Robotics

This 'squidbot' jets around and takes pics of coral and fish

Engineers at the University of California San Diego have built a squid-like robot that can swim untethered, propelling itself by generating jets of water. The robot carries its own power source inside its body. It can also ...

Engineering

Heating and cooling that anticipates your needs

According to a recent survey, about half of Americans feel their office is either too hot or too cold. A number of factors play into this issue of thermal comfort, but the hardest factor to control for is the one we're most ...

Robotics

Adaptive locomotion of artificial microswimmers

Bacteria display remarkable plasticity by exploiting mechanics in response to locally changing physical and chemical conditions. Compliant structures usually assist their taxis behavior to navigate inside complex and structured ...

Consumer & Gadgets

RFID tag arrays track body movements, shape changes

Carnegie Mellon University researchers have found ways to track body movements and detect shape changes using arrays of RFID tags. RFID-embedded clothing thus could be used to control avatars in video games—much like in ...

Robotics

EuMoBot: Replicating euglenoid movement in a soft robot

Swimming is a form of locomotion employed by many organisms across a wide range of scales in nature. Microorganisms with small mass that encounter dominance of viscous forces in the medium require a change in shape that does ...