Even if an android's appearance is so realistic that it could be mistaken for a human in a photograph, watching it move in person can feel a bit unsettling. It can smile, frown, or display other various, familiar expressions, but finding a consistent emotional state behind those expressions can be difficult, leaving you unsure of what it is truly feeling and creating a sense of unease.
In recent years, roboticists have developed a wide range of systems that could eventually be introduced in health care and assisted living facilities. These include both medical robots and robots designed to provide companionship or assistance to human users.
Federal authorities have provided new details in the case of "the mysterious drones" spotted around the northeastern U.S.
Imagine trying to move a heavy piece of furniture with a group of people. Everyone's effort matters, but how do you ensure that each person is pulling their weight? This challenge of fairly distributing the load is a critical issue not only in human teamwork but also for coordinating robotic swarms.
Moving in a dense cloud, like throngs of people walking across a crowded public square, 100 drones maneuver through the night sky in Hungary's capital, the result of over a decade of research and experimentation that scientists believe could change the future of unmanned flight.
Scientists at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have demonstrated an autonomous robotic field monitoring, sampling and data-gathering system that could accelerate understanding of interactions among plants, soil and the environment.
University of Queensland researchers have developed a 3D printing method to produce shape-shifting liquid metal robotics with musculoskeletal qualities inspired by animal physiology.
Wearable haptic devices, which provide touch-based feedback, can provide more realistic experiences in virtual reality, assist with rehabilitation, and create new opportunities for silent communication. Currently, most of these devices rely on vibration, as pressure-based haptics have typically required users to wear stiff exoskeletons or other bulky structures.
The recent spate of unidentified drone sightings in the U.S., including some near sensitive locations such as airports and military installations, has caused significant public concern.
A month after mysterious drones were first reported over New Jersey, authorities are still trying to determine where they are coming from as sightings increase in frequency and spread into neighboring states.
Two roboticists from the University of Leeds and University College London have developed a framework that enables robots to traverse complex terrain without extra sensors or prior rough terrain training. Joseph Humphreys and Chengxu Zhou outlined the details of their framework in a paper posted to the arXiv preprint server.
From answering questions from Cabinet ministers, academics and students on climate change, substance abuse and the law to children's inquiries about her "birth" and links to God and being described as a talkative feminist, Sophia, the world-famous robot won hearts at an innovation fair in Zimbabwe this week.
Taylor Higgins, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, has co-authored an article that challenges conventional thinking about human-robot interaction.
If someone advises you to "know your limits," they're likely suggesting you do things like exercise in moderation. To a robot, though, the motto represents learning constraints, or limitations of a specific task within the machine's environment, to do chores safely and correctly.
The field of robotics is highly interdisciplinary, encompassing disciplines such as mechanical and electrical engineering, materials science, computer science, neuroscience and biology. The robotics community in itself is a champion of academic diversity.