Robotics Research News

June 7, 2024

Top Headlines

Enhancing Nanofibrous Acoustic Energy Harvesters With Artificial Intelligence

June 3, 2024 — Scientists have employed artificial intelligence techniques to improve the design and production of nanofibers used in wearable nanofiber acoustic energy harvesters (NAEH). These acoustic devices ...

A Technique for More Effective Multipurpose Robots

June 3, 2024 — MIT researchers developed a technique to combine robotics training data across domains, modalities, and tasks using generative AI models. They create a combined strategy from several different datasets that enables a robot to learn to perform new ...

AI-Controlled Stations Can Charge Electric Cars at a Personal Price

May 31, 2024 — As more and more people drive electric cars, congestion and queues can occur when many people need to charge at the same time. A new study shows how AI-controlled charging stations, through smart algorithms, can offer electric vehicle users ...

Public Have No Difficulty Getting to Grips With an Extra Thumb, Study Finds

May 29, 2024 — Researchers have shown that members of the public have little trouble in learning very quickly how to use a third thumb -- a controllable, prosthetic extra thumb -- to pick up and manipulate objects. The team tested the robotic device on a diverse ...

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Team Enhances Stereotactic Neurosurgery Precision Using MRI-Guided Multi-Stage Robotic Positioner

May 23, 2024 — A research team developed an interactive multi-stage robotic positioner specifically designed for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-guided ...

'Invisible Tweezers' Use Robotics and Acoustic Energy to Achieve What Human Hands Cannot

May 24, 2024 — Undergoing surgery is seldom a pleasant experience, and it can sometimes be highly invasive. Surgical procedures have evolved steadily over the ...

Researchers Design New Metal-Free Porous Framework Materials

May 22, 2024 — Researchers have used computational design methods to develop non-metal organic porous framework materials, with potential applications in areas such as catalysis, water capture or hydrogen ...

3D Printing Robot Creates Extreme Shock-Absorbing Shape, With Help of AI

May 21, 2024 — See how an autonomous robot created a shock-absorbing shape no human ever could -- and what it means for designing safer helmets, packaging, car bumpers, and ...

Robot-Phobia Could Exacerbate Hotel, Restaurant Labor Shortage

May 20, 2024 — Using more robots to close labor gaps in the hospitality industry may backfire and cause more human workers to quit, according to a new study. The study, involving more than 620 lodging and food ...

Physicists Propose Path to Faster, More Flexible Robots

May 17, 2024 — Physicists revealed a microscopic phenomenon that could greatly improve the performance of soft devices, such as agile flexible robots or microscopic capsules for drug ...

To Optimize Guide-Dog Robots, First Listen to the Visually Impaired

May 16, 2024 — What features does a robotic guide dog need? Ask the blind, say researchers. A new study identifies how to develop robot guide dogs with insights from guide dog users and ...

Jet-Propelled Sea Creatures Could Improve Ocean Robotics

May 15, 2024 — Scientists have discovered that colonies of gelatinous sea animals swim through the ocean in giant corkscrew shapes using coordinated jet propulsion, an unusual kind of locomotion that could inspire ...

Robotic 'SuperLimbs' Could Help Moonwalkers Recover from Falls

May 15, 2024 — SuperLimbs, a system of wearable robotic limbs, can physically support an astronaut and lift them back on their feet after a fall, helping them conserve energy for other essential ...

Animal Brain Inspired AI Game Changer for Autonomous Robots

May 15, 2024 — A team of researchers has developed a drone that flies autonomously using neuromorphic image processing and control based on the workings of animal brains. Animal brains use less data and energy ...

Robots' and Prosthetic Hands' Sense of Touch Could Be as Fast as Humans

May 15, 2024 — Research could pave the way for a prosthetic hand and robot to be able to feel touch like a human hand. The technology could also be used to help restore lost functionality to patients after a ...

Researchers Use Artificial Intelligence to Boost Image Quality of Metalens Camera

May 15, 2024 — Researchers have leveraged deep learning techniques to enhance the image quality of a metalens camera. The new approach uses artificial intelligence to turn low-quality images into high-quality ones, ...

