Motion Control/​Automation

INSIDER: Motion Control

Vibration Isolator Steadies Telescope Optics

If you’ve ever tried to hold a camera steady for a long exposure in low light, you know exactly what happens: the camera shakes and the image blurs. The same can happen with images from...

Briefs: Electronics & Computers

Motion-Powered, Fireproof Sensor

Researchers have created a motion-powered, fireproof sensor that can track the movements of firefighters, steelworkers, miners, and others who work in high-risk environments where they cannot always be seen....

Briefs: Materials

Soft Robotics Perception System

A perception system for soft robots was developed that is inspired by the way humans process information about their own bodies in space and in relation to other objects and people. The system includes a...

Products: Software

New on the Market: November 2019

3D-printing platforms, simulation software, transistors, and more.

Products: Communications

New Products: November 2019 Photonics & Imaging Technology

LIDAR Systems, Smart Cameras, Optical Communications, and more.

Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

Robots Can Pick Up Any Object After Inspecting It

For decades, robots in controlled environments like assembly lines have been able to pick up the same object over and over again. More recently, breakthroughs in computer vision have enabled...

Briefs: RF & Microwave Electronics

Method Enables Robots to Exchange Directed Messages

A novel approach was developed to improve communications range and allow for covert behavior using a team of robots for future multi-domain operations. Specifically, researchers...

Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control

Flying Robot Mimics Rapid Insect Flight

Flying animals both power and control flight by flapping their wings. This enables small natural flyers such as insects to hover close to a flower but also to rapidly escape danger. Animal flight has...

Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control

Robots Track Moving Objects with Sub-Centimeter Accuracy

A system was developed that uses radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags to help robots target moving objects with unprecedented speed and accuracy. The system could enable greater...

Facility Focus: Software

Facility Focus: National Science Foundation

In recent decades, NSF-funded researchers have discovered quite a bit, including many of the fundamental particles of matter.

Briefs: Materials

Toughening Stretchable Fibers Using a Metallic Core

Researchers have developed a fiber that combines the elasticity of rubber with the strength of a metal, resulting in a tougher material. The fibers consist of a gallium metal core...

Articles: Imaging

2019 'Create the Future' Manufacturing/Robotics/Automation Category Winner: The HPCI® Joining Gun

A team of inventors found a fast way to join plastic to metal.

Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control

Simulating Softness for Haptic Interfaces

Researchers have developed a formula that enables them to recreate different levels of perceived softness. Based on the results from their experiments, they created equations that can calculate how...

Briefs: Imaging

Optical Neural Network Could Lead to Intelligent Cameras

UCLA engineers have made major improvements on their design of an optical neural network — a device inspired by how the human brain works — that can identify objects or process...

INSIDER: Robotics, Automation & Control

“Pushy” Robots Learn How to Move Objects

MIT researchers have compiled a dataset that captures the detailed behavior of a robotic system physically pushing hundreds of different objects. Using the dataset, robots “learn” pushing...

Blog: Photonics/Optics

Acting Like Bees, Tiny Drones Find Their Way Through Unknown Environments

A minimal, map-less approach to drone navigation takes after the bee.

Blog: Defense

AUSA 2019: A View From the Show Floor

Editor Bruce A. Bennett offers a look at the Association of the United States Army's 2019 Annual Meeting.

Blog: Robotics, Automation & Control

Answering Your Questions: How Will the Military Use Motion Control Technology?

A Tech Briefs reader asks: What's next with military motion control?

Blog: Aerospace

Create the Future: A Drone That Folds to Fit Through Holes and Gaps

A new drone “folds” itself into configurations that suit a given environment.