Manufacturing & Prototyping

Industrial Controls & Automation

Explore the key advances impacting industrial controls and automation. Access technical briefs and developments in the applications that are essential to automation integration and design.

Stories

Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control

Solid-State Carbon Dioxide Sensor

Applications include wearables, airplane cabin monitoring, medical diagnostics, and indoor air quality measurement.

Application Briefs: Aerospace

BioPod Takes One Step Closer to Life on Mars

Interstellar used Dassault’s 3DEXPERIENCE platform on the cloud to design and develop its first prototype: BioPod.

Briefs: Motion Control

Algorithm Designs Soft Robots That Sense

A deep-learning technique optimizes the arrangement of sensors on a robot’s body to ensure efficient operation.

Briefs: Electronics & Computers

Cladding and Freeform Deposition for Coolant Channel Closeout

This method is a faster way to manufacture combustion chambers and nozzles for aerospace propulsion as well as heat exchangers in oil and gas applications.

Articles: Motion Control

Making High-Duty-Cycle Industrial Automation Affordable

A new generation of long-life electric linear actuators has emerged to give designers more flexibility.

Products: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

New Products

Linear motion bearings, magnetic angle encoders, isolation valves, and more.

Articles: Sensors/Data Acquisition

Connections for Control: Communications Interfaces for Position and Motion Sensors

Learn about widely used communications technologies for motion control.

Briefs: Propulsion

Tension Element Damping (TED) with Hydraulics for Large Displacements

Applications include wind turbines, solar arrays, commercial space mobile launchers, and industrial process stacks and equipment.

Facility Focus: Aerospace

Facility Focus: Duke University Pratt School of Engineering

Duke Engineering supports clinical ultrasound imaging, restoration of hearing by cochlear implant, megapixel photography, and metamaterials.

Briefs: Materials

Nature-Inspired, Manufactured, Non-Cuttable Material

The material could be used in security, health, industrial, and safety applications.

Briefs: AR/AI

System Provides Robots with Context Awareness

The system enables robots to predict what their human coworker will do next.

Briefs: Software

In-Line, Automated CT Scan Data Inspection of Electronic Connectors

A production-based X-ray solution performs product quality evaluation directly on the manufacturing line.

Briefs: Communications

Servo Motion Improves Robot Operations

Servo motion control delivers powerful, fast, and precise movement onboard robots and for associated equipment.

Briefs: Test & Measurement

System for In-Situ Defect Detection in Composites During Cure

This system enhances processing via real-time, non-destructive defect tracking.

Special Reports: Test & Measurement

Smart Factory/IIoT - June 2021

Factories are getting "smarter" and more automated by the day, thanks to advances in AI, connectivity, controls, and sensors. In this compendium of recent articles from the editors of Tech Briefs and Sensor...

Articles: Transportation

Automated X-Ray Inspection

Faster inline CT inspections makes it possible to inspect far greater numbers of circuit boards.

Products: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

New Products

Encoders, quick disconnects, automation systems, and more.

Briefs: Software

Software Improves Accuracy of 3D-Printed Parts

The software could help reduce cost and waste for companies using additive manufacturing to mass-produce parts in factories.

Products: Electronics & Computers

Product of the Month

A new power supply from Bicker Elektronik has a backup battery that bridges power failures, brownouts, and flicker.

Articles: Motion Control

Linear Bearings: What You Need to Know

Learn the distinct forms that linear bearings take, and where the bearings are being used today.

Briefs: Photonics/Optics

3D Motion Tracking System for Autonomous Technology

The system could one day replace LiDAR and cameras in automated manufacturing, biomedical imaging, and autonomous driving.

Technology Leaders: Test & Measurement

Making Laser Processes More Sustainable

Thanks to new innovations in measurement technologies, manufacturers and users now have a wide range of options for proactively measuring the laser beam.

Facility Focus: Communications

Facility Focus: Princeton University School of Engineering and Applied Science

Notable graduates of the school include Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos, Google executive Eric Schmidt, Internet pioneer Bob Kahn, former Chrysler head Lee Iacocca, and six NASA astronauts.

Briefs: Test & Measurement

RFID-Based Rotary Position Sensor

Innovators have developed an RFID-based system for sensing the angular position of rotating systems. The RFID-Based Rotary Position Sensor can be used as a position/orientation sensor or implemented in a...