Fidget poppers are an example of "bistability," as the popped circles rest in one of two stable states. Purdue University researchers have taken this idea to its extreme, building robots that can be preprogrammed and controlled using just the physical properties of these fidget poppers.
A research team has developed a new "Physical AI" technology that improves the efficiency of multi-robot autonomous navigation by modeling the spread and forgetting of social issues. This achievement is expected to become a key technology for boosting the productivity of autonomous mobile robots in logistics centers, large-scale warehouses, and smart factories.
Could the future of rescue missions and exploration lie in the hands—or rather, the flexible movements—of a swarm of lightweight, soft, and intelligent robots? Imagine swarms of soft-bodied robots working with the coordinated efficiency of an ant colony to navigate complex and unpredictable environments, seamlessly transitioning between murky waters, muddy banks, and rugged obstacles to deliver essential payloads. This vision is steadily moving from science fiction to tangible reality through the field of soft robotics.
Chatbots like ChatGPT and Claude have experienced a meteoric rise in usage over the past three years because they can help you with a wide range of tasks. Whether you're writing Shakespearean sonnets, debugging code, or need an answer to an obscure trivia question, artificial intelligence (AI) systems seem to have you covered. The source of this versatility? Billions or even trillions of textual data points across the Internet.
Imagine tiny robots zipping across the surface of a lake to check water quality or searching for people in flooded areas. This technology is moving closer to reality thanks to work by researchers at the University of Virginia's School of Engineering and Applied Science. Inspired by nature and insects such as water striders that walk on water, they created two prototype devices that can propel themselves across liquid surfaces.
Remote sensing object detection is a rapidly growing field in artificial intelligence, playing a critical role in advancing the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for real-world applications such as disaster response, urban planning, and environmental monitoring. Yet, designing models that balance both high accuracy and fast, lightweight performance remains a challenge.
KAIST research team's independently developed humanoid robot boasts world-class driving performance, reaching speeds of 12km/h, along with excellent stability, maintaining balance even with its eyes closed or on rough terrain. Furthermore, it can perform complex human-specific movements such as the duckwalk and moonwalk, drawing attention as a next-generation robot platform that can be utilized in actual industrial settings.
Robot umpires are coming to the big leagues in 2026 after Major League Baseball's 11-man competition committee on Tuesday approved use of the Automated Ball/Strike System.
Robots might be getting smarter, but to truly support people in daily life, they also need to become more empathetic. That means recognizing and responding to human emotions in real time.
To estimate the weight of a rock, you pick it up. Is it rough, or smooth? You run a finger over it. We're constantly gathering information through our sense of touch, which is closely connected to how we move.
A new study from the University of Waterloo has unveiled major privacy weaknesses in collaborative robots—calling for stronger defenses.
In 2021, a group of scientists from China engineered the RoboFalcon—a bird-inspired flapping-wing robot with a newly engineered mechanism made to drive bat-style morphing wings capable of flight. While this bio-inspired robot performed well at a cruising speed, it was not capable of flying at lower speeds or achieving takeoff without assistance.
Montreal-based artist Audrey-Eve Goulet was initially uncertain as she watched an AI-powered robotic arm reproduce one of her works, but said the outcome was "really impressive."
Days after Meagan Brazil-Sheehan's 6-year-old son was diagnosed with leukemia, they were walking down the halls of UMass Memorial Children's Medical Center when they ran into Robin the Robot.
Developments in autonomous robotics have the potential to revolutionize manufacturing processes, making them more flexible, customizable, and efficient. But coordinating fleets of autonomous, mobile robots in a shared space—and helping them work with each other and with human partners—is an extremely complicated task.