Inverter

The US is banning the sale of robots made outside the country. That includes all the cool ones we've covered out of China, which can dance, run half-marathons in record time, provide companionship to seniors, and carry loads over rocky terrain.

By reimagining the way power inverters relay the current from the battery to the motor in electric vehicles, scientists at Fraunhofer have conjured up a new design they say works much more efficiently and could improve EV range as much as six percent.

Google and the IEEE have launched the Little Box Challenge, offering a US$1 million first prize for an innovative electronic design to shrink power inverters down from their current bigger-than-a-bread-box size to something less than the size of a small laptop.