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Sheffield engineers use 3D printing for a 1.5m-wide UAV prototype

Green Car Congress

The engineers said the polymer craft could form the basis of cheap and potentially disposable UAVs that could be built and deployed in remote situations potentially within as little as 24 hours. Using support material adds a direct material cost, and significantly increases build time, in some cases by an order of magnitude.

Engine 199
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Video Friday: Robots as Musical Instruments

Cars That Think

It turns out that the particles making up Bennu’s exterior are so loosely packed and lightly bound to each other that if a person were to step onto Bennu they would feel very little resistance, as if stepping into a pit of plastic balls that are popular play areas for kids. Twitter ] Thanks, Nicolas! RoMeLa ].

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We Don’t Need a Jetsons Future, Just a Sustainable One

Cars That Think

Where everyone had access to preventative health care that was both personalized and less invasive? What we need is something called cozy futurism, a concept I first encountered while reading a blog post by software engineer Jose Luis Ricón Fernández de la Puente. Take space travel as an example. But we can change our attitudes.

Future 117
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E Paper License Plates Now Street-Legal in California

Cars That Think

This year, auto dealers in California will be able to go beyond personalized license plate frames to sell “Kindle-ized” license plates, in which the entire plate can display custom text and graphics using e-paper technology. That license plate frame sporting a dealership name, sports team logo, or your favorite superhero? That’s so last year.

Legal 78
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Mazda Says Turbocharged Miata Best Left for Tuners

The Truth About Cars

The company allegedly just wanted a more free-revving engine to satisfy the person behind the wheel.& While it’s not clear that turbocharging anything within the segment makes good financial sense for the companies that have to build them, a subset of fans have been demanding forced induction for years. .& While the MX-5’s 2.0-liter

Mazda 98
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Inventing Postscript, the Tech That Took the Pain out of Printing

Cars That Think

It would have been quite different had Warnock and company not been in the right place at the right time to meet the right person. The time was right because of the imminence of three hardware developments: the first low-cost, bit-mapped personal computer, the first low-cost laser printer, and a decline in price of high-density memory chips.

Design 105
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First Look: 2024 Ford Ranger and Ranger Raptor

The Truth About Cars

What we found seemed to be a familiar concept with lots of little improvements that added up to something grander than what’s currently on offer. Normally, when you set out to build a jack of all trades, the end product tends to be kind of middling. But some of the materials used on the test models I previewed felt a little cheap.

Ford 98