Category Physics

RoboBees manufactured by the Harvard Microrobotics Lab have a 3 centimeter wingspan and weigh only 80 milligrams. Cornell engineers are developing new programming that will make them more autonomous and adaptable to complex environments. Credit: Harvard Microrobotics Lab

While engineers have had success building tiny, insect-like robots, programming them to behave autonomously like real insects continues to present technical challenges. A group of Cornell engineers has been experimenting with a new type of programming that mimics the way an insect’s brain works, which could soon have people wondering if that fly on the wall is actually a fly.

The amount of computer processing power needed for a robot to sense a gust of wind, using tiny hair-like metal probes imbedded on its wings, adjust i...

The airplane in which Flagship researchers performed experiment in microgravity. Operated by Novespace, the plane makes special maneuvers to create zero gravity conditions inside the plane. Credit: Graphene Flagship

In a successful collaboration between the Graphene Flagship and the ESA, experiments testing graphene for two different space-related applications have shown extremely promising results. Based on these results, the Flagship are continuing to develop graphene devices for use in space. “Graphene as we know has a lot of opportunities. One of them, recognised early on, is space applications, and this is the first time that graphene has been tested in space-like applications, worldwide,” said Prof...

Artist’s impression of the architecture of a silicon CMOS chip for a spin-based quantum computer; above is mostly standard CMOS components, and below the quantum bits in operation. (Illustration: Tony Melov)

A reimagining of today’s computer chips by Australian and Dutch engineers shows how a quantum computer can be manufactured – using mostly standard silicon technology. Research teams all over the world are exploring different ways to design a working computing chip that can integrate quantum interactions. Now, UNSW engineers believe they have cracked the problem, reimagining the silicon microprocessors we know to create a complete design for a quantum computer chip that can be manufactured using mostly standard industry processes and components.

The new chip design, published in the jou...

Towers of up to 500 chiral cubic structures rotated around their axis under load. Achiral structures do not exhibit this behavior. Credit: T. Frenzel/KIT

Using 3D printers for the microrange, researchers of KIT have succeeded in creating a metamaterial from cubic building blocks that responds to compression forces by a rotation. Usually, this can only be achieved by transmission using a crankshaft, for instance. The sophisticated design of bars and ring structures and the underlying mathematics are now presented in the latest issue of Science.

“If a force is exerted from above onto a material, the latter deforms in various ways. It may be bulged, compressed, or bent,” says Martin Wegener, Professor of the Institute of Applied Physics and Director of the Institute of Nanotechnology of KIT...