For Beginners :

When building a robot, take the examples and add other techniques to improve the Robot much better, here I leave for beginners,  where to look for data,  some will spend a little money,  others will do it with household objects, the important thing is to do it,  According to what is requested and That works,  I leave the following link. some people are experts,  do not let that take away  your dream.

Robot Building for Beginners

Robot Building for Beginners. Building a robot can be challenging for the beginner, but stay with me and I will show you several ways that even a person with little or no technical knowledge can easily build robots.

The technologies of robotics run wide and deep. There is vision, robot intelligence, voice recognition, robot voice, robot locomotion (wheels, legged or flying robots), robot arm movement, just to name a few. In times past, if you were not an electronic engineer, a computer programmer, a mechanical engineer, and a person with hundreds of hours every month, you could not build a robot. Time and technology has changed all that. Robot building, even building robots from scratch has matured to a place where even a 12 year old average kid can build a robot in a short while--even faster that a 12 year old kid of 30 years ago could build a model boat or plane. It really has gotten a whole lot easier to build robots.

In the next few paragraphs I’m going to list out the easiest to the hardest way to build a robot. This will really be robot building for beginners. The harder ways will just be put there for reference. You as a robot hobbyist may never construct a scratch-built ‘bot, but it is nice to know a bit about how to do it. You will also see links to other robotic web pages that will give you more information on that type of robot building.

Pre-built Robots

The simplest robot to build is one that is already built. And by already built I’m not talking about some toys although some of the toys these days such as the Ultimate Wall-e as well as the R2D2 Mechanical ‘Droid are quite sophisticated pre-built robots. Another is Tomy’s humanoid robot the i-Sobot. These robots require little work aside from installing or charging a set of batteries. Sometimes the hardest work is just getting the darn 'bot out of its box. Robot building for beginners can include the challenge of box opening!

Competition Robots

The first pre-built robots worth talking about are the competition robots such as line following robots and sumo wrestling robots. While not many are not actually kits, they can introduce one to a lot of robotic concepts and some can be programmed. At a price point under $100 these “toys” are more sophisticated than many scratch built robots. They make easy robot building for beginners.

There are also Sumo Robot kits ranging from about $50 to more than $300. The Elenco OWI-9647 Sumo Robot that attempts to push other sumobots out of the arena that can be had for about $50.

Parallax’s Scribbler Robot is a “reprogrammable fully-assembled line following robot". You have the option of programming this little line following bot in the Scribbler Program Maker GUI (Graphical User Interface) language, a point and click graphically programming language. It is about $100 to build simple robots with this one.

Humanoid Beginners Robot Building

You think you can't build simple robots that look like people? The next level of robot building are complete kits are at an intermediate challenge for the robot builder. Like building a model car or plane, these all-in-one kits contain everything including step-by-step instructions, a person, even a 12 year old boy needs to construct a robot from parts alone. The Aldebaran Robotics Nao Humanoid Robot Academic Edition v3plus at more than $17,000 brings home robotics to a new and sophisticated level. This is robot building for beginners with STYLE!

Educational Robot Kits: VEX and Boe-Bots

Following the complete robot kits are the educational robotic kits. These are kits where the student can learn all about robot building while building several different version of robots. As with a lot of educational products, most are quite expensive. The top educational kits are the VEX robot kits which can take someone from no knowledge to a fairly sophisticated level of robotics in just a few weekends. Parallax.com says the Boe-Bot is the “most complete reprogrammable robot kit and is a great resource for STEM programs. No previous robotics, electronics, or programming experience is necessary.” At a bit over $150 it is a reasonably priced educational robotic system.

Leggo my Lego Minstorms Robot

Lego, the people that had kids putting up plastic sky scrapers since the 1940s, came up with a Lego robotics line of toys in 1998 and has been improving upon their Lego "brick" micro-controller ever since.

Finally it's time to discuss scratch builting robots vs. easy robot building. In the ancient times, say around 1980 or so, hobbyists were building robots of every size and shape. These scratch built robots usually were never “finished”, cost gobs of money, did little if anything useful, and took years of weekends to even get a basic robot to roll around a room. Most could not pick up anything. Many were dangerous, carrying along 12 volt car batteries, sloshing hydrochloric acid and spewing hydrogen gas which was expelled whenever one recharged them. They could cause an acid burn or even an explosion if one were not careful.

