Process Engineering

Rollo, the home robot, has been developed by the Laboratories of Automation Technology, Information and Computer Systems in Automation and Control Engineering of the Helsinki University of Technology for seven years and is presently being adapted for home care and independent living at home. Rollo is part of the “Turning Well-Being Technology into a Success Story” – (iWELL) technology programme of the National Technology Agency Tekes.

“The reason why we arrived at a ball-shaped solution was

Positioning systems will become an essential tool for the carrying out of many different tasks in the future. Whether the problem consists of a tree falling on a power line or a car standing in the road with a motor failure, aid services will find a route straight to the right location by using this system.

It has previously been difficult for a person in need of aid to convey exact information about his location in an unfamiliar area. In future, the person can find his exact location with t

The phrase `rain stopped play` is gloomily familiar to fans of Wimbledon, international cricket test matches and other major sporting tournaments.

But cancelling matches because the pitch is waterlogged could be consigned to history, thanks to new technology which could revolutionise the international world of both professional and amateur sport.

Researchers at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne are starting trials involving a completely new concept – Electrokinetic Geosynthetic

Scientists continue to create new uses for carbon nanotubes, those tiny cylinders comprised of pure carbon. A paper published today in the journal Nature describes a thermometer made out of a column of carbon just 10 micrometers long. According to the report, the nanodevice can measure temperatures between 50 and 500 degrees Celsius and “should be suitable for use in a wide variety of microenvironments.”

Yihua Gao and Yoshio Bando of the National Institute for Materials Science in Ibaraki,

Today`s machines produce paper so rapidly that visual quality control is stretched to its limits. New automated systems with cameras and image analysis algorithms manage this flood of paper with no problem – they can even tackle the job with patterned wood and textiles.

The fastest papermaking machine in the world produces a roll of paper approximately 10 meters wide at the rate of 100 kilometers per hour. In less than 20 seconds the paper would cover an area the size of a soccer field. Impo

Strands of hair accurately measure second hand tobacco smoke exposure, finds research in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. And they may be more effective than currently used methods, suggest the authors.

Measuring levels of cotinine, a break-down product of nicotine, in the urine is often used to gauge second hand smoke exposure. But people vary considerably in how much of this substance they metabolise and eliminate, whatever their levels of exposure, and cotinine stays in t