Scientists are working hard to perfect tiny robots that can work with more of their kind to perform tasks on a larger scale. The tiny robot seen below was created by Georgia Tech and is called micro-bristle-bot. The scientists say that these tiny robots might one day work in groups to sense environmental changes, move materials, and possibly one day repair injuries inside the human body.
The United States Army has announced plans to test robotic combat vehicles starting in March 2020 at Fort Carson in Colorado. During that time, soldiers will participate in an operational test of modified Bradley Fighting Vehicles (tanks) called Mission Enabler Technologies-Demonstrators (MET-Ds). The test will influence future autonomous vehicle projects conducted by the US Army.
The Amazon Echo is a device that's gone through a few different iterations throughout the years, and according to a new report today, Amazon is looking to give it a fairly significant upgrade. Amazon is said to be looking at launching a new Echo that will be larger than currently smart speakers in the line. At the same time, today's report claims that the company is beginning to ramp up its efforts in creating a home robot.
Researchers at EPFL have developed a group of small robots that weigh only 10 grams each that are able to work as a group. The small robots are inspired by trap-jaw ants; individually, ants only have so much strength and intelligence. As a colony of ants, they can complete sophisticated tasks and evade larger predators.
When people talk about robots taking over humans' jobs, they're mostly talking about those robots that come in incorporeal, digital-only form. It's going to be a very long while before humanoid or even bipedal robot can pose a fictional threat to humans. They can't even walk on uneven terrain without toppling over. That has been one of the challenges of DARPA's contests and IHMC Robotics may have developed a way for the likes of Atlas and Valkyrie to learn how to step through treacherous land.
Private American space robotics company Astrobotic has received a $5.6 million contract from NASA to help develop an autonomous lunar rover called MoonRanger. The development will take place in partnership with Carnegie Mellon University, according to Astrobotic, which received the contract under NASA's Lunar Surface and Instrumentation Technology Payload (LSITP) program.
The Mars 2020 rover has gained its robotic arm, with NASA fitting the SUV-sized robotic explorer with the primary tool with which it will perform experiments on the red planet. The new milestone comes shortly after the rover was shod with its six wheels for the first time, as the countdown to its 2020 launch nears.
Scientists at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) have designed a soft robotic gripping arm that uses engineered bacteria to "taste" for a specific chemical. The robotic gripper arm is a proof-of-concept for biologically-based soft robots.
The Harvard Microrobotics Lab has announced the latest version of its insect-like RoboBee 'X-Wing' is officially the lightest vehicle to achieve sustained untethered flight. The solo flight milestone was recorded as a slow-motion video in which viewers see the tiny robot's wings flap rapidly, just like an ordinary insect. The achievement was made possible via a number of improvements made to the RoboBee.
Toyota has announced that its CUE humanoid robot has set a new record for the greatest number of consecutive basketball free throws performed by a humanoid AI-powered machine. The robot successfully made 2,020 free throws in a row without missing, earning it a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records. The CUE robot was born as a voluntary project for Toyota employees to work on in their spare time.
Researchers have been working on ways to power robots for extended duration use. Long duration power for robots is a challenge because there is limited space inside most robots for batteries and other hardware. Scientists at Cornell have created a new synthetic vascular system for robots that can pump an energy-dense hydraulic liquid that stores energy, transmits force, and operates appendages while providing structure in a single integrated design.
In recent years, Domino's has seemed focused on changing the pizza delivery experience. Whether that was through creating apps that could handle placing orders through services like Slack or deploying AI that's capable of checking the quality of cooked pizza, Domino's has been dipping its hand into a lot of different honey pots in search of ways to perfect its business. Today, the company announced that it will soon get the ball rolling on one of its biggest initiatives yet: Autonomous pizza delivery.