New Horizons completes marathon Pluto data transfer

NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) has received the final piece of data collected by the agency's New Horizons probe during its encounter with the dwarf planet Pluto, which took place on July 14, 2015. Data from the New Horizons mission has revolutionized our understanding of Pluto, revealing the planetoid to be a surprisingly dynamic and active member of our solar system.

Unlike NASA's Dawn mission, which has now spent over a year exploring the dwarf planet Ceres, New Horizons never made orbit around its target. Instead, the probe had only a brief window in which to harvest as much information as possible, before barreling past Pluto into the outer reaches of our solar system.

During the pass, New Horizons' meager power supply of only 200 watts ran a sophisticated suite of seven scientific instruments, which worked to collect over 50 gigabits of data. This information was safely stored in two solid-state digital recorders that form part of the probe's command and data-handling system.

Sending this data back to Earth would prove to be a lesson in patience. New Horizons began transmitting the stored data in September 2015 at a rate of around seven megabits per hour. The information was received back on Earth by NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN).

The transmission was not continuous. The natural spin of the Earth necessitated New Horizons to transmit data in eight hour stints when the DSN was available, resulting in a transfer rate of around 173 megabits per day.

Furthermore, the New Horizons team had to share the capabilities of the DSN with other exploration endeavors such as the Dawn mission, further frustrating the data transmission rate.

However, slow and steady wins the race, and at 5:48 a.m. EDT on the 25th of October, over a year after beginning the process, the DSN station located in Canberra, Australia, relayed the final piece of Pluto data from New Horizons to the probe's mission operations center at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland.

The last data transmission contained part of an observation sequence of Pluto and its large moon Charon, as captured by the spacecraft's Ralph/LEISA imager.

"The Pluto system data that New Horizons collected has amazed us over and over again with the beauty and complexity of Pluto and its system of moons," comments Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator from Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. "There's a great deal of work ahead for us to understand the 400-plus scientific observations that have all been sent to Earth. And that's exactly what we're going to do –after all, who knows when the next data from a spacecraft visiting Pluto will be sent?"

Source: NASA, New Atlas

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NTU Singapore automates spray painting with PictoBot.

A new NTU robot will soon be spray-painting the interiors of industrial buildings in Singapore, saving time and manpower while improving safety. Known as PictoBot, the robot is invented by scientists from Nanyang Technological University (NTU Singapore) and co-developed with JTC Corporation (JTC) and local start-up Aitech Robotics and Automation (Aitech). PictoBot can paint a high interior wall 25 per cent faster than a crew of two painters, improving both productivity and safety. Industrial buildings are designed with high ceilings to accommodate bulky industrial equipment and materials. Currently, painting the interiors of industrial buildings requires at least two painters using a scissor lift. Working at such heights exposes painters to various safety risks.

In comparison, PictoBot needs only one human supervisor, as it can automatically scan its environment using its optical camera and laser scanner, to navigate and paint walls up to 10 metres high with its robotic arm. It can work four hours on one battery charge, giving walls an even coat of paint that matches industry standards. Equipped with advanced sensors, Pictobot can also operate in the dark, enabling 24-hours continuous painting. Developed in a year at NTU's Robotic Research Centre, PictoBot is supported by the National Research Foundation (NRF) Singapore, under its Test-Bedding and Demonstration of Innovative Research funding initiative.

The initiative provides funding to facilitate the public sector's development and use of technologies that have the potential to improve service delivery. This is done through Government-led demand projects, where agencies use research findings to address a capability gap and quickly deploy the new technology upon successful demonstration. 

Painting large industrial spaces is repetitive, labour intensive and time-consuming. PictoBot can paint while a supervisor focuses on operating it. The autonomous behaviour also means that a single operator can handle multiple robots and refill their paint reservoirs.

Using PictoBot to automate spray painting helps us mitigate the risks of working at heights when painting high walls typically found in industrial buildings. In addition, it helps to reduce labour-intensive work, thus improving productivity and ensuring the quality of interior finishes. PictoBot is an example of how autonomous robots can be deployed to boost productivity and overcome the manpower constraints that Singapore faces in the construction industry. 

Source: Phys.org 

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Thumb-steered drone leaves you with a free hand

The shapes and sizes of drones have changed a lot in recent times, but most serious quadcopters are still controlled by way of a dual-joystick controller (autonomous flyers notwithstanding). A new crowdfunding campaign is coming at it from a different angle, by developing a drone that can be flown with a single hand using a stick and thumb ring.

