Armed with Science | Providing You Information on Military Science and Technology

DARPA’s Cheetah Bolts Past the Competition

Filed under Robots, Videos by jtozer on September 21, 2012 at 7:10 am {no comments}

DARPA‘s Cheetah robot — already the fastest legged robot in history — just broke its own land speed record of 18 miles per hour (mph)!

In the process, Cheetah also surpassed another very fast mover: Usain Bolt. According to the International Association of Athletics Federations, Bolt set the world speed record for a human in 2009 when he reached a peak speed of 27.78 mph for a 20-meter split during the 100-meter sprint.

Cheetah was recently clocked at 28.3 mph for a 20-meter split. The Cheetah had a slight advantage over Bolt as it ran on a treadmill, the equivalent of a 28.3 mph tail wind, but most of the power Cheetah used was to swing its legs fast enough, not to propel itself forward.

Video provided by DARPATV

Cheetah is being developed and tested under DARPA’s Maximum Mobility and Manipulation (M3) program by Boston Dynamics. The increase in speed since results were last reported in March 2012 is due to improved control algorithms and a more powerful pump.

DARPA’s intent with the Cheetah bot and its other robotics programs is to attempt to understand and engineer into robots certain core capabilities that living organisms have refined over millennia of evolution: efficient locomotion, manipulation of objects and adaptability to environments.

By drawing inspiration from nature, DARPA gains technological building blocks that create possibilities for a whole range of robots suited to future Department of Defense missions.

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Pack Horse ROBOT For Troops

Filed under Robots, STEM, Videos by jtozer on September 20, 2012 at 7:08 am {no comments}

Nothing lightens the load quite like a robot pack horse in the field, eh?

It has four legs, eyes, and a body built to carry. And with the ability to go wherever men can. The Marine Corps Warfighting Lab in partnership with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and Boston Dynamics tested an autonomous robot on Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall.

Check this out:

The Legged Squad Support System, or LS3, demonstration was a performance test of the pack mule prototype for the Commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. James Amos and DARPA Director Arati Prabhakar.

Video provided by MarinesTV

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Biological Energy

Filed under Energy by jtozer on September 19, 2012 at 7:24 am {no comments}

Energy efficiency is the hottest trend these days.

Everyone wants to talk about it. Do stuff about it. Make changes to it. Come up with alternatives to the sources we have. Panic over the possibility that we might run out of it or not have enough of it. Simply put, energy and the things we use to get it are loud, screaming issues for our society.

So it goes without saying (not really) that an alternative energy source of any sort might be of use to humanity. Especially one that uses something we have a lot of, like say waste water or carbon dioxide. Wouldn’t it be cool if we had a device that could take the muck we don’t want and convert it into energy that we need? And wouldn’t it also be awesome if that device could potentially work forever without needing to be recharged?

I know you might be thinking, “But Jessica, you sly fox you, that’s just crazy science fiction talk that is”. And while yes, I am a sly fox, this particular type of science is in no way fiction. Not anymore.

Dr. Lenny Tender at the LASR facility, located at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Ian Graham)

Meet Dr. Lenny Tender.

Dr. Tender is a research chemist – and the branch head – at the center for bimolecular science and engineering at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington D.C. where he has spent over a decade perfecting a science that uses benthic microbial fuel cells. That’s a device that uses a method of extracting energy from the biological elements of sediment under water.

A device that uses the squishy sand at the beach to power stuff? How does THAT work?

“Benthic microbial fuel cell is a device that extracts electricity from the sea floor,” Dr. Tender explains. “That’s what benthic means; it’s the interface between the sediment on the bottom of a marine environment and the overlying water. This technology being developed to persistently operate oceanographic sensors. It’s able to generate electricity just like a windmill.”

Which means that the benthic microbial fuel cell is just that; an energy harvester. Whoa.

But wait, this doesn’t mean we ought to take all of our alkaline batteries and just toss ‘em out. Obviously there’s a process.

“At that at the bottom of the marine environment we have a sediment,” explains Dr. Tender, “and in the mud at the bottom of a harbor, river, lake or the ocean. This sediment actually has quite a bit of fuel in it.”

Think of anything that has ever lived in the marine environment; phytoplankton, sea creatures, etc. When they die they wind up settling down on the sea floor, just like leaves on the lawn. So those creatures, as they start decomposing, represent a pretty potent fuel source. Glucose for example. That is the geological precursor for petroleum.

It’s also the sort of stuff that’s sitting there mixed into the sediment on the sea floor.

