Stories
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Articles: Motion Control
Computers and software play a major role in force measurement and quality control. Whether in the engineering lab, quality control inspection area,...
Articles: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Life Alert's “I've fallen and I can't get up®!” became one of the most famous infomercial catchphrases in the late 1980s. The company's device, targeted at...
Products: Electronics & Computers
Coupled Inductors
Coilcraft, Cary, IL, offers LPD8035V Series miniature, high-voltage, 1:1 coupled inductors that provide 1500 Vrms and one-minute isolation (hipot) between windings. The inductors are available in...
Articles: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Today’s high-resolution laser scanning confocal microscopes (LSCM), also referred to simply as laser scanning microscopes, are powerful high-magnification surface metrology instruments with a...
Articles: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Step motors are widely used in automation due to their high resolution, precision positioning, minimal control electronics, and low cost. As an open loop system, traditional...
Products: Test & Measurement
Rotary Position Sensors
Novotechnik, U.S. (Southborough, MA) announced industrial and redundant channel industrial versions of the SP 2800 Series rotary position sensors. The industrial version is offered in standard electrical...
Articles: Sensors/Data Acquisition
With very little fanfare, a special class of alloys has been finding its way into our daily lives. From indestructible eyewear, to smartphone cameras, to coronary stents, this material is...
Products: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
CMOS Linear Image Sensor
The S13774 from Hamamatsu Corporation (Hamamatsu City, Japan; Bridgewater, NJ), is a CMOS linear image sensor developed for industrial cameras that require high-speed scanning. The column-parallel readout...
Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
A major challenge to assault prevention is that during an assault, victims often do not have an easily accessible way to call for help. Whether calling 911 or using an emergency alert app...
Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
Actuators are used in a wide variety of electromechanical systems and in robotics, in applications such as steerable catheters, aircraft wings that adapt to changing conditions, and wind turbines...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
NASA Ames Research Center has developed a novel, low-cost, self-contained guidance system for small payload operators. Small satellites are becoming ever more capable of performing valuable missions for both...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Walls often make up more than half of indoor surface area, especially in residential and office buildings. In addition to delimiting spaces, both for functional and...
Articles: Electronics & Computers
This column presents technologies that have applications in commercial areas, possibly creating the products of tomorrow. To learn more about each technology, see the contact information provided for that innovation.
Blog: Communications
A researcher tells Tech Briefs how his team's "symmetrical" sensor approach will support the growing "Internet of Things."
Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
Polymer-Based 2D-to-3D Transformable Surfaces
Technologies using stretchable materials are increasingly important. Yet, in general, it is not possible to control how they stretch with much more sophistication than inflating balloons. A method was developed that allows the calculated transformation of 2D stretchable surfaces into targeted 3D shapes.
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Soft robots inspired by nature can crawl, swim, grasp delicate objects, and even assist a beating heart, but none of them has been able to sense and respond to the...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
A “4D printing” method was developed for a smart gel that could lead to the development of living structures in human organs and tissues, soft robots, and targeted drug delivery.
Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Microphones, from those in smartphones to hearing aids, are built specifically to hear the human voice — humans can’t hear at levels higher than 20 kHz, and microphones max out at...
Blog: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Today's humanoid robots are being asked to have more brains than brawn.
Application Briefs: Test & Measurement
Hyperspectral imaging is an exciting and promising new technology. When combined with modern machine learning software and actuators such as robots, air-jets, or flippers, hyperspectral imaging...
Articles: Test & Measurement
Sensors have a key role in industrial production. For example, they can be used for quality and process monitoring or condition-based maintenance. The range of applications is...
Articles: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
We use touch, the dominant user interface for years, to tap keyboards on laptops and tablets, to communicate with our car’s portable GPS, and to text friends and take photos from our smartphones.
Briefs: Imaging
Micro Cylindrical Ion Trap Micro Mass Spectrometer Instrument System
The goal of this work was to advance the development of new, extremely small (≈2 cm3), low-power (≈3 W), and low-cost micro mass spectrometer instrument systems (μMSIS) through the application of microelectro-mechanical system (MEMS) design and fabrication, and microsystem...
INSIDER: Sensors/Data Acquisition
UC Berkeley scientists released a free Android app that taps a smartphone’s ability to record ground shaking from an earthquake, with the goal of creating a worldwide seismic detection...
INSIDER: Robotics, Automation & Control
The Unplugged Powered Suit (UPS), a new model of pneumatic muscle and an active type of assistive equipment incorporating the muscle, is wearable equipment that supports human movement without...
INSIDER: Motion Control
Engineers Put 'Spring' in Robots' Step
The ATRIAS robot model developed at Oregon State University uses a "spring-mass" walking approach. The natural-gait method gives human-sized bipedal robots the ability to blindly react to rough terrain, maintain balance, retain an efficiency of motion, and walk like humans.
INSIDER: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Soft machines and robots are becoming more and more functional, capable of moving, jumping, gripping an object, and even changing color. The elements responsible for their actuation...
INSIDER: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
The high cost to manufacture nanofibers has relegated them to just a few niche industries. MIT researchers developed a new technique for producing nanofibers that increases the rate...
INSIDER: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
New Etching Method Boosts Nanofiber Production
A new technique from MIT researchers boosts production of nanofibers fourfold, while cutting energy consumption by more than 90 percent. Potential nanofiber applications include solar cells, water filtration, and fuel cells.
Top Stories
Blog: Energy
A Proof‑of‑Concept Quantum Battery
Blog: AR/AI
Ultrasound Wristband Precisely Tracks Hand Movements in Real Time
Blog: Information Technology
Reciprocal Energy: A New Model for Grid-Friendly Data Centers
INSIDER: Photonics/Optics
Groundbreaking Study in Light Control Opens Door to New Technological...
INSIDER: Manned Systems
NASA's Space Computing Breakthrough Powers Future Missions
Quiz: Manned Systems
Webcasts
Webinars: Manufacturing & Prototyping
From Spec to Scale: High-Precision Grinding Strategies for...
Editorial Webinars: Electronics & Computers
High-Speed Connectivity for Next Generation Aerospace & Defense...
Webinars: Automotive
Electronics Digital Twins: From Concept to Scalable Platform
Webinars: Automotive
Architecting the Future: Why Systems Engineering is the Backbone...
Webinars: Energy
Engineering Fluid Conveyance Systems for Alternative Fuel...
Editorial Webinars: Materials
Next-Generation Materials for Medical Devices: From Smart...