It is true that getting up to speed as a drone pilot using joystick controllers can take some time. The team behind Shift is aiming to give novices an easier way to earn their wings through what it claims is a more intuitive way to fly.

The drone itself has a pretty standard and respectable enough list of specs. It carries a 4K camera that shoots 13-megapixel stills, 8 GB of onboard memory and even a claimed 30 minutes of flight time.

But the controller is something we haven't seen before. It is basically a short fat stick that you hold in one hand and slide your thumb through a ring on top. By moving your thumb around you can then guide the drone through the air: push left and the drone flies left, push forward and the drone flies forward and move up to have the drone increase its altitude. There is also separate toggle on the front that can be used to change the drone's orientation with your index finger.

This does sound like a simpler way to control a drone, but we'd be interested to see how well it works in practice. Our encounters with drones controlled via smartphones and watches quickly reminded us how reliable joysticks are once you get a handle on them, and perhaps there is a reason they have remained the controllers of choice for so long.

We'd also question the value of being able to fly one-handed, which is billed as Shift's big advantage. Piloting a drone can take some concentration, so trying to multitask and make phone calls or take a sip of coffee at the same time might just be a recipe for a busted aircraft.

The team behind Shift is aiming to give novices an easier way to earn their wings

The Shift controller is said to be compatible with some already existing drones including models from Syma and WLtoys, and can be pre-ordered with a camera-less mini-drone. The company hopes to ship in May 2017 if all goes to plan.

Source: New Atlas, Shift

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Wiring the brain with artificial senses and limb control

There have been significant advances in developing new prostheses with a simple sense of touch, but researchers are looking to go further. Scientists and engineers are working on a way to provide prosthetic users and those suffering from spinal cord injuries with the ability to both feel and control their limbs or robotic replacements by means of directly stimulating the cortex of the brain.

For decades, a major goal of neuroscientists has been to develop new technologies to create more advanced prostheses or ways to help people who have suffered spinal cord injuries to regain the use of their limbs. Part of this has involved creating a means of sending brain signals to disconnected nerves in damaged limbs or to robotic prostheses, so they can be moved by thought, so control is simple and natural.

However, all this had only limited application because as well as being able to tell a robotic or natural limb to move, a sense of touch was also required, so the patient would know if something has been grasped properly or if the hand or arm is in the right position. Without this feedback, it's very difficult to control an artificial limb properly even with constant concentration or computer assistance.

Bioengineers, computer scientists, and medical researchers from the University of Washington's (UW) GRIDLab and the National Science Foundation Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering (CSNE) are looking to develop electronics that allow for two-way communication between parts of the nervous system.

The bi-directional brain-computer interface system sends motor signals to the limb or prosthesis and returns sensory feedback through direct stimulation of the cerebral cortex – something that the researchers say they've done for the first time with a conscious patient carrying out a task.

In developing the new system, volunteer patients were recruited, who were being treated for a severe form of epilepsy through brain surgery. As a precursor to this surgery, the patients were fitted with a set of ElectroCorticoGraphic (ECoG) electrodes. These were implanted on the surface of the brain to provide a pre-operational evaluation of the patient's condition and stimulate areas of the brain to speed rehabilitation afterwards.

According to the UW, this allowed for stronger signals to be received than if the electrodes were placed on the scalp, but wasn't as invasive as when the electrodes are put into the brain tissue itself.

While the electrode grid was still installed, the patients were fitted with a glove equipped with sensors that could track the position of their hand, use different electrical current strength to indicate that position and stimulate their brain through the ECoG electrodes.

The patients then used those artificial signals delivered to the brain to "sense" how to move their hand under direction from the researchers. However, this isn't a plug-and-play situation. The sensation is very unnatural and is a bit like artificial vision experiments of the 1970s where blind patients were given "sight" by means of a device that covered their back and formed geometric patterns. It worked in a simple way, but it was like learning another language.

"The question is: Can humans use novel electrical sensations that they've never felt before, perceive them at different levels and use this to do a task?," says UW bioengineering doctoral student James Wu. "And the answer seems to be yes. Whether this type of sensation can be as diverse as the textures and feelings that we can sense tactilely is an open question."

