Engineering FYI: Research and Innovation

In an effort to “improve fuel efficiency of big semi-trucks,” Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, NASA’s Ames Research Center, and Navistar Inc., are working together testing drag-reducing devices in a wind tunnel.

The goal is to increase diesel fuel efficiency by up to 12 percent in semi-trucks. The wind tunnel at NASA Ames is the largest in the world. Read event news release

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An engineering student at the University of Arizona, Matt Bunting, has created a “hexapod bot” that is drawing interest from its videos on YouTube.

The robot was built as part of a final class project on cognitive robotics. Hex uses a camera to “determine if it is moving forward, sideways, or backward or tilting.” Intel ordered two of the robots to show off at recent conferences. Read article and see video

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The Florida Today reported on an announcement from Space X, an upstart space company, about the Falcon 9, which will be the first rocket launched “to low-Earth orbit in the post-shuttle era.”

Skeptics remain about the “unproven rocket” created outside of NASA. Read the full article for more information on the scheduled launch of the Falcon 9.

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