Issue link: https://industrialengineer.epubxp.com/i/920036
the frontline 16 ISE Magazine | www.iise.org/ISEmagazine the front line Could a duck lift a car? Well, maybe that's a little misleading, but MIT and Harvard have developed origami-like artificial muscles that can allow soft robots to lift up to 1,000 times their own weight using only water or air pressure. The technology news website e gadget.com reported that one 2.6-gram muscle can lift a 3-kilogram object, which is the same as the aforementioned duck carrying around a car. Usually, the increased flexibility of soft robotics, which lets machines move in ways that mimic living organisms, reduces its strength. However, Harvard and MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory made artificial muscles of a plastic inner skeleton surrounded by air or water inside a sealed bag – the "skin." Applying a vacuum inside the bag initiates the muscle's movement, engadget reported, creating tension that drives the motion. The composition of the skel- eton guides the muscle, meaning no external power or human input is needed. Research experiments had the muscles lift a flower off the ground. The muscles also twisted into a coil and contracted to 10 percent of their original size. Potential applications include deep sea research, minimally invasive surgery and transform- able architecture. The muscles are scalable, and a single one can be made in under 10 minutes for less than a dollar. When ducks pick up cars … Origami-like soft robot can lift 1,000 times its weight © 2016 Scott Adams. Used by permission of Andrews McMeel Syndication. All rights reserved. Dilbert Three industrial engineering graduate students are testing a drone-based intelligent parking system that uses a mobile app to identify the nearest vacant parking spot in real time. Vignesh Ganesan, Balamurugan Dhanabal and Aditya Ramdass demonstrated the SmartPark drone (dubbed the Drone Autonomous Aerial Research Asset) recently on the lawn outside the Leonhard Building at The Pennsylvania State University. The technology could revolutionize the parking industry by helping people find open parking spots efficiently, minimizing conflict between drivers vying for the same spots and reducing the need to pay parking booth attendants. Their program and drone won first place in the master's degree category of the annual Service Enterprise Engineering (SEE) 360 student competition held by the student chapter of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers. The award and competition gave the team feedback from industry experts that could help the idea progress technologically from the concept stage. Ganesan said gov- ernment officials likely would support such a technology because it could smooth the flow of traffic, reduce emissions, improve the use of park- ing facilities and identify parking violators. Dhanabal said the future will belong to drone-enabled ser- vices, as longer battery life, increased emphasis on safety by controlled flight and research on drone charging pads and solar battery chargers make such technologies more viable. Drones could make parking easier Penn State IE students' app wins college IISE chapter competition The Drone Autonomous Aerial Research Asset hovers above the Leonhard Building.