Engineering news
Drone deliveries could take off post-pandemic
Professional Engineering
Drones were perfectly suited for small-scale projects flying medical supplies to remote hospitals during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic. Now, as governments and companies look to the future, they could play a much bigger role, thanks to a shift away from unnecessary human contact and big improvements to materials and battery technology.
Vertical Aerospace reveals tilt-rotor flying taxi design
New Atlas
Bristol firm Vertical Aerospace has unveiled a new flying taxi design, featuring tilt-rotor wings for vertical take-off and efficient winged flight. The five seat VA-1X aircraft has eight rotors and could hit 241km/h, with a lithium-ion battery pack providing a range of 161km.
Black wind turbine blade can prevent bird deaths
BBC
Painting one wind turbine blade black could prevent up to 70% of bird strikes, according to researchers at the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research. Bird deaths are a major concern for onshore wind farms, which could become more common in the UK after the government recently ended opposition to new developments.
’Pop-up’ robot offers precise control for surgical procedures
Professional Engineering
A miniature folding robot offers improved precision and control for remote-operated surgical procedures, its creators have claimed. Taking up much less space than current bulky robots in operation rooms, the ‘mini-RCM’ was developed by a member of Harvard University’s Wyss Institute and a Sony robotics engineer. The origami-inspired miniature Remote Centre of Motion manipulator is the size of a tennis ball, weighs about as much as a penny and has successfully performed a difficult mock surgical task.
An internal combustion engine without emissions
E&T
Researchers at the Polytechnic University of Valencia have designed an internal combustion engine that reportedly emits no carbon dioxide or other harmful gases. The engine, prototypes of which will be built in the coming months, uses ceramic membranes to remove damaging nitrogen oxides and capture carbon dioxide.
Catalyst breakthrough could make hydrogen cars commonplace
Professional Engineering
A new catalyst that uses much less platinum than ones typically found in hydrogen cars could make the vehicles much cheaper and more sustainable, potentially enabling a massive increase in their use worldwide. Hydrogen cars’ reliance on large amounts of platinum – about 50g, compared to roughly 5g in a typical vehicle – is one of the reasons they are still so rare, according to the team at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. “We have developed a catalyst which, in the laboratory, only needs a fraction of the amount of platinum that current hydrogen fuel cells for cars do,” said Professor Matthias Arenz.
Waste-to-hydrogen plant completes design phase
The Engineer
The Front-End Engineering Design phase for a new waste-plastic-to-hydrogen facility has been completed. The plant, which would be the UK’s first, is planned for the Protos park near Ellesmere Port in Cheshire.
Ventilators could be adapted for two people
Professional Engineering
Ventilators could be adapted with variable resistances and one-way valves to care for two people during an emergency shortage, researchers have said. While the researchers from King’s College and Imperial College London said the method should only ever be considered “in the most extreme circumstances”, they said their work had mitigated some of the risks.
Researchers print ultra-thin solar cells
The Engineer
Researchers at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia have used inkjet printing to create ultra-thin and flexible solar cells. Light enough to rest on a soap bubble, the printed cells could be developed to provide power for wearable electronics.
Locusts inspire low-power collision detector
Professional Engineering
Plagues containing millions of locusts fly across the sky to attack crops, but individuals in the massive swarms do not collide with each other. A team of engineers has mimicked the locust avoidance response to create a low-power collision detector that could help robots, drones and even self-driving cars. The researchers developed a compact, nanoscale collision detector using a photodetector made of monolayer molybdenum sulphide. They placed the photo detector on top of a programmable ‘floating gate’ memory architecture, which can mimic the locust's neuron response using only a tiny amount of energy.
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Content published by Professional Engineering does not necessarily represent the views of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.