To effectively interact with humans in crowded social settings, such as malls, hospitals, and other public spaces, robots should be able to actively participate in both group and one-to-one interactions. Most existing robots, however, have been found to perform much better when communicating with individual users than with groups of conversing humans.
Imagine a pizza maker working with a ball of dough. She might use a spatula to lift the dough onto a cutting board then use a rolling pin to flatten it into a circle. Easy, right? Not if this pizza maker is a robot.
Over the past few decades, technological advances have opened new and exciting possibilities for both remote tourism and the teleoperation of robotic systems. This allowed computer scientists to develop increasingly sophisticated systems that allow humans to virtually visit remote locations in immersive ways.
Findings describe a novel way to reduce the energy people spend to walk, as much as by half, which could have applications for therapy received by patients with impaired walking abilities.
To transform human mobility, exoskeletons need to interact seamlessly with their user, providing the right level of assistance at the right time to cooperate with our muscles as we move.
Raspberries are the ultimate summer fruit. Famous for their eye-catching scarlet color and distinctive structure, they consist of dozens of fleshy drupelets with a sweet yet slightly acidic pulp. But this delicate structure is also their primary weakness, as it leaves them vulnerable to even the slightest scratch or bruise. Farmers know all too well that raspberries are a difficult fruit to harvest—and that's reflected in their price tag. But what if robots, equipped with advanced actuators and sensors, could lend a helping hand? Engineers at EPFL's Computational Robot Design & Fabrication (CREATE) lab have set out to tackle this very challenge.
UCLA environmental law professor Sean Hecht was walking across the campus one recent night when he photographed a uniquely modern urban transport scene: a snarl of food delivery robots that couldn't figure out a way around a pile of discarded electric scooters.
In a low-light Culver City, California control room, Lily Shaw is getting her pilot mood on.
Over the last century, we have mined more and more raw materials, and manufactured products from those materials. Increased prices for mined raw materials and improved recycling technology have enabled some industries to rely more on recycled materials than ever before. A report by Bob Tita in the Wall Street Journal last week detailed this trend in the aluminum business. According to Tita:
Robotic wheelchairs may soon be able to move through crowds smoothly and safely. As part of CrowdBot, an EU-funded project, EPFL researchers are exploring the technical, ethical and safety issues related to this kind of technology. The aim of the project is to eventually help the disabled get around more easily.
Robots are featuring more and more in our daily lives. They can be incredibly useful (bionic limbs, robotic lawnmowers, or robots which deliver meals to people in quarantine), or merely entertaining (robotic dogs, dancing toys, and acrobatic drones). Imagination is perhaps the only limit to what robots will be able to do in the future.
Researchers from the RIKEN Guardian Robot Project and collaborators have used a combination of lightweight material engineering and artificial intelligence to create an exoskeleton robot that could help people with mobility impairments. An important element of the new device is technology that allows the skeleton to effectively guess the intentions of the user.
Robots have come a long way. For years, they have been supporting human activity—enabling exploration in dangerous and unreachable environments like out in space and deep in the oceans. A new generation of robots are being designed to stay closer to home—caring for aging adults and young children.
Engineers and scientists have developed proof of concept for a robot that can reach some of the smallest bronchial tubes in the lungs to take tissue samples or deliver cancer therapy.
Researchers at University of Washington have recently developed a new protocol to train robots and test their performance on tasks that involve object manipulation. This protocol, presented in a paper published in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, is based on the Rubik's Cube, the well-known 3D combination puzzle invented by the Hungarian sculpture and architect Ernő Rubik.