When a robot needs to move across a room, there are several paths, each with curves and multiple potential starting and ending points. How does it decide the most efficient, cost-effective approach? A collaborative team of researchers in the United States may have the answer. They developed a method to determine the optimal solution for this kind of general control problem, which could apply to the decision making needed to move from point A to point B to more complex automated, robotic navigation. They published their results in the August 2021 Issue, IEEE/CAA Journal of Automatica Sinica.
After dominating the electric vehicle market and throwing his hat into the billionaire space race, Tesla boss Elon Musk announced the latest frontier he's aiming to conquer: humanoid robots.
At a Tokyo cafe, Michio Imai greets a customer, but not in person. He's hundreds of kilometres away, operating a robot waiter as part of an experiment in inclusive employment.
You find a new restaurant with terrific food, but when you suggest meeting there in a group text to your friends, the choice to meet at the same old place carries the day.
A team of engineers and physicians has developed a steerable catheter that for the first time will give neurosurgeons the ability to steer the device in any direction they want while navigating the brain's arteries and blood vessels. The device was inspired by nature, specifically insect legs and flagella—tail-like structures that allow microscopic organisms such as bacteria to swim.
For people with amputation who have prosthetic limbs, one of the greatest challenges is controlling the prosthesis so that it moves the same way a natural limb would. Most prosthetic limbs are controlled using electromyography, a way of recording electrical activity from the muscles, but this approach provides only limited control of the prosthesis.
In the last few years, delivery robots and drones have popped up around the U.S., occasionally rolling, walking or flying up to people's doorsteps to drop off packages. But one consideration that needs to be addressed before widely adopting autonomous technologies is their environmental impact. Now, researchers reporting in ACS' Environmental Science & Technology show that automating residential package transport doesn't influence the greenhouse gas footprint as much as the delivery van's size and type.
Sea cucumbers have a bumpy and oblong shape. They are soft but stiffen up quickly when touched. They can shrink or stretch to several meters, and their original shape can be recovered even after they die and shrivel up with the regulation of water uptake. Recently, a POSTECH research team has developed a soft actuator inspired by this unique behavior of sea cucumbers.
Boston Dynamics, the company known for its robotic dogs, now has a humanoid robot capable of doing gymnastics.
Roboticists worldwide have been trying to develop autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that could be deployed during search and rescue missions or that could be used to map geographical areas and for source-seeking. To operate autonomously, however, drones should be able to move safely and efficiently in their environment.
Massey University Ph.D. student Chris Muller's novel "Drone Ranger" technology is being used to track the 40 Toutouwai North Island robins that were translocated to Palmerston North's Turitea Dam in April.
A new algorithm speeds up path planning for robots that use arm-like appendages to maintain balance on treacherous terrain such as disaster areas or construction sites, researchers at the University of Michigan have shown. The improved path planning algorithm found successful paths three times as often as standard algorithms, while needing much less processing time.
Thanks to their swimming robot modeled after a lamprey, EPFL scientists may have discovered why some vertebrates are able to retain their locomotor capabilities after a spinal cord lesion. The finding could also help improve the performance of swimming robots used for search and rescue missions and for environmental monitoring.
Last year, according to a United Nations report published in March, Libyan government forces hunted down rebel forces using "lethal autonomous weapons systems" that were "programmed to attack targets without requiring data connectivity between the operator and the munition." The deadly drones were Turkish-made quadcopters about the size of a dinner plate, capable of delivering a warhead weighing a kilogram or so.
Peer into any fishbowl, and you'll see that pet goldfish and guppies have nimble fins. With a few flicks of these appendages, aquarium swimmers can turn in circles, dive deep down or even bob to the surface.