Important Innovations

  UC Berkeley Students' Solar Car Zephyr                                                                      Source:  UC Berkeley Heading into Road Race Competition at the American Solar Challenge Engineering students at UC Berkeley have built a road-ready, registered solar car called Zephyr.  To say the least, the vehicle is eye-catching.  It closely resembles a flying saucer.  But, it is a fully functional solar/electric powered car. Zephyr has been cleared for driving and has a California license plate.  The UC Berkeley student inventors are putting Zephyr into national competition.  It's heading for the 5 day, 1,000 mile road race between Independence, Missouri and Las Vegas, N.M. called the American Solar Challenge, which is a race among solar c...

  UC Berkeley Students' Solar Car Zephyr                                                                      Source:  UC Berkeley Heading into Road Race Competition at the American Solar Challenge Engineering students at UC Berkeley have built a road-ready, registered solar car called Zephyr.  To say the least, the vehicle is eye-catching.  It closely resembles a flying saucer.  But, it is a fully functional solar/electric powered car. Zephyr has been cleared for driving and has a California license plate.  The UC Berkeley student inventors are putting Zephyr into national competition.  It's heading for the 5 day, 1,000 mile road race between Independence, Missouri and Las Vegas, N.M. called the American Solar Challenge, which is a race among solar c...

First Arab Mission to Mars Source:  Launch of H-2A rocket with Hope onboard Source:  NASA Artist Rendering Spectacular Launch and Congratulations from NASA A Japanese H-2A rocket launched the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Hope Mission to Mars this morning.  Within an hour of the flight, the rocket's upper stage released the Hope Mission satellite.  Hope is using its solar panels to power its systems, including its communications system. Hope notified controllers at the Space Center in Dubai of the successful separation.  The Dubai Center is overseeing the orbiter's 306,957,369 mile journey at 75,185 miles per hour speeds to Mars. First Arab Interplanetary Mission This is the first Arab interplanetary mission.  The Hope mission is designed to demonstrate the UAE's scientific, technological and space capabilities.  Hope is a 2,976 pound satellite designed and developed at the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center (MBRSC) in the UAE.  It will ar...

Unique Power System:  Inflight Battery Swaps for Drones Source:  UC Berkeley New Drone/Battery System UC Berkeley HiPeRLab Innovation Can you imagine a drone with almost unlimited flying time?  Well, it's just been created by engineers and roboticists at the University of California Berkeley's HiPeRLab, their High Performance Robotics Lab.  It's a prototype drone system with unique, inflight battery switching technology.  The potential is to keep drones in the air for almost unlimited flight times. Quadcopter Drone with a Docking Deck The team has invented a quadcopter drone with a docking tray that's able to accept a smaller, fresh battery delivering drone.  The battery drone lands on the dock, recharges the larger drone and flies away.  This allows the next battery drone to fly in and take its place to do a recharge. Sustainable Drone Flights This is a fascinating approach to one way of powering sustainable drone flights....

Advanced Water Harvester from UC Berkeley Source:  UC Berkeley's Water Harvester Capable of Supplying Fresh Water to Global Villages in Need One of humanity's biggest challenges is to develop technology to meet global drinking water supply needs.  A team at UC Berkeley has invented a new water harvester capable of collecting water from very dry desert air.  Most importantly, the team says their technology is scalable and capable of supplying clean drinking water to people in villages.  This technology promises to be a new source of clean drinking water to people in arid environments globally. New Engineering The device has been tested in the Mojave Desert and it works.  The base is a metal-organic framework (MOF) that pulls in and condenses water molecules from the very dry desert air.  The cartridges of MOFs are in a large, transparent box that includes a condenser to collect the water molecules as liquid water. Third Variation on an Innovativ...

UC Berkeley's Robotic Arm Source:  UC Berkeley Controlled by Using Virtual Reality Headset This is a low cost, high performance robotic arm that's been designed for a key purpose.  It's a powerful platform for artificial intelligence and robotic experimentation.  The goal is to generate the next generation of AI-enabled robots.  The Berkeley team believes such experimental platforms could usher in the next technological revolution.  For more details, go to Important Innovations Collection: Berkeley's New Robotic Arm : Controlled by Using Virtual Reality Headset Source:  UC Berkeley Artificial Intelligence and Robots It's a new, low cost robotic...

Safe Robotic Co-Worker Source:  UC Berkeley's Blue Learns on the Job with Humans The roboticists at the University of California Berkeley call it Project Blue.  Blue robot is AI enabled and can safety learn tasks while working side by side with humans. It learns by reinforcement learning or trial and error. The Berkeley team has created what they call a "human safe" robot. Weaker Robot is a Better Robot The team worked on the premise that the stronger the robot the more dangerous it can be to humans.  When a robot makes a mistake, it can damage itself and people nearby.  As a result, Blue features flexible plastic arms with rounded edges that can be easily pushed away.  The team purposefully designed a weak robot that can perform significant, useful tasks because "weaker is safer". Low Cost The team says Blue is a low-cost, backdrivable, 7-DOF robotic manipulator.  The robot not only safely works side by side with humans.  It can also make...