Sensors

NASA is one of the top research entities in the world, producing technologies that range from electronics and new materials, to state-of-the-art robotics and sensors. Readers of NASA Tech Briefs get a firsthand look at these new technologies every month. But how many of you have had the chance to go behind the scenes at...

Carbon nanotubes and magnetic molecules are considered building blocks of future nanoelectronic systems. Researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and French colleagues have combined both components on the atomic level and to build a quantum mechanical system with novel properties.

U.S. Army Research Laboratory scientists in the Sensors and Electron Devices Directorate are currently exploring the field of quantum sensing and are discovering ways in which the Army can benefit from innovations that were once thought impossible.

Scientists from the University of Lincoln and Newcastle University in the U.K. have created a computerized system that allows for autonomous navigation of mobile robots based on the locust’s unique visual system. The work could provide the blueprint for the development of highly...

A team of neuroengineers based at Brown University has developed a fully implantable and rechargeable wireless brain sensor capable of relaying real-time broadband signals from up to 100 neurons in freely moving subjects. Several copies of the novel low-power device, described in the Journal of...

Today’s parking assistant systems enable drivers to safely park their cars even in the narrowest of gaps. Such sophisticated parking aids – as well as manufacturing robots – that require millimeter-precision control rely on precise all-around radar distance measurement....

Crewmembers returning from long duration space flight face significant challenges due to the microgravity induced inappropriate adaptations in balance/sensorimotor function. The Neuroscience Laboratory at JSC is developing a method based on stochastic...

Researchers at the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) are testing new technologies it created for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that could give commercial and military maintenance programs earlier warning of problems. Condition-based maintenance, known as CBM, will get safer aircraft...

A multi-channel electrometer voltmeter that employs self-nulling lock-in detection electronics in conjunction with a mechanical resonator with non-contact voltage sensing electrodes has been developed for space-based measurement of an Internal Electrostatic Discharge...

PSSEARCH provides predictive sea state estimation, coupled with closedloop feedback control for automated ride control. It enables a manned or unmanned watercraft to determine the 3D map and sea state conditions in its vicinity in real time. Adaptive path-planning/...