Energy engineers and material scientists are continuously trying to create safe battery technologies that exhibit higher energy densities and efficiencies, along with longer life cycles. As lithium-ion batteries (LiBs) are among the most widespread battery...
Engineering
A non-reciprocal metasurface based on magnetic meta-atoms
Metasurfaces, two-dimensional (2D) or planar versions of metamaterials exhibit properties that are not typically found in natural materials. As they are flat, these materials can typically be produced using widely known fabrication processes and may help to control...
A framework to enable touch-enhanced robotic grasping using tactile sensors
To successfully cooperate with humans on manual tasks, robots should be able to grasp and manipulate a variety of objects without dropping or damaging them. Recent research efforts in the field of robotics have thus focused on developing tactile sensors and...
A new design that equips robots with proprioception and a tail
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU)'s Robomechanics Lab recently introduced two new approaches that could help to improve the ability of legged robots to move on rocky or extreme terrains. These two approaches, outlined in a paper pre-published...
A soft polymer-based tactile sensor for robotics applications
To effectively tackle everyday tasks, robots should be able to detect the properties and characteristics of objects in their surroundings, so that they can grasp and manipulate them accordingly. Humans naturally achieve this using their sense of touch and roboticists...
Aluminum-based low-loss interconnects for superconducting quantum processors
Quantum processors are computing systems that process information and perform computations by exploiting quantum mechanical phenomena. These systems could significantly outperform conventional processors on certain tasks, both in terms of speed and computational...
The large-area synthesis and transfer of multilayer hBN for fabricating 2D electronics
Researchers at Kyushu University, the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) and Osaka University in Japan have recently introduced a new strategy for synthesizing multi-layer hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), a material that could be...
Non-reciprocal acoustoelectric amplifiers for very high frequency sound waves
In recent years, teams of engineers worldwide have been trying to develop acoustic devices based on piezoelectrics (i.e., materials that can produce electricity when mechanical stress is applied to them) integrated with conventional semiconductors. These devices could...
A bat-inspired framework to equip robots with sound-based localization and mapping capabilities
Bats have the innate ability to move around in the dark, even when they cannot visually perceive their surroundings. This fascinating ability is grounded in their emission of ultrasonic chirps, which produce unique patterns of echoes that offer information about the...
A continuum robot inspired by elephant trunks
Conventional robots based on separate joints do not always perform well in complex real-world tasks, particularly those that involve the dexterous manipulation of objects. Some roboticists have thus been trying to devise continuum robots, robotic platforms...