Drones Monitor Crops, Study Ancient Ruins

Drones are most often associated with assassinations in remote regions of Pakistan and Yemen but in Peru, unmanned aircraft are being used to monitor crops and study ancient ruins.

Forget Reapers and Predators -- the drones used here are hand-held contraptions that look like they were assembled in a garage with gear from a hardware store. They are equipped with a microcomputer, a GPS tracker, a compass, cameras and an altimeter, and can be easily programmed by using Google Maps to fly autonomously and return to base with vital data.

Disposable Drones Take Flight

Flores heads a multidisciplinary team brainstorming the best ways to use drones for civilian purposes. "Up to now we have managed to use them for agricultural purposes, where they gather information on the health of the plants, and in archeology, to better understand the characteristics of each site and their extensions," Flores said.

A UAV model built by Catholic University engineers is made with light balsa wood and carbon fiber. At a glance the devices look like souped-up hand-held gliders. One limitation is that these drones must fly below the clouds. If not their instruments, especially the cameras, could fail, said Aurelio Rodriguez, who is both an aerial model-maker and archeologist. Some of the earliest human settlements in the Americas are found in Peru.

There are thousands of archeological sites, many unexplored, dotting the Peruvian landscape, most of them pre-dating the Incas, a major civilization which was defeated by Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century. Along the dry coastline, where the main construction material was adobe brick, whole societies flourished. After centuries of abandon some of these ancient cities have deteriorated to the point that they are hard to distinguish in the sandy, hilly region.

Source : news.discovery.com

Suicide Drones Blow Up With Their Target

Killer drones are getting lighter, smaller and cheaper in order to keep their place on the battlefield as defense budgets are cut and as the U.S. military pulls out of Afghanistan. The latest twist: “kamikaze” drones that blow up along with their intended target.

Two devices were on display at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) trade show in Washington, DC, this week: Textron System’s Battlehawk and Aerovironment’s Switchblade. Both are hand-launched devices that can be carried in a small backpack.

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The Battlehawk is made of carbon-fiber wings that curl up into a 22-inch tube launcher. The 5.5-pound device is then flown via an Android-based software app on a smartphone or tablet device to its intended target. The soldier can turn on a video camera, arm the grenade in the nose of the drone and watch as the truck, tank or unfortunate bad guy is terminated.

“It’s a squad-level loitering munition,” said Cathy Loughman, Textron senior program manager. “The soldier is given a target, punches it into the tablet, within a minute and a half, they peel the top off and press a couple buttons on the tablet and off it goes.”

The Battlehawk runs on a small battery-powered propeller. It also has a geo-location device that allows it to follow a target for 30 minutes before the soldier can chose between Abort or Attack modes.

“If there is a sniper three kilometers away,” Loughman said. “This can hit it without calling in air support.”

Once the Afghan war winds down, Textron hopes to convert the Battlehawk into domestic law enforcement device that could carry a bigger battery to fly longer, or even something like smoke grenades for crowd dispersal. The device is going into more testing this fall before a tryout with troops.

Drones Could Rescue Drowning Vehicles

Aerovironment has developed a similar grenade-carrying device already being used by the Army called the Switchblade, which also weighs 5.5 pounds, but only has a 10-minute flight time.

Like many other drone firms at this week’s show, Aerovironment trying to determine when drones will allowed by the Federal Aviation Administration be flying over U.S. airspace. The agency has been given a 2015 deadline by President Obama and Congress to figure out how integrate them with human-piloted aircraft.

Many firms are also looking overseas for new markets. This week Aerovironment signed an agreement to build U.S. drones in India for the Indian defense forces. Representatives for other firms at the show say they are preparing to sell drones to U.S. rivals China and Russia.

“We are preparing for that time (2015) and looking for new opportunities,” said Aerovironment’s Dave Heidel.

Source : news.discovery.com

Acrobatic Robot Jumps, Rolls, Flips

Some robots jump and some run. Why not both, with a few acrobatics as well? That’s what Jianguo Zhao, a PhD student in engineering at Michigan State University wanted to know. So he built a robot that does just that.

