Dyson 360 EYE Robotic Vacuum Cleaner - A system with vision

Dyson after numerous years of work has released its first robot vacuum cleaner. The Dyson 360 Eye took 16 years but Dyson's engineers think the time has come, entering a market where, as Dyson sees it, the entry will outshine others.

The company pointed out the problem with existing robots is that they have poor suction and don't navigate properly.

They would not be alone in seeing the need for robot cleaners to come closer to the performance of conventional models.



Dan Costa, editor in chief of PCMag, said "We've been testing robot vacuum cleaners at PCMag for years," and, overall, have found them to be pretty good but he also commented that they just aren't quite as good as traditional vacuums.

Dyson is attempting to change that impression of vacuum robots with its product's features.

First off, there is the high speed digital motor. They developed their own digital motor, and it enables them to generate greater suction than any conventional machine.

Another key feature is the 360-degree camera mounted on the top, which will constantly scan the room for obstacles.

The vision system lets the Dyson robot see where it is, where it has been and where it has yet to clean.

Gizmag said, "The cleaner's camera images at up to 30 frames per second to provide an accurate visualization of its surrounding environment. Dyson says the device is accurate to within millimeters."



Margaret Rhodes in Wired detailed how the camera functions. The Eye hinges on a 360-degree camera that views the room at a 45-degree angle and takes pictures; those photos become a live map of the room.

"The Eye undocks itself from a charging station affixed to the wall, near the floor. The robot triangulates its position in the room, finds the center, and starts spiraling outward. Once it has vacuumed 10 square feet, it relocates to clean a new patch."

"Infrared sensors keep the Eye aware of pets or thin table legs, but the bulk of the vacuum's spatial smarts come from the real-time map of the room."

This is a big change from robots that just change direction when bumping into something, said PCMag's Costa.



Next on the feature list, Dyson engineers designed Radial Root Cyclone technology which generates high centrifugal forces to capture particles as small as pollen and mould. The clear bin is made from tough polycarbonate.

A smartphone Link app lets the owner start, pause and schedule cleanings.

The company said It enables the owner to view maps of cleaning progress when not at home, activates a two-year guarantee, automatically downloads software updates and provides access to troubleshooting guides.

The price is not yet set; the Dyson 360 Eye, will be available in Japan next year before going worldwide.

NASA Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System: TDRS-K Video

As a vital information pipeline for space-based research and exploration ambitions, the TDRS constellation fulfills NASA's broadest communication demands.

Now into it's fourth operational decade, the TDRS legacy continues to be communications excellence.

The addition of the third generation of spacecraft will replenish the constellation and ensure that the critical lifeline of space-to-ground communication support will be available for many years to come.

This video is public domain and can be downloaded at: NASA TDRS-K Video

NASA to test IRVE-3 Inflatable Re-entry system

Your spacecraft is falling from the skies at an initial speed of Mach 25.

Your reentry heat shield, that has to survive a 7,800 degrees Celsius (14,072° F) plasma shock, is a finely tuned hi-tech amalgam of refractory metals and carbides and reinforced carbon-carbon ablation materials.

Care to replace your mighty heat shield with a balloon? Not likely! But that is exactly what NASA is considering.

This summer, the third in a series of NASA suborbital test flights will attempt to demonstrate the feasibility of inflatable spacecraft.

The Inflatable Reentry Vehicle Experiment (IRVE-3) is scheduled for a suborbital test flight from the Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia's Eastern Shore later this northern summer.

Part of the Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (HIAD) project within NASA's Office of the Chief Technologist's Game Changing Development (GCD) Program, IRVE-3 is one of NASA's many projects to develop new technologies to advance space travel.

ESA Astronaut Luca Parmitano‏: In Training for ISS mission

ESA's Italian Astronaut, Luca Parmitano‏ (@astro_luca), in training for ISS mission at JSC Houston. Waiting in the simulation airlock, going through his spacesuit checks, prior to an EVA.

ESA emergency telemedicine system soars to commercial success

The briefcase-sized Tempus IC telemedicine system puts non-medical cabin crew in contact with ground-based experts during in-flight medical emergencies.

Key information about the passenger’s health can be quickly transmitted via satellite to a dedicated response centre.

Watch the in-flight demo video on a BMI flight.

The same vital signs which are measured routinely in a hospital emergency room - including blood pressure and sugar levels, temperature and heart rate - are captured to a clinical level of quality.

At the same time, the crew can also talk with the medical specialists and send them still and moving pictures of the situation.

Credits: EDT

More on ESA Portal.....

NEO's and killer Asteroids: US interstellar defense shield

killer-space-rocks-americas-interstellar-defense-shield

Pan-Starrs/Brett Simison

The end of the world is coming but we’re prepared for it.

