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OF THE MANY things you would associate Disney with, robots might not be the first thing that would pop to mind (unless you’re thinking of droids), but it has developed one that can climb walls on its own.
Disney Research, along with ETH Zurich, have created a prototype robot called VertiGo that is capable of climbing wall without the need for modified wheels.
How it manages to do this is by using two steerable propellers that give it enough thrust to climb onto the wall.
The propellers act as traction for the robot by generating downward force – usually created by spoilers or other features on a car to help increase grip – which allow it to transition from ground to wall and back again without trouble.
When transitioning from ground to wall, the rear propeller uses thrust to propel it towards the wall while the front propeller pushes the robot up, resulting in a flip onto the wall.
It also means the surface it’s on, either the ground or wall, needs to be even for it to stick.
If a person wants to control it like a common RC car, an onboard computer is incorporated as a controller. The robot uses a 6-axis IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) as well as infrared distance sensors mounted in front of it to estimate its orientation and decide the best positions for it.
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Nama is probably running out of opportunities to sell-off taxpayer assets at a massive discount.
Any building that sells at twice the price Nama sold it for within 12 months should be subject to a 75% capital gains tax, and the original sale investigated.
NAMA sold of it’s foreign properties first while waiting for the Irish market to recover. It needed to start selling off some of it’s Irish properties at some stage and out of tens of billions in properties there are going to be some sales which we aren’t happy with.
The thing is though, commercial property has had a V-shaped bounce back and the recovery growth is unlikely to continue at the same pace over the next few years. Prices collapsed and then sharply recovered but are going to grow at a slower pace similar to that of economy after the recovery.
So essentially we are talking about setting up a state owned property development company. I think there are risks and benefits around that but a reasonable discussion should take place. There aren’t enormous profits likely to be made going forward but it could be a useful piece of public policy.
Yes because woe betide someone might see a bargain and make a few quid on something. By that logic Nama would never sell anything in case it went up in value, do you want them around forever?
This is positive news the quicker NAMA is gone the better for the country…..people said it could not work…. well it looks like it has.
Investors are being influenced by the end of December deadline for obtaining capital gains tax relief over the next seven years.
Recent proposals on mortgage finance announced by the Central Bank will have a direct impact on the market from now to December 2014.
It looks like a scramble for the next 8 weeks for First Time Buyers and a cooling off in January.
That’s great, selling national assets at knock down prices to foreigners only to sell them back to us again at inflated prices, while greedy millionaires get debt write offs. A f*ckin master stroke!!!
Ha, I’ve heard developers are buying them back though other investors. There s a tribunal down the road for nama no doubt.
You mean market prices. Which is how much they are worth.
NAMA has being having a 75% OFF sale on everything it’s sold since day one…..
With NAMA it’s not what you know,
But who you know that counts…
Meaning what, exactly?
€10m profit in a year flipping a property. You have to have money to make money!
That’s ambitious, but well done on delivering on your mandate. This is another big step towards national re-normalisation.
Selling off property cheaply is normalisation? Really?
Why does NAMA need to close? Link it in with NABCO and FAS and rather than sell all the assets for huge discounts actually manage the properties and make money from renting commercial property and using the residential ones for social housing. Using FAS and the live register to get young people and unemployed builders back to work helping with the maintenance and in the case of some areas the completion of estates
Joined up thinking from a government. You’re crazy.
Because government bodies have such a great record at efficient property management and delivery of high quality accommodation?
If it all goes to plan IW will be no more in 4 days
Were we not told that all going well USC was a temporary measure? So guess Nama will be around for another bit
Ahhh – that’s the rub. NAMA will be wound up quickly otherwise they might have to charge their pals market rates – they know they cant sell the idea of a ‘fire sale’ when the market recovers.
Therefore NAMA will be wound up, we’ll never know the cost to the taxpayer – yes NAMA may have purchased a debt/asset for say €10M and sold it for €11M, but the original cost to the taxpayer may have been €50M when we funded NAMAs discounted purchase (we took over the banks debt).
The USC will remain indefinitely as Joe Public must still pay business debts run up in Ireland.
This is the ultimate achievement in the concept of money moving to the very small group at the top – not only do they not lose, but they get another bight at the cherry at a discount.
Then in another 4 years after NAMA is no more we will have NAMA 2: revenge of the bubble.
How can it be a property bubble if people are still in negative equity?
Well if they keep selling property to the likes of U2 at knockdown prices it’s no surprise they’re gonna wind up early.
It will be with us for a lot longer than that to many people at the top making money
Same people that said Nama would never work now moaning it’s working to well also said Nama paid to much to the banks for assets shot memories
NAMA could have wiped out homelessness, instead it just sold off half the capital to foreigners on the cheap and assets back to dodgy developers who already owe it money. Longest game of Monopoly in history…
And then we can have the scandal.
Indeed. The inevitability of it all is so depressing.
Why is this being allowed to happen with these National assets.
Green REIT came into existence 15 months ago. Hovered up €758 million of them and just announced €53 million first year rental income. That is a 7% return and with upward only rents can only get better.
These assets should be managed and kept to add to the country’s balance sheet.
Our own pension reserve could do with an annual 7% return very nicely.
NAMA did a good job given the prevailing environment of madness
They are so untranparent in their dealings that there is no way we can possibly know that yet.
That’s because they own loans, not properties.
Do they still own loads of property a road such as london etc as well as holiday homes in Southern Europe etc. never mentioned in any of their reports that are public.
have your say