Next-Generation Batteries Incorporate Cells with Silicon Anodes

Researchers have developed better rechargeable batteries by applying silicon to the batteries’ cathodes. Read on to learn more about it.

Using AI to Streamline Robotic Warehouse Operations

Getting 800 robots in a warehouse to and from their destinations efficiently while keeping them from crashing into each other is no easy task. So, a group of MIT researchers who use AI to mitigate traffic congestion applied ideas from that domain to tackle this problem. Read on to learn what they built.

Optimizing Warehouse Logistics with Autonomous Mobile Robots

Material transport workflows for production and assembly lines are time-consuming, non-value-adding tasks for most manufacturers. AMRs provide a simple, efficient, and cost-effective way to automate material handling and in-house transportation tasks in nearly any situation where employees would previously have been required to push carts around the facility.

AI Model to Streamline Operations in a Robotic Warehouse

In the future, the researchers want to derive simple, rule-based insights from their neural model, since the decisions of the neural network can be opaque and difficult to interpret. Simpler, rule-based methods could also be easier to implement and maintain in actual robotic warehouse settings.

Hot Rocks Store Energy

Sandia engineers convert excess renewable electricity into heat that gets stored in piles of gravel.

An Autonomous Battery-Free Microrobot Powered by Surrounding Light

Moving robots demands a lot of energy, and batteries, the typical power source, limit lifetime and raise environmental concerns. Researchers at the University of Washington have now created MilliMobile, a tiny, self-driving robot powered only by surrounding light or radio waves.

Executive Roundtable: Autonomous Mobile Robots

Autonomous mobile robots are one of the most exciting technologies in the robotics and automation sector. How important is the integration between the hardware and software? How will AI influence the next generation of AMRs? Tech Briefs posed these questions to five industry experts to garner their views on the current status and future outlook for AMRs.

Increased Storage Capacity in Water-Based Batteries

Researchers at Texas A&M University have discovered a 1,000 percent difference in the storage capacity of metal-free, water-based battery electrodes.

Chip-Free, Autonomous OrigaMechs with Conductive Materials

Roboticists have been using a technique similar to origami to develop autonomous machines out of thin, flexible sheets. These lightweight robots are simpler and cheaper to make and more compact for easier storage and transport.

Robot Senses Hidden Objects

Researchers have developed a robot that uses radio waves, which can pass through walls, to sense occluded objects. The robot, called RF-Grasp, combines this powerful sensing with more traditional computer vision to...

Eliminating Corrosion Extends Life of Lightweight Batteries

A new design could extend the shelf-life of single-use metal-air batteries for electric vehicles, off-grid storage, and other applications.

Pre-Treatment Solution for Water Recovery

The solution increases water recovery, prevents mineral scaling, and cuts the volume of brines in half.

Using Electric Vehicle Batteries for Solar Energy Farms

Battery reuse systems could be profitable for both electric vehicle companies and grid-scale solar operations.

Design Enables Safe Storage of Lithium Ions

This technology charges lithium batteries faster and reduces the risk of device explosions.

Supercapacitor Based on Manganese Oxide

This supercapacitor promises storage, high power, and fast charging.

Pilot-Assisted Check Valve for Low-Pressure Applications

Check valves are traditionally designed as a simple poppet/spring system where the spring is designed to equal the force created from the sealing area of the valve seat multiplied by the...

Passive In-Situ Gas and Chemical Sensor

In many chemical processes, it is often desirable to detect the presence, quantity, and/or qualities of certain chemicals of interest; for example, in many closed chemical processes (either batch or...

Cryo-Fluid Capacitor (CFC)

NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) has created the Cryo-Fluid Capacitor (CFC) that capitalizes on the energy storage capacity of liquefied gases, and the relative simplicity of high-pressure gas bottles while...

Tamper Sensor for Safeguarding Radiological Sources

Panoramic irradiators are commonly used to disinfect and sterilize products such as medical supplies, cosmetic raw materials, food, food containers, and medical supplies. The irradiators...

Flexible, Gravity-Fed Heat Pipe

The advent of cryocooler technology ushers in an era where a cryogenic environment is created and maintained locally. It is no longer necessary to transport cryogen from a factory where it is produced to the...

Integrated Lab-on-a-Chip Uses Smartphone to Detect Multiple Pathogens

Infectious diseases remain the world’s top contributors to human death and disability, and with recent outbreaks of Zika virus infections, there is a keen need for simple,...

Detector System for High-Resolution Imaging

A large-area detector without any dead space capable of handling a large dynamic range does not currently exist. Current large-area detectors have dead zones created by abutting several modules...

Tamper-Indicating Bolt

In storage and/or transport of certain items, the ability to detect tampering with a container or compartment for such items can be necessary and valuable. In the transport of hazardous substances or nuclear materials...