Click HERE to learn How to Build a Robot with Lego Mindstorms

We’ve come a long way from that and this author has come up with a method of scratch-building a robot that I call "super easy robot building." This uses a standard micro controller, servos for both robot arms and moving the robot around a room and plug-in range detectors to keep the little droids from slamming into walls, chairs and friends shins. See my robot building articles elsewhere on this site.

Click HERE to learn about robot building for beginners

The Newest Product for the Beginner: The EZ-Robot System

There is a new player on the beginner robot builder's block, and it's called the EZ-Robot. It claims to make robot building simple enough for kids and even frustrated adults. The world needed a better robot board and this might just be it. Click below to see a review of this intriguing new product and all that it promises.

EZ Robot Building with the EZ Robot Board

http://www.robots-and-androids.com/robot-building-for-beginners.html

Free......

Lessons Menu:

• Lesson 1 – Getting Started
• Lesson 2 – Choosing a Robotic Platform
• Lesson 3 – Making Sense of Actuators
• Lesson 4 – Understanding Microcontrollers
• Lesson 5 – Choosing a Motor Controller
• Lesson 6 – Controlling your Robot
• Lesson 7 – Using Sensors
• Lesson 8 – Getting the Right Tools
• Lesson 9 – Assembling a Robot
• Lesson 10 – Programming a Robot

Programming is usually the final step involved in building a robot. If you followed the lessons, so far you have chosen the actuators, electronics, sensors and more, and have assembled the robot so it hopefully looks something like what you had initially set out to build. Without programming though, the robot is a very nice looking and expensive paperweight.

It would take much more than one lesson to teach you how to program a robot, so instead, this lesson will help you with how to get started and where (and what) to learn. The practical example will use “Processing”, a popular hobbyist programming language intended to be used with the Arduino microcontroller chosen in previous lessons. We will also assume that you will be programming a microcontroller rather than software for a full-fledged computer.

What Language to Choose?

There are many programming languages which can be used to program microcontrollers, the most common of which are:

• Assembly ; its just one step away from machine code and as such it is very tedious to use. Assembly should only be used when you need absolute instruction-level control of your code.
• Basic; one of the first widely used programming languages, it is still used by some microcontrollers ( Basic Micro , BasicX , Parallax ) for educational robots.
• C / C++; one of the most popular languages, C provides high-level functionality while keeping a good low-level control.
• Java ; it is more modern than C and provides lots of safety features to the detriment of low-level control. Some manufacturers like Parallax make microcontrollers specifically for use with Java.
• .NET / C# ; Microsoft’s proprietary language used to develop applications in Visual Studio. Examples include Netduino , FEZ Rhino and others ).
• Processing ( Arduino ); a variant of C++ that includes some simplifications in order to make the programming for easier.
• Python , one of the most popular scripting languages. It is very simple to learn and can be used to put programs together very fast and efficiently.

In lesson 4 , you chose a microcontroller based on the features you needed (number of I/O, user community, special features, etc). Often times, a microcontroller is intended to be programmed in a specific language. For example:

• Arduino microcontrollers use Arduino software and are re-programmed in Processing .
• Basic Stamp microcontrollers use PBasic
• Basic Atom microcontrollers use Basic Micro
• Javelin Stamp from Parallax is programmed in Java

If you have chosen a hobbyist microcontroller from a known or popular manufacturer , there is likely a large book available so you can learn to program in their chosen programming language. If you instead chose a microcontroller from a smaller, lesser known manufacturer (e.g. since it had many features which you thought would be useful for your project), it’s important to see what language the controller is intended to be programmed in (C in many cases) and what development tools are there available (usually from the chip manufacturer).

