Over the past decades, roboticists have introduced various systems that can replicate specific human motions and behaviors with remarkable accuracy. Some of these robots can even compete with other robots or humans in specific sports, such as the robots showcased at the RoboCup, an international robotics event at which robots play soccer with each other.
31/05/2025 18:10
A University of Nebraska–Lincoln engineering team is another step closer to developing soft robotics and wearable systems that mimic the ability of human and plant skin to detect and self-heal injuries.
30/05/2025 18:47
A research team has developed autonomous driving software that allows inexpensive sensors to detect transparent obstacles such as glass walls, providing an alternative to high-performance sensors. This technology can be used in existing robots, negating the need for additional equipment while ensuring detection performance that is equal to that offered by expensive conventional equipment.
30/05/2025 18:44
A team of roboticists and AI specialists at the Robotics & Artificial Intelligence Lab in Korea has designed, built and successfully tested a four-legged robot that is capable of conducting high-speed parkour maneuvers. In their paper published in the journal Science Robotics, the group describes how they gave their robot a controller capable of both planning and tracking its own movements to allow it to freely traverse a range of environments.
30/05/2025 15:00
Frameworks are a critical, if underappreciated, component of any space exploration mission. They can range from the overall mission architecture, capturing scientific and technical goals, to the structure of messages sent between two internal components of the system.
30/05/2025 14:05
A small team of roboticists at Robotic Systems Lab, ETH Zurich, in Switzerland, has designed, built and tested a four-legged robot capable of playing badminton with human players.
29/05/2025 21:55
An ultra-light robotic prosthetic hand has been developed that enables both precision fingertip control and shape-adaptive gripping through simple motion commands. The hand features an innovative mechanism that allows two degrees of freedom in the thumb (adduction/abduction and flexion/extension) to be independently controlled by a single actuator, achieving exceptional user convenience and weight reduction.
29/05/2025 18:35
Interactive robots should not just be passive companions, but active partners—like therapy horses who respond to human emotion—say University of Bristol researchers.
29/05/2025 11:53
Specialized robots that can both fly and drive typically touch down on land before attempting to transform and drive away. But when the landing terrain is rough, these robots sometimes get stuck and are unable to continue operating.
28/05/2025 23:02
Working with robots is becoming more common in the recycling industry, helping automate tasks and making complicated work easier. But training human employees to work with robots can be difficult and time-consuming.
28/05/2025 19:33
In the ocean sciences, robots provide views of the unexplored and can navigate environments not safely accessible to humans. Such dangerous settings make up the majority of Earth's oceans.
28/05/2025 18:52
Scientists have created the first soft robots that can walk straight out of the machines that make them.
28/05/2025 18:50
For more than a decade, the French robotics company Aldebaran has built some of the most popular robots used in academic research. Go to most university robotics departments and you'll find either Pepper, the iconic three-wheeled humanoid robot, or its smaller two-legged sibling, Nao.
21/05/2025 20:30
A Korean research team has developed a light-powered artificial muscle that operates freely underwater, paving the way for next-generation soft robotics.
21/05/2025 19:45
When the wind hits an obstacle, it flows around it and creates a low-pressure zone on the other side, known as a "windwake." This flow becomes clear in observing desert sand.
20/05/2025 23:39
In the future, autonomous delivery drones could independently assess whether their remaining battery charge is sufficient for upcoming deliveries. A team of researchers from Technical University of Darmstadt and the University of Sheffield, in collaboration with the French National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology (INRIA) and industry partner Ingeniarius Ltd, has developed a new method for energy-aware deployment planning.
20/05/2025 23:00
The ocean is teeming with life. But unless you get up close, much of the marine world can easily remain unseen. That's because water itself can act as an effective cloak: Light that shines through the ocean can bend, scatter, and quickly fade as it travels through the dense medium of water and reflects off the persistent haze of ocean particles. This makes it extremely challenging to capture the true color of objects in the ocean without imaging them at close range.
20/05/2025 16:42
The wealth of information provided by our senses that allows our brain to navigate the world around us is remarkable. Touch, smell, hearing, and a strong sense of balance are crucial to making it through what to us seem like easy environments such as a relaxing hike on a weekend morning.
19/05/2025 21:15
A research team has developed a novel haptic device designed to enhance both safety and efficiency for workers in industrial settings. This research was recently published in the journal IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics. The team was led by Professor Keehoon Kim and Ph.D. candidate Jaehyun Park from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at POSTECH.
19/05/2025 19:10
Soft robots are known for their flexibility and adaptability, but most still rely on rigid electronic components for control and timing. A recent publication from researchers at Georgia Tech challenges that paradigm.
19/05/2025 17:41
Humans no longer have exclusive control over training social robots to interact effectively, thanks to a new study from the University of Surrey and the University of Hamburg.
19/05/2025 07:10
Nature is brimming with animals that collaborate in large numbers. Bees stake out the best feeding spots and let others know where they are. Ants construct complex hierarchical homes built for defense. Flocks of starlings move across the sky in beautiful formations as if they were a single entity.
15/05/2025 23:41
Solving a Rubik's Cube is a challenge for most people. For a team of students from Purdue University's Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, it became an opportunity to redefine the limits of speed, precision and automation—and officially make history.
15/05/2025 15:10
The ability to remotely control robots in real-time, also known as teleoperation, could be useful for a broad range of real-world applications. In recent years, some engineers have been trying to develop teleoperation systems that allow users to guide the actions of humanoid robots, which have a body structure resembling that of humans, getting the robots to precisely imitate their whole-body movements.
15/05/2025 14:20
Scientists inspired by the octopus's nervous system have developed a robot that can decide how to move or grip objects by sensing its environment.
14/05/2025 21:00
Amazon has just unveiled its newest warehouse robot called Vulcan, which has a "sense of touch." Designed to gently stow items using pressure-sensitive gripping and artificial intelligence (AI), Vulcan is now being tested in two Amazon facilities, in Spokane, Washington state, US, and Hamburg, Germany.
14/05/2025 15:47
As demand for robotic delivery grows worldwide, an Australian-made design is leading the charge into a new era of temperature-controlled food delivery.
13/05/2025 22:50
At less than one and a half inches tall, roughly the same height as a LEGO minifigure, the world's smallest self-contained bipedal robot can self-start from standstill, walk faster than a half mile per hour, turn, skip, and ascend small steps with just the power of its on-board battery, actuator, and control system.
13/05/2025 20:00
A robotic hand developed at EPFL can pick up 24 different objects with human-like movements that emerge spontaneously, thanks to compliant materials and structures rather than programming.
13/05/2025 16:52
The United States population is older than it has ever been. Today, the country's median age is 38.9, which is nearly a decade older than it was in 1980. And the number of adults older than 65 is expected to balloon from 58 million to 82 million by 2050. The challenge of caring for the elderly, amid shortages of care workers, rising health care costs, and evolving family structures, is an increasingly urgent societal issue.
13/05/2025 16:29