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Category: food – Page 124

The processing of food at high volumes has traditionally posed many problems for robots and cobots, and has lagged behind other industries. Foods have a variety of shapes and sizes and can be delicate in nature. These variables can be challenging when a robot tries to grasp an item. The delicate often has strict requirements for quality, making them even harder to grasp (think: strawberries).

Non-automotive robot orders now represent 58% of the North American total. Unit sales to the food and consumer goods sector alone increased 29% in 2021 over 2020, according to Association for Advancing Automation (A3).

“More industries recognized that robotics could help reverse productivity declines and fill repetitive jobs human workers don’t want. It is no longer a choice whether to deploy robots and automation,” says Jeff Burnstein, president of A3. “It’s now an absolute imperative. As we’ve long believed—and users continue to confirm—robots help companies compete, ultimately creating more jobs to handle their growth.”

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For those not paying attention, Tesla has been unable to build cars in China for a few weeks as China shuts down due to a zero Covid policy. Here’s a short video about life in China:

China’s financial hub Shanghai has started easing its lockdown in some areas on Monday, despite reporting a record high of more than 25,000 new Covid-19 infections, as authorities sought to get the city moving again after more than two weeks.

Pressure has been building on authorities in the country’s most populous city, and one of its wealthiest, from residents growing increasingly frustrated as the curbs dragged on, leaving some struggling to find enough food and medicine. Footage circulating online showed people screaming from their balconies, with the person filming claiming it was because people had grown tired of China’s strict lockdown rules.

Shanghai to ease lockdown despite surge in Covid cases ► https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/11/shanghai-to-ea…ovid-cases.

The Guardian publishes independent journalism, made possible by supporters. Contribute to The Guardian today ► https://bit.ly/3uhA7zg.

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Milling rice to separate the grain from the husks produces about 100 million tons of rice husk waste globally each year. Scientists searching for a scalable method to fabricate quantum dots have developed a way to recycle rice husks to create the first silicon quantum dot (QD) LED light. Their new method transforms agricultural waste into state-of-the-art light-emitting diodes in a low-cost, environmentally friendly way.

The research team from the Natural Science Center for Basic Research and Development, Hiroshima University, published their findings on January 28, 2022, in the American Chemical Society journal ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering.

“Since typical QDs often involve toxic material, such as cadmium, lead, or other , have been frequently deliberated when using nanomaterials. Our proposed process and for QDs minimizes these concerns,” said Ken-ichi Saitow, lead study author and a professor of chemistry at Hiroshima University.

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We produce more than 380 million tonnes of plastic every year, with over 8 million tons of plastic waste escaping into our oceans. Scientists have come up with a creative solution to address this growing plastic problem, and the best thing is that their solution smells and tastes divine.

By getting help from a genetically modified bacteria, a team of researchers at the University of Edinburgh was able to turn plastic bottles into vanilla flavoring. This is the first time a valuable chemical has been achieved from plastic waste.

The study, published in the journal Green Chemistry, explains how bacteria may be used to transform plastic into vanillin, a compound that is used not just in food, but also in cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.

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After eating up about one billion base pairs to fuel its synthetic biology and cell programming efforts, Ginkgo Bioworks is going back for seconds, with another large order from the DNA weaver Twis | After eating up about one billion base pairs to fuel its synthetic biology and cell programming efforts, Ginkgo Bioworks is going back for seconds, with another large order from the DNA weaver Twist Bioscience.

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It is intended to be scalable and adaptable to a variety of settings, such as on the rooftops of inner-city buildings. The aim was to design and build a system that could be replicated in both rural areas and on roofs of urban building spaces.

The 130-square-foot structure is constructed from Aleppo Pine (Pinus halepensis) that was milled, dried, processed, and pressed into laminated wooden elements on-site at Valldaura. The glass roof, carefully arranged in a heliomorphic ‘diamond’ shape, allows for full solar capture both by the plants inside and the semi-transparent solar panels integrated within the glass to power the entire structure. The greenhouse only uses about 50% of the energy it produces, leaving the other half for the nearby Valldura Labs facility.

The solar-powered greenhouse also features a fully functional nutrient delivery system consisting of storage tanks, nutrient inflows, tubing to feed the plants directly, and a matrix of LED strip lights to facilitate longer growth cycles. The ground floor will be used for germinating the seedlings that will be planted in the gardens, while the upper level will generate a sizable harvest using advanced hydroponic techniques. All planting beds will use a sawdust substrate, a former waste product of the Green Fab Lab at Valldaura put to imaginative reuse.

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Robot Maid: The child-sized robot can mop, pick up stuff off the floor, put dishes away, and even move furniture. It can even make and bring you coffee.

Remember the Jetsons? As kids, we hoped someday we’d have flying cars or those jetpacks Elroy used to zip around with. As we become older, the thing we really want most from the Jetsons is their lovable maid Rosie. Because let’s be honest, we all despise cleaning. Whether it’s vacuuming the living room, mopping up the kitchen or picking up our kid’s toys, nobody cleans with a smile on their face. Wouldn’t it be great if we had a robot maid like Rosie to clean up while we focused on other stuff?

Well having a “Rosie” might be closer than you think thanks to a company called Aeolus Robotics. They unveiled their as of yet unnamed “maid” robot earlier this year. The child-sized robot can mop, pick up stuff off the floor, put dishes away, and even move furniture.

The robot isn’t just about cleaning, it can even make and bring you coffee if you so shall desire. It can recognize both voice and text commands so you can simply say “Mop the floor then bring me my coffee” and walla! The robot integrates with Alexa, Google Home, and other smart devices. The robot’s owner can use an app to interact with and monitor it’s activities, even being able to see the world exactly as the robot does.

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