Getting Started

The first program you will likely write is “Hello World” (referred to as such for historic reasons). This is one of the simplest programs that can be made in a computer and is intended to print a line of text (e.g. “Hello World”) on the computer monitor or LCD screen. In the case of a microcontroller, another very basic program you can do that has an effect on the outside world (rather than just on-board computations) is toggling an IO pin. Connecting an LED to and I/O pin then setting the I/O pin to ON and OFF will make the LED blink. Although the simple act of turning on an LED may seem basic, the function can allow for some complex programs (you can use it to light up multi-segment LEDs, to display text and numbers, operate relays, servos and more).

Step 1 : Ensure you have all components needed to program the microcontroller

Not all microcontrollers come with everything you need to program them, and most microcontrollers need to be connected to a computer via USB plug. If your microcontroller does not have a USB or DB9 connector, then you will need a separate USB to serial adapter, and wire it correctly. Fortunately many hobbyist microcontrollers are programmable either via an RS-232 port or by USB, and include the USB connector on-board which is used not only for two-way communication, but also to power the microcontroller board.

Step 2 : Connect the microcontroller to the computer and verify which COM port it is connected to. Not all microcontrollers will be picked up by the computer and you should read the “getting started” guide in the manual to know exactly what to do to have your computer recognize it and be able to communicate with it. You often need to download “drivers” (specific to each operating system) to allow your computer to understand how to communicate with the microcontroller and/or the USB to serial converter chip.

Step 3 : Check product’s user guide for sample code and communication method / protocol

Don’t reinvent the wheel if you don’t have to. Most manufacturers provide some code (or pseudo code) explaining how to get their product working. The sample code may not be in the programming language of your choice, but don’t despair; do a search on the Internet to see if other people have created the necessary code.

• Check product manuals / user guides
• Check the manufacturer’s forum
• Check the internet for the product + code
• Read the manual to understand how to write the code

Useful Tips

1. Create manageable chunks of functional code: By creating segments of code specific to each product, you gradually build up a library. Develop a file system on your computer to easily look up the necessary code.
2. Document everything within the code using comments: Documenting everything is necessary in almost all jobs, especially robotics. As you become more and more advanced, you may add comments to general sections of code, though as you start, you should add a comment to (almost) every line.
3. Save different versions of the code – do not always overwrite the same file: if you find one day that your 200+ lines of code do not compile, you won’t be stuck going through it line by line; instead you can revert to a previously saved (and functional) version and add / modify it as needed. Code does not take up much space o a hard drive, so you should not feel pressured to only save a few copies.
4. Raise the robot off the table or floor when debugging (so its wheels/ legs / tracks don’t accidentally launch it off the edge), and have the power switch close by in case the robot tries to destroy itself. An example of this is if you try to send a servo motor to a 400us signal when it only accepts a 500 (corresponding to 0 degrees) to 2500us (corresponding to 180 degrees) signal. The servo would try to move to a location which it cannot physically go to (-9 degrees) and ultimately burn out.
5. If code does something that does not seem to be working correctly after a few seconds, turn off the power – it’s highly unlikely the problem will “fix itself” and in the meantime, you may be destroying part of the mechanics.
6. Subroutines may be a bit difficult to understand at first, but they greatly simplify your code. If a segment of code is repeated many times within the code, it is a good candidate to be replaced with a subroutine.

Practical Example

We have chosen an Arduino microcontroller to be the “brain” of our robot. To get started, we can take a look at the Arduino 5 Minute Tutorials . These tutorials will help you use and understand the basic functionality of the Arduino programming language. Once you have finished these tutorials, take a look at the example below.

For the robot we have made, we will create code to have it move around (left, right, forward, reverse), move the two servos (pan/tilt) and communicate with the distance sensor. We chose Arduino because of the large user community, abundance of sample code and ease of integration with other products.

