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Simplify pick and place with the THK PPR

THK's Pick-and-Place Robot PPR is a robot that can pick up delicate or minute workpieces such as electronic components and quickly and accurately transfer and assemble them to the base. In addition to the basic movements of raising, lowering, and rotating, various sensors (such as a force sensor), solenoid valves, and controller are all in one unit. The PPR is a process-optimized robot that can improve the production speed of the parts assembly processes and reduce work damage.
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New ROBOMACHINE products and more from FANUC

FANUC America demonstrated the future of manufacturing at IMTS 2026 last week, showcasing how Physical AI-powered automation integrates advanced CNC, machining, and robotics to boost productivity and speed deployment. One highlight was the debut of the ROBODRILL DC Series machining centers -- including the high-speed D54CS and D74CS models -- alongside interactive demonstrations featuring collaborative robots, robotic welding, material joining, painting, and assembly technology.
See all the FANUC new tech featured at IMTS.

What is a stick-slip bi-phase positioning stage?

PI (Physik Instrumente) is expanding its Bi-Phase Inertia Drive (BIX) technology with new motor architectures for compact, high-precision nanopositioning applications. Based on the piezo stick-slip principle, BIX stages replace conventional single actuators with two synchronized multilayer piezo actuators. This compact design delivers precise, repeatable motion while maintaining piezo inertia self-locking.
Learn more about this technology.

Universal Robots unveils Gen 7 robot platform!

Redesigned from controller to tool flange, the new Gen 7 robot platform is out-of-the-box AI-ready, giving companies the modern software tools and next-level connectivity they need to confidently take AI from the lab into industrial operations. Gen 7 represents a unified system upgrade designed to make even the most demanding tasks and setups easier. See all the new features -- they are significant.
Read the full article.

Adaptor mount and hub options provide flexibility

Zero-Max's new CD Power-Series Flexible Shaft Couplings feature ISO Flange Adaptors matching ISO 9409-1 patterns on gear reducers and robotics. Eliminating custom transitions, this direct connection enhances torsional stiffness and positioning accuracy while saving space, weight, and inertia. Offering continuous torque up to 65,000 in.-lb and versatile hub options, these compact couplings deliver high power density.
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Top-shelf motors: Completely revised maxon catalog

maxon has completely overhauled its 2026/2027 catalog, streamlining its portfolio to reduce complexity and improve navigation. The new structure features dedicated sections for business units -- Medical, Aerospace, Industrial Automation, Mobility -- and specialized fields like Robotics and Space. Key product highlights include new ECX PRIME and ECX FLAT motors, GSW planetary gearheads, and ESCON2/EPOS4 controllers.
Learn more and check it out.

Custom stators, rotors, and motor assemblies for low- to mid-volume applications

Arnold's Ramco Electric Motors is your single partner for custom motor components and complete assemblies. Ramco builds solutions for AC induction, switched reluctance, and brushless DC designs up to 200+ HP. Capabilities include custom stators, rotor-shaft assemblies, aluminum and copper casting, induction brazing, permanent magnet assembly, and precision rotor balancing.
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Rotate robot arms more than 600 degrees

The unsupported twisterchain^® from igus eliminates the need for additional trough systems or guide plates in robotic applications, especially in palletizing. This results in a clean, efficient, and space-saving system architecture that delivers both technical and economic advantages. Thanks to its specialized design, it supports rotations of over 600 degrees.
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Match the torque of rotary solenoids to your application

Magnetic Sensor Systems has launched the Made in USA R-10-200-CWM Series of clockwise rotary solenoids. Measuring 2.00 in. in diameter and 1.04 in. long with 18 different AWG options and a serrated front shaft end, these compact units optimize torque, current, and duty cycle. When power is removed, an integral return spring automatically returns the shaft to its home position. The shaft is supported by two high-precision radial ball bearings, providing smooth operation with no axial play. Applications include medical, security, and office equipment.
Learn more.

