NASA: Boeing Supersonic Model Points to Fast Future

If human beings are ever to fly faster than the speed of sound from one side of the country to another, we first have to figure out how to reduce the level of sonic boom generated by supersonic flight.

Earlier this fall, a subscale model of a potential future low-boom supersonic aircraft designed by The Boeing Company was installed for testing in the supersonic wind tunnel at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland.

This model is a larger of two models used in the test.

The model contains a force measurement balance used to capture force measurements (lift, drag).

Depending on the type of test and on the tunnel, the model can be oriented any way. The picture model is actually upside down.

Another smaller model was used to capture measurements of the off-body pressures that create a sonic boom.

The tests are among those being conducted by NASA and its partners to identify technologies and designs to achieve a level of sonic boom so low that it barely registers on buildings and people below.

Image Credit: NASA/Michelle M. Murphy

Tail Assisted Dynamic Self Righting Robot - YouTube

This video is a demonstration of two robots, the 160g Tailbot (a 4 wheeled robot) and the 8.1kg XRL (a RHex hexapedal robot), using their inertial tails to perform aerial self righting behaviours.

What a difference a tail makes. Robots with tails can fly through the air while maintaining their orientation, evidence that appendages for robots can enhance performance and effectiveness.

Past research from UC Berkeley explored what happens when you give a wheeled robot a controllable tail, as that used by the lizard.

Now an extremely adept X-RHex Lite, or XRL for short, robot shows it can stay upright no matter how challenging the attempt is to make it do otherwise.

The XRL is the result of a collaboration between UC Berkeley and the University of Pennsylvania.

The robot is based on RHex, UPenn's original hexapod robot, but the most distinguishing features of the newer version are that it is more modular, and it has an actuated tail. The common challenge has been getting mobile robots to land and stay on their feet.

This work was presented at CLAWAR 2012, and the paper can be found here: http://kodlab.seas.upenn.edu/