A team of engineers and roboticists at EPFL in Switzerland has designed and built a gliding drone that can use its wings as a gripping tool to perch on a vertical object. In their project, reported in the journal Communications Engineering, the group created a drone inspired by animals such as bats that can land on vertical poles and tree limbs.
Imitation learning is a promising method to teach robots how to reliably complete everyday tasks, such as washing dishes or cooking. Despite their potential, imitation learning frameworks rely on detailed human demonstrations, which should include data that can help to reproduce specific movements using robotic systems.
A combined team of roboticists from MIT and the University of California, San Diego, has developed a new type of remote control for robots called Open-TeleVision that allows for VR-type control. The team has posted a paper describing their robot system on the arXiv preprint server. They also posted videos on YouTube showing the robot and its pilot in action.
Four-legged animals are innately capable of agile and adaptable movements, which allow them to move on a wide range of terrains. Over the past decades, roboticists worldwide have been trying to effectively reproduce these movements in quadrupedal (i.e., four-legged) robots.
Scientists at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia have developed a tiny "claw machine" that is able to pick up and drop a marble-sized ball in response to exposure to chemical vapors.
A team of roboticists and AI specialists at Google's DeepMind have demonstrated a robot capable of giving context-based guided tours around its offices. They have posted a paper describing their work, along with demonstration videos, on the arXiv preprint server.
A motorless, flexible, waterproof prosthetic foot inspired by the anatomy of the human extremity is the new SoftFoot Pro bionic foot prototype, designed by the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT-Italian Institute of Technology) in Genoa. Its design is unique on an international level and aims to serve both as a flexible technological prosthesis for people with limb-loss and as a solution for the humanoid robots of the future.
Engineers at the University of California San Diego have trained a humanoid robot to effortlessly learn and perform a variety of expressive movements, including simple dance routines and gestures like waving, high-fiving and hugging, all while maintaining a steady gait on diverse terrains.
How do people like to interact with robots when navigating a crowded environment? And what algorithms should roboticists use to program robots to interact with humans?
Northwestern University engineers have developed a new soft, flexible device that makes robots move by expanding and contracting—just like a human muscle.
Taking inspiration from the animal kingdom, Flinders University researchers are developing affordable, flexible and highly responsive 'whiskers' to attach to robots. Their article, "Optimising electromechanical whisker design for contact localisation," has been published in the journal Sensors and Actuators A: Physical.
A combined team of roboticists from Stanford University and the Toyota Research Institute has found that adding audio data to visual data when training robots helps to improve their learning skills. The team has posted their research on the arXiv preprint server.
It resembles a malevolent robot from 1980s sci-fi but West Japan Railway's new humanoid employee was designed with nothing more sinister than a spot of painting and gardening in mind.
As an undergraduate engineering student in Delhi, India, Amisha Bhaskar took a field trip to a facility for disabled war veterans and met a man who had lost both hands. When she asked him what technologies could improve his life, his reply left an indelible impression: He wanted something so he could take care of himself and not be forced to rely upon others.
A team led by University of Maryland computer scientists has invented a camera mechanism that improves how robots see and react to the world around them. Inspired by how the human eye works, their innovative camera system mimics the tiny involuntary movements used by the eye to maintain clear and stable vision over time.