Hybrid Hydrostatic Transmission Enables Robots with Human-Like Grace and Precision

Hydrostatic Transmission Combines Hydraulic/Pneumatic Lines

A new kind of hydrostatic transmission which combines hydraulic as well as pneumatic lines can precisely as well as safely drive robot arms, providing them with the delicacy essential to pick an egg without breaking it. This communication does not have any friction or play providing great precision for jobs like threading a sewing needle. The hybrid transmission had made it possible to split the number of bulky hydraulic lines which a complete hydraulic system requires. Robotic limbs could thus be lighter and smaller according to John P. Whitney, assistant professor of mechanical and industrial engineering at North-eastern University, who is leading the development of the transmission and also an associate research scientist at Disney Research.

Whitney together with his colleagues from Disney Research, the Catholic University of America and Carnegie Mellon University would be reporting on the new transmission as well as the upper body humanoid robot, built with it at the IEEE Conference on Robotics and Automation, ICRA 2016, on May 17 in Stockholm, Sweden. Co-author Jessica Hodgins, vice-president at Disney Research and a professor of robotics at the Carnegie Mellon had stated that `the communication provides the robot with incredibly smooth and fast motion as well as enabling life-like interaction with people and the handling of delicate objects.

Robot Remotely Controlled by Human Operator

She adds that presently, the robot is remotely controlled by human operator though the same level of mechanical performance, once the motions are automated would be expected. Whitney states that the robot joint would normally have two hydraulic cylinders, which are balanced against each other. However in the new design, the researchers have paired each water-filled cylinder instead with air-filled cylinder.

The pneumatic cylinder tends to assist as a constant force air-spring offering the required preload force enabling the joint to move in both directions with half the number of bulky hydraulic lines. The new transmission was used by the researchers to build a simple humanoid robot having two arms with stereo cameras placed in the head, streaming their video signal to an operator wearing a head mounted display. The arms have been coupled to a similar control figure, which is hidden behind a wall to permit the robot to be used for human-robot communication study.

Combination of Small Mass/High Speed/Accurate Motion

Whitney has mentioned that this technology has enabled them to build robot arms which are light, fast and dexterous and that they have an incredible life-like nature, providing a combination of small mass, high speed together with accurate motion not envisage earlier.

Together with Whitney and Hodgins, the research team had also included John Mars of Disney Research, who had developed the camera and head-mounted display system as well as Tianyao Chen, research assistant at The Catholic University of America, who had designed the robot arms at intern at Disney Research.

Robots utilising this technology are suitable for naturally accommodating and life-like interaction with people. On tele-operation, the low friction and the lack of play enables the transmission to devotedly transmit contact forces to the operator, offering a high reliability remote sense of touch.

Smart Home Speaker, VR system, Chat service from Google

Google’s Virtual Reality System/Chat Service

Google has come up with a new smart home speaker, known as Daydream a virtual-reality system and a chat service called Allo. Over 7,000 people would be attending the showcase of Google in Mountain View California and in an effort to overtake Apple, Google has been adding in some more features to the next version of its Android operating system, comprising of a security method which tends to enable one to encrypt specific files instead of the complete phone. In a shot at Amazon, the company had declared Google Home, an Internet-connected speaker which tends to listen to your voice commands to play music or to control lights as well as thermostats in the home.

It is significant of Amazon’s Echo and would be made available later in the year for an unexpected price. The chat service, in the meanwhile would be using the computers of Google to predict how one would prefer to respond saving the typing stress. Allo would be competing with the popular chat services like Facebook’s Messenger and WhatsApp which are also owned by Facebook. Google Home and Allo would be tapping into the computing ability of Google. Artificial intelligence, is a term used in describing efforts in developing software that acts and behaves like humans, has been a central point of Google for several years.

Android Powers 80% of World’s Smartphones

Development made in the field has assisted the search engine of Google in understanding the intent of the inquiries of people much faster and vastly improved the understanding and responsive of its voice recognition services. Reporters as well as bloggers from across the world are attending to make sure that whatever the company reveals will also be featured in pictures, stories and videos that will be delivered to the massive audience of consumers.

The three-day showcase tends to attract thousands of computer programmers, providing Google with an opportunity of convincing them on why they should design applications and other services which tend to work with its gadgets together with an array of software that include the Chrome Web browser as well as Android operating system for mobile devices. Android tends to power around 80% of the world’s smartphones, mainly since Google gives away the software for free to device manufacturers. Google can manage to do that since it designs Android to feature its search engine, maps together with other digital services, providing more opportunities to portray the digital ads which tend to generate most of its revenue.

