In a research project for the U.S. Army, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley developed an agile robot, called Salto that looks like a Star Wars Imperial walker in miniature and may be able to aid in scouting and search-and-rescue operations. Robots like this may one day be used to save lives of both […]
Army Researchers Explore Benefits of Immersive Technology for Soldiers
The emergence of next generation virtual and augmented reality devices like the Oculus Rift and Microsoft HoloLens has increased interest in using mixed reality to simulate training, enhance command and control, and improve the effectiveness of warfighters on the battlefield. It is thought that putting mission relevant battlefield data, such as satellite imagery or body-worn […]
Army-Funded Research Results in New Kits for Teaching Science
An affordable children’s educational kit is the latest commercial spinoff of research pursued by the U.S. Army to create advanced materials for Soldier systems. A team of researchers funded by the Army created and designed a new resource for science teachers. BioBitTM is an educational platform for teaching synthetic biology to kindergartners through high school. […]
Rejuvenating Older Zinc Batteries
Army scientists, with a team of researchers from the University of Maryland and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, have created a water-based zinc battery that is simultaneously powerful, rechargeable and intrinsically safe. The high-impact journal Nature Materials published a peer-reviewed paper based on this ground-breaking research April 16. In prior achievements, these scientists invented a […]
Invertebrates Inspire First Fully 3D Printed Active Materials For Robots
To overcome the material rigidity and actuation limitations in current robotic systems, a joint U.S. Army Research Laboratory and University of Minnesota research project sought inspiration from invertebrates. The U.S. Army uses robots that are structurally rigid, making them impractical when performing military operations in highly congested and contested urban environments, where covert maneuvering is […]
Army Scientists Uncover How To Stop Cyber Intrusions
Army-funded researchers at the University of California in Los Angles have found a proverbial smoking gun signature of the long sought-after Majorana particle, and the find, they say, could block intruders on sensitive communication networks. The Majorana particles, which were predicted more than 80 years ago by Italian theoretical physicist Ettore Majorana, could become critical […]
Water-Based Lithium-Ion Batteries That Don’t Explode Now Created
Researchers at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory and the University of Maryland have developed for the first time a lithium-ion battery that uses a water-salt solution as its electrolyte and reaches the 4.0 volt mark desired for household electronics, such as laptop computers, without the fire and explosive risks associated with some commercially available non-aqueous […]