Motion tracking for exercise, gaming, and even safety has been around for quite a while now, but it always required cameras or body scanning for effective tracking. That changes now with, as you might have…
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Engineers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a new kind of airplane wing made up of tiny identical pieces. What’s special about this morphing wing is its ability to change shape to control the aircraft’s flight. If done right, it could boost airplane production significantly and improve maintenance efficiency.
The engineers tested the new morphing wing in a NASA wind tunnel. Instead of using separate movable pieces to construct the whole thing, MIT did it under a new assembly system that makes it possible to deform the wing or parts of it by incorporating a mix of stiff and flexible components in its structure.
In other words, they created the component through micro-assemblies, the result of which is then bolted together to form an open, lightweight lattice framework. Then the engineers covered it with a thin layer of polymer material.
The result is wing that’s much, much lighter than conventional airplane wings. More importantly, much more energy efficient. And that’s even if it’s made of metal composites. Because the structure consists mostly of empty spaces, it forms a mechanical “metamaterial” that has the structural stiffness of a rubber-like polymer. But it’s light and low-density like that of an aerogel.
This same system could pave the way for other structures, too, and not just aircraft wings. For instance, wind-like blades of wind turbines. Or structures related to space. It’s a potentially massive leap in the assembly line, and hopefully aircraft makers take notice. It’s still pretty early technology, but the possibilities are certainly promising.
Photos courtesy of MIT
Today, Lamborghini released a teaser of what it’s calling the “vision for the super sportscar of the future.” The new concept will debut next week in a partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and there’s buzz that it might employ a nontraditional type of battery to boost performance. MIT is, after all, working on solid-state lithium batteries with greater energy density and perhaps a lower failure rate. More energy density could mean either lower weight per unit or greater energy storage overall. Both would be excellent attributes for a high-performance Lamborghini.
EmTech 2017 is a tech conference hosted each year at MIT. It may sound strange to reveal a concept outside of an auto show, but this really isn’t all that much difference than a new debut at CES in Las Vegas. And if MIT is lending a hand with some of the tech this car will use, and if it’s as groundbreaking as we think it might be, even more reason to debut it at this conference.
We don’t know exactly what the concept will preview. It could be an advanced technology demonstrator, or it could preview a replacement for the Lamborghini Aventador. We’ll know more next week.
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