Pokemon Go for Engineers

MAEC provides 2D / 3D mapping and Digital Terrain Models (DTM) in our Geomatics Department

We can still learn some lessons from our kids. Pokemon Go is all the rage lately, right? Yes, we’ve probably seen what appears to be zombie-like activity of youngsters staring into phones chasing what appears to be ghosts in the mall, but it turns out that this game utilizes “Augmented Reality” which could potentially be used in engineering applications.

More important than the game is the technology behind it. Augmented reality places digital data over top of physical data or “reality”, to provide what appears to be an image overlaid right where you happen to be. As time progresses, this technology could play an important role in engineering as augmented reality headsets (known as head-mounted displays or HMDs), can overlay digital instructions over equipment in realtime while adjusting to the movements of the person wearing it.

The HMD market continues to expand, but as an engineering firm, when do you make the investment and which type HMD brand should you purchase, and what application is each HMD best used?

Help is on the way. In the article,  Understanding Augmented Reality Headsets written by Andrew Wheeler on August 10, 2016, Wheeler provides an in-depth commentary on describing augmented reality, the terminology, how it compares to virtual reality, the various HMDs on the market, and how they’re used. The article was written for Engineering.com and also includes a link to Wheeler’s article “Understanding Virtual Reality Headsets.”

Remember, the next time you witness someone wandering around in the middle of traffic looking at their phone, they’re probably playing Pokemon Go. Ok, so maybe there are some lessons we don’t want to learn from our kids.

Engineering Pipelines to Resist Mother Nature’s Wrath

Fault rupture test at Cornell University. Photo credit: Robert Barker, Cornell University

As North Carolinians are well aware, we’re currently in the season of natural disasters – namely hurricanes – that wreak havoc on both human life and the infrastructures we’ve developed.

Recently, Innovative Thinking has been focusing on Mother Nature’s role in engineering. Last week we took a look at how  indestructible bridges are being created using design principles  mimicking nature’s laws. Also, MAEC’s Scott Brookhart, PE, CFM, wrote a blog regarding  thoughts on the infrastructure surrounding the management of storm water runoff, one of the many outcomes of Mother Nature’s storm systems.

Now, in timely fashion for today’s blog, researchers at Cornell University may have discovered an earthquake-resilient pipeline that can better protect water utility networks from natural disasters, most notably for west coast inhabitants, but with potentially far-reaching implications.

In an article by Daryl Lovell titled “Earthquake-resilient pipeline could shake up future for again infrastructure on west coast” on July 26, 2016, The Cornell researchers

…ran multiple tests, including an earthquake simulation in which a 28-foot-long section of the pipe was outfitted with more than 120 monitoring instruments and buried within 80 tons of soil…

The test mimicked a fault rupture that can occur during an earthquake when global plates begin to slip past each other, causing the ground to shift and deform. A large, hydraulically powered “split box” imposed 2 feet of fault rupture along a 50-degree angle, forcing the buried pipeline into a combination of compression and bending.

The steel pipe, developed by JFE Holdings in Japan, uses a unique structural wave design to control buckling, allowing the pipe to bend and compress without rupturing or losing water pressure. The wave features are installed at key locations along the pipeline to absorb large ground deformation, such as movements imposed by earthquakes and landslides or from undermining associated with scour during hurricanes and floods.

Where ever you may live, this is a development worth keeping an eye on as you keep an eye-to-the-sky and an ear-to-the-ground.