INSIDER: Materials
Using Spider Silk, Surgeon Hits a Nerve
Christine Radtke, a Professor for Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Austria’s MedUni Vienna/Vienna General Hospital, has 21 spiders. The silk obtained from the Tanzanian golden orb-weavers offers...
Briefs: Motion Control
Soft Robot “Walks” on Any Terrain
Traditional robots often feature isolated mechanical joints. These discrete components limit a rover’s ability to traverse sand, stone, and other challenging environments. A team at the University of...
Briefs: Motion Control
High-Temperature Actuators Bend as They “Breathe”
Extreme temperatures are hard for mechanical components to endure without degrading. To address the problem, researchers at MIT worked with several other universities to develop a new way...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
3D-Printed Tensegrity Object Can Change Shape
A team of researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology has developed a way to use 3D printers to create objects capable of dramatic expansion. The technology could someday be used in...
Articles: Motion Control
Reduce Compressed Air Costs with Proper Air Cylinder Sizing
There may be no stronger ally of electrical power utilities than industrial size air compressors, as they drone on every day, taking atmospheric air and transforming it into useful...
Articles: Motion Control
Energy Management Through Direct Drive Servo Technology
Direct drive servo motor and drive technology has many advantages. It reduces an axis’ parts count, mechanical losses, and often its objectionable noise. What’s more, it also...
Articles: Motion Control
Smart Actuators Add Brains to Automation Brawn
Actuators have always been on the frontline of automation, providing the “push and pull” that extends human capabilities to operate everything from delicate pick-and-place...
Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
Flat, Triangular Modules Connect to Form Origami Robot
Origami robots are composed of thin structures that can fold and unfold to change shape. They are compact and lightweight, but have functional restrictions related to size, shape, and...
Products: Motion Control
New Products: August 2017 Motion Design
Allied Motion Technologies (Amherst, NY) introduced the HeiMotion™ Premium (HMP) brushless AC servo motor family. The motors, which have a 20,000+ hour life span,...
Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
Straws Help Create Simple Robot Joints
Inspired by arthropod insects and spiders, Harvard professor George Whitesides and Alex Nemiroski, a former postdoctoral fellow in Whitesides’ Harvard lab, used ordinary plastic drinking straws to...
Articles: Motion Control
Eliminate Interference from Converter Output
Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) in frequency converters can be very problematic if not addressed properly in the initial design. EMC ensures the proper operation of devices to avoid negative...
Briefs: Software
High-Speed Network Protocol for Faster, More Reliable Emergency Response
Anew network protocol — the Multi Node Label Routing (MNLR) protocol — was developed to improve the information flow between emergency responders at the scene of an incident and decision-makers at the office of emergency management.
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Conductive Particle Assembly Enables Creation of Two-Dimensional Electronic Circuits
One-dimensional conductive particle assembly holds promise for a variety of practical applications; in particular, for a new generation of electronic...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Omni Jaw 5™ Powered Protrusion Cutter
In many manufacturing and construction activities, it is frequently necessary to remove a protrusion of material from a component or from a substrate surface. These removal operations include clipping...
Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Low-Cost Chip Extends Life of Battery Sensors
A voltage detector chip was developed that requires only a few trillionths of a Watt (picowatts) to activate other circuits, enabling engineers to design sensors that continuously listen, without...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Using Microwaves to Produce High-Quality Graphene
Engineers have developed a simple method for producing high-quality graphene that can be used in next-generation electronic and energy devices. The method essentially bakes the compound in a...
Briefs: Software
Custom Administration Reporting (gTracker)
A reporting tool was needed that could indicate the accuracy of search results by tracking the number of clicks required by users to find their desired search results. The application should also capture the number of times other links and like filtering components are clicked. The report should have...
Briefs: Green Design & Manufacturing
Process Produces Renewable Car Tires from Trees and Grasses
A team of researchers has invented a new technology to produce automobile tires from trees and grasses. Conventional car tires are viewed as environmentally unfriendly because they...
Briefs: Software
PathDroid
Android is the primary software platform for mobile, networked devices such as tablets and smartphones. These devices are increasingly used for safety-critical functions that require verification of correct and robust behavior of applications. Such software written for the Android operating system is hard to test because applications...
NASA Spinoff: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Micromachined Sensors Monitor Train Rails and Predict Failures
Spinoff is NASA's annual publication featuring successfully commercialized NASA technology. This commercialization has contributed to the development of products and services in...
