tingilinde

a unicycle that flies

A combination of an aerial quadrotor and a unicycle gives good maneuverability and endurance,   Seeing the title makes you wonder if the idea was hatched in a drinking session but the paper shows cleverness

 

Roller-Quadrotor: A Novel Hybrid Terrestrial/Aerial Quadrotor with Unicycle-Driven and Rotor-Assisted Turning

Zhi Zheng1,2, Jin Wang†1,2, Yuze Wu3, Qifeng Cai1,2, Huan Yu1,2, Ruibin Zhang3, Jie Tu1,2, Jun Meng2,4, Guodong Lu1,2, and Fei Gao3

Abstract— Roller-Quadrotor is a novel hybrid terrestrial and aerial quadrotor that combines the elevated maneuverability of the quadrotor with the lengthy endurance of the ground vehicle. This work presents the design, modeling, and experimental validation of Roller-Quadrotor. Flying is achieved through a quadrotor configuration, and four actuators providing thrust. Rolling is supported by unicycle-driven and rotor-assisted turn- ing structure. During terrestrial locomotion, the vehicle needs to overcome rolling and turning resistance, thus saving energy compared to flight mode. This work overcomes the challenging problems of general rotorcraft, reduces energy consumption and allows to through special terrain, such as narrow gaps. It also solves the obstacle avoidance challenge faced by terrestrial robots by flying. We design the models and controllers for the vehicle. The experiment results show that it can switch between aerial and terrestrial locomotion, and be able to safely pass through a narrow gap half the size of its diameter. Besides, it is capable of rolling a distance approximately 3.8 times as much as flying or operating about 42.2 times as lengthy as flying. These results demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the structure and control in rolling through special terrain and energy saving.

 

post quantum cryptography

Derick, with the help of some experts, has a clear description

tesla

You probably don't want one - particularly one that promises self-driving.

a tip of the hat to Bjarne

separately I've read that although maintenanc costs are is supposedly lower on EV than ICV, it's actually higher for Teslas.

 

 

38 years

Caltech's battle of the bots adds another year to its streak.

 

 

project greensand

A few weeks ago the project, which stores CO2 in depleted oil fields,  was inaugurated.   It seems like a great idea to pair with carbon capture at the point of combustion.  Denmark is betting on it to meet their climate goal.

 

 

f1 simulators

Very sophisticated F1 simulators used by the major teams are an outgrowth of the game industry.

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Much of Cruden’s market advantage comes from its own simulation software. The software is a familiar derivative of the free car simulator, Racer, available for download online. Racer, originally released in August 2000, began as a personal project of Ruud van Gaal. Now chief technology officer at Cruden, van Gaal has always actively encouraged community participation and has amassed a wealth of technical knowledge that he makes accessible to anyone who graces the project website. ‘Sharing knowledge is the best way to fast progress,’ it reads. What’s more, van Gaal made the source code to Racer available for download too, up until version 0.5.0 (Racer is currently at 0.8.6). Despite the code being many years old now, this still represents arguably the ultimate community contribution that a project can make. Perhaps then it’s ironic that the Formula 1 simulator, whose team I cannot name, uses software with publicly available source code.

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a tip of the hat to Horace

 

 

 

the sound of nota dame

Trying to recreate the cathedral's sound quality as it rises from the ashes.  Headphones on!

 

 

global warming and thule

Change come's to America's Northernmost military installation.  And more on the changing geopolitics brought about by the changing climate.

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Thule is the northernmost U.S. military base in the world and the first outpost that would detect an imminent attack by Russia on the United States. It is the only U.S. operation that can monitor all of Russia’s missile activity, sending a warning within 60 seconds to decision-makers at the Pentagon in Washington and bases in California and Colorado.

Then there is a growing regional challenge. The melting of Greenland’s ice sheet has opened the way for icebreakers to sail from Russia, allowing the country to establish trade routes and military infrastructure in the Arctic. For China, these new routes present similar possibilities.

The American military is belatedly scrambling to address the base’s deterioration, particularly the possibility that an infrastructure failure could disable Thule’s radar tracking. The Americans can’t risk that, even for a second.

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zero knowledge proofs - five levels of explanation

digging out the signal

A new kind of low-field strength MRI machine has emerged and may have important niches.

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The machines mark a technological triumph. Kathryn Keenan, a biomedical engineer at the National Institute of Standards and Technology who is testing a Hyperfine scanner, says, “Everyone that comes through is superimpressed that it even works.” Some say the scanners could also transform medical imaging. “We’re potentially opening up a whole new field,” says Kevin Sheth, a neurologist at the Yale School of Medicine who has worked extensively with the Swoop but has no financial interest in Hyperfine. “It’s not a question of ‘Is this going to happen?’ It’s going to be a thing.”

In August 2020, the Swoop became the first low-field scanner to win U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval to image the brain, and physicians are putting it through clinical studies at Yale New Haven and elsewhere. Other devices are close behind. But Andrew McDowell, a physicist and founder of the consulting firm NeuvoMR, LLC, cautions it’s not clear there’s a market for a low-field scanner, with its lower resolution. “The real challenge is going to be convincing doctors to start using it,” he says. “That’s very difficult because for good reasons they’re very conservative.”

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