DAILY INNOVATION BRIEF by Maryanne Kane, Journalist

 DAILY INNOVATION BRIEF

                                                                      

                 By Journalists Edward Kane & Maryanne Kane

GOVE COULD BE YOUR NEXT RIDE & FLIGHT

                                    Source:  GAC

• Chinese automaker GAC just unveiled a very impressive, flying and driving car prototype named Gove that is electric and autonomous
• GAC, a highly innovative company, simultaneously unveiled the world's 1st ammonia-powered car engine, which is free of carbon emissions & needs further refinement & development
• Here are key details on Gove, which could be your next flying & driving car:

1. One-seater that's electric powered and drives autonomously
2. Built on a modular system that allows the flight & automotive components to be separated so you can drive it before & after the flight
3. Flying passenger drone with six sets of rotor blades
4. Range: 124 miles
5. Takeoff:  Vertical
6. Target Footprint: Starting with air travel between cities located on the water in southern China
7. No price or timeline yet

• Two other Chinese companies are developing eVTOLs - XPENG & Aerofugia
• GAC says it envisions a future in which passengers can easily access multidimensional modes of mobility.

ESTER THE ROBOT TENNIS PLAYER PRO

                          

                    Source:  Georgia Tech

• Roboticists at Georgia Tech have developed a robot tennis player that could serve as a training partner for professional tennis players in the future
• It's called Ester (experimental sports tennis wheelchair robot) & is named after renowned wheelchair tennis player Esther Vergeer
• It's autonomous & specifically designed for tennis training & as an alternative to tennis ball machines
• Esther simulates a human opponent under match conditions
• Being called a breakthrough in human scale robots
• Can spot an incoming ball & return it using cameras around the court & computer vision algorithms to read the ball's trajectory & respond
• Customized wheelchair to maximize the robot's movements on the court
• Team is working to increase Esther's abilities to win games
• Multiple Uses:  manufacturing, construction & any task requiring fast, precise movements.

SATURN MOON COULD SUSTAIN LIFE

                                     Source:  NASA Cassini

• A major scientific discovery deep in space gives hope to the possibility that life exists elsewhere in the universe
• For the first time, phosphates have been found on one of Saturn's Moons Enceladus in an ocean - also the first time phosphates have been found in an ocean not on the Earth
• The amount of phosphates, which is critical for any biological activity, may be 100-times what oceans on Earth contain
• Data, from which this new breakthrough discovery was made, is from NASA'S Cassini mission which flew around Saturn and Enceladus
• Some of the data was extracted from huge plumes of water spewing from the ocean under Enceladus' surface and jetting into space
• This new discovery is another fascinating milestone in the search for life in space.

"Daily Innovation Brief" © By Edward Kane