Machinery
Sandia's Annular Core Research Reactor conducts 10,000th operation
November 2, 2011 5:07 am | News | CommentsWith a muffled "pop," a flash of blue light, and a few ripples through 14,000 gallons of deionized water, Sandia National Laboratories' Annular Core Research Reactor (ACRR) recently conducted its 10,000th operation.
Toyota shows machines to help sick, elderly move
November 1, 2011 11:13 am | by Yuri Kageyama, AP Business Writer | News | CommentsOn Tuesday, the auto giant Toyota showcased experimental robots that can help disabled patients work, or even get up out of bed. The company intends to commercialize its walk-assist products sometime after 2013.
Boston Dynamics’ BigDog gets a humanoid buddy
November 1, 2011 8:12 am | News | CommentsThe robotics company famous for building BigDog, a four-legged robot that moves in a fashion that is both strange and disturbingly life-like, has added arms to its two-legged variant, PETMAN. A new video from Boston Dynamics shows in the anthromorphic robot in motion.
LHC proton run for 2011 reaches successful conclusion
November 1, 2011 4:35 am | News | CommentsAfter some 180 days of running and four hundred trillion proton proton collisions, the Large Hadron Collider's (LHC's) 2011 proton run came to an end at 5:15 p.m., October 30, 2011. For the second year running, the LHC team has largely surpassed its operational objectives, steadily increasing the rate at which the LHC has delivered data to the experiments.
Robot roach sheds light on evolution of flight
October 18, 2011 5:32 am | News | CommentsWhen engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, outfitted a six-legged robotic bug with wings in an effort to improve its mobility, they unexpectedly shed some light on the evolution of flight.
All for one, 'R-one' for all
October 11, 2011 12:44 pm | News | CommentsRobots for everyone. That's James McLurkin's dream, and as the director of a Rice University robotics laboratory, he's creating an inexpensive and sophisticated robot called the "R-one" to make the dream a reality.
Contract awarded for ITER early delivery cooling water system equipment
October 10, 2011 4:49 am | News | CommentsOak Ridge National Laboratory has awarded a $13.2 million task order to AREVA Federal Services for fabrication of five drain tanks for the ITER tokamak cooling water system. ITER is an international project to demonstrate the feasibility of commercial fusion energy.
Dark and bright: ESA chooses next two science missions
October 5, 2011 5:42 am | News | CommentsThe powerful influence of the Sun and the nature of mysterious dark energy motivate ESA’s next two science missions. Solar Orbiter will venture closer to the Sun than any previous mission, and Euclid will be a space telescope designed to map out the large-scale structure of the cosmos.
A robot brain implanted in a rodent
October 3, 2011 8:54 am | News | CommentsWith new cutting-edge technology aimed at providing amputees with robotic limbs, a Tel Aviv University researcher has successfully implanted a robotic cerebellum into the skull of a rodent with brain damage, restoring its capacity for movement.
SpaceX to attempt fully reusable orbital booster
September 30, 2011 1:01 pm | by John Antczak, Associated Press | News | CommentsCalifornia space-launch entrepreneur Elon Musk said Thursday his company will try to develop an orbital booster system with components capable of flying back to Earth for reuse. The complexities of the engineering have canceled previous efforts by others.
Berkeley Lab tests cookstoves for Haiti
September 28, 2011 2:07 pm | by Sabin Russell | News | CommentsEngineers in California who developed the fuel-efficient Berkeley-Darfur Stove for refugee camps in central Africa are now in Haiti, evaluating inexpensive metal cookstoves for the displaced survivors of last year’s deadly earthquake.
Eco aircraft to paint California skies green
September 21, 2011 8:08 am | News | CommentsVying for a $1.65 million purse, the largest aviation prize ever offered, competitors in the Green Flight Centennial Challenge will take to the air this weekend. To qualify, the electric, biofuel, and hybrid-powered planes must exceed 200 passenger miles per gallon, about double what even the best large commercial jets now achieve.
Researchers develop smarter robot arms
September 21, 2011 4:31 am | by Larry Hardesty, MIT News Office | News | CommentsBy combining two innovative algorithms developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, researchers have built a new robotic motion-planning system that calculates much more efficient trajectories through free space. This will allow robots to execute tasks more efficiently and move more predictably.