Distance sensor

Fortunately in the Arduino code, there is an example for getting values from an analog sensor. For this, we go to File -> Examples -> Analog -> AnalogInOutSerial (so we can see the values)

Pan/Tilt

Again, we are fortunate to have sample code to operate servos from an Arduino. File -> Examples ->  Servo -> Sweep

Note that text after two slashes // are comments and not part of the compiled code

#include // This loads the servo script, allowing you to use specific functions below

Servo myservo;                      // create servo object to control a servo
int pos = 0;                             // variable to store the servo position

void setup()                           // required in all Arduino code
{
myservo.attach(9);             // attaches the servo on pin 9 to the servo object
}

void loop()                               // required in all Arduino code
{
for(pos = 0; pos < 180; pos += 1)  // variable ‘pos’ goes from 0 degrees to 180 degrees in steps of 1 degree
{
myservo.write(pos);              // tell servo to go to position in variable ‘pos’
delay(15);                                 // waits 15ms for the servo to reach the position
}
for(pos = 180; pos>=1; pos-=1)     // variable ‘pos’ goes from 180 degrees to 0 degrees
{
myservo.write(pos);              // tell servo to go to position in variable ‘pos’
delay(15);                               // waits 15ms at each degree
}
}

Motor Controller

Here is where it gets a bit harder, since no sample code is available specifically for the Arduino. The controller is connected to the Tx (serial) pin of the Arduino and waits for a specific “start byte” before taking any action. The manual does indicate the communication protocol required; a string with specific structure:

• 0x80 (start byte)
• 0x00 (specific to this motor controller; if it receives anything else it will not take action)
• motor # and direction (motor one or two and direction explained in the manual)
• motor speed (hexadecimal from 0 to 127)

In order to do this, we create a character with each of these as bytes within the character:

unsigned char buff[6];

buff[0]=0x80; //start byte specific to Pololu motor controller
buff[1]=0; //Device type byte specific to this Pololu controller
buff[2]=1; //Motor number and direction byte; motor one =00,01
buff[3]=127; //Motor speed “0 to 128” (ex 100 is 64 in hex)

Serial.write(buff);

Therefore when this is sent via the serial pin, it will be sent in the correct order.

Putting all the code together makes the robot move forward and sweep the servo while reading distance values.

You can see the full robot and the user manual .

https://www.robotshop.com/blog/en/how-to-make-a-robot-lesson-10-programming-your-robot-2-3627

Great!

Asgardians,

Hi everyone, im a Colombian that came to France to pursuit her studies, I think people like that travel to others countries have an idea of how interesting it is to think about a world without delimitations, the idea of this kingdom, our kingdom, is the hope for a new way of thinking of seeking peace, I wish we can accomplish everything as it is in our constitution, but it sure is possible if we all collaborate, we will make it true,  we don't choose where to be born but we can make decisions afterwards, Asgard is the future and is my choice as yours to be part of it.

Hola a todos, soy una Colombiana que vino a Francia para perseguir sus estudios, creo que gente que viaja a otros países tiene una idea de cuan interesante es pensar acerca de un mundo sin fronteras, la idea de este reino, nuestro reino, es la esperanza de una nueva manera de pensar, de buscar paz, deseo que podamos lograr todo como esta en la constitución y estoy segura de que si todos colaboramos lo haremos realidad, no elegimos donde nacer, pero podemos hacer decisiones después, Asgard es el futuro y es mi decision asi como la de ustedes de ser parte de ello.

Coucou tout le monde, je suis une Colombienne qui est venu en France pour continuer ses études, je crois que les personnes qui voyagent aux autres pays ont une idée de comment ca pourrais etre interessant penser a un monde sans frontières, l'idée de cette royaume, notre royaume, c'est l'espoir d'une nouvelle manière de pensée, de chercher la paix, je veux qu'on peut accomplir toute telle comme est sur la constitution et je suis sure, que si nous collaborons ont le ferait une réalité, nous ne choisissons pas ou ont est née, mais ont peut choisir quoi faire après, Asgard est le future et est ma décision telle comme la vôtre de faire partie.

Hello there, your Cosmic Guy here to let you in on a 'message' I posted on a site dedicated to the 'Resistance Movement' against the cabal, the badguys, you know who. Everyone is talking talking talking, getting together for kumbaya moments at a $1000 a pop to attend those "getting fat off disclosure" tours going around like traveling circuses of old...

Here is the page/site I posted the following message for your own disclosure due-diligence.