‘Flipperbot’ Crawls Like A Turtle To Save Them

The robot is called TailBot and it looks like a three-inch version of a Transformer, but it’s no toy. The robot has legs to jump with, wheels that let it roll along and a tail that lets it do a perfect flip, so it always lands on its feet.

Zhao was inspired by a 2012 study of reptiles and how they use their tails to balance. In that study lizards showed they used their tails as counterweights when leaping, to ensure that they landed on their feet. Zhao asked himself why that couldn’t be applied to robots.

So be built Tailbot. When the robot trundles along t uses wheels. If it runs into an obstacle like a staircase, the robot’s rail — a stiff rod — extends and pushes it up onto its legs. The legs flex, the robot jumps, the tail swings around to keep the robot upright and helps it land on its wheels. The robot can jump up to 32 inches.

Zhao plans to present his work at the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems in Tokyo this November.

Credit: Jianguo Zhao

No Battery Required for This Wireless Device

Sending texts after a phone’s battery dies sounds impossible, right? Soon it might not, thanks to a new technology that not only uses TV and Wi-Fi signals for device communication, it taps those signals as a power source. No batteries required.

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Developed by researchers from the University of Washington, the technology is known as “ambient backscatter” and could potentially create networks of devices and sensors that can transmit information by reflecting existing signals to exchange information, without the need for internal batteries.

“We can repurpose wireless signals that are already around us into both a source of power and a communication medium,” lead researcher Shyam Gollakota, a UW assistant professor of computer science and engineering, said in a press release. “It’s hopefully going to have applications in a number of areas including wearable computing, smart homes and self-sustaining sensor networks.”

Researchers built small, credit card-sized devices equipped with antennas that detect, harness and reflect those signals to similar devices. The team tested the prototypes in various locations around the Seattle area, including a street corner, inside an apartment building and on top of a parking garage. Locations ranged from less than a half a mile away from a TV tower to about 6.5. miles away.

The receiving devices picked up a signal at a rate of 1 kilobit per second when 2.5 feet away from their outdoor counterparts and 1.5 feet apart when inside. That’s enough to transmit a text message, sensor reading and contact information.

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Researchers envision the technology being used in sensors that monitor bridges for hairline cracks. Potentially, the tech could be built in to cell phones to provide emergency power when the battery has died. While the applications are endless, researchers want to advance the capacity and range of the devices.

“Ambient Backscatter” sounds like a fantastic name for an electroclash band, so while you round up your synth-playing posse, check out this video of your band’s namesake device.

via University of Washington

Source : discovery.com

Canser

Cancer is a condition where cells in a specific part of the body grow and reproduce uncontrollably. The cancerous cells can invade and destroy surrounding healthy tissue, including organs.

Cancer sometimes begins in one part of the body before spreading to other areas. This process is known as metastasis.

There are over 200 different types of cancer, each with its own methods of diagnosis and treatment. You can find out more about specific types of cancer by using the links on this page.

Spotting signs of cancer

Changes to your body's normal processes or symptoms that are out of the ordinary can sometimes be an early sign of cancer.

For example, a lump that suddenly appears on your body, unexplained bleeding or changes to your bowel habits are all symptoms that need to be checked by a doctor.

In many cases, your symptoms will not be related to cancer and will be caused by other, non-cancerous health conditions. However, it is still important that you see your GP so your symptoms can be investigated.

Reducing your risk of cancer

Making some simple changes to your lifestyle can significantly reduce your risk of developing cancer. For example, healthy eating, taking regular exercise and not smoking will all help lower your risk.

How common is cancer?

Cancer is a common condition. In 2009, 320,467 new cases of cancer were diagnosed in the UK. More than one in three people will develop some form of cancer during their lifetime.

Cancer treatment

Each specific type of cancer has its own set of treatment methods.

However, many cases of cancer are treated usingchemotherapy (powerful cancer-killing medication) andradiotherapy (the controlled use of high energy X-rays). Surgery is also sometimes carried out to remove cancerous tissue.

Waiting times

Accurately diagnosing cancer can take weeks or months. As cancer often develops slowly, over several years, waiting for a few weeks will not usually impact on the effectiveness of treatment.

