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Did any April Fools’ Day robot pranks fool you?
Robohub Editors
02 Apr 2017
April Fools' Day brings out the pranksters and tomfoolery. Some companies (see: Google) step up their game each year! Here are a few robotics or techie related ones we spotted. Any others you enjoyed...
Grow a house with plant-robot hybrids
Horizon Magazine
30 Mar 2017
Robots and plants are being intricately linked into a new type of living technology that its creators believe could be used to grow a house....
DroneClash: Delft University of Technology organising first anti-drone race
RoboValley
29 Mar 2017
To incorporate drones in our lives in a good and safe way, we need anti-drone instruments. On 4 December the TU Delft Micro Air Vehicle Lab (MAVLab) will host the first ever anti-drone competition: D...
Simple, creative robotics: Fotokite and ‘Walk to Beat’ receive top awards for innovative designs at European Robotics Forum
SPARC
28 Mar 2017
The 2017 European Robotics Forum in Edinburgh brought together over 800 people from robotics academia and industry. In an effort to bridge the two, euRobotics hosted an Entrepreneurship and TechTransf...
The Drone Center’s Weekly Roundup: 3/27/17
March 20, 2017 – March 26, 2017
News
A U.S. drone strike in Afghanistan killed Qari Yasin, an al-Qaeda leader who was responsible for a 2008 attack on a hotel in Islamabad. The strike took pla...
Toward printable, sensor-laden “skin” for robots
MIT News
27 Mar 2017
In this age of smartphones and tablet computers, touch-sensitive surfaces are everywhere. They’re also brittle, as people with cracked phone screens everywhere can attest.
Covering a robot — or...
Baidu loses A.I. star Andrew Ng
Frank Tobe
23 Mar 2017
In a surprise move which shook Baidu's stock, Andrew Ng, Baidu's Chief Scientist and partner with Baidu's founder Robin Li Yanhong in expanding Baidu's AI activities into machine learning, driverless ...
Classroom robotics: Training teachers to code
Amanda Jaakkola
22 Mar 2017
*All images credit: ROBBO
30 teachers arrived, excited to learn. They rolled up their sleeves and placed laptops and Robot kits on the floor. The room filled with excitement (and laughter!) as ever...
Living and working with robots: Live coverage of #ERF2017
Sabine Hauert
22 Mar 2017
Over 800 leading scientists, companies, and policymakers working in robotics will convene at the European Robotics Forum (#ERF2017) in Edinburgh, 22-24 March. This year’s theme is “Living and Wor...
Engineers design “tree-on-a-chip”
MIT News
22 Mar 2017
Trees and other plants, from towering redwoods to diminutive daisies, are nature’s hydraulic pumps. They are constantly pulling water up from their roots to the topmost leaves, and pumping sugars pr...
Worm-inspired material strengthens, changes shape in response to its environment
MIT News
21 Mar 2017
A new material that naturally adapts to changing environments was inspired by the strength, stability, and mechanical performance of the jaw of a marine worm. The protein material, which was designed ...
Living and working with robots: European Robotics Forum to focus on robotics markets and future of work
Kassie Perlongo
21 Mar 2017
Over 800 leading scientists, companies, and policymakers working in robotics will convene at the European Robotics Forum (#ERF2017) in Edinburgh, 22-24 March. This year’s theme is “Living and Wor...
The Drone Center’s Weekly Roundup: 3/20/17
March 13, 2017 – March 19, 2017
At the Center for the Study of the Drone
We spoke to Rolling Stone about the implications of recent advances in swarming drone technology for the future of warf...
Japan’s World Robot Summit posts challenges for teams
Silicon Valley Robotics
20 Mar 2017
Japan is holding a huge robot celebration in 2018 in Tokyo and 2020 in Aichi, Fukushima, hosted by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and industry (METI) and the New Energy Industrial Technology Developme...
Security for multirobot systems
MIT News
17 Mar 2017
Distributed planning, communication, and control algorithms for autonomous robots make up a major area of research in computer science. But in the literature on multirobot systems, security has gotten...
Collaborating machines and avoiding soil compression
John Payne
17 Mar 2017
Soil compression can be a serious problem, but it isn't always, or in all ways, a bad thing. For example, impressions made by hoofed animals, so long as they only cover a minor fraction of the soil s...
Choreographing automated cars could save time, money and lives
Horizon Magazine
15 Mar 2017
If you take humans out of the driving seat, could traffic jams, accidents and high fuel bills become a thing of the past? As cars become more automated and connected, attention is turning to how to be...
Three years on: An update from Leka, Robot Launch winner
Ladislas de Toldi
15 Mar 2017
Nearly three years ago, Leka won the Grand Prize at the 2014 Robot Launch competition for their robotic toy set on changing the way children with developmental disorders learn, play and progress. Leka...
