A trio of roboticists from KM-RoBoTa Sàrl, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and Verity AG, all in Switzerland, has found that a pair of reptilian robots they built for use in a BBC documentary back in 2016 may now offer a novel means for studying marine life and could also be used in disaster efforts.
A research team led by Prof. Tian Xingyou and Prof. Zhang Xian from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science (HFIPS) of the Chinese Academy of Science (CAS) have utilized liquid metal to construct Liquid metal/Polyimide/Polytetrafluoroethylene (LM/PI/PTFE) programmable photothermal actuators based on asymmetric thermal expansion.
A team of roboticists at Technical University of Munich, in Germany, working with a colleague from Sun Yat-sen University, in China, has improved the nimbleness of a quadruped robot by adding a flexible spine and tail. The group has reported on their project in the journal Science Robotics.
Soft grippers have advantages in human-machine interactions, but most of them suffer from low response time. Bistable structures could improve this characteristic, but the performance of current bistable grippers is limited by their predefined structural parameters and grasping modes.
Artificial hands can be operated via app or with sensors placed in the muscles of the forearm. New research from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) shows that a better understanding of muscle activity patterns in the forearm supports a more intuitive and natural control of artificial limbs. This requires a network of 128 sensors and AI-based techniques.
Seeing robots made with soft, flexible parts in action appears to lower people's anxiety about working with them or even being replaced by them.
People interacting with social robots disclosed more about themselves over time and reported feeling less lonely, according to a new study.
Inspired by a small and slow snail, scientists have developed a robot protype that may one day scoop up microplastics from the surfaces of oceans, seas and lakes.
When a natural disaster such as an earthquake occurs, every minute counts. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are often used to assist the search for survivors as they can provide an initial overview of difficult-to-reach areas and help to detect victims—provided they are visible.
Damp, cold conditions are the enemy of wind power. If a layer of ice forms on the rotor blades, this can result in rotational imbalance and, hence, increased wear. In such cases, the turbines often have to be shut down for several days, leading to massive losses for the operators due to the pause in electricity production.
In a step toward more autonomous soft robots and wearable technologies, EPFL researchers have created a device that uses color to simultaneously sense multiple mechanical and temperature stimuli.
Researchers at Tufts University and Harvard University's Wyss Institute have created tiny biological robots that they call Anthrobots from human tracheal cells that can move across a surface and have been found to encourage the growth of neurons across a region of damage in a lab dish.
A team of engineers at Beihang University, working with a colleague from Tsinghua University, both in China, has designed, built and tested a haptically controlled octopus robot arm that is capable of grasping, lifting and carrying objects on land and underwater. In an article published in the journal Science Robotics, the group describes how they built their robot, how it works and how well it performed when tested under a variety of scenarios.
Modern robots know how to sense their environment and respond to language, but what they don't know is often more important than what they do know. Teaching robots to ask for help is key to making them safer and more efficient.
An inspection design method and procedure by which mobile robots can inspect large pipe structures has been demonstrated with the successful inspection of multiple defects on a three-meter long steel pipe using guided acoustic wave sensors.