Why are Robots Shaped like Humans?

According to the Greek mythology, it is said that we make and imagine our inventions to always look like us. We even imagine an alien or a ghost that look like us. This can be the probable reason why we design robots that look like humans. Technology that is now making the robots intelligent is also teaching them how to be humans. As humans, we try to align our imageries and take inspirations from our environment, which also inspires us to design robots in a humanoid shape.

Many factors may govern our imagination of a human-like robot:

  • To impose the same constraints on them, as the world imposes on us.
  • The closer the design is to humans, the better it will navigate and manipulate the human world.
  • To make them interact with us as we interact with each other.

After being able to design a humanoid, we are still far from the technology that will allow these humanoids to adopt the human abilities completely. If we ever reach such a level of technology, we will give rise to a new species, for whom the human race will simply be like a cannon-fodder in military combat.

Introducing 5 Books Every Engineer Should Read to Boost Their Career

For improving your technical abilities and dealing better with peers, here are the five books that would help you to grow faster.

  1. The Design of Everyday Things – Donald A. Norman

About – Reflection on daily use objects including computers, light switches, door handles, etc.

  1. Structures: Or Why Things Don’t Fall Down – J.E. Gordon

About – Narrates principles of structural engineering and basic forces of bridges, dams, etc.

  1. Basic Machines and How They Work, Revised (1994) Edition – Naval Education and Training Program

About – Elaborates theory, design, and application of mechanical products.

  1. Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future – Ashlee Vance

About – Insights about great entrepreneur, Elon Musk and his inspirational journey.

  1. How to Win Friends and Influence People – Dale Carnegie

About – Simple and easy techniques of winning people around you.

Next Generation: Apartment of the Future Concept Design

The design of the apartments have evolved in the last few years, and will continue developing with technology advancements. The apartment of the future is a complete new concept, it pervades and enhances as the architects and designers adopt new styles and feats.

Below listed are a few technologies that are comprises to define apartment of the future:

Delivery Drones

These drones can drop off packets and other utilities into another apartment safely and securely. This technology will lower down the use of elevator system as it will help people in delivering things to another resident’s apartment with the help of drone.

Robotic Parking

It will become an essential feature within the apartments as the site size will decrease, and automatic parking will make systematic sequencing of cars while saving valuable space and time. As a part of robotic parking, drone landing pads will be also used so that cars can be transported vertically outside the building to the right parking location. The car drivers will then be able to instruct parking with the touch of a smartphone app.

Self-Driving Cars

Within the few years, the roads are going to experience autonomous cars dominating the urban areas. There will be special parking for those vehicles that can automatically park themselves while for human-driven cars, the apartments will accommodate robotic parking system as listed above.

Smart Exteriors

In the process of creating apartments for the future, designers will propose only the lightweight and incredible strong carbon fibre. Such kinetic façade exterior will out bring energy and movement combined with energy efficient LED lighting that will assist in growth of vegetation. Therefore, the apartment of the future will produce solar as well as wind energy as a feature of smart exteriors.

Luxury Amenities

Residents in the apartments of the future are going to enjoy the on-the-go lifestyle which includes one feature as smart phone enabled entry. The residents can provide limited access time to enter and also reset the time as per the requirement. There will be bigger and functional closet spaces into rooms and also huge balconies. The residents will also experience gas cook tops and recycled glass counter tops in the kitchens.

What’s new in Ansys 19?

ANSYS 19 is also known as the Next Generation Pervasive Engineering Simulation technology. With the expanding digital world and growing data, companies are struggling with the pressure to improve performance to deliver high-quality products within a limited time. ANSYS 19, is designed to empower such engineers and professionals to contribute to the overall productivity. The enhanced capabilities of the technology aim to produce accurate results. Here are some of the many features that will support Pervasive Engineering Simulation.

3D Design

ANSYS 19 now introduced the new 3D design family of products.

