In the beginning of September 2021 Moscow first-graders could visit 17 educational places. Those who participate in the ‘First Grade September’ event will gain knowledge about relevant professions, will visit the programming and 3D modeling courses and will find out more about AR/VR technologies and robotics (you can learn more about educational robotics here).
Today, we will talk about the major trends that have had the most significant impact on the development of robotics as well as dwell upon what has been new in the world of modern robots in recent years.
Popularization of robotics
Nowadays robotics is widely used in manifold industries, its significance is well understood in financial circles, and it is popularized by the media. Efficiency, reliability, low error rates, and high productivity are the hallmarks of today's automation, with modern robotic arms becoming ever more widespread.
Over the past years, special sections on robotics have appeared in major world publications, including The Economist, The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, and many others. In addition, many financial institutions and consulting firms such as McKinsey and Deloitte issue ad hoc reports on modern manufacturing technologies, their impact on industry, job creation, and employment in general.
Top Systems participated in both the science-business part and exhibition side of things of the forum. The company presented their PLM-solution for digital transition of enterprises. The T-FLEX PLM (covers (CAD/CAM/CAE/CAPP/PDM/CRM/PM/MDM/RM) is a compelling and relevant solution that can work even with the defense industry.
Autodesk presented new capabilities of its Fusion 360 software, as well as a whole package of solutions for designers, engineers and manufacturers. The company also how these abilities can be utilized for faster and collaborative production. The improvements allow Autodesk to equip engineers, designers, manufacturers and innovators with modern tools needed for solving current issues.
Instead of desktop 3D printers, such as Raise3D E2, today we will talk about a metal 3D printer. Chinese company Farsoon offers the FS273M additive manufacturing system that works with laser powders. It’s a modernized version of the FS271M LPBF (Laser Powder Bed Fusion) 3D printer that is offered with one or two lasers.
Link to GitHub. More details about the operation of the algorithm and the module can be found here.
The ACME protocol client is used to automatically obtain a security certificate for your site. Basically everyone uses Let's Encrypt to get a free certificate and auto-renewal. But there are other services, such as Zero SSL. It also supports the ACME protocol.
I relied on two articles from Habr (this and this), as well as RFC8555. But the information in them was not enough to implement their own version of the modulation. At least several times higher than several implementations of the module [at another level]. The tests were conducted on a live service, so there are no autotests yet. You can write and init pull request.
The module is written under Linux. Only the second version of the protocol is considered.
Belgian FGF (Fused Granulate Fabrication) 3D printers manufacturer Colossus and Dutch material supplier colorFabb signed a partnership agreement regarding pushing high-efficient large-format 3D printing with the usage of foam granular polymers (We’ve written about large-format 3D printing before. As an example, read our review of the Modix Big-60 3D printer).
Andreas Muller, 3D printing enthusiast, developed an open-source project that makes color printing with regular FDM 3D printers possible with the custom system of replaceable printheads and permanent color marker pens.
German company AIM3D has announced the new generation of the extruders for 3D printing with granules of carbon-fiber and glass fiber polymer composites, as well as composite ceramic- and metal-filled materials.
VIAM (All-Russian Institute of Aviation Materials) held the 7th international conference “Additive Technologies: Present and Future” on 7-8th October 2021.
A heart needs to function properly. pumping blood and getting rid of CO2 in that blood. Modern technology provides solutions for the doctors, sometimes with the help of 3D printing. Cardiac phantoms would be one example, since they can be used for mimicking anatomical imaging tasks.
The use of 3D printing for making cardiac phantoms was recently described in the study called ‘Optimisation of CT protocols for cardiac imaging using three-dimensional printing technology,’ by Kamarul Amin Abdullah of the University of Sydney.
It covers making a cardiac insert phantom, placing it inside the “Lungman” multi-functional chest phantom and performing a CT scan. The last step covers the use of algorithms for dose optimization.
Phantoms are the solution to optimize and refine imagery, especially for CT scans. and evaluate the needed dose of radiation. The latter is more important than it sounds, since various studies show that radiation doses from CT scans have been steadily on the rise during recent years in both Australia and the US.
Since the CT scan technology is more widely available today than ever before, the level of radiation exposure continues to be a cause for concern. There are various solutions to reduce cancer risk during exposure, including tube current reduction, low tube voltage, other protocols, ECG-gating and Bismuth shielding, as well as others, including iterative reconstruction (IR) algorithms.
The usage of phantom-based dose optimization methodology proves to be advantageous, especially for imaging of coronary issues, since basing studies only on real patients has its own limits.
Video is one of the simplest and most attractive formats for information perception. Especially now, in the era of TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. It is not surprising that marketing specialists often choose video format for business promotion.
The All-Russian Institute of Aviation Materials (VIAM) showed its own developments in the field of additive technologies, including a series of small-sized gas-turbine engines MGTD-10, MGTD-20 and MGTD-150.
Reverse engineering of such parts can be done using 3D scanners. You can see some examples and sample deviations here.
Shayaan is a Bahraini boy who was born without both arms in 2006. His rare disorder is called dysmelia. And now his mother is reaching for modern technologies to help her son perform simple tasks that people without limb differences take for granted.
His mother, Fadia, said in the interview: “On 11th December 2006 I had my second child. My son Shayaan, was born that day bringing with him shock, disbelief and unimaginable pain. He was born with no arms. We were all mourning instead of celebrating the new addition in the family. While the whole family cried, my older son Sheheryar (6 at the time) accepted his younger brother with open arms and an open heart!”
She added: “Sheheryar showed me all the body parts that Shayaan had, rather than focusing on the ones he did not. I then looked at my baby for hours concentrating on his tiny eyelids and ears that showed the most intricate network of capillaries and wondered how the creator could miss making his arms? How could he forget and how could he make a mistake?”
Chinese company Weistek offers low-price desktop MSLA 3D printers with 2K monochrome screens.
United Engine Corporation (UEC) that is a part of Russian state corporation Rostec launched a regional technological projects accelerator named RybAcc. The list of relevant tasks include several things related to optimization of 3D modeling, 3D printing, as well as tooling processes of metal and polymer products, including composite 3D printing.
Nine days of festivals of ideas and technologies of the Kruzhok (the Kruzhoks are the student communities in Russia) movement of the National Technology Initiative took place in Russian regions in late 2021. They celebrated the Russian year of Science. as well as the 100-th anniversary of the Kruzhok movement in Russia. The places that hosted the events were chosen in September 2021. During the same period, Top 3D Shop held several workshops on the use of the Einscan HX 3D scanner, the full program is available here.
Comparing PHP-FPM, NGINX Unit, and Laravel Octane - what to choose for developing microservices.
3D printing startups often struggle. Despite growing demands and optimistic predictions, the pandemic negatively affected the industry: the material shortage, logistical problems, lockdowns and factory shutdowns form the conditions that are far from perfect. But new interesting ideas still emerge and it seems that the pandemic is far from being the main problem for startups.
Technically, each of those businesses goes through similar stages: from searching for ideas and like-minded people to attracting investors and scaling up. But this article will not cover the product release but will rather be focused about the things that a startup would face out of its ‘garage’.
