Innovative Future Construction

3D printing is such a futuristic way of producing and creating some object. It is quick, much more mobile and considered rather instant. What more it is customizable to your own preference, such an important aspect in our world today, an individual’s preference to a brand, shape, size or and even colour. Ever wonder what could 3D printing do for the construction sector? There is a new discovery of a material and method such as self-healing bioconcrete, with a 3D concrete printers and a new generation of solar polymers, construction will be made further convenient if not easier.

The research team in Loughborough University carrying out this project, being headed by Dr Sungwoo Lim, technologically improved a 3D printer that is capable to construct physical structures and objects straight from a given command to a computer. The process being carried out is known as addictive manufacturing whereby a specific type of concrete was established particularly for this procedure. This concrete is deposited accurately in layers under computer control. In the present day, a reinforced concrete bench that weighs at one tonne and a two-metre curvy panel was printed out.

The benefits to the construction industry with this innovation would be a decrease in waste materials, emitting lesser CO2 in comparison to a conventional concrete form building. Not only that, labour costs would also be further reduced, transportation of components and parts of a building would be lessen as printing of such materials can be commenced in an onsite factory.

To solidify this innovative idea, we could relate it back to pre-historic times where rammed earth was a process for making homes and forts for castles. Raw materials such as earth, chalk lime and gravel is compressed in forms of layer and later air dry. It has been a technique practiced to build mainstay in Africa for millennia.

Aggrebind is a company that cross-linked styrene acrylic polymer which increases the strength of soils from many variation. It was experimented with non-toxic treated soils and later grown in it. The results prove that the polymer was indeed effective with consistent and inconsistent materials which can be applied to strengthen adobe buildings. Thus this has opened a new approach to the construction sector, self-healing bio-concrete that can regenerate over the cracks using condensed bacteria within or mortar-less ‘bio-manufactured’ bricks made out of substance such as bacteria, urea waste or sand.

References:

Miller, G. (2011). Innovative materials developed for construction industry. [online] the Guardian. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/sustainable-construction-industry-innovative-materials [Accessed 10 Jun. 2015].

Nano Ganesh Simplifying Farming

In India, there is approximately 14.1 million irrigation pumps for farmers to water their crops in remote areas. It seems like an easy job for them to just switch on the pump and their crops are taken care of. However not so simple, because not all of the time electric supply is available, only during the wee hours or odd timings of the day. Thus Santosh Ostwal created Nano Ganesh which is a water system for farmers to be able to take care of their crops from afar through their mobile phone. Ossian Agro Automation is an India based company responsible for this innovative idea. This idea came about when the Santosh Ostwal, co-founder of Nano Ganesh, witnessed his grandfather facing hardship caring and watching over his plantations.

The Nano Ganesh is a tool for a farmers to save time and energy by placing a modem attached to their irrigation pumps which allows them the mobility to switch on or off the pumps to water their crops. The traditional way for a farmer to care of their crops would be to walk over to the irrigation pump and switch it on and walk back from where they came from, however the time for them to walk over or drive to their desired pump location would take up a few hours especially for those irrigation pumps located in the outskirts. There is also a hazard warning when walking over to the respective pumps in the middle of the night where wild animals will be lurking the bushes in hope to counter the next prey, be it a farmer. With Nano Ganesh installed it assists the farmers to a more comfortable and convenient way of taking care their plantations. The Nano Ganesh was restricted to a radius of 10 kilometres from their pumps previously, though now they have upgraded the technology to support unlimited range permitting farmers flexibility to turn pumps on and off wherever they maybe with their mobile phone.

This innovation has the ability to monitor the availability of electricity to the pump as well as authenticate the on and off status of its operation. The benefit of such technology is cost-saving from wastage of water and electricity. In addition to that, over-watering would lead to soil erosion and nutrient depletion from the ground.

The Nano Ganesh can reduce the environmental and financial costs farming, it is reckon that farmers can recover the cost of this innovative technology in 11 days from conserving water and electricity expenditure. It is a very efficient and effective technology to assist farmers in today’s world. Nano Ganesh was able to help 10,000 farmers in India and is currently used in Australia and Egypt.

References:

Nourishing the Planet, (2015). Mobile Technology Helps Farmers save Time, Water, and Electricity. [online] Available at: http://blogs.worldwatch.org/nourishingtheplanet/mobile-technology-helps-farmers-save-time-water-and-electricity/ [Accessed 8 Jun. 2015].

Farm For The Future

Technology has taken over the society and it is vital to today’s world, making life so much easier than before. Now technology has also taken over agriculture industry by transforming into a high-tech enterprise and replacing farm workers. Technological advancement brings benefit to famers by constructing a stress free and more cost effective agriculture. In today’s technologies, there are now flying robots and self-driving machinery which are able to automatically survey and treat crops. 

