Robotics News – Latest Headlines

Robot bees fly and swim, soon they'll have laser eyes

The flying insects, designed for agriculture and disaster relief, will rely on technology used by driverless cars.

Posted: Oct 21st, 2015

Tiny dancers: Can ballet bugs help us build better robots? (w/video)

When it's time to design new robots, sometimes the best inspiration can come from Mother Nature. Take, for example, her creepy, but incredibly athletic spider crickets.

Posted: Oct 20th, 2015

Soft robot changes color as it grips and walks (w/video)

Scientists report a way to make elastic material for soft robots that changes color when it stretches. They say this process opens the door to robot camouflage, new ways to deliver medicines and other applications.

Posted: Oct 14th, 2015

Bio-inspired robotic finger looks, feels and works like the real thing

Most robotic parts used to today are rigid, have a limited range of motion and don't really look lifelike. Inspired by nature and biology, a scientist has designed a novel robotic finger using shape memory alloy, a 3-D CAD model of a human finger, a 3-D printer and a unique thermal training technique. This bio-inspired robotic finger could ultimately be adapted to use as a prosthetic device, like a prosthetic hand.

Posted: Oct 8th, 2015

Robots navigating the unknown

A computer algorithm that copies the navigation functionality of humans and animals helps robots navigate unfamiliar spaces.

Posted: Oct 7th, 2015

Embedded optical sensors could make robotic hands more dexterous (w/video)

Researchers have developed a three-fingered soft robotic hand with multiple embedded fiber optic sensors. They also have created a new type of stretchable optical sensor.

Posted: Sep 28th, 2015

Robots - our new underwater 'astronauts'

Soon it may be easier to design, plan and carry out infrastructure operations in deep water. The EU project called SWARMs aims to achieve this by integrating autonomous vehicles such as ROVs and AUVs.

Posted: Sep 28th, 2015

Mind your manners, robot: How social cues influence human-robot interaction

New research to be presented at the HFES 2015 Annual Meeting in Los Angeles in October examines the importance of social cues when evaluating the role of trust in human-robot interaction.

Posted: Sep 21st, 2015

Robotic Landing gear could enable future helicopters to take off and land almost anywhere (w/video)

The adaptive system replaces standard landing gear with four articulated, jointed legs that are able to fold up next to the helicopter's fuselage while in flight and are equipped with force-sensitive contact sensors in their feet.

Posted: Sep 10th, 2015

Biophysicists take small step in quest for 'robot scientist'

Biophysicists have taken another small step forward in the quest for an automated method to infer models describing a system's dynamics - a so-called robot scientist

Posted: Aug 25th, 2015

Smooth robot movements reduce energy consumption by up to 40 percent

By minimizing the acceleration of industrial robots, energy consumption can be reduced by up to 40 percent - while retaining the given production time. This is the result of a new optimization algorithm.

Posted: Aug 24th, 2015

Kontur-2 - Controlling robots remotely from space

Although only about 400 kilometres separate the Kontur-2 joystick and the German Aerospace Center ROKVISS robot, the remote control operations that took place on 18 August 2015 were truly special: Cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, flying aboard the International Space Station over Earth at 28,000 kilometres per hour, controlled the robot on the ground while in microgravity.