Pneumatic Robotics

I had previously proposed autonomous construction robotics. The problem with such robots was the energy source. The chemical batteries have limited energy storage and they require lithium which is scarce. The second best choice of energy source is combustion.

It would be wise to pressure a gas and use pneumatic systems to do the work instead of electric motors. Most parts required to build a pneumatic system are not scarce like the rare earth magnets for motors. Additionally, motors require high power semiconductors which are exported as well. With a pneumatic system, the semiconductor requirement would be less demanding.

My proposition is to heat up carbon dioxide to generate pressure for the pneumatic system. Carbon dioxide has higher vapor pressure than air and water, therefore more efficient to use. Most important part is the higher efficiency of converting chemical energy to usable kinetic energy. Additionally, as an energy source anything that burns can be used. This allows such robots to operate in rural regions or 3rd world countries. If some of the carbon dioxide is lost in the closed loop, it can be replenished by a carbon dioxide filter on the exhaust. The pneumatic system would also generate the necessary electric power for its electronics using an alternator. As a result, only a starter battery would be required to build such a robot.

Wildfire Extinguisher

Developed nations are known to be environmentally conscious. They spend billions to monitor the environment and lower the pollution. However, they all lack on the wildfire fighting department. What is the meaning of monitoring the forests if you cannot extinguish a wildfire properly. I had previously proposed several ways to extinguish wildfires. Here is a new idea.

I propose an X-Wing with combustion engines and propellers to be used as a firefighter plane. X-Wing design will allow the plane to lift off and land vertically to almost any location. This allows logistic bases to be established close to the forest regions. Vertical takeoff requires much more engine power than a horizontal flight. Once the plane takes off and start flying horizontally, the excess engine power will be used to liquify the exhaust gases of the combustion engine. The engine will operate with liquified natural gas. As a result, the exhaust gas will contain carbon dioxide and water vapor. Both gases will be cooled and pressurized to a temperature and pressure where both carbon dioxide and water exist in the liquid form. Then, this liquified exhaust gas will be stored in fire extinguisher canisters. Which will be dropped over the fire like a bomb. As the canister approach the heat zone, the liquefied gasses will expend and the shell will explode, releasing the liquid inside.

Classical firefighting planes drop water over the fire which has minimal effect due to water being vaporized way above the ground. With my approach the canister will delay the release of the liquid. More importantly, carbon dioxide gas is heavy and would sink down to the ground. It would both cool the fire and push away the oxygen on the ground. More effective than a simple water-based extinguishing.

All developed nations have the necessary technology to build such planes. Hope they take action.

Streaming Services 2.0

Today’s streaming digital content is too simple for me. The monetization scheme is very primitive as well. I would like to propose a new data storage architecture and streaming platform based on this data. The monetization scheme will also be more advanced.

I had proposed a global services and object model. There the tags are globally defined and each data has a Globally Unique ID (GUID) and has atomic datetime stamp. Storing data with atomic datetime stamps allow them to be aggregated by a computer in real-time. Digital recorders have advanced electronics on them however their real-time clock module is very poor. They should be changed by an atomic clock for a consistent synchronization. Additionally, text-based content created for the streaming data should utilize GUID while linking info to a streamed data. For example, a sports event is recorded with multiple cameras and microphones. In the meanwhile, commenters record streaming audio of the event. Additionally, the statistics of the event is also recorded manually and partially computerized. As these data streamed online, the consumer’s smart tv will aggregate them depending on the consumer’s preferences. At the moment audio channel selection exists, however the statistics are pre-overlayed on the image. I propose them to be send separately and the user preferred ones to be overlayed on the image with preferred fonts and placements.

The monetization of the streamed data is monthly or yearly subscription only. This scares the viewers who are not interested on everything or have time to watch all the streams to justify the price. Additionally, this approach limits the enhancement on the streamed data. For example, additional commentary audio channels and more detailed info. With the current subscription scheme, additional features cannot be charged extra to the customer to reimburse its cost. What I propose is a prepaid system. The consumer spends a deposited amount of money on demand. Every feature serviced will have a cost. As the consumer demand it, he/she will pay for it. The streamed video would cost more than the audio commentary which would cost more than the statistics. The video would have different quality settings, options for multiple cameras.

Because of this primitive subscription scheme, I only receive commentary in one language and some events are streamed without commentary as well. My approach would allow more features to be added to a streamed content because the cost can be reimbursed.  This is in a sense the service version of the modular electronics I proposed earlier.

Make the services modular!

Middle Class Airlines

Aviation industry has transformed over the decades. However, their servicing scheme became over complicated and inefficient. I thought about a new airlines company that only focuses on its flight. Has a minimal to no marketing department. Has only one type of seat in the cabin which is optimized for the duration of flight.

Aviation companies offer mileage programs where the upper managers or the sales people of the companies collect the miles. No benefit for the company that pay the bill.  Additionally, they sell goods with the miles collected. These complicated royalty programs increase the cost of an aviation company. My ideal company will not have any royalty program. Will declare prices based on the costs and sell the tickets directly without paying commissions to the agents. The cost of a seat may vary depending on the time of purchase. That makes sense. Saving on the complex royalty program would be a great saving for the company. There would be special agreements with the other airlines, but there would be no mileage earnings.

