Robotics news

Robotics

Engineers teach a quadruped robot to climb standard ladders

A team of robotics engineers at ETH Zurich, Robotics Systems Lab, has modified an ANYbotics ANYMal quadruped robot to allow it to easily and effectively climb a standard ladder. The group has written a paper describing their ...

Robotics

Meet Plantolin, the tree-planting robot pangolin built by student

A robot pangolin designed to plant trees is the winner of the 2023 Natural Robotics Contest, which rewards robot designs inspired by nature. As the winning entry, the pangolin—dubbed "Plantolin"—has been brought to life ...

Robotics

Using Turing patterns to enhance soft pneumatic technology

According to a recent study in Scientific Reports, Turing patterns can be used to develop a new method for designing and producing fabric-based soft pneumatic actuators (FSPAs).

Robotics

LiDAR-based system allows unmanned aerial vehicle team to rapidly reconstruct environments

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), commonly known as drones, have proved to be highly effective systems for monitoring and exploring environments. These autonomous flying robots could also be used to create detailed maps and ...

Robotics

Q&A: Teaching robots to touch and interact like humans

Robots are widely used in the automotive industry and have started entering new application domains such as logistics in the last few years. However, current robots still face many limitations. They typically perform a single ...

Robotics

Team develops versatile knee exoskeletons for safer lifting

A set of knee exoskeletons, built with commercially available knee braces and drone motors at the University of Michigan, has been shown to help counteract fatigue in lifting and carrying tasks. They helped users maintain ...

Robotics

Teaching robots to use color in moving objects

Research at Michigan State University is focused on teaching robots to use colors to perceive, visualize, and interpret interactions when manipulating objects. A force-interpreting optical system is being developed so robots ...

Robotics

Versatile microscale robots can fold into 3D shapes and crawl

Cornell University researchers have created microscale robots less than 1 millimeter in size that are printed as a 2D hexagonal "metasheet," but with a jolt of electricity, morph into preprogrammed 3D shapes and crawl.

Robotics

For real, outdoors: SCAMP robot can fly, perch, climb

We love the impressive video watch of Atlas biped models, super-sized machine wonders trekking through craggy terrain, undeterred by snow, mud and ice, ready to haul supplies and go where no humans dare to go in times of ...

Robotics

'Deep learning'—a giant step for robots

The prospect of robots that can learn for themselves—through artificial intelligence and adaptive learning—has fascinated scientists and movie-goers alike. Films like Short Circuit, Terminator, Millennial Man, Chappie ...

Robotics

Next-gen Atlas moves out the door and into the woods

Welcome to the new-generation Atlas, which is shaking up a lot of people's perceptions of robots. In the past, we have had no problem recognizing robots as cleverly engineered machines, never to be confused with humans.

Robotics

Refuse-collecting robot successfully tested

Students from three universities have collaborated with the Volvo Group and the waste recycling company, Renova. The result is a robot that automatically collects and empties refuse bins. A drone on the roof of the refuse ...

Robotics

Robot-human eye contact helps conversation flow

Pop music is littered with titles that relay how romantic yearning is sparked and experienced wordlessly with one person staring at the other. Animals don't have it so good. "Most mammals generally interpret direct gaze as ...

Robotics

Record-seeking pair show off robot solving Rubik's Cube

After the first wave of satisfaction in solving a Rubik's Cube puzzle comes recognition that there are higher rungs to reach: not only solving it but solving it quickly. How quickly? That's the stuff of which world contests ...

Robotics

Double 2 is your show stand-in when you can't be there

Call it what you will. An iPad on a stick. A two-wheeled body double that rolls your face on a screen around studios, conference halls and into meeting rooms when you cannot be there. Work from anywhere, conference-in from ...

Robotics

Hand in glove, you tell the robot where to move

CES in Las Vegas is one event that clearly proves there is a thin line between adulthood and childhood when it comes to curiosity, fun and, in 2016, interest in controlling robots. One of the stands that many found impossible ...

Robotics

Genoa lab makes sure robot can stand up to hard knocks

HyQ2 is a quadruped that has been in high focus at the Italian Institute of Technology's Dynamic Legged Systems lab. They have been getting it disaster-ready for search and rescue missions and for environment disasters.