For the test, three patients were asked to move their hand into a target position using only the sensory feedback from the glove. If they opened their fingers too far off the mark, no stimulation would occur, but as they closed their hand, the stimulus would begin and increase in intensity. As a control, these feedback sessions would be interspersed with others were random signals were sent.

According to the team, the hope is that one day such artificial feedback devices could lead to improved prostheses, neural implants, and other techniques to provide sensation and movement to artificial or damaged limbs.

"Right now we're using very primitive kinds of codes where we're changing only frequency or intensity of the stimulation, but eventually it might be more like a symphony," says Rajesh Rao, CSNE director. "That's what you'd need to do to have a very natural grip for tasks such as preparing a dish in the kitchen. When you want to pick up the salt shaker and all your ingredients, you need to exert just the right amount of pressure. Any day-to-day task like opening a cupboard or lifting a plate or breaking an egg requires this complex sensory feedback."

The research will be published in IEEE Transactions on Haptics.

Source: New Atlas, University of Washington

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Drone receives wireless power, on the fly

Given that the battery life of most multicopter drones typically doesn't exceed 30 minutes of flight time per charge, there are many tasks that they simply can't perform. Feeding them power through a hard-wired tether is one option, although that only works for applications where they're hovering in place. Scientists at Imperial College London, however, are developing an alternative – they're wirelessly transferring power to a drone as it's flying.

For their study, the scientists started with an off-the-shelf mini quadcopter. They proceeded to remove its battery, add a copper coil to its body, and alter its electronics.

The researchers also built a separate transmitting platform that uses a circuit board, power source and copper coil of its own to produce a magnetic field. When placed near that platform, the drone's coil acts as a receiving antenna for that magnetic field, inducing an alternating electrical current. The quadcopter's rejigged electronics then convert that alternating current to direct current, which is used to power its flight.

Known as inductive coupling, the technique has been around since the time of Nikola Tesla. According to Imperial College, however, this is the first time that it has been used to power a flying vehicle. While it currently only works if the drone is within 10 cm (3.9 in) of the transmitter, it is hoped that the range can be greatly increased.

Additionally, instead of continuously powering battery-less copters, it is envisioned that the technology could be used to recharge drones' onboard batteries as they hover over ground support vehicles equipped with the transmitters – this would allow them to remain airborne while recharging, instead of having to land.

It's also possible that the drones could be wired to serve as flying transmitters themselves, "beaming" power from their battery to recipient devices such as hard-to-reach environmental or structural stress sensors, or even to other drones that need a mid-air recharge. A team at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, in fact, has already used a quadcopter as a flying wireless charger.

Video:

Source: New Atlas, Imperial College London

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Roving robots roam your clothes

If you don't like the thought of bugs crawling all over you, then you might not like one possible direction in which the field of wearable electronics is heading. Researchers from MIT and Stanford University recently showcased their new Rovables robots, which are tiny devices that roam up and down a person's clothing – and yes, that's as the clothing is being worn.

The centimeter-sized robots hang on by pinching the fabric between their wheels, with the physically-unconnected wheel on the underside of the material held against the others simply by magnetic attraction.

Each Rovable contains a battery, microcontroller, and a wireless communications module that lets it track the movements and locations of its fellow little robots. It also has an inertial measurement unit (IMU), which includes a gyroscope and accelerometer. By using that IMU and by counting its wheel revolutions, the robot is able to keep track of its own location, allowing for limited autonomous navigation on the wearer's body.

In lab tests, one battery was sufficient for up to 45 minutes of continuous clothes-roaming.

Once the technology is developed further, suggested applications for it include interactive clothing/jewellery, tactile feedback systems, and changeable modular displays such as name tags.

The Rovables were recently described at the User Interface Software and Technology Symposium, and can be seen in action in the video below.

Source: New Atlas, Proceedings of the 29th Annual Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology

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CubeSats could soon be zooming around space under their own power

Rubik's-cube-sized CubeSats are a nifty, cheap way for scientists to put a research vessel into space, but they're limited to orbiting where they're launched – until now. Los Alamos researchers have created and tested a safe and innovative rocket motor concept that could soon see CubeSats zooming around space and even steering themselves back to Earth when they're finished their mission.

Consisting of modules measuring 10 x 10 x 11.35 cm (3.9 x 3.9 x 4.5 in), these mini-satellites first launched in 2003, but are currently lacking in propulsion because they're designed to hitch a ride into space with larger, more expensive space missions. They're usually deployed along with routine pressurized cargo launches, usually into low orbits that limit the kinds of studies that CubeSats can perform.

