INSIDER: Motion Control
Ants are able to use polarized light and ultraviolet radiation to locate themselves in space. AntBot mimics this ability to explore its environment randomly and go home automatically, without GPS or...
Application Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Attitude detection is a crucial element in aircraft and spacecraft navigation. The motion of an aircraft consists of a translational component (motion of its center of mass with respect to...
Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
A technique was developed to quickly teach robots novel traversal behaviors with minimal human oversight. The technique allows mobile robot platforms to navigate autonomously in...
Articles: Imaging
Throughout the history of the electronics industry, the old refrain that systems will continuously become faster, simpler, and cheaper has remained true. In the early days of computer vision, a frame...
Facility Focus: Materials
The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, was formed in October 1997 through the consolidation of four former Air Force laboratories and the Air Force...
Briefs: Communications
Location Awareness Algorithm for Internet of Things Devices
Positioning of wireless devices is centralized, depending on “anchors” with known locations such as cell towers or GPS satellites to communicate directly with each device. As the number of devices increases, anchors must be installed at higher density. Centralized positioning can...
Briefs: Data Acquisition
Recent findings indicate that frequent, short-term crew exposure to elevated CO2 levels, combined with other physiological impacts of microgravity, may lead to a...
Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
A major challenge to assault prevention is that during an assault, victims often do not have an easily accessible way to call for help. Whether calling 911 or using an emergency alert...
Briefs: Test & Measurement
NASA Ames Research Center has developed a novel, low-cost, self-contained guidance system for small payload operators. Small satellites are becoming ever more capable of performing valuable missions for both...
Briefs: Data Acquisition
NASA Langley Research Center has developed a breakthrough technology called Safeguard that can alleviate hazards with unmanned aircraft (UA) flying beyond their authorized perimeters and...
Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Leaders of teams such as first responders must maintain situational awareness to effectively react, coordinate, and respond to circumstances that can often become hazardous. Effective...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
Remote Detection of Electronic Devices
Non-Linear Junction Detection is a well-known technique for detecting electronics that utilize semiconductor (solid-state) junctions. The current state of the art for finding hidden electronics — such as electronic eavesdropping devices — using this technology has a maximum range of about 2 m, and more...
Briefs: Communications
Zero-Power Radio Receiver
There are several different types of wireless radio frequency identification (RFID) tags that are truly zero-power radios. Currently, most unpowered wireless RFID tags only have a range of a few meters. There are longrange, low-powered tags that draw energy either from a battery or some other form of localized power. A...
Briefs: Materials
NASA Langley Research Center has developed a method to create Sequential/Simultaneous Multi-Metallized Nanocomposites (S2M2N) via supercritical fluid (SCF) sequential or...
NASA Spinoff: Communications
Spinoff is NASA’s annual publication featuring successfully commercialized NASA technology. This commercialization has contributed to the development of products and services in the...
Facility Focus: Research Lab
The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) began operations in 1923 as the United States Navy's first modern research institution, and it continues today as one of the Navy's premier R&D resources. NRL's early 20th...
Briefs: Medical
Automatic navigation systems have been developed previously to aid the visually impaired, but these devices have not been as reliable and easy to...
Facility Focus: Defense
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: Aerospace
Calibration and Synchronization of Micro-Air-Vehicle Autopilots
Conventional calibration of an inertial measurement unit (IMU) through open-loop data collection includes typical flight simulator systems that provide processed stimuli to emulate real-life flight conditions. Other solutions involve testing inertial measurement devices on a...
Briefs: Test & Measurement
Decoupled Ranging and Orientation Inversions Enable Linear and Fast Long-Range Non-Line-of-Sight Positioning
The wireless radio positioning or radiolocation problem is of great importance in society today. Existing radiolocation systems such as the Global Positioning System (GPS), Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) systems, and Ultra...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Characterizing Richness of Previously Unmapped Terrain and Estimating its Impact on Navigation Performance using 3D Range Sensors in Flight
Landers to large planetary bodies such as Mars typically use a secondary reconnaissance spacecraft to generate high-fidelity 3D terrain maps that are subsequently used for landing site selection and creating...
Briefs: Communications
Deep-Space Positioning System
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has developed a compact, low-power, self-contained instrument that provides the equivalent of GPS throughout the solar system without the aid of an artificially provided infrastructure. The state-of-the-art X-ray navigation instrument is also able to determine the position of a...
Briefs: Communications
GPS Satellite Geometry Analysis Tool (GPSGEM)
The purpose of the GPS Satellite Geometry Analysis Tool (GPSGEM) is to evaluate GPS satellite geometry for a given Earth-fixed location or for a provided trajectory. The tool will generate a listing of all satellites in view, the best satellite combination defined by the most optimum Geometric...
Who's Who: Communications
In outdoor locations, firefighters and emergency responders can use GPS technology to track one another. Indoor environments like high-rises and...
Who's Who: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Since 2003, Farzin Amzajerdian has worked on the Navigation Doppler Lidar (NDL), a sensor designed to support safe and precise vehicle landings on Mars and...
Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
Electromagnetic Monitoring and Control of a Plurality of Nanosatellites
NASA has developed an innovative combination of a Magnetometer, low-powered ElectroMagnets, and Res onant Inductive Coupling (MEMRIC) to create and control relative positioning of nanosatellites within a cluster. This is a game-changing approach to enable distributed...
Briefs: Software
Self-Stabilizing, Byzantine-Fault-Tolerant Clock Synchronization System and Method
NASA’s Langley Research Center has developed a portfolio of technologies regarding clock synchronization in distributed systems. Distributed synchronous systems that need to provide globally coordinated operations require each component (node) in the system to...
Briefs: Test & Measurement
NASA’s Langley Research Center has developed a new method for calibrating pitot-static air data systems used in aircraft. Pitot-static systems are pressure-based instruments that measure the aircraft’s...
Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Advanced Rapid Imaging and Analysis for Earthquakes
Advanced Rapid Imaging and Analysis for Earthquakes (ARIA-EQ) will be the first coordinated effort to automate geodetic imaging capabilities so they can be used for hazard response. The innovation is an automatic geodetic imaging data system that is the foundation for an operational hazard...
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Flexible Technology and Material Options for Automotive...
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EV Motor Improvement With Torque-Dense Materials and Advanced...
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Extending ICE Life for Commercial Vehicles
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Conformal Coatings for Product Reliability and Long-term...
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