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Nanomaterial charges everyday batteries in seconds
If you want a battery that charges in seconds rather than hours, you go for a supercapacitor. There are some catches to that, though: either you give up the long-lasting energy of a chemical battery (like the lithium pack in your phone) or have to resort to exotic storage tech to get a long lifespan. Drexel researchers think they have a better balance. They've developed electrodes based on a nanomaterial, MXene, that promise extremely quick charging times for chemical batteries. The near-2D design combines an oxide-metal 'sandwich' with hydrogel to create a structure that's extremely conductive, but still lets ions move freely as the battery builds up a charge. In the lab's design, you can charge MXene electrodes within "tens of milliseconds" -- you could top up a phone in seconds or an electric car in minutes.
Microrobots use the power of bacteria to avoid obstacles
We don't need to scale down Google's self-driving system to make microrobots that can swim in fluid while avoiding obstacles. Drexel University professor MinJun Kim and his team of engineers have discovered how to use bacteria to do so. See, Serratia marcescens, the flagellated microorganism commonly associated with urinary tract and respiratory infections, carries a negative charge. If you smear that on a tiny chip, you get a negatively charged microrobot that can stay afloat (thanks to the bacteria's flagella) and swim around by riding electric fields applied to its environment.
Drexel University intros MacBook Pro vending machine
Drexel University in Philadelphia has created a solution for students who need to use a computer on campus but don't have immediate access to one of their own: A free MacBook vending machine. Ok, so it's not exactly a vending machine, and the computers are only loaned to the students for free 5-hour intervals, but it's still a rather interesting system. The kiosk scans each student's ID before allowing them to take one of the dozen 15-inch MacBook Pro notebooks from its stock. The computers can be used for a total of five hours at no charge, with each additional hour costing $5. The MacBooks are equipped with security sensors to ensure they don't go missing. If the program proves beneficial for students, the university is considering adding iPad kiosks as well. Where were these when I was in college? [Via: Gizmodo]
Four HUBOs 'Come Together' for a Drexel Engineering MET-lab demo
Robot Beatles cover band? Check. Students at Drexel University's Music and Entertainment Technology Lab (MET-lab) have developed software that allows HUBO robots to create tunes following a musical score. The Roboband plays the song without human control during the performance -- a demo that combines humanoid tech and creative expression research. Four HUBOs jam the arrangement of the Beatles' "Come Together" by MET-lab student Matthew Prockup on Ringo's mini-kit and three "Hubophones." Drexel and seven other universities in the States are part of a humanoid research collaboration with KAIST, the designer of the HUBO robot.
Drexel University turns to 3D scanners, printers to build robotic dinosaurs
3D printers, 3D scanners and robotics are usually more than enough on their own to get us interested in something, but a team of researchers at Drexel University have played one other big trump card with their latest project -- they've thrown dinosaurs into the mix. As you can probably surmise, that project involves using a 3D scanner to create models of dinosaur bones, which are then reproduced (at a somewhat smaller scale) using a 3D printer. The researchers then hope to use those to build working robotic models that they'll use to study how dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals may have moved and lived in their environments. That work will start with a dinosaur limb that they expect to have completed by the end of the year, after which they say it will take a year or two to build a complete robotic dinosaur replica.
