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Blog: Aerospace
Watch NASA experts review this week's preparations, as the Perseverance rover launches and begins its journey to Mars.
Blog: Robotics, Automation & Control
Can NASA "joystick" the landing of the next Mars rover? A Tech Briefs reader asks our NASA expert.
Blog: Motion Control
We plug in our headphones everyday. Now a robot can perform the task.
Blog: Aerospace
The Perseverance rover has an almost human-like way of keeping its lenses clean.
Question of the Week: Robotics, Automation & Control
Will ‘Roboats’ Catch On?
Our July issue of Tech Briefs highlighted a fleet of “roboats” that could someday transport people, collect trash, and self-assemble into floating structures.
The Roboat autonomous robotic boats — rectangular hulls equipped with sensors, thrusters, microcontrollers, GPS modules, cameras, and other hardware —...
Blog: Unmanned Systems
A tiny underwater robot may someday filter out water contaminants by catching them with its tentacles.
INSIDER: Photonics/Optics
Just as a meter stick with hundreds of tick marks can be used to measure distances with great precision, a device known as a laser frequency comb, with its hundreds...
INSIDER: Test & Measurement
Carolin Frueh is among only a handful of researchers who have persisted in using a complex technique that can diagnose a problem from thousands of miles away based on how a...
INSIDER: Imaging
A new way of making large sheets of high-quality, atomically thin graphene could lead to ultra-lightweight, flexible solar cells, and to new classes of...
Question of the Week: Aerospace
Will Morphing Wings Take Off?
Our lead INSIDER story today showcased a morphing MADCAT aircraft wing.
“From a first glance, it literally doesn’t look like anything that anyone’s ever seen before,” said MIT researcher Ben Jennet in our Here's an Idea episode.
How about you? Will Morphing Wings Take Off?
Blog: Aerospace
The Mars rover Perseverance has a helicopter. Will the rover have to carry it around?
Question of the Week: Imaging
Can Camera Systems Replace the Wall-Mounted Thermostat?
Our lead INSIDER story today showcased an autonomous 'HEAT' camera system that uses facial temperatures to determine a room's optimum temperature.
What do you think? Can Camera Systems Replace the Wall-Mounted Thermostat?
Share your questions and comments.
Blog: Design
You can design the best product in the world but what if the parts, assemblies, and sub-components for your idea aren’t there?
Blog: Test & Measurement
A reader asks our NASA expert: "What kind of redundancy is built into the Mars 2020 rover?"
Blog: Electronics & Computers
The Human Embodied Autonomous Thermostat, or “HEAT," uses cameras to identify facial temperature, and adjust the room's air accordingly.
INSIDER: Motion Control
The smallest motor in the world — consisting of just 16 atoms – measures less than one nanometer or about 100,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair. The rotor rotates on the surface of the...
Question of the Week: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Do You See Yourself Someday Printing in 4D?
You’ve heard about 3D printing, but what about 4D?
A Tech Briefs TV video this week showcased how Rice University researchers’ new way of making shape-shifting materials. The “4D-printed” objects can be manipulated to take on alternate forms when exposed to changes in temperature, stress, or...
Blog: Sensors/Data Acquisition
A reader asks NASA experts: How much hardware from the Curiosity rover is being used on the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover?
Blog: Robotics, Automation & Control
Traditional robotic feet are made of rigid components. A team of engineers at UCSD turned to coffee grounds to make legged robots more flexible and able to walk on a variety of rough terrain.
Question of the Week: Energy
Will We Ever See Humidity Panels Alongside Solar Panels?
Our lead INSIDER story featured an experiment from Tel Aviv University that supports the idea of water vapor as an alternative energy source.
What do you think? Will We Ever See Humidity Panels Alongside Solar Panels?
Share your questions and comments.
INSIDER: Energy
Although perovskites are a promising alternative to silicon for solar cells, new manufacturing processes are needed to make them practical for commercial production. To help fill...
INSIDER: Electronics & Computers
Researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have demonstrated how to overcome a persistent challenge to potassium metal batteries — dendrites. Their new battery...
INSIDER: Energy
Solid state batteries are of great interest to the electric vehicle industry. New technology developed by scientists at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden and Xi'an...
INSIDER: Power
A new metal-air scavenger works like a battery, in that it provides power by repeatedly breaking and forming a series of chemical bonds. But it also works like a harvester, in...
Blog: Energy
"Who knows? Maybe one day we will have roofs covered with humidity panels together with solar panels," TAU professor Colin Price told Tech Briefs.
Question of the Week: Energy
Will On-Demand Octane Improve Fuel Economy?
A video on Tech Briefs TV this month demonstrated a Pacific Northwest National Laboratory technology that enables on-demand octane by portioning ethanol from gasoline. PNNL researchers believe their invention could increase fuel economy and lower greenhouse gas emissions. Do you agree? Watch the video on...
Blog: Communications
NIST engineers are working to make the cellular network standard even faster.
Question of the Week: Materials
Will More Manufacturers Go With Metal 3D Printing?
Our most recent issue of Tech Briefs featured a roundtable discussion about the future of 3D printing. The industry pros, including Stratsys Direct Manufacturing CEO Kent Firestone, spoke about how metal additive manufacturing has yet to catch on, due to cost constraints and build limitations. That...
INSIDER: Robotics, Automation & Control
The next generation of exploration rovers will need to be good at climbing hills covered with loose material and avoiding entrapment on soft granular surfaces. Built with wheeled appendages that can be...
Top Stories
Blog: Lighting
A Stretchable OLED that Can Maintain Most of Its Luminescence
Blog: Energy
Batteries that Can Withstand the Cold
INSIDER: Energy
Advancing All-Solid-State Batteries
Blog: Power
My Opinion: We Need More Power Soon — Is Nuclear the Answer?
Quiz: Power
Blog: Data Acquisition
Webcasts
Upcoming Webinars: Test & Measurement
From Spreadsheets to Insights: Fast Data Analysis Without Complex...
Upcoming Webinars: Aerospace
Cooling a New Generation of Aerospace and Defense Embedded...
Upcoming Webinars: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Beyond AI-Copy-Paste Engineering: Advanced AI-Integration Success...
Upcoming Webinars: Energy
Battery Abuse Testing: Pushing to Failure
Upcoming Webinars: Power
A FREE Two-Day Event Dedicated to Connected Mobility
Upcoming Webinars: RF & Microwave Electronics
Choosing the Right N-Port Strategy: Multiport VNAs vs. Switch...
