No. 174: Eurus Energy constructs a large photovoltaic power plant in the U.S. (September 25, 2010)

Eurus Energy will construct one of America’s largest photovoltaic power plants with an investment of about \18.5 billion, responding to President Obama’s Green New Deal. The plant has an output of 45,000 kW that is equivalent to the electricity consumed by 10,000 households. It will be constructed on the 200-acre farmland in the southern part of the state of California. Construction will start by the end of this month, and the plant will be put into operation next June. At present, the largest photovoltaic power plant in the U.S. has an output of 25,000 kW. The management company for the plant was established by Eurus and the local generation company on a 50:50 basis. Generated electricity will be sold to energy suppliers for 20 years. One third of the construction cost is the subsidy from the U.S. government. The total output of photovoltaic generation in the U.S. was 477,000 kW. The U.S. is the fourth largest, following Germany, Italy, and Japan. The U.S. is expected to be second largest in 2012.
Related web page: http://www.eurus-energy.com/english/index.html

No. 173: Artificial intelligence capable of understanding common sense (September 24, 2010)

Dentsu that is Japan’s leading ad agency and Nihon Unisys will jointly start research and development of artificial intelligence that allows for spontaneous conversation with human in alliance with Media Lab of MIT of the U.S. They try to incorporate common sense and the language sense of ordinary Japanese in the computer to realize spontaneous conversation. They plan to apply the AI technology to the response system of the call center or search technology using ambiguous terms. They will construct a database containing one million combinations of common senses and terms that ordinary Japanese use in daily life in two years. AI that has the learning function is expected to understand the intention behind the terms. They will shortly open a website for the word association game to collect common senses and sense and feeling. The constructed database will be provided to other companies and researchers for free for wider utilization.
Related web page: http://www.dentsu.com/index.html

No. 172: New technology for recycling resins used in home electronics (September 23, 2010)

Panasonic developed a new technology to recycle resins used in home electronics. The new technology sorts out necessary resins from shredder dust containing several kinds of resins and metal pieces using near-infrared ray. It picks three kinds of resins of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, polypropylene, and polystyrene at a precision of higher than 99%. If near-infrared light is irradiated to resin pieces, the waveform of reflected light varies with the kinds of resin pieces. Using this characteristic, the equipment made up of a belt conveyor and air injectors sorts out necessary resins. Because the equipment can eliminate resins that contain bromine, it is possible to make reprocessed resin that conforms to RoHS, the environment standards of the European Union. The demonstrative equipment has been set up. Panasonic plans to recycle 1,000 tons of 5,000 tons of shredder dust it produces annually in 2011.
Related web page:
http://osaka.yomiuri.co.jp/eco/news/20100923-OYO8T00251.htm

No. 171: Robot moving around on the shortest possible route (September 22, 2010)

A research team led by an associate professor of Tokyo Institute of Technology developed a robot that can move around taking the shortest possible route without colliding with people and obstacles even in the crowd. The robot can know his location and learn the situation around him with the help of the image processing technology that can draw a map unaffected by the moves of people. Such preparations such drawing lines for leading are not necessary. This kind of autonomous locomotion is unprecedented. It contributes to the development of a robot useful in living environment, and creates a wide range of applications in such fields as household, public facilities, and distribution services. The team confirmed that the robot moved autonomously taking the shortest possible route precisely in the experiment conducted in the crowd of the school cafeteria.
Related web page: http://www.titech.ac.jp/english/index.html

No. 170: Humanoid robot for the development platform is ready (September 21, 2010)

National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Japan’s leading research agency of advanced technology, announced that it developed the humanoid robot HRP-4 in alliance with Kawada Industries in Tokyo. Starting in January next year, the newly developed robot will be shipped to universities and research agencies both at home and abroad as the platform for the development of humanoid robot. Kawada Industries wishes this new robot to be used as the platform for the development of technology for the collaboration between man and robot. The new robot is smaller than the existing robot. It is 151 cm tall that is about 3 cm shorter and weighs 39 kg that is 19 kg lighter than the existing robot. The axis of the robot has 34 degrees of freedom including 7 degrees of freedom with one arm. The two organizations successfully reduced the cost by using standardized parts and components. The one arm can carry 0.5 kg. The software platform “Open TRM-aist” is used for the control system. The new robot is priced at 26 million yen that is 30% lower than the existing humanoid robot.
Related web page:
http://www.aist.go.jp/aist_j/press_release/pr2010/pr20100915/pr20100915.html

No. 169: Technology to open the way to the ultrahigh-speed PC (September 20, 2010)

Hitachi developed the technology to produce laser parts vital to the optical circuit of the ultrahigh-speed PC at a lower cost. With the help of nanotechnology, it successfully amplified luminescence and light using the hard-to-flash silicon material that is used in semiconductors. The company set a silicone wafer as thin as about one nanometer at intervals of 30 nanometers and located an element that emits light because light is amplified inside it. Because the existing semiconductor technology is used, the production cost will be less than one tenth of the case that uses a difference material. Chemical semiconductors like gallium nitride can be used for the semiconductor-based laser, but they require great care and take much time for production. Silicone allows for a lower production cost because it can be produced together with the existing semiconductors. Before long, the company is expected to develop a laser connecting lights between 100 circuits on a one-centimeter-square LSI. Related web page: http://www.hitachi.com/

No. 168: Detachable photovoltaic panel with hook and loop fastener (September 19, 2010)

Obayashi Corp., one of Japan’s leading general contractors, developed detachable thin photovoltaic panel with hook and loop fastener. The company integrated the bendable amorphous photovoltaic panel with the protective film to allow the user to stretch and unstick it manually for easy installation and easy change of installation location. It is now confirming such performance as durability and generating efficiency of the trial product installed on the roof of the company research laboratory. It plans to install it in the open space in the construction site within the year. It is scheduled to produce it on a commercial basis after next year and market it to facilities like the event site. Because the new product can be put on the curved wall, it has more installable locations than the nondetachable panel. It costs considerably less to install this new photovoltaic panel than the conventional one because the platform on which the conventional type product is installed is not necessary, though the former has lower generating efficiency than the latter.
Related web page: http://www.obayashi.co.jp/english/index.html