Article by Sarah Wild
If Europe is to meet its ambitious environmental goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050, more and more people will need to cycle to get around. With World Bicycle Day on June 3rd celebrating pedal power’s undeniable benefits, we are curious to know what the bike and e-bike of the future might look like.
Since the start of the pandemic, e-bikes have propelled a bicycle sales boom. Already in 2019, more than 3.7-million of the battery-powered e-bikes were sold with EU sales projected to reach 17 million units annually by 2030, according to the European Cyclists’ Federation.
Apart from the widespread adoption of electric power, at over 200 years of age, the ancient pushbike itself is enjoying something of a makeover. Innovations for safer braking, easier pedalling and better grip in changing road and weather conditions soon may be coming to an upgraded bicycle lane near you, thanks in part to €80 billion in sustainable transport infrastructure investments under the European Green Deal.
One unfortunate drawback to this cycling revolution is, as e-bikes sales increase, so too do e-bike-related injuries. ‘E-bikes are light vehicles and have small brakes, so the pressure applied to them is significantly high,’ said Fabio Todeschini, founder and general manager of BluBrake. Based in Italy, BluBrake designs and manufactures anti-lock braking systems (ABS) for e-bikes and e-cargo bikes.
The majority of e-bike accidents occur during braking, with about 40% of those accidents due to the front wheel locking, said Todeschini. When the wheel locks, the cyclist can skid without control, overturn or worse, fly over the front of the handlebars. BluBrake developed a brake-set solution to make e-bikes safer, providing cyclists with safety technology similar to cars and motorcycles.
A sensor on the front wheel measures the bicycle’s speed and transmits that information to the main ABS unit, which is the brains of the system. A handlebar display keeps the cyclist informed of the status while electronics are used to monitor speed and predict potential danger. If a dangerous situation arises, an actuator engages to regulate pressure on the front brake in order to prevent the back wheel from lifting off the ground.
Since the company launched its ABS offering in 2019, a number of leading original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) have adopted it as standard on their bike models, Todeschini said. In 2021, BluBrake launched its second-generation ABS, which, at under 400g, is half the size and weight of the original.
Norwegian firm reTyre produces a modular tyre system with a range of treads, that can be changed easily by zipping them on and off.
‘It started when I was a student at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology,’ said reTyre founder and inventor Paul Magne Amundsen. ‘You can find almost 20 000 bicycles on campus (but) in the winter almost none of them had winter tyres.’ In frosty Norway, these tyres are vital because they improve traction and allow the bikes to grip the road, even in the icy conditions that sometimes prevail.
‘We realised that we needed to make some kind of studded winter surface that mimics a tyre, looks like a tyre, but is easy to take on and off,’ Amundsen said. Ultimately, Amundsen and colleagues ended up designing a modular tyre, consisting of a base tyre with a zipper to which can be fitted with different layers or “skins”, chosen according to weather conditions. ‘When you want to attach a new skin to the tyre, you slip on your surface layer,’ said Amundsen, ‘And that surface sits very snugly on the tyre, so you have the performance that you’d expect from a normal tyre.’
Since reTyre began selling modular tyres in 2020, they are now sold in more than 33 countries, according to Amundsen. The company also serves the electric scooters and wheelchair markets with modular systems, which, according to Amundsen, also is better for the environment.
‘When a surface layer is worn, you’re only discarding the surface layer instead of the whole structure,’ he said. Making it easy to switch tyres also increases the likelihood that people will use their bikes more, as they could otherwise be put off bringing their bicycles into the shop to have other tyres fitted.
The company is rapidly expanding to keep up with demand. Last year, reTyre produced about 40 000 modular tyre systems, and now plans significant increases. ‘We’re looking at 100 000 this year,’ said Amundsen.
Some people may find the physical effort of cycling deters them. It’s a reticence that Spanish company Bike Innovations is addressing with the manufacture of extending cranks which significantly reduces the effort required to move the bike. The cranks are the metal rods that links the pedals to the large chain wheel which ultimately powers the rear wheel. Bike Innovation’s Raylap project developed springy cranks which extend in length as a person is cycling.