Inventors are now creating robotic field machines which helps farmers to perform tedious tasks such as hand harvesting fruits and vegetables. This robotic field machines have been used in some agriculture industry such as nursery plants, vineyards and fruits and vegetables. These machines are intact with GPS which helps farmer to determine the amount of fertilizer for each field and help to dispense the exact amount of fertilizer needed for each field. For example, in France vineyard there exist a robot called the “Wine Bot” and this wine bot helps in pruning vines, monitoring vine health and soil. The WineBot has a camera on top which helps to see the surrounding of the vineyard and two more cameras at both of the arms to check the vines. It helps to capture and record data from vines to vines and to recognize the plant features. With this WineBot, winegrowers do not need to worry about the quality of the pruning and it helps to save their time by walking around the vineyard.

All these advanced technology does bring benefits in agriculture industry in so many ways but there is also a bad side of it.  Although farmers are not needed for farming anymore for watering or harvesting the plants but this will cause them to lose their job. Besides, a large amount of money is needed also to purchase the machine. 

Reference:

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/slideshows/science-technology/wall-ye-wine-robot-the-new-vineyard-worker-/it-takes-on-chores-such-as-pruning-and-de-suckering/slideshow/16554640.cms

Robots: Making Lives Better

Today as our world becomes more and more advance, we find ourselves being surrounded by technologies more than ever before. From the introduction of the world wide web, the first touchscreen mobile phone and now, the beginning of a new era, robotics. Many engineers are competing in creating the best but not least, the most life-like robotic to be introduce to the world. Although there are 7 billion and growing people roaming this planet yet, we are still lacking in human resources and labor. Thus, we are creating the birth of robotics in hopes to solve this matter.

Source: Sullivan Corporation

 The idea of robotics is an ingenious idea as they are capable of traveling where people cannot go (Bekey et al., 2008). Not only to the extent of which humans cannot reach but robotics can be helpful towards the simple human needs for instance, housecleaning, cooking or practically taking care of the household. The reason why we are considering about living with robots is because we are always on-the-go, busy and doing the laundry is merely the least of our concerns. According to the Business Insider Malaysia, they asked 9 successful people to share one thing they would buy that makes their lives easier or better, Tim Ferriss, an entrepreneur mentioned, he would buy housecleaning as he doesn’t have time to wash and fold his clothes (Torabi, 2015). In South Korea and Japan, they have long started when it comes to investing in robotics especially, personal and service robotics vehicles. They are currently in the works of creating eldercare robotics due to Japan and South Korea’s high aging population (Bekey et al., 2008).

The idea of robotics wouldn’t be realistic without having any loopholes to begin with. Many would argue that robots does not know how to ‘feel’ and it will be hard for it to connect with us. Safety is very important which means the significant challenges in human-robot interfaces need to be overcome by the industry (Bekey, 2008). Therefore, the research of human-robot interaction (HRI) is in the works. Not only that, us, humans are developing and learning each day, so for a robot to grasp on it would be difficult and it was need a lot of upgrading as well. However, Sony and Fujitsu may be changing that fact as they are creating systems from eye-hand coordination, well-developed visual perception to a fast, power-efficient and well-packaged torso and set of limbs (Hirukawa et al., 2004).

References

Bekey, G., Ambrose, R., Vijay, K., Lavery, D., Sanderson, A., Wilcox, B., Yuh, J., & Zheng, Y. (2008). Robotics: State Of The Art And Future Challenges. World Scientific & Imperial College Press,    London.

Torabi, F., 2015, 9 successdul people share the one thing they buy that makes their lives easier or better,  Business Insider Malaysia, viewed 4 May 2015, <http://www.businessinsider.my/successful-people-what-makes-my-life-easier-2015-3/#AT2UrGxHqduzTMMF.97>. 

Real Telepresence

Humans are the only creatures that tend to track time during their existence in life. With time being very limited due to the increase of work load traffic in working hours. Most of them are not able to manage time in a more efficient way. However, with the introduction of the 21st century technology of what we called as 'Real Telepresence' has changed the way how business meetings are conducted. In the past, business meetings were organized under tight and time limited schedule; with the introduction of this technology, it saves business partners a whole lot of time by conducting these meetings without having the hassle to plan ahead.

Telepresence is the use of various technology to make a person feel present in a room or premise, to give the feeling of being present or to have an effect via telerobotics at an other place than their true location. 'Real Telepresence' combines virtual reality holograms with high quality voice and video to make users feel as real life as possible. It grants these virtual reality meetings to be as immersive as possible using Polycom Immersive Telepresence Solution.

With Polycom's Immersive Telepresence solutions, Surgical tutorials. University lectures. Production meetings and Conferences could be conducted easily across limitless distance as long as all participants are in the same room. Nonetheless, conversations, insights and knowledge can be shared and discussed easily.

Reference:
http://www.polycom.com/products-services/hd-telepresence-video-conferencing/realpresence-immersive.html#stab3