Stories

News

0
390
30
News
Researchers Build the World’s Smallest Autopilot for Micro-Aircraft

Researcher Bart Remes and his team at the Micro Aerial Vehicle Laboratory at the Delft University of Technology have designed, built, and tested the world’s smallest open source autopilot for small unmanned aircraft. A smaller – and lighter – autopilot allows these small...

News
NASA Tests Thermal Dynamics of Dream Chaser Spacecraft

When Sierra Nevada Corporation’s (SNC) Dream Chaser spacecraft flies through the atmosphere, it will encounter a wide variety of environmental conditions. Any spacecraft traveling at hypersonic velocities must have a robust thermal protection system (TPS) to protect astronauts and cargo...

News
Mini-Camera Gives Users Big-Picture View

A new type of miniature camera system promises to give users a big picture view without sacrificing high-resolution.

The new imager achieves the optical performance of a full-size wide-angle lens in a device less than one-tenth of the volume. The technology has a 100x range of focus, meaning it can...

News
Engineers Build Carbon-Nanotube Computer

A team of Stanford engineers has built a basic computer using carbon nanotubes, a semiconductor material that has the potential to launch a new generation of electronic devices that run faster, while using less energy, than those made from silicon chips.

News
Particle Receiver Converts Sun's Energy to Electricity

Engineers at Sandia National Laboratories, along with partner institutions Georgia Tech, Bucknell University, King Saud University and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), are using a falling particle receiver to more efficiently convert the sun’s energy to electricity in large-scale,...

News
Researchers Propose Password in a Heartbeat

Researchers at Rice University have come up with a secure way to dramatically cut the risk that an implanted medical device (IMD) could be altered remotely without authorization.

News: Energy
'Wired Microbes' Generate Electricity from Sewage

Engineers at Stanford University have devised a new way to generate electricity from sewage using naturally-occurring “wired microbes” as mini power plants, producing electricity as they digest plant and animal waste.

News
Technology Enables Depth Perception Through a Single Lens

Researchers at Harvard have developed a way for photographers and microscopists to create a 3D image through a single lens, without moving the camera. The technology relies only on computation and mathematics — no unusual hardware or fancy lenses. The effect is the equivalent of seeing...

News: Unmanned Systems
Rover Camera Upgrade Could Improve Discovery on Distant Worlds

As smart as the Curiosity rover has been about landing and finding its own way on a distant world, the rover is pretty brainless when it comes to doing the science that it was sent 567 million kilometers to carry out. That has to change if future rover missions are to make...

News: Robotics, Automation & Control
Researchers Assess Snake Robot for Mars Exploration

SINTEF, an independent research organization in Scandinavia, will work to combine a rover and snake robot for Mars exploration. The researchers envision using the rover to navigate over large distances, after which the snake robot can detach itself and crawl into tight, inaccessible areas.

News
Photonic Band Gap Material Steers Light in New Ways

A team of San Francisco State University researchers is the first to build and demonstrate the ability of two-dimensional disordered photonic band gap material, designed to be a platform to control light in unprecedented ways.

News
Voyager 1 Ventures into Interstellar Space

NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft officially is the first human-made object to venture into interstellar space. The 36-year-old probe is about 12 billion miles (19 billion kilometers) from the sun.

News
Software Helps Stabilize Aircraft During Takeoff and Landing

One of the concerns about commercial aircraft is their stability on the ground during taxiing, takeoff, and landing. During these processes, planes must maintain stability under various operating conditions. However, in some situations, the aircraft landing gear displays unwanted...

News
3D Earth Analysis Pinpoints Source of Earthquakes and Explosions

Under the sponsorship of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation R&D, Sandia National Laboratories and Los Alamos National have partnered to develop a 3D model of the Earth’s mantle and crust called SALSA3D, or Sandia-Los...

News
Robot Moves Along Power Lines to Search for Damage

Mechanical engineers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) invented a robot designed to scoot along utility lines, searching for damage and other problems that require repairs. Made of off-the-shelf electronics and plastic parts printed on an inexpensive 3D printer, the SkySweeper...

