Walyou

Posted: 26 Sep 2014 01:55 PM PDT

Earlier last year, researchers from FORTH (Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas) played with the idea of a robotic octopus that could do more than just swim. The crawling robot octopus has just received an update, and the new version is much faster than its predecessor.

The Multi-arm Robotic Swimming With Octopus-Inspired Compliant Web was showcased last week by FORTH’s Michael Sfakiotakis, Asimina Kazakidi, Avgousta Chatzidaki, Theodoros Evdaimon, and Dimitris P. Tsakiris at the IEEE IROS (International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems) 2014 in Chicago. While not the first robot inspired from the animal world, nor the first to draw inspiration from aquatic life, this cold-metal octopus is a great example of what sort of things might populate our seas and oceans if we keep throwing garbage and spilling oil in them.

The new version sports a feature that biological octopi base their propulsion upon. The researchers concluded that adding a web between the tentacles could boost not only the speed, but also the efficiency of the robotic octopus. The newly added soft and squishy silicone web was so effective that it almost doubled the speed of the robot.

More precisely, the robot octopus went from 100mm a second when using just its flexible arms to 180mm a second with the silicone web. The web also improved the efficiency of the robot, which means that it now requires less energy than before to travel the same distance. More precisely, the CoT (cost of transport) went from 0.85 to 0.62.

Scientists are hard to satisfy, and FORTH’s researchers are firm proof of that. The silicone web and the speed boost were obviously not enough for them, so they proceeded to adapting the roboctopus to various environments and conditions. More precisely, it can now crawl and carry objects (well, not heavy ones, obviously), and the researchers were even kind enough to let it swim in the Aegean Sea, under supervision.

In the above video you can even see the robotic octopus as it is being followed by fish while swimming in the sea. This suggests that the robot could be equipped with cameras to record the aquatic life without disturbing it. That’s pretty neat, but I hope there will be some ocean life left to observe in the future, if we don’t destroy it altogether.

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BMW Makes Car Chargers Part of the Smart Home

Posted: 26 Sep 2014 01:18 PM PDT

The German automaker has just unveiled a smart car charger that’s able to switch between different power sources, and can prioritize these sources depending on several factors.

When BMW launched the i8 electric vehicle, it presented it along with a solar-powered carport that could provide electricity not only for the car, but also for a nearby home. All in all, the solar carport sounded like a great idea (though not as good as Volvo’s Pure Tension Pavilion), the sole problem being that after spending a small fortune on an EV such as the i8, many might be left without any money for the fancy charging station like that. With that in mind, BMW proceeded to offering a more affordable alternative, and recently it even gave its electric car charger a facelift.

The new BMW smart electric car charger comes with boosted performance and gets along quite nicely with smart homes. Known as i Wallbox Pro, this charger will probably be sold in parallel with the i Wallbox Pure, just for the sake of diversity. Its power has been increased to 7.4 KW, and it also sports a 7″ touchscreen display because everything is better when you get visual feedback to whatever actions you’re taking.

On the display you can see the charging status, data on the previous charges, as well as the load on the home power supply. BMW assumes that once a member of a family buys one of their cars, the others should and must follow the trend. On one hand, it would be a bit stupid to have three different chargers for EVs, especially since the i Wallbox Pro offers support for three different cars or users. The charger even has motion sensors that turn it on automatically when people are sensed near it.

What makes the i Wallbox Pro truly intelligent is its ability to switch between the grid and electricity produced by an array of solar panels. It can be furthermore integrated with smart home systems such as myGEKKO, and will charge the car when low-rate tariffs are activated.

BMW seems to be on fire in terms of assuring some diversity for its i3 and i8 customers. Out of the three chargers available on the market now, it’s virtually impossible not to find one that matches your taste and needs, assuming that BMW’s EVs match your wallet.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about the solar-powered V-Tent that charges and protects electric vehicles, and South Korea’s road-powered electric vehicles.