Briefs: Software
A team of MIT engineers has developed a training method for multiagent systems that can guarantee their safe operation in crowded environments. Read on to learn more about it.
Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
A new study, published in the journal Results in Engineering, introduced a meticulously designed dataset aimed at enhancing the performance of 6D pose estimation algorithms. Read on to learn more.
Briefs: Energy
Researchers at Rice University have found a new way to improve a key element of thermophotovoltaic systems, which convert heat into electricity via light. Read on to learn more about it.
Briefs: Energy
Batteries in electric vehicles can fail quickly, sometimes catching fire without much warning. Sandia National Laboratories is working to detect these failures early and provide sufficient warning time to vehicle occupants. Read on to learn more about it.
Briefs: Energy
Innovators at NASA Johnson Space Center have designed a pneumatic nail penetration trigger system that drives a Li-ion battery cell into thermal runaway using a tungsten nail. Read on to learn more.
Briefs: Imaging
Scientists have developed multi-modal 3D object detection methods that combine 3D LiDAR data with 2D RGB images taken by standard cameras. While the fusion of 2D images and 3D LiDAR data leads to more accurate 3D detection results, it still faces its own set of challenges, with accurate detection of small objects remaining difficult. Read on to learn more about it.
Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
A team has created a prototype for what it calls “living bioelectronics” — a combination of living cells, gel, and electronics that can integrate with living tissue. The patches are made of sensors, bacterial cells, and a gel made from starch and gelatin. Tests in mice found that the devices could continuously monitor and improve psoriasis-like symptoms, without irritating skin. Read on to learn more.
Briefs: Materials
A Duke University team's approach takes a metallic nanotube, which always lets current through, and transforms it into a semiconducting form that can be switched on and off. Read on to learn more.
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Researchers have developed a breakthrough process for making spintronic devices that has the potential to become the new industry standard for semiconductors chips that make up computers, smartphones, and many other electronics. The new process will allow for faster, more efficient spintronics devices that can be scaled down smaller than ever before. Read on to learn more about it.
Briefs: RF & Microwave Electronics
The Brown University research team created a novel approach for a wireless communication network that can efficiently transmit, receive, and decode data from thousands of microelectronic chips that are each no larger than a grain of salt. Read on to learn more about it.
Briefs: Software
Innovators at NASA Johnson Space Center have developed an adaptable RFID system that optimizes transmission for priority data as targets move in and out of passive coverage areas. The method extends the range, and reduces data latency, of ultra-low power battery-assisted passive RFID sensor tags. Read on to learn more.
Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
A new study led by Flinders University and French researchers has used a novel bio-inspired computing artificial intelligence solution to improve the potential of UUVs and other adaptive control systems to operate more reliability in rough seas and other unpredictable conditions. Read on to learn more.
Briefs: Power
A PNNL research team used a simple mixed-salt water-based solution and their knowledge of metal properties to separate valuable minerals in continuously flowing reaction chambers. Read on to learn more.
Briefs: Materials
Researchers have developed a strategy to design luminescent polymers with high light-emitting efficiencies from the start that are both biodegradable and recyclable. Read on to learn more.
Briefs: Green Design & Manufacturing
NASA Ames Research Center presents a novel, patent-pending adjustable-autonomous intelligent systems approach for developing sustainable, small-scale reproductions of subsets of the Earths biosphere that can be distributed both on and beyond Earth, for improving the quality of life for all life, expanding the diversity of life, studying and protecting life, as well as enabling life to permanently extend beyond Earth. Read on to learn more.
Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
The technology has the potential for many applications including enhancing pilot training for peak performance and alertness, developing software, training programs, and services for well-being and healthcare, as well as revolutionize the gaming industry by creating interactive video games. Read on to learn more.
Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
A team has programmed a robotic spacecraft simulator with what it calls s-FEAST: Safe Fault Estimation via Active Sensing Tree Search. Read on to learn more.
Briefs: Physical Sciences
A future quantum network may become less of a stretch thanks to researchers at the Argonne National Laboratory, the University of Chicago, and Cambridge University. By “stretching” thin films of diamond, they created quantum bits that can operate with significantly reduced equipment and expense. Read on to learn more.
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Researchers have demonstrated the ability to engineer materials that are both stiff and capable of insulating against heat. This combination of properties is extremely unusual and holds promise for a range of applications, such as the development of new thermal insulation coatings for electronic devices. Read on to learn more.
Briefs: Software
This advance could enable quantum computers that use programmable optical qubits or “spin-photon qubits” to connect quantum nodes across a remote network. It could also advance a quantum internet that is not only more secure but could also transmit more data than current optical-fiber information technologies. Read on to learn more.
Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
A recent study demonstrates that soft skin pads doubling as sensors made from thermoplastic urethane can be efficiently manufactured using 3D printers. Read on to learn more.
Briefs: Data Acquisition
Purdue researchers have created technology aimed at replacing Morse code with colored “digital characters” to modernize optical storage. They are confident the advancement will help with the explosion of remote data storage during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Read on to learn more.
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Researchers have designed a way to levitate and propel objects using only light by creating specific nanoscale patterning on the objects' surfaces. The work could be a step toward developing a spacecraft that could reach the nearest planet outside of our solar system in 20 years, powered and accelerated only by light. Read on to learn more.
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Researchers have created visible lasers of very pure colors from near-ultraviolet to near-infrared that fit on a fingertip. The colors of the lasers can be precisely tuned and extremely fast — up to 267 petahertz per second, which is critical for applications such as quantum optics. Read on to learn more.
Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
A Bristol-led team of physicists has found a way to operate mass manufacturable photonic sensors at the quantum limit. This breakthrough paves the way for practical applications such as monitoring greenhouse gases and cancer detection. Read on to learn more.
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
NASA engineers have developed a new approach to mitigating unwanted motion in floating structures. Ideally suited to applications including offshore wind energy platforms and barges, the innovation uses water ballast as a motion damping fluid.
Briefs: Physical Sciences
NASA’s Cryogenic Flux Capacitor capitalizes on the energy storage capacity of liquefied gases. By exploiting a unique attribute of nano-porous materials, aerogel in this case, fluid commodities such as oxygen, hydrogen, methane, etc. can be stored in a molecular surface-adsorbed state. Read on to learn more.
Briefs: AR/AI
A team at MIT has moved beyond traditional trial-and-error methods to create materials with extraordinary performance through computational design. Their new system integrates physical experiments, physics-based simulations, and neural networks to navigate the discrepancies often found between theoretical models and practical results. Read on to learn more.
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Researchers have designed a spiral ladder-inspired tool that allows precision control of light direction and polarization to control the direction of the emitted beam and the polarization of the light, while using a precisely engineered resonance of the structure. Read on to learn more.
