The four-legged robot in the engineering lab at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., looks a bit like something out of a nightmare: a mechanical spider or a crawling hand. But the robot can do something that mechanical engineers have only dreamed about for decades. The robot learns how to move in its environment and reacts to physical changes. When it's damaged, it relearns how to walk.

The most remarkable thing about this robot, however,
is what it lacks—a preprogrammed map of its environment. As described in the November 17 edition of the journal Science, the machine uses stored sensory input and a computer algorithm to figure out where it is and how it's oriented. This self-reflexive ability may some day help other robots perform tasks as wide-ranging as exploring Mars or repairing complex machines.

This robot, built in a Cornell University laboratory, can figure out on its own how to crawl across a table.

The Cornell robot, created in the lab of Hod Lipson, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering, is programmed only with the knowledge of what its parts are, not where they are on its body or how to use them to crawl forward. But much like a newborn learns from trial and error, the robot sends commands to various actuators and notes the results. The key step comes next: The results are compiled and a model is created that best explains them. For instance, commands to separate motors on the same leg will cause the leg to stretch out.

After many cycles of model building, the robot tries to move forward. The results weren't exactly pretty, usually involving pulling itself across a table. Next, the researchers broke a bit off one of the legs and the robot had to figure out how to move all over again. But using the model-driven algorithm, the robot found a new way to ooch itself across the surface.

It's still too soon to begin building self-awareness into machines in the field, but in time, model-based algorithms could instill a real autonomy into robots tasked with performing in extreme conditions. Someday, for example, submersible robots may be able to automatically compensate for ocean currents as they work on oil pipelines.

The Japanese unit of a Chinese manufacturer has struck a distribution deal to market solar power equipment in Canada.

Suntech Power Holdings of Wuxi, China, a manufacturer of photovoltaic cells and modules, said that its subsidiary, MSK Corp., has reached an agreement with ARISE Technologies Corp. of Kitchener, Ontario, to distribute the MSK Just Roof system in Canada.

MSK calls Just Roof a "building integrated photovoltaic," or BIPV, system. It functions as a fully self-contained watertight roof structure, eliminating the need for traditional roofing materials below the panels, according to the company. The Just Roof product, which can be seamlessly integrated into home design, is particularly suited for new construction projects, but can also be retrofitted to existing rooftops.

"The Just Roof BIPV system offers individual homeowners a practical means of integrating solar energy generation systems into a building's structure," said Zhengrong Shi, Suntech's chairman and CEO.

"MSK's BIPV systems are already seeing substantial sales penetration in Japan, where they are even being offered as a standard feature by some of our home builder customers,"
he added.

Consumer demand for solar products in Canada may be driven by recent initiatives that are promoting the use of renewable energy.

Under Ontario's Standard Offer Program, the provincial government will pay approximately 37 cents per kilowatt-hour for power generated by solar energy over a period of 20 years. To promote this new policy, the Canadian government recently partnered with ARISE and MSK to install North America's first Just Roof system on a demo home in Waterloo, Ontario.

Since MSK Just Roof was first introduced, more than 4,000 systems have been installed in Japan. ARISE, which is dedicated to accelerating the use of solar energy in mainstream North American markets, will begin marketing the MSK Just Roof system early next year.

Suntech's subsidiary, MSK Corp., is one of Japan's largest PV manufacturers and a leader in building-integrated photovoltaics.

Suntech has customers in Europe, Japan, China, and the United States.

A manufacturer of antenna solutions, electromagnetic interference shielding products, telematics, and thermal management solutions, Laird Technologies, is branching out.

The St. Louis-based company last month made a pair of acquisitions: Steward Inc. and Coollab AB, which trades as "Supercool."

Laird Technologies purchased Steward and its subsidiaries for a total of $52.5 million.

Steward is a provider of ferrite-based products that are used to remove EMI "noise" and other signals at unwanted frequencies from conductors. Steward's revenues in its fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2006, were $50 million.

The company is based in Chattanooga, Tenn., and also has factories in Mexico and China.

Headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden, Supercool is a leading provider of custom-designed, thermoelectric-based assemblies, which are used in thermal management
applications that span a wide range of markets.

These products integrate thermoelectric modules, temperature control systems, heat exchangers, external packaging, and in some cases, fans or pumps to provide thermal management systems to customers. Supercool's products are used in a diverse range of applications in the telecommunications, medical, food and beverage, electronics, and automotive industries. Sales revenues for 2006 are expected to be $11 million. Laird paid $17.6 million for Supercool.

Supercool also has a business development center in San Rafael, Calif. The company's sales are concentrated in Europe, but sales growth is most rapid in North America.

Laird's products are used in the telecommunications, data-communications, computer, general electronics, network equipment, aerospace, defense, automotive, and medical equipment industries.

Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry will honor African-American industrial designers with a six-week interactive exhibit, Designs for Life,will start later this month. The exhibit, part of the Museum's annual Black Creativity program, hopes to focus attention on a career that bridges the gap between technology and consumer application.

"Industrial design is a career field that is not often recognized, but industrial designers make the products that we use every day," said Ricky Penick, chair of the 2007 Black Creativity program. "It's truly a career that blends science, technology, business, creativity, and artistry."

The Chrysler 300C, designed by Ralph Giles, captured more than 20 awards, including America's Most Wanted Automobile of 2005.

The exhibit features the designs of 30 African-Americans. Some, like Ralph Giles of DiamlerChrysler Corp., are well-known superstars. Giles' Chrysler 300C, with its fat front grille and hip-hop flair, was a very big success for the company. It also picked up more than 20 awards, including America's Most Wanted Automobile of 2005.

