A pitiful sound from tinny speakers, sad virtual eyes, trembling robot arms: It doesn't take much to feel sorry for a robot. This is the conclusion of a study by Marieke Wieringa, who will be defending her Ph.D. thesis at Radboud University on 5 November. But she warns that our human compassion could also be exploited; just wait until companies find a revenue model for emotional manipulation by robots.
A research team led by Associate Professor Li Mujun, Professor Zhang Shiwu, and Professor Hu Bing from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has developed porous magnetic soft grippers (PMSGs) that can gently and quickly grasp delicate living things. They can handle a variety of objects, from thin wires to fragile organisms and have potential applications in biomedicine and scientific research. The findings are published in Advanced Materials.
Jeremy Ford hates wasting water. As a mist of rain sprinkled the fields around him in Homestead, Florida, Ford bemoaned how expensive it had been running a fossil fuel-powered irrigation system on his five-acre farm—and how bad it was for the planet.
In the classic cartoon "The Jetsons," Rosie the robotic maid seamlessly switches from vacuuming the house to cooking dinner to taking out the trash. But in real life, training a general-purpose robot remains a major challenge.
KAIST researchers have unveiled a new wearable robot developed for completely paralyzed persons that can walk to them so that the user can wear it right out of their wheelchairs without the help from others. Also, it was announced that Professor Kyoungchul Kong's team from KAIST will be participating in the wearable robot category of the 3rd Cybathlon, which is being held four years after the team's gold medal win in 2020.
Science laboratories across disciplines—chemistry, biochemistry and materials science—are on the verge of a sweeping transformation as robotic automation and AI lead to faster and more precise experiments that unlock breakthroughs in fields like health, energy and electronics.
Imagine sitting in a dark movie theater wondering just how much soda is left in your oversized cup. Rather than prying off the cap and looking, you pick up and shake the cup a bit to hear how much ice is inside rattling around, giving you a decent indication of if you'll need to get a free refill.
For robots, simulation is a great teacher for learning long-horizon (multi-step) tasks—especially compared to how long it takes to collect real-world training data.
In the current AI zeitgeist, sequence models have skyrocketed in popularity for their ability to analyze data and predict what to do next. For instance, you've likely used next-token prediction models like ChatGPT, which anticipate each word (token) in a sequence to form answers to users' queries. There are also full-sequence diffusion models like Sora, which convert words into dazzling, realistic visuals by successively "denoising" an entire video sequence.
In the current AI zeitgeist, sequence models have skyrocketed in popularity for their ability to analyze data and predict what to do next. For instance, you've likely used next-token prediction models like ChatGPT, which anticipate each word (token) in a sequence to form answers to users' queries. There are also full-sequence diffusion models like Sora, which convert words into dazzling, realistic visuals by successively "denoising" an entire video sequence.
Toyota Motor Corp.'s research unit and Hyundai Motor Co.'s Boston Dynamics are joining forces to speed up development of humanoid robots with artificial intelligence.
Within its new Responsible Innovation initiative, researchers at Penn Engineering discovered that certain features of AI-governed robots carry security vulnerabilities and weaknesses that were previously unidentified and unknown. The research aims to address the emerging vulnerability for ensuring the safe deployment of large language models (LLMs) in robotics.
Penn Engineers have developed a new algorithm that allows robots to react to complex physical contact in real time, making it possible for autonomous robots to succeed at previously impossible tasks, like controlling the motion of a sliding object.
The silkworm moth (Bombyx mori) is an insect that no longer flies due to domestication. The males use their antennae to detect pheromones emitted by females and respond very acutely, and have been used as model insects for the study of their odor source localization.
The development of affordable and highly performing sensors can have crucial implications for robotics research, as it could improve perception to help boost robot manipulation and navigation. In recent years, engineers have introduced a wide range of advanced touch sensor devices, which can improve the ability of robots to detect tactile signals, using the information they gather to guide their actions.