This limitation is, of course, frustrating for space researchers. In fact, the National Academy of Science recently identified propulsion as one of the main areas of technology that needs to be developed for CubeSats.

Bryce Tappan, lead researcher on the Los Alamos National Laboratory Cube Sat Propulsion Concept team says propulsion would greatly expand the mission-space that these small, low-cost satellites can cover. "It would allow CubeSats to enter higher orbits or achieve multiple orbital planes in a single mission, and extend mission lifetimes," he says.

The roadblock to building a self-propelling CubeSat is the inherent risk in the way conventional spacecraft propel themselves through space. Usually, spacecraft use mixed liquid fuel and oxidizer systems to achieve propulsion – methods that are somewhat unstable. This poses a level of risk that would make self-propelling CubeSats unacceptable aboard another organization's space mission.

"Obviously, someone who's paying half a billion dollars to do a satellite launch is not going to accept the risk," says Tappan. "So, anything that is taken on that rideshare would have to be inherently safe; no hazardous liquids."

The rocket propulsion concept that the researchers have developed is a solid-based chemical fuel technology that is completely non-detonable. They're calling the new concept a "segregated fuel oxidizer system," with solid fuel and a solid oxidizer kept completely separate inside the rocket assembly.

The researchers recently tested a six-motor CubeSat-compatible propulsion array with great success.

"I think we're very close to being able to put this propulsion system onto a satellite for a simple demonstration propulsion capability in space," says Tappan.

The system works in many of the same ways as a conventional chemical rocket motor works, with a pyrotechnic igniter initiating burn in a high nitrogen, high hydrogen fuel section, releasing hydrogen rich gases that flow into the oxidizer section. The chemical reaction there creates tremendous heat and expanding gases that flow through a nozzle to provide thrust.

"Because the fuel and oxidizer are separate," said Tappan, "it enables you to use higher-energy ingredients than you could use in a classic propellant architecture. This chemical propulsion mechanism produces very fast, high-velocity thrust, something not available with most electrical or compressed gas concepts."

As well as expanding research capabilities, Tappan says that another desirable application for a self-propelling CubeSat would be a de-orbit capability.

With more than half a million individual pieces of "space junk" now in various orbits around the Earth, small satellites may eventually have to demonstrate a compelling mission before they can be launched, or have a de-orbit capability so they can burn up in the atmosphere without adding to the space junk problem.

If CubeSats were self-propelling, they could send themselves back towards Earth after their mission is complete and burn up in the atmosphere, so they don't add to the space junk issue.

Tappan would eventually like to see their new rocket motor concept used in more ambitious space missions. "Not only simple things like de-orbiting, but in groundbreaking missions like taking a small spacecraft to the moon, or even to somewhere as far away as Mars," he says.

To learn more about the new propulsion system, watch the video below:

Source: New Atlas, Los Alamos National Laboratory

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Harvard researchers 3D print a heart-on-a-chip

Microphysiological systems, or organs-on-chips, are emerging as a way for scientists to study the effect that drugs, cosmetics and diseases may have on the human body, without needing to test on animals. The problem is, manufacturing and retrieving data from them can be a costly and time-consuming process. Now researchers at Harvard have developed new materials to enable them to 3D print the devices, including the integrated sensors to easily gather data from them over time.

At around the size of a USB stick, organs-on-chips use living human cells to mimic the functions of organs like the lungs, intestines, placenta and heart, as well as emulate and study afflictions like heart disease. But as promising as the technology is, making the chips is a delicate, complicated process, and microscopes and high-speed cameras are needed to collect data from them.

"Our approach was to address these two challenges simultaneously via digital manufacturing," says Travis Busbee, co-author of the paper. "By developing new printable inks for multi-material 3D printing, we were able to automate the fabrication process while increasing the complexity of the devices."

In all, the Harvard team developed six custom 3D-printable materials that could replicate the structure of human heart tissue, with soft strain sensors embedded inside. These are printable in one continuous and automated process and separate wells in the chip host different tissues.

"We are pushing the boundaries of three-dimensional printing by developing and integrating multiple functional materials within printed devices," says Jennifer Lewis, another of the paper's co-authors. "This study is a powerful demonstration of how our platform can be used to create fully functional, instrumented chips for drug screening and disease modeling."

