Hydraulic valves direct the flow of a liquid medium, usually oil, through a hydraulic system. These valves are used in a variety of applications, including heavy trucks, farm equipment, and mining and construction machinery.

Noted horror writer Clive Barker once claimed that nothing ever truly begins or ends; rather, current things are just continuations of past things, and future things are continuations of present ones. Although interesting, this notion doesn't work well in the world of manufacturing.

Those of us old enough to remember the "good old days" recall that grade school focused on learning the three R's: reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic. In the world of sensors, there are also three R's: repeatability, resolution and response.

The automotive industry experienced a record number of vehicle recalls in 2018, and this year's tally isn't far behind. Many of those issues have been caused by electronics or software glitches.

The automotive industry is at the threshold of a disruption not seen since the Brass Era of the 1900s. Electric vehicles, connectivity, mobility-as-a-service, and autonomous vehicles promise to change the future of transportation in the same way that the "horseless carriage" did a century ago.

Drones have come a long way in a fairly short time, commercially speaking. In less than 20 years, these unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have gone from being used by the CIA to attack the Taliban in Afghanistan, to soon being used by Amazon to deliver a wide range of packages to homes.

The lives of manufacturers would be so much easier if all their automation processes were homogeneous. Unfortunately, there are many that require customization to satisfy the unique requirements of an automated work-holding or material-handling application.

There's nothing quite like a multistation automated assembly system. Watching robots, actuators and indexers go about their carefully choreographed routines with little or no human intervention can seem nothing short of miraculous.

Refrigerators are one of the only appliances found in nearly every type of home, whether it's an apartment in suburban Atlanta, a high-rise condominium in downtown Chicago, a beach house in Hawaii or a trailer in Texas. The humble refrigerator is also the hardest working household appliance. Day and night, it's constantly running to keep all types of food and beverages cool, fresh or frozen.

Often, hands-on experience is the best way to prepare college students for life in the real world. That's the goal of the Omron Senior Design and Robotics Laboratory at the University of Houston.