Soft skin coverings and touch sensors have emerged as a promising feature for robots that are both safer and more intuitive for human interaction, but they are expensive and difficult to make. A recent study demonstrates that soft skin pads doubling as sensors made from thermoplastic urethane can be efficiently manufactured using 3D printers.
The electromyographic (EMG) signal is the bioelectrical current generated during muscle contraction. It can be transmitted as an input signal to an intelligent bionic prosthetic hand to control hand movements. By increasing the number of signal acquisition channels, richer information about the intention of the action can be captured, thus improving the success rate of the recognition of the intention of the action. However, it is not better to have more acquisition channels.
The ability of the human wrist to rotate around the forearm axis in 2 directions is crucial for many daily activities. This rotation, limited to a range of approximately [-90°, 90°], restricts the wrist's capacity to execute complex operational tasks. For example, when we open or lock a door with a key, our wrist performs a large rotational movement. When we screw, the wrist needs to twist 180° several times.
Robots with wheels could potentially navigate a variety of indoor and outdoor environments, traveling for longer distances and with fewer risks of losing balance. While some wheeled robots have achieved very promising results in recent years, most of them are unable to reliably overcome steps (i.e., surfaces that are raised above ground level).
A robot is chatting to an elderly British man in his bedroom. The robot has a cheery demeanor and a pleasantly high-pitched voice.
Talking to a robot often feels stilted or delayed, thanks to computer software trying to keep up with the conversation. However, new research from the University of Waterloo has improved the ability for humans to communicate naturally with humanoid robots.
A team of biomedical, mechanical, and aerospace engineers from City University of Hong Kong and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology has developed a hopping robot by attaching a spring-loaded telescopic leg to the underside of a quadcopter. Their paper is published in the journal Science Robotics.
A team of AI specialists at Google's DeepMind has used machine learning to teach tiny robots to play soccer. They describe the process for developing the robots in Science Robotics.
Smaller batch sizes instead of mass production, more complex production lines, increasing competitive pressure, unstable supply chains: Against this background, the Franco-German research project GreenBotAI addresses robotics.
An interdisciplinary research team from the University of Waterloo's Social and Intelligent Robotics Research Lab (SIRRL) has found that people prefer interacting with robots they perceive to have social identities like their own.
New chemistries for batteries, semiconductors and more could be easier to manufacture, thanks to a new approach to making chemically complex materials that researchers at the University of Michigan and Samsung's Advanced Materials Lab have demonstrated.
Researchers at Meta AI, Stanford University, Technische, Universität Dresden and the German Cancer Research Center (DFKZ) recently developed DIGIT Pinki, a miniature-sized sensor that can detect tactile information. This sensor, presented in a paper posted to the preprint server arXiv, could be integrated in new medical technologies and robotic systems.
Our muscles are nature's perfect actuators—devices that turn energy into motion. For their size, muscle fibers are more powerful and precise than most synthetic actuators. They can even heal from damage and grow stronger with exercise.
With rapid developments in artificial intelligence and robot technology, social robots will increasingly be used in society. Robotics researcher Chinmaya Mishra looked at the importance of gaze direction and human emotions in our communication with robots and developed two systems to make robots' faces work in our favor. Mishra will receive his Ph.D. at Radboud University on 17 April.
Climbing robots could have many valuable real-world applications, ranging from the completion of maintenance tasks on roofs or other tall structures to the delivery of parcels or survival kits in locations that are difficult to access. To be successfully deployed in real-world settings, however, these robots should be able to effectively sense and map their surroundings, while also accurately predicting where they are located within mapped environments.