Nearly fifty University Teams recently gathered in Florida for the NASA Lunabotics Challenge. The robots are tasked with driving, digging, and depositing regolith—the fragmented rock material that covers the moon’s surface—in a lunar simulant. Beyond robotics and mechatronics, the program teaches team work, project management and industry collaboration.

With the increasing sophistication of electronic controls for mechanical systems to provide both accuracy and flexibility of control, there is more demand for durable, accurate and easy to use displacement sensors. Customers are increasingly concerned about reliability, durability and the associated replacement costs of sensors. They also want sensors that can be easily connected and mounted.

Everight Position is excited to announce that our application engineer, Jarrod Orszulak has been named a Certified Product Specialist and a Certified Sales Engineer by POSITAL for their rotary encoders, linear and tilt sensors.

Abstract: Tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) sensing is an exciting new chapter for magnetic-based rotary encoders. Requiring less current, while offering higher signal strength, many of the inherent short comings of Hall Effect based sensors can be addressed.

For decades there has been an initiative to source COTS (Commercial-off-the-shelf) goods when possible, and for good reason. COTS goods generally are less expensive, more readily available and easier to dual source.

In the most hazardous environments, where an explosive atmosphere consisting of flammable gas or vapor is regularly present and a sensor fault cannot be risked, Intrinsically Safe (IS) sensors may be the best sensing option. Generally, these sensors are paired with a barrier which limits the amount of electrical and thermal energy that can enter the Hazardous Area to an amount that is so small that even in the situation of a sensor fault, there is not enough energy to cause an ignition.