Stories
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Articles: Motion Control
A team of engineers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign built a new kind of crawler robot. The wheel-less design takes inspiration from two unconventional sources: origami...
Facility Focus: Energy
The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Richland, WA, has been operated by Battelle and its predecessors since the lab’s inception in 1965. For more than 50...
Articles: Energy
The Create the Future Design Contest has helped stimulate and reward engineering innovation over the past 16 years, drawing more than 14,000 product designs from engineers, students, and...
Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
Robots in production lines work with micrometer precision, unless a component fails. If, for example, the linear actuator used to precisely position a car body in front of an...
Articles: Automotive
2017 Create the Future Design Contest Special Awards Section
The Create the Future Design Contest was launched 16 years ago by Tech Briefs Media Group (publishers of Tech Briefs magazine) to help stimulate and reward engineering innovation. Since then, the annual contest has drawn more than 14,000 product design ideas from engineers, students, and...
Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
An industrial-class excavator was developed for use on the Moon and perhaps on Mars. The model mobility platform uses Ackerman Steering with active drives on all six wheels,...
Articles: Energy
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.
NASA Spinoff: Robotics, Automation & Control
On the Curiosity rover, a tool called CheMin (Chemistry and Mineralogy) is helping scientists determine what minerals make up the Martian landscape, and whether single-celled or more complex...
Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
Actuators are a critical driver of all the mechanisms used in space, and improvements of their operation mechanism enhance mission...
Articles: Robotics, Automation & Control
EJBot: Versatile Climbing Robot for Industrial Vessel Inspection
Dr. Mohamed Gouda Alkalla and Mohamed Fanni Mansoura UniversityMansoura, Ad-daqahliyah, Egypt
The EJBot is a...
Blog: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Getting into the Halloween spirit, NASA released a collection of the spookiest sounds ever recorded by the agency's spacecraft instruments. Captured radio emissions...
INSIDER: Motion Control
Researchers at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland have created the first functional robot powered entirely by vacuum. It is made up of soft building blocks that move by...
INSIDER: Motion Control
Scientists at Disney Research, Pittsburgh, PA have developed a modular, reconfigurable legged robot named Snapbot that can move forward, interact with its environment, and perform other tasks...
INSIDER: Robotics, Automation & Control
Petrochemical and liquid gas companies require a regular inspection of a vessel's welds and wall thicknesses — a dangerous task given the hazardous environment. A climbing robot,...
INSIDER: Semiconductors & ICs
A rubber “skin” developed at the University of Houston allows a robotic hand to sense the difference between hot and cold temperatures. The semiconductor material supports new...
Question of the Week: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Will "print-and-go" structures lead to printable robots?
As seen in this week's Tech Briefs TV video, MIT researchers envision many possibilities for devices that self-fold without external stimuli.
INSIDER: Robotics, Automation & Control
MIT researchers have developed a way to print flat electronics that can fold themselves into a desired shape. The researchers say the development could have applications in robotics...
Question of the Week: Robotics, Automation & Control
Will origami-inspired crawler robots support pipe inspection?
This week’s lead story featured an origami-inspired robot. Assistant professor Aimy Wissa sees possible pipe inspection applications for the crawler.
"Pipes have different kinds of diameters, and you want something that can fit in there with ease," Wissa said in our Tech Briefs...
INSIDER: Robotics, Automation & Control
A new mechanical innovation unfolded this month at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as a team of engineers built a new kind of crawler robot. The wheel-less design takes...
INSIDER: Robotics, Automation & Control
Currently there are about 500,000 pieces of human-made debris in space, orbiting our planet at speeds up to 17,500 miles per hour. This debris poses a threat to satellites, space vehicles, and...
INSIDER: Robotics, Automation & Control
A team of researchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering and the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) at Harvard University has created...
Sound-Off: Robotics, Automation & Control
In a “speed and separation” manufacturing scenario, a safe distance must be maintained between a collaborative robot and a human operator. When the gap reaches below a specific...
Briefs: Lighting
A number of instruments have been built to obtain range images — a two-dimensional array of numbers that gives the depth of a scene along many directions from a central point in the instrument. Instead of measuring the...
Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
Inspired by arthropod insects and spiders, Harvard professor George Whitesides and Alex Nemiroski, a former postdoctoral fellow in Whitesides’ Harvard lab, used ordinary plastic drinking straws to create...
Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
Origami robots are composed of thin structures that can fold and unfold to change shape. They are compact and lightweight, but have functional restrictions related to size, shape, and how...
Briefs: Motion Control
A team of researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology has developed a way to use 3D printers to create objects capable of dramatic expansion. The technology could someday be used in...
Briefs: Motion Control
Extreme temperatures are hard for mechanical components to endure without degrading. To address the problem, researchers at MIT worked with several other universities to develop a new way to...
Briefs: Motion Control
Traditional robots often feature isolated mechanical joints. These discrete components limit a rover’s ability to traverse sand, stone, and other challenging environments. A team at the University of...
INSIDER: Motion Control
Inspired by natural organisms like vines that cover distance by growing, researchers at Stanford University have created a soft, tubular robot that lengthens to explore hard-to-reach areas....
Top Stories
Blog: Lighting
A Stretchable OLED that Can Maintain Most of Its Luminescence
INSIDER: Energy
Advancing All-Solid-State Batteries
Blog: Power
My Opinion: We Need More Power Soon — Is Nuclear the Answer?
Quiz: Energy
Blog: Lighting Technology
Microscopic Swimming Machines that Can Sense, Respond to Surroundings
Blog: Data Acquisition
Webcasts
Upcoming Webinars: Semiconductors & ICs
Advantages of Smart Power Distribution Unit Design for Automotive...
Upcoming Webinars: Automotive
Quiet, Please: NVH Improvement Opportunities in the Early Design...
Upcoming Webinars: Test & Measurement
From Spreadsheets to Insights: Fast Data Analysis Without Complex...
Upcoming Webinars: Electronics & Computers
Cooling a New Generation of Aerospace and Defense Embedded...
Upcoming Webinars: AR/AI
Beyond AI-Copy-Paste Engineering: Advanced AI-Integration Success...
Upcoming Webinars: Test & Measurement