These increase the circumference of the circle that the cyclist creates when turning the pedals, improving the rate at which force is transferred to the rear wheel by up to 35%, according to Bike Innovations. Demanding much less effort from the rider, the cranks can be fitted to any bicycle. In e-bikes, spare energy can even be fed back into the battery.
‘We are about to manufacture the first 200 products,’ said Juan Gazpio, sales manager at Bike Innovations. Initial feedback is promising, according to Gazpio, and following trials with cycling retail outlets in Madrid and Barcelona they are planning to ramp up manufacturing ahead of Christmas 2022.
The research in this article was funded by the EU. This article was originally published in Horizon, the EU Research and Innovation Magazine.
Robot dogs take a walk on the wired side
Robots are learning to walk and work. While robot dogs are not yet man’s best friend, real autonomy and reasoning will make them useful companions in industry, search & rescue and even space exploration. But you must walk before you can run and machines are learning lessons from biology for better walking robots.
The first chords of the 1960s Motown song Do You Love Me, by the Contours sound on the speakers as the robots start to dance. Several models, including a bipedal humanoid version, and a four-legged dog-like contraption, are seen dancing with each other. They shuffle, do pirouettes and swing.
Released by the US robotics company Boston Dynamics, the viral video of robots with legs dancing created a stir at the end of 2020. Reactions ranged from people suggesting it was made using CGI, to fear that the robots were going to take over the world. Yet for all the impressive engineering, the video also showed the limitations that legged robots face. Whereas for humans dancing is quite easy, for robots it’s incredibly hard, and the three-minute video meant that every movement of the robots had to be manually scripted in detail.
‘Today robots are still relatively stupid,’ said Marco Hutter, professor at ETH Zurich and expert in robotics. ‘A lot of the Boston Dynamics videos are hand-crafted movements for specific environments. They need human supervision. In terms of real autonomy and reasoning, we’re still far away from humans, animals or what we expect from science-fiction.’
Yet these sorts of robots could be very helpful to humanity. They could help us when disasters strike, they could improve industrial operations and logistics and they could even help us explore outer space. But for that to happen we need to make legged robots better at basic tasks like walking and teach them how to do so without supervision.
The ERC-project LeMo is one of the investigations launched by European researchers to make robots move more autonomously. Their core premise is that legged locomotion isn’t what it could be, and that machine learning techniques could improve it. LeMo is specifically focused on so-called reinforcement learning.
‘Reinforcement learning uses a simulation to generate massive data for training a neural network control policy,’ explained Hutter, who is also the project leader of LeMo. ‘The better the robot walks in the simulation, the higher reward it gets. If the robot falls over, or slips, it gets punished.’
The robot they use in the project is a 50 kilogram, dog-like, four-legged robot. On top of it are several sensors and cameras that allow it to detect its environment. This part has become pretty standard for legged robots, yet the advancement LeMo produces lies in the software. Instead of using a model-based approach, where the researchers program rules into the system, like ‘when there’s a rock on the ground, lift up your feet higher’, they ‘train’ an AI-system in a simulation.
Here the robot’s system walks over and over through a virtual terrain simulation, and every time it performs well it receives a reward. Every time it fails it receives a punishment. By repeating this process millions of times, the robot learns how to walk through trial-and-error.
‘LeMo is one of the first times reinforcement learning has been used on legged robots,’ said Hutter. ‘Because of this, the robot can now walk across challenging terrain, like slippery ground and inclined steps. We practically never fall anymore.’
Using this technology, the ETH Zurich team recently won a $2 million Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) contest in which teams were challenged to deploy a fleet of robots to explore challenging underground areas by themselves.
‘Legged robots are already used for industrial inspections and other observation tasks,’ said Hutter. ‘But there are also applications like search & rescue and even space exploration, where we need better locomotion. Using techniques like reinforcement learning we can accomplish this.’
Another ERC-project, called M-Runners, is working on how to build legged robots that work in outer space. Today when we launch robots to places like the moon or Mars, they are generally wheeled robots. These need to land, and ride on, relatively flat pieces of terrain.
‘But the interesting things for geologists aren’t generally located in the flatlands,’ said professor Alin Albu-Schäffer, of the TU Munich and the German Aerospace Center. ‘They are found in places like canyons, where rovers cannot easily go.’
