Stories

Whatever Happened to Analog in this Digital Age?

These days all electronics seems to be digital, except for a few exceptions here and there. However, it’s a mistake to write analog off altogether.

Modified EEG Measures Brain's Electrical Activity During Immersive VR Interactions

Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have modified a commercial virtual reality (VR) headset, giving it the ability to measure brain activity and examine how we react to hints, stressors, and other outside forces.

How Much Do You Know About Sensor Fusion for Navigation Systems?

Sensor fusion is an important element of navigation systems especially with the rapid growth of driving automation. At each step of the levels of driving automation from ADAS toward driverless vehicles, sensor fusion becomes more critical.

A Stretchable, Fabric-Based Li-ion Battery

Researchers developed a prototype for the Li-ion battery, which could lead to stretchy electronics or even clothes that monitor health.

New Ferroelectric Material Could Give Robots Muscles

A new type of ferroelectric polymer that is exceptionally good at converting electrical energy into mechanical strain holds promise as a high-performance motion controller or...

Training Robots How to Learn, Make Decisions on the Fly

Mars rovers have teams of human experts on Earth telling them what to do. But robots on lander missions to moons orbiting Saturn or Jupiter are too far away to receive timely commands...

Robots Learn from Videos

Carnegie Mellon University researchers have enabled robots to learn household chores by watching videos of people performing everyday tasks in their homes.

How Much Do You Know About Soft Robots?

Unlike rigid-body robots, which have a finite number of joints and thus limited freedom, soft robots are made of flexible materials and operate by continuous deformation. So, how much do you know about soft robots? Find out with this quiz.

An Approach to Inexpensively Mass Manufacture Micro-LED Displays

The new method paves the way to creating large-scale arrays of optical components and could be used to rapidly manufacture micro-LED displays.

How Much Do You Know About eVTOLs?

How much do you know about eVTOLs? Test yourself with this quiz.

'Toggle Switch' Could Help Quantum Computers Become More Versatile

Quantum-computer designers are constantly faced with challenges, but a new device from a team at NIST may make them easier to solve.

The Rise of Autonomous Mobile Robots

Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMR) for warehouse and industrial operations are surging, and this growth is expected to increase for the foreseeable future. Test your knowledge about AMRs in this quiz.

Sensors — the Heart of the IoT

Sensors are getting smarter and smarter. Without them there would be no IoT, or IIoT, or Industry 4.0.

Clean, Sustainable Fuels Made from ‘Thin Air’ and Plastic Waste

Researchers have demonstrated how carbon dioxide can be captured from industrial processes — or even directly from the air — and transformed into clean, sustainable fuels using just the energy from the sun.

New Bioinspired Robot Flies, Walks, and More

A newly created real-life Transformer can reconfigure its body to achieve eight distinct types of motion and can autonomously assess the environment it faces to choose the most effective...

Unleashing the Power of Intelligent Drone Swarms

It’s a long-held notion, proven in fact, that robots are the perfect instrument to free humans from jobs that are dull, dirty, and dangerous — the “3 Ds” in industry speak — with...

A Step Toward Safe and Reliable Autopilots

In the film “Top Gun: Maverick,” Maverick, played by Tom Cruise, is charged with training young pilots to complete a seemingly impossible mission — to fly their jets deep into a rocky canyon,...

Small Power Modules, Building Blocks of The Electric Grid

The U.S. electric grid is more than just power plants and transmission lines — it’s a web of connections among millions of small components, working together to allow you to...

New Technology to Find EV Charging Vulnerabilities

Idaho National Laboratory (INL) intern Jake Guidry has developed a cybersecurity research tool that could improve the security of electric vehicle charging. The AcCCS tool provides access...

Power Electronics Workshop Invites Industry to Collaborate Around Grid Stability Challenges

Growth in renewable energy has initiated an era of power electronics for the grid, and engineers are grappling with the change. That is why the...

How Much Do You Know About PLCs for Industrial Control?

Industrial PLCs were first used in 1969 and are still in wide use today. Test your PLC knowledge with this quiz.

Turning Old Maps into 3D Digital Models of Lost Neighborhoods

Researchers have developed machine learning tools that can extract details about individual buildings from maps to make 3D digital models.

How Much Do You Know About Integrated Circuits?

Integrated circuits (IC) are the fundamental building block of all modern electronic devices. So, how much do you know about ICs? Find out with this quiz.

How Much Do You Know About Additive Manufacturing?

How much do you know about additive manufacturing? Test yourself with this quiz.

How Much Do You Know About Quantum Computing?

Think you know quantum computing? Test your knowledge about it with this quiz.

Sensors Vs. Disasters

Safety sensor systems require lots of special attention to their design and operation, everything that should be considered in any kind of design, but with double the attention. And there are also unique safety requirements as well.

Smart Material Challenges Newton’s Laws of Motion

The team has developed a prototype metamaterial that uses electrical signals to control both the direction and intensity of energy waves passing through a solid material.

Physics-Aware Neural Networks Improve Camera-Based Machines

Researchers from UCLA and the United States Army Research Laboratory have laid out a new approach for enhancing artificial intelligence-powered computer vision technologies by...

Megawatt Electrical Motor Could Help Electrify Aviation

Aerospace engineers designed a 1-megawatt electrical motor that is a stepping stone toward electrifying the largest aircraft.