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Slideshow: Feds Study Human Brain; DARPA Wants to Make Robots Autonomous
Blog 
5/20/2013  6 comments
The government wants to study your brain, and DARPA wants to use similar information to give robots true autonomy beyond any artificial intelligence developed to date. Sound like science fiction? It's not.
Harvard, MIT Researchers Design 3D Printed, Self-Assembling Robots
Blog 
5/16/2013  8 comments
Researchers from MIT and Harvard have designed a 3D printed robot that crawls like an inchworm and can self-assemble with an electric jolt.
Video: Seahorse Armor Inspires Robot Design
Engineering Materials 
5/16/2013  3 comments
Engineers at the University of California, San Diego are designing a robotic arm that takes inspiration from the loose, flexible, yet very strong structure of the armored plates on a seahorse's tail.
Rethink Reveals Version of Baxter Industrial Robot for Researchers
Blog 
5/10/2013  14 comments
Rethink Robotics is giving researchers an ability to get up close and personal with its Baxter industrial robot with a new research version they can use to build custom software and applications.
Video Blog: Life-Changing Inventions & the Big Bucks
Blog 
5/8/2013  14 comments
DN brand director Rich Nass picks two important topics for his weekly video blog -- engineering starting salaries and the 20th anniversary of the Internet.
Frequency Response: The Gold Standard
Guest Blogs 
5/8/2013  5 comments
Engineers predict real-world response and identify model parameters.
How to Create a Low-Pass Filter
Blog 
5/7/2013  5 comments
Sometimes you will not find a low-pass filter with the specifications you need in an anti-alias circuit. So you might decide to design your own. But you wonder, “Can I get the same performance I see in application notes?”
Getting a Grip on Automated Manufacturing
Guest Blogs 
5/6/2013  4 comments
Machine designers must select and size the right gripper in order to design a well-functioning automated process.
Video: NASA Working on Lunar Mining Robot
Blog 
5/2/2013  22 comments
NASA is working on a robot for lunar mining operations to produce rocket propellant, water, air, or construction materials for astronauts.
Mobile Technology’s Influence on Data Acquisition
Blog 
4/30/2013  9 comments
Industrial users are coming to expect mobile access to measurement data, according to an article that is part of a recently released National Instruments report.
Slideshow: Nautical Robots Go With the Flow
Blog 
4/25/2013  38 comments
Whether they navigate the salty seas or fresh water lakes, rivers, or oceans, many underwater robots can do a number of different types of tasks, depending on their payloads.
Engineering Creativity Peaks in Kindergarten
Guest Blogs 
4/19/2013  25 comments
As engineers, we’re not nearly as creative as we think we are.
Maxon Introduces Mini-Servo Motor for Robot Design, Automation
Product News 
4/18/2013  2 comments
Maxon has added a new miniaturized OEM plug-in module to its ESCON servo controller family line that can control permanent-magnet activated brushed and brushless DC with Hall sensors up to approximately 250W.
Video: Man-Sized Jellyfish Robot to Patrol the Seas
Blog 
4/16/2013  16 comments
Engineers at Virginia Tech have built a jellyfish robot prototype the size of an adult man they say will one day patrol the seas to monitor environmental conditions, study aquatic life, make maps of the ocean's floors, and perform military surveillance.
Video: Festo's Dragonfly Robot Flies, Hovers & Glides
Blog 
4/12/2013  33 comments
Modeled after a dragonfly, Festo's latest sophisticated robot is the BionicOpter, which can independently move each of its wings to fly in any direction, as well as hover and glide.
Manufacturing Ramps Up in the Cloud
Blog 
4/10/2013  7 comments
Packaged goods companies are constantly being driven to offer higher levels of variety in consumer products. The goal for manufacturers and the machinery builders serving these industries is how they can adapt to move past today’s batch processes to ultimately work toward achieving a batch size of one.
DESIGN West: Ben Heck's Prototyping Tales of Horror
Blog 
4/9/2013  7 comments
If you are planning on attending DESIGN West, don't miss Ben Heckendorn's session, "What the Heck is That? Prototyping Tales of Horror from Ben Heck."
Reference Guide: Design News 2012 Salary Survey
 

