News

Using piezoelectric materials, Georgia Tech researchers have replicated the muscle motion of the human eye to control camera systems in a way designed to improve the operation of robots. This new muscle-like action could help make robotic tools safer and more effective for MRI-guided...

Batoid rays, such as stingrays and manta rays, are fast and highly maneuverable, and can cruise for long distances in the open ocean. Engineers are now trying to emulate the seemingly effortless but powerful swimming motions of rays by engineering their own ray-like machine modeled on nature.The team...

A University of Georgia research team has developed a single-step method to rapidly and accurately detect viruses, bacteria, and chemical contaminants. Yiping Zhao, professor of physics in the UGA Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, along with doctoral students Jing Chen and Justin Abell,...

Kansas State University researchers Hayder Rasheed, associate professor of civil engineering, and Yacoub Najjar, professor of civil engineering, are collaborating to better detect and measure damage in concrete bridges. The researchers have created a bridge health index - a rating system...

FLOWBEC (Flow and Benthic Ecology 4D) is a National Oceanography Centre (NOC)-led project that brings together a consortium of UK researchers to investigate the effects of devices that harness tide and wave energy by monitoring environment and wildlife behavior at various test sites. The...

Three years of their hard work plunged in the Atlantic Ocean on a Monday in July and a group of NASA engineers could not have been more thrilled.They were part of the Inflatable Reentry Vehicle Experiment (IRVE-3) team that is working to develop an inflatable heat shield. The technology...

Hybrid hydraulic technologies were tested by Navy and Army engineers seeking to achieve greater energy efficiencies and reduce costs among the Department of Defense's heavy construction fleet.

More than 40 vendors and five universities showcased nearly 75 different technologies during the 2012 Robotics Rodeo at Fort Benning, GA.

For years, the U.S. Navy has employed human divers, equipped with sonar cameras, to search for underwater mines attached to ship hulls. The Navy has also trained dolphins and sea lions to search for bombs on and around vessels.

Donn McKinney never served aboard the U.S.S. Missouri, but has had a soft spot for the historic battleship since he was a child. McKinney’s dream is to see the ship in action, and how the vessel served its country from World War II to Operation Desert Storm. With the help of...

A $2.6 million contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard will enable bioengineers to develop a smart suit that helps improve physical endurance for soldiers in the field.The novel wearable system would...

Inspired by nature, an international research team has created synthetic pores that mimic the activity of cellular ion channels, which play a vital role in human health by severely restricting the types of materials allowed to enter cells.The pores the scientists built are permeable to potassium ions...

Georgia Tech researchers have created a wireless, musical glove that may improve sensation and motor skills for people with paralyzing spinal cord injury (SCI).The device is called Mobile Music Touch (MMT). The glove, which looks like a workout glove with a small box on the back, is used with a piano...

With its pair of jet engines riding on top, it looks like an airplane that has its wings bolted on upside down. But this innovative 1/11th-scale model recently tested by NASA in a California wind tunnel might represent the future of commercial aviation. Nicknamed AMELIA (Advanced Model for...

Producing strong, lightweight, and complex parts for car manufacturing and the aerospace industry is set to become cheaper and more accurate thanks to a new technique developed by engineers from the University of Exeter (UK). The research team has developed a new method...

By March 2014, the MQ-1C Gray Eagle, an Army unmanned aerial system (UAS), will be able to train in the same airspace as the Boeing 747, with the help of the Army-developed Ground Based Sense and Avoid (GBSAA) system.

Researchers from the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) are helping convert an aircraft used to train pilots into one with intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance (ISR), and light attack capabilities. The new aircraft would provide a less expensive alternative to legacy...

A new semiautonomous safety system uses an onboard camera and laser rangefinder to identify hazards in a vehicle’s environment. An engineering team devised an algorithm to analyze the data and identify safe zones — avoiding, for example, barrels in a field, or other cars on a roadway. The system allows a...

Millions of people suffering from Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s, muscular dystrophy, spinal cord injuries or amputees could soon interact with their computers and surroundings using just their eyes, thanks to a new device.Composed from off-the-shelf materials, the new device can work out exactly where...

University of Iowa scientists have created a technique to help satellites "see" through the clouds and better estimate the concentration of pollutants, such as soot. The finding is important, because, like GPS systems, clouds block remote-sensing satellites' ability to detect, and thus calculate, the...

Scientists and engineers at Picatinny Arsenal are developing a device that will shoot lightning bolts down laser beams to destroy its target. The Laser- Induced Plasma Channel, or LIPC, is designed to take out targets that conduct electricity better than the air or ground that surrounds them. How did the...

Creators of a nanotech-based system that captures carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere within a submarine, while providing a more environmentally friendly removal process, have won the Federal Laboratory Consortium Interagency Partnership Award for 2012. The technology — Self Assembled...

New networking equipment and training that is part of the Army's "Capability Set 13" will begin fielding in October. The 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division at Fort Bliss, Texas, will be the first recipients of more than 15 new systems included in the set. Over the next two years, a total of 14...

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory researchers have for the first time simulated and quantified the early stages of radiation damage that will occur in a given material.

Quantum computers are still years away, but a trio of theorists has already figured out at least one talent they may have. According to the theorists, including one from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), physicists might one day use quantum computers to study the...

It would make life a lot easier if the surfaces of window panes, corrosion coatings, or microfluidic systems could keep themselves free of water and other liquids. A new simulation software has been developed by researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials in Germany...

NASA's special "Webb-cam," the camera in a giant clean room at NASA Goddard, now has "double vision." Two video cameras focus on what's happening with the very first completed instrument that will fly onboard the James Webb Space Telescope. The James Webb Space Telescope contains four science instruments, but...