19 April 2021
In an effort to curb global warming, Purdue University engineers have created the whitest paint yet. Coating buildings with this paint may one day cool them off enough to reduce the need for air conditioning.
In October, the team created an ultra-white paint that pushed limits on how white paint can be. Now they’ve outdone that. The newer paint not only is whiter but also can keep surfaces cooler than the formulation that the researchers had previously demonstrated.
“If you were to use this paint to cover a roof area of about 1,000 square feet, we estimate that you could get a cooling power of 10 kilowatts. That’s more powerful than the central air conditioners used by most houses,” said Xiulin Ruan, a Purdue professor of mechanical engineering.
16 April 2021
NASA’s Perseverance rover has now spent its first months on the surface of Mars. The testing and deployment phase is proceeding well, and after the first technology demonstration with the Ingenuity helicopter, the rover is commencing the continuous scientific measurements.
With the arrival of the humidity and pressure measurement instruments onboard Perseverance, the first meteorological network on another planet is being created.
The Perseverance rover landed successfully on Mars in February 2021 and will now explore an ancient river delta in the Jezero Crater for at least the next Martian year, which is approximately two Earth years. After the landing, the rover stretched its robotic arms and has already delivered a good number of high-quality photos, videos, and audio samples back to Earth.
03 March 2021
Scientists report connecting the ear of a dead locust to a robot that receives the ear s electrical signals and responds accordingly.
Researchers at Tel Aviv University have successfully connected the ear of a dead locust to a robot that receives the ear s electrical signals and responds accordingly. The result is extraordinary: when the researchers clap once, the locust s ear hears the sound and the robot moves forward; when the researchers clap twice, the robot moves backwards.
The interdisciplinary study was led by Idan Fishel, a joint master student under the joint supervision of Dr Ben M. Maoz of the Iby and Aladar Fleischman Faculty of Engineering and the Sagol School of Neuroscience, Professor Yossi Yovel and Professor Amir Ayali (experts from the School of Zoology and the Sagol School of Neuroscience) – together with Dr Anton Sheinin, Idan, Yoni Amit, and Neta Shavil. The results of the study were published in the journal Sensors.
Pitch drive controllers from KEB play a central safety role in wind turbines
08 February 2021
KEB Automation is seeing an increase in demand for its drive controllers, motors and brakes for onshore and offshore wind turbines.
Pitch and yaw drives, pitch motors, as well as pitch and yaw brakes from KEB, are proving popular as a central safety component in wind turbines, including the latest high-power (10MW and above) turbines. The trend is clearly towards ever larger, more powerful wind turbines, says Sebastian Eicke, Applications Engineer in the wind energy team at KEB Automation. This is closely linked to the repowering of existing plants and the expansion of offshore wind farms.