Ugh…how to begin…fellow ISBE’s I am here to leave my 2.5 cents worth (before taxes) to introduce you all to something called ‘action’. You see I am old school in disclosure, and at 58 no spring chicken….I have spent my entire life even as a young kid knowing things were insane and the Star Trek world is where I needed to be.

All these years later, music and technology careers behind me, all I do is disclosure via an internet radio show every night…but I am not here to huckster like so many in this disclosure field are doing.

Action.  From my, again ‘old school’ ßschool spelled correctly – perspective nothing of consequence ever takes place in this existence without action. Talk, and seminars and kumbaya moments are needed and necessary, but so is action. Too many preaching to the choir and not getting anything done to awaken the sheeple that will never show up at one of these “getting fat off disclosure” tours that can cost the average ISBE over $1000.00 to attend for a a couple days. Really?

I for one have picked suppressed “food replicator” technology for my ISBE action plan, for as I mentioned before I’ve been successful in my fields of endeavor, but once I got too old and too experienced to find a tech job again I found myself homeless and fending for my survival for a time.

Thank God It’s Fridge Fridays TGIFF – This is my action plan. All those years I was in the matrix ‘married with children’ working all those cubicle jobs, every place had that employee lunchroom with the employee fridge with the sign that still says, “if it’s in here on Friday it gets thrown out, container and all”

My research for the national math on this collosal waste of food that can’t be recycled, found that hundreds of tons of mostly edible food is thrown out, containers and all, every Friday by companies small, medium and large across this fruited plain.  – and with equal irony -

The weekend is when most homeless have to go to plan “B” because most facilities offering food are closed on the weekend. Do the research yourself. This is true in every city that relies on government institutions to do anything, no work on weekends. Just churches and private caring people.

I have a little sign I have begun taping onto those same employee lunchroom fridges that states the following with a smiley face:

-Hundreds of Tons mostly edible food is thrown out nationally every Friday afternoon.

-Most places providing food during the week are closed on the weekends.

-Please when you clean out this fridge, think of our homeless and less fortunate and

bring in A one or two NON-PERISHABLE FOOD ITEMS to be collected each Friday afternoon and distributed to the churches and private food distribution entities overloaded by this short-sighted extra burden.

Our less fortunate will be shouting “Thank God It’s Fridge Fridays” all because of your thoughtfulness and generosity.

…now comes the REAL ACTION FOR DISCLOSURE – something sorely missing in the present public disclosure arena. This TGIFF concept will catch on because of playing the guilt of all that wasted food that can help no one, with the desire to do something for those in need at a time of the week when it’s the biggest challenge to do something so basic as eating.

I will attach it to my radio show. I will slowly and in the trenches get the word out to all these people getting  fed because of the TGIFF program, and I and people like me “action ISBE’s” educate them on one thing. Suppressed Food Replication Technology, get them PISSED OFF, and get them ORGANIZED, the homeless are not just drug addicts, alcoholics and ne’er do-wells. They are people just like you and I being affected by disclosure on a level most of ‘you’ have not taken the time to contemplate. No matter.

Success of this endeavor is defined by my vision of hundreds of thousands of “Displaced Humans” gather on the Lincoln steps in unWashington and peacefully protest holding picket signs saying,

“ Release Food Replicator Technology Mr. Trump Now !”

This is what it is going to take to affect real change and disclosure on a level that those ingrates withholding this and much more from us; keeping us from the Star Trek world many of us deserve. Not gatherings of the flock, preaching to the disclosure choir. Those days are over, you got those numbers and they are not gonna change too very much from here on out without being able to compete with the onslaught MSM attack that is only going to get worse as the human trafficking on and off world and pedophile rings and their real horridness keeps oozing little by little…not nearly fast enough to keep up with the retribution of the ‘badguys’. You ALL should know that, especially Mr. Cobra. Nothing in human existence has ever been changed for the better without – well…you know. It is the cold hard reality of existing in the Yin/Yang Consumption Universe.

I thank anyone who actually took the time to read this, and I reiterate action is the only thing that works with stubborn, afraid pre-programmed BCS’s- Biological Computer Suits. :c) humans.

