Robotics

The latest news and reporting on robotics, from cutting-edge research to robovacs.

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  • Rocos' Spot robot platform

    Watch a Boston Dynamics robot herd sheep in New Zealand

    New Zealand-based robotics company Rocos shared a video of Boston Dynamics' Spot herding sheep across grassy pastures.

  • UBTECH Camp:ASPIRE

    This virtual robotics camp is launching just in time for summer

    I found an interesting possibility though, at least for my 8-year old: virtual robotics camp. More Zoom, yes, but Zoom with Robots! While UBTECH’s Camp:Aspire is an interesting stay-at-home STEM option, it’s not the only game in town.

    Alyssa Walker
    05.18.2020
  • Boston Dynamics' Spot Robot triages COVID-19 patients at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

    Boston Dynamics’ robot dog is chipping in to help COVID-19 patients

    Boston Dynamics' four-legged robot is allowing healthcare providers to remotely triage COVID-19 patients at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

  • Flexoskeleton-based soft robot held by James Jiang

    Scientists can 3D print insect-like robots in minutes

    3D-printed 'flexoskeletons' make it possible to build a soft robot in less than two hours without extravagant costs.

    Jon Fingas
    04.11.2020
  • Google Robotics

    Google algorithm lets robots teach themselves to walk

    There's no question that robots will play an increasingly central role in our lives in the future, but to get to a stage where they can be genuinely useful there are still a number of challenges to be overcome -- including navigation without human intervention. Yes, we're at a stage where algorithms will allow a robot to learn how to move around, but the process is convoluted and requires a lot of human input, either in picking up the robot when it falls over, or moving it back into its training space if it wanders off. But new research from Google could make this learning process a lot more straightforward.

    Rachel England
    03.02.2020
  • Douglas Blackiston, Tufts University

    Scientists created living robots out of stem cells

    Scientists have created a new life form that's something between a frog and a robot. Using stem cells scraped from frog embryos, researchers from the University of Vermont (UVM) and Tufts University assembled "xenobots." The millimeter-wide blobs act like living, self-healing robots. They can walk, swim and work cooperatively. Refined, they could be used inside the human body to reprogram tumors, deliver drugs or scrape plaque out of arteries.

  • Engadget

    I skipped breakfast, but Samsung had a robot make me a salad

    Normally when I miss breakfast, it's by choice. Today, it was because I was in a rush to get to Samsung's booth on the CES show floor and see if I could get any face time with the company's cute new rolling robot. (That, uh, didn't go so great.) The trip was still well worth it, though, because I got to eat a tofu salad partially made by a pair of robotic arms slung from the bottom of some kitchen cabinets.

    Chris Velazco
    01.07.2020
  • James Trew / Engadget

    Reachy is an expressive, open-source robot

    Seems like everybody's getting into the AI and robotics game -- at least the companies and research institutions that can afford to build their platforms from the ground up are. France's Pollen Robotics, on the other hand, aims to kickstart the robotics revolution with its open-source system, Reachy.

  • Biomimetics MIT, YouTube

    Watch a herd of MIT's Mini Cheetah robots frolic in the fall leaves

    MIT wants to show that its Mini Cheetah robots aren't just solitary creatures. The school's Biomimetics department has posted a video of nine of the bots frolicking in the fall leaves, showing just what these pet-sized quadrupeds can do. The remote-controlled machines can backflip out of leaf piles, kick a soccer ball and have friendly tussles... well, if a bodyslam can be considered friendly. There's even some eerie coordinated dancing, in case you want to know how robots will socialize once the robopocalypse is over.

    Jon Fingas
    11.10.2019
  • MIT News

    MIT and Ford help delivery robots navigate to your doorstep

    In order for delivery robots to drop your takeout, package or meal-kit at the door, they'll need to be able to find the door. In most cases, that requires mapping a location in advance so that the robot knows where to go. But to do that on a large scale is challenging and raises security and privacy concerns. Now, a team of engineers from MIT and Ford Motor Company think they might have an answer. They've created a technique that allows robots to navigate via clues, rather than maps.

