Technology

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Ghostfishing

Combating marine waste and ghost fishing with new materials

Ghost fishing and plastic waste from the fisheries industry is becoming a major environmental problem. Can we address the issue by using degradable plastics? Scientists at a new research centre are aiming to find the answers and develop the systems we need.

 

Kurobe dam

Retrofitting dams for more renewable energy in the world

Many of the world’s dams are not used for hydropower, but a new study shows they could be easily altered to produce renewable energy. This would be the most sustainable solution for new energy production in the world, says NTNU Professor Tor Haakon Bakken.

Researchers modelling a floating solar farm

Researchers to test a solar farm at sea

The sun shines just as much out at sea as it does on land. There are also no restrictions on area use and seawater even helps to cool the solar panel technology. It’s only a matter of time before the first floating solar energy farms are installed at sea.

A robotic microplankton sniffer dog

The microscopic, free-floating algae called phytoplankton — and the tiny zooplankton that eat them — are notoriously difficult to count. Researchers need to know how a warming climate will affect them both. A new kind of smart, lightweight autonomous underwater vehicle (LAUV) can help.

NOTES

Making sure ships, other marine craft find their way

If you’ve ever wondered about the importance of shipping and navigation, think back to the grounding of the Ever Given container ship in the Suez Canal in March this year. The ship, stuck fast for six days, crippled shipping worldwide at the costs of billions of US dollars. A new edition of a popular textbook looks at marine guidance, navigation and control.

Robots with boxes

An automated box on wheels — with personality

Robots are becoming more and more omnipresent in our lives, even though we may not notice. New research shows that when a boxy motorized hospital robot can talk, people find it funny and engaging. And that may help people be more willing to accept new technologies, like robots, in their everyday lives.

Developing the world’s ‘hottest’ heat pump ever

Researchers working with industrial partners have developed the world’s first heat pump producing temperatures of up to 180 degrees celcius. Such record high temperatures will enable one fifth of European industry to reduce its energy consumption by up to 70 percent, and become entirely climate neutral.

Three men

Taking control of unmanned vessels at sea

What’s needed to be able to safely send a vessel to sea with no crew? How will these vessels detect a kayaker or a recreational boat that drifts into the course of the unmanned vessel? A new Centre for Research-Based Innovation, SFI AutoShip, will look for answers to these questions – and more.

Using ships themselves to monitor and predict waves

Waves present an enormous challenge for the world’s roughly 91,000 commercial vessels, but predicting sea conditions is challenging. A new approach uses the movements of ships themselves to create an online estimate of what kinds of waves ships can expect.

Thomas Tybell in the lab. Photo: Geir Mogen

Engineering materials for a new generation of electronics

Harnessing a fundamental property of electrons called spin could help create a new generation of computer chips and faster, more stable and less power hungry devices. NTNU researchers are studying a type of material that could make this technology feasible.