That short trial run along a lake in the Dutch town of Wageningen marked the first time such a self-driving vehicle had appeared on public roads in the Netherlands. The WePod autonomous vehicle is an electric, driverless shuttle bus that could hit top speeds of 40 kilometers per hour when fully operational. But it maintained a speed of just 8 km/h during the first sho...
In a feature article in the February 2016 issue of Wired, the journalist Alex Davies proclaims that Chevy, with its Bolt crossover, has stolen a march on the Bay Area start-up in the race to produce the first mass-marketed all-battery electric vehicle (BEV). (See my article, “A Tesla in Every Garage? Not So Fast,” on the challenges of producing all-electric supercars for...
The tests are a milestone in the company's efforts to develop self-driving vehicles, which include plans to develop an autonomous bus in the next three years and mass-produce them within five years, according to a Reuters report. Baidu joins Google and Apple, among other technology companies, in the race to develop sensing, positioning, infotainment and other software...
“We are studying airplane improvements that will extend today’s 777 efficiencies and reliability for the next two decades or longer, and the engines are a significant part of that effort,” said Bob Feldmann, vice president and general manager for the 777X development project at Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The Boeing 777 is the world’s most successful twin-engine, lon...
Four types of autonomous vehicles under trial - including a shuttle that looks like a larger golf cart and a compact two-seater "pod" car - were unveiled in London. Officials and journalists tried out the shuttle at the event, taking short rides around a public square. The project was "still in the early days," Transport Minister Claire Perry said, but she added the n...
The future belongs to electric motors, and commercial vehicles are no exception. To date, however, many attempts to develop electric motors for commercial vehicles have stalled at the prototype stage or are extremely expensive: Usually electric models cost between two and three times as much as their conventional equivalents. The reason for this is the lack of suitable t...
This technological step-up will give the flying billboards more speed and passenger-carrying capability than the company had with blimps. But the tire company is also going to continue referring to the airships as Goodyear blimps, even though they aren't. The new aircraft have a rigid structure inside the outer envelope. This lets the three engines be mounted high up on ...
The comments section of many articles centered on this topic are filled with phrases such as ‘precursor to robot tanks,’ ‘a danger to our roadways,’ and other phrases slamming artificial intelligence. Despite some extremist language, many of these concerns are warranted. Any flaw in the programming of autonomous vehicles could be fatal, so it is understandable why the...
The cruiser, made from turned and milled components, brought home three titles. The custom parts were machined in-house on modern five-axis machining centers with TNC controls from Heidenhein. Using Heidenhain controls, Thunderbike created a unique motorbike with an extremely low seat position and sweeping Art Déco-style curves. Thunderbike uses original Harley Dav...
In 1993, NHIndustries, mainly owned by the Eurocopter group (now Airbus Helicopters), started to design the NH90, a medium-sized military helicopter. Thirteen years later, it entered service. The pace of technological change has increased so rapidly and the competition has become so fierce that helicopter manufacturers usually have no more than four years to develop t...
Adding intelligence to the tools and shopfloor systems will help to simplify the production process and provide better improve efficiency for the production process by managing and checking the tasks the operator is completing. Using the NI System on Module, we will be able to quickly prototype these smart tools using NI’s approach to system design. Today’s aerospace ...
Jet engines come in an array of sizes and speeds, and as with many engineering projects, there is a balance between power and efficiency. Fighter jets use low-bypass turbofans to achieve fast bursts of speed, while commercial airliners use slower, more efficient high-bypass turbofans. GE Aviation engineers have taken this task to heart as they attempt to marry the best o...
orget military UAVs. For my money, there’s nothing cooler than sweet DIY projects like a chocolate drone or a custom-built quadcopter that looks like a TIE Interceptor from Star Wars. Read: This drone is made from chocolate The intrepid creator — who goes by the social media handle “Olivier C” (and deserves a Nobel Prize for his efforts) — designed a custom chassis...
Barcelona, Spain – You think you know what a connected car is and then you actually experience one and it’s something else altogether. That was my experience at Mobile World Congress after taking the driver’s seat in a concept vehicle based on an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) platform that supports VoLTE and Rich Communications Services (RCS). Summit Tech brought the...
Four different components are used to manufacture the part: steel, glass fiber-reinforced plastic (GFP), a nonwoven carbon fiber mat and thermoplastic tape containing continuous carbon fiber. The nonwoven carbon fiber mat is first thermoformed and provides the basic shape of the seatback. Carbon fiber-containing tapes are then used to increase the strength in specific...
The technique, which has been proven for the first time by researchers at the university, has been published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications. The research proposes a new kind of engine for producing energy based on the Leidenfrost effect – a phenomenon which happens when a liquid comes into near contact with a surface much hotter than its boiling poi...
Unsubstantiated or not, many thought durability and repair cost concerns over the truck’s new aluminum body would cause insurers to up their monthly premiums. But as customers have taken delivery of their new F-150s they haven’t seen much of an increase at all. In fact, some have even reported seeing their premiums drop. So, are insurance companies more confident in the...
The company said Friday that a recent decision to push back the jet's maiden flight from this spring to a few months later would not delay its commercial deliveries. Workers were conducting hydraulic and other tests on two of the test jets in a cavernous assembly facility; another jet had been sent out for painting. Nobuo Kishi, a vice president of Mitsubishi Aircraft...
