Briefs: Aerospace
Precision Low-Speed Motor Controller
Innovators at NASA Johnson Space Center have developed a method for controlling precise motion of a brushless DC (BLDC) motor using relatively inexpensive components. Precision motors are usually quite expensive and inefficient when operating at slow speeds. Current motors are only capable of operating at...
Products: Electronics & Computers
New on the Market: March 2019
Watlow, St. Louis, MO, introduced a batch processing feature for the F4T temperature and process controller and D4T datalogger. The new feature helps collect manufacturing...
Articles: Test & Measurement
Products of Tomorrow: March 2019
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...
Briefs: Medical
Computer-Controlled Exercise Equipment
While a wide variety of computer-controlled exercise machines for training and rehabilitation exist — some of which can be automatically adjusted to vary resistance or incline — such systems provide for preprogrammed changes in load or resistance. What is needed is a system that overcomes the...
INSIDER: Motion Control
Speedy Motor Modeling
Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientists have created open source software that scales up analysis of motor designs to run on the fastest computers available.
INSIDER: Robotics, Automation & Control
Walking Robot Moves Without GPS
Ants are able to use polarized light and ultraviolet radiation to locate themselves in space. AntBot mimics this ability to explore its environment randomly and go home automatically, without GPS or...
Blog: Motion Control
A Morphing Soft Actuator Expands the Motion Options
Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
Designing Self-Propelled, Chemically Active Sheets
Researchers have created a two-dimensional, shape-changing sheet that moves autonomously in a reactant-filled fluid. The integrated system utilizes a chemical reaction to activate the fluid...
Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Micro-Robot Climbs on Vertical and Upside-Down Conductive Surfaces
Jet engines can have up to 25,000 individual parts, making regular maintenance a tedious task that can take more than a month per engine. Many components are located deep...
Briefs: Software
Foot Pedal Controller
A novel foot-pedal-operated system and device were developed to control translational and rotational movement of an object in three-dimensional (3D) space. The Foot Pedal Controller system enables operators to control...
Products: Electronics & Computers
New Products: February 2019 Motion Design
Microsemi Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Microchip Technology (Aliso Viejo, CA), announced the LX7720 radiation-tolerant motor control integrated...
Articles: Motion Control
Advanced Connector Technologies: From Aerospace to Racecars to Robots
Different types of motion encountered in dynamic environments require designers to specify connectors for boards, wiring, and devices that can meet significant g-forces,...
Application Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Robots Bring Airplane Production Up to Speed
Robots are helping a European airplane manufacturer cut into an eight-year backlog of orders for one of its most popular aircraft.
Articles: Motion Control
Implementing Anti-Rotational Guidance for Stepper Motor Linear Actuators
Integrating lead screws with stepper motors is a simple and cost-effective method for getting precise linear motion. But achieving that precision requires...
Briefs: Communications
Tiny Robots Grow Bio-inspired Shapes
Hundreds of small robots can work in a team to create biology-inspired shapes without an underlying master plan, purely based on local communication and movement. To achieve this, the biological...
Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Artificial Joint Restores Wrist-Like Movements
For patients missing a hand, one of the biggest challenges to regaining a high level of function is the inability to rotate one's wrist (pronate and supinate). These are essential movements...
INSIDER: Motion Control
Ultraviolet Light Controls Fluid Flow
A simple, inexpensive method uses ultraviolet light to control particle motion and assembly within liquids. The method encourages particles to gather and organize at a specific location within a...
INSIDER: Manufacturing & Prototyping
3D-Printed Soft Mesh Robots Move on Water
North Carolina State created 3D-printed flexible mesh structures that can be controlled with applied magnetic fields while floating on water. The structures can grab small objects and carry water...
Briefs: Materials
Ricocheting Radio Waves Monitor the Tiniest Movements
Infrared motion detectors can cover only a limited amount of space, a person has to be within the detector's line of sight to be detected, and lights can go off when a person remains...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Magnetic, 3D-Printed, Moving Structures
Soft, 3D-printed structures have been created whose movements can be controlled with a wave of a magnet, much like marionettes without the strings. The structures that can be magnetically manipulated...
INSIDER: Motion Control
InSight Measures Motion on Mars
INSIDER: Medical
Artificial Joint Restores Wrist-Like Movements
A new artificial joint restores important wrist-like movements to forearm amputees. In the new joint, an implant is placed into each of the two bones of the forearm and a wrist-like...
Application Briefs: Motion Control
Multi-Axis Motion Controller Accelerates Gear Testing
Materials testing and characterization is often a lengthy process. It can take more than a year and billions of testing cycles for a manufacturer to characterize the properties of a new...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Optical Gyroscope-on-a-Chip
Gyroscopes are devices that help vehicles, drones, and wearable and handheld electronic devices know their orientation in three-dimensional space. Originally, gyroscopes were sets of nested wheels, each spinning...
Application Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
One-Cable Automation Streamlines Robotic Non-Destructive Inspection Systems
There are few industries where the demands for material testing and quality assurance are more challenging than in the aerospace industry. Ensuring the safety of all...
Products: Test & Measurement
New Products: December 2018, Motion Design
Advanced Micro Controls (Terryville, CT) offers a size 17 PLC-based SMD Series integrated stepper motor/drive/controller system. The integrated solutions are suited...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
High-Performance Cageless Bearings with Minimal Frictional Loss
The global bearings market is expected to grow significantly due to increasing commercial and industrial machinery and manufacturing activity. Bearings are used in virtually...
Articles: Materials
Smart Actuators Deliver on the Promise of Industry 4.0
As Industry 4.0 initiatives bring more and more industrial axes of motion into the realm of automation, the need for cost-effective control across them grows as well. Advances in...
Briefs: Transportation
Device Detects Subatomic-Scale Motion
It is relatively easy to measure small movements of large objects, but is much more difficult when the moving parts are on the scale of nanometers, or billionths of a meter. The ability to accurately...
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