Posted on August 31st, 2010 by jxh
Has life got you climbing up the walls? Well, soon you may be able to do it for real – and as well as a gecko.
Geckos are able to stick to walls thanks to a technique called dry adhesion. Each toe of a gecko’s foot contains hundreds of flap-like ridges, and each ridge has millions of hairs.
The tiny hairs are 10 times thinner than a human’s and each one divides into even smaller strands called spatulae. These split ends interact with the molecules of the climbing surface using the van der Waals force, and stick to it when pulled in one direction. If pulled in a different direction, however, the adhesive comes right off.
Now, Stanford University mechanical engineers have created a robot that will replicate a gecko’s sticky foot in order to climb walls.
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Filed under: e-News, Mechanical | Comments Off on Stickybot to the Rescue
Tags: Biomimicry, Mechanical, Robotics
Posted on August 24th, 2010 by axb
Engineering students Victor Correa Schneider, Trevor Owen, Julia Tsai,
Dan Ferguson, and Benjamin Thompson of UC San Diego
Duuuude, how’s this for a Ph.D. project: Benjamin Thompson, a structural engineering student at UC San Diego, is on a quest to formulate the science of surfboards. He enlisted the help of four undergraduates in the mechanical engineering department to help him out, and together they hit the beach to find out more.
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Filed under: Computer, e-News, Mechanical, Ocean | Comments Off on Surf’s Up!
Tags: Computer, Mechanical, Ocean
Posted on August 16th, 2010 by axb
Robo-arm-turned-Ferrari-simulator, shown without the
steering wheel and projection screen
Sometimes engineering projects look like they’re just too much fun to even be considered work. Such is the case with this Ferrari F2007 driving simulator that hovers 7 feet off the ground and looks like a stolen set piece from one of the Matrix movies.
A German research team from the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics programmed a giant robotic arm to simulate the car’s motion while the driver navigates a projected course, IEEE Spectrum (the news magazine and website of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) reports. Watch a video after the jump.
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Filed under: e-News, Electrical, Mechanical | 3 Comments »
Tags: Electrical, Mechanical, Robotics
Posted on August 12th, 2010 by jxh
The Great Pyramid of Giza is the oldest and most intact of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Built as a tomb for Egyptian Pharaoh Khufu around 2560 BC, it was the tallest man-made structure in the world for over 3,800 years.
Now, a robotics team from Leeds University in the UK will attempt to unlock one of the pyramid’s greatest secrets: what lies behind a hidden doorway in the Queen’s Chamber.
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Filed under: Architectural, e-News, Mechanical | 9 Comments »
Tags: Architectural, Engineering in History, Mechanical, Robotics
Posted on August 8th, 2010 by axb
Here’s some good news for all the Transformers fans out there: researchers at Harvard and MIT have been busy creating new smart material that can change its shape on command. Called “programmable matter by folding,” this nifty robotics project involves wiring flexible alloys and programming them to fold themselves into origami-like shapes.
The current prototype can fold itself into a boat or an airplane depending on the signal it receives – watch in this video [after the jump]:
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Filed under: Computer, e-News, Electrical, Materials, Mechanical | 1 Comment »
Tags: Computer, Electrical, Materials, Mechanical, Robotics
