Overview The February 2026 Robotics & Motion Control Special Report showcases cutting-edge advances transforming the robotics landscape, highlighting innovations spanning tactile sensing, vision systems, soft robotics, autonomous surgery, and AI-driven design. A key breakthrough is the developme

Researchers have developed a robot that uses radio waves, which can pass through walls, to sense occluded objects. The robot, called RF-Grasp, combines this powerful sensing with more traditional computer vision to locate and grasp items that might otherwise be blocked from view. The advance could o

Sensors Expo is returning to the McEnery Convention Center, San Jose, CA from June 27 – 29, with its new name — Sensors Converge. There are nine conference tracks that highlight the different applications for sensors, but if you take a closer look, they share a common theme. It’s all about intellige

Robots are good at making identical repetitive movements such as a simple task on an assembly line. But they lack the ability to perceive objects as they move through an environment. A recent study was conducted by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, NVIDIA, the University

In-space and planetary surface assembly for human exploration is a challenging domain that encompasses various technological thrusts to support human missions. NASA is developing autonomous assembly agents to build structures like habitats and antennae on the Moon. These modular and reconfigurable A

In a Level 4 autonomous car , a vehicles automated driving system performs all driving tasks and monitors the environment. While the driver has the option to control the vehicle, the human operator, in theory, does not need to pay attention in these circumstances. Do you think owners of a Level

Before an autonomous vehicle can take the road, it needs to be tested for as many scenarios as possible. Simulation software and model-based development tools can create virtual test-drive environments. HIL, or hardware-in-the-loop, testing connects a controllers real signals to a test system that

Purdue University innovators are taking cues from the spider to develop better 3D photodetectors for biomedical imaging. Inspired by the repeating architecture patterns of a spider web, the team demonstrated a resilient, dome-shaped photodetector array that detects both direction and intensity of in

In efforts to automatically capture important data from scientific papers, computer scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a method to accurately detect small, geometric objects such as triangles within dense, low-quality plots contained in image data.

Spinoff is NASA’s annual publication featuring successfully commercialized NASA technology. This commercialization has contributed to the development of products and services in the fields of health and medicine, consumer goods, transportation, public safety, computer technology, and environmental r

Researchers have created AuraRing, a ring and wristband combination that can detect the precise location of someone’s index finger and continuously track hand movements. The ring emits a signal that can be picked up on the wristband, which can then identify the position and orientation of the ring a

E-Tongue, a patent-pending technology, is comprised of a silicon-based interdigitated electrode (IDE) array with nanostructured materials that can detect biomolecules and chemical compounds in a liquid sample. Chemicals and biological species — such as amino acids, DNA, minerals, salts, and dissolve

Better sensing capabilities would make it possible for drones to navigate in dangerous environments and for cars to prevent accidents caused by human error. Current state-of-the-art sensor technology doesn’t process data fast enough, but nature does. Researchers have built sensors inspired by spider

A new radar system, easily integrated into today’s vehicles, uses Doppler radar to bounce radio waves off surfaces such as buildings and parked automobiles. The radar signal hits the surface at an angle, so its reflection rebounds off like a cue ball hitting the wall of a pool table. The signal goes

The organ-on-a-chip concept creates small-scale biological structures that mimic a specific organ function such as transferring oxygen from the air into the bloodstream in the same way that a lung does. The goal is to use these organs-on-a-chip — also called microphysiological models — to expedite h

Often, a data monitoring system is needed in rugged, harsh, unpredictable terrain across large swaths of territory. The required solution must be reliable; however, operators of the system are rarely able to visit the remote site to retrieve data or perform routine maintenance. The Long-Range Wirele

Every year, a lack of vaccination leads to about 1.5 million preventable deaths, primarily in developing nations. One factor that makes vaccination difficult is the lack of infrastructure for storing medical records, so there’s often no easy way to determine who needs a particular vaccine. Researche

An integral field spectrograph (IFS) is an instrument combining spectrographic and imaging capabilities. IFSs provide spectral information over a 2D field of view. In lenslet-based IFS designs, a lenslet array is placed in the spectrograph entrance plane. All beams generated by the lenslet array are

NASA’s Langley Research Center has developed a solid-state integrated circuit based on a field effect transistor (FET). Called ergFET, the sensor characterizes the electronic properties of materials, allowing for detection of items like baggage, wiring, and liquids, and can even be used for medical

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center has developed a sensor for microanalytical systems that measures, in real time, the flow rate and temperature of the liquid being sampled. Current sensors divert the liquid to separate temperature and flow sensors, which can result in fluid leakage and the need for a