Robotics News – Latest Headlines

Teaching robots to solve their own problems

Researchers are embarking on a project to make robots and other artificial intelligences 'persistently autonomous', so they can deal with unexpected problems.

Nov 10th, 2016

Making computers explain themselves

New training technique would reveal the basis for machine-learning systems' decisions.

Oct 28th, 2016

mROBerTO: The modular millirobot for swarm behavior studies (w/video)

Developed by a team at the University of Toronto, mROBerTO (milli-ROBot TORonto) is designed for swarm-robotics researchers who might wish to test their collective-behavior algorithms with real physical robots.

Oct 26th, 2016

Robots in distress in the Venetian Lagoon

Two British artists are designing an unconventional fleet of autonomous devices that can help fight pollution in the lagoon environment of Venice.

Oct 25th, 2016

Zebrafish want to hang out with moving 3-D robotic models of themselves

Authenticity is an important trait, and zebrafish take it especially seriously. An interdisciplinary team of researchers discovered that zebrafish engage more with 3D-moving robotic models of themselves than with other stimuli.

Oct 24th, 2016

First steps towards the touch robot

Using a relatively simple system - a mannequin's arm with pressure sensors, connected to a computer - researchers have succeeded in getting it to recognize sixty percent of all touches.

Oct 24th, 2016

Soft robots that mimic human muscles (w/video)

Soft robots, powered by muscle-like actuators, are designed to be used on the human body in order to help people move.

Oct 12th, 2016

There's a way to turn almost any object into a computer - and it could cause shockwaves in AI

There is the possibilty of using alternative materials - potentially any material or physical system - as computers to perform calculations, without the need to manipulate electrons like silicon chips do. And it turns out these could be even better for developing artificial intelligence than existing computers.

Oct 11th, 2016

3-D-printed robots with shock-absorbing skins (w/video)

Researchers present a new method for 3-D printing soft materials that make robots safer and more precise in their movements - and that could be used to improve the durability of drones, phones, shoes, helmets, and more.

Oct 6th, 2016

Robot law - forging a new legal discipline

What happens to privacy when drones are deployed by police? What place do agbots (agricultural robots) have in ensuring food security? Whither the legal profession now that robots are performing legal tasks overseas?

Oct 6th, 2016

Your next nurse could be a robot

Robots can successfully imitate human motions in the operating room.

Oct 5th, 2016

Robot doesn't have to behave and look like a human (w/video)

The R2-D2 robot from Star Wars doesn't communicate in human language but is, nevertheless, capable of showing its intentions. For human-robot interaction, the robot does not have to be a true humanoid. Provided that it signals are designed in the right way.

Sep 22nd, 2016

What artificial intelligence will look like in 2030

A panel of academics and industry thinkers has looked ahead to 2030 to forecast how advances in AI might affect life in a typical North American city and spark discussion about how to ensure the safe, fair, and beneficial development of these rapidly developing technologies.

Sep 22nd, 2016

Machine learning in a quantum world

From self-driving cars and IBM's Watson to chess engines and AlphaGo, there is no shortage of news about machine learning, the field of artificial intelligence that studies how to make computers that can learn. Recently, parallel to these advances, scientists have started to ask how quantum devices and techniques might aid machine learning in the future.

Sep 17th, 2016

Artificial limbs are becoming more like wearable robots (w/video)

Here's how to convince the brain that prosthetic legs are real.

Sep 12th, 2016

World first for robot eye operation

Surgeons have performed the world's first operation inside the eye using a robot. They used the remotely controlled robot to lift a membrane 100th of a millimetre thick from the retina at the back of the right eye.

Sep 12th, 2016