From your robotic greeter at the front door to your automated waiter, your visit to this restaurant in Kunshan City will feature all the cybernetic staff you hoped to have serve you in the future.

Fifteen robots in total roll around the eatery, cooking food, taking orders, serving meals and greeting customers as they enter. A few humans are on hand just in case, but basically the robots run the place.

The spacious 3,200-square-foot facility is navigated by bots following black-taped lines using optical sensors, making their way between patrons to pick up dishes and drop off eats.

A touch-screen ordering system lets patrons pick their food. When the robo-waiter drops it off, customers are told to tap the bot to send it on its way.

The post Welcome, Human, to China’s Largest Robot-Run Restaurant first appeared on Gajitz.

China is working to create a massive subsurface sea lab thousands of feet below the surface of the ocean, aiming to hunt for minerals in the South China Sea and presumably to cement their claim to the disputed region.

The project is one of the country’s top scientific priorities, according to the Chinese government, and would be a world first – while submarines can go as deep as the planned station, no manned outpost has been constructed and maintained at such depths to date.

“The deep sea contains treasures that remain undiscovered and undeveloped, and in order to obtain these treasures we have to control key technologies in getting into the deep sea, discovering the deep sea, and developing the deep sea,” President Xi said last month at a national science conference.

Some reports indicate that the project would be mobile, and others have theorized that it could be a strategic part of the ‘Underwater Great Wall Project” designed to detect US and Russian submarines. The government says it will be for civil use, but will not rule out military functions.

Spearheading the planning for the deep-sea station is the China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation, according to a statement on the website of the science ministry. Once operational, it would host dozens of crew members who could remain underwater for up to a month, the ministry’s presentation separately said.

Planning has been under way for a decade and is central to China’s push to become a global technology superpower by 2030. Completing it would help China close a deep sea exploration gap with the U.S., Japan, France and Russia on underwater technology.

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Somewhere between art and activism, this faux ‘black diamond’ setting made from pollution sucked out of the sky dovetails well with the likewise real but far-fetched project it draws its source material from: a plan currently in motion to pull particles directly from the air in Beijing, China.

Daan Roosegaarde, known for both practical and artistic endeavors, is already working with city officials on this plan to ‘vacuum’ pollution from above the city. This ring is an extension of that project, proposing to turn said smog into a wearable reminder of the larger problem.

The plan calls for “a system using buried coils of copper to create an ion electrostatic field that attracts smog particles, effectively magnetizing them and pulling them down. The result is sizable void of clean air above. While it cannot yet work on a city-wide basis, the idea is to begin by clearing hundreds of feet of air in key public spaces like parks, squares and other paths trafficked by pedestrians.”

Clearly this cannot solve the larger issue of urban air pollution, but it can provide selective relief where it is needed most, and highlight the contrast of still-pollution sections of sky against the cleared areas – it is a start.

The post Ring of Smog: Air Pollution Pressed into Wearable Jewelry first appeared on Gajitz.

As far as super-fast maglev trains go, China has long been the undisputed champion with their 267 MPH Shanghai Maglev Train. But Dr. Deng Zigang of Jiaotong University may have just bested his own country’s record. His super-maglev loop train could allow future commuter trains to travel at mind-blowing speeds of up to 1800 MPH. 

The train is able to go so fast thanks to its use of a vacuum tube, which eliminates the air resistance that holds back other maglev trains. By enclosing the train in a tube, the air resistance is reduced by a factor of up to ten times less that of other maglevs. According to Dr. Zigang, more than 83 percent of a train’s energy is wasted by air resistance once a train reaches speeds of 250 MPH.

The Evacuated Tube Transport (ETT) system could eventually be used in commuter systems, but for now the inventor sees it as first being used in military and space launch environments. If the idea eventually becomes a real commuting option, it seems like “my train was running late” will never be a viable excuse for arriving late to work in China ever again.

The post Running Late? China Develops Super-Fast Maglev Train first appeared on Gajitz.

In large cities where air pollution is a big problem, finding an alternative to the sea of gas-powered vehicles is essential to the health and safety of the residents. A company called Kandi Technologies is trying to clean up the streets of China by creating enormous vending machines that dispense electric rental cars.

The machines hold 30 to 300 cars which can be rented for just $3.25 an hour. People who want to keep the car for a longer period but don’t want to take the plunge into permanent ownership can lease one of the cars for a period of one to three years at around $130-$160 per month. The price includes power, insurance and maintenance, making it a pretty great deal particularly for those who wouldn’t ordinarily have access to charging facilities.

Each electric car has a range of 75 miles and can reach speeds up to 50 MPH. These figures are generous enough for almost any urban commuter. Several of the vending machines have already been placed in Hangzhou, making up a fleet of more than 100,000 cars. Kandi Technologies has plans to expand their service to other cities, and we hope to the rest of the world.

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