Electronics & Software

Medium Voltage for More Efficient Power Transmission

Prasad Kandula and a group of scientists and engineers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory are developing a modular medium-voltage system to fill the existing gap between high-voltage transmission and low-voltage power electronics.

How Much Do You Know About Stand-Alone Power Supplies?

A stand-alone power supply has many uses. It can be part of the standard equipment on a test bench or built into a larger system. It can be simple or quite complex, but some version can be seen anywhere electrical/electronic equipment is being built or tested. Test your knowledge with this quiz.

The Path to Net-Zero with Green Propane

A promising technology in green energy capable of converting carbon dioxide into propane is being developed at Illinois Institute of Technology.

Using AI to Identify Poison Ivy

To find poison ivy before it finds you, University of Florida scientists published a new study in which they use artificial intelligence (AI) to confirm that an app can identify poison ivy.

Fast-Charging Li Battery Could Make ‘Range Anxiety’ a Thing of the Past

A team at Cornell University created a new lithium battery that can charge in under five minutes — faster than any such battery on the market — while maintaining stable performance over extended cycles of charging and discharging.

How Much Do You Know About Counter UAS Technology?

Development of new Counter UAS technologies is expanding across the global Aerospace and Defense industry. Test your knowledge of counter UAS technology with this quiz.

A Hack to Trick Automotive Radar

The technology can hide the approach of an existing car, create a phantom car where none exists, or even trick the radar into thinking a real car has quickly deviated from its actual course. Plus, it can do these things in the blink of an eye without having any prior knowledge about the specific settings.

Readers Select 2023 Products of the Year

See the products of the year: The Talaria TWO Module Ultra-Low Power Wi-Fi optimized solution for cloud-connected IP video IoT devices by InnoPhase IoT; Hexagon's Elements, simulation software to better understand the increasingly complex behavior of systems in modern products; and Nexa3D's highest throughput additive production system, the QLS 820.

New on the Market

See what's new on the market, including igus' two- and four-hole fixed flange bearings; FixtureBuilder 3D fixture-modelling software from Renishaw; XENON Corporation's X-1100/2x Pulsed Light Research System; Rad Source NDT's NDT 1000 X-ray Inspection System; and more.

PockEngine Enables AI on Edge Devices to Keep Learning Over Time

Researchers from MIT, the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab, and elsewhere have developed a technique that enables deep-learning models to efficiently adapt to new sensor data directly on an edge device. Their on-device training method, Pock-Engine, determines which parts of a huge machine-learning model need to be updated to improve accuracy, and only stores and computes with those specific pieces.

Amateur Drone Videos Could Aid Natural Disaster Damage Assessment

By using artificial intelligence, researchers are developing a system that can automatically identify buildings after disasters and make an initial determination of whether they are damaged and how serious that damage might be.

Additive Manufacturing Model-Based Process Metrics

Inventors at the NASA Langley Research Center have developed a novel method to model and ingest point-wise process data to evaluate an additive manufacturing build and its file for issues by highlighting potential anomalies or other areas where the build may have issues with fusion of the material.

Generative AI Models Solve Multistep Robot Manipulation Problems

MIT researchers developed a machine-learning technique called Diffusion-CCSP. Diffusion models learn to generate new data samples that resemble samples in a training dataset by iteratively refining their output.

Scurrying Centipedes Inspire Many-Legged Robots

Intrigued to see if many limbs could be helpful for locomotion in this world, a team at the Georgia Institute of Technology is using a centipede's style of movement to its advantage. They developed a new theory of multilegged locomotion and created many-legged robotic models.

Circumferential Scissor Spring Enhances Precision in Hand Controllers

Innovators at NASA’s Johnson Space Center have designed a circumferential scissor spring mechanism, that when incorporated into a hand controller, improves the restorative force to a control stick’s neutral position. The design also provides for operation on a more linear portion of the spring’s force deflection curve, yielding better feedback to the user.

AI Co-Pilot Enhances Human Precision for Safer Aviation

Meet Air-Guardian: A system developed by researchers at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). As modern pilots grapple with an onslaught of information from multiple monitors, especially during critical moments, Air-Guardian acts as a proactive co-pilot; a partnership between human and machine, rooted in understanding attention.

Next-Generation Radar for the F-35 Lightning II

Northrop Grumman Corporation is developing AN/APG-85, an advanced Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar for the F-35 Lightning II.

Wireless, Battery-Free, Biodegradable Blood Flow Sensor

Monitoring the success of surgery on blood vessels is challenging, as the first sign of trouble often comes too late. A new device could make it easier for doctors to monitor the success of blood vessel surgery.

Light-Harnessing Sensors Give Hope to Limited-Mobility Patients

A research team has successfully overcome the limitations of soft strain sensors by integrating computer vision technology into optical sensors. The team developed a sensor technology known as computer vision-based optical strain (CVOS) during its study. Unlike conventional sensors reliant on electrical signals, CVOS sensors employ computer vision and optical sensors to analyze microscale optical patterns, extracting data regarding changes.

Wireless Electronic ‘Stickers’ Gauge Forces Between Touching Objects

Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed electronic “stickers” that measure the force exerted by one object upon another. The force stickers are wireless, run without batteries and fit in tight spaces. That makes them versatile for a wide range of applications.

Making Conductive, Biodegradable Wires from Designed Proteins

The miniscule wires — the size of transistors on silicon chips or one thousandth of the breadth of the finest human hair — are made completely of natural amino acids and heme molecules, found in proteins such as hemoglobin, which transports oxygen in red blood cells.

A Thermoelectric Cooler to Restore Sensation in Amputees

This advancement, one of the first of its kind, enables a useful new capability for a variety of applications, including improved prostheses, haptics for new modalities in augmented reality (AR), and thermally modulated therapeutics for applications such as pain management. The technology also has a variety of potential industrial and research applications.

First Transformable Nanoscale Electronic Devices

The nanoscale electronic parts in devices like smartphones are solid, static objects that once designed and built cannot transform into anything else. But a team from University of California Irvine has reported the discovery of nanoscale devices that can transform into many different shapes and sizes even though they exist in solid states.

A Better Link for Enabling Intelligent Automation

IO-Link is a digital advancement combining the essential electrical and electronic characteristics of other connectivity methods. The resulting devices and architecture are enabling designers to create more intelligent equipment, streamline installation, and reduce overall costs.

Quantum Leap in Material Science

Significant progress in industry, especially in manufacturing and material science, is expected to be driven by quantum computing. Using sophisticated simulations and optimization techniques, the technology promises to accelerate the discovery of new substances and improve production procedures.

The Rising Presence of Women in Engineering

In the U.S., women make up 14 percent of the engineering workforce. The number of female engineers across the globe is on the rise but compared to male engineers it is still much lower.

Products of Tomorrow

See the products of tomorrow, including: a new wireless smart textile technology that can boost hand mobility of stroke patients, a metal-free magnetic gel, and a new fuel cell that harvests energy from microbes living in dirt.

Tiny Power Converters Run on Vibrational Energy

Scientists at the University of California San Diego and CEA-Leti have developed a ground-breaking piezoelectric-based DC-DC converter that unifies all power switches onto a single chip to...

An Electrifying Improvement in Copper Conductivity

A common carbon compound is enabling remarkable performance enhancements when mixed in just the right proportion with copper to make electrical wires. It’s a phenomenon that defies...