Running on the beach versus a paved road can change an athlete's stride, speed and stability. Alter the force of gravity, and that runner may break their personal record or sink into the ground. Researchers have to consider such parameters when designing extraterrestrial rovers and landers—which can trawl where no person has stepped foot.
A new study by researchers at Queen Mary University of London, Imperial College London and The University of Melbourne has found that people can learn to use supernumerary robotic arms as effectively as working with a partner in just one hour of training.
A team of robotic and acoustic engineers from the Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems, ETH Zurich, and Institut für Theoretische Physik, Center for Soft Nanoscience, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, has developed a microrobot that can be propelled through narrow tubes using sound waves. In their paper published in the journal Science Advances the group describes how they designed their robots and how well they worked when tested.
A research team led by Assistant Professor Mizuki Takeda from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Toyohashi University of Technology, has developed a technique to generate training data for robots that operate based on estimations of the user's state using machine learning. The research is published in the journal IEEE Access.
A lizard-like soft robot that can creep into walls, ductwork, and pipes to perform inspections and three-dimensional mapping tasks that could be dangerous or impossible for humans has been developed by WPI researchers partnered with the City of Worcester.
Mobile robots have become increasingly sophisticated and are now being deployed in a growing number of real-world environments, including airports, malls, museums, health care facilities and other settings. So far, however, most of these robots have been introduced in clearly defined indoor environments, as opposed to completing missions that would require them to travel across the city or explore unknown and unmapped spaces.
In what is being called a milestone in mobile robotics, an AI-assisted drone has defeated drones controlled by humans in an obstacle course testing precision flight patterns and speed.
Soft inflatable robots have emerged as a promising paradigm for applications that require inherent safety and adaptability. However, the integration of sensing and control systems in these robots has posed significant challenges without compromising their softness, form factor, or capabilities.
A team of mechanical engineers at Cornell University, working with a colleague from Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, has designed and built a tiny robot that is powered by a combustion engine. In their paper published in the journal Science, the group describes how they built their tiny engine and possible uses for it. Ryan Truby, with Northwestern University, has published a Perspective piece in the same journal issue outlining the work done by the team on this new effort.
Making group decisions is no easy task, especially when the decision makers are a swarm of robots. To increase swarm autonomy in collective perception, a research team at the IRIDIA artificial intelligence research laboratory at the Université Libre de Bruxelles proposed an innovative self-organizing approach in which one robot at a time works temporarily as the "brain" to consolidate information on behalf of the group.
Researchers at the University of Washington have developed small robotic devices that can change how they move through the air by "snapping" into a folded position during their descent. The team published these results in Science Robotics.
Large language models (LLMs) are advanced deep learning techniques that can interact with humans in real-time and respond to prompts about a wide range of topics. These models have gained much popularity after the release of ChatGPT, a model created by OpenAI that surprised many users for its ability to generate human-like answers to their questions.
In a virtual reality study that sheds light on the intricacies of human-robot interactions, researchers have discovered that humans are capable of experiencing empathic embarrassment when witnessing robots go through embarrassing situations.
In fried-chicken-obsessed South Korea, restaurants serving the nation's favorite fast-food dish dot every street corner. But Kang Ji-young's establishment brings something a little different to the table: a robot is cooking the chicken.
Researchers who created a soft robot that could navigate simple mazes without human or computer direction have now built on that work, creating a "brainless" soft robot that can navigate more complex and dynamic environments. The paper, "Physically Intelligent Autonomous Soft Robotic Maze Escaper," was published Sept. 8 in the journal Science Advances.