Washington has joined a growing number of states in approving sidewalk delivery robots, officials have announced. The new legislation was signed by Governor Jay Inslee this week, opening the door for tiny autonomous vehicles to operate on cities sidewalks alongside bicycles and pedestrians. The bill was delivered to Inslee using one of these autonomous robots.
Robotics company Anki will be shutting down, the company has revealed. The decision was forced due to a lack of sustainable funding, resulting in a surprising twist for a company that had raised more than $200 million in venture capital. The confirmation follows a leak that claimed Anki employees were informed about a complete layoff earlier today.
One of the most controversial - and expensive - components in autonomous car development looks set to get a significant price cut, with Nikon announcing plans to begin mass-producing LIDAR sensors later this year. The deal will see camera company Nikon build low-cost Velodyne laser rangefinder systems, suitable for driverless vehicles, robotics, UAVs, and other projects.
Santa would probably want a pack of SpotMini quadrupedal robots for himself for Christmas. That is if he ever decides to change careers and drive a truck that can break down any time in the middle of nowhere. That's when he'd wish he'd gotten robot dogs instead of fleshy reindeer because, as Boston Dynamics' latest video shows, these can haul an entire truck. Then again, the reindeers could have made the truck fly.
It sounds like a fusion of Transformers and Amazon for gaming and, in reality, LEGO Education's latest product may actually have elements of those. This is, after all, what happens when you take a DIY robot that you can program like a game and sell as a commodity for kids of all ages to enjoy and learn from. LEGO SPIKE Prime takes all the company has learned from its years in education-oriented robotics and packages them into colorful kits that it hopes will spark the confidence young learners need to excel not just in STEAM subjects but in school overall as well.
Engineers with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries have taken the wraps off two newly developed creations: Water Cannon Robot and Hose Extension Robot. The two machines are designed to play an active role in helping extinguish fires that may be too hazardous for human firefighters, including fires that may form at chemical plants. The company conducted an open demonstration of the technology in Tokyo last week.
The U.S. Navy has partnered with a robotics company to augment the physical capabilities of workers at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, a maintenance facility located in Washington state. Sarcos Robotics has been granted a contract by the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) to deliver a pre-production version of its "Guardian XO" robotic exoskeleton, which can be "worn" by people to better their abilities by providing attributes such as enhanced strength.
Ever wonder that it'd take to make a Terminator robot out of liquid metal? A study was released with the American Chemical Study that showed the future of MLMD, a magnetic liquid metal droplet. It's not exactly ready to be used as a next-generation super soldier just yet, but it's the next big step. MLMD is created with a multimaterial system including liquid metals, iron particles, and electrolytes, and it's ready to stretch.
Researchers have developed nanobots that can be injected using an ordinary hypodermic syringe, according to a new release. The nanobots are microscopic functioning robots with the ability to walk and withstand harsh environments. Each robot has a 70-micron length, which is about the width of a thin human hair, and a million can be produced from a single 4-inch silicon composite wafer.
MIT's Biomimetic Robotics Laboratory has published a new video showing off its Mini Cheetah robot and a trick has learned: backflips. The robot features a four-legged design and weighs just under 20lbs; despite its mechanical nature, it is able to perform a backflip without any outside assistance. The robot is also shown on video running, rotating, and more.
FedEx has announced a new autonomous delivery robot that's intended to handle same-day deliveries at a local level. A number of different companies have been testing autonomous delivery vehicles of their own for a while now, so it makes sense that FedEx - a company centered entirely around shipping - would want to throw its hat in the ring as well. The robot will enter testing this year, and FedEx has a number of partners that will help it put the delivery vehicle through its paces.
Qualcomm's refrain may have been "5G, 5G, 5G" the last few months, but it's sneaking in some robots among its Mobile World Congress 2019 news. Qualcomm Technologies is announcing the Qualcomm Robotics RB3 Platform, a Snapdragon-based set of hardware and software intended to make building smart robots easier.