Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University have been able to teach robots to pick up transparent or reflective objects. This has been a challenge for robots in the past, and the way researchers have addressed the issue is to teach the robots to infer shapes from color images. Picking up transparent and reflective objects has long stymied robots, but the new system promises to alleviate that issue.
One of the most challenging things for humans to manipulate are items like rope, wire, or cables. These thin, flexible objects are even more difficult for robots to manage with most robotic grippers being unable to handle them at all. Researchers at MIT have now created a robotic gripper that's able to mimic how a human handles such flexible objects more closely.
Researchers from the University of Liverpool have built what they call an intelligent mobile robot scientist that's able to work continuously nearly 24 hours a day and carry out experiments on its own. The robotic scientists is said to be the first of its kind and can make its own decisions about what chemistry experiments to perform next. The robot has already discovered a new catalyst.
Researchers at Festo have announced the creation of a new bionic project called the "BionicSwift." The robotic bird can fly using artificial feathers. The researchers used radio-based indoor GPS with ultra-wideband technology to allow the robotic birds to fly safely in a coordinated pattern inside a defined airspace. One feature that gives the birds their agility is that the wings are modeled on the plumage of real birds.
Never has disinfecting and killing germs in businesses at home been more on the minds of people than it has during the coronavirus pandemic. For many years hospitals and other medical facilities have used UV light to kill germs and bacteria to keep people from getting sick. A new robot created by MIT's CSAIL is being used at the Greater Boston Food Bank to disinfects the warehouse using UV-C light.
Researchers from Georgia Tech have created a robot called Shimon that can write songs, play music, and sing. The marimba-playing robot is going on tour to support a new album that he has composed and sings. The album will have eight to ten songs, and Shimon wrote them in collaboration with humans. The human collaboration starts with the human giving the robot a theme, like space, and Shimon will write lyrics around the theme.
Researchers at Stanford University have been looking into exactly how birds can maintain controlled flight by changing the shape of their wings. For their study, they invented a robot called PigeonBot that has a pair of "biohybrid morphing wings." The robot is being used to test out new control principles. One of the most interesting aspects of the PigeonBot is that the scientists fitted the flying robot with real bird feathers.
Different people have different concepts about robots, ranging from humanoid androids that may or may not be out to get us to unsettling quadrupeds that may or may not be accompanying the police of the future. Few, however, will probably think of robots the size of a fly that has better survivability than the real, organic one. That is exactly the kind of robot that engineering researchers have developed, paving the way for a swarm of intelligent insects that will hopefully not overrun the planet.
Sony has released a major software update in the US and Japan for its aibo robotic dog, the company has announced. Software version 2.50 is made for the ERS1000 aibo model, bringing 'whimsical' capabilities that include the ability to potty train the dog, feed it virtual cookies, and other fun things. As well, the robot dog also has a new web-based API with visual programming for beginners.
NASA has announced plans to design robots that can roll, fly, float, and swim to explore the moons of Saturn someday. The larger bots are made up of smaller mini-robots that combine. The larger robot is dubbed Shapeshifter.
We've seen Boston Dynamics' Spot Minis play reindeer and pull Santa's truck but those may have nothing on this robot hailing all the way from Italy. Although more a research platform than a commercial robot, the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) Dynamic Legged System Lab's latest HyQReal robot has may have a few things going for it, including its ruggedness, its durability, and, more importantly, its strength.
Researchers at Stanford University have developed a new robot that is dog-like and designed to be able to navigate rough terrain and offer lots of agility. The robot is called Doggo, and it can trot, jump, and backflip with no need for treats as a reward. Doggo is designed with reproducibility in mind. Rather than keeping the construction methods and code under wraps, the researchers put it all onto the web freely so users can build their own versions.