Electronics & Software

Robotic System for Assembly and Maintenance of Lightweight Reconfigurable Structures

Missions to the moon and other planets will require large-scale infrastructure that would benefit from autonomous assembly by robots without on-site human intervention. NASA Ames Research Center has developed a novel and efficient mobile bipedal robot system to construct low-mass, high precision, and largescale infrastructure. Read on to learn more.

Programming Robots with Rubber Bands

Mechanical engineering researchers in the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences think there’s another way to design robots: Programming intended functions directly into a robot’s physical structure, allowing the robot to react to its surroundings without the need for extensive on-board electronics. Read on to learn more.

AR-Enhanced Rescue Robot for Disaster Response

Robots may soon have a new way to communicate with people. Not through words or screens, but with light and images projected directly onto the world around them. University of South Florida's Zhao Han is developing technology that could transform how people interact with robots in both emergencies and everyday life. Read on to learn more.

How Metasurfaces Can Act as Quantum Upgrades

Optics researchers in the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences created specially designed metasurfaces — flat devices etched with nanoscale light-manipulating patterns — to act as ultra-thin upgrades for quantum-optical chips and setups. Read on to learn more.

Color Filtering Software Enhances Material Strain Analysis

Innovators at NASA Johnson Space Center have developed a technology that can isolate a single direction of tensile strain in biaxially woven material. This is accomplished using traditional digital image correlation (DIC) techniques in combination with custom red-green-blue (RGB) color filtering software. Read on to learn more.

Entangled-Photon Pairs Secure Optical Communications

NASA's Glenn Research Center has developed a method of using entangled-photon pairs to produce highly secure mobile communications that require mere milliwatts of power. Read on to learn more.

3D LiDAR for Improved Rover Traversal and Imagery

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center has developed a Space Qualified Rover LiDAR (SQRLi) system that will improve rover sensing capabilities in a small, lightweight package. The new SQRLi package is developed to survive the hazardous space environment and provide valuable image data during planetary and lunar rover exploration. Read on to learn more about it.

A New Method to Protect Aircraft Against GPS Outages

Researchers from Sandia National Laboratories and Ohio State University are taking experimental navigation technology to the skies, pioneering a backup system to keep an airplane on course when it cannot rely on global positioning system satellites. Read on to learn more.

Researchers Give New Meaning to the Term “Microwave Brain”

Cornell researchers have developed a low-power microchip they call a “microwave brain,” the first processor to compute on both ultrafast data signals and wireless communication signals by harnessing the physics of microwaves. Read on to learn more about it.

The U.K.’s First Long-Distance, Quantum-Secured Video Call and More

Researchers have successfully demonstrated the U.K.’s first long-distance ultra-secure transfer of data over a quantum communications network, including the U.K.’s first long-distance quantum-secured video call. Read on to learn more.

Shoreline Model Predicts Storm Protection, Sea-Level Rise

Researchers have created a simulation model to analyze how coastal management activities meant to protect barrier islands from sea-level rise can disrupt the natural processes that are keeping barrier islands above water. Read on to learn more about it.

Integrating Photovoltaics with Crop Production

As countries race to expand renewable energy infrastructure, balancing clean electricity production with land use for food remains a pressing challenge — especially in Japan, where mountainous terrain limits space. A recent study led by researchers from the University of Tokyo explores a promising solution: integrating solar panels with traditional rice farming in a practice known as agrivoltaics. Read on to learn more.

Building a Good Indoor Climate with Sustainable Building Components

A team of researchers from ETH Zurich investigated a new approach to passive dehumidification of indoor spaces. Read on to learn more about it.

Lighter and More Flexible Solar Cells Achieve the Highest Efficiency

The Korea Institute of Energy Research has successfully developed ultra-lightweight flexible perovskite/ CIGS (copper indium gallium selenide) tandem solar cells and achieved a power conversion efficiency of 23.64 percent, which is the world’s highest efficiency for flexible perovskite/CIGS tandem solar cells reported to date. Read on to learn more.

New Triple-Junction Tandem Solar Cells with Increased Power Efficiency

Researchers from the National University of Singapore have developed a novel triple-junction perovskite/Si tandem solar cell that can achieve a certified world-record power conversion efficiency of 27.1 percent across a solar energy absorption area of 1 sq cm, representing the best-performing triple-junction perovskite/Si tandem solar cell thus far. Read on to learn more.

