” in which components of the transistor is etched. This method will gain huge acceptance as it is compatible with most of the industrial processes. In 2012, a new generation of integrated chips is believed to come into market in which transistors will be placed horizontally rather than vertically. This is the reason for the 3D effect posed by these transistors. Thus, this device is the world’s first 3D-gate-allround transistor.

The transistor consists of a gate by which rapid ON-OFF switching action is possible and helps in the direct flow of current. By the introduction of 3D transistors, it is estimated that this gate length will reduce from 45nm to 22 nm. The nano wires are coated with a dielectric, which acts as the gate. Further research is being conducted to reduce the gate length to 18 nm. The only option available is to make a thinner dielectric layer by a process called atomic deposition. A thinner dielectric layer offers greater speed, low voltage requirements and lower power consumption. The device has improved its clock speed to 20 GHz. This experiment was funded by the National Science foundation and Semiconductor research group. The latest development in this field was the design of a “finFET or fin Field Effect Transistor” in which the device has a fin like structure other than the conventional flat design.

By the introduction of 3D transistors computers will become faster, cooler and smarter. Intel is planning to release processors made from 3D transistor integrated chips in 2012. These chips are expected to be 10 times faster than the ones used now and will be more compact.
It is heard that a Japanese company named “Unisantis” is working with the researchers of Singapore’s Institute of micro electronics to develop a new 3D transistor called the SGT (Surrounding Gate Transistor) which will increase the clocking speed of the computers from 20 GHz to 50 GHz.

Now Fire Laser From Your Body !!!

Cyclops, a superhero from the famous comics “X men” has been the favorite of many people across the world. In the story, the character produces powerful laser beams by optical blast from his eyes.

This fiction has become a reality by the joint efforts of Seok-Hyun Yun and Malte Gather, two physicists at Massachusetts General Hospital.

They were able to develop a technique by which laser can be produced from human cells. The device used to produce this laser consists of the same components that are used to produce a real time laser. That is, a pump source, an optical cavity and a gain medium. The pump source is used to produce the initial energy, the optical cavity to concentrate the energy, and the gain medium is a substance in which the electrons are exited until they go from a lower energy level to a higher energy level.

The researchers began experimenting on human kidney cells to produce green florescent proteins (GFP). This substance is known to produce luminance in jellyfish. Many steps were carried out to produce the laser. They began by placing the modified cell between two mirrors there by creating an optical cavity (a cell sandwich as called by researchers). Then a blue light pulse was passed through the cell and the light bounced between the mirrors, causing the cell to glow. When the cell was observed through a microscope, they saw that the cell was glowing with a spot of laser.

Researchers suggest that this laser is suitable for many medical applications. For the diagnosis of diseases, nowadays a laser beam is passed into the body to get images or to attack the disease causing cells. There might also be a time when the human cells can be illuminated as laser. The illuminated cells can gather more information about the interior of the human body by penetrating the damaged tissues more deeply. More research has to be done to realize this as laser needs an external light source to illuminate.

Some say that this technology will be more useful in gaining information about individual cell characteristics than medical applications as the laser needs an external light source and it is difficult to produce it inside human body. Yen suggests that by integrating a nano scale cavity to laser cell we can produce a cell that will illuminate itself without any external source. Let’s hope that this technology will come into reality in the near future itself – who doesn’t want to shoot a laser from our own body.

World’s Smallest Magnetic Data Storage

There will be a time when all the major technologies in the world will be in nanoscale. Recent developments have been undergone in daily used electronic gadgets like mobiles, computers, laptops and so on.

As a part of this, a group of researchers from IBM and CFEL (Centre for free-electron Laser Science) have been successful in developing the world’s smallest magnetic data storage unit. The newly invented unit needs only 12 atoms for storing one bit. That is, 96 atoms for storing one byte. In a conventional memory storage unit a byte consists of half a billion atoms and hence this new technology will prove to be a breakthrough for producing the new generation of devices called “nanogadgets”.

This nano data storage unit was made by placing atom by atom by using a STM (scanning tunneling microscope) at IBM’s Almaden research centre in San Jose, California. First a regular pattern of iron atoms were constructed and then they were aligned in such a way that each row contains six atoms. The storage density of this nano structured memory unit is supposed to be a hundred times better than the currently used hard drives.

With the help of an STM data is written to the nano storage unit. The pairs of the atoms will be having two magnetic states representing zero and one. By using the STM the polarity of the atoms are changed to the desired value. For this purpose, an electromagnetic pulse is applied to the electrons from the STM. A weaker electronic pulse is used to read the data from the nano structure.

