Robotics news

Robotics

Biohybrid swimming robot uses motor neurons and cardiomyocytes to emulate muscle tissue

A combined team of bio researchers and roboticists from Brigham and Women's Hospital, in the U.S., and the iPrint Institute, in Switzerland, has developed a tiny swimming robot using human motor neurons and cardiomyocytes ...

Robotics

New method enables robots to map a scene, identify objects in order to complete a set of tasks

Imagine having to straighten up a messy kitchen, starting with a counter littered with sauce packets. If your goal is to wipe the counter clean, you might sweep up the packets as a group. If, however, you wanted to first ...

Robotics

Researchers design platypus-inspired bionic multi-receptor skin

While engineers have developed increasingly advanced bio-inspired systems over the past decades, the sensing capabilities of these systems are typically far less advanced than those observed in humans and other animals.

Robotics

Neural Motion Planning approach helps robots navigate challenging obstacles in unfamiliar environments

Humans can grab a book from a shelf with little obvious thought. But it's a complex process for the brain that involves planning and navigating around obstacles, like other books or knickknacks. Robotics researchers have ...

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

A three-agent robotic system for Mars exploration

Mars, also known as the red planet, has been the focus of numerous research studies, as some of its characteristics have sparked discussions about its possible inhabitability. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration ...

Robotics

PufferBot: A flying robot with an expandable body

Researchers at University of Colorado Boulder's ATLAS Institute and University of Calgary have recently developed an actuated, expandable structure that can be used to fabricate shape-changing aerial robots. In a paper set ...

Robotics

Enabling remote whole-body control with 5G edge computing

There are many real-world—and, someday, off-world—applications for light-weight, energy-efficient, fully autonomous robots. Yet the more autonomous a robot is, the greater its computational requirements. Onboarding the ...

Robotics

Experiments reveal why human-like robots elicit uncanny feelings

Androids, or robots with humanlike features, are often more appealing to people than those that resemble machines—but only up to a certain point. Many people experience an uneasy feeling in response to robots that are nearly ...

Robotics

A robot that controls highly flexible tools

How do you calculate the coordinated movements of two robot arms so they can accurately guide a highly flexible tool? ETH researchers have integrated all aspects of the optimisation calculations into an algorithm. A hot-wire ...

Robotics

New electronic skin can react to pain like human skin

Researchers have developed electronic artificial skin that reacts to pain just like real skin, opening the way to better prosthetics, smarter robotics and non-invasive alternatives to skin grafts.

Robotics

Robot takes contact-free measurements of patients' vital signs

During the current coronavirus pandemic, one of the riskiest parts of a health care worker's job is assessing people who have symptoms of COVID-19. Researchers from MIT and Brigham and Women's Hospital hope to reduce that ...

Robotics

Microscopic robots 'walk' thanks to laser tech

A Cornell University-led collaboration has created the first microscopic robots that incorporate semiconductor components, allowing them to be controlled—and made to walk—with standard electronic signals.

Robotics

Robotic arms extend the reach of UV disinfection

Since the pandemic began, people are focused on keeping their home and workspaces squeaky clean as an important step to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Hospitals and labs, especially, are meticulous.