The Design News Salary Survey results are in! Download the free 2012 Salary Survey report and find out what over 1,500 engineers and engineering managers are saying about their compensation, job satisfaction, professional backgrounds, challenges in the workplace, and experience with downsizing and hiring trends. Get it now! Sponsored by Aerotek.
White Paper: Innovative Medical Adhesives Simplify and Improve Fastening in Medical Devices
 

Modern adhesives offer medical device engineers a leg up with new options to simplify fastening and improve performance as medical devices and materials continue to advance. Master Bond’s white paper explores the advantages of well-designed structural medical adhesive compounds and their chemistries, features and properties.
White Paper: High Temperature Resistant Adhesives Beat the Heat
 

Selecting the right adhesive product for extreme temperature applications is not as straightforward as reading temperature resistance values on data sheets. Master Bond's white paper takes a closer look at some crucial issues and key factors to consider, when your adhesive application has to beat the heat or cope with the cold.
White Paper: Thermally Conductive Adhesives Keep Things Cool
 

Through heat dissipation, thermally conductive adhesives and potting compounds play a pivotal role in the protection of today’s electronic circuitry. Master Bond’s white paper examines the challenges design engineers face as chip makers up the ante on microprocessor power and density, and how thermally conductive adhesives and potting compounds can manage heat while solving other application issues.
White Paper: Understanding Low Outgassing Adhesives
 

Engineers often want to know whether an adhesive is low outgassing or generic. And while there are cases when nothing but a low outgassing product will do, the truth is that many so-called generic adhesives inherently have low outgassing levels. Here's a guide to understanding when low outgassing adhesives are the right choice.
White Paper: The Business Value of Product Data Management
 

