RMIT University engineers in Australia have built a remote-controlled minibot that hoovers up oil spills using an innovative filtering system inspired by sea urchins. Oil spills are still a serious problem around the world. They can badly damage oceans and coasts, kill or injure sea animals and birds, and cost billions of dollars to clean up and repair the damage.
Engineers at Oxford University have developed a rapid, ultra-low-cost method for manufacturing soft robots using common lab equipment. The method has been published in Advanced Science. The new technique enables researchers to fabricate soft robotic actuators—the flexible components that power movement—in under 10 minutes at a material cost of less than $0.10 (US Dollars) per unit.
At least 57 nations have live antipersonnel land mines in their territories. In 2024 alone, 1,945 people were killed by mines and 4,325 were injured, 90% of whom were civilians. Nearly half of those were children. Demining operations removed 105,640 mines in the same year.
Robots are becoming increasingly capable in vision and movement, yet touch remains one of their major weaknesses. Now, researchers have developed a miniature tactile sensor that could give robots something much closer to a human sense of touch.
Humanoid robots, robotic systems with a human-like body structure, have the potential of tackling various real-world tasks that are currently being completed by humans. In recent years, many robotics researchers and computer scientists have been trying to broaden these robots' capabilities and improve how they move in their surroundings.
Coordinating groups of underwater robots is difficult because communication below the surface is slow and unreliable. GPS signals do not work underwater, and radio waves fade rapidly in seawater. Most underwater communication relies on acoustic signals, which travel farther but introduce latency and carry limited data.
Around 60% of Canadian employees can expect their job to be transformed through artificial intelligence (AI). For many, AI will complement, rather than replace, their work. For some, it could prevent illness, injury or death.
Humanoid robots are currently developing at a rapid pace. The predicted growth potential is enormous. They are set to replace and even surpass the automotive industry in terms of market potential. And in the media and at trade fairs, they are the prime example of "embodied AI," i.e., the complete integration of artificial intelligence (AI) processes with machine components or entire systems. The focus is particularly on the markets in the U.S. and Asia, where a great deal of progress is being made in terms of software and hardware.
With the speed at which technology advances, there is little room for suboptimal performance and out-of-date tech. Precise positioning is a field where advancement is needed, as many conventional applications feature tools that are much larger than the objects being worked upon, making high precision a difficult task. Additionally, those that are highly precise have a limited range of motion.
With the speed at which technology advances, there is little room for suboptimal performance and out-of-date tech. Precise positioning is a field where advancement is needed, as many conventional applications feature tools that are much larger than the objects being worked upon, making high precision a difficult task. Additionally, those that are highly precise have a limited range of motion.
Robot vision could soon get a boost thanks to the development of a bioinspired eye that can automatically adjust its pupil size in response to changing light levels. Robots, self-driving cars and drones often struggle with dynamic lighting. If a car enters a dark tunnel, its camera aperture needs to stay wide open to capture enough light to see, just like our pupils do when the lights go out. But when it exits into daylight, it can be instantly blinded by the glare.
A new approach to simulating biologically inspired robotics can cut the design and training of tactile robots from eighteen months to two weeks, new research suggests. Published in Cyborg & Bionic Systems, the study applies lessons from some of nature's most famous "sensors," including cats' paws and elephant trunks, to help create artificial sensors with a human-like sense of touch better and faster than ever before. Combined with recent work in Nature Communications on training these tactile sensors in a way that mirrors human tactile memory, the team led by King's College London now believe they can dramatically slash the time and cost of producing next-generation robots.
The rolling robots that deliver groceries and hot meals across Los Angeles are getting an upgrade. Coco Robotics, a UCLA-born startup that's deployed more than 1,000 bots across the country, unveiled its next-generation machines on Thursday.
Robotics technology that not only performs simple tasks but also supports humans in all their tasks is among the key technologies in industrial manufacturing. But this requires that robots be able to master complex movements, execute commands and maintain a safe distance from humans at all times. Fraunhofer researchers have now made this form of collaboration between humans and machines possible in the NeurOSmart flagship project.
Researchers have taken inspiration from nature to create a robotic wing that can sense and adapt to changes in water to deliver unparalleled stability. Drawing on the adaptive movements of birds and fish, the wing senses disturbances in the flow of water and automatically changes its shape to adjust to these.