Science can make robots virtually indestructible, omniscient and powerful. Daily human preoccupation and toil will rarely need such robotic qualities. Robots of today are used in various purposes and undesirability is nowhere in that level. Powerful may be correct as most are AI-based or have inferential engines to assist in decision making processes while many others are powerfully built in factories and science labs dealing with toxic substances or adverse conditions that pose physical hazards to the frail human body, but hardly omniscient.

Interactivity

Robotic contraptions work on programmed instructions that depend on its interaction with external stimulus. Sensory perceptions become their means for data input employing electrodes that give them the tactile sensory ability to determine size, form, shape, temperatures and consistencies of substances. Tiny cameras can give them visual acuity while microphones impart aural sensitivity to recognize speech patterns in spoken commands.

But interactivity won’t be complete with a response these stimuli. The most common is in performing tasks specific to their purpose like those assembly robots in manufacturing plants. Some experimental robots do have speech capability but the more mundane robotic application just mimics the same I/O interfaces of computers like printers and displays.

Manipulation and Mobility

Being able to recognize objects, pick them up, handle, process and deliver them is another major trait of robotic contractions. Mechanical hand-like servo-controlled grippers from simple tong-like structures, vacuum-suction grippers to more complex gripping devices are essential in many robotic applications that require handling of objects for assembly and processing.

Locomotion

Short of saying mobility, current robots have restricted movements and most robotic applications in manufacturing plants are stationary. But there are robots that move on motorized wheels with rudimentary GPS-like direction finding facility to move around and deliver things that humans may consider menial. Sophisticated hospitals employ such robots to deliver medication to patients in every floor and can interface with computer-controlled elevators to bring them to different floors in the building as needed.

Other modes of locomotion include flight extensively used in the military service like the unmanned RQ-4 Global Hawk drone aircraft used for enemy surveillance and bombing missions which serve the same purpose as targeting missiles but are able to return after their missions are done. They fall in the category of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles or UAV which are basically like your remote controlled toys but have significantly longer control ranges.

Autonomy and Control

What puts robotic application at a higher plane than mere computers is its cognitive abilities to have near-autonomy to execute tasks based on immediate input with little or no human intervention. In short, they can act on their own guided only by the programmed directives that focus robots to specific tasks.

Hence, robotics in hospitals are expected to deliver medication in the room and floor it is tasked to do but will refrain form doing it if there are no attending nurses in the room. Robots in warfare can be expected to bomb their targets but not adjacent non combative areas. Even in complex assembly plants, robots have complete autonomy to work within the parameters defined for their tasks. GP

In today’s world, where the impact of global warming and energy crisis is being discussed greatly, it is important for every individual to play a part in providing a solution to these imminent dangers. A simple step in this direction would be to design and build houses that are environment friendly. Some people are under the impression that it is a herculean task to design and build houses to accommodate nature. Well, those people cannot be farther from the truth.

The truth is that it is easier to design and build such houses are compared to the other traditional types of houses. With a few out-of-the-box ideas and innovative thinking it is possible to construct beautiful houses that are in harmony with nature and also energy efficient. A good eco friendly house is one that does not burden the earth and makes use of natural resources like the Sun and wind to generate heat and electrical energy that are needed to run household appliances. Let us see a few points that can guide us in that direction.

Keep it light

If you notice all the eco friendly houses that have been designed and built till date, all of them use materials that are light in weight. Wood is the most preferred material when it comes to building such houses. This is a material that offers flexibility and versatility that is needed when constructing houses that are environment friendly. There eco friendly houses that are build using enameled steel and corrugated metal too since these are light weight options.

Look out for barriers

If it is your aim to design and build your house in order to harness the potential of nature to generate energy for your house, then, ensure that there are no barriers to it. Trying to construct an eco friendly house when there are a lot of high rise buildings around the place, may be a wrong idea because you would not be able to tap into the complete potential of wind and Sunlight to produce energy. Also, ensure there are no barriers like transformers and power lines which may hamper the construction process. Consider the direction of the wind and the maximum exposure to the Sun when you design and build eco friendly houses.

Make provision for every generation and storage

The main purpose to design and build a house that is eco friendly is to harness the power of nature. Hence, you design should incorporate the ideas for good ventilation and penetration of Sun rays. The sunlight will illuminate the darkest part of the house too and curb energy consumption. By ensuring good ventilation you can minimize the use of fans and ACs. Also, opt for getting your house fitted with solar panels and photovoltaic cells which have the potential to convert the energy from the Sun into electrical energy which can be utilized to run the household equipments. The excess energy can be stored in the cells and utilized when needed.

These simple things, when kept in mind, will help you design and build an eco friendly house that you will cherish through your lifetime.

Over the last decade that has been a continuous rise in the number of households that are choosing to use solar power for a percentage of their electricity requirements. There are many reasons for this trend but the main factor is due to money. Every year our utility bills cost a lot more than the previous years, by switching to alternative energy financial savings can be made. Then there is also the environmental aspect. Today there is no need for us to be adding to climate change through the use of fossil fuel energy sources. If you want to try out solar energy but are worried about the upfront cost then you can learn how to make a solar panel by yourself.

If you have checked out the price of a new solar panel you will be aware that they can set you back upwards of $2000. This money can be had back from the savings made from the yearly electricity bills but nevertheless it can be a large amount for a typical family to try and find.

Instead, if you buy all the individual pieces and carry out the assembly yourself it may only cost as little as $200.

Before you think about putting the parts together you will need to source the hardware. Of course photovoltaic cells are essential; it is these that convert the sunlight into electricity. In principle it is similar to the method in which a green plant uses the sun’s rays to create energy.

