The Navy is electing to use the controversial Advanced Arresting Gear on its next Gerald R. Ford-class carrier, John F. Kennedy (CVN-79), USNI News has learned. The landing gear had been estimated in 2009 to cost $476 million in costs for research development and acquisition for four systems but have increased to a 2016 cost …
The DARPA Warrior Web program aims to significantly lower the “metabolic cost” — or energy expenditure — of troops operating in the field, and reduce the physiological burden of the gear that they carry, which can exceed 100 pounds. They are developing soft robotic exosuits that are designed to provide power and torque to critical …
A team of researchers from the US and Germany have now confirmed that the Wendelstein 7-X (W 7-X) stellerator is producing the super-strong, twisty, 3D magnetic fields that its design predicted, with “unprecedented accuracy”. The researchers found an error rate less than one in 100,000. “To our knowledge, this is an unprecedented accuracy, both in …
China plans to boost natural gas from 6% of its energy usage to 10% by 2020. However, to affect a large-scale transition from coal to natural gas in China will be far more difficult than it has been in the U.S., where the price of natural gas per unit of energy output is much lower …
WeaRobot wants to democratize robotic exoskeletons. They want to make modular exoskeletons, so that is more affordable. The exoskeleton can boost the mobility joint by joint. Just supporting the movement of one knee or one elbow or assembling all modules for a full body exoskeleton. This is targeted at enhancing mobility and function for the …
The SENSEI in situ processing project takes aim at a set of research challenges for enabling scientific knowledge discovery within the context of in situ processing at extreme-scale concurrency. This work is motivated by a widening gap between FLOPs and I/O capacity which will make full-resolution, I/O-intensive post hoc analysis prohibitively expensive, if not impossible. …
Enngineers and designers at the Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center have patented a new design for a harness that protects its wearer from blast debris. Worn outside the pants, the harness is designed to protect the groin and femoral artery and prevent debris from embedding in and around the groin. Such injuries …
The Columbia class submarine program, previously known as the Ohio replacement program (ORP) or SSBN(X) program, a program to design and build a new class of 12 ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) to replace the Navy’s current force of 14 Ohio-class SSBNs. The Navy has identified the Columbia class program as the Navy’s top priority program. …
China’s Broad Group presented at the Offsite Construction Expo Sept. 21 to 22 in Washington, DC. The expo was an effort to draw more attention to permanent modular construction, the Modular Building Institute, National Institute of Building Sciences and other industry groups. Despite the promises of a higher quality product in a shorter timeframe and …
Canada and China have agreed to form a new joint venture to develop to market and construct the Advanced Fuel Candu Reactor (AFCR) in China. The deal was signed by Canada’s SNC-Lavalin, China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) and Shanghai Electric. The reactor reuses used fuel from light water reactors. The joint venture company is expected …
Elon Musk critical innovation for both the electric car and power storage is the cylindrical battery that will be made at Gigafactories. IT looks a lot like what you buy at Walgreens, but with lithium-ion guts which powers laptops today. Musk based the Tesla car fleet, and the Power Wall that acts as a building’s …