Category Archives: Engineering

NASA’s X-59, the centerpiece of the agency’s Quesst mission to help enable commercial supersonic travel over land, is seen in this illustration from Lockheed Martin, the company NASA contracted with to design, build, and conduct initial flight tests with the aircraft. First flight is targeted for 2023. Credit: Lockheed Martin Seventy-five years ago, a sonic…

In concrete element buildings, the average amount of film plastic waste was 0.33 kg per gross square. Credit: Krishna Chauhan For the first time, researchers at Aalto University examined how much film plastic is produced in the construction of apartment blocks. When the amount of waste is known at different stages of construction, recycling can…

Flapping-wing robot controlling its attitude using this new principle. It is equipped with an artificial compound eye inspired by insects, which can perceive optical flow at a high frequency. Credit: Christophe De Wagter/TU Delft For proper operation, drones usually use accelerometers to determine the direction of gravity. In a new study published in Nature on…

With just a random disturbance that energizes the cubes, they selectively self-assemble into a larger block. Credit: MIT CSAIL While automated manufacturing is ubiquitous today, it was once a nascent field birthed by inventors such as Oliver Evans, who is credited with creating the first fully automated industrial process, in flour mill he built and…

Credit: University of Sheffield A project led by Dr. Simon Graham, research associate, EPSRC MAPP—Future Manufacturing Hub, combines field assisted sintering technology (FAST) with hot rolling to convert surplus aluminum alloy powders from atomization into sheet material in two solid-state steps. Metal additive manufacturing (AM) techniques typically operate using powders with limited particle size ranges….

The plot shows the potential for carbon capture and re-use technologies to store or re-use carbon at 10% of the market share for each product, as well as how soon they might reach that 10% of market share. Credit: Global CO2 Initiative When the Global CO2 Initiative first came to the University of Michigan in…

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain A University of Missouri engineering team has devised a new way to determine how many times you can recharge a lithium-ion battery before it needs to be replaced. Lithium-ion batteries are common in electronics such as laptops, and they’re a key component to getting electric vehicles on the road. They can…

(Upper) Elephant and gripper gripping objects in various sizes and shapes.(Lower) Comparison of an elephant trunk and the gripper gripping potato chips. Credit: Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM) A gripper robot has been developed that can grasp all types of objects, from very fine or thin objects such as acupuncture needles and sewing…

Peter Olsén, a researcher at KTH, holds up a sample piece of a new degradable plastic from wood. “These new materials, because of their high fiber content and degradable, matrix could be a game changer for a future circular material economy,” he says. Credit: Wallenberg Wood Science Center, KTH Royal Institute of Technology Plastics used…

Underwater noise during the construction of offshore wind turbines can displace marine animals. Credit: Shutterstock The strong winds blowing over Australia’s rugged coastlines will soon power many of our homes, as offshore wind farms are poised to begin construction. But our new research highlights the need to ensure any potential risks to marine life is…