Magazine

New Products

See the new products, including PI's custom air-bearing motion systems, Kollmorgen’s multi-axis servo systems, HEIDENHAIN CORPORATION's EnDat 3 encoder interface, Nexen Group's new line of Rotary Indexers, and more.

Optimizing Multi-Robot Workcell Performance

One way to try to improve performance is to use multiple robots in the same workcell. In a multi-robot workcell, the tasks can be divvied up among the robots, with the expectation that the robots can perform their work concurrently and thus shorten the cycle time.

Optimize Charging for Maximum Solar Energy Harvesting

There is no one-size-fits-all answer. If you need the least expensive option, direct charging works. If you can spend more, you can opt for a PWM circuit. If the price is secondary and you need the absolute best performance, a true MPPT may be the best solution for your application.

Wireless Sensor Networking for the IIoT

The Industrial Internet of Things — sharing, collecting, and analyzing information across a complete manufacturing enterprise — can significantly enhance the bottom line. Not only in monetary terms but also in the quality and reliability of the products and the ability to deliver them on time.

Silicon Nose: Small Sensor ‘Smells’ Incipient Seizures

In people with epilepsy, seizure-alert dogs can smell small changes in body chemistry and warn of an impending seizure an hour or more before it occurs. Inspired by this feat of nature, a team of researchers has developed a way to replicate that ability with technology.

Capturing the Movements of Dancers Has Wide Applications

Praneeth Namburi is a research scientist at the MIT.nano Immersion Lab. One project that bridges the physical and digital worlds uses VR simulations to train people to fabricate computer chips and semiconductors.

New Products

See the new products, including Thine Electronics' serial transceiver, EBE Elektro-Bau-Elemente GmbH's level sensor, Melexis' ToF sensor, IQE's microLED display, and more.

Wireless Networking Expanding the Reach of Healthcare

Devices to remotely monitor patients’ health have been around for more than 20 years, but their use is rapidly expanding now. As networking technologies such as LoRaWAN are maturing, and artificial intelligence is being embedded in “smart” sensors, the medical device industry is motivated to take advantage.

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.

AI-Based Generative Engineering for Hybrid Vehicle Design

The future of transportation is shifting toward hybrid and electric vehicles (xEV), making the development of powertrain systems more intricate. Meeting stringent development timelines adds to the challenges faced by the industry.

Touchless Switches Provide a Hygienic User Interface Option

Touchless switches are an ideal solution for industries such as food, beverage, pharmaceuticals, medical, and chemicals where sanitary design is important. They are also useful for protecting the well-being of users in everyday commercial applications.

A Vertical Electrochemical Transistor to Revolutionize Bioelectronics

A Northwestern University research team has developed a revolutionary transistor that is expected be ideal for lightweight, flexible, high-performance bioelectronics. The electrochemical transistor is compatible with blood and water and can amplify important signals.

A Thin, Flexible OLED Display

Imagine a thin, digital display so flexible that you can wrap it around your wrist, fold it in any direction, or even curve it over your car’s steering wheel. Well, imagine no more — researchers at the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago have designed such a material.

Calculation of Unsteady Aerodynamic Loads Using Fast-Response Pressure-Sensitive Paint

NASA Ames has developed a new state-of-the-art method for measuring fluctuating aerodynamic-induced pressures on wind tunnel models using unsteady Pressure Sensitive Paint (uPSP).

New Technology Offers Better Diagnosis of Dizziness

The vibrating device uses bone-conducted sounds to achieve better results.

Easy, Accurate, Low-Cost Detection of Fluoride in Water

Researchers from Northwestern University have collaborated on the implementation of an accurate, low-cost, and easy-to-use test for detecting toxic levels of fluoride in water. The new biosensor device has been field tested in Kenya.

Micro-Device Detects Bacteria and Viruses

Researchers were able to successfully isolate bacteria from various fluids with a microparticle-based matrix filter. The filter trapped particles in small voids in the device, providing a larger concentration of bacteria for analysis.

Air Monitor Can Detect COVID-19 Variants in Five Minutes

By combining recent advances in aerosol sampling technology and an ultrasensitive biosensing technique, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have created a real-time monitor that can detect any of the SARS-CoV-2 virus variants in a room in about five minutes.

Tiny Implantable Tool for Light-Sheet Imaging of Brain Activity

The tool shows promise for imaging brain activity in 3D with high speed and contrast.

Human Tissue-Like Cellular Assemblies Grown for Respiratory Studies

NASA researchers have developed a technology that yields 3D tissue-like assemblies of human broncho-epithelial cells for in vitro research on infection of humans by respiratory viruses.

Turning Carbon Emissions into Rocks

In Penn’s Clean Energy Conversions Lab, researchers are repurposing waste from industrial mines, storing carbon pulled from the atmosphere into newly formed rock. The team sees great environmental potential in mine tailings.

Building Technology to Clean Up Space

In 1978, NASA scientist Donald J. Kessler theorized that an increasing amount of space pollution would lead to more collisions between objects in orbit, and thus more debris — the Kessler Syndrome. Multiple teams of researchers are working on solutions.

Corkscrew Filter Extracts Liquid from Air Charge

Innovators at NASA Johnson Space Center in collaboration with IRPI, LLC, have developed a compact inline filter that uses a multi-phase flow method to separate liquid from an incoming air charge. The filter also traps particulate matter and does so without significantly impinging upon flow velocity.

Imaging Space Debris in High Resolution

A team has introduced a new method for taking high-res images of fast-moving and rotating objects in space, such as satellites or debris in low-Earth orbit.

Getting NASA Data to the Ground with Lasers

The Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) will usher in a new era of laser communications.

Multi-Spectral Imaging Pyrometer

Innovators at NASA Langley Research Center have developed a multi-spectral imaging pyrometer utilizing tunable optics. The system uses a conventional infrared imaging camera as the basis.