When I think RoboCup, autonomous robots kicking soccer balls indoors is the first image that springs to mind. But there’s a lot more behind RoboCup than I realized.
RoboCup aims to use RoboCupSoccer to create a fully autonomous team of humanoid robots that can beat the human World Cup champion soccer team by 2050. But using the technologies originally developed for this challenge to essentially contribute to society is the main goal behind RoboCup. The organization developed RoboCup-Rescue to use RoboCup technologies in assisting search-and-rescue teams during large-scale disasters. RoboCup cites the Great Hanshi-Awaji earthquake in Kobe City, Japan as the "trigger" for RoboCup-Rescue. The organization has since developed urban search and rescue (USAR) robot competitions and a rescue simulation league aimed at emulating disaster phenomena.
RoboCup-Rescue focuses on several levels of disaster management – everything from teamwork coordination to, of course, actual autonomous robots for search and rescue. And the organization’s efforts have spawned related competitions including the Virtual Robots Competition, where participants actually simulate robotic behavior and The ALADDIN Project, aimed at dealing with coordinating the autonomous robots and using sensors to gather readings for uncertain disaster situations.
Almost every automaker has had to 'pick a side' when it comes to alternative fuel options and ways to divest from a reliance on gasoline. Fiat is looking to back compressed natural gas or liquid propane as an interim solution.
Plastic may not be the most beloved of materials to the more environmentally minded, but Plasti 2012 aimed to mold a different opinion of the material in people's minds.
The rare earth element market has become steadily more rational, and new sources coming online will continue to reduce costs. Still, it is unlikely that prices will drop to their former lows.
Against a backdrop of mounting product complexity and a need to keep a lid on development costs, companies are recognizing a need to make simulation a more integral part of the design process. In response, vendors in the CAD world are building out CAE functionality as part of their CAD suites while simulation vendors are building tighter integrations to leading CAD tools. Keith Meintjes, Ph.D., Practice Manager, Simulation and Analysis at CIMdata, Inc., joins Design News CAD Editor Beth Stackpole in this radio program to explore the new face of integrated CAD and CAE, how companies are benefitting from this tighter partnership between platforms, and how integrating CAE earlier in the development cycle pays off in optimized product designs.
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