Magazine

Sustainable Technology Finalist: Cosmetic Silica Upcycled from Rice Husk as Natural Alternative to Microplastic Powders

Meet Dow Silicones Belgium SRL’s Anne-Marie Vincent, Sustainable Technology Finalist. Her project focuses on commercializing silica upcycled from rice husk to address these needs.

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.

Stretchable, Flexible Biofuel Cell Runs on Sweat

A flexible and stretchable cell has been developed for wearable electronic devices that require a reliable and efficient energy source that can easily be integrated into the human body. Read on to learn more about it.

A Cheaper, Greener, More Efficient Alternative to Lithium-ion Batteries

It's time to rethink battery technology. Compared to other existing or developing technologies, a new lithium metal-based solid-state battery brings some significant advantages: It can be charged and discharged within one minute, lasts about 10 times as long as a Li-ion battery, and is insensitive to temperature fluctuations. Read on to learn more about it.

Process Purifies Hydrogen Fuel Over a Broad Temperature Range

New fuel cells could increase hydrogen’s application in vehicles, especially in extreme temperatures like cold winters. Read on to learn more about it.

Solid-State Lithium-Sulfur Battery Tech

Whether for large electric vehicle systems or small electronic devices, SABERS can potentially set new benchmarks in energy density and power, all while offering the utmost in safety and reliability. Read on to learn more.

Open Software Options for Automation

As industrial automation technologies continue to advance, the balance between traditional and open solutions will likely evolve. The emphasis will be on providing versatile platforms that meet varied user needs. Read on to learn more.

Giving Autonomous Vehicles the Ability to Reason

Yen-Ling Kuo at the University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science is collaborating with a team at the Toyota Research Institute to build language representations of driving behavior that enable a robot to associate the meaning of words with what it sees by watching how humans interact with the environment or by its own interactions with the environment. Read on to learn more.

Wearable Solar Concentrators

The novel solar concentrators can be applied to textile fibers without the textile becoming brittle and susceptible to cracking or accumulating water vapor in the form of sweat. Read on to learn more.

Shape Memory Alloy Tubular Structure

Applications include vehicle and aircraft tires, sports helmets, military equipment, and seals and couplings. Read on to learn more.

Coating Hides Temperature Change from Infrared Cameras

If the outside of clothing or a vehicle were covered with the coating, an infrared camera would have a harder time distinguishing what is underneath. Read on to learn what this means.

A Metamaterial that Traps, Amplifies Micro-Vibrations in Small Areas

The Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science has developed a metamaterial that traps and amplifies micro-vibrations in small areas. This innovation is expected to increase the power output of energy harvesting, which converts wasted vibration energy into electricity, and accelerate its commercialization. Read on to learn more.

Origami-Inspired Shape-Shifting Transformer Bots

Inspired by the paper-folding art of origami, North Carolina State University engineers have discovered a way to make a single plastic cubed structure transform into more than 1,000 configurations using only three active motors. The findings could pave the way for shape-shifting artificial systems that can take on multiple functions and even carry a load. Read on to learn more.

CARMEN: A Robot to Help People with Mild Cognitive Impairment

Read on to learn about CARMEN — Cognitively Assistive Robot for Motivation and Neurorehabilitation — a small, tabletop robot designed to help people with mild cognitive impairment learn skills to improve memory, attention, and executive functioning at home.

Self-Propelled Nanorobots

The “nanoswimmers” could be used to remediate contaminated soil, improve water filtration, or even deliver drugs to targeted areas of the body.

New on the Market

See what's new on the market, including Pi Americas' S-335 fast steering mirror; Smalley's new online shopping tool for its customers; Markforged Holding Corporation's FX10 Metal Kit, a print engine that brings metal printing capability to the FX10; Automated Precision, Inc.'s iScanMagic Composite 3D Scanner and iScanLite 3D Blue Laser Line Scanner; Navitas Semiconductor's portfolio of third-generation automotive-qualified SiC MOSFETs in D2PAK-7L (TO-263-7) and TOLL packages; and much more.

Products of Tomorrow

See the products of tomorrow, including a self-powered “bug” that can skim across water; a sweat-powered wearable that has the potential to make continuous, personalized health monitoring as effortless as wearing a Band-Aid; and a novel foot-pedal operated system and device to control movement of an object in three-dimensional space.

Product of the Month

See the product of the month: Seeq Vantage, Seeq's first industrial enterprise monitoring app. Read on to learn more about it.

All-Electric, High-Heat Thermochemical Reactor

Professor Jonathan Fan and his team at Stanford Engineering have designed and demonstrated a new type of thermochemical reactor that can generate the immense amounts of heat required for many industrial processes by using electricity instead of burning fossil fuels.

5Ws of the Smart Mask

Caltech engineers have developed a prototype for a high-tech paper mask that can be used to monitor a range of metabolic and respiratory conditions.

Folding NASA Experience into an Origamist’s Toolkit

How an engineer who holds dozens of patents for optoelectronics —technology that combines light and electricity — became one of world’s leading figures at the intersection of math and paper folding.

CAD Model Offers Robots Precise Pick-and-Place Solutions

A new paper explores pick-and-place solutions with more precision. In precise pick-and-place, also known as kitting, the robot transforms an unstructured arrangement of objects into an organized arrangement. The approach, dubbed SimPLE (Simulation to Pick Localize and placE), learns to pick, regrasp and place objects using the object’s computer-aided design model. Read on to learn more.

Origami Inspires Shape-Shifting ‘Transformer Bots’

Inspired by the paper-folding art of origami, North Carolina State University engineers have discovered a way to make a single plastic cubed structure transform into more than 1,000 configurations using only three active motors. Read on to learn more.

DNA-Based Controller to Operate Swarm Molecular Robots

Researchers have successfully developed a DNA-based molecular controller that autonomously directs the assembly and disassembly of molecular robots. This pioneering technology marks a significant step toward advanced autonomous molecular systems with potential applications in medicine and nanotechnology.

An Algorithm for Making Robots Safer Around Humans

A new algorithm may make robots safer by making them more aware of human inattentiveness. In simulations, it improved safety by about a maximum of 80 percent and efficiency by about a maximum of 38 percent compared to existing methods. Read on to learn more about it.

New Products

See the new products, including Delta Motion's EtherCAT communication module, which adds to its flagship RMC200 Motion Controller family; Teledyne FLIR IIS' Dragonfly S 5MP, the first camera in the new Dragonfly S series to enter full production; Akribis Systems' SGR Series rod motor positioning module; and more.