Briefs: Green Design & Manufacturing
Flood Dashboard 2.0
Google Maps and Google Earth allow the development of customized displays, but such displays must be constructed by a software developer. The Flood Dashboard allows non-technical users to utilize a simple Web form to build and present custom displays. It is a Ruby on Rails 4 application that allows users to build custom...
Briefs: Software
Enterprise Business Information System (EBIS) Data Warehouse Quality Inspector
A typical data warehouse may contain thousands of tables. Validating the data quality of all data warehouse content is an unmanageable and unmaintainable task if handled in an ad-hoc fashion. This software seeks to ensure that a data warehouse accurately reflects the...
Facility Focus: Defense
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) was created with a national sense of urgency in February 1958 amidst one of the most dramatic moments in the history of the Cold War and the...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
3D-Printed Heart-on-a-Chip with Integrated Sensors
The first entirely 3D-printed organ-on-a-chip with integrated sensing has been built by a fully automated digital manufacturing procedure. The 3D-printed heart-on-a-chip can be quickly...
News: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Wireless Tamper Detection Sensor and Sensing System
NASA's Langley Research Center researchers have developed a wireless, connection-free inductor capacitor sensor system that can be placed on or embedded in materials and structures to...
Briefs: Software
Network Geolocation Technology
A network geolocation technology (NGT) can be used to determine the physical location of a networked Internet user, as well as accurately determine if an Internet user is in fact in the metropolitan service...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Water-Saving Firefighting Nozzle
Fluorocarbon-based fire extinguishing agents are environmentally harmful since they cause depletion of the Earth's ozone layer. Fine Water Mist (FWM)-type systems have very favorable characteristics as...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Robotic System for 3D-Printing the Basic Structure of an Entire Building
Materials that can be produced by 3D printing include not just plastics, but metal, glass, and even food. A new system called a Digital Construction Platform (DCP) was...
Briefs: Imaging
Linear Fresnel Spectrometer Chip with Gradient Line Grating
NASA's Langley Research Center has built a very small spectrometer by integrating a differential linear Fresnel lens onto an imaging chip. NASA is using the lens/chip in a very...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Method of Manufacturing Convective Accelerometers
Miniaturization and integration of accelerometers in standard integrated circuit (IC) processes has been the topic of extensive research. In most cases, accelerometer structures involve a solid proof mass that is allowed to move under accelerating conditions. This approach has many disadvantages....
Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Intelligent Displacement Sensor Deployment Using MTConnect Protocol over Ethernet
Quality measurements for design validation and certification requirements sometimes call for hundreds or thousands of sensors and actuators. Maintaining such a complex system is difficult, especially over an extended time period and inevitable personnel changes....
Briefs: Software
Multi-Dimensional Information Visualization Software
DiVisa is a multi-dimensional information visualization tool that en ables researchers to understand the behavior of network data.
Briefs: Green Design & Manufacturing
Ammonia Recovery System for Wastewater
NASA's Ammonia Recovery System for Wastewater was developed for potential use as part of the Environmental Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS) on the International Space Station. The system uses an affordable media that is highly selective for ammonia. Ammonia concentrations in wastewater as high as...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Sandia Cooler
Heat exchangers are used for the transfer of heat between two or more media. The media may be separated by a solid wall so that they never mix, or they may be in direct contact. Heat exchangers may be used in HVAC systems,...
Articles: Electronics & Computers
Products of Tomorrow: August 2017
This column presents technologies that have applications in commercial areas, possibly creating the products of tomorrow. To learn more about each technology, see the contact information provided for that...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Ruck Dock Load Carriage Connector System
Soldiers, civilians engaged in activities such as hiking, and public safety personnel engaged in search and rescue missions all require reliable systems for the effective carriage of necessary...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
4D Printing of Load-Bearing and Predictable Structures
Research is being performed in adding a fourth dimension to 3D printers — the dimension of time. This technique, called 4D printing, creates moveable and shape-variable objects, such...
Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
RFID System for Management of High-Risk Materials
For years, radio frequency identification (RFID) technology has been used in a variety of applications, from passports to inventory tracking. Homeland security concerns have heightened the...
Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Wireless Damage Location Sensing System
NASA Langley Research Center researchers have developed a wireless, open-circuit SansEC (Sans Electrical Connections) sensor that can be used for pharmaceutical applications without the need for...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Improved Two-Step Replication Process for Producing Precision Optical Mirrors
Production of precision optical mirrors by replication requires molds or mandrels of the complementary shape. For example, replicating a concave mirror requires a convex mandrel. Convex shapes are difficult to fabricate and test since they do not focus light. Convex...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) Coating of High-Precision Components Produced by Selective Laser Melting (SLM)
Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) is being used as a means of coating various substrate materials with a variety of metallic and ceramic oxides for corrosion and thermal protection. The technology necessary to develop a state-of-the-art,...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Machine Vision System
A number of instruments have been built to obtain range images — a two-dimensional array of numbers that gives the depth of a scene along many directions from a central point in the instrument. Instead of measuring...
Application Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Ensuring Part Quality in Industrial Metal Additive Manufacturing
Grapevine, TX
For more info click here
Now that metal additive manufacturing (AM) is creating fully functional industrial parts, many OEMs are...
NASA's Langley Research Center has developed an aircraft-based turbulence and vortex detection system. Turbulence and vortices in the front-flight path are very dangerous for...
Articles: Software
Using Formal Methods for Engineering Embedded Systems
Between 1985 and 1987, a radiation therapy device called the Therac-25 was involved in at least six incidents in which the device delivered massive overdoses of radiation. The patients...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Reducing Inaccuracies in Force/Haptic Feedback Systems
Researchers at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center have developed a new technology to reduce inaccuracies in force/haptic feedback devices and systems. Used at NASA in aircraft...
Briefs: Software
PLOT3D 4.1
PLOT3D is an interactive graphics program designed to help scientists visualize computational fluid dynamics (CFD) grids and solutions. Today, supercomputers and CFD algorithms can provide scientists with simulations of such highly complex phenomena that obtaining an understanding of the simulations has become a major problem. Tools...
In dark environments, it is often difficult to get a clear, high-quality image. To address this problem, a method was developed for spherically curving the flat image sensors...
Briefs: Green Design & Manufacturing
Electrochemical Method for Removing Pollutants from Water
When removing very dilute concentrations of pollutants from water, existing separation methods tend to be energy- and chemical-intensive. A new method was developed that could provide...
Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Structural Health Monitoring System/Method Using Electroactive Polymer Fibers
NASA's Langley Research Center has developed a novel polymer material that can be utilized as a real-time structural health monitoring sensor. The material is...
Products: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Product of the Month: August 2017
Harwin, Salem, NH, announced the SYCAMORE surface-mount socket that provides pin retention and durability for high-volume applications manufactured using automated systems. The capacitor's design...
Briefs: Imaging
Algorithm Enables Five-Dimensional Imaging in Living Organisms
Researchers use fluorescent imaging to locate proteins and other molecules in cells and tissues by tagging the molecules with dyes that glow under certain kinds of light — the...
INSIDER: Photonics/Optics
Writing with Light: An ‘Etch A Sketch’ Electrical Circuit
Physicists from Washington State University (WSU) have used lasers to draw conductive circuits into a crystal. The achievement demonstrates a new kind of transparent,...
INSIDER: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Researcher Sees the Power of Solar Glasses
New eyeglasses from Germany’s Karlsruhe Institute of Technology generate solar power. Featuring semitransparent organic solar cells, the eyewear powers a microprocessor and two small displays...
For the millions of people every year who have or need medical devices implanted, a new advancement in 3D printing technology developed at the University of Florida...
News: Medical
Study points way to better implantable medical devices
Medical devices implanted in the body for drug delivery, sensing, or tissue regeneration usually come under fire from the host's immune system. Defense cells work to isolate material...
News: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Flexible glass made for tiny medical devices
Brigham Young University researchers have developed new glass technology that could add a new level of flexibility to the microscopic world of medical devices.
Question of the Week: Energy
Will "Electric Clothing" appeal to consumers?
Last week's INSIDER lead story featured an ultra-thin energy harvester from Vanderbilt University. Made from materials five thousand times thinner than a human hair, the technology may someday be...
News: Robotics, Automation & Control
Sound-Off: How Do Collaborative Robots Spot Human Operators?
In a “speed and separation” manufacturing scenario, a safe distance must be maintained between a collaborative robot and a human operator. When the gap reaches below a specific...
News: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Sound-Off: How Does ‘Cold Forming’ Impact a Part?
The manufacturing process of "cold forming" applies force to a metal as it is staged in a die. The technology, used originally in the early 1900s to create artillery shells, supports the...
INSIDER: Aerospace
The Newest Way to Propel Nanosatellites? Water.
