https://techxplore.com/rss-feed/engineering-news/ en-us The latest news on engineering technology, engineering science, computer engineering , civil engineering, chemical engineering, aerospace engineering and environmental engineering. Imagine a display that harvests ambient light when it is not actively in use, offsetting some of its own energy consumption. Materials physics shows that this is possible; the same semiconductor material can, in principle, emit and absorb light efficiently. What has been missing is a device architecture that allows it to do both without reductions in efficiency of either application. A new study reports a perovskite diode that converts sunlight to electricity at 26.7% efficiency (a world record at the time of publication) and emits light at 31% efficiency, figures that would be high for a device designed to do only one of those things. The work is published in the journal Joule. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-solar-cell-moonlights-absorbing-emitting.html Engineering Tue, 28 Apr 2026 16:40:04 EDT news696612362 To reliably complete various manual tasks, robots should be able to handle a variety of objects, ranging from items found in households to tools used in specific professional settings. While many existing robotic systems can now complete basic manual tasks, such as picking up objects and carrying them to a set location, most systems still struggle with tasks that entail the dexterous manipulation of objects. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-fingereye-bridges-vision-robot-contact.html Robotics Tue, 28 Apr 2026 14:00:07 EDT news696596891 Workplace hearing loss is one of the most common work-related illnesses. While hearing loss is preventable with earplugs, they can be uncomfortable, and users often remove them despite the risks. Low-frequency sounds, such as rumbling traffic and warehouse vibrations, are especially difficult to address because differences in ear physiology allow sound to leak into ears, despite protection from earplugs. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-meta-earplugs-booming-voice-effect.html Consumer & Gadgets Tue, 28 Apr 2026 11:00:19 EDT news696500461 As global demand for lithium-ion batteries continues to surge, a team of Rice University researchers has developed a faster, more energy-efficient way to recover critical minerals from spent batteries, potentially easing supply chain pressures and reducing environmental harm. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-faster-greener-method-recycle-lithium.html Engineering Mon, 27 Apr 2026 16:00:08 EDT news696523262 It does not take much to confuse some robots. A machine might be great at handling a simple object like a box, yet when it tries to work with a more irregular shape like a banana, it often fails. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-bananas-cups-peelers-robots-fruits.html Robotics Mon, 27 Apr 2026 14:40:03 EDT news696519081 Researchers at the Intelligent Biomimetic Design Lab at Peking University have developed a bio-signal framework showing that fish muscles do far more than generate swimming motion. In a series of studies led by Xie Guangming, Professor at the School of Advanced Manufacturing and Robotics, and carried out by twin brothers Waqar Hussain Afridi and Rahdar Hussain Afridi, muscle electrical signals were used to reconstruct body posture, infer surrounding flow conditions, and transfer biological principles to robotic systems. These findings open new directions in biological telemetry, locomotion research, and bio-inspired underwater robotics. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-fish-muscles-blueprints-smarter-underwater.html Robotics Mon, 27 Apr 2026 11:10:01 EDT news696506335 Digital image sensors (DIS), devices that capture images by converting light patterns into electrical signals, are integrated in many contemporary electronic devices, including smartphones, digital cameras and some medical instruments. These sensors rely on tiny light-sensitive units called pixels, which record brightness and color. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-motion-sensor-captures-ultra-high.html Engineering Mon, 27 Apr 2026 10:00:08 EDT news696502431 Hydrogen is often described as the fuel of the future—a clean, energy-dense way to store renewable power and decarbonize industries from steelmaking to shipping. But inside the devices that produce it, a surprisingly small and familiar phenomenon is getting in the way: bubbles. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-hydrogen-highlights-outsized-impacts-tiny.html Engineering Fri, 24 Apr 2026 11:40:07 EDT news696249121 Acrylic acid is essential for everyday products—from paints and coatings to absorbent polymers—yet almost all of it is currently made from propylene, a petrochemical. As global biodiesel production rises, so does the supply of low-value glycerol by-products, creating an opportunity for cleaner, renewable chemical manufacturing. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-boost-sustainable-acrylic-acid-production.html Engineering Thu, 23 Apr 2026 17:20:05 EDT news696181681 Smartphones, electric vehicles and many portable devices rely on batteries. Their energy storage capacity, lifetime and safety will strongly shape the future of electrification. Among the most promising next-generation technologies are solid-state batteries. These batteries would allow smartphones to run for several days instead of requiring daily charging and give electric vehicles greater driving ranges than today's limits. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-solid-state-batteries-short-circuit.html Engineering Thu, 23 Apr 2026 12:20:01 EDT news696165001 On a bright morning, graduate student Jeremy Klotz and professor Shree Nayar walked through upper Manhattan with a tall tripod and a camera that takes 360-degree images. Their route took them to bike docking stations, which use solar energy to power their kiosks, docking mechanisms, wireless communication, and even E-bike recharging in recent installations. At each docking station, the researchers raised the camera above the panel, snapped a spherical picture, and sent it to Klotz's laptop. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-solar-panel.html Engineering Wed, 22 Apr 2026 16:40:11 EDT news696093721 Scientists have found a way to boost terahertz technology using particles thousands of times smaller than a grain of sand. Research published in Scientific Reports by Loughborough University's Emergent Photonics Research Center shows how a sparse layer of nanoparticles can make materials that produce terahertz radiation more efficient. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-tiny-particles-boost-terahertz-technology.html Engineering Tue, 21 Apr 2026 17:00:04 EDT news696008881 From the geometric symmetry in Islamic tiles to the mechanical versatility of origami, cultural patterns have an extensive range of structures. Inspired by cultural geometries, researchers from the University of Edinburgh created and tested metamaterials—materials whose properties depend highly on their patterned structure rather than solely composition—comprised of Chinese characters. They published their results in The Journal of Applied Physics. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-chinese-characters-strong-materials.html Engineering Tue, 21 Apr 2026 11:00:12 EDT news695892541 Most smart home devices require power one way or another. You have to plug them in, recharge them, or replace their batteries at some point. Georgia Tech researchers think they have a better way with small metal tags that can signal when a door or drawer is opened, count reps in the gym, or even track bathroom use for elderly relatives. Their tags are battery-free, quiet, inherently private, and cost only a few cents each. They're smaller than a penny. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-penny-size-ultrasonic-tags-ditch.html Engineering Tue, 21 Apr 2026 08:24:00 EDT news695978163 When assessing the ripeness of fruit, sight and smell can tell you a lot, but the best indicator is often how the fruit feels. Cornell researchers used stretchable fiber-optic sensors to create a soft robot gripper that can predict the ripeness of strawberries by touch, then gently twist them off their branch or vine without causing any damage. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-soft-robot-gripper-ripe-fruit.html Robotics Mon, 20 Apr 2026 13:00:01 EDT news695908081 Metamaterials are carefully engineered materials that possess desirable properties and can be used to manipulate electromagnetic, acoustic, or other types of waves in interesting ways. Some materials scientists and engineers have been trying to use these materials to develop so-called invisible devices, or, in other words, devices that do not disturb the environment around them or reveal their presence to other technologies nearby. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-invisible-device-disturb-metamaterial-shell.html Engineering Mon, 20 Apr 2026 11:20:07 EDT news695900060 Solar cells, devices that convert sunlight into electricity, are now widely used in many countries. While most existing solar cells are based on silicon, energy engineers have been working on other devices made of so-called perovskites. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-perovskite-solar-cells-certified-efficiency.html Engineering Sat, 18 Apr 2026 10:00:04 EDT news695564953 Breaking away from conventional robots that perform only predefined functions once fabricated, researchers have developed a next-generation artificial muscle that can change its shape in real time, recover from damage, and even be reused. The study is published in Science Advances. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-slime-artificial-muscle-reshapes-robot.html Robotics Fri, 17 Apr 2026 13:40:01 EDT news695651927 Every year, power plants and factories release billions of tons of carbon dioxide (CO₂) into the atmosphere. Methods exist to capture that CO₂ using chemical solutions and, separately, to convert pure CO₂ into useful fuels and chemicals. But doing both steps at once, in a cost-efficient and scalable way, has been difficult. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-triples-capture-ditches-silver-zinc.html Engineering Fri, 17 Apr 2026 13:20:03 EDT news695650141 When it comes to teamwork, we could all learn something from ants. These relatively simple, small-brained animals are famous for their ability to collectively build massive, intricate, climate-controlled structures, despite having neither a blueprint nor a worksite foreman. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-simple-robots-ants-excavate.html Robotics Fri, 17 Apr 2026 09:20:03 EDT news695635862 Expectations are rising for all-solid-state batteries—the "dream battery" with low fire risk—not only for electric vehicles but also for various fields such as robotics and Urban Air Mobility (UAM). A research team at KAIST has presented a new design principle that simultaneously overcomes the limitations of solid electrolytes, which were previously vulnerable to air exposure and suffered from low performance. This technology is gaining significant attention as it can enhance both battery safety and charging speeds, demonstrating the feasibility of commercializing next-generation all-solid-state batteries. