NEW TECHNOLOGIES
Web Page sponsor Oxley Developments
www.oxleygroup.com
Nov 06. Samsung has partnered with Korea University to develop a machine-gun equipped sentry robot, which consists of “two cameras: one for day-time and one for infrared night vision, zooming capabilities, a speaker for notifying the intruder, sophisticated pattern recognition to detect the difference between
humans/trees, and a 5.5mm machine-gun are expected to sell for $200,00 USD and will be available late in 2007. The South Korean government plans to deploy these friendly reminders on the border between South and North Korea, to further ease relations between the countries. (Source: Shephard)
Nov 06. QinetiQ’s Sea King helicopter XZ575 has successfully completed the first flight using advanced composite main rotor blades. Lasting for around four minutes, the flight was a significant milestone in the evaluation of the Carson Helicopters’ blade for the UK Sea King helicopter with the new blades producing data indicating significant performance gains. The flight was the culmination of many months of hard work carried out across QinetiQ and the Aircraft Test and Evaluation Centre at Boscombe Down and was supported by the MOD’s Sea King and Future Rotorcraft Capability IPTs and Agusta Westland. Based on Carson Helicopter’s longer version of blades used on the Sikorsky S61 helicopter, these were the first set of blades produced by Carson for the UK Sea King helicopter. The rotor blades use advanced aerofoil sections, increased twist and a swept tip to produce significant performance gains. A similar blade to that being tested by QinetiQ has shown a 2000lb increase in hover capability. The QinetiQ Carson blade test programme is intended to examine aircraft handling, performance and vibration characteristics and has now undertaken 22 hours of flying.
22 Nov 06. Following on from the company’s commitment, announced in May, to the creation of a family of 3U VPX form factor solutions, Radstone Embedded Computing today announced the first two members of a new family of 6U VPX form factor solutions. Further announcements of additional 6U VPX products are expected in the near future. The 6U VPX form factor DSP230 is an advanced, fully rugged multiprocessor solution featuring quad Freescale 8641D processors and four Gigabytes of DDR2 SDRAM memory. Serial RapidIO enables a broad range of connectivity options, while support for PCI Express provides customers with access to extensive end point solutions, as well as a link to the onboard XMC site. The SBC610 6U VPX single board computer is also based on the Freescale 8641D processor and, like the DSP230, supports both Serial RapidIO and PCI Express. With two Gigabytes of memory, the SBC610 achieves significant configuration flexibility through the provision of two XMC or PMC sites, together with a site for Radstone’s unique AFIX (Additional Flexible Interface Extension) daughter card. The four fabric ports on the SBC610 can be individually set to be either PCI Express or Serial RapidIO.
Nov 06. IP68-rated push/pull connectors can withstand full immersion. New from international assembling distributor PEI-Genesis is the Amphenol SCE series of miniature push/pull connectors, which offer an environmental protection rating of IP68 and are therefore ideal for use in applications where they may be subjected to full immersion. As well as incorporating O-ring seals, the connectors are designed with all inserts and contacts moulded into position to achieve the high IP68 rating whether mated or unmated. Featuring silent push-to-mate and pull-to-release operation, the SCE series includes in-line and chassis-mount plugs, together with in-line receptacles in snatch or latch styles and chassis-mount receptacles in jam-nut, 2-hole or 4-hole styles. The snatch receptacle is designed for quick-release applications, whereas the latch receptacle has a rotating coupling nut to lock the connectors together. Offering