Read how executives from Ametek Technical Products, VISA Lighting and others, were able to achieve game-changing business objectives with Product Document Management (PDM). The author, Jim Brown is the President of Tech-Clarity, an independent research and consulting firm that specializes in analyzing the true business value of software technology
Fully Integrated Motion Controllers Power Mobile, Social Robots
Features 
4/5/2013  5 comments
While advanced controllers have exponentially increased the number and kind of tasks industrial robots can accomplish, mobile robotics brings a new set of challenges to motion control that favors the compact, increasingly integrated motion control systems.
ProBueno Turns Your Donated Skills Into Dollars for Charity
Blog 
4/5/2013  6 comments
ProBueno allows skilled workers to donate their time for contributions to the charity of their choice.
Robotic Advances in Aerospace Manufacturing
Blog 
4/4/2013  12 comments
The unique demands of aerospace and defense manufacturing are stretching robotic system suppliers to add advanced control functions to keep up the pace of innovation.
Self-Assembled Devices May Transform Manufacturing
Engineering Materials 
4/3/2013  33 comments
The line between materials and machines will blur when modular, self-reconfigurable robots and self-assembling engineered DNA bricks change the rules of product manufacturing.
Excelling in Shades-of-Grey Real World
Guest Blogs 
4/1/2013  5 comments
Grey-box modeling combines the physical and empirical to solve problems.
Video: Crowdsourcing App Helps Space Agency Improve Robots
Blog 
3/28/2013  19 comments
A free iPhone video game app turns your Parrot AR.Drone into a simulated spacecraft, which you can use to simulate docking on the International Space Station. You get points for accuracy and speed, and the European Space Agency gets tons of data to help make better space robots.
Mitsubishi's Dexterous Robots for Factory Automation
Product News 
3/28/2013  13 comments
Mitsubishi has released the latest in a series of vertical-axis robots that are designed to perform particularly dexterous and complex tasks formerly operated by humans in a factory setting.
Embedding Robots Into the Process
Features 
3/27/2013  6 comments
Robots are increasingly being integrated into manufacturing systems by combining off-the-shelf mechanical solutions with programmable robotic safety zones.
NASA Uses Video Processing to Study Hurricanes & Wildfires
Blog 
3/27/2013  12 comments
Advanced video processing and networking deployed aboard NASA's Global Hawk as part of its Hurricane Severe Storm Sentinel mission use a full motion video compression appliance to provide visual situational awareness of hurricanes and wildfires.
Robot Helps People Walk Again
Blog 
3/26/2013  30 comments
The Ekso wearable robot applies torque to the hip, knee, and ankle joints to help people move, powered by a computer worn by the patient in a backpack.
Results: Your Opinions on a Design Ideas Forum
Engineering Materials 
3/25/2013  22 comments
Here's a summary of your ideas for starting a Design Ideas forum that poses design problems and asks for input from the community to help solve them in innovative ways. We also ask for a bit more feedback to help fine-tune things.
Slideshow: Robotic Hands Mimic Humans
Blog 
3/22/2013  21 comments
Robot R&D has focused recently on closely emulating the human ability to pick up; manipulate; and move small, delicate objects in unstructured environments outside the factory safety cage.
Slideshow: Competitors Gear Up For DARPA Robot Challenge
Blog 
3/21/2013  32 comments
The stage has been set for a $2 million Department of Defense competition to develop a robot that could perform a number of physical tasks that might be required to respond to an emergency.
Angular Velocity: Misunderstood & Misstated
Guest Blogs 
3/21/2013  1 comment
Kinematic analysis requires defined reference frames and precise notation.
Slideshow: See the Joint Robotics Repair Detachment in Action
Blog 
3/20/2013  20 comments
Joint Robotics Repair Detachment (JRRD) keeps the US military's robot armada up and running.
Slideshow: Y Combinator Hackathon's Prize-Winning Designs
Blog 
3/13/2013  6 comments
Imagine sending an Instagram to your Internet toaster and printing it -- on whole wheat or white bread. Imagine creating your own vision for a variant of Google's Project Glass.
Mars Rover Mining – an Engineering Feat
Blog 
3/12/2013  24 comments
NASA recently announced that the Mars rover Curiosity had collected the first sample from the interior of a rock on another planet.
Self-Assembly Meets 3D Printing
Engineering Materials 
3/8/2013  15 comments
Self-assembly and 3D printing, two technologies at the edges of manufacturing, are on the verge of coming together to make 3D-printed objects that self-assemble when stimulated by water.
Integration in Industrial Plant Control
Blog 
3/8/2013  6 comments
ABB’s Extended Automation System 800xA Release 5.1 includes powerful object oriented tools to model and integrate the whole life cycle of plant and product.
Slideshow: Vending Machines Undergo a Complete Overhaul
Features 
3/7/2013  9 comments
Exciting changes are coming to vending technology, from telematics and new user interfaces to mobile payments and high-precision automation. Coke, Best Buy, and Starbucks are already on board.
What's Your Opinion on a Design Ideas Forum?
Engineering Materials 
3/6/2013  40 comments
What do you think about starting a forum on Design News that focuses on innovative, problem-solving design ideas where individual engineers and companies can trade comments and suggestions for solving design problems?
Even More on Rotary Encoders
Mechatronics Zone 
3/5/2013  2 comments
This column wraps up our discussion of encoders with information about resolvers, which provide angular data over 360 degrees.
Check Out Rich’s Video
Blog 
3/4/2013  27 comments
Brand Director Rich Nass has some things to get off his chest.
Video: Flying Camera Is Your Personal Paparazzo
Blog 
3/4/2013  63 comments
The palm-sized MeCam from Always Innovating, based on open-source software, will follow you around and take videos of you and your friends.
Maxon Releases New Digital EtherCAT Controller
Product News 
3/1/2013  11 comments
Maxon Motor has released a new compact digital controller with EtherCAT that allows for real-time positioning and high-speed synchronization of multi-axis systems, including robotics, automation, and mechantronics.
Robotic Fish Glides, Swims While Looking for Oil
Blog 
3/1/2013  7 comments
Networks of robotic fish that can glide long distances, as well as swim by flapping their tails, are being developed by Michigan State University researchers to explore the Gulf looking for spilled crude oil.
Video: Robotic Droplets Will Assemble Satellites
Blog 
2/28/2013  23 comments
Researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder are developing small, swarming robots that will assemble a space station or a satellite, or clean up oil spills on Earth. Dubbed droplets, they form a "liquid that thinks" when they swarm together.
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From Dell / Intel®
New Paradigms in Design Work
Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013    3
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
From Dell / Intel®
Increased Workstation Performance Is as Easy as 'DPPO'
Trey Morton, Dell, 4/25/2013    2
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
From Dell / Intel®
Taking Some of the Grit out of Manufacturing
Kirsten Billhardt, Manufacturing Industry Marketing Strategist, Dell, 3/26/2013    5
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
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