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Fish fins are teaching us the secret to flexible robots and new shape-changing materials
The Conversation
20 Aug 2021
By Francois Barthelat
Flying fish use their fins both to swim and glide through the air. Smithsonian Institution/Flickr
The big idea
Segmented hinges in the long, thin bones of fish fins are...
Three new helper robots at the Hsinchu National Taiwan University Hospital
Zachary Silver and Jonathan Peng
13 Aug 2021
ADATA Technology has collaborated with researchers at Hsinchu National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH) to introduce the C-Rob Autonomous Mobile Robots. These robots use Artificial Intelligence (AI) ...
Swimming robot gives fresh insight into locomotion and neuroscience
NCCR Robotics
12 Aug 2021
Scientists at the Biorobotics Laboratory (BioRob) in EPFL’s School of Engineering are developing innovative robots in order to study locomotion in animals and, ultimately, gain a better understandin...
RO-MAN Roboethics Competition: What is an ethical home robot to you?
Open Roboethics Initiative
10 Aug 2021
So what does it mean for a robot to act ethically within a home environment? Researchers have been thinking about this question from different perspectives for the past couple of decades. Some look at...
We used peanuts and a climbing wall to learn how squirrels judge their leaps so successfully – and how their skills could inspire more nimble robots
How do they stick their landings? Alex Turton via Getty ImagesTree squirrels are the Olympic divers of the rodent world, leaping gracefully among branches and structures high above the ground. And as ...
Mobile robots revolutionize industry
International Federation of Robotics (IFR)
06 Aug 2021
Robot mobility is booming worldwide: Unit sales of Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) in the logistics sector e.g. will increase by 31% between 2020 and 2023 annually. At the same time, the use of AMRs i...
A robotic cat can teach us how real animals move
Frontiers Journals & Blog
03 Aug 2021
By Mischa Dijkstra, Frontiers science writer / Toyoaki Tanikawa, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Osaka University
In the young discipline of robotics-inspired biology, robots replace experime...
r/Robotics showcase
reddit
30 Jul 2021
The first Reddit Robotics Showcase will take place online this weekend (31st July - 1 August). Multitude of projects underway in the r/robotics reddit community will be showcased. There will be nearly...
RO-MAN 2021 Roboethics Competition: Bringing ethical robots into the home
Open Roboethics Initiative
23 Jul 2021
In 1984, Heathkit presented HERO Jr. as the first robot that could be used in households to perform a variety of tasks, such as guarding people’s homes, setting reminders, and even playing games. Fo...
New algorithm flies drones faster than human racing pilots
NCCR Robotics
22 Jul 2021
To be useful, drones need to be quick. Because of their limited battery life they must complete whatever task they have – searching for survivors on a disaster site, inspecting a building, deliverin...
What is the best simulation tool for robotics?
Silicon Valley Robotics
20 Jul 2021
What is the best simulation tool for robotics? This is a hard question to answer because many people (or their companies) specialize in one tool or another. Some simulators are better at one aspect of...
Sniffy Bug: a fully autonomous swarm of gas-seeking nano quadcopters in cluttered environments
Bart Duisterhof and Guido de Croon
15 Jul 2021
Tiny drones are ideal candidates for fully autonomous jobs that are too dangerous or time-consuming for humans. A commonly shared dream by engineers and fire & rescue services, would be to have swarms...
ITRI introduces AI-based high density shuttle rack system
Zachary Silver and Jonathan Peng
12 Jul 2021
The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) in Taiwan has introduced the AI-Based High Density Shuttle Rack System (SRS). This smart storage system, which operates without manpower in thousand...
Bristol Robotics Lab Virtual Conference 2021 (with videos)
Daniel Carrillo-Zapata
09 Jul 2021
The Bristol Robotics Laboratory (BRL) hosted their first virtual conference last Wednesday, the 30th of June. With over 50 talks, the conference was a gathering of top robotics researchers, business l...
Softbank Robotics Europe cutting workforce 40% in shake-up
Steve Crowe
06 Jul 2021
Softbank Robotics Europe, the group behind two of the more recognizable robots, is laying off 40% of its workforce. On July 7, the developer of the famous Nao and Pepper robots will reduce its Paris-b...
An expert on search and rescue robots explains the technologies used in disasters like the Florida condo collapse
Robin Murphy
01 Jul 2021
A drone flies above search and rescue personnel at the site of the Champlain Towers South Condo building collapse in Surfside, Florida. AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee
Texas A&M’s Robin Murphy has depl...
Face masks that can diagnose COVID-19
Wyss Institute
29 Jun 2021
By Lindsay Brownell
Most people associate the term “wearable” with a fitness tracker, smartwatch, or wireless earbuds. But what if cutting-edge biotechnology were integrated into your clothing,...
Learning for Caregiving Robots workshop at IEEE ICRA 2021
Zackory Erickson, Tapomayukh Bhattacharjee, Carme Torras, Yiannis Demiris, Charlie Kemp and Tomohiro Shibata
26 Jun 2021
The Learning for Caregiving Robots workshop at IEEE ICRA 2021 discussed how learning can enable robotic systems towards achieving consistently efficient and safe human assistance across activities of ...
