A solar-powered airplane finished crossing the United States on Saturday, landing in New York City after flying over the Statue of Liberty during its historic bid to circle the globe, the project team said. The spindly, single-seat experimental aircraft, dubbed Solar Impulse 2, arrived at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport at about 4 a.m. local time after it took off about five hours beforehand at Lehigh Valley International Airport in Pennsylvania, the team reported on the airplane's website. Such a pleasure to land in New York! For the 14th time we celebrate sustainability," said the project's co-founder Andre Borschberg on Twitter after flying over the city and the Statue of Liberty during the 14th leg of the trip around the globe. The Swiss team flying the aircraft in a campaign to build support for clean energy technologies hopes eventually to complete its circumnavigation in Abu Dhabi, where the journey began in March 2015. The solar cr...
A prototype 3D-printed robotic hand that can be made faster and more cheaply than current alternatives is this year's UK winner of the James Dyson Award. The Bristol-raised creator of the Open Bionics project says he can 3D-scan an amputee and build them a custom-fitted socket and hand in less than two days. It typically takes weeks or months to obtain existing products.
Joel Gibbard says he aims to start selling the prosthetics next
year. We have a device at the lower-end of the pricing scale and the upper end of functionality.At the same time it is very lightweight and it can be customised for each person. The hand is basically a skeleton with a 'skin' on top. So, we can do different things to the skin - we can put patterns on it, we can change the styling and design. There's quite a lot of flexibility there." The 25-year-old inventor intends to charge customers £2,000 for the device, including the cost of a fitting. Although prosthetic arms fitted with hooks typically can be bought for similar prices, ones with controllable fingers are usually sold for between £20,000 and £60,000. That cost can sometimes be prohibitive for children, who usually need to change their prosthetic once or twice a year to take account of their growth.Open Bionics' hand relies on myoelectric signals, meaning it detects muscle movements via sensors stuck to the owner's skin and uses them to control its grip.
A single flex of the wearer's muscles opens and closes the fingers, while a double flex changes the shape to form a pinch grip. Although the user cannot feel what the fingers are touching, sensors built into the digits can tell when they come into contact with an object to limit the pressure they exert. This means owners can pick up objects as fragile as an egg without crushing them. However, Mr Gibbard acknowledges there are still some limitations to his design.
"We're using lower-cost motors than they have in high-end devices, so the overall strength is lower," he said. So, we are testing it with users and household objects and trying to come to a compromise that means it is very affordable and still has enough power to do most of the stuff that people want."The UK engineering prize includes a £2,220 reward and the chance to compete for an international title worth $45,000 (£28,600).
But, perhaps more valuably, it will also help the project gain wider recognition.
"Joel Gibbard is to be congratulated in advancing the availability of functioning prosthetic devices at affordable prices," commented Miss Barbara Jemec, founding chair of the British Foundation for International Reconstructive Surgery and Training (BFirst), on learning of the prize. "Amputees, especially in developing countries, such as Sierra Leone where the civil war left many upper limb amputees, need to have access to affordable and durable prosthetics that work. "A working hand can make all the difference between hunger and being able to work and take care of yourself and your family. I shall be following the development with interest."
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