Robotics news

Robotics

Laden with eggs, robots race up sacred Chinese mountain

Dozens of robots took on more than 3,000 steps up one of China's most famous peaks Monday, carrying eggs and watermelons in a race organizers billed as a test of real-world machine endurance, state media showed.

Robotics

Armored caterpillars offer robot designers lessons in crossing slippery glass

Animals have long been one of the primary sources of inspiration for robotics researchers. This is because they rely on sophisticated biological mechanisms and locomotion strategies that could be artificially reproduced in ...

Robotics

A new flexible foot pad enables this one-legged, hopping robot to go where few robots have gone before

A team of University of Toronto Engineering researchers has developed a flexible foot pad for the "Hopcopter"—a one-legged, hopping robot they developed—significantly enhancing its performance on sand, ice and other difficult ...

Robotics

Self-adjusting drone controls could make for smoother formation flying

A new method for controlling groups of drones, technically known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), could make formation flying smoother and reduce energy consumption and mechanical wear, according to research in the International ...

Robotics

Flexible robot arms learn to predict their next move

A robot arm that bends like an elephant's trunk can slip into tight spaces and handle fragile objects. Controlling it is harder because its smooth bending makes its next move hard to predict. Researchers have now developed ...

Robotics

Secret trigger words could make AI-powered robots dangerous

Large language models (LLMs) like OpenAI's ChatGPT, Anthropic's Claude and Google Gemini are increasingly being used to help robots perform tasks, but what if LLMs could be exploited to turn helpful robots into harmful robots?

Robotics

Robot AI predicts future scenes to guide its next moves

A robot artificial intelligence (AI) system has been developed that can understand human instructions, predict what a scene will look like after an action and then carry out the task. Rather than simply translating instructions ...

Robotics

Can you trust a robot in charge?

From monitoring public spaces to responding to requests for help, security robots are beginning to take on roles once held by people. As they gain authority, researchers are asking what it might take for the public to trust ...

Robotics

PhoneBot gives old smartphones a new job on two legs

Smartphones combine cameras, motion sensors and powerful processors in devices that fit inside a pocket. These features could also make them useful components for robots, reducing the need to buy and connect separate sensors, ...

Robotics

How automation is shaping the future of American manufacturing

Labor shortages, supply-chain volatility and growing demand for customized products are forcing a fundamental rethink of how work gets done in U.S. manufacturing. To remain competitive, manufacturers must produce increasingly ...

Robotics

Cutting-edge tech: Robotic inspection for steel bridge integrity

Orthotropic steel bridge decks (OSDs) are fundamental to long-span bridge designs, prized for their high load-carrying efficiency and lightweight characteristics. However, their intricate structure makes them vulnerable to ...

Robotics

Wave-predicting robots could cut green energy costs

New technology that enables robots to work stably in turbulent seas could make it cheaper, faster and safer to maintain offshore wind farms and tidal turbines, researchers say.

Robotics

A screw-driven robot could autonomously mine rocky worlds

Navigating the harsh terrain of other rocky worlds has consistently been challenging. The Free Spirit campaign unfortunately failed in its goal to will the plucky Martian rover out of the morass it found itself in, despite ...

Robotics

Giving robots superhuman vision using radio signals

In the race to develop robust perception systems for robots, one persistent challenge has been operating in bad weather and harsh conditions. For example, traditional, light-based vision sensors such as cameras or LiDAR (Light ...

Robotics

'Chemist' robot poised to transform science labs

Imagine a lab assistant with the computing and operational power of 10 Ph.D. students, capable of functioning in extreme environments like Mars. This vision has become a reality at the University of Science and Technology ...

Robotics

AI-powered drowning prevention system enhances water safety

Researchers from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have developed a high-tech drowning prevention and rescue system and introduced it to a scenic water area in Central China's Henan ...