Tech Xplore news
Tech Xplore / New wireless system could power medical implants as they stretch
Over the past few decades, electronics engineers have developed increasingly sophisticated implantable medical devices. Reliably powering some of these devices, however, can be challenging, particularly when they are based ...
Tech Xplore / Threadlike motor uses sliding fibers to drive flexible robotic devices without gears
In 2023, researchers in the Soft Transducers Laboratory in EPFL's School of Engineering presented the world's first pump in the form of a fiber. The pump's flexible tubing can generate its own fluid pressure and flow rate ...
Tech Xplore / Feather star-inspired underwater robot gets 3D maneuverability from only two actuators
Researchers have created an aquatic soft robot inspired by marine invertebrates called feather stars. The feather star robot is able to move through the water in all three dimensions, powered by only two actuators. The paper, ...
Tech Xplore / Spiking neural network learns to predict what will happen, when, and how likely it is
Imagine hearing a familiar sound and expecting something to happen. Before the event arrives, the brain can predict what it will be, when it will occur and how likely it is. Yet computational models often treat these questions ...
Tech Xplore / New method reveals how efficiently water-based cells turn waste heat into electricity
Most electricity is generated by using heat to produce steam, which then turns a turbine. Although this approach performs exceptionally well in the high-temperature, superheated-steam regime, we currently lack widely applicable ...
Tech Xplore / New AI method uses engineering knowledge to estimate disaster damage from incomplete satellite imagery
A new technology has been developed that can rapidly predict city-scale structural damage even when portions of satellite imagery are obscured by clouds or smoke immediately after a disaster.
Tech Xplore / 'SANDO' system ensures a robot's flight path will remain collision-free in uncharted territory
Uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) could fly deep into the heart of a raging wildfire, avoiding sudden flare-ups and dodging falling tree branches to gather critical information for rescuers. But in this dangerous situation, ...
Tech Xplore / Ultrathin mesh harvests energy from human heart cells to generate electricity
A team of engineers led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst has designed an ultrathin, flexible mesh that seamlessly integrates electronics with human cells to provide a continuous, reliable, powerful electrical supply. ...
Tech Xplore / Green hydrogen production method yields valuable industrial chemical instead of oxygen
A study published in the journal Nature Communications presents an advance in hydrogen production: a green, cost-effective process that generates hydrogen while simultaneously producing valuable chemicals for industry. The ...
Tech Xplore / Atomically thin transistors could transform computing by surpassing silicon's switching limit
For decades, silicon transistors have driven computational power, and scientists have devoted much of their time to making them smaller. That is because shrinking these tiny electronic switches that make up computer chips ...
Tech Xplore / Out-of-sync sleep schedules may steer people toward AI for dating and job assessments
Life often gets in the way of going to bed in sync with our circadian rhythm and getting enough sleep. Work, school and other social commitments can pull our schedules out of step, and scientists call this mismatch social ...
Tech Xplore / How to head into VR without wearing a headset
A person wearing bulky goggles, turning awkwardly in circles and reaching out to grab something that isn't there—that is the image many of us have of virtual reality, and one that researchers at Kyushu University want to ...
