(Press-News.org) Mechanical engineers at the University of California, San Diego invented a robot designed to scoot along utility lines, searching for damage and other problems that require repairs. Made of off-the-shelf electronics and plastic parts printed on an inexpensive 3D printer, the SkySweeper prototype could be scaled up for less than $1,000, making it significantly more economical than the two models of robots currently used to inspect power lines.
"Current line inspection robots are large, complex, and expensive. Utility companies may also use manned or unmanned helicopters equipped with infrared imaging to inspect lines," said Nick Morozovsky, a graduate student in mechanical engineering at UC San Diego, who designed the robot. "This is much simpler."
Morozovsky, who works in the lab of Professor Thomas Bewley at the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego, will introduce the robot at the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, also known as IROS 2013, from Nov. 3 to 8 in Tokyo. He will also present a paper, titled "A Low Degrees of Freedom, Dynamic High Wire Robot," at the conference.
SkySweeper is V-shaped with a motor-driven "elbow" in the middle and its ends are equipped with clamps that open and close as necessary to move it down the line, inch by inch. Morozovsky is strengthening the clamps so they can release from the rope and swing down the line, one end to the other, thereby swinging past cable support points.
You can watch the robot in action here: http://bit.ly/16vpFnO
SkySweeper could be outfitted with induction coils that would harvest energy from the power line itself, making it possible for the robot to stay deployed for weeks or months at a time. It could also be equipped with a mounted camera, which would transmit images to an inspection crew.
INFORMATION:
Before it heads out to Japan, SkySweeper is competing in the Road to Maker Faire Challenge, a contest where winners can bring home $2,500 to take their project to the World Maker Faire Sept. 21 and 22 in New York. You can vote for SkySweeper from Aug. 6 to 13 here: http://review.wizehive.com/voting/view/makermedia2013/15849/1387186/0
Learn more about the contest here: http://makezine.com/road-to-maker-faire-challenge/
SkySweeper robot makes inspecting power lines easy and inexpensive
2013-08-07
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Battery design gets boost from aligned carbon nanotubes
2013-08-07
Researchers at North Carolina State University have created a new flexible nano-scaffold for rechargeable lithium ion batteries that could help make cell phone and electric car batteries last longer.
The research, published in Advanced Materials, shows the potential of manufactured sheets of aligned carbon nanotubes coated with silicon, a material with a much higher energy storage capacity than the graphite composites typically used in lithium ion batteries.
"Putting silicon into batteries can produce a huge increase in capacity—10 times greater," said Dr. Philip ...
Ohio State researchers restore immune function in spinal injured mice
2013-08-07
COLUMBUS, Ohio – In a new study, researchers at The Center for Brain and Spinal Cord Repair at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center show that is possible to restore immune function in spinal injured mice.
People with spinal cord injury often are immune compromised, which makes them more susceptible to infections. Why these people become immune-suppressed is not known, but the Ohio State study found that a disorder called autonomic dysreflexia can cause immune suppression.
Autonomic dysreflexia is a potentially dangerous complication of high-level spinal ...
Explosion illuminates invisible galaxy in the dark ages
2013-08-07
More than 12 billion years ago a star exploded, ripping itself apart and blasting its remains outward in twin jets at nearly the speed of light. At its death it glowed so brightly that it outshone its entire galaxy by a million times. This brilliant flash traveled across space for 12.7 billion years to a planet that hadn't even existed at the time of the explosion - our Earth. By analyzing this light, astronomers learned about a galaxy that was otherwise too small, faint and far away for even the Hubble Space Telescope to see.
"This star lived at a very interesting time, ...
More opioid dependence treatment needed
2013-08-07
A new report from Simon Fraser University researcher Bohdan Nosyk calls for the expansion of heroin and opioid medical treatment to stem the increase of overdose deaths.
"Prescription opioid abuse and overdose is on the rise throughout North America," says the SFU Health Sciences associate professor and lead author of the study that was published in Health Affairs. "Opioid overdose is now the second-leading cause of accidental death in the U.S., behind only motor-vehicle accidents.
"People from all walks of life, including youths, are accessing these drugs and the ...
EARTH: Hurricane hunters fly toward improved storm forecasts
2013-08-07
Alexandria, VA - Each year, as hurricanes hit U.S. coastlines, scientists study them to improve forecasts critical for saving lives and property. Last year, unmanned aircraft from NASA flew into the biggest storms as part of a project to improve hurricane forecasts by 50 percent over the next 10 years.
As EARTH Magazine reports in the August issue, three projects in particular — the Hurricane Forecast Improvement Program, NASA's 2010 Genesis and Rapid Intensification Project Field Experiment and its replacement, the Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel Project — may be ...
Freezing sperm taken directly from testicles is effective option for infertile couples
2013-08-07
Frozen sperm taken by biopsy from testicles in men with no sperm in their semen is as effective as fresh sperm taken by biopsy in helping couples conceive through in vitro fertilization (IVF), according to a study at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
The researchers also determined that the type of facility where sperm is taken and its distance from the IVF laboratory has no bearing on pregnancy outcomes.
The findings, published online in PLOS ONE, may benefit men with no sperm in their semen due to genetics, cancer diagnoses or testicular failure. ...
Minimally invasive stents show some advantage over bypass in opening blocked leg arteries
2013-08-07
New Johns Hopkins research suggests that people who undergo minimally invasive placement of stents to open clogged leg arteries are significantly less likely than those who have conventional bypass surgery to need a second treatment for the condition within two years.
For now, bypass surgery remains the gold standard for treating symptoms of peripheral artery disease (PAD), but the Johns Hopkins researchers are hopeful that further study will confirm the advantage their study shows for the stents.
The researchers, reporting online in the Journal of Vascular Surgery, ...
Size matters in nanocrystals' ability to adsorb/release gases
2013-08-07
More efficient catalytic converters on autos, improved batteries and more sensitive gas sensors are some of the potential benefits of a new system that can directly measure the manner in which nanocrystals adsorb and release hydrogen and other gases.
The technique, which was developed by Vanderbilt University Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Rizia Bardhan, is described in a paper published online Aug. 4 by the journal Nature Materials.
In the last 30 years, there has been a tremendous amount of research studying nanocrystals – tiny crystals ...
One tree's architecture reveals secrets of a forest, study finds
2013-08-07
Researchers in the University of Arizona's department of ecology and evolutionary biology have found that despite differences in appearance, trees across species share remarkably similar architecture and can tell scientists a lot about an entire forest.
Just by looking at a tree's branching pattern, it turns out, scientists can gather clues about how it functions – for example how much carbon dioxide it exchanges with the atmosphere or how much water transpires through its leaves – regardless of the tree's shape or species.
The researchers' results, published in the ...
The sun's magnetic field is about to flip
2013-08-07
Something big is about to happen on the sun. According to measurements from NASA-supported observatories, the sun's vast magnetic field is about to flip.
"It looks like we're no more than three to four months away from a complete field reversal," said solar physicist Todd Hoeksema of Stanford University. "This change will have ripple effects throughout the solar system."
The sun's magnetic field changes polarity approximately every 11 years. It happens at the peak of each solar cycle as the sun's inner magnetic dynamo re-organizes itself. The coming reversal will ...