Virtual 3D models of real objects offer numerous advantages – be it for digitization or in the quality control of industrial manufacturing. But the more complex an object, the more difficult it is to measure its shape and transfer it to a 3D model. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF, in collaboration with MTU Maintenance, have now developed a portable sensor that enables particularly flexible 3D capture, for example of aircraft engines. The handheld…

Energy-efficient robot hand learns how not to drop the ball. Researchers have designed a low-cost, energy-efficient robotic hand that can grasp a range of objects – and not drop them – using just the movement of its wrist and the feeling in its ‘skin’. Grasping objects of different sizes, shapes and textures is a problem that is easy for a human, but challenging for a robot. Researchers from the University of Cambridge designed a soft, 3D printed robotic hand that…

Meta-optics shows physical processes in the attosecond range. A new type of meta-optics from Harvard has proven its functionality in experiments at Graz University of Technology. With it, it is possible to observe the smallest structures such as nanoparticles or transistors. Developed at Harvard, and successfully tested at Graz University of Technology (TU Graz), a revolutionary new meta-optics for microscopes with extremely high spatial and temporal resolution has proven its functional ability in laboratory tests at the Institute of Experimental…

The 2D map of this “disk wind” may reveal clues to galaxy formation. An accretion disk is a colossal whirlpool of gas and dust that gathers around a black hole or a neutron star like cotton candy as it pulls in material from a nearby star. As the disk spins, it whips up powerful winds that push and pull on the sprawling, rotating plasma. These massive outflows can affect the surroundings of black holes by heating and blowing away the…

A cornerstone for 1000-fold improved communication rates to bridge long distances. Diamond material is of great importance for future technologies such as the quantum internet. Special defect centers can be used as quantum bits (qubits) and emit single light particles that are referred to as single photons. To enable data transmission with feasible communication rates over long distances in a quantum network, all photons must be collected in optical fibers and transmitted without being lost. It must also be ensured…

Intense laser light can induce magnetism in solids on the attosecond scale – the fastest magnetic response to date. That is the finding reached by theoreticians at the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter in Hamburg, Germany, who used advanced simulations to investigate the magnetization process in several 2D and 3D materials. Their calculations show that, in structures with heavy atoms, the fast electron dynamics initiated by the laser pulses can be converted to attosecond magnetism….

Lightweight flexible mirrors could be rolled up during launch and precisely reshaped after deployment. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics have developed a new way to produce and shape large, high-quality mirrors that are much thinner than conventional mirrors used for space telescopes. The resulting mirrors are flexible enough to be rolled up and stored compactly inside a launch vehicle.   “Launching and deploying space telescopes is a complicated and costly procedure,” says Sebastian Rabien from the…

The three-fingered robotic gripper can “feel” with great sensitivity along the full length of each finger – not just at the tips. Inspired by the human finger, MIT researchers have developed a robotic hand that uses high-resolution touch sensing to accurately identify an object after grasping it just one time. Many robotic hands pack all their powerful sensors into the fingertips, so an object must be in full contact with those fingertips to be identified, which can take multiple grasps….

… and act in challenging environments. UCLA-led team built chip-free, autonomous OrigaMechs with conductive materials. Roboticists have been using a technique similar to the ancient art of paper folding to develop autonomous machines out of thin, flexible sheets. These lightweight robots are simpler and cheaper to make and more compact for easier storage and transport. However, the rigid computer chips traditionally needed to enable advanced robot capabilities — sensing, analyzing and responding to the environment — add extra weight to…

Conventional concepts from the manufacturing industry are increasingly being pushed to their limits. This is often due to a combination of current challenges like volatile markets, supply crises and rising energy prices. Researchers at the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft have developed an innovative production architecture that addresses these challenges. This architecture relies on modular production rather than rigid process chains. Orders are issued in a newly developed production language and carried out autonomously by machine tools or robots. This way, manufacturers can adapt…

… for enhancing the extreme ultraviolet laser power. A research team unravels a new optical phenomenon involving dark autoionizing states, enhancing the power of an extreme-ultraviolet laser. An international research team led by Professors Tsuneyuki Ozaki and François Légaré at the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS), has developed a unique method to enhance the power of a laser source emitting extreme ultraviolet light pulses. The underlying mechanism of the newly observed phenomenon involves the unique role of dark-autoionizing…

A team from the University of Freiburg and the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics in Frankfurt-am-Main identify anisotropic friction In their investigation, the researchers applied new methods of single molecule force spectroscopy and high performance computing The results provide a key piece of the puzzle for understanding friction in technical applications and biological complexes An interdisciplinary research team of the Institutes of Physical Chemistry and Physics of the University of Freiburg and the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics in Frankfurt-am-Main…

Gamma-ray bursts are the most energetic and luminous events known to occur in the Universe. Short-lived flashes of gamma-rays that typically last from a a tenth of a second to less than an hour, gamma-ray bursts may for a brief period of time outshine entire galaxies. The explosions are believed to be caused by the collapse of massive stars, the collision of neutron stars, or the merging of a neutron star and a black hole. Although we have known about…

The secret has been hiding in plain view for 40 years. But it took the insight of a veteran astronomer to pull it all together within a year, using observations of Saturn from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and retired Cassini probe, in addition to the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft and the retired International Ultraviolet Explorer mission. The discovery: Saturn’s vast ring system is heating the giant planet’s upper atmosphere. The phenomenon has never before been seen in the solar system. It’s an unexpected interaction between Saturn and…

The technology of “the glasses that replace the guide dog” has just been patented in the USA. The European Union patent will follow, and it could well be introduced to the market during the course of next year. Cornel Amariei, a graduate of Bremen’s Constructor University and founder of the start-up .lumen, is convinced that these glasses will give people with blindness and visual impairments a whole new level of mobility and self-determination. Around 40 million people worldwide are affected…

On March 28, the German Federal Research Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger visited the Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO) supertelescope under construction in South Africa together with Dr. Lindsay Magnus, Director of SKA-Mid in South Africa, and Prof. Michael Kramer, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR) in Bonn. There, she announced that Germany will join the international SKAO project. The Max Planck Society is providing about 21 million euros to support the project. “With the unique Square Kilometre…