The Drone Center’s Weekly Roundup: 3/13/17
March 6, 2017 – March 12, 2017
News
Germany reportedly intends to acquire the Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton high-altitude surveillance drone, according to a story in Sueddeutsche Zeitung. In 2...
Split-second decisions: Navigating the fine line between man and machine
Horizon Magazine
13 Mar 2017
Today’s self-driving car isn’t exactly autonomous – the driver has to be able to take over in a pinch, and therein lies the roadblock researchers are trying to overcome. Automated cars are hurtl...
Beyond 5G: NSF awards $6.1 million to accelerate advanced wireless research
the National Science Foundation (NSF)
10 Mar 2017
The National Science Foundation (NSF) announced a $6.1 million, five-year award to accelerate fundamental research on wireless communication and networking technologies through the foundation's Platfo...
Reactions from experts: Robotics and tech to receive funding boost from UK government
Kassie Perlongo
09 Mar 2017
Yesterday, the UK government announced their budget plans to invest in robotics, artificial intelligence, driverless cars, and faster broadband. The spending commitments include:
£16m to create...
Supporting Women in Robotics on International Women’s Day.. and beyond.
Silicon Valley Robotics
08 Mar 2017
International Women’s Day is raising discussion about the lack of diversity and role models in STEM and the potential negative outcomes of bias and stereotyping in robotics and AI. Let’s balance...
Mayfield Robotics to introduce enhanced interactions with Kuri
Kuri
07 Mar 2017
It’s been about 8 weeks since we first introduced Kuri to the world at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and we’re incredibly, amazingly, stupendously happy to keep hearing from people ab...
Leg over wheels: Ghost robotics’ Minitaur proves legged capabilities over difficult terrain
Alex Kirkpatrick
07 Mar 2017
Ghost Robotics—a leader in fast and lightweight direct-drive legged robots—announced recently that its Minitaur model has been updated with advanced reactive behaviors for navigating grass, rock, ...
The Drone Center’s Weekly Roundup: 3/6/17
February 27, 2017 – March 5, 2017
At the Center for the Study of the Drone
We spoke to The Daily Beast to help make sense of ISIL’s growing use of armed consumer drones in the conflict in Sy...
Mind control: Correcting robot mistakes using EEG brain signals
CSAIL MIT
06 Mar 2017
For robots to do what we want, they need to understand us. Too often, this means having to meet them halfway: teaching them the intricacies of human language, for example, or giving them explicit comm...
Robohub Digest 02/17: Asilomar AI principles, robot tax, drone art and Super Bowl LI
Alex Kirkpatrick and Jana Witt
06 Mar 2017
A quick, hassle-free way to stay on top of robotics news, our robotics digest is released on the first Monday of every month. Sign up to get it in your inbox....
By 2030, will traffic jams be a thing of the past?
Catharina Elmsäter-Svärd
03 Mar 2017
Imagine a future where self-driving cars, trains and buses are all seamlessly connected through an app, where traffic jams are a thing of the past and redundant car parks have been turned into green s...
Yves Behar designs a security robot for Cobalt Robotics
Andra Keay and Silicon Valley Robotics
02 Mar 2017
Cobalt Robotics has launched their stylish security robot. The robot was designed by Yves Behar and as a fabric covered robot, it’s putting a new spin on soft robotics! Behar’s goal was to creat...
Bristol professors to play role in creating robots for dangerous nuclear sites
UWE Bristol
01 Mar 2017
The University of the West of England (UWE Bristol) is part of a consortium which has received a £4.6 million grant to build a new generation of robots for use in nuclear sites. The funding from the ...
3D-printed houses and cars on the horizon as manufacturing goes large
Horizon Magazine
01 Mar 2017
Housebuilders and makers of car parts in a few decades time may need nothing more than a large robotic arm, some raw ingredients and a programmable design, thanks to the next-generation of 3D printing...
Shakey is first robot to receive IEEE Milestone award
Andra Keay and Silicon Valley Robotics
28 Feb 2017
Shakey the Robot, the world’s first mobile, intelligent robot, developed at SRI International between 1966-1972, was the first robot to be honored with a prestigious IEEE Milestone in Electrical En...
Boston Dynamics’ newest robot: Introducing Handle
Kassie Perlongo
28 Feb 2017
Handle is a research robot standing 6.5 ft tall, travels at 9 mph and jumps 4 feet vertically. It uses electric power to operate both electric and hydraulic actuators, with a range of about 15 miles o...
The Drone Center’s Weekly Roundup: 2/27/17
February 20, 2017 – February 26, 2017
At the Center for the Study of the Drone
Dronescapes is a collection of vibrant, mystical paintings of drones by Australian artist Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fo...
Insect-inspired mechanical resilience for multicopters
NCCR Robotics
27 Feb 2017
Over recent years the explosion in popularity of drones, both professionally and for amateur use, has inspired researchers to consider how to make flying robots as safe and robust as possible. Previou...
