The Innovation Report
How Drones are Replacing People in Sewer Surveys
Drones are going underground to survey the sewers in Scotland. The technology is being used to increase access and to avoid hazards to workers when surveying pipelines. Scottish Water hopes that developments in scanning can also help assess longer-term structural...
GM Partners with Silicon Valley on Battery Tech
General Motors Co. and Palo Alto-based OneD Battery Sciences have entered a joint research development agreement for the potential use of OneD’s silicon nanotechnology in GM’s battery cells to increase energy density for longer range at a lower cost. GM Ventures...
To Make Better Social Robots, Scientists are Looking to Dogs
Barring some exceptions, humans can’t seem to get social robots quite right. The boundary between endearing and uncanny is tricky terrain when it comes to robots that can engage with humans, answer questions, or lend a hand with chores and errands. We know that...
It’s Common to Charge EVs at Night — That will be a Problem
As electric vehicles hit the road around the country, hundreds of thousands of Americans are beginning to learn the ins and outs of car charging: how to install home chargers, where to find public charging stations, and how to avoid the dreaded “range anxiety.” But as...
Autonomous Vehicles Require Autonomous Roads
Whether it’s barrels blocking lanes or paint lines that aren’t visible, we’ve been building and managing roads for humans who can guess and anticipate intricate situations on the roads in ways machines never will. With the impending shift to self-driving vehicles...
Can Robotic Eyes on Self-Driving Cars Reduce Accidents?
Robotic eyes on autonomous vehicles could improve pedestrian safety, according to a new study at the University of Tokyo. Participants played out scenarios in virtual reality (VR) and had to decide whether to cross a road in front of a moving vehicle or not. When that...
Seoul Targets Half of New Vehicles as AVs by 2035
South Korea is targeting to commercialize a Level 4 autonomous vehicle in 2027 to release half of newly launched vehicles as Level 4 models in 2035, the transport ministry said Monday. This year, Korea aims to become the world's third country to commercialize a Level...
Australian Farmers Invest in Robots, AVs to Combat Worker Shortage
Robots are being used to commercially farm more than 405,000 hectares of Australian farmland, with growers seeing them as the answer to workforce shortages. The Bundaberg region, about 400 kilometres north of Brisbane, is known as the fruit bowl capital of...
Microscopic Robots Walk Autonomously Using Simple ‘Brains’
It's long been possible to make extremely small robots, but they usually need some form of direct external control just to operate. Cornell scientists may have solved that problem on a basic level, however. They've created microrobots (no more than 250...
Drone Swarm That 3D Prints Cement Structures Could Construct Buildings
Drones working together can create large 3D-printed structures made of foam or cement. The experiments are paving the way for a future where swarms of drones could help construct extremely tall or intricate buildings and other structures like bridges without the need...
