Tech Briefs

Sensors & Test

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Access our comprehensive library of technical briefs on sensors and test, from engineering experts at NASA and government, university, and commercial laboratories.

Latest Tech Briefs

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Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
A Molecular-Sized, More Efficient Electronic Sensor
Australian researchers have developed a molecular-sized, more efficient version of a widely used electronic sensor, in a breakthrough that could bring widespread benefits.
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Macquarie University engineers have developed a new technique to make the manufacturing of nanosensors far less carbon-intensive, much cheaper, more efficient, and more versatile — substantially improving a key process in this trillion-dollar global industry.
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Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
Using a new type of dual-polymer material capable of responding dynamically to its environment, researchers have developed a set of modular hydrogel components that could be useful in a variety of soft robotic and biomedical applications.
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Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
A research team has developed a robotic system that can be unobtrusively built into the frame of a standard honeybee hive. Composed of an array of thermal sensors and actuators, the system measures and modulates honeybee behavior through localized temperature variations.
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Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
A team at ETH Zurich has developed an ultrasonically actuated glass needle that can be attached to a robotic arm. This lets them pump and mix minuscule amounts of liquid and trap particles.
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Briefs: Photonics/Optics
MIT researchers have developed a camera-based touch sensor that is long, curved, and shaped like a human finger. Their device provides high-resolution tactile sensing over a large area. The sensor, called the GelSight Svelte, uses two mirrors to reflect and refract light.
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Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
A new soft sensor developed by UBC and Honda researchers opens the door to a wide range of applications in robotics and prosthetics. When applied to the surface of a prosthetic arm or a robotic limb, the sensor skin provides touch sensitivity and dexterity, enabling tasks that can be difficult for machines such as picking up a piece of soft fruit.
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
When multiple drones are working together in the same airspace, perhaps spraying pesticide over a field of corn, there’s a risk they might crash into each other. To help avoid these costly crashes, MIT researchers developed a system called MADER in 2020.
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Briefs: Test & Measurement
Researcher are finding ways to estimate a target location when light gets deflected by a disordered structure.
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Briefs: Photonics/Optics

Processes and structures within the body that are normally hidden from the eye can be made visible through medical imaging. Scientists use imaging to...

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Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
Study shows improvements to chemical sensing chip that aims to quickly and accurately identify drugs and other trace chemicals.
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Briefs: Automotive
Research reveals that expertly timed lasers shined at an approaching LIDAR system can create a blind spot in front of the vehicle.
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Briefs: Medical
Engineers have demonstrated an ingestible sensor whose location can be monitored as it moves through the digestive tract, an advance that could help doctors more easily diagnose gastrointestinal motility disorders such as constipation, gastroesophageal reflux disease, and gastroparesis.
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Briefs: Test & Measurement
NASA Ames has developed a new state-of-the-art method for measuring fluctuating aerodynamic-induced pressures on wind tunnel models using unsteady Pressure Sensitive Paint (uPSP).
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Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Researchers were able to successfully isolate bacteria from various fluids with a microparticle-based matrix filter. The filter trapped particles in small voids in the device, providing a larger concentration of bacteria for analysis.
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Briefs: Materials
Enhancing At-Home COVID Tests with Glow-in-The-Dark Materials
Researchers at the University of Houston are using glow-in-the-dark materials to enhance and improve rapid COVID-19 home tests.
Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
Prompted by conversations regarding soft robotics, a research group has developed a design for a new sensor using 3D electrodes inspired by the folding patterns used in origami, able to measure a strain range of up to three times higher than a typical sensor.
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Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Sensor Enhances Robots’ Tactile Capabilities
Achieving human-level dexterity during manipulation and grasping has been a long-standing goal in robotics. To accomplish this, having a reliable sense of tactile information and force is essential for robots.
Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
In people with epilepsy, seizure-alert dogs can smell small changes in body chemistry and warn of an impending seizure an hour or more before it occurs. Inspired by this feat of nature, a team of researchers has developed a way to replicate that ability with technology.
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Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
Praneeth Namburi is a research scientist at the MIT.nano Immersion Lab. One project that bridges the physical and digital worlds uses VR simulations to train people to fabricate computer chips and semiconductors.
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Briefs: Medical
The vibrating device uses bone-conducted sounds to achieve better results.
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Briefs: Test & Measurement
Researchers from Northwestern University have collaborated on the implementation of an accurate, low-cost, and easy-to-use test for detecting toxic levels of fluoride in water. The new biosensor device has been field tested in Kenya.
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Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
By combining recent advances in aerosol sampling technology and an ultrasensitive biosensing technique, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have created a real-time monitor that can detect any of the SARS-CoV-2 virus variants in a room in about five minutes.
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Briefs: Communications
The Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) will usher in a new era of laser communications.
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Briefs: Medical
Scientists have created a new way to detect the proteins that make up the pandemic coronavirus as well as antibodies against it. They designed protein-based biosensors that glow when mixed with components of the virus or specific COVID-19 antibodies.
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Briefs: Materials
The future of wearable technology just got a big boost thanks to a team of University of Houston researchers who designed, developed, and delivered a successful prototype of a fully stretchable fabric-based lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery.
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Briefs: Photonics/Optics
A research team has developed a 3D imaging sensor that has an extremely high angular resolution — it can distinguish points of an object separated by an angular distance, of as little as 0.0018°. The sensor operates on a unique angle-to-color conversion principle.
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A new patented software system can find the curves of motion in streaming video and images from satellites, drones, and far-range security cameras and turn them into signals to find and track moving objects as small as one pixel.
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Briefs: Wearables
The next generation of wearable computing technology will be even closer to the wearer than a watch or glasses: It will be affixed to the skin.
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