Which is why there’s a strong interest in sending legged robots up into space. But before we can do that, more research needs to happen on making them work better. M-Runner here takes inspiration from nature.
‘Our hypothesis is that biology is more energy efficient,’ said Albu-Schäffer. ‘Our muscles and tendons have some elasticity. Animals, like a horse galloping, use this elasticity to store and release energy. Traditional robots on the other hand are rigid, and don’t do that.’
This means that legged robots are not as efficient as they could be. But really understanding these processes, and transferring them to robots, is quite a challenge. It requires a deep understanding of biology, but also of the mathematics behind how movements are made and repeated.
The complex system of the limb, with a high amount of interdependent parts like muscles, tendons and bones, working together very closely to repeat movements like walking or running. ‘Modelling this mathematically is a scientifically unsolved question,’ said Albu-Schäffer.
Which is what the M-Runner project is trying to solve, and transfer to robots, a quest that’s heavily interdisciplinary. ‘We work on biomechanics and biological systems,’ said Albu-Schäffer. ‘But also neuroscience, mathematics and physics. In turn we build tools that apply this to the actual robots.’
So far the project has already built a prototype robot, a dog-sized variant, on which the researchers are testing different types of running and gaits. The eventual goal is to apply this theoretical research into a role such as space exploration. ‘We also think about low gravity in simulations,’ says Albu-Schäffer. ‘The robot here can do more spectacular jumps and stride farther.’
Beyond this research, legged robots are already becoming integrated into our economy and society today. ‘These machines are already in use,’ said Hutter. ‘It’s not a household item yet. But in industrial contexts it’s getting more popular, and in China even household use-cases are being investigated.’
But their mass market appeal relies on these robots becoming better at walking and acting in the real world. Which is why more research is needed. ‘Legged robots aren’t just about Boston Dynamics,’ said Albu-Schäffer. ‘In Europe cutting edge-research is also being done, and we’re seeing real advances in the technology.’
The research in this article was funded by the EU. This article was originally published in Horizon, the EU Research and Innovation Magazine.
For the first time, leading oil and gas stakeholders are calling for industry to come together to stop harmful cyberattacks.
The action is in response to major security breaches in the past two years that have highlighted the vulnerability of critical infrastructure. At the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2022, 18 companies have come together to take a Cyber Resilience Pledge, in recognition of the fact that much more collective preparedness is needed.
The pledge aims to mobilize global commitment towards strengthening cyber resilience across industry ecosystems. Organizations endorsing the pledge commit to collaborating and taking collective action on cyber resilience. Launched with the support of organizations engaged in the World Economic Forum’s Cyber Resilience in Oil and Gas initiative, the pledge seeks to empower organizations to take concrete steps to enhance cyber resilience across their industry.
The organizations that have taken the pledge are: Aker ASA, Aker BP, Aramco, Check Point Software Technologies, Claroty, Cognite, Dragos, Ecopetrol, Eni, EnQuest, Galp, Global Resilience Federation, Maire Tecnimont, Occidental Petroleum, OT-ISAC, Petronas, Repsol and Suncor.
“First endorsed by key CEOs in the oil and gas value chain, the Cyber Resilience Pledge is a landmark step as it signals recognition of the complexities of building a cyber-resilient industry ecosystem and a commitment towards collective action to achieve it,” said Alexander Klimburg, Head, Centre for Cybersecurity, World Economic Forum. “The World Economic Forum Centre for Cybersecurity is proud to have led this effort in conjunction with our partners. We look forward to scaling the pledge to other industries in the future.”
The pledge promotes a shift towards a resilience-by-design culture, ecosystem-wide, cyber-resilience plans and greater collaboration between players.
“As the world deepens its digital footprint, cyber threats are becoming more sophisticated,” said Amin H. Nasser, CEO of Saudi Aramco. “But one company, working alone, is effectively like locking the front gate while leaving the back door wide open.” Companies must work together if they want to truly protect the critical energy infrastructure that billions of people around the world depend on.
Cyberattacks on the Colonial Pipeline in the United States in May 2021 and on European oil facilities in February 2022 forced the facilities to operate at limited capacity, causing huge economy and society-wide disruptions.
