Briefs: Materials

Inexpensive Method Decontaminates Personal Protective Equipment

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

Briefs: Unmanned Systems

Lithium Metal Battery Allows Cold Charging

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

Products: RF & Microwave Electronics

Product of the Month: January 2021 Tech Briefs

Modules from Pickering Interfaces simulate industrial control transceivers.

Blog: RF & Microwave Electronics

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.

Blog: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

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...

On-Demand Webinars: Photonics/Optics

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...

INSIDER: Robotics, Automation & Control

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.

INSIDER: Robotics, Automation & Control

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...

INSIDER: Motion Control

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...

INSIDER: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

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...

INSIDER: Motion Control

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...

Blog: Sensors/Data Acquisition

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.

INSIDER: Energy

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...

INSIDER: Energy

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...

INSIDER: Physical Sciences

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...

INSIDER: Materials

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.

INSIDER: Manufacturing & Prototyping

How to Make Tomorrow’s Electronics Using Ink-Jet Printed Graphene

Researchers at the University of Nottingham have cracked the conundrum of how to use inks to 3D-print novel electronic devices with useful properties, such as an...