Lifeboat Foundation

Step aside, reindeer — robot dogs are hauling this load.

In an ominous video titled “Mush, Spot Mush!” posted on YouTube Tuesday, robot maker Boston Dynamics showed off the sheer strength of its SpotMini quadripedal robot dog. The clip shows 10 specialized Spotmini derivatives called Spotpower hauling a box truck across a parking lot — and at a one degree incline.

Continue reading “Watch a Pack of Boston Dynamics’ Creepy Robot Dogs Pull a Truck” »

After years of development in the desert north of Los Angeles, a gigantic, six-engined mega jet with the wingspan of an American football field flew Saturday morning for the first time.

“We finally did it,” said Stratolaunch Systems CEO Jean Floyd at a news conference from the hangar at Mojave Air & Space Port. “It was an emotional moment to watch this bird take flight.”

Stratolaunch, the company founded in 2011 by the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, conducted the first test flight of the world’s largest plane.

Continue reading “The world’s largest plane just flew for the first time” »

Istanbul New Airport, which is now opened for business, will be able to handle 200 million passengers a year and has a massive duty free area as well as on onsite Yotel.

A special blend of concrete that can de-ice roads and pavements without the need for chemicals uses electricity to melt away snow and sleet – and it could be coming to an airport near you soon.

The conductive concrete, developed by researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, is for the most part the same as regular concrete, but 20 percent of its ingredients aren’t exactly standard: steel shavings and carbon particles, which give the mix enough conductivity that it can melt ice and snow while remaining safe to the touch.

Designed by civil engineer Chris Tuan, the conductive concrete is currently being assessed by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which is looking into the possibilities of incorporating the snow-melting surface into the tarmac of at least one major airport as part of a trial.

Continue reading “This Electrically Conductive Concrete Melts Snow Without Chemicals” »

Tesla announced today that it is launching a lease program for Model 3 and interestingly, it won’t let people buy the cars after the leases come to term as it plans to use them in its planned self-driving Uber-like service dubbed ‘Tesla Network’.

Along with a series of changes to its lineup today, Tesla also announced that it is launching its lease program for Model 3 today:

Continue reading “Tesla launches Model 3 leases, will keep cars for autonomous Uber-like service after term” »

A new study from the Army Research Lab may help AI-infused weapons and tools better understand their human operators.

In World War II, the Allies had a big problem. Germany’s new bombers moved too quickly for the anti-aircraft methods of the previous war, in which soldiers used range tables and hand calculations to line up their guns. Mathematician Norbert Wiener had a theory: the only way to defeat the German aircraft was to merge the gun and its human operators — not physically but perceptually, through instruments. As Weiner explained in the video below, that meant “either a human interpretation of the machine, or a machine interpretation of the operator, or both.” This was the only way to get the gun to fire a round on target — not where the plane was but where it was going to be. This theoretical merger of human and machine gave rise to the field of cybernetics, derived from the Greek term cyber, to steer, and the English term net, for network.

Continue reading “The Army Wants AI to Read Soldiers’ Minds” »

From smog-sucking bikes to electric taxis and paint made of car exhaust, designers and architects are stepping up to address air pollution—the world’s single largest health risk. But a new air filter making the rounds in Oslo, Paris, Brussels, and Hong Kong shows that nature may be our best ally in this battle.

Essentially a moss-covered wall, each CityTree removes CO₂, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter from the air while also producing oxygen. A single tree is able to absorb 250 grams of particulate matter a day and remove 240 metric tons of CO₂ each year—a level roughly on par with the air purification impact of 275 urban trees. Thirteen feet tall, with a metal frame, the CityTrees are easily installed in a public space, and they even have built-in seating at their base.

In the 1960s animated sitcom The Jetsons, George Jetson commutes to work in his family-size flying car, which miraculously transforms into a briefcase at the end of the trip.

A new study of the environmental sustainability impacts of flying cars, formally known as electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, or VTOLs, finds that they wouldn’t be suitable for a Jetsons-style short commute.

Continue reading “A Jetsons future? Assessing the role of flying cars in sustainable mobility” »

Lithium batteries are what allow electric vehicles to travel several hundred miles on one charge. Their capacity for energy storage is well known, but so is their tendency to occasionally catch on fire—an occurrence known to battery researchers as “thermal runaway.” These fires occur most frequently when the batteries overheat or cycle rapidly. With more and more electric vehicles on the road each year, battery technology needs to adapt to reduce the likelihood of these dangerous and catastrophic fires.

Researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Engineering report that graphene—wonder material of the 21st century—may take the oxygen out of lithium battery fires. They report their findings in the journal Advanced Functional Materials.

The reasons lithium batteries catch fire include rapid cycling or charging and discharging, and high temperatures in the battery. These conditions can cause the cathode inside the battery—which in the case of most lithium batteries is a lithium-containing oxide, usually lithium cobalt oxide—to decompose and release oxygen. If the oxygen combines with other flammable products given off through decomposition of the electrolyte under high enough heat, spontaneous combustion can occur.

Continue reading “Graphene coating could help prevent lithium battery fires” »