Common, industry-wide, cyber-resilience practices are essential, said Robert M. Lee, CEO and Co-Founder of Dragos. “As our world becomes more digitally connected it is imperative, especially for our industrial and operational technology, to ensure our infrastructure’s secure and safe operation.”
“The oil and gas industry is going through a digital revolution that has been a catalyst to the energy transition and sustainability. Cyber resilience is key in this revolution, as staying ahead of vulnerabilities is fundamental to our business. The pledge is a step further by developing a collective effort to embed cyber-resilience and a cyber-risk aware culture across the energy industry,” said Felipe Bayón, CEO of Ecopetrol.
“The pledge advances Galp’s commitment to joint action on managing cyber risks and protecting cybersecurity of critical energy infrastructure, by creating awareness and a unified stance on cyber resilience in the global energy sector,” said Andy Brown, CEO of Galp.
“Petronas upholds the safety of its people, assets and the environment as our utmost priority, including reinforcing better cyber security and safety practices. Petronas is committed to and fully supports the World Economic Forum’s Cyber Resilience Pledge and its principles in safeguarding our ability to deliver energy responsibly and securely,” said Tengku Muhammad Taufik, CEO of Petronas. “In this respect, we believe that addressing the risks and enhancing cyber resilience is critical as the oil and gas industry embraces greater digitalization to capture valuable opportunities in this digital era.”
The Forum will continue to promote the pledge across multiple industry ecosystems with the objective of facilitating the implementation of the cyber resilience principles.
The World Economic Forum announced today a new initiative, Defining and Building the Metaverse. The initiative brings together key stakeholders to build an economically viable, interoperable, safe and inclusive metaverse. Research suggests that the metaverse is expected to grow into an $800 billion market by 2024.
At this early stage, the metaverse can develop in many ways, depending on research, innovation, investment and policy. The new initiative convenes more than 60 leading technology and other sector companies alongside experts, academics and civil society to accelerate the development of governance and policy frameworks for the metaverse and strengthen economic and social value creation opportunities.
The initiative will focus on two key areas. The first area of focus is the governance of the metaverse, how the technologies and environments of the metaverse can be developed in safe, secure, interoperable and inclusive ways. The second will focus on value creation and identify the incentives and risks that businesses, individuals and society will encounter as the metaverse comes to life. The initiative will also outline how value chains may be disrupted, industries may be transformed, new assets could be created and rights protected.
“The Defining and Building the Metaverse initiative provides the industry with an essential toolkit for ethically and responsibly building the metaverse. This will help ensure that we can fully harness this vital medium for social and economic interconnectivity in an inclusive, ethical and transformative manner,” said Jeremy Jurgens, Managing Director, World Economic Forum.
“The metaverse is at an early stage in its development. Done well, the metaverse could be a positive force for inclusion and equity, bridging some of the divides that exist in today’s physical and digital spaces. That’s why the Defining and Building the Metaverse initiative will be so valuable. It mustn’t be shaped by tech companies on their own. It needs to be developed openly with a spirit of cooperation between the private sector, lawmakers, civil society, academia and the people who will use these technologies. This effort must be undertaken in the best interests of people and society, not technology companies,” said Nick Clegg, President of Global Affairs, Meta Platforms, Inc.
“The metaverse is the next inevitable step in the evolution of the internet but will require comprehensive collaboration between all ecosystem stakeholders to make it an open, safe and secure environment. As such, this Forum initiative is a robust start to addressing the key technology and policy fundamentals to enable the metaverse to fulfil its boundless potential,” said Cher Wang, Founder and Chairwoman, HTC Corporation.
“While the metaverse is in its nascent stage, we believe it has the potential to deliver enhanced connections for everyone. As an industry it is incumbent upon all of us to ensure this new paradigm is developed in a way that is accessible for everyone, puts the needs of people first, enhances human connection and is developed securely with trust built in by design. It is for this reason that we are proud to participate in this cross-industry collaborative body that will define the standards for the metaverse,” said Brad Smith, President and Vice-Chair, Microsoft Corporation.