  • The package includes a real-time simulation environment that is developed to help engineers explore their designs and concepts.
  • The CAD modeling capabilities of the ANSYS Discovery SpaceClaim now have new assembly configurations.
  • Some of its supporting exploded views help engineers generate more efficient designs.

The technology helps to build upon topology optimization so that users can observe live progression to solve steps and make informed decisions.

Embedded Software

ANSYS 19 now has powerful capabilities to carry out tasks. These tasks include:

  • Workflow integration
  • Performance and usability
  • A fully certified embedded software with a Human-Machine Interface (HMI) and
  • Design capabilities

The technology is also supported by some dedicated solutions for automotive and avionics system and software. Added features here included capabilities for multi-rate application designs and enhanced HMI design capabilities that comply with ARINC 661 and that qualify for ISO 26262 and DO- 178C.

Electromagnetics

With the new technology, engineers can now design wireless, electrification and autonomous technology. The improved features of the technology include radar cross section analysis innovative electronic machine design, integrated electro-thermal analysis, and also a design kit to offer enhanced user experience with all the electromagnetic field simulation tools.

Semiconductors

To meet the growing demands of the next generation computing capabilities, which is not only automotive, but also is mobile, and delivers high performance computing through the advanced system. The technology thus demands products that are bigger, faster, and more complex. The simulation environment offered by ANSYS 19 delivers a platform that is more comprehensive, enabled for Big Data and capable of solving different design attributes such as thermal properties, power noise, performance and reliability across the spectrum accelerating your product success.

Systems

ANSYS 19 offers some of the most powerful capabilities in two crucial work areas:

  • System simulation for battery management design and deployment
  • Functional safety and analysis to use across all safety-critical industries

ANSYS 19 now has some enhanced features to help engineers easily model the complete design of a battery management system. Another add-on, ANSYS Simplorer helps the engineers to simulate and test the entire system after design and development. ANSYS 19 expands the functional safety analysis across all industries.

CAD Predictions for 2018

The rapid technological advancements are changing the shape of the world. Innovations are going up, and software is continuously upgrading. So why CAD tools remain obsolete? Thus, to maintain pace with the advancing technology, CAD tools are continually evolving. So, to understand this change in a better way, listed below are the 2018 predictions of CAD.

Three-tier Automation

Currently, automation is the most trending technology in the engineering world. From agriculture to automobile everything is automated. So CAD follows the trend and implements three levels of automation in product design which are illustrated below:

Assistive Automation tends to reduce the friction created by trivial tasks, such as assemblies, which are repetitive and consumes a lot of time.

Augmentative Automation implements Multiphysics simulations to assist engineers in decision making. Under this automation, engineers only need to focus on problem formulation and remaining all the functions will be performed automatically by the system.

Autonomous Automation is an automation technique which works automatically without any human interference.

Double Benefit of IoT and Mechatronics The convergence of mechanical and electrical design in mechatronics and the power of IoT has the potential to revolutionize CAD in 2018. Gradually, the difference between electrical and mechanical designs is fading away which is promoting the mechatronic technology, such as robots in which sensors are connected to circuit boards in a mechanical body. Furthermore, IoT innovations are enabling manufacturers to receive information from products to improve designs. Overall, this dual power of mechatronics and IoT will transform product designing in 2018.

CAD Cloud

2018 will be powered by cloud CAD where all the CAD programs will run entirely on the cloud. Recently, SOLIDWORKS announced that it plans to launch cloud-based CAD program called SOLIDWORKS X design. Similarly, Autodesk also has cloud-based CAD platform named Fusion 360. These development show cloud technologies will be a leading force in 2018.

Augmented CAD

Augmented reality will shape the future of CAD in 2018. The increasing popularity of augmented reality allows engineers to collaborate their product designs in an efficient manner making it possible for the stakeholders to interact with 3D models.

Although CAD tools will go many transitions and transformations in 2018; however, the primary focus will remain only on these four aspects: Automation, IoT and Mechatronics, Cloud CAD, and Augmented CAD. Overall, in 2018 CAD software will evolve many folds and will transform the shape of the design industry.