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Luís F. Simões

The Spray-On Antenna That Boosts Reception Using Zero Power - 1 views

gizmodo.com/...sts-reception-using-zero-power

antenna

shared by Luís F. Simões on 22 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • Speaking at Google's new "Solve for X" event, Rhett Spencer from military technology firm Chamtech explained how the company has developed an aerosol spray that paints an antenna onto any surface, boosting local wireless reception without using any extra power.
  • the aerosol coats a surface with thousands of nanocapacitors. They somehow align themselves and act as a wireless antenna.
  • Luís F. Simões on 22 Feb 12
  • Luís F. Simões on 22 Feb 12
     
    random idea: how about using this thing as the "pheromone" to be by released by robots in a swarm... Recognizing an area as being of interest, for some reason, would lead to more "pheromones" being released there. This would in turn attract other robots to the area, by virtue of having also maximization of connectivity to the rest of the swarm as part of the navigation algorithm.
  • LeopoldS on 25 Feb 12
     
    If this works as they claim this would be really interesting. Still no clue how they might be able to make this work though! Anybody?
Thijs Versloot

Seeing the world through an insect's eyes - 1 views

www.nature.com/...497047a.html

bio technology camera

shared by Thijs Versloot on 07 Aug 13 - No Cached
  • Thijs Versloot on 07 Aug 13
     
    "An elegant combination of electronics and elastic materials has been used to construct a small visual sensor that closely resembles an insect's eye. The device paves the way for autonomous navigation of tiny aerial vehicles."
Beniamino Abis

Snake Robots for Exploration - 1 views

www.sintef.no/...Snake-robot-on-Mars

technology space

shared by Beniamino Abis on 18 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • Beniamino Abis on 18 Sep 13
     
    The researchers are busy working on a feasibility study assigned to them by the ESA. The idea is that by combining a rover that can navigate over large distances with a snake robot that can crawl along the ground and can get into inaccessible places, so many more possibilities could be opened up, e.g. collecting samples from tight spots that the rovers cannot reach.
johannessimon81

Google combines skycrane, VTOL and lifting wing to make drone deliveries - 6 views

www.wired.com/...ffort-to-build-delivery-drones

technology drone_delivery VTOL skycrane FUN soundtrack

shared by johannessimon81 on 30 Aug 14 - No Cached
annaheffernan liked it
  • johannessimon81 on 30 Aug 14
     
    Nice video featuring the technology. Plus it comes with a good soundtrack! Google's project wing uses a lifting wing concept (more fuel efficient than normal airplane layouts and MUCH more efficient than quadrocopters) but it equips the plane with engines strong enough to hover in a nose up position, allowing vertical landing and takeoff. For the delivery of packages the drone does not even need to land - it can lower them on a wire - much like the skycrane concept used to deliver the Curiosity rover on Mars. Not sure if the skycrane is really necessary but it is certainly cool. Anyways, the video is great for its soundtrack alone! ;-P
  • ...4 more comments...
  • Paul N on 31 Aug 14
     
    could we just use genetic algorithms to evolve these shapes and layouts? :P
  • Ma Ru on 31 Aug 14
     
    > Not sure if the skycrane is really necessary but it is certainly cool. I think apart from coolness using a skycrane helps keep the rotating knives away from the recipient...
  • Thijs Versloot on 01 Sep 14
     
    Honest question, are we ever going to see this in practice? I mean besides some niche application somewhere, isn't it fundamentally flawed or do I need to keep my window opened on the 3rd floor without a balcony when I ordered something from DX? Its pretty cool yes, but practical?
  • Guido de Croon on 02 Sep 14
     
    Package delivery is indeed more complicated than it may seem at first sight, although solutions are possible for instance by restricting delivery to distribution centers. What we really need of course is some really efficient and robust AI to navigate without any problems in urban areas : ) The hybrid is interesting since it combines the advantage of a Vertical Takeoff and Landing (and hover), and a wing for more efficient forward flight. Challenges lie in the control of the vehicle under any angle and all that this entails also for higher levels of control. Our lab has first used this concept a few years ago for the DARPA UAVforge challenge, and we had two hybrids in our entry last year for the IMAV 2013 (for some shaky images: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7XgRK7pMoU ).
  • Thijs Versloot on 04 Sep 14
     
    Fair enough, but even if you consider advanced/robust/efficient AI, why would you use a drone? Do we envision hundreds of drones above our heads in the street instead of UPS vans, or postmen, considering delivers letters might be more easily achievable. I am not so sure if personal delivery will take this route. On the other hand, if the system would work smoothly, I can image that I'm send a mail with the question whether I'm home (or they might know already from my personal GPS tracker) and then notify me that they are launching my DVD and it will come crashing into my door in 5min.
  • Paul N on 08 Sep 14
     
    I'm more curios how they're planning to keep people from stealing the drones. I could do with a drone army myself and having cheap amazon or google drones flying about sounds like a decent source.
pacome delva

Flights of fancy - 1 views

physics.aps.org/...PhysRevLett.104.220502

phy bio birds magnetic_field

shared by pacome delva on 08 Jun 10 - Cached
  • Could quantum entanglement help a flock of birds fly south for the winter? A team of scientists at the Akademie der Wissenschaften and the Universität Innsbruck, both in Austria, is looking at how concepts central to the field of quantum information—entanglement and coherence—play a role in the chemistry of magnetodetection that animals use for navigation.
Giusi Schiavone

