The Roomba 980 is the first of the line of hockey-puck shaped robotic vacuums to include an intelligent visual navigation that allows it to map out rooms and clean them with greater efficiency.
Robots clean rivers and sort waste, monitor ecosystems, and inspect renewable-energy infrastructure. But even the greenest robot has an environmental footprint.
EPFL engineers have designed acoustic cavities that convert sound waves into thrust, propelling small robots and ultralight aerial vehicles without on-board actuators or electronics.