Our built environment is aging and failing faster than we can maintain it. Recent building collapses and structural failures of roads and bridges are indicators of a problem that's likely to get worse, according to experts, because it's just not possible to inspect every crack, creak and crumble to parse dangerous signs of failure from normal wear and tear.
It abseils from a height and swings around obstacles: Robot Avocado will one day maneuver through the canopy of the rainforest and collect data for researchers about this hard-to-reach habitat.
Researchers at ETH Zurich have recently developed artificial muscles for robot motion. Their solution offers several advantages over previous technologies: It can be used wherever robots need to be soft rather than rigid or where they need more sensitivity when interacting with their environment.
Researchers have developed a robotic sensor that incorporates artificial intelligence techniques to read braille at speeds roughly double that of most human readers.
Social robots can help us with many things: teaching, learning, caring. Because they're designed to interact with humans, they're designed to make us comfortable—and that includes the way they talk. But how should they talk? Some research suggests that people like robots to use a familiar accent or dialect, while other research suggests the opposite.
Against a backdrop of looming skyscrapers, a robot dinosaur raises its feathery wings, sending its prey fleeing in terror.
Problems of racial and gender bias in artificial intelligence algorithms and the data used to train large language models like ChatGPT have drawn the attention of researchers and generated headlines. But these problems also arise in social robots, which have physical bodies modeled on nonthreatening versions of humans or animals and are designed to interact with people.
Compared to robots, human bodies are flexible, capable of fine movements, and can convert energy efficiently into movement. Drawing inspiration from human gait, researchers from Japan crafted a two-legged biohybrid robot by combining muscle tissues and artificial materials. Published on January 26 in the journal Matter, this method allows the robot to walk and pivot.
Over the past four years, a research team at the Artificial and Mechanical Intelligence (AMI) lab at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT-Italian Institute of Technology) in Genova (Italy) has developed advanced avatar technologies, known as the iCub3 system, in continuous testing with real-world scenarios.
We typically don't think about it while doing it, but walking is a complicated task. Controlled by our nervous system, our bones, joints, muscles, tendons, ligaments and other connective tissues (i.e., the musculoskeletal system) must move in coordination and respond to unexpected changes or disturbances at varying speeds in a highly efficient manner. Replicating this in robotic technologies is no small feat.
A team of biomedical engineers and roboticists affiliated with multiple institutions across China has developed a type of small, soft robot that can swim through water and test for contaminants. In their paper published in the journal Science Advances, the team notes that the robot can be powered and controlled using radio waves.
As people age, they gradually lose muscle strength in their arms and legs, making it difficult for them to participate in leisure activities such as hiking and traveling, and they often need to rely on assistive devices such as canes and wheelchairs for mobility. However, these devices do not improve muscle strength, so wearable robots that can compensate for the lack of muscle strength are attracting attention as an innovative technology to improve the health and quality of life of the elderly.
A trio of soft robotics researchers at Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, in Italy, working with a colleague from the University of Montpellier, in France, has developed a unique type of robot that 3D prints its own body as a means to grow longer. In their paper published in the journal Science Robotics, the group describes how they created their robot and the possible uses for it.
Two insect-like robots, a mini-bug and a water strider, developed at Washington State University, are the smallest, lightest and fastest fully functional micro-robots ever known to be created.
A combined team of engineers from NASA Ames Research Center and KBR has designed and built a robot system that can autonomously build structures using specially designed lattice blocks. In their paper published in the journal Science Robotics, the group describes the robots and the lattice blocks they use to build structures and how they whole system works.