Inspired by sea cucumbers, engineers have designed miniature robots that rapidly and reversibly shift between liquid and solid states. On top of being able to shape-shift, the robots are magnetic and can conduct electricity. The researchers put the robots through an obstacle course of mobility and shape-morphing tests. Their study was published January 25 in the journal Matter.
Legged robots have significant advantages over wheeled and track-based robots, particularly when it comes to moving on different types of terrains. This makes them particularly favorable for missions that involve transporting goods or traveling from one place to another.
Researchers have made a significant leap forward in developing insect-sized jumping robots capable of performing tasks in the small spaces often found in mechanical, agricultural and search-and-rescue settings.
One of the virtues of untethered soft robots is their ability to mechanically adapt to their surroundings and tasks, making them ideal for a range of roles, from tightening bolts in a factory to conducting deep-sea exploration. Now they are poised to become even more agile and controlled.
To tackle different real-world tasks, robots should be able to handle and manipulate a variety of objects and materials, including paper. While roboticists have successfully improved the ability of humanoid robots or robotic grippers to handle several materials, paper folding remains a rarely explored topic within the robotics community.
Materials in nature are rarely straight. In our bodies, proteins assemble into helical filaments which allow our muscles to contract. Plants change shape because cellulose fibers are arranged helically within their cell walls.
Engineers at the University of Colorado Boulder are tapping into advances in artificial intelligence to develop a new kind of walking stick for people who are blind or visually impaired.
First, they walked. Then, they saw the light. Now, miniature biological robots have gained a new trick: remote control.
Ecologists are increasingly using traces of genetic material left behind by living organisms left behind in the environment, called environmental DNA (eDNA), to catalog and monitor biodiversity. Based on these DNA traces, researchers can determine which species are present in a certain area.
For legged robots to effectively explore their surroundings and complete missions, they need to be able to move both rapidly and reliably. In recent years, roboticists and computer scientists have created various models for the locomotion of legged robots, many of which are trained using reinforcement learning methods.
A new technological development by Tel Aviv University has made it possible for a robot to smell using a biological sensor. The sensor sends electrical signals as a response to the presence of a nearby odor, which the robot can detect and interpret.
Unmanned aerial vehicles, drones, are no longer a surprise to passers-by during events or on a sunny afternoon in the city center. Drones, which have long been used in warfare, are now popular not only with professional and amateur filmmakers but also with researchers. Kaunas University of Technology scientist Rytis Maskeliūnas together with a team of researchers from other Lithuanian universities used UAV technology to detect changes in building façades against a crowded city background.
Researchers at the Munich Institute of Robotics and Machine intelligence (MIRMI) at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have developed a model that enables a robot to serve tea and coffee faster and more safely than humans—with no sloshing. The mathematics behind the pendulum used in the concept is more than 300 years old.
The Smart Polymer Materials Group led by Prof. Chen Tao at the Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering (NIMTE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), in cooperation with Prof. Zheng Yinfei at Zhejiang University, have developed a hydrogel-based soft robot with adaptive deformation that can achieve multi-dimensional off-road locomotion on natural terrains.
Team Polar, a student team at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), took their first rover to perform research in the Norwegian snow in the first week of January. The team is dedicated to developing an independent rover that can perform Antarctic research. This is their first working prototype and the team is eager to set a benchmark for future developments. They will present their findings and the rover itself at the reveal event, January 20, 2023.