Robotics

How 3D printers can give robots a soft touch

Soft skin coverings and touch sensors have emerged as a promising feature for robots that are both safer and more intuitive for human interaction, but they are expensive and difficult to make. A recent study demonstrates ...

Machine learning & AI

New study finds AI-generated empathy has its limits

Conversational agents (CAs) such as Alexa and Siri are designed to answer questions, offer suggestions—and even display empathy. However, new research finds they do poorly compared to humans when interpreting and exploring ...

Robotics

People, not design features, make a robot social

It takes a village to nurture social robots. Researchers who develop social robots—ones that people interact with—focus too much on design features and not enough on sociological factors, like human-to-human interactions, ...