Robotics, AI and SmartTech News – Latest Headlines

3D-printed robotic solutions inspired by plants (w/video)

Researchers are demonstrating revolutionary robotic techniques inspired by plants, featuring a 3D-printed 'trunk', 'leaves' that sense the environment and 'roots' that grow and change direction.

October 6, 2014 Read more

Robot researcher combines nature to nurture 'superhuman' navigation

Researchers are investigating realistic navigation for robots using computer modeling of the human eye and the brain of a rat.

October 1, 2014 Read more

Where humans, animals and robots meet

A thriving technology trend applies the concept of animal swarms or swarming to the development of complex systems that bridge the gap amongst disciplines as dissimilar as biology, robotics or networking.

September 30, 2014 Read more

Robot cheerleaders dance in synchronization while balancing on balls (w/video)

The Murata Cheerleaders are a team of small robots that uses the latest sensing and communication technologies, as well as advanced group control technology to achieve perfect stability and flawless synchronized dancing.

September 29, 2014 Read more

Scientists make droplets move on their own (w/video)

Droplets are simple spheres of fluid, not normally considered capable of doing anything on their own. But now researchers have made droplets of alcohol move through water. In the future, such moving droplets may deliver medicines, etc.

September 29, 2014 Read more

Underwater robot for port security

Football-size robot can skim discreetly along a ship's hull to seek hollow compartments concealing contraband.

September 26, 2014 Read more

Blackout? Robots to the rescue (w/video)

Researchers have developed a tabletop model of a robot team that can bring power to places that need it the most.

September 25, 2014 Read more

Robotic fabric could bring 'active clothing', wearable robots

Researchers are developing a robotic fabric that moves and contracts and is embedded with sensors, an approach that could bring 'active clothing' and a new class of soft robots.

September 25, 2014 Read more

Robots are doing it for themselves, or they will be soon

Industrialists, academics and students gathered in Edinburgh yesterday to launch a new Centre aimed at developing robots which can act independently and which they believe will revolutionise society in the next twenty years.

September 23, 2014 Read more

New RFID technology helps robots find household objects (w/video)

Researchers have created a new search algorithm that improves a robot's ability to find and navigate to tagged objects. The team has implemented their system on a PR2 robot, allowing it to travel through a home and correctly locate different types of tagged household objects, including a medication bottle, TV remote, phone and hair brush.

September 22, 2014 Read more

Artificial intelligence that imitates children's learning

The computer programmes used in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) are highly specialised. They can for example fly airplanes, play chess or assemble cars in controlled industrial environments. However, a research team from Gothenburg, Sweden, has now been able to create an AI programme that can learn how to solve problems in many different areas. The programme is designed to imitate certain aspects of children's cognitive development.

September 22, 2014 Read more

Soft robotics 'toolkit' features everything a robot-maker needs

Online resource is designed to foster innovation and learning.

September 19, 2014 Read more

Using underwater robots for a better understanding of the underwater world (w/video)

The Sunrise project is at the forefront of a revolution in communications, creating an underwater 'internet of things', that will mobilise robots to work in groups, interacting together and passing back information to us on life underwater.

September 19, 2014 Read more

Fingertip sensor gives robot unprecedented dexterity

Researchers have equipped a robot with a novel tactile sensor that lets it grasp a USB cable draped freely over a hook and insert it into a USB port.

September 19, 2014 Read more

NASA's 2015 Sample Return Robot Challenge open for registration

Registration is open for the fourth running of the NASA Centennial Challenge program's Sample Return Robot Challenge, which will take place June 8-13, 2015. The autonomous robot competition, which carries a prize purse of $1.5 million, will be held at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, Massachusetts, which has hosted the event since 2012.

September 18, 2014 Read more

'Honeybee' robots replicate swarm behavior

Computer scientists have created a low-cost, autonomous micro-robot which in large numbers can replicate the behavior of swarming honeybees.

September 18, 2014 Read more

ARCAS: Flying robots will go where humans can't

There are many situations where it's impossible, complicated or too time-consuming for humans to enter and carry out operations. Think of contaminated areas following a nuclear accident, or the need to erect structures such as antennae on mountain tops. These are examples of where flying robots could be used.

September 17, 2014 Read more

Cheetah-bot - bound for robotic glory (w/video)

New algorithm enables MIT cheetah robot to run and jump, untethered, across grass.

September 15, 2014 Read more