Planetary servo gear unit: New economy series

SEW-EURODRIVE has expanded its PxG planetary servo gear unit portfolio with the new PxG economy series, introducing the P1.G, P2.G, and P3.G performance classes. Designed for standard industrial automation applications like packaging and material handling, these cost-effective units feature peak torque ratings from 11 to 500 Nm and over 20,000 hours of service life, helping machine builders eliminate unnecessary over-specification.
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Compact hexapod 6-DOF alignment system has overload protection

PI's compact H-811.I2HS hexapod delivers precise 6-DOF motion with patented overload protection, simplifying setup and operation in OEM applications. This built-in protection safeguards precision mechanics during installation and integration against accidental forces or improper handling. Furthermore, the hexapod mounts in any orientation, granting system designers exceptional flexibility for optical, photonics, microscopy, metrology, and automation systems.
Learn more.

What is STUDROLLER technology? Cross Roller Guides

NB SLIDE WAY cross roller guides use precision rollers to provide stable, non-recirculating linear motions in precision stages, inspection equipment, semiconductor manufacturing, and more. At the heart of all NB cross roller bearings is the STUDROLLER mechanism, which eliminates the cage-creep phenomenon that, over time, can create deviances in cross roller retainer performance. NB cross roller guides equipped with this system are more accurate and better performing than any other comparable products on the market today. High acceleration and faster cycle times are possible in any orientation.
View the video.

Ruggedized Nano servo drives for harsh environs

Copley Controls has released its R47 and R48 NanoPlus Micro Module servo drives. Designed for extreme environments and space-constrained applications, these rugged platforms operate from 9 to 180 VDC, delivering peak power up to 6.3 kW. Offering CANopen (R47) or EtherCAT (R48) communications, both feature STO SIL 3 safety and broad encoder support. Well suited for COTS military, nautical, aviation, oil refining, and vehicle-based systems.
Learn more.

Simplify AC motor control with the new OMRON M1 Inverter

The OMRON M1 Inverter simplifies machine design by unifying motion, safety, networking, and motor control into a single platform. Available in M1-STD, M1-ECT, and M1-EMP models, it controls IM and PM motors with high precision. Featuring SIL3 PLe STO safety and native EtherCAT, EtherNet/IP, or RS-485 communications, the M1 accelerates development within the Sysmac environment.
Learn more.

Flexible planetary gearheads: Quiet, extremely robust

FAULHABER GPT gearheads for miniature and micro motors deliver high power density, exceptional flexibility, and excellent cost efficiency. Designed for seamless integration with diverse motors and encoders, these compact planetary drives feature hardened stainless steel components that reliably withstand extreme torques and abrupt load changes. Offered in standard, low-noise, and high-torque variants, they ensure precise, durable performance across wide operating temperature ranges.
Learn more.

Mechanical feats in space: New NASA space cowboy successfully deploys its giant 'lasso'

NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission will produce high-resolution global maps of soil moisture to track water availability around our planet and guide policy decisions. [Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech]

 

 

 

 

Like a cowboy at a rodeo, NASA's newest Earth-observing satellite, the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP), has triumphantly raised its "arm" and unfurled a huge golden "lasso" (antenna) that it will soon spin up to rope the best soil moisture maps ever obtained from space.

Launched Jan. 31 from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base on a Delta II rocket, SMAP is now literally riding tall in the saddle as it continues to successfully wrangle the checkout procedures of its three-month-long commissioning phase. Analyses of onboard inertial measurement unit data and other telemetry confirm the antenna deployment, performed Feb. 24, was completely successful.

SMAP's minimum three-year mission will expand our understanding of soil moisture, a key component of the Earth system that links the water, energy, and carbon cycles driving our planet. SMAP's combined radar and radiometer instruments will peer into the top 2 in. (5 cm) of soil, through clouds and moderate vegetation cover, day and night, to produce the highest-resolution, most accurate soil moisture maps ever obtained from space. SMAP also will detect whether ground is frozen or thawed. Detecting variations in timing of spring thaw and changes in growing season length will help scientists more accurately account for how much carbon plants are removing from the atmosphere each year.

