California’s giant battery test is a step towards clean energy

One of the biggest challenges of switching to clean energy sources is finding a place to store excess power. That’s relatively easy on a small scale, but it’s much more daunting for your utility company. Southern California Edison is apparently ready to take on that challenge, however. It just launched the Tehachapi Energy Storage Project, a large-scale experiment in using lithium-ion batteries (608,832 of them, to be exact) to preserve unused electricity. For the next two years, the 32 megawatt-hours array will scoop up leftover energy from nearby sources, including a wind turbine area; SCE will be watching closely to see how the lithium-ion packs improve its grid’s real world performance.

It could be a while before you see this sort of battery station elsewhere on SCE’s network, no matter how successful the test may be. The batteries are only supporting a substation in a small town. It would take a considerably larger effort to support a major city, and even China’s record-setting storage system tops out at 36 megawatt-hours. However, it’s still an important step toward bringing eco-friendly energy to many more people — eventually, you might not have to be picky about where you live (or use your own generators) in order to get all your power from renewable resources.

Filed under: Misc

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Source: Edison International

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Murata’s newest robots move around on balls and do it in J-Pop unison

It’s probably the most Japanese thing I’ve seen in my first year of covering the country for Engadget: Robo-cheerleaders, barreling around in sync like some sort of Japanese girl ‘idol’ group. In total, there’s ten Cheerleader bots (with two standby units), with light-up cheeks, pom-pom arms that look like PlayStation peripherals and glowing eyes — They glow, they lift their arms, they form ensemble shapes and are arguably the most adorable Weeble-esque robots you’ve ever laid eyes on. Following the bicycling Murata Boy and the unicycling Murata Girl, here’s the Murata Cheerleader and her nine sisters. They’re about to dance in formation, all while balancing on a ball. Not only because they simply can, but also because this is how their parent company showcases its (often mind-numbing, let’s admit it) sensors and components to both businesses and Joe Public alike.

https://vine.co/v/O7YJiEgxlVq/embed/postcard

Murata might not come to mind as the foremost robot maker – that’s because it isn’t. However, the component and sensor maker has a long history of unveiling tiny robotic mascots that showcase its sensors and technology that can (and does) make its way into everyday devices like smartphones. As Murata’s Section Manager Koichi Yoshikawa puts it, while the Murata Boy series of robots might seem a little frivolous, it’s about communicating something fun and the potential of high-functioning sensors, some of which could make their way into self-driving cars.

Understandably, ensuring a robot can keep its balance on a ball (with a special non-slip coating), takes a bit of work. There’s a trio of gyroscopic sensors that monitor pitch yaw and row in three dimensions and detect tilt angles, while a trio of wheels spin onto the ball, rotating it all in the necessary directions and speed to either keep Cheerleader atop the ball, or move it where needed. (Similar gyro-sensors are used in electronic stability control (ESC) systems to prevent cars from skidding.) The nature of using the sphere as the wheel of sorts, is that the robot can both in all directions, while facing any direction — ideal for avoiding other robot cheerleaders.

This is all well and good, until you throw in another nine ball-balancing robots. To ensure they keep upright, it’s apparently a software issue, pairing multiple sensors within each robot with two towers that project a combination of ultrasonic and infrared signals. As we all know, light and sound travel at different speeds, thus when the robot gets detected (there’s five mics and four sensors underneath the Cheerleaders’ microphone sponge wig), the difference in signal timing gives distance. With the two posts, this also gives the location on a 2D plane. From there, the team can plan the (obviously important) choreography. If a single robot stumbles, not only does the software recalibrate to keep it on track, it also tells other robots to steer clear.

The robots use an intentionally low-frequency signal to ensure that it’s picked up easier. According to the company, this would make them idea for working inside less-than ideal signal conditions, like deep within buildings and even inside structures, like tunnels and bridges that would require maintenance.

Single search robots, once they’ve found someone in need of rescue, could coalesce together to make a bigger bot capable of assisting — which was the second-most Japanese thing I heard that day.

Yoshikawa-san elaborates that the some of the base research for these robots wasn’t to create synchronized robot Cheerleaders (I’m still shocked), but as part of a study project with Kyoto University into using robots to effectively complete high-speed search and rescue sweeps as a unit. Further still, there’s also the notion that single search robots, once they’ve found someone in need of rescue, could coalesce together to make a bigger bot capable of assistance — which was the second most-Japanese thing I heard that day.

Filed under: Robots

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Source: Murata

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Robotic fabric acts like a muscle, makes foam blocks wriggle

When we think about robotics, we don’t typically think about a lump of inert foam — but with the right clothing, it counts. Researchers at Purdue University are developing a robotic fabric that can be used to make so-called “soft” robots out of foam and other lightweight materials. The team has embedded fabric with a flexible polymer that changes shape and rigidity when heated, allowing it to be contracted or relaxed at will. Wrap a specifically assigned swatch of this cloth around a piece of foam, and it can be coaxed into bending, wriggling or moving in specific ways. “We will be able to design reboots on the fly,” Purdue University’s Rebecca Kramer says. “Anything can be a robot because all of the robotic technology is in the fabric or skin.”

The material could conceivably be used in space missions, as an easy means to build exploration robots with cheap, lightweight material that can be transported easily. In fact, Purdue’s research is related to work Kramer did though a NASA Early Career Faculty award based on elastic skins for soft robotics. Even so, robots aren’t the only potential application: the fabric could also be used to build strength enhancing clothing and medical braces that offer extra support.

[Image credit: Purdue University / Rebecca Kramer]

Filed under: Robots, Wearables

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Via: PhysOrg

Source: Purdue University

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