Gizmorama - May 13, 2015

Good Morning,

There's nothing worse than wasting food. Well, maybe eating spoiled food. It seems like we still don't trust those expiration dates; I know I don't.

Soon there will be nothing to worry about thanks to researchers in Finland. A tiny sensor has been developed that can detect food spoilage.

You'll never again have to waste time to determine whether that's new meat or old cheese in your fridge.

Learn about this and more interesting stories from the scientific community in today's issue.

Until Next Time,
Erin

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*-- Engineers empower underwater robots to take on decision making --*
BOSTON (UPI) - Currently, most autonomous underwater robots take on minor tasks and human programmers dictate the decision-making process, instructing the submersibles on how best to execute a dive plan. They key in the commands, and the robot goes to work.

But engineers at MIT have begun improving the decision-making abilities of underwater robots, so that slowly but surely they assume more and more of the decision-making responsibilities.

Granted cognitive abilities by the robotics scientists, the autonomous underwater vehicles, or AUVs, are able to navigate underwater expanses and execute research tasks on their own. Researchers simply dictate high-level goals, and the submersible calculates the most efficient path forward.

The technology is similar to the kinds of cognition researchers are implementing in self-driving cars -- key in the destination and the car can navigate its way there, communicating with other cars, negotiating obstacles like stoplights, sharp turns and changes in the weather.

In a recent demonstration, researchers deployed a newly programmed underwater glider to see if it could go about its business while staying out of the way of other remote-controlled submersibles in the area.

"We wanted to show that these vehicles could plan their own missions, and execute, adapt, and re-plan them alone, without human support," programmer Brian Williams, a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT, said in a press release. "With this system, we were showing we could safely zigzag all the way around the reef, like an obstacle course."

Williams explains that the program operates like a real ship, with layers of command -- a captain, a navigator, a doctor, an engineer.

"We can give the system choices, like, 'Go to either this or that science location and map it out,' or 'Communicate via an acoustic modem, or a satellite link,'" Williams said. "What the system does is, it makes those choices, but makes sure it satisfies all the timing constraints and doesn't collide with anything along the way. So it has the ability to adapt to its environment."

Williams said the new technology -- designed and implemented with help from Boeing, DARPA and NASA -- will free up the mental energies of oceanographers and engineers, so they can focus on the bigger picture.


*-- Researchers develop sensor that detects food spoilage --*
ESPOO, Finland (UPI) - Researchers in Finland have developed a tiny sensor that can detect food spoilage. The sensor is small enough to be installed in the lining of food packaging and its signal can be read wirelessly by a mobile device like a smartphone.

The sensor works by detecting ethanol, a chemical byproduct of spoiling produce. Experiments showed ethanol and carbon dioxide were the two most volatile metabolite molecules given off by cut fruit.

Sensor findings are communicated via what's called a radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag. The RFID tag's messaging can be picked up by an RFID reader, which could be installed on a smartphone. The sensor can also communicate its readings optically, by changing colors.

"The sensor and the RFID tag can using printing techniques be manufactured into a label or sticker and easily attached to a food package," researchers explained in a press release.

While the new technology's main benefit would be consumer safety, it could also help distributors and manufacturers improve quality control and keep track of their products' freshness -- potentially reducing or preventing waste caused by spoilage.

The sensor's developers -- researchers with the VTT Technical Research Center of Finland, a government-sponsored research agency -- are now looking for partners to help them commercialize the invention.

Scientists at Johns Hopkins University are working on similar technology intended to gauge meat freshness. Researchers at the school's Applied Physics Lab (APL) have developed molecularly imprinted polymers, a type of synthetic polymer designed to detect specific substances -- in this case toxins produced by the microorganisms that colonize spoiling meat.

Like their peers in Finland, the APL researchers are seeking a patent for their new invention, as well as commercial partners.

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