Robotics News

August 20, 2016

Little Light Powered Soft Robotic Caterpillar

Brain-Machine: Major Gains for Paraplegics

Wave-Propelled Robot Swims, Crawls and Climbs

Remote-Controlled Microrobots for Medicine

Latest Headlines

updated 11:47am EDT

People Favour Expressive, Communicative Robots Over Efficient and Effective Ones

Aug. 19, 2016 — Making an assistive robot partner expressive and communicative is likely to make it more satisfying to work with and lead to ... read more

Microswimmer Robot Chains Can Decouple and Reconnect in a Magnetic Field

July 28, 2016 — Researchers have successfully pulled off a feat that both sci-fi fans and Michael Phelps could appreciate. Using a rotating magnetic field they show how multiple chains of ... read more

Violent Groups Revealed on Twitter

July 26, 2016 — New sentiment analysis algorithms are able to monitor the social network Twitter in search of violent groups. The system analyses both the messages these individuals share and how their relationships ... read more

New Robot Overcomes Obstacles

July 25, 2016 — It looks like a bicycle chain, but has just twelve segments about the size of a fist. In each segment there is a motor. This describes pretty much the robot developed by the ... read more

Hey Robot, Shimmy Like a Centipede

July 22, 2016 — Researchers have used computer simulations and robotics to uncover a surprising insight into the mechanics of locomotion, namely that taming instability -- a factor that ... read more

Robot Therapist Hits the Spot With Athletes

July 18, 2016 — Trials of a prototype robot for sports therapy have just begun in Singapore, to create a high quality and repeatable treatment routine to improve sports recovery, reducing reliance on trained ... read more

Artificial Muscle for Soft Robotics: Low Voltage, High Hopes

July 21, 2016 — A dielectric elastomer with a broad range of motion that requires relatively low voltage and no rigid components has now been created by scientists. This type of actuator ... read more

Mars Rover's Laser Can Now Target Rocks All by Itself

July 21, 2016 — New software is enabling ChemCam, the laser spectrometer on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover, to select rock targets autonomously -- the first time autonomous target selection is ... read more

Social Robots: Programmable by Everyone

July 20, 2016 — Social robots can be used in the educational or health system, where they would support trainers and therapists in their work. The robots can be programmed to practice ... read more

New Guidance System With 3D Sounds for the Visually Impaired

July 18, 2016 — The visually impaired will be able to use a new system of sensorial guidance that uses 3D sounds. The application is designed to be installed in a mobile phone and uses satellite navigation and ... read more

Robot Beats Humans at Table Football

New Humanoid Robot Controls Its Own Movements

These Mind-Controlled Robots Are Changing Paralyzed Patients' Lives

Robot Masseuse Hits the Spot in Singapore

New Way to Compare Mobile Phone Cameras: Benchmarking Takes Into Account Also Camera Speed

Aug. 5, 2016 — Researchers have defined a new benchmarking method for mobile phone cameras. The benchmarking combines different image quality and camera performance metrics to a comparable, single value ... read more

Websites With History Can Be Just as Conversational as Chatting With a Person

July 28, 2016 — A website with search and interaction history can be just as engaging as chatting with an online human agent, or robot helper, according to ... read more

Can Robots Recognize Faces Even Under Backlighting?

July 19, 2016 — Researchers have developed a novel technique to address the problem of vision-based face detection and recognition under normal and severe illumination conditions. This technique contributes to help ... read more

Researchers Build a Crawling Robot from Sea Slug Parts and a 3-D Printed Body

July 18, 2016 — Researchers have combined tissues from a sea slug with flexible 3-D printed components to build 'biohybrid' robots to manage different tasks than an animal or purely humanmade robot ... read more

Using Wireless Interface, Operators Control Multiple Drones by Thinking of Various Tasks

July 13, 2016 — A researcher has discovered how to control multiple robotic drones using the human brain. A controller wears a skull cap outfitted with 128 electrodes wired to a computer. The device records ... read more

Study Uses Text-Mining to Improve Market Intelligence on Startups

July 13, 2016 — A researcher has created a new method that uses big data analytics and text-mining techniques to improve market intelligence and explain potential mergers and acquisitions of startup companies in the ... read more

Analysis of Ant Colonies Could Improve Network Algorithms

July 13, 2016 — An analysis of ant colony behavior could yield better algorithms for network communication, say investigators. Biologists have long suspected that ants base their population-density estimates on the ... read more

Advancing Self-Driving Car Design, Other Shared Human And Machine-Controlled Systems

July 13, 2016 — Computer scientists have described a new approach to managing the challenge of transferring control between a human and an autonomous ... read more

The Debut of a Robotic Stingray, Powered by Light-Activated Rat Cells

July 7, 2016 — Researchers have created a robotic mimic of a stingray that's powered and guided by light-sensitive rat heart cells. The work exhibits a new method for building bio-inspired robots by means of ... read more

Robot Helps Study How First Land Animals Moved 360 Million Years Ago

July 7, 2016 — When early terrestrial animals began moving about on mud and sand 360 million years ago, the powerful tails they used as fish may have been more important than scientists previously realized. ... read more

Study Exposes Major Flaw in Classic Artificial Intelligence Test

July 5, 2016 — A serious problem in the Turing test for computer intelligence is exposed in a new ... read more

On the Path Toward Molecular Robots

July 5, 2016 — Scientists have developed light-powered molecular motors that repetitively bend and unbend, bringing us closer to molecular ... read more

Grade-School Students Teach a Robot to Help Themselves Learn Geometry

June 30, 2016 — Researchers create rTAG, a tangible learning environment that utilizes teachable agent framing, together with a physical robotic agent to get students away from the traditional computer monitor, ... read more

Robots Come to Each Other's Aid When They Get the Signal

June 27, 2016 — Sometimes all it takes to get help from someone is to wave at them, or point. Now the same is true for robots. Researchers have completed work on a project aimed at enabling robots to cooperate with ... read more

Visual Cloud Computing Methods Could Help First Responders in Disaster Scenarios

June 23, 2016 — Visual data created by numerous security cameras, personal mobile devices and aerial video provide useful data for first responders and law enforcement. That data can be critical in terms of knowing ... read more

Service Robot Floka’s Big Debut

June 22, 2016 — What must an intelligent apartment provide in order to make everyday life safe, healthy, and comfortable? Robotics experts have developed the service robot Floka. Floka is fitted with a new ... read more

Self-Learning Arm Controlled by Thought

June 22, 2016 — Scientists are developing a robotic arm prototype and its control algorithm using myoelectric signals. The mechanical limb will independently recognize the motions of its owner and be able to ... read more

Making Computers Reason and Learn by Analogy

June 21, 2016 — Using the power of analogy, a new structure-mapping engine gives computers the ability to reason like humans and even solve moral ... read more

Robotic Motion Planning in Real-Time

June 20, 2016 — Robots with multi-jointed arms must plan their motion, a difficult problem that requires time-consuming computation. Simply picking an object up in an environment that has not been pre-engineered for ... read more

Artificial Synapse Rivals Biological Ones in Energy Consumption

June 20, 2016 — Researchers have succeeded in fabricating an organic nanofiber electronic device that emulates not only the important working principles and energy consumption of biological synapses but also the ... read more

Friday, August 5, 2016