In conventional hard drives and other data storage structures data is stored by ferromagnetism but here special form of magnetism called the anti ferromagnetism is used here to record data. As the materials are anti ferromagnetic, the atoms can be spaced more closely as the magnetic fields will not be interfering with each other and hence nano size can be achieved. Scientists say that this discovery will open new doors to quantum physics and smarter gadgets can be developed in the near future.

Waterless Washing Machine

Waterless Washing Machine Cleans Laundry Through Magnetic Levitation

New inventions have made strainful works always easier for people. Let us take an example of a washing machine. In early days, people used to wash their own clothes by hand and scrub all the dirt away using a brush and detergent. Later, the washing machine was invented, which simplified laundry cleaning. The device was further developed to produce semi-cleaners and lately fully automatic washing machines.

A new concept has been introduced by a designer named Elie Ahovi, which works under the principle of magnetic levitation.

The device, named as “Laundry Orb” consists of a spherical drum that cleans clothes by scrubbing them using dry ice, instead of water. The spherical drum is basically a ring filled with batteries. These batteries produces magnetic levitation inside the ring. To levitate, a super-conductive metal laundry basket is introduced inside. A low temperature is required inside the ring. This is produced by using liquid nitrogen. A double layered shatterproof glass is also introduced inside. Thus, the whole drum levitates as soon as a magnetic field is produced. The whole process is controlled using a touch screen interface.

The dry ice is introduced inside the ring at supersonic speeds. As soon as it hits the dirty clothes, the carbon dioxide interacts with the dirt and separates them from the clothes. The dirt is then collected and filtered out through small pores. The carbon dioxide is then removed and re-frozen. Thus, the clothes are cleaned and dry.

The cleaning process will take only a few minutes. Since no water and soap is used, the clothes are prone to look new without any wear ad tear. The environment can also be protected to a certain extent by saving soap. Besides, we can use the surplus carbon dioxide for something useful.

Though the whole concept sounds interesting, there are certain cons. The removing of carbon dioxide and refreezing it requires a lot of energy.

The Sketching Robot - Piccolo

Piccolo can be said as the perfect companion for a graphic designer or an engineer as it helps him to sketch his creativity.

Piccolo is a small pocket sized robot which uses servo mechanism for developing and deploying the accurate 2D or 3D output. Like all other robots, this one also works according to CNC technology. CNC is the acronym of Computer Numerical Control. Here the computer converts the design produced by the computer aided design software (CAD) into numbers. These numbers denote different coordinates – that is X, Y and Z in a graph. This technology is employed in a number of places such as the automatic machine cutting, or the drawing tool. We can sketch a simple drawing or cut a sheet using a laser tip by attaching the corresponding tip to this bot. Piccolo will work according to the type of tip attached to it. Another important advantage of Piccolo is its portability. We can carry this cool machine anywhere with us. When compared to other CNC based robots, this one does not cost thousands of dollars but just $70.This device was introduced by the Diatom studio from London with the collaboration of Cheng Xu and Huaishu Peng From CoDe Lab.

Piccolo is open source – anyone can modify its design. The prototype is simple; it can be assembled quickly and is easy to use. The Piccolo includes Arduino and processing libraries so that we can use Piccolo as we wish like moving automatically or by responding to a sensor. We can engage multiple piccolos to work together so that it could create a larger canvas. In the Piccolo kit we are provided with the facility to create 3D or 2D sketches according to our desire.

The elegant design and ease of use has made Piccolo the favorite of designers. It can be used as a learning tool for beginners who want to explore the vast capabilities of the CNC field. Now piccolo is only in the prototype stage but we expect the Arduino -compatible platform to turn our visions into neat sketches in the near future.

Technology to Help Visually Impaired In Driving...

The engineers are using Vision Impairment Simulator which helps them understand how a person with eye disorders might see objects while driving.

This goes out to all the people whose visual abilities have got affected because of ageing and troubles like cataract and glaucoma. Cambridge University and Ford Motor Company have come up with a technology that will help the visually impaired patients drive their cars with much ease.

The technology initiative is brought by a team of scientists at Cambridge University’s Engineering Design Centre along with Ford. The two are developing vehicles for the visually impaired. The engineers are using Vision Impairment Simulator which helps them understand how a person with eye disorders might see objects while driving.

According to a report, a designer loads an image in the simulator and selects a desired ‘impairment’. The simulator then simulates the image and the engineers then work out solutions to handle those problems. The designers can also change the degree of impairment with the simulator when any object’s image is loaded.

