Jaimi Lard gets into position. She cups her left hand over the device, spreading her fingers across the top of it, and raises her right hand. When Lard is ready, Samantha Johnson presses a few keys on a laptop wired to the robot and then, with a mechanical buzzing sound filling the air, the device begins to move.
Swarm robotics is a relatively new and highly promising research field, which entails the development of multi-robot teams that can move and complete tasks together. Robot swarms could have numerous valuable applications. For instance, they could support humans during search and rescue missions or allow them to monitor geographical areas that are difficult to access.
In recent years, numerous roboticists worldwide have been trying to develop robotic systems that can artificially replicate the human sense of touch. In addition, they have been trying to create increasingly realistic and advanced bionic limbs and humanoid robots, using soft materials instead of rigid structures.
A pasta order comes in and the robotic arm springs into action at the Roboeatz eatery in Riga. After five minutes of gyrations, a piping hot plate is ready.
Researchers at Tohoku University and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, with the support of the Human Frontier Science Program, have decoded the flexible motor control mechanisms underlying salamander walking.
In 2017, while on holiday with his family in Cornwall, Loughborough University student Dominic Leatherland witnessed a teenager become detached from their bodyboard and pulled out to sea due to rough conditions.
If you're homeless and looking for temporary shelter in Hawaii's capital, expect a visit from a robotic police dog that will scan your eye to make sure you don't have a fever.
New research that could help us use swarms of robots to tackle forest fires, conduct search and rescue operations at sea and diagnose problems inside the human body, has been published by engineers at the University of Sheffield.
Over the past few decades, roboticists and computer scientists have developed a variety of data-based techniques for teaching robots how to complete different tasks. To achieve satisfactory results, however, these techniques should be trained on reliable and large datasets, preferably labeled with information related to the task they are learning to complete.
A new robotic window and building façade cleaner currently being developed has the potential to be three times faster, safer, and more efficient than current methods, according to its co-inventors. SFU postdoctoral researcher Hossein Kamali and co-founder Mohammad Dabiri hope their robotic window cleaner will increase efficiency and eliminate risk of injuries and fatalities that come with traditional high-rise window cleaning—which has been carried out the same way for decades.
Cassie the robot, invented at Oregon State University and produced by OSU spinout company Agility Robotics, has made history by traversing 5 kilometers, completing the route in just over 53 minutes.
Recently, researchers from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science (HFIPS) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences developed a smart functional robot that realized simultaneous disinfection of both air and object surface.
Researchers at Northeastern are working to eliminate the stiff, herky-jerky motions in robotic arms to make them graceful and deft enough to gently pick up an egg or sturdy enough to stack dinner plates. The findings could one day allow doctors to remotely perform surgery on a distant battlefield or help bomb disposal experts safely remove an explosive device.
Google's parent Alphabet unveiled a new "moonshot" project to develop software for robotics which could be used in a wide range of industries.
ANU researcher Hanna Kurniawati is helping robots problem solve and care. Her work has not just shaped how AI works every day; it's been recognized with a major global prize.