I hail the “RM” for all that is happening on a level us regular in the trenches ISBE’s may not see, but that’s not enough. I hear all this “chanting” about mass meditations and ethereal weapons and I am a believer. The co-creative consciousness is our salvation if we can ‘consistently’ learn how to use it individually and as a group for light and love. Until then the bad guys may be defeated on a level you and I are only seeing in ‘eeks’, but they are not going away quietly into the night. Las Vegas didn’t happen at the same time the ‘Harvey the Larvae’ story broke by coincidence  and we here all know that and that much more is coming.

The people ARE the power. We in the disclosure initiative need to up our game and gather the masses no one is paying attention to, the Homeless, the needy. While everyone else seems to be so concerned with the immigrant problem, and when NK will attempt to start WW3, as usual we are ignoring our own people’s biggest problem . Non-disclosure of technologies that will change this world forever.

I shall continue to manifest “ TGIFF”  Thank God It’s Fridge Fridays – and organize these masses and somehow someway get a huge number of them to the Lincoln Monument. I hold no patent or legal anything with this concept nor do I care about such things. Start your own TGIFF in your town or city…Every business owner I pitched the idea to was enthusiastic. For some it was more awareness of cleaning out the fridge on Fridays. Lol – whatever works right?

“Release Food Replicator Technology Mr. Trump Now!

Regards, and onward through the fog.

Guy “Cosmic Guy” Partin

Disclosure In The Desert

osto.space

Of Service To Others (with ACTION!) :c)

Planet Earth has many problems such as a global pandemic, racial inequality, bigotry and hate, misogyny and anti-science believers.  Politicians do little to bring us together or even attempt to solve these issues.

As your Mayor, I will continue to spotlight these issues, while working towards the important goal of getting humans off-planet, which is critical for our survival.  San Diego is unique situated with its vast aerospace industry and strong financial wealth.

It has been shown that when humans work on large projects (International Space Station) it brings us together, allowing us to forget our differences.  We must work to get off this planet before one of many scenarios dooms us like Earths Poles Flipping, Large Asteroid Strike, Nuclear War, Pandemic, Gamma Ray burst, Super Volcano, Artifical Intelligence....the list goes on.

I will support an agenda to get humans into Low Earth Orbit, and send missions beyond to the Main Asteroid belt to mine the vast wealth, which will be critical to our economy.  We need desperately need the rare earth and platinum group metals, along with renewables such as fresh drinking water.

Vote for me as your Mayor, and I will fight to make San Diego an even better place to live.

Pasaportları ve kimlikleri açıklar mısınız lütfen? Parlamento oluşturmak, hükümeti oluşturmak ve bankacılık sistemini ve ulusal para birimini SOLAR yaratmak için çalışıyoruz. Bu noktadaki kimlik kartı, nihayetinde size temin edildiklerinde, Asgardia'nın sağlayacağı hizmetleri alabilmeleri ve para birimi sistemi içinde çalışabilmelerini sağlayacak tam korumalı, yonga ile entegre bir kart olacak.

Thanks to climate change, seawater is something we're going to have plenty of in the future!

Researchers have achieved a major turning point in the quest for efficient desalination by announcing the invention of a graphene-oxide membrane that sieves salt right out of seawater.

At this stage, the technique is still limited to the lab, but it's a demonstration of how we could one day quickly and easily turn one of our most abundant resources, seawater, into one of our most scarce - clean drinking water.

The team, led by Rahul Nair from the University of Manchester in the UK, has shown that the sieve can efficiently filter out salts, and now the next step is to test this against existing desalination membranes.

"Realisation of scalable membranes with uniform pore size down to atomic scale is a significant step forward and will open new possibilities for improving the efficiency of desalination technology," says Nair .

"This is the first clear-cut experiment in this regime. We also demonstrate that there are realistic possibilities to scale up the described approach and mass produce graphene-based membranes with required sieve sizes."

Graphene-oxide membranes have long been considered a promising candidate for filtration and desalination, but although many teams have developed membranes that could sieve large particles out of water, getting rid of salt requires even smaller sieves that scientists have struggled to create.

