Motion Control

Twisted Soft Robots Navigate Mazes Without Human or Computer Guidance

Researchers from North Carolina State University and the University of Pennsylvania have developed soft robots that are capable of navigating complex environments,...

Robotic Lightning Bugs Take Flight

Fireflies that light up dusky backyards on warm summer evenings use their luminescence for communication — to attract a mate, ward off predators, or lure prey.

New Products: June 2022 Motion Design

RiPanel Online Enclosure

Rittal North America (Schaumburg, IL) announced the new RiPanel online enclosure configurator — making it easy for machine and control system design engineers to...

Smart Design for Pneumatics Proves Vital

While the U.S. historically has had much lower energy costs than in other parts of the world, today’s volatile energy market combined with the initiatives of many corporations to reduce carbon...

Assessing Five Key Areas of Modern Hydraulic Power Units

Any manufacturing facility that uses hydraulics powered by conventional fixed-speed hydraulic power units (HPUs) has engineers and personnel who know all too well how large,...

New Products: June 2022 Sensor Technology

Octoplant Data Management Platform

AUVESY-MDT, Landau in der Pfalz, Germany, is releasing octoplant, the next level of development of the versiondog and AutoSave solution. Octoplant is a new...

New on the Market: June 2022

Industrial Edge Hardware and Software

Emerson, Charlottesville, VA, has released the PACEdge™ industrial edge platform to help manufacturers accelerate digital transformation projects by enabling users...

A Cost-Effective Way to Automate Industrial Processes

MBDA is one of the leading European manufacturers in the aerospace and armaments sector, specializing in the design of missiles and missile systems for the operational needs of the...

Autonomous Assemblers Assemble

In-space and planetary surface assembly for human exploration is a challenging domain that encompasses various technological thrusts to support human missions. NASA is developing autonomous assembly agents to...

An Artificial Intelligence System to Identify Objects in Cluttered Scenes

Robotic vision has come a long way, reaching a level of sophistication with applications in complex and demanding tasks, such as autonomous driving and object...

A Telerobotic System to Help Surgeons Remotely Treat Stroke Patients

MIT engineers have developed a telerobotic system to help surgeons quickly and remotely treat patients experiencing a stroke or aneurysm. With a modified joystick, surgeons...

Rat-Like Nimble Robot Could Someday Perform Inspections

Legged robots are very promising for use in real-world applications, but their operation in narrow spaces is still challenging. One solution for enhancing their environmental...

3D-Printed Micro-Robots Hold Promise for Drug Delivery

Georgia Tech researchers have shown that robots about the size of a particle of dust are capable of precise bidirectional control. By harnessing the power of a magnetic field generated...

Powerful Micro-PLCs Enhance Equipment and Testing Systems

For many types of machinery and test equipment, there is a great need to perform basic automatic control functions, or even just sensor monitoring. Developing hardwired automation is...

Computer Simulation Accurately Models Moving Cars

Specialists in fluid dynamics at Rice University and Waseda University in Tokyo have developed their computer simulation methods to the point where it’s possible to accurately model...

Jumping Robot Leaps to Record Heights

A mechanical jumper developed by University of California Santa Barbara engineering professor Elliot Hawkes and collaborators is capable of achieving the tallest height — roughly 100 feet (30...

Lessons from How Dragonflies Right Themselves While They're Falling

With their stretched bodies, immense wingspan and iridescent coloring, dragonflies are a unique sight. But their originality doesn’t end with their looks: As one of...

Finding Welding Relief with Low-Cost Automation

How a German manufacturer of screening machines discovered a low-cost solution for a collaborative robot that assists in the welding process.

Joystick-Operated Robot Could Help Surgeons Treat Stroke Remotely

MIT engineers have developed a telerobotic system to help surgeons quickly and remotely treat patients experiencing a stroke or aneurysm. With a modified joystick,...

Ensuring Optical Fiber Alignment

Most optical networks have many fiber couplings and even minor losses at these junctions will produce significant signal losses that cause problems in data transmission. Precise fiber alignment at the optical...

New on the Market: May 2022

Dual Locking C14 IEC Connector

The SG03DC from MEGA Electronics, New Brunswick, NJ, contains side locking tabs similar to the Raritan Securelock. It will mate with any standard nonlocking C13 Outlet along...

Molecular Robots Work Cooperatively in Swarms

In a global first, scientists have demonstrated that molecular robots are able to accomplish cargo delivery by employing a strategy of swarming, achieving a transport efficiency five times...

Machine Intelligence to Build Soft Machines

Soft machines — a subcategory of robotics that uses deformable materials instead of rigid links — are an emerging technology commonly used in wearable robotics and biomimetics (e.g.,...

Microdrones With Light-Driven Nanomotors

Physicists at the University of Würzburg have propelled micrometer-sized drones significantly smaller than red blood cells, exerting precise control, using only light.

Waist Belt Pulley Aids Impaired Walkers

Findings by researchers at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) describe a novel way to reduce the energy people spend to walk, as much as by half, which could have applications for therapy...