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

New 'emotional' robots aim to read human feelings

The robot called Forpheus does more than play a mean game of table tennis. It can read body language to gauge its opponent's ability, and offer advice and encouragement.

Robotics

Hoping for mech racing league comes easy at CES

A crew of supersized exoskeletons ready to race? Well, a machine teased as such, as the machine, of startling proportions, drew attention at CES this week. This curiosity is nearly 15 feet tall, 18 feet wide, and weighs more ...

Robotics

Soft robots could be the factory workers of the future

Killer robots are already among us. Not weaponised drones, but industrial robots working alongside humans in factories that can cause significant injuries and occasionally deaths if an accident occurs. In 2015, an employee ...

Robotics

Robotic implants spur tissue regeneration inside the body

An implanted, programmable medical robot can gradually lengthen tubular organs by applying traction forces—stimulating tissue growth in stunted organs without interfering with organ function or causing apparent discomfort, ...

Robotics

Killer robots, free will and the illusion of control

Control. We all like to think we have it, but is it all just an illusion? It might seem like a very existential question but it plays an important part in our acceptance of new technologies, especially when it comes to robots.

Robotics

Team in Japan creates most advanced humanoid robot yet

A team of researchers at the University of Tokyo has created what appears to be the most advanced humanoid robot yet—actually two of them, one called Kenshiro the other Kengoro. In their paper published in the journal Science ...

Robotics

Engineers program tiny robots to move, think like insects

While engineers have had success building tiny, insect-like robots, programming them to behave autonomously like real insects continues to present technical challenges. A group of Cornell University engineers has been experimenting ...

Robotics

Software enables robots to be controlled in virtual reality

Even as autonomous robots get better at doing things on their own, there will still be plenty of circumstances where humans might need to step in and take control. New software developed by Brown University computer scientists ...

Robotics

New robots can see into their future

University of California, Berkeley, researchers have developed a robotic learning technology that enables robots to imagine the future of their actions so they can figure out how to manipulate objects they have never encountered ...

Robotics

Wait, did I just see Atlas robot do a backflip?

(Tech Xplore)—Boston Dynamics is now part of SoftBank and their family of robots is getting lots of attention as the year draws to an end—from gee-whiz reactions to their recent showing of a bright-yellow plate display ...