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5 Ws: Robotics, Automation & Control
A smart modular yardwork robot that can blow leaves and plow snow as well as achieve reductions in carbon emissions at the same time.
Special Reports: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Award–Winning Breakthrough Inventions - February 2024
The Create the Future Design Contest recognizes and rewards engineering innovations that benefit humanity, the environment, and the economy. In this special report, learn about the eight...Articles: Sensors/Data Acquisition
See the products of tomorrow, including the University of Maryland's "cooling glass"; the Reconfigurable Robotics Lab's sensor that can perceive combinations of bending, stretching, compression, and temperature changes using color; Tufts' tiny biological robots; and more.
Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
NASA’s Langley Research Center has developed a simplified, tool-less automated tow/tape placement (ATP) system. This invention enables several benefits that mitigate limitations associated with conventional ATP systems. Read on to learn more.
Articles: Electronics & Computers
What are the opportunities and risks AI offers in manufacturing? How can manufacturers successfully implement AI and prepare their workforce to integrate it into their processes? What’s its future outlook? Tech Briefs asked four industry experts in this roundtable.
Videos of the Month: Robotics, Automation & Control
See the videos of the month, including one on Purdue University researchers teaching robots how to navigate the swaying deck of a boat, one on a Carnegie Mellon-led team developing a soft robot to better understand an organism — the pleurocystitid — that existed 450 million years ago, and more.
INSIDER: Sensors/Data Acquisition
An inspection design method and procedure by which mobile robots can inspect large pipe structures has been demonstrated with the successful inspection of multiple...
INSIDER: Robotics, Automation & Control
People who received gentle electric currents on the back of their heads learned to maneuver a robotic surgery tool in virtual reality and then in a real setting...
INSIDER: AR/AI
Engineers at Princeton University and Google have come up with a new way to teach robots to know when they don’t know. The technique involves quantifying the...
Blog: Robotics, Automation & Control
Software is a key component of automation, and with AI, software developers will be able to create more customized and optimized solutions for various tasks and challenges.
Special Reports: Robotics, Automation & Control
Space Technology - January 2024
NASA is making progress in solving some of the most daunting challenges of future space exploration – how to survive the extreme cold of the lunar night, generate oxygen for Mars colonies, and create artificial...Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
A team at ETH Zurich has developed an ultrasonically actuated glass needle that can be attached to a robotic arm. This lets them pump and mix minuscule amounts of liquid and trap particles.
Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
A research team has developed a robotic system that can be unobtrusively built into the frame of a standard honeybee hive. Composed of an array of thermal sensors and actuators, the system measures and modulates honeybee behavior through localized temperature variations.
Briefs: Materials
Using a new type of dual-polymer material capable of responding dynamically to its environment, researchers have developed a set of modular hydrogel components that could be useful in a variety of soft robotic and biomedical applications.
Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
Called EELS (Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor), the self-propelled, autonomous robot was inspired by a desire to look for signs of life in the ocean hiding below the icy crust of Saturn's moon Enceladus by descending narrow vents in the surface that spew geysers into space.
Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
Photoelectric (PE) sensors represent a discrete sensor technology widely used throughout industry. They use the presence or absence of light to provide an on/off output to supervisory automation and monitoring systems, and are often the better choice for sensing manufacturing products.
Blog: Manufacturing & Prototyping
If you missed the most-popular engineering stories of 2023 on Tech Briefs, see the list below.
INSIDER: Electronics & Computers
Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs) are used around the world to conduct difficult environmental, remote, oceanic, defense, and rescue missions in often unpredictable and harsh conditions.
INSIDER: Test & Measurement
MIT engineers have developed a robotic replica of the heart’s right ventricle, which mimics the beating and blood-pumping action of live hearts.
INSIDER: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Imagine you want to carry a large, heavy box up a flight of stairs. You might spread your fingers and lift the box with both hands, then hold it on top of your forearms and balance...
Application Briefs: Power
Passive thermal control systems have been developed over years of research and product development and will serve as enabling technology for NASA’s VIPER and future missions.
Quiz: Robotics, Automation & Control
Surgical robots allow doctors to perform complex procedures with more precision, flexibility, and control than possible with traditional techniques. Surgical robots are also sometimes used in conventional open surgical procedures.
Articles: Robotics, Automation & Control
See the products of tomorrow, including battery-free force stickers, 3D holographic displays, an AI co-pilot.
Products: Manufacturing & Prototyping
See the product of the month, Keysight Technologies' new compact, four-channel vector signal generator (VSG) capable of signal generation up to 8.5 GHz with 960 MHz of modulation bandwidth per channel.
Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
A Software Model Makes Transport Robots Smarter
Imagine a team of humans and robots working together to process online orders — real-life workers strategically positioned among their automated coworkers who are moving intelligently back and forth in a warehouse space. This could become a reality sooner than later, thanks to researchers at the University of Missouri.
Briefs: Software
Researchers at The Ohio State University have developed new software to aid in the development, evaluation, and demonstration of safer autonomous, or driverless, vehicles. Called the Vehicle-in-Virtual-Environment (VVE) method, it allows the testing of driverless cars in a perfectly safe environment.
Articles: Power
Pump systems have advanced technically over many years. The recent innovations in demand-based variable speed hydraulic pump systems are the next step in lowering energy costs, reducing noise, and allowing for proactive maintenance opportunities.
Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
Centimeter-scale walking and crawling robots are in demand both for their ability to explore tight or cluttered environments and for their low fabrication costs. Pulling from origami-inspired construction, researchers have crafted a more simplified approach to the design and fabrication of these robots.
Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
Moving robots demands a lot of energy, and batteries, the typical power source, limit lifetime and raise environmental concerns. Researchers at the University of Washington have now created MilliMobile, a tiny, self-driving robot powered only by surrounding light or radio waves.
Top Stories
Blog: Semiconductors & ICs
Revolutionizing the Production of Semiconductor Chips
Blog: Robotics, Automation & Control
Aerial Microrobots That Can Match a Bumblebee's Speed
Blog: Robotics, Automation & Control
Tech Briefs Wrapped 2025: Top 10 Technology Stories
News: Energy
INSIDER: Imaging
A New Tool for Measuring Femtosecond Lasers
Articles: Aerospace
Countering the New Threat from the Sky: Advanced IR Imaging Zoom Lenses...
Webcasts
Upcoming Webinars: Motion Control
Next-Generation Linear and Rotary Stages: When Ultra Precision...
Upcoming Webinars: Power
Hydrogen Engines Are Heating Up for Heavy Duty
On-Demand Webinars: AR/AI
The Real Impact of AR and AI in the Industrial Equipment Industry
Podcasts: Medical
How Wearables Are Enhancing Smart Drug Delivery
Podcasts: Energy
SAE Automotive Podcast: Solid-State Batteries
Podcasts: Test & Measurement