The designers also compare how a person suffering from glaucoma might see an object as against someone suffering from cataract. They assess all the permutations and combinations possible in the comparison.

The Visual Impairment simulator helps in simulating the images for the problems involved in driving when an eye patient is driving. Cars with this technology are expected to be seen on the roads soon.

Roll Your TV To Fit In Pocket !!!

A new technology developed by British scientists has brought the dream of television screens that can be rolled up and carried in a pocket closer to reality.

The researchers have developed a new form of light-emitting crystals, known as quantum dots, which can be used to produce ultra-thin television sets, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

The tiny crystals, 100,000 times thinner than a human hair, can be printed on flexible plastic sheets to produce a paper-thin display, or on to wallpaper to create giant room-size screens.

According to Michael Edelman, the chief executive of Nanoco, a spin-out company set up by the scientists behind the technology at Manchester University, the firm was working with "major Asian electronics companies".

It is believed that Sony, Sharp, Samsung and LG are working on the quantum dot television technology.

DRDO Developing 'Robotic' Soldiers

Going futuristic with unmanned fighting systems, the Defence Research and Development Organisation said it is developing robots to function as soldiers.

"We are in the process of developing robots that can work like soldiers. They are working on the data and artificial intelligence that is needed in the process,"Vijay Kumar Saraswat, Director General of DRDO and Scientific Advisor to Defence Minister, told a press conference.

Earlier, Saraswat inaugurated Bharat Earth Movers Limited - Combined Vehicles Research and Development Establishment Technology Centre, Suspension Test Facility and Combat Vetronics technology Centre for CVRDE, the DRDO lab which is making India's Main Battle Tank (MBT) Arjun.

Stating that India needs to produce aircraft landing gear indigenously, he said organisations like BEML should take the initiative, while CVRDE should get into transmission systems.

"DRDO should join hands with defence PSUs to open offset labs," he said. "There is no major design centre to develop landing gear. This institution along with BEML should take the initiative to start making landing gears. That will be useful for UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) and aircraft. And one day we shall have our own commercial aircraft also."

Observing that DRDO was good in designing and prototyping, but has a 'syndrome' of lacking in converting the technology into production, he said collaborations with PSUs are the solution.

Chief Controller (R&D) of Armament and Combat Engineering S Sundaresh said future MBTs should be light weight and set an example to the world. CVRDE director P Sivakumar said trials of MBT Arjun Mark-II would commence from October 2012.

Technology To Develop High Speed Electronics

Using this technology, Russian scientists can build new devices, which are as high speed as superconductor ones.

A new technology to make high speed electronics of the new generation has been developed by the Russian scientists. Igor Kazakov, one of the developers of the new technology and a laboratory head with the Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences said that the history of solid-state electronics goes back to 1947 when a transistor device was invented. "Since then, progress has been following the path of bigger compactness of devices in an integral circuit unit, which is achieved through making them ever smaller," he said. These days, devices are so small that they hardly reach several dozens of nanometers in size. At that point, an electron begins to behave as a wave, i.e. it could either skirt an obstacle or penetrate through it.

Such behaviour from particles virtually cancels principles underlying the operation of devices like transistors or diodes.Going by this, the researchers employed new physical principles - the so-called resonance tunneling - when only electrons of a given energy may penetrate through the obstacle. The developers of this new technology from the research centre Quantum Devices and Nanotechnologies used this principle. They were lead by Yuri Kopayev and Alexander Gorbatsevich, members of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The new devices made by the researchers are as high speed as superconductor ones. Based on classical physical principles, such as transistors and diodes, with devices built of quantum principles, the researchers have made 3D integration of devices. Looking at the latest development, the researchers from the Physical Institute feel that Russian developments may dominate the global market of new-generation electronics.

Kazakov said that the latest technology gives a chance to Russia to regain its once lost position in the field of advanced hardware components development.

Self-Healing System To Restore Broken Circuits!

A team of engineers at the University of Illionis has developed an autonomous system that restores electrical conductivity to a cracked circuit in less than seconds.

In electronics, if a circuit breaks or a tiny failure occurs for a reason within an integrated chip, the entire chip or the device becomes useless. In order to save one on such occasions, a team of engineers at the University of Illionis has developed an autonomous restorative circuit system. It is a self-healing system that restores electrical conductivity to a cracked circuit rapidly.The process is so quick that even the user cannot recognise the failure in the circuit.