The exhibition also features Edward T. Welburn Jr., vice president of global product development at General Motors Corp., whose highlights range from racing vehicles and concept cars to trucks and Hummers. GM design manager Crystal Windham, who develops Saturns, is also featured in the show.

Automotive stylists may be superstars of the design world, but others have made equal contributions in areas that are so common that we tend to take them for granted.

Charles Harrison, a retired academic, was the first African-American executive hired by Sears Roebuck. He had his hand in everything, from the View-Master and the first plastic garbage can to back massagers, hedge clippers, fishing equipment, and can openers.

Carole Bilson, vice president of global design and usability for Pitney Bowes Inc., has won awards for business products easy enough for consumers to use. Lamont Morris of Hasbro Inc. has designed scores of toys, from the Play-Doh Compound Extruder and Weebles Playground to Bubbles the Pup and the Real Meal Oven.

Roy Thompson, lead designer with Proteus Design of Cambridge, Mass., has worked on DJ turntables and padlocks. Vince Haley, director of product development at Design Inspiration in Orrville, Ohio, has put in time on everything from suddenly ubiquitous gift wrap storage containers to vacuum cleaners, mops, and insect foggers.

According to the museum, guests at the exhibit will be able to try to develop their own designs. In addition to the industrial design exhibit, Designs for Life will include educational programming, a juried art exhibition, symposia, performances, a fundraising gala, and a career bowl for Chicago-area students. The exhibit will be open from Jan. 12 through Feb. 28.

Runway debris, known in the airport industry as foreign object debris, or FOD, can be as small and seemingly innocuous as a broken suitcase wheel, a bolt, or a discarded plastic bag. But small, lost parts have the potential to do serious, sometimes catastrophic, damage to aircraft.

A report on the July 2000 Paris Concorde crash, in which 113 people died, said investigators suspected that a metal strip found on the runway could have gashed one of the plane's tires.

That was an extreme case, and plane crashes are relatively rare in our time. But the debris costs plenty. Each year, loose objects on airport runways, taxiways, and aprons cost the global aviation industry an estimated $4 billion, said Brett Patterson, the director of operations, safety, and planning for the Vancouver International Airport Authority.

Vancouver International has installed a system that detects runway debris via radar, so it can find small objects loose on the airport's runways in all kinds of weather.

The airport now uses the radar system called Tarsier from QinetiQ of Farnborough, England, home of the Farnborough Air Show. QinetiQ said the system can detect and locate small objects to within a few feet of where they are on the ground.

QinetiQ developed its detection system in the wake of the Concorde crash, said Hal Kruth, group managing director for the company's security sector.

Before the installation of Tarsier, airport employees personally went out and inspected airport runways between takeoffs and landings. It is common practice at all airports, Patterson said, and visual checks are still done at Vancouver International.

Debris management measures also include strategically placing garbage barrels at locations where loose objects are most likely to be discovered.

Four Tarsier radar units at the Vancouver airport provide continuous coverage of the north and south runways, each of which is nearly two miles long. The four units are mounted on towers set back from the runway for maximum coverage. A display unit provides the airport authority's operations team with all-weather, around-the-clock runway pictures in its operations center. The display unit gives staff coordinates of reported debris. Coordinates are entered into a vehicle's GPS navigation system so that staff can go directly to the location and retrieve the object.

In anticipation of forthcoming U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and European Aviation Safety Agency rules, Airbus has awarded Parker Hannifin Corp. of Cleveland the fuel tank inerting system contracts for the Airbus A400M military transport aircraft and Airbus long-range and single-aisle aircraft. These aircraft could include the A318, A319, A320, A321, A330, and A340.

The value of the contracts could exceed $500 million over the life of the programs, which are respectively forecast to extend over several decades. Parker is a leader in motion and control technologies.

The Parker fuel tank inerting system uses air separation modules, or ASMs, which remove oxygen from air and distribute the nitrogen-rich result to the aircraft's center fuel tank, thereby reducing the flammability of fuel vapors in the tank.

As the tier-one integrator, Parker will provide the core inerting technology subsystem consisting of the ASMs that produce the nitrogen and integrate it with a temperature-control subsystem developed by Liebherr Aerospace, Airbus's primary environmental-control-system supplier.

The ASM fiber technology for the Airbus programs is patented and owned by Parker.

The Parker inerting system is expected to enter into service on Airbus aircraft in 2009.

BorgWarner Inc. of Auburn Hills, Mich., has nearly doubled the size of its engine group manufacturing facility in
Pyongtaek, South Korea. The 90,000-square-foot plant, which opened in 2003, will manufacture engine timing systems for Hyundai and Kia. Annual volumes are expected to exceed three million engines by 2010.

Noble International Ltd. of Warren, Mich., has signed a long-term joint venture agreement with a wholly owned subsidiary of Wuhan Iron and Steel Co. to enter the Chinese automotive market for laser-welded blanks. The new company will operate under the name WISCO Noble Laser Welding Technology Co. Ltd. WISCO is the third-largest steel producer in China.

The U.S. Army has awarded General Dynamics Land Systems of Sterling Heights, Mich., a $305 million contract to reset and upgrade 312 M1A2 Abrams main battle tanks returning from Operation Iraqi Freedom. The upgrade is being carried out under a new program called Improved Systems Enhancement Package Reset.

Newly released CFdesign version 9 computational fluid flow software from Blue Ridge Numerics of Charlottesville, Va., enables engineers to set up and view first-pass fluid flow and heat transfer simulations.

Victrex plc has received U.S. FDA approval of two high-temperature coatings, Vicote 708 and 709, for use in food processing and related industrial application. The coatings, made with a high-temperature version of the company's PEEK polymer, are part of a series of coatings introduced during 2006.

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