Flapping micro plane watches where it goes

In a time span of only ten weeks, a team of eleven highly dedicated students have managed to design a unique flapping miniature aircraft, named DelFly. The aircraft can hover almost motionless in one spot and fly at considerable speed as well while being more stable and less vulnerable than a helicopter. DelFly, only weighing 15 to 21 grammes,...

Movable tool kit for keyhole surgery

A major problem in keyhole surgery, which involves surgeons performing operations through small incisions, is the complex manoeuvring of small instruments. Researchers at TU Delft have built an entirely new tool tip control system, based on the tentacles of squid that will enable surgeons to manoeuvre a camera or instrument in any direction...

Wave power

All over the world hundreds of thousands of initiatives are being developed to generate sustainable energy. The great majority of these are aimed at solar and wind energy, if only because they are available all over the world. Whats more, the initial investments required are relatively low and are often helped by government support, so even...

Turby - sustainable urban wind power from the roof top

If current trends are anything to go by, in future we will no longer produce all our electricity in large, central power stations. Small-scale local electricity generation will gain in importance. Sander Mertens, a post-doctoral student at TU Delft, developed the aerodynamic design of a wind turbine which is specifically suitable for built-up...

At last robots with a sense of touch

For a number of years surgeons have been using robotic arms to carry out precision operations. These technical appendages can operate without any tremors, and according to the manufacturers, they off er up to ten times the precision of the human hand. The downside is that surgeons using robot arms cannot feel what they are doing. Until now,that...

For sale: Mood Tuscany for your living room

Most consumer products are designed with the average user in mind.Wallpaper, stereo, lighting equipment, none of them contain any knowledge about the specific, changing wishes of their owner. Once bought, they never change. At the Studio Home Lab of the Delft faculty of Industrial Design, researchers are investigating how music, lighting and art...

Better-looking pictures

Although colour printers are constantly being improved to produce better results, manufacturers appear to favour trial and error methods in their research. Researchers of the Pattern Recognition &#38 Image Processing group at Delft University of Technology are looking for a scientific and more general measure of quality to judge colour prints by...

Monolithic reactor: Higher yield, less energy

The production of margarine, the desulphurisation of crude oil, and the manufacture of synthetic diesel fuel, these are only three of the many industrial processes in which a three-phase reactor is used. Traditionally, this type of reactor is rather ill-defined. Success with a lab scale set-up is no guarantee that a large commercial reactor will...

Lithographic mirrors: Measured with sub-nanometre accuracy

Future generations of microchips will probably be produced using extreme ultraviolet light with a wavelength of thirteen nanometres. Optical lenses will no longer be suitable for the manufacturing process because they absorb the light at such short wavelengths. Mirrors will have to be used instead. Currently the main problem is the required...

Magnetic-field navigation for catheters: Integrated chip for triple blood sampling

Catheters are semi-rigid, hollow plastic tubes that are indispensable when it comes to local surgery inside the heart,brain,arms, legs, or lungs. But how can a surgeon tell whether the catheter is going the right way? Most hospitals still use x-ray methods to check the catheters progress. To navigate the catheters passage in real time, some ten...

Digitale bibliotheek zoekt duurzame archivering

Steeds meer informatie wordt nog slechts digitaal gemaakt en bewaard. Hardware en software veranderen snel: er zijn nog maar weinig computers te vinden waarin de floppies van vijftien jaar geleden passen, vele programma's van vijftien jaar geleden zijn intussen ter ziele gegaan, om nog maar te zwijgen van vergeelde ponskaarten en ponsbanden. Het...

When's the next bus coming? - TRITAPT management system for bus and tram services

With no hard data on route times to go on, bus companies find it impossible to optimise their timetables. The result is that buses arrive needlessly late, and in some cases even pass their stops ahead of schedule, which is even more frustrating to waiting passengers. "I was at the bus stop on time, but the bus had already left." Transport...

Searching for everlasting digital archives: Ephemeral data carriers call for lifelong archive management

Increasing amounts of information are being created and stored exclusively in digital form. The problem is that computer hardware and software tend to evolve so rapidly that few of todays computers are capable of reading yesterdays floppy discs. Most of the software that was popular a decade and a half ago has vanished, gone to wherever it is...

A helicopter that flaps its wings: The Ornicopter flaps its wings like a bird to get into the air

No other type of aircraft is as manoeuvrable as a helicopter. Reverse in full flight, rotate in the air, hover at a standstill, the helicopter can do it all. The police, fire services, medical services, military and civil aviation all use the helicopter for the freedom of flight it offers. However, the helicopters tail rotor remains a hazardous,...

Polyps revealed on a virtual colon voyage: Three-dimensional colonoscopy reduces discomfort

In the western world, colon cancer is the second-largest cause of death from cancer. Since there is a considerable risk that polyps five millimetres and more in diameter may develop into malicious tumours, it is important that they can be detected at an early stage. Until now, this is done by means of an endoscope through the anus. Inserting and...