Over the past decades, roboticists have introduced various systems that can replicate specific human motions and behaviors with remarkable accuracy. Some of these robots can even compete with other robots or humans in specific sports, such as the robots showcased at the RoboCup, an international robotics event at which robots play soccer with each other.
A University of Nebraska–Lincoln engineering team is another step closer to developing soft robotics and wearable systems that mimic the ability of human and plant skin to detect and self-heal injuries.
A research team has developed autonomous driving software that allows inexpensive sensors to detect transparent obstacles such as glass walls, providing an alternative to high-performance sensors. This technology can be used in existing robots, negating the need for additional equipment while ensuring detection performance that is equal to that offered by expensive conventional equipment.
A team of roboticists and AI specialists at the Robotics & Artificial Intelligence Lab in Korea has designed, built and successfully tested a four-legged robot that is capable of conducting high-speed parkour maneuvers. In their paper published in the journal Science Robotics, the group describes how they gave their robot a controller capable of both planning and tracking its own movements to allow it to freely traverse a range of environments.
Frameworks are a critical, if underappreciated, component of any space exploration mission. They can range from the overall mission architecture, capturing scientific and technical goals, to the structure of messages sent between two internal components of the system.
A small team of roboticists at Robotic Systems Lab, ETH Zurich, in Switzerland, has designed, built and tested a four-legged robot capable of playing badminton with human players.
An ultra-light robotic prosthetic hand has been developed that enables both precision fingertip control and shape-adaptive gripping through simple motion commands. The hand features an innovative mechanism that allows two degrees of freedom in the thumb (adduction/abduction and flexion/extension) to be independently controlled by a single actuator, achieving exceptional user convenience and weight reduction.
Interactive robots should not just be passive companions, but active partners—like therapy horses who respond to human emotion—say University of Bristol researchers.
Specialized robots that can both fly and drive typically touch down on land before attempting to transform and drive away. But when the landing terrain is rough, these robots sometimes get stuck and are unable to continue operating.
Working with robots is becoming more common in the recycling industry, helping automate tasks and making complicated work easier. But training human employees to work with robots can be difficult and time-consuming.
In the ocean sciences, robots provide views of the unexplored and can navigate environments not safely accessible to humans. Such dangerous settings make up the majority of Earth's oceans.
Scientists have created the first soft robots that can walk straight out of the machines that make them.
For more than a decade, the French robotics company Aldebaran has built some of the most popular robots used in academic research. Go to most university robotics departments and you'll find either Pepper, the iconic three-wheeled humanoid robot, or its smaller two-legged sibling, Nao.
A Korean research team has developed a light-powered artificial muscle that operates freely underwater, paving the way for next-generation soft robotics.
When the wind hits an obstacle, it flows around it and creates a low-pressure zone on the other side, known as a "windwake." This flow becomes clear in observing desert sand.