Astronomers in Haleakala, Hawaii have announced that the Pan-STARRS (Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System) telescope, PS1, is fully operational. Pan-STARRS will search for killer asteroids, supernovae (exploding stars) and other objects.

The facility in Hawaii boasts one of the largest digital cameras in the world, a 1,400 megapixel (1,400,000,000 pixels) device that can photograph and map one sixth of the sky every month. Pan-STARRS will allow astronomers to track any potential threats to the Earth.

Read more: News Feed

ESA Eumetsat: Meteosat not next generation weather system, yet

The ruling council of Europe’s Eumetsat meteorological satellite organisation failed to approve a $4.4 billion next-generation weather-satellite system when two of its 26 members withheld their votes, Eumetsat officials said.

With unanimity required to move the Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) program forward, the project will essentially stand still until these two nations, which Eumetsat declined to identify, give their written endorsement for the approval process to restart.

For reasons related to the work assigned to their respective industries, Germany and Spain raised questions about the MTG project, European government and industry officials said. One industry official said Portugal also has objections, but it was unclear whether Portugal or Spain had withheld its vote.

Eumetsat Director of Administration Angiolo Rolli said in an interview that the two nations that withheld their votes had nonetheless expressed support for MTG and said they would deliver a formal opinion on it by June 30.

MTG is a six-satellite system designed to provide some 20 years of meteorological data starting in 2016 or 2017. It is budgeted at about 3.3 billion euros ($4.4 billion), with Eumetsat paying 75 percent of the cost and the 18-nation European Space Agency (ESA) funding the remaining share.

Read the full article in Space News, here

China: Launches Beidou GPS Satellite system

China has developed a family of boosters over the years, including new development of a heavy-lift launcher to fly by 2011. Credit: China National Space Administration

A Chinese Long March rocket hauled a new navigation satellite to a high-altitude perch over Earth on Saturday, marking the first space launch of the year for the world's space programs.

The Long March 3C rocket blasted off from the Xichang space center at 1612 GMT (11:12 a.m. EST) Saturday, or just after midnight Sunday morning local time, state media reported.

The 180-foot-tall booster flew east from Xichang, which is situated in Sichuan province in southwestern China. The Beidou, or Compass, navigation satellite was placed on a trajectory toward geosynchronous orbit, according to the Xinhua news agency.

The satellite is the third member of the second-generation Beidou constellation. Two spacecraft were launched to medium Earth orbit and geosynchronous orbit in 2007 and 2009, respectively.

First-generation satellites were launched between 2000 and 2007 to test the Beidou concept in space and provide limited services for China.

China Launches Third Orbiter For Indigenous GPS

China took one step forward in its ambition to build an independent global navigation network (GPS) capable of rivaling foreign congeneric systems with the successful launch of a new orbiter into space early Sunday morning.

Boosted by a Long-March-3III carrier rocket into a geostationary orbit from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, it was the third orbiter China has launched for the network, also known as Beidou, or COMPASS system.

It will join another two already in orbits to form a network which will eventually have a total of 35 satellites, capable of providing global navigation service to users around the world around 2020.

The new orbiter and the carrier rocket were researched and developed by Chinese Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation and Chinese Academy of Carrier Rocket Technology respectively.

The network will have five satellites in geostationary orbit and another 30 in non-geostationary orbits, according to a plan for the COMPASS system.

According to the plan, the system will firstly provide navigation, time signal and short message services in the Asia and Pacific region around 2012.

The COMPASS system will provide both open and authorized services, according to China's satellite navigation project center.

The open service will be free of charge for the system's users within service area with a resolution of 10 meters for positioning, an accuracy of 10 nanosecond for time signal and an accuracy of 0.2 meter per second for speed measurement.

The authorised service will provide more accurate services for authorized users.

Mini Helicopter - Robotic Surveillance Device - Obstacle avoidance system

The helicopter in this video may weigh only 30 grams, but it carries a compass and motion sensors, can change course and warn fellow craft of obstacles it bumps into, and could even carry a small camera. It can also resist what might be called a King Kong attack – if swatted out of the air the tiny craft soon recovers and takes off again.

It was developed by researchers at Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley in Moffett Field, California. It would make a great toy, but the team's intentions are deadly serious. They aim to fly squadrons of "Sensorfly" craft that coordinate with each other to explore indoor environments – for instance, to check out buildings after a natural disaster.

The robots are built by adding custom processors, sensors and software to rotors and motors from an off-the-shelf toy helicopter. Each prototype costs only about $200 to build, says Pei Zhang, an electrical engineer working on the project with graduate student Aveek Purohit.