Today on Engineering Newswire, we’re plugging blimp holes with a spider robot, improving our golf games with smart shoes, monitoring alcohol levels with a temporary tattoo, and saying goodbye to the one and only Kaylie Duffy.
Lockheed’s ‘Spider’ Robot Plugs Blimp Holes
Imagine trying to find a needle in a haystack. That’s exactly how it feels when trying to find tiny pinholes in Lockheed Martin’s Hybrid Airship. The airship is almost as long as a football field, and takes numerous man hours to maintain.
Thankfully, Lockheed Martin has developed a new “spider” robot that clambers all over the airship to discover tiny holes, before automatically patching them up. Lockheed plans to eventually use multiple Spider robots on the airship, with a central hub managing their activity.
Smart Shoes Improve Your Golf Game
Whether you believe it or not, golf is a challenging sport. And correctly learning how and when to shift your weight from one foot to the other could greatly improve your swing. To understand where you’re going wrong and how to improve it, the ultimate pair of smart golf shoes have recently been developed.
Conceived in Samsung’s secret innovation lab, before being fully developed in a spin-off company, the Iofit smart shoes are outfitted with sensors embedded in the outsole. The sensors deliver real-time swing analysis data in four different measurements: pressure distribution, shift in weight, left/right balance, and front/back balance.
Temporary Tattoo Monitors Alcohol Intake
Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed a flexible, wearable sensor that can accurately measure a person’s blood alcohol level from sweat. The data can then be send wirelessly to a laptop or smartphone.
With the researcher’s wearable sensor, alcohol levels can be measured in sweat within 15 minutes. If brought to market, the electronic skin patch could be used by doctors or police officers for continuous, non-invasive monitoring of blood alcohol content.
Filed Under: M2M (machine to machine)