AI, self-driving cars, robotics and more… all in one place.
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Some interesting charging station concepts for Apple electric car by artist VFXHD.
Credit: VFXHD/TikTok
Uber customers will now be able to request an electric vehicle for the first time as the ride-hailing app looks to become fully electric by 2025.
Launching today Uber Green will give passengers in Zone 1 the opportunity to request an electric vehicle at no extra cost.
The journey will cost the same as a regular UberX journey on the app and drivers will receive a higher fare per trip.
Composite membrane origami has been an efficient and effective method for constructing transformable mechanisms while considerably simplifying their design, fabrication, and assembly; however, its limited load-bearing capability has restricted its application potential. With respect to wheel design, membrane origami offers unique benefits compared with its conventional counterparts, such as simple fabrication, high weight-to-payload ratio, and large shape variation, enabling softness and flexibility in a kinematic mechanism that neutralizes joint distortion and absorbs shocks from the ground. Here, we report a transformable wheel based on membrane origami capable of bearing more than a 10-kilonewton load. To achieve a high payload, we adopt a thick membrane as an essential element and introduce a wireframe design rule for thick membrane accommodation. An increase in the thickness can cause a geometric conflict for the facet and the membrane, but the excessive strain energy accumulation is unique to the thickness increase of the membrane. Thus, the design rules for accommodating membrane thickness aim to address both geometric and physical characteristics, and these rules are applied to basic origami patterns to obtain the desired wheel shapes and transformation. The capability of the resulting wheel applied to a passenger vehicle and validated through a field test. Our study shows that membrane origami can be used for high-payload applications.
Origami has been a rich source of inspiration for art, education, and mathematics, and it has proven to be an efficient and effective method for realizing transformable structures in nature (1–3) and artificial systems (4–8). Composite membrane origami, the design technique based on the laminar composition of flexible membranes with rigid facet constraints, opens a new field for robotics by the transition from component assembly to lamination, which considerably simplifies design, fabrication, and assembly. This transition simplifies and speeds up fabrication and enables reaching size scales that were difficult to access before (9, 10). In addition, membrane origami provides a versatile shape-changing ability that has been exploited in various applications (11–15), and its applicability has been extended by additional design dimensions obtained from material characteristics such as softness and stretchability (16–19).
Beyond the aforementioned benefits, origami has been an effective design tool for constructing a high payload-to-weight structure, such as a honeycomb panel, by markedly increasing the buckling strength using unique geometric configurations (20, 21). Combining this feature with reconfigurability, various stiffness transition mechanisms have also been introduced (22–24). The rigidity of components is another important factor to secure high load capacity and closely related to the thickness. Origami design is, traditionally, a matter of organizing fold lines under fundamental and ideal assumptions—zero facet thickness and zero fold line width (25–27). However, in response to growing interest in origami-inspired applications that require load-bearing capability, various thickness accommodation methods have been introduced (28–30).
The fortunes of the founders and senior management of carmakers listing in Shanghai rest on investors’ continuing love of NEV stocks as they cannot sell their shares during a lock-up period on the Star Market for several years. The 500-per cent surge in Tesla’s share price has propelled chief executive Elon Musk to become the world’s wealthiest man last month, beating fellow centibillionaire Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com. Here are some of the biggest upcoming fundraising drives and new entrants to watch in the industry in the coming months:
We flag the biggest upcoming fundraising drives by Chinese electric car companies in 2021 and point out the new entrants to watch in the booming industry.
This ball-shaped rotating wing rc-aircraft was designed and built to learn about the flight behavior of constantly horizontally rotating wings.
It flies with a remarkable stability in winds up to 1bft. Flightweight is around 650grs. and it is powerd by a 3D vector control unit, permanently stabilized by a 3S-1050mA LiPo (120 grs.) as a pendulum. The rotating ball is made from 6mm DEPRON and cf-rods.
Circa 2019
The “Forze VIII”, a hydrogen-electric Le Mans style prototype, became the first-ever hydrogen-electric vehicle to beat petrol-powered cars in an official race.
The car, that was designed, built, tested and raced by a group of students from Delft University of Technology, finished second in the Supercar Challenge at the TT Circuit in Assen, the Netherlands.
The ‘engine’ is actually a nanotube, powered by an enzyme-triggered biocatalytic reaction using urea as fuel. The reaction creates an internal flow that extends out into the fluid, causing an open cavity to form. This results in thrust, propelling the nanotube along.
Samuel Sánchez was one of the lead researchers from the previous record holders where their nanotube jet engine measured 600nm across and weighed 1 femtogram (10^−15 kg).
Xing Ma and Samuel Sánchez recognise both Ana C. Hortelao (Spain) and Albert Miguel-López (Spain) contribution to the research as well as the support from their affiliated institutions:
Danny Key in his Wheel Horse Garden Tractor lined up against Freddie Ringlet (I think) in his Roper Garden Tractor, for what may be the first ever heads up tractor race!! Danny’s tractor is fitted with a Honda cbr1000 engine, out of a 1990’s bike. It has straight through pipes, and bell mouths on the carbs. The timing has also been advanced to enable it to run on VP race fuel. Danny said ‘it is a little down on compression, and he is just waiting on it going bang, before he can start on a rebuild’. The other tractor, I have no info on as yet. (any info appreciated)
Danny won both races with an 12.53 @ 107mph v 14.8 @ 90mph. and an 11.92 @ 108mph v 14.34 @ 92mph.
Continue reading “QUICKEST TRACTOR IN THE WORLD — 1/4 Mile 11.92 @ 108mph” »
Yamaha reveals a 496-horsepower prototype electric motor. It’s willing and able to develop it for a car company, and do development work on the car itself.