The company will be will be receiving an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, fixed-price contract for Domestic Charter Airlift Services. The combined face for the contracts is around $61.2 million. The project will be worked on through the country and should be finished by Sept. 30. According to the DoD, the “type of appropriation is fiscal year 2015 Transportation ...
Indeed, the Russian leader's foreign policy antics in Ukraine, combined with some of his anti-United State rhetoric, has strained Russian-US relations, raising the spectre of the Cold War political struggles — even if only symbolically for now. What's this have to do with space launches? For many years the United States has relied on Russia to supply its RD-180 rocket t...
The chain of events is simple: SpaceShipTwo was released from its carrier craft and the rocket was fired. As SpaceShipTwo approached Mach 1.0, the copilot, Michael Alsbury, prematurey switched the feathering system from the locked to the unlocked position. Two seconds after that, the craft broke apart when, it appears, aerodynamic forces began to accuate the unlocked fea...
The SPS IPC Drives on November 25 in Nuremberg marked the launch of the Europe-wide Integrated Drive Systems Roadshow. The tour plan takes in over a dozen European countries and is scheduled to run on into 2016. Under the banner of “Extra Value Integrated”, the IDS truck will be touring with application-specific exhibits and live demos over an area of 65 square meters to...
As more renewable resources keep getting added to power grids, peak demand patterns have been shifting -- and many utilities are racing to adapt their operations. Electric vehicles offer ample opportunities to help utilities enhance reliability, implement demand response, and even develop new revenue streams. The 2014 industry review by the American Council on Renewab...
The idea of drones transporting medication to remote villages or supplying food to regions cut off by environmental catastrophes is quite impressive. Now US-based Matternet plans to make what seemed like pure science fiction just a few years ago into a reality. The Industry Journal reports on exactly how they will do this. Online retailer Amazon recently made headline...
More than 30,000 visitors, 130,000 kilometers and 290 stops: Siemens is saying goodbye to its Energy Efficiency Roadshow. On its way through Brazil, China and Europe, people were informed on how to optimize industrial processes and to improve competitiveness in a sustainable way. As a result, partnerships were formed and contracts entered. Some of these will be introduce...
Aircraft electric power characteristics are critical in present-day designs. Design engineers of system blocks, ranging from central processing units to control surface actuators/motors, are increasingly concerned with voltage holdup and quality during transition times between external power aircraft electric system, emergency back-up power, or transient-induced voltage ...
As of March 2015, the model program of the latest generation of the original in the premium segment of small cars will be expanded to include the MINI One First 5 door. As with the new MINI 3 door, the five-door body variant will offer a range of seven engine types to choose from. Like all representatives of the latest model generation, the MINI One First 5 door is po...
Being one of the most customer-centric industries, automotive manufacturers are strained to constantly evolve their product design and manufacturing processes to meet the ever-growing customer demands, without neglecting the environmental requirements. A recent research from McKinsey on the future of global automotive industry suggests, that the global automotive indu...
Growing demand from consumers for these lightweight vehicles has been reported in Europe, the US and the booming BRIC economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China as well. As a result, car manufacturers worldwide are developing their own urban car models to tap into this burgeoning market. An urban – or city – car is a small, lightweight passenger vehicle intended for...
The unmanned Atlas rocket — and NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale spacecraft — soared into a clear late-night sky, right on time. Within two hours, all four observatories were flying free. "Just picture-perfect," launch manager Omar Baez said early today. "Everybody's cheering... Can't ask for any more." The quartet of observatories is being placed into an oblong or...
Supported by Singapore Economic Development Board, the new NTU-NXP Smart Mobility Test Bed will test and develop new technologies for vehicles to communicate with each other and with designated roadside infrastructures. Known as V2X (Vehicle-to-Everything) technology, this will push new frontiers in mobility. The agreement was signed today by NTU Chief of Staff and Vi...
When their whereabouts are narrowed, the dogs are sent in. When it comes to protecting the world's supply of guacamole, no weapon can be spared. On subtropical farmland in South Florida, researchers are doing battle with the deadly fungus, laurel wilt, which is spread by a tiny beetle and has the potential to decimate Florida's avocado crop. The hashtag they have adop...
The company reported that the process uses press forming and was based on three intermediate material forms: Unidirectional carbon fiber, isotropic carbon fiber and long fiber thermoplastic pellet. Then, in December 2011, Teijin announced that it and General Motors (GM) had created a joint venture to work on this high-speed molding process together. Soon after, in early...
There were three companies, and their craft, vying for the funds: SpaceX (Crew Dragon), Boeing (CST-100) and Sierra Nevada (Dream Chaser). Only two of three would be picked to receive funding and speculation suggested that SpaceX would be a winner, with Sierra Nevada likely to take the second spot. On Sept. 16, however, we got the news that the odd man out was Sierra Nev...
The space exploration industry, as many CW readers know, is in the early stages of substantial reorganization as NASA backs away from some of its traditional technology development work and toward integration of private companies that are or will provide everything from space vehicle launch systems to freight and human delivery craft. In this early formative era, many c...
With more than 2,600 orders from 50 customers received since its 2010 launch, this “new engine option” A320 — note the A320 Family includes the A318, A319, A320 and A321 models — has captured roughly 60 per cent of the single-aisle commercial airliner market. Final assembly of A320neo #1 began last month with the joining of its forward and aft fuselage sections, which...
