The system uses an AI model that would trigger a Kevlar bubble cocoon in the event of a crash. 'REBIRTH is more than engineering--it's a response to grief,' the researchers wrote. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. An Air India flight from Ahmedabad bound for London spent just 30 seconds in the air before disaster struck earlier this year . Preliminary reports indicate that the aircraft's fuel control switches were inexplicably turned off shortly after takeoff, cutting fuel to the engines and causing total power loss.

Soft robots have been increasingly utilized as sophisticated tools in physical rehabilitation, particularly for assisting patients with neuromotor impairments. However, many soft robotics for rehabilitation applications are characterized by limitations such as slow response times, restricted range of motion, and low output force. There are also limited studies on the precise position and force control of wearable soft actuators. Furthermore, not many studies articulate how bellow-structured actuator designs quantitatively contribute to the robots' capability. This study introduces a paradigm of upper limb soft actuator design. This paradigm comprises two actuators: the Lobster-Inspired Silicone Pneumatic Robot (LISPER) for the elbow and the Scallop-Shaped Pneumatic Robot (SCASPER) for the shoulder. LISPER is characterized by higher bandwidth, increased output force/torque, and high linearity. SCASPER is characterized by high output force/torque and simplified fabrication processes. Comprehensive analytical models that describe the relationship between pressure, bending angles, and output force for both actuators were presented so the geometric configuration of the actuators can be set to modify the range of motion and output forces. The preliminary test on a dummy arm is conducted to test the capability of the actuators.

Globally, motorcycles attract vast and varied users. However, since the rate of severe injury and fatality in motorcycle accidents far exceeds passenger car accidents, efforts have been directed toward increasing passive safety systems. Impact simulations show that the risk of severe injury or death in the event of a motorcycle-to-car impact can be greatly reduced if the motorcycle is equipped with passive safety measures such as airbags and seat belts. For the passive safety systems to be activated, a collision must be detected within milliseconds for a wide variety of impact configurations, but under no circumstances may it be falsely triggered. For the challenge of reliably detecting impending collisions, this paper presents an investigation towards the applicability of machine learning algorithms. First, a series of simulations of accidents and driving operation is introduced to collect data to train machine learning classification models. Their performance is henceforth assessed and compared via multiple representative and application-oriented criteria.

A California state court jury has handed Tesla Inc a sweeping win, finding that the carmaker's Autopilot feature did not fail to perform safely in what appears to be the first trial related to a crash involving the partially automated driving software. The verdict could be an important victory for Tesla as it tests and rolls out its Autopilot and more advanced "Full Self-Driving (FSD)" system, which Chief Executive Elon Musk has touted as crucial to his company's future, but which has drawn regulatory and legal scrutiny. Justine Hsu, a resident of Los Angeles, sued the electric vehicle maker in 2020, saying her Tesla Model S swerved into a curb while it was on Autopilot and then an airbag was deployed "so violently it fractured Plaintiff's jaw, knocked out teeth, and caused nerve damage to her face". She alleged there were defects in the design of Autopilot and the airbag, and sought more than $3m in damages for the alleged defects and other claims. Tesla denied liability for the 2019 accident.

His personal style may lean toward the conventional, but the Rice University mechanical engineer is here to tell me about his creative new fashion design. His team has made a shiny black jacket that performs logic--without electronics. Specifically, the jacket can raise and lower its own hood at the push of a button, and it contains a simple 1-bit memory that stores the state of the hood. Or, as Preston says, it's "a non-electronic durable logic in a textile-based device." Here's where we need to emphasize the wildness of this design.

Why publish a list of our picks for the best new cars that are the safest? Don't confuse "safe" with "safer." Manufacturers make vehicles that are safer than those from 10 years ago, for sure. However, some are safer than others. Both organizations put new car models through a battery of crash and safety tests, scoring each for the degree of protection they provide for occupants. If you choose a car on this list, you can be assured you will likely survive a crash, but in many cases avoid it altogether. We pulled together a collection of the best 2022 models made the safest for you to drive and what earns them that distinction. In a nutshell, these car models go above and beyond government-mandated safety features and manufacturer norms. Read on to learn more. What we looked for were cars with perfect scores in both IIHS and NHTSA testing. With those in hand, we narrowed the field among the trim levels within each model based on standard and available active safety features such as forward collision warning with automatic emergency braking. Several safety features we've grown accustomed to are actually government-mandated. In other words, the federal government made them standard by law. These include antilock brakes, stability control, traction control, rearview cameras, tire pressure monitors, and so forth.

Considering whether AI ought to warn human passengers about an impending crash or collision. We've all likely had our share of car crashes over the years. Let's trace the various published research underlying a somewhat simple but altogether crucial question, namely if you know that a crash is about to occur should you go limp or attempt to tighten and brace yourself. Turns out that the answer is complicated and often dependent upon the circumstances at hand. First, there is a popular assumption that you ought to let your body go loose or limp when an impending car crash is about to occur. Some claim that this ragdoll posturing will be advantageous. The purported logic is that we all know that a straight and narrow stick will presumably break and snap entirely when placed under intense pressure. As such, if you tense up, you are risking all manner of personal bodily damage. According to the sage wisdom of Confucius: "The reed which bends in the wind is stronger than the mighty oak which breaks in a storm." I don't believe though that Confucius had an opportunity to drive or ride in an automobile (he lived from 551 BC to 479 BC, while cars were essentially invented in the late 1880s).

For once we can say that Tesla really has reinvented a wheel. For its newest Model S sedans and Model X SUVs, the carmaker dropped the traditional circular steering wheel in favor of what it's calling a "yoke." This yoke is rectangular and reminiscent of what you might see in a jet or a racecar. Tesla CEO Elon Musk indicated that the company made the change because, "Yet another round wheel is boring & blocks the screen," adding that Tesla's "Full Self-Driving" function--controversial due to safety concerns--"in panoramic mode looks way better with a yoke." Consumer Reports recently published a harsh review entirely focused on the Model S yoke, noting that the organization's test drivers found the steering apparatus to be hard to hold on to and awkward to maneuver.

It is challenging to control a soft robot, where reinforcement learning methods have been applied with promising results. However, due to the poor sample efficiency, reinforcement learning methods require a large collection of training data, which limits their applications. In this paper, we propose a Q-learning controller for a physical soft robot, in which pre-trained models using data from a rough simulator are applied to improve the performance of the controller. We implement the method on our soft robot, i.e., Honeycomb Pneumatic Network (HPN) arm. The experiments show that the usage of pre-trained models can not only reduce the amount of the real-world training data, but also greatly improve its accuracy and convergence rate.

Armed with a bottle of Lysol and rolls of paper towels, Anya Fetcher packed up her car with enough food to get her through a road trip, and clothes to last several weeks, and headed to a friend's home. The first thing she did when she arrived was ask for a hug. "He started to pull away and I was like, 'Wait, can we just stay here for another second? It's been four weeks since [I've had] any kind of human contact,' " she told me. Thanks to the pandemic, a month of no physical interaction with another human--no hugs, no handshakes, no high-fives or fist bumps--had taken a toll on her mental health.