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-oxygen-anchoring-air-stable-solid.html Engineering Thu, 16 Apr 2026 13:20:01 EDT news695563663 A tightly packed ball of office staples can be surprisingly strong. Try to pull it apart and the tangled metal resists like a solid object. But with the right movement or vibration, that same bundle can quickly fall back into loose pieces. A team of engineers and materials scientists in the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering at CU Boulder are exploring how this rare combination of strength and flexibility could inspire a new class of materials built on interlocking particles. By mimicking the way staples lock together and release, these emerging materials could one day form structures that are strong, adaptable and even recyclable, the researchers said. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-liquid-metal-entangled-staple-particles.html Engineering Thu, 16 Apr 2026 09:20:03 EDT news695549701 Researchers at NYU Abu Dhabi have uncovered the secret behind the remarkable toughness of the marri nut, the hard seed of the marri tree native to Western Australia. The nut's shell is so strong that even natural predators struggle to break it. By studying how it absorbs impact and resists cracking, the team discovered a clever natural design that could inspire new materials for protective gear and other safety applications. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-tough-australian-seed-reshape-helmets.html Engineering Wed, 15 Apr 2026 16:00:04 EDT news695486821 When we think of materials, we usually think of substances like metal, concrete, glass or rubber. What these examples have in common is that they are inactive: when pushed, pulled, shifted or sheared they may move or deform, but only by using the energy that is provided from the outside through the forces applied to them. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-restless-materials-dont-pressure-snap.html Engineering Wed, 15 Apr 2026 15:20:05 EDT news695484661 The same wireless technology that can track your cat or locate an item in a warehouse can also monitor your breathing. Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sahlgrenska University Hospital and the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, now present a completely new method for measuring breathing movements in patients with impaired lung function. Using small, plaster-like tags, breathing can be analyzed in detail entirely contactlessly—in hospital or at home. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-tiny-battery-free-tags-radio.html Engineering Wed, 15 Apr 2026 10:50:03 EDT news695467327 Snake-like robots represent the future of rescue. Their slender bodies allow them to navigate narrow spaces, uneven terrain, and water surfaces, entering places that would be hazardous for humans. This could potentially save lives in earthquake-prone areas, like Japan. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-ai-snakebot-power.html Robotics Wed, 15 Apr 2026 09:20:04 EDT news695462521 Converting methane, the primary component of natural gas, into higher alkanes and hydrogen, could be highly advantageous. Alkanes, such as propane and butane, are easier to transport than methane and are used in a wider range of industries. Hydrogen, on the other hand, is a promising clean fuel used to power electrochemical devices that can generate continuous power, known as fuel cells. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-phase-vo-methane-propane-hydrogen.html Engineering Mon, 13 Apr 2026 14:40:02 EDT news695304794 Published in Nature Communications, researchers from St. Olaf College and Syracuse University built a computer made entirely of mechanical components that can perform simple computations without electricity or batteries. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-mechanical-odd.html Engineering Mon, 13 Apr 2026 13:40:03 EDT news695304905 A KAIST research team has developed quadrupedal robot technology that not only enables walking by estimating terrain without visual information, but also allows the robot to perceive its surroundings through cameras and LiDAR sensors and make its own decisions while walking, much like animals that visually examine terrain and adjust their steps. This technology is also expected to be extended to various robotic platforms such as wheeled-legged robots and humanoid robots. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-robot-danger-route-powers-obstacles.html Robotics Mon, 13 Apr 2026 09:20:08 EDT news695290202 A breakthrough in interface engineering clears the path for sustainable, high-power hydrogen energy. As the world races toward a hydrogen-based society, the quest for a truly green fuel cell has faced a persistent material hurdle. Most modern fuel cells rely on fluorine-based membranes to conduct protons. While effective, these materials are environmentally taxing and expensive to produce. Now, a research team at Kumamoto University's Institute of Industrial Nanomaterials (IINa) has achieved a major milestone in sustainable energy, developing a graphene oxide fuel cell that shatters previous performance records for nanosheet-based electrolytes. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-interface-tweak-triples-graphene-oxide.html Engineering Sat, 11 Apr 2026 14:00:05 EDT news694968406