World Watch
LATITUDE
P. Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering modified the display to draw attention to the plane that will first cross the pilot’s path. The display either blinks or is coloured yellow. Tests show the modifications improve pilot decision making and significantly reduce response times.
HAVE ROBOT, WILL PARK
An automated parking structure could ease parking congestion in West Holly- wood City, reports the Engineering News- Record (New York). The US $10.6-million robo garage uses motorized vertical lifts and horizontal shuttles to move vehicles from the arrivals level to a remote park- ing space. It requires only 60 per cent of the land needed by conventional ramp-style garages and can hold up to 200 cars — about three times more than a ramp-style garage in the same space. The garage was designed by LPA Inc. of Sacramento, Calif., and the mechanical system by Unitronics of Quincy, Mass. The technology is just emerging in North America. There are about 15 other automated parking garages in the U.S., compared with more than 500 in Europe and 1.6 million automated parking spaces in Asia.
ROBO PARKING A new automated parking garage in California was designed with sustainability in mind. Features include roof-mounted photovoltaic solar panels and drought-tolerant landscaping, while sustainable material, made from recycled grocery bags, was used in construction. -artist rendering courtesy City of West Hollywood
THIS ONE CAN MAKE YOU BREAKFAST
friendly. Their green concrete contains conventional materials mixed with a blend of recycled waste materials, including aluminum can fibres, concrete aggregates, and fly ash from coal power plants. The resulting product is cost- effective, and tests show it’s up to 30 per cent stronger than regular concrete.
The lift can travel up to 365 metres per minute. It’s driven by a 1,200-horse- power electric motor connected to a gearbox that’s connected to a bull wheel. TECHNOLOGY REDUCES SMALL AIRCRAFT COLLISIONS Engineers at North Carolina State University in Raleigh have developed technology to help pilots of small aircraft avoid mid-air collisions. Improvements were made to the GPS cockpit displays that pilots use to spot nearby planes, reports Science Daily . Pilots tend to focus on the closest aircraft displayed, even though a faster plane, further away, could cross their path first. Researchers at the Edward
In Europe, a robot named PR2 has been teaching itself to cook by perusing online videos and recipes. Researchers from uni- versities across the European Union have created PR2 as part of a project dubbed RoboHow, says an article in MTI Technol- ogy Review. The robot, which calls Germany’s University of Bremen home, is learning to make pancakes and pizzas by following directions on WikiHow. The goal is to teach robots to understand language so that one day a person can simply tell a robot what to do. So far, researchers have been able to turn a few WikiHow instructions into useful behaviour, both in simulations and in real robots.
GIVING SKIERS A LIFT, AT 365-METRES-PER-MINUTE
Skiers can spend more time hitting the slopes, and less time riding up the ski lift in Vail Mountain, Colo. Leitner-Poma of America. recently introduced what it believes is the fastest gondola lift in the United States, reports the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
FALL 2015 PEG | 15
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