| August 02, 2011 | Volume 7 Issue 29 |
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Hot Wheels goes military!
Mechanical Mobile Platforms (MMPs), a family of simplified, man-portable robots from Machine Lab Inc.,
can perform a range of surveillance and bomb-disposal tasks at a price point low enough for wide deployment.
The Machine Lab engineering team started out with one overarching design principle: Keep it simple.
Powered by compact, economical, high-torque motors from MICROMO, these robots are making an important difference around the world.
Click here to learn about the design of these IED-busting machines.
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| Feature articles | | Thriving on the low-cost market
Peter Anderson, general manager of Measurement Computing Corp. (MCC), talks about the lessons his company has learned over 20 years of producing data acquisition (DAQ) devices that sell for less than the competitors’ products. Customers in this market aren’t looking for the most product features at a low price but rather the required product features at a low price, which can pose a real challenge for engineering and marketing departments.
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| While you’re up, print me a solar cell
New materials developed at MIT make it possible to produce photovoltaic cells on paper or fabric, nearly as simply as printing a document.
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| Most Popular Last Issue | Inflatable antenna is key to rapidly restoring communications
In the digital age, few things can be considered more important than the availability of reliable communications. In the aftermath of calamities such as an earthquake, a hurricane, or an armed conflict, the lack of an electronic link means no phone calls, no e-mail, no news – and a feeling of being utterly lost to the rest of the world. But one Missile Defense Agency (MDA) -funded company developed a tool that allows civilians, first responders, and warfighters to establish communications links quickly in any weather condition and terrain anywhere around the world.
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| Energy transmitted from radio and TV stations harnessed to power small electronic devices
Researchers have discovered a way to capture and harness energy transmitted by radio and television transmitters, cell phone networks, and satellite communications systems to power networks of wireless sensors, microprocessors, and communications chips.
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| Videos+: Technologies and inspiration in action |
| NEW! PTC Creo helps repair Huey helicopters in Afghanistan |
Troy Moser is a laptop-wielding project engineer for an action team that helps repair U.S. military helicopters in the field. Find out more about how he and his crew use Creo software on the fly to work with original design data and help fix and upgrade aircraft in Afghanistan and Iraq.
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| Rube Goldberg-inspired Time Machine breaks Guinness World Record |
This spring, the 2011 Purdue University Rube Goldberg machine shattered the world record for most steps ever successfully completed by such a machine. In 244 steps the "Time Machine" traces the history of the world from Big Bang to the Apocalypse. Along the way, the world is humorously destroyed by a meteor, an ice age, the Great Flood, world war, and alien invasion. All of this happens in order for the competition apparatus to complete its assigned, everyday task of watering a flower. [Purdue University photo: Mark Simons]
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