Application Briefs

Beyond Smart Vision

With the proliferation of smart vision (SV) cameras and platforms it is understandable that automation engineers begin to define vision technology capabilities based on the performance and features of these popular and easy...

Flexible Wing Flap Reduces Noise and Drag

FlexSys Ann Arbor, MI 734-975-9233 www.flxsys.com FlexSys designed and built two experimental flaps for Armstrong Flight Research Center’s Gulfstream G-III Aerodynamics Research Test Bed aircraft....

Control Software Navigates Lunar CubeSats

AdaCore New York, NY 866-787-4232 www.adacore.com Vermont Technical College’s Lunar CubeSat, measuring only 10 × 10 × 10 cm and weighing 1.1 kg, was launched into a 500-km earth orbit. The...

Lunar Simulants Provide Critical Tests for Moon Missions

NU-LHT lunar simulant Zybek Advanced Products (ZAP) Boulder, CO 888-469-0110 www.zybekap.com Lunar simulants are a critical aspect of the return to the Moon and a planned lunar outpost....

LED Street Lights Reduce Energy Consumption by 72% at Power Station

When the NRG power plant in El Segundo, Calif., was redesigned, two towers were demolished which caused extensive light from the plant to bother local neighbors. In an effort...

Production Company Uses LED Street Lights To Illuminate Dark Parking Lot

Imagina US is a pioneer production company in the U.S. Hispanic TV industry that has a newly built headquarters in Miami, Florida. Owners were seeking low-wattage outdoor...

Customized Goniophotometer System Tests High Intensity Obstruction Lights

Hughey & Phillips (H&P) designs and manufactures flashing and steady state anti-collision lighting used on above-ground obstructions like communication towers,...

Thrusters Support Communications Satellite Launch

Monopropellant (hydrazine) thrustersAerojet RocketdyneSacramento, CA 916-355-4000 www.rocket.com Aerojet Rocketdyne, a GenCorp company, played a vital role in placing the second of three...

Embedded Servo Drive Boosts Speed of Packaging Lines

Pfankuch Machinery, based in Ahrensburg, Germany, is a leading manufacturer of friction feeder systems for inserting leaflets and products into sales packaging. An embedded smart servo drive...

Spectrometer Gratings Enable Mars Sample Analysis

Volume-phase, holographic-grating Raman spectrometer Wasatch Photonics Logan, UT 435-752-4301 www.wasatchphotonics.com Raman laser spectroscopy technology from Wasatch Photonics will be used to...

Oxygen Containers Transport Tank Assembly to ISS

Oxygen shipping containers Americase Waxahachie, TX 800-972-2737 www.americase.biz Americase designed, developed, and completed the first HM224B/DOT31FP shipping containers for the NORS (Nitrogen...

Water Impact Simulation Ensures Safer Landing for NASA Astronauts

The water landing of a craft like the Orion Crew Module is a very complex and changeable event, subject to the dynamics of the vehicle’s structure and sub-structures, such as...

Hyperspectral Imaging What is it? How does it work?

Hyperspectral imaging has grown increasingly popular over the past ten years in military, industrial, and scientific arenas. The ability to precisely characterize the color of a viewed item,...

Video Routing System Upgrades Mission Control Center

PESA has announced the completion of a video routing system upgrade to NASA’s Mission Control Center (MCC) at the agency’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston. Lockheed Martin, a prime...

Frame Grabber Deployed in Robomotive Humanoid Robot

Robomotive and other humanoid robots equipped with 3D vision sensors are playing an increasing role in industrial automation, including in smaller binpicking set-ups where parts are constantly...

Integrated Motion Solution Keeps Laser Marking Machine Costs Down

As the demands of traceability and compliance are put on manufacturers, using a laser provides permanent marking of a variety of information, including 2D bar codes, serial...

Modular Cleanroom Boosts Lunar Mission

Simplex Isolation Systems developed a modular softwall cleanroom for the LADEE (Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer) mission, launched in September 2013 from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in...

VoIP Technology Enables Flight Center Upgrade

Quintron Systems will upgrade NASA Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) technology as it expands to IPbased mission command voice. To prevent expensive and difficult reconfiguration of the mission...

Pre-Launch Processing Enables Advanced Climate Warnings

NASA has awarded Astrotech Corp. and its Astrotech Space Operations (ASO) subsidiary a contract to provide facilities and pre-launch processing services for the Deep Space Climate...

LED Panels Illuminate Stained Glass Window

The newly-renovated Church of the Covenant in Cleveland, Ohio, has a large, ornate rose stained-glass window that faces the Seidman Cancer Center at the University Hospitals Case Medical Center across...

LED Manufacturer Switches Over To LED Lighting

Global Lighting Technologies, a manufacturer of LED-based, edge-lit light guide solutions for general illumination applications, recently retrofitted its North American sales & engineering...

Silicon vs. Gallium Arsenide Which Photovoltaic Material Performs Best

Solar technologies are all measured and specified under standard test conditions. The conditions state that the solar panel be tested at 25°C and be subjected to 1000 W/m2...

Prototype Recovers Lost-At-Sea Images

New hardware built by research engineers at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) is helping NASA retrieve experimental images otherwise lost at sea. The hardware weighs less than two pounds, and serves...

Positioning System Will Keep Test Range on Target

NASA has contracted ADC USA to design and build an Experimental Test Range (ETR) Positioning System that consists of positioning components for a state-of-the-art Radar Cross Section (RCS) and...

Actuator Meets NASA Requirements for Asteroid Sample Return

BEI Kimco Magnetics designed a customized moving magnet voice coil actuator (VCA) to meet the requirements for the flatplate Michelson moving mirror application on the Origins-Spectral...

Ophthalmology Imaging: The Importance of Color Reproduction

Lumenera Corp. Ottawa, Canada 613-736-4077 www.lumenera.com Lumenera recently partnered with an ophthalmology diagnostic device manufacturer that required a camera for integration...

GM Implements Flexible Assembly System and Controls to Reduce Workflow

At the GF6 six-speed, front-wheel transmission line at General Motors Powertrain in Toledo, OH, a new front-wheel-drive transmission line for smaller, more fuel-efficient...

Cryogenic Supply System Protects Crews from Hazardous Gases

The Cryogenic Refuge Alternative Supply System (CryoRASS), and a smaller liquid air-filled backpack under development at NASA Kennedy Space Center’s (KSC) Biomedical Lab, have the...