The incorporated sensors allow the researchers to study the tissue over time, particularly how their contractile stress changes, and how long-term exposure to toxins may affect the organs.

"Researchers are often left working in the dark when it comes to gradual changes that occur during cardiac tissue development and maturation because there has been a lack of easy, non-invasive ways to measure the tissue functional performance," says Johan Ulrik Lind, first author of the study and postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). "These integrated sensors allow researchers to continuously collect data while tissues mature and improve their contractility. Similarly, they will enable studies of gradual effects of chronic exposure to toxins."

The research was published in the journal, Nature Materials, and a time-lapse of the 3D printing process can be seen in the video below.

Source: New Atlas, Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

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Unmanned Warrior puts the future of marine warfare to the test

What will the Royal Navy look like in 2036? This month's Unmanned Warrior 2016 exercise taking place off the West Coast of Scotland might provide some of the answers. The Navy's first ever large scale demonstration of marine robotic systems not only showcases new technology, but tests the ability of unmanned vehicles to work with one another as well as with conventional naval ships.

The brainchild of then First Sea Lord Admiral Zambellas in 2014, Unmanned Warrior is part of Joint Warrior – a tri-service exercise involving forces from Britain, NATO and allied nations. Including 5,700 personnel, 31 warships, and almost 70 aircraft, it's a major international effort to develop tactics and skills to deal with conflicts in the air, on the surface, underwater, and in amphibious operations.

Unmanned Warrior assesses the rapidly emerging autonomous and remote controlled technologies that could play a major part in wars of the future. With operations spread over the West Coast of Scotland and West Wales, Unmanned Warrior is playing host to over 50 aerial, surface and underwater Maritime Autonomous Systems (MAS) as they explore the areas of surveillance, intelligence-gathering, and mine countermeasures.

Unmanned Warrior is operating in four ranges: The Hebrides around Benbecula in the Western Isles and Stoneway to the north, the British Underwater Test and Evaluation Centre (BUTEC) at the Kyle of Lochalsh by Skye, and Applecross, where dummy minefields have been laid down.

The machines used in the exercise are a remarkable spectrum of aircraft, surface vessels, and underwater craft. The star of the show is the British Army's Watchkeeper Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) operated by the Royal Artillery 47th Regiment, which is not only part of the tests, but also provides support for ships heading for Joint Warrior.

Other aircraft include the hand-launchable Black Star winged drone, the Schiebel Camcopter S100 mini helicopter, the US Navy's NRQ 21 fixed wing UAV, the twin engined Sea Hunter, self-landing unmanned aerial vehicles, the Boeing ScanEagle with a new visual detection and ranging system, and the pilot-optional Leonardo Solo helicopter.

One craft of particular interest is the Blue Bear Blackstart fixed wing UAV, which is being used as a communications link to mission control in the Command and Control centers. The latter are mostly a collection of undistinguished white ISO containers built for portability, but they can handle data feeds from 40 different systems at once.

One of these centers is aboard the support ship MV Northern River, which did double duty as the target of a "pirate attack." Watchkeeper helped foil this mock attack before going on to catch a "smuggler" by following him as he drove off after collecting stolen goods from an accomplice on the beach.

In addition to the flying drones, Unmanned Warrior also hosts a fleet of robotic surface boats and submersibles. There's the Pacific 950, a Rigid Inflatable Boat (RIB) equipped with a remote control kit, thermal imaging and all-around vision, so it can act as a watchdog for ships at anchor or making slow passages through harbors. Then there's the Maritime Autonomy Surface Testbed (MAST) for evaluating new robotic technologies, and the Hydrographic Survey, which is using Sea Gliders and Wave Gliders to study the sea bottom and monitor salinity, temperature, and how these change with depth.

For the minehunting challenge, actual Royal Navy minehunter ships were used as they tested the Remus 100 and Remus 600 robotic submersibles with advanced sonar for seeking out dummy mines. In addition, the Remus are designed to be lightweight and easily customizable, so they can be quickly adapted to different tasks. In addition, the challenge tested unmanned surface minesweepers, such as the Atlas ARCIMIS.

"The technologies demonstrated in Unmanned Warrior have the potential to fundamentally change the future of Royal Navy operations just as the advent of steam propulsion or submarines did," says Royal Navy Fleet Robotics Officer Commander Peter Pipkin. "This is a chance to take a great leap forward in Maritime Systems – not to take people out of the loop, but to enhance everything they do, extending our reach and efficiency using intelligent robotics at sea."

