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Green technology

upendra singh rathore — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 17:27:29 +0000

Environmental technology or green technology or clean technology is the application of the environmental science to conserve the natural environment and resources, and to curb the negative impacts of human involvement.
Examples of green technology subject areas

Energy
Perhaps the most urgent issue for green technology, this includes the development of alternative fuels, new means of generating energy and energy efficiency.

Green building
Green building encompasses everything from the choice of building materials to where a building is located.

Environmentally preferred purchasing
This government innovation involves the search for products whose contents and methods of production have the smallest possible impact on the environment, and mandates that these be the preferred products for government purchasing.

Green chemistry
The invention, design and application of chemical products and processes to reduce or to eliminate the use and generation of hazardous substances.

Green nanotechnology
Nanotechnology involves the manipulation of materials at the scale of the nanometer, one billionth of a meter. Some scientists believe that mastery of this subject is forthcoming that will transform the way that everything in the world is manufactured. “Green nanotechnology” is the application of green chemistry and green engineering principles to this field.

Upcoming 4G Technology

upendra singh rathore — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 11:37:26 +0000

4G, an acronym for Fourth-Generation Communications System, is a term used to describe the next step in wireless communications. A 4G system will be able to provide a comprehensive IP solution where voice, data and streamed multimedia can be given to users on an “Anytime, Anywhere” basis, and at higher data rates than previous generations. There is no formal definition for what 4G is; however, there are certain objectives that are projected for 4G. These objectives include: that 4G will be a fully IP-based integrated system. This will be achieved after wired and wireless technologies converge and will be capable of providing 100 Mbit/s and 1 Gbit/s speeds both indoors and outdoors, with premium quality and high security. 4G will offer all types of services at an affordable cost.

4G is being developed to accommodate the quality of service (QoS) and rate requirements set by forthcoming applications like wireless broadband access, Multimedia Messaging Service, video chat, mobile TV, High definition TV content, DVB, minimal service like voice and data, and other streaming services for “anytime-anywhere”. 4G in principle will allow high-quality smooth video transmission. It will enable fast downloading of full-length songs or music pieces in real time. The business of 4Gmobile is predicted to be huge. By 2009, this 4Gmobile market will be over $400B. This 4Gmobile technology will dominate the wireless communications, and its converged system will replace most conventional wireless infrastructure.

Thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD)

upendra singh rathore — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 13:05:05 +0000

Thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) is a variant of liquid crystal display (LCD) which uses thin-film transistor (TFT) technology to improve image quality (e.g., addressability, contrast). TFT LCD is one type of active matrix LCD, though all LCD-screens are based on TFT active matrix addressing. TFT LCDs are used in television sets, computer monitors, mobile phones, handheld video game systems, personal digital assistants, navigation systems, projectors, etc.The development of a thin-film transistor (TFT) technology for use with plastic substrates is still in its infancy. There is significant room for improvement in ultra-low temperature fabricated poly-Si TFTs. High mobilities, low leakage currents and threshold voltages are desirable for high-performance active-matrix LCD applications, particularly for the integration of driver circuitry, but low processing temperatures (<150ºC) must be maintained for compatibility with low-cost plastic substrate materials. In general, superior poly-Si TFT performance is achieved with higher-temperature fabrication processes, because the quality of the critical gate-dielectric interface is highly sensitive to process temperature. The inexpensive twisted nematic display is the most common consumer display type. The pixel response time on modern TN panels is sufficiently fast to avoid the shadow-trail and ghosting artifacts of earlier production.In-plane switching was developed by Hitachi Ltd. in 1996 to improve on the poor viewing angle and the poor color reproduction of TN panels at that time. Its name comes from the main difference from TN panels, that the crystal molecules move parallel to the panel plane instead of perpendicular to it. This change reduces the amount of light scattering in the matrix, which gives IPS its characteristic wide viewing angles and good color reproduction

Autonomous robots

upendra singh rathore — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 16:04:15 +0000

