Simply Scientifico: Self-healing damage in flying robots
VIBRATING THE BOWELS TO TREAT CONSTIPATION
Debilitating chronic constipation among adults now has a vibrating treatment, through a capsule that can be ingested orally to let it enter the intestines to start vibrating and induce bowel movements to ease the problem. It stirs the colon to double the ability to excrete normally. No, the capsule does not contain any drugs. It is not a pharmacological solution by a mechanical one. According to researchers at the Digestive Health Clinical Research Center at the Medical College of Georgia and Augusta University, the process involves swallowing about an inch-long capsule that has a latex-free plastic shell.
SELF-HEALING DAMAGE IN FLYING ROBOTS
Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers have developed a method to enable flying bug robots to repair themselves while in flight. This can enhance their durability and performance while being applied in surveillance. They developed techniques that can allow the aerial robots to sustain severe damage to the actuators, or artificial muscles, that power its wings to continue to fly despite the setback. They optimized artificial muscles so the robot can better isolate defects and overcome minor damage. In addition, they demonstrated a novel laser repair method that can help the robot recover from severe damage, such as a fire that scorches the device. Wings on each corner of the tiny aerial robots are powered by dielectric elastomer actuators, which are soft artificial muscles using mechanical forces to flap the wings.
TECH TO CONVERT YOUR SMARTPHONE INTO AN RFID READER
Researchers at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the University of California San Diego have reported a breakthrough through a new app that enables battery-free smart tag technology that can turn a smartphone into a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) reader. Simply put, this system can allow a smartphone user to just open the refrigerator, open the app linked to this technology and aim at the food items neatly packed inside with their labels on, and it will deliver data about the items like their expiry dates and their nutritional values in a fraction of a second. This is possible as the technology combines a chip integrated into the product packaging and a software update on the smartphone. The smartphone can identify objects based on signals emitted from Bluetooth and WiFi, to transform the smartphone into an effective RFID reader. What it does is that signals generated by the smartphone are redirected back to the phone in a format that the phone can understand. It is the same technique used for applications like on-body sensors and asset trackers.
-TNIE
