Mechanical/​Mechatronics

Electric Vehicles Play a Surprising Role in Supporting Grid Resiliency

Widespread electrification initiatives are increasing the demands on America’s aging power grid, but utilities and consumers may have an unlikely ally in electric...

On/Off Functionality for Fast, Sensitive, Ultra-Small Technologies

An ultra-small actuator has nanometer-scale precision.

Manufacturing Rotational Mechanisms with Integrated Sensors

Integrating sensors into rotational mechanisms could make it possible for engineers to build smart hinges that know when a door has been opened, or gears inside a motor that tell a mechanic how fast they are rotating. Engineers have now developed a way to easily integrate sensors into these types of mechanisms.

Tension Element Vibration Damping

The innovation can provide a wide range of damping forces, a linear damping function and/or an extended dynamic range of attenuation, providing broad flexibility in configuration size and functional applicability.

Ocean Platform Motion Control

NASA engineers have developed a new approach to mitigating unwanted motion in floating structures. Ideally suited to applications including offshore wind energy platforms and barges, the innovation uses water ballast as a motion damping fluid.

2023 Create the Future Design Contest: Automotive & Transportation Finalist

See the 2023 Create the Future Design Contest's Automotive & Transportation Finalist: the Ganaio High-Output Regenerative Damper.

AI Copilot Enhances Human Precision for Safer Aviation

Imagine you're in an airplane with two pilots, one human and one computer. Both have their “hands” on the controllers, but they're always looking out for different things. If...

DNA Nano-Engine

An international team of scientists has recently developed a novel type of nano-engine made of DNA. It is driven by a clever mechanism that can perform pulsing movements. The researchers are now planning to fit it with a...

New Lightweight Energy-Dissipating Material for Industry

Professor Pablo Zavattieri and his team from Purdue University have developed an architected material that can dissipate energy caused by bending, compression, torque, and tensile stresses, avoiding permanent plastic deformation or damage.

NASA’s Oxygen-Generating Experiment MOXIE Completes Mars Mission

As part of the NASA’s Perseverance rover, MOXIE (Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment), has generated oxygen for the 16th and final time, successfully completing its mission goal.

Learning to Control a Robot

Researchers from MIT and Stanford University have devised a new machine-learning approach that could be used to control a robot, such as a drone or autonomous vehicle, more effectively and efficiently in dynamic...

An Electrifying Collaboration: From the Lab to the Marketplace

Matthias Preindl, associate professor of electrical engineering at Columbia Engineering, and Wesley Pennington, the founder and CEO of Tau Motors, have formed a collaboration to...

3D-Printed Ceramics Can Increase Gas Turbine Efficiency

Professor Stephen Lynch, of Penn State’s College of Engineering, along with colleagues at Michigan State University and the University of Wyoming, have developed a process for 3D printing a high-temperature ceramic gas turbine part.

Self-Sensing Electric Artificial Muscles

Taking inspiration from nature, a team of researchers at Queen Mary’s School of Engineering and Materials Science has successfully created an artificial muscle that seamlessly transitions between soft and hard states while also possessing the remarkable ability to sense forces and deformations.

Thin Flexible Sensor Characterizes High-Speed Airflows on Curved Surfaces

To improve efficiency, it is necessary to characterize and reduce flow separation on curved surfaces.

Videos of the Month

See the videos of the month, including one on Amphenol Sine’s A Series™ family of sealed heavy-duty, multipin plastic and metal connectors; one on RoboSAR – an autonomous search and rescue of victims; and more.

Leading the Way to Cyber Safety on Roads and Highways

CYBER-CARE — the Transportation Cybersecurity Center for Advanced Research and Education — is a U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) University Transportation Center (UTC), Tier...

New Ferroelectric Material Could Give Robots Muscles

A new type of ferroelectric polymer that is exceptionally good at converting electrical energy into mechanical strain holds promise as a high-performance motion controller or...

North Sea Rig Operators Discover a Solution for Frequently Tangled Service Loops

A company from Denmark found a problem with its oil rig, where wind caused service loops to swing, become entangled and snag, resulting in downtime. The company solved the problem with a 33.5-meter e-loop from igus, the Germany-based manufacturer of high-performance plastics.

Revolutionizing Motion Control with Linear Motors

As the demand grows for increased productivity, higher product quality, rapid development time, and lower engineering costs, adopting linear motor technology is increasingly popular by leveraging modular linear motor designs.

New Bioinspired Robot Flies, Walks, and More

A newly created real-life Transformer can reconfigure its body to achieve eight distinct types of motion and can autonomously assess the environment it faces to choose the most effective...

New Technology to Find EV Charging Vulnerabilities

Idaho National Laboratory (INL) intern Jake Guidry has developed a cybersecurity research tool that could improve the security of electric vehicle charging. The AcCCS tool provides access...

Magnetic Bearing Technology Enables Environmental Control for Human Space Exploration

Leveraging a high-speed permanent magnet motor, an environmental control system aboard the ISS represents a step change toward electrification and optimization.

Physics-Aware Neural Networks Improve Camera-Based Machines

Researchers from UCLA and the United States Army Research Laboratory have laid out a new approach for enhancing artificial intelligence-powered computer vision technologies by...

Megawatt Electrical Motor Could Help Electrify Aviation

Aerospace engineers designed a 1-megawatt electrical motor that is a stepping stone toward electrifying the largest aircraft.

Superlubricity Coating for Nearly Friction-Free Surfaces

Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have invented a coating that could dramatically reduce friction in common load-bearing systems with moving...