Cameras Capture Asteroid Debris Retrieval

See how Space Dynamics Laboratory built the electronics for a three-camera suite onboard OSIRIS-REx.

“Stethoscope” Monitors Machine Quality and Functionality

This system provides low-cost monitoring for machine health with audio-based artificial intelligence.

Cavity-Enhanced Absorption Spectroscopy (CEAS) for Ozone Detection

This simple and inexpensive design achieves high-quality ozone measurements.

New on the Market: January 2021

Radar sensors, cameras, RF processing systems, and more.

Generating Renewable Hydrogen Fuel from the Sea

Membranes that remove salt from water help split sea water into fuel.

Mobile Bedside Bioprinter Prints Skin Directly into a Wound

The system is filled with a patient’s skin cells.

Platform for All-Optical Computing

Computations are done solely with beams of light.

Microstrip Circuit and Material Characterization System

The system enables measurement of active or passive microstrip line devices with DC probing capability.

Inexpensive Method Decontaminates Personal Protective Equipment

The system uses off-the-shelf materials combined with ultraviolet lights to decontaminate N95 masks.

Lithium Metal Battery Allows Cold Charging

The battery could be used for drones, cars, or underwater applications at low temperatures.

Product of the Month: January 2021 Tech Briefs

Modules from Pickering Interfaces simulate industrial control transceivers.

A Better Sensor Detects Ice Build-Up, In Real Time

The sensor is able to detect ice formation far before you can see it occurring on a surface.

A Spiraling Robotic Gripper 'Twines' Like a Plant

As engineering professor Mable Fok saw how the pole beans in her garden wrapped tightly around any objects nearby, she had an idea:

What if a robotic gripper could do the same...

New High-Peak Power Line Laser for Beam-Steering LiDAR

The mainstream LiDARs used for robotaxis and autonomous consumer vehicles either utilize a few tens of 360-degree rotating laser beams to build 3D models of the vehicle...

Robots Learn to Drive a Car in a Few Easy Lessons

USC researchers have developed a method that could allow robots to learn complicated new tasks, like setting a table or driving a car, from observing a small number of demonstrations.

Materials Transform Robots Made of Robots

Scientists from the U.S. Army and MIT created a new way to link materials with unique mechanical properties, opening up the possibility of future military robots made of robots. The method...

Laser Jolts Microscopic Robots into Motion

A Cornell University team has created microscopic robots that incorporate semiconductor components, allowing them to be controlled – and made to walk – with standard electronic signals. The...

Miniscule Machines Made of Metal and Plastic

Researchers have developed a technique for manufacturing micrometer-long machines by interlocking multiple materials in a complex way. The micromachines are made out of metal and plastic, in...

Teaching Old Robots New Tricks

With a training technique commonly used to teach dogs to sit and stay, computer scientists showed a robot how to teach itself several new tricks including stacking blocks. With the method, the robot was...

Q&A: 'Smellicopter' Uses Live Moth Antenna to Seek Out Smells

UW doctoral student Melanie Anderson explains how to make an autonomous 'Smellicopter' to navigate toward smells.

Advanced Solar Panels Extract More Energy from Sunlight

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers working to maximize solar panel efficiency said layering advanced materials atop traditional silicon is a promising path to eke...

New Technique Extends Next-Generation Lithium Metal Batteries

Electric vehicles (EVs) hold great promise for our energy-efficient, sustainable future but among their limitations is the lack of a long-lasting, high energy density battery...

Fast Calculation Dials in Better Batteries

A simpler and more efficient way to predict performance will lead to better batteries, according to Rice University engineers. That their method is 100,000 times faster than existing modeling...

Clean, Limitless Power from Graphene

A team of University of Arkansas physicists has successfully developed a circuit capable of capturing graphene’s thermal motion and converting it into an electrical current.