Robotics

Researchers develop a new type of soft, growing robot

Imagine rescuers searching for people in the rubble of a collapsed building. Instead of digging through the debris by hand or having dogs sniff for signs of life, they bring out a small, air-tight cylinder. They place the ...

Robotics

Engineers design a robotic gripper for cleaning up space debris

Right now, about 500,000 pieces of human-made debris are whizzing around space, orbiting our planet at speeds up to 17,500 miles per hour. This debris poses a threat to satellites, space vehicles and astronauts aboard those ...

Robotics

Giving robots a sense of touch

Eight years ago, Ted Adelson's research group at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) unveiled a new sensor technology, called GelSight, that uses physical contact with an object to provide ...

Robotics

System can 3-D print an entire building

The list of materials that can be produced by 3-D printing has grown to include not just plastics but also metal, glass, and even food. Now, MIT researchers are expanding the list further, with the design of a system that ...

Robotics

A flexible faster swimming manta-ray like robot

(Phys.org)—A team of researchers at Zhejiang University in China has created a small, soft-bodied robot able to swim twice as fast as others of its kind. In their paper published in the journal Science Advances, the team ...

Engineering

How to design materials with reprogrammable shape and function

Metamaterials—materials whose function is determined by structure, not composition—have been designed to bend light and sound, transform from soft to stiff, and even dampen seismic waves from earthquakes. But each of these ...

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