If a robot traveling to a destination has just two possible paths, it needs only to compare the routes' travel time and probability of success. But if the robot is traversing a complex environment with many possible paths, choosing the best route amid so much uncertainty can quickly become an intractable problem.
In this blog, you'll learn about these two lens types with key insights into their attributes and best-use scenarios in the world of embedded vision.
The quadrupedal robot ANYmal went back to school and has learned a lot. Researchers used machine learning to teach it new skills: the robot can now climb over obstacles and successfully negotiate pitfalls.
The robot known as ANYmal has, for some time, had no problem coping with the stony terrain of Swiss hiking trails. Now researchers at ETH Zurich have taught this quadrupedal robot some new skills: It is proving rather adept at parkour, a sport based on using athletic maneuvers to smoothly negotiate obstacles in an urban environment, which has become very popular. ANYmal is also proficient at dealing with the tricky terrain commonly found on building sites or in disaster areas.
Recreating the action of opening doors in the virtual world requires engineering ways in which to provide the equivalent haptic feedback and steer users away from walls in the real world. A research group has done just this; developing RedirectedDoors+, which employs door robots and rotation to create a more realistic experience.
A new tool will help orthodontists correctly fit braces onto teeth. Using artificial intelligence and virtual patients, the tool predicts how teeth will move, so as to ensure that braces are neither too loose nor too tight.
Is there a way to stick hard and soft materials together without any tape, glue or epoxy? A new study shows that applying a small voltage to certain objects forms chemical bonds that securely link the objects together. Reversing the direction of electron flow easily separates the two materials. This electro-adhesion effect could help create biohybrid robots, improve biomedical implants and enable new battery technologies.
A new University of Michigan study on how humans and robots work together on tasks with conflicting objectives is the first to demonstrate that trust and team performance improve when the robot actively adapts to the human's strategy.
When lower limb exoskeletons—mechanical structures worn on the leg—do not operate properly, some people adjust quickly while others compensate with their ankle or hip, expending more energy than necessary, according to a new study by University of Michigan researchers.
Introducing SIMA, a Scalable Instructable Multiworld Agent
One of the primary challenges lies in equipping robots to understand and navigate dynamic environments and make informed decisions based on that information. This is where Practical Human Supervised Autonomy (PHSA) emerges as a game-changer.
Numerous measurement stations around the world provide us with data about air quality, allowing us to enhance it. Although we are increasingly collecting data from marine areas, access to such data is considerably more challenging. Signals are poorly transmitted through water, differences in both pressure and currents hinder measurement devices and there is an absence of pre-constructed computing infrastructure. Could intelligent technologies help us improve marine data collection?
Miniature drives and microdrives can be found in virtually all areas of automation technology and have a correspondingly wide variety of applications. These range from medical technology and laboratory automation.
Researchers have developed a haptic device capable of reproducing the softness of various materials, from a marshmallow to a beating heart, overcoming a deceptively complex challenge that has previously eluded roboticists.
The perception of softness can be taken for granted, but it plays a crucial role in many actions and interactions—from judging the ripeness of an avocado to conducting a medical exam, or holding the hand of a loved one. But understanding and reproducing softness perception is challenging because it involves so many sensory and cognitive processes.