Engineers at Duke University are developing a smart robotic system for sniffing out pollution hotspots and sources of toxic leaks. Their approach enables a robot to incorporate calculations made on the fly to account for the complex airflows of confined spaces rather than simply ‘following its nose.’ “Many existing approaches that employ robots to locate […]
Researcher Sees Potential in Generating Energy from Vibrations
“Everyone is trying to get free energy—from the wind, from the waves, from the sun,” said Dani Levin, a Duke MEMS Ph.D. student in the lab of Professor Earl Dowell. As an aerospace engineer who specializes in designing structures to avoid destructive vibrations, it was only natural for Levin to approach the quest for sustainable energy by applying what […]
Bending Light Around Tight Corners Without Backscattering Losses
Engineers at Duke University have demonstrated a device that can direct photons of light around sharp corners with virtually no losses due to backscattering, a key property that will be needed if electronics are ever to be replaced with light-based devices. The result was achieved with photonic crystals built on the concept of topological insulators, […]
Making ‘Smart Headlights’ with Machine Learning
Duke engineers are helping to invent headlights that automatically recognize surrounding environments, selectively illuminate important objects and display information on the roadway. It’s a common scene for anybody driving at night on a dark road. Zipping around corners and over hills, the car’s high beams are on to improve vision while the driver’s hand remains […]
Ricocheting Radio Waves Monitor The Tiniest Movements In A Room
Relief may be on the horizon for anyone who has ever jumped around a room like a jack-in-the-box to get motion-sensing lights to turn back on, thanks to a new motion sensor based on metamaterials that is sensitive enough to monitor a person’s breathing. In a pair of new studies, researchers from Duke University and […]
Robots Lend Themselves A Hand
A famous viral video about the DARPA Robotics Challenge shows all sorts of humanoid robots clumsily falling down. Bipedal movement is rather unstable, which is not only a problem for a robot trying to complete its task, but also because falling can damage a very expensive piece of machinery. Roboticists across the globe are tackling […]
Laser Evaporation Technology to Create New Solar Material
Materials scientists at Duke University have developed a method to create hybrid thin-film materials that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to make. The technique could be the gateway to new generations of solar cells, light-emitting diodes and photodetectors. The research team described their methods Dec. 22, 2017 in the journal ACS Energy Letters. Perovskites […]
Easier Paths To Quantum-Based Techology
Engineers have shown that a widely used method of detecting single photons can also count the presence of at least four photons at a time. The researchers say this discovery will unlock new capabilities in physics labs working in quantum information science around the world, while providing easier paths to developing quantum-based technologies. The study […]
Electromagnetic Water Cloak Eliminates Drag And Wake
Researchers have developed a water cloaking concept based on electromagnetic forces that could eliminate an object’s wake, greatly reducing its drag while simultaneously helping it avoid detection. The idea originated at Duke University in 2011 when researchers outlined the general concept. By matching the acceleration of the surrounding water to an object’s movement, it would […]
Seeing Through Walls of Unknown Materials
Researchers at Duke University have devised a way to see through walls using a narrow band of microwave frequencies without any advance knowledge of what the walls are made out of. Besides having obvious applications in the realm of security, the approach could lead to inexpensive devices to help construction workers easily locate conduits, pipes […]