Motion Control

Lehigh Researchers Make Sand That Flows Uphill

The team’s findings were published today in the journal Nature Communications. A corresponding video shows what happens when torque and an attractive force is applied to each grain — the...

Soft Valve Technology Enables Sensing and Control Integration in Soft Robots

Soft inflatable robots have emerged as a promising paradigm for applications that require inherent safety and adaptability. However, the integration of sensing and...

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...

Magnetic Robots Walk, Crawl, and Swim

New soft-bodied robots that can be controlled by a simple magnetic field are well suited to work in confined spaces. The robots, formed from rubbery magnetic spirals, can be programmed to walk, crawl,...

Diesel Engine Research Leading to Better Efficiency, Emissions Standards on the Roads

Purdue University’s Greg Shaver doesn’t believe there should be a trade-off between protecting the air we breathe and achieving better engine...

A Gentle-Yet-Strong, Dexterous, Precise, Robotic Gripper

Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a robotic gripping device that is gentle, strong, dexterous, and precise enough to pick up microfilms that are 20 times thinner than a human hair.

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...

2023 Guide to Motors

Motion Design’s 2023 Guide to Motors provides a comprehensive list of today’s top manufacturers in many technology fields.

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.

How to Select the Right Cobot for Your Application

Capitalizing on the benefits cobots, of course, requires choosing the right cobot for the job. This article discusses five key considerations for selecting a cobot for your manufacturing application.

Direct Drive Motors: Delivering Reliability, Precision, and Performance

Direct drive motors have a long-standing history as a technology that has continually evolved and improved. This article introduces the technology behind direct drive motors, explores their advantages, and discusses example applications.

A Cobot Spot Welder Promises Ergonomic Safety and Productivity Gains

Pro Spot International was founded in 1984 by Ron Olsson, shortly after coming to America from Sweden. Almost 40 years later, Pro Spot is one of the leading companies in automotive repair tools.

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.

Improved Grasping with an Energy-Efficient Robotic Hand

Grasping objects is a problem that is easy for a human, but challenging for a robot. Researchers designed a soft, 3D-printed robotic hand that cannot independently move its fingers but can still carry out a range of complex movements.

An Underwater Robot for Ocean Cleanup

One of the strategies to combat the mounds of waste found in oceans — especially around coral reefs — is to employ robots to master the cleanup. However, existing underwater robots are mostly bulky with rigid bodies, unable to explore and sample in complex and unstructured environments, and are noisy due to electrical motors or hydraulic pumps.

Four-Legged Robotic System Walks a Balance Beam

Researchers in Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute have designed a system that makes an off-the-shelf quadruped robot nimble enough to walk a narrow balance beam — a feat that is likely the first of its kind.

Biomimetic “Myriapod” Robot Relies on Dynamic Instability to Navigate

Researchers have invented a new kind of walking robot that takes advantage of dynamic instability to navigate. By changing the flexibility of the couplings, the robot can be made to turn without the need for complex computational control systems.

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...

Unleashing the Power of Intelligent Drone Swarms

It’s a long-held notion, proven in fact, that robots are the perfect instrument to free humans from jobs that are dull, dirty, and dangerous — the “3 Ds” in industry speak — with...

A Step Toward Safe and Reliable Autopilots

In the film “Top Gun: Maverick,” Maverick, played by Tom Cruise, is charged with training young pilots to complete a seemingly impossible mission — to fly their jets deep into a rocky canyon,...

Taking Industrial Robot Automation to New Heights

Combining an industrial robot, computerized vision system, AI, and machine learning, Skyline Robotics has succeeded in automating window washing for the world’s skyscrapers.

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...

Design Techniques for Efficient Power Transmission

Power transmission is critical in industrial automation as it enables machines to work together seamlessly, reducing downtime and maximizing productivity.