“People remember not what you said but how you made them feel”
– Maya Angleou
1. Tesla Bot
It looks like Tesla’s putting their robot vision system to actual robot use instead of just having their cars kill motorcyclists. Harsh words? Maybe, but cutting safety redundancies IS NOT a viable (or ethical) means to cut costs. In an ideal world, this would kill a car company, but alas, America’s addicted to auto loan debt, or else Dieselgate would have killed VW. Boston Dynamics says they’re looking forward to competing against Tesla’s humanoid robot. That’s cute. Boston Dynamics is about to dunk on Tesla.
2. Record AM Part Order
Allegedly! Merit3D is working with Adhesives Technology to deliver the largest 3D printing order ever: 1 million parts. Innovative design saves them thousands in inventory and new injection molding tool costs. Additionally, Merit3D is taking advantage of state-level reshoring grants and working to reduce the cost of 3D printing resins to compete with injection molding. I only question the claim because let’s not forget that Formlabs was printing roughly 100,000 nasal swabs per day during the pandemic!
3. Robot Rabbit Food
Sweetgreen’s Infinite Kitchen robot system assembles salads with fresh ingredients more efficiently than before. The system is still in its pilot phase, and Sweetgreen is testing it to see how customers and employees respond. The cost of the robotic system is higher than the traditional salad assembly methods. However, if the system is a success, it could reduce labor costs and staff sizes while providing customers with more accurate and faster salad assembly.
4. 3DP to the Technological Limits
Chemist Dmitry Momotenko and his research team have developed an innovative 3D printing-enabled technique for creating ultrasmall metallic objects, such as three-dimensional batteries that can be charged incredibly quickly and atom by atom. It also has many potential applications in areas such as microelectronics, nanorobotics, and sensor and battery technology. He and his team continue to improve the technique and explore new possibilities in areas such as spintronics and the detection of very small molecules.
5. Photovoltaic Windows
At least that’s the application I thought of when I saw this. Or powering smart sunglasses. I digress. This new research demonstrates the potential of highly transparent solar cells to generate electricity from ultrathin, nearly invisible coats of material. These cells can be integrated into windows, vehicles, and even human skin to generate power while retaining high levels of visibility. If further developed and optimized, these solar cells could be revolutionary, leading to a cleaner, more sustainable future.
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