#penn engineering

[scitechman]

Penn Engineers’ New Chip Poised to Enable Hand-Held Microwave Imaging

Penn Engineers’ New Chip Poised to Enable Hand-Held Microwave Imaging

Penn Engineering researchers have developed a new microwave imager chip that could one day enable low-cost handheld microwave imagers, or cameras. Because microwaves can travel through certain opaque objects, the new imagers could be useful for imaging through walls or detecting tumors through tissue in the body.

In a study led by Firooz Aflatouni, Skirkanich Assistant Professor in the…

View On WordPress

[scitechman]

Penn Engineers’ New Topological Insulator Can Reroute Photonic ‘Traffic’ On the Fly, Making for Faster Chips

Penn Engineers’ New Topological Insulator Can Reroute Photonic ‘Traffic’ On the Fly, Making for Faster Chips

Topological insulators are a game-changing class of materials; charged particles can flow freely on their edges and route themselves around defects, but can’t pass through their interiors. This perfect surface conduction holds promise for fast and efficient electronic circuits, though engineers must contend with the fact that the interiors of such materials are effectively wasted space.

Now,…

View On WordPress

[scitechman]

Making Waves with a Hammer and a 3D Printer

Making Waves with a Hammer and a 3D Printer

For Jordan Raney, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, cutting-edge science sometimes involves whacking a rubber disc with a hammer.

In a recent experiment, he and Chengyang Mo, a graduate student in Raney’s Architected Materials Laboratory, used a 3D-printer to make this unusual, Frisbee-sized structure. It consists of hundreds of connected…

View On WordPress

[atcsupplies]

Penn Engineering University of Pennsylvania Womens Medium Blue TShirt | eBay

Color: Blue. Length: 23". Chest: 20". | eBay!

[kodlab]

Image: Turner Topping, Kod*lab PhD researcher, operating Minitaur at National Robotics Week, Museum of Science & Industry, April 2017. Kod*lab PhD researchers Turner Topping and Sonia Roberts, and Research Assistant Mitch Fogelson walked and bounded Minitaur for hundreds of visitors during National Robotics Week, April 14th and 15th, 2017 at MSI, Chicago

[kodlab]

Robot Zoo, Robot Revolution, The Franklin Institute, March 11, 2017

Kod*lab participated in Robot Zoo, a one day event at the Franklin Institute coinciding with the exhibition Robot Revolution. Minitaur and a hopper leg were on site to interact with visitors. Researchers gave insights about our legged robots use for desert research. See the poster here for more information.

[kodlab]

Kod*lab family of robots portrait 

Back row, left to right: Penn Jerboa, Delta Hopper, RHex.  Front row, left to right: Minitaur, Inu.

Jerboa is a 2.5Kg tailed bipedal robot with two passive-compliant underactuated legs, and a tail that can pitch as well as yaw. Jerboa can sit, stand, walk, hop, run, turn, leap, and more. Delta Hopper is a power-autonomous one-legged robot that uses direct drive motors to power hopping in three dimensions. RHex is a biologically inspired hexapod small enough for a human to carry in a backpack (10kg). Ghost Minitaur™ has high-torque brushless outrunner motors and specialized leg design that let this machine run and jump over difficult terrain. Inu is a quadrupedal robot equipped with a parallel elastic-actuated spine mechanism, allowing its back to bend in a similar manner to many animals such as squirrels and dogs. 

[kodlab]

Kod*lab at the Robot Zoo for Robot Revolution

Join us Saturday, March 11th, 2017 at the Robot Zoo for Robot Revolution exhibition at The Franklin Institute! What affects springiness of animal legs? Why would robots want springy legs? Springy legs let legged robots get back some of the energy they put into every step, making it easier to run. Learn how Kod*lab uses ideas about springiness from nature to make robots run better and how that's important to our desert research.