Episode Summary:
Nuclear fusion has been the Holy Grail of power generation for over half a century. The promise is considerable: clean, essentially limitless energy. Multiple approaches to sustained nuclear fusion have been tried and are currently in research, from giant multibillion-dollar tokomaks to mechanically induced shockwave driven liquid metal devices. Colorado-based Electric Fusion Systems claims that a new proprietary fuel combined with a relatively simple electric discharge device can create very low-cost electricity directly from fusion reactions, without nuclear waste.
Hearing loss is a serious global problem, one that is growing as Western populations age. Conventional hearing aid technology is limited by the fundamental part of his system: the transducer. Speaker technology based on coils has distinct limitations, but a Mannheim, Germany based startup, Vibrosonic, has developed a piezoelectric speaker element the firm calls a “hearing contact lens” which rests directly on the user’s eardrum. Direct stimulation combined with a very wide frequency response means enhanced understanding of speech for wearers of the new device.
Mobile robots are now commonplace in large industrial and warehousing operations but are still largely limited to the jobs formally performed by forklift trucks. A major problem in widespread adoption is finding a way to get robotics from different vendors to communicate with each other, allowing different robots doing different functions to operate seamlessly in a complex factory environment. Industry incubator MassRobotics has released a preliminary set of industry standards that will form a basis for future open-source communications protocols to enable effective use of mobile robotics across multiple industries. The development team included engineers from major robot manufacturers as well as influential end-users such as Procter & Gamble and DHL.
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Transcript of this week's show:
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Segment 1: Nuclear fusion has been the Holy Grail of the power generation industry for decades. Clean, almost limitless power is the promise, but the technology appears to be decades away, decade after decade. Broomfield Colorado-based Electric Fusion Systems is the latest in a burgeoning small industry of new fusion companies and they have announced a novel approach to the problem. Cofounders Ken Kopp, a systems engineer, and computer scientist Ryan Wood have announced a new form of fusion physics in a small test device. According to Kopp, fusion reactions in the tabletop experiment have been confirmed by neutron detection, gamma and optical spectroscopy. The exact physics is patent pending and the company has not released specific details on their process. They state that it uses something they call cyclical induction, and the fusion occurs in an electrical arc passing through a dense plasma fuel. According to EFS, the process generates electricity directly, without the heat conversion to energy through conventional means like turbines. The company also states that their unique fuel creates a very dense plasma 10 orders of magnitude denser than used in other small-scale fusion technologies. Targets are ambitious, and EFS predicts consumer electricity generated at a cost of 0.8 cents per kilowatt hour. The company’s experimental device is notable for its tabletop size, and the fact that operates inside what appears to be standard laboratory glassware, without the heavy walled vacuum chambers and radiation shielding commonly seen in fusion experimentation. Will it work? With technologies from large tokamaks to mechanical shockwave induced to fusion all ongoing, the EFS technology will be watched with keen interest by players inside and out of the nuclear industry.
Segment 2: Hearing loss due to disease or advancing age is a serious problem for millions worldwide. The miniaturization of semiconductor amplifiers has resulted in hearing aid technology small enough to be carried entirely within the ear, but the amplified sound must still pass down the ear canal to reach the eardrum. Is there more effective way? A Mannheim, Germany based startup called Vibrosonic has developed a novel hearing aid design with an integrated speaker that sits directly on the eardrum. The tiny speaker, called a hearing contact lens, outperforms conventional hearing aids by vibrating the eardrum and inner ear bones directly, reducing distortion. The tiny speaker is not implanted, but sits on the outside of the eardrum and uses peizoelectric technology instead of a conventional wound speaker coil and membrane. The tiny piezoelectric speaker uses elements as small as 1/1000 the diameter of a human hair and delivers a wide frequency response, 80 Hz to 12 kHz. The combination of direct stimulation and a broad frequency response allows users of the new device to better understand conversation clearly. In its current alpha form, the device is connected to a behind the ear power supply and control electronics package, although Vibrosonic expects to miniaturize the entire assembly for completely in the ear use as a next step. The current alpha device is designed for adult patients with mild-to-moderate hearing impairment. Vibrosonic is a spinoff company of the University of Tübingen’s ENT clinic and the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation.
Segment 3: Autonomous mobile robots are in widespread use in large manufacturing facilities and in warehouse distribution centres, automating processes formerly done with human piloted forklift trucks. The next level of efficiency however is to combine the capabilities of pick and place robots with the mobility of autonomously guided vehicles, but there is a problem unrelated to natural technology: standards. Unless a company adopts a single platform across a facility, it’s very difficult to get different robots from different manufacturers to work together. That may be changing. MassRobotics, an influential Boston-based robotics tech hub and start-up cluster, has published a consortium-built standard to guide robotic automation interoperability in industry. The standard was developed by a working group formed in 2020 comprised of robot vendors, engineers and end-user companies with the goal of creating a common language which will allow robots from multiple vendors to share status information and “rules of the road” so they can work together on a crowded warehouse or factory floor. The problem is complex, and the group has focused on which data to collect, the method of sharing it, and the message format. At the current stage of development, the standard strictly applies to robot-to-robot communication, and not task management or safety issues that are already covered by ISO standards. Customer input was provided by FedEx, Procter & Gamble and DHL. In its current form, messaging is handled by JavaScript object notation or JSON over WebSockets, although this may change in the future. Engineers interested in exploring the new standard confined a read-only script tool on MassRobotics GitHub repository.