Magazine

Designing Shock-Mitigating Seats for Boat Operators

Products for nautical applications face an unusual set of design challenges. The corrosiveness of salt water can cause premature degradation, and the impact of fast-moving vessels bouncing up against forceful ocean waves can also damage equipment.

A Harvesting Robot Automates Apple Picking

“AurOrA” is a small autonomous vehicle, which in the future will move independently around fruit orchards and detect full fruit boxes, pick them up, and take them to a defined unloading point.

Robotic Hand Can Identify Objects with Just One Grasp

Inspired by the human finger, MIT researchers have developed a robotic hand that uses high-resolution touch sensing to accurately identify an object after grasping it just one time.

A Four-Legged Robotic System Can Move on Tough Landscapes

Researchers from MIT’s Improbable Artificial Intelligence Lab have developed a legged robotic system that can dribble a soccer ball under the same conditions as humans.

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.

Head-Worn Assistive Teleoperation of Mobile Manipulators

New research from Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute (RI) aims to increase autonomy for individuals with motor impairments by introducing a head-worn device that will help them control a mobile manipulator.

New Products

See the new products, including a crossed-roller linear bearing, a lifting column, a motion-sizing tool, and more.

Design Techniques for Efficient Power Transmission

Power transmission is critical in industrial automation as it enables machines to work together seamlessly, reducing downtime and maximizing productivity.

Multiphysics Simulation Drives Smart City Technology

Ishant Jain, Principal Researcher in R&D at Raychem RPG, applied his years of simulation experience to the challenge of creating a smart city-ready and space-conscious power box. The team enlisted multiphysics simulation to tackle the engineering challenges that accompanied the creation of this radical new design.

Optimizing Torque Measurement in Robotics Applications

With the advent of lower-cost robots that are easier and cheaper to deploy, collaborative robots or cobots are finding new industrial and consumer applications.

Hydrodynamic Effect Helps Motorized Objects Navigate Inclines

The tiny motors mimic how rock climbers navigate inclines.

Chemically Driven Wheels “Morph” Into Gears

A catalytic reaction causes a two-dimensional, chemically coated sheet to spontaneously morph into a three-dimensional gear.

Micromotor Winding Technology Uses AI to Improve Motor Performance

Achievable coils increase the capabilities of the micromotors.

Extractor for Chemical Analysis of Lipid Biomarkers in Regolith (ExCALiBR)

NASA Ames Research Center has developed a novel technology that provides an autonomous, miniaturized fluidic system for lipid analysis.

Flow-Through Transducer for Wind Tunnel Analysis

To enable key aerospace R&D applications, NASA’s Langley Research Center has developed a single-piece flow-through transducer design capable of measuring all six components adding in the Axial force measurement.

Cohesive Circuit Protection for Wearable Electronics

The cellulose nanofiber coating counters bending damage and retains electrode function under water.

Solid-State Thermal Transistor

A research team at Hokkaido University has developed the first solid-state electrochemical thermal transistor. It's more stable than, and just as effective as, current liquid-state thermal transistors.

Implantable Chip Uses Machine Learning to Detect Neural Disease

Boasting a 256-channel high-resolution sensing array and an energy-efficient machine learning processor, NeuralTree can extract and classify a broad set of biomarkers from real patient data and animal models of disease in-vivo.

Bio-Magnetic Device May Enhance Mammalian Tissue Repair

Innovators at NASA Johnson Space Center have designed a therapeutic device that applies a time-varying electromagnetic force to damaged mammalian tissue and is intended to enhance healing.

Revolutionizing High-Performance Computer Memory Storage

Magnets generate invisible fields that attract certain materials. Far more important to our everyday lives, magnets also can store data in computers. Exploiting the direction of the magnetic field, microscopic bar magnets each can store one bit of memory as a zero or a one — the language of computers.

Multi-Material Digital Light Processing 3D Printing

Researchers from Japan and Singapore have developed a new 3D-printing process for the fabrication of 3D metal–plastic composite structures with complex shapes.

Using 3D Printing to Strengthen Jet Engines

Skoltech engineers have used a 3D printer to fabricate — and investigate the mechanical characteristics of — samples of bronze-steel alloys previously unknown to materials science.

Making High-Performance Parts Inexpensive and Durable

Idaho National Laboratory has developed world-class capabilities to help industry design efficient SPS manufacturing processes. The lab’s newest addition makes it possible to manufacture new materials at industrially relevant scales.

Augmented Reality Headset Provides X-Ray Vision

MIT researchers have built an AR headset that gives the wearer X-ray vision. The headset combines computer vision and wireless perception to automatically locate a specific item that is hidden from view.

New Microchip Sensor Measures Stress Hormones from Drop of Blood

A Rutgers-led team of researchers has developed a microchip that can measure stress hormones in real time from a drop of blood.

New Nanoparticle-Based Sensors Can Measure Residual Herbicides in Food

The work shows the real-world viability of their easy-to-use and inexpensive methods of testing.

Can Your Phone Tell if a Bridge Is in Good Shape?

A new study suggests mobile data collected while traveling over bridges could help evaluate their integrity.

Automatic Observation Management System, New Tool to Coordinate Telescope Network

The "AOM" performs complex observations with ten observation modes and 175 strategies.