  • Benjamin Jenett

    BILL-E is a cute robot that builds structures block by block

    A new robotics breakthrough could revolutionalize how we build everything from airplanes to bridges and even massive superstructures. A team of researchers at the Massachusettes Institute of Technology's Center for Bits and Atoms have created a new type of robot.

    Igor Bonifacic
    10.16.2019
  • Microsoft

    Girl Scouts can earn five STEM badges through Microsoft partnership

    As part of its ongoing campaign to foster STEM education, the Girl Scouts of the USA has partnered with one of the biggest names in tech: Microsoft. Moving forward, Girl Scouts troop members will be able to earn five separate badges by taking part in free workshops held at Microsoft Stores across the US.

    Igor Bonifacic
    10.14.2019
  • Ubtech

    Ubtech’s latest educational, dancing robot is bigger and more lifelike

    There are plenty of educational coding robots, but few have moves like UBTECH's dancing robot MeeBot. UBTECH launched the JIMU build-your-own-bot kit for MeeBot in 2016. Today, the company unveiled MeeBot 2.0.

  • TRI

    Toyota is using VR to train robots as in-home helpers

    Home robots could make all of our lives easier, and perhaps most importantly, they could allow seniors to live more independently. But training robots to operate in homes is difficult because each home is unique and filled with so many objects in different combinations and layouts. Toyota Research Institute (TRI) may have a solution: using virtual reality to change the way we train robots.

  • The Lancet Neurology

    A mind-controlled exoskeleton helped a paralyzed man walk again

    A paralyzed man regained the ability to walk with the help of a robotic exoskeleton that he controlled with his mind. Unlike other, more invasive mind-controlled robotics, this one used electrodes implanted above the brain's outer membrane, not in the brain itself. That could reduce the risk of infection and other obstacles that have limited the success of mind-controlled robotics.

  • Boston Dynamics

    Boston Dynamics’ Atlas robot is now a gymnast

    The latest footage from Boston Dynamics is, unsurprisingly, both impressive and terrifying. Over the past few years we've seen Atlas navigate uneven terrain and even jump around a parkour course. This is on another level, though. The bipedal robot does a handstand, rolls around and even does a few jumping twists -- all without losing its balance.

    Marc DeAngelis
    09.24.2019
  • Sphero

    Sphero Mini Activity Kit offers a mini-bot and 15 lessons for $80

    For years, Sphero has pushed to bring robotics into the classroom. Now, the company wants to bring robotics and coding lessons to the living room, too. Today, the company unveiled the Sphero Mini Activity Kit: 15 step-by-step activities that can be done at home, as well as app updates aimed at budding coders.

  • Hartmuth Kintzel / 500px via Getty Images

    These engineers and tech execs want to create a peaceful lunar settlement

    A group of Silicon Valley tech executives and engineers want to create a peaceful, multinational lunar settlement. According to Bloomberg, the San Francisco-based Open Lunar Foundation plans to invest in hardware "to accelerate the exploration and settlement of the moon." And it's committed to creating a kind of cooperative that wouldn't be tied to one particular country or billionaire.

  • Reach Robotics

    The company behind AR battle robots MekaMon is shutting down

    So long, MekaMon. Reach Robotics, the company behind the customizable and kid-friendly spider robots, is closing its doors. In a LinkedIn blog post, co-founder and chief executive Silas Adekunle said the "consumer robotics sector is an inherently challenging space" and that the company, "in its current form at least," would not be moving forward. MekaMon, if you need a refresher, were gaming robots that battled each other and purely-digital enemies through an AR mobile app. The player's phone was both a controller and window into the otherwise invisible arena and blaster fire.

    Nick Summers
    09.04.2019
  • Anand Varna

    Harvard's noodly robot fingers are great at grabbing jellyfish

    Robots can be a bit heavy-handed. Their forceful grip might not be a problem when they're moving boxes in a warehouse, but they can damage fragile marine creatures like jellyfish. Researchers may have a solution. They've created a robotic hand with a squishy grabber and a gentle grip that uses "fettuccini-like silicone fingers" to catch and release fragile, gelatinous jellyfish.