Following its picture-perfect launch and insertion into orbit, mission controllers performed a series of health checks of the observatory's subsystems. They also ran successful initial health checks of SMAP's radiometer and radar science instruments, powering them on for 30 hours in receive-only mode and processing the data. Then on Feb. 18, mission controllers successfully commanded SMAP's 16-ft (5-m) two-hinged boom to unfold and extend.

On Feb. 24, the team commanded SMAP's reflector antenna at the end of the boom to deploy. Designed and built by Astro Aerospace, a Northrop Grumman Corporation company located in Carpenteria, CA, under subcontract to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, SMAP's reflector boom assembly is an advanced, low-mass rotating deployable mesh reflector antenna system that supports the collection of SMAP's radar and radiometric measurements in space. It is the first-ever spinning and precision mass-balanced deployable mesh reflector antenna, and is the largest spinning mesh reflector ever deployed in space. The reflector boom assembly enables SMAP to meet its requirements for high accuracy and high spatial resolution in its soil moisture measurements, and achieve global coverage every two to three days using a single small observatory and medium-lift-class launch vehicle.

Astro Aerospace experts have preliminarily determined that the deployed natural frequency of the reflector boom assembly in orbit is nearly identical to prelaunch model predictions. This provides confidence in the health of the deployed reflector and in its performance once spun up.

For launch, the flexible mesh antenna, which is edged with a ring of lightweight graphite supports called a perimeter truss, had been tightly folded and stowed into a volume of just 1 ft by 4 ft (30 by 120 cm). Upon deployment, the truss slowly opened, like a camp chair, to its full diameter of almost 20 ft (6 m). Despite its size, the reflector weighs in at a mere 56 lb (25 kg). With its supporting boom and launch restraints, the entire reflector and boom assembly weighs just 127 lb (58 kg).

"Deploying large, low-mass structures in space is never easy and is one of the larger engineering challenges NASA missions can confront in development," said Kent Kellogg, SMAP project manager at JPL. "This week's result culminates more than six years of challenging reflector and boom assembly development, system engineering, and an extensive test campaign. With this key milestone in our rear-view mirror, the team now looks forward to completing the remainder of our commissioning activities and beginning routine science operations for this important mission with broad applications for science and society."

Later this week, SMAP's science instruments will be checked out with the deployed reflector antenna in a non-spinning configuration. This will mark the observatory's first operation with the reflector and boom assembly functioning as an antenna to view Earth. It will also mark the first time SMAP's radar high-power amplifier will transmit a signal.

In about a month, after additional tests and maneuvers to adjust the observatory to its final 426-mile (685-km), near-polar operational science orbit, SMAP's "lasso" antenna will do a sort of Texas two-step, spinning up in a two-stage process to nearly 15 revolutions per minute. By rotating, the antenna will be able to measure a 620-mile (1,000-km) swath of Earth below, allowing SMAP to map the globe every two to three days.

SMAP science operations will then begin, and SMAP data will be calibrated and validated. The first release of SMAP soil moisture data products is expected within nine months. Fully validated science data are expected to be released within 15 months.

SMAP project overview video.

SMAP will have broad benefits for society. It will help improve climate and weather forecasts and allow scientists to monitor droughts and better predict flooding caused by rainfall or snowmelt -- information that can save lives and property. In addition, since plant growth depends on the amount of water in the soil, SMAP data will allow nations to better forecast crop yields and assist in global famine early-warning systems.

SMAP is managed for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington by JPL, with instrument hardware and science contributions made by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD. JPL built the spacecraft and is responsible for project management, system engineering, radar instrumentation, mission operations, and the ground data system. Goddard is responsible for the radiometer instrument. Both centers collaborate on science data processing and delivery to the Alaska Satellite Facility, in Fairbanks, and to the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado in Boulder. NASA's Launch Services Program at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida was responsible for launch management. JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

Source: NASA

Published March 2015

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