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News tagged with actuator

Neutron scattering charts moves of memory-shape alloys that change structure in response to environmental cues

(Phys.org) -- Shape-memory alloys (SMAs) are an engineer's dream, able to shape-shift spontaneously to accommodate changing operating conditions. A research team from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration ...

Physics / Condensed Matter

created May 09, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

A new paper made of graphene and protein fibrils

(Phys.org) -- Researchers led by Raffaele Mezzenga, a professor in Food and Soft Materials Science, have created a new nanocomposite made of graphene and protein fibrils: a special paper, which combines the ...

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created May 07, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (8) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Whether grasping Easter eggs or glass bottles -- this robotic hand uses tact

Researchers at Saarland University together with associates in Bologna and Naples have developed a robotic hand that can accomplish both tasks with ease and yet including the actuators is scarcely larger than ...

Electronics / Robotics

created Mar 30, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (7) | comments 0

Electroactive polymer key to durable, affordable full-screen Braille displays

(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of North Carolina State University researchers are one step closer to creating a workable, affordable full-screen Braille computer display that would allow the blind to scan Web pages in much the same ...

Technology / Engineering

created Mar 28, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

New magnetic-field-sensitive alloy could find use in novel micromechanical devices

(PhysOrg.com) -- Led by a group at the University of Maryland (UMd), a multi-institution team of researchers has combined modern materials research and an age-old metallurgy technique to produce an alloy that ...

Physics / Condensed Matter

created Nov 23, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Microfabrication breakthrough could set piezoelectric material applications in motion

(PhysOrg.com) -- Integrating a complex, single-crystal material with "giant" piezoelectric properties onto silicon, University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers and physicists can fabricate low-voltage, near-nanoscale ...

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created Nov 17, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

'Flying carpet': Princeton team's plastic sheet can hover above ground (w/ video)

(PhysOrg.com) -- A thin sheet of plastic has been making headlines at Princeton as a magical flying carpet, after the publication of a paper describing experiments by the team with their prototype sheet of ...

Physics / General Physics

created Oct 01, 2011 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (12) | comments 8 | with audio podcast weblog

Do it yourself guy builds train detector to automatically shut bedroom window

(PhysOrg.com) -- In a nice display of can-do thinking leading to positive action, a guy by the name of Ed Rogers has devised a device that automatically shuts the window in his bedroom whenever a train passes ...

Technology / Hi Tech & Innovation

created Sep 16, 2011 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (7) | comments 1 | with audio podcast weblog

Patent awarded for 'method and system of controlling airfoil actuators'

Syracuse University has been awarded a patent for the development of a “Method and System of Controlling Airfoil Actuators.” This research will lead to greater maneuverability options for wing design on airplanes ...

Technology / Engineering

created Sep 08, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Tactile technology guaranteed to send shivers down your spine

A new tactile technology developed at Disney Research, Pittsburgh (DRP), called Surround Haptics, makes it possible for video game players and film viewers to feel a wide variety of sensations, from the smoothness of a finger ...

Technology / Engineering

created Aug 08, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Heated AFM tip allows direct fabrication of ferroelectric nanostructures on plastic

Using a technique known as thermochemical nanolithography (TCNL), researchers have developed a new way to fabricate nanometer-scale ferroelectric structures directly on flexible plastic substrates that would ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Jul 18, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Zhejiang University researchers design gecko inspired robot

(PhysOrg.com) -- Those of you who paid close attention in biology (or zoology) class may recall that the gecko can climb any vertical substance known to man, with the exception of Teflon, without much trouble ...

Electronics / Robotics

created May 27, 2011 | popularity 1 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast weblog

New 'nanobead' approach could revolutionize sensor technology

Researchers at Oregon State University have found a way to use magnetic "nanobeads" to help detect chemical and biological agents, with possible applications in everything from bioterrorism to medical diagnostics, ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Apr 26, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Innovative microactuators: Compact 3.5 mm cubic rotary-linear piezoelectric actuator

(PhysOrg.com) -- Microactuators are critical components for industrial applications such as MEMS, micro-medical devices, and microrobotics. However, the fabrication of increasingly sophisticated, millimeter ...

Technology / Engineering

created Mar 25, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

NIST's new scanning probe microscope is supercool

The discoveries of superconductivity, the quantum Hall effect and the fractional quantum Hall effect were all the result of measurements made at increasingly lower temperatures. Now, pushing the regime of ...

Physics / General Physics

created Dec 12, 2010 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (14) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Actuator

An actuator is a type of motor for moving or controlling a mechanism or system. It is operated by a source of energy, usually in the form of an electric current, hydraulic fluid pressure or pneumatic pressure, and converts that energy into some kind of motion. An actuator is the mechanism by which an agent acts upon an environment. The agent can be either an artificial intelligent agent or any other autonomous being (human, other animal, etc).

For more information about Actuator, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.