Autonomous robots are intelligent machines capable of performing tasks in the world by themselves, without explicit human control. Many kinds of robots have some degree of autonomy. Different robots can be autonomous in different ways. A high degree of autonomy is particularly desirable in fields such as space exploration, cleaning floors, mowing lawns, and waste water treatment.
Any Autonomous Robot consists of following essential parts.
1. Robot Chassis and actuators
Includes wheeled or any type of chassis with all the necessary actuators fitted on the chassis to achieve desired goal. We mostly use DC geared motors as actuators.
2. Electronics
Electronics includes Sensors, motion control circuits, power management system etc.
3. Power Source
Usually battery pack consisting of Lead acid, Nickel cadmium, Nickel metal hydride or Lithium batteries is used.
4. Intelligence
This is the most important part of the autonomous robots. Usually intelligence is achieved by using Microcontroller. First step in making an autonomous robot is to chalk out what tasks we are expecting the robot to perform. After gauging these we get a vague idea about the design and appearance of the robot.
A fully autonomous robot has the ability to
Gain information about the environment.
Work for an extended period without human intervention.
Move either all or part of itself throughout its operating environment without human assistance.
Avoid situations that are harmful to people, property, or itself unless those are part of its design specifications.

There are some advantages and disadvantages of autonomous robot:-

Robot with steering wheel:- Power for motion is provided by back wheels and turning is achieved using front wheels. This scheme is similar to that of cars.

Advantages:

1. When path to be followed is straight in nature with curved turns this configuration gives fastest speed and graceful path following.

2. Don’t need to modify left or right wheels velocity to follow the path. This is very advantageous when we want precision velocity control. In this case back wheels take care of velocity control and front wheels take care of direction control.

Disadvantages:

1. It will not able to take very sharp turns. Hence it is difficult to move robot on the grid of lines.

2. Somewhat difficult and expensive to make.
3. Front wheels will need position feedback to control turning control.

Robot with differential drive:-
A method of controlling a robot where the left and right wheels are powered independently.. For a smooth turn, rotate the wheels in the same direction but with different speeds. Greater the difference in speeds, smaller the radius of rotation..

Advantages:

1. Zero turning radius achievable.

2. Easy to move when path to be followed is contoured and zigzag in nature. E.g., navigating along the maze of lines.

Disadvantages:

1. If we want to move along curved path we have to control left and right motor’s velocity independently. Hence precision velocity control becomes difficult as actual velocity of the robot will be average of the both wheels.

There are several open problems in autonomous robotics which are special to the field rather than being a part of the general pursuit of AI.
Energy autonomy & foraging:-
Researchers concerned with creating true artificial life are concerned not only with intelligent control, but further with the capacity of the robot to find its own resources through foraging (looking for food, which includes both energy and spare parts). This is related to autonomous foraging, a concern within the sciences of behavioral ecology, social anthropology, and human behavioral ecology; as well as robotics, artificial intelligence, and artificial life.

CAN Technology

upendra singh rathore — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 16:27:08 +0000

Controller–area network (CAN or CAN-bus) is a vehicle bus standard designed to allow microcontrollers and devices to communicate with each other within a vehicle without a host computer.
CAN is a message based protocol, designed specifically for automotive applications but now also used in other areas such as industrial automation and medical equipment.The development of CAN began when more and more electronic devices were implemented into modern motor vehicles. Examples of such devices include engine management systems, active suspension, ABS, gear control, lighting control, air conditioning, airbags and central locking. All this means more safety and more comforts for the driver and of course a reduction of fuel consumption and exhaust emissions.
To improve the behavior of the vehicle even further, it was necessary for the different control systems to exchange information. This was usually done by discrete interconnection of the different systems. The requirement for information exchange has then grown to such an extent that a cable network with a length of up to several moles and many connectors was required. This produced throwing problems concerning material cost, production time and reliability. The solution to the problem was the connection of the control systems through a serial bus system. This bus had to fulfill some special requirements due to its usage in a vehicle.With the use of CAN, point-to-point wiring is replaced by one serial bus connecting all control systems. This is accomplished by adding some CAN-specific hardware to each control unit that provides the “rules” or the protocol for transmitting and receiving information via the bus. CAN or Controller Area Network is an advanced serial bus system that efficiently supports distributed control systems, It was initially developed for the use in motor vehicles by Robert Bosch Gmbh, Germany, in the late 1980s, also holding the CAN license. CAN is most widely used in the automotive and industrial market segments. Typical applications for CAN are motor vehicles, utility vehicles, and industrial automation. Other applications are trains, medical equipment, building automation, household appliances, and office automation.