Google – Distributing Guidelines for Latest Controller

Apple iPhone tends to carry more importance with affluent consumers and present features which Android tends to copy. Apple would be holding same conference in June to reveal its fall software plans.The entry of Google in the still-emerging field of virtual reality came two years back when it had revealed a cheap headset that was made of cardboard. The company is said to be poised to get more thoughtful considering far more sophisticated option available for sale.

Together with Daydream, other manufacturers comprising of Samsung, HTC and Huawei would have smartphones adept in handling it. These tend to be more comfortable and immersive than the cardboard headset. Google would also be distributing guidelines for the latest controller together with few buttons, a touchpad as well as sensors in tracking its orientation and where it would be pointing.

IBM Scientists Achieve Storage Memory Breakthrough

IBM Research – Latest Memory Technology – Phase-Change-Memory –PCM

Scientist at IBM Research, have for the first time demonstrated reliably storing 3 bits of data for each cell utilising a latest memory technology called phase-change memory – PCM. The existing memory landscape tends toextentfrom respected DRAM to hard disk drives to universal flash. However in the last several years PCM has attracted the attention of the industry as a probable universal memory technology based on its mixture of read/write speed, non-volatility, density and endurance.

For instance PCM does not lose data when it tends to power off unlike DRAM. The technology could endure at least 10 million write cycles in contrast to an average flash USB stick that tends to top out at 3,000 write cycles. The break-through of the research has provided quick and easy storage in catching the exponential growth of data from the mobile devices as well as the Internet of Things.

IBM scientists tend to envisage standalone PCM together with hybrid application that would unite PCM and flash storage together with PCM as an exceedingly fast cache. For instance the operating system of a mobile phone could be stored in PCM permitting the phone to launch within a few seconds. In the initiative space, the complete database can be stockpiled in PCM for fast query processing for time-critical online application like financial transaction.

Two Stable States – Amorphous/Crystalline

Machine learning processes utilising huge datasets would see a rapid boost on reducing the latency overhead while reading the data between iterations. The PCM materials tend to display two stable states, namely the amorphous – without a clearly defined structure and crystalline – with structure phases, of high and low electrical conductivity, respectively. Scientists at IBM and the other institutes had successfully demonstrated the potential to store 1 bit per cell in PCM earlier. However, presently at IEEE International Memory Workshop in Paris, for the first time, the IBM scientists are presenting, successfully stored 3 bits per cell in a 64k-cell array at higher temperatures and after a million endurance cycles.

 Dr Haris Pozidis, author of the paper and the manager of non-volatile memory research at IBM Research – Zurich had informed that `phase change memory was the first instantiation of the universal memory with properties of DRAM and flash, thus answering one of the grand challenges of the industry.

Novel Coding/Detecting Scheme Employed

He further added that reaching three bits per cell seems to be a significant milestone since at this density, the cost of PCM tends to be significantly less than DRAM and nearer to flash. In order to attain multi-bit storage, IBM scientists had developed a couple of innovative enabling technologies, a set of drift-immune cell-state metrics and drift-tolerant coding with detection schemes.

The new cell-state measure a physical property of the PCM cell more precisely, which tends to remain stable over a period of time and are hence insensitive to drift, affecting the stability of the electrical conductivity of cell with time. In order to provide extra strength of the data stored in a cell over ambient temperature fluctuation, a novel coding as well as detecting scheme had been employed.

The scheme tends to adaptively change the level threshold which is used in detecting the stored data of cell so that they follow variation owing to temperature changes. The outcome is that the cell state can be read reliably over long period of time after the memory is programmed and hence offers non-volatility.

Wrist Band Device for Alcohol Monitoring Wins U.S. Prize

BACrack Wins U.S. Prize for Alcohol Monitoring Device

A U.S. government competition has been won by BACrack, a San Francisco-based company with an alcohol monitoring device which can be worn on the wrist, a latest milestone in the progress of wearable technologies that tends to monitor as well as diagnose medical conditions. The company which is a privately held medical device manufacturer, had taken the top prize of $200,00 in the National Institutes of Health – NIH, Wearable Biosensor Challenge recently with its wristband monitor that tends to measure blood alcohol levels through sweat on the skin.

 The said product named as BACrack Skyn has not been submitted to the Food and Drug Administration yet for marketing approval. The head of the NIH’s National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Dr George Koob had stated that he expected the device to be a valuable resource for alcohol research community.

He further added that it could help doctors to precisely measure the drinking history of a patient and not just depend on the most recent test which could help a lot with the treatment. Medical, law enforcement as well as transportation officials have pursued improved technology in detecting blood alcohol levels. The traditional PBTs – portable breath alcohol testers are heavy, costing over $1,000 and does not provide on-going monitoring of alcohol levels.

