INSIDER: Motion Control
To help pave the way for a new generation of robots that are soft-bodied and safer to perform tasks in close proximity to humans, a team of researchers at Harvard’s Wyss Institute for...
INSIDER: Electronics & Computers
A team of engineers at North Carolina State University has developed an integrated, wearable system called the Health and Environmental Tracker (HET), that, they say, can monitor a user’s...
News: Electronics & Computers
Komatsu America recently revealed four new machines that expand the company’s new intelligent Machine Control family and help to demonstrate its vision of the "jobsite of the future."...
Videos: Materials
EPFL fiber optics specialists have discovered very promising and unique qualities of spider silk when it comes to conducting light and reacting to certain substances. Spider silk strands are perfectly...
Videos: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Cornell University researchers have come up with an interactive prototyping system called 'On-the-Fly Print' that prints what users are designing as they design them; the designer can...
INSIDER: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
A flow battery can be recharged quickly by replacing its electrolyte liquid. Previous versions of liquid batteries, however, have relied on complex systems of tanks, valves, and pumps, adding to the...
R&D: Robotics, Automation & Control
A mobile container from Rice University sterilizes surgical instruments in low-resource settings. The "Sterile Box," built into a standard 20-foot steel shipping container, houses a water system for decontamination and a solar-powered autoclave for steam sterilization.
R&D: Medical
Drexel University researchers have developed a new method for making polymer nanobrushes. The technology can be used in various medical applications, including coating, biomedical, sensing, and catalysis processes.
R&D: Medical
Researchers from MIT and Massachusetts General Hospital have developed a small, implantable device that delivers chemotherapy drugs directly to pancreatic tumors. Using mice, the team determined that the implant approach was up to 12 times more effective than the common method of delivering chemotherapy...
R&D: Electronics & Computers
Researchers at The Ohio State University have embroidered circuits into fabric with 0.1 mm precision -- an ideal size for integrating sensors and electronic components into clothing. The achievement...
R&D: Photonics/Optics
Combining the best features of a lobster and an African fish, University of Wisconsin–Madison engineers have created an artificial eye that sees in the dark. The technology could help brighten the dim surroundings presented from surgical scopes.
Who's Who: Aerospace
Using the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory satellite, launched in 2014, NASA and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency researchers have...
Briefs: Materials
Use of arrays of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as an intermediary for transport of electrical particles (e.g., electrons) and/or transport of thermal energy from one body to another has grown. For example, a CNT array may be used for dissipation of thermal energy or accumulated electrical...
Products: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Aerotech (Pittsburgh, PA) offers the HEX500-350HL high-load, six-degree-of-freedom hexapod for applications in sensor testing and high-force device manipulation. It is actuated with six struts that are built with preloaded bearings,...
Briefs: Materials
In order to understand whether the ablation laser would cause chemical reactions within the trapped organic molecules during resonant laser ablation of water ice containing organic molecules, a...
Products: Robotics, Automation & Control
The Model BM-T tilt Switch from BinMaster (Lincoln, NE) is a level indicator used for point level detection of heavy materials in bins, tanks, or silos, or over a conveyor belt or open pile. It is suspended vertically over a...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Aridged retention interface is necessary to secure planetary sample tubes within a caching system for use in future sample return missions. The assumed retention...
Products: Motion Control
Mitsubishi Electric Automation (Vernon Hills, IL) introduced the iQ-R Series machine control system that incorporates sequence, motion, safety, process, and C language control into one platform. The control platform is...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Ice has been discovered on Mars and is present in the permanently shadowed craters on the Moon and on many asteroids. The ice is usually buried beneath an overburden of regolith. Evidence indicates this overburden may be a meter deep in some locations for the Moon; for Mars, it varies with latitude...
Products: Manufacturing & Prototyping
An electromechanical function from Kiekert AG (Heiligenhaus, Germany/Wixom, MI) prevents car doors from unintentionally striking nearby obstacles. The “i-protect” technology features a door-brake and sensor system for...
Briefs: Test & Measurement
A satellite-borne sodium lidar will provide key measurements that elucidate the complex relation between the chemistry and dynamics of the Earth’s mesosphere, and thus provide a thorough understanding of the composition and dynamics of this region. The...
Products: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Toshiba America Electronic Components (San Jose, CA) has released a group of 30 microcontrollers (MCUs) based on the ARM® Cortex®-M3 core. The M3H MCUs are fabricated with an embedded flash memory process. Target...
Briefs: Test & Measurement
Specific impulse (ISP), or simply impulse (change in momentum) per unit amount of propellant consumed, is a measure of rocket and jet engine efficiency. The amount of propellant, or in the case of engine testing at the Stennis Space Center (SSC), cryogen consumed during...
Products: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Fluke (Everett, WA) has announced the 279 FC TRMS Thermal Multimeter. The test tool integrates a digital multimeter (DMM) with a thermal camera. Using the 279 FC imager, technicians can check for hot spots in fuses, wires,...
Briefs: Test & Measurement
The NGXO (Next Generation X-Ray Optics) project has several problems relating to how to bond a very thin glass mirror to a metallic structure without distortion. One problem is that all epoxies shrink (at the micron level) when they cure. This shrinkage distorts the optical quality of the mirror unacceptably. Another...
Products: Manufacturing & Prototyping
The IGA 140/23 pyrometer from LumaSense Technologies (Santa Clara, CA) offers non-contact temperature measurement on metals, ceramics, and graphite. The device, equipped with RS232 and RS485 serial interfaces, reads parameters via...
Briefs: Test & Measurement
The NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) Transonic Dynamics Tunnel (TDT) has been operational since 1960, investigating a wide range of aeroelastic and non-aeroelastic phenomena. A dedicated aeroelastic test facility, the TDT is a large,...
Products: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Allegro MicroSystems (Worcester, MA) offers two new current sensor ICs for AC or DC current sensing. Both the ACS724KMA (5 V) and the ACS725KMA (3.3 V) are set in a high-isolation SOIC16 wide-body surface mount package that provides...
Briefs: Test & Measurement
This work was based on the need for a relatively small passive detector of maximum temperature reached by an object that can be visually inspected. The device requirements are to be hermetically sealed for contamination control, give a clear indication of maximum temperature achieved (non-reversible) with a ~10 °C...