The Royal Navy video below discusses the importance of the event.

Source: New Atlas, Royal Navy

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Autonomous tricycles could form the basis of urban taxi systems

Self-driving cars, trucks and buses might get the bulk of the headlines, but a team at the University of Washington Bothell (UWB) is developing a smaller kind of autonomous vehicle. With the aim of providing a relatively inexpensive alternative to owning an autonomous car, the team is creating a self-driving trike that may even open up the possibility of an automated ride-sharing network, like a bike version of Uber's or NuTonomy's proposed services.

The team, headed up by Tyler Folsom, has been experimenting with fitting autonomous systems into tricycle frames and this work culminated in August with a test that saw a bright orange recumbent trike drive itself in a circle. That modest command, entered via remote control, demonstrated the vehicle's ability to stop, start and turn itself to reach a destination, but Folsom says it's just a "baby step" on the way to deeper autonomy.

"I'm trying to shift the talk about self-driving cars to self-driving bicycles and making sure bicycles are part of the automation equation," says Folsom.

The outcome of that equation, the team hopes, is to eventually produce autonomous vehicles that are much lighter and more environmentally friendly than self-driving cars. With a targeted price tag of around US$10,000, ideally they'd be cheap enough to replace the family car or current public transport options. To keep that price down, the team is trying to maximize the efficiency of the electronics driving the trikes.

"We're using things much less powerful than a smartphone," says Folsom. "Part of the concept is that you don't have to spend as much money as the big car companies are spending. My contention is you don't need all that much processing power to make autonomy happen."

Reducing the required computational power may be easier to achieve if human error is removed from the picture by setting up a better autonomous infrastructure, which is a goal Folsom has been vocal about for years with his Elcano Project. Along with dedicated lanes for autonomous vehicles, he puts forward the idea of renewable energy-powered self-driving taxi systems, possibly with a fleet of velomobiles like Organic Transit's ELF, which could ferry people around cities without impacting too heavily on the environment.

"The big thing for me is the effect this could have on global warming," says Folsom. "If we can push transportation in this direction – very light vehicles – it's a major win for the environment. I want to have the technology that lets people make that choice if we decide, yes, by the way, survival would be a nice thing."

The project, which involves over 20 people, has received a $75,000 grant from Amazon Catalyst.

The team describes their work in the video below.

Source: New Atlas, University of Washington Bothell

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Robotic arm gives quadriplegic man a new sense of touch

In 2012, quadriplegic Jan Scheuermann used her own thoughts to control a robotic arm and feed herself a chocolate bar thanks to a system developed by researchers from the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). Now, the same team has recreated the physical feeling of touch through a robotic hand, allowing a quadriplegic man to feel "his" fingers and hand for the first time in 10 years.

After first demonstrating their robotic arm in 2012, the team continued to improve the technology to extend the functional utility of the hand so that it approached the agility of a natural human limb. But although regaining movement is important, how objects feel in our hands also plays a crucial role, creating a feedback loop that allows us to adjust our grip and motion as required. Through further development of the robotic arm and brain computer interface (BCI), the Pitt-UPMC team was able to give 28-year-old Nathan Copeland, who was paralyzed in a car accident in 2004, the sensation of touch again.

Like Scheuermann's procedure, the arm was wired directly into Copeland's brain, allowing him to control it with the same kind of thought commands anyone would normally use. The difference in this case was that the electrical signals from the arm were transmitted through four tiny microelectric arrays implanted into the regions of the brain associated with feeling in individual fingers and the palm. The end result was the ability to feel pressure and how strong it was, although so far he hasn't been able to distinguish between different temperatures.

"I can feel just about every finger — it's a really weird sensation," explains Copeland, about a month after surgery. "Sometimes it feels electrical and sometimes it's pressure, but for the most part, I can tell most of the fingers with definite precision. It feels like my fingers are getting touched or pushed."

As far as the research and technology has come, the Pitt-UPMC team acknowledges that there's still a long way to go on the road to eventually developing a system that moves and feels like the real thing. It's possible because the brain still remembers how to control the limbs – the injury just disrupts the connection between them.