Blood Alcohol Monitoring Devices – Big & Bulky

The president of BACrack, Keith Nothacker, had informed that the blood alcohol monitoring devices that have been used in legal and medical circles seems to be big and bulky, similar to a ball and chain for the ones utilising it and that they wanted to make something which people would want to wear.

In its present form, the device though will not be an alternative for breathalysers or blood tests utilised by law enforcement since the device does not offer real-time blood alcohol levels. It has been mentioned by Nothacker that it takes around 45 minutes for ethanol to be transmitted through the skin and the device has been designed to offer a recent history of alcohol usage.

The company had been experimenting with consumer-centric alcohol testing for many years and in 2013 had introduced the BACrack Mobile Breathalyser which syncs with the smartphone in order to track blood alcohol content. BACrack had competed with seven other smaller companies and had won the NIH competition.

Skyn Cannot Replace Breathalysers

A Santa Barbara based technology start-up, Milo, had won the $100,000 second-place prize for its design for a wearable alcohol content tracker which tends to also use skin sensor and links with a smartphone, using wireless technology. Skyn, it is said cannot replace breathalysers which the cops tend to use, since it takes 45 minutes for the alcohol to be transmitted through the skin.

 However, authorities or researchers could utilise it to monitor constantly someone’s BAC levels. The device can alert you, if one has been drinking too much particularly if one intends to drive. Moreover, it could also notify member of a family if it senses alcohol in your system while one is supposed to be on a mission for abstinence.

Though the company has not submitted Skyn to the FDA for approval yet, according to Reuters, BACrack state that it would be releasing a restricted amount this fourth quarter. One could sign up on the company’s website to get notification whenever the wearable would be ready for pre-order.

High Efficiency Power Amplifier Could Bring 5G Cell Phones

5G Devices Designed to Download/Transmit Data/Videos Quickly

Latest efficient power amplifier for electronics will assist in making it possible for the next generation cell phones, reduced-cost collision-avoidance radar for cars and lightweight micro satellites for communications. The fifth-generation or 5G mobile devices which are anticipated in 2019 would need improved power amplifiers operating at very high frequencies.

The new phones would be designed to download and transmit data and videos much quicker than the present phones, would provide improved coverage, consume less power and would meet the needs of a developing `Internet of things’ wherein daily objects will have network connectivity, enabling them to send and receive data. Power amplifiers are essential in transmitting signals.

Since the present cell phone amplifiers are made of gallium arsenide, they are unable to integrate in the silicon based technology of the phone known as complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor – CMOS. The latest amplifier design is CMOS-based which means that it enables researchers to integrate the power amplifier with the electronic chip of the phone, thus reducing the manufacturing costs as well as the power consumption while enhancing performance.

Silicon Less Expensive than Gallium Arsenide

An associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue University, Saeed Mohammadi states that `Silicon is much less expensive than gallium arsenide, more reliable, having a longer lifespan and if one has everything in one chip, it tends to get easier to test and maintain.

The highest efficiency CMOS power amplifier has developed in the frequency range needed for 5G cell phones and the next-generation radars’. Results are detailed in two papers, one which is to be presented during the IEEE International Microwave Symposium on 24 May in San Francisco, authored by the earlier doctoral student Sultan R. Helmi together with Mohammadi. They had authored another paper with Jing-Hwa Chen, the former doctoral student to appear in a future issue of the journal IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques.

The researcher have created the new kind of amplifier by utilising a high performance king of CMOS technology known as silicon on insulator – SOI wherein the design has many silicon transistors loaded together which reduces the number of metal interconnections generally essential between transistors, reducing `parasitic capacitance that hinders performance and could lead to damage to electronic circuits.

Eradicate Metallization between Transistors

The amplifier attains an efficiency of 40% comparable to amplifiers made of gallium arsenide. Mohammadi had commented that they have merged transistors to use less metallization around the device and that they have reduced the capacitance to achieve higher efficiencies. Moreover they are attempting to eradicate metallization between transistors. The latest amplifiers is said to bring low-cost collision-avoidance radars for cars and electronics for lightweight communications microsatellites. The CMOS amplifiers would enable researchers in designing microsatellites which are one-hundredth the weight of the present day technology. Three U.S. patents with regards to the amplifier have been issued. The research was funded partly by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.Researchers have been working on the latest version of the amplifier which would be twice as powerful. Additional work would be essential in integrating the amplifier into a cell phone chip.