Lifeboat Foundation

Researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute recently created OmniWheg, a robotic system that can adapt its configuration while navigating its surrounding environment, seamlessly changing from a wheeled to a legged robot. This robot, introduced in an IEEE IROS 2022 paper, pre-published on arXiv, is based on an updated version of the so-called “whegs,” a series of mechanisms design to transform a robot’s wheels or wings into legs.

“Quadruped and biped robots have been growing in popularity, and the reason for that might be the search for ‘anthropomorphization’ that the general audience commonly engages in,” Prof. Andre Rosendo, one of the researchers who developed the robot, told TechXplore. “While ‘being capable of going everywhere we go’ sounds like an exciting appeal, the energetic cost of legs is very high. We humans have legs because that is what evolution gave us, but we wouldn’t dare to create a ‘legged car,’ as we know that this ride wouldn’t be as comfortable or energy efficient as a wheeled car ride.”

Continue reading “A transformable robot with an omnidirectional wheel-leg” »

The car will allegedly have less ambitious self-driving capabilities initially and it’s debut date has been pushed back to 2026.

Apple’s ambitious electric vehicle (EV) will allegedly have fewer self-driving capabilities for its launch date, the latter of which has been pushed back by a year, from 2025 to 2026, according to a Bloomberg.

The car is still in the pipeline and is reported to be set up with more conventional car features and designs than other autonomous EVs.

Continue reading “Apple’s self-driving car debut pushed back and may be less advanced” »

In sad aviation news, the latest, and final, Boeing 747 has rolled off the production line.

Since 1967, the Boeing 747 has been the icon of commercial flight for over 50 years. But today, the very last of the line has rolled off the production line, marking an end to an illustrious career for the aircraft.

Continue reading “Goodbye Boeing 747: the last one has now been built” »

The system, with Level 4 autonomy, is in use at Stuttgart Airport for Mercedes cars and marks the start of a rollout of hundreds of systems in Germany.

The driverless parking system allows users to drop their Mercedes S-Class or EQS electric car at a drop off point after notifying an app. The system then checks that the route to a specific parking spot is clear and drives the vehicle autonomously to the correct location, wherever that might be in the parking garage.

Toyota is testing a hydrogen fuel cell-powered pickup and an SUV that burns the gas in an effort to develop alternatives to battery powered electric vehicles.

AI robots fly, sing, dance, carry cars and respond to Elon Musk. Incredible new robots join Ameca and Boston Dynamics.

To learn more about AI, please visit https://brilliant.org/digitalengine where you’ll also find loads of fun courses on maths, science and computer science.

Continue reading “AI robot terrifies officials, explains our illusion, with Elon Musk” »

The company claims the aerial vehicle can top any regular airliner.

The five-seater VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) Ranger, developed by Aura Aerospace, claims to fly farther than any typical airliner and boasts roof-to-roof vertical takeoff and landing capability.

Aura’s plan for doing this is quite straightforward. An octocopter system with eight 70-inch (178-cm) two-blade props hanging fore and aft of the enormous main wing is used to achieve vertical takeoff and landing. A pair of turbofan jet engines start-up to give forward power once the vehicle is in the air and the wing has folded out to its full 75-ft (23-meter) width. This system brings you onto and off of the landing pad.

Imagine having an autonomous RV.

We all love and dream of having an RV, but having an electric-powered autonomous RV could be the ultimate dream. There are many RV designs on trucks, but having an autonomous truck that drives you anywhere you wish while doing the chores could be the future of both transport and housing.

Based on the specifications Tesla revealed this week and how amazing these renderings of the electric truck as a motorhome appear, the Tesla Semi may become a fantastic electric-powered luxury RV.

Continue reading “A design company has turned a Tesla Semi into an RV concept” »

Researchers around the world are on a mission to relieve a bottleneck in the clean energy revolution: batteries. From electric vehicles to renewable grid-scale energy storage, batteries are at the heart of society’s most crucial green innovations—but they need to pack more energy to make these technologies widespread and practical.

Now, a team of scientists led by chemists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has unraveled the complex chemical mechanisms of a battery component that is crucial for boosting energy density: the interphase. Their work published today in Nature Nanotechnology.