The system uses tiny micro-capsules-–-as small as 10 microns in diameter--filled with gallium-indium liquid metal, which are dispersed on top of a gold line functioning as a circuit.The micro-capsules break open when a crack starts and then they release the metallic liquid into the gaps in the circuit. This restores the electrical flow after a period of downtime which lasts only a few microseconds.

Jeffrey Mooren, a chemistry professor,said,“It simplifies the system. Rather than having to build in redundancies or to build in a sensory diagnostics system, this material is designed to take care of the problem itself.”

Even with a small amount of micro-capsules, researchers were able to heal 99 per cent of original conductivity in 90 per cent of their samples.

Apart from being autonomous, the self-healing system is also localised. It implies that only those micro-capsules open that are intercepted by a crack. This ensures that repair takes place only at the point of damage. This system does not require any human intervention. It is well suited for applications where accessing a break for repair is impossible, such as a battery, or finding the source of a failure is difficult, such as an aircraft or spacecraft, state the engineers.

Nancy Sottos, professor, said, “In an aircraft, especially a defence-based aircraft, there are miles and miles of conductive wire. You don’t often know where the break occurs. The autonomous part is nice--it knows where it broke, even if we don’t.”

The team of engineers at Illinois has plans to further develop the technology in order to improve the safety and longevity of batteries. They are also looking at the research to explore other possibilities for using micro-capsules to control conductivity.

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Satellite Surgery Robot Developed to Repair Satellites

Artificial satellites placed in orbits are used for a variety of purposes like communication, GPS, military applications, TV broadcasting, and so on.

Make Airplane Invisible using Stealth Paint

Radar detection has always been the nightmare of military aircrafts. Once spotted in the radar zone, it is easy to destroy the aircraft in mid air by using anti-aircraft missiles.

3D Transistors !!!

A transistor is the fundamental building block of all electronic devices.

Now Fire Laser From Your Body !!!

Cyclops, a superhero from the famous comics “X men” has been the favorite of many people across the world. In the story, the character produces powerful laser beams by optical blast from his eyes.

World’s Smallest Magnetic Data Storage

There will be a time when all the major technologies in the world will be in nanoscale. Recent developments have been undergone in daily used electronic gadgets like mobiles, computers, laptops and so on.

Waterless Washing Machine

Waterless Washing Machine Cleans Laundry Through Magnetic Levitation

The Sketching Robot - Piccolo

Piccolo can be said as the perfect companion for a graphic designer or an engineer as it helps him to sketch his creativity.

Technology to Help Visually Impaired In Driving...

The engineers are using Vision Impairment Simulator which helps them understand how a person with eye disorders might see objects while driving.

Roll Your TV To Fit In Pocket !!!

A new technology developed by British scientists has brought the dream of television screens that can be rolled up and carried in a pocket closer to reality.

DRDO Developing 'Robotic' Soldiers

Going futuristic with unmanned fighting systems, the Defence Research and Development Organisation said it is developing robots to function as soldiers.

Technology To Develop High Speed Electronics

Using this technology, Russian scientists can build new devices, which are as high speed as superconductor ones.

Self-Healing System To Restore Broken Circuits!

A team of engineers at the University of Illionis has developed an autonomous system that restores electrical conductivity to a cracked circuit in less than seconds.

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Artificial satellites placed in orbits are used for a variety of purposes like communication, GPS, military applications, TV broadcasting, and so on.

Radar detection has always been the nightmare of military aircrafts. Once spotted in the radar zone, it is easy to destroy the aircraft in mid air by using anti-aircraft missiles.

A transistor is the fundamental building block of all electronic devices.

Cyclops, a superhero from the famous comics “X men” has been the favorite of many people across the world. In the story, the character produces powerful laser beams by optical blast from his eyes.

There will be a time when all the major technologies in the world will be in nanoscale. Recent developments have been undergone in daily used electronic gadgets like mobiles, computers, laptops and so on.

Waterless Washing Machine Cleans Laundry Through Magnetic Levitation

Piccolo can be said as the perfect companion for a graphic designer or an engineer as it helps him to sketch his creativity.

The engineers are using Vision Impairment Simulator which helps them understand how a person with eye disorders might see objects while driving.

A new technology developed by British scientists has brought the dream of television screens that can be rolled up and carried in a pocket closer to reality.

Going futuristic with unmanned fighting systems, the Defence Research and Development Organisation said it is developing robots to function as soldiers.

Using this technology, Russian scientists can build new devices, which are as high speed as superconductor ones.

A team of engineers at the University of Illionis has developed an autonomous system that restores electrical conductivity to a cracked circuit in less than seconds.

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