Sensors & Test

Sensors/Data Acquisition

This is your resource for developments in smart sensor systems and data acquisition. Browse technical briefs, articles, and white papers on advanced applications in transducer technologies, detector systems, data acquisition, and sensor-related technologies.

Stories

Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control

Algorithm Designs Soft Robots That Sense

A deep-learning technique optimizes the arrangement of sensors on a robot’s body to ensure efficient operation.

Products: Sensors/Data Acquisition

New on the Market: September 2021

Power distribution units, pressure sensors, connector straps, and more.

Briefs: Data Acquisition

Multiplexed Optical Antennas

These antennas dramatically increase the amount of information that can be simultaneously transmitted by a coherent light source.

Briefs: RF & Microwave Electronics

Atom-Based Radio Communications

An atom-based sensor can determine the direction of an incoming radio signal.

Briefs: Electronics & Computers

Chemistry Approach for More Robust Soft Electronics

The approach could lead to more flexible health monitors, wearable devices, sensors, optical communication systems, and soft robotics.

Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition

Programmable Fiber Provides Power and Transmits Data

Designed for soldier uniforms, the fiber can sense, store, analyze, and infer activity when sewn into a piece of clothing.

5 Ws: Sensors/Data Acquisition

5 Ws of Puncture-Proof Soft Electronics

The durable soft electronics could be used in wearable electronics and soft robotics and could someday be part of a stretchable smartphone.

Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition

Universal Tactile Sensing with Electromechanically Coupled Conductors

These tactile imaging sensors can measure pressure distribution without using pressure-sensitive materials.

Briefs: Energy

Imitating Human Hands to Make Better Sensors

This work could help severely injured people, such as soldiers, regain the ability to control their movements.

NASA Spinoff: Unmanned Systems

Microphone Detects Turbulence Hundreds of Miles Away

A NASA microphone that detects unseen air turbulence is lofted to high heights aboard a stratospheric glider.

Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition

Graphite-Based Sensor for Wearable Medical Devices

Researchers have developed graphene-based sensing technology using G-Putty material — a highly malleable graphene blended putty. The printed sensors are 50 times more sensitive than the...

Special Reports: AR/AI

Aerospace Manufacturing - August 2021

Demanding applications in the aerospace industry require products and systems that are manufactured using the latest technologies – from design and simulation, to fabrication and final testing. To help...

Blog: Sensors/Data Acquisition

Touch-Sensing Glove Feels the Pressure

A new pressure-sensor from MIT detects small and fast changes in pressure at the fingertip, such as from lightly rubbing fingers together.

INSIDER: Information Technology

Brain-Inspired Highly Scalable Neuromorphic Hardware

Researchers from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) fabricated brain-inspired highly scalable neuromorphic hardware by co-integrating single transistor neurons and...

INSIDER: Medical

Using Silicone Wristbands to Measure Air Quality

A study by researchers at the Texas A&M University School of Public Health shows that inexpensive and convenient devices such as silicone wristbands can be used to yield quantitative air...

INSIDER: Sensors/Data Acquisition

This Touchy-Feely Glove Senses and Maps Tactile Stimuli

When you pick up a balloon, the pressure to keep hold of it is different from what you would exert to grasp a jar. And now engineers at MIT and elsewhere have a way to precisely...

INSIDER: Sensors/Data Acquisition

New Manufacturing Technique for Flexible Electronics

Ultrathin, flexible computer circuits have been an engineering goal for years, but technical hurdles have prevented the degree of miniaturization necessary to achieve high performance....

Question of the Week: Sensors/Data Acquisition

Could Digital Twins Be Used on ‘Any System?’

An INSIDER story this month highlighted efforts to use sensors to improve the virtual design model known as a digital twin.

INSIDER: Robotics, Automation & Control

Robotic Finger Senses Buried Items

MIT researchers have designed a sharp-tipped robot finger equipped with tactile sensing to meet the challenge of identifying buried objects. Digger Finger was able to dig through granular media such as...