Tag Archives: University of Nottingham
Rolls-Royce made miniature robot minions to perform jet-engine inspection
An innovation you’d completely expect from a Hollywood spy flick, Rolls-Royce has designed tiny robots called SWARM that get deployed within their jet engines to run reconnaissance and inspections.
A part of RR’s IntelligentEngine program, the SWARM get deployed into intricate parts of the engine, giving engineers real-time feedback on performance, wear-tear, etc. The visual data collected by these tiny robots would be used “alongside the millions of data points already generated by today’s engines as part of their Engine Health Monitoring systems.” They’ll work alongside snake-shaped INSPECT robots, providing inspection services, while remote boreblending robots will take on maintenance activities. Pretty nifty as long as they’re just used for producing world-class jet engines and not for world dominance!
Designers: Rolls-Royce, University of Nottingham and Harvard University.
AI is already beating us at our own game
Although modern AI systems still have trouble deciding whether or not to flip that stranded tortoise in their path, they're already outpacing the intellectual capabilities of their creators in a wide variety of fields. From beating grandmaster Go pla...
AI can predict heart attacks more accurately than doctors
Researchers find space travel prolongs the life of worms
We've seen research that suggests prolonged space travel could have some adverse effects on the human body, but it looks like there could be some real benefits as well. As BBC News reports, a new study conducted on Caenorhabditis elegans worms sent to the International Space Station has revealed evidence that the trip to space actually slowed their aging process. Specifically, researchers from the University of Nottingham and others institutions part of the ICE-First project found that the time in space reduced activity in a group of genes that have been shown to prolong the worms' lifespan when suppressed on earth. Of course, these are worms we're talking about, but this particular species is often used for such research due to its biological similarities to humans, so the discovery could well lead to more insight into how we age in space as well. Those curious can find the full paper linked below.
Filed under: Science
Researchers find space travel prolongs the life of worms originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Jul 2012 01:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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