Robotics, AI and SmartTech News – Latest Headlines

Self healing robots that 'feel pain' and heal themselves

Scientists will develop technologies within the new SHERO project that allow soft robots to self-heal damage. Because this repair process should not involve humans, the researchers are looking into self-healing materials to build the soft robots with.

August 8, 2019 Read more

How can robots land like birds? (w/video)

Birds can perch on a wide variety of surfaces, thick or thin, rough or slick. But can they find stable footing if a branch is covered in Teflon? In the interest of making better robots, researchers found out.

August 6, 2019 Read more

You can't squash this roach-inspired robot (w/video)

If the sight of a skittering bug makes you squirm, you may want to look away - a new insect-sized robot can scurry across the floor at nearly the speed of a darting cockroach.

July 31, 2019 Read more

Chameleon-inspired structural color soft robot can interact with environment

Researchers have developed a novel structural color soft robot with both color-changing and locomotion capabilities.

July 31, 2019 Read more

Centimeter-long snail robot is powered by light

Researchers used liquid crystal elastomer technology to demonstrate a bio-inspired microrobot capable of mimicking the adhesive locomotion of snails and slugs in natural scale. The 10-millimeter long soft robot harvests energy from a laser beam and can crawl on horizontal surfaces, climb vertical walls and an upside-down glass ceiling.

July 31, 2019 Read more

Latest e-skin innovation gives robots and prosthetics an exceptional sense of touch (w/video)

Unique sensor system responds 1,000 times faster than the human sense of touch, the fastest ever achieved for an e-skin.

July 18, 2019 Read more

Robot control system for grasping and releasing objects under both dry and wet conditions

Researchers have developed a control system for deformable robot-fingertips for grasping and releasing objects. Previously developed robot fingertips with high friction texture can stably grasp a paper box, a soft object under both dry and wet conditions. By injecting a lubricant (absolute ethanol) the grasped object slipped downwards without changing the position of the robot fingertips.

July 16, 2019 Read more

Automated system generates robotic parts for novel tasks

When designing actuators involves too many variables for humans to test by hand, this system can step in.

July 16, 2019 Read more

Robot-ants that can jump, communicate and work together (w/video)

Researchers have developed tiny 10-gram robots that are inspired by ants: they can communicate with each other, assign roles among themselves and complete complex tasks together.

July 11, 2019 Read more

Tiny motor can 'walk' to carry out tasks

Mobile motor could pave the way for robots to assemble complex structures - including other robots.

July 2, 2019 Read more

3D printed prosthetic hand can guess how you play rock, paper, scissors

A new 3D-printed prosthetic hand can learn the wearers' movement patterns to help amputee patients perform daily tasks.

June 27, 2019 Read more

A toolbox for building robots aware of their surroundings

Researchers have developed a toolbox principle for the simple assembly of safe robots using various components. The modules can be combined in almost any way desired, enabling companies to customize their robots for a wide range of tasks - or simply replace damaged components.

June 27, 2019 Read more

Robot arm tastes with engineered bacteria (w/video)

Researchers have developed a robotic gripping arm that uses engineered bacteria to 'taste' for a specific chemical. The gripper is a proof-of-concept for biologically-based soft robotics.

June 26, 2019 Read more

Spotting objects amid clutter

New approach quickly finds hidden objects in dense point clouds, for use in driverless cars or work spaces with robotic assistants.

June 20, 2019 Read more

Artificial muscles powered by glucose

Artificial muscles made from polymers can now be powered by energy from glucose and oxygen, just like biological muscles. This advance may be a step on the way to implantable artificial muscles or autonomous microrobots powered by biomolecules in their surroundings.

June 19, 2019 Read more

Now your phone can become a robot that does the boring work (w/video)

Researchers have developed a prototype smartphone app that allows a user to easily program any robot to perform a mundane activity, such as picking up parts from one area and delivering them to another.

June 17, 2019 Read more

Robotic fish to replace animal testing

Scientists are developing alternative methods for assessing the fish-friendliness of hydroelectric power plants.

June 17, 2019 Read more

Research moves closer to brain-machine interface autonomy

Engineers report that a brain-computer interface, a form of artificial intelligence, can sense when its user is expecting a reward by examining the interactions between single-neuron activities and the information flowing to these neurons, called the local field potential.

June 11, 2019 Read more