Although maneuvering nanosatellites in space is a complex procedure, a new micro-propulsion method features the simplest of ingredients: water.
Question of the Week
Will water-based propulsion support space missions?
Our lead INSIDER story this week features a micro-propulsion system that uses water to maneuver nanosatellites. What do you think? Will water-based propulsion support space missions?
INSIDER: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Soft, Stretchy Fabric Sensors Enable Wearable Robots
A highly sensitive, soft, capacitive sensor made of silicone and fabric that moves and flexes with the human body can unobtrusively and accurately detect movement. The technology...
INSIDER: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Sprayable Sensing Network Monitors Structural Health
Sprayed sensors were developed that can be networked to render real-time information on the health status of a structure, detecting hidden flaws. The sprayed nanocomposite sensors and...
INSIDER: Imaging
New Software Spots Eye Contact
Did you see? New software developed at Saarland University turns any camera into an eye-contact detector. Why is it so valuable to identify eye contact? We spoke with the inventor about new kinds of...
INSIDER: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Secure 3D Printing: 'Three-Layer' System Protects Parts from Hackers
A 3D printer is essentially a small embedded computer — and can be exploited like one.
Researchers from Georgia Institute of Technology and Rutgers University have...
News: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Sound-Off: How to Sell Additive Manufacturing to the Organization
How do you convince program managers to take an additive manufacturing approach to tooling? A 3D-printing pro shares lessons he learned about how to overcome obstacles from...
Q&A: Photonics/Optics
Q&A: aBeam Technologies' Dr. Keiko Munechika Offers New Ideas in Nano-Optics
Dr. Munechika — along with Alexander Koshelev and Giuseppe Calafiore at aBeam Technologies, and Stefano Cabrini at the Molecular Foundry at Lawrence Berkeley...
Question of the Week: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Are you concerned about the integrity of 3D-printed parts?
This week's INSIDER story features a new method for verifying the integrity of critical 3D-printed parts, from brakes to aircraft components. What do you think? Are you concerned...
INSIDER: Medical
Tissue Repair, With a Single Touch
Researchers at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and Ohio State’s College of Engineering have developed a new kind of TNT — a "Tissue Nanotransfection" device that generates specific cell...
INSIDER: Energy
Method to Revolutionize Battery Recharging
University of Sydney researchers have developed a three-stage method to recharge zinc-air batteries. While zinc-air batteries are currently used as an energy source in hearing aids and some...
INSIDER: Energy
Turning Homes into Power Stations
A new solar project, called SUNRISE, will develop printed photovoltaic cells and new manufacturing processes that can be used to construct solar energy products in India. These will then be integrated...
News: Manufacturing & Prototyping
The Next 3D-Printed Part: A Hack?
See what’s new on Tech Briefs, including a three-layer way of securing the growing number of 3D-printed parts being placed in today’s vehicles and airplanes.
Question of the Week
Have you faced internal hurdles when trying to introduce additive manufacturing?
This week's "Sound-Off" article featured advice on how to bring a 3D-printing approach to the organization. What do you think? Have you faced internal hurdles...
INSIDER: Energy
Perspiration Power: Biofuel Cell Reacts to Sweat
Engineers from the University of California – San Diego have developed stretchable fuel cells that extract energy from an often-unpleasant source: sweat. The flexible UCSD-developed devices...
News: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Sound-Off: What is Live Tooling?
When features need to be removed from a product, manufacturers often use a subtractive process known as CNC machining. In a Tech Briefs presentation last week, engineer Tony Holtz made a case for a more “Rapid” method.
INSIDER: Robotics, Automation & Control
Wireless Magnetic Field Powers Folding Robots
A team of researchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering and the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) at Harvard University has...
INSIDER: Robotics, Automation & Control
Robotic Gripper Cleans Up Space Debris
Currently there are about 500,000 pieces of human-made debris in space, orbiting our planet at speeds up to 17,500 miles per hour. This debris poses a threat to satellites, space vehicles, and...
INSIDER: Motion Control
Harmonic Air Motor Offers Very High Efficiency
Currently available air motors have many advantages over electric motors. They are more compact, lighter-weight, instantly reversible without sparking, create no heat buildup, are undamaged...
Question of the Week
Will carbon nanotubes play a role in the next generation of commercial water filters?
Our lead INSIDER story today featured a demonstration of carbon-nanotube water filters. What do you think? Will carbon nanotubes play a role in the next generation of commercial water filters?
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