Patients suspected of having cancer and urgently referred by their GP, should have no more than a two week wait to see a specialist.

In cases where cancer has been confirmed, patients should wait no more than 31 days from the decision to treat to the start of their treatment.

In 2010-11, 95.5% of patients who were urgently referred for suspected cancer were seen by a specialist within 14 days of referral.

In the same period, 98.4% of patients receiving their first treatment for cancer began their treatment within 31 days. For breast cancer, 99.1% of people began their treatment within 31 days of diagnosis.

Source : www.nhs.uk

This Machine Converts Human Sweat Into Drinkable Water

Nowadays one might just confuse science and technology being used to come up with fancy gadgets only. However, that is not the case. The primary purpose of science, for which it is still being used, is improving the lifestyle of humans and to come up with ways to protect life and enhance it. Science is tackling the world problems and is striving to find solutions to them. Our today’s article deals with one such endeavor. How many of you are aware that drinking water and its availability is an issue. Experts are already foreseeing the third world war being fought over water resources?

Recently UNICEF teamed up with two other concerned entities; PR agency Deportivo and youth soccer competition Gothia Cup to come up with a gadget that could be used to convert sweat to drinking water. The key idea behind the so called Sweat Machine is to take the sweat, extract the liquid and convert it into drinkable water.


While one may not see this gadget as solving the problem of drinking water, this sure is a nice way to get attention of people. However, let’s not forget that this gadget may solve individual needs of drinkable water for those who don’t have access to clean water. Just sweat a little and there you go; clean and drinkable water!

Source : wonderfulengineering.com

World’s Smallest Flying Robot Is Here

We are living in the era of technology and innovation. Not a day goes when something unique and eye-catching doesn’t come to light. Scientists are working around the globe to come up with new and efficient inventions, preparing more efficient and sophisticated methods of production and what not. Technology has touched every profession and improved it. Robotics for instance, has taken a giant leap in the past few years and today we stand at a point where all the impossible things are becoming possible. We have already talked about robotic jellyfish; Cyro.

Today we shall be presenting you the world’s smallest flying robot; the robotic insect. Invented by the US scientists, this robot, which is the size of a fly is able to perform maneuvers just like any other normal insect. Known as ‘Robo-fly’, this robot has been made from carbon fiber and weighs only a fraction of a gram. It has electronic ‘muscles’ which power its wings. The developers who are from Harvard University, are hoping that their robot might prove useful in a lot of situations. This development has been reported in the Science Journal and there is a lot of potential for this invention in the future. The robot has agility that is at par with that of a real insect and is able to evade the swiftest of human efforts to dispose it. The timely wing movements make such maneuvering possible. The art of adjusting lift and thrust help insect (robot) to hover and make it able to perform superb maneuvers while in hover. This is done by high speed movement of their wings. Mimicking this movement in the Robo-fly was the real challenge and it has been tackled quite beautifully by the scientists. A special material known as piezoelectric material was used to achieve the 120 times per second of wings beating. The material contracts every time a voltage is applied to it. A rapid switching of voltage led the scientists into mimicking the real insect’s wing mechanism.



As per Dr. Ma; “We get it to contract and relax, like biological muscle.” The basic purpose of this research was to understand how the flight mechanism of an insect works. The robotic insect really comes as a by-product. Dr. Ma also stated that; ‘We could envision these robots being used for search-and-rescue operations to search for human survivors under collapsed buildings or [in] other hazardous environments. They [could] be used for environmental monitoring, to be dispersed into a habitat to sense trace chemicals or other factors.’ He also stipulated that this robot could be made to behave like real insects in order to help in the pollination of crops; ‘to function as the now-struggling honeybee populations do in supporting agriculture around the world.’ Scientists are now working to provide a means to power it wirelessly; however, they say it might take a couple of years to achieve. Dr. John Dyhr, a Biologist from the University of Washington who is a student of insect flight, had the following to contribute; ’The physics of flight at such small scales is relatively poorly understood which makes designing small flying systems very difficult.’

Source : wonderfulengineering.com