Maintenance

A 45-story office tower in New York has become the first in the world to deploy the Ozmo automated window cleaning system, where a platform dangled from the roof is home to robots that spritz the glass 3x faster than human cleaning crews.

Robotic garden helpers have been keeping lawns in trim for decades, but none are as much fun to watch as the Verdie AI-powered outdoor maintenance bot from Electric Sheep as it wheels around edges, blows debris and gets to grips with power tools.

Dutch ship builder Damen has announced an all-electric version of its 70-m-long hybrid service vessel designed to support offshore wind farm operations. And the company is aiming to charge the batteries direct from a wind turbine.

While there are some mechanical problems that can easily be detected by a car's onboard sensors, there are others which are a bit trickier. The V2M system is designed to catch those other ones, by listening for them using onboard modules.

Following the successful Kickstarter for a 14-in-1 multitool last year, China's Talos is now aiming to keep cyclists on the road with the BikePal, which packs 23 tools into one pocket-friendly everyday carry package.

​The engines of an airplane are complicated machines that require careful maintenance. The future of this task, as Rolls-Royce sees it, could involve deploying different kinds of of robots that patrol these aircraft parts and quickly nip any problems in the bud. ​​

Imagine if your car could feel pain and alert you when it takes damage. The US Army is funding research to make that a reality, with vehicles outfitted with a smart material that senses damage the way nerves sense pain, relaying a damage report to help with maintenance and repairs.

​Servicing the bathrooms in a large building can be a daunting task, and not just because of the cleaning. Custodians also have to check the levels of things like toilet paper and soap. It was with this in mind that the Fraunhofer Institute created the automated CWS Washroom Information Service.

So you’ve had your Mac for a while and things don’t feel as fresh and clean as they used to. Here are the steps you can take to declutter your Mac, possibly get it running faster and make it feel like new again.

​​Moving motorcycles around just got a whole lot easier. These nifty bike stands use omnidirectional wheels, so you can pop your bike up off the ground, then spin it around and push it easily around the garage in any direction. A great idea from Australian company Dynamoto.​

The US Army Research, Development, and Engineering Center (ARDEC) is developing a Durable Solid Lubricant (DSL) for rifles that replaces the more conventional wet lubricants and cuts down on required weapon maintenance.​

​A lot of effort goes into keeping our our cities in working order. But a new project could soon see many labor-intensive tasks taken care of by an army of drones that keep a watchful eye over our streets, tending to cracks in our urban environment the moment they begin to appear.