One big issue is that, when graphene-oxide membranes are immersed in water, they swell up, allowing salt particles to flow through the engorged pores.

The Manchester team overcame this by building walls of epoxy resin on either side of the graphene oxide membrane, stopping it from swelling up in water.

This allowed them to precisely control the pore size in the membrane, creating holes tiny enough to filter out all common salts from seawater.

The key to this is the fact that when common salts are dissolved in water, they form a 'shell' of water molecules around themselves.

"Water molecules can go through individually, but sodium chloride cannot. It always needs the help of the water molecules," Nair told Paul Rincon from the BBC .

"The size of the shell of water around the salt is larger than the channel size, so it cannot go through."

Not only did this leave seawater fresh to drink, it also made the water molecules flow way faster through the membrane barrier, which is perfect for use in desalination.

"When the capillary size is around one nanometre, which is very close to the size of the water molecule, those molecules form a nice interconnected arrangement like a train," Nair explained to Rincon.

"That makes the movement of water faster: if you push harder on one side, the molecules all move on the other side because of the hydrogen bonds between them. You can only get that situation if the channel size is very small."

There are already several major desalination plants around the world using polymer-based membranes to filter out salt, but the process is still largely inefficient and expensive, so finding a way to make it quicker, cheaper, and easier is a huge goal for researchers.

Thanks to climate change, seawater is something we're going to have plenty of in the future - Greenland's coastal ice caps which have already passed the point of no return are predicted to increase sea levels by around 3.8 cm (1.5 inches) by 2100, and if the entire Greenland Ice Sheet melts, future generations will be facing oceans up to 7.3 metres (24 feet) higher.

But at the same time, clean drinking water is still incredibly hard to come by in many parts of the world - the UN predicts that by 2025, 14 percent of the world's population will encounter water scarcity. And many of those countries won't be able to afford large-scale desalination plants.

The researchers are now hoping that the graphene-based sieve might be as effective as large plants on the small scale, so it's easier to roll out.

Graphene oxide is also a lot easier and cheaper to make in the lab than single-layers of graphene, which means the technology will be affordable and easy to produce.

"The selective separation of water molecules from ions by physical restriction of interlayer spacing opens the door to the synthesis of inexpensive membranes for desalination," Ram Devanathan from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, who wasn't involved in the research, wrote in an accompanying Nature News and Views article .

"The ultimate goal is to create a filtration device that will produce potable water from seawater or wastewater with minimal energy input."

He added that the next step will be to test how durable the membranes are when used over long periods of time, and how often they need to be replaced.

The research has been published in Nature Nanotechnology .

World Water Day , on 22 March every year, draws the world's attention to the importance of water.  Damaged ecosystems affect the quantity and quality of water available for human consumption. Today, 2.1 billion people live without safe drinking water at home; affecting their health, education and livelihoods. Sustainable Development Goal 6 commits the world to ensuring that everyone has access to safe water by 2030, and includes targets on protecting the natural environment and reducing pollution. World Water Day 2018 will also mark the launch of the Decade for Action: Water for Sustainable Development (2018-2028) .

What is this year's theme?
The theme for World Water Day 2018 is ‘ Nature for Water ’ – exploring nature-based solutions to the water challenges we face in the 21 ^st century. Nature-based solutions have the potential to solve many of our water challenges. We need to harmonize ‘green’ infrastructure with ‘grey’ infrastructure wherever possible. Planting new forests, reconnecting rivers to floodplains, and restoring wetlands will re-balance the water cycle and improve human health and livelihoods.

How can you get involved?
Water is an ubiquitous part of our lives. World Water Day is an occasion to dive into great stories about nature and water . If you are the creative type, there is a collage competition that has your name on it.  The UN Chronicle's March edition " The Quest for Water " explores how we can ensure the availability and sustainable management of water for all and the High Level Panel on Water issued its report " Making Every Drop Count ". However you choose to spend the day, either in nature or at home learning more about it, help spread the message about the importance of clean water for sustainable development using #EveryDrop ! You can also share your ideas in a dedicated discussion on the UNAI Member Forum .

Research : https://academicimpact.un.org/