Robotics, AI and SmartTech News – Latest Headlines

Octopus arm movements could aid bio-inspired robot design

Researchers have discovered how octopuses avoid getting tangled up in themselves. The scientists hope their findings will lead to new classes of robots and control systems.

May 19, 2014 Read more

With imprecise chips to the artificial brain

Constructions that use not only digital but also analog compact and imprecise circuits are more suitable for building artificial nervous systems, rather than arrangements with only digital or precise but power-demanding analog electronic circuits.

May 16, 2014 Read more

A new World Wide Web strictly for robots

To date, each robot constructed needs to be programmed, or go through its own learning process from scratch. New robots are like newborn babies who need the humans creating them to teach them everything, or learn gradually themselves. However, this could all change. Thanks to ROBOEARTH, robots will soon be able to share knowledge with their peers almost instantly instead of 'living' in a bubble.

May 13, 2014 Read more

Building a robot to mimic plants

Many of us probably picture robots as roughly human-shaped or perhaps as little more than mobile computers. But one EU-funded project is taking inspiration from the smart, efficient strategies of plants in order to develop a new generation of robots and ICT technologies, such as sensing or distributed adaptive intelligence.

May 13, 2014 Read more

Revolutionizing Prosthetics program delivers on goal of providing advanced prosthetic upper limb

DARPA launched the Revolutionizing Prosthetics program with a radical goal: gain U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for an advanced electromechanical prosthetic upper limb with near-natural control that enhances independence and improves quality of life for amputees. Today, less than eight years after the effort was launched, that dream is a reality; the FDA approved the DEKA Arm System.

May 13, 2014 Read more

Ultra-fast bionic arm can catch objects on the fly (w/video)

Robot developed by EPFL researchers is capable of reacting on the spot and grasping objects with complex shapes and trajectories in less than five-hundredths of a second.

May 12, 2014 Read more

Robots on the slopes (w/video)

Simulated ski run challenges mechanical engineering students to produce a wide array of robots.

May 12, 2014 Read more

Teaching robots right from wrong

Researchers launch multi-year project to develop robots that can make moral decisions.

May 9, 2014 Read more

The touchy-feely robot coming soon

To date, no robotics scientist has been able to create ultra-flexible tactile skin. Either the sensor has been too big or the electronics not sufficiently flexible. Now, however, researchers believe they have found a way of incorporating electronics and sensors on bendable silicon-based surfaces that will be 50 micrometers thick.

May 6, 2014 Read more

Nokia launches $100 million Connected Car Fund

The fund will invest in promising auto tech and local services companies in collaboration with HERE, a Nokia company, to grow the ecosystem around HERE's mapping and location products and services.

May 6, 2014 Read more

Robots help teach social skills to kids with autism spectrum disorder

Scientists are working with a team of autism experts and robotics designers at the company Robokind to create Robots4Autism. This program uses an artificially intelligent robot with a full range of facial expressions to interact with children who have ASD.

May 2, 2014 Read more

MOOC course 'Autonomous Navigation for Flying Robots'

Set to be launched on May 6th on the edX platform, the new Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) of the Technische Universität München (TUM) will teach participants how to navigate these convenient aircraft. The 8-week 'Autonomous Navigation for Flying Robots' course consists of weekly presentations of learning videos, while participants themselves can complete interactive practice exercises with a quadrotor.

May 2, 2014 Read more

Robots may need to include parental controls

Older adults' fears that companion robots will negatively affect young people may create design challenges for developers hoping to build robots for older users.

April 30, 2014 Read more

Crowdfunding camapign for mosquito-dissecting robot to automate malaria vaccine production (w/video)

Biotechnology company Sanaria Inc.aims to raise at least $250,000 in a crowdfunding campaign. Funds will be dedicated to the development of SporoBot, a robot that will dissect mosquito salivary glands. By replacing manual microdissection of mosquito salivary glands, Sporobot will automate a key step in the manufacturing process of Sanaria PfSPZ Vaccine against malaria.

April 30, 2014 Read more

Snake-like robot advances automated assembly of aircraft wings

Even today, aircraft wings are still assembled manually; but this process could soon be automated thanks to a novel snake-like robot capable of tightening bolts in even the most difficult-to-access cavities of the wing structure.

April 30, 2014 Read more

Scientists create circuit board modeled on the human brain (w/video)

Stanford scientists have developed faster, more energy-efficient microchips based on the human brain - 9,000 times faster and using significantly less power than a typical PC. This offers greater possibilities for advances in robotics and a new way of understanding the brain.

April 28, 2014 Read more

The way of the future: 'swarming' robots

EVOLVINGROBOT is a European research project which has developed an artificial intelligence system to control tiny robots, enabling them to replicate the 'swarming' behaviour seen in insects such as bees or ants, or even in birds and fish. It is an innovation which could have far-reaching implications for a range of human activities, from medical to industrial, military and disaster relief.

April 25, 2014 Read more

Robot scouts rooms people can't enter

Researchers are creating a room-mapping system that can be used to map rooms in three-dimensional space.

April 23, 2014 Read more