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From R2-D2 to Curiosity: Good Fiction to Great Science

Filed under Space, STEM by jtozer on September 18, 2012 at 7:27 am {no comments}

Image above: Model explorers – Radio-controlled Astromech droids parade through the Orange County Convention center during Star Wars Celebration VI in Orlando, Fla. (Photo credit: NASA/Gianni Woods)

NASA’s Curiosity rover is scouring the Martian surface at Gale Crater with drills, cameras and even a laser so it can find out more about the Red Planet. Curiosity carries no people, instead taking all of its readings by remote control and radioing them back to eager scientists on Earth.

It’s a biography familiar to “Star Wars” fans, thousands of who gathered in Orlando, Fla., for Celebration VI. For lovers of the galaxy far, far away, the idea of a robotic traveler working diligently far from home is reminiscent of R2-D2′s various journeys to Tatooine, Dagobah and Bespin or the Imperial Probe Droid’s search around the ice planet Hoth.

“From what I’ve seen, people being able to command to steer a robot on Mars from so far away is truly amazing,” said Ben Burtt, the sound designer on the “Star Wars” films who gave R2-D2 a voice mix of electronic sounds with human inflections.

He was also trained as a scientist, having majored in physics.

“I never could have imagined that being the case back 40 years ago when we started on the first Star Wars. At that time, even the R2 on the set could barely move down the hallway.”

While Curiosity represents the technological cutting edge for robots landing on other planets, it still lacks the personality and other high-level attributes of the fictional “Star Wars” machines. No worry, say fans of the film franchise. Reality will catch up soon enough.

“I think good science fiction motivates good science,” said Brian Pauley, an Ohio fan who dressed as young hero Luke Skywalker for the event. “When you see something, you say, ‘I’d like to do that’ and you set about doing it and then you accomplish it.”

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Battlefield M.R.I.s

Filed under Technology, Videos by jtozer on September 17, 2012 at 7:31 am {no comments}

Magnetic Resonance Imaging machines stateside allow medical staff to get a better look at tissue in the human body, including the brain. The M.R.I. trailer in Kandahar, Afghanistan allows battlefield doctors to traumatic brain injury and its effects on service members on the front lines.

Video provided by American Forces Network Afghanistan

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Navy Ditching Steam Pipes For More Preferable Methods

Filed under Energy by jtozer on September 16, 2012 at 7:55 am {no comments}

The steam pipes that provided hot water to Naval Station Rota are becoming a thing of the past, just like the technology that made them necessary in the first place. Removing the piping will make the base energy efficient, environmentally friendly and reduce risk throughout the community.

Video provided by DMA Navy YouTube channel

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Math And Science Summer Fun

Filed under Education & Culture by jtozer on September 15, 2012 at 7:28 am {no comments}

Mason Payeur, 12, works on a robot during the Robotics Summer Day Camp at Wiesbaden High School, Germany. (Photo by Wendy Brown, USAG Wiesbaden)

Alex Taylor went back to school this week geared up to appreciate her math and science classes even more than before, all thanks to a Robotics Summer Day Camp held Aug. 13-17, at Wiesbaden High School.

“I like to learn new things and robotics seemed like a really good program,” Taylor said on the last day of the camp. “I have a better understanding of science as it is right now and I’d say that’s great.”

Taylor was one of 31 students to participate in the camp, which taught participants how to build a robot and program it, said Frank Pendzich, instructor of engineering technology at Wiesbaden High School and the camp’s organizer.

He is also adviser to the school’s RoboWarriors team, which competes in the FIRST Robotics Competition each year.

Campers, who were in grades 7-9, also learned the beginning steps of the engineering design process, Pendzich said.

This was the camp’s second year, Pendzich said, and members of the RoboWarriors team acted as camp counselors. In addition, members of the Air Force 485th Intelligence Squadron volunteered, as well as parents.

Taylor, 13, said she was glad to learn not only how to build a robot, but how to program it as well.

Max Johnson, 12, said he enjoyed the camp because he got to build a robot and compete against other campers with it. “I’m interested in robots and computers,” he said, and he plans to learn more about robots in the future.

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Historical Database of U.S. Bombings

Filed under Technology, Videos by jtozer on September 14, 2012 at 9:42 am {no comments}

Theater History of Operations Reports (THOR) is the brainchild of Lt. Col. Jenns Robertson. The database provides a bigger picture of aerial bombing campaigns, demonstrating how useful air power can be, especially when combined with ground forces.

Still being developed and updated, THOR combines data from paper mission reports from World War I and digital databases from recent conflicts to create a central pool of bomb history.