To successfully complete missions in dynamic and unstructured real-world environments, mobile robots should be able to adapt their actions in real-time to avoid collisions with nearby objects, people or animals.
TECHXPLORE
A new thermal regulator could enhance the safety of high-capacity lithium-ion batteries
High-capacity lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) could play a crucial role in the electrification of vehicles and other large electronics. To successfully deploy these batteries on a large scale, however, engineers will first need to ensure that they can safely operate at...
New polymer electrolyte membranes for fuel cells can operate at up to 250 °C
Hydrogen fuel cells, devices that can convert the chemical energy stored in hydrogen into electrical energy via an electrochemical reaction, are promising solutions for electrifying large vehicles. Fuel cells based on low-temperature (under 100 °C) proton exchange...
A perovskite for the efficient photocatalytic conversion of ethane into ethylene and hydrogen
Ethylene (C2H4) is a highly flammable compound widely used in numerous settings, including the manufacturing of packaging and plastic-based items, the chemical industry, agriculture and health care. Developing effective and sustainable methods to produce ethylene on a...
Rapidly declining costs of batteries and fuel cells could soon facilitate the electrification of heavy-duty vehicles
The electrification of road vehicles has already begun, with most automotive companies now investing in hybrid and electric cars. While these efforts could contribute to reducing carbon emissions worldwide, they have so far been primarily focused on cars, rather than...
Transitioning to renewable energy systems might not entail a decline in net energy
Energy researchers have been trying to understand the implications of a transition to fully renewable energy for decades. Some past studies suggested that technologies to generate energy from renewable energy sources, such as solar panels and wind turbines, might not...
A new large-scale simulation platform to train robots on everyday tasks
The performance of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, including large computational models for natural language processing (NLP) and computer vision algorithms, has been rapidly improving over the past decades. One reason for this is that datasets to train these...
People struggle to tell humans apart from ChatGPT in five-minute chat conversations, tests show
Large language models (LLMs), such as the GPT-4 model underpinning the widely used conversational platform ChatGPT, have surprised users with their ability to understand written prompts and generate suitable responses in various languages. Some of us may thus wonder:...
A simpler method to teach robots new skills
While roboticists have introduced increasingly sophisticated systems over the past decades, teaching these systems to successfully and reliably tackle new tasks has often proved challenging. Part of this training entails mapping high-dimensional data, such as images...
Exploring the potential of micro nuclear reactors for electrifying developing regions
The development of technologies to generate affordable electricity and their deployment in remote or developing geographical regions has been the topic of many recent studies. These studies could inform future interventions and policies in these regions, by...