Office of Naval Research (ONR)

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Zhao Lab

MIT's Zhao Lab created a magnetically steerable robotic thread designed to navigate the narrow, winding pathways of brain's blood vessels.

Silatronix

Silatronix is a Wisconsin-based firm that has developed flame-retardant additives for Li-ion batteries based on organosilicon compounds. This profile is an updated version. IDTechEx senior analyst Lorenzo Grande interviewed Silatronix VP Global Sales Carl Thoemmes in 2016.

DNA as Tool to Build Graphene Circuits

Graphene is a groundbreaking material in the nanotechnology field, but it has characteristics that limit its potential applications. A research team is investigating ways to incorporate DNA nanotechnology as a construction tool to assemble graphene in new ways that could make the material more useful in electronic devices, among other applications.

Tunabot: First robotic fish to keep pace with tuna

Mechanical engineers have created the first robotic fish proven to mimic the speed and movements of live yellowfin tuna.

Robotic thread is designed to slip through the brain's blood vessels

Engineers have developed a magnetically steerable, thread-like robot that can actively glide through narrow, winding pathways, such as the labrynthine vasculature of the brain.

Slothbot takes a leisurely approach to environmental monitoring

For environmental monitoring, precision agriculture, infrastructure maintenance and certain security applications, slow and energy efficient can be better than fast and always needing a recharge. That's where "SlothBot" comes in.

Spider silk could be used as robotic muscle

Spider silk, already known as one of the strongest materials for its weight, turns out to have another unusual property that might lead to new kinds of artificial muscles or robotic actuators, researchers have found.

Hybrid power management system

Atrex Energy has successfully developed, demonstrated and delivered a hybrid power management prototype unit to the Office of Naval Research testing facility.

Advanced Ceramic Fibers

Advanced Ceramic Fibers (ACF) manufacture specialty fibers for metal, polymer and ceramic matrix composites. Ken Koller (CEO/COO), Shawn Perkins (President), and John Garnier (Founder/CTO) spoke with IDTechEx technology analyst Richard Collins.

Cell-sized robots

Researchers have created what may be the smallest robots yet that can sense their environment, store data, and even carry out computational tasks. These devices, which are about the size of a human egg cell, consist of tiny electronic circuits made of two-dimensional materials, piggybacking on minuscule particles called colloids.

Finding defects in 3D printing using gold

That glint of gold has always captured our eyes, but now the precious metal has a new use - finding defects in 3D printing.

Magnetic 3-D-printed structures crawl, roll, jump, and play catch

New printing technique could be used to develop remotely controlled biomedical devices.

Making driverless cars change lanes more like human drivers do

In the field of self-driving cars, algorithms for controlling lane changes are an important topic of study. But most existing lane-change algorithms have one of two drawbacks: Either they rely on detailed statistical models of the driving environment, which are difficult to assemble and too complex to analyze on the fly; or they're so simple that they can lead to impractically conservative decisions, such as never changing lanes at all.

Ingestible bacteria on a chip could help diagnose disease

Researchers have built an ingestible sensor equipped with genetically engineered bacteria that can diagnose bleeding in the stomach or other gastrointestinal problems. This "bacteria-on-a-chip" approach combines sensors made from living cells with ultra-low-power electronics that convert the bacterial response into a wireless signal that can be read by a smartphone.

Guiding marine robots to optimal sampling sites

Observing the world's oceans is increasingly a mission assigned to autonomous underwater vehicles — marine robots that are designed to drift, drive, or glide through the ocean without any real-time input from human operators. Critical questions that AUVs can help to answer are where, when, and what to sample for the most informative data, and how to optimally reach sampling locations.

All power to the proton: battery breakthrough

Researchers have demonstrated for the first time a working rechargeable "proton battery" that could re-wire how we power our homes, vehicles and devices.

3D-printable alloy shows promise for flexible electronics, robotics

Researchers have taken a key step toward the rapid manufacture of flexible computer screens and other stretchable electronic devices, including soft robots.

Lightweight syntactic foams could help submarines dive deeper

A team of materials scientists has developed the first process to 3D print components of syntactic foam — extremely strong and lightweight composites used in vehicles, airplanes, and ships.

Next big breakthrough in robotics

While drones and driverless cars dominate the headlines, another breakthrough—robot dexterity—is likely to have an even greater impact in both business and everyday life.

Nanostructure boosts stability of organic thin-film transistors

A nanostructured gate dielectric may have addressed the most significant obstacle to expanding the use of organic semiconductors for thin-film transistors.