Robotics, AI and SmartTech News – Latest Headlines

The robot that learns everything from scratch

Imagine that everything in your mind had been erased, and you had to learn everything all over again. What would that process be like?

June 2, 2015 Read more

Insect mating behavior has lessons for drones

Can understanding insects' mating behavior be useful for robotics research? Yes, according to two entomologists whose research using computer simulations shows that such insect behavior has implications for airborne robots (drones) that ply the sky searching for signature odors.

May 29, 2015 Read more

Cheetah robot lands the running jump (w/video)

In a leap for robot development, the MIT researchers who built a robotic cheetah have now trained it to see and jump over hurdles as it runs - making this the first four-legged robot to run and jump over obstacles autonomously.

May 29, 2015 Read more

Engineers debut an incredibly adhesive material that doesn't get stuck (w/video)

A material inspired by the unique physics of geckos' fingertips could allow robotic hands to grip nearly any type of object without applying excessive pressure.

May 28, 2015 Read more

Robot swarms use collective cognition to perform tasks (w/video)

Scientists have created underwater robot swarms that function like schools of fish, exchanging information to monitor the environment, searching, maintaining, exploring and harvesting resources in underwater habitats.

May 28, 2015 Read more

Medical millirobots offer hope for less-invasive surgeries (w/video)

Seeking to advance minimally invasive medical treatments, researchers have proposed using tiny robots, driven by magnetic potential energy from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners.

May 27, 2015 Read more

Helping robots put it all together

New algorithm lets autonomous robots divvy up assembly tasks on the fly.

May 27, 2015 Read more

Researchers develop intelligent handheld robots

Researchers have developed and started studying a novel concept in robotics - intelligent handheld robots.

May 26, 2015 Read more

Scientist created drones that fly autonomously and learn new routes

Drones say goodbye to pilots. With the goal of achieving autonomous flight of these aerial vehicles, researchers developed a vision and learning system to control and navigate them without relying on a GPS signal or trained personnel.

May 26, 2015 Read more

Robot masters new skills through trial and error (w/video)

Researchers have developed algorithms that enable robots to learn motor tasks through trial and error using a process that more closely approximates the way humans learn, marking a major milestone in the field of artificial intelligence.

May 22, 2015 Read more

Standard knowledge for robots

What do you know? There is now a world standard for capturing and conveying the knowledge that robots possess - or, to get philosophical about it, an ontology for automatons.

May 22, 2015 Read more

Robotic sonar system inspired by bats

Engineers have taken the first steps toward building a novel dynamic sonar system inspired by horseshoe bats that could be more efficient and take up less space than current man-made sonar arrays.

May 21, 2015 Read more

Robots grasping hands (w/video)

Researchers are developing tests to take full measure of robotic grasping - specifically, the motion and effort that gripping and manipulating entail. Their immediate goal: To provide useful performance-benchmarking tools to support research and innovation leading to ever-more handy capable robot appendages.

May 19, 2015 Read more

Why you should always shake hands with a robot

There are many unspoken rules of human interaction, whether that's whether or not to look them in the eyes, the firmness of the handshake, smiling or words of greeting. Little things like this can lead to big judgements about trustworthiness or social acceptability. What if we can use this type of behaviour to help humans and robots interact?

May 15, 2015 Read more

Controlling swarms of robots with light and a single finger (w/video)

Using a smart tablet and a red beam of light, researchers have created a system that allows people to control a fleet of robots with the swipe of a finger.

May 12, 2015 Read more

Researchers hack a teleoperated surgical robot to reveal security flaws

To make cars as safe as possible, we crash them into walls to pinpoint weaknesses and better protect the people who use them. That's the idea behind a series of experiments by an engineering team who hacked a next generation teleoperated surgical robot to test how easily a malicious attack could hijack remotely-controlled operations in the future and to make those systems more secure.

May 7, 2015 Read more

Engineers hand 'cognitive' control to underwater robots

A new programming approach gives robots more 'cognitive' capabilities, enabling humans to specify high-level goals, while a robot performs high-level decision-making to figure out how to achieve these goals.

May 7, 2015 Read more

Toward a squishier robot

Engineers design synthetic gel that changes shape and moves via its own internal energy.

May 5, 2015 Read more