"The most important result in this study is that microstimulation of sensory cortex can elicit natural sensation instead of tingling," says Andrew B. Schwartz, co-author of the study. "This stimulation is safe, and the evoked sensations are stable over months. There is still a lot of research that needs to be carried out to better understand the stimulation patterns needed to help patients make better movements."

The research was published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

Source: New Atlas, UPMC

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Robotic ALIAS puts Cessna Caravan through basic maneuvers

The ALIAS system, developed by DARPA, could cut down on crew requirements in military and civilian small aircraft by taking control with a robotic arm. Although it's still a ways off production, the system has been successfully demonstrated on a Cessna Caravan aircraft.

As aircraft have become more advanced, they've also become more difficult to understand. Pilots and crew need to undergo intensive training before being let loose in the latest aircraft, and even then they can be overwhelmed by the complexity of flight systems in an emergency.

According to DARPA, the Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System (ALIAS) could provide a solution. Rather than retrofitting old airplane fleets with complex, expensive automated flight systems, ALIAS has been designed as an adaptable drop-in solution to lighten the load on crews. Although it's all-new, the system has its roots in DARPA's previous work in automated systems and unmanned autonomous vehicles.

When it's completely up and running, ALIAS should be able to handle a complex military mission from takeoff to landing. It should also be able to deal with emergency situations in the air, essentially reducing the human pilot to a mission supervisor by letting the computer deal with minute-to-minute flying.

Having successfully tested the system on a Diamond DA-42 earlier this year, it was recently installed in a Cessna Caravan in an attempt to prove its versatility. It pulled off a set of basic in-flight maneuvers, with a human pilot sitting alongside. The team at Aurora is now working to install it into a Bell UH-1 helicopter.

"Demonstrating our automation system on the UH-1 and the Caravan will prove the viability of our system for both military and commercial applications," says John Wissler, Vice President of Research & Development at Aurora, which has been working on the project. "ALIAS enables the pilot to turn over core flight functions and direct their attention to non-flight related issues such as adverse weather, potential threats or even updating logistical plans."

Watch ALIAS flying the Cessna in the video below.

Source: New Atlas, Aurora

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Autonomous robot takes the hard work out of yard work

Gardens can be a double-edged sword: when they're thriving, so is the work required to keep them in shape. A new autonomous robot helper by the name of Kobi, however, can take the edge off by mowing the lawn, collecting leaves and clearing snow for you.

Of course, robotic lawnmowers have been earning their crust for some time now, and adding snow-clearing functionality isn't a new concept either. The beauty of Kobi, though, is that it has three strings to its bow and is designed for use in all seasons.

Kobi comprises a rear base unit and three accompanying modules. These are connected to the base depending on what type of garden work is required. There's a snow blower module with which Kobi will remove snow by sucking it up and shooting it to a dumping spot, a lawn module for cutting grass, and a leaf module for collecting leaves and depositing them in a set location.

The robot reportedly achieves all of this autonomously, and is able to get around a user's yard at speeds of up to 2 mph (3 km/h). To navigate, it uses a combination of GPS positioning, cameras and ultrasonic sensors. This, says its designers, affords it "inch-level positioning accuracy," but also allows it to detect objects and stop if need be. What's more, it can even plan when to do work itself based on the weather forecast, to which it connects via the user's home Wi-Fi network or a local mobile data network, depending on which network is strongest.

A lithium-ion battery powers Kobi, with ranges of up to 7 ac (2 ha) when using the lawn module, up to 3 ac (1 ha) when using the leaf module and up to 0.37 ac (0.15 ha) when using the snow module. When the battery is running low, Kobi will make its way back to its docking station for recharging, before continuing with the work at hand. A full charge is said to take between two and four hours.

In order to navigate a user's garden, Kobi must first be shown its perimeter and where there are any obstacles. It must also be shown where to dump snow and leaves. This is done using an accompanying mobile app, which will be available for iOS and Android when it launches and via which Kobi can be "taught" these things. In the event that a user moves house, the app can be used to reconfigure Kobi.

The app is also used to control Kobi and allows users to set the robot going or to stop it, as well as to schedule times for it to get to work. For security, Kobi is protected by anti-theft mechanisms, which include an alarm that sounds in the event that someone tries to steal it and an auto-disable mode that can only be circumvented using a pin-code set by the owner. It is expected to be made available to the general public in the north-east of the US from early 2017.

The video below provides an introduction to the Kobi robot.