“As part of Sony Group, our goal is to get closer to people, and Sony Interactive Entertainment approaches the Metaverse with the mission to further imagine the ‘best place to play.’ We envision a virtual world that will captivate our fans, excite global creators, and bridge these two vast communities in bold new ways. Now, with an anticipated growing community of users engaging within the Metaverse, governance is a critical and shared responsibility of all its participants. An accessible, safe, and inclusive Metaverse will require new ways of thinking and democratization as well as strong commitments from all involved,” said Stephanie Burns, SVP, General Counsel, Sony Interactive Entertainment.
“At Magic Leap, we are excited about how technologies like augmented reality will transform the way we live and work, especially in growing fields like healthcare, manufacturing and the public sector. To realize the potential of these technologies, a thoughtful framework for regulation that protects users and facilitates future innovation is required, supported by all stakeholders, including businesses, consumers, government, NGOs and academia,” said Peggy Johnson, CEO of Magic Leap, Inc.
“As a company that has inspired and developed generations of kids through physical play, we are uniquely positioned to help develop kids in the digital worlds of tomorrow. As the metaverse evolves, it is reshaping how people meet, play, work, learn and interact in a virtual world. To us, the priority is to help create a world in which we can give kids all the benefits of the metaverse – one with immersive experiences, creativity and self-expression at its core – in a way that is also safe, protects their rights and promotes their well-being,” said Julia Goldin, Chief Product and Marketing Officer, The LEGO Group.
“The rapid advancement and adoption of the metaverse will create unforeseen complexities in terms of governance, ethics, social and industrial effects. Thus, the need for collective intelligence to anticipate, analyse, design, experiment on and constantly revise governance measures and frameworks will be crucial. It will be an honour for us from CJ Group to make contributions along with dedicated and leading colleagues from around the world to the World Economic Forum’s metaverse initiative,” said Dr. Cha Inhyok, Chief Executive Officer, CJ Olive Networks & Group Chief Digital Officer, CJ Corporation.
“In these early stages of development of the metaverse, it is important to define the operating principles, standards and ways of working as we go forward. Frameworks that account for openness, interoperability and safety are fundamental to long-term sustainability and success of these shared ecosystems and communities. We look forward to contributing to the World Economic Forum’s committees for this new initiative,” said Nuala O’Connor, Senior Vice-President & Chief Counsel, Digital Citizenship, Walmart Inc.
“Animoca Brands is pleased to be a part of the inaugural metaverse initiative launched by the World Economic Forum and we look forward to a dialogue with our industry colleagues as we navigate the potential of true digital ownership in the open metaverse,” said Yat Siu, Co-founder and Chairman, Animoca Brands.
Taking active steps to form a strong foundation for metaverse development is one of the key tasks humanity has to fulfil this decade. We are proud to be part of the World Economic Forum’s metaverse group and give our insights and suggestions regarding these topics, particularly that of interoperability. We are keen to further develop decentralized ways to allow users the ability to move freely between virtual reality worlds and keep their digital identities and belongings truly theirs,” said Artur Sychov, Founder and CEO of Somnium Space.
Following the commencement of the Covid-19 epidemic, passenger rail services between Bangladesh and India were discontinued in March 2020. Before...
As Washington ramps up efforts to restore the United States’ “economic leadership” in the Indo-Pacific region, U.S. President Joe Biden...
Article by Sarah Wild If Europe is to meet its ambitious environmental goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050, more and more...
Japan claims that since 1885, Japan has surveyed the Senkaku Islands and determined that the islands were indeed uninhabited and clearly...
Upon the water industry becoming deregulated, businesses were able to choose the retailer that they buy their water supply from....
Every eLearning course is designed with the primary objective of engaging the learner for better understanding, and implementation of the...
Over the years, the surging global trends have assumed varying characteristics between 2020 and 2022. While on the one hand,...
How to write the perfect essay introduction
China’s progress: From the Moon to Mars and Earth science issues
African Union: Finding Strategic Solutions to Africa’s Humanitarian Issues
The Downfall of the Status of France and Germany
Conflict in Ukraine: How long can the Middle East walk a tightrope?
Stagflation: Between Threat and Power and What to Understand
1990 Kashmir Insurgency: An analysis of Geo-Political Security Situation
Can the West Afford to be Simultaneously Tough on Russia, Iran, and Saudi Arabia?