Briefs: Transportation

Algorithm Helps Swarming Robots Avoid Collisions

This technology could help control driverless cars and automated warehouses.

Briefs: Motion Control

Square Structural Joint with Robotic Assembly Tool

Square trusses replace round for enhanced strength and robotics compatibility.

Briefs: Aerospace

Multifunctional Structure Stabilizes and Rotates Satellites

This technology cancels out the vibrations of a satellite by vibrating the solar panels in the opposite direction.

Products: Imaging

Product of the Month: April 2020 Tech Briefs

Rugged tablets from Teguar Corp. can be used to monitor manufacturing operations.

Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

Mechanical Controller for Robot-Assisted Surgery

Robot-assisted surgery has advanced dramatically over the past decade in almost every surgical sub-specialty. Robot-assisted surgery is usually performed using surgical robot systems that...

Articles: Sensors/Data Acquisition

Resolution, Accuracy, and Precision of Encoders

Here's what you'll need to know when you’re choosing an encoder for a motion control system.

Briefs: Motion Control

Optical Gyroscope-on-a-Chip

The gyroscope is smaller than a grain of rice — about 500 times smaller than the current state-of-the-art device.

Articles: Manufacturing & Prototyping

Dynamic Force Control and Advanced Electropneumatic Positioning Systems in Automation

As advancements in technology continue to define how pneumatic or electromechanical linear devices lift, move, or place a load, the requirements of excellent closed-loop positioning and accuracy greatly increase

Briefs: Materials

Guiding and Harnessing Transition Waves in Multi-Stable Mechanical Structures

The domino effect is used to design deployable systems that expand quickly with a small push and are stable and locked into place after deployment.

Articles: Test & Measurement

Reimagining Robotics in a Connected World

Manufacturers are beginning to realize the same benefits by cloud-connecting their equipment and processes on the shop floor.

Products: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

New Products: April 2020 Motion Design

Motor drivers, position sensors, offset couplings, and more.

Briefs: Software

Machine Learning Software for 3D Printing

Manufacturers, medical device companies, and others can use this 3D printing software driven by artificial intelligence (AI).

Facility Focus: Sensors/Data Acquisition

Facility Focus: California Institute of Technology

See some of the world-changing tools and technologies launched by Caltech scientists, from earthquake monitoring to helping the blind see.

Briefs: Software

Streaming Software Speeds Apps

Apps could take up less space on a smartphone and apps could download instantly.

Briefs: Imaging

Seeing Around Corners to Detect Object Shapes

Special light sources and sensors see around corners or through gauzy filters, enabling reconstruction of the shapes of unseen objects.

Articles: Sensors/Data Acquisition

Seeing with Sound Next-Level Ultrasonic Sensors for Intelligent Cars

Even though ultrasound has been studied by scientists for many years, its capabilities in practical applications are yet to be fully harnessed.

Briefs: Transportation

Relaxor Piezoelectric Single-Crystal Multilayer Stacks for Energy Harvesting Transducers (RPSEHT)

Applications include powering portable electronic devices and sensors, and harvesting waste mechanical energy for aircraft, automobile, and other transportation equipment.

Products: Test & Measurement

New on the Market: April 2020

Vision-based 3D printing, network analyzers, particulate sensors, and more.

Q&A: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

Q&A: Simple Solar-Powered Desalination

Lenan Zhang and his team at MIT developed a small, economical, highly efficient device to provide fresh drinking water using only the Sun for its energy input.

Briefs: Electronics & Computers

RFID-Based System Enables Internet of Things

The technology could help in elder care with sensors throughout a home.

Articles: Energy

Products of Tomorrow: April 2020

A wildfire-preventing gel; NASA's 3D tissue models, and more.

Briefs: Electronics & Computers

Coating Extends Lithium Metal Battery Life

The coating could make lightweight lithium metal batteries safe and long-lasting for the next generation of electric vehicles.

Briefs: Test & Measurement

Device Harvests Energy from Low-Frequency Vibrations

A wearable energy harvesting device could generate energy from the swing of an arm while walking or jogging.

Briefs: Motion Control

Machine Learning Algorithm Identifies Objects Using Microwaves

Hardware and software tweak microwave patterns to discover the most efficient way to identify objects.

Articles: Materials

Choose Surface Treatments Early to Avoid Future Problems

Surface treatments have limitations that demand attention early in the design process.

Briefs: Defense

Material Combination Strengthens Body Armor

The new body armor can safeguard against even more powerful firearms during combat.

Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping

High-Area Rapid 3D Printing

This new 3D printer can print an object the size of an adult human in just a couple of hours.

Briefs: Materials

Powder Particles for Corrosion Prevention in Rebar

The coating protects parking decks, bridges, concrete piers, offshore platforms, buildings, and cooling towers.

Briefs: Materials

Double-Sided Tape Rapidly Seals Tissues Together

The adhesive that binds wet surfaces within seconds could be used to heal wounds or implant medical devices.

Briefs: Electronics & Computers

Soft, Flexible Materials with Enhanced Properties

These materials can be used in soft robotics, self-healing electronics, and medical devices.

Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping

Method for Electrospinning Customizable Nanofibers

The electrospun nanofibers are used for wound healing and 3D matrices for biological tissues.

Briefs: Test & Measurement

PLCs Directly Access Internet Information

The newest PLCs can directly access Internet resources, much like a mobile device, to obtain information for improving operations.

Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping

Producing Cadmium Telluride Material for Solar Cells

A new method provides a more efficient, safer, and cost-effective way to produce cadmium telluride material for solar cells or other applications.

Briefs: Energy

Maximizing Safety in Advanced Battery Systems

Fuse devices enable circuit safety in high-power applications, such as motion control and alternative energy generation, in addition to electric vehicles.

Briefs: Electronics & Computers

High Thermally Conductive Polymeric Composites

These carbon-based fillers can be used in thermally conductive clothing such as liquid-cooled garments.

Briefs: Photonics/Optics

Cryogenic Near-Field Optical Microscope Images Dynamics of Graphene

This imaging technique could impact optical communications and signal processing.

Briefs: Electronics & Computers

Model Predicts Breaking Point of Conducting Material

This work could accelerate the development of flexible electronics.

Briefs: Test & Measurement

Terahertz Imaging System Uses Small, Efficient Lasers

The lasers are small and efficient enough to fit on a microchip.

NASA Spinoff: Test & Measurement

Detailed Spectrometry Makes Dangerous-Materials Testing Safer

Technology used to search for extraterrestrial life can characterize radioactive material.

Briefs: Automotive

High-Reliability Radio Frequency MEMS Switch

Applications include homeland security, vehicle anti-collision systems, telecommunications systems, and industrial instrumentation.

Briefs: Electronics & Computers

Using Sound and Light for Ultrafast Data Transfer

This method could lead to the transmission of data at the rate of 100 gigabits per second.

5 Ws: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

5 Ws of the 3D Skin Printer

The handheld 3D skin printer can deposit sheets of skin to cover large burn wounds

Briefs: Communications

Ultra-Low-Power WiFi Radio Enables IoT Devices

Housed in a chip, it lets IoT devices communicate with existing WiFi networks.

Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping

3D Printing Process Produces Highly Porous Glass Objects

The basis for the technology is a special resin that can be cured with UV light.

Blog: Robotics, Automation & Control

Medical Robots' Role Expands as COVID-19 Outbreak Continues

Robots are in high demand as medical professionals seek hands-free ways to disinfect environments and contain the spread of coronavirus and COVID-19.

INSIDER: Robotics, Automation & Control

Foldable Robots for Future Moon Mission

The newest edition of NASA's small, foldable robots successfully traversed rugged terrain in the Mars Yard at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

INSIDER: Connectivity

Ultra-Low Power Chip for IoT Wi-Fi

More portable, fully wireless smart home setups; lower power wearables; batteryless smart devices, could all be made possible with this new ultra-low power Wi-Fi radio. It is housed in a chip smaller...

INSIDER: Electronics & Computers

New Etching Technique Produces Far Smaller Semiconductors

Microelectronics like semiconductor devices are at the heart of the technologies we use each day. As we move into an era where we are stretching the limits of Moore’s Law, it is...

INSIDER: Research Lab

Atomic Chains in Nanotubes Push the Electronics Frontier

Wearable tech and electronic cloth may be the way of the future, but to get there the wiring needs to be strong, flexible, and efficient.

INSIDER: Wearables

Stretchy Electronics for Next Generation Smart Devices

A new manufacturing process could produce flexible electronics for things like virtual reality-enabled contact lenses, solar-powered skins that mold to the contours of your car, and...

Blog: Robotics, Automation & Control

UC Berkeley Launches 'Pop-Up' COVID-19 Testing Lab — In 3 Weeks

In just three weeks, the Innovative Genomics Institute (IGI) at UC Berkeley built a robotic COVID-19 laboratory.

Blog: Test & Measurement

'mRIXS' Offers Deeper Look into Battery Chemistry

A Berkeley Lab system provides a much more sensitive probe of the chemical state of battery electrodes, especially when the battery is operated under high capacity mode.

Blog: Transportation

Super-Porous Material Gives Hydrogen-Powered Vehicles a Boost

A team at Northwestern University is developing a material so porous that if you were able to unfold a gram of it, you could go farther than a football field.

Blog: Software

A Faster Way to Design Rockets: Scientific Machine Learning

To speed up the design process, researchers from the University of Texas are finding more efficient ways to predict, or "learn," a rocket's behavior.

INSIDER: Medical

Student-Developed Emergency Ventilator Treats COVID-19 Patients

ApolloBVM – an open-source emergency ventilator developed by Rice University students – could help COVID-19 patients who are less-critically ill while they await...

Blog: Test & Measurement

Biosensor to Measure Coronavirus Concentration in Air

A team used to making pollutant-detection systems is adapting their technologies to spot coronavirus.

Blog: Sensors/Data Acquisition

Mars 2020: Looking for Signs of Life in the Jezero Crater River Delta

By taking a closer look at the delta deposits on Mars, Stanford University researchers concluded that the Jezero Crater is still the best place to search for signs of life on Mars.