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Now that's GREEN energy! Robotic lawnmower uses the grass it cuts as fuel
Mowing the lawn can be tedious, but that could change if an eco-friendly prototype robot is widely adopted.
U.S. students have created an autonomous machine that not only cuts grass in a specified area, but uses the waste cuttings to power itself – saving you both time and money.
The E-Mow is built upon the body of an electric toy car, but the clever vehicle is able to convert grass pellets into fuel, using a small biomass gasifier - a type of furnace that converts organic matter into gas.
HOW DOES E-MOW WORK?
- The machine trims grass using a low-power electrical bar cutter and collects the grass snippets, which are funnelled into a hot and pressurised area where they are turned into dry grass pellets.
- The dry squashed cuttings then pass into a small gasifier where they are converted to gas and this biomass fuel is then cooled, filtered and mixed with air so that it can be used to power the robotic lawnmower’s engine.
- The dried pellets can also be used for other applications such as heating or power generation.
Engineers from George Mason University, Washington D.C. believe their invention could revolutionise the garden chore and more importantly be used as an efficient way to create animal feed.
The machine trims grass using a low-power electrical bar cutter, unlike many mowers that use a rotating blade. This allows the mower to operate without the need to maintain the kinetic energy required in a rotary blade system.
It then collects the grass snippets, which are funnelled into an area where they are turned into dry grass pellets in a manner similar to a meat grinder except that higher pressures and temperatures are used, the engineers explained.
The machine trims grass using a low-power electrical bar cutter and collects the grass snippets, which are funnelled into a hot and pressurised area where they are turned into dry grass pellets
The dry squashed cuttings then pass into a collection bin where they are dried with hot air from the gasifier and are then converted into fuel gas in the gasifier itself.
This biomass fuel is then cooled, filtered and mixed with air so that it can be used to power the robotic lawnmower’s engine.
The dried pellets can also be used for other applications, such as livestock fodder and can be periodically off-loaded to a storage unit.
'The drone harvester processes biomass directly to product form in a single pass without human labour,' said Jason Force, Chief Design Engineer of the project.
He explained that conventional methods for deriving biomass pellets from grassy sources are
inefficient.
Multiple passes are required to harvest and raw biomass must then be trucked to a facility to process into products, but the new invention does all this in one step, he explained.
Users of the lawnmower will not have to push it around their garden, as the useful robot is autonomous thanks to onboard GPS and proximity sensors.
In the future they will be able to program the machine by selecting an area to mow using Google Maps – and tell the mower to avoid certain obstacles so flowerbeds are not cut down too.
The machine will also use its GPS system to watch out for roads and other boundaries, as well as to navigate itself efficiently around a garden.
Mr Force and his team are currently looking to raise investment to bring their lawnmower to market and there is no price for the machine yet.
'We will be designing and operating or own harvesting platforms to produce a range of pellet biomass products. Primary target markets are pellet fuel and livestock fodder.
'Future plans include both commercial and consumer turf-mowing units for sale and licensing pellet fuel system technology for uses in vehicles, heating, and plant power,' he said.
Mr Force also said that E-Mow harvesters 'represent a revolutionary micro-grid solution in developing countries.'
'We plan to use this technology to provide a breakthrough in producing pelletised biomass products,' he added.
The team plans on having a working fuel reactor integrated with an engine in order to demonstrate a complete fuel system by March.
Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2548784/Now-thats-GREEN-energy-Robotic-lawnmower-uses-grass-cuts-FUEL.html
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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