Manufacturing & Prototyping

Soft Robots + Artificial Muscles = Worm-Like Crawling and Biceps-Like Lifting

To demonstrate their new device, an actuator, the researchers used it to create a cylindrical, worm-like soft robot and an artificial bicep. In experiments, it navigated tight curves and was able to lift a 500-gram weight 5,000 times in a row.

RISING STAR AWARDS 2024 JUDGES

  We want to thank our judges for the Rising Star Awards 2024. Our esteemed panel of judges is comprised of leaders from engineering and technology fields who bring decades of experience and expertise to the...

The Future of Space Habitats

No space habitat has yet been constructed beyond Earth orbit, but many design proposals have been made and aerospace engineers are working on new technologies to turn this science fiction into reality. Take this quiz to learn more about space habitats.

In-Space Manufacturing to Benefit the Future of Human Health on Earth and in Space

As new commercial stations enable the creation of in-space factories that leverage microgravity to improve products for use on Earth, large-scale 3D bioprinting will significantly benefit from it.

Beyond Earth: The Future of In-Space Servicing

It no longer requires the imagination of Arthur C. Clarke to see where the space industry is headed. We need only to look at every other system of vehicles, appreciate the falling technical roadblocks, and observe the regulations and resources environment. It is with confidence that we ask not, “if?” but, “when?” We invite you to consider, “what’s next?” because almost anything becomes possible with the right foundations in place.

In-Space Manufacturing of Self-Replicating Machines

How do we get to a future of self-replicating, Von Neumann space probes? What are some of the steps required to convert the Asteroid Belt into a partial Dyson Sphere? The answer lies in ISAM or in-space servicing assembly and manufacturing, 3D printing on-orbit, and fully automated, ‘lights-out’ production on-Earth.

Advancing Technologies for In-Space Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing

Greg Richardson leads COSMIC as the Executive Director of the consortium and primary interface to NASA. He is also a principal engineer/scientist in the Human Exploration and Space-flight Division at The Aerospace Corporation. In this interview, he elaborates on the future vision of COSMIC and how the organization will coordinate work to help accelerate ISAM activities that will foster the future space economy.

The Rise of the Celestial Assembly Line

The concept of space factories holds immense potential to revolutionize space exploration and benefit humanity on Earth. By leveraging advancements in 3D printing, robotics, and automation, these celestial assembly lines will pave the way for a more sustainable and cost-effective space economy.

Videos of the Month

See the videos of the month, including one on NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft; one on the Dragonfly rotorcraft and how it was tested multiple times by Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in wind tunnel facilities; one on a team from Los Alamos National Laboratory going to the Haughton Impact Crater on Devon Island, Canada — a frigid environment similar to Mars; and one on engineers at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory’s Naval Center for Space Technology recently completing robotic payload component level testing.

Imperceptible Sensors Printed Directly on Human Skin

Researchers have developed a method to make adaptive and eco-friendly sensors that can be directly and imperceptibly printed onto a wide range of biological surfaces.

3D-Printed Mini-Actuators Can Move Small Soft Robots, Lock Them Into New Shapes

Researchers from North Carolina State University have demonstrated miniature soft hydraulic actuators that can be used to control the deformation and motion of...

Scientists Create Soft Robots Mimicking Human Skin to Provide Medical Treatment

Scientists have created innovative soft robots equipped with electronic skins and artificial muscles, allowing them to sense their surroundings and adapt their...

Why the Hybrid Approach Extends the Range of Electric Aircraft

Jean-Christophe Lambert, Ascendance Co-founder and CEO, joins the Aerospace & Defense Technology podcast to explain why the hybrid approach is essential to near-term development of electric aircraft.

Creating Synthetic Cell Images for Enhanced Microscopy Analysis

The images that come out of this model are ready to be used to train segmentation models. In a sense, it’s doing microscopy without a microscope.

How Helios Horizon Is Taking Electric Aircraft to New Altitudes

Miguel Iturmendi, Helios Horizon Founder and Chief Test Pilot, explains the project's goal of flying an all-electric aircraft to the stratosphere.

Developing Next-Gen Solar Cells

Meet perovskite. The synthetic semiconducting material has the potential to convert substantially more solar power than silicon at a lower production cost.

3 eVTOL Companies to Watch in 2024: Archer Aviation, Joby Aviation, and Lilium

Archer Aviation, Joby Aviation, and Lilium are three electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft manufacturers that are making major progress in this growing new area of aviation right now. In this episode of the Aerospace & Defense Technology podcast, we highlight some of the latest business agreements, international expansion and regulatory progress being made by these three eVTOL companies. Listen now.

Researchers Demonstrate Cutting-Edge Chip Technology for Ultra-Low Power AI Connected Devices

Researchers from NUS, together with industry partners Soitec and NXP Semiconductors, have demonstrated a new class of silicon systems that...

Opening Up the Potential of Thin-Film Electronics for Flexible Chip Design

Silicon semiconductors have become the ‘oil’ of the computer age, as was demonstrated recently by the chip shortage crisis. However, one of the disadvantages of...

The Future of eVTOL Battery Technology

Ronnie Tao, Vice President of Business Development for Amprius Technologies, joins the Aerospace & Defense Technology podcast to discuss the AIBOT battery selection and what to expect in the future development of eVTOL battery technology. He also explains how far most eVTOLs can fly on Amprius and other comparable aircraft batteries today.

An Efficient and Cost-Effective Solution for Battery Recycling

Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have improved on approaches that dissolve a battery in a liquid solution in order to reduce the amount of hazardous chemicals used in the process.

Thicker, Denser, Better Electrodes May Hold the Key to Advanced Batteries

The improved method for fabricating battery electrodes may lead to high-performance batteries that would enable more energy-efficient EVs, as well as such benefits as enhancing power grid storage, according to Hongtao Sun, Assistant Professor of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering at Penn State.

Essential Control and Visualization, Combined

Modern PLC+HMI platforms have overcome weaknesses of older devices and now provide a top-performing and space-optimized option for designers to implement control and visualization for a variety of diverse applications.

Self-Powered Sensor for Harvesting Magnetic Energy

Because it requires no battery that must be recharged or replaced, and because it requires no special wiring, such a sensor could be embedded in a hard-to-reach place, like inside the inner workings of a ship’s engine. There, it could automatically gather data on the machine’s power consumption and operations for long periods of time.

Hyper-Distributed RFID Antenna (HYDRA) System

Innovators have developed a method and apparatus to multiplex Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) signals efficiently. The resulting Hyper-Distributed RFID Antenna (HYDRA) system enhances distribution of the RFID reader signal, providing improved coverage for large areas as well as for small, fixed regions requiring a high density of reader antennas.

New Adhesive Tape Easily Picks Up and Sticks Down 2D Materials

A research team from Kyushu University, in collaboration with Japanese company Nitto Denko, has developed a tape that can be used to stick 2D materials to many different surfaces, in an easy and user-friendly way.