The photovoltaic cells available today use a lot more efficient technology than the types used even a few years back. There are continuous advancements and developments in the field of solar technology.

As well as the cells you will also want to pick up a soldering iron, copper wire, wooden boards, and some glass panels. You will also have to buy a couple of 24volt or 12volt batteries to store the electricity that you produce. The dimensions of the solar panel will depend upon how much energy you want to harness.

We may need two fixes. One for the short term, an indispensable step, and the other for the long term, also indispensable but it might not look like it to many of us. First, the short term fix because, if we don’t fix this part of climate change there’s good reason to doubt we will be here long enough to need the long term fix.

The extra CO2 we have sent up into the atmosphere will not be going elsewhere for thousands of years. That means the CO2 we have added to the atmosphere will stay right where it is, continuing to reflect heat back toward the planet, thereby insuring the already established trend of increasing heat will continue its growth, melting the glaciers and polar caps and causing all of the various aspects of weather to become increasingly extreme. In short, earth’s environment approaches outright hostility to human life.

Since there is no natural mechanism in nature that could move the extra CO2 from the atmosphere to somewhere else, at least before it gets too hot for us to live here, we will need to do this work ourselves. There are technologists already at work developing devices called “scrubbers” which can remove CO2 from the atmosphere. As of now, the technology is still primitive but, right now, the important thing to know about it is that at least in principle, it seems to work.

Removing the extra CO2 from the atmosphere is only part of the job, probably the easier part. Several years ago I saw a demonstration of the technology where atmosphere, containing CO2, was forced through a solution of sodium hydroxide (lye) and when the air was drawn out of the chamber the CO2 was left behind having bonded chemically to the lye. Since then the technology has taken several additional steps forward. Once removed from the atmosphere, the CO2 must be combined with something that will keep it stable as either a semi-solid or liquid and which prevents it from returning to a gaseous form which would enable its escape to the atmosphere. Simply combining CO2 with freezing water, emulating methane hydrate found in permafrost, which has been successfully sequestered from the atmosphere for millions of years, might work. Once in this semi-solid form, the whole mess could be pumped below ground through the same pipes we used for sucking the oil out of the earth into the cavernous expanses left over when the oil was removed. Although this part of the technology is yet to be proven, there, below ground, hopefully, it would remain forever but if some did escape, we would still have our “scrubbers” in place to do the job again. The procedure of pumping the CO2 underground is called “sequestration.”

For me, there is something very poetic about us being faced with having to put all of this stuff back where we found it. Why do I feel like my Mom (Mother Earth in this case) has just told me that if I don’t clean up my space and put everything back where it was, I won’t be allowed to hang around anymore. If you like irony, when the cost of doing this work is fully realized, we may also discover that much, if not all, of the wealth created by the burning of fossil fuels was illusory because it must now be spent putting this stuff back where we found it. What we thought was profit was actually a huge contingent liability that we chose not to recognize back then. Instead we deferred payment of the bill to future generations. A nice little legacy for the kids.

And then there’s the part I find the most interesting about all of this. Once we think about “scrubbing and sequestration” for awhile we will suddenly realize that even though the cost will take our breath away, the solution offers a less expensive option than changing everything we do now that contributes to advancing climate change. We could start scrubbing and sequestering and when the level of CO2 returned to pre-industrial levels we could keep some of the scrubbers running to deal with future CO2 emissions. We could continue to burn oil – wouldn’t that be swell? Check out Factoid #14 – “How Do We Fix it – Part Two?”, to find out why that may not work, either.

(Peer reviewed research, supporting the claims made in this factoid, can be found at the website)

Do buildings have souls? I teach in a school with nearly a thousand students. We recently moved into a brand new building. I talked with an architecture professor who served as an advisor for the planning of our new campus. He introduced me to the idea that buildings have souls. According to our consultant an architectural concept for any building whether it is a school, office or home should really be a metaphor or image for the dreams and values of the people who will use that building. Articulating and defining the soul of a building is a process that needs to include as many of the people who will inhabit the finished structure as possible.

At our school we went about defining it’s soul in a unique way. First we held a contest where anyone connected with our school could submit a drawing, a story, a sculpture, or a movie about what they thought constituted the ’soul’ of our school. One student made a 3D model of children playing soccer. A parent submitted a series of pillars each featuring a ‘hero’ from one of eight areas of knowledge. Galileo, for example, represented science. A teacher wrote a story about how a young woman with autism had been accepted and loved at our school. A senior about to graduate wrote an article about why our sports team name “The Warriors” represented the ‘can do’ and ‘never say die’ spirit of our students. All of the submissions became part of a brochure to advertise a design imagery competition for architects. They were invited to create a concept design for the ‘look’ of our school based on the ’soul’ visions provided by our school community.

The entries in this competition were diverse and exciting. One architect had designed what looked like a multi-level tree house. Another had created a kind of butterfly layout to show how our school desired to transform children’s lives. Another had come up with a plan that resembled an eagle’s nest since our school was to be a place where children could learn safely till they were ready to fly out on their own. One design was in the shape of a Noah’s Ark. The winning entry resembled God’s outstretched open hands. Since our school is a religious institution the architect had made the elementary and high school wings of our school each represent one of God’s hands with a huge courtyard in their open palms where members of the community could meet. If you walk into our school today that is exactly the design you will see.

I asked our consulting architect, how we could know for certain that a building accurately reflected the ’soul’ of the community it housed. He told me the ’soul’ of building could not be measured in any way. It was something that could be discerned only with the heart.