Cats Purrfectly Demonstrate What It Takes to Trust Robots

May 13, 2024 — Would you trust a robot to look after your cat? New research suggests it takes more than a carefully designed robot to care for your cat, the environment in which they operate is also vital, as well ...

A Better Way to Control Shape-Shifting Soft Robots

May 9, 2024 — A new machine-learning technique can train and control a reconfigurable soft robot that can dynamically change its shape to complete a task. The researchers also built a simulator that can evaluate ...

Robotic System Feeds People With Severe Mobility Limitations

May 9, 2024 — Researchers have developed a robotic feeding system that uses computer vision, machine learning and multimodal sensing to safely feed people with severe mobility limitations, including those with ...

Generative AI That Imitates Human Motion

May 9, 2024 — Walking and running is notoriously difficult to recreate in robots. Now, a group of researchers has overcome some of these challenges by creating an innovative method that employs central pattern ...

Swarms of Miniature Robots Clean Up Microplastics and Microbes, Simultaneously

May 8, 2024 — When old food packaging, discarded children's toys and other mismanaged plastic waste break down into microplastics, they become even harder to clean up from oceans and waterways. These tiny ...

Caterbot? Robatapillar? It Crawls With Ease Through Loops and Bends

May 6, 2024 — Engineers created a catapillar-shaped robot that splits into segments and reassembles, hauls cargo, and crawls through twisting ...

Stretchable E-Skin Could Give Robots Human-Level Touch Sensitivity

May 3, 2024 — A stretchy electronic skin could equip robots and other devices with the same softness and touch sensitivity as human skin, opening up new possibilities to perform tasks that require a great deal of ...

Random Robots Are More Reliable

May 2, 2024 — New algorithm encourages robots to move more randomly to collect more diverse data for learning. In tests, robots started with no knowledge and then learned and correctly performed tasks within a ...

Activity in a Room Stirs Up Nanoparticles Left Over from Consumer Sprays

Apr. 30, 2024 — Common household products containing nanoparticles -- grains of engineered material so miniscule they are invisible to the eye -- could be contributing to a new form of indoor air pollution, ...

Trotting Robots Reveal Emergence of Animal Gait Transitions

Apr. 30, 2024 — A four-legged robot trained with machine learning has learned to avoid falls by spontaneously switching between walking, trotting, and pronking -- a milestone for roboticists as well as biologists ...

Scientists Develop Strong Yet Reusable Adhesive from Smart Materials

Apr. 29, 2024 — Scientists have developed a smart, reusable adhesive more than ten times stronger than a gecko's feet adhesion, pointing the way for development of reusable superglue and grippers capable of ...

Robotic Nerve 'Cuffs' Could Help Treat a Range of Neurological Conditions

Apr. 26, 2024 — Researchers have developed tiny, flexible devices that can wrap around individual nerve fibers without damaging them. The researchers combined flexible electronics and soft robotics techniques to ...

Why Can't Robots Outrun Animals?

Apr. 26, 2024 — Robotics engineers have worked for decades and invested many millions of research dollars in attempts to create a robot that can walk or run as well as an animal. And yet, it remains the case that ...

A Shortcut for Drug Discovery

Apr. 25, 2024 — For most human proteins, there are no small molecules known to bind them chemically (so called 'ligands'). Ligands frequently represent important starting points for drug development but ...

Octopus Inspires New Suction Mechanism for Robots

Apr. 18, 2024 — A new robotic suction cup which can grasp rough, curved and heavy stone, has been developed by ...

An Ink for 3D-Printing Flexible Devices Without Mechanical Joints

Apr. 18, 2024 — Researchers are targeting the next generation of soft actuators and robots with an elastomer-based ink for 3D printing objects with locally changing mechanical properties, eliminating the need for ...

How 3D Printers Can Give Robots a Soft Touch

Apr. 17, 2024 — Soft skin coverings and touch sensors have emerged as a promising feature for robots that are both safer and more intuitive for human interaction, but they are expensive and difficult to make. A ...

Novel Robotic Training Program Reduces Physician Errors Placing Central Lines

Apr. 17, 2024 — More than five million central lines are placed in patients who need prolonged drug delivery, such as those undergoing cancer treatments, in the United States every year, yet the common procedure can ...