Tech Briefs

Mechanical/​Mechatronics

Access our comprehensive library of mechanical and mechatronics technical briefs, from engineering experts at NASA and government, university, and commercial laboratories.

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Briefs: Aerospace
The sensor makes it easier to detect and manage ice accumulation on aircraft wings.
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Briefs: Materials
This framework can be used by commercial and military aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles.
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Briefs: Energy
The additive creates fuel from biomass while improving engine performance.
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Briefs: Photonics/Optics
3D Printing Technique Produces “Living” 4D Materials
3D/4D printing is merged with a chemical process to produce “living” resin, which has potential for recycling and biomedicine.
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Wraparound Self-Structuring Leaky-Wave Antenna (WSS-LWA)
This system has applications in the smart grid and military.
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
The switch is a major new step toward building a computer that uses light instead of electricity to process information.
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Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
This mechanical gyroscope can advance motion sensing capabilities in consumer-sized applications.
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Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Such grippers would be suited for human-robot partnership in assembly lines in the automotive, electronic packaging, and other industries.
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Briefs: Automotive
Conventional fastening mechanisms like nails, bolts, and welds are subject to manufacturing and inspection tolerances, differential thermal growth, and other sources of error that lead to over-constraint, among other...
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Briefs: Materials
These soft robots can be rolled up and carried in a pocket.
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Briefs: Test & Measurement
This system autonomously prepares samples for online automated analysis.
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Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
This technology could be used to create smartphones that don't scratch or shatter, metal-free pacemakers, and electronics for space and other harsh environments.
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Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
Systems of tiny robots could build high-performance structures, from airplanes to space settlements.
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Briefs: Materials
These materials may replace metals as lightweight, flexible heat dissipators in cars, computers, cellphones, and refrigerators.
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Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
Such machines, only a few tens of micrometers across, could be used in the human body to perform small operations.
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Briefs: Green Design & Manufacturing
This controller minimizes the burden on the power grid.
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Briefs: RF & Microwave Electronics
This technique lowers airstream noise generated at the side edges of deployed flaps, elevons, or slats.
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Briefs: Energy
This approach is a cost-effective way to convert carbon dioxide gas into methane.
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Briefs: Photonics/Optics
These advances are useful for transportation, infrastructure, and aerospace.
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Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Recovery of Mercury and Rare Earth Elements from Fluorescent Lamp Phosphors
This method will enable safer fluorescent light recycling.
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
This microbot can walk on land, swim, and walk underwater.
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Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Ultra-thin SiC microstructures enable batch fabrication of MEMS, NEMS, pressure sensors, and biosensors.
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Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
Various components are used to assemble robots that are more aware of their surroundings.
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Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
An upgraded mini robot can leap over obstacles with ease.
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Briefs: Green Design & Manufacturing
According to the United Nations, 2.1 billion people lack access to safely managed drinking water services and the majority live in developing nations. A process was developed...
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Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
Loosely connected disc-shaped “particles” can push and pull one another, moving together to transport objects.
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
The Planetary Tides Simulation Facility for Simulation Tidal Strain in Planetary Ice Analogs
Applications include modeling of tidal stress response of icy satellites as well as fatigue of terrestrial ice shelves.
Briefs: Aerospace
This microrobot with soft actuators can crash, fall, and collide without being damaged.
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Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
The device can be used to pre-screen for the virus using gene-editing assays before those infected can travel and expose others.
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