News
Electric Bus Uses Novel Battery Management and Drive Control Systems

Electric mobility may be economically efficient today. Battery-based electric drives can be applied efficiently in urban buses, for instance. Frequent acceleration and slow-down processes as well as a high utilization rate in short-distance traffic make their use profitable...

News
Researchers 3D-Print Interlocking Building Blocks

Purdue researchers are working with the U.S. Army Research Laboratory to develop a technology for creating parts out of interlocking segments.

News
New Sensors Map Lightning Strikes

To better predict severe weather, a device developed at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) has become a valuable tool in researchers' quest to determine how lightning is spawned in clouds.

News
Programmable DNA Glue Guides Self-Assembling Devices

A team of researchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University has found a way to self-assemble complex structures out of bricks smaller than a grain of salt. The self-assembly method could help solve one of the major challenges in tissue engineering:...

News
New Sensors Map Lightning Strikes

To better predict severe weather, a device developed at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) has become a valuable tool in researchers' quest to determine how lightning is spawned in clouds.

News
Inflatable Antennae Gives CubeSats Greater Reach

"CubeSats,” and other small satellites, are making space exploration cheaper and more accessible: The minuscule probes can be launched into orbit at a fraction of the weight and cost of traditional satellites.

News
Army Plans To Remove Tons Of Toxins From Lethal Rounds

An enemy convoy transporting a supply of fuel rumbles across the desert floor, an ideal target for armor-piercing incendiary projectiles. These projectiles are most useful for "after-armor effects," such as an incandescent flash immediately after penetrating a hard target. The resulting...

News
Army extends Global Information Grid Network To Company Level

As the U.S. mission in Afghanistan changes and forces conduct more dispersed operations, new tactical communications equipment for vehicles at the company level will help extend the network over vast distances to keep soldiers connected and commanders informed.

News
Researchers Develop Next-Generation Electronic Warfare Tools

When U.S pilots encounter enemy air defenses, onboard electronic warfare (EW) systems protect them by interfering with incoming radar signals – a technique known as electronic attack (EA) or jamming. Conversely, electronic protection (EP) technology prevents hostile forces from using...

News
Fog Harvester Pulls Water from Thin Air

A fog-harvesting system developed by MIT and Chilean researchers could provide potable water for the world’s driest regions.

News
First Human-to-Human Brain Interface: Researcher Controls Colleague's Motions

University of Washington researchers have performed what they believe is the first noninvasive human-to-human brain interface, with researcher Rajesh Rao able to send a brain signal via the Internet to control the hand motions of fellow researcher Andrea Stocco.

News
Smallest-Ever Autopilot for Micro Aerial Vehicles

Researchers at the Netherlands' Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) have designed, built, and tested what they say is the world's smallest autopilot for small unmanned aircraft.

News
NASA's Asteroid Redirect Mission: A Conceptual Animation

NASA has released this conceptual animation depicting the agency's planned mission to find, capture, redirect, and study a near-Earth asteroid.

News
Telescope Mirror Offers Sharpest Photos of Night Sky

Astronomers at the University of Arizona, the Arcetri Observatory near Florence, Italy, and the Carnegie Observatory have developed a new type of camera that allows scientists to take sharper images of the night sky than ever before, and in visible light. Using a telescope mirror that...

Webcasts

Feature Image
On-Demand Webinars: Defense

From Data to Decision: How AI Enhances Warfighter Readiness

Feature Image
Upcoming Webinars: Aerospace

April Battery & Electrification Summit

Feature Image
Upcoming Webinars: Manufacturing & Prototyping

Tech Update: 3D Printing for Transportation in 2024

Feature Image
Upcoming Webinars: Materials

Unleashing Epoxy's Potential: Ensuring Hermetic Sealing in Modern...

Feature Image
Upcoming Webinars: Test & Measurement

Building an Automotive EMC Test Plan

Feature Image
Upcoming Webinars: Aerospace

The Moon and Beyond from a Thermal Perspective

Videos