Telomerase reactivation reverses tissue degeneration in aged telomerase-deficient mice ... - 0 views

www.nature.com/...nature09603.html

tissue degeneration

shared by Giusi Schiavone on 16 Dec 10 - No Cached
  • Nature | Letter Previous article Next article Telomerase reactivation reverses tissue degeneratio
Dario Izzo

Electronic Nose - 3 views

science.nasa.gov/...06oct_enose.htm

smell nose olfactory

shared by Dario Izzo on 03 Mar 10 - Cached
  • Dario Izzo on 03 Mar 10
     
    NASA worked on this 4 years ago.... good inspiration for a possible alternative application to navigation
Joris _

Galileo space navigation system to be ready in 2014 | Business | Deutsche Welle | 07.01... - 1 views

www.dw-world.de/...0,,5096845,00.html

MAD GPS

shared by Joris _ on 07 Jan 10 - Cached
  • Joris _ on 07 Jan 10
     
    6 years later ...
  • Nicholas Lan on 08 Jan 10
     
    seems optimistic
Joris _

DoD Buzz | Back Away from GPS: AF Chief - 4 views

www.dodbuzz.com/...back-away-from-gps-af-chief

MAD GPS security

shared by Joris _ on 21 Jan 10 - Cached
  • develop alternatives to GPS
  • The fact that the U.S., which invented GPS and most of what depends on it (ATMs, gas pumps, trucking companies and lost spouses), would consider stepping away from the system marks a cultural and technological milestone
  • recommended that the U.S. scrap building five more GPS satellites and engage European allies on sharing their proposed Galileo global navigation satellite system
Tobias Seidl

Evidence for grid cells in a human memory network : Article : Nature - 2 views

www.nature.com/...nature08704.html

BIO navigation map

shared by Tobias Seidl on 04 Feb 10 - Cached
  • Tobias Seidl on 04 Feb 10
     
    This is the community that states mammals have cognitive maps. Good work, especially by the Moser-couple.
Dario Izzo

In the Blink of Bird’s Eye, a Model for Quantum Navigation | Wired Science ... - 2 views

m.wired.com/...quantum-birds

shared by Dario Izzo on 30 Jan 11 - No Cached
  • Dario Izzo on 30 Jan 11
     
    very ACTish
pandomilla

Plant has a bat beckoning beacon - 2 views

www.bbc.co.uk/14328999

plant bio science

shared by pandomilla on 02 Aug 11 - No Cached
LeopoldS liked it
  • pandomilla on 02 Aug 11
     
    A rain forest vine has evolved dish-shaped leaves to attract the bats that pollinate it, scientists have found. Tests revealed that the leaves were supremely efficient at bouncing back the sound pulses the flying mammals used to navigate. When the leaves were present the bats located the plant twice as quickly as when these echoing leaves were removed.
ESA ACT

The Amazing Cataglyphis Ant * VideoSift: Online Video *Quality Control - 0 views

www.videosift.com/...The-Amazing-Cataglyphis-Ant

Ant navigation

shared by ESA ACT on 24 Apr 09 - Cached
  • ESA ACT on 24 Apr 09
     
    For all those who don't belive it...
ESA ACT

Abstract | Smells like home: Desert ants, Cataglyphis fortis, use olfactory landmarks t... - 0 views

www.frontiersinzoology.com/...1742-9994-6-5.pdf

ant navigation INF BIO biomimicry

shared by ESA ACT on 24 Apr 09 - No Cached
  • ESA ACT on 24 Apr 09
     
    Tobias, please check this paper if you have not already read it ... looks very interesting to me (LS)
Thijs Versloot

Improved Saturn Positions Help Spacecraft Navigation, Planet Studies, Fundamental Physics - 0 views

public.nrao.edu/...vlba-measures-saturn-position

space PHY

shared by Thijs Versloot on 14 Jan 15 - No Cached
  • Thijs Versloot on 14 Jan 15
     
    Scientists have used the National Science Foundation's Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) radio-telescope system and NASA's Cassini spacecraft to measure the position of Saturn and its family of moons to within about a mile -- at a range of nearly a billion miles.
Ma Ru

Ambition - 0 views

www.esa.int/ESA

FUN ESA Rosetta technology art

shared by Ma Ru on 15 Mar 13 - No Cached
LeopoldS liked it
  • Guido de Croon on 15 Mar 13
     
    Today we released the Astro Drone app. People that have the Parrot AR drone can freely download the game. While they fly their drone in the real world, they are trying to dock to the ISS in the virtual world. But the app is more than a game. Players can choose to participate in a scientific crowd sourcing experiment that aims to improve autonomous capabilities of space probes, such as landing, obstacle avoidance, and docking. If participating, the app extracts visually salient features from the images made by the drone's camera. The features are then combined with the estimates of the drone's state and uploaded. The data is then used in a research aiming to improve robot navigation.
  • Ma Ru on 08 Nov 14
     
    Visit the main ESA website and you'll be greeted with a 6-minute Rosetta promo movie by a kickass Polish artist... P.S. You can also find the video here. P.P.S It seems I've just discovered a way to hijack old diigo entries ;-)
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