September Hardware Roundup: Chainless Bikes & Liquid Hinges

Our roundup video host this month is Panos, a Technical Project Manager here at Fictiv! He’s adding a multi-language spin to this month’s roundup. We’re diving into chainless bikes, robotic grippers, and the first robot-assisted remote heart surgery.

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Hardware Knowledge

• UAV Turbines has successfully completed the first flight of a drone with a microturbine engine. + Watch it here.
• The manufacturing techniques behind the iPhone’s polished construction. + iFixit’s iPhone 11 teardown. 
• Microsoft’s foldable Surface devices may use liquid-filled hinges. 
• Hardware, hardware, and more hardware: Meet the new devices in the Amazon ecosystem.
• CeramicSpeed’s chainless bike works to eliminate friction and improve aerodynamics. + Mechanics of gear shifting. 
• A surgeon performed the first remote heart surgery on a patient 20 miles away. The CorPath GRX robot assisted with precisely inserting a stent into the heart.
• This two-fingered robotic gripper uses magnetic repulsion to adjust grip stiffness. + BostonDynamics’ Atlas doing gymnastics. 

Industry News

• The latest in product development news from MacroFab’s engineering podcast. 
• Baidu wins China’s first commercial license for self-driving buses. + 5G-based driverless commercial service. 
• Daimler is stopping development of new internal combustion engines to focus on electric cars. Volkswagen is starting its own battery cell production for electric cars. 
• The direction of manufacturing growth in the US fell below the neutral 50.0 threshold. + Looking ahead to the future of manufacturing.
• Funding Updates: Built Robotics raises $33M for autonomous construction vehicles. Embark Trucks raises $70M as it works on deploying Level 4 self-driving trucks.
• How cobots are working to improve manufacturing production cycles. 
  

Events + Community

• Take a look at our Anki Vector teardown featured on The Robot Report. 
• Join Team Fictiv! Learn more about our Senior Software Engineer role.
• Community Events in San Francisco: Building AI-Powered Products on October 3 and Scaling Commerce Products on October 16.

For the Love of Vinyl

In this episode of “MADE HERE,” take a look at the process behind how vinyl records are printed.