Robots coming to aircraft assembly
September 16, 2011 9:29 am | News | CommentsUp to now, aircraft have been put together in huge assembly cells, but building the necessary facilities is expensive and time consuming. That is why Fraunhofer researchers have come up with a flexible assembly line concept that features robots working in the same way they do in automotive production.
Engineers invent a magnetic fluid pump with no moving parts
September 16, 2011 5:52 am | News | CommentsUsed in Hollywood and the advertising industry to create exotic special effects, ferrofluids are seemingly magical materials that are both liquid and magnetic at once. In a study, a team from Yale University, with colleagues from the University of Georgia and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, demonstrated for the first time an approach that allows ferrofluids to be pumped by magnetic fields alone.
MIT research pushes the boundaries of 3D printing technology
September 14, 2011 4:28 am | by David L. Chandler, MIT News Office | News | CommentsImagine being able to "print" an entire house, a four-course dinner, or even a printer capable of printing yet another printer. These are research projects underway at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and just a few ways the Institute is pushing forward the boundaries of a technology it helped pioneer nearly two decades ago.
NRL robotic loader system achieves composite material testing milestone
September 6, 2011 7:31 am | News | CommentsThe Naval Research Laboratory robotic materials testing system, NRL66.3, has achieved, to date, the highest industrial rates of fully automated production mode functionality known to NRL researchers, yielding a total of 216 specimen tests at a rate of 26 per hour under six-degrees of freedom multiaxiality conditions.
It's alive! Space station's humanoid robot awake
August 22, 2011 12:33 pm | by Marcia Dunn, AP Aerospace Writer | News | CommentsGround controllers turned Robonaut on Monday for the first time since it was delivered to the International Space Station in February. The test involved sending power to all of Robonaut's systems. The robot was not commanded to move; that will happen next week. It is, however, tweeting now.
Ford and Toyota to collaborate on new hybrid system
August 22, 2011 12:11 pm | News | CommentsTwo of the world’s top automakers have teamed up as equal partners to develop a hybrid drive system for rear-wheel-drive light trucks and SUVs.They will independently integrate the new hybrid system in their future vehicles separately.
Wanted: 2011's Top Technologies
August 15, 2011 6:12 am | Blogs | CommentsThe editors of R&D Magazine have opened the nominations for the 2012 R&D 100 Awards competition, which will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the awards. If your organization introduced a new product this year, or is planning to, you can begin the entry process now.
Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment begins taking data
August 15, 2011 4:58 am | News | CommentsThe Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment has begun its quest to answer some of the most puzzling questions about the elusive elementary particles known as neutrinos. The experiment's first completed set of twin detectors is now recording interactions of antineutrinos as they travel away from the powerful reactors of the China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group in southern China.
Throttle Control System Is Designed for Harsh Environments
August 5, 2011 7:46 am | Product Releases | CommentsHaydon Kerk has recent designed a new type of linear actuator to control the power to a cement mixer aboard a piece of heavy construction equipment. The actuator is completely sealed to withstand dirt, debris, heat, and moisture.
Using beach cameras for scientific analysis
July 22, 2011 6:08 am | News | CommentsFor 25 years, scientists have employed a network of land-based video cameras called Argus stations to monitor coastal surf zones in an effort to learn about the ever-changing dynamics of the surf zone. Now scientists at Oregon State University are working to incorporate a new resource into the Argus system—beach cameras.
New ASTM additive manufacturing specification
July 21, 2011 8:20 am | News | CommentsThe additive manufacturing industry will greatly benefit from a new ASTM International standard that will allow computer-aided design programs, scanners, and 3D graphical editors to communicate with 3D printers and additive manufacturing equipment. The standard will answer the growing need within the industry for a standard interchange file format that can work with features such as color, texture, material, substructure, and other properties of a fabricated target object.
EOS and EADS IW collaborate on eco-assessment of DMLS technology
July 21, 2011 8:07 am | News | CommentsEOS, a manufacturer of laser sintering systems, in collaboration with EADS Innovation Works (IW), has started work on a study to understand the potential of the direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) process to generate savings in the use of energy and raw materials.
