Engineering news
Engineering
Swiss-cheese design could help scientists harness the power of the sun
The big holes in Swiss cheese help make it a tasty treat. Now, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) are adding tiny, Swiss-cheese-type holes to components to improve ...
9 hours ago
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Engineering
Better control of heavy-lift crane vessels
Massive heavy-lift crane vessels, capable of hauling thousands of tons, navigate the rough waves and strong winds offshore to construct wind turbines and oil fields in the ocean. An international team of researchers has developed ...
5 hours ago
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Engineering
Bring the outdoors in: The energy-efficient method for using 100% outdoor air in buildings
By now, it's well known that circulating outdoor air in buildings is safer than recirculating indoor air. That point was driven home by the pandemic. Problem is, it's just not cost-effective.
Jun 17, 2021
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Engineering
Computers help researchers find materials to turn solar power into hydrogen
Using solar energy to inexpensively harvest hydrogen from water could help replace carbon-based fuel sources and shrink the world's carbon footprint. However, finding materials that could boost hydrogen production so that ...
Jun 17, 2021
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Engineering
Setting the airways for urban air mobility
Flying drones are doing great things today, from powerline inspection to security surveillance to precision agriculture (fertilizer and pesticide application).
Jun 17, 2021
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Engineering
Concrete wall seismic test data wins NHERI DesignSafe Dataset Award 2021
An earthquake ripped through the South Island of New Zealand on September 2, 2010, its epicenter narrowly missing the city of Christchurch by about 40 kilometers, or 25 miles. Disaster struck nearly six months later, when ...
Jun 17, 2021
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Robotics
Subterranean investigations: Researchers explore the shallow underground world with a burrowing soft robot
We've seen robots take to the air, dive beneath the waves and perform all sorts of maneuvers on land. Now, researchers at UC Santa Barbara and Georgia Institute of Technology are exploring a new frontier: The ground beneath ...
Jun 16, 2021
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Robotics
Electrohydraulic arachno-bot offers light weight robotic articulation
A team of researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Germany and at the University of Boulder in Colorado in the US has found a new way to exploit the principles of spiders' joints to drive articulated ...
Jun 16, 2021
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Engineering
GaN low-voltage designs enable compact three-phase motor inverter IC
In battery-powered applications, in the automotive sector and in IT infrastructures 48V technology is on the rise. In this voltage class, gallium nitride (GaN) power transistors offer the best compromise between safety, compactness ...
Jun 16, 2021
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Engineering
WaveGlove: A glove with five inertial sensors for hand gesture recognition
Over the past few decades, computer scientists have developed a wide array of models and approaches to analyze different aspects of human behavior and communication, such as speech, emotions and gestures. Most existing techniques ...
Jun 15, 2021 feature
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Engineering
Smart fabrics and self-powered sensing
Smart fabrics and wearable electronics can be developed using highly conductive and stretchy fibers. Most of these fiber conductors are, however, strain sensitive with limited conductance on stretching. As a result, a new ...
Jun 15, 2021 feature
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Robotics
Highly maneuverable miniature robots controlled by magnetic fields
A team of scientists at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) has developed millimeter-sized robots that can be controlled using magnetic fields to perform highly maneuverable and dexterous manipulations. ...
Jun 15, 2021
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Engineering
Creating 'digital twins' at scale to improve drone deliveries
Picture this: A delivery drone suffers some minor wing damage on its flight. Should it land immediately, carry on as usual, or reroute to a new destination? A digital twin, a computer model of the drone that has been flying ...
Jun 15, 2021
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Software
New app tracks human mobility and COVID-19
Analyzing how people move about in their daily lives has long been important to urban planners, traffic engineers, and others developing new infrastructure projects.
Jun 15, 2021
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