All posts by Robotics News - Robot News, Robotics, Robots, Robotics Sciences

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It’s 2019 – where’s my supersuit?

I loved the "Thundercats" cartoon as a child, watching cat-like humanoids fighting the forces of evil. Whenever their leader was in trouble, he'd unleash the Sword of Omens to gain "sight beyond sight," the ability to see events happening at faraway places, or bellow "Thunder, Thunder, Thunder, Thundercats, Hooo!" to instantaneously summon his allies to his location to join the fight. What kid didn't want those superpowers?

FedEx Office’s new bots can deliver pizza, groceries or even bring chicken noodle soup to the sick

FedEx Office is adding a new kind of worker in North Texas: A robot that can deliver a hot pepperoni pizza, a bag of groceries or a prescription to a customer's home. The bot could bring a swab for a strep test to a sick person's door and return hours later with medication, cough drops and a cup of chicken noodle soup.

Killer robots already exist, and they’ve been here a very long time

Humans will always make the final decision on whether armed robots can shoot, according to a statement by the US Department of Defense. Their clarification comes amid fears about a new advanced targeting system, known as ATLAS, that will use artificial intelligence in combat vehicles to target and execute threats. While the public may feel uneasy about so-called "killer robots", the concept is nothing new – machine-gun wielding "SWORDS" robots were deployed in Iraq as early as 2007.

The social animals that are inspiring new behaviours for robot swarms

From flocks of birds to fish schools in the sea, or towering termite mounds, many social groups in nature exist together to survive and thrive. This cooperative behaviour can be used by engineers as "bio-inspiration" to solve practical human problems, and by computer scientists studying swarm intelligence.

More robots, more work

Robots will take over all jobs, so it is often thought. On the contrary, say Charissa Freese and Ton Wilthagen: robots will create jobs. It's just that these new jobs will be different, and the challenge is to anticipate which jobs will disappear, which ones will change, and what the new ones will be like – and when. Tilburg University aims to prepare employers and employees to the labor market of the near future.

Robot arms with the flexibility of an elephant’s trunk

Unlike conventional robot arms with hinged and swivel joints, new flexible arms being developed by Professor Stefan Seelecke and his research group at Saarland University are constructed using muscles made from shape-memory wires that have the ability to bend in almost any direction and to wind themselves around corners.
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