Manufacturing Bits: Nov. 12


Knife-Wielding Robot Cornell University has taught a knife-wielding robot to work in a mock-supermarket checkout line. In doing so, researchers have modified a Baxter robot from Rethink Robotics. In the experiment, the robot coactively learns and makes adjustments while an action is in progress. But when performing tasks at a checkout line, the robot’s problem is to identify the appropria... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Sept. 17


Harvesting energy from light In a finding they believe could improve technologies for generating electricity from solar energy and lead to more efficient optoelectronic devices used in communications, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and Duke University have demonstrated a new mechanism for extracting energy from light. They said the process is much more efficient than conven... » read more

System Bits: Sept. 10


Enabling flexible touchscreens While transparent conductors make touchscreens possible, the cost and the physical limitations of the material these conductors are usually made of are hampering progress toward flexible touchscreen devices but a research collaboration between the University of Pennsylvania and Duke University has shown a new a way to design transparent conductors using metal nan... » read more

System Bits: July 30


Controlling nanomaterials To find out why some sets of flat nanocrystals arrange themselves in an alternating, herringbone style even though it wasn’t the simplest pattern, University of Pennsylvania researchers turned to experts in computer simulation at the University of Michigan and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The result of the collaboration gives nanotechnology research... » read more

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