Printable Heat Shield Formulations Advance Spacecraft Construction

Innovators at NASA Johnson Space Center have developed additively manufactured thermal protection system (AMTPS) comprised of two printable heat shield material formulations. This technology could significantly decrease heat shield or thermal protection system (TPS) fabrication cost and time. Read on to learn more.

Upper Body Robotic Exoskeleton

This lightweight, portable garment is designed for active shoulder and elbow positioning.

Robotic Eyes Mimic Human Vision for Superfast Response to Extreme Lighting

Researchers at Fuzhou University in China created a machine vision sensor that uses quantum dots to adapt to extreme changes in light far faster than the human eye can — in about 40 seconds — by mimicking eyes’ key behaviors. Their results could be a game changer for robotic vision and autonomous vehicle safety. Read on to learn more.

How AI Can Find the Next Groundbreaking Polymer

Finding the next groundbreaking polymer is always a challenge, but now Georgia Tech researchers are using artificial intelligence (AI) to shape and transform the future of the field. Read on to learn more.

Context-Based Configuration Management System

NASA has developed a new technology to track the status of, and changes to, enterprise level programmatic operations. Read on to learn more about it.

Built-In Smart Sensors Can Prevent Lithium-Ion Battery Fires Before They Start

New smart sensors can help detect dangerous internal failures in lithium-ion batteries before they escalate into fires or explosions, say researchers from the University of Surrey. Read on to learn more.

A Cleaner, Scalable Process to Recycle Lithium-Ion Batteries

In a major step forward for sustainable energy technology, researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, led by Professor Yan Wang, William B. Smith Professor of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, have developed a new, scalable method to recycle lithium-ion batteries in a way that is both efficient and environmentally friendly. Read on to learn more.

New AI Tool Predicts Lithium Metal Anode Failures from Just Two Early Cycles

In a groundbreaking study, researchers at Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School and the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, have developed a predictive model that uses electrochemical data from the initial cycles of LMBs to forecast potential failures. Read on to learn more.

Developing High-Energy, Stable All-Solid-State Lithium Batteries Using Aluminum-Based Anodes and High-Nickel Cathodes

Researchers from Nanjing University, led by Professor Ping He and Professor Shaochun Tang, have published a comprehensive study in Nano-Micro Letters on the development of high-energy, stable all-solid-state lithium batteries using aluminum-based anodes and high-nickel cathodes. Read on to learn more about it.

Thick Electrodes’ Chemistry Matters More Than Structure for Battery Performance

A team of Rice University researchers led by materials scientist Ming Tang showed that even if the materials used in thick battery electrodes have nearly identical structures, their internal chemistry impacts energy flow — and, hence, performance — differently. This finding goes against conventional wisdom in the field. Read on to learn more.

AI Breakthrough Unlocks ‘New’ Materials to Replace Lithium-Ion Batteries

In research published in Cell Reports Physical Science, an NJIT team successfully applied generative AI techniques to rapidly discover new porous materials capable of revolutionizing multivalent-ion batteries. Read on to learn more.

Eco-Friendly Upcycling: Turning Spent Batteries into High-Voltage Energy Storage Systems

A research team led by Dr. Yosep Han at the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources has successfully developed an eco-friendly electrochemical process to upcycle lithium manganese oxide, a common cathode material in spent lithium-ion batteries. Read on to learn more.

Teaching a Robot How to Solve Manipulation Problems

Researchers from MIT and NVIDIA Research have developed a novel algorithm that dramatically speeds up a robot’s planning process. Their approach enables a robot to “think ahead” by evaluating thousands of possible solutions in parallel and then refining the best ones to meet the constraints of the robot and its environment. Read on to learn more.

Utilizing Acoustic Signals for Autonomous Swarm Formation in Micro-Robots

Animals like bats, whales, and insects have long used acoustic signals for communication and navigation. Now, an international team of scientists have taken a page from nature’s playbook to model micro-sized robots that use sound waves to coordinate into large swarms that exhibit intelligent-like behavior. Read on to learn more.