Engineering news

Engineering

Floating photovoltaics could limit Africa's future reliance on hydro-generated energy

Floating photovoltaics (FPV), also known as floating solar farms, are photovoltaic systems that can be deployed on the sea's surface or on other bodies of water. While their environmental impact is still the topic of debate ...

Engineering

A promising three-terminal diode for wireless communication and optically driven computing

Two-terminal devices are electronic components connected to electrical circuits via two electrical terminals. Although these components are the key building blocks of most existing devices, they can limit a system's performance ...

Robotics

To optimize guide-dog robots, first listen to the visually impaired

What features does a robotic guide dog need? Ask the blind, say the authors of a recent paper. Led by researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, a study identifying how to develop robot guide dogs with insights ...

Engineering

NASA's X-59 passes milestone toward safe first flight

NASA has taken the next step toward verifying the airworthiness for its quiet supersonic X-59 aircraft with the completion of a milestone review that will allow it to progress toward flight.

Engineering

How green cities could remove CO₂ from the atmosphere

More than a thousand cities around the world now have "net zero" pledges: they want to emit only as much CO2 into the atmosphere as they can simultaneously recapture. An elaborate meta-study has now summarized the state of ...

Engineering

Light, flexible, efficient: Perovskite-based tandem solar cells

Roof tiles are becoming a thing of the past: Today, more and more Swiss roofs boast large black and blue rectangles that convert sunlight into electricity. The blueish color comes from silicon crystals, as the majority of ...

Robotics

Paper power: Origami technology makes its way into quadcopters

Over the past decade, researchers all around the world have been finding new and exciting use cases for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Commonly called "drones," UAVs have proved their worth across many fields, including ...

Robotics

A six-armed robot for precision pollination

Over the past decades, dozens of animal species have become extinct, while thousands of others are now at risk of disappearing. Endangered species include various pollinators, including bees and some types of moths, butterflies, ...

Engineering

Scientists harness the wind as a tool to move objects

Researchers have developed a technique to move objects around with a jet of wind. The new approach makes it possible to manipulate objects at a distance and could be integrated into robots to give machines ethereal fingers.

Engineering

NASA uses small engine to enhance sustainable jet research

Located inside a high-tech NASA laboratory in Cleveland is something you could almost miss at first glance: a small-scale, fully operational jet engine to test new technology that could make aviation more sustainable.