Simulations, real robots, and bloopers from the DOTS competition: Powering emergency food distribution using swarms
Suet Lee and Sabine Hauert
24 Jun 2021
Results from the DOTS competition were released yesterday, after an intense month with teams from around the world designing new algorithms for robot swarms tasked with delivering emergency food parce...
Robot farmers could improve jobs and help fight climate change – if they’re developed responsibly
Thorvald: an autonomous robot from Saga Robotics Matt Munro, Saga Robotics, Author providedFarming robots that can move autonomously in an open field or greenhouse promise a cleaner, safer agricultura...
Robot Lab Live at the UK Festival of Robotics 2021 #RobotFest
Daniel Carrillo-Zapata
21 Jun 2021
For five years, the EPSRC UK Robotics and Autonomous Systems (UK-RAS) Network have been holding the UK Robotics Week. This year's edition kicked off on the 19th of June as the UK Festival of Robotics ...
IEEE ICRA 2021 Awards (with videos and papers)
Daniel Carrillo-Zapata
15 Jun 2021
Did you have the chance to attend the 2021 International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2021)? Here we bring you the papers that received an award this year in case you missed them. Congr...
Obstacles no problem for smart robots
Joost van de Loo
13 Jun 2021
Normally, students and scientists walk here, but today a drone is flying through a corridor on TU Delft Campus. Seemingly effortlessly, it whizzes past and between a variety of obstacles: rubbish bins...
A camera that knows exactly where it is
University of Bristol
09 Jun 2021
Knowing where you are on a map is one of the most useful pieces of information when navigating journeys. It allows you to plan where to go next and also tracks where you have been before. This is esse...
Expectations and perceptions of healthcare professionals for robot deployment in hospital environments during the COVID-19 pandemic
The recent outbreak of the severe acute respiratory syndrome, caused by coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), also referred to as COVID-19, has spread globally in an unprecedented way. In response, the efforts ...
Engineers create a programmable fiber
MIT News
03 Jun 2021
By Becky Ham | MIT News correspondent
MIT researchers have created the first fiber with digital capabilities, able to sense, store, analyze, and infer activity after being sewn into a shirt.
...
The new IIT’s “Robot Teleoperativo” (teleoperation robot)
Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia
01 Jun 2021
The Robot Teleoperativo is a new robotics result achieved at IIT-Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia and combining the rugged locomotion of HyQReal robot with dexterous and powerful manipulation assured b...
Slender robotic finger senses buried items
MIT News
27 May 2021
By Daniel Ackerman
Over the years, robots have gotten quite good at identifying objects — as long as they’re out in the open.
Discerning buried items in granular material like sand is a ...
Creating expressive robot swarms
Merihan Alhafnawi
23 May 2021
As robot swarms leave the lab and enter our daily lives, it is important that we find ways by which we can effectively communicate with robot swarms, especially ones that contain a high number of robo...
Helping drone swarms avoid obstacles without hitting each other
EPFL
20 May 2021
By Clara Marc
There is strength in numbers. That’s true not only for humans, but for drones too. By flying in a swarm, they can cover larger areas and collect a wider range of data, since each dr...
Robot stomachs: powering machines with garbage and pee
Oliver Mitchell
14 May 2021
The Seinfeld idiom, “worlds are colliding,” is probably the best description of work in the age of Corona. Pre-pandemic, it was easy to departmentalize one’s professional life from o...
Foldable, organic and easily broken down: Why DNA is the material of choice for nanorobots
Horizon Magazine
11 May 2021
By Anthony King
Doctors know that we need smarter medicines to target the bad guys only. One hope is that tiny robots on the scale of a billionth of a metre can come to the rescue, delivering drugs...
Fish-inspired soft robot survives a trip to the deepest part of the ocean
Dimitris Tsakiris
05 May 2021
The deepest regions of the oceans still remain one of the least explored areas on Earth, despite their considerable scientific interest and the richness of lifeforms inhabiting them.
Two reasons f...
DNA-inspired ‘supercoiling’ fibres could make powerful artificial muscles for robots
Geoff Spinks
03 May 2021
ShutterstockThe double helix of DNA is one of the most iconic symbols in science. By imitating the structure of this complex genetic molecule we have found a way to make artificial muscle fibres far m...
Q&A: Vivienne Sze on crossing the hardware-software divide for efficient artificial intelligence
MIT News
02 May 2021
Not so long ago, watching a movie on a smartphone seemed impossible. Vivienne Sze was a graduate student at MIT at the time, in the mid 2000s, and she was drawn to the challenge of compressing video t...
Moon exploration rovers from Lunar Zebro
Fay de Grefte
28 Apr 2021
In this series of articles, we take robot innovations from their test-lab and bring them to a randomly selected workplace in the outside world. We discovered that Lunar Zebro is not only good for risk...
