National Science Foundation

Stretchable Sensor Gives Robots and VR a Human Touch

Researchers have created a fiber-optic sensor that combines low-cost LEDs and dyes, resulting in a stretchable "skin" that detects deformations such as pressure, bending and strain. This sensor could give soft robotic systems - and anyone using augmented reality technology - the ability to feel the same rich, tactile sensations that mammals depend on to navigate the natural world.

In-Shoe Sensors and Mobile Robots Help Seniors Stay Active

Researchers are leveraging some of the newest mechanical and robotic technologies to help some of our oldest populations stay healthy, active, and independent.

Autonomous Multi-Drone Aerial Surveys of Antarctic Penguin Colonies

Aerial surveys of penguin colonies have been conducted before, usually with helicopters or a single drone. The helicopter method produces great image quality but is expensive, fuel-inefficient and risks disturbing the birds. The single drone survey is time-consuming and - because the drones must be launched from a safe distance, about five kilometers from the colony - difficult to navigate.

Wearable Sensor to Help ALS Patients Communicate

People with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis suffer from a gradual decline in their ability to control their muscles. As a result, they often lose the ability to speak, making it difficult to communicate with others.

Xidas Introduces 'The Battery That Never Dies'

Xidas IoT becomes the first to create a cost-effective solution for the IoT market's major issue: battery life. The increasing benefit of wireless sensors in the industrial and automation world is being restricted by the pain of replacing their batteries.

Treeswift's Autonomous Robots Take Flight to Save Forests

Forests cover 30% of the Earth's landmass, but that number is on the decline. Despite forests' crucial role in conserving wildlife and processing carbon dioxide, many are threatened by deforestation and wildfires. Complicating these threats is the lack of quantitative information that foresters and environmental researchers need for making important decisions to preserve forests.

Dimensional Energy

Dimensional Energy is a green technology company developing a catalytic process for creating aviation fuel from carbon dioxide and sunlight. In October 2020, IDTechEx Technology Analyst Dr Michael Dent spoke with Jason Salfi, co-founder and CEO of Dimensional Energy about the company and its technologies.

Xidas's New 'VP3' Power Pod Tackles Sustainability and Landfill Issues

Xidas IoT is launching a new breed of self-charging batteries to minimize the battery-landfill dilemma by increasing the lifetime of the battery and reducing the times of replacement.

Robots to Help Children Touch the Outside World

A team of researchers is working to improve telepresence robots and the algorithms that drive them to help children with disabilities stay connected to their classmates, teachers and communities.

Lux Semiconductors

Lux Semiconductors are an early stage company that have developed a patent pending system-on-foil platform that enables flexible silicon ICs to be directly produced on flexible substrates.

Valgotech LLC

We interviewed President Dr David Olawale August 2020. His areas of expertise include multifunctional composites, sensor systems, product development and technology commercialization.

Molecular Glasses

Molecular Glasses, Inc. has developed an innovative entirely new class of organic non-crystallizable OLED host materials based on isomeric mixtures, OLEDIQ™. These materials are suitable for both vacuum deposition and solution processing (printing). With single molecule hosts the emitter materials aggregate because of their low solid-state solubility. The multi-component Molecular Glasses hosts reduce emitter aggregation and OLED devices with these materials have improved efficiency and lifetime. Polymer OLED materials are soluble but are difficult to purify and are less efficient than single molecules.

3D Printed Latex Rubber Breakthrough

Researchers have discovered a novel process to 3D print latex rubber, unlocking the ability to print a variety of elastic materials with complex geometric shapes.

Researchers Print, Tune Graphene Sensors to Monitor Food Freshness

Researchers dipped their new, printed sensors into tuna broth and watched the readings. It turned out the sensors - printed with high-resolution aerosol jet printers on a flexible polymer film and tuned to test for histamine, an allergen and indicator of spoiled fish and meat - can detect histamine down to 3.41 parts per million.

Hyper-Efficient Conservation Robot

For the next several months, visitors to the Atlanta Botanical Garden will be able to observe the testing of a new high-tech tool in the battle to save some of the world's most endangered species. SlothBot, a slow-moving and energy-efficient robot that can linger in the trees to monitor animals, plants, and the environment below, will be tested near the Garden's popular Canopy Walk.

Research on Stretchable 'Papertronics'

In the last decade, paper-based electronics — also known as "papertronics" — have evolved into an eco-friendly alternative because of physical and chemical characteristics such as their light weight, biocompatibility, biodegradability, low-cost manufacturing and foldability.