All the flights will have seats that are thinner and have back rest. Short distance flights will have knee distance calculated for a 190 cm person and same number of seats per row like in an economy class. The seats will not incline. There will be no info display in the cabin but Wi-Fi that broadcast the flight info and the external camera views for the mobile devices. Internet service will be sold for an additional fee. There will be two sections within the cabin. The front will be silent section. The back will be cry room. (Inspired by the cry rooms of the old cinemas in the States. Place for parents with small children.) The curtain separating the two sections will be sound proof.

Middle to long distance flights will have seats that incline close to 160 degrees. There will be more knee room. Again, there will be two sections to separate the noisy and silent area. The variety of food serviced will be minimized, but their quality will be improved instead. There will be no food that makes noise such as hard nuts and chips.

I had once calculated for a long-distance flight seat plan. I replaced all the seats with the standardized middle class seats and calculated the price of each seat. A flight offering only middle class (no economy or first class) could sell the tickets for a 50 percent premium over the economy. Which is a very acceptable premium.

Quantum Justice

Classical laws of physics are applicable to everything we see and touch. However, as the objects approach the speed of light and the distances approach to zero quantum physics become more dominant.

There are many bad people out there who look clean on paper but guilty on reality. Governments should not wait for these people to make mistakes or hire underground groups to punish them like in the tv series “Mission Impossible”. Quantum justice should be applied to these people. In classical justice, a person is either guilty or not. In quantum justice, there would be quantum state as well and the person can be guilty and not guilty at the same time. Which is on paper not guilty, but guilty in the real life. Even though the quantum state is fictional the punishment would be real.

Some may argue that such justice can be misused by the bad people who poses power. My argument is, such people don’t require quantum justice to abuse their power, they already find thousands of ways to execute their bad will. My proposition is for the good people who poses power and want to play it with the rules till the end. Quantum justice brings new rules to the table so that the good people don’t feel remorse when they punish the bad.

Space Cannon

After reading an article about thousands of drones being produced and used in current wars, I thought about an idea. During WW 2, allied forces bombed the critical facilities and infrastructures to reduce the enemy’s production and logistic capabilities. Space weather radar technologies have evolved a lot which improved the weather forecasts. This technology coupled with the satellites containing space cannon can be used to organize pinpoint operations to critical targets from space.

Space cannon is a modified version of a potato cannon. Instead of potato, tiny carbon nanotube (CNT) bullets are used. CNT bullets after careful aiming would be pushed away from the satellite with pressurized gas which is also used for the ion thrusters. The bullets don’t need to have a very high speed. They would already have a supersonic speed which is the orbital speed of the satellite. CNT is the hardest known material. It wouldn’t get damaged during its supersonic descent to earth and can penetrate anything with such speed and hardness. It would be impossible to detect and stop them.  Their shape can be optimized after thorough testing. Their tiny size and low propulsion requirement would allow multiple bullets to be triggered with different trajectories to increase the hit rate. The compactness of the cannon would allow them to be integrated to almost any satellite orbiting the earth. One important thing is, they have to be supported with high accuracy weather data for a precise trajectory calculation.

Even though, the bullet would be tiny, it would still shot down a plane, damage a power distribution transformer or a communication center. If it hits a locomotive, it would stop a train and block a railroad. The possibilities continue.

The down side of this weapon is its simplicity. Which would enable your enemy to copy it and use it against you as well. However, technological advancements and infrastructure would increase the accuracy and therefore effectiveness of it which would make the difference between the sides.

Extremes of Packaged Food

I had stated about my local manufacturing idea in my very early articles. Its objective is to compact the production facilities and place them close to the demand. This becomes more important for the processed food. Companies in order to achieve long shelf life, fill the packaged food with preservatives and sometime with high salt percentages. If the automated local production can be adjusted to the demand. The foods would not need that many hazardous chemicals in them. Therefore, food processing technologies should be enhanced to produce at a lower volume without increasing the cost too much. This would increase the public health considerably.

One additional problem is with the junk food. My observation is chips with no flavor has only oil and salt as ingredient. However, any additional flavor comes with at least ten different chemicals that push the junk food into extremes. A parsley flavored chips should not include onion and garlic powder and so many extra chemicals besides the parsley itself.  New frying technics can be developed to reduce the oil content. Additionally, the salt should be pulverized into fine particles and mixed with the oil at a much lower percentage. This would allow much even salt spreading over the chips and much reduced salt percentage on the chips. One last funny think. A famous cola producer started developing colas which contain both sugar and artificial sweetener. Worst of both worlds 😊 They happen to produce chips as well.

As a result, the packaged food can be much healthier with a proper mindset. However, my observation reveals that the manufacturers are pushing their products’ junkiness to a new record every year. Then, they come up with products which are marketed as ultra healthy that are more dangerous with more hidden chemicals. Then, the public health services pay the bill so as the tax payers even if they don't consume them.