Source: New Atlas, Kobi

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Drone-delivered blood takes flight in Rwanda

What is claimed to be the world's first national drone delivery service has launched in Rwanda. Operated by US robotics firm Zipline in partnership with the Rwandan government, the service makes emergency deliveries of blood from a distribution hub to transfusion facilities up to 75 km (47 mi) away.

Plans for the service were first announced early this year, with details about how it was to operate subsequently released in May. In a country where postpartum hemorrhaging is the leading cause of death for pregnant women and it is difficult for clinics to keep different blood types on hand and stored safely, drones are seen as tools that can deliver blood to remote areas quickly without needing to navigate hilly landscapes and difficult roads.

A fleet of 15 autonomous drones known as "Zips" is used to make the deliveries, each capable of traveling 150 km (93 mi) and carrying 1.5 kg (3.3 lb) of blood per trip. Emergency orders for blood are placed via text message and the required product is loaded into a drone at the distribution center in the country's Muhanga region. 

When the drone reaches its destination, its payload is released over a predetermined area, or "mailbox," and is parachuted down to the ground. A text message is sent to the intended recipient shortly before the drone reaches the destination so that they can be ready to collect the blood when it lands. Delivery complete, the drone then returns to the distribution center.

The drones, which can fly in both wind and rain, are able to make up to 150 deliveries a day to 21 transfusion facilities in the western half of Rwanda and can fulfil orders within about 30 minutes. The team says it expects the drones to save thousands of lives over the next three years.

Although the service is initially only delivering blood, other payloads such as medicine and vaccines are expected to be added by way of a partnership with UPS, Gavi and the Vaccine Alliance. Zipline also plans to expand the service to the eastern half of Rwanda next year, putting almost the entire population of the country within range, and to eventually to roll out similar services to other places around the world. The service was launched yesterday by Rwandan President Paul Kagame.

Source: New Atlas, Zipline, UPS

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Simple gadget puts bikes on cars' radar

In the near future, we're going to see an increasing number of Collision Avoidance System-equipped cars on the roads. Stated simply, the technology uses an integrated forward-looking radar system to alert drivers when they're rapidly approaching obstacles such as other vehicles. If those other vehicles are bicycles, however, their rear profile can make them difficult for the radar to detect. That's where iLumaware's Shield TL comes in.

Inventors Chris Mogridge and Alexis Stobbe created the device by analyzing how stealth technology works, then essentially going in the opposite direction – whereas stealth vehicles are designed to evade radar signals, the Shield is made to catch those signals and reflect them back to the cars. It does this purely via its unique shape, not emitting any actual signal itself.

In field tests, it boosted bicycles' radar signature by up to 100 percent, and thus increased the distance at which they could be detected by Collision Avoidance Systems.

Of course, it's also important that drivers notice cyclists. With that in mind, the Shield additionally features an 80-lumen tail light. One 2-hour USB charge of its battery should be good for 25 hours of use in High mode, or 76 hours in Strobe.

iLumaware is currently running a Kickstarter campaign, to raise production funds for the Shield TL. Riders who want some added protection might also want to check out Garmin's Varia Radar device, which detects vehicles approaching from behind by emitting a rear-facing radar signal of its own.

Source: New Atlas, Kickstarter

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Smartwatch control may be all in the wrist

While smartwatches may indeed be designed for ease of use, utilizing their touchscreen controls does require the user to have the hand of their opposite arm free. What happens if that hand is otherwise occupied? Well, voice control is one option, but researchers from Dartmouth University are developing another. Their WristWhirl prototype can be controlled by making joystick motions with the hand of the arm that's wearing it.

Users start by making a pinching motion with the fingers of that hand. A piezo vibration sensor in the watch strap detects that movement and powers up 12 infrared proximity sensors, which are also built into the strap.

Commands are then made by moving the hand as if it were operating a joystick. The proximity sensors monitor those movements, with an onboard Arduino Due microcomputer recognizing gestures that are assigned to specific commands. Another finger-pinch turns the sensors back off again, when the session is over.

Test subjects have successfully used the prototype to perform actions such as accessing app shortcuts by drawing shapes, scrolling through songs on a music player app by swiping their hand left or right, panning and zooming on a map by swiping or rotating the wrist, and playing video games by tilting the wrist.

The technology is going to be presented at the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology on October 19. On the off chance that you're not going to be there, you can see a demo of it in the video below.

Source: New Atlas, Dartmouth University

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