Tag Archives: Michigan State University
Higher Ed Tenured Women Face Difficulties in Pay, Representation Gap
Being a professor seems like a fun gig, right? Imagine the chance to teach students without parents involved, cushy jobs, the chance to research while doing the minimal work, and suddenly turning...
Transparent Solar Cell Turns Screens and Windows Into Power Sources
What would it be like to power your smartphone with the energy harvested by its screen, or even better, to power your home with the energy harvested by its windows? Researchers at Michigan State University are about to turn this utopic dream into reality.
The fully transparent solar concentrator developed by the researchers is capable of turning any sheet of glass into a photovoltaic solar cell. There’s a lot of potential in this project, as research team leader Richard Lunt remarks that it could be implemented in “tall buildings with lots of windows or any kind of mobile device that demands high aesthetic quality like a phone or e-reader.”
A transparent solar cell is a bit of a contradiction in terms, as photovoltaic cells absorb photons and turn them into electrons (energy), fact that doesn’t theoretically happen if the sunlight goes passes through the cell. Particularly because of this reason, previous attempts of making a transparent solar cell resulted in partially transparent ones, and the one developed by Richard Lunt and his team is the first one featuring fully transparency.
The secret of their success is represented by the transparent luminescent solar concentrator (TLSC), which is made of organic salts that transform non-visible wavelengths of infrared and ultraviolet light into a different, non-visible infrared light. The resulting infrared light is in turn transmitted to the edge of the plastic, where typical photovoltaic solar cells transform it into electrons, and thus energy.
As expected, the main problem with this transparent solar cell is represented by its efficiency, which currently is of only 1%. However, the researchers are confident that an efficiency of 5% is attainable.
Ideally, this technology would become more efficient and would start being adopted by smartphone manufacturers and window makers. Green energy is becoming a more ardent problem with each passing day, and every development in this field should be exploited to the fullest. For the time being, the sun represents an infinite source of energy, and we should really take advantage of that. In other words, I also dream of cars that are powered by such transparent solar cells placed in their sun roofs. Of course, there are many other possible applications, so we just need to wait for this technology to become widely spread.
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Lacey Holsworth, friend of MSU’s Adreian Payne, Dies
Lacey Holsworth was an eight year old girl who had cancer. She struck up a friendship with Adreian Payne, a 6 foot 10 inch basketball player of Michigan State University, who visited her while she...
Michigan State University’s Tailbot is a diminutive daredevil (video)
Check out this video from grad students at Michigan State University -- it starts off a bit slowly, but it quickly picks up steam. It's a testament to the power of the robotic tail (not the first we've seen of that variety, incidentally), showing a 7.5-centimeter tall 'bot that can move, jump and maneuver in the air. Inspired by an article published in Nature last year, Tailbot's titular appendage lets it land on the correct side, stand up and lie down. Check out a video of the tiny adventurer after the break.
Source: Tailbot
Robot fish glides out of Michigan State University, tells you if the water is clean
Autonomous fish might make great leaders, but it turns out that robot flippers are a huge drain on battery life. Not a problem for Xiaobo Tan -- he and a group of Michigan State University scientists have built a robotic fish that glides through the water. Tan says the machine, dubbed Grace (Gliding Robot ACE), swims too , but the constant flipper movement can kill the battery in just a few hours. "This is why we integrated both locomotion modes," he explained. "Such integration allows the robot to adapt to different environments, from shallow streams to deep lakes." Grace is designed to scour lakes and rivers for data to help cleaning efforts, and older prototypes have successfully found traces of crude oil in once spoiled riverbeds. The redesigned robot looks more like an airplane than a fish, but it's hard to argue with results -- the team says Grace should be able to glide through the water almost indefinitely. Check out the team's press release after the break.
New robotic fish glides indefinitely
New design saves energy
IMAGE: A team of Michigan State University scientists has developed a robotic fish that can swim and glide long distances while gathering data such as water quality and temperature.
Click here for more information.
A high-tech robotic fish hatched at Michigan State University has a new look. A new skill. And a new name.
MSU scientists have made a number of improvements on the fish, including the ability to glide long distances, which is the most important change to date. The fish now has the ability to glide through the water practically indefinitely, using little to no energy, while gathering valuable data that can aid in the cleaning of our lakes and rivers.
Designed and built by Xiaobo Tan, MSU associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, and his team, the fish is equipped with an array of sensors that not only allow it to travel autonomously, but also measure water temperature, quality and other pertinent facts.
"Swimming requires constant flapping of the tail," Tan said, "which means the battery is constantly being discharged and typically wouldn't last more than a few hours."
The disadvantage to gliding, he said, is that it is slower and less maneuverable.
"This is why we integrated both locomotion modes - gliding and swimming - in our robot," Tan said. "Such integration also allows the robot to adapt to different environments, from shallow streams to deep lakes, from calm ponds to rivers, with rapid currents."
The robot's ability to glide is achieved through a newly installed pump that pushes water in and out of the fish, depending on if the scientists want the robot to ascend or descend. Also, the robot's battery pack sits on a kind of rail that moves backward and forward, in sync with the pumping action, to allow the robot to glide through water on a desired path.
The robotic fish now has a name: Grace, which stands for "Gliding Robot ACE."
Late last year Tan and his team took Grace for a test drive on the Kalamazoo River, where it exceeded all expectations.
"She swam at three sites along the river and wirelessly sent back sensor readings," Tan said. "I'm not sure, but we may have set a world record - demonstrating robotic fish-based sampling with commercial water-quality sensors in a real-world environment."
The Kalamazoo River is, of course, the site of a 2010 oil spill. Interestingly, the robot's crude oil sensor had some readings upriver from where the spill occurred, although the readings downstream from the spill site were higher.
Underwater gliders, or seagliders, are becoming more common in oceanography. In fact, one traveled all the way across the Atlantic Ocean in late 2009.
One major difference in Grace is that, aside from its swimming capability, it is about 10 times smaller and lighter than a commercial underwater glider.
Source: MSU
