Satellite repair in orbit | A treadmill that adapts to your pace

Using AI to repair satellites in orbit

PITTSBURGH, PA—There are 6,500 satellites in orbit, but only about half of them are functional. That’s because it’s nearly impossible to do repairs and upgrades in orbit. Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University, led by principal investigator Howie Choset, are exploring the use of robotics and AI to conduct work relating to the inspection, upgrading, and maintenance of satellites while they’re in orbit.

Eco-friendly startup in Tulsa

TULSA, OK—Although a resident of New York, when Tulsa native Bryan Meter decided to launch SEADS, a startup that expressed his passion for plants, he returned to his home town to take advantage of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. He created eco-friendly vertical garden planters made out of recycled plastic that fit into a chain-linked fence. He now counts as his customers major retailers like Lowe’s, WalMart, and Amazon.

Channel Partner Strategic Award winners

Fast Future IN GENERAL—A technology incubator and platform funded by the Wells Fargo Foundation and co-administered by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) announced seven winners for its sixth cycle of Channel Partner Strategic Awards. Winning initiatives include St. Louis-based BioGenerator, which will help startups develop new crop traits that maintain yield by overcoming current insect resistance or preventing new forms of resistance; Carnegie Mellon University’s Wilton E. Scott Institute for Energy Innovation, which will build optimization and simulation models to investigate the deployment of electric-vehicle charging infrastructure; and the Wisconsin Energy Institute, which will support a circular bioeconomy ecosystem that uses renewable and waste resources as raw materials for new products throughout Wisconsin.

Treadmill adapts to your pace

OMAHA, NE—This is one of those things you didn’t know you needed until now: a treadmill that adapts to a user’s own running pace automatically. The invention from Impower Health, which was initially developed as a potential therapeutic device to help stroke patients by three students at the University of Nebraska, has received a U.S. patent.