News by Subject Technology & Engineering

University of Washington researchers have developed a method that uses a gaming graphics card to control plasma formation in their prototype fusion reactor.

The touchscreen technology used in billions of smartphones and tablets could also be used as a powerful sensor, without the need for any modifications.

In research published in the journal Optica, University of California, Irvine researchers describe a new type of camera technology that, when aimed at an object, can rapidly retrieve 3D images, displaying its chemical content down to the micrometer scale.

Researchers from the University of Southern California and NVIDIA have unveiled a new simulator for robotic cutting that can accurately reproduce the forces acting on a knife as it slices through common foodstuffs, such as fruit and vegetables. The system could also simulate cutting through human tissue, offering potential applications in surgical robotics. The paper was presented at the Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS) Conference 2021 on July 16.

UC Riverside engineers made a pneumatic RAM chip using microfluidic valves instead of electronic transistors. The valves remain sealed against a pressure differential even when disconnected from an air supply line, creating trapped pressure differentials that function as memories and maintain the states of a robot's actuators. Dense arrays of these valves can perform advanced operations and reduce the expensive, bulky, and power-consuming electronic hardware typically used to control pneumatic robots.

Two-dimensional "nanosheets" made of bonds between metal atoms and organic molecules are attractive candidates for photoelectric conversion, but get corroded easily. In a new study, scientists from Japan and Taiwan present a new nanosheet design using iron and benzene hexathiol that exhibits record stability to air exposure for 60 days, signaling the commercial optoelectronic applications of these 2D materials in the future.

Scientists have long used supercomputers to better understand how turbulent flows behave under a variety of conditions. Recognizing a need to include the complex but essential concept of "intermittency" in turbulent flows, researchers at CORIA and RWTH Aachen University used Jülich Supercomputing Centre's infrastructure to run highly detailed simulations.

A team at National Institute of Informatics, Japan and University of Waterloo developed a method that automatically transforms models of controller software into models that satisfy safety requirements even when uncertainty in sensing the state of the environment. In addition, the method generates formulas that represent the degree of uncertainty that the controller software